I almost forgot this feeling. More than 2 years.

Pick one out of two perks (2 years, 4 months). Energy enough for Ultimate (grade 1), perk)

Chakra (level 1) grants a Chakra Pathway System. A mix of spiritual and physical energy that can be utilised to achieve superhuman feats.

Warp (Level Max) You can teleport to any space you have previously occupied and also any in your line of sight.

Seriously?

Teleportation is one of the world's most rare powers, which makes it immensely sought after.

But I've gone this far choosing the perks with the most potential future benefits, and since this is an ultimate perk.

'Number 1'

The world regained its color. And a spider web of warmth spread throughout my entire being, infusing every last cell with a newfound energy, different from any I had ever felt before yet familiar in a way I couldn't describe.

It was a euphoric sensation; I felt more energetic than I ever had before, in more ways than one.

'Let's test it'

Still high on this incredible sensation, I reach out and call for the energy to come forth.

With ease born from learning to use multiple new powers, I manage to pull my newest power to the surface.

And by surface, I mean that I brought it out from somewhere and suffused my entire body in it like a blanket... a liquid blanket... which also went through me.

'Huh.' I sat down on my bed to steady myself.

Lifting my hand with my palm upwards, I commanded some chakra to gather at my palm.

It wasn't visible, but I knew that it was there.

At further prompting, the chakra flowed out from my palm, and I saw a wisp of translucent blue appear above it.

I felt my connection to my chakra weaken the further away it got. When I released my hold of it, the energy seemed to dissipate into the air.

Pulling a small glass marble out of my inventory (I have an inventory; why wouldn't I stick everything I could get away with in there?) I gathered some chakra before pushing a tiny stream towards the glass surface.

Nothing happened. I didn't feel I could control the marble like I could using telekinesis. Releasing it from my grip, I let the marble roll.

'Wait.' What was that?

Channelling a small bit of chakra into the marble once again since it had been disrupted when it rolled, I tilted my hand downwards a bit.

The marble rolled, but that wasn't the important part. It had taken too long to start moving.

Pushing some more chakra into the orb, I maintained a larger stream and tried to keep it still in my chakra while I tilted my hand to the side. The marble stayed. For a moment at least.

Once again, putting the marble in the centre of my palm. I channelled an even larger amount of chakra into the ball.

*Thud*

Only to flinch as it shot into the air and hit the ceiling.

"Huh, propulsion when more chakra is applied and... suction?. Or maybe keeping it in place when I have the right amount."

I caught it absently, letting the marble float slowly down into my palm while I pondered.

'This could be useful'

I once again channelled a trickle of chakra as I held the marble up in front of my eyes. This time it stayed for just a bit longer. As it rolled, I continued trying to keep it still.

Gradually, I succeeded. Carefully rotating my hand, I smirked as the marble stayed stuck to my palm even as I had to adjust the flow of chakra.

I took out another marble and tried to channel chakra into it while maintaining a steady flow to the one that was upside down.

As my chakra fluctuated, the first marble shot downward into the bed while the other one lost its grip and rolled off the back of my hand.

This was really interesting.

"I'll have to test this more tomorrow."

Ito… Wake Up Kaito

"Wake U-" "I'm up!"

I shot into a sitting position as I registered my mother's voice before slumping back into bed. I'm unusually tired. Maybe having unlocked my chakra so recently caused this sluggishness?

I pulled my attention to mom, who was looking at me oddly.

"Good morning."

She smiled briefly before reminding me. "The entrance exam starts in a few hours, and you know that we need around two hours to drive there."

Mom chuckled as I shot out of bed. My navy pyjama is disappearing and being replaced by a dark grey button-up and a pair of black jeans.

I rushed out of my room to do my morning preparations.

Three hours later, I was stepping out of our car and onto the sidewalk in front of the famous UA high school.

"Love you!" I wave back at her.

'Love you too, mom.'

I marvelled as I walked through the gate leading into the campus. Looking towards the large building in front of me, I realised that this was one of the most famous locations in Japan.

The upper part of the building was shaped like an "H" from the front, and it seemed to be mostly made up of windows. The bottom of the building was wider and made out of marble.

In the front of the marble building was a marble staircase, which led up to multiple entrances. Above the stairs sat a roof that was supported by marble pillars. They liked marble here. Maybe they were going for a more greco-roman architecture-type building.

As I got into the building, I pulled up my phone to look at the guide that we had received after applying for this course.

Following the map instructions, I soon found myself in a large auditorium with some other prospective students scattered in seats around the large hall.

I sat down as I found my assigned seat and leaned on the desk in front of me as I waited for the orientation to begin.

A few dozen people filtered in during the next few minutes.

As the doors closed and everyone settled, I noted that the auditorium was far from full. There were maybe about a hundred prospective students here, whereas there were seats for far more.

The hall was probably designed with the hero course in mind, which usually received around 20 thousand applicants. A lot of people would rather be heroes, especially those who applied to UA.

After everybody was seated, the lights went out, and a spotlight was lit at the stage in front of us. Illuminating a bizarre slouching figure, though not one that I wasn't familiar with.

Power loader. He wore a yellow excavator claw on his head; it looked like his ginger-haired head was being eaten by a dragon or something. His hands were unnaturally big in contrast with the rest of his skinny frame, which wasn't very covered up as he only wore a pair of pants and black boots.

As he stood at the centre of the stage, he took hold of the microphone, which had been set up.

"Welcome to UA, prospective students! I am Power Loader, the main instructor for the support course at this institution. I will be leading you through your exams along with some assistants. The schedule for today is this."

He was introduced as a schedule appeared on one of the large screens that covered the walls behind him.

"First up is a written test, which will begin shortly. Next up is the practical test, which takes place during the allotted 3 hours. During this time, you will be asked to make a blueprint for a support item that reaches the criteria expected of an individual starting in the UA support course. The theme of the item will be the same for everyone, and you will have to start out from scratch, making your own calculations and planning. To assist in this, you will be allowed to use the school's computers and our holographic tools. Though it is not necessary to complete everything, you should have something useful. You all have also submitted some of your earlier works; these cannot save you if you fail the other exams, but they will give you some leeway if they are acceptable."

I listened intently as he described the course of the next few hours, and as he finished his speech, the hall lit up, and I looked down as muted mechanical whirring sounded out from the desk in front of me.

A large flat screen lifted out from a hole that had appeared. It lit up, and the instructions for the theoretical exam appeared. And out from the side of it came a few pages of paper along with some pens for notes.

The next few hours were going to be tiring, but I was made for this sort of thing because of my willpower perk.

Looking down at the glowing blue outline of a keyboard that appeared on the desk, I took a deep breath.

Huff*

Three and a half hours later, I was stepping out of the auditorium, with a few other applicants following suit.

The last hours had been intense. We were examined on all of the normal subjects required for a normal yet elite high school. Namely, Japanese, English, social studies, mathematics, history, and science.

We had been permitted a break at the halfway point, which most of us had taken gracefully, but the rest of the time had been spent on answering questions and calculations. I was sure that the results would come back in short order since the test was done digitally.

I was confident that I would have a good score, though it would probably not be perfect since much of my time the last few years had gone to training and more technology-related study.

Walking through the corridors was surreal; this was the school from which a multitude of amazing heroes had come from. Soon enough, I arrived in the cafeteria, and forty minutes later we were being escorted in buses to the workstations that had been set up for the exams.

The workstations were situated in several buildings; the space inside was split up and separated by walls. These rooms were equipped with exactly what Power-Loader explained. A Computer, a high-end one at that, a notebook and a hologram projector.

I was familiar with this setup from my long hours of studying and researching with Melissa.

"Listen up, participants. You will now have reached your workstations. So here come the instructions. The category of support item that you will be working towards in today's exams is "Protection/evasion." What this means is that you will develop something that can assist a hero in avoiding damage, whether it is blocking or evading. You have 3 hours to make a workable blueprint with feasible calculations. You will be asked to submit your work at the end of the allotted time."

As the booming voice began fading away, I took a deep breath and picked up the notebook on the desk.

"Alright, brainstorming"

I looked proudly at my newest invention as it hovered steadily over the hologram pad.

It was a pair of sleek metallic boots that had complicated wiring on the inside as a toggle was pushed on the pad. It was an advanced piece of technology using one of the newer projects that me and Melissa had been working on.

