Riko loved karaoke. Everyone had fun singing, no matter how good or bad they were. Even those who were too shy to sing could enjoy themselves watching and clapping along. It was even in a private room, so no one saw you but your friends.

So it came to some surprise to her when, after suggesting it, her friends at the parapsychology club looked at her like she had just suggested going out streaking nude. Apparently they were going to need more convincing than the mere suggestion of doing something fun.

“I’m being serious here,” she declared. “I met an esper who uses singing and the guitar to control her abilities. I’ve already got the makings of an article about her done. She can do amazing things, stuff that would exhaust her if she tried to do it through concentration and focus alone.”

Riko put on the best serious face she had. The club had been going for about a week now, and she worked as hard as anyone else, or perhaps harder, trying to contribute to the newspaper team in addition to her parapsychology club duties. Kamei-sensei made sure they were versed in the basics of psychology, and came in every other day or so to instruct them. Riko didn’t miss those lessons.

She had proven she was more than the goofy, carefree girl she came across as when she met everyone. She even went into deadly combat to help her friends. Was a little karaoke training out of the question?

“Look at it this way,” Riko explained, “singing utilizes parts of the mind you don’t usually employ with psychic abilities. You control your breathing consciously, and feel the music unconsciously.”

Well, she was getting approving looks from Nana now at least, who crossed her arms and nodded. This wasn’t like the bakery outing; Riko believed serious psychic development may be possible here. Time to get the other three on board.

“Kyo, if you’ve ever heard a song before, you know the exact lyrics, pitch, timbre, and rhythm of the vocals. It would be a waste for you not to try this experiment out. Plus, it’d give you a break from trying to crack into that laptop. Just a song or two, write down how it feels.”

Kyo looked towards Aimi, who had suddenly turned her glare to her instead of Riko. That’s funny, Riko thought, Aimi usually barely acknowledges Kyo. She’d have to pester Aimi about it later. Those are her glares! “Yes, I’m not making much headway with the laptop. It's time to find a more productive endeavor while I consider the problem further. I will accompany the club to the karaoke experiment.”

Two down! Leaving AImi for last, Riko turned to Chiyoko, who suddenly tried to hide behind her sketchbook. “I know asking you to sing all of the sudden is unfair, Chiyo-chan. That’s why I want you to draw. See if you can detect any aura changes when one of us performs. Plus,” Riko added with a grin, “if you don’t come, you won’t get to see Kyo sing. I bet you could draw her as an idol, or a magical girl with singing powers!”

Chiyoko stopped cowering, and suddenly looked very interested. Finally, it was time to get her beloved Aimi-chan to go. She had to use her best attack for this armor.

“You have the most potential to grow out of anyone here, Aimi-chan. Nekoka-chan has a very difficult to control power over plants, one that goes off in ways she doesn’t want it to if she doesn’t focus. You could learn a lot from her.”

Aimi huffed. “I’d rather train with Kyo than some stranger. Her ability makes her mind difficult to read.” Aimi shot another stare off in her direction. “You should talk to her about it some time, Nomura.”

RIko looked over towards Kyo, then back to Aimi, putting her hands on her hips. “You don’t need to strengthen your Telepathy, Aimi-chan. You already hear entire crowds at once when you’re agitated, and that makes you more agitated, so your control gets worse, and the range of your ability expands, so you start hearing even more people. Nekoka-chan undergoes a similar feedback loop around plants, but she uses it advantageously. You should meet her.” Riko felt like she was on a roll now.

Aimi’s gaze relented just a bit. “Call me Aoki-san or I won’t do it.”

“Huh?”

“You came up with a pet name for this Kazuko Kaneko girl after having barely met her. If you respect me, put me above your new infatuation.”

Riko giggled. “Jealous I made a new friend, Ai-”

“You heard my condition. Accept it or don’t,” Aimi looked away.

Riko suddenly felt a twist in her stomach. In her heart she knew she was going to pursue Aimi above anyone else, but her actions, and her surface thoughts, weren’t doing anything to make Aimi feel special.

