Author's Note: If you've watched episode one of Goblin Slayer, this chapter is probably just a tiny bit less controversial as that. If you choose not to read on, I understand. I personally find that most M rated stories here aren't that dark, like they'll be fine being T rated. This story however, it is rated M for a very good reason.

Edit (29/6/2019): Story rewritten in many parts.

Misaki wanted to be like Kanami on TV. Not Magical Girl Kanami saving people like a hero, but ordinary Kanami with loving parents who did not treat Kanami like a slave.

"The dishes aren't going to wash themselves, you stupid girl!" said a plump middle-aged lady.

This fat bitch was her "stepmother" who must have sold her hideous soul to the devil in exchange for an equally hideous monster willing to marry her.

Misaki lowered her head as she entered the kitchen. She wasn't going to let anger destroy her image of a meek little girl in front of her "step-parents". Only a meek little girl would be allowed to leave house and buy groceries without any fears of her running away.

By the time Misaki was done with the dishes, her bitch "stepmother" had already left the house for karaoke with her bitch friends. It was no surprise that the meeker she appeared in front of them, the more joy they got from forcing her to do humiliating acts such as licking the floor on all fours in exchange for a small scoop of her favorite vanilla ice cream. That kind of humiliation however, was better than the other kind of humiliation she had to go through each time she wanted to leave house.

"Uncle Hiroshi, may I please leave the house to get some groceries for Aunt Hiroshi?" said Misaki as she averted her eyes away from that monster's creepy smile. He usually interprets it as fear, but it was really sheer disgust to the point where if she looked just one second longer, she might actually stab her fingers into his eyes and then finish him with the sharpest blade in the kitchen.

The monster closed the curtains and made sure the door was locked, "If you're a good girl, sure."

Misaki took off her clothes slowly, piece by piece before she knelt down on all fours.

A large tub of vanilla ice cream was what Misaki needed to forget the bitter aftertaste in her mouth as a portable printer connected to a PC spat out images after images inside a private internet cafe room.

The Internet was a vast world filled with knowledge, but she had too little time to explore, so the only way was to buy time and money with her body. Misaki hated what that monster would always do to her body every single time, but it was also that monster that taught her the value of her body. It was apparently valuable enough to get money for spy cameras connected to a cloud server and a portable printer.

Misaki left the internet cafe room for a small police station armed with a brown A4 envelope just across the street. It may be difficult to convict someone of sexual abuse in Japan, but she had evidence so clear that any lawyer who takes her case would win without a doubt.

Kagurazaka, the area she lived in was rather peaceful, so there wasn't anyone else around inside the station other than the two bored police officers on duty.

"Please… please save me from this nightmare," said Misaki, her voice trembling as if she would burst into tears any moment. Males tend to be more sympathetic to cute girls who are almost in tears. It triggers their natural instincts to protect the weak such as herself.

A police officer opened the A4 envelope, and to Misaki's surprise, the officer seemed to be rather nonchalant as he looked through the pictures.

"Are you sure you didn't use any photo editing tools to frame an innocent man?" said the officer.

Misaki shook her head, "Please believe me. Whatever you see in the picture is true! I even have-"

"Alright, that's enough." said another police officer as he chucked the A4 envelope and the pictures into a paper shredder, "Mr Hiroshi is a respectable businessman who took you in out of kindness and I won't allow an ungrateful brat like you to ruin his life."

Misaki stomped out of the police station. Fine. Maybe the police station in Shibuya will take her case more seriously!

From the corner of her vision, she noticed a man following her. Was that monster secretly in cahoots with the local police and had that man on standby to follow her if evidence of him sexually abusing her appears?

Misaki sprinted into an alley. She took off her necklace and hurled it into a dustbin. This necklace was a special USB stick in disguise manufactured by Academy City, a city with technology 30 years ahead of the world. Even if her cloud server was hacked into by Academy City's technology, she still had this necklace as her final backup which she must retrieve by Thursday morning before the garbage collectors arrive.

Waiting at the exit of the alley was that man with a gun pointed at her.

"What do you want from me?" said Misaki as she inched backwards. There was no way she could ever outrun a bullet, but maybe if she inched backwards enough, she could leap sideways and disappear from that man's view.

The man pulled the trigger, and Misaki fell to the ground paralysed. There was nothing she could do to fight back or scream as the man stripped her and stuffed her clothes into his bag. He was someone hired by that monster Hiroshi to follow her as soon as she left the house. Whatever she had been planning was never a secret. No wonder the police were so nonchalant when she showed them the evidence. They were all in this together!

