It was a bright, cheerful April morning. Sunbeams were forcing their way through the blinds, and the birds were singing happily outside. Most people would have been hard pressed to find fault with a start like this to a brand new day.

Riko Nomura would have missed it in its entirety, were it not for her mother violently shaking her by the shoulder. “Wake up, wake up, You have to get ready for school! Your father will go berserk if you miss orientation and he finds out.”

Riko had tried to get an early night’s sleep, she really did. Despite herself, however, she was actually excited, if a bit nervous, to get started with her 3rd year of senior high school at the prestigious girls academy, Tokyo Joshi Kagaku-Gijutsu Koko, or informally, Kagakujo.

It was a place girls like her, unremarkable in intellect or… other areas of natural talent would usually never be accepted to. She was determined to prove herself worthy of this opportunity. So determined, in fact, that it took her several hours of trying to actually get to sleep.

Then, she was woken up abruptly. Riko was no morning person. Determination from the night before had turned into dread.

“Nnngh… if he finds out,” Riko groaned.

“Your father pulled a lot of favors with his associates on the board to get you accepted, with your test scores. He’ll know if the faculty saw you there or not.” Her mother was not unkind in her tone. Perhaps she wasn’t a morning person either. “Get dressed and ready, and I’ll make breakfast.”

Riko, for all her faults, cleaned up into an attractive young lady. Her hair, a pale tone that reflected a lot of light, was worn tousled and streaked with dye in imitation of some of her favorite rock idols. Her legs, when adorned in her school skirt and a pair of thigh-high socks, appeared lengthy and toned. Lastly, her hips and bust were more than enough to draw male attention, though Riko wasn’t one to notice such things.

The savory smells and sizzling sounds of a rice omelette in progress greeted Riko’s senses as she emerged from her bedroom, dressed. The thought of food did do something to ablate her fatigue, at least. She sat down at the kitchen table in rapt anticipation.

“If you meet any esper girls at school, be sure to be nice to them, okay?”

Oh yes, Riko remembered. There would be esper girls at Kagakujo. Quite a few, in fact.

Once the subject of urban legends and pseudoscience, psychically awakened individuals with extraordinary abilities, colloquially known as “psychics” or “espers”, were discovered to exist. Society initially treated them with great distrust, and a debate raged on what was to be done with them. Many wanted them to be rounded up, placed in facilities where they couldn’t harm ordinary people, and be properly studied by doctors and the military.

Others pushed for a humane solution. They won out in the end, and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) created programs such as the Harbor High School designation, which allowed select institutes to receive special recognition for successfully integrating espers into civilized society.

Kagakujo, where Riko would be starting her senior year of high school today, was one of the new Harbor High Schools. She couldn’t help but be a bit fearful. Would the espers be scary? Would they try to mind control her, or make her spontaneously combust? Or would they be reclusive, and refuse to talk to her?

Riko liked a little fear, though. It made her tingle.

“You bet, mom! I’m going to make friends with all of the espers!”

Her mother smiled, plopping down a corpulent, meat- and veggie-laden rice omelette before Riko. After professing her thanks, Riko swiftly tore into it like a starving wolf. Shortly afterwards, she stormed out the door to make her way to the train station. “Love you mom!” Her mother blew her a kiss in reply, and the door shut behind her.

When Riko’s train arrived at Roppongi station, she spilled out of the car alongside countless other students, office workers, and foreigners with morning business to conduct in the busy district. Scanning the crowd, she spotted other girls wearing the same uniform jacket as her. It’d be easy enough to find her way to school by following them.

Roppongi was full of fancy towers and fashionable night clubs, but Riko did her best not to get distracted as she navigated her way along the busy city streets. Passing an alleyway, however, Riko saw something that stopped her in her tracks.

A game of Three-card Monte was being operated by some low-level thug. Riko knew the trick well enough. Three cards are shuffled around, and if you can “find the lady” by guessing which one is the queen of hearts, you triple your money. There’s even a black stain the dealer “accidentally” left on the back of the queen of hearts, meaning you don’t even need a fast eye to find her.

Except there’s a queen of Hearts without a stain inside the dealer’s sleeve, as well as an ace of clubs with the same stain. Once the dealer thinks you can be taken in for a large sum of money, the switch is made.

Riko knew better than to pay such confidence scams any heed. She was a delinquent thug herself once, before her father pushed her into getting into a good school. What got her attention, however, was that another Kagakujo student was playing the game. Riko felt something go aflame in her heart the moment she laid eyes on her.

Was this spontaneous human combustion? Or just her emotions?

The girl was not conventionally attractive, with long, unkempt hair, and whatever figure her skinny frame had on it was tucked away inside a uniform outfit way too big for her. She’d look like a caricature of a shut-in you might see in a manga, if she wasn’t out and about.

Riko didn’t care about conventions, though. To her, what she saw before her was an angel incarnate.

“Queen of hearts. I win. Give me my threethousand yen.” She had flipped over the unmarked queen. The dealer looked angry.

