Chapter 16:

Sub-powers and the Desperate Boy...

Mind Reader's


"Do you think that we're... Safe?"

At hearing these words coming out from Hatomi's mouth, I started remembering about what I was thinking about these past few days... 

If I spoke about them to anyone else, they would be caught up in the whole predicament and we didn't know what would happen to them. They could even be used against us so that we feel obligated to follow their orders.

But thinking about our own lives... We were the ones who were in more danger. We were the ones who could control these powers... We were the ones who could accomplish almost anything as long as we had them in our possession.

"Right now... I do think that we're safe, but we don't know for how long that'll be. The only thing we can hope for at this moment is that whatever happens with Asami-san is that we don't get dragged in with her"

"But-!"

"I know that Asami-san wouldn't dare do something like that... I'm just saying that that's the only moment in which our lives could be in danger"

Hatomi stared into my eyes for a bit and I could tell that my words had made her start getting angry. The way she was gripping her skirt was more then enough to tell me that that was the case.

"Why is this happening to her...?"

"I don't know..."

"Natsuo?"

"Yeah?"

I looked over at her and noticed that she seemed awfully determined about something "Whatever happens... I want to know if you'll help me in my time of need"

"..." I let out a sigh and couldn't help but smile at her "Of course I would have help you out, you've done a lot for me"

"Thank you..."

"No worries"

As we waited there a bit more so that she could feel better to continue on with class, a question appeared in my mind "I just want to know how these powers came to be... That's all"

"The Sub-powers?"

"Yeah... If we were going to construct a theory using all three of us as examples, there isn't any correlation between us that could explain why we awakened them or what we could have done to trigger them activating..."

"You activated it a few days ago... Asami-san activated it during her second year of college while I activated my own around my last year of middle school..."

"If we're basing this off age, then that would be out of the question" "Gender is out of the question as well... There's really nothing that could lead to them activating"

"Don't you think that it could be a gene?"

"A gene...?"

"Just like the Xeno, it appeared out of nowhere and only until most of the population started hearing each other's thoughts was when experiments were conducted" "I could possibly be a mutation of the gene"

"That does explain that, but even then... More people would have felt the same thing as we did and to top it off, you've been trying to connect with others for a long time now, haven't you?"

"Yes, I have"

"And you failed every time, that means that it can't be a mutation because if it were, you would have been able to connect with others after a few months of you activating your sub-power"

"..."

"..."

All of our answers were incorrect. The theories that I was trying to form wouldn't work. There wasn't really a core reason as to why they could have presented themselves.

I could have said about something tragic that could have caused them to present themselves, but it was impossible. Asami-san didn't say anything about that and she was the type of person who simply spoke her mind from what I could see.

"Then why? Why did we get these powers?"

"..."

"Natsuo?"

"I don't think that it's a mutation of the Xeno gene, but it could be possible that another gene appeared within our brains that allowed us to access these powers" "But what could have changed?"

Even though I was able to come up with that, I didn't know for sure what it was. It ate away at me since I knew that we were on the right track.

"Our brain..."

"Huh?"

I glance dover at Hatomi and noticed her expression change drastically "Our brain... Humans are only capable of using at least 10% if their brain. Maybe we're able to utilize the full potential of our brain which then allows us to utilize the Sub-powers"

Hearing her theory, I noticed that it was completely plausible. Even though we didn't have any connections amongst the three of us, the brain was one thing that we all had.

"Maybe you're right... Maybe that's why we're able to process so much information without trouble"

"As long as we don't push ourselves that is"

I could feel her gaze on me when she said those words. I knew that I had gone too far with my experiment, but it was something that I wanted to test out and if we were basing it on what Hatomi had said... It was logical.

If we utilized 100% of our brain, it would be possible to process all the information without any problem at all, but even then, it would make it difficult for the rest of the human body, therefore giving out, making us bleed, pass out and possibly even killing ourselves in the process.

"We need to tell this to Asami-san and get her feedback on this"

"We'll do it once we finish class"

"Yeah, good idea"

With those words, she started to slowly get up from the bed and seeing this, I stood up as well and started to support her "Grab on"

"Y-You don't need to do this..."

"Let me do this. You're legs are going to hang on a bit more, but if you continue walking alone, they'll give our on you again"

I stared into her eyes for a bit and before I knew it, she was blushing and immediately proceeded to look away from me "T-Thank you"

Seeing her getting embarrassed by this, I couldn't help but start getting embarrassed myself "N-No worries"

The entire way back towards the field we were completely silent. Not because we didn't want to talk to one another, it was most likely at the fact that the both of us were embarrassed about what had transpired.

Once we arrived at the field, our teachers told Hatomi to sit out the class just to be safe all the while I proceeded to do whatever I needed to do.

As I did so, from time to time, I would glance over at where Hatomi was to see if she was alright and whenever I did so, I would notice that her gaze was on me.

"It's a bit embarrassing when she looks at me like that..." I shrugged the feeling and simply focused on the exercises given to all of us.

When it was time to start on heading home, Hatomi insisted she was alright, but even then, I made sure that I was near her in case she did stumble or anything of the sort.

"I'll call Asami-san and let her know about our theory"

"You sure? I can do it as well"

"I'm sure of it"

"Ok... If you say so"

As we neared her place, she bowed at me and waved "See you tomorrow"

"Yeah, see you"

With those parting words, she made her way inside her house all the while I continued walking a bit more and entered my own house. Just like always, I did what I would normally do and once it was getting pretty late, I pulled out my phone and was about to call Asami-san to hear her thoughts on the matter when a sudden picture flooded my mind.

It was a picture of not only Asami-san but also Hatomi in a dark room. From that picture came another picture of the research facility we visited.

"What is this...? Wait" Then I remembered something... Asami-san's ability also allowed her to send pictures about what could happen or what happened in the past.

"She's sending me a message! Their both in danger!" I pulled out my phone and started dialing Asami-san's number, but sure enough, it was turned off.

I then tried calling Hatomi, but it was the same thing. I then remembered that she could communicate with me via telepathy but as I tried to do so, no voices responded to me.

"She's either asleep, knocked out or she isn't able to respond to me because they could find out"

I bit my lips and I could feel a bit of blood drip "I need to head there as quickly as possible!"

I grabbed everything I would need to try and break them out and immediately started running in search of a taxi to take me to the facility.

"I'm coming for the both of you... Just please, hold out!"

-june-
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