Chapter 5: What’s that?

  “Miriam, wele baina eically hopped to the entrance door and upon seeing Miriam, she embraced her.“Yo, what’s up?” Miriam smiled, while reciprog the hug.“Did you fet? You said you would help with my training once you came baina put on a pouting expression and puffed up her cheeks.Miriam watched her adorable performan amusement. Even if the young girl preteo be mad, she knew better.“Sorry, but I’ll have to take care of our member first. Speaking of which, where is he?”“Fet him, what about me?””Don’t worry, I’ll make it up to you in tomorrows training” Miriam patted her head, like she would an attention seeking cat.“Fine, he’s in the living” Once she had been appeased, Ni go and disappeared into thin air.(This girl really just teleported so she doesn’t have to walk up two flights of stairs. I’ll have to make sure she doesn’t turn zy)Miriam quickly shifted her focus, feeling her sense of hearing drastically improving until she could hear all the soundwaves in the building.The members of the secluded sector knew of her abilities, thus they stayed in their respective locations and simply started talking aloud, knowing thatshe could hear them.“The food is going to take a little longer” came from the kit.“I’m going to stay here for now” She heard Eve say from her room upstairs.Miriam then heard the other three talking in the living room.(Looks like Mark will settle in just fine, But first I o expin a couple things to him)As she ehe living room, she saw the boys seated at the table.Henry was slumped over with a defeated expression. Christian roudly shuffling a deck of cards.“Henry lost again?” Miriam asked the others.“He wao redeem himself but ended up like this” Christian poi the sulking boy.“What did you bet this time?”“He has to do my ing duty tomorrow”“Oh well, good luck with that. Anyway, Mark, I o talk to you” Miriam sat down at table and crossed her legs, making herself fortable.“Oh, e on. Not even a moment of sympathy?” Henry perked back up.“You got yourself into this, now you have to deal with it” She shrugged, dismissing the problem.“Miriam, what happeo Thomas’ team? Did they make it back yet?” Mark interrupted in a serious tone.Upon hearing that, the entire group stopped their bantering. A moment ter, Miriam broke the silehey’re fine. Last I heard, the made it back with a few minor injuries. But if you’re that worried, why don’t you visited your friend tomorrow?”“Yeah, I’ll do that” He felt relief wash over his body, as he finally got the news he was hoping for. With the tension gone, he could focus on the versation.“So, what did you want to talk about?”“First of all, I spoke with the mayor and he approved of your stay here. From now on, you’ll live here and train your ability and skills” Miriam expihesituation, making sure he uood.“That’s awesome, we’ll be training together” Henry said happily, brightening up the mood.“A new pung bag for Kai” Christian ented ominously, immediately bringing down the mood once more.“Ok, enough of that. You judge the training yourself. Let’s ge topics. Since you’ll be learning to improve your abilities tell me, how much do you knowabout Esp?”“What’s that?” Mark asked fused.“Oh boy, who expin?”“Me” Henry raised his hand “Esp is short for Employee savings pn”“That’s wrong” Christian quickly corrected him, shaking his head in disbelief “Esp is an a for External services provider”“You’re both wrong” Miriam decided to stop the charade “Esp stands for Extrasensory perception. It was a term used to describe supernatural powers before theawakening. It included stuff like telepathy and cirvoyance, so when people started to develop actual abilities, ted the term for veniences sake”“Wait, then why haven’t I heard people use it before?” Mark wondered how he could have spend months with the raid teams without ever hearing about this.“Because regur people barely have any involvement in Esp. You used puters on a regur basis, didn’t you? But only those who were knowledgeable in the fieldwould use the proper terms for it”While everyone had Esp abilities, the majority of people didn’t actually use them on a daily basis.Even the raid teams often preferred to use group tactics rather than depend on their abilities, which they barely uood. The implementation of Esp into thedifferent fields of life was a slow but gradual process, as people’s minds shifted from the idea of how life used to be.“It’s only been one year, sihe awakening. Obviously it’s gonna take more time for further development.”“Does that mean, the secluded sector is responsible for that development?” Mark asked curiously, as he tried to absorb and digest all the new information.