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Touichirou Suzuki is a simple teenager; he wakes up at 6 am, performs personal hygiene, eats his breakfast then goes to school. Visit Serizawa’s house, walk to school with him and that’s it.
It’s not much, but it’s okay. He still has a world to take over soon.
Today is quite different though; he wakes up, does his morning routine, then visit his friend’s house, until:
“Serizawa is sick today, Suzuki-chan. I’m afraid you’ll have to walk alone, but I’m sure my son will get better in no time!” Serizawa’s mother gives him a sympathetic smile. Touichirou isn’t sure if his friend is having another anxiety episode or is actually sick— however, the clock is still ticking and he’s really not in the mood to get punished for going to school late.
“Thank you miss, I’ll send him any homework the school gives us.”
He continues walking down the concrete path leading to his destination. He’s not sure whether Serizawa’s open umbrella blocked his view or he just didn’t care enough to look, but he realizes how much different the city looks now. More and more shops are opening along with the growing population; even the wildflowers are showing up more than before.
Or maybe, the flowers, they’re only changing because it’s the new year. Touichirou never liked spring, or any season for that matter; to him, they’re just a simple change in scenery. Though the teen has to admit the view looks best at this time of the year.
A noise suspiciously close to someone fighting grabs his attention. The red headed teen carefully hides behind a wall and peers over it; he likes to avoid any troubles, especially fights.
“Little brat! Who asked you to snitch on our ‘conversation’ with that kid, now we’re grounded!” A tall highschooler about 2 years his senior stomps his feet on a boy’s head. Beside him, a slightly shorter guy sneers at said boy laying on the ground, his messy raven hair looks like a crow’s nest on the ground. “That’s what you get—snitches get stitches.”
Typical teen with a hero complex, Touichirou shakes his head.
Body already removing itself from the wall, Touichirou figured that this isn’t any of his business. Call him a coward, but he’s not gonna try and defend a random stranger; he’d end up just like that boy.
Just as he is about to leave, a certain feeling starts nagging his mind. Then it grows bigger, louder, until half of his senses are buried in that feeling—
Oh. The feeling of a nearby psychic. If his senses are correct, they must be a strong one, too.
But where is it coming from?
Thump! Oh, shit. The teen quickly peers over the wall again. Oh, shit.
The boy who laid on the ground was now standing straight, feet nestled comfortably in the seniors’ head who was previously putting his foot on his head, the other senior laying on his side and groaning. How the tables have turned, Touichioru muses to himself.
But that’s not the point. The boy was practically flaming up with the psychic aura around him. A beautiful flame, it is. It shines like a ruby, the sight mesmerising Touichirou; something that rarely happens.
“Oi, don’t tell me you’re begging for mercy right now?” The boy lowers his upper body to listen to the teen underneath his foot. A few single strands of the boy’s now slicked-back raven hair falls down to his face graciously as he puts on a smile that could only be seen as predatory.
“We’re sorry, don’t hurt us—“
“Worry not, you’ll get used to it.”
Touichirou suddenly remembers he still has to go to school, no matter how much he wants to stay and observe the boy’s abilities. He quickly checks his watch (thank god there’s still time.) and dashes away, but he doesn’t forget to look back to the spot he was standing in.
An interesting person, indeed. He isn’t finding much of those lately.
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“Welcome back, Serizawa, we’ve missed you so much!”
“I was absent for one day.”
Shibata snorted, “We missed you because yesterday, some random boy started this yo-yo competition. You should’ve been there bro, it was so intense!” The large 8th grader nudged the tall kid beside him, “And we all know how good you are at yo-yo. Who knows, you might have won and brought glory to this group?”
Now it was Hatori’s turn to snort, “By winning a childish yo-yo competition? That’s inferior to winning a pokemon battle, which I just did,” He smirked.
“That was 2 weeks ago.”
“But still!”