“Very well. From now on, you are no longer the awkwardly adorable Aimi, but the cool, mature beauty, Aoki-san. I acknowledge your strength! Now show me your power and conquer your stage fright!”

“I never said I wouldn’t sing…” Aimi muttered. Riko wondered if surrendering on this front was the right move. But then she saw Aimi wasn’t glaring at her, just carefully analyzing her face. She could take this as a sign of her becoming more distant, or a sign of their relationship maturing and becoming more real. Riko, the eternal optimist, easily went for the second option.

“That’s settled!” Riko put aside Aimi-related matters for the moment, or at least, obviously Aimi-related matters. “Now then, I’d like everyone to consider volunteering to help me experiment with my… I’m not sure if it’s an ability, but when I touch espers and psychic phenomena, strange things can occur. It’s difficult to control, and the effects can be negative as well as positive.”

Kyo looked up. “This is the effect you mentioned Professor Brinsfield had personally observed, but has not published any findings on?”

Riko nodded, sounding as grave as the perpetually upbeat girl could manage. “I’ve taken to calling it the Brinsfield Effect. Formally, that is. In a hot-blooded moment it has to be called out as Psychic Transmutation!”

Nana broke her silence. “You should bring it up to him when we travel to Yokohama to see his lecture this weekend.”

Riko smiled, happy to be acknowledged by the club leader. “I’d like some data first, or at least an anecdote that doesn’t involve an unreported self-defense incident, before bringing it up to him. I would like someone to volunteer to maintain bodily contact with me while I sing. Anywhere you’re comfortable. Consider it carefully. I won’t try to compel anyone to try it, not even Ai- Aoki-san. You may have your abilities altered in a way you won’t like.”

I can always ask Kazuko if no one agrees, Riko thought. She seems eager to help.

“I’ll do it,” Aimi said. She was strangely calm. She wasn’t glaring, or drenched in killing intent. She seemed resolute.

Riko laughed triumphantly, “Got you! So you don’t want Nekoka-chan to-”

“I acknowledge your strength, Nomura,” Aimi said, borrowing a phrase from her. “The incident at the train station could have ended badly without your help. One finger of mine, on your forearm. I remove it if you do or think anything weird. Understood?”

For the first time since they met, Riko couldn’t bring herself to tease or banter with Aimi at all, and merely says “I got it.” Later she’d have to start calling her Miki, or Ai, and make her affection known in a new way. After she had gotten through the experiment without lewd thoughts, of course.

There was a karaoke place not too far from the school, and due to its similar proximity to a college, was fairly popular with a wide span of the youth that inhabited Roppongi during the day. It was there that they were going to head when the parapsychology club convened after classes.

They were met at their club room by Kazuko Kaneko, who had packed her guitar up into its case. If it was anyone else, Riko might have frowned on a seasoned musician showing off like that on a group of shy newbies, but in this case, Kazuko was bringing a tool of science! Kazuko also seemed to Riko like she was new to performing for a non-plant audience.

Speaking of which, Kazuko also brought a potted tulip, which looked a bit wilted. “Jun seemed like she could use some special care. I hope that’s okay,” she offered in way of explanation to the group.

“Well, I did say seeing your ability in action was part of the process,” Riko replied with a smile, looking down to examine the tulip. Giving ‘her’ a name made Riko want to pet the tulip, as if Kazuko was holding a cat. Since that might bruise it, Riko fought back the temptation.

Nana stepped forward to inspect the newcomer, eyes looking Kazuko up and down. “I’ve never met a phytokinetic before,” she said, the group of them heading out of the school and towards the karaoke place, a ground-floor operation within a nearby office block. “Can you wrap your enemies up in immobilizing roots?” Nana asked, posing the question Riko had dared not to.

Well, now that someone had asked it, maybe it should go in her profile, Riko thought.

