'You know… I'm kind of regretting leaving without Shun-kun.'
That thought lingered in Isshun's parents' minds as they searched the mountain for the missing neighbor.
With both of their quirks being well-suited for search-and-rescue situations, Genzai and Kako had quickly volunteered when the Hado family organized a search party.
However, not long after they began, Genzai detected unusual movement in the distance—movement that didn't match any normal human pattern. He immediately voiced his concern to the rest of the group.
The rest of the search party, consisting of Nejire's parents and grandparents, brushed it off, assuming it was just a wild animal. Bears and boars weren't uncommon in these mountains, after all.
This was a community used to living alongside dangerous wildlife. Everyone carried bear spray, and two had brought a shovel for protection.
While these so-called "protective measures" did little to reassure the Shunkan couple, there wasn't much else they could reasonably demand, it wasn't like everyone held hunting grade weapons.
The only hunter in the village with a licensed rifle lived on the opposite side of town, and there simply wasn't time to call him in before searching further.
So Genzai, uneasy about the presence of a quadrupedal animal somewhere nearby, could only swallow his nerves and silently hope it wouldn't head in their direction.
The missing neighbor had a mutant-type quirk that gave him deer antlers and hooves, which were features that only increased the danger if he wandered deep into the forest.
Thankfully, due to repeated incidents in the past, the village, along with the neighbor's son who was frequently out due to having work in the nearby town, had agreed to attach a tracker to the man's antlers.
Since the antlers had no nerves or blood vessels, it was harmless, even if a bit unconventional, it was essentially just a piercing.
With the tracker active, the real challenge was reaching him. His deer hooves made traversing steep, uneven terrain far easier for him than for any normal human.
This was the main reason that Genzai and Kako volunteered.
So, with Genzai being the 'radar' for possible wild animals and Kako for knowing which tracks were safer, it greatly assisted the Hado family.
Still, the distance was far greater than anyone had anticipated, turning the search into an impromptu hiking expedition.
Kako exercised regularly for her health and managed fine, but Genzai lagged behind, already visibly winded.
With Isshun's senses that far surpassed Genzai and Kako's along with his Teleportation, this sudden hiking trip could have been nipped from the root.
However, they had promised to keep his Teleportation a secret. Convenience wasn't a good enough reason to break that trust.
And more importantly, they were still parents.
Asking a child, especially one not even of age, to shoulder the responsibility of saving a life was an unreasonable burden.
…That conviction, however, began to waver as time dragged on.
"This is weird…"
Hado Genji, Nejire's grandfather, stared down at the tracker on his phone, his brow furrowing.
"What is it?"
Nejire's grandmother, Hado Tomoe responded, already exasperated with how long this abrupt hiking session had gone for.
Kako had reassured everyone that they'd left a note before heading out, but Nejire was bound to worry if she came home to an empty house.
Without waiting for Genji's answer, Tomoe snatched the phone from his hands and frowned.
"...How is he moving so fast?"
That single sentence sent a chill through all six members of the search party.
"Are you sure you're reading that right?" Hado Mitsuru—Nejire's father, jogged up to her, peering at the screen.
Mitsuru stared at the screen for a long second longer than necessary.
"That's not human," he said quietly.
His expression slowly hardened as he looked from the phone to his wife, then to Isshun's parents.
"We're heading back," he said with finality. "We're getting old man Saboro."
His voice left no room for argument as he picked up the pace as he turned around.
"Why—" Genzai started, only to be cut off when Kako slapped his shoulder.
"Think for a second," she snapped, frowning. "How can an elderly man with memory loss move that fast?! His Quirk isn't even remotely related to speed!"
She grabbed Genzai's hand, fully aware of her husband's limited stamina. Without support, he'd be exhausted in minutes. While Genzai noticed her hand subconsciously shaking, he couldn't say much, as his was the same.
Mitsuru's next statement only made the nervousness worse.
"Sixty kilometers per hour, to be exact," Mitsuru added grimly.
"Sixty?!" Shiori exclaimed. "Isn't the average for bears forty—"
"Forty to forty-eight," Mitsuru finished. "And that speed is assuming old man Moriyama is already in its mouth. The maximum speed is likely much higher."
