Chapter 2: A Certain Red Haired Girl

The boy looked to his left and saw the lake glistening in the sunlight. He then turned to the right and saw the emerald grass waving in the soft summer breeze. The boy closed his eyes and breathed in, enjoying the cool breeze that was enveloping him. After a while like this, the boy snapped his eyes open and turned around at the sound of a branch snapping behind him. Upon turning around, the boy saw a small girl around 7-8 with long red hair standing behind him. The boy recognised her from somewhere but couldn't place his finger on it. The boy knelt down besides her. "Hey little one, are you lost? Do you want to find your parents?" The boy asked, hoping the child's parents were around. The little girl smiled and answered. "No I'm not lost, however I have a message for you. Come closer." The boy came closer and put his ear next to the girl's mouth. "Beware the incoming shadows." She said, all cheerfulness and warmth draining from her voice, becoming monotonous and cold. After those words were said, the boy collapsed on the ground and held his head tightly with his hands. His head was in complete agony as images and information poured endlessly into his mind. The boy couldn't retain the information, save for a couple of images showing three teenagers. One image was of a spiky black haired boy, another was of an albino with a psychotic look set on his face, ant the final image the boy saw was of a blonde haired teen looking slightly older than the other two with a sinister smile set across his face. After seeing those images, the pain increased and so did the flow of information, causing the boy to cry out in pain.

After what felt like an eternity, the pain vanished as did the mental overload. Breathing heavily and wiping his eyes and nose which were running fluids, the boy slowly calmed his racing heart beat and gulped in as much air as he could, the boy got on his hands and knees and emptied the bile sitting in his throat. Just when his body almost returned to an alright condition, the boy felt a chill run up his spine. He looked around. The girl was gone as was any sign of life. The boy listened to the soft breeze before it slowly intensified and became a strong wind. The boy glanced desperately to his right and saw the grass that seemed perfectly healthy before slowly blacken and wilt. Looking at his left, he saw the lake slowly start to show signs of pollution as it faded to the brown colour of oil. "Beware the incoming shadows." The girl's disembodied voice echoed as it slowly became a lowly demonic growl as the sunlight dimmed, casting a shadow on the world. Flipping over onto his back and sitting down, the boy looked up. In the darkness, a void was opening up, taking the shape of a large creature. The demonic whispers and growls seemed to be coming from that void as it raised the mass that looked like a paw and reached out towards the terrified boy.

Yuuki Minase woke with a start, sitting up immediately after his eyes opened. His breathing and heart rate were raised significantly and his night-clothes were sticky with sweat. After he calmed down, Yuuki changed out of his clothes and into tracksuit trousers and a white T-shirt. Sitting back down on his bed, Yuuki thought about the dream whilst placing his hand on his forehead as though that headache was actually real. "That girl looked really familiar, but from where?" He thought as he remembered the child. As he reflected more, he wondered about the bizarre pain he felt. "I haven't felt that much pain since that day." He said aloud, remembering the system scan two years ago. Since that day, he had improved quite well. He was able to almost fully replicate level 4 abilities without almost killing himself in the process, having no more than a simple headache that simply faded after a small time now. The only real downside to level 4 was that it reduced the amount of abilities he could reproduce in a row by quite a large margin. Instead of being able to replicate up to 11 times at any given time, Yuuki could only replicate up to 5 times after replicating a level 4 ability from the start. While this wasn't too much of an issue, it limited his options quite dramatically in the face of things. Though the limit itself showed how much he progressed, considering that at first he could only use one to two level 4 abilities and that would be it for a number of hours. Still, despite the improvements, Yuuki was still ranked level 0 due to the nature of the ability itself. Deciding not to dwell on the dream for now, the boy looked over at his clock. The date read 'Saturday, 4th July' while, the time read '5:30 am'. "Well, what is it they say? Sleep is for the weak?" The boy grumbled as he stood up and walked towards the door, grabbing a hoodie lying on the desk as he went.

20 minutes later, Yuuki was walking through a park. Breathing in the fresh air, Yuuki felt relieved as he saw that the world still looked normal. Due to it being the weekend, most people were sleeping in and enjoying their few days break. This resulted in the parks and roads being quite clear, allowing dog walkers and other early risers a nice change of pace. After walking round the park, Yuuki sat down on the nearest bench and closed his eyes. "I could get used to this." He thought. After staying like this for some time, Yuuki heard the sound of footsteps coming towards him. Opening one eye, Yuuki saw a red haired girl running up the path past him. The image of the little girl in Yuuki's dream flashed to the front of his mind. "Do I know her from somewhere?" He wondered before dismissing it as a coincidence.. After the girl walked out of Yuuki's vision, he saw a man wearing quite strange clothing. A green robe and trench coat complete with a large oversized bowler hat which stopped just above his eyes. "And my day just got weirder." Yuuki thought, unsure what the man was actually wearing. Despite the silly getup, Yuuki felt a sense of unease as he watched the man pass. "Maybe he's just a powerful Esper." Yuuki dismissed.

After relaxing back into the bench, Yuuki felt at ease again. This lasted for a couple of minutes before Yuuki felt a surprise poke on his shoulder blade. "JESUS!" He shouted as he jumped off the bench out of reflex. He looked up and saw the same red haired girl leaning over the back of the bench. "Wow, you really did jump," She laughed softly at him. Yuuki felt his face heat up and hoped that his blush wasn't evident. "Sorry if I scared you, I'm just looking for some company that's all. Mind if I join you?" The girl said as she sat on the other side of the bench, she patted the bit next to her, inviting Yuuki to join her.

