In the arena, Mikoto Misaka stood perfectly still, her delicate brows faintly furrowed. A coin was clenched in her palm, while a couple of tiny electric snakes flickered across the back of her hand from time to time.
She faced an old mage standing opposite her, dressed in a red mage's robe and a matching tall hat, waiting for the match to begin.
When she signed up and was assigned to a group, the fact that she could cast lightning naturally landed her in the mage division. She had repeatedly stressed and protested that she wasn't a mage at all, but a third-year student at Tokiwadai Middle School, an elite girls' school in Academy City. She was a Level 5 esper, an Electromaster with the code name "Railgun."
Unfortunately, after the examiners watched her burn a target to a crisp with a billion volts of electricity, they still swept her right into the ranks of the mages with a decisive wave of the hand.
So, in her first match today, she found herself facing the old mage across from her, who looked like he might be pretty formidable.
The old mage stared at Mikoto with an impassive expression. He'd also noticed the little electric snakes that occasionally flickered across the back of her hand, appearing and vanishing in an instant.
"Hmm."
"Young lady."
"I can see that you don't seem to have any magic power in your body."
"How about this?"
"I don't want to bully you. If you surrender right now, I'll let you go without making things difficult for you. What do you say?"
Then Egbert suddenly began urging her to surrender.
He didn't think there was anything to be proud of in beating a young girl, and he didn't want to waste time with some little girl,