All over the country, there are detectors installed in different checkpoints to identify potential Espers and Guides.
If the detector catches a single meta DNA in your system then it goes off. Whether you're going to be an Esper or a guide varies from what happens afterwards.
Some become Espers with high potential while some just have a glimmer of such powers and will not go far.
These detectors don't go off when an Esper who's already gone through training walks through them. So, they only catch a glimmer of such Meta DNA that is still forming in the human cells.
It was a good way to scout potential and hidden talents in people who didn't even think that they had such powers in them, but the problem was that these detectors mostly caught on to the Meta DNA of Espers.
Guides were very hard to discover.
And unless the guide was about A to S-class before even realizing they were a guide, they wouldn't be detected.
That's why guides are so scarce.
They don't manifest powers. They don't undergo changes either. So it's hard to tell a real person from a guide.
It would be great if they could be detected and then trained till they could manifest their aiding powers properly.
But it wasn't that simple.
Hence, anyone suspected of being a guide was taken to a separate guide testing area that had a more intensive screening method and afterwards, they'd ask them to try and guide an Esper.
The method isn't that complicated and you never know, you just might manifest into one against your wildest dreams.
Yeah, so... The Esper test failed completely.
They put me under a machine with a brain scanner on my head and started checking if I had brain waves that were similar to a newly manifesting Esper but there was nothing.
My brain waves were very normal.
They even tried conducting a fire test, trying to check if I still had a hidden potential to become a fire user.
But there was nothing.
I simply shrugged it off cause I knew this was going to happen. But then they asked me to take the guide test.
I sighed and nodded.
It wasn't the first time I was taking the test, as I said before. I was suspicious if I had become a guide after coming back to the past and having this strange ability that was similar to a guide's, as well as an Esper's, but there was no reaction from either machines.
It was as if I had a power that could never be detected.
The machine this time had no reaction either. But just to be certain, they asked me to try guiding an Esper on standby.
He looked like he was a C-class Esper.
Weak.
I held his hand, focused hard but the Esper didn't feel anything.
To be honest, after holding Sung-min's hand and getting that feeling, I wondered if I had actually come to a manifestation so I was curious.
But like before, it was a disappointment and I was once again certain that this power I had gained was meant for Sung-min and Sung-min alone.
"He isn't a Guide, nor is he an Esper, so how the hell did he set the house on fire?!"
Is it okay for a police officer to be cursing in front of a civilian?
But Sergeant Min looked like he was losing his mind from finding no clues at all.
"Maybe we should just wait it out and investigate again once the ice completely melts." The guy next to him said but I simply sat on the chair, my chin resting on my palm and staring at them blankly.
They're not gonna find anything. But if they don't find anything, does that mean I'll stay here longer?
But what was that thing in the law book again? With no evidence to convict the suspect, the police would have to release me after 24 hours of no evidence.
Hm, but even if it's 24 hours, it would still be too late.
I needed to be released now so I could shoot my shots with stubborn Sung-min once more.
I yawned.
"I'm hungry," I said and the sergeant glared at me.
I was the reason he was having less than 5 hours of sleep but it's not like it concerned me. I looked away and then his phone rang.
"Ah, Hwang is finally calling." He said. "Maybe they've found a lead." He answered the call but as he listened to what the other person had to say, his face contorted in both confusion and distress. "What did you say? The house caught on fire again?"
My eyes widened. What did he say?
"Wait, you're telling me the house suddenly caught on fire and melted the ice? How is that possible? Was there anybody there to set the fire?" He yelled into the phone and placed it on loud speaker so he couldn't hear clearly.
"No, there's no one," Hwang responded. "I was right in front of the house, looking at the ice that was slowly melting away, and then I noticed a part of the house that had completely melted suddenly caught on fire. The rest of the ice melted quickly as the fire spread and began burning everything wet."
They both looked at the phone dumbstruck. How was that possible?
I was also dumbstruck.
How did my house catch on fire again when I was there? And... How was it that the fire was burning so well when the place was soaking wet from the melted ice?
Was... Was this an Omen?
A bad one?
I couldn't help but wonder if it was a premonition. The fire that had calmed by the frozen sea of ice was once again reignited and melted said ice.
It engulfed everything once more and brought chaos.
I gulped.
This wasn't saying I was going to burn down Sung-min, was it?
No, I shook my head, it was too much to think that way. There's no way I was going to be a danger to Sung-min. I was here to help him and I would do so.
But then... Why did the house catch on fire again?
I pursed my lips, thinking about it.
It made me feel uneasy.