Tale of Discovery

Chapter 9: New School; Hectic First Day (2:1)

It's early morning, and I had woken up way earlier than I needed to. I've already put on my school uniform and wait for Ayumi to be done with her preparations. I think about the last few days and everything that has happened up until now. I recall I died in a previous life of mine, but I don't remember how I died or what my life was like for that matter. Strangely, I remember stuff from my past life though, such as movies I have seen, as well as places I have been to. They don't appear clearly, but there is this sense of familiarity there.

Then I am reborn, or more precisely, take over some guy's body that goes by the name Haruka Kasugano. Apparently, he is me and I am him. It's a bit too complicated, but there isn't much I can do about it. I, like any sane person, started examining my new body in the mirror, where I spotted a weird tri-colored glow coming from my chest. Now that I think about it, Juno said that it was the amalgamation of one's powers. What use does it have? Will I be able to do something like the silver-haired guy in the "vision", as Juno calls it, did?

"Brother Yu!", my thoughts are interrupted by a cheerful shout, as a small, violet figure rushes towards me.

"Ta-dah! I've prepared you lunch for today!", she says as she hands me a lunch box wrapped in a red bandage, with a little box for eating utensils at the top of it.

Amused by her ever so cheerful antics, I ask her,

"What's the menu for today?"

She flashes a wide smile as she exclaims with her hands in the air,

"Omurice!"

Again. Well, I don't mind it. She is trying her best for me, and that's what matters. I reach out my arm, lightly pat her head and tell her,

"We should get going now. You don't want to be late for your first day of school now, do you?"

She lets out a cheerful "Um!" as she heads back in to grab her school bag. Once she has brought it, I lock the door to our apartment, and we take the elevator to the bottom floor. As we move out of the gateway, Ayumi starts waving at the two security guards standing there cheerfully, shouting "Good Morning!" to them.

"Hey Ayumi," I call out to her once we've some distance away from the building.

"Hm?", she lightly responds as she looks my way.

"Remember what I told you about yesterday?" , I ask her as I observe her face for any reactions.

"You mean, the piggyback!? Are you really going to do it?!", excitement practically bursts out from her, as she inquires in an expectant tone.

"Of course", I gave her a simple reply.

I lower myself on one knee and extend my left arm out to her. She understands what I mean, and hands over her school bag, she then climbs onto my back. Once I'm sure she is on my back properly, I hold her legs tightly as I instruct her,

"Hold on to my neck very tightly. I will now run super fast."

She does as I say, and locks her arms around my neck with enough strength that would probably choke an ordinary human. Once I'm sure she has secured herself to me, I dash into a sprint.

"Uwaaaa!!!", she screams, surprised by the sudden movement and speed.

As I continue to run, I realize that my earlier lack of speed wasn't a hallucination. My current top speed should be about 20% of what I was capable of, back at the Rift. Nevertheless, it's still way more than what any ordinary athletic human is able to achieve.

It doesn't take us long to arrive at our destination. I let Ayumi down and adjusted her uniform and hair, meanwhile, she spoke of how amazing I am. Extra points of cuteness for her efforts to mimic me "running like a superhero".

I accompany her to her school building, and once I'm sure that nothing's wrong, I head over to mine. Once I reach the building, I visit the school principal. Once everything is in order, I leave the principal's office, only to be greeted by a camera pointed at my face by a certain grey-haired girl,

"Welcome to our school.", she says in a cool tone, the only tone I've heard her speak in.

I follow her and the weirdo, whose name is Joijiro Takajo, to our classroom. Apparently, the three of us are in the same class. On the way there, I let my curiosity get the better of me and ask,

"So, does everyone in this school have a special ability of some sort?"

There is no reply for a short while, but then Nao says,

"Not exactly. There are students who have yet to awaken their powers yet who also transfer here."

Surprised by her answer, I inquired further, "They transfer just because of that?"

Nao nods as we climb a staircase and says in her usual tone, "Long ago, people who had awakened special abilities became guinea pigs for neuroscientists."

"If you get caught once, your life is basically over.", she adds.

Doubtful of the claim she just made, I state,

"Isn't that just an exaggerated story?"

Nao stops walking for a brief moment and says,

"I was speaking of my brother.", before continuing.

She then gives me a brief summary of past events. A certain individual came up with the current system of finding ability wielders and transferring them to specialized schools. Although it was too late for her brother by then. She also informs me of the duties of the student council members and their missions. Basically, it's finding special ability wielders who misuse their powers and either protect them or threaten them to never use their power again.

------

"I'm Yu Otosaka, and I've transferred here from Hinomori Highschool. Nice to meet you all." , I introduce myself while smiling lightly in front of the class.

"So handsome!" , I hear one of the girls exclaim. Well yes, there is no denying it, I am handsome.

I don't pay much attention to her and focus on the two that were with me in the morning. Nao's seat is at the frontmost seat in the left row, right beside the window. The weir- *cough*, Joijiro's seat is at the very back of the class in the right row. I also notice that the only empty seat is the one in front of Joijiro.