"I'm not here for your necklace," said the man with a smirk, "I'm here for you. You've had your fun with so many men that one more wouldn't matter, right? I promise to leave you alone for good once I'm finished."

Tears leaked from the corners of Misaki's eyes.

Just a shitty deal where she gets nothing in return. Nothing to cry about. Nothing to cry about at all...

Yet the tears won't stop flowing.

Kamijou Touma walked through an alley to avoid the crowd in the bustling street of Shibuya, known to be the most energetic district in Tokyo. Not everyone he touches is doomed to be cursed with misfortune, but he'd rather not take that risk. There was nothing to be afraid of when only the most desperate of people would be willing to rob or assault him.

Touma felt something sharp pressing against his back.

"You must be new here," said Touma. "Or you simply have nothing else to lose."

"Shut up and hand over all your money!" said a male voice.

Touma turned around to see a disheveled man with tattered clothes. The man must be so poor that the knife he was holding with grimy fingers was yellowish and rusty. Touma ignored the man's desperate screams for him to stop moving as he casually reached into his pocket.

"Good luck," said Touma as he dropped a few thousand yen on the floor. A weak attempt to make himself feel better for destroying the lives of many innocent people just by touching them, but an attempt nonetheless.

Bluish electric currents shocked the man unconscious. Touma read about Academy City, and how that incredible city actually managed to produce espers, or people with supernatural abilities, but to see one in person was still quite the experience.

"You alright?" said a girl who was an esper that could shoot lightning out of her fingertips.

"I should be asking you that question."

"What? Do I look not alright to you?"

"You just shocked a grown man unconscious! How is that alright to you?!"

The girl laughed, "Oh, he'll be fine after a hour or two. Trust me, I've done this over a hundred times."

She was definitely not alright. Mentally, at least.

"You are?" said Touma.

"Misaka Mikoto. And you?" said Mikoto with an outstretched hand.

"The last time I shook someone's hand, he was admitted to the hospital for six months when a tree fell onto him. My name is Kamijou Touma by the way, the boy who brings misfortune to whoever he touches."

Mikoto grabbed hold of his hands just like one of the many who didn't believe in things like "luck", but that doesn't make her immune to the fact that something horrible was probably going to happen to her soon. Maybe less horrible than the others since she wasn't normal, but the opposite could also be true.

"You need to change your backward superstitious thinking," said Mikoto, "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. Have you ever wondered if there's someone behind all the unfortunate things that happens to whoever you touch?"

Touma blinked. The idea of someone screwing over whoever he touches on purpose had never really occurred to him. If that someone really exists, then why would he or she do that? Drive him out of Japan to where?

Sparks flew erratically out of Mikoto's bangs.

"What did you do to me?!" said Mikoto.

Touma shielded himself from a stray lightning bolt with his right hand. The lightning bolt vanished without a trace. He couldn't exactly remember why his right hand could negate supernatural powers, but it had something to do with one of his previous lives who dealt with dragons.

Mikoto's electric outburst calmed down when a necklace fell out of her pocket.

"I told you so. Bad things happen to people who touches me," said Touma.

"Huh, I had no idea that this necklace was technology from Academy City."

"What do you mean by- oh god."

The necklace, despite its small size, was sophisticated enough to project a video onto the wall. He even recognized the girl in that video. She once appeared briefly in a news article for having star-shaped irises. Meanwhile, the man in the video was a rich businessman who organized an event once or twice in Kagurazaka together with his father Kamijou Touya.

Mikoto switched off the necklace with a confused frown, "That was a really weird video. Do you know what's going on in that video?"

Touma shook his head because it was easier than explaining. He envied Mikoto for not knowing that the video she just watched was clear evidence of a man sexually abusing a young girl. It may not seem that way because the girl wasn't in tears, but not everyone expresses their pain through tears.

"I shouldn't have expected much from an idiot like you."

A man stepped out from the shadows. He was dressed like how one would expect from an agent in a generic spy movie with a black suit and sunglasses. Anyone wearing sunglasses at night was either someone from Academy City or a psychiatric hospital.

"Please hand over the necklace to me," said the agent. "I'm from an organization in Academy City tasked to retrieve technology smuggled out from Academy City."

"What organization?" said Mikoto. "Judgement? Anti-Skill? I'd prefer to hand it over to Anti-Skill myself once I return to Academy City."

The agent took out a tablet displaying Mikoto's profile as a Level 2 Electromaster, "Please don't make things difficult for me."

Mikoto reluctantly handed the necklace over to the agent, "Fine."

"What's wrong?" said Touma as the agent disappeared into the shadows again. The agent did seem rather suspicious just from his looks alone, but Touma wasn't confident of going against a trained agent with a gun probably hidden somewhere in his suit.

