Chapter 4: Resonance

*Present Day, Todai*

"So that's her huh?"

"Yes, that's Mutsumi-san."

Naomi and Sven stood in a nearby corner of Todai's Engineering building, Naomi leaning her back to the wall. Now was the first time she had a good look at Mutsumi in person and she nodded to the fact that the girl didn't immediately seem the type but when she scanned her, she came up with a natural telepathic firewall. She was impressed. Only the most powerful of telepaths could create such a powerful natural defense against scanning. Naomi smiled; this one was a target she would enjoy observing rather than scanning. It was clear that the girl didn't even know the full extent of her powers or that she even had such powers. Then, her mind picked up another signal, one of hatred and scorn.

"Gustave's here…" Naomi muttered. "He's probably after her."

"What do you mean probably?"

"He's trained his mind to resist telepathic scanning." Naomi answered, walking towards the darker part of the corner. "I can't scan him, not without physical contact."

[Hello there.] A telepathic massage suddenly came into Mutsumi's mind. And Mutsumi, as always, didn't initially realize this was a mental message.

"Ara…hello there too." Mutsumi answered vocally. "Ano…who are you?"

Mutsumi simply stood still and blinked, waiting for an answer. The crowd of students was all moving around her, like a swirling mass of insects. She couldn't see anyone that could have spoken to her just now and that made her slightly uneasy. Eventually though, her mind was distracted when she picked up on the swirling point singularity of negative emotions that was Kanako Urashima and the less bleak and somewhat frustrated Naru Narusegawa. Between the emotions those two were feeling and that strange person that spoke to her, Mutsumi managed to work out which was more of a priority. She stepped herself in between Naru and Kanako, Naru's eyes averting every so often to glance at Kanako's sardonic, perpetual scowl.

[You're one of us, aren't you?] A telepathic message came into Mutsumi's mind again. [You don't realize the full extent of what you can do yet, can you?]

"Mutsumi-san, did you hear that?" Naru asked. "Someone just called you."

"Ara, I did, Naru-san." Mutsumi answered with a smile. "He called me earlier too but when I asked him who he was, he didn't answer. At least, I think it was a he."

"I say you're both hearing things." Kanako scowled as she walked ahead. "I have a class to get to."

Atop the roof of the Todai Medicine building stood a man who was wearing a large black trench coat, his hands in the coat pockets, his face hidden by the collar. He stood there, observing the odd trio, a cockroach, a walking shadow and a telepath with no idea of her powers. He also senses a telepath far more powerful than he was in the area, a Psi-Corp member no less. He knew he had to operate carefully, if this other telepath picked up on his presence, his objective was sure to fail. As he proceeded to go back inside, to quietly slip out of Todai, he encountered not one, but two telepaths. One of them, the female, approached him and simply looked him in the eye and smiled.

"Psi-Corp scum." He said. "You enslave telepaths the way you enslave norms."

[I suppose you're here for her?] Naomi asked, raising her eyebrow. [If you interfere with my operation, I'm afraid I'll have to kill you.]

[I'm here for all three of them.] He answered. [You can kill me if you want but there'll always be more of us around, Ms. Winters. The rogues will never give up.]

"Please, call me Naomi." She smiled as she and Sven walked away. [If you're after three, I assume you're after my target as well. If you even come close to her, you'll be lucky to spend the rest of your life thinking you're a five year old, autistic child.]

[I'm not the only one here, you know.] He answered. [We've already made contact with the other two targets. You may kill me but you'll lose this battle, Naomi.]

"We'll see about that."

……….

*Present Day, Todai General Studies Building, 2nd floor*

Kanako sat in the far corner of the classroom, staring bleakly out the window. She didn't need to pay attention to her anthropology professor, he wasn't lecturing on anything she didn't already know. Most of her professors lectured on things she already knew. If attendance wasn't required, she could never attend a single class and ace each and every last test. She was only after having an official diploma, since natural born knowledge on virtually every topic known to man won't be enough to get her a job. She stared out to the area of the courtyard that students often called "Lover's Lane", an area where couples would meet in between classes to do nothing and whisper nothing into each other's ears. After a while, she sighed.

"Baka." She whispered to herself.

