Morning, 8:00 AM.
After the no-sleep reading party I was forced into, Koori arrived at my room to invite me for breakfast. By the way, after I finished reading, I tried taking a short nap, but it really was short. Barely half an hour.
As we were walking down the corridors, I raised my voice to ask.
"Koori. Do you know what my ability is?"
"What?"
Koori's eyebrows rose at my question. She seemed surprised by my words. "Isn't that my line? It's your ability, so you should be the one who knows it best." And passed such logical words back.
"Huh..."
Actually, I thought they already figured out my abilities. I do have an NSC, and I did use a few abilities already. Limiter (Strength), and Hydrokinesis similar to Koori's. However, I... can't seem to use them consciously.
I tried using them before in my room, but no matter how hard I tried, it failed. Rather, nothing happened. I couldn't even make the water inside the bottle ripple, much less gather the air's moisture to form ice spikes.
The Limiter one was even weirder. I don't even know what to do to activate it.
"Really..." Koori sighed, seemingly exasperated after watching my dark expression. "We can go to the testing room later and see what your ability is. But I think yours is quite straightforward. Similar to mine and Alex's."
"Thanks, that helps." I smiled, nodding... before a thought crossed my mind. "Ah, right. You're an empath, right? Does that mean you can read my mind?"
Koori suddenly stopped in her tracks, her expression darkening slightly. "... No." She said. "My empath only allows me to see someone's emotions. It's not so powerful and has a range of 100 meters. Though mine's cursed..."
"Cursed?"
"Yes." She nodded grimly. "Unlike other empaths, mine's activated all the time. Whether I'm awake or asleep, wanting to use it or not. Thus, I can see everyone within a hundred meters' emotions all the time."
"..."
That sounds terrible.
Isn't that like having five people talk to you at the same time while you are answering a battery test? No wonder she always seems grumpy...
"No, my grumpiness has nothing to do with my ability but more to do with the uselessness of you guys." Koori countered, almost as if she read my mind.
"I-I see... somehow, I'm sorry."
She said she could only detect emotions, but didn't she just read my mind...? I should be careful about what I think about when she's nearby.
"It's already too late for such considerations." Koori sighed as she resumed walking forward.
...Wait, what does she mean by that?
🔷🔷🔷
The Batch Zero's base had a simple but confusing layout.
It wasn't confusing because of the meandering pathways, but rather, because every door looked the same as the others. There's not even a label on top, so it was hard to tell where we are just by looking around.
After breakfast, Koori led me to the Testing Grounds as promised. Apparently, there's an apparatus there that could "identify" someone's ability.
Just as the doors slid open, upon entering...
"Oh? Ye two 're just in time."
A green-haired Loli was standing at the ready in the middle of the wide space, as if waiting for our arrival beforehand.
"Ye'r here to check Neil's ability, c'rect?" She said, raising a tablet PC in her hand. "Come, preparations 're long done."
"Elder Monika!" Koori gasped, surprised at her presence. "Were you waiting for us? You should've told us beforehand so that we could've come faster!"
"Don't mind, don't mind. I'm just passing idle time."
The Loli elder walked ahead, waving her hand dismissively—as if telling us to follow behind her. Koori didn't delay and walked forward, with me being two steps behind her. However, a question popped into my head as we were walking.
"Didn't you say your empath ability is always active? Why couldn't you detect Elder Monika's presence, then?"
If I recall correctly, she should also have clairaudience, allowing her to hear things from a distance. Well, that one could be simply not activated, but her Empath should always be active, as she claimed.
"... If one's psychic resistance is high enough, empath and other psychic abilities don't work on them. And for the record, Elder Monika has the highest psychic resistance in the entire base."
"Oh..."
That should've been obvious with just a bit of thinking... I guess her appearance, being that of a young girl, led me to think otherwise?
"Nuff said," Elder Monika muttered, turning around as she patted a console standing by the wall on the far end. "Now, Neil. Place ye'r hand over this panel, close ye'r eyes, and focus. This machine will show all abilities ye possess."
She then tapped a few buttons on her little tablet, causing the console to light up, booting.
On the top part, a handprint could be seen. I, as instructed, placed my hand over the drawing and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my mind, before hearing the Elder speak in a calm voice.
"Scanning..."
A few seconds of silence passed, and my vision flashed with various lights—most likely coming from the console itself. After some time, the elder's voice echoed once again.
"Alright, ye can open ye'r eyes and move ye'r hands. Scanning complete."
I slowly opened my eyes, only to be shocked at the scene before me. The console's display extended beyond the LCD I was touching, becoming a hologram floating like an intimidating wall before my eyes.
On it, three lines were listed—my abilities.
[
1. Limiter (Strength type)
2. Precognition
3. ???
]
"... Huh?"
There's the Limiter that I figured out I have, but... where's the hydrokinesis? Also, I have precognition? That must be why I figured out that sniper's attack and managed to land the ice shards on that skinny swordsman.
But that last one...
"What's that question mark?" Koori asked, surprising me.
So the question mark is an irregular... Well, nobody would program something to display question marks for a certain ability, would they?
"As expected..." Elder Monika whispered in a low voice.
Her expression was serious for a moment before returning to her usual indecipherable smile.
"Guess ye'r third ability's not listed yet. In short, only ye have this ability right now."
"An ability only I have..." I whispered, staring at my hands. The one I placed on top of the panel. "But... what sort of ability is it?"
"Oh? Lemme check..."
At my prompt, Elder Monika began fiddling with her tablet. I could barely see her looking at a weird, chaotic string of words and numbers... completely unreadable to me. However, the elder nodded a few times, as if reading it like it was written in English.
"I figured it out." She said. "Ye'r third ability is... mimicry."
"... What?"
Now that suddenly came out of left field...