"July 16" (七月十六日 Shichigatsu Juuroku-nichi?) is the first chapter of the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun manga series, published on May 27, 2007. We witness a sneak peek into the lives of two friends from Academy City, a city where students acquire esper abilities. Misaka Mikoto, a Level 5 esper, displays her tendencies to put the law into her hands, while Shirai Kuroko, a Teleporter and Mikoto's friend, tries to do her job... and stop her friend from putting herself into trouble, to no avail.