Aurora Over a Dead World

"I-I’m ready to go on a mission with you... Professor Zenith... so... wh-where are we going?" Ashlyn asks as I guide her out of the academy. Tonight is much colder than usual.

"We’re going monster hunting. Your power is useful for finding them, right? You just need to create those things to search for hidden monsters. I’ll help with my powers too," I say to her. She seems tense.

"D-Do you really have the authority to take a student out like this?"

"I don’t know." I have no idea if what I’m doing is allowed, but I think it is, since Astrid never complained even when I took Eirwen with me and she caused problems.

Or maybe Astrid just hates me and doesn’t care if I get into trouble. That’s a possibility. After all, Astrid has always been a detestable woman wearing a generous mask.

"Well, you can start using it now. How about creating some kind of transportation for us?" I stop with her in an alley. She seems uneasy.

"I don’t know if... that’s the best idea. Isn’t it dangerous?"

"Dangerous? Don’t you control the creatures you create?"

"O-Of course I have control!! But... people..." She seems tense about it, and I understand why. Her power seems to generate monsters, even if they aren’t exactly real monsters.

"We’ll just go across the rooftops. You don’t need to worry so much. It’s not as bad as it seems. Most people are already heading to bed or having dinner at this hour," I say to her. She doesn’t look very confident, but she generates some kind of wolf.

"Why is everything you generate black or has red or gray traces?" I ask her curiously as I touch this "wolf."

"I don’t know. I think it’s because nightmares have those colors?"

"You should stop creating animals. They’re too basic. Try mixing the traits more. Base them on monsters. For example, this wolf here — if you enlarge the claws, increase its musculature, make its legs longer and its thighs thinner, it’ll have more explosive jumping power and excellent climbing ability."

"Of course, you’ll have to reduce the size of the head a bit so it doesn’t hit everything along the way." When I say this to her, the wolf’s form quickly shifts into what I had imagined.

"You can reshape one you’ve already made?"

"Yes... monsters... if I base them on monsters, other people might end up attacking them..." She says something very real. A power like hers is complicated.

"Increase the leg musculature more and make the thigh muscles of this thing denser. That way it’ll be able to jump onto buildings and move by leaping from rooftop to rooftop." I climb onto the wolf while pulling her up onto it. She makes the changes I asked for while I feel a little surprised.

’I can even touch them...’ They aren’t real. That’s obvious. But even though it’s obvious they aren’t real creatures, it feels too real. I can smell it, touch it, and it even has some kind of body heat, although the tactile sensation is strange — a simple flaw.

"Head to the north side of the city. I’ll tell you when to stop." I think about what to ask her regarding the subject of that cube.

"...Hey Ashlyn, while we’re on the way, I’d like to know more about the cube. So what happened? You were out of classes for over a week and only came back after that. Did they discover anything?"

"Ah... yes... well... it seems it’s really alive... although dormant. There’s no way to know if the person in the cube feels anything or if she even remembers, because the mind is complex..."

"P-People in comas can perceive, hear, and remember experiences around them, so maybe... maybe she remembers everything, a-although there’s no way to say if she felt pain, because she doesn’t even have a brain to process pain."

"At most... s-some kind of emptiness? Like... being trapped for years... without being able to move must be heavy on the mind... I don’t know. The studies were strange. The cube didn’t react to anything except my power. They said they’ll do more tests..."

"But even that was very dispersed, and I couldn’t really enter her mind. It was too deep. It’s like... a lake with layers. I can only reach the layers closer to the surface. The rest is too deep for me to enter."

"M-Maybe if I were stronger, I could enter there..." She says some interesting things, and that makes me think about a few matters.

’So she’s conscious and might be listening... but if she’s conscious, technically she could still use her powers... wouldn’t she be able to undo or reshape the cube?’

"Ashlyn, do you know what variants are?"

"...Th-They’re different vectors, but still connected to the main vector we manipulate..."

"Exactly. Let’s take Tanya, for example. She has many variant vectors because her vector manipulation is complex and linked to many things. I also have quite a few variants with my power."

"But there are many Kairas who don’t even have access to a single variant, whether because it’s too difficult, because they don’t know how, or because they’re too ’solid’ in their domain."

"Elemental powers like Rouge’s are great for having variants. She manipulates the atmosphere, air, winds, tornadoes — everything involving those kinds of forces."