“What kind of scam are you trying to pull? Who do you have helping you?” The hypocrisy seemed lost on him as he loomed in closer to the girl, trying to physically intimidate her with his much larger body. Unsuccessfully, from the looks of it.

“You were watching me closely. No one was helping me. You were sure I was watching the black stain, so you kept on urging me to let my bet ride. When you were absolutely sure I had no other way of guessing, you made the switch. You were wrong. I win. Give me my three thousand yen.”

A telepath, Riko realized. It’s an esper, an actual esper!

“You… you’re one of those freaks, aren’t you?” The man, sure the law was on his side now, pulled a knife from inside his coat. “Why don’t you keep walking to school before an incident occurs?”

The man let out a scream as his body was suddenly gripped, paralyzed in place where he stood. The knife yanked itself free of his outstretched hand, and began to point itself towards the man. The pointed tip was less than an inch away from his eye, which couldn’t close. Seemed the girl could wield psychokinetic force in addition to reading minds.

This is bad, Riko realized. Worst case scenario, she seriously maims him, and everyone finds out, vindicating all of the fears surrounding espers. Best case, she gets her money through threats, and then one of his friends later lets slip to the Kagakujo faculty that she was getting in fights on her first day of school. She was a delinquent once, she knew how this went.

“Hey hey,” Riko charged in, putting one arm around the man, and the other around the girl. Distracted by the thug, the esper girl didn’t stop her in time, appearing greatly uncomfortable being touched.  “You were both using trickery. Neither of you were here for a fair game.” Her beaming, infectious smile passed from the thug to the girl. “How about you return her original bet to her so we don’t miss the opening ceremony?”

After a tense moment of silence, the girl finally nodded, and the knife clattered to the ground. Control of his body returning to the man, he reluctantly nodded and stood back. A 500 yen coin floated off of the table and into the esper's pocket.

“I’m Riko Nomura! What’s your name?” Arm still around the girl, she tried to hold her close and walk her the rest of the way to school.

With a psychokinetic shove, Riko was gently guided away from her, and a stare from the girl that anyone else would have found creepy implored Riko to keep her distance.

“Aoki. Aimi Aoki.” Aimi made eye contact with Riko as they continued to walk. “You’re the daughter of noted neurosurgeon and MEXT deputy minister Dr. Yori Nomura. You lack your father’s brilliance, but hope to thrive at Kagakujo regardless, in order to make your parents happy. You are… thinking of me sleeping on a hot summer night, laid over the bedsheets, wearing nothing a blouse and pant-” Aimi quickly silenced herself with a gulp.

Riko had quickly caught on to the fact that Aimi was scanning her thoughts. Aimi’s cheeks went bright red, and she tried to screw her eyes shut for the moment.

“Telepathy is neat! You’ll have to show me more soon.” Aimi was quiet now, sullen, but Riko blathered on the rest of the way to school, happy to do all the talking in order  to fill the silence. Her sweet, caring mother, her overbearing but wise father, her ostensible dream of becoming a zoologist, her actual dream of becoming a goth rock idol, she opened all of her life up to Aimi like a book.

For her part, Aimi barely humored her with a nod here or there.

Finally, the two of them arrive at the front quadrangle of Tokyo Joshi Kagaku-Gijutsu Koko, where the rest of the student body was gathering to hear the opening speech from the school’s director. Not really interested in his speech, or the brass band club that would be playing him onto the stage, Riko turned to Aimi, who was the only thing in the universe that actually mattered to her right now.

“Aim-chan, I love you! Please go out with me!” Riko wasn’t loud enough to attract attention with her confession, but there was no ambiguity around what she said. Aimi simply stared at Riko in response, a silence Riko attempted to break by grabbing Aimi’s hand.

Her hand was suddenly caught in the grip of telekinetic force. Aimi glared at Riko, the esper almost surrounded in an aura of killing intent.

“Please do not joke around with me. I do not understand jokes, pranks, or teasing very well.”

Riko wasn’t joking, though. She could have used her telepathy to figure that out, Riko thought. Why not give me an honest answer? Do you like guys, Aimi-chan? I can work with that.

Wait, she thought further, that’s not a no. I haven’t been rejected yet.

Before she could press any further, the brass band club began their opening performance, and the school director climbed his way onto the stage. All eyes were upon him now. Riko would just have to pursue this some other time.

Maybe her one-sided crush could become a two-way love. Only time would tell.

The conclusion of the director’s speech presented other problems, though.

“Remember, there are no members of the Going Home Club here. No part-timers. Everyone needs to be in a club by the second week. Don’t think we won’t track your club attendance either, no-shows will have poor records that will stay with them throughout their careers.”

Riko gulped. They weren’t this strict at her last school. They were happy to just have her change her delinquent ways.

She looked to her side. Aimi seemed wide-eyed at that final statement as well. Riko guessed that she was recently a shut-in, as many espers were and are. She’d now be forced to socialize.

They had a mutual problem to deal with. But maybe, this meant they’d solve it together.