Early in the morning, Komoe sat properly on the tatami mat, her back straight, and slapped the cushion with both hands.
"Ethan, sit down already!"
Still unfamiliar with formal seating, the black-haired young man crossed his legs instead, looking confused.
"What's with the sudden seriousness?"
Komoe wore a rare solemn expression. "Explain your Multiple Ability to me, clearly!"
"Oh, that?" Ethan nodded. "Apparently, whenever I use Heal on someone with an ability, I can copy their power. Even normal people's skills seem to work."
As he spoke, a soft green glow emerged from his palm.
"I see… so the essence of Heal isn't healing, it's Mimic?" Komoe murmured, deep in thought.
Mixing English and Japanese in naming conventions, yep, typical anime style.
Ethan had decided to share what was visible and surface-level with Komoe. As for the whole transmigration thing, that secret would stay buried.
After all, everything he'd done so far was under Academy City's aerial surveillance network. No use trying to hide it.
"So that's why you've been acting like a different person lately… learning to drive, suddenly getting strong."
Komoe circled him once, then smiled brightly.
"And even learning how to care for people."
"Thanks for the compliment," Ethan replied sincerely.
"Anyway," she continued, "it's like you suddenly woke up and became enlightened overnight. You finally developed your own ability. Maybe this is your Personal Reality, your perception of being immune to pain."
Komoe genuinely felt happy for the boy.
It was like watching her own child grow up for the first time. Like truly feeling cared for by someone else. It felt… warm.
Maybe that was why she'd let herself drink so much last night?
"Yomikawa and Tessou would be thrilled too. But Ethan, be careful not to reveal your power in public. It could cause trouble."
Her tone turned serious.
Ethan nodded. "Understood."
Beneath the sunshine of Academy City lurked a dark underbelly. Espers were merely guinea pigs for mad scientists.
If his Multi-Ability got exposed, there would definitely be those who'd want to dissect his brain, or at least keep it frozen like some soulless healing and mimicking machine.
Only when he became strong enough could he wield his bug-like Mimic freely.
Komoe finally let out a breath of relief, then pulled Ethan excitedly to demonstrate all kinds of powers. She clicked her tongue in amazement at each one.
"Controlling both fire and water? That's theoretically incompatible. Science says the human brain can't handle too many abilities. Yomikawa once dismantled an illegal facility experimenting with that kind of thing… something like the Ability Research Unit…"
The thought of those abandoned children used for experiments made Komoe somber.
Some cold-hearted parents would drop their kids into Academy City, pay the tuition, then vanish.
These children were supposedly protected by law, but in truth they lived in a gray zone, no one really cared what happened to them. Countless inhumane studies were conducted in secret, treating these kids like disposable materials.
A boy from a foreign country with no memories… had he also been abandoned due to some strange illness? But he was already grown…
Komoe looked at him, a sadness rising in her heart, as if she were staring at a mirror of her younger, forsaken self.
"I feel fine," Ethan said, rubbing his temples.
Compared to the mental exhaustion of repeatedly using Heal, juggling Multiple Abilities was child's play.
Maybe it was the Hero of Healing class that made his body different?
In the world of Redo of Healer, regular citizens had level caps. But heroes could break those limits, some could even level up their partners through… certain methods.
Perhaps Mimic's passive memory wipe was a form of self-defense.
"Ethan's AIM diffusion field must be incredibly complex… maybe it even causes quantum entanglement-like effects…"
Komoe's eyes gleamed as she rambled on in her area of expertise. The more she spoke, the more excited she became. Ethan couldn't help but worry, was this little woman he lived with planning to dissect him?
This wasn't Higurashi, was it?
"There's still one problem," Ethan added. "Copied powers lose effectiveness depending on my processing power."
He tapped his temple.
Komoe frowned. "That's out of my depth. You'll need a specialist in brain function."
"No worries, I already have a plan," Ethan said with a mysterious smile.
After all, Heaven Canceller's understanding of the human body was god-tier. They said even divine laws could be bent by his medicine.
The answer, Neural Domain Expansion.
The human brain was a computer.
And Ethan, a former super hacker, knew computers better than anyone.