I designed these boots with the repulsor technology that Dr. Shield had used for his hover car during his sidekick days. This was one of the most intriguing pieces of technology that I had been allowed to look at as a benefit of being Melissa's friend and study partner.

"Please submit your work and make your way out of the examination stations and into the buses, which will get you back to the school."

I did as told, submitting my work and shutting down the equipment.

We were allowed to bring the notebooks with us, so I did.

Soon we were back on the school property, and I couldn't help but feel nervous as the speaker system around us announced that we would get our results in the following days.

I strode out of the UA building and absently sent a message to my mother.

She rolled up in her car as I waited outside of the gates alongside the other applicants who had yet to leave.

The worried expression on her face melted to be replaced with a wide grin as she laid eyes on me. I was embarrassed to note that she probably copied the giddy smile that I was wearing.

"So how'd you do, Kaito?" The blonde on the other side of the screen grinned at me as her dad walked around in the background.

"It went well, actually. I'll get my results in a week. So Lis. What do you think of them?"

I'd sent over the designs for the boots. The bubbly girl perked up, and her usual tech babble began once more.

"They're good, but why did you…?"

I settled down to listen and answer any questions.

Melissa and I talked for around half an hour, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Melissa was always great to talk to when anything technology-related was involved. We had spent many hours together just brainstorming ideas of what to do with what we knew.

Anyways. After Melissa was called away from her computer, I went and cooked dinner for my family.

During the dinner, I was bombarded with questions about the exam as well as the school in general. Neither of my siblings had any inclination of going to the hero course, but it wasn't entirely out of the question for them to go any of the other courses that UA offered. My brother, who's two years older than us, was especially interested since he would go to high school next year.

Once the dinner was finished, I was allowed to go about my own business as my siblings cleaned up and took care of the dishes. I cook, they clean.

I walked outside; the sky was dark, and our backyard was only lit up by the light coming from inside. But it was enough.

This late into February, leaves that had fallen off during the fall months had not yet come back. So I pulled a fresh set of leaves from my inventory. I naturally had something of everything in my inventory. I mean, why wouldn't I?

I'd been excited to experiment with my newest perk for the whole day, and I figured that I should try something even lighter than the marbles from last night.

I begin with one. And I quickly adjust to keep it stuck to my palm even as I turn it upside down.

A cold breeze swept by, and the leaf almost slipped off, which forced me to change the flow of chakra.

It wasn't long before the next bout of wind swept in, but this time I managed to keep the leaf stuck with greater ease.

As the wind picked up once more, I had no issue keeping the leaf stuck. But as it passed, I had an idea.

The wind made it harder to keep the leaf stuck, which was good training. So if another force was applied...

I grabbed the leaf with my other hand and pulled gently. I felt my chakra strain immediately as I tried to keep the leaf still. As I got used to the force, I began pulling harder.

As I pulled a little more, my control slipped, and I pulled the leaf away from my palm.

pant* *pant*

I took a moment to catch my breath before channelling my chakra again. But this time I pulled lightly with my telekinesis instead.

'This is more manageable.'

Getting used to it, I increased the amount of force gradually along with my chakra output.

As I pulled harder, I noticed my skin being pulled upwards with the leaf, even as the chakra tried to pull it down.

'Maybe if I?'

Coating myself in the area around the leaf in the chakra, I felt the strain lessen before disappearing as the layer of energy seemed to strengthen.

If I can do that, then maybe? Absently pulling the leaf into the inventory, I began pulling my chakra back into me.

'?'

Dragging some chakra back to my fingertips. I... pulled some of it into my inventory. And I could feel it appearing inside of my power. It was strange, though. Because unlike the myriad of things I had in my inventory, my chakra seemed to suffuse everything inside. Even with the little amount that I inserted into it.

I'm going to have to explore channelling chakra while using my other perks also.

But first I should get back to my other train of thoughts before it drifts away.

Channelling some chakra into my leg, I took a step. Nothing seemed different, but on my next step, more chakra flowed through the leg and then into the sole as I pushed away with more force.

*Woosh!* I was up in the air, and the ground beneath me was covered in a cloud of smoke.

Then I registered so that I could look down at my two-story house.

I caught myself with telekinesis and lowered myself onto the ground.

'Okay. That was awesome. And I don't even feel much strain in my leg.'

As I checked my chakra level again, I felt that it was a bit short of half full.

