(Rukaru POV)
We three arranged ourselves so that Shohi could see all of us with just one look.
Then, we felt a warm sensation on our skin. “Thanks.” Reshidou expressed gratitude, as he then continued his chat with Shohi.
Shohi had managed to learn how to warm someone up. “I only needed to imagine you guys as glowing”, he had explained.
But, it’s not like we could just stay warm continuously though, we still had to feel the cold within the breaks Shohi would take to conserve (magical) energy as it regenerates, but even then, at this pace, according to Toukai and Shohi’s estimation, Shohi would run out of mana within 8 hours.
But, that’s enough, the cold shouldn’t be as strong in the morning.
Although, they could save up more by excluding me out of the warming up, as I could just take the cold without Shohi’s heating, but I suppose I won’t needlessly deny the kindness, since Shohi’s mana supply was said to be capable of handling it.
This was the routine for the past hour or two, a periodic warming up with Shohi’s ability to manipulate temperature…
As for why we don’t just go to sleep… well, it might be because of a matter of preference, that, and the slight fear seemingly in the air. It’s cold, and there’s barely anything soft to lie down on, coupled with the fact that we might be killed in our sleep, maybe.
We don’t seem able to just skip past this so easily.
To pass the time with at least some background chatter to listen to, we settled on just having whatever topic one of us brought up.
Reshidou was able to keep up a conversation about games and superpowers going with Shohi, so that at least lasted a good while.
“Ah?” We hear a voice come from somewhere.
“Oh. Sorazu!” Shohi called out quietly to the guy who made the noise, having just woken up.
From what I remember, Sorazu is someone who regularly groups up with Shohi to talk. So, someone who might also have insight for the situation we’re in.
After briefly taking a look around, and glancing at the night sky outside, “[Status Open]”, Sorazu thought first of the same words that Shohi did, huh.
Sorazu smiled a little, and then walked over to us.
“What construct did you get?” (Shohi)
“[Spatial Aptitude] and [Subspace Inventory].” (Sorazu)
“Whaa…?! [Subspace Inventory] is like item box, right…? I want that…” Shohi sounded sulky.
Sorazu showed a slight, proud grin for a moment, before regaining his regular composure.
Sorazu was the calm, reserved type of person, but I can sense that he’s willing to chat quite a bit now. I guess that’s just how it is when the situation interests the person.
“What about you, what do you have?” Sorazu continued to converse with Shohi, giving the latter his turn to talk about himself.
“I can control temperature with [Thermal Aptitude].” Shohi answered.
“Eh… so we’re like one of the elements, then.” Sorazu said, creating a group… people of elements?
“I guess we are.” Shohi replied simply, as he then also looks toward where Sorazu turned towards, another two who were still sleeping, the two were other people in their group in terms of what sort of thing they’d talk about in class.
“Do you think they’ll be one of the elements?” Sorazu asked that to Shohi.
The elements… Shohi is fire, but, Sorazu is space, and Reshidou is kinesis…?
“I get the fire, but not the space, and kinesis part… also, they’re named with aptitude though?” I asked in-between.
It doesn’t seem like I’m included in that group, I don’t have a construct with aptitude in its name, neither is the class president, Toukai.
From the looks of it, it seems like these two, who are showing themselves as knowledgeable in this situation we’re in, have expectations for this group to be powerful, so I feel like I just gotta know what kind of powers we might have.
“Yeah…” Shohi turned towards me, answering, “space is included, and telekinesis is a thing… at most, aside from the classic six—light, dark, wind, earth, fire, and water—we might see someone being able to control gravity…?” Shohi listed the possibilities, with a tone of uncertainty.
Shohi then turns back to conversing with Sorazu. “If they’re to be any element, you got [Spatial Aptitude], so space is included… seems suitable if it’s taking into account that you talked the least out of us four… but, it’s not like you didn’t talk either…” Shohi started reasoning. “Reshidou has the kinesis that Rukaru mentioned, by the way.”
“Oh?” Sorazu, surprised, turned to look at Reshidou.
“Yeah… I can push and pull things, telekinetically, I guess.” Reshidou answered.
“Reshidou did some archery, so maybe he’ll be good at launching things around”, Shohi explained, to then go back to the reasoning, “instead of how you interact, social personality and stuff, let’s focus on what we do or did. I read a bunch of martial arts stories recently. I got something like [Thermal Aptitude]… I suppose fire is the basics for things like forging, and making pills…?”
