Early in the morning, Tsukuyomi Komoe sat upright on the tatami, back straight and expression solemn. She gave the cushion in front of her a firm pat.
"Kurokami-kun, sit down. Now."
Still not used to proper seiza, the black-haired young man folded his legs cross-legged instead, looking puzzled.
"What's this about all of a sudden?"
Komoe's face was deadly serious.
"Explain it to me properly. Your Multi Skill."
Gen blinked, then raised his hand. A faint green light bloomed from his palm.
"You mean this? It seems that as long as I've used [Heal] on an esper, I can replicate their abilities. Even ordinary people's skills can be copied the same way."
"Hmm… I see. So the true nature of 'Heal' isn't healing—it's imitation?" The pink-haired loli muttered thoughtfully.
Japanese move names and English terminology each going their own way—very much in the spirit of anime naming conventions.
Kurokami Gen had decided to tell Komoe the "public" version of his secret. The only truth that must remain buried forever was the matter of his transmigration.
Everything he had done so far had taken place under the surveillance of Academy City's floating monitoring network. There was no hiding it anyway.
"So that's why you suddenly changed," Komoe said, circling him once. "Learning to drive. Getting better at fighting."
She beamed brightly.
"And getting better at taking care of people."
"Thank you for the compliment."
"It's like you suddenly had an epiphany overnight. Finally developed your own ability. Maybe this is your Personal Reality—the manifestation of someone who can't feel pain."
Komoe genuinely felt happy for her student from overseas.
It felt like watching her own child grow up. For the first time, she experienced what it was like to be cared for…
Maybe that was why she had felt safe enough to drink so much.
"Yomikawa-sensei and Tessou-sensei will definitely be happy for you too. But Kurokami-kun, try not to reveal your power in public. It could bring trouble."
Her tone suddenly turned serious.
Gen nodded. "Understood."
Beneath the sunlight of Academy City lay a festering darkness. Espers were little more than lab mice for mad scientists.
If his Multi Skill were exposed, countless factions would want to dissect his brain—or at the very least, store him in a refrigerator as an emotionless healing-and-copying machine.
Only when he possessed enough strength could he reveal his bug-like Imitation without restraint.
Komoe let out a sigh of relief. Then, like an excited child, she tugged at him to demonstrate different abilities one after another, marveling at each.
"Controlling water and fire simultaneously shouldn't be theoretically compatible. Scientific research shows the human brain can't withstand too many ability systems. Yomikawa once dismantled an illegal facility researching this kind of thing… something like 'Skill Out Research'…"
At the thought of abandoned test subjects, Komoe's expression dimmed.
Many heartless parents discarded their children in Academy City—paying the enrollment fees, then vanishing from the world.
Officially protected by law, these abandoned children were, in reality, a gray-zone population. Who knew how many inhumane experiments had been conducted on them as disposable materials?
Was Gen, with his missing past memories, also discarded because of a strange illness? But he was already this old…
Komoe saw her younger self in him, and her chest tightened.
"I feel fine, though." Gen rubbed his head.
Compared to the mental burden of repeatedly using [Heal], maintaining Multi Skill was child's play.
Was it because of the class of "Healing Hero" that his constitution had become abnormal?
In that world's lore, ordinary citizens had level caps—but Heroes could break them. They could even raise others' limits through magical energy transfer.
Perhaps the passive memory erosion of Imitation was a form of self-protection.
"Kurokami-kun's AIM diffusion field must be extremely complex… maybe like quantum entanglement, producing subtle reactions…"
When it came to her field of expertise, Komoe's eyes sparkled. She grew increasingly excited as she spoke.
For a moment, Gen wondered if the person who might dissect him one day would be his own live-in loli teacher.
This wasn't Higurashi.
"There is one flaw," Gen admitted. "Abilities I copy suffer varying degrees of level degradation. It's due to insufficient computational power."
He tapped his temple.
Komoe frowned. "Even Sensei doesn't have a solution for that. You might need a specialist in neurology."