I'll test one more thing before going to bed. Walking up to the tree at the edge of the garden, I rested a hand against its trunk.

Channelling some chakra, I tried to keep my hand in place as I pulled back. And… Success.

Oh, this was cool!

I stepped back from the tree. Coating the underside of one of my feet in chakra, I put it on the tree. As I latched onto it, I grinned and lifted my other foot up only to put it down again as I almost fell backwards, which would have been particularly spectacular since I was still keeping my foot stuck to the bark.

'This would take a lot of core strength. Can I do it?'

Pulling my foot away, I lifted myself using telekinesis and rotated so that I was facing upwards as I floated horizontally. This should make it easier.

I pushed my feet against the tree and channelled chakra to keep myself stuck. I tested it by pulling outwards before slowly releasing my grip with telekinesis.

As my telekinetic grip disappeared completely, I was left sweating as I stood on the side of the tree. Defying the laws of physics.

Not completely though since I was sweating bullets trying to keep my core steady.

I grinned triumphantly and tried to take a step, only for my control to slip. And I was falling. I stopped myself just above the ground.

My enthusiasm was undiminished. 'I can walk on walls!'

Who wouldn't want to do that? I could emulate walking on a wall with telekinesis, but that wouldn't really be walking on walls, would it? You can't tell me you never wanted to walk on walls once in your life. If you did, you would be lying.

I had been practicing my new power for a week when the letter arrived in the mail. And I had made great progress. More of that later.

The letter from UA arrived today. And naturally I didn't get to open it myself. Mother at least gave me the heads up to come to the living room as she ripped open the letter.

She looked into the envelope and pulled out a metallic disc.

As she put it down onto the table, a soft whirring noise prompted the appearance of a projection of the UA symbol on the opposite wall.

A second later it transitioned into an image of an office containing the figure of Power-loader, being eaten by an excavator claw as always.

"Contestant number 123. With one of the highest theoretical scores in your year along with an excellent practical score. You Teruhashi Kaito have been accepted into the support courses 1-G. We look forward to seeing you walk these halls on the 7th of April. Until then, young man."

The message ended as the hero waved, and the projection disappeared shortly after.

Then I was tackled by an enthusiastic mom.

"That's great. I had no doubt you'd get in! You are my partner after all. Anyway, I can't talk right now. Dad ordered pizza."

As Melissa hung up, I rose from my cross-legged position and walked up the wall. The window opened, and I swung myself onto the wall outside.

Climbing up onto the roof I reflected on the practice I had with my chakra during the last week.

Sticking to surfaces and climbing walls and ceilings was now a nonissue. I figured it out easily enough.

Next, I had tested the effect that chakra had on my perks. The active ones, obviously.

Here only some perks seemed to work. 3 specifically. They were "Minor Healing," "Intermediate Telekinesis Field," and "Intermediate Inventory."

Intermediate inventory was probably the easiest to identify. I could send chakra into my pocket dimension. When I put the chakra into my inventory, it seems like it stopped being mine, because when I drew it out of the inventory, it didn't obey me as it did before. I could still feel it though; I still felt what, how much, and where something was in my inventory.

My telekinesis field was more difficult to explain since I didn't really understand it myself.

The field was always surrounding me and had an almost 100-meter radius in all directions, corresponding with my level in the perk.

I couldn't directly channel chakra into the field. It would just dissipate as if there was nothing there. But I could, for lack of a better term, grip the chakra.

If I had to explain it with an analogy. I would say that the chakra was helium in a balloon. You blow the helium into a balloon, and my telekinetic grip is acting as both the rubber of the balloon as well as the pressure that the air outside of it is exerting on the balloon. The chakra is the helium inside of the balloon.

To keep the helium inside of the balloon, a constant force in the shape of air pressure pushing against the rubber of the balloon has to be applied at all times. Otherwise the balloon would explode. The concept is the same with my chakra. If there is no force holding it in, the energy would dissipate into the air.

If a hole is opened up in the balloon, the helium would spill out and mix with the air around it. And once again, the same principle applies to the chakra.

The difference between them is that I can't afford even a momentary relaxation of telekinesis, since chakra, unlike helium, moves and also dissipates at incomprehensible speeds. So any hole in my concentration would scatter the chakra in an instant.

