Psychic Overlord

Kaizer was frowning internally because he could not sense a hint of Rina's thoughts still. Usually, the minds of others were like an open sea where he could catch the 'waves' of their thoughts, but Rina was like a scene of blackness, as if her thoughts had been censored by some program and made inaccessible to him.

It did not matter whether he made eye contact or increased the intensity of his telepathic power, there simply wasn't anything to glean. This was what puzzled Kaizer, because it couldn't possibly be that his cousin had no thoughts at all?

Or was she trained to conceal her mind from psychic inspection? However, while that theory was fun and seemed like it might lead to interesting developments, it was logically impossible since Rina had been like this since they were kids.

They spent all their time together back then too, so Kaizer was sure she did not have some secret master who taught her this specific ability to guard against him. Not to mention that she was too young to learn something like that, even if she was a transcendent genius never seen before.

Kaizer's working theory was that, someway, somehow, his cousin had the natural talent of blocking out psychic intrusion. Just like there could be someone like him who was born with a special ability like psychomancy, so too could there be one who was born with the ability to resist or negate psychomancy.

Seeing that Rina was still struggling to respond, Kaizer was about to release his focus when he noticed that a short, somewhat fat man wearing a tophat as well as a striped tuxedo had appeared behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder casually.

"Young man, let's have a chat somewhere quiet," Barnes spoke coldly.

Before Kaizer could even react, he felt his surroundings warp crazily, and when things came into focus, he was standing within an abandoned warehouse's main storage room. All around him was a cleared area where boxes had been pushed to the side, and he himself was placed within a cage that gleamed in the low lighting of the room.

Kaizer immediately calmed himself and glanced at those who stood before him. There were three men: the fat one who just brought him over, shutting the cage and locking it; one who resembled Dick Dastardly with the addition of a goatee; and finally, a nondescript man who seemed out of place in this environment.

Kaizer did not make any sudden moves, only silently spreading his senses around to detect that they were within the old industrial area of the city, where a bunch of old abandoned warehouses were situated in row after row. He realized that he must have been teleported over somehow, which clued him in on the fact that his assailants were likely Espers of some sort.

"Alright, captain, I got the kid. Now, you're free to do what you want with him," Barnes reported as he tossed the key over to Leo casually, his eyes slightly lidded from boredom.

Leo caught the keys and nodded to Lyle. "You're up. Make him speak."

Lyle smiled and stepped forward with his hands in his pockets, his eyes beginning to flash with a glow as he gazed at Kaizer.

"Look into my eyes. You want to be obedient and comply with everything we ask of you," he commanded, his voice taking on a strange echo as if his voice was magnified multiple times.

Kaizer glanced into his eyes but felt nothing. Rather, from the moment he arrived here, he had connected to their minds and was reading their surface thoughts casually, grasping some parts of the situation as well as their background. But these guys were strangely disciplined in that they did not think about core details casually.

Looking at the man with the goatee, Kaizer understood that there were many 'controlling' powers out there, so it was natural for them to guard against those that could extract information like this hypnosis power. If he wanted more information, he had to direct the conversation—and their thoughts—there.

"Who are you? What do you want with me?" Kaizer asked with a hint of alarm, looking like a scared youth trying to force himself to be strong.

Lyle was surprised that the boy did not fall into his ability right away, but he did not mind. His Esper Rank would not be D, just three places from the bottom, if he could seamlessly control anyone in seconds. However, it would only strengthen the more this young man's emotions fluctuated, so Lyle nodded to Barnes, who was a better talker.

"Brat, who we are is not important," Barnes spoke while puffing out a cloud of smoke from his cigarette.

'They are from a Dark Esper Organization called The Black Nexus,' Kaizer thought to himself with interest.

"What you need to know is that you are going to tell us about your run-in with a certain monster," Barnes continued, his eyes focused on Kaizer intensely.

"I see. So Carla was one of their allies. They are a low-level squad from this powerful organization," Kaizer gleaned with a feeling of surprise deep down.

"W-What monster?" Kaizer responded with a hint of fear.

Lyle smirked while Barnes chuckled. "Brat, don't play dumb. The fact that I could bring you here like this should tell you what kind of people we are."

Their surface thoughts repeated what Kaizer already knew, so he pushed for more information.

"I know Officer James! If you don't let me go, I will report you to him!" Kaizer threatened with a bead of sweat on his brow, his arms shaking.

"Hah! Is that how you managed to buy time under Carla's hands? I doubt in her feral mode, she'd be willing to listen to reason anyway," Barnes joked, taking another puff.

'They sincerely fear the officials. It seems that there is an Esper assigned to our city that is very harsh on Dark Espers called "Blaze."' Kaizer was amused that Barnes presented his group as fearless when that was far from the case.

"W-Well... this is what happened..." Kaizer fed them the same story he told Officer James, not even leaving a single detail out.

It was only near the end that he gleaned from their minds that they actually didn't know the details, and had only been informed by their higher-ups. Kaizer also felt a grim solemnity as they revealed to him that there was a mole from their faction within the higher ranks of the officials, even within this city.

"You guys took me in front of everyone! I'm sure they're calling the cops now!" Kaizer shouted as if trying to muster up courage and intimidate.

Barnes and Lyle shared a look of amusement before turning back to Kaizer as if looking at a sweet and naive child.

"Don't worry about them, brat, no one will be able to report anything anymore," Barnes said as he tossed his burnt cigarette away.

Kaizer's pupils constricted greatly as he read from their minds that from the moment he had been kidnapped, they had deployed non-Esper underground forces to enclose the school and slaughter everyone there in order to mislead the officials into thinking it was a genuine terrorist action.

At this moment, all he could think of was one thing: to save his cousin!