"You wouldn't understand since you aren't from Academy City. Anyway, I just have a bad feeling about this," said Mikoto before waving goodbye.

It did not matter to Touma where the necklace went because handing it to the police would do absolutely nothing. That man in the video, which Touma remembered now as Hiroshi Goro, had a certain influence in the police force due to his connections. That fucker also almost succeeded in framing him for murder because of the influence he had.

Touma had his ways of ensuring that the girl would get the justice she deserves. Actually, there was just one way. A fist across that disgusting fucker's face!

The agent reappeared from the shadows, "Perhaps I could be of assistance if you want to find that girl."

"What exactly are you?" said Touma.

The agent lit up a cigar with an amused smile, "If I told you I was actually a golden retriever controlling this artificial body from a distance, would you believe me?"

"I suppose a talking golden retriever would attract too much attention to whatever you are doing."

If it's Academy City, even a fish who could fly and talk wouldn't be that surprising. In fact, a talking golden retriever was just boring compared to what Academy City can do. It has technology 30 years ahead of the world after all.

"Right now, you're the only one who can save that girl, but you have to find her first before it's too late."

Misaki sat alone in an abandoned church wearing clothes that a dog offered her out of nowhere by chance. If there was really a God, has He abandoned her just like how the people of Shibuya had abandoned that statue of Jesus Christ now covered with grime and dust? For a while, she was happy with life in Milan with her mother until the Mafia kidnapped her and killed her mother for trying to save her. This must be the moment that God for whatever reasons decided that she wasn't worth the effort anymore and abandoned her.

Sure, Olly the Octopus and his friend Silvia saved her from the Mafia using magic like Magical Girl Kanami, and of course it wasn't fair for them to be her new adoptive parents so they sent her to Japan to live with someone they thought would at least treat her like a human being, but God had already abandoned her at this point, so of course nothing good came out of this arrangement.

Misaki hugged her knees in tears. The moment the police finds her it's all over. The monster Hiroshi would never let her out of his house ever again. Her limbs would be chopped off to stop her from escaping!

"I don't deserve this… I'm a good girl who did nothing wrong..."

If there was something wrong she did to piss off God, then it would be her refusing to go to church every Sunday with her mother because she wanted to watch Winx Club instead. Would a miracle from God happen if she said sorry and promise to go to church every Sunday from now on?

"You alright?" said a boy with black spiky hair around her age.

Misaki jumped out of the bench in shock. The boy appeared right beside her without a sound. She frantically wiped her tears away, but maybe she should have kept crying to earn some valuable sympathy points from him.

"I'm fine, thank you."

"Are you lost? Do you need me to call the police?"

"No! Don't call the police, please!"

"Are you a runaway child criminal or something? A shame that there's no priest here for you to confess your sins."

Was this boy… mocking her?! It would seem really awkward if her reply to his snarkiness was a sob story about being sexually abused by a monster.

"Your hairstyle is the most pathetic imitation of Takahashi Hideo I've ever seen. Are you here to seek forgiveness from God for offending everyone with your hideous spiky hair?"

The boy chuckled, "Come on, it's not that bad. Besides, if God exists, then he must be a pretty shitty asshole for allowing so many bad things to happen."

Misaki hurled a shoe at the grimy and dusty statue of Jesus Christ. If she was strong enough, she would have also hurled the bench. "You have no idea how much God screwed me over just because I didn't attend church every Sunday. If you can hear me God, not even you are above karma! You'll also burn in Hell with those damned souls you call sinners!"

The boy climbed onto the altar and pushed the statue down. Jesus Christ broke into half with a resounding bang. "Feeling better?"

Misaki didn't know what came over her when she hugged that boy. He may be someone who was around her age, but he was still a male. She couldn't let her guard down yet. He might be playing the long game to get into her pants.

"Don't worry. Everything will be alright," said the boy.

No, everything won't be alright when the police arrives. They had every right to return her back to that monster Hiroshi. There was nothing the boy could do unless he had some kind of magic that could force the police to bow to his will like what Olly the Octopus did to the Mafia.

"My name is Kamijou Touma by the way. What's yours?"

"Misaki. Shokuhou Misaki. Wait… are you that Kamijou Touma? The legendary god of pestilence?!"

Touma forced a smile, "Yeah, that's me. Not a fan of that title though."

"You have no idea how you've just saved my life!"

The police sirens and the red flashy light through the broken windows was no longer her end. Misaki walked out of the church with her hands locked together with Touma. That wiped the monster's phony concerned smile off his face.

