The Human Firefly
Academy's Holy Swordsman was a novel set in a terrifying world where, according to the history textbooks, witches had once nearly destroyed everything, and though heroes from across the globe had banded together to somehow exterminate them, the residue they'd left behind still spawned monsters in every corner of the world. Aegis Academy had been founded as a training institution for the superpowered — to raise heroes capable of protecting humanity from those very threats.
Which meant, naturally, that the curriculum included combat-oriented power training.
"Originally I was going to do introductions right after the placement test, but thanks to a certain late arrival, our schedule's been pushed back. So we're skipping intros and going straight into the ability assessment!"
Standing at the lectern, Eve snapped her fingers — tak.
The classroom packed with students dissolved into open grassland. Sylvia and Yoon Siwoo, who'd been right in front of me, had vanished without a trace. There was no one on the meadow but me and Eve.
The other students were probably each having their own one-on-one with her, just like me. Casting a full illusion while running thirty parallel consciousnesses to interact with every student — it was a frankly absurd ability, well worthