Today was a special day in the city of science. Not because Academy City was finally allowed to play in major league sports as its own identity. Not because they finally build a hovering airbase and surely not because Ice cream cones in the Mr. Frost ice cream shop are buy 2 get 2 free. The reason for this is because a certain young girl is finally about to realize her dream of proving with video evidence the notorious Academy City's urban legends. This girl was about to gather with her trusted team of fellow investigators that she assembled herself in her apartment, this girl was none other than Saten Ruiko.
Tecnically speaking, it's not Saten's apartment only. This level 0 shares her apartment with another friend from school, Uiharu. Uiharu is a pretty staight laced girl, one is formal and the other is impulsive. For this reason their apartment has a splash of themes all over it making it look like the work of an schizophrenic person. On one wall you would see a plaster of indigenous colorful art while the furniture was formal gray colored. On the dining room table the eating utensils would be perfectly place besides the plate with the appropriate forks and spoons for desert, appetizers and main dish, but the flower vase in the middle looks like something a 5 year old would pick.
In that single apartment was about to happen a meeting that would change these girls life forever.
Saten raised one leg and placed it on top of the coffee table like a pirate captain. It was around 3pm so she recently exited school so the level 0 was wearing her school uniform.
"Welcome all to the secret HQ of the Academy City's urban legend hunters!" Saten said as she puffed out her chest.
"Saten... lower your leg" a girl with a headband made out of flowers said as she placed a tray of coffee on the table where Saten leg was anchored "That's where people place things".
This was Saten's roommate and her best friend, Uiharu. She was dressed the same way as Saten except for her headband that makes her distinguishable from any person up to a mile radius.
"Nyah, is that dirt on your shoe?" A girl of about 8 years got up close to Saten's shoe and pointed at it in amazement.
"Looks more like dog droppings." The older sister of the 8 year old girl crossed her arms.
Those two guest where none other than the Seivelun sister, Frenda and Fremea. Fremea was around 8 year olds and didn't exactly know that her older sister was part of the evil dastardly group known as ITEM.
Saten raised anchor and dropped her foot off the table.
"Can we stop talking about what's on my shoe!?" She dropped to the floor and crossed her arms.
The little girl that was dressed like a doll stretched herself up from her seat to be able to reach the coffee cups on the center of the table.
"I was told that we were here for a once in a life time opportunity" Frenda said as she grabbed the coffee cup with both hands.
Saten grabbed a cup of coffee as well but quickly placed it back on the table in front of her.
"It's not far off, this might actually be the most important day of your lives" the girl with long black hair blew on her fingers after the comment.
"What a sad life that must be" Frenda added as she drank from her cup.
"Is it?" Saten pushed her hair behind her ear "What if I told you we could become rich?" She then drank from her coffee cup.
Frenda without control of her facial expression raised an eyebrow to that remark.
"I'm listening"
"Nyah Nyah! I will buy castle!" The little girl's eyes glimmered of excitement.
"There are videos of urban legends being discovered that are selling like hot cakes on the network dedicated to these types of things." Saten raised two fingers to catch the attention of her fellow allies "To the most experience Urban Legend hunters they would be willing to pay $200,000 for each video."
"Woah!" all the other girl said in unison. Frenda gulp at the sound of $200,000. Her eyes became twisted like a madman as a string of sweat poured from her temple. This might of been this girl ticket out of ITEM. She was mostly there for the pay anyways. She knew that having a career next to their leader would one day be the end of her.
Frenda placed her cup on the table. The ITEM member took off her beret and place it next to her on the table. Her speech pattern was at a flux due to the money at stake.
"I-I heard videos like those where sold on the internet b-but not for this much". She tried her best to keep herself composed.
Fremea eyes were about to pop out of her head "My castle will now have a moat too!"
Fremea ecstatic feelings could be felt all over the room, she was radiant. A neighbor passing through the their apartment could probably see the radiance from the door crack that Fremea was emitting.
Fremea couldn't control herself and stood up to jump around the room. Frendea would of probably stopped her but she was to focused on controlling herself so she wouldn't laugh like the Joker.
Uiharu reached for a napkin to clean a bit of droll she had on her lip when her friend said $200,000.
