Ability Wielders

8:00 PM, June 3 2057, Sunday. Philippines, Luzon, National Capital Region, Makati City, a youth with short, black, messy hair that can be deemed extremely stylish was reading something on his phone while lying in bed.

The moonlight that passed through his window shined on his sculpted, average-looking face and black eyes. His body was averagely built, as seen through his black tank top. His legs were not covered by anything as he was only wearing a boxer short.

His light brownish skin tone was whitened slightly because of the moonlight shining through his window. Yawning, the youth clicked on a video.

The video was titled as "Supernatural Powers Are Real! Watch The Video For Proof!"

The youth who just got clickbaited was Hayden Emperador, an 11th grade student (1) of Makati City Scholar Academy.

As an avid reader of fiction, Hayden's interest was piqued by the clickbaity title of the video. Watching the video, Hayden's face contorted in disgust.

"Truly a clickbait…" Hayden didn't even finish the video. In summary, the video was a man firing out a torrent of flames from his hand, which was clearly advanced usage of current CGI. "Saying this is a true superpower? Then why don't you end wars and take over the world? Well, not like there are any wars in this era…"

He was a little agitated. Using CGI, then calling it superpower was too much of a stretch. "Well, no choice but to ignore these types of dipshits."

He placed his phone down atop his nightstand and stared towards his ceiling. He raised his right hand, wanting to see if he can control the shadows. Mockingly, he uttered, "Well, I guess it's only a pipe dream that I will have that kind of power."

Laughing at himself, he directed his gaze towards the moon. "How good will it be if I actually did gain some kind of superpower, huh?"

With various imaginations in tow, Hayden gradually drifted to sleep. While sleeping…

Hayden woke up in a place surrounded by absolute darkness. He knew that he wasn't in a place he has been to, much less, his bedroom. If so, where was he?

"I only remember sleeping…" Hayden was struck by a realization. "Ahh, is this a dream? A lucid dream?"

Eyeing his environment, he saw there was only pitch black darkness. There was nothing else, merely the sweet kiss of the shadows, yet, contradictorily, he can still see his arms, legs, and his torso. What's more, he was standing on something. The texture of the surface he was standing on was… Unfamiliar.

"Just where am I?" Hayden whispered in confusion. Not getting any answer, not like he expected any, he decided that the only logical thing to do from here on is to walk forward.

He walked for what seemed like three days before finally seeing a light. Delighted, Hayden sprinted towards the light. When he was about 10 meters away from the light, he bumped into a wall.

As a result, Hayden fell backwards, on his butt. His nose ached because of the collision. He was running at full speed after all.

"What gives, dream world?" Hayden was furious, shouting at an imaginary entity in the boundless darkness. "Who placed the goddamn barrier in front? I wouldn't desire it, so who the hell did!?"

While shouting his heart out, out of nowhere, he noticed something being written in front of him by a peculiar golden light, similar to a wisp. This made him eventually cease his shouting, looking on with curiosity.

Watching the golden string of words being written out, he was getting a little bit bored. "Div? Divine? Pe?"

Hayden read the string of words while it was being engraved on the air. When it finally finished, Hayden read the full 'name' aloud. "Divine Perception?"

Although he was surprised, what was he supposed to do with this? Seeing that there was still another string of words being written again, he groaned.

Waiting for another few minutes, the second name was finally finished. "Indestructible Devil? Divine Perception? What am I supposed to do with these names?"

The moment he finished saying his last word, an odd feeling welled up inside of him. Seemingly, his senses become sharper. Every single pore on his hand, he can count them within a fraction of a second!

He can smell the conditioner he used earlier, hear his own heartbeat and blood flow, and sense every single cell of his body at once, including the death of the poor skin cells. On top of that, information was overloading his brain, yet this information was being processed and fed to his mind at a staggering speed, allowing him to have an unusually keen awareness about his own body.

He knows that his fat percentage was exactly 19.63%, and his height was exactly 163.478 centimeters, pretty average for a Filipino. In addition, Hayden can also 'see' the inside of his own body, allowing him to know that there were no damages internally and that his own body was in an absolutely average condition for a 17-year-old, with his organs having no signs of any defect.

His memory was also jogged, allowing him to remember everything he has learned from the past, from mathematical calculations to the history of the Philippines and the world. He even seamlessly recalled one of Rizal's magnum opus, Noli Me Tangere (2), word for word, as if he was currently reading it.

In fact, he can remember the book vividly, like it was in front of his eyes personally. Wasn't this the legendary eidetic memory!? Other than this, he also remembered everything that transpired from when he was a child to the present. The embarrassing memories, the good memories, everything. Including all the novels and comics he has read. Truly an eidetic memory!

Then, he was forced out of this dumbfounding condition without a warning, removing him from his previous state of astonishment. This sudden change pulled him back to reality.

He was kind of angry until another change happened to him. When he looked at his own hands, it was crimson in color! It had this metallic sheen to it. Suddenly, his muscles swelled, and his body had the sensation of tensing up, as if it was as hard as metal! He felt immense power welling inside his body as of this moment, as if he can destroy the world with just a flick of his hand.

