Chapter 1

A group of thugs surrounded a young boy who was walking down the street. "Hey punk," one of the thugs grabbed the boy, "give us all your money, or you're gonna regret it." Meanwhile, a couple looked over at what was going on. The boy looked at them, and when they looked away, he sighed. He wasn't getting any help from them. He punched one of the thugs in the face, then followed with a kick. Two other thugs ran at him. "You little punk!" The boy quickly took care of them. The last thug smirked. A little fireball formed in his hand, and it was getting bigger. "You think you're tough?! Well, take this, you skinny brat!" He threw the fireball at the boy, but it went through the boy. The thug was shocked. "What the..." before he could finish his sentence, the boy already knocked him out. The boy continued walking when a skinny brown-haired girl popped out of nowhere. "I'm with the police! You're all under..." She looked first at the thugs who were on the floor, then at the boy. Did he do all this? Then she looked at his face. "Karna?"

"I see. So the usual, then. Karna, you can't just beat up people, you know". Karna rolled his eyes. " I told you a hundred times, Arisu, it isn't even my fault. Those thugs threatened me, so what was I supposed to do? Arisu shrugged her shoulders. "Hmm, I don't know. Maybe calling the police would be a good idea?" Karna shook his head. "Yeah, no. I'm still surprised that the police even let you join them, given that you have heart disease and that you use a cane." "Yeah, well, it's not that serious, and I can still fight since I'm a teleporter. But we should hurry to school, or we'll miss the first day!" Arisu cheerfully grabbed Karna's arm, and the latter smiled. Then the two vanished into thin air. (They teleported).

Blank High School was one of the top schools for espers in New York City. To be accepted, an esper has to pass a series of tests using his or her powers as well as other standardized tests. Only nine-hundred out of three million applicants get admitted every year. It was the definition of an elite school, boasting nearly one hundred percent employment in the military. (Espers are considered weaponized humans due to their superhuman powers, which make them ideal soldiers.)

Karna looked around for a seat in the auditorium. Wow, this place is huge, he thought. Karna sat in a row with four empty seats next to him. A little while later, a girl with black hair and clothes came up to him. She pointed at the empty seats. "Is anyone sitting here?" Karna shook his head. The girl sat down. After learning the girl's name was Erica and that they were in the same class, a boy with glasses and a big afro showed up and asked the same question Erica did. "Hey, I'm Diego. I'm in the same class as you guys." Karna looked towards the stage. He started daydreaming about the rest of the day until an extremely muscular man with a buzzcut appeared on the stage.

"Good day to you all. I'm Yuma Iwasaki, and I'm the principal of this school. I welcome you all with warm hearts and expect great things from you all. I hope that you all come to love this school. And now, give a warm welcome to your grade representative, Arisu Iwasaki!" Arisu bowed while everyone was clapping. Arisu took the microphone from the principal and started talking. "As you all know, I'm your grade representative. If you have any suggestions or ideas, come to me and I'll see what I can do. Otherwise, let's all do our best together, ok?!" Everyone in the audience applauded once again. The first day of school had begun.

Karna was typing on his desk(there was a holographic computer built into it, which was touchscreen with a keyboard and mouse as well). After logging into the account the school gave him, Karna started deciding on which classes to take. I'm taking physics and computer science, oh, and also engineering. But what else? He pondered on the subject until Erica and Diego were in front of him. "Hey, Karna, wanna get lunch later?" Diego asked. Karna nodded, then went back to typing. "Sure. I don't know anyone else here." The bell rang, signaling the start of homeroom. After everyone went to their seats, a blue-eyed woman with blond hair wearing a blond dress stood in front of the class. "Hi. I'm Miss Madison, your homeroom teacher as well as your history teacher. The books I'm holding tell you all about the school, from its rules to any extracurriculars you might be interested in. I will hand them out later, but first, I'll take attendance." Karna stared out the window as she called names. So school officially starts, huh? He daydreamed again about the rest of the day as Miss Madison started passing out the books.

