Chapter 1: Introduction

The faint sound of beeping made its way through the layers of covering that I had over my cold body. A part of me was eager to get out of bed and turn off the alarm, while another said to just ignore it.

Making up my mind, I pushed myself into a sitting position, about to yawn and wipe the crust from my eyes. However, a certain set of details made themselves known to me, stopping me and making my heart leap.

This… isn't my room.

My mind was racing to find possible answers to the situation. Assuming the worst, I silently removed myself from the bed to take in the surroundings properly.

It was a small apartment room. Single bedroom connected to a kitchenette. Two doors were visible, likely leading outside and to a bathroom. The hallway to the entrance door had what looked to be a washer and dryer.

There was no sign of anyone else in the room. It was rather spartan and had little furniture, aside from a desk and chair. Whoever owned this place either had little money, or simply didn't spend much on this place.

Tip toeing to the other side, I opened the bathroom door to find it free of my potential kidnapper. Confirming that the apartment was empty, I began searching for mics, cameras, or anything else that could be recording me.

Once again, I came up empty. Racking my brain, I couldn't come up with a reason someone would do this. I wasn't particularly special or of high value.

I ran my hand through my hair before abruptly tensing. Tugging on the hair, I pulled it in front of my eyes.

What? How? My hair should barely go past half an inch.

Feeling around further, I realized that my hair was much longer than normal. Enough so that it draped over my forehead.

Somehow, I didn't even notice the change until I consciously thought about it.

I ran to the nearest mirror which resided in the bathroom, forgoing all attempts at being quiet. Pushing aside the half open door, I stopped in front of the looking glass with hands resting on the sink.

Staring back at me was an unfamiliar face. Young, dark brown hair, and of Japanese descent. Moving my fingers across my face, the skin and bone structure was different, but it was as though these hands were familiar with it.

This- this is really real isn't it. I'm not going to delude myself with the 'I'm in a dream'. This is reality and I've just been torn from everything I know and stuck into a… twelve year old body?

It was at this point that I was able to recognize broken sensations and thoughts. Likely the remnants of this kid's mind.

'He was late for school. He was never late for school. He was trying really hard to stay unnoticed by those around him. Good grades, some of the best actually. But no friends or family. Hobbies or pastimes.'

Letting out a groan, I was about to crush the influx of invading feelings and thoughts before considering a different path.

I might be able to get more answers if I try to follow this like a 'normal' everyday. Not my wisest of choices, but I need to be proactive for once.

Foreign thoughts and habits guided my actions as I dressed into a school uniform, packed the bag, and pocketed a wallet and flip phone.

This phone. Don't tell me…

I examined the rest of the room, searching for any obvious clues on the time and place.

On the wall was a calendar. It was June 7th, 2004.

I pondered the implications of the date.

So I've not just been transmigrated into some kid's body, but displaced by sixteen years?! How could this get any worse.

Like a fool, I didn't take into account the ruthlessness of Murphy and his forsaken law.

Slipping on the shoes, I unlocked the door and pushed it open. With it, the sun's rays illuminated the apartment, along with myself. After my eyes grew used to the light, I was able to view the outside world for the 'first' time.

Tall, modern style skyscrapers touched the sky whilst windmills could be found dotted throughout the cityscape.

It was an unusual spectacle. A city unlike anything I had ever seen before. Or at least, any real city.

So this is the twist. The punch to the gut. I don't even get the comfort of at least a guaranteed nonfictional reality. No, this could all just be made up. Because this is Academy city. A particular city that can only be found in a certain anime. Well, technically more than one anime and all the source material, but that's beside the point.

I pushed forward and tried to distract myself by absorbing the surroundings. The structures were smooth, curved, and sophisticated. Streets and sidewalks clean of all forms of trash, courtesy of the robots.

There were a few cars that occasionally passed by. Along with people doing what people do. The grass was green and the breeze was cool.

