Ch 35

POV Shizuo Hiwari

*same day, morning*

""Happy Birthday Shizuo!""

As I was walking to school two people suddenly jumped out in front of me. Honestly, if I took one more second to recognize them I might have hit them out of fright.

"Oh. It\'s just you two. Don\'t scare me like that."

However, it seemed like they ignored my words completely.

"Here. Our presents." They said as they handed their gifts.

"So. What are your plans for the evening?"

I was confused as to why Hinata was asking this question. Afterall, every year we more or less did the same thing. Watch a movie, eat at a restaurant, maybe go to a karaoke or arcade.

"Are we not doing the same thing this year?"

"Sigh. Shizuo you need to step up your game." This time it was Akari who spoke. "Don\'t you want to do some couple like things with Nishikawa? You like him, right?"

I hadn\'t even thought of it like that. My face flushed as I thought about Nishikawa kun.

Singing duets in the karaoke, playing in the arcade together, feeding each other.

"Hehe…" An involuntary smile formed on my face, however, luckily I quickly stopped myself.

That was close. I almost drooled in front of everybody.

"But didn\'t I already invite him. I feel like that is enough for now." I said after gathering my thoughts.

"That\'s where you are Shizuo. This is a golden chance for you to get closer with him. If you don\'t hurry someone else will take him."

That sentence from Hinata reminded me of Shimabukuro san. My mood quickly became complicated.

"I-I will think about it." I said in the end.

** ** **

POV Shinji Makoto

*Back to the present*

All I could do was just watch in amazement as Shimabukuro broke Tanaka. I guess my second objective got solved on its own.

"O-Onii san?"

Ah. It seems like I got noticed. Awkwardly, I walked out from behind the wall.

"Umm…" I didn\'t know what to say.

"Please forget what you saw today."

I looked up to see there were tears in her eyes.

"Why? You did a good job."

"But I became weird, and my eyes were glowing."

So she noticed what she did. Obviously, her eyes didn\'t really glow, but to Tanaka they would have appeared to do so. But wait. Didn\'t she use her trait on me before?

"Is this the first time this happened to you?" I asked her.

"No. It happened once before as well. On the physical examination day. Something similar happened with Hiwari chan. And yesterday after you scolded me, when I thought about what Tanaka did to me I suddenly noticed my eyes heating up."

Did she not notice it back when she used it on me. Could it be that she used it unconsciously? Also, what did she do to Hiwari? If I remember correctly that was the day when Hiwari and Nishikawa were in the infirmary, right?

"Can you use it on me?"

To understand it better I decided to experience it myself. When she used it Tanaka, I did use my absolute perception to see what was happening but I couldn\'t get the full experience.

But it seems like that was too much to ask.

"Umm. I can\'t."

"What is it? Do you feel like you\'re going to pass out?" Did it consume too much mental strength?

"I do feel tired but it\'s not like I am going to pass out."

"Then what is the problem?"

"I can only use it while thinking of Tanaka. If I do it with someone else in mind it doesn\'t work."

"Then think about him and try."

After trying to concentrate for a minute she still failed.

"Umm. Sorry."

"It\'s fine. Try to think why it isn\'t working."

"There is another thing, but I don\'t know if that will help"

"What is it?"

"When I am like that I feel an urge to keep asking questions."

I feel like I am on the verge of understanding her trait.

"Can you tell me what happened with Hiwari?"

"Ah. Actually, she asked me about me and Ha chan so I got worked up and we had a battle of words."

After she explained to me about what she experienced that day I thought of all the times she had used her trait. Soon some common points began to emerge.

One, she feels the urge to keep asking questions.

Two, she felt her eyes glow.

Three, her emotions were higher than normal. Being competitive about Nishikawa, pissed at me for the double date, anxious about me finding about her date with Nishikawa, angry at Tanaka. In all of these her emotions were in a heightened state. The first few were all related to Nishikawa, so love, and today\'s was anger. Does her trait require both mental strength as well as emotions to use?

