Prologue: A Certain Scientific Teacher

The morning of July 25th begun as normal as can be. The sun had risen, the wind blew a cool breeze to contrast the hot climate that engulfed Academy City and many people were either sleeping, going through their morning routine or already planning their activities for the day. As the summer holidays had started most of the students and teachers were doing other things than attending school and other obligations which would be compulsory to do come turn time. Others had to take part in remedial classes and other clubs due to poor grades or other circumstances. One teacher, however had a different day to what she was meant to have.

Shiraki Kana woke up at 7 am and quickly got dressed in a formal getup: A dark blue shirt, long black skirt with black dress shoes which matched the obsidian colour that were her hair and eyes. As a teacher she had to make sure to sort out coursework, grades and system scan results of her students during the summer as well as hold remedial lessons to those who were failing or falling behind. However, one duty this particular teacher also had the duty of supervising and assisting the scientists who were in charge of the starting Curriculum program, in other words she had to teach students how to access and comprehend their new-found powers as well as monitor how well the scientists were doing with the children.

After driving towards the experiment facility, the young teacher rushed through the automatic doors and entered the arrivals section. Awaiting her were a large group of young children looking around 7-9 years old. The children looked quite tired with half-closed eyes and sleepy expressions. The clothes they wore were varied between the children, though all looked a bit askew showing the effect waking small children up early had on both parent and child. A crowd of parents were present though at the side of the department, anxiously waiting for the moment that their children were tested for their abilities. The experiments that created the personal realities for the children and allowed the pathways to the abilities they had to form were already finished months ago, however the controlled environment used to allow the abilities to materialise was only accessible during the summer vacation due to other occupations some supervisors had during school time.

A crowd of scientists entered from one of the many doors that were strewn throughout the building. Once they saw the scientists, the parents' tension spiked dramatically, the scientists however failed to notice the atmosphere as they were preoccupied with going over the schedule for the day. One of the scientists handed Kana a list of names, no doubt all the names of the children. The names were arranged in groups based on alphabetical order. The young teacher cleared her throat and read off the list. "Would the following children: Adachi, Akamine, Arita and Arima, please follow Doctor Hamada to your exams." As she spoke, the children who were called on moved away from the group and walked towards a bald scientist, who was indicated by Kana, and followed him through one of the doors labelled 'Testing Facility'.

As the first group left, Kana read off the next couple of names and continued as each child followed a specific scientist before finishing her list. After all the children had left, Kana beckoned the awaiting parents to follow her. Leading the adults into a room labelled 'Waiting Room'. The teacher spoke, "Would you all please wait here until your names are called, thank you." With that the teacher spun on her heel and exited the room into a corridor. The girl breathed heavily as she walked through several rooms and corridors before reaching a dark room, illuminated by computer screens with scientists checking all the data that was collected in these exams. The teacher entered and looked over the screens. One of the scientists eventually looked up after a solid hour "We've finished the tests of children A through E on our end." Another voice called out "We've finished F through J over here." The scientists continued to comment as each block finished their assessment. "Good work everyone, so are there any level 6's in this group?" the teacher joked around. The scientists also laughed at the joke before reporting the assigned levels and all the powers.

"Um excuse me Doctor Hayabusa come here please." the teacher beckoned the head scientist over. "Yes ma'am?" the scientist asked. "I think you missed one child here, the list I was given had 84 children in total and yet I've only got reports on 83 children, is there an error here?" the teacher questioned. Doctor Hayabusa looked over the original list and the results of the exam. "Yes, we're missing one child, someone by the name of Minase. Who were the people in charge of the M group?" One of the scientists looked up the data on his computer and called the head scientist over. "Here, Shigeru and Hiroshi were overseeing the M section." Hayabusa asked for the results of Minase and was given a form with the report of "No AIM field detected." All the scientists looked confused, "The hell is this, even a powerless level 0 emits an AIM field, get me the footage of Minase's exam!" Hayabusa exclaimed. The computer then came up with a video file depicting a boy with brown hair sitting in front of two scientists. One by one, the scientists went through each test whilst having the machines analyse the boy. None of the tests revealed any power nor did the machine get any reading of AIM readings. Kana, seeing the video reached for the portable microphone in her pocket and flipped it on. "Would Minase Yuuki and his parents please report to the reception?" In a rush, the teacher hurried down several corridors followed by Hayabusa and a few other scientists followed the girl in her rush. "Get the advanced screening room ready!" Hayabusa ordered. The scientists behind him started barking orders into their phones and intercoms.

