A great majority of the people who live in Academy City do not know of the darkness that is hidden beneath the city's wonderful appearance. Many of them go to sleep at night without any serious issues to deal with. They think only of trivial issues that only create a mere inconvenience to their life. Will there be a sale on milk? Will the convenience store have enough coffee stocked? All of them know that they will wake up in the morning and be greeted with a bright future as long as they try their best because bad things only happen to other people. The great majority of those who live in Academy City make up a group known as the "Innocent Majority."

Mugino Shizuri was not part of the Innocent Majority.

In fact, she existed on the exact opposite of the scale. She was at the very core of the darkness that had planted its roots deep within Academy City.

The darkness that Shizuri was involved with was not something trivial that the media would dress up as something terrible when in reality it was something that could corrected with a carefully put together solution.

No, the darkness that existed within Academy City was something that the media wouldn't report because they were afraid. Afraid that if reported, they too would be dragged into it, never to escape. Many believe all evil is eventually vanquished because no night can last forever, no evil man can live forever, and no monument to evil can stand forever.

But this was an exception. The sun could not erase the inky black traces of the night even on the brightest of days. The evil men would die, but they would always be replaced by their sons and daughters or others who shared their views. There were always evil people to continue the work of those who came before. The evil monument was the city itself. It had survived through various conflicts that would have toppled even the most unified communities. It had withstood the test of time and that was enough to permanently solidify the dark side of Academy City.

The problems were obvious and they stood out like long, messy, black streaks on pure white paper. The paper was forever ruined by the black streaks and would be discarded.

The paper was imperfect.

Imperfections made Shizuri very angry.

Perfection? Name the price and Shizuri would gladly pay. It was her dream to be perfect. The quest to be perfect eventually led her to Academy City, the most advanced city in the entire world. As soon as Shizuri saw the city she knew it would become her home. After all, it looked perfect.

And so she was delighted to learn that she possessed a very powerful ability: Meltdowner. The rankings in Academy City went from 0 to 5 with 0 being absolutely worthless to 5 being the pinnacle of usefulness. Everything was perfect in Shizuri's eyes. She lived in a beautiful city, came from a wealthy family with an immaculate history, had an impressive ability that ranked her at the top of Academy City, and to top it all off, she was beautiful.

Shizuri was easily classified as a Level 5 and it appeared that her life was complete.

The rude awakening came when she discovered that she was not the only one who possessed a powerful ability. There were others who were just as strong if not stronger than she was.

It came as a shock when she was told that she was worthy of the title of "Strongest Esper." That was the beginning of Shizuri's descent into the darkness. She discovered that not only was she not worthy of being the strongest, she was also not good enough to be in the top three.

The damage dealt appeared to be a positive influence at first. Shizuri dedicated herself to her studies, always trying to become the strongest. She worked hard every day in order to achieve her goal. Her Meltdowner continued to grow stronger and Shizuri was confident she was strong enough to become the strongest in Academy City.

But she was wrong. The gap between the number one Level 5 in Academy City, a boy codenamed "Accelerator," and Mugino Shizuri, the ranked number four, was much too high. She couldn't even compete against him. This sent her into a state of rage that would stay with her for her entire life.

She was too weak and so, she made a decision that would change her life forever. She willingly stepped into the dark side of Academy City.

Shizuri performed well in the dark side. She never hesitated to take jobs because she knew that it was all in order to make her stronger. She believed every kill was a step closer to perfection.

But that sort of delusional thinking doesn't last forever.

Eventually, Mugino Shizuri, the infamous Meltdowner, got tired of killing. She never let it show because she was afraid that it would make her look weak, but the thought was there in her mind. While she had gotten much stronger thanks to the dark side, it had failed to give her what she wanted the most: perfection.

Additionally, the dark side had taken something she valued just under perfection: freedom. No longer was she able to take leisurely walks in the parks or go shopping whenever she pleased. No, she had to be alert in case a client contacted her with a job. There was no time for real leisure anymore. She was always on edge in case something happened and the stress of it all was ridiculous. It was too late to realize that the dark side had tricked her younger self with visions of becoming the strongest in Academy City and attaining perfection. Now she was little more than a slave.

Every job that she was ordered to take involved killing. She was ordered to kill every weak and sometimes it was every day. It wasn't even about Shizuri's needs anymore. It was about what the dark side wanted. She was sick of it all. She longed to escape and for the first time in her life, Mugino Shizuri set aside her obsession with perfection in order to wish that she could escape the dark side and be free one day.

…

ITEM's headquarters was unusually quiet and nobody was to be seen besides a woman with tea colored hair, lying on a couch within the lounge. Her eyes were closed and she appeared to be sleeping. Anybody who came into the room would be in awe when they saw her beautiful form lying still on the couch. After all, she was the Meltdowner, the fourth strongest Level 5 in Academy City and leader of ITEM.

