[SS] A Certain Part-Time Job

Preferring writing down the computer specifics and other details over remembering Uiharu terminology-heavy, rather one-sided talk about computers, Mikoto copied meticulously every detail in a note app on her Gekota phone and rose from her sitting position.

“It's fine, I think we'll be able to handle it from here”

Truth be told, while she was thankful for the help, she just didn't want to take chances of Uiharu discussing each and every computer on their way. People always get lost in their little world, forgetting about the other people that didn't join them on the trip, when surrounded with the target of their love.

That, Mikoto knew well, letting a small nervous laugh escape her lips as she stared at her phone.

“Come on, let's go.” Putting the phone in her pocket, Mikoto left a few last words of gratitude to Uiharu and left the apartment.

“This has been going so well that I have a horrible feeling about this...” Mikoto muttered.

---

It hardly took any time at all for them to buy the computer after they had finally located it in that sea of technology called an electronics store.

Though worried, Mikoto stretched with a bright smile on her face, clearly satisfied by how smoothly. Now, she could dedicate the rest of the day to her occupations, right?

That was what she thought, but suddenly she heard a familiar voice.

"...Geh."

"Geh? .... Ah, you!!"

"...Teehee. Dammit, this is why I avoid this district..."

The sudden voice was Natsumi's, who found herself cursing the fact that she ran into Mikoto so early after her successful stealth escape the other day.

"You sure have guts, running off on me lik-"

"I didn't picture you to be the type to spend time at an electronics store." Natsumi, openly ignoring Mikoto, asked Guy while pointing at his new possession. "What's up with that?"

"Hey! Don't just ignore me!"

"It's my new work computer." He explained. "Biri biri here was kind enough to help me pick one out." He snatched the laptop away from Natsumi before she could touch it for fear that she might try something funny with it.

Nice try, but you're not going to deflect attention onto me to get out of this one.

"Say, weren't you two in the middle of something last time I saw you?" He immediately redirected the topic of conversation back to Mikoto and Natsumi's previous grudge as he made a hasty retreat to avoid the crossfire. "I'll let you two sort that out, I've got to get to work!"

***

Later that day and it was approaching the closing hours for the cafe. Approaching from a distance the weary looking Gekota mascot dragged itself closer and closer to the glass fronted door only to spot a pair of girls standing by the counter. Two girls that added up to a nightmare for the poor part timer and his troublesome outfit.

"Say, weren't you two in the middle of something last time I saw you?" With that, Natsumi froze, internally cursing him as Mikoto slowly nodded and turned towards her.

"Now that you say it..." Mikoto started dangerously, sparks of electricity dancing near her fringe as she started cracking her knuckles. "We were in the middle of something, weren't we?"

Natsumi raised her hands, nervously laughing as the coward had ran off after putting her in deep shit. "Hey, I just so happen to have..." Remembering the flyer-fest Guy had presented to her last time, she pulled out one of the café's flyer that thankfully had no text written on it.

"...This. I was planning on going there. How about accompanying me, instead of killing me?" Mikoto squint her eyes and intensified the sparks of electricity, clearly thinking that Natsumi was taking her for an idiot. "...they have Gekota-shaped pastries I'll offer if you let me off?"

...And suddenly, the sparks stopped. For a minute, Mikoto had been weighing the pluses and the minuses whilst reading the content of the flyer for more details. Finally, she decided to nod with a blush on her face. "Okay, b-but it's only because I want to try it out since it opened recently! Really!"

Deep inside and without an accompanying comment, Natsumi thanked the God she hardly believed in for Mikoto's soft spot for Gekota.

***

"Uwaa~aaah! I can have as many of these as I want, right?! ...I-I mean, since you said you'd offer, and they don't p-particularly look bad."

Despite her protests Mikoto looked like she was in heaven just by glancing at detailed sheet of their promotional item; Gekota pastry. Natsumi only nodded with a condemning sigh towards her wallet, and turned around in utter boredom, only to notice an incoming giant Gekota.

The incoming Gekota quickly received a large grin fron Natsumi. Not the happy kind, unfortunately. The one that threatened to rip its limbs off.

If I can time it just right, I might be able to slip past without them noticing me...