“… That so…” (Sorazu)
“In that case… the story you said that was your latest favorite was an isekai… you’ve read the most isekai out of us, huh. Just from that, I have hopes for you.” Shohi smiled a sort of proud smile. So… Sorazu knows the most about this situation…?
Shohi continues, “so, let’s go with what we talked about, Eitou might become something like a ninja, stealth and stuff. Hazuki probably might become a herbalist or healer, some sort of medication expert.”
“Hm. Then, we’ll be quite strong…” Sorazu then looks over to us, “I’m guessing Rukaru is also powerful? The class president too?” He asked, mentioning me along with Toukai.
“Uh… yeah, both of them seem powerful. I’m thinking Rukaru can cut stuff up and be a tank, while Toukai… maybe she can memorize the look of magic circles and copy them…? Toukai has the skills, er, constructs called [Evaluation] and [Eidetic].”
“[Evaluation], something like appraisal, huh, so you can’t hide anything from her for now. [Eidetic]… What does that mean?” (Sorazu)
“Apparently she can remember things with her soul.” (Shohi)
“Oh… the remembering part is in her soul, huh… could she remember things in her next life, then…?” Sorazu spoke of a possibility for Toukai.
“Heh~” Shohi expressed his interest.
“Remembering, huh…” I wonder.
In terms of the most fascinating yet still realistic powers in shows, memory-related things were the most plausible, so it held my interest.
“Maybe she can.” Shohi agreed with the possibility.
Since Toukai was put in the spotlight, “You have [Spatial Aptitude], right?” She seized the opportunity to speak, turning the focus of attention onto Sorazu, “it means that you have the ability to teleport, right?”
“Uh… I think so, I can control space.” Sorazu spoke affirmatively.
“Then, is it possible to just go back to Earth?” Toukai said, her voice was hopeful.
“Oh. That’s… interesting.” Sorazu went quiet. With that phrasing… he can, but he doesn’t want to?
“Sorazu might not have the mana for it.” Shohi spoke of an issue with the return using Sorazu.
Sorazu then goes “Ah. Right”, with his voice cheering up. “Yeah, I can, but it won’t happen too quickly. I suppose it’ll be interesting to go back after we get more powerful.”
I guess… Sorazu just didn’t want his fun to be over so suddenly… but, only after we get stronger, eh?
“Hm, so eventually, you could go to worlds other than this one, that could be interesting.” Shohi spoke of a possibility for Sorazu… for him to move between worlds at will.
“In that case, how about you try moving something with [Spatial Aptitude] first to make it grow?” Toukai said, her words nudging Sorazu into trying out the power he got.
From the chatting Reshidou and Shohi had, the best hypothesis for strengthening ourselves was to keep using our powers, or constructs as [Open Status] labels them.
“Alright.” Sorazu readily agreed. After a moment of pointing his palm out, he points the other palm in another direction, the items were then teleported outside, the same desk and same chair we used to test the powers of Reshidou and I. Those two were the closest, so they got targeted, by three types of powers.
“Hm… it consumed more than half, so you can only do that over that kind of distance, just once, huh.” Toukai said, probably peeking into Sorazu’s mana.
“Yeah…” Sorazu said with a complicated expression. I suppose he might be happy that he got his power, but wasn’t content with how much he could use it.
“Considering all sorts of things… it’s good that you can move that much… by that much. Should we try exploring outside, after Sorazu regains his mana? He could teleport us away if we get attacked by something.” Toukai spoke of a plan. She seems to have just accepted that these powers are reality for us now.
“That makes sense”, Shohi spoke, “but what if there’s some sort of side-effect when it comes to teleporting… I did find it quite problematic how some superheroes with teleportation powers didn’t just use it to cut off someone’s limbs.” He told of a concerning possibility.
“There’s also this comparison with some boat, that if we took parts away, and re-built it, there’s the problem of if it’s still the same boat…” Shohi added another concern.
“Then, I’ll try being the test subject.” I said. “I think, I’m well protected, right?” I decided to take the initiative to get something going.
I have [Health Regulation], and [Spiritual Security]. If anything went wrong, I think I could just take it head-on.
“Right. If something went wrong, Rukaru might be the best in terms of getting out of it safely.” Shohi is in agreement.
“Okay… I’ll just teleport you a tiny bit for now.” Sorazu’s gaze fixed onto me.
I feel something wrap around me, and in the next moment, I see that I’ve moved some steps forward, up until an inch away from a desk.
“Did anything go wrong?” Shohi asked that.
“I don’t think so.” I answered.
