The lights of the izakaya swayed in his memory, as if time itself had slowed to a lazy crawl.
Ethan didn't own a phone, so the contact number he'd left at the hospital was his guardian's. A certain pink-haired loli was terrified he'd "disappear" again.
From her pocket, he pulled out an ancient-looking flip phone and checked the time.
July 14th, just before summer break.
Drunk and rambling, Miss Komoe muttered, "It's 10:59:16 PM…"
No matter how many times Ethan witnessed it, it was always impressive, this little loli could track time down to the second, even drunk.
Through the emerald eye, her stats hadn't changed much from a month ago.
Name: Komoe Tsukuyomi
Species: Human
Class: High School Chemistry Teacher
Combat Ability: None
Life Skills:
Urban Legend of Academy City: A human female who's permanently stuck in loli form, her physical development and aging have ceased.
Biological Clock: Thanks to her perfectly regular routines, her internal clock can track time down to the second.
Human Ashtray: Smokes five times more than Aiho Yomikawa, an intense nicotine addiction not matching her lung capacity.
Expert in Psychology
Pyrokinesis Researcher
Amateur in AIM Field Studies
…
Beyond that, Komoe was well-versed in numerous academic fields, specializing in social, behavioral, environmental, and even traffic psychology. An expert in every sense.
Too bad she was just a humble high school chemistry teacher. To her, the mental health of teens mattered more than career prestige.
And yes, she drank and smoked in private.
Ethan blinked, snapping out of his thoughts. She'd taken care of him for a month now. But after copying heaven's knowledge, even Komoe's encyclopedic knowledge felt elementary.
He decided not to probe into her mind.
Some secrets, when it came to people close to him, were better shared willingly.
He turned to look at the two busty teachers beside him, both passed out from too much sake.
Yomikawa's past was no less impressive than Komoe's. She'd once served in the dark side of Academy City and could take down a Level 3 esper with nothing but a riot shield.
Her skill:
Never Use Weapons on Students: An upgraded version of Anti-Skill's standard combat techniques, optimized for grappling esper students. At 100% efficiency, only works when unarmed.
As silly as the name sounded, this was how Yomikawa had subdued violent offenders both in the hospital and the izakaya.
"Mmm… one more round… Let's call Kikyou out too…" she slurred.
Tessou Tsuzuri(TL/N: Previously Tetsuyuki) muttered bitterly, "Fuyukawa-senpai's probably still stuck in the lab… unlike us plain high school teachers with no research projects. Damn normies."
Fuyukawa Kikyou?
The name made Ethan freeze. Memories of his reincarnation surged back, memories of Academy City's dark side and a particularly brutal experiment.
I'm not ready to act on it yet.
The teachers rambled on drunkenly about annoying parents and work stress. Their school wasn't some elite institution like Tokiwadai, it paid poorly.
Ethan knew just how tight Miss Komoe's finances were. And yet she still used her meager salary to take in and help homeless students.
"I'll take you all home."
Using the paycheck he'd just earned, Ethan covered the bill. He deliberately avoided using the stolen cash. Komoe was happy tonight, he didn't want to sour it.
"That brat I picked up off the street has grown up," she mumbled proudly.
He replied with a sigh, "It was just lying there…"
It's not theft if you're a transmigrator.
Yomikawa and Tessou were dead drunk, skirts askew, flushed and breathless. He hoisted the busty ladies into the car, eyes respectfully averted.
He'd absorbed a lot of R-rated memories from the delinquents. While still technically a virgin, he was a battle-hardened veteran in the VR world of Heal.
Even Wilt Chamberlain would tap out one day.
The longest adult video ever recorded?
Still, Ethan told himself he was a chaste "Hero of Healing," not some depraved harem protagonist.
After dropping off Yomikawa and Tessou, curing their hangovers with a quick Heal, he drove Komoe home.
They lived in a shabby two-story apartment.
A month ago, he'd walked this very street.
"Ssszzz, szzz…"
The flickering streetlamp above him had seemed to foretell a dark future.
Ethan had considered sleeping on a park bench. With no legal identity, even a stack of cash wasn't enough to buy a night in a net café.
In Academy City, those were mostly comic cafés anyway.
The empty streets echoed with two sets of footsteps.
Ethan stopped and turned. Behind him stood a tiny pink-haired loli in a frilly pink dress, part princess cosplay, part apron-wearing housewife.
"Why are you following me?"
"I can't just watch a child walk the wrong path," she puffed her cheeks. "You should return that money you stole!"
With his eyes, Ethan had already seen through her true identity.
She was one of his favorite characters.
But after seeing important "main heroines" like Railgun in person, his excitement had waned. He didn't even have dinner or a place to stay, he needed to avoid major plot characters.
Otherwise, he might get sucked into some deadly event.
"You've been tailing me since the start. I, I'm home now!" Komoe shouted, hugging herself tightly as she darted upstairs.
Ethan resisted the urge to explain he wasn't that kind of criminal.
After all the minds he'd read, he understood how dark humanity could be.
Without a strong will, heal could easily twist your personality, erase your identity, even corrupt your soul.
"Clack clack clack!"
She scampered upstairs. But then peeked over the rusty second-floor railing, watching his back as he walked away.
"Are you… okay?"
"Me?"
Ethan stopped and turned, gazing up at the sky. To Komoe, it looked like the perfect four-five degree dramatic angle.
She tilted her head. "Your accent's changed… it's almost Kansai dialect now?"
"Really?"
He massaged his temples.