He sidled up to the door as casually as he could, slowing his pace to prolong the window of opportunity and just when the woman behind the counter started to talk with Natsumi and Mikoto he took a deep breath and steeled himself.

"That'll be five hundred Yen. Is there anything else I can get for you?" The young woman asked with a pleasant smile.

Guy moved to swiftly pass Natsumi and Mikoto, keeping his eyes on the door at the back of the cafe. But it was hard to be stealthy when dressed in a bright green frog costume.

Natsumi silently paid Mikoto's stuff while internally seething because of the man who was acting like he hadn't been noticed after selling her out, and as such it was now revenge time...

“Reminds me, I've heard rumours that our dear male teacher has been working part-time jobs despite his main Tokiwadai one... Know anything about it?” Natsumi started off with a mischievous tone and Mikoto hesitantly replied as she grabbed the bag of gingerbread Gekotas Natsumi was handing out to her, remembering that she did strike a deal with Guy to not sell him out.

“I-Is that so..? I-I can't say I do, but don't you usually dislike rumours?”

“Yeah, but I figured it would be fun if he worked part-time jobs, and those required him to wear a costume.” Suddenly, Natsumi turned around in fake surprise to the sneaking Gekota and grabbed his arm tightly to prevent its escape. “Just like this one! It reminds me of the one you hugged a few days ago thinking no one you knew was around.”

Mikoto's entire body was an inexplicable shade of red as not only Natsumi was aware that she went to hug a Gekota cosplayer, but she was also implying hugging that idiot was anywhere near amusing...! “W-W-W-W-W... What the hell are you saying?! And I wasn't hugging it, it just ended up that way!” She barely managed to stop herself from frying the entire shop in embarrassment, though sparks of electricity still escaped the top of her head.

That hand grabbed him. Fingers coiling around the wrist of his costume like steel cables as Natsumi dragged him over. Had it not already been so hot inside the thick costume, Guy would have no doubt broken out in a cold sweat. He gritted his teeth, looking at Natsumi with a scowl.

I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I'll kill you... He repeated the threat like a mantra in his head. As though willing the younger girl to hear those words. Being shocked by Mikoto was the least of his concerns. It wasn't just his skin on the line, but his very dignity. His long suffering, tattered dignity.

As the tense scene unfolded a shady looking boy entered the cafe and started to eye the register and they young woman behind it with a nervous look. His behaviour was suspicious enough as it was, but the boy's low hanging hood obscured his features. As though he wanted to hide his face. He approached the counter...

As if feeling the threat, Natsumi only returned a sickeningly sweet glance at him that somehow clearly gave off the vibe that she wanted to kill him as well for getting her in this situation where she had to buy Misaka sweets to calm her wrath.

However, she quickly let go of the poor man once she noticed the definition of suspicious entering the store. Both her and Mikoto had absolutely horrible feelings as they stared at the boy slowly approaching the counter. And they were confirmed once the boy had raised a gun and shouted to the young woman to empty the cash register.

"I-I'll shoot her if anyone moves!!" The lack of confidence he was showing made Natsumi wonder if he was some kind of brat thinking he would be robbing stores with cliché lines as if he was in a movie.


**

Current situation: Brilliant.

“Oi, Misaka, don't just disarm him without-!” Natsumi was cut off by a girl's sudden action. Every customer had been so terrified that a sole girl decided to act by pulling away the gun using magnetism and used the confusion of the young boy to tackle him, pushing him on the counter as she locked his arm behind his back after he dropped the weapon from the impact.

“Gotcha!” Exclaimed Mikoto as she grabbed the robber. “You better not show resistance.” Cockiness was just dripping from her voice as she had openly assumed that this was one of the easiest cases she had dealt with; after all she had dealt with so many delinquents before.

However, things weren't that nice and convenient.

“Let go of me!” Suddenly, a young girl exclaimed as she was forced into the store by a much taller and bulky man, clearly resembling an actual delinquent that had experience unlike the boy.

He had been waiting outside the store as he sent the smaller boy out for, unbeknownst to him, reconnaissance. His smirk was that of triumph over an Esper. “I suggest you don't resist either and let go of the brat. I can blow her brain out faster than you can disarm me.”

“...knowing the actual situation...” Natsumi finished in a mutter, slapping a hand on her face as three more armed and hooded delinquents entered the store.

