1 Part 1: Powerhouse

The Power Development Program: a system dedicated to helping people learn how to use their powers. This system is what turned Osaka into a hotspot for superpowered individuals. One such individual is Taiki Kimeda, a second-year at Ichimai Academy, a school known for its powerful superhumans. Among the many students at Ichimai Academy, Taiki sits on top of the rankings as the only undefeated student in the school's history. This impressive feat comes from Taiki's uncanny mastery of his abilities, documented as "Unclassified Energy" or "U Energy." Unfortunately for Taiki, his notoriety of being the strongest student at Ichimai Academy and one of the strongest in all of Osaka brings him unwanted attention.

Taiki stood up from his desk and looked at the window of the third floor of Ichimai Academy. He was currently in the middle of a biology lesson, and a loud crash outside the school was all he needed to wake up from his drowsiness. Standing in the field next to the Academy was a man holding a smashed car like a staff. Taiki instantly knew why this dangerous looking person was at the Academy. He wanted to have his try at fighting Taiki, of course. His classmates also knew this, prompting everyone to turn their heads to him, waiting for him to say something. Taiki let out a sigh and walked out of the classroom, telling his teacher that he'd be back shortly.

Opening the doors to the field, Taiki waved the man standing there. The man grinned and hurled his crushed car towards Taiki. He let the car come within a foot of him then put out his hand and released a burst of bright orange energy, completely incinerating the car. His enemy frowned and started to walk slowly towards Taiki. As he got closer, the man picked up his speed and was quickly in Taiki's face. Attempting to hit Taiki, the man swung his fist at him, but Taiki easily evaded and shot a flame from his hand, burning the man. Wincing in pain, the man continued his attack on Taiki, though missing every strike. Deciding to go for a flashy finisher to entertain his classmates watching from the science lab, Taiki generated a field of electricity around his hand and aimed it at the man. A horrified expression crossed his face, but before he could make a move, Taiki let his electrical beam rip. It connected with the man's chest and the electricity flowed through his body, thoroughly frying his insides, though not enough to kill him. Satisfied with his finishing move, Taiki headed back to class.

After school, Taiki received a text from an unknown number. Expecting it to be some type of vague threat like many in the past, Taiki didn't bother looking at it. He kept walking, but as he was passing the East Lion Shopping Mall, he heard another beep from his phone. Taiki checked it and again, the message was from the unknown number. Sighing, Taiki opening the text and read it.

"Come over to my house tonight"

"What the hell?" Taiki thought. "That's really weird."

Taiki ignored the message, but quickly got another one.

"I'll be in the basement so just come through that way."

Taiki stared at the message, half disturbed and half confused. "Who is texting me? This is super creepy. Ah well, let's just hope it's not some kidnapped person who's trying to get help because I will not be helping."

When Taiki got home, he looked at the two mysterious messages again and chuckled. How would he go to this person's house if he didn't even know where they lived or who they were? Taiki continued to be amused by this thought until he heard a sudden knock on the door. Shortly afterward, he received a third text from the unknown number.

"I know it's not really nighttime yet, but I'm at your door"

Seeing this message, Taiki became more confused and started to panic. He slowly walked downstairs to the front door and prepared to open it. He placed his hand on the doorknob and twisted it. As he was about to pull the door open, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Startled, Taiki jumped backward into the air and shot a bolt of electricity out of his hands. He crashed onto the floor as he heard an "Ouch!" come from the person he hit. Taiki looked up to see his friend Kiyo Miyazu standing there.

Taiki sighed in relief. "Oh, it's just you. You scared the shit out of me."

"Why didn't you respond to any of my texts?" Kiyo demanded.

"Ah, well I didn't recognize the number," Taiki said.

"Oh, I guess I did get a new phone," she laughed.

Kiyo was a good friend of Taiki's, known for her combat ability and her teleportation. If Taiki was being honest, he had always had a crush on Kiyo. She had long, dark red hair and pinkish-red eyes. She was very energetic and also a hothead, but could sometimes be clumsy too. She couldn't just teleport either. She also possessed the ability to create solid objects out of some type of red energy. Kiyo attended Ichimai Academy along with Taiki and was ranked fourth in the school. She was one of the few people at the Academy who could actually go toe-to-toe with Taiki because of her teleportation and martial arts knowledge.