"Simply put, an esper's computing power comes from using their brain like a quantum processor. It's based on quantum consciousness theory and quantum algorithms, tapping quantum superposition to achieve speeds traditional machines can't."
"The model is a quantum reinterpretation of the Universal Turing Machine. Each neuron acts as a quantum info unit."
"And quantum consciousness theory? It suggests human awareness arises from the electron cloud in the brain. When the wave function collapses, it forms a thought. Our consciousness, our soul, dwells in the quantum ocean of the mind."
As Ethan rattled off jargon, Komoe's brain short-circuited.
"I-I don't understand a word… I've failed as a teacher…"
When in doubt? Quantum mechanics.
"Personal Reality" meant deliberately distorting perception and observation to cause micro-level improbabilities to result in macro-level supernatural effects.
In normal words?
"I think, therefore I yeet."
In quantum theory, particles can pass through walls. So if a person slammed into a wall enough times, eventually, statistically, they'd go through.
Only someone who mastered both medicine and computing, like Ethan, could grasp that and plan a full brain upgrade.
By using Mimic to study how others developed their brains, he reverse-engineered their pathways and recreated the results, no devices needed.
From Heal, he derived a new skill:
Enhance.
"If anything goes wrong, Komoe, contact Heaven Canceller for me."
He placed his glowing hand on his forehead. A blinding green light burst out.
So, the truth behind esper levels?
It all came down to Quantum Volume (QV), a unit measuring quantum computer performance.
There's also AQ, Algorithmic Qubits:
AQ = log₂(QV)
That's why espers over Level 5 had overwhelming computational advantage. Every added qubit meant exponential processing gain.
The infamous exponential spike.
Level 0? Zero processing power. Your brain was just a normal machine.
Level 1 followed powers of 2, 1, 2, 4, 8…
Breaking through from 0 to 1 was the hardest. That's why 60% of students were stuck at Level 0.
Ethan looked into a mirror. Emerald Eye activated.
Processing value: 0. Perfectly stable.
Ping, ping, ping!
Nonstop Enhance pulses rewrote his brain on the microscopic level, like a physical evolution ability.
The myth that humans used only 10% of their brain? False.
But espers did gain power from unlocking untapped brain capacity.
"0, 1, 2… 278, 464… 4174…"
Ethan's internal numbers skyrocketed, finally stabilizing in five digits.
Multi-Ability Users didn't follow the AQ–QV pattern because their powers stacked, like polynomials instead of single variables.
All the domains he had Mimicked? He unlocked them all at once.
The biggest one?
Mental Mastery, the area of the brain controlling emotion, cognition, and thought.
In short, his brain had become like Shokuhou Misaki's.
No… beyond hers.
Copied users' power domains overlapped, so their computing wasn't purely additive.
Yet even with overlaps, Ethan surpassed her.
Shokuhou was mid-tier among the seven Level 5 espers.
Name: Ethan Cole
Race: Human
Class: Hero of Healing / True Esper
Computational Power: 46074
Combat Skills:
• Mental Mastery
• X-Ray Vision
• Beam Bending
• Light Manipulation
• Telepathy
• Pyrokinesis
• Hydrokinesis
• Sound Barrier
• Thermal Control
• Never Use Weapons on Students
Support Skills:
• Heaven Canceller
• Gatekeeper
True Esper, Achieved!
According to Ethan's estimate, he was now close to the third-ranked Mikoto Misaka and fifth-ranked Shokuhou Misaki, both around 32,768 (2¹⁵).
The top two?
Untouchable.
"Ethan, are you okay?" Komoe asked, visibly concerned.
"I'm good."
Ethan smiled as he lowered his hand.
His brain had never felt clearer.
When he Mimicked Shokuhou, one foot had already stepped into Level 5 territory.
Now, with Enhance, he was complete.
Using Heaven Canceller's medical insight, he modeled every neuron and blood vessel to perform a quantum-level surgical upgrade.
From now on, any Mimicked ability could be Enhanced immediately. Processing included.
Even Emerald Eye evolved, it could now perceive raw computational output.
Ethan raised a hand. A massive fireball, two meters wide, materialized.
BOOM!
The room was engulfed in heat. Komoe's pink hair nearly got scorched.