I look at my status, and then give an explanation, “HP is for how alive or hurt I am, right? I still have it at full. Mana points and stamina points didn’t seem to get affected either.”
I think, when I do get injured, [Health Regulation] is probably the one to save me by using up my stamina points, and since my stamina points didn’t seem to lose anything, and neither did my HP. “I think I’m fine.” I said, one more time.
“You can teleport him about… hm…” Toukai started estimating, “this is sufficient”, she concluded, “as long as we stay close enough to the classroom, we could just escape with Sorazu’s teleportation.” Toukai planned. “Oh, and also, if the teleportation doesn’t work, Reshidou could throw us back in with his telekinesis.”
“Alright, since we have two methods for escaping a sudden attack, we can go outside to check things out, right?” Toukai was eager to see outside. I guess the inside of the classroom was getting too dull for her?
“Yeah, I suppose we can, I feel like we can take on an attack, but let’s do it after Sorazu, Reshidou, and I… actually, maybe just… after the two of them get back to full mana.” Shohi answered, excluding himself out of the plan for recovering to full mana capacity… I suppose it’s needed for him to use his mana, to keep us warm.
“Fair enough… Reshidou’s mana points is full, so I guess we’ll just have to wait for Sorazu… An hour, huh.” Toukai settled with patience.
Though, after a moment, “how about you try moving something with your [Kinetic Aptitude], Reshidou?” Sorazu wanted to see Reshidou’s power in action.
Since we just spoke about saving up energy within a minute ago, I look toward Toukai, though she didn’t seem to show any objection. I guess it won’t make much of a difference as long as Reshidou recovers faster than Sorazu, who needs some couple of minutes to recover to full after having shown off his ability to teleport things.
Reshidou’s facial expression conveys some hesitation. “Unlike your teleportation, mine isn’t as silent.” He said.
“Oh, then, how about…” Sorazu moves his hands around his own clothing, “a pen…?” He said, pulling out a pen from a pocket. “Try throwing this.”
“Don’t throw things.” Toukai was quick to warn.
“Ah, ehem”, Sorazu realized possible consequences. If Reshidou doesn’t have good control over it, I guess I can imagine the window breaking in a moment.
“Try making it float, or something.” Sorazu used gentler, safer words.
Reshidou shows compliance. I see his arm move for a moment before retracting it back down in the default listless position. He got conscious over raising palms forward?
Then, “heh”, Reshidou couldn’t help himself from sounding. He now also got his fair share of having an impressed grin.
The pen had started lifting into the air, then it rotates as to make the sharp-end not face Reshidou, and it slowly hovers over to where he is. To end the pen’s journey, he simply grabs it.
“That certainly is an impressive display.” Toukai admitted what she felt, amazement.
Telekenesis… is a common power to want, in terms of how good it looks in movies.
“Really? I can make fire, and Sorazu can teleport things, you know?”
“Yeah yeah, yours are impressive too~” Toukai just brushes off Shohi’s mention of themselves wittingly.
“How are you imagining it, by the way?” Shohi asked Sorazu, about how he gets the teleportation done.
“Oh, I just imagine something like a sphere surrounding the area, and the inside then moving over.” (Sorazu)
“Hm, you don’t just imagine it instantly being wherever you want it to be?” (Shohi)
“… That works too. I guess I went with the fancy way first.” (Sorazu)
Then, Sorazu turns, and a chair silently moves a couple inches instantly.
“Well, ain’t that nice. You can teleport that much stuff around that many times, while I’m a little troubled with how much my temperature control is consuming, well, I have to save it for warming people up, though, so I guess I’m just envious of how I can’t show it off as much.” Shohi ranted.
“Oh… now that you mention it… it is… cold.” Sorazu only now realized.
“Excitement is quite a way to make you just ignore things, huh.” Reshidou commented.
“Hahah, sorry for making you realize it.” Shohi said playfully, “well, do you want to be warmed up?”
“Ah, yeah, sure.” Sorazu conceded. “Why would you wait until now to start warming me up…?”
“I don’t know, it just so happened that you didn’t complain about it, and I was taking a break.” Shohi answered as Sorazu’s expression relaxes, receiving warmth.
“Okay, start saving up your mana, you guys.” Toukai reminded them. We’ll have to just idle for a bit.
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Footnotes / Extra Information / Naming Derivation
Sorazu derived from 空 (sky)
Eitou derived from 栄 (glory) and 到 (arrival)
Hazuki derived from 筈 (expectation) and 木 (tree