No police came after her or Touma as they left through a side-path. In their eyes, she was now also cursed with the same type of misfortune as Touma just by coming into contact with him or that whatever misfortune that was going to happen to her soon would affect them as well. Even that monster Hiroshi must have thought the same and decided not to take the risk. No police nor that monster would want her around Kagurazaka anymore. She was finally free thanks to Touma.

Misaki never expected a boy cursed with spreading misfortune to others wherever he goes to be someone so carefree in the sense that he refused to let his curse not take away his rights to be himself. He was someone she could at least respect even if he was still an asshole for calling her a runaway child criminal when she was actually a victim.

It would be nice if she could keep on holding his hands even as the light drizzle turned into heavy rain.

"It's raining," said Touma.

"I know."

"You must really like the rain."

Misaki nodded. To hold hands with a guy she likes under the rain was a romantic fantasy come true.

"No regrets?"

There was no way she would ever regret this.

It took Misaki three days before she recovered from flu and fever. She was an idiot for not realizing that people can get sick from being in the rain for too long, but Touma didn't have to rub that fact into her face by chucking yet another pack of instant oatmeal porridge into a shopping basket. Throbbing headaches were nothing compared to the agony of not being able to eat anything sweet.

"I've already eaten that for the past three days already! Are we going to be eating this for the rest of our lives?!" said Misaki.

"Of course not. Unless you really like oatmeal porridge..." said Touma as he placed a strawberry ice cream cone into the basket with a playful grin.

Touma may look around the same age as her, but he seemed much, much more mature than he looks. Perhaps he was also like her, a child forced to grow up in a cruel world to survive.

Not everyone Touma touches gets cursed with misfortune, but because he didn't want to risk it, he had to do grocery shopping at an 24 hours convenience store with a self checkout kiosk past midnight where everyone was asleep. If he was actually in pain from living such an isolated life, then he had done a great job in hiding it behind a mask through his carefree attitude.

Misaki devoured her strawberry ice cream cone as she sat at the park bench beside Touma. Her favorite flavor was vanilla, but strawberry was pretty good as well.

"Maybe magic might have a cure for your curse. I know a guy who used magic when he saved me from the Mafia during my time in Milan. His name is Olly the Octopus."

"A talking male octopus from Academy City who can somehow survive on land?"

"No, that's just a nickname I gave him. I don't remember his real name, but he knocked out a group of thugs just by looking at them. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen! So I named him Olly the Octopus because it's like he had invisible arms that knocked everyone unconscious."

"Any idea how we can find Olly the Octopus then?"

Misaki frowned. Olly the Octopus certainly didn't leave his contact number with her. In fact, he didn't even have a phone, and she was also an idiot for not asking how she could contact him if she ever needed him.

Touma leaned back with a smile, "It's okay."

Misaki wondered what was Touma hiding behind his smile as he stared at the starless night sky. She had only known him for three days, so it probably wasn't nice of her to ask about his personal issues, but there was at least one thing she could do for him.

Misaki kissed Touma on his cheeks. People might call her naive or stupid, but she still wanted to believe that Touma isn't like the others who would treat her nicely just to have sex with her. If she hadn't fallen into despair yet, then there's no reason for him to.

"That's… that's uh, sexual harassment. I can sue you for that," said Touma, his cheeks tinged red with embarrassment.

"Not if you're cute."

Touma reached behind her ears and pulled out a small cherry blossom flower, "Flowers for the cute girl?"

This magical moment between her and Touma was overwhelmingly beautiful yet tragically short just like that cherry blossom flower. If their time together was destined to be like a cherry blossom flower, then when it all ends, could she achieve an ending with Touma without an end?

Author's Note: Hello, it's been a long while since I posted a new story here. Over the years, I've written quite a fair bit of stories here, and most of them I realize now are really just shitty drafts to a story I had in mind that took me years to be decent enough to do finally justice to it. I really wanted to continue 'A Mirage To Keep You Safe' but my writing style has changed so much that it's impossible for me to do so now.

In a way, I am rewriting 'A Mirage To Keep You Safe', but I simply chose to start the story from the very beginning instead of starting it halfway and then bore everyone with long flashbacks.

Anyway, with regards to this chapter, yes, there is a reason why I portrayed Misaki as a victim of sexual abuse. It's the driving force behind Misaki's actions later on in the story. Misaki doesn't care if you find her dirty. She only cares about whether Touma finds her dirty or not.

Lastly, hope you liked the chapter and leave a comment if you have any.

P.S: Maybe it's just me, but the trend nowadays seem to be towards Touma x Misaki or Touma x Harem rather than the usual Touma x Mikoto. By the way, the inspiration song for this chapter is Reol - End, which you may check it out if you like.