As they reached the main lobby, the team found the group of kids talking with their parents, some crying, others showing off their new manifested abilities. The brown haired boy and his parents were separated from the group. In person, the teacher noted that the boy had blonde streaks in his hair as well brown, probably from mutations in the genes due to his father possessing brown hair and his mother having blonde hair. "Excuse me, Mr and Mrs Minase, would you please come with me for a minute?" The teacher asked. Said parents and child followed the girl and were lead away from the lobby. Turning her head towards the family, the girl informed them of what happened in a simplified manner. Whilst she was walking she noticed that the boy was looking towards a few children who were displaying their powers. For a moment the girl swore that she saw the boy's eyes flash a multicoloured light before returning back to their blueish grey state. The family was lead into a pure white room, filled with machinery of all kind. Once Hayabusa gave the word the scientists started analysing the boy. "Huh? That's weird!" one of the scientists exclaimed "He's emitting an AIM field now, an Electromaster by the looks of it." He continued. All the scientists looked at the boy who was hooked up to the machine by electrodes and back at the screen. "He's emitting one alright." The scientists were puzzled by this discovery. After checking for the 11th time, the scientists agreed that this wasn't an error. "Minase, can you produce electricity at all?" Kana asked, remembering that one of the children the boy was looking at had produced visible electricity. The boy nodded and stretched out his hand. After a second, black electricity crackled around his hand before stopping, surprising the scientists not because of the electricity being produced, but at the colour the electricity was. "Minase, what did you do in your head when you created that electricity?" asked the teacher, creating a hypothesis that both scared and excited her. "I don't really know. I just looked at the electricity Hanekawa was doing and stuff just appeared in my head." The boy answered softly. The scientists were taken aback by this statement. "Wait so you just looked at your friend and suddenly became an Electromaster?" Hayabusa asked in disbelief. Kana whispered her theory to Hayabusa who looked puzzled before snapping back into action. "Get me test video 003 Pyrokinetic now!" the head scientist ordered.

One of the scientists ran into another room and hurried back into the lab as quickly as he left, in his hand was a disc labelled 'Pyrokinetic'. The scientist then placed the disc into a computer and broadcasted the video onto a large monitor. The DVD depicted an Esper who was manipulating a small ball of fire from out of nowhere. Immediately Kana looked at the boy and noticed once again that his eyes had flashed in a variety of colours before settling back down to their original colour. "Minase, could you please perform your ability again?" Kana asked politely knowing that either way her hypothesis was about to conclude. The boy reached out his arm and concentrated. He upturned his palm and within a couple of seconds, a small black spark appeared before it expanded, becoming a black ball of fire though looking very unstable compared to the video. Minase lost his concentration and let the small flame fade away.

The scientists begun to discuss the recent turn of events with quite a few checking all records and running simulations and recording before finally settling down and coming to a conclusion. "We designate that Yuuki Minase aged 7 has the ability to replicate and use Esper abilities." Hayabusa stated calmly though his eyes betrayed that his mind was still processing the information and was creating future scenarios that would reveal more about this ability. "What will happen to Yuuki?" The boy's father asked out of fear and concern for his son.

Kana looked at the two parents and child, seeing the fear present in the eyes of the adults' and the confusion in the boy's eyes. Breathing in, Kana spoke, determined to let the boy have a semi-normal life. I'll look after him and mentor him about how to use his ability, it's better than letting other scientists dissect him and lock him away." She volunteered, ignoring the horrified looks of the scientists who were more than eager to put the boy through countless experiments and dissect him. The boy looked up and nodded, unknowing of the fate that would have befell if she hadn't have spoken up. The two parents however didn't look so convinced. After discussing it between themselves, understanding that the ability Yuuki had was one that had never been thought to occur and would probably land him in laboratories for the remainder of his life, the parents came to a decision. "Very well, we'll let him stay here however you must promise that he won't be dissected or caged up nor that he will come to harm, do we make our terms clear?" the two parents asked reluctantly, concerned for their son's well being. "You have my promise Mr and Mrs Minase." The 26 year old smiled and shook both parents' hands.

After the analysis and reports on every child in the group came in without errors, the children and their parents were allowed to go home and not return to Academy City until the children had finished their school year. "Are you sure you can handle a child at your age?" Hayabusa asked the teacher, concerned for the 26 year old's mental state for the years to come. The teacher smiled. "Yes, the boy has an ability that would end up killing him due to this city's nature. I'll watch over him so he can progress like a normal child. After all, there are quite a lot of expectations set on him now, it would be a shame if he was imprisoned and dissected before he could reach them." She answered calmly. "Besides he's a good kid." The teacher smiled at the memory of the child as he left, hugging her and calling her 'Big sister Kana'.

"There's one more thing we need to discuss." Hayabusa stated, the teacher raised an eyebrow at this. "We have to come up with a designation for the boy's ability. I don't know about you but I was thinking Imagine Shadow." He continued. The girl laughed at the name. "Why Imagine Shadow though?" She quizzed clearly quite amused by this name. "Well he can replicate any Esper ability that can be imagined so to speak and since the ability becomes a black version of itself almost as it's like a shadow, I decided to name it that." The girl thought it over and asked. "Is there a better name?" clearly not convinced. "Well I had another name for it; Fantasy Shadow Copy." Hayabusa answered, proud of his naming skills. Kana just laughed and thought it over before deciding on the former.

Once the designation was carried out, Kana went home. It was already quite late at night though the sun was still up because of the summer season. After eating dinner and having her daily bath Shiraki lay down on her bed. She thought of the brown haired boy and spoke aloud. "Yuuki Minase, huh? The Imagine Shadow."

Author's Note: Well first chapter done, let's move onto the second shall we?

In all seriousness, this was the first story I've written other than school work so if I've made mistakes please feel free to let me know. Also with lore and all of that, there will be a couple of time-skips and changing certain plot outlooks. Just please stick with me on that and let's hope it doesn't confuse anyone too much.

Anyway, thank you to those who are reading and I hope to be able to see you again.

Cheers.