Saten now had the attention of her audience. Now that their sucked in to her story, it's time to bring out the big guns.
"Not only that, but how much do you think the collectors of around the world will pay for a urban legend video in academy city?"
"Elevendi nine quarters!" Fremea yelled from atop of the sofa next to where the girls were sitting convinced that what she said was an actual number.
"No!" Saten stood up from where she was seated, gave a big twirl as her skirt elegantly followed "At least double!"
"WOAH!" The rest of the girl stood up in amazement and started celebrating before anything was actually accomplished.
Saten's spat out a bit of hair that hit her on the face from her majestic twirl "Who's with me!"
"Yeah!" They all raised their hands.
The little blonde girl that resembled her sister started to build a little castle made out of cushions from the sofas "We're back in action Hamazura Brigade!"
"If where about to be rich we're are not calling ourselves the Hamazura Brigade" Frenda said in a more serious tone "I was thinking of something more appealing to all of us, to feel like we're all included, like we all have a place in this group... Something like uhh" Frenda placed a finger on her small lips and looked up at the ceiling as she gathered her thoughts.
Frenda eyes glittered like a disco ball. Frenda smirks at her ingenuous idea as she puts on her beret "Something like: Frenda and friends, legend hunters!"
Saten and Uiharu felt so included with Frenda's group name that they could only tilt their heads at the idea.
"Pupu!" Fremea popped out of her little castle of cushions with her hand over her mouth so she wouldn't laugh.
Her older sister's face turned from a disciplined school girls to a warmonger about to shoot fire from her finger tips as she pointed at her sister.
"W-What's that suppose to mean! Twerp!"
"Essentially it means your idea reminds me of what that pretty lady has on her shoe".
"SHAAAAA!" The final line has been crossed.
A war cry is heard from Frenda as she leaps into the air. She spins around like an acrobat in a competition. She suddenly pulls out two pillows from her short skirt that no decent mother would want their child to wear at such a young age. The older sibling of the Seivelun sisters launches her pillows at the younger sisters castle like a bomber run. The younger sister courageously tries to defend her castle from the relentless assault but her efforts are in vain.
"Nyah!" Fremea screams as the bombing run completely decimates her little fort.
When the dreadful clouds of war subside, A level 1 girl with short hair emerges.
She scratches her head "Eh, instead of fighting why don't we all just add something that defines us into the group name?"
Fremea corpse lay on the ground with X marks on her eyes.
The apartments owner taps her hand with a fist "Ohh, that's actually a good idea Uiharu".
Uiharu gathers the surviving members of the meeting to huddle up "Let's all pick the first letter of a word that best describes us and make a word out of it."
Fremea's corpse suddenly regains life and she pops up back on her feet with a burst of energy.
"Brilliant!" the little doll of a girl yells out with enough energy to get the neighbors all riled up.
Saten winks at the other girls "Guess I would be, ~aaaaamaziiiing~".
Uiharu left the huddle to start cleaning the mess from the coffee table.
"Then maybe I would be, resourceful." The level 1 said as she casually cleans up the coffee table.
Frenda walks forward and flips her blonde curled hair to the side "I would obviously be, Fabulous!"
Uiharu made her way to the kitchen counter and laid the tray with the coffee cups on it.
"Ok, now we will put the first letter of each word together to spell out the first word that comes to mind"
Frenda with a thoughtful gaze looks at the group "That would make us... Barf...".
As those words where uttered the atmosphere in the room fell to darkness as they all laid down their heads.
Academy City had various faction within its system to maintain it clean and operational. Each team carries out a different task. There's teams like MEMBER that operates directly under the board of directors for more personal missions. There's teams like ITEM that are hired guns for any high paying job. Academy City also have organizations like SCHOOL, GROUP and BLOCK which are the cities backbone for important covert operations that must be kept secret from the general public. Let's not forget lesser teams like SCAVENGER which deal with lesser task from the underground world of Academy City in which the big groups don't have time to handle. All these organizations and team hold a purpose within this city. On this day a new team was formed, BARF. This group specialized in urban legend hunting. Though their team members don't regard themselves by that name, they should still be a threat to fear.