“Hm, ly. The ones in charge of that are the Researd Development team. They make the records for everyone's abilities and they research the fualbasics of Esp. We theheir knowledge to train ourselves and when we create new skills, we report those so they get added to the records. This way both sidesbe” Miriam expined, moving her hands in a circur motion to represent the reciproature betweewo “One of their major breakthroughs was dischow Esp be used in different ways”“Wait a sed, are you saying there’s more things I could do other than my ability?” Mark interrupted, shocked to learn this fact.“It seems you uand” Miriam expressed a satisfied grin, seeing Mark’s rea “Your ability is merely the tip of the iceberg”“She’s right, you know” Henry, who had been silent until now, added to her expnation “Once you start your training, you’ll realize how little of your Esp you’ve been using”“Yeah, I’m not sure I uand. ’t you guys give me an example?”“~Ma punches hit like dynamite, dun dudun da da~” A deep voice was suddenly heard singing from the building’s entrance.“Sounds like Kai is back” Henry remarked.A sed ter the door to the living room swung open.“I’m back, ma luv” a burly man stepped into the room. Being 2 meters tall and his overly muscur physique, made him look like a walking mass of muscle, which barelyfit through the door. His short bck hair was slicked bad a rge scar adorhe left side of his face, giving him a fierce appearance.“Hi, honey~” Miriam turned and smiled at him. She stood up and walked towards him in one smooth movement.“Today’s a good day-” Kai stopped himself from speaking any further, once he saw that her smile didn't reach her eyes.“Oh, do tell, Mr.-I-left-the-kids-alone-so-I-could-py-around. What did you do today?” She said with a threatening uone.“Ah … umm … yes, I did good today dontcha know? I saved a couple folks from da raid team” He blurted out.“We o talk, NOW!” Miriam grabbed him by the colr and dragged him with her, as she left the room.“What just happened?” Mark asked in fusion.“Well, that was Kai, Miriam’s husband and the other caretaker of the secluded sector. Ah, but don’t worry, even if he looks like a mafia member, he is just a big cuddlyteddy bear on the inside” Henry assured him “Since Miriam is busy, how about I take over and finish the expnation about Esp?”“Please do”“Alright, then. I’ll give you a quick run down ohree different types of Esp. The first one is called the mind type” He expined, while holding up one fihis includes all the abilities, that would be sidered mental in nature. Something along the lines of telepathy or cirvoyance fall into this category and like Miriamsaid before, this type of Esp is the reason it came to be called as such” He paused for a moment to ponder about possible examples “Have you seen her ability before?That’s a mind type Esp”Hearing that, Mark remembered how earlier that day Miriam used her ability to make Boris seem no more threatening than a toddler.“Yeah, [Sonorous position], was it? I saw her use it. It retty impressive”“She is quite strong after all but moving on” Henry now hold up two fingers “The sed one is body type and no, it’s got nothing to with getting fat”“I didn’t say anythi” Mark retorted, not sure if he should feel insulted by the ent.“Jokes aside, body type Esp is all about physical strength or strengthening bodily funs”“So it makes your puronger? Or it let’s you run faster? Ah …” Thinking ba it, Mark realized that he had seen Boris move beyond human limits during thest mission.(So that’s how he did it. I though it had to do with his [Wregball] ability, but if he was using the body type on top …)“Looks like you’ve remembered something. Oh well, it helps, if you don’t require long winded expnations” Henry shrugged and raised three fingers “The’s moveon to the st one”“What’s the third one called?”“The special type. Just as the name implies, it operates by it’s own rules. The other two specialize oher the mind or the body respectively but the special type masdifferently for everybody”“Huh? What does that even mean?” Mark asked fused.“Exactly what I said. You see, this type allows you to create a special effect but the effect varies from person to person. One might develop psychokinesis, while anotherwill get pyrokineses in the end” Henry tinued with an uain tone.“You make it sound like it’s random” Mark gave him an incredulous look.“The thing is, there is much specution as to why the special type is the way it is, but since people ’t agree, it remains a hotly debated topic. Kinda like, whether dietcoke is healthy or not” Henry said with a tired face.“It isn’t” Christian interjected.“I’m not having this discussion again” Henry’s tired face was immediately repced by one of annoyance.“Because you’re wrong. Perhaps we should ask the newer in order to settle this”Both of them turowards Mark, with expet looks.“Absolutely not, leave me out of whatever this is” He exaggeratedly crossed his arms in an x pattern as a response.