My Looks Aren't Something You Can Just Hide
"Ow, that stings…."
I always feel this way, but my ability is just too inconvenient.
Sure, I'm the type who cries easily — but that doesn't mean I can shed tears whenever I want. Telling myself Be sad! doesn't magically make me sad.
So I always carry an industrial box cutter with me. So that whenever I need to, I can slice open my own skin and force the tears to come.
I don't love the idea of scarring my flawless skin, but….
"Well, it's not like I have a choice…."
When not using my ability could get me killed, I don't have the luxury of fretting over something like that.
Fortunately, medical care in this world is excellent — wounds heal fast, and scars barely linger. And even if a wound refused to heal or left a mark, this world has ability users. Pay enough money and someone would erase it for me.
"The problem is, I don't have any money!"
When I was reading the comic, I never realized Elysia was this poor. In front of other people she was always smiling, always bright. Maybe she cried in silence when she was alone?
The thought made something catch in my throat, and tears welled at the corners of my eyes.
Elysia… you must have had it so hard….
Ever since the possession, I find myself wondering about that from time to time. I entered Elysia's body — so where did Elysia go? Maybe she sinks into a deep sleep and I simply move in her place. Maybe Elysia died, and my soul — which happened to die around the same time — took over hers. Or maybe our bodies swapped, and Elysia is in my old body right now. Looking at how our personalities seem mixed together, maybe we simply fused. Or maybe I was Elysia all along and I've just gone completely insane.
Honestly, there's not a single thing I can figure out about any of this.
But if there's one thing I'm certain of—
I stopped wrapping the white bandage around my wounded wrist and lifted my head to look in the mirror. Tears streaming from the pain in my wrist, yet a gentle, loving smile on my face.
The one thing I'm certain of is this: even while crying, I am the most beautiful girl in the world.
I roughly finished wrapping the bandage, then pulled out the industrial box cutter I'd used to open my skin and spill red blood, and cut the bandage to a suitable length.
"Is this how you do it?"
I managed to tie it one-handed into a little ribbon bow. It was only a bandage, but having a ribbon on my wrist wasn't a bad feeling at all — a smile rose to my lips all on its own.
"Time to sleep."
If I keep staying up this late every night, school is going to be rough once the term starts. Starting tomorrow, I should try going to bed a little earlier.
I gathered the bandage and the cutter and stepped out of the bathroom, where the shabby scenery of my room greeted me.
"Hmm…."
I always feel this way, but something about my room just doesn't sit right with me. It feels empty somehow…. Should I buy something to fill it up?
I spread out the worn blanket and thought about what to buy, and then it hit me — I knew exactly what my room was missing.
"There's no mirror!"
That was why some corner of my heart had felt so restless, unlike when I was in the bathroom. I don't have much money, but… I should bite the bullet and get myself a nice mirror. And while I'm at it, a hand mirror I can carry around would be good too.
Best to go buy them first thing after I wake up, right? And after that, I need to start looking for a part-time job. At this rate, I'll run out of money and starve to death.
With tomorrow's plans perfectly sorted, I lay down on the damp blanket. I'd thought I wasn't particularly tired, but apparently I was more worn out than I realized — the moment I lay down, I sank straight into sleep.
"So what you're saying is, yesterday you saw some guy's corpse here, and a girl crying over it?"
A sharp-looking woman with her hair pulled tight into a high ponytail eyed her childhood friend and best friend Siyun with open skepticism. Siyun had called her first thing in the morning with this absurd story and then dragged her all the way out here.
"That's what I'm telling you!"
Siyun jabbed at the back of the woman standing in front of the building's door — Carmen — with her fingertips, as if to say just go inside already.
Even if someone really had died here, why on earth did a couple of students need to be the ones showing up? Carmen had already voiced that complaint to Siyun several times, but nothing changed.
The culprit always returns to the scene of the crime!
Judging by the way Yi Siyun was boldly declaring it, she'd clearly been reading some detective novel again. What a way to start the morning.
Carmen let out a small, heavy sigh and slowly opened the building's door.
Creeeak—.
The old iron door screamed open with a spine-crawling shriek, and the chaos inside came into view. Random junk that made no sense being there was scattered everywhere. Every window was broken, yet somehow the place still barely let in any sunlight.
What were they thinking, building a gym in a place like this?
With that idle question in mind, Carmen strode deeper into the building.
"Wait for me!"
For someone who'd begged to come here, Siyun was thoroughly spooked — she scurried after Carmen in short, quick steps.
"Th-the culprit always returns to the scene of the crime."