“Pokemon is kinda overrated anyways.” The lavender haired boy, Minegishi, in front of him says before shrieking at his Nintendo turning off for no reason, “Hatori!”
“God forgives, but I don’t.”
“Shut the hell up and let Serizawa finish my essay!” The leader of this chaotic mess of a group cried. He clamps a hand at his mouth, hoping there isn’t any teacher nearby. Serizawa murmurs “Thanks, President Suzuki,” before focusing on said essay again.
Mineshigi releases a dramatic sigh, “Is it just me or does everything look so boring nowadays?” Almost concerned of what the plant manipulator could do to, well, the various plants set around the cafeteria when he’s bored, the club president straightens up.
“…So there’s this guy.”
Thankfully, Minegishi doesn’t look so bored anymore; in fact, he looks mildly interested, “Oh? The great leader of Claw has a crush now?”
“What? No, you insolent bastard, he’s more special than that.”
Suzuki looks at the whole group.
“I found another one of us.”
A beat passes, then comes the melodramatic gasps, the small table filled with loud chatter and shouts.
“How are there so many espers in this city?!”
“Is he studying in this school?”
“Why didn’t you bring him in?!”
Serizawa looks up from the unfinished (damn it) essay paper and asks, “What’s his, you know, ability, President Suzuki?”
The red-headed teen thinks for a moment, “I had too little observation. Although, there is a good chance he’s a powerful one, like us.”
The school bell rings out of nowhere, catching the teen off guard, “Shit! My essay isn’t done yet!”
A teacher catches him this time.
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Serizawa fiddles with his white umbrella, nervously looking at the sky. On the other hand, Touichirou remains calm as always, perhaps even laid-back; probably because he just negotiated his way out of detention a few hours ago.
“Can I open the umbrella, President Suzuki? I think it might be raining soon….”
“At least wait until the droplets fall down, Serizawa. It’s still early, we’ll arrive home before it actually rains.” The other teen nods with an embarrassed expression, something he does every time the club president disagrees or corrects him.
Having said that, Touichirou admits there’s going to be heavy rain very soon, as the sky is darkening despite the time only being half past four in the afternoon.
He feels Serizawa tense up beside him. Without any warning, the kid turns his body around and whips his umbrella, a powerful force released like a big wind. Touichirou is about to ask Serizawa what was going on before he, too, turns around. Then emerald eyes meet bloodshot red ones.
Oh.
That boy finally shows up again (with no invitation).
“You,” says the boy with a surprisingly friendly voice, in stark contrast to his nightmarish eyes. “You’re the one sneaking behind the wall that day.”
Serizawa immediately moved to stand in front of Touichirou, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m sure you’re getting the wrong perso—“
“Of course you don’t know what I’m talking about.” His red pupils move slightly to the right; to Touchirou’s direction the same time the red-head finds how void-like his scleras are.
“But he knows.”
Serizawa’s frowning face contorts to one of pure confusion laced with a bit of concern as he slowly turns around to meet the club president’s eyes.
“President Suzuki?” Then he understands. Based on the sheer power the stranger is showing and the president’s knowing face, this boy must be the esper the president was talking about at lunch.
The smaller teen orders Serizawa without giving him a glance, his eyes fixed on the boy in front of them, “Katsuya, you can go home now, I don’t want you to be concerned about this anymore.”
President Suzuki only calls me by my last name when he’s really serious, the tallest teen of the three remembers. Quickly, he gives his friend a trusting nod before dashing home as ordered.
Eyes still pinning the boy’s, Touichirou remains standing straight at his spot, lacking any sign of fear..
“You saw me that day,” The boy spoke up first.
“I did.”
“Why weren’t you scared? Why didn’t you tell anybody?”
“Why should I?”
The boy looks impressed, his face showing a challenging smirk. Touichirou notes how he was levitating the whole time, one leg bent up in the air, one leg closer to the ground, the shoe tip barely touching the concrete.
