"Move Point?"
Kiyama Harumi looked at the student who always used to visit her lab. Her drowsy, gloomy eyes blinked slowly.
'A month ago, he was a registered Level 0. Now he has developed an ability? Even so, late bloomers usually only reach Level 1 or Level 2. Reaching a high level so suddenly is incredibly rare.'
'But... why does his profile show a Level 2 Pyrokinesis?' Kiyama frowned. 'There shouldn't be a clerical error like that in the Bank's database. It's probably a data mix-up during his preliminary scan.'
The testing equipment for Spatial Abilities was quickly prepared by the field staff. However, because this was a standard high school, the institute hadn't brought the heavy-duty materials required for high-level espers.
Yuuya looked at the neat stack of standard 3-kilogram iron shot puts resting on the grass. Beside them were miniature laser rangefinders designed to accurately measure the distance to the target zone.
A young testing official holding a tablet cleared his throat.
"To properly calculate your level, we must measure your maximum mass, maximum distance, and coordinate accuracy," the tester explained, reciting from the manual.
"A spatial user who can move a 50-gram object (like an egg) more than 50 centimeters qualifies as a Level 2. Level 3 involves moving objects weighing over 10 kilograms a distance of more than one meter. As for Level 4, those who demonstrate tactical military value... you just need to—"
The tester choked on his words.
His eyes widened, and his mouth gaped open in utter astonishment.
Snap.
All twelve shot puts in front of him had vanished.
He immediately looked down at the tracking tablet in his hand. His eyes practically bulged out of their sockets. He screamed as if he'd seen a ghost.
"T-This... the rangefinder is showing 1368.63 meters! They appeared on the roof of a building over a kilometer away!"
"Can we continue the test, sir?" Yuuya asked with a casual shrug, looking at the staff member's dumbfounded expression.
Snap.
In a flash, all twelve shot puts reappeared in their original positions on the grass, forming a perfect pyramid.
The staff member snapped out of his daze. He looked at Yuuya with incredibly excited, manic eyes. His fingers trembled as he scrolled across the tablet computer, verifying the telemetry.
"Simultaneously moving 12 targets totaling 36 kilograms... covering a distance of exactly 1368.63 meters... with an accuracy of 99.9%!"
The tester gasped for air. "Wow! That's amazing! This data vastly surpasses the baseline for a Level 4! I never expected to see a Level 4 in a regular high school!"
The commotion instantly alerted the Chief Director of the aptitude test, who rushed over with a team of senior researchers.
Heavy testing equipment was urgently requisitioned from the nearest research institution. Within twenty minutes, flatbed trucks arrived carrying massive blocks of lead, ranging from 30 kilograms to a staggering 1,000 kilograms.
The news spread like wildfire. Almost all the students who had finished their own tests swarmed the playground, forming a massive, whispering crowd around the testing zone.
"Wow~ I never expected a Level 4 Esper to appear in our school! Especially a Spatial User!"
"Yeah, I thought our school was just Level 0s and a few Level 1s!"
"Look at those massive lead blocks! So this is how high-level abilities are tested?"
"Wait... that's Takahashi?! Wasn't he just registered as a Level 2 Pyrokinesis user? How did he become a Level 4 Spatial User?!"
His classmates were stunned as they watched the protagonist of this school-wide sensation.
"What's going on? I'm totally confused. Didn't he just use fire the other day?!"
"I'm so jealous! There must be some mistake!"
"I don't think I've ever actually seen Takahashi use fire. Could he have just been lying to us this whole time?"
A wave of sour and confused murmurs rippled through Class 1-7.
"Takahashi! What is going on?!" Seiri Fukiyori blinked, thoroughly bewildered.
Hearing his classmate's voice, Yuuya merely shrugged. There was really no common ground between them anymore. When the gap between a predator and a flock of sheep becomes too large, the predator is naturally isolated. It was like a white crane standing among chickens.
"Can we begin the maximum output test, Takahashi-kun?" The middle-aged Chief Director adjusted his glasses, his hands shaking with excitement.
A range of one kilometer and a mass of thirty kilograms meant the subject could easily teleport himself and other objects without physical contact. This undoubtedly placed him among the top three Spatial Users in Academy City.
If the mass of the teleported object exceeded 1,000 kilograms at that range... then Academy City was about to welcome an unprecedented anomaly.
'If our institution is the one to discover a new Level 5,' the Director thought greedily, 'this discovery alone will secure billions in research funding!'
Yuuya looked at the massive, 1,000-kilogram (1 metric ton) cube of solid lead resting on the reinforced pallet.
Snap.
The space warped. The massive lead block vanished.
Instantly, it reappeared 100 meters away... and 10 meters straight up in the air.
BOOOOOOM!
The one-ton block crashed onto the empty testing field. The impact sounded like an artillery shell. The playground floor collapsed, creating a half-meter-deep crater. A large amount of dirt and debris exploded outward like fireworks, and the ground trembled violently as if a miniature earthquake had struck the school.
"GAAAH!"
"That startled me! That's so exaggerated!"
"That's terrifying!"
The surrounding students shrieked and scrambled backward.
Although Academy City was a city of Espers, high-level Espers were akin to walking weapons of mass destruction. Seeing such raw, devastating physical power casually thrown around was deeply shocking to the average student.
"One thousand kilograms! Teleported instantly without physical contact!" The Chief Director gasped, utterly overwhelmed.
"For distances exceeding one kilometer and masses exceeding one ton, the error in 11th-dimensional coordinate positioning did not exceed 0.1 centimeters!"
The Director grabbed a megaphone, his voice cracking with hysteria.
"The Eighth Level 5 has appeared!!"
In the decades since Academy City was established, there had only ever been seven Level 5s. The last one to be ranked (Mental Out) had appeared half a year ago. The hierarchy was supposed to be set in stone.
"Record!" The staff member wiped the sweat from his brow and shouted the results into his terminal. "Maximum distance: >1,300 meters! Mass: 1,000 kg! Error: <0.1 cm! Maximum simultaneous control quantity: 27 targets! Overall Rating: Level 5 Esper!"
The moment the words "Level 5 Esper" echoed across the field, the previously noisy playground fell into a dead, suffocating silence.
And then, it erupted.
"WHAT?! A LEVEL 5?!"
"A Level 5 is going to our school?!"
"Takahashi is actually a Level 5 Spatial User?! No way!"
Standing on the sidelines, Komoe-sensei's pink eyes were wide with shock. Her cigarette dropped from her lips.
"Takahashi-chan... has become a Level 5?!"
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