"This might not even be the scene of the crime."
"But I saw a body here!"
"They could have committed the crime somewhere else and moved it here."
"Huh?"
Apparently that possibility hadn't occurred to her. Siyun's face went serious in a hurry.
"Then what do we do?"
"How should I know?"
Carmen sighed deeply to herself. Siyun was a good student with a strong ability, and in critical moments she always managed to find the perfect answer — but maybe she stockpiled all her intelligence for those moments alone? Day to day, she was just a clumsy airhead.
Not that Carmen minded her relying on her, of course….
Carmen cleared her throat lightly and made a show of looking around.
Still, the atmosphere is something else.
It really did look like the perfect place for some secret organization to hatch a plot, or for some incident to go down.
As Carmen wandered the building, glancing this way and that, something caught her eye.
"…What is this?"
A massive crystal of a beautiful color. She grabbed the large and small spikes branching out in every direction and tried to snap them — but for all their delicate appearance, they were incredibly hard and didn't budge at all.
"There's something inside…."
Something was reflected deep within the crystal. There was definitely something in there, but no matter how she peered at it, she couldn't quite make it out. She furrowed her brow and stared harder — and behind her, Siyun started yanking frantically at her sleeve.
"Hold on, I'm trying to see what's inside—"
"Th-th-there! S-s-someone's there…!"
At that, Carmen whipped her head toward the entrance. Backlit so her face was hard to see, a girl stood there, slightly hunched as if frightened.
And then the words Siyun had been muttering this whole time suddenly clicked.
The culprit always returns to the scene of the crime.
"…The culprit?"
The moment Carmen murmured it—
Creeeak. Bang!
The girl slammed the door shut hard.
"Siyun! Run!"
Whatever this was, it was hard to believe someone had sealed the exit from outside with good intentions. Carmen sprinted for the entrance, and Siyun scrambled after her.
Click! Click!
"It won't open?"
As Carmen worked the handle, Yi Siyun scanned their surroundings warily and asked.
"The knob turns…. It's not locked, but something's blocking it…."
She pushed, pulled, and even tried turning the handle the other way, but the door showed no sign of budging.
"Tsk."
Carmen clicked her tongue softly and gestured for Siyun to step back. Understanding exactly what she was about to do, Siyun obediently retreated.
Carmen planted herself in front of the door, drew her arm back taut—
BOOM!
—and drove her fist into the door like an arrow loosed from a bow.
Crack!
To their astonishment, the entire door tore free.
"……."
The part that was supposed to open hadn't opened — the door itself had been ripped clean out of its frame. Carmen stomped over the fallen door and burst outside, looking around for whoever had been standing there — but the person was long gone.
"Tsk."
The fact that they'd run meant there was definitely something going on. An innocent person doesn't flee for no reason.
As Carmen clicked her tongue, Siyun — who had already followed her out — called to her.
"Carmen! Look at this!"
Siyun had flipped over the door Carmen had torn off and was examining it.
"Something like this was stuck on here — that's why it wouldn't open. Isn't this the same stuff as that giant jewel we saw inside?"
Just as she said, something thin was stuck fast along the edge where the door opened.
An ability user?
There was no other explanation. This hard crystal had to be someone's ability…. First things first — go back inside and check that jewel again.
Rumble.
"…Huh?"
KRAAAAAASH!
"Kyaaah!"
The building they had been standing in only moments before collapsed in a heap.
"…That startled me."
What were those two doing here?
I knew exactly who they were. Yi Siyun and Carmen — the protagonists of How to Become a Hero. They hadn't even enrolled at the Academy yet, so I was pretty sure they had no reason to come this way….
Surely my popularity hadn't already spread across the world….
"Anyway, good thing I prepared ahead of time…."
The crystals my ability creates are hard, but they're not unbreakable. Just gathering the things I'd dealt with in one place and sealing them in crystal didn't mean the problem was fully solved.
So I'd spent ten minutes thinking and come up with a way to dispose of everything in an instant: remove the building's critical support pillars and fill those spots with my tears. That way, if anything went wrong, I could reverse the crystallization with my tears and bring the whole building down.
It was an abandoned space no one came to anymore, so even if it collapsed, nobody would care. Perfect.
I'd made absolutely sure the protagonists had broken through the door and gotten out before I dropped it, so I didn't need to worry about either of them getting hurt.
"I'm pretty smart, too."
If people found out I was this beautiful and this clever, they might get jealous. I should probably keep the fact that I'm smart a secret from everyone.
After all, my looks aren't something I can hide even if I want to….