With no one in the group possessing anything near a combat oriented quirk, the best bet was to get assistance.
Realistically, Moriyama was probably already dead by the time the tracker registered movement that fast.
With speeds of sixty kilometers an hour in the mountains no less, no one present wanted to face such a creature.
They turned back, increasing their pace, but they were still several hundred meters from the village, never mind the distance to old man Saboro's house.
Still, there was one small silver lining.
With lives at stake, Genzai decided calling for assistance (his overpowered son) was probably justified.
He looked at the phone that said NO SIGNAL, hoping that eventually, they would get close enough to get a signal, in which they could call in Isshun for assistance or at least faster evacuation.
Kako noticed his anxious expression immediately, glancing down at his tightened hand on his phone.
Reaching for her own phone, she was about to try calling Isshun when Mitsuru suddenly froze.
His face drained of color.
"It… it's coming toward us."
At that exact moment, Kako's phone flickered—
One bar of signal.
--<>--
'Damn… they went further than I thought.'
Isshun was, admittedly, cheating by teleporting whenever Nejire wasn't looking his way.
That said, it wasn't like Nejire wasn't doing the same. She used her Quirk to hover over especially rocky or uneven terrain, occasionally glancing back to make sure Isshun was still behind her.
Every time she did, she found him keeping up without as much effort as she thought it would.
"So precognition can do that too!" she called out cheerfully.
Isshun just nodded in response, all the while keeping his Omniscient Domain active.
At its current stage, the Teleportation Domain had a maximum effective radius of roughly one hundred and fifty meters, within that range, the information he received was nearly flawless.
The Omniscient Domain extended a little farther, reaching around one hundred and sixty meters with acceptable accuracy, though the data began to degrade noticeably beyond that point. Past two hundred and fifty meters, the amount of information was practically nonexistent.
Isshun didn't bother factoring data beyond the one-hundred-and-fifty-meter mark into his teleportation calculations. The margin of error simply wasn't worth it.
For searching, however, the wider range was more than sufficient.
By following the search party's trail, as long as they hadn't gone too far ahead, Isshun could reach them within minutes.
Any remotely threatening wildlife that wandered into his Teleportation Domain was immediately relocated six feet under.
'Out of sight, out of mind, as they say', Isshun mused, keeping pace behind Nejire.
On top of that, whenever his precognition flagged a branch, loose rock, or uneven step that might trip her up, he quietly teleported it away before she could reach it.
As they continued their 'rescue' mission that started off a bad feeling, Isshun momentarily faltered, and could only watch until Nejire opened her mouth to speak.
A moment later, Nejire spoke.
"Shun-chan?"
"...Yeah?"
"You know that rainbow world I always see, but you don't?"
"...Yeah?"
"Well," she said thoughtfully, "I was just thinking… I feel like I only see it when I'm around you!"
"...Is that so?"
"Yeah! At first I thought it was the house, but then I saw it at the dojo, and even at school, so I figured it was the neighborhood!" Nejire continued, voice bouncing with excitement.
"And…?" Isshun prompted carefully.
"Well, since I'm still seeing it now—and we're definitely not in that neighborhood—it has to be you!"
'I'm kind of amazed you blamed the neighborhood before me…' Isshun inwardly complained.
"Sooo," Nejire went on, "how do you do it?"
While she didn't turn around, probably to make sure she didn't run into a tree, she also didn't like silence in general.
Which was why she made the occasional comment about Isshun keeping up with her pace.
But with a question that festered since she first saw that rainbow world, Nejire assumed that it was a good time to ask, and it also filled up the silence!
A win-win!
"Uhh—"
RING! RING!
Perfect timing.
While Isshun could see into the future within his Omniscient Domain, outside factors such as a phone call originating beyond its range, were harder to predict unless he sacrificed range for precision.
And since he was prioritizing range for the search, his Precognition only extended about a second ahead.
Isshun slowed to a stop and quickly answered the call from Kako.
"Help—bzzt! Shun-kun—bzzt!"
The line cut out.
Isshun stared at the phone.
The call had dropped.
--<>--
A/N: We sure hit 2000 powerstones really fast...
2000PS - Complete
4000PS - Not Complete