Finally reaching the destination, I came across an average looking school, at least by Academy city's standards. I dug through the fading memories for a name and I was rewarded.

'Sakugawa Middle School.'

The school sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite remember what made it so. Putting that aside, my legs continued to carry me to the classroom.

I knew that the previous owner of this body didn't have any close relationships, so I didn't have to worry about being outed for acting strange. But it didn't stop the steadily increasing beat of my heart. Nor the cold sweat that came across me when I finally reached the class door.

Taking a deep breath, I entered the room with a confidence I barely felt. To no surprise, every head turned to my direction. Quickly pinpointing 'my' seat, I apologized to the teacher and made my way to the desk.

Once I finally sat down, the rest of the students lost interest and the teacher continued his lecture. A sense of relief washed over me. Not just because I made it to the right class, but that I was able to unconsciously use Japanese. From the looks of it, everything is being crudely translated into English. Something to investigate later, for sure.

Unpacking my bag, I grabbed a notebook, pencil, and got to writing. The teacher droned on about Quantum Physics and its overall connectedness to AIM and personal realities. The topic was fascinating, but it was difficult to concentrate when the medium for the notes was a chalkboard.

You would think that Academy city would have a more advanced method of teaching, but then again, Toaru was written in 2004.

No, that's not exactly true. While the light novel was written in 2004, I should consider that this reality isn't completely reliant on the writings of a 23 volume series in an alternate universe. My existence is proof that any future knowledge I possess can be rendered useless.

I continued to take notes, knowing that it wouldn't do for me to slack behind on studies. After all, I didn't need to gain any unwanted attention.

X X X

The rest of class passed by smoothly. Very similar to a college class if I had to compare it to anything. It was heavily focused on lecturing and note taking, so it'll be a bit of a hassle to catch up.

My thoughts would constantly turn towards the scientifically supernatural. If this kid was a student at Academy city, chances are that he also went through the power curriculum.

When the bell rang the teacher didn't call me to stay behind, so I took that as my cue to leave. I wanted to take my time heading home as the sights were exhilarating, but I had more important things to focus on.

Reaching my hand into my right pocket, the familiar feeling of a wallet and key were there. Unlocking the door, I kicked off my shoes and went straight for the desk sitting in the right corner of the room.

Okay, system scan. Should be around here somewhere.

I dug through various papers, in the desk's drawer. Homework, worksheets, and other uninformative scratch paper was shoved aside.

Sticking my arm in, I felt for the paper. It was then that a small rectangular slip of paper graced the tips of my fingers.

Feeling the excitement well up in me, I snatched the paper, bumping my forearm on the desk. Grimacing, I slowly pulled out the paper, a small throb of pain making itself known.

With my arm and paper free from the desk, I gazed at the information that showed little, yet gave me so much.

Level- 1

Power- Energy Manipulation

Other than that, the card was a mess of crease lines and a bad case of an exploded pen. Even though the level was only one, I couldn't help but be grateful.

Level 1 huh. That's one away from having no power at all, so it could've been worse. But more importantly, I've never heard of an esper ability called 'energy manipulation'. At least it's self explanatory.

I know I'm jumping the gun already, but energy is a scalar, right? Doesn't that mean that I can potentially set up counter defenses for Accelerator? Since, you know, Vector Manipulation. Well, that's if I can find out how to use this power. Heh, imagine having scalar manipulation. That would be overpowered.

Rather than continue to haphazardly dig through the desk, I organized the papers and looked for anything that explained the ESP ability. Luckily, I came across some essay work that looked fairly promising. After ordering the pages from first to last, I skimmed through and took notes on anything important.

After jotting down the last of the important facts, I leaned back in my chair and let out a sigh.

That took way too long. And these essays were really disappointing to read. I mean, who starts an essay with, 'What is Energy?'. Either way, I was able to find out a lot about how Energy Manipulation works.

Alright, I've listed most of the things I could gather about the ability into five bullet points.