Indeed, the current situation was absolutely brilliant.

Feeling Natsumi's grip loosen Guy returned to his hasty retreat. If he was lucky then the robbers wouldn't notice him. He could get to the exit and call for Anti-Skill.

"Hey!" One of the youths called out. Guy froze mid-step. "You in the stupid costume!" Guy jolted upright, turning to face the boy. "Open the register!" He pointed towards Guy with his gun, motioning towards the counter. The young man in the mascot costume waddled over slowly, so the gunman gave him a shove. Guy staggered forward into one of the other delinquents, taking them both to the floor.

To the delinquent in question it seemed like any other fall. How many times had he, a skilled street fighter, been tackled to the floor? But as the ground rushed up to meet him the enormous head of the mascot costume bearing down on him forced his own head back into the floor with a crack. Pain was mercifully short -lived as he passed into unconsciousness.

"Get up." The gunman tugged at the hood of Guy's costume to lift him off his fallen comrade. The neck seams tore loudly as the head came off in his hands, leaving Guy kneeling in front of him with an awkward fixed smile.

"Ah. Hey, Biribiri." Guy laughed nervously. His precious dignity...

"Hey. Kanji's out cold." One of the other delinquents lifted the fallen boy's arm only for it to fall limp beside him. The unconscious boy groaned.

"Useless!" The leader spat. He paused, considering for a moment. "Take that idiot out back and make sure no one else is hiding. Lock the back door." He gestured for his subordinate to escort Guy to the store room. "You!" He pushed the girl he was holding aside and pressed the barrel of his pistol to the cashier's head. "Open the goddamn register!" She squealed and hurried to do as he said.

But no more than five seconds passed before a string of gunshots were heard and Guy sprung through the door to the storeroom amid a hail of bullets.

"I can't fucking see!" The delinquent cried from the back room, firing blindly. All hell broke loose. Customers were screaming, diving for cover. The remaining thugs wheeled to face the young man who had burst back into the restaurant. For just a moment they were distracted.

Mikoto had been beckoned away from the counter with a gun as a threat. Though she could do something about the weapon, she figured it might be best to not worsen the situation as she had done just now...

When she moved away though, a fated chain of events led to the giant Gekota having its head removed; revealing the trouble-magnet, caucasian male Tokiwadai teacher.

"Ah. Hey, Biribiri."

“W-W-W-W-Wha.. Wha.... wha...” It could be said the girl was currently suffering an internal meltdown, as she remembered everything that had happened with the Gekota she had glomped that had been, now that she thought of it, nearly everywhere the past few days..! (I d-d-did not... Did not...!!!!!!)

Right now, her dumbfounded, bright red face could very much be compared to a stunned fish's face.

**

Natsumi internally snorted in laughter as she, too, was under the threat of a gun while being mistaken as a normal person. To her, this chain of events had to be karma biting Guy's ass as they had both warned him earlier, and if she wasn't in such a situation then it was likely the girl would point and laugh.

(OST: Shooting it Out)

Yet how unfortunate it was that the situation currently required seriousness. Natsumi sent a quick look at Mikoto, who only nodded in agreement to let her handle the situation.

"Take that idiot out back and make sure no one else is hiding. Lock the back door. You! Open the goddamn register!"

(One of them is down, only five remain including the leader. The only problem is the cashier..) Or so she had thought, until the certain someone came back rushing amidst a shower of bullets, taking by surprise everyone in the store including the two Tokiwadai girls who should have been expecting it. (Is he lacking half of his brain?!)

However, that was her much awaited chance: with a flick of her wrist, every enemy found their heads and clothes lit on fire one after the other for a few seconds result of their distraction. Mikoto sprung from her stalled position to slam into the cashier away from the gun in that instant.

Then, to avoid the fire spreading to uncontrollable degrees Natsumi discarded it, elbowed the delinquent that was threatening her in the solar plexus, and took his gun while she was at it in quick succession. The flames seemed to have taken care of everyone but the leader whom she cocked the gun at. “That's some piss poor planning. Perhaps you'd need a better crew?” She said, provoking the gang leader with a smirk on her face

The leader spat and sputtered in disbelief and confusion, but he kept the barrel of his pistol pressed against the cashier's head, pulling her into the line of fire between himself and Natsumi. Together the pair backed towards the door, the cashier's fearful trembling causing her to stumble.

