Irene

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The sound of my alarm clock woke me up. It was 6 o'clock in the morning, well within my range of waking up. Usually, I woke up on average at either 5:45 AM or 6:10 AM so I can say that my timing of waking up is quite consistent. I jumped out from the bed and stretched for a little for my body feels heavy after a good 8 hours of sleep. 3 minutes later, I was on my way to the bathroom and did my thing; brushed my teeth, washed myself up, and wore myself a new set of school uniform.

My name is Irene, 16 years of age. I am a girl obviously. Currently, I am in my first year of high school. I have a higher-than-average IQ, which basically meant that I am no idiot. Kimo High School was my school's name. You could say that my high school is the middle point between an average high school and an elite high school. Enough talk about myself, let us carry on with the story.

After donning a new set of clothes, I headed downstairs where my family was already waiting for me to have breakfast together. Today's breakfast was a piece of simple bacon and eggs.

"Good morning princess."

"Morning, mom."

I sat down and let myself savor the taste of my mother's cooking. It was delicious as always. A notification sound came from my phone. It was from Zak. Then I felt somebody nudged my arm.

"Hehe.. was that from your boyfriend?"

"Hell no and shut up, Mia. It is none of your business."

"Hehe, okay okay. I'm sorry big sis."

I looked at my watch and realized that it was time for me to head to school. So I cleaned up my dish and rushed out.

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The front gate of the school was busy as always, with students stampeding into the school gate and parents' vehicles parked outside dropping off their beloved children. I hurriedly went inside the school building and ascended several flights of stairs to reach my classroom's floor. Class 1-A, such a classroom was the pride of the school as every successful graduate from Kimo originated from there. I slid the door open and the first object that my eye captured was Zak standing in front of the classroom entrance.

"Yo, Irene. Eh? Where is your hoodie?"

"I'm just too lazy to wear it. Can't have shit in hot weather."

"Hot? Irene, are you okay mate? It's the middle of spring!"

"Oh."

My head was kind of messed up today. Probably I should not have tried to understand quantum physics last night.

"Hey, Irene! Check out this hot news!"

"Eh? What news?"

The person who called me earlier was Lyra. Somehow, she came to school earlier than me today. Must be because of her mother. Her mom can be considered strict in my opinion. I mean like, imagine that you cannot leave the house past 8.00 PM, wouldn't that be considered as seizing away one's freedom? Well, at least in my opinion. Because I don't really have the heart to know everyone in detail.

As I was starting to move my leg muscle to walk towards Lyra's direction, I heard the sound of multiple footsteps outside the classroom. Wait, no, the sound could be considered as consecutive sounds of footsteps. Then, the classroom door slid open quickly which revealed a figure of a teenage man. Immediately after he opened the door, he dashed as fast as he could and tripped over my own left foot.

BANG!!!

The sound of his fall echoed throughout the classroom. I inspected my left shoe and found out that it was stained. MY LEFT SHOE!! I just bought this pair of shoes two days ago and now it was stained by somebody else! What was his problem?!

"Ahh, I'm really sorry." the guy who fell earlier promptly stood up and apologized. His face.. Ah yes, I knew him. His name was Kanata. He was black-haired, tall and his physique looked like an athlete. He has some good achievements regarding motorsports especially bikes and some people even suggest that he got a superbike of his own. However, nobody has ever seen nor know what it even looked like.

"What the hell is your problem?!"

Enraged, I picked up a pair of scissors from a nearby desk and held it near his neck. Although this Kanata guy got an athletic body and a good record in extracurricular activities, however, I don't have even a tiny bit of respect for him. The reason? He got no UniQ at all. He was weak.

Furthermore, I hated weaklings.

In fact, I despised weaklings.

In my class, there are a lot of weaklings that disgusts me. For example, there was this guy with glasses that can only produce a small amount of electricity from his body. Very functional to be used during a laboratory experiment. There was also this guy who can use a weaker type of psychokinesis like moving a tin can as far as 10 centimeters.

I managed to calm myself down and let him away. For a moment, I thought I saw Kanata's face has a scared look on it. But well, that just shows how much respect this school has for me.

Correction, for us.

In Kimo High School, especially among the first-years, Zak, Lyra, and I are known as the Big Three. Our group has the highest amount of respect from every member of the school, including the third-years. The reason? Our UniQ capability far surpasses the others.

At exactly 7.30 AM, the bell rang signaling that the class has started.