He moves closer now, “Most people don’t even last 5 seconds before running away in terror, let alone stay and watch most of the entire thing. Either you’re very brave—“
The leg touching the ground suddenly moves and with almost the speed of light, he may have successfully landed a painful bruise on the other teenager’s head; but Touichirou’s reflexes are not to be boyding with, the boy’s feet held tightly by a sharp red colored force mid-air.
“—or you have those powers, just like me.” His smirk grows into a full lopsided smile.
“Tch. Guess I’m busted now. You happy yet, or do you want to hit me again with the other leg?”
“Aw, c’mon, I didn’t even touch you!” The boy lowers his leg, finally stops levitating as he gently lands on the ground. He casually walks forward, making Touichirou turn around and follow him in mild confusion.
“Did you dye your hair?”
“Huh?”
“Not many Japanese boys have hair as red as yours.”
“No, it’s a generational thing. My dad’s family is filled with red heads; you should see him, he looks like hot takis.” The taller teen laughed at that. Touichirou didn’t, because his relationship with his dad is rather….complicated, so he frowned a bit at his own mention of his dad before putting on a neutral face again.
“This’ll sound cliche, but I don’t have a dad. Or any parents for that matter. Been living in several foster homes over the years.”
“Oh. Is your current home any good?”
“Thankfully. Don’t think I’ll run away anytime soon.”
Just after saying that sentence, the boy pathetically trips over a rock, face not being smashed onto the concrete thanks to his powers. After a few seconds to collect himself, he whips out a white cane from his pocket and pulls on the lower half; the small cane now turned into a long one, with a circular thin rope at the top.
Looks kinda familiar.
Wait.
“You’re blind?” The raven haired simply huffs at that with a smile and playfully taps his cane on the ground, the bottom tip clicking with every tap, “Mhm. Sure, I can use my powers to heighten my senses, but it gets a bit exhausting after a while. I’m used to this anyways.”
Impressive. The red head notices how he’s unbuttoning the first 3 buttons of his cloud white dress shirt, the one similar to some school uniforms, or the one Touichirou’s school makes them wear under the black gakuran. Despite that, he’s blind, and there hasn’t been any schools for disabled boys at Seasoning City yet; after all, it isn’t exactly a big city.
“Are you homeschooled?”
The boy turns to him, but the club president finds his two eyes closed, “Bingo. But don’t underestimate my maths skills, I’ve always had a knack for memory and stuff”
“Right. As if I’ll ever want to,” Touichirou hates maths, like almost any other highschooler.
As if to end their conversation, water drops fall graciously onto their faces, the cold breeze of rainy days sends shivers to their skin. Serizawa was right, it didn’t take long to start raining; he wonders if his friend had an eye for detail or if it's just the work of psychic powers. Ah, talking about psychic powers—
“You should join my club. Well, you don’t study at my school, so it’s more like you should join my group. We’re all espers—remember the other guy who was walking with me? He’s actually a member of us.”
“And why should I join?”
The club leader turns serious, “So we can dominate the world in the future, together.”
He says nothing, stunned. Then he starts laughing wholeheartedly, strands of hair landing on his hair similar to how the raindrops are. Touichiro is still standing straight, waiting for the other party’s response.
When the laughs devolve into giggles, the mysterious boy wipes a drop of tear from his eye, “You sure are interesting, bud. Is it just us or do all espers have some kind of rebellious tendency?”
“It’s not simply a phase, I assure you.”
“Well, I’m certainly assured.” The taller teen reaches out mid-air, an invite to a handshake, “What’s your name?”
The other teen accepts the invite, ghost white hand meeting pale yellow one, “Touichirou Suzuki. You?”
He grinned, “You’ll know soon enough.”
“Wha—“ and just like that, the mysterious boy disappears into thin air without a warning. Touichirou confusedly looks around and to his wonder, no raven haired esper is in sight.
So he can teleport, too. Huh.
His friends are going to love this guy.