Chapter 2: Memorizing Dozens Of Books A Day [1]
Izumi had seen a bad dream last night and, as a result, woke up at dawn with a grumpy expression. He opened the blinds and put on his clothes before descending downstairs. Just like every day, he brushed his teeth, showered, and cooked breakfast for himself and Miya. Without a break in routine, Izumi put her food in her bowl and sat down with an Italian language book.
In a few moments, Miya came down with her fur all messy and started eating, much to Izumi's disappointment. He flipped a page with a tight frown and remembered what he had wished for last night. It was kind of stupid to hope for stuff like that, but who doesn't want to believe in fairytales?
Izumi shook his head and returned to reading his homework. The verbose and mysterious Italian letters formed beautiful sentences and charming paragraphs, but too bad that he didn't even have a piece of elementary knowledge in that language! It all felt like gibberish, but he tried his best to comprehend it until his head began to hurt. He frowned and voiced his resentment, "I can't believe I wasted a month trying to learn this shitty language and forgot it just two hours before the exam! I used to fail in Japanese literature, and now I'm gonna fail in this too! Shit, shit!"
Izumi bounced up and down the chair in rage but returned his sight to the book a few moments later anyway. Subconsciously, he wished, "I kind of wish I was an expert in Italian. Ah…"
Immediately, as if google translate had been downloaded into his eyes, the previously tricky words on the pages morphed and turned into English words. They squirmed, rattled for one last time, and reverted back to Italian. The only difference was that he could now understand every single word for what it was.
"W…what the fuck!?" Izumi fell down from the chair and gasped. He looked back at the book again, and just to make sure, tried to read a poem by Ugo Foscolo.
"Forse perché della fatal quiete
tu sei l'immago, a me si cara vieni,
o Sera! E quando ti corteggian liete
le nubi estive e i zeffiri sereni,
Each and every word felt familiar to him, even though he was sure that he had never seen some of them before. They were very clear. The very situation he was in blew away his little sense of reality as if God himself had decided to raw fuck his virgin brain.
Just to make sure that he wasn't dreaming, he bit his tongue. When the metallic taste hit him, he was so shocked he couldn't even speak. Just to make sure, he tried to translate the poem to English and recite it:
"Perhaps because you…are the image of that fatal quiet
so dear to me, you have come,
O Evening. And when happy summer clouds
and the gentle west wind are your escort,"
Although Izumi didn't have a sufficient enough experience in reciting, he was fully confident that whatever he said was sufficient to qualify as an official translation, because he had read its English version before.
Gradually, the surprise and shock were replaced by excitement when he recollected what he had wished for last night. The fact that he was starting to believe it was strange, but he did have proof that it worked.
Miya looked at him curiously from a distance, but when she saw his smile that extended to his earlobes, she rolled her eyes and returned to eating her fill.
Izumi started to fidget. He noticed an empty glass on the table, and pointed at it with a nervous smile, "I wish that this glass is filled with.. err the blood of an alien?"
A creepy silence instantly fell in the room after Izumi had realized what he wished for. What if an alien actually comes here to donate its blood?! He started to regret, and that regret transformed into fear when a dripping sound reached his ears!
Izumi looked towards the source of the sound, the ceiling, where a small blinking hole had formed. A strange, syrupy red line of liquid streamed out of it and fell in the glass. Its smell was so rotten that Izumi felt his stomach churn. Miya, on the other hand, started barking at the hole.
When the glass had become filled, the hole collapsed on itself and vanished, leaving no evidence that it had appeared. Miya whimpered and became agitated. While Izumi gulped and threw the glass through the window, far far away.
"So, aliens do exist, huh? Well, I guess I shouldn't ask for stuff like this without thinking." Izumi fearfully heaved a sigh and patted Miya's lustrous fur. She grumbled and dashed away upstairs, knowing that he would soon be leaving the house.
Izumi recollected his wish about Miya but didn't ask for it again since he loved her as she was. Instead, the endless list of shit he could do with his wish flooded his mind. With a slightly mischievous smile, he wore his school uniform: a black blazer and trouser of a similar color.
"Miya, I've left some dried kibble for you on the kitchen table. Eat it if you get hungry! Bye!"
Izumi waved at Miya, and left for school. He didn't take his bicycle today and instead walked to his school, which wasn't that far anyway. Just under the shade of the trees, he took out a few of his books and started reading them. Many of the bystanders on the road kept staring at him, and a few even went as far as to give him a mental thumbs up due to what they thought was his discipline for studying.
