Call Me Unnie
Click. Click.
The sharp sound of high heels striking the cold floor rang out through the chill air.
Beneath a night sky softly washed in moonlight, a tall woman walked at an unhurried pace, a sword hanging at her waist. Black hair streaked with light blue swayed gently with every step.
The world she lived in was a little different from everyone else’s.
In place of sight, her other senses had been honed to an extreme. On top of that, a body trained to its absolute limit as an Awakener let her perceive things ordinary people never even noticed.
The cold wind threading between dead trees, the endless chirping of insects in the grass, even the faint crack of aging buildings settling—none of it escaped her. Amid the noise she never missed a single small sound.
A faint breeze brushing past her skin. The minute vibrations rising from the ground under her feet. The temperature shifting by fractions of a degree, the direction a scent was drifting from—every scrap of information gathered through those senses built the world she moved through.
“Hey, you there. Hold up a second.”
A thick, heavy male voice cut through the night.
The spacing of the approaching footsteps, the weight of each impact against the earth, the way the ground trembled—all of it told her the speaker was a large man. And the anger roughening his tone made it clear he was anything but friendly.
“Hey, miss. You got any idea where you’ve wandered into?”
“Where is this, exactly?”
“You messing with me… Ah, fuck. Miss, you can’t even see, can you?”
The woman offered a sweet little smile and nodded. The man clicked his tongue.
“This ain’t a place for people like you. Just turn around and leave. Looks like you took a wrong turn ’cause of those eyes, so I’ll let it slide this once.”
She didn’t so much as pretend to listen. She simply stood there, unmoving.
“Miss! You deaf now too? I said get out!”
“Hmm… strange.”
She tilted her head slightly and murmured to herself.
“I was pretty sure I found exactly the right place.”
“What?”
“Beom Sang-jun, right?”
“…How the hell do you know my name?”
As the man growled, the woman smiled again, sweet and unbothered.
“Curious?”
“I asked how you know my name!”
A scrape of boots. A creak of metal.
The moment Beom Sang-jun raised his voice, the men who had been lounging and talking behind him caught the shift in atmosphere and pushed themselves upright. The woman paid them no mind at all. Still smiling, she spoke.
“This unnie’s a little smart, you know. Once I hear something, it stays right up here.”
Beom Sang-jun barked a short, incredulous laugh.
“A blind bitch like you—how’d you even know it was me?”
“Live long enough without eyes and you start seeing other things.”
“Talking to you’s a waste of time.”
Crack. Crack.
He rolled his shoulders, loosening up.
“Hey, blind bitch.”
“Earlier you were still calling me miss.”
“Yeah, yeah. Blind-bitch miss.”
He stomped forward until he stood right in front of her face.
“Last chance. Walk away quiet right now and I’ll let you go.”
“Why do you keep trying to send me off? Unnie wants to play a little too.”
“You still don’t get the situation you’re in?!”
He cocked his arm back as if to throw a punch.
Whoosh!
The heavy sound of a blunt weapon cutting the air reached her ears—
Thud!
—and with it came the sensation of her shoulder being violently jerked backward, followed by a surge of crushing pain.
But that was the sensation of two seconds from now. A future that had not yet arrived.
Only after she had already felt the pain did the actual whoosh of the swinging arm reach her. And instead of the dull impact that should have followed—
Slice.
A dry, almost clinical sound, like a fruit knife parting an apple.
The man’s severed head sailed through the air and landed with a wet, empty thud on the ground.
“Name: Beom Sang-jun.”
A cold voice slipped from the woman’s lips.
“Murder, assault, rape, kidnapping. Uh… and what else was it? Ah, right—stalking.”
Click.
The sword that had somehow already been drawn slid cleanly back into its scabbard.
“Anyway, a guy the Association said they’d pay for if he ended up dead.”
Her head turned slowly toward the two remaining men.
“And two more of the same trash hanging off him.”
“Tch!”
Click!
The sound of a hidden gun being drawn and leveled.
Bang!
A searing heat bloomed through her abdomen, as if a lead bullet had just punched straight through her.
Click!
One of them really was drawing a gun. She already knew.
Yet the woman only grinned wider.