What puzzles me is that I see Nao playing with her camera, yet no one says anything about it as if it were completely normal.

------

Classes are over, and it's lunchtime now. I grab the lunch box Ayumi made for me, and take a look at the contents inside it. I see an Omurice with "Congratulations!!" written on it using a sauce.

Before I can start eating, Joijiro appears beside me and says,

"Oh, you have a lunch box. I thought we could go to the cafeteria together."

I take a look at the Omurice and then at his pitiful face. I let out a sigh, and close the lid of the lunch box, then I say,

"Let's go then."

Joijiro pauses then asks me,

"Should I invite her as well?", as he pointed over at Nao.

She is sitting in her seat with headphones in her ears as she gazes outside the window, seemingly lost in her thoughts.

"Let's leave her be," I reply.

------

So crowded. That is the first thing that came to my mind once we reached the cafeteria. There isn't a single table that's empty, and there is a long line of students waiting to buy their meal.

"Good luck getting food from THERE." , I say to Joijiro.

"Well, this is where I show off my special ability.", he says in a confident tone as he raises his glasses with his index finger.

"Although, the type of sandwich I get will depend on luck", he adds.

The next moment, I see him turning slightly blurry as he moves at an incredible speed, drops some coins over, grabs some sandwiches, and inevitably crashes into a glass pane. I notice the girl selling the meals let out a sigh. My condolences.

Joijiro then suddenly appears behind me with blood all over his hair and face, and says in a joyful tone,

"Quite lucky today. I managed to get us cutlet sandwiches."

"You call yourself lucky with all those injuries on you?" , I reply in exasperation.

"I do wear armor under my uniform, you know? So, the wounds aren't that deep.", he replies in a matter-of-factly tone.

But you are bleeding from your head though. Whatever. He hands over a sandwich, or what used to be a sandwich to me. It's crushed.

"I can't control my grip when I use my ability.", he says.

I think I'm going to stick to my Omurice, thanks. We go back to class and eat our meal there. I notice Nao sitting there all alone with no friends whatsoever. I ask,

"Doesn't she have any friends?"

To which Joijiro explains,

"Think of it like this. Her ability is to turn invisible to one person, while she appears completely normal compared to others. Her taking violent actions against others is what has led to her current situation. Oh, she's approaching us."

Nao comes over and says,

"A comrade will show up soon."

A what? Comrade? What does she mean by that? Another student council member? And why does it matter?

"That means that all the student council members should head over to the student council room." , explains Joijiro.

What the heck?

------

We're currently in the student council room. Simply put, the place looks wonderful. There is a table at the center of the room with a map laid out on it, and to one side bookshelves, on the other, a TV with an old school DVD player.

My senses pick up someone right outside the door. I move aside as the door opens, and enters another weirdo, I guess. This is creepy as hell. There is a guy with his body soaked from head to toe. He moves towards the table with the map and points his finger somewhere as a drop of water hits the map. He then says,

"The ability is... Thoughtography.", before leaving the room.

"..."

What was that just now? Does he point out where special ability users are?

Apparently, I was right. We all head over to the location marked on the map, and it turns out to be a normal high school. Here, we start looking for clues over the ability user. After a while, Nao comes over and tells me she found a guy that's acting suspiciously.

I head over and see a guy holding a bag closely to his chest as he looks around. Yeah, it couldn't be more obvious. The guy notices us, and once he confirms that we are suspicious people, he breaks into a run.

"After him!", shouts Nao.

Whatever. I dash over and lightly push him over. He falls and lets go of his bag. Nao comes over and starts rummaging through his stuff, stops when she finds a black envelope and says,

"I wonder what is this~"

The guy visibly flinches when he sees the envelope in her hand and is about to move over and say something, but a little threat of a kick to the face keeps him in his place.

Nao opens the envelope, and inside of it are 2 pictures. A picture of one of the girls in the school in her uniform, and the second one is the same picture, but the uniform has become transparent showing her lingerie.

After asking the guy "nicely" for the source of the picture, the guy responds with the name of a student and the class he's in.

After looking around for the guy for a short while, we find the guy in the archery club. We go over and begin interrogating him. The guy claimed he needed money and an easy way to do that was to use his ability to sell pictures of girls in their lingerie.

Then, I noticed the guy grabbing an empty film. I realize what he is about to do, and before he gets the chance to look at the photo he used his thoughtography to create, I dash at him and punch him lightly in the stomach. That is more than enough for him to be out of breath for a while.

"I dare you to repeat that again." , I say.

Before he can respond, I use my ability to possess him and look for other photo films, but I find none. Once the possession is over, I get up from the ground. I feel a tingling sensation in my head, but I take it as the side effect of using my ability.

Nao then begins to lecture the guy about why he shouldn't use the ability, and how it would ruin his life if he did. After making sure that the guy is successfully broken mentally, we head back to our school.

On the way back, I remember about Nao's brother. So, I ask her,

"What happened to your brother?"

"It's not like there is anything to hide, so why don't you come with me to visit him tomorrow?", she suggests.

I agree, and thus the first day comes to an end. Man, a lot of stuff happened.