Kaizer was driving in his sports car, heading towards home with a solemn look on his face. The events that had just occurred played back in his head repeatedly, making him feel like something was wrong each time he went through it.
The bodyguards were useless because even though he could read their minds, they were clueless about what was going on. Only Blaze, the one he suspected to have orchestrated everything for some purpose, was mentally blocked from him, which told Kaizer that there were cases of mental infiltration in the esper world terrifying enough that even the higher-ups had to train themselves to protect their secrets.
In fact, this was not too important. What was important was understanding the purpose of the previous events.
How much did the officials know about his ability prior to Blaze's appearance? They had dispatched that tail to shadow him, but were they certain that Kaizer would discover him? And what if Kaizer did not confront his tail but tried to give him the slip or straight-up ignored his tail? Then what would they have done?
More than that, how had Blaze hidden himself from his perception? 300 meters might sound unimpressive, but in reality, that was a very big distance. In America and most Western countries, an entire block was up to a maximum of 600 feet on either side, which was basically 190 meters.
That meant that Kaizer could passively know everything around him within the distance of an entire block and slightly more. The way Blaze and co were able to quickly approach from the moment he began interrogating the shadow meant that they were definitely within this range and even closer, but Kaizer had not sensed them at all before he decided to make a move.
Otherwise, he would have obviously decided to play stupid and consult his father first.
Also, why did a powerful A-Rank esper like Blaze come with a group of dead weight? No offense to those bodyguards, but in a battle against an esper, even a D-rank one, they were nothing more than fodder. Carla and Barnes could have killed them ten times over, and it was almost effortless for Kaizer to render them incapable with his power, even having spare energy to fight Blaze head-on.
What purpose were they meant to achieve? To tempt him into killing them so that Blaze could ascertain his moral compass? This was the answer Kaizer deduced after careful consideration, but it made him feel cold at heart because then what if he really was evil?
If he killed those bodyguards who did nothing wrong, they would be dead. Blaze, who brought them there as bait, how did he rationalize this? Did he really take human life as fodder, despite his grandiose words about not wanting to involve innocents in their fight?
Kaizer's mind was a whirl of thoughts as he began to overthink, a common problem youths like him possessed. Unfortunately, he was not the type to conveniently tell himself that since he couldn't figure it out, he would stop thinking about it.
He was the type who would have the issue play in his head endlessly until he either got down to a reasonable conclusion or something distracted him enough for him to temporarily forget the issue.
(Un)fortunately for him, he got the second ending as Kaizer sensed immense danger about to befall him in the next moment. With limited time to act, he simply manifested his strongest psychic barrier around his body as a beeping sound occurred, and his car, which had been speeding down the highway, suddenly exploded into a ball of flame, shocking everyone on the road who was driving.
The one directly behind Kaizer panicked and spun his steering wheel, immediately losing control and almost colliding with another car when the vehicle suddenly jerked to the side and avoided creating an accident that would have spiraled into a tragedy.
Many other cars that reacted similarly and were about to veer off were suddenly forcefully righted, their drivers simultaneously fearful and confused, unable to even muster the energy to continue driving as they had come face to face with death in this short period of time.
Those who were fine parked their vehicles on the spot and glanced at the flaming remains of Kaizer's vehicle with shock, many calling 911 on the spot and lamenting the safety of the driver of this car while wondering what the hell even happened.
Meanwhile, Kaizer walked out of the flames while patting his suit down to release the smoke for a second time within an hour. Interestingly, one of the onlookers noticed him, which was a trick he had developed these past few days and was how he managed to deceive his tail in order to appear behind him.
Fully enslaving and controlling a mind was not yet something he could do, but making a strong mental suggestion to a person within the range of his telesthesia that they couldn't see him was not difficult. However, this naturally did not work on technology, and some were taking out their phones to record, so Kaizer immediately joined the crowd and blended in.
His eyes were extremely cold as he scanned everyone within his range carefully, trying to find anyone suspicious. He initially suspected this explosion to be the work of Blaze because when he followed his tail and fought Blaze, he had been more than 300 meters away from his car, allowing his attacker to plant the bomb on it.
His telesthesia domain was not omnipotent because it worked by sensing the minds of the targets within the range, not sensing absolutely everything. Technology, once again, was his weak point since he could not sense the waves technology emitted yet, only brainwaves.
Kaizer's scan came up empty, making him feel gloomy. The person who attacked him was either too far for him to sense or they didn't even bother to confirm whether their attack worked. This either meant that they didn't care if he survived or that they knew that he would, which meant they had a grasp of his capability.
Coupled with the sneakiness, which meant they were afraid of direct confrontation as well as the casual nature of the attack which did not care for other casualties, Kaizer could only think of one group who would be likely to launch this attack.
"I was really foolish to let them live." Kaizer chastised himself as he closed his eyes and breathed out deeply.
Never again.
It didn't matter even if it was not them or affiliated with them; it didn't change the fact that he still needed to deal with this group. However, Kaizer didn't have the time nor the ability to comb the entire Alpha City for them, so either he had to be passive and wait for them to come to him, or he could acquire their information through a powerful faction.
Obviously, this was not an outcome Kaizer hoped for because the initiative was completely out of his hand, and given the attack on the campus first and then this sudden attack, it was clear that there were more troubles to come in his daily life.
Now, more than ever, Kaizer wished his father could give them some good news about his search for an entryway into the actual esper world.