Karna looked around the cafeteria for Erica and Diego. Where are they? Didn't they say to wait here? He looked around a bit more until Diego and Erica were right in front of him. "Sorry about being late," Diego apologized. "I had to talk to Miss Madison about something. Erica said she was busy too. Anyways, let's get lunch." After finding a table to sit down, the three started talking about classes and what careers they wanted to pursue. "Wow, you both want to be robotic engineers?" Erica asked. Karna shrugged. "A lot of people do. In the military, making robots pays well. Although I guess it's a coincidence that Diego and I want to be robotic engineers and happen to know each other. Speaking of which, what do you want to be, Erica?" Erica thought about it for a few seconds. "Hmm, I'm not sure. Being a soldier pays a lot too, and there's a bonus of smashing douchebags, a thriving species that needs to be extinguished. But it is very unhealthy. Not good for surviving. Well, whatever, I'll decide later." Just then, Arisu came over. "Oh, Karna, I've been looking all over for you. Why didn't you respond to my texts?" "My phone was turned off, sorry," Karna replied. Diego whispered, "Isn't that the grade rep? How do you know her?" to which Karna replied that they were childhood friends. Diego smirked. "Oh, I see. You made moves on this hottie in advance, huh?" Karna blushed. "What - no- I..." He was interrupted by a tall, light-skinned boy with brown hair. "Hey, Arisu, you could have told us you found some seats before leaving off." With the boy came a group of other students. "Wait, there's no space. Let's sit elsewhere." Arisu shook her head. "No, I want to sit here." The boy and his group were shocked to hear that. "But, they're just level B students. They're too pathetic to be with level A students like us." The group nodded. Now Arisu looked shocked. "Why would you say that, Lucas?" Erica and Diego got angry. "What was that?" They both said. Karna sighed. He got out of his seat. "Hey, Arisu, I'm done eating, so I'll be leaving now. Feel free to join me." Arisu decided to follow him.

After school was over, Karna and Arisu were walking home with Erica and Diego, when all of a sudden, Lucas showed up with his group. "Arisu, I've already told you, you can't hang out with these losers. Walk home with us." Arisu shook her head. "I'd rather be with them, thank you." What followed next was an intense argument between Erica, Diego, and Lucas. "You can't separate her and Karna, they're childhood friends!" "Yeah, no, pathetic garbage like you can't be her friends." Karna looked at Arisu. "This is getting out of control. Shouldn't we do something?" Arisu nodded. As they walked over to Lucas, he started attacking Diego and Erica. "Shut up, you pathetic B class losers!" Ice shards formed around him. "I'll teach you a good lesson for speaking up to me, you bastards!" He flung the shards at Erica, smirking. But to his shock, they burned to crips before they could reach her. "Oh, a douchebag. Looks like I finally get to beat one up." She threw a fireball at Lucas, forcing him to jump out the way. But he was hit from behind by an invisible force, which turned out to be Diego. "Aww, what's wrong? Can't keep up with us lowly B class students?" Lucas was livid. "That's it, you little punks!" Multiple ice shards the size of a car formed around Lucas then flew to Erica and Diego. Before they got hit, Karna grabbed them, and by doing so, was able to make the ice shards phase through Erica and Diego. Lucas and his group looked shocked. This time, the whole group attacked Karna, but just like before, the attacks went through him. "Oh, I see. Your power is intangibility," Lucas said. "That's why everything goes through you. Well, screw you! Everyone attack him! He's only in class B. He can't phase through all our attacks!" Karna sighed as he watched everyone lunge towards him. Yeah, well, I can do more than turn intangible, he thought. A lot of things are possible when you can control atoms, although it's still difficult to have full control over everything.

Erica and Diego were in shock. Lucas and his whole group were beaten to a pulp, but Karna didn't even have a scratch on him. What the hell? Erica thought. How? Beating Lucas was hard, but his whole group? Diego looked in awe. Wow, he's incredible; he did that like it was nothing. But how, I thought his power was intangibility. How was he able to reflect their attacks back at them? Karna walked over to them. "Is something wrong? You guys look like you've seen a ghost?" Arisu teleported over to them. "Well, I suppose that's true. Considering your powers, you're the closest thing to a ghost. Anyway, what do we do about them?" She pointed to Lucas and his group, who were all unconscious and lying on the ground. "We'll just call 911. Then we can leave," Karna replied.

"Well, that was an eventful day." Arisu sat down next to Karna on the sofa. "What are you watching now?" she asked. "Terrorist attacks by espers have been on the rise since the guy that calls himself Vex showed up," said Karna. "People aren't so sure what to think about us anymore." Arisu nodded. "Well, not everyone can be an esper. We are genetic weapons made in a lab, after all. Besides, I'm sure some of them know that not all of us are bad, so cheer up." Karna smiled. "Yeah, you're right. It's just that I tend to think about things a lot." Arisu shook her finger. " You mean you overthink things a lot," she corrected him. She grabbed his hand. "It's alright. Those experiments won't happen again. We won't be separated, I promise." She smiled at him, then got up from the sofa. "Well, I'll be going to bed now. You should do the same." She yawned as she went to her bedroom. I was so close to kissing her, Karna thought. He blushed as he tried to get the idea out of his head. I should go to bed too.