Asking questions, battle of words. Judgment? I remembered the title I gave her. Maybe it suits her more than I intended.

Anyways, I had figured it out,

Kei Shimabukuro

Trait: Eyes of Judgement

Title: The Judge

Type: Suppression

A trait that not only needs mental powers, but also emotions. The combination produces a tremendous mental pressure giving rise to small illusions like the lowering of temperature and glowing eyes.

Before yesterday she had only been using it unconsciously. Did her personality change trigger an evolution in it? It is highly possible.

"Don\'t worry Shimabukuro, just consider it as an ability to scold people shitless when you are angry. It is quite a useful skill to have. Don\'t you think so?"

"If you say so." She replied while looking at me suspiciously. It seems like she didn\'t really believe me.

"You should return to class. If someone sees us alone there will be rumours again." I tried to send her away. However, it only inflamed her.

"Hmph. I will see who wants to poke their nose into my personal business again."

\'Your whole fanclub maybe?\' is what I wanted to say.

"Rumours will still circulate." To convince her to leave I used my strongest card. "Think of what your Ha chan will think of them."

That seemed to work apparently, as she hurriedly left the roof.

"Haah…" Seeing her leave mage a sigh escape my lips.

Another overpowered suppression trait had emerged. Give me a break. Well, at least Shimabukuro can\'t use hers at will, there are too many conditions to fulfil.

Maybe I should take some time to explain a little about traits. The first time I noticed my own ability was when I already knew the answer to the question I was going to ask my mother. Before that I had often felt the feeling of deja-vu, but that was the first time I clearly realized I already knew her reply. After that, I tried to experiment by using it on my classmates and after a lot of trial and error I finally understood the extent of my ability.

Absolute perception. An ability that lets you analyse the behaviour of everyone around you to such an extent that you can predict their response and infer their thoughts. The accuracy and strength depends on the amount of mental strength expended.

Essentially a trait is nothing but using your mind more effectively. It is a way to control your subconscious behaviour and actions. I have been mentioning about how mental energy is required for any trait to work. However, mental energy is not some magical thing like mana or qi, it is simply the amount you can concentrate. What Shimabukuro did was not some genjutsu shit, she just scolded Tanaka harshly. It is the same as you being scared of your parents scolding you when you were a kid. To you they may have seemed extremely scary when angry, but to others they were just scolding you as they should have. Usually, a trait is something that is born out of your past experiences, traumas, and also, your current social standing.

Back in middle school when I first realized my trait I thought I was the only one with such an ability. However, that delusion was quickly crushed. I soon realized there were others too. Many times, I tried to manipulate people into going along with what I wanted but failed. Due to my trait being related to observation I quickly realized what, or rather who, was causing it. After that day I had always tried to record every trait I observed. Of course, naming abilities was something I did on my own. It is a chuuni habit that I still have.

My years of observation weren\'t fruitless. Broadly, these traits can be classified into three types, Observation, Suppression, and Hypnosis. My own ability is an observation type whereas Shimabukuro and Nakano\'s are suppression type traits. There are others with traits in my class as well. Everyone who I gave titles essentially has an ability of some sort.

Other than these three conventional types of traits there is a fourth type of trait. These are the traits that the protagonist and those that are related to his story have. Thanks to me being a supporting character, I have had multiple encounters with this kind of trait. However, even after that, I have never understood their working.

Why do the protagonists always stand out of the crowd? Why does the power of friendship and love work for them? Why are they incredibly lucky and events just fall into place for them? Why do they advance at a much higher speed than others? The effects of these traits can\'t just be explained by the use of mental energy. Also, I don\'t think that those who have this trait are able to consciously wield it. This is why I like to call them fate type traits. Rather suitable for the protagonists, no?

If we consider Hiwari san having some kind of fate ability then the battle of words between her and Shimabukuro can also be explained to some degree. At that time Hiwari san\'s trait caused a reaction with Shimabukuro\'s ability to form a battlefield.

My thoughts were soon interrupted by the lunch bell ringing.