For her, those two seconds were already lived experience. She knew exactly when the shot would come, from which direction, and where it was aimed. There was nothing left to fear.
Creak.
The slow pull of a trigger.
Bang!
The muzzle spat fire—but she had already spun a full step ahead of it, slipping past with almost lazy grace.
The bullet buried itself in concrete with a pathetic little crack.
With the overwhelming physical power of an Awakener—something far beyond ordinary human understanding—she was already moving to take the shooter’s head when—
Whoooosh!
Sudden, full-body agony, as if every inch of her skin had caught fire.
Unlike Beom Sang-jun’s fist or the gunshot just now, this was an attack she could sense coming yet had no clear idea how to evade.
But she was not the sort of woman who would simply take a shoddy hit like that.
In an instant her senses shifted into another person’s body.
Her ability was Future Observation.
She could slip into her own first-person perspective—or someone else’s—and experience the future as if living it. Because she was blind, observing her own future meant relying only on the non-visual senses. But when she borrowed another person’s eyes…
Even if they weren’t hers, she could still see the world.
She dropped into the viewpoint of the man who would spit fire two seconds later, calculated the trajectory of the flames and the single most efficient way to dodge them in a fraction of a heartbeat—
Flash!
—and the moment the fleeting “observation” ended, she launched her body into the air, slipping cleanly past the fire that would have engulfed her.
Slice! Slice!
Her sword flashed twice in the same breath and both men’s heads left their shoulders.
Click.
She landed lightly, the heels of her shoes tapping once against the ground.
“Heh heh.”
Shing. Click.
With a soft little hum of satisfaction, Cecilia slid her blade home, then abruptly turned her head toward the wrecked car and called out to the figure hiding behind it.
“I already know you’re there, so come on out.”
“……”
“…Elysia.”
“…How did you know?”
Cecilia only smiled, sweet and silent.
After heading to school with her from Tania’s house, an ordinary day had begun.
Morning was sparring and drilling ability control. Afternoon was basic curriculum… which mostly meant spending the period with my arms wrapped around Luna.
Before heading back to the house—remodeling finally finished—I figured I’d swing by the Association and pick up a little extra cash.
“Huh?”
Right as I was about to step inside, a familiar back of a head appeared in front of me.
Cecilia looked like she was taking a bounty request too. Since I was still in the middle of our little bet to figure out her ability, I decided to tail her quietly.
But…
All I saw was the same thing I always saw when we sparred: every attack dodged, every enemy cut down. If anything, it only made her power more confusing.
Back in the world I lived in before I got dropped into this one, there used to be a saying: dodge everything and hit everything, and you win. Not wrong—just almost impossible to actually pull off.
Cecilia looked like she was making it real.
“So? Got any better idea what my ability is now?”
“Umm… mind-reading?”
If she could read thoughts, dodging every strike and finishing people off the way she did wouldn’t be impossible.
Cecilia smiled that same sweet smile.
Did I get it?
My heart thumped hard as I waited for her answer.
“Wrong.”
“Hiiing…”
That was all I got—cold and final.
“One chance left.”
“Uuu…”
She playfully tapped the top of my head a couple of times, then pulled out her phone and tapped the button confirming the request was complete.
“…Teacher. You can actually see, can’t you?”
“Should I take that as you using your last chance?”
“No.”
“Then it’s a secret.”
“Uuu…”
Looking thoroughly pleased with herself, Cecilia hummed a little “heh heh,” spun once in place, and grinned.
“We’ve made some money, so how about unnie treats you to something tasty?”
“Teacher’s treating?”
“That’s right! But we have to keep public and private separate. Call me unnie.”
“…Isn’t that usually the other way around?”
“If you don’t call me unnie, I’m not buying.”
“Unnie.”
“Hoho.”
The moment the word left my mouth, Cecilia covered her lips and giggled like it was the best thing she’d heard all day, then strode off with long, cheerful steps.
“Hamburgers sound good?”
“I think our tastes match perfectly.”
A free hamburger bought by a beautiful woman. Today was officially the luckiest day of my life.
“If word gets out that I’m playing favorites it’ll be a pain, so don’t you dare tell the other students I treated you!”
“If I keep quiet, will you buy me food again?”
“Depends on how well you behave~.”