Chapter Text
It was looking to be a nice Saturday. A beautiful day in Academy City, not too hot, not too humid, the kind of day to forget about studying, go out on the town and do a little shopping. Maybe have a nice lunch, and just take it easy.
Misaka Mikoto the #3 Level 5 Esper planned to do just that: go out and enjoy a relaxing day. The “Railgun”, as she was sometimes called, had no definite plans for the day. Her only regret was that none of her friends were going to be able to share the day with her. Her roommate slash stalker, Shirai Kuroko, and Kuroko’s partner at Judgement, Uiharu Kazari , had duty all day today and were unavailable to go with her. Likewise, her other close friend, Saten Ruiko , said she had a special project she needed to work on for a class that would take up her whole weekend.
“Well,” Misaka thought, “At least I’ll be safe trying on clothes without having to worry about Kuroko popping in on me while I’m undressed.” She shuddered at the thought of the younger girl’s usual attempts to grab her in embarrassing places, while Saten laughed and poor Uiharu turned even redder than herself.
So, with no set plans or destination, Misaka set off. She noticed that the day was starting off well, because the first shop she came to had a small capsule vending machine out front loaded with the collectible Gekotas. Unable to resist, she put in a 100 Yen coin and out popped the rarest Gekota toy, that she had been trying to collect for two years! She couldn’t believe it! She actually clutched it to her chest and danced around for a minute singing the Gekota theme song, while several people stopped and stared.
Once Misaka realized she had an audience, her face turned a deep red, and she walked off embarrassedly, clutching her prize.
She noticed that her path had taken her close to the park where her nemesis, the money eating vending machine, was lurking. As she was feeling a little dry, she came up to the machine and stared at it.
“All right machine, I’m in a good mood today, so far, so let’s see if we can continue this good feeling. You know what the result will be if you make me unhappy!”, Misaka told the machine. Before doing her usual wind up and spin kick, she decided just to try pushing the button for her beverage of choice. Low and behold, with a whir and a clunk, out came her cider.
“What?!” exclaimed Misaka, “This can’t be happening! My rare Gekota toy, and now this machine actually gives me my requested drink for free!”
Misaka stopped, and slowly started to look around, carefully examining her surroundings. She was suspicious that someone was pulling an elaborate prank on her. She carefully extended her electromagnetic field to see if anyone was hiding nearby, could detect no Espers near her. Actually, there was no one near her in the park. She took a deep breath and had a sigh of relief. She went and sat on a bench in the shade and popped open the can and took a drink.
Then her eyes went wide! “I don’t’ believe it!”, she thought.
Attached to the bottom of the can was a limited edition, collectible, Gekota pin! Misaka felt faint. Hands shaking, she slowly detached it from the can. Engraved on the back of the pin was “#7 of 999”. [N.B. 7 is considered a very lucky number in Japan]
Misaka kissed the pin and quickly attached it to her purse. She then paused a moment and thought about the last pin she had put there and reflected sadly for a few moments. She then leaned back on the bench, threw back her head, rested her arms on the back of the bench, and thought about what a lucky day she was having so far.