She closed her eyes, trying to lose her boredom in a daydream. However, unlike most other people, all she could see when she closed her eyes was a fateful blanket of black. With pretty much nothing to do, she just resumed staring out at the lovers below. Part of her longed to be in the same place as those people, held in a warm, loving embrace, hearing those sweet nothings whispered into her ear. Yet, at the same time, she loathed it for what she saw it to be: the blatant flaunting and insulting of people like her, people fated to be alone. She could almost imagine choking them, squeezing the life out of them with her hands. Then, as she leaned back on her chair, she noticed a classmate, Tyler, smiling at her. Typical of her, she ignored him.

"Him again…" she scowled.

"You've been ignoring me for the past two months, you lovely creature you." He whispered in her ear. To which, she answered with an elbow forcefully driven to his stomach. "That hurt…"

"Stay away from me, scum."

"Give me one good reason to do so…" he smiled.

"Look, you stupid iteki…" Kanako immediately grabbed him by the collar and forcefully pinned him to the wall, ignoring the resulting stares of the whole class. She had enough of his advances already and wanted to finish the matter now, with her fists. "…I don't like you and I'd rather see you hang with your insides falling out of your open gut than put up with your persistence for another minute."

"Okay, okay. I get it." He whimpered. "No need to be so violent…"

"Iteki no baka…" Kanako scowled as she relaxed her arm.

……….

*Present Day, Todai General Studies Building, 4th floor*

"Well, I guess so, Sakura-chan." Naru smiled. "A party this Friday wouldn't hurt."

Naru smiled at her friend, Sakura, a party wouldn't hurt right now. She didn't understand why but she felt inclined to bring Kanako along if she could. It was a friendly gesture; she knew Kanako needed to get her mind off Mutsumi and Keitaro's relationship as much as Naru herself did. It didn't seem like a bad idea until she recalled the sadness, the bitterness inherent in the music Kanako played. No, Kanako would not be the type to go to a party, a funeral perhaps but not a party. It gave Naru second thoughts about going as well; she still thought that she and Kanako were essentially in the same emotional boat, drifting aimlessly. While she knew that she and Kanako should be bitter enemies, she couldn't help but feel concerned.

"So, how are things in paradise?" the bright young Sakura asked.

"You mean paradise lost. You know I broke up with Keitaro almost three months ago." Naru answered just a little nastily. "Don't bring him up, Sakura-chan."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring it up again." Sakura apologized. "Why don't you bring that friend of yours with you on Friday? You know, that girl who's always in black?"

"You mean Kanako-chan?" Naru raised an eyebrow. "She's not the party going type."

"A wallflower type, eh? Bring her along; it'll do her some good to get a social life."

……….

*Present Day, Hina City*

"So that's Hinata Sou." Gustave grinned as he looked up at the steps. "It's a stupid looking place, typical Oriental home. I swear, these damn Oriental idiots have no concept of privacy or security."

"It would not be wise to be so disdaining and scornful of these Asians, Comrade." His companion, an Englishman, said. "There are more Asian telepaths reaching level 8 and above than from any other continent. There is something to be said of Asian peoples, the Japanese in particular."

"You sound as if you love being in this forsaken land, Eric."

"And you would no sooner bomb every last person with Asian blood from the face of the Earth simply for being Asian." He loathed Gustave. While he could relate with Gustave's hatred of telepaths, he found Gustave's arrogance loathsome. "I swear, one day, an Asian telepath will be the death of you."

"We'll see about that." Gustave scowled as they both walked away. "You almost sound like a damn sympathizer. I certainly hope not."

"I am no more a sympathizer of these telepaths than you are." Eric answered Gustave's accusation. "You, however, are worse than Hitler and the Nazis."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"It wasn't meant to be one."

"In any case, we should stop this senseless bickering." Gustave sighed. "We have telepaths to terminate."

To Be Continued...

Kanako: Looks like I'll be busy making lemons now. Not that I'm complaining. Particularly detailed is...never mind. What certain people seem to fail to realize is the fact that I WANT to be hated. Everyone I know hates me. I WANT everyone to hate me. I'm a cold, conniving, heartless bitch and I love every minute of it!