Chapter 11: Is This Fate or Just Plot?

The next day, Izumi woke up after a long sleep. He opened the chat and saw that the system has already started to update. Therefore, he won't be able to talk to the other members. Today was a school day and Izumi decided to relax. After the stressful mission, he had just the day before, he deserves some rest. He went to get ready,

'Guess it's time to go back to being a loner.' he thought. He let his hair down and it fell until it reached his neck. He left his earnings and piercings on his desk and took his glasses. The pill had cured myopia therefore he didn't need it. He only took it because more than 10 years with glasses and taking it off made him weird. He felt naked without them. He only needed to alter the lenses to take out the prescription on them. He looked at his tattoo. He had gotten the tattoo out of curiosity, but it wasn't helping in his situation. since he didn't learn illusion magic, he had to cover it with long sleeves and wear his complete uniform. His clothes were a little baggy therefore concealing his muscular body.

"I'll have to learn how to do illusion magic so I don't get caught," he said to himself.

As he went out of his room, he saw his mom get ready for work while watching the morning news.

"Good morning dear. Did you grow taller?" she asked when she saw her son.

" Good morning mom and I think I did," Izumi said feigning innocence.

"Really? I guess you are still sixteen years old so you are still growing." she shrugged. After putting on her shoes, she turned toward Izumi

"Well son, I am going to work so your breakfast is already there on the table. Bye!" she said before kissing his forehead and going to the cake shop. Izumi simply smiled and went to eat.

After having a satisfying breakfast, he grabbed his bag and as he was about to open the door, he was hit with a massive headache.

"I am... The Fool with... dreams"

"From the beginning... Until the...end"

"There is only... the never-ending...potential"

Izumi recognized the lines. They were the first three lines of his aria for his reality marble that he used on his mission. The voice didn't stop.

"So long... as I march, I shall... never stop"

"Touched by the...void and brought... forth by dreams"

"My mind is my world... and my world... is my mind"

After saying three more lines, the voice stopped and the headache disappeared like a lie.

'Seems like my reality marble is developing faster than I thought. Good, the faster, the better,' Izumi thought with a grin.

Soon he left the apartment and headed for school.

His first class was a math class. Since he was only in the first year of Highschool, it was relatively easy. Instead of listening to the teacher, he observed the class. Some were listening to the teacher, some were sleeping, and others were doodling or reading their novels. Ishikawa had his head on his right hand and listened to the teacher with a bored expression, Yoshikawa was sleeping on the desk, Iura was writing something in his notebook with his tongue sticking out of his mouth, and then there is Hori.

Izumi didn't know what to think of her. Sure she was pretty and, like, really pretty. If he had a chance with her, he would've taken it. the problem? Well, he didn't know how to approach her. First of all, school only started, therefore, it would be weird if he just went over to her to talk. Second, he has never talked to a girl. You would think living two lives would give him time to deal with that problem, but no. Why? Because of problem number three; he was an introvert. That last one was the most important. Without this flaw, he wouldn't have a problem with what humans call social interaction. Two lives won't ever solve this one making Izumi a lost cause in social interaction.

Hori was listening to the teacher talk about some equations when she felt a gaze. She turned towards the source and saw a boy looking at her and the latter quickly turned his head avoiding her eyes. Since the first day of class, Hori thought this boy was weird. You would think after his introduction, on the first day of class, people would try to talk to him, but no. They all just ignored him as if he didn't exist. He wore his coat even if it was hot outside, he had long black hair which covered almost everything until his neck except his face and he wore glasses giving him an otaku feeling.

'Weird' she thought and went back to listening to the teacher.

'What the hell? How are her senses so sharp?' Izumi thought as he went to look outside the window avoiding Hori's eyes.

The day passed relatively slowly. English class was easy as he was given the gift of (Silver Tongue) from the system, therefore, enabling him the ability to learn languages instantly. Given time, it would probably grant him (Omnilinguism), but that's for a long time. Science was easy because of his new ability, (Dark Matter), his mind took his math and science to a whole new level. Finally, he also had social studies which were helped by the eidetic memory that he got from the purification pill. Overall, his time in high school is going to be a breeze.

