Hmm…
Isshun stared at the cup that had just glitched, or at least, that was the closest word he had for what he'd seen.
Maybe I should've expected this, he thought. My computation speed has increased, and so has the theoretical range of my teleportation.
His AIM Diffusion Field had progressed to the point where it was no longer just an abstract phenomenon. It was actively, visibly interfering with the space around him.
When ROB had explained things during his reincarnation, it had mentioned that Isshun would gain an AIM Diffusion Field alongside Shirai Kuroko's Personal Reality.
At the time, Isshun hadn't given it much thought, but now that it was becoming noticeable, he couldn't exactly ignore it anymore.
If this continued, he'd eventually need a plausible explanation for why objects around him were behaving strangely.
And if there was one thing Isshun hated, it was anything that wasted his time or made things unnecessarily complicated.
The only reason he'd caught the cup blinking in and out of place was because of his Precognition. Without that, the distortion was so brief that anyone watching would've just assumed they'd blinked or lost focus for a split second.
Still, Isshun knew the truth: the stronger his Personal Reality became, the more obvious these glitches would get.
At least there was one small aspect that didn't make it too bad. Because he wasn't actively teleporting the cup, touching or moving it mid-glitch didn't cause any accidental splicing.
He didn't even want to imagine what it would feel like for a person to get caught in one of those distortions. If his ability ever affected someone nearby, specifically someone he cared about and hurt them…
He shut that line of thought down immediately.
He wouldn't allow that to happen.
Which meant he needed to figure this out before the problem grew beyond his control.
--<>--
Less than ten minutes later, Isshun was back in his room, but this time with a rhinoceros beetle he'd found near the house.
"So now all I have to do is wait until the beetle glitches," he muttered.
As long as the beetle didn't die and didn't start moving erratically afterward, the test would be good enough for his purposes.
After only a few seconds, though, Isshun abandoned that approach. It wasn't like he could consciously control his AIM Diffusion Field in the first place.
Instead of waiting for it to happen, might as well try to understand the mechanics of the glitching.
Distance and timing were the most important factors.
After a few seconds of thought, Isshun pieced together a basic framework for how the glitching worked.
First, the range affected by the glitches didn't correlate with his Teleportation Domain, nor with the theoretical maximum distance he could teleport, both of which increased passively over time.
Instead, it seemed to be governed by an entirely separate system: the development of his Personal Reality.
That alone made it annoyingly difficult to quantify.
For now, the effect extended to a maximum radius of roughly eight meters, and it only affected inanimate objects.
The interval between glitches ranged from a minimum of two minutes to a maximum of seven.
Isshun hypothesized that as his Personal Reality advanced, these parameters would change, where either the time between glitches would shorten, or the range of affected targets would expand.
Unfortunately, even after waiting far longer than expected, the rhinoceros beetle remained in its makeshift enclosure without any visible changes.
Strangely enough, that lack of results was information in itself.
It raised the possibility that living creatures—people included—weren't affected by the glitching at all. If that turned out to be true, it would be a huge relief.
Or, just as likely, Isshun was simply having a streak of bad luck, and the glitch had skipped over the beetle for no particular reason at all.
--<>--
Isshun eventually pushed the issue to the back of his mind when it became clear that nothing else was happening anytime soon.
As he reached to turn on his computer, a faint, instinctive sense of unease washed over him. He sighed under his breath.
Then, as if on autopilot, he walked over to the window and opened it.
Waiting outside was the familiar face of his ever-energetic neighbor—Hado Nejire.
He easily caught the pebble she tossed at his window and was immediately met with her bright, excited smile.
Judging by the way she was practically vibrating in place, she had a lot to say—probably because she'd just returned from her annual health check-up.
That was the only reason she hadn't come by sooner, since Nejire usually stuck to Isshun like glue outside of school and sleep.
Nejire didn't even wait before throwing the cup, which was getting more accurate as time passed, even if technically she barely missed, even if the outcome didn't show that.
Ever since Isshun had started teleporting Nejire's near-miss paper-cup into his hand, it had sparked an idea for a potential future technique.
If he could reduce the delay between teleports, for example, reach thirty to sixty activations per second, he could create subtle but deliberate trajectories by teleporting the movement itself faster than the naked eye could track.
At present, for simple motions like tossing a ball into the air and back down, his limit was about fifteen "frames" per second.
With the cup now in hand, Isshun lifted the cup to his ear, listening as Nejire launched into a rambling recap of her day without Isshun.
"Hey, hey, Shun-chan, did you know that girls grow faster than boys?"
…What a weird start to a conversation, but sure.
"Uh… yeah?"
"Aw, I thought I'd stump you!" she whined.
"Then do you know why girls grow faster than boys?" Isshun asked.
"Nope! Why?" Nejire answered immediately, curiosity winning out her intention of trying to stump Isshun.
"Well, basically—"
Isshun froze.
Isshun tensed for a split second before he inwardly sighed and then complained inwardly.
However, this sudden pause caused Nejire to visibly tilt her head in confusion.
"...Shun-chan?"
"Huh? Oh—sorry."
In five seconds, Nejire was going to glitch.
He'd felt it coming through Precognition and had instinctively prepared to teleport himself away if anything went wrong, secret be damned.
But nothing happened.
No injuries. No changes.
Relief flooded through him at the information.
Then irritation followed soon after her safety was known.
Four hours, he thought bitterly. Four hours, and the beetle stays perfectly fine, but the moment I start talking to Nejire…
What kind of shitty luck was this?
But after knowing that Nejire wouldn't be injured due to his AIM Diffusion Field, all his worries regarding accidentally injuring someone fizzled out.
"So anyway," Isshun continued, "girls grow—"
"Shun-chan!!!"
He tensed again, then relaxed just as quickly.
"I just saw a suuuuuper cool world!" Nejire gushed. "Like—I blinked, and suddenly everything was rainbow-colored!"
"...Yeah?"
"Yeah!"
Isshun's eyebrow twitched, but not at her enthusiasm, but at the sheer absurdity of the situation.
Because, five seconds later, Nejire glitched again.
"Shun-chan! It happened again!"
"…Haaaah," Isshun sighed.
'Such misfortune.'
--+--
A/N: Talking about how AIM Diffusion fields work is pretty hard, but it does become more noticeable the stronger you are, which is why Misaka's AIM Field was strong enough to power wind turbines passively.
AIM Diffusion fields on teleporters aren't even in the wiki so just came up with the idea of glitching in and out of space as an alternative.
--+--
A/N: After looking at the very supportive comments at the temporary announcement, I have a few announcements to make after some thought.
The schedule is going to be 3 chaps a week (should be on mon-wed-fri).
This will 100% not be harem. While i might do some love triangles just for the sake of it, the end goal will be a healthy relationship between one person.
Additionally, powerstone goals will start. However, it's not going to work how it would normally would like ive seen on other fics.
If we do reach a powerstone goal, instead of immediately getting a chap the day after, it'll increase the number of chaps per week by one per goal for the next week with a max of 2 chaps, where the extra chaps will be released the sunday of that week, in which the first goal will be relatively reachable while the second one is kind of unrealistic.
All of this is to hopefully keep me from burning out, which im sure no one wants.
Judging by how i somehow got 335 powerstones in the span of like a day(idk how), here are the goals.
2000 Powerstones you'll get an extra chap next week
4000 Powerstones then another extra chap next week
(again, the second goal is kinda unrealistic but still possible so if yall are extra motivated it might happen but if it doesn't then less chaps for me to do).
2000 PS - Not Complete
4000 PS - Not Unlocked
Thanks for all the support and comments like actually its insane.