“I um, don’t know, I don’t have any enemies,” Kazuko replied, offering Nana a slightly uncomfortable smile under her scrutinizing gaze.

“Do you get mad when trees are cut down to make paper? Or to build a suburb? Are you a carnivore out of ethical concerns?”

Nana had a funny way of interacting with people she was interested in, Riko thought. Others might take it as her being harsh, or playing the bad cop, but Riko had been around their esteemed leader long enough to realize if she didn’t like you, she’d just ignore you and try to stay hidden in your presence.

Riko couldn’t help but notice as well that a group of six could mean three pairs, with no one left out. All the more reason to hope Kazuko and Nana hit it off.

“Well, um, I’d rather there be more forests, but people need a place to live too, and without paper, how can you have manga? And I eat anything as long as it's yummy and made without cruelty.” She did mention she likes apples, Riko recalled. “How about you, Ishihara-san? What do you do?”

“Apportation. I can instantaneously alter an object’s position in space and its angle of velocity, relative to the Earth. As of my last training regimen, I need to be touching the object, and have a good sense of the destination,” Nana replied.

Kazuko’s eyes widened. “Can you like, send someone into the sun? Or fold them into themselves, compressing them into a singularity? Form the carbon content of calcite into diamonds?”

Riko could feel the love in the air already as Nana looked Kazuko in the eyes.

Seeing as their conversation was starting to go over her head, Riko turned her attention to Kyo and AImi. Aimi seemed to be constantly sizing her up lately. Well, her memory was like a big library full of neat stuff for a telepath to study, but Aimi looked more like a starving lion trying to judge whether it could take on an elephant.

“Hey Kyo, what are you planning to sing?” asked Riko as she interdicted herself between the two, breaking the line of sight of Aimi’s glowering gaze.

“Ah, well, I had figured I would stick with the classics to begin with. Habanera from Carmen, maybe,” Kyo replied, adjusting her glasses.

“Um, you may have to pick something in sung Japanese, from this century. They’re not going to have every song ever made.” Riko secretly would have loved to see her looking operatic and refined, but she wanted to set Kyo’s expectations somewhere realistic.

“Ah, well, what about the first opening theme from Fantasy Planet Online? I watched that with my friend Toshiko a few times in middle school,” Kyo said, tilting her eyes up in reflection.

“Better. That was a hugely popular song.” Riko smiled at Kyo, hoping to defuse whatever tensions there were between her and Aimi. Going over what pop songs Kyo was aware of, with her fairly sheltered academics-focused lifestyle, they completed their journey into the karaoke place.

Room rented, the six of them sat around the large couch, Jun the tulip placed on the table in front of them. “Nekoka-chan,” Riko prompted, “how about we see you perform first? Observing how music allows you to control your ability, and seeing if others can use that technique as well is why we’re here, after all. Plus, you can show everyone how easy and fun it is.”

“Um, ok,” Kazuko said, pulling her guitar from her back.

“Name your technique, Kaneko-san,” Nana spoke up, “as we’ll be taking our observations to Professor Brinsfield later this week. Maybe you’ll get to name a new ability.”

Kazuko tilted her head up in thought. “I call it Resonance, since the happy feelings bounce from me to the plants, and back to me.”

“Alright everyone, try to feel it,” Riko said as she set up the player with Kazuko’s song. “Chiyo-chan, Aoki-san, make note of anything you can observe with your ESP.” They both nodded.

As Kazuko began to play and sing, there was a palpable sense of feedback in the room. It wasn’t just the tulip that was giving and taking energy, but all of them, even (or possibly especially) Riko. Jun swiftly developed from a dying tulip to a prehistoric beast of a flower, with a massive bulb, leaves that draped over the sides of the pot like banners, and roots cracking through the bottom. By the end of the song, it was swaying along to the beat.

Notepad ready, Riko asked, “How do you feel, Nekoka-chan? Tired at all?”

“Not at all,” Kazuko replied, moving closer to inspect Jun. “We may have to drop Jun off at the park on the way home. I think she’s too big for the greenhouse now.”