The bell rang at 3:15 pm and Izumi took his bag to go straight home. As he arrived home, he saw that his mom was not there.

"She must still be at work." Since he had nothing to do, he decided to test his (Dark Matter), out at his usual secluded place, Taking off his "loner get up" as he calls it, he put on his earrings and piercings and put on a shirt and pants. He also tied his hair to let his neck breathe as the temperature outside was hot. He locked his door and went out. As he walked, he heard the barks of a dog and a child crying. Like any decent person, he went to check the situation out and help if needed. As he came close to the park, he saw a child running tears streaming down his cheeks and blood escaping his nose. Behind him was a dog without a leash chasing after the boy. One could see that the dog was going to catch up to the child. Therefore, Izumi ran and stood in between the child and the dog. Over the years, he had discovered that magic could exude some pressure like a knock-off version of Haki and animals and other creatures were more sensitive to it than humans unless they trained in magic. Therefore, without a word, he flared his mana and the animal stopped in its track, whimpered and quickly ran away. Izumi turned around and was greeted with the sight of a child with sparkling eyes and a runny nose. He crouched down and asked,

"Are you okay?" The child replied,

"Wow, oni-san (Big brother)! The dog just ran away after seeing you! Thank you oni-san!". Izumi only chuckled.

"You're welcome. Now let me take you home. Can you tell me your address?"

"But Nii-san, Onee-chan told me to not tell my address to a stranger." the boy replied.

Izumi only wrily smiled before a thought struck him,

"Your sister is a wise woman. How about this? my name is Miyamura Izumi. Now we are not strangers right?" The boy thought for a while before nodding.

"Okay ni-san, My name is Souta," he replied and gave his address. Izumi had a sense of déjà-vu when the boy told him his name, but he put it in the back of his mind. The teen took his hand and they started walking toward the boy's home.

As they walked, Izumi asked him questions

"So Souta, what were you doing out here alone?"

"I was trying to go home, but then the dog started to chase me." the boy replied. Izumi raised one eyebrow and looked at the boy,

"Alone?"

"Yeah, I was playing with some friends then it was time to go home. So we left."

As they were talking, Izumi felt his sense of déjà-vu getting larger and larger, but he still couldn't place it.

"Ah! There is my house!" Souta said. Izumi looked at the house and thought,

"What a nice house."

Souta opened the door and entered the house dragging Izumi with him.

"Come in ni-san!"

Izumi who only wanted to just let the boy go at the door was wrily smiling as the boy pulled his hand and entered the house.

"Nee-chan!"

"Ah! Souta! Welcome home" welcomed a familiar voice.

That's when it hit Izumi like a train. A head popped out from a corner of a wall and saw Souta with a bleeding nose.

"Souta! oh! What happened to you?" Hori ran toward the boy with a tissue and wipped the blood off his nose.

As Hori was fretting over her little brother, Izumi stood there stunned all the while thinking,

"Is this fate? Or is this just the plot forcing itself on me?"

While Izumi was having his existential crisis, Hori finished wiping Souta's nose and looked up.

'Oh crap! I didn't even see him!' she thought when she finally saw him.

'Wow! Look at those muscles and he even looks handsome, but he has a lot of piercings. Is he a punk?' she thought. She decided to speak up or she would look like a creep if she stared too long.

"Oh! I'm sorry I didn't see you there," she said.

"It's okay. I'm just glad that this little guy was able to get home. I saw him being chased by a dog." Izumi replied after snapping back to reality.

"Really? Are you hurt anywhere else?" she asked Souta.

"No Ni-san saved me. He just stood there and the dog was scared and ran away!" the small boy recounted excitedly.

"Thank you, sir," Hori said as she bowed to Izumi. Izumi just shook his hands in front.

"It was no big deal, anyone would've done what I did."

"Still thank you very much," Hori said.

"Well, since Souta has arrived home safely, I best be on my way," Izumi said and was about to turn when a small hand tugged his sleeve. Izumi saw that the hand belonged to Souta.

"Ni-san, please stay and play." Izumi's heart clenched when he saw tears beginning to form in his eyes.

"Why don't you stay a bit if you have time? Souta likes you and wants to play with you. And I'd also like to thank you." Hori interjected.

