On the first day Shi Zui returns from quick transmigration, she gets a notice that the entrance exam for the Esper Academy has been moved up to tomorrow.
Shi Zui: ?
She digs through her memories before recalling what happened before the Quick Transmigration Bureau chose her to go work herself to the bone in various worlds.
The old her was gloomy, withdrawn, and unpopular. After someone took over her home and threw her out, she devoted herself to getting into the Esper Academy for the sake of her former fiance and crush. In the end, on the night before the exam, she stayed up all night cramming and worked herself to death.
Having been through the wringer and shut her heart to love, Shi Zui deletes the message without a second thought. She came back to take it easy, enjoy her retirement, and live life to the fullest, not to return to school and fight for survival.
What do rampaging monsters and a city in chaos have to do with her?
*
In today's world, monsters run rampant. Espers appeared out of nowhere and are the only reason peace has been maintained.
What a joke.
Shi Zui carries her instant noodles and casually crushes an eyeball lurking in the stairwell's shadows, staring at her with greedy malice. She looks down at the bead of blood welling on her pale finger and only then remembers that the ability of her original body... seems to be a special type of healing. Her blood, nurtured by her ability, has become the best medicine for wounds, and an irresistible delicacy to monsters.
Shi Zui sums it up: what a perfect walking monster trap.
As she slurps her noodles, she takes out a souvenir from a magical world, a magic mirror, and plans to see what would have happened to her in the original timeline. Instead, she sees the whole story, from starting school to being devoured by monsters.
Shi Zui: ...The noodles in her mouth suddenly don't taste so good.
*
After the entrance exam, Shi Zui successfully blends into Class F at the Esper Academy.
During the first week of school, in the dullest, most tedious Esper Theory class, Shi Zui spots someone who looks just like a certain person she remembers vividly from one of the worlds she'd visited. The Esper Theory teacher at the front of the room glances over coolly, aloof and alluring.
After testing the waters, Shi Zui discovers that he doesn't remember her at all. And because he doesn't believe that a monster ate her textbook, he makes her copy it out by hand.
Shi Zui... Shi Zui lets out a long sigh of relief.
Good thing he doesn't know her. Otherwise, she'd have to kill him again. What a hassle.
*
Wei Shuchuan, head of the Wei family, a ninth-rank Esper, one of the Seven Seats of the Esper Bureau, possesses the most mysterious special-type ability: the soul type.
He accepts an invitation to teach at the Esper Academy to repay a debt and recuperate. But the day before school starts, Wei Shuchuan has an extremely long dream.
The dream has two parts. In the first, he falls in love with someone. That person dies before his eyes, and grief drives him mad. His ability runs wild, turning him into the most terrifying monster. In the second, the world starts over. Even after losing his memories, he falls in love with the same person again. On the night they confirm their relationship and get together, his memories return.
Then his girlfriend kills him with her own hands.
As a soul-type Esper, Wei Shuchuan realizes after waking that this dream was most likely something that really happened. He thinks coldly:
A person shouldn’t, at the very least, fall into the same trap three times.
Before he can send anyone to identify the person from his dream, he sees someone at the academy entrance exam the next day.
One glance is all it takes. His breath catches, his soul stirs, and there’s no escaping it.
*
“What can I use to make you stay?”
“I offer you the loyalty of someone who has never had a faith.
I offer you the core of myself that I’ve struggled to preserve: a core that neither writes words into sentences nor bargains with dreams, and that is untouched by time, joy, and adversity.
I offer you the memory of a yellow rose I saw one evening, many years before you were born.
I offer you an interpretation of your life, a theory about yourself, your true and astonishing existence.
I offer you my loneliness, my darkness, the hunger of my heart. I try to move you with confusion, danger, and failure.”
Excerpt from “What Can I Hold You With?” by Jorge Luis Borges
P.S.:
1. Shi Zui x Wei Shuchuan, space-time type x soul type. Lighthearted, pairing already decided, no shipping wars, no angst.
2. The female lead starts out at the top, an absolute queen of swagger. The male lead pretends to have amnesia, but all he can think about is how to have a romance with her that never ends and doesn't reach a bad ending.
3. Leans toward a gender-bender dynamic, personal preference. Read with caution; if it's not your thing, please don't read. No unsolicited advice.
4. More will be added if I think of anything.
Theme: Persistence is victory