It was a sunny day outside. It was a perfect day to carry out various activities. One could spend the day fishing, bicycle riding or hunting for urban legends. The latter seems to be what these young girls where doing.
One of Academy City's most ground breaking team gathered outside an abandoned hotel in district 12. It looked like the hotel has been left alone for various decades at it looked like a purpously made haunted house. It was a legend in itself for somehow evading being torn down by the city.
Saten steps infront of her team and takes out her little urban legend notebook that has some notes on it.
"Ok, BARF-" She was quickly interrupted in unison by her fearsome team.
"Nyah, don't call us that."
"I'm not a gag reflex"
"Please don't"
The girls comments overlapped as they said it.
Saten awkwardly coughs.
"Ok, either way, we made it to our first destination". Saten turn around and extend her arms like a lottery girl "The haunted hotel!"
Thunder strikes in the background despite being sunny.
Fremea instinctively hides behind her older sister.
"W-whats that s-suppose to mean?".
"It's a hotel that is haunted".
"NYAH! My hunch was right" the little girl planted her head on frenda's back.
Uiharu shrug her head at the girls antics.
The girls finally made their way inside the haunted hotel. Fremea had a blindfold on because she refused to enter if she could see the horrors that laid ahead. The interior design looked all bland with pale colors. It looked like if a senior citizen choose the colors. As expected the hotel looked very old with spider webs at every corner. Every footstep would raised clouds of dirt up.
Saten turns to her newly founded organization "Ok Ba-"
She was quickly cut off by death glares. Even by Fremeas glare, even though she was looking somewhere else.
"Anyways, the point of this urban legend is that there's a door in this hotel that if you knock twice a ghost will open the door and invite you in."
Saten said as she read of her little notebook.
Uiharu raises her hand.
Saten points at her.
"What's suppose to be inside the room?"
"I dont know"
"Then isn't that dangerous?"
"Thats what we'll figure out"
Frenda with trembling legs steps forward.
"I-I'm not s-sca-red of a-any ghos-st"
"Me neither" Fremea says as she hides behind her sister.
"Great! Then lets split up!"
"PFeifb" Frenda splatters out "This isn't scooby doo!"
Before the split in teams Saten told everyone to use their phones camera to film everything they did so their would be no chance of missing their fated encounters with the unknown.
Frenda and Fremea found themselves on the same floor. They decide to go together because Frenda didn't want to leave her little sister alone. That's the story they told the other girls anyway.
They were walking down the same hallway. The hallway looked like the rest of the hotel, unimpressive. Frenda was walking behind her little sister as she guided her by holding on to her shoulders. They stopped at the center of the long narrow path.
"Ok, I guess we should just get started I suppose."
Fremea gulps as she hears those terrifying words from her sister.
Frenda hands her little blind sister her phone so she could video tape the encounter with the spirits. Anyone would of thought that an earthquake started from the shaking of these girls hands.
Frenda very slowly approaches the first door.
With a shaky fist she knocks twice on the first door.
Knock Knock.
"..."
"..."
No response.
A sign of relief finally showed from these sisters.
"He-he, see. Nothing to fear". A bit of sweat stilled poured from the ITEM mercenary.
Her little sister apparently had a fire lit under her belly as she was invigorated by the sight of ghost being proven false.
"Nyah, let me try. I'm not scared anymore!" Fremea said as she threw a fury of punches into the air.
Frenda guides her sister in front of a door.
Knock Knock.
No response.
"S-see, nothing to fear" Frenda said with a shaky voice.
"NYAH! Esccentially, I always knew there was no such thing as ghost!" The elementary school girl finally takes of her blindfold to show eyes filled with determination.
"C-cute..."
Now Frenda would be the one hiding behind her little sister.
They both head to separate doors.
Frenda knock on her door twice.
Knock Knock.
At the same time Fremea knocks on her door twice.
Knock Knock.
Frenda face turns pale. Without a second thought the ITEM members runs at full speed to the nearest exit possible.
"AHHH! It knocked twice! Run for your lives!"
Hearing the piercing scream of her sister, Fremea lost control of herself, thinking the second knock came from her sisters door she put back on her blindfold and started screaming aswell. Fremea starts to run in her eternal plane of nothingness and runs into the first wall she comes across.