'You know what? Fuck it! if Fate wants to be my wingman, I'll even let it be my best man if this works.' Izumi decided after thinking.

"Sure why not? Sorry for intruding," he said, took off his shoes and followed after the siblings. He sat at the dining table with Souta telling him stories of his school.

"It's a really nice house," Izumi said.

"Thank you. Would you like something to drink?" Hori asked.

"Just a glass of water. Thank you" While Hori went to get some water, Izumi observed her.

'She looks even more beautiful without makeup.'

She came back with a glass and gave it to him.

"Here you go."

"Thank you."

"So can you tell me what happened"

"It's just like he said. I just saved him from a dog after he had tripped while running away." Izumi replied.

"I see. Thank you very much."

"Souta is a calm kid. He had no problem talking with others and he immediately calmed down after seeing the dog run away."

"No no. That's not it. He's very airheaded."

"What's more impressive is you running this big house all by yourself Hori-san."

At this moment, it was as if lightning had struck inside Hori's mind.

"Hori-san?" Izumi said confused.

"Wha-What?" Hori stuttered stunned. She claimed her hands on the table.

*BAM*

"How do you know my name? Do you go to the same school as me?" she interrogated.

"What are you talking about? We go to the same class. My name is Miyamura Izumi and I go to class 1-E." Izumi said looking utterly confused before looking at his attire.

'Ah right. I totally forgot about the outfit. Why am I forgetting so much today? I'm supposed to be the one with an eidetic memory.' he lamented inside.

"What the hell? That dark gloomy kid is him!? They look like two completely different people. This one is like ten times more handsome than the gloomy one. WHAAAAT! Now, he saw me without makeup and no one was supposed to see me like this" she thought.

Izumi observed her as she was having a mental breakdown and thought that it looked cute. Looking at the time, he knew it was time to go.

"It seems that it's my time to go. I'll see you in class Hori-san. Bye, Souta. I'll see you next time." He said.

"Bye, Ni-chan!" Souta said.

"Uhm." Hori just nodded in a daze before snapping back to reality.

"Oh. Bye," she said hesitantly. Izumi only chuckled at Hori's reaction and left their house.

***

After leaving the house, he went to a secluded place to train his (Dark Matter) since he couldn't use magic for a month he had to practice with it. Arriving at the isolated ground, he checked to see if anyone was there. Sensing no one, he went to work.

Izumi brought his Personal Reality out and started producing Dark Matter. A Personal Reality is a reality every esper in Toaru perceives and it is the very foundation of their abilities. For their power to work, they simply reject the world's reality and impose their own reality. Using Schrodinger's cat experiment as a guide, if there is a slight possibility for a phenomenon to be there, espers take that possibility and bring it to 100%. Personal Realities are connected to the quantum theory where they manipulate the probabilities on a micro-scale to influence the macro-scale.

As Izumi concentrated, white particles began to appear out of thin air until a small sphere of Dark Matter once again appeared floating above his palm. Seeing this, Izumi thought that the colour white was too bright, therefore he manipulated it to change to the colour black. Diving into his Personal Reality, he started calculating,

[Analyzing Dark Matter]

[Complete]

[Analyzing the pigmentation of Dark Matter]

[Complete]

[Altering Dark Matter pigmentation to black]

[Complete]

[Process complete]

Izumi then saw that the Dark Matter ball started to turn from white to black and that he was starting to produce black Dark Matter. Because Dark Matter is a matter outside of the world's laws of physics, therefore he could do many things. He morphed his ball into many shapes, a sword, a feather, etc. Anything he calculated, the matter responded. He could also make it invisible by bending the light around it.

After 3 hours of training, he discovered many things, he can do pretty much anything to matter, but he was not smart enough to affect the outside world which means that he is around level 4.

'Maybe to reach level 5, I must be able to infuse my dark matter into the surrounding environment and be able to manipulate it.' Izumi thought. Afterwards, he started to swing Muramasa around to practice swordsmanship. He didn't have any basics in swordsmanship therefore he was just getting the feel of it. After 1 hour of training, it was time to go home and get ready for another day at school.