Her phone was in her unmoving hand at her side and as soon as it rang her eyes snapped open and the phone was at her ear. She had been waiting for this call.

"Yes?"

"We super just got a job. It's supposed to be super important." said the voice on the other end.

Shizuri stood up and stretched. Judging by the abuse of the word "super," the caller was Kinuhata Saiai, one of ITEM's more experienced operatives. Shizuri thought about what Kinuhata said before responding.

"Oh? Tell me about it." said Shizuri as she sat back down on the couch.

"We're supposed to super raid a research center tonight. Apparently the client super doesn't want information that's supposed to be at the research center getting out so we're supposed to super destroy it and anyone else there."

"Oh, are we? Give me the location and I'll meet you all there. I suppose it'll be my entertainment tonight." said Mugino as Kinuhata told her the location and hung up.

The Meltdowner sat at the couch for a while just thinking. Many thoughts had formed in her head while the job was explained to her, but the most important question was: who was going to be killed there? After a few minutes she stood up and almost smiled.

"No more time to waste," Shizuri said to herself as she left ITEM's headquarters and headed towards the location that Kinuhata had given her.

Luck was on her side. She could feel it.

…

ITEM's attack on the facility was devastating. Papers flew in the air as scientists fled in a desperate attempt to escape death. Entire blocks of the facility were destroyed by Shizuri's Meltdowner, the green beams cutting through anything in its path. Expensive equipment quickly turned into scrap metal with a mere flick of her wrist and the human body turned to dust with a quick calculation in her head.

"Is this really it?" said Shizuri as the last of the scientists disappeared with a flash of green.

The facility had been completely trashed and the other members of ITEM had been dispatched to make sure everything had gone the way the client wanted it to. While Frenda and the others were busy with their own tasks, Mugino decided to look around the facility for some information. She dug through the ruins of the offices but she couldn't find what she was looking for.

"Goddamn it, I can't find shit!"

She let her ability go wild, destroying just about everything that wasn't destroyed yet. Shizuri felt the anger slowly fall but she still didn't feel happy. The job was finished very easily but she didn't care about the job. There was something bigger that she was after. Shizuri took one last good look around and kicked away from debris with her shoe. The outcome was the same as every job she had taken.

"I don't get shit and the beast gets more corpses, huh? It's always the same shit…"

The Meltdowner left empty handed and ITEM quietly withdrew afterwards.

A Certain Park

The park was shaded by the night and Shizuri stood in the middle of IT, looking up at the moon, an angry scowl on her face. She had excused herself from ITEM's headquarters and come to the park to think. She couldn't stop thinking about the mission earlier in the day. The tree shook from the force of her punch.

"This is the tenth fucking attempt."

The fourth strongest Level 5 in Academy City had tried ten times to capture just a single person. She failed every time. Her failures made a feeling of terrible rage rise up within her. Every failure only dug her grave deeper.

"I swore to myself that I wouldn't give up but how the hell am I supposed to find this asshole?!"

They called him "The Cowardly Weasel." Shizuri needed him in order to free herself from the dark side. Her attitude had been optimistic when she first set out to find him but her optimism quickly died when she realized that he was called "The Cowardly Weasel" for a reason. He managed to escape every time, frustrating her attempts. Hope diminished with every failed attempt to find him. Now she was willing to give up. She was willing to continue feeding the beast that was the dark side…

The tree was cut in half and Shizuri let out a cackle as she ran a hand through her hair, smiling crazily at the moon. A small orb of green light floated above her hand, casting an eerie green glow around her.

"No, I'm not going to stop here. Hell no! Just one more! I've cut every tie besides this one. Just one more and I'll be free!" Shizuri laughed, aware that she was starting to get light headed.

Stress and fatigue had built up. It was starting to take a toll on her body. Did she give a shit? No.

"Just one more corpse and I'll free! Just one more corpse!"

…

Before I get into too much detail, yes, I realize that I still need to finish Level 5 Flood. I'm having a hard time finishing an important scene and I'm just really frustrated. That's why I wrote this story. This is my first attempt at using a canon character as the main character so I hope I didn't completely ruin Mugino or anything I write in the future for you guys. I just thought that it's about time I stop relying on OCs to get my message across. Plus, I don't think people really like OCs anyways. I guess you could call this A Certain Experimental Fanfic.

This isn't supposed to be all that long and yes, it has a very slight romantic theme between Mugino and Touma although he'll be showing up later. This won't be a long story. I'm hoping I can wrap this up in 2-3 chapters unless I think it's obvious that I'm trying to cram.

This story just deals with how Mugino came to be the person she is today and how she's trying her best to change. This chapter wasn't as good as I thought it would be but please review if you want to see more. I'm sure a lot of you guys will think Mugino is OOC so I'll continue to try to practice getting her in character. Anyways, please review if you want to see more and I'll see you all later!