The most notorious group in Academy City which their name will not be mention found themselves eating ice cream in the center of a local park. They were sitting on the edge of a water fountain that sported a big 7' tall mirror. This particular mirror had a frame that supplied a current of water to keep falling from the top to simualte a cascade.
Saten chuckles.
"So you got scared at your sister knocking at the other door right after you?" Saten got close with wiggly fingers "Scared some ghost where going to get you?"
"Cut it out Saten" Uiharu intervened "Can't you see they had a life altering moment?"
Fremea places her ice cream on her black eye "Nyah, and I thought I was the baby here" She then turns to her sister sitting next to her giving a not so pleasant glance.
"W-w-what? Me? I will have you know that my genetic structure is similar to that of a plant" Frenda nods her head as she point as herself with her coco flavored Ice cream "I need sunlight to survive, if I spend too much time out of the light I dry up and die a horrible death".
Uiharu gets up and walks towards Frenda and with a slight of hand takes Frendas Ice cream.
"Then you won't need this" Uiharu takes Frendas ice cream with ninja like precision "You can use photosynthesis to fill your belly".
A little of Saten's ice cream drips and hits the floor beneath her. The sun in this sunny day is particularly strong.
"Anyway that hotel was a bust, Uiharu and me didn't find anything" Saten hops down from the fountain and with a wide mouth eats the rest of her Ice cream in one bite. Her face quickly turns to blue as she shivers uncontrollably. No human could of possibly been able to eat an entire ice cream in one bite. In this one precise moment, as Saten was crouched on the floor with her head between her legs, she was wishing she could be half plant like Frenda in hopes the brain freeze wouldn't have been as troubling.
"Nyah Nyah, she died" Fremea nonchalantly says as she licks her chocolate flavored ice cream cone.
Saten suddenly pops right back up.
"That's why we're here" Saten turns around to face the fountain in which the girls are sitting at. " That mirror of water behind is our next urban legend!"
The girl turn around in a very unimpressed matter. They were so amped to see the next urban legend that they didn't stop eating their ice cream.
"The story goes as follows" Saten takes her little notebook and flips it to the page she about to read off of "Whoever stands at the ledge of the fountain and looks into the mirror of water, will see their approximate future which will have a drastic change in their lives".
Uiharu finishes her rocky road ice cream flavored cone "That sounds easy enough". She said while sporting the latest fashion trends, her ice cream mustache.
Uiharu stands up on the ledge and looks into the mirror. With intense focus she stares at her approximate future that will drastically alter the course of her life.
Uiharu's eyes grow in size at what she witness.
"It can't be so!"
The other girls gulp in anticipation of what the girl with the flower hair witness.
Uiharu turns around "I will grow a ice cream mustache!" Uiharu points at herself while making a funny looking face.
"Pfft! Bahahaha!"
All the girls laugh. Fremea even spat out a bit of her ice cream as she laughed.
Saten swipes a tear from her eyes from the laughing.
"So this one is a bust as well. Then I guess it's time to move on to the next one!"
"Yeah!"
The girls all raised their hands in agreement as they dropped from the fountains edge and followed Saten, the leader of their Urban Legend hunters team.
Before dropping to the floor, Frenda curiously turns to the mirror and looks at it. Her eyes are entrance at the beauty of the cascading water rushing down to the fountain. She is hypnotized while she witness this majestic sight.
A sharp tone snaps Frenda from her daze.
"Frenda! Are you coming?"
Jittered out of her trance she responds "Y-Yeah, I'm coming".
As the ITEM member drops from the ledge of the fountain and walks towards her group of fellow legend hunters, a faint image appears on the mirror of water. The image of a certain individual was shown holding the upper half body of a curly blonde girl appeared. As faintly and quickly as the image appeared on the mirror of water, it disappeared.
The group that would not mention their name arrived at their last destination, it was a tourist site. The place was meant to be a monument in honor of the founding members of Academy City. The monument was located on top of a hill that was connected to society by a long staircase. It was like the City's own little Mt. Rushmore. The area was full of green pasture that waved from the calm winds. The site also had giant windmills all over the place that added a little extra to the view. In addition with the bright sunny day it made a great place to have a picnic, but this wasn't the occasion for that. More specifically the group was located on the staircase that connected the monument with society.
