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Paula, who had fainted while leaking various bodily fluids, woke up quickly and somehow managed to stop Aunt Maisie from calling an ambulance. Saying she’d “slipped and fallen.” It was a pretty far-fetched excuse, but she bulldozed through it with the logic that, if she didn’t slip and fall, then what *did* happen? Strong girl.

The very next morning, Paula went straight to the hospital, but after pacing nervously in front of the room for a long time, she did nothing and headed to school instead.
According to Shiori, Paula was probably torn over whether her uncle knew about her newfound power or not

Sure, Benjamin had said something that could be interpreted as him knowing about Paula’s awakening power, but words like “You have a power and talent unique to you” or “Believe in yourself” are extremely common lines of encouragement. It was entirely possible there was no deep meaning, that it was simply meant as support.
Benjamin had spoken with full awareness of Paula’s awakening powers, but Paula herself couldn’t know that. If he had only been trying to cheer her up, and she confessed, “So, uh, I awakened some weird power and passed out foaming at the mouth—know anything about that?” she’d only end up deeply worrying a man who knew nothing.
Dumping a brand-new burden on someone already near death and getting their affairs in order could potentially push them closer to their grave from the stress.

Judging by her behavior at school, Paula seemed like the type to bottle things up. She’d avoid placing extra weight on her uncle just to relieve her own worries and doubts.
And then, there’s the simple fact that Uncle Benjamin’s study was overflowing with American comics. It’s not hard to imagine that unconscious conditioning like “Superpowers are something you hide” had sunk into her bones.

Normally, this would be the stage where I’d invite her into the secret organization before or right as her powers awaken, but this time we decided to leave her alone and observe for a while. Paula wasn’t the type to go blabbing about her powers even without a gag order.
Even without being scouted into the society, Benjamin would guide her if things got rough. And according to Benjamin, with the right push, Paula could become someone capable of doing great things. I’d already given her the push—psychic powers—but it wouldn’t be strange if she started acting cocky and picking fights like Shouta-kun did. I was curious whether she’d really grow in a positive direction.

Speaking of curiosity, Paula’s awakened power was fascinating. It was something completely new, tied directly to the psychic source itself.
The psychic source is the source of psychic powers—a kind of supernatural muscle. It grows stronger through strain followed by rest. Normally, you can’t see or touch it.

But Paula could eject that psychic source from her body and give it form. It was like ripping out your own muscles, setting them loose, and making them move independently. It was almost unbelievable. It had returned to her body when she fainted, so she seemed able to summon and recall it at will.
I know a thing or two about handling the psychic source, but even if I can tear parts of it off, I couldn’t possibly eject it, let alone materialize it. I can’t even imagine how she’s doing it.
That also explained why she fainted. Paula had ejected her psychic source, but that was like exposing raw muscle to the open air. Dragging a lump of unprotected muscle across the floor—of course it would send blinding pain through her. Torture-level pain. Passing out was the only natural reaction.

I couldn’t begin to imagine how such an unusual power would develop. For now, using it didn’t help her at all. In fact, it only exposed a massive, easy target. It was a liability. Honestly, she’d gotten weaker. What a cruel joke.

Though Paula had self-destructed with her power right after awakening it, she began experimenting with it the very next day, curiosity brimming. Like a kid who’d just gotten a new computer, she spent all her free time tinkering and testing it.
Paula wasn’t the type to keep meticulous research notes, but by observing her, I could more or less tell what she was doing and what was happening.

First of all, the morning after awakening, Paula looked completely drained. She seemed reluctant even to go to school, worrying Aunt Maisie. She reportedly said something like she felt like her “inner soul and chaos had turned into a lumpy stew.” Those were the telltale symptoms of psychic growth pain after using powers.
Aunt Maisie suggested she stay home, but Paula insisted she was fine and dragged herself to school.

She endured her usual hellish day: eating lunch alone at a shaky table in the corner of the cafeteria, speaking only when called on by a teacher, otherwise sitting with her head down. After this ordeal, she returned home, locked her bedroom door, and activated her power.
That surprised me a little. Normally, growth pain lasts a full day, during which psychic abilities can’t really be used. But Paula’s lethargy had been fading from morning to noon, and by evening she could use her power normally.
Paula turned out to be a rare “once-a-day growth” type like Touka-chan. Compared to the more common “once-every-two-days” type, she could literally grow at double speed. Combined with her rare ability, this was amazing potential.