"This is…"
"I rewrote my brain with Enhance. Now all Mimicked powers scale with Level 5 computing power."
Ethan shook his head, still unsatisfied.
"As you can see, Pyrokinesis is still stuck at Level 4. Formula constraints."
Komoe blinked in awe.
"So… this is the true power of a Multi-Ability User?"
A realm never documented in Academy City.
Through computation, mastery.
The esper system's flaw? It became his weapon.
Mimicked abilities didn't weaken, they got stronger.
"If you really have Enhance," Komoe said, "does that mean even your pain immunity…"
"Yeah. Eventually, I'll be able to reconstruct the body and even rewrite genes. I'll fix your body too. Maybe… bigger bust and longer legs?"
It reminded him of character customization in RPGs.
Like that ninja scroll game…
In Redo of Healer, Enhance was used for cosmetic surgery.
But Ethan? He took it further.
Thanks, Heaven Canceller.
In urban fiction, doctors and hackers were cheat builds.
He was both.
"Awesome!!"
Komoe squealed and pounced on him. They rolled around the tatami floor, her laughter echoing for minutes.
"Oh? What's this?"
Two flyers rolled out from the corner. Ethan picked one up.
Underground fighting arena. Academy City.
"I told you to throw that away," Komoe sulked.
Back then, this transmigrated boy had joined a high school ability program, but showed no results.
It was like every ability he developed got Healed out of him.
People thought he was an "Original Gem." Level unknown.
In his darkest days, he considered fighting underground. Powering up through constant Healing.
Komoe found out. And stopped him.
"At your age, studying comes first!"
So he gave up. Instead, he used Memory Rewrite to turn himself into a "Wallfacer."
Unless he got higher mental abilities, he'd never be able to break the "if" command coded into his brain, a "spiritual program" based on Uiharu's universal computing language.
If not, he'd just live as a quiet intern. Stay by Komoe's side.
"There's another one. You entered a spicy food contest. Just to win prize money… for me. And passed out after taking first place…"
Komoe hugged the flyer carefully, like it held Ethan's love.
"I just forgot to Heal myself, okay?" Ethan muttered. "Let's pretend that never happened."
Spice was a form of pain.
He loved it. Couldn't feel it, but loved the taste. Same with alcohol.
"You were too busy healing other contestants…"
Tears welled in Komoe's eyes. Then she smiled.
He was a bad student, but at heart… a good person.
Even when drunk… he was still good.
Grrrr…
Ethan clutched his stomach. "I'm starving. That omelet I made earlier's going cold."
"Oh right, breakfast!"
Watching Komoe rush to the kitchen, Ethan's heart felt at peace.
I could've endured darkness… had I never seen the light.
In his past life, he'd thought about leaving home, just to stop burdening his parents.
If he vanished, maybe they'd have a second or third child.
He never thought transmigrating would bring him someone who felt like family again.
The moment he acquired Mental Mastery, his path into this world's darkness began.
To protect their everyday life, he'd become strong enough to face anything.
"Moe, we're rich."
"Call me Teacher!" she huffed. "You just got paid, buy something you like."
"I'm thinking of picking up a secondhand PC. You can use it to prep lessons. No one uses paper anymore."
Komoe hesitated. "You think that's okay?"
"Siblings share a computer, right?" Ethan smiled.
The word "sibling" made her unexpectedly happy.
Swinging her short legs at the breakfast table, she counted household expenses on her fingers.
"To celebrate your awakening, no, your historic Multi-Ability achievement, I'll get you that scroll-style phone you've been eyeing."
"…Thanks," Ethan said, genuinely touched.
You still use a flip phone.
And yet you'll buy me the latest tech.
What kind of teacher does that for a delinquent?
Or… was this the love of a sister?
Riiing, riiing!
The ancient rotary phone rang.
You couldn't even find one in old movies anymore.
Komoe paid tens of thousands of yen every month just to stay in touch with her students.
She picked up immediately. "Hello? Oh, Doctor Ethan's letter? From Tokiwadai Middle School? Got it."
"What was that?" Ethan asked.
"…It's an offer. They want you as a special-appointed school doctor."
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