Saten pulled out her little notebook from her pocket.
"Ok ladies, this is the last urban legend." She opened the notebook and started reading "It says that the amount of steps changes going up and down the flight of stairs if the same person is counting".
Uiharu had to tilt her head 45% degrees to be able to look up at all the steps that where in front of her.
The gentle breeze was enough to make Frenda hold down her short skirt, If she didn't any pervert could look at her young radiant rear end. The rest of the girls didn't have to worry as their skirts where knee length at the didn't raise up enough with the gentle winds.
"Eeeeeeeh!" Uiharu finally lost control "There's like a million of them! What kind of legend is this!?"
"Nyah, legend hunting isn't fun anymore." Fremea lowers her body as she loses motivation.
"Pfft! Come on girls! You signed up for this didn't you?"
Everyone looked at Saten with a gaze that resembled daggers.
Saten dropped to her knees as she was penetrated by their sights.
"Fine fine!" Saten stood up from the ground and with clear determination, she looked up at her foe, the stares.
Saten grabbed her clothes with a tight grip "I intended to do this one on my own anyways!" She ripped her clothes off and threw then into the air revealing a black sports uniform that perfectly fit her. The uniform looked like it was tailor made for her body, highlighting the curves in her body specifically. Misaka Mikoto would of been envious of the bust Saten was carrying which were perfectly exposed by the sports uniform.
Saten finished preparing a pony tail for her hair. The rest of the girls felt a bit uncomfortable with the look Saten had on at the moment. It felt like they were getting unnecessary gazes thrown their way. Uiharu awkwardly got behind Saten with her phones camera to tape the findings of this urban legend.
"Ready" She got down on one knee in a perfect runners position.
"Set" She tightened her body for a better start.
"Go!" Saten exploded off the ground in a burst of energy up the staircase leaving only dust in her place. One would of thought a missile was fired from the dust that raised up.
Only a few seconds past before the a young girl in a sports uniform came walking down the steps.
"Sorry, lost count."
"..."
"..."
"..."
The rest of the girls didn't comment.
Saten went back up the stairs in a burst of energy.
The girl then came back down the stairs with an indifference look.
"Sorry, lost count"
Saten ran back up.
Saten walked back down.
"Sorry lost count".
Almost a full hour passed before Saten finally finished the quest in which she embarked on.
Faint panting could be heard from the young athlete's mouth. As she held her knees in place with her arms she informed the rest of her crew of her new discovery.
"Well" *pant* "It seems there's" *pant* "around 543 steps going up" *pant* "And around 534 going down"
The other girls where laying on the grass enjoying themselves. They seemed to buy some props from a local tourist vendor in the area. Uiharu was with a giant sombrero as she cooled herself with fan on one hand and had the camera on the other. Fremea was wearing an eye patch as she played games on Frenda's phone as she rested her little head on the level 1's thigh. Frenda had a pair of shades on as she laid under the sun to work on her tan.
"last time you told us it was 538 and 527"
Frenda said with a straight expression as she was paying more attention to the tan that her leader.
"Then, I guess this legend is proven!" Saten weakly boasted as she raised her arms up in the air "Uiharu, did you catch that on film?"
Uiharu gave her overly giant sombrero to the little girl on her lap and then stood up.
"It's all recorded." Uiharu walks off to hand Saten her phone.
As they were about to exchange the phone from one person to the next. Saten couldn't get a good grip on the phone on the exchange. The phone fell. It felt like the entire moment was captured on slow motion as Saten's facial expression change about 20 times.
A crack echoed through the gentle winds.
Saten and Uiharu looked as they where petrified by medusa. The phone broke on impact with the floor.
Saten kept her glare fixated on Uiharu until she collapsed on the floor due to exhaustion.
With this the day ended for one of the most versatile teams in Academy City, BARF. The team might of failed today, but this would not be the end. The group gathered around their fallen leader to help her out as the sun was finally retreating and letting her sister night time take its place.
Mission log 1, concluded.