His Japanese was still a jumbled mess, a blend of different people's dialects, like a battle royale of voice actors in his head.
These memories would stabilize soon, become a part of him.
Heal was hell on mental stamina. Komoe must've seen through his façade.
No wonder the original Redo of Healer protagonist snapped into a revenge-obsessed psycho. That world was pitch-black, and his ability was a recipe for insanity.
Ethan was just glad he hadn't ended up as that version, violated by other men.
Komoe hesitated. "Wanna come upstairs? My place is kinda big."
"A teacher shouldn't be inviting strange men into her home," Ethan replied calmly. "That could be dangerous."
To her, he must've seemed like another troubled delinquent.
"Well, I usually only take in runaway girls," Komoe clarified. "But you looked like a stray cat tonight… and boys need love too."
She puffed her cheeks again. "Unless… you have other thoughts about me? Sorry, but to me, you're just a little kid. So, don't worry."
Her sincerity pierced his heart.
"…Then I'll impose."
Looking back now, Ethan realized: if he hadn't met Miss Komoe that night, he might've lost his mind.
What was meant to be a quick visit turned into a month-long stay.
She'd used her psychology knowledge to help him cope with the mounting mental toll of heal.
"You don't remember anything from before coming to Academy City?" she asked. "Maybe you were part of some human experiment? I'll ask Yomikawa to run your data tomorrow."
Crap.
No immigration records. That would expose him as an undocumented black-market student. They'd deport him.
There was no version of Ethan Cole in this world's version of other country.
I have to stay here… it's the only way to survive and get stronger.
The next day – Judgment Branch 177
Ethan spotted the iconic logo at the corner of the building.
Having watched Railgun, he knew exactly where the heroines' base of operations was. After much asking around, he'd found this place just to meet a crucial side character.
"So… Ethan-kun, are you lost? We can help you call your guardian…"
The girl who greeted him had flowers blooming from her short black hair and spoke in a voice as sweet as candy.
Tiny, baby-faced, and wearing all manner of artificial flowers on her head, this was Uiharu Kazari, aka the "Walking Flower Vase."
A Level 1 esper with the ability Thermal Preservation. While her power was unimpressive, her tech skills were anything but.
"Then I'll leave it to you, Judgment."
Ethan recited the stylish "Jajimento~" in Japanese, then timed it perfectly,
And collapsed right into her arms.
Uiharu let out a squeak as her skirt flipped up. Petals and panties everywhere.
So I'm the skirt-flipping perv now?
And even her panties have floral prints?
Let's get to work…
Heal!
"Eh?!"
Her first time being so close to a boy left her red-faced and stunned. She clutched her skirt, but Ethan's weight left her pinned down.
"Uiharu!"
Her senior, Kinoe Mitsuko, rushed in to help. They laid Ethan on a couch.
"Ugh, my head… What happened?"
Flawless acting.
Seeing nothing suspicious, the two girls accepted his story. Memory loss during esper development wasn't uncommon.
"Your guardian's name is Komoe Tsukuyomi, right? Let me check her info in the databank…"
Uiharu turned to her computer, fingers flying over the keyboard.
This little flower girl had access to Academy City's Bookstore, the master database of every esper's DNA, power logs, AIM field signature, and more.
And she, barely thirteen, was a half-mythical existence known as the city's ultimate cybersecurity wall:
Gatekeeper.
Ethan thought silently: Forgive me, Uiharu.
But I'm taking your ability.
Before he could meet any real high-level espers or steal their powers in combat, he had two targets:
Gatekeeper's hacker skills, and Heaven's medical expertise.
He'd read enough crossover fanfics to know, these two were essential for early survival.
"Found it! I'll notify her right away."
Kinoe brought tea while Uiharu sent out a message. They smiled warmly at the seemingly lost foreign student.
"Just wait here, okay?"
"Thank you, senpai!"
Ethan enthusiastically grabbed Kinoe's hand.
She flinched a little.
Ping!
Heal!
By now, Ethan had mastered mimic.
One of the low-level abilities he'd copied was trick art, a light-bending ability that let him hide the glow of healing, and telepath, which let him cast spells mentally, without speaking.
Both were Level 1s. Weak in combat, but incredibly useful.
Low cost, high reward. Just as planned.
As expected, no one noticed what he'd done.
Clairvoyance Level 3, eh?
"Uiharu, we've got a mission."
"Yes, senpai!"
With that, the two girls dashed off, leaving Ethan alone in the office. Not worried at all that he might steal something, they could track anyone in the city, after all.
"Goodbye."
Ethan turned toward Uiharu's still-open computer. With Gatekeeper's own skills, he accessed the Bookstore, tweaking data as if she'd done it herself.
"Ethan Cole. Exchange student. Came to Academy City to treat his congenital condition. Entered via District 23's airport on June 19…"
Outside, he heard light footsteps.
Clairvoyance, on!
His eyes narrowed. Barely able to peer through the wall, he caught a glimpse of a petite figure in a pink dress, and the childish tank top underneath.
The legendary "X-ray vision" every man dreamed of… sadly only worked on outerwear. Maybe with more processing power, he could see, what? Bones?
Miss Komoe politely knocked and entered.
"Ethan-kun! So you were here after all!" she huffed. "Leaving your salary under the table and vanishing like that? I won't accept dirty money!"
Ethan froze, then smiled.
Guess I can't help but rely on this hot-blooded idiot teacher for a little longer.
Until I become strong enough to protect her…
"Sorry, Miss Komoe. I got lost… on the path of life."
Every 500 P.S = 1 Extra Chapter
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