《Airi in a Thousand Worlds》Mystery and Enigma (22)
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A man and a young girl stood facing each other.
“Congratulation, Enigma. You’ve successfully opened your Second Sight," the girl says.
The man smiled at her, “It’s all thanks to you, ⬛⬛⬛⬛. If you hadn’t recommended the technique to me, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. The man paused, then sighed. “It’s only unfortunate that I haven’t met the requirements for the next stage of the technique.”
“Cheer up~ if you work hard enough, you’ll be able to see the Karma Threads like me. It’s a tough technique, but it’s useful.”
“I know.” The man stared at her eyes; a golden colour which shone even brighter than his own.
.
.
.
Enigma opened his eyes.
He felt as if he had seen a nostalgic dream, but he could not seem to recall it.
“Eni?” Amara’s voice rang beside him. “You’re finally up!”
Around him, the rest were up and about, playing around with the zero gravity.
“Eni! Check this out!” Dean exclaimed from above, an excited look on his face. After catching Enigma’s attention, he made a few flips in the air. “Woohoo!”
The rest laughed and clapped.
“Noisy kids…” Another passenger who was awake muttered.
“Leave them be; they’re having fun,” chastised his partner.
Enigma watched dazedly as they frolicked. His mind was functioning as quick as it could, processing the information he had been compiling on his recent new ability.
“Eni? Have you become disoriented from sleeping for too long?” Seeing Enigma’s muddled look was somewhat amusing, and Amara could not help but tease him.
“Mm.” Enigma was not in the mood to talk, so he simply turned away from the girl, staring out into the cosmos.
“Gee, what a party-pooper,” Amara jeered at him before joining the rest in their fun.
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It was only hours later that they got bored and returned to their seats. Many of the other passengers had already re-entered the state of unconsciousness, but the young and spirited group of seven were not ready to go back to sleep yet.
“Seriously, Enigma. What’s gotten into you?” Lukas poked the boy. Enigma had always been a quiet fellow but he rarely ever looked so zoned out.
Enigma did not answer him in the first few moments. After concluding his thoughts, he finally replied to the other boy’s question. “Have the rest gather around once the coast is clear.”
“…? Okay.” Lukas obviously had questions but because of Enigma’s serious expression, he did not tarry. He immediately informed the rest and passed the time by chatting lightly.
Soon, the last of the passengers were asleep, and all that was left was the Seven Spectres.
“So? What is it, Eni?”
Not wasting any time, Enigma immediately informed them of his discoveries. “I think I’ve developed a new ability. I was able to wake up earlier than everyone so I had some spare time to experiment. But I think I was too overwhelmed by my new ability, and I passed out soon after.”
“Woah, really?!”
“That’s amazing, Eni!”
“What kind of ability is it?”
“A radar.”
“Radar?”
“When I tested it, a map-like 3D diagram appeared in my mind and I was able to see everyone’s position in this room on it.”
“That’s so cool,” Joy remarked, her eyes shining partly with admiration and partly with envy.
“So if you close your eyes, you can still see what we’re doing?”
Enigma shook his head. “No. From what I’ve concluded, all of you just look like balls of light to me.”
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“Balls of light? Do we have any colour?”
Enigma tilted his head, thinking. “Some. Most of the rest are grey, with little motes of other colours mixed in. They’re very indistinct, so I didn’t pay much attention to them.” Then, he turned to look at Amara. “Oh, but Amara’s is both grey and dark red. Like a ball with a red centre.”
“Oh? How interesting…”
“What about mine?” Dean jumped excitedly.
“Yours? The same as others; grey with a few unnoticeable multi-coloured strands.”
“Oh…” Dean wilted in disappointment.
“But why is Amara’s the only one who’s different?” Lukas remarked quizzically.
“I don’t know—“ Enigma froze mid-sentence. Could it be…?
He closed his eyes, making the map appear once again. He willed himself to zoom out from the fist-person view to a bird’s eye view. Then, he spotted his own ball of light.
Unlike others, it was a white orb instead of grey, and a faint blue ring surrounding it. Compared to the grey orbs all around, his white one seemed to be startlingly bright.
“Mine is white, with a blue ring.” He notified the group. “Since I’m the only one with the blue ring, I’m guessing that’s a mark for ‘me’.”
“Yours is white? Just white?”
Enigma nodded, “But the centre is whiter than the outer parts.”
“Hm…”
“I wonder what they mean…”
“Can’t you just pull up a directory or something?” Dean muttered.
West immediately elbowed the boy, “Hey, do you think Eni’s power is like a program or something?” He rolled his eyes.
“A directory, huh?” Enigma contemplated his words.
However—
As if it had heard his thoughts, a directory really did appear in his mind.
Mono-colour – human
Duo-colour – superhuman
Blue ring – self
Green ring – ally
Red ring – enemy
“…”
Enigma sucked in a breath and exhaled. “Never mind, the reason why Amara’s is unique is because she’s a superhuman.”
“How’d you figure that out?”
“…The directory appeared.”
“Pff—“
“So, should we treat it like a program, then…? Hahaha—“ Dean asked, huffing and puffing from laughter.
“Stop laughing,” Enigma shot them a scathing look.
“Sorry, sorry.” Dean apologised, his cheeks quivering. “Still, I’m amazed. It appeared when you want it to. Could it be that one day, when you’ve mastered your powers, you’ll be omnipotent?”
“I don’t know.” Enigma shook his head after giving him a warning glare. “Right now, I’m still exploring. From what I’ve figured out from Mysty, one day I might be able to ‘share’ my powers with other people.”
“Seriously?!” Lukas’ eyes lit up.
“How can you do that?! I’m willing to be a test subject!” Joy immediately volunteered herself to be a lab rat for Enigma. She was also interested in acquiring a superpower.
“Well, what are you waiting for, Eni? Let’s get experimenting.” Amara rubbed her hands excitedly. She also wanted to know just how far Enigma could develop his powers.
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