Chapter 3: I'm in a School Filled with Beauties
Let me ask you a question.
Why is life so unfair?
For seven years of my life, I lived through the harshest experiment known to mankind. To the public, it was known as the Future-Generation ESP Program. However, to anyone who really knew about the inner workings, it was more often referred to as the Human Realiser Program. This was because the project did not gift children Esper abilities, as one would imagine. It only turned the soft, malleable minds of innocent children into supercomputers—these supercomputers would then control Realisers implanted into the brain.
The experiments were harsh, the training was practically abusive, and the success rate was low. What the project wanted to create was what is now referred to as B-rank or above. These were the only people with abilities which could sustain serious military might.
To this day, only around two hundred of the several tens of thousands of people are B-rank or above.
I suppose some would call that a failure.
Well, I was a failure, at least because I was never given a Realiser.
...
[Target located]
[You have been given the Devil System]
[Initialising...]
***
I was violently awoken by the rough beeping of my alarm clock. It was fine, however, because this was my first day at the prestigious Yokusuka Academy.
I quickly put on my uniform, grabbed my bag and made my way out of my room. We stayed in a relatively large dorm complex within the school grounds.
I noticed that quite a lot of students were also beginning to make their way out of the dorms. As I walked down the hallway towards the elevator, I received quite a few scathing glares at my hip. It seemed the sword that had drawn quite a lot of unwanted attention towards me. No one else had any obvious combat-related accessories on them, so this was probably quite odd.
We all entered the sleek, modern elevator, and I made sure not to bump into anyone with the sword hanging from my hip. Before long, we reached the bottom, and I walked out into the cool, air-conditioned main hall. Just outside was the lush, green schoolyard that was Yokusuka Academy.
It was truly top of the class. From the plentiful green vegetation to the new, state-of-the-art infrastructure, it was the place to be as a student.
I followed the big group of students as we made our way towards the classrooms. All of the classrooms were in a large, mall-like building with enough windows to compete with a greenhouse.
I made my way into my designated classroom and looked around. There were only about twenty seats, and nineteen of them were taken. I slowly walked towards the final open seat and noticed that I was receiving quite a nasty glare from the girl beside the open table. She was a relatively short girl with long blonde hair—as I walked closer, I felt a shiver go down my spine as she continued staring daggers towards me.
"Why do I have to sit next to you?" She complained.
"It's not like I have a choice."
She continued looking at me angrily.
What the heck am I supposed to do here?
I decided to ignore her and pulled the chair out so I could sit down. She stuck out her foot and poked the leg of the chair. Suddenly, the chair began melting into a thick, brown viscous slime. A slight greyish gas also permeated from the now no longer chair-looking chair.
"Oh look, the chair melted. I guess you'll have to sit somewhere else."
"What the hell..."
"Astoria, stop messing around, or there'll be consequences!" exclaimed the teacher.
"But I don't want to sit next to h-"
"I don't care. You can deal with this issue after class unless you want to go to detention on your first day?"
"Fine..."
The chair began assuming its original shape once again. I placed my hand on it to make sure that it was solid—it was. Finally, after several minutes of pointless issues, I took my seat and looked up towards the board.
The teacher began talking.
"Before I begin today's class, there are some things I must inform everyone on. Recently, there have been reported attacks by an organisation named REWORK which has been targeting specifically Yokusuka students. As a result, the curfew for all students is 6:00 pm, and anyone who does not return by that time will receive serious punishments. If you see anyone being attacked, immediately notify Spectrum-Judgement, and they will resolve the issue, do not engage in combat unless your life is in danger."
After that short speech, the teacher began teaching the coursework for the class. At this school, we had our schoolwork split into two sections, one section was Academic, and one section was ESP.
Maybe I'll grab something to eat after class.
*
The bell rang, signalling the end of classes for the day.
I decided to take a trip to the convenience store for some snacks. There was one only about a hundred metres from the school, I still hadn't made any friends yet, so I just walked there by myself.
I was welcomed by the automatic doors of the store and looked through the myriad of products. I walked towards the drink section and looked around. Maybe I'll get a Fanta; that looked quite nice, especially on a hot day like today. I enjoyed the chilly feeling as I grabbed it out of the cooler and picked out a packet of chips on the way to the register.
"That'll be $5.75. Would you like a packet of mints for only one extra dollar?"
"Mm, I guess so."
The cashier slid a packet of mints onto the counter.
"Alright, $6.75, card or cash?"
"Card."
I scanned my card and made my way out of the store with a plastic bag filled with goodies.
I guess I'll have a walk around the city before I go back.
As I admired the storefronts, I heard a very subtle cry for help from a nearby alleyway. I went to observe and noticed a group of men gathered around someone who was crying for help.
Was this Rework?
I walked into the alley and tried to observe the situation a little closer. However, as soon as I was out of plain view by the street, they all turned their attention to me and pounced.
"Haha, this was just too easy. Look at this idiot coming to play the hero."
I managed to see that the 'person crying for help' was not actually crying for help. I had just fallen hook, line and sinker for their bait.
"Is the Disrupter activated?" one of them yelled.
"Yes!"
Sensing the urgency, I quickly drew my sword and looked around.
"I've never seen a Yokusuka student with a sword before, but no worries."
The entire area suddenly got a lot warmer. All of the men retreated except one. There was a large ball of fire gathering by his right hand. He was holding the Disruptor in his left hand.
"All you Yokusuka students are nothing without your psychic abilities!"
Huh?
With a swing of his arm, he unleashed a huge gust of flames towards me. The bright orange colour lit up the entire alleyway.
Yikes.
I raised my sword and attempted to minimise the effect of the flames as much as I could. It was too late for me to activate my Interceptor. The flame burned the edges of my hand. However, it didn't do too much damage aside from that. During that time, I was able to calculate the details of the attack and analyse the effects.
"That was weaker than I expected."
This person was likely a D or C-rank. His abilities were decently powerful, but it didn't do any major damage. It put up a lot more of a show than it did in actually harming me. However, the main thing about anyone under B-rank was that their attacks and abilities were extremely easy to decode, especially something as straightforward as fire.
I began slowly walking towards him. Now that I knew how his abilities worked, I would be able to use my Interceptor and cut off his next attack. I raised my leg and kicked his left arm, sending the Disrupter flying out of his hand.
"Don't you mess with me!"
He began charging up his next strike, building up a cloud of flames on his right hand. I calculated a null equation and materialised it through my Interceptor. Just as he was about to unleash the attack, the flame subsided and dispersed into the air.
"What the hell?"
All psychic abilities rely on calculations which are materialised through a Realiser. I simply recalculated and overrode their projection.
Suddenly, I heard a voice from behind me. She was a high-school girl with a striped green armband.
"Do not move. I am a part of Spectrum!"
A bit late, don't you think...
"Shit, they're here! Where's the Disrupter?!" The group of men tried to escape through the back of the alleyway however, as soon as they tried to move, they instantly slipped and fell to the ground—I guess it was an ability. A few other members of Spectrum made their way over and dealt with the situation.
I was somewhat curious as to why Spectrum seemed to be made up completely of high-school-aged girls. Maybe it was just this team.
One of them came over to me.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
"Come to the station with me, all we need is a little report, and then you'll be free to go."
"That's okay, I guess."
I followed her to the station, and I provided my account of what happened. Well, I conveniently 'forgot' about the part where I was about to cut them down.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone