Somewhere Over the Moon
Misaka Mikoto sat atop a familiar arced bridge, staring off into the cold twilight radiating from the bright full Moon. Her cheeks were flushed, and she felt the gentle cool breeze waver over her shoulders as she furrowed her brows. Academy City would otherwise be a faint glow in the distance in either direction if not for the moonlight. Aside from the wind, only the rhythmic sound of the subtle waves underneath her made a sound. Misaka Mikoto, alone at the top of a familiar bridge, only her thoughts to keep her company. And what loud thoughts they were. Thoughts that seemed to distract her and make her eyes glaze over from her surroundings. It would seem that, even if someone were to sneak up on her she wouldn’t notice, but this was Tokiwadai’s former Ace after all; she would easily be able to feel someone’s bioelectrical signature.
That’s right though: Tokiwadai’s former Ace. It has been three years since then, and graduation from high school was a month ago. Now, it was time to head onto bigger and better things. Or at least, that’s what everyone around the third ranked ability user in the city was doing. College. College this and that. Misaka lowered her chin into the arm that was resting on her knee. What was the point for someone like her to attend college? To settle down at a cubicle in an office afterward? To merely say that she went? Can’t have the Railgun be seen as uneducated, after all. But what good had that done for Accelerator? Being the strongest didn’t make his life anymore extraordinary than the people passing him by on the street. What was the point? Is this what he felt? The catalyst that motivated him to shift to level 6? Misaka closed her eyes scoffed at herself.
A normal life was out of the question. Memories from the past six years flooded her mind one after another. From when she first discovered the clones, to her fight with Accelerator, to saving Febry, to working with Shoukuhou Misaki and… her mind stopped and began to ruminate there. Misaki. She hadn’t really talked to her much after their middle school graduation, and perhaps not at all after 11th grade for whatever reason. Her eyelids dropped a little as her thumb rubbed her index finger. People just came and went over the years. Where was Misaki now? Misaka peered up at the moon and gazed at its craters of varying sizes. Somewhere over the Moon, perhaps.
She blinked with a sigh. The Moon. There it was, staring her directly in the face. Could her railgun leave a visible dent in it at this point? Destroy it, perhaps? What a terrible thing to perturb her thoughts, but she couldn’t help but smile. Wouldn’t that be something? A slight laugh escaped her lips as she leaned back and laid flat on the steel truss with her hands behind her head.
That would certainly be a more meaningful life than what would await her in college. More stupid and pointless lectures about things that would have no real benefit. Weighing her down. Stressing her out. She could hear Kuroko’s stern words cutting through her mind: Really, Onee-sama, you should know that the pursuit of knowledge is its own reward. Yeah, yeah. But only if you enjoy learning about whatever it is you’re studying. By this point, the darkness of Academy City had manifested in a unique way that she had trouble discerning. It was all one big experiment—a cage where she and her friends were little more than lab rats. That she knew for so very long; however, it wasn’t so simple now, as she approached her nineteenth birthday. As time went on, the point of their education seemed all the more geared toward the precarious testings of their ability powers. What is the point of testing when the subject has no end goal in sight? To be someone else’s… toy. There was a word for that she learned recently. What was it? Ah. Yes, it was Sisyphean. There was a feeling of endlessness. Compartmentalized groups with their own agendas of varying statuses. The underworld of the city was really the elite world, or at least they overlapped so much that it appeared that way. 90% of the city is students, and what happens when you get to college? You either prolong that experiment academically before… what? Again, obtaining a mundane career, or ending up like Accelerator. Or even worse, they would recruit those like him into their ranks to test others. And then she remembered: 90% of the city’s population are students. Will that ever change? The overwhelming majority of graduates would have to leave.
That’s what it all amounted to. Leaving. Most people leave at some point. Would her friends all cling to one another and follow similar paths to see each other? Maybe. Ruiko seemed to become ever the more distant over the past year, Uiharu wanted to try joining Anti-Skill, and Kuroko was unsurprisingly determined to follow her Onee-sama. Others like Kongou pursued modeling or acting, as many rich girls harbored dreams of either since they were little children. If college were out of the question, then what was there for Mikoto’s future? Even in her last year of high school she felt her attachments slipping away. Her remaining sisters dwindled from Academy City one after another. Would it be such a big deal if she left? If she just up and vanished, without saying goodbye?
“You’re awfully cruel, Misaka Mikoto,” she said to herself with a sigh.
Leaving without saying goodbye—was it that she didn’t care about anyone else? Or was it that she felt unwanted—unneeded. An odd thing to feel when Kuroko would still cling to her incessantly; her feelings as unchanging as they were when they met Kiyama. Kiyama. She forgot that woman existed. Where must she be now? Teaching? Researching? Both, probably. Everyone in her life seemed so detached at this point. She was starting to understand the appeal Accelerator felt. But she didn’t want to murder anyone. She didn’t want to be the strongest. Or did she? No… it was something else. It was the moment. The feeling of getting stronger and achieving new heights—that always exhilarated her. At first she didn’t need anyone cheering her on, but eventually her friends pushing her on was as integral as anything else. What a mess everything was in her head.
She opened her eyes and stared at the Moon’s craters again. It was so large over the horizon and borderline yellow. If she were to blow the Moon up the world would descend into chaos. People are so fragile, fragile, fragile. There would be no god to save them. Nobody would even know, if perchance, she had the power to do it and simply did it spur of the moment. Life is sort of like an experiment without anyone watching. Misaka stifled a laugh to herself. How stupid. And then it hit her: she was powerful. Yeah, maybe not powerful enough to blow up the Moon… unless? Well, regardless, she could do whatever she wanted. More or less. Why did she have to follow a strict path in life like everyone else? She didn’t. It was just the socialization of society after so many years.
Misaka laughed to herself while placing a hand over her face. The answer was so simple now that she was an adult. After a moment, she stood up and turned her head to face the Moon. Grabbing a coin from her pocket she flicked in the air. Three. Two. One. She flicked it again. A powerful glow followed by static electricity emanated from around her hand as the coin was launched in a thick beam of energy. It was several times larger than when she was a middle schooler. The wind rustled the waters below as much as it did Misaka’s hair. She smirked; it didn’t come close to reaching the Moon, but it did illuminate the area of the city it traveled over as if it were daytime for a few seconds.
“Blow up the Moon. Maybe after I jump over it,” she said, bouncing off one arc truss of the bridge to another.