Conference room - intermission

“I will start with a short introduction, to make sure that all of you possess at least the basic level of knowledge."

After that Nero began talking in a monotone voice, his demeanor changed as if he put on a white lab coat.

"TET stands for The Endless Travel corporation. Our public stance and the surface activity revolves around the space travel, we produce rocket components, train astronauts and do a lot of research centered around these topics although we have yet to achieve any significant achievements on our own.

The hidden side of the coin isn’t actually that different, it’s also connected with travel, but the destination is different. Instead of the endless space, we’re aiming at the place that the demons live in, their world. However, this is our long-term goal. For now, we’re still in the preparatory phase of producing equipment, gathering resources, solidifying Eprya’s government support, training espers and researching everything connected with it."

He was making short stops to help himself with the things written in the memo pad, probably only me and Vio were listening carefully. Others were looking for some ways to kill time.

Well, Vincent's turned off completely.

"Did you know that the mana gathering in the mana spots is a product of our world? It doesn’t leak to us from the other side, but it’s the demons who come here to collect it with our help. Normally it would never gather in such dense and huge amounts, but since the residents of the other world are way more adept at manipulating it, they’ve created three major areas where mana spots appear by itself. Claymore city which is the easiest place to raise espers and provide them with protection and surveillance. Glow Island which is TET’s exclusive test and training ground. And the still radioactive ruins of the old capital Tsurugi where we suspect that the demons are conducting their own experiments.

When did it all start? We don’t really know. But, TET itself was founded in 1989, nearly twenty years ago. The Seal became operational in 2003. Remember, you won’t be able to distance yourself from the Seal without losing memories, just treat Eprya borders as the line limiting your movement. This is a security protocol introduced along with other countermeasures to stop the esper knowledge from becoming public and to keep everyone in one place, under our country’s control. Don’t worry, we’re constantly improving the protocol and as long as you remain registered and won’t try to do anything stupid, each of you will be safe.”

Nero’s words reminded me that I had been once wondering if this world was any different to the one I came from. Now, when my two set of memories had been merged into one it was a lot easier to answer this question. It was true that I lacked the details, like who were the people who first colonized Maiden Island on which Eprya was founded, but I wasn’t ignorant to the point of not knowing anything.

When it came to the geography, there were two major differences.

First, and the most important one, Maiden Island which was located in between Japan and the USA on the North Pacific Ocean, a lot more to the north and to the left from Hawaii. The country of Eprya consisted of the main island - Maiden Island - and three minor ones - Glow Island, Gleam Island and Radiance Island. Their names originated from the fact that a lot of minerals such as tungsten, boron, titanium, manganese, chromium and, the most important of all, huge quantities of uranium could be found there. The main one’s size and shape were comparable to Venezuela.

Second, there actually was one more country that didn’t exist previously in my old world. To the left of Chile and north of Antarctica, on the South Pacific Ocean was Griino Island with a country of the same name located on it. But, it stopped being of any interest to me when I had learned that after becoming an esper any attempt to travel away from Eprya would end with the erasure of my memories.

Out of the three major mana spots gathering areas, one required me to gather the entire knowledge I had about Eprya’s history and its old capital Tsurugi to understand why Nero called it as ‘radioactive ruins of the old capital’.

During the second world war, the Maiden island was a very important transit point between the Axis and the Allies. Eprya’s neutral stance crumbled to dust when a huge rift between the citizens from the west and the ones from the east appeared and was constantly widened by the external propaganda. When it became obvious that Eprya joining the side of Axis was only a matter of time, a tragedy occurred. Tsurugi became the target of the third and fourth atomic bombs ever used in the entire alternative history of this world - just a day after the ‘Fat Boy’ had been dropped on Nagasaki.

The result of Tsurugi double bombing was not only worse, but it also scattered into the air all the uranium that was mined from the nearby islands and stored in the warehouses, waiting to be shipped from the main commercial port of Tsurugi. To this day the entire southern part of the Maiden Island is a zone with contaminated soil and a radioactivity indication that scares away almost every potential investor. Luckily, Claymore city was located on the other side of the island, in its northern regions, and didn’t suffer much. After this tragedy, the capital of Eprya was moved to the eastern city Estoc.

Other then that, the history and nearly every other important event on the world’s scale were identical as if this world was trying to follow into the footsteps of my old one, or maybe it was the other way round.

“Father, is listening to this really necessary? Vincent won’t remember any of it anyway.”

Interrupted Nero’s explanation Viktoria playing with the tip of her ponytail out of boredom.

“Nero, would you kindly move on to talking about espers and my children’s powers?”

Ordered politely father to which Nero nodded with a small smile and switched topics.

“Alright, let me just say that we’re nearing the completion of the first phase which goal is to create one hundred people with esper powers. One hundred is the optimal number that we decided on, after taking into consideration the forming speed of new mana spots, the number of tickets we are able to provide and similar factors. When this number is reached we will focus more on honing individual strength and start providing training. What’s more, no more new espers will be able to register unless one of the old ones will die or resign. So, please think twice before introducing your friends to this mystical side of our world, since there may not be a free spot for them.”

This was clearly aimed at me and Violet, heh.

“As for the four of you. I will also start from the youngest one.”

Violet who was in the middle of stifling a cute yawn, reacted to her name sharply. She probably didn’t expect to be called again. I had a feeling that the earlier chance to leave was a time-limited offer and by not taking it she had put her destiny on a completely different course.