An old man dressed in a suit nodded, and silently remarked, "Nice. I rarely see youngsters so deep in their studies these days. Heh!" His eyes, however, widened when he saw the badge on Izumi's blazer. "Ah, so he's a student of 'that' school. Hmm. "
The astonishment in the old dude's mind went unnoticed by Izumi, who was grinning like a maniac while holding his mathematic book. Within a few moments, he had turned into an expert in even the hardest subjects of Grade 11. Unfortunately, after he had wished for expertise in a dozen books, he discovered that his wishes no longer worked.
Izumi read all of the books once again and sighed in relief when he saw that he didn't forget about them. He looked towards the end of the road and saw the massive gate of his school nearing. Just to make sure, he whispered under his voice, "I wish that my school's gate turns to rust!"
After standing still for a few moments, he noticed that no changes had occurred to the gate. He deduced that his 'omnipotence' may have been for limited use, and dashed for his school.
A few expensive and rare cars were parked outside the gate, signifying the worth of the students attending the school. Izumi wouldn't be wrong if he said that he was the only student in the school to come from a poor family, as even the monthly tuition fees were enough to feed a family for a year.
Izumi never minded it, however. He came to his school like a gust of autumn and will leave like the rain in spring.
A few students strolled inside the magnificent campus, littered with statues and gardens. Right in the epicenter of it all was a large building spanning a large area.
Almost every student Izumi saw before him either had one or two books in their hands; some of them were even sitting on the benches group studying just minutes before the exam!
Such a scholarly attitude was expected from the students in his class, as a math exam was supposed to take place today. Izumi smiled like someone who had seen the answers online beforehand and dashed into the academic building.
When he entered Room-614, where the exams were supposed to be held, he found the classroom empty of students. Only a teacher was in the room, who was counting the blank exam papers with a solemn expression. Just as he was supposed to sit in his seat, the silent teacher suddenly said, "I suppose you are familiar with the rules, hm? Once you sit on that seat, you won't be able to revise, nor will you be able to leave. There is still time left until the exam begins, you know?"
The young teacher rubbed his lips and looked at Izumi with interest. Regardless of how familiar he was with a student, he would never act with him/her in goodwill. It was just that the boy looked kind of familiar to him…
"No, teacher. Thank you, however."
'Overconfident, hmph.' The teacher muttered under his breath and didn't bother to reply.
Izumi then proceeded to catch a quick nap right before the teacher.
…
…
…
Wind gushed out of Izumi's mouth as he jumped awake fifteen minutes later. The previously empty class was now filled with students, and not even a single one had their hands still. A decent few of them looked like they had already completed a few questions while he was sleeping.
Except for a few people who brushed it off with a silent snicker, the rest of the class didn't bother with Izumi's folly. The invigilator, a different teacher than before, rolled his eyes. He quickly pointed at the papers on Izumi's desk and said, "Izumi Tanaka, the papers are on your desk."
"Oh, thanks, sir."
Izumi nodded, and with a quick prayer, began his exam.
[The equation
24x2+25x−47
ax−2
=−8x−3−
53
ax−2
is true for all values of x≠
2
a
, where a is a constant.
What is the value of a?
A) -16
B) -3
C) 3
D) 16
]
The numerical values on the paper sprang to life, as Izumi grabbed his pen and began to write with the speed of a fucking cheetah! The desk started to shake from the immense speed of his writing, which attracted the attention of the invigilator.
He looked at Izumi with distrust, and after finding nothing suspicious gave a disdainful smile. He didn't even bother to look at him anymore.
Half an hour had passed by when suddenly the speed of his hand caused Izumi's pen to slip from his hand and ricochet off to his right. Like a magnet of bad luck, it hit the girl sitting directly to his right!
"O-ouch!" The girl softly cried out and caressed her nape in response. The pen that had hit her fell on her sheet and was promptly taken by her.
The bangs on the sides of her face slightly moved, as she turned towards Izumi with a angry expression. Her soft cheeks were slightly trembling as she quietly voiced out her rage, "Yo-you, did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed today? Why did you hit me?!"
Izumi was slightly entranced when he saw her beautiful face. She had a rather refreshing and tender face that was further enhanced by the well-ordered bangs littering her golden-rimmed glasses. Unfortunately, her frown had deepened when she saw his absentminded gaze, but she didn't say anything.
Izumi regained his spirits a few moments later, and offered an apology with a sheepish smile, "I-I'm sorry. It's just that I didn't realize that the pen's cap got loose! "
The girl looked at the cap in his hand and offered the pen back to him with an irritated frown. She then hurriedly returned to her exam and forgot about the matter entirely.
Once the cap was tightened, Izumi's desk began to shake once more!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone