“Now, then, show me what you all can do.” Their mentor instructed.
Nero stood and held up a wooden staff like a sword, he felt a tingly sensation from his arms as red light flowed through the pathways of his nervous system.
“I’ve always needed direct contact with objects before I could apply my aura on them.” He explained as a crimson red haze materialized out of his hands and into the staff, causing it to shake rapidly.
“Understandable. The aura starts from the brain, then it flows through the body as heat, after which you extend it outside of yourself, which transforms into the psychic power.” David demonstrated as the psychic flames flowed out of his palm.
“And I always found it a little difficult…” The wooden staff kept shaking faster and faster, unable to handle the red energy until suddenly, it burst. “…to control.”
Isabelle and Grant reflexively hid behind their arms to protect themselves from the scattering wood shards, while David stood with arms crossed, undaunted and immovable while the wooden chunks floated midair, caught in his orange aura.
“The way you use your aura is volatile. If too much aura is released from all directions at once, the pressure will crush whatever you’re trying to control. You need to learn how to fine tune it. Until then, I suggest using a harder material for it.” David replied.
“… Sadly, I’ve found that even swords break.” Nero lamented.
Isabelle was up next, and the others were waiting on her display, “Actually, I’d rather not.” She nervously commented.
“Show us.” The iron-armed man insisted.
“If you say so.” Strings of red lightning formed around her body as a vicious flame began to form around her, the entire room began to creak.
Nero stood still and watched, while Grant took a step back, pushed away by the ferocity of her crimson crystalline flames.
The aura around her began to spiral like a torrent around her body, but before the psychic structure could be completed, David spoke, “That’s enough.”
The red flames that radiated throughout the room were reduced to lingering embers on Isabelle’s body.
“I see.” The realization had set in as David focused on her white hair, “It’s strange to believe that you’re already fully awakened. The way that you are now, you’re even stronger than Felix. At least, for the moment.”
“Ah, is that so? Yeah… stronger than… the strongest esper… yeah…” With an awkward laughter, the silver-haired woman scratched the back of her head. Feeling a weight drop on her shoulders, she did not know how to respond to that heavy statement.
That remark caught the attention of her two red-eyed colleagues. Expressions of envy from Nero and of curiosity from Grant.
“Try this.” He placed a rubber knife in her hand, “Imagine that your body is like a dam, and the water is your aura. For now, don’t think about how it works, just let it flow out of your arms and channel it into this knife.”
The silver-haired girl nodded and closed her eyes. A mental image has been sketched into the silver-haired girl’s mind. She breathed in, and it felt like a gust of wind brushed against the waves within the dam.
She felt the spaces in her own mind widening as the concrete walls opened.
In her mind, the water rushed out.
Isabelle opened her crimson eyes and watched as a powerful stream red light endlessly flowed out through the rubber knife, like the pressure from a flame thrower.
“It worked?” She said in a stunned, surprised manner, “It worked! I did it!” She hopped excitedly, “David I—!”
She glanced over to the side and saw the three men standing with startled faces, avoiding the torrent of psychic fire she was releasing.
“What?” She asked as her energy diminished into a small thin light.
“Yeah.” David gulped, “You did it.”
The orange-haired mentor was surprised by this development.
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Incredible. For her to immediately know what she was doing after such a small suggestion. Who is this girl?
David thought to himself, he then looked over to the last of the red-eyed trio and said, “Grant, you’re up.”
“I have to follow up to that?” Grant nervously laughed.
“Good luck.” Nero snidely responded.
The brown-haired man clutched the rubber knife. The veins in his arms started to glow and grow hot, before the energy exited out his pores, and started to spark outside his body, “It’s difficult. I haven’t been able to draw it out very easily.”
Isabelle and Nero shielded their faces against the flickers and flares.
Coated in his orange aura, David was protected from the crimson fire, “Try breathing slowly, think about it flowing out of your mind, then exerting it out from your body. Or perhaps you could imagine how it should go, the same way Isabelle did.”
“Alright.” Grant grabbed one of the rubber knives and concentrated on a single point on the target, only to create streams of energy that violently started to sear across his arm.
A surge of orange, fire-like aura then flushed it away from his arm, like a stream of water extinguishing a flame.
“I’m… having trouble.” Grant remarked as he looked at his hand, the crimson cracks in his flash started to mend back together.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be here to help you until you get it.” David placed his metal arm on Grant’s shoulder.
“I get how it works. I’ve just never been able to use it before.” Felix uttered as he looked at his red-haired mentor.
Anastasia then inquired, “Your report said that you were able to draw it out when you were trying to escape, correct? You used your psychic energy to increase your speed and called it Blue Mode?”
“Marie’s the only one who calls it that. But yeah, that’s right.” Felix nodded.
“Well, it’s no longer a mode now that it’s permanently active. Anyways, it can also be used to speed up the body by making oneself into a projectile. You don’t need to build up momentum, but that just makes it impossible to control, so I advise against doing that.” She responded with a raised finger.
“Um…”
“You haven’t tried it before, have you?”
“When I was chasing Lewis Shaw for the first time…” He recollected his time at the port, when he slammed against the metal vessels in a violent fit of rage, “It’s like I had no control of my body, that I was just being tossed around.”
“Now you know not to do that.” She sighed, “Moving on, it’s possible that you developed a form of enhanced speed in a state of panic. I think it’s best if we try to draw it out again.” The short, red-haired woman explained as she pointed her rifle at Felix’s face. “You are to stand there and I will fire at you.”
“I don’t think that’s—!” BANG! A deafening noise shot right beside his ear.
“Go.”
“… okay.” He let out a crestfallen response, knowing he was not allowed to argue.
“We will try to reenact what first triggered your aura. Are you ready?” She ordered and raised her rifle.
“No?”
Felix stood near the wall. He swallowed as he watched the rifle pointed straight at his head. He placed his hands in front of him, hoping he would be able to do as she says.
The first round was shot.
“ARGK!” He reflexively pulled back his hand and clutched it after the rubber bullet struck it.
The next round fired.
“Ow, ouch! W—wait!”
One, after the other, Felix was pushed further and further back as almost each of the rubber bullets narrowly struck him.
“Good reflexes. You were taught to watch where the gun was pointed then avoid accordingly before your enemy could fire, correct?” Anastasia explained without letting an inch of her shooting interval.
“Wait, please, just! Ow!”
He yelled as he whipped away the next projectile and it struck the ceiling.
The ceiling split apart as sets of wooden planks descended from it. The three watched in awe as the area transformed itself, and turned itself into a makeshift shooting range.
“This facility was designed with us in mind, and for people who have yet to become espers. As with any skill, you learn through repetition. Throw these continuously until you break through each of these targets ten times.” David handed each of them a metal bowl full of ball bearings.
The three of them turned towards the floating planks, held up only by a single rope.
“But that’s… like an inch of wood?” Isabelle squeaked.
“That’s right.” David responded nonchalantly.
Nero picked up the first metal marble and rolled it between his fingers. He pulled back his arm with eyes focused on the target. With a loud wooden thud, the plank target swung upwards as it was struck by the metal ball.
Both Isabelle and Grant then took a marble each from their bowl and struck the wooden plank, only for it to fling upward as it struck, and swing back down.
Isabelle and Grant both looked at David with confused expressions.
“Don’t you think we should start with something more… basic?” Isabelle added.
“This is the basics. You have to break through the first one that’s five meters. Then the next one that’s eight meters. Then the last one in ten meters.”
“How about something simpler? Like learning to maintain our aura? Drawing out aura is already a challenge as it is.” Grant responded.
“First you need to learn how to use your aura before you can maintain it. Understand the principles of how it works.”
Nero picked up another and threw it in a pitcher’s throw, it was followed by another loud thud. The wooden plank was swung even further back than before.
Grant followed up, “Even if we hit it, there’s no way we can break through it. It’s just gonna swing up—”
With a sharp, loud thud, their attention was drawn first wooden target. It swung back and forth, and as it steadied, they saw the puncture that Nero made in the middle of it.
“—wards.”
Nero grinned at his two red-eyed companions.
“Show off.” The brown-haired man grunted and picked up one of the metal marbles, acting casually as he took on Nero’s challenge.
“These two…” The silver-haired woman blurted out.
“You need to overcome your own weakness and shortcomings. The only keeping you from using your full potential is yourselves.”
Isabelle sighed in a resigned manner as she followed their lead. She picked up one of the marbles, inspected it for a few seconds, then looked at the targets for a clear shot.
She pulled back her arm, and swung.
— Bang!
~