Nero moved the memo pad closer to his face and resumed reading:

“Violet Amato, age thirteen.
Registered on the ninth of February 2018.
Esper number 91.
Whitelist category - D
Importance level - C
Active power type - branch of pyromancy.
Usage limitations - none.
Passive power type - fire resistance.
Usage limitations - none.
Number of conquered mana spots - one.
Personal demon - the demon of flames Yeolatrox.
Challenge name - Dazzling Performance.
Estimated challenge difficulty - E
Estimated challenge difficulty increase to mana density ratio - B
Estimated amount of soul-fused mana - F
Estimated offensive capability - F
Estimated defensive capability - F
Estimated support capability - E
Estimated special capability - F
Estimated growth potential - A
Special - rewarded mana decreased by 50% due to the demon’s contract.”

After brushing away a strand of blonde hair tickling my small nose, I whispered to Violet:

“Vio, did father took you to TET today?”

“Yeah, they’ve asked a lot of questions and did some tests, It really got on my nerves when they were repeating ‘weak’, ‘weak’ and ‘even weaker’ all the time.”

To get her mind off this, I tried stretching her cheek a little, but she shooed my hand away, evidently not in the mood for fooling around. Not that I was in one, nearly all the brain power had been relocated to finding a solution to my incoming crisis. In the worst case scenario I was planning to use the geas to put pressure on myself and make the fear of death affect both my consciousness and subconsciousness, but before that, there was one other thing that I wanted to try.

“Vincent Amato, age sixteen.
Registered on the eleventh of April 2012.
Natural Gatemaker number 3.
Whitelist category - B
Importance level - B
Active power type - none.
Passive power type - increased physical strength and endurance.
Usage limitations - none.
Tickets production frequency - one per two days.
Estimated amount of soul-fused mana - gatemaker type.
Estimated offensive capability - D
Estimated defensive capability - E
Estimated support capability - E
Estimated special capability - G
Estimated growth potential - G”

There was no reaction from Vincent. Probably not even one word had registered in his mind from the time when Viktoria had broken him. On the other hand, my twin was glancing at Vince frequently as if she was worried about something.

“Viktoria Amato, age seventeen.
Registered on third of December 2012.
Esper number 25.
Whitelist category - B
Importance level - A
Active power type - touch disintegration.
Usage limitations - specific item required.
Passive power type - prescience reality manipulation mixed with an attraction of coincidences?"

Nero paused his monotone reading and looked at my twin.

"Allow me to make a short stop here. To tell you the truth, Viktoria’s power is like an enigma to use, it sometimes works, sometimes simply turns off. We can’t even agree on one category to put it into, everyone just thinks of it as simply ‘big luck’."

Next, he went back to dictating. Even though I was trying to remember the most important bits and pieces, all the information he was throwing at me was hard to assimilate straight away.

I wonder if I can ask for a copy later.

"Usage limitations - subconscious usage.
Number of conquered mana spots - above twenty, plus one top-tier rank.
Personal demon - the demon of contradictions Zyx-cba.
Challenge name - Triple The Disaster.
Estimated challenge difficulty - A
Estimated challenge difficulty increase to mana density ratio - F
Estimated amount of soul-fused mana - SS
Estimated offensive capability - D
Estimated defensive capability - S
Estimated support capability - G
Estimated special capability - SS
Estimated growth potential - C
Special -”

“Nero, skip this one.”

“Thank you, father.”

Damn censorship.

On the other hand, the way that the old man tried to categorize us and put a label on everything was irritating, but more than that I was wondering why he skipped me.

“What about me?”

“There’s a problem with you, we’ve only received a notification from Silvie Toril on the second of February with your name, asking us to schedule an appointment, but you never arrived. Well, in the meantime we contacted Greg and he told us to put you on the temporary whitelist. Remember, it’s only temporary and you will have to visit The Checker before the end of this month to finish the full registration procedure.”

I looked at Vio and shifted my gaze to father, asking a voiceless question ‘why did you took her and left me?’. He understood my expression and said:

“I wanted to give my new daughter a little time alone, so she could get used to her new gender and explore it deeply. Oh, and don't worry, I will make sure the results of your full registration will be conveyed to your siblings."

Like a shy girl she wasn't, Viktoria reacted to his words with a giggle, there were no more ripples of anger on the surface of her mood. I switched my gaze back to Violet and wanted to explain myself, but she shook her head slightly to remind me that it wasn’t the time to get lured into the smiling duo games.

Apparently, Nero decided that for now it was enough and went back to his seat in the back. Following that was a single clap of father hands.

“Let’s take a short break to eat something. Viki, do you think that you can take care of Vincent? He doesn’t look too good."

"I'm not sure, but I will give it a try, it was bothering me as well."

"And you my, third daughter, please think deeply about the thing you don’t want me to know about the most. It will be your turn as soon as the break ends.”

During the time when Nero had been talking, I was also thinking of a way to resolve the incoming crisis and decided that it was too risky to place everything on luck and just pray. It was time to make my brain sweat and instead of waiting for the dangerous ticking bomb to explode - disarm it by myself.

You aren't the only ones who can manipulate people with words alone. I have over seventeen years of experience with fighting in this area and an entire life during which a lot of different knowledge had been gathered. Now... I only need to keep calm and act like a pro.... this will be hard.

“Of course father, I already did a lot of thinking. There’s a really important thing I will have to tell you all. One concerning the change in my true self.”