"I already have a plan." He smiled mysteriously.
After all, Heaven Canceller's understanding of the human body had reached divine heights—rumored to twist even God's laws.
The answer was simple:
Brain domain development.
The human brain was a computer.
As a super-hacker, Gen understood this intimately.
"An esper's computational power is essentially using the brain as a CPU capable of quantum-computer-level processing. The theoretical foundation lies in quantum consciousness theory and quantum algorithms—leveraging superposition for processing speeds far beyond classical machines."
"The model reinterprets the universal Turing machine through quantum mechanics. Each neuron functions as a quantum information unit."
"As for quantum consciousness theory, it posits that human awareness arises from electron clouds within the brain. Only when the wavefunction collapses do concrete thoughts emerge. Intelligence—or the soul—exists within the quantum ocean deep inside the brain."
Komoe's brain froze.
"I—I don't understand. As your teacher, I've failed…"
When in doubt, quantum mechanics.
Personal Reality, in layman's terms, was forcibly distorting one's calculation system to interfere with third-party observation—causing improbable microscopic phenomena to manifest as unnatural macroscopic effects.
Translated bluntly:
"If I believe it works, it works."
In a probabilistic quantum world, every microscopic particle has a chance to tunnel through a wall. So if you ram into a wall enough times, eventually you might pass through—like the infinite monkey theorem.
Only someone combining top-tier medical expertise and hacker-level computational understanding could grasp this principle and design a self-directed brain development plan.
Through [Imitation], he had read the development processes of other espers, reverse-engineered their brain domains, and replicated them without electronic assistance.
A derivative skill born from [Heal]—
[Improvement].
"If something goes wrong, contact Heaven Canceller at that hospital."
Gen slowly raised his hand and pressed it against his head. Dazzling green light erupted.
So that was it. The essence of esper ranking lay in Quantum Volume (QV)—a metric for evaluating quantum computer performance.
Simultaneously, there existed algorithmic qubits:
AQ = log₂(QV)
That explained why higher-Level espers crushed those below Level 5 in computational dominance. Each additional qubit represented exponential growth.
An explosion of exponentials.
Level 0 equaled computational power of zero—no transcendence beyond electronic computers. Level 1 values followed 1, 2, 4, 8… and so on.
The leap from 0 to 1 was the hardest. Sixty percent of students were trapped at Level 0.
Gen looked into a mirror. Through Emerald Eyes, he saw his quantified computational value:
Stable.
Ping—Ping—Ping—
Continuous Improvement, altering his brain at the microscopic level like a physical transformation ability.
"0… 1… 2… 278… 464… 4174…"
The number surged, finally stabilizing at five digits.
Multi Skill computational power did not follow the simple AQ–QV qubit mapping. It was the superposition of countless powers of two—like the difference between monomials and polynomials.
All previously copied brain domains activated at once. The largest portion belonged to [Mental Out]—the cortical regions governing psychology and emotion.
In other words—
My brain has taken the shape of Shokuhou Misaki.
No. Beyond hers.
Copied espers' computational powers weren't additive; most of their developed domains overlapped. Even so, it exceeded hers.
Among Tokiwadai's Queen, Shokuhou Misaki ranked mid-tier among the seven Level 5s in raw computation.
True Name: Kurokami GenRace: HumanClass: Healing Hero / True EsperComputational Power: 46074
Combat Skills:[Mental Out], [Clairvoyance], [Ray Deflection], [Polarization Control], [Telepathy], [Pyrokinesis], [Hydrokinesis], [Soundproof Barrier], [Thermal Preservation], [Absolute Nonviolence Toward Students]
Life Skills:[Heaven Canceller], [Guardian Deity]
At last.
A true esper.
Computational perfection.
By his estimation, he now stood in the same tier as the Third-ranked Mikoto Misaka and the Fifth-ranked Shokuhou Misaki—their baseline around 2¹⁵ = 32768.
As for the First and Second—they were in a class of their own.