The vague, amorphous blob that seeped from Paula’s body again formed into that same droopy, flesh-colored humanoid. The instant its feet touched the floor, Paula let out a piglike scream. This time, though, she’d covered her mouth with a blanket, so the sound didn’t travel far..
Tears streamed down her face, but she didn’t faint. Pain from ripping out or damaging one’s psychic source isn’t something sheer willpower lets you endure. My guess: Paula’s psychic source had already grown tougher. Maybe it was like a thin film had formed over those exposed muscles.

The saggy, flesh-colored doll moved in perfect sync with Paula. If she raised her right hand, it did the same. If she stepped forward, so did it. It stayed constantly about one meter ahead of her right side—close, but always just out of arm’s reach.
After running through a round of movement tests, Paula, pale and sweating, deactivated her power and reabsorbed the doll. She was exhausted.

She dubbed her power “Doppelgänger.” Well, that’s a straightforward choice—it did resemble that. I’d wanted to unify all psychic abilities under names based on muscle anatomy, but if she’d named it herself, that was fine.
It was hard to gauge Doppelgänger’s growth rate. Each day she summoned it and trained in her room, its outline became sharper, facial features like eyes and a nose became clear, and the pain from touching objects lessened. Hard to quantify in numbers like “grows X times per day,” though.

However, in just one week of training, Paula had succeeded in making her Doppelgänger look exactly like her and move in perfect sync. It was like watching identical twins performing a CGI-perfect synchronized routine.
Her growth was phenomenal. Though its fixed position one meter ahead of her hadn’t changed and she couldn’t send it far away, her potential felt like that of a future top-tier psychic, depending on her growth ceiling.

The most amusing part of observing Paula’s training was Aunt Maisie’s escalating misunderstandings: at first, she thought Paula had started taking drugs; then, she suspected she was hiding a stray cat or dog in her room; and finally, she concluded Paula was simply absorbed in some solitary, “naughty” activities. The second most amusing thing was that Paula wasn’t satisfied with just reaching 100% synchronization with her Doppelgänger.

She began incorporating VR tech Uncle Benjamin had gifted her last year, maybe using the virtual space as some kind of training.
She bought a pretty anime-girl avatar, dressed her Doppelgänger in clothes, attached trackers to it, and wore a VR headset herself to control it.
This let Paula see a beautiful girl moving in perfect sync with her own motions in vivid realism. In today’s world, controlling “another version of yourself” is no longer the exclusive domain of espers.
She started cutting into her sleep schedule to spend more time in VR. The more time she logged, the closer her Doppelgänger’s appearance became to that of her VR avatar.

In psychic training, imprinting perception and sensation is crucial.
Touka-chan learned to emit high heat by feeling high heat herself.
Mikage-chan grasped the sensation of stretching shadows by sensing the movement of light.
Recognizing and interacting with “a self that isn’t herself” within VR greatly boosted Paula’s Doppelgänger training.

Two weeks after awakening her power, Paula succeeded in transforming her Doppelgänger into a gorgeous girl completely unlike herself.
Long, curly pink hair. A flawless figure straight out of an anime: all the right curves in all the right places. Sparkling purple eyes with stars in them. She wore a Japanese-style sailor uniform simply because that was what her purchased avatar had on.
Despite looking like she’d stepped straight out of an anime, she was indistinguishable from a living, breathing human.

No one else had mastered their powers to this degree in just two weeks.
When I was two weeks into my awakening, I couldn’t even lift a single pet bottle. Even Touka-chan, with her same rare “once-a-day growth,” could only emit 41°C flames from her hand for fifty-five seconds.
Paula was undoubtedly blessed with the highest level of psychic talent. She was growing at a terrifying pace, but with solid stability.

Her growth was almost too smooth.
The plan had been to see if she could defeat John St. Germain, the dark Grandmaster behind the mega-corp that ruled New York’s underworld, within three months.
I thought that with a little effort, quick thinking, and mastery of her powerful trump card— psychic powers—she would have a solid chance of facing off against St. Germain alone and defeating him.
But at this rate, by three months she might be strong enough to curb stomp St. Germain easily.

Meanwhile, Benjamin, who was supposed to impart a life lesson to his niece through his own death, was clinging stubbornly to life, already surpassing the timeline the doctors had given him. His condition was still worsening, and he was now off-limits for visits, but it wasn’t impossible he’d just keep surviving somehow.

If Paula was going to grow this fast, we’d just accelerate the event schedule.
It was time to put an end to these days of her just locking herself in her room, training her power nonstop.
She didn’t get psychic powers for free just to live a peaceful life. It’s time for a forced event!