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The recess started at 12.00 PM. The majority of class 1-A students headed to the cafeteria to get their lunches. The three of us however headed to the rooftop as we had already packed our lunches beforehand. My lunch consisted of fried rice and an omellete. Pretty basic, I know.

The rest of the recess time went as usual. People ate, chatted for a while, and then returned to their respective classrooms for the next period of classes.

When I walked into my class' entrance, I heard somebody say my name amongst the students. I didn't recognize the voice but I did saw 3 people returned to their seats in haste after gathering among themselves. They were probably gossiping about us, I presume. Well, ain't that normal?

The next class started well after recess ended, at 12.30 PM.

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"....and that was how Old Zephyr managed to fend the enemy's attacks even after suffering huge losses during the battle. Alright, anybody got any questions?" my History teacher asked. "No? Ok good. Let's end the class." and just like that, the History lesson ended at exactly 4.30 PM. The History teacher, Sir Bapak was well known for his punctuality in terms of time.

I packed my stuff and left the class. After having a short conversation with Zak and Lyra on my way out, we split up, waved our hands, and said our goodbyes. Soon after, I walked along the path from which I used to travel to return back home.

After around 3 minutes later, I heard a swooshing noise of the wind from behind. Instinctively, I ducked and was fortunate enough to not lose my head. An object flew past me. It was a stop sign. What the hell? I turned around to observe my six o'clock.

There was a guy who wore the same school uniform as mine. He has a noticeable bang that covered his right eye. I don't remember his name but his face was familiar. Ah, yes. He was one of my classmates.

"Yo, Irene. Nice reflex." the guy said to me.

"What the hell? Is this some kind of prank or something?" I replied.

"Hmmm, well you're not wrong. But you're not right either."

Then, a garbage can floated and flew right to him but the object stopped right before hitting him. Soon after, multiple garbage cans followed suit. Was something wrong with my eyes? This guy, I remembered him now.

His name was Zwei. He was the one whom I remembered has weak psychokinesis. But what the hell was this? He effortlessly picked up heavy objects just like that?

"Eat this!"

The garbage cans were now flying towards me at high velocity. In my defense, I used psychokinesis to deflect it all. It was not that hard to deflect objects like that but seeing Zwei suddenly able to do a strong psychokinesis attack still made me surprised.

Was he acting all along?

"Heh, nice debut on your power, Zwei."

"Oh? I didn't think you would remember my name. I mean, you did take my money a few days ago after all."

"I did? Oh sorry about that."

Well yes, I did take his money but at that time I had no money at all so I thought of 'borrowing' some from others.

"Did you know that the money that you took from me was for my sister?"

Sister? Wait, what?

"It was your fault that she died!"

Died? Wait a minute, hold on. Did Zwei even have a sister? Her sister was sick? I mean I did 'borrow' his money but why was he saying that the death of his sister was my fault?

"I was just borrowing your money! What did I even do to your-"

"Shut up!"

Zwei pointed his hand which was in a finger-gun shape towards me. Milliseconds after, a beam of high-intensity wind shot from his hand.

I lifted up my left arm and concentrated the Force of my UniQ towards my palm. A shield was created.

BAAM!!!

The beam hit my shield and did no damage to me. However, this was the first time I had to use my hand to deflect an attack. His attack was superbly strong!

"Hah..hah..."

I panted for my breath. My head has started to spin. This was the downside of psychokinesis. It will inflict headaches upon extended use.

Zwei was still looking at me. His eyes were full of vengeance. Somehow I could feel his bloodlust. He was trying to kill me!

"Take this!"

Another beam of high-intensity wind went towards me. I did my best to shield his attack.

"Yui!!" Zwei shouted a name.

SLASH!!!!

A girl, who wore the same school uniform came into the picture. She emerged from somewhere behind me and attacked me using a katana. I somehow managed to create an impromptu shield using my right hand and blocked her attack.

After that, Zwei used another beam attack towards me. I was too slow to block it.

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I lifted my eyelids. My eyelids felt heavy. What happened? Did I just lose my consciousness?

"This is all your fault. So, in order to prevent others from being hurt from the likes of you, I must kill the three of you, one at a time."

Zwei's voice felt near, but that was because he was standing right next to my lying body. I saw a road sign hovering on top of my body, with its rod aiming straight to my heart.

I cannot move any part of my body. I was powerless.

Is this the end for me? Was I actually this weak?