Anyways, I haven't figured out what I can do with the chakra when I'm holding it with telekinesis, but I'll figure it out with more experiments.

The last of my perks that was compatible with my chakra was minor healing.

Channelling chakra into the soft pink light of my healing perk caused it to gradually change colours. It turned a bluish green, and it seemed to heal things faster. The thing that was most intriguing about the entire process was what happened to my chakra.

As my chakra suffused the healing light, I could feel it change... in nature? Or something. I've tried emulating the feeling that the chakra gave me, but I have been largely unsuccessful so far.

I'm confident that I will make progress soon though.

Moving on to the last but most practically useful thing I have tried.

Strengthening my body with chakra. It was very simple in concept, but I could tell that it will take a lot of training to master it.

Channelling my chakra into something like my muscles strengthened them. I could jump higher, run faster, and hit harder. But any given part of me could only handle so much of my chakra before it began breaking down.

I tried to channel a lot of chakra into my arm once during the earlier days of training. Only to get a painful surprise as it felt as if all of the muscles in my arm seized up and every cell in my arm felt as if they were burning.

The pain was excruciating, and I was ashamed of myself as mom rushed out to check on me as I screamed myself hoarse. The pain was relieved a while later as I got my bearings and used minor healing.

As far as I can tell, my muscles were overloaded and released the chakra in a violent burst, which probably ruptured some things.

Done reminiscing, I stood up straight on the rooftop. I would be trying another thing that I hadn't remembered up until today.

Pointing my arm upwards, my palm facing the sky. I called a marble from my inventory.

Chakra flowed through my chakra coils and through my arms. A small trickle went into the marble to keep it stuck while I built up a larger amount in a knot behind it. As I felt that I had enough, I released the chakra in a violent burst.

The chakra went through the small stream that I had previously channelled, which created a great pressure that slammed into the marble. Which promptly disappeared.

The next moment I was startled as a loud *crack* made me flinch...

'It pierced the sound barrier.'

I made a marble go mach 1. Awesome.

I was walking through the halls of UA once more. The corridors were filled with a large number of students who were all trying to find their way to their classrooms.

Looking down at the map in my brochure, I figured that I had just about arrived.

Turning the corner into another corridor, I looked along the wall and saw my classroom.

The large wooden door was close to this side of the corridor, and it had 1-G written on a sign above it.

I stopped in front of the door and took a breath before opening the door and stepping in.

The room was almost empty since I had arrived pretty early. Only containing a few students within it.

One such student, an older brown-haired boy, probably about 15, shot up from his seat closest to the door as he registered my presence in the doorway.

"Hello there, new classmate! It's nice to meet you; I am Tanaka Kozo! You should come sit with me, even if you are small!"

Ah. No wonder my other classmates were sitting at the other end of the classroom.

I gave him a polite bow before walking. Okay, I basically booked it to the opposite side and to the back corner of the classroom. Sitting down beside a black-haired boy around Tanaka's age.

"Hi."

I nervously scratched my forearm as I gave him an embarrassed smile.

The amused grin he returned was reassuring, at least.

"Kurogane Kaneto"

"Teruhashi Kaito"

We remained quiet as the rest of the class; another 10 people entered intermittently. That made 14.

I glanced in pity at the black-haired girl who had been forced to sit beside Tanaka, who was currently babbling at her. Before immediately looking away in shame. I shouldn't judge people, but he made it so easy.

It didn't seem at all malicious, but he had somehow managed to throw backhanded insults at each and every person who walked through that door, and in the same friendly tone he had used with me. This was completely unintended, I think.

The noise level in the room increased as people chatted with each other. The room fell silent as the door slid open and an authoritative voice seeped in.

"Everybody quiet down."

The man that walked through the door had an impressive stature. He had broad shoulders, stood tall, and had armour all over his body with gaps where his pale skin showed. His brown hair was long and messy as it framed his sharp, rectangular face.

He walked behind the teacher's desk, and his dark brown eyes darted around the room.

An unimpressed look settled on his face as he introduced himself.

"I am Hoshitani Takumi, hero name: EnerGraft. And I will be your homeroom teacher for the next three years."

He let his words settle in before announcing. "Welcome to UA High School!"

"The orientation is in 20 minutes, so I can answer questions as we make our way there."