"NOBODY MOVE!" He bellowed, his voice cracking from the stress of his plan's spectacular failure. He raised his pistol into the air, firing it at the ceiling before he pushed the petrified shop assistant into Natsumi. He turned to run, his attention still on the two Esper girls.

"Not so fast!"

Guy reached out, feeling something in his hand he lifted the thin, weighty object and hurled it like a discus. Guy's face fell as he saw the laptop bag spin through the air towards the fleeing thug's skull.

And then he heard it. The heartbreaking crack of the expensive equipment shattering over the delinquent's thick head. Caught in a confusing moment of elation and despair, Guy stood frozen as he watched the boy topple face first to the floor.

One of the girls was severely conflicted between anger and pity, the other saw Guy as the embodiment of misfortune mixed with stupidity.

Though Mikoto felt bad at failing to actually secure the clerk, who had rushed to contact the authorities once she deemed the store was decently safe, from not expecting the leading delinquent to get such a strong grip on her, she was reassured to see the criminal had been halted; it's just that she couldn't be entirely rejoiced as she could note that, the object that was used to stop them? She had spent a day helping a certain boy present at the scene to find it.

The now broken laptop he had bought to replace his broken computer.

She slowly approached the dejected Gekota cosplayer to set a hand on his shoulder in sympathy... “I know that's likely going to be a massive blow on your miserable paycheck, but I hope you don't expect this to give you a free pass out of explaining this to me, right, you pervert?”" ...but not too much sympathy either, she confirmed as her grip tightened. There would likely be no true sympathy with Mikoto realising she had openly embarrassed herself in front of him.

On the other hand, Natsumi had taken care to throw away the guns and tie up the delinquents with anything she could find before anyone attempted to wake up while having a fit of giggles she couldn't keep to herself –  the girl did feed off the misfortune of others for the most part, after all – before she picked up the miserable delinquent-striking projectile in one hand to analyse it as she turned towards Guy at a safe distance.

“I'm surprised that delinquent isn't dead with what he received in the head, but that... what's this... Huh. That laptop's definitely shot with how you threw it, indeed..." A massive cheeky grin erupted on her face as she continued with her grin that gave away the fact that there would be much blackmailing involved. 

"I'm sure you don't want to blow the rest of whatever pathetic paycheck you have on another computer, so maybe you'll get a nice surprise if you please me enough?” She concluded with her grin being replaced by a devious smile satisfied at the chance at getting back at him as she rocked the bag sideways and headed outside of the store once her blackmailing was complete, fully ignoring Mikoto who called out to her but couldn't follow her on the risk of Guy taking that instant to escape.

"Guess I'll deal with her later..." Mikoto thought decisively as she instead turned her head towards Guy, bearing a  "gentle" expression as she squatted. “Now, before the authorities arrive, about that explanation...”

It was very likely he would have to welcome high-level electrocution from her smile, let alone her tone.

“I know that's likely going to be a massive blow on your miserable paycheck, but I hope you don't expect this to give you a free pass out of explaining this to me, right, you pervert?”

"Wait. Who's a pervert?" He asked, bewildered at the accusation that had come out of nowhere. "You were the one getting all touchy-feely." He lowered his eyelids with a sly grin. "It was kinda cute actually. Who knew you had such a soft side."

“I'm surprised that delinquent isn't dead with what he received in the head, but that... what's this... Huh. That laptop's definitely shot with how you threw it, indeed... I'm sure you don't want to blow the rest of whatever pathetic paycheck you have on another computer, so maybe you'll get a nice surprise if you please me enough?”

"She's moved on from blackmail to extortion now?" He uttered as Natsumi high-tailed it away, leaving him to his fate.

“Now, before the authorities arrive, about that explanation...”

Looking her dead in the eyes for a moment Guy twisted the head of his costume back on, the torn material exposing tufts of stuffing around the neck as it sat lopsided but still grinning inanely.

"How about another hug!" He said as he spread his arms wide and clamped down on her in a warm, fuzzy bear hug.

It was around that time that local residents reported a series of localised lightning strikes in the area.