"Complex powers like specific material manipulations, on the other hand, usually don’t have variants. I once met a Kaira capable of manipulating iron, but only iron and nothing else. She couldn’t even manipulate molten iron. Anything that altered the iron’s composition made it impossible for her to move it anymore."

"But your powers involve the mind. Have you ever thought about trying some variant? You can only discover variants by testing. Most of the variants my power has, I discovered by accident or by trying." Maybe I have even more power than I know, but I haven’t discovered any new ones after a while.

"B-But what does that mean for me? And... wh-what kind of power could it be?"

"Maybe more complex illusions of reality? Considering that those things you create with your power are unreal projections that use mass manipulation to seem real."

"A good possibility would be the power to alter the five basic senses. You could perhaps make someone see things with smell, touch, and taste indistinguishable from reality."

"And I’m not talking about this thing we’re riding. I mean a non-tangible illusion that replaces something — like making someone see another person, or changing a person’s appearance in someone else’s mind to make them attack an ally thinking it’s an enemy."

"Another possibility would be actually solidifying these things into reality. Currently, your power seems more like creating tangible ’imaginary’ mass and giving a false form to that mass. That form is only visible to observers as a perception alteration."

"But maybe you could actually turn it into something real, although I highly doubt that hypothesis." I look at her, and she seems excited.

"You’re the first person who... has interest in my power... other people are just afraid of my power..."

"Well, your power is frightening indeed. I think even I would have been afraid of it in the past. A power that can mess with someone’s mind is sinister, but there are monsters with that kind of power too. After a while, nothing seems shocking anymore."

"Just think carefully about it. Variants are very useful, although they always come with heavy conditions." My powers are a good example. Most of the spatial power variants I can only use either during the day or at night, so only a portion of the powers work depending on the time of day.

I think maybe it’s because of the earth’s magnetic field movement. Considering how gravity and space work, maybe the earth’s movement changes how my power functions, hence that limitation.

"But then... why doesn’t Director Astrid like my power... she clearly looks at me with... contempt..." When Ashlyn says this, I become thoughtful.

"That has to do with the past, and the reason why we don’t have many Kairas with this type of power. In the past, practically anyone could have chips, and currently it’s still almost the same with the cores."

"We don’t have many options for who to give power to, but nowadays there are basic tests to prevent certain profiles of people from gaining powers."

"Of course, considering that Tanya, Eirwen, and Charlotte have powers, the test is shit and doesn’t work. But the profile they try to filter out is people who might awaken powers that affect the mind."

"That’s because a Kaira in the past had the power to hypnotize the mind of anyone who smelled a kind of chemical she released from her saliva and blood. She used that to manipulate many people for three years."

"Until someone broke that hypnosis, realizing how much money and equipment she had stolen and how many people she caused to die because of her arrogance. She was executed, obviously."

"But that opened an investigation, and it showed that about 60% of people who had mind-affecting powers used them irresponsibly on other people."

"In other words, people with your type of power are problematic, and you’re proof of that, aren’t you? You invade people’s minds while they sleep and cause them problems. Even if it’s not exactly out of malice and more out of envy for not being able to sleep, it doesn’t erase the fact that it’s wrong."

"And just like you, many others caused problems. That’s why Astrid detests you. She was also controlled in the past. Apparently, she was that girl’s favorite puppet. Of course, she died long before I was born, so I don’t even know her name. Much was deleted." When I explain this, she seems to understand.

"...I’m sorry... I-I shouldn’t have done that to you that day..."

"So... even if I never do any of that... will people still look at me as if I were her?" She has a somewhat sad look, as if the guilt were part of her.

"Yes. After all, if someone with spatial power committed a horrible and violent massacre, everyone with that type of power would receive looks of suspicion. It’s not the power, it’s the event in question that shapes the perception of that type of power."

"Anyway, I accept your apology. It’s not a problem. Fortunately, you’ve never killed anyone, I think. If you had, Astrid would have informed me. So you have a good future ahead if you don’t use those powers wrongly."

"It’s not like I can judge. I’ve used my powers in petty ways too... here, stop here. I sense a monster moving underground." I say to her as the "wolf" she created stops on top of a building. I look at a manhole cover.

"Let’s go down there." She seems calmer with what I said, so I think I did the right thing. And I really can’t judge this kind of case very much.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!