"Kurokami-kun, are you okay?" Komoe's worried voice sounded close by.
"I'm fine."
He lowered his hand, smiling faintly.
His mind felt unprecedentedly clear.
The moment he copied Mental Out, he had already stepped into Level 5 territory. By mastering Improvement, he completed the circle.
With Heaven Canceller's knowledge, he could model every capillary and neuron in his brain, performing cellular-level microsurgery on himself to finish development.
From now on, when he copied an ability, he would immediately Improve the corresponding brain domain—and copy its computational power as well.
Even Emerald Eyes evolved, now capable of perceiving computational values.
He flexed his hand casually.
A massive fireball two meters in diameter manifested instantly.
"Boom—!"
Heat waves filled the room. Komoe's pink hair nearly singed.
"Th-This is—"
"I improved my brain. Using Level 5 computational power to elevate the other abilities I've copied."
He shook his head slightly.
"Due to differences in calculation formulas, Pyrokinesis can't reach Level 5. At best, it's around Level 4."
Komoe stared blankly.
"So this… is the true power of a Multi Skill esper?"
A world Academy City had never observed.
Once you master the path of calculation, everything connects.
Ironically, the flaws in the esper system could be exploited. In a sense, copied abilities didn't degrade—they upgraded.
Komoe suddenly brightened.
"If you can improve your own brain… then your congenital analgesia—"
"Yes," Gen nodded. "Once I master improvement at the genetic level, I can modify your body too. Larger bust, longer legs—"
He paused.
"It's like character customization in certain RPGs."
Komoe squeaked and pounced on him.
"That's amazing!"
The two rolled across the tatami. The pink-haired loli laughed without stopping.
Two flyers rolled out from the corner.
Gen picked them up.
One was an underground black boxing advertisement—Academy City Arena.
"I told you to throw that away," Komoe scolded.
Back then, before his powers developed, he had considered fighting underground to grow stronger through Heal. Komoe had stopped him.
"At your age, studying is more important!"
He'd given up.
Instead, he used Memory Manipulation to become a "Wallfacer." If he never obtained higher-level mental abilities, he would never unlock the simple if-statement embedded in his brain's programming.
If so, he would simply live as an ordinary intern, staying by this girl's side forever.
The second flyer was a Chinatown spicy challenge advertisement.
"You entered just to earn prize money for my living expenses," Komoe said softly. "You collapsed right after winning."
"I just forgot to Heal myself," Gen muttered. "Let's forget that black history."
Spiciness was pain.
He loved spicy food but couldn't feel the agony—only the flavor.
"You were too busy healing other contestants."
Komoe's eyes glistened, but she smiled.
He might be a delinquent student.
But the Kurokami Gen she knew was genuinely kind.
"Grrr…"
His stomach growled.
"Breakfast is getting cold."
"Right! Let's eat!"
As she hurried to the kitchen, Gen felt an overwhelming sense of peace.
I could endure darkness—if I had never seen light.
In his previous life, he wanted to leave his family so he wouldn't burden them further.
And now—
After transmigrating, he had found something that could be called family again.
The moment he took Mental Out, he had stepped into this world's darkness.
To protect their everyday life.
"Komoe, we've got money now."
"Call me Sensei!" she protested. "Use your salary to buy something you like."
"I'm thinking of getting a secondhand computer from Backstreet. You can use it for lesson prep. Who still teaches from paper in this era?"
She hesitated.
"Is that… okay?"
"Siblings sharing a computer is normal."
Her heart swelled at the word siblings.
"I'll celebrate your success. I'll buy you that scroll-type smartphone you've been eyeing."
"…Thank you."
Even though she still used an old flip phone.
The old rotary phone rang.
Komoe picked it up.
"Hello? That hospital? A letter for Doctor Kurokami… from Tokiwadai Middle School? Understood."
Gen raised an eyebrow.
"What is it?"
Komoe turned slowly.
"As a specially appointed school physician."
Tokiwadai.
The queen's domain.
The curtain to a new battlefield had just been lifted.