Isshun lay on his bed after finishing his bath, staring up at the ceiling.
It had been a few weeks since he and Nejire had decided to start attending a nearby Aikido dojo. As a result, his daily routine had settled into a simple loop: school, dojo, then ho.
It wasn’t an especially demanding schedule, but for soone who had done very little exercise since being reborn into this world, it was still exhausting in its own way.
Nejire, on the other hand, had thrown herself into Aikido with the sa enthusiasm she applied to almost everything. Even though it lacked the swordplay or archery she’d initially imagined, she adapted quickly.
With the combination of boundless energy and relentless curiosity, she took to the dojo like a fish to water.
Isshun’s progress was... average, if one was being generous.
At the very least, he t the baseline physical fitness expected of a six-year-old, enough to keep up with Nejire when she dragged him around during their free ti. That alone was an achievent.
While his physical prowess left much to be desired, Precognition made up for it to an extent. Even then, using Precognition still required the physical ability to act on what it showed him.
The downside of getting ho later, however, was that it left him with far less ti to experint with his Teleportation.
Having a mother with a retrocognition quirk and a father with a hypercognition quirk made secrecy difficult.
Even casual inconsistencies had a way of being noticed, whether his parents ant to pry or not.
Tonight, though, both of them had been called away unexpectedly for work.
That rare absence gave Isshun the opening he needed.
Lying flat on his bed, he focused on his usual test subject: a simple wooden pencil.
With a thought, it vanished from his desk and reappeared above his palm.
Nejire wasn’t around, and—more importantly—she had no way of catching him in the act.
Without knowing when his parents would return, Isshun only really had one experint:
He wanted to know whether he could teleport only half of an object. Or more specifically, only teleport one part of an object.
Normally, Teleportation treated an object as a single, unified entity, which made the calculations much more simplistic.
If the esper perceived it as "one thing," the Personal Reality followed that interpretation and moved the entire object intact as one entity.
It was why when Isshun teleported, he didn’t have to consider whether he would turn out completely naked, as he considered the entirety of himself—clothes included—as one entity to teleport.
But what if the object was ntally defined as two separate entities?
Not broken physically, but conceptually segnted through precise spatial calculations.
He already had a concept using the formula for the teleportation domain, and all he had to do was experint.
----
...That was surprisingly easier than I thought.
However, in his attempt to conceptualize different "entities," Isshun ended up taking a completely different approach than he’d originally planned, sothing closer to a Plan C.
Rather than forcing himself to perceive the pencil as two separate objects outright, Isshun subdivided his teleportation domain itself.
He created smaller zones of influence within the larger spatial field, defining everything inside each zone as a single object for the purposes of teleportation.
And from that area of influence Isshun could filter out specific parts based on conditions such as molecule density.
The blunt end of the pencil rested in his hand. The sharpened tip sat on the table several feet away. Both halves had perfectly smooth cross-sections, as if they’d been cut by an impossibly precise blade.
Isshun nodded, quietly satisfied.
Now for the second experint.
Even before today’s opportunity, he’d thought through several theoretical approaches to splitting a single entity.
Reassembly, however, presented far fewer options.
There was really only one viable thod.
If teleportation produced a cross-section with virtually no material loss and negligible error, then in theory, bringing the two halves back together exactly should restore the object.
Not gluing it together.
Not even splicing it.
But placing the two halves so precisely that, at an atomic level, the structure would register as continuous—convincing reality itself that the pencil had never been split to begin with.
That ant overlapping the endpoints as closely as possible without causing interference.
After carefully registering the dinsions of both halves in his mind, Isshun activated his Teleportation.
For a brief mont, the pencil appeared whole.
Then it fell apart.
Both halves clattered to the floor.
"...Did it ever actually reconnect?"
Isshun picked up the pencils and analyzed the dinsions again, before realizing sothing that he should have thought about from the beginning.
’...There’s no way my senses can truly perceive the microscopic scale.’
No matter how exact his calculations were, the data he worked with still ca from human perception and his enhanced senses.
His spatial awareness right now had limits, which introduced a margin of error far smaller than what his senses could detect, but was unfortunately large enough to matter at the atomic level.
So he had to account for the margin of error his senses would return from him.
He exhaled slowly.
’So it’s trial and error, then...’
The real danger wasn’t undershooting the alignnt, but rather it was overshooting it.
If the two halves overlapped even slightly, the result wouldn’t be a clean reconnection but molecular splicing.
That would permanently alter the object, even if the loss or distortion was invisible to the naked eye.
Which ant he had to proceed carefully.
Extrely carefully.
He’d need to adjust the placent in incrents so small they bordered on the limits of what he could consciously calculate, slowly refining the result step by step until the margin of error disappeared.
Isshun stared down at the pencil halves.
...This was going to take a while.
----
Ti passed, with no progress in sight.