He also detected that his fingernails turned into claws. Furthermore, it doesn't end with that, touching his forehead, he felt horns protruding out backwards, touching his hair. Meanwhile, his teeth became fangs, sharper than anything.

Additionally, he sensed an extra appendage that he can control behind his back. Turning his head around, it was a tail! A thin, devilish-looking tail!

"Is this… Indestructible Devil? Then…" Hayden resembled a demon's description, allowing him to quickly deduce that this was the so-called "Indestructible Devil."

Just as he was thinking this, he felt water fill up his lungs, drowning him. With this, he woke up, gasping for air.

"What the hell kind of dream was that?" Trying to catch his breath, Hayden directed his anger towards his brain. "Why did you make me dream of that! Stupid brain…"

After a few more seconds of chastising his own brain, Hayden peered out of his window, there was still no sun. Reaching out for his phone, he saw that it was only 4:07 AM.

"Well, I already slept for eight hours, so why not go up now?" Hayden talked to himself as he dragged his body out of the bed. He stretched for a good while before walking towards his closet.

"I am suddenly overcome with an urge to run…" Opening his closet, he looked for a pair of athletic shorts and a red tank top. He then put on an arm band phone holder. Finishing changing his clothes, he went downstairs to put on his running shoes.

On the way, he bumped into his mom, who was sporting a black business suit, with bags under her eyes. Clearly, his mom was exhausted. "Just got home?"

"Yep." His mom affirmed. "Going to run? This early? Remember to come back early okay? It's Monday, you still have to go to school at 8:00."

"Yes, mom. You go rest now." Hayden reassured his mom that he would be back by 6:00 to shower and eat. "I'll cook. You have a good… morning's rest?"

"Okay." His mom shoved the door to their bedroom open. She shouted, "Be careful okay? Love you, honey."

"Love you, too. I will be careful." Hayden said with a smile, not even looking at his mom.

…..

Arriving at the park near their house, Hayden went ahead to warm up by walking around the park two laps. Afterwards, he ran for ten kilometers in an hour before resting for a few minutes.

Next, he did three sets of sixty push-ups, sixty crunches on the grass, and thirty pull-ups. Only after doing those did he cool down his body. Concluding all that, he sat underneath the shade of a nearby tree.

He pushed and pulled the collar of his shirt to gather more air. Subsequently, he touched the middle of his chest. At that moment, he felt a bump on his chest.

"What?" Hayden was terrified. When he pulled his collar and stared, he saw that there was a prism that was white in color. He was startled, until he remembered his dream. "Wait… do I have… superpowers?"

At the thought of this, Hayden forgot his fatigue from exercising. Hayden was in disbelief. "No way, right?"

He felt it was stupid that he would abruptly gain superpowers. Needless to say, he always dreamt of what things he can do with superpowers, though he never really expected to actually gain one! At the end of the day, having superpowers would be too farfetched, it was enough to dream of gaining one.

"Well, there's no harm in trying, right?" Hayden took a deep breath. In his mind, he was calling upon this 'Divine Perception,' willing it to activate.

The unexpected happened to Hayden when he willed it. A cool stream of energy came from his chest, spreading throughout his body. The coldness was comfortable and gentle, giving Hayden a sense of relaxation.

Following that, when he opened his eyes, his sense of sight was abnormally acute. In fact, all of his senses were sharp! He didn't notice this due to his own astonishment to the spectacle he was experiencing. This startled Hayden even more. The impossible became a minuscule possibility, and this possibility became reality!

"What the fuck?" Hayden's heart was currently racing because of the events, being unable to help himself on cursing. "Am I still in the dream? That's right, I'm still in a dream…"

He will never believe that he actually come to possess a superpower. What kind of bullshit was that? Nobody would actually believe that they had superpowers, unless they were a Chuunibyou (3).

The most illogical thing just happened, how can Hayden believe it? Hayden pinched himself, only to feel pain. Knowing that it wasn't a dream, it excited and scared Hayden at the same time.

"Let's examine what I can do first…" Hayden talked to himself to calm himself down. At that point, he recognized that he wasn't wearing his glasses.

"Wait… I left the house without my glasses?" Hayden was once again dumbfounded. It's not that his eyesight was bad enough that he cannot see without glasses, but he still needed glasses to see far away objects. He left home without this important accommodation. "I could definitely see clearly when I left home…"

"Well, I can see much better now though…" Surveying his surroundings, he can recognize the letters on the park sign, around tens of meters away from him. The letters were extremely small, like the letters on a keyboard, yet Hayden can read it so clearly.

'This is… useful…' Hayden thought. Now, he didn't need glasses at all. 'I still have four more senses…'

Touching the ground, he wanted to see if he can actually use the fabled power called seismic sense. Knocking on the soil, he felt the vibrations, as well as the vibrations from the ants crawling on the other side of the park.

