"Sooooo, when are we leaving, Shun-chan?"
…Why is this kid in my room?
Isshun stared at the periwinkle-haired girl standing right next to his bed, far too close for comfort, like it was something out of a cheap horror movie.
She just scared the shit out of me.
"...Why are you in my room at…" Isshun looked at the electronic clock on the side of the bed. It read 8:12 A.M.
You can't be serious…
"Didn't Mom say I could leave early as long as you were watching me?" Nejire said brightly. "So… when are we leaving?" She tilted her head, eyes practically sparkling with anticipation.
…She did say that.
Although she probably didn't expect us to leave the house before noon.
"Maybe later?"
"Why?" Nejire asked immediately. "Don't we get more time to play if we go early?" she countered, her tone filled with the earnest logic of an eight-year-old.
That's such a good argument I don't even know how to respond to that.
"It's so early that when we get there, there probably won't be many people to make friends with," Isshun said after a moment.
Thankfully, that made Nejire pause. She hummed thoughtfully, as if the idea had never occurred to her before. After a few seconds, she reluctantly nodded, her lips pulling into a small pout.
Isshun should have felt relieved.
Instead, he hesitated… then sighed.
He rolled onto his side, too tired to bother pulling the blanket with him, just in time for Nejire to leap onto the bed.
"Then I'll just take a nap too!"
"Yeah, yeah," Isshun muttered.
Facing away from Nejire, Isshun closed his eyes to get at least a few more minutes or even hours more sleep.
Not even a second later, he sighed inwardly. "Nejire, just go to bed."
He heard a soft giggle behind him, before it went quiet.
Thank ROB.
…How did she even get in my room, anyways?
--<>--
"So, when are we leaving now?"
When Isshun woke up the next time, it seemed that he had rolled around in his sleep, being face to face with Nejire, his white eyes locked with Nejire's excited blue eyes.
…This girl doesn't even look like she slept.
Isshun slowly sat up and checked the time.
11:28 A.M.
Well, that's better.
"Right after I wash up."
"Yay! So how long will that take?" Nejire asked immediately.
"Soon."
"How long is soon?"
Isshun paused, rubbing his eyes. "Soon as in… not long."
"Oh!" Nejire nodded seriously, then squinted at him. "Like five minutes soon, or ten minutes soon, or adult soon, where it's actually, like, half an hour?"
…She's disturbingly perceptive for her age.
"Five minutes," Isshun said flatly.
"Okay!" Nejire chirped. She hopped off the bed, then popped right back into his line of sight. "Should I count? Out loud? Or quietly? Or do you want reminders every minute so you don't forget?"
"I will remember."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Because a week ago—"
"I remember," Isshun interrupted, already standing up.
Nejire beamed, completely unbothered. "Okay! I'll be right here!"
…Why do I feel like that was a threat?
"Also, Nejire you're getting a flick once I'm done."
"What?!"
"Four questions all at once? You want three flicks or one?"
"...I'll take the one."
--<>--
"Did you let Nejire in my room, Mom?"
"Of course I did," Kako replied cheerfully. "She looked so excited to go to the park today." She glanced at her son with open schadenfreude. If Nejire didn't exist, this lazy boy would probably be holed up in his father's study all day.
He really needed some vitamin D. Just look at how pale he was.
Kako handed Isshun an old looking flip phone.
"I put a new SIM card in it this morning. Mine and Shiori's numbers are already saved, so if anything happens, call either of us."
Isshun nodded, taking the phone.
"You know how it works, right?" Kako asked, just to be sure.
"Yep." Isshun pressed a few buttons, scrolling through the contacts to confirm.
"If we think you're responsible enough, we'll get you a real phone when you start elementary school."
Now that's something to be excited about.
"Aww," Nejire whined, having listened in without even pretending otherwise. "My mom says I can't get a phone until middle school!"
"For good reason…" Isshun muttered, earning an amused look from Kako.
"Oh, and here." Kako handed him some bills. "Two thousand yen. If you get hungry, buy snacks for yourself and Nejire."
"Thanks Mom."
"No problem. Now have fun, okay?"
"Yeah."
As they headed out, Kako pressed a piece of toasted bread slathered with jam into each of their hands.
--<>--
Getting to the park wasn't technically difficult.
In fact, it was extremely simple.
It was only one bus stop away.
While Isshun didn't really understand why there wasn't a park or playground closer to home, he did know it was one of the main reasons families with younger children didn't live in the neighborhood. Most of the "kids" around here were already in middle or high school.
Nejire already had a Suica card given from her mom before she left, so after waiting for the next bus, they arrived without any trouble.
Without even waiting for Isshun, Nejire marched straight up to the nearest mutant-type Quirk user, a kid with a hair of grass and flowers, and immediately began firing off question after question.
Well, as long as it isn't me, I'm all for it.
For younger children, having someone so openly fascinated by the very traits they wanted to feel special about was undoubtedly a good thing.
Since Isshun didn't really have a purpose at the park beyond bringing Nejire here (and making sure she got back) he headed toward the nearest bench and settled down.
Might as well try and make a Teleportation domain with the introduction of moving variables.
After modifying the Eleventh-Dimensional Interaction Formula enough to remove the need for direct contact, even if it currently only worked on something as simple as a pencil, Isshun was essentially set, as long as he adjusted the parameters properly.
If there was a limitation, it would be distance.
He had never tested the upper bounds directly, but he could estimate the point at which his computational abilities would no longer be able to keep up with the constantly shifting variables.
Past that specific threshold, the margin of error became so large that attempting teleportation at all would be little more than a gamble.
Right now, if Isshun used the method of using himself as the Origin Point and the Takeoff Point, then the theoretical max distance without any margin of error was around 150 meters.
For the Teleportation after creating a domain in which everything was graphed, it was around half that, at 75 meters.
Of course, this was all theoretical, based on calculations done at home. He'd never actually tested it outside, nor bothered trying.
If he failed or got caught, that would be a pain.
Not that he was afraid of failing, cause it wouldn't happen.
With the movement of children and adults throughout the park, his teleportation domain shrank slightly due to the increased influx of information. The direct-origin method, however, remained unaffected.
Another benefit of the Kuroko method, I guess.
Given the physical changes to his brain structure and nerve composition, the effective range would likely increase as his computational abilities grew with age. No reason to worry too much.
His computational abilities would probably grow as long as he used it a lot, similar to a muscle.
Even his 'Precognition' Quirk was more used when there was more info in his general location.
AFK farming, son!
…Never mind!
Isshun glanced in Nejire's direction just in time to hear her call out to him, surrounded by a growing crowd of kids.
"Shun-chaaaan!"
…Of course.
Well, I did say this counted as "stamina training" when I suggested it.
Making his way over, Isshun took in the scene. There were a lot of kids.
How did Nejire befriend this many people in, like, ten minutes?
"Let's play Heroes and Villains!"
…This stupid-ass game again?!
--+--
A/N: Why is getting to 15,000 words so hard?!