"Anyways, it seems you've been gaining a lot of popularity recently," said Kiyo.

"I mean, I guess that's true. People want to beat me and whatnot."

"But get this: There's apparently some guy who people think could actually beat you."

"You know how many times I've heard that? First, there was the guy with the 'pure flames' which was really just white fire. Then, there was the girl who could turn into sand. I mean I could have just flamed her and she would've been glass."

"But this new guy can apparently make himself completely radioactive and can disintegrate things instantly. Sounds like a challenge, huh?"

"Depends if his radiation can go through my energy field. If so, he may be a threat. If not, he's screwed. Either way, I'll beat him up when he finds me."

Kiyo laughed. "So, how about we go to the mall."

"The mall? I mean, sure, why not."

Taiki and Kiyo walked to the East Lion Shopping Mall and stepped through the doorway.

"Okay, so where are we gonna start?" Taiki asked.

"A clothing place obviously!" Kiyo responded excitedly.

"Of course..."

The two went into a clothing store and Kiyo started examining the clothing around. She found a few pieces of clothing she liked and hopped into a dressing room to try them on, leaving Taiki alone. That's when he noticed a man with a gun in his pocket. The man saw that Taiki had noticed and reached for his gun. Before he was able to pull it out Taiki shot a laser at his hand, causing the man to retract his hand and hold it in pain. Suddenly, another person shot at him from behind but missed, alerting Taiki of his presence. He quickly turned around and hit him with a bolt of energy, knocking him into a shelf. Seeing that there were more thugs with guns, Taiki ordered the employees and customers to leave. They quickly filed out of the store as Taiki took on the other gunmen.

Taiki launched a barrage of electricity at the attackers and took out three of them. The remaining two lunged for the staff door, trying to escape, but were stopped in their tracks by Kiyo, who teleported in front of them and smashed their heads together.

"Took you long enough," said Taiki.

"Well, I had to try on some new clothes," Kiyo stated.

Indeed, Kiyo was wearing a light blue shirt, a white jacket, and black shorts as opposed to her previous red shirt and gray pants.

"Well I told all the employees to leave so nobody's here to check you out."

"No worries, I'll just leave the money on the counter."

Kiyo placed the money by the cash register and the two of them called the police to clean up the mess. Once they arrived, they arrested the thugs and quickly found out that they were members of a gang lead by a superhuman named Akito Kashio, better known as Reactor.

"Wait, Reactor..." Taiki paused. "That might be the radioactive guy you were talking about, Kiyo!"

"Indeed it is," said one of the police. "He has quite the big gang, though only a few are superhuman. We've tried to locate their headquarters before, but we suspect that they move bases often."

"Can't you just ask the dudes we beat up?" Taiki asked.

"We've tried, but they usually don't crack until a few days after we catch them, likely giving the rest of the gang time to relocate."

"Don't worry about making them talk. I got you recovered."

Taiki walked over to the gang members sitting on the floor and glared at them.

"Okay, so where exactly is your headquarters?"

"That ain't none of your business!" spat one of them.

The others laughed and Taiki responded by charging his hand with electricity.

"I got 30,000 volts right here. Now talk or you're gonna get fried."

The thugs suddenly looked terrified and instantly spilled everything they knew.

"S-so, the base right now is at an abandoned construction site, maybe like 2 miles from here, w-where they were gonna build that big electronics store."

"Hm... Well, that works for me," Taiki said. "Kiyo, I'm gonna call Sayaka and we're gonna go take Reactor and his crew out."

"Huh? Just us three?" she questioned.

"Come on, you don't think we could beat them?"

"Well, maybe, but do you really want to risk it?"

"Um, if you'd like, we could send a squad to back you up, if you insist on doing this," added the police.

"Sounds good to me. Meet us at the site at... let's say 10 o'clock."

"Okay, we'll be prepared."

And with that, Taiki called their friend Sayaka Yuo and decided to go over to her house to explain what was going on.