First, Energy Manipulation is the ability to change the amount of energy matter has. And when I say matter, I mean all forms of matter. For example, the boy whose body I currently reside in could increase the kinetic energy water molecules, resulting in water vapor. And theoretically, if he was at a higher level, he'd be able to affect the energy in elementary particles.

Second, the biggest reason the boy wasn't at a higher level was because of his personal reality. In other words, he's not delusional enough to be a strong esper. Well, I guess that's one problem I don't have to worry about.

Third, due to his less than adequate personal reality, Energy Manipulation did little on the macroscopic scale. He couldn't just kick a can and increase the amount of energy it has. He had to consider each and every atom, bond, structure, and component in order for the can to actually do what he wants. Think of it like this. You increase the kinetic energy of a single atom that you push north and naturally, it will travel north. But when you kick a can, your foot has an uneven surface area. And due to the nature of Energy Manipulation, that will cause the atoms to travel in different directions. In short, the can would heat up at best, explode at worst.

Fourth, it isn't specifically stated how well the kid could calculate, but it was good. No, it was genius levels of calculating. Such a level of calculating would be necessary to handle such a power. It's this aspect of the ability that I'm the most worried about. Because I'm, well, not a genius.

The fifth point has to be the most important. His esper ability isn't actually Energy Manipulation. Well, I think so at least. You see, in all the material I read, the kid never mentions where he gets the energy from. It just appears, manifests from thin air. So either I'm missing something, or he isn't actually 'manipulating' the energy.

Instead, I believe the energy is being created and destroyed. What do you mean energy can't be created or destroyed? Ah, allow me to explain. Think of that one esper, Dark Matter. He creates matter that doesn't previously exist and drops it in this plane of existence. Energy manipulation is probably something like that. Energy pulled from another dimension and utilized in this one. The biggest difference between Dark Matter and Energy Manipulation (besides being matter vs energy) would be that with Energy Manipulation, the energy can be shoved back into that alternate dimension. Hence being 'created' and 'destroyed'.

I clasped my fingers together and splayed them outward. To my disappointment, there was no satisfying crack.

So in other words, the probability of me being capable of using Energy Manipulation is nil.

I held up the paper with my notes and decided this would be a good test. I realized that in order to conceptualize the atoms, I'd need to know what atoms actually make up paper. Before I could get up and pull open a textbook, the information suddenly flooded my mind.

'This specific paper is made up of a majority Carbon, Oxygen, and Hydrogen. There were also traces of Calcium, Silicon, and Titanium.'

It was strange. It was like I was remembering the info and being told it at the same time. Pushing aside my confusion, I began to visualize what the structure of the paper would look like on a microscopic scale.

Within my mind, I was staring at a photo realistic recreation of the atoms. There were no weird blue protons and red neutrons. Just a black and white landscape of orbs vibrating at a very slow rate.

For a moment I was stupefied. Unable to come to grasps with how natural, yet unnatural this felt.

Is this what it is to be an esper? The capability to break down the truth of the world and warp it to your will?

After a moment, I moved onto the next stage. In order for this to succeed I needed to consider the directions each atom is moving and what would be the optimal time to increase the atoms' energies.

Numbers and formulas floated in the corner of my vision. The instructions that lead to the greatest path to success were in front of me. All I had to do was make it a reality.

Atoms started to vibrate faster, pushing into each other, pushing away, Waves formed, rippling across like a massive gray ocean.

Then a few particles became so agitated that they loosened from their previous bonds. It was so abrupt that it caught me off guard, but I kept at it. Soon, the oxygen would start reacting, hungry for the free electrons for the taking.

The smell of smoke reached my noise, breaking my concentration.

The paper in my hand was relatively intact, but in the center was a small hole. The edges were slightly blackened, a trail barely visible rose upwards.

Despite myself, I wore the biggest grin. The exhilaration of achieving something so small, yet so large. Incomprehensible, yet completely possible.

I was correct to assume that I wouldn't get any sleep that night.