Standing up, he felt the direction of the wind, as well as the disturbances in the air, such as the butterfly flying around a few meters away from him. Looking up, he spotted a bird. He closed his eyes and knew that there was still a bird because of the vibrations in the air.

"This is… much more advanced than I thought…" He was speechless. This Divine Perception was more powerful than he initially thought! "With this, even without my eyesight, I will not be blind!"

"What about my hearing?" Hayden moved on to the next sense he thought that was important, which was his hearing.

Focusing on his hearing, he heard various conversations around him, from across the park, from people wandering around, from people sitting, it was all a cacophony of sounds in Hayden's ears.

He tried to focus on one particular pair and was surprised to see that he can actually filter out other sounds! The pair was talking about dating.

Not listening any further, he retracted his sense of hearing. He wanted to try something else, which was echolocation. He clapped his hands and tried to focus his hearing on the sound created by his claps.

He actually picked up various amounts of information from his clap alone! From the echoes that the clapping sounds produced, he knew the exact layout of everything within 10 meters, the tree, the ground, the bicycles locked in place, and many more.

From the movies, echolocation was always presented as a form of sight using the ears. With this firsthand experience, Hayden could guarantee that it was similar to that, however, was still not as good as using the eyes to perceive objects. Needless to say, Hayden would have no trouble seeing using his ears because of the advanced information processing of his brain, which, by itself, and without needing to think of anything, processed the information for Hayden, akin to a computer.

"It would be perfect if I can also produce infrasonic sound or ultrasounds…" Hayden thought it was unfortunate to not have the power to do any of the two. Naturally though, Hayden knew that he was already lucky enough to possess this kind of power.

"Let's be satisfied with only that..." Hayden was guilty, as if he just committed a big taboo. If his fellow weebs and otakus knew that Hayden had a superpower and that they learned that Hayden was complaining, they would have long beaten him to death.

"Next sense is the sense of smell." Shrugging the matter off, Hayden moved onto the sense of smell. He took in a deep breath, only to cough the next second. "The air is too overwhelming!"

He had to hold his breath because of the chaotic mixture of various smells in the air, animal poop, food, the not-as-bad-as-2020 smoke coming from cars, secret farts from people walking around, his olfactory sensors picked it all up.

Hayden gagged and almost threw up because of what he smelled. He decided to try one more time, albeit, with trying to focus on one smell. He held a tiny sliver of hope that he can filter out scents, otherwise, he would throw up every time he activated Divine Perception without a doubt.

A few seconds of internal struggle and hesitation, Hayden finally breathed in. Surprisingly, he only smelled food! Amazing food on top of that. "What food is this? It smells so good…"

Hayden was bewitched by the odor of this food. He tried to trace it. For some reason, he instinctively knew where the aroma was coming from. "Thinking about it… It is superhuman smell, so… Maybe I can track people based on their scents with this?"

Rotating his head, he saw a hotdog stand. "I didn't notice that those hotdogs were so aromatic!"

He promptly made a decision to cook hotdogs when he gets home. "I wouldn't be able to test my superhuman taste at this moment…"

Hayden was one hell of an amazing cook as he learned from his mom and that he was left alone at the house most of the time. Nevertheless, what if he applied his superhuman taste in his cooking? It will be godly! "But first, we have to confirm if I have superhuman taste."

Dropping this matter for the meantime, Hayden used Divine Perception to activate all of his senses at once. What happened blew his mind, almost literally.

Without filter, Divine Perception fed Hayden's mind with boundless information, the precise moment a dog would land its paws on the other side of the park, where was the airplane that went above his head going to basing on its speed, direction, and airline, how many people were in the park altogether, and, closing his eyes, everything about his environment. The moment he closed his eyes, there was still a picture inside his mind, as if he can still see, except in shades of black and white.

Turning it off, Hayden was truly astounded. "What kind of power is this? It's pretty overpowered!"

He can only imagine what a terrifying person will Hayden become once he actually used Divine Perception for fighting and as such. He was, at the end of the day, a person who dreamt of possessing superpowers!

Now that his dream came true, what will he use it for? "I feel like I haven't explored it fully yet… Let me do that later on."

Right now, Hayden didn't have the time to fully explore his power, all he knew about this ability of his was that it gave him superhuman senses whenever it is activated, and it appeared that it had a passive power that gave Hayden peak-human senses.

…..

1 In the Philippines, the secondary education system is from 7th grade till 10th grade. With the changes due to K-12, there were now additional two grades after the 10th grade, which is the 11th and 12th grade, collectively known as senior high school. Meanwhile, the 7th to 10th grade was known as junior high school. This was not removed, even with the Project Intellect in place, which will be explained in later chapters.

2 The Philippines' national hero is Jose Rizal, a person who wrote the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo that ignited the Filipino's hearts during the Spanish regime. Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo is known as two literatures that contained hidden meanings that only Filipinos during the Spanish regime would've understood.

3 Chuunibyou – A term for people who has convinced themselves that they had actual superpowers. It is also called Eighth-Grade Syndrome.