After a while, Isshun got sick of staring at the exact sa pencil over and over again.
I’ll do this later, when I actually have ti...or when im motivated.
In the end, he spliced the two broken ends together. Throwing it out just because it had snapped in half felt like a waste of money.
He’d barely set the pencil down when Isshun made his way to the window, pulling back the curtains and opening it just in ti to catch the small pebble Nejire tossed from her own room.
At the sight of his face, she bead brightly and held up a cup phone, waving it around with unmistakable excitent.
This thod of communication had co about a week ago—around two weeks into their training.
Nejire had complained about not having a phone while they walked to the dojo after school, lanting how everyone in her class had one except her.
The complaint had lasted practically the entire day, continuing even after dinner.
She’d tried to rope Isshun into helping her convince her mom, to no avail.
Then, one evening, Nejire had flown up to Isshun’s window and intruded into his room like usual, where she caught a glimpse of his computer screen, where it showed an ani he’d been peacefully watching.
In it, two friends communicated from a distance using two cups connected by a string.
Nejire didn’t know what it was exactly, but it had to be so kind of communication device.
Naturally, she asked her designated dictionary.
"Hey, hey, Shun-chan! What’s that?!" she asked, pointing at the paused screen.
"A cup phone."
"Cup... phone?" Nejire tilted her head. But it definitely had the word phone in it!
The novelty of the idea completely enthralled her. She convinced Isshun to make one, promising she’d decorate it in return.
Even if Nejire normally flew up to Isshun’s room, it probably wouldn’t be great if her mom eventually found out. (She already knew.)
Because of the phone’s simplicity—and Nejire’s insistence on using it consistently—she managed to convince her parents to switch rooms to a larger one directly across from Isshun’s.
From there, they could see each other’s windows clearly.
And thus, the Blueberry Vanilla Phone Mk.1 was born.
Nejire’s cup was covered in drawings of blueberries. Isshun’s featured vanilla ice cream and vanilla flowers.
Isshun went along with it partly because he felt bad for her and partly because he appreciated the sheer novelty of it.
Who cared if it was childish?
These were the kinds of things that only worked when you were young!
So, starting about a week ago when Nejire was extrely bored, or it was late and she had to go ho, they’d have these "call" sessions.
With her easily bored personality, they happened often. The conversations ranged from future hero careers to howork help, mostly on Nejire’s end.
They were currently on Blueberry Vanilla Phone Mk.2, after Shiori pointed out that speaking and listening into the sa cup for several days straight was unsanitary.
After Nejire was convinced to replace the cups, Shiori and Kako ca up with the idea that Isshun and Nejire keep the original cups—after disinfecting—of the other’s design, with sly smiles on their faces.
Nejire had quickly agreed, and Isshun didn’t have much of a reason to disagree either.
So, on a nearly empty bookshelf—aside from so manga and elentary-level textbooks—sat a white paper cup with clumsily drawn blueberries and blue flowers.
On a similar shelf in Nejire’s room was a cup decorated with equally clumsy vanilla ice cream and vanilla flowers.
After Shiori and Kako’s suggestion, Nejire had insisted that they decorate each other’s cups instead of her doing both.
Finally, with Nejire being the one who was the most enthusiastic one about the cup phones, she was the one who held the phones, initiating conversations.
That was how this thod of communication ca to be.
Isshun watched with barely concealed amusent as Nejire aid, closing one eye and sticking an arm out for balance.
Their windows were only about seven ters apart, which ant Nejire missing wasn’t exactly rare.
But Isshun, ever lazy, simply teleported the cup if it ca close enough to be ambiguous from a distance, just like today.
His Precognition told him it would miss his range by exactly an inch. So he teleported it into his hand at the last second.
Judging by Nejire’s proud stance, hands on her hips with an even brighter smile on her face, it seed she hadn’t noticed.
Isshun put his ear to the cup.
"Shun-chan!"
Her whisper carried through the string.
He lowered the cup and looked at her. Nejire stared back expectantly, clearly waiting for him to respond properly.
With a sigh, he whispered back.
"What?"
"Mom got a call from Auntie Kako, and they probably won’t be back until really late! So she told to ask if you want to eat dinner at our house!"
"Sure," he said after a mont of consideration.
"Okay! See you later!"
"Yeah. See you later."
Isshun tossed the cup back. Even though his throw was slightly off, Nejire quickly reeled it in using the string, making it look like he’d nailed it on the first try.
She waved happily, but didn’t leave the window.
Isshun sighed inwardly.
...She’s probably not going to leave until I do.
-- --
A/N: They’re sooooo cute.
Mainly inspired by Tamako market tho, but my god was i smiling while writing the second part.
Also, how do i have 100 powerstones even before i hit 15000 words? Thats crazy, ty for all the support! Also, im finally 15000 words! Let’s go! No random chap with a ton of words just to hit the word count!
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