"So, what kind of Esper are you?" She asked Yuuki. The boy looked at her and thought about his answer. "I'm a level 0," He answered, unsure if she somehow knew about his ability. It was mainly paranoia, but within the last 8-9 years the scientists had decided to monitor him undercover as well, mainly by getting his classmates to report on any strange accidents that occurred. This was met with complaints by both Yuuki and Kana, which resulted in the undercover work stopping for the most part, though lawsuits didn't stop some scientists. This eventually resulted in Kana and his very few number of friends as the only people Yuuki could actually trust. "I see, well it's not like you need an ability to be in this city. So even if you are powerless, I still like you." The girl stated, bringing Yuuki out of his thoughts and back into reality. Now that she was closer to him, Yuuki noticed the girl even more. She wore a yellow sundress and white tennis shoes, that somehow matched her crimson hair and her hazel eyes. Hoping that his face wasn't as red as he thought it was, Yuuki asked. "What about you? What kind of Esper are you?" The girl smiled and looked at him, clearly thinking about her answer, just as he had done. "I'm a level 3 Teleporter." She answered, the tone of her voice cheerful however clearly holding some information back. "So that's how she got behind me." Yuuki thought. "Can you prove that you are a Teleporter?" He asked, prepared to activate Imagine Shadow to find out what she was hiding. "Well, aren't you perceptive?" She answered, catching onto his doubt before continuing to speak. "You see, I'm one of the 19 Teleporters who can move multiple objects at once. It's cool, but it tires me out quite quickly" To demonstrate, she grabbed two stones and held one in each hand. After a second passed, Yuuki felt the two stones teleport into his pockets. "Well, I'll be damned. Would you like me to call you ma'am from now on?" Yuuki asked, hiding his awe with a snarky tone, all the while checking all the information Imagine Shadow gathered for him. The girl chuckled at that, putting on an over-the-top posh voice. "Why yes, I do believe you should treat me with reverence and therefore you shall become my slave!" The two lost it after that and laughed for the next 30 seconds, ignoring the strange looks from the people around them.

"You know I've been here for almost 9 years and I have to say you are the first person I've ever had a nice conversation with. Everyone else either wants to dissect me, have sex with me or just use me for their own gain." The girl said, still laughing along with Yuuki, though once she opened her eyes Yuuki noticed that she had a sad look reflected in them.. The boy related to the girl in some ways due to the life he was forced to live, though, within the last few years, he did have a few friends who he could talk to and share his problems with, though heavily edited to make sure they didn't find out about his ability or so the scientists thought. In actuality, Yuuki told them, with Kana's consent of course, after a tricky situation involving Skill-outs, codes, spatulas and pancakes. "Yeah I can relate mostly. Though I guess I haven't really been on my own. I have a couple of friends who I can talk to about my problems and my elder sister but other than that, I guess I can relate to you," He said. before an idea formed in his head. "Hey, do you want to come hang out with us sometimes and be friends and stuff!" He exclaimed impulsively, before he could actually think of how to properly ask her. Blushing at the outburst, he screwed his eyes shut and waited to hear the girl's laughter. Upon opening his eyes, he found the girl looking at him, shocked. "D-do you really mean it?" She asked, doubting him. "Of course, I mean we're idiots when we are together, but they are really nice people when you get to know them." He answered, still blushing. The boy felt a drop of water and looked up. Black clouds had filled the sky whilst they had been talking and were now spilling their contents. "Shit!" He cursed, not hearing the girl say something to him. He stood up and pulled the girl up. "Here, come back to my place till the rain stops." He said, as the rain started hurtling down accompanied by the sound of thunder. As they ran, Yuuki yelled to the girl. "Hey, what's your name?"
"Chinatsu Furuta! Yours?"
"Yuuki Minase! It's nice to meet you Chinatsu."
"It's nice to meet you too Yuuki."

Author's Note: Hello. I'm back. Sorry. This chapter took forever to make. I had this whole idea of making this chapter in someone else's point of view but it got deleted and then once I wrote it up again, it didn't look right with the rest of the narrative. So then I worked on this and it was deleted cause my computer hates me and decided to crash on me. And now here I am.

Sorry if this chapter was boring, I promise the next couple will be more action heavy compared to these last three which were to introduce the characters. Right now ensuing questions. For the moment, I'm not going to have the main characters be in a relationship with anyone, OC or not. And no, Chinatsu won't be Yuuki's girlfriend. Or at least I don't think so, not yet anyway. We will see cause I have some stuff to plan out about this. Secondly, yes there will be magic in this story, though the magicians in the actual story won't be much more than characters who pop up now and again. Also yes, there will be Esper fights. Also, I have an idea with Yuuki's ability and magic, and yes it is fairly obvious. However just keep reading cause there will be stuff with Yuuki's ability to come. I don't know what else to say for the moment.

Anyway, I would like to give a huge thank you to all of you reading and all of you who pointed out my mistakes. I really appreciate you all and I hope that you will stick with me in the future. Also, please do say what you want to happen in the story. I may not be able to do some stuff, but I will try and find a comprimise. Just wait for a while cause i have the next three chapters already planned out. Other than that, that's me for today ladies and gentleman and I hope that maybe I'll have some stuff out by tomorrow or Wednesday. Anyway,

Cheers.