Riko looked at the tulip as well. “Were you expecting that to happen?”

Kazuko shook her head. “No, just to heal her a little. This is the first time I’ve performed in front of so many people before, though, and especially so many other espers…”

And a Latent Potential F, Riko thought. According to what she had learned from Kyo and Daisuke explaining Professor Brinsfield’s research, Riko was brimming with psychokinetic energy that she could only send to others.

Kyo’s performance of Across the Starry Sea started out awkward. She tended to come in too early, listening to the song playing inside of her head instead of the sound system. Plus, the movement of her throat and tongue muscles and the use of her lungs and diaphragm were off, and she struggled to keep her lungs filled and to hit high notes.

Struck with sudden inspiration, Riko leaped off the seat and began to pantomime along to the music, allowing Kyo to observe the use of her body. She had heard some Hypertalents could learn martial arts or sports by watching people, maybe they could learn from singers as well.

As far as she was aware, Kyo didn’t have this ability, which was referred to as Instant Imitation in the Brinsfield guide. But rapidly and remarkably, she was soon overcoming all her earlier troubles, and hitting the final chorus, she had Chiyoko in tears.

Was this Resonance? The Brinsfield Effect acting at range? Both? Riko had no idea. It was time to test out her own power.

She was scrolling through the song selection, looking for one of her pop metal favorites, Kyo suddenly approached Riko. “Um…” she started, getting Riko’s attention, “you can use me instead of Aoki-san. I know her telepathy acts up when she touches people.”

“I already volunteered,” Aimi said, her raised voice causing all heads in the room to turn towards her. As much as Riko wanted Aimi to fight over her, she didn’t think she had quite won her over that far yet. This was trouble.

Kyo stood up, showing a rare boldness, her glasses gleaming in the low light of the karaoke room. She had certainly changed a lot from one song. “I’m a senior member. I should step in for my juniors for dangerous experiments…”

“Your seniority is honorary. Technically, we’re all charter members. And you’ve never pulled rank before,” Aimi replied, her gaze intensifying.

Kyo began to crack under the gaze. “Aoki just wants to use you to get into my head, Riko! She doesn’t care about helping you!”

“We use each other, Kyo,” Riko injected, “we’re a team. There’s nothing wrong with that. And I’m sure she doesn’t need any help getting into…”

“Remind me again how things are going with the laptop, Amano,” Aimi growled. “The one the people who attacked us were transporting, if you haven’t forgotten.” All of the drama was lost on Kazuko, who looked on in silent horror.

Kyo was silently shaking, until finally, she broke. “I cracked the laptop a week ago. The laptop said you have a sister, Riko. A clone from a military experiment. I didn’t want to say anything because the information was vague. I didn’t want to worry you over a bad lead. I used an ability to ward off telepathy while I figured things out. That’s why Aoki has been so paranoid around me. There’s a blank spot in my psyche where…” Kyo trailed off, starting to sniffle and sob.

Riko put an arm around her. “No, no, there’s no crying at karaoke allowed. You did what you felt right at the time.” She was putting on a tough act for Kyo; her voice was cracking a bit. Extending her arm towards Aimi, she said, “We can do the experiment with both of you.” Aimi gingerly placed a finger on the bare part of her wrist. Looking towards Kazuko, Riko said, “Play us a simple song. Something to lighten the mood. Kyo, show Aimi what you know.”

As the notes played, Kyo’s memories opened themselves to Aimi and Riko. Riko saw all of it as the Resonance flowed through her. When Riko was tested for latent psychic potential, her blood and saliva were also sampled. Allegedly, to map the haplogroups and allele pairings of unusual individuals, to gauge the heritability of psychic potential (or lack thereof).

She didn’t quite get all that, but she did get the part where “Cloning Project [REDACTED]” was listed as appropriating her blood for an experiment.

Riko was going to have a long talk with her dad when she got home.