The next morning, Atsuya wakes up in the room where the children sleep at the orphanage. He was confused after realizing it since he is forbidden from sleeping in there. He sits up on the bed and looked down only to see that Chiaki was asleep on his lap.
'What happened?' thinks Atsuya. He decides to lay back down and wait until she wakes up.
About 20 minutes later, Chiaki awakens. "Hey there, you're awake. You had me worried yesterday. I brought you in here so you could sleep, but then the caretakers said you couldn't sleep in here. So, I may or may not have got into a fight with them" says Chiaki. She chuckles while still being a bit tired.
"Thank you. I appreciate that you were willing to fight for my comfort, " goes Atsuya being a bit embarrassed.
"Atsuya-kun, I wanna know more about you."
Atsuya thinks to himself about how to tell Chiaki about his past. Not thinking about it too hard, he comes to a decision.
"Okay, later tonight we'll go outside to the field and talk. While we're at it, we could practice using our abilities."
"You noticed, huh? That I'm an Esper, " says Chiaki.
"Yeah, it's not like it was hard or anything. When you came over to me, the area's temperature dropped."
Chiaki chuckles with a bit of embarrassment. "Hehehe. I guess I forgot to be discreet."
After making idle conversation for about 5 minutes, they both get ready and go to school. Because it makes Atsuya comfortable, he usually wears a hoodie underneath his school uniform. However, today, he decides to just wear his normal school uniform.
An hour later, Atsuya arrives at school. He goes to his locker and sorts his belongings. 'Oh yeah. It's almost the end of the school year. Which means exams are coming up.' Atsuya sighs and walks to his first class, taking his usual seat by the window in the back of the class.
'Today's gonna be another long day'. When at school, Atsuya has to control the pressure he constantly emits. Since he doesn't ever use his powers, and that he's 10-years-old, it proves to be quite difficult.
"Poke poke. Poke poke. Poke!" Atsuya hears this coming from the person behind him. So he turns around.
"What! Why are you poking me?!"
"Well, Sasaki-chan. You just look so cool today! Normally, you're wearing that lame hoodie with your uniform."
Atsuya felt shocked and insulted at the same time.
"Wait a minute. Who are you?" He realized this was the first time the girl had spoken to him.
"My apologies Sasaki-chan. Just call me Mina." The girl gave Atsuya a sincere smile. However, he also got a strong feeling that if he got close to her, she'd be extremely annoying.
"Okay, cool." After giving her a look of slight disgust, Atsuya soon turned around and resumed listening to the lecture.
7 hours passed. Atsuya was at the orphanage doing his homework, and then...
"Atsuya-kun!" Chiaki appears from the shadows, jumps on to Atsuya, and tries to tickle him. Unamused, Atsuya just stares at her. They lock eyes and exchange awkward gazes. "Chiaki, what are you doing? I am trying to do my homework."
She looked around, flustered because she failed to "cheer" Atsuya up. Little does she know, the smell of "Hmph. I just thought with you being depressed all the time, I'd cheer you up, or something."
Atsuya continues to stare at her, trying to comprehend her intentions. "Or something? Okay, you could check my homework that I've done so far."
Chiaki frowns. "I'm no good with homework. I'm allergic to it, it makes me EXTREMELY sick. BUUUT, I'd be willing to do it for you." She smiled at Atsuya, but he couldn't bring himself to smile back.
*3 hours later*
Atsuya looks up from his desk and notices something. "It's dark outside. Time really flies, huh." He realizes that Chiaki had fallen asleep. He puts her in bed and takes sometime to admire how strong he is for a 10-year-old. Afterwards, he heads outside.
It's nighttime, and a bit windy. Atsuya decides to use some of the trees for target practice.
"Hah!"
He charges up a ball of energy, which consists of plasma.
"Go!"
He fires it at a ten-meter tall tree. The blast is so powerful that it almost evaporates the tree. All that was left was the deformed trunk, with smoke coming from it. Atsuya sighs and walks over to a nearby hill and lies down.
'I wonder if the stars really feel as free as they are up there' thinks Atsuya, looking up at the stars.
He thinks about his past as he falls into a daze; he thinks about what happened with his father. Right as he is about to open his eyes, he feels something touch his forehead. As he slowly opens his eyes, he sees Chiaki looking down at him from above, smiling.
"How come you're not asleep?"
Atsuya looks away out of embarrassment. "I could ask you the same. You were sleeping not too long ago."
Chiaki puts her index finger on her chin and thinks about how to explain her thoughts.
"Well, I sensed some power nearby, and I saw you shoot the tree. I thought that we could talk, ya know?"
"Okay," says Atsuya. "About what?"
"Well Atsuya, I wanted to talk about your past." When Chiaki says this, Atsuya's eyes quickly open up wide; she caught his attention.
"You always look so sad, Atsuya-kun. I wanna know if I can help you. And if I can't help you, I wanna at least know why I have to watch you suffer internally."
Atsuya had calmed down from the earlier shock. "That's right. I did say I'd tell you, didn't I?"
Chiaki lays out next to Atsuya as he prepares himself to speak.
"Okay, here it goes. As you know my name is Atsuya. My family name is Sasaki. I was born on August 19, 2020. When I was born, I supposedly caused a tremor using my powers and killed my mother who was injured due to childbirth. My father hated me and eventually abandoned me."
Chiaki looked up to the stars. "Jeez. That's rough."
As you saw earlier, my ability is related to plasma. I can use it to speed myself up, I can emit it from my limbs as energy, and a bunch of other stuff."
Chiaki stood up, placing her hands on her hips. "I see. You've suffered a lot, haven't you?"
"Yeah, I have," said Atsuya.
He points at Chiaki with a straight but curious face and says "Your turn."
Surprised, Chiaki gets flustered. "W-wait a minute! I didn't agree to these terms! Oh, I know! I'll show you my ability."
Chiaki jumps up, ignoring the fact that her breasts will move with her, and walks away from Atsuya without saying anything. After stretching, Chiaki prepares to show Atsuya her ability.
"Okay!" Chiaki closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, calming her mind as she charges her energy.
Atsuya feels the air surrounding her freezing as her concentration gradually grows. Chiaki slowly opens her eyes as she crouches to the ground. Her eyes glow a beautiful mixture of blue and white. As she places her hand on the ground, the grass in a 30-meter radius quickly freezes.
"Woah, " says Atsuya quietly.
"It's not over yet," says Chiaki with a smirk on her face. She slowly raises her hand from the ground and as she raises her hand, a sword came from the frozen ground.
A sight for the eyes. Atsuya is amazed at what he is witnessing. He had only ever seen a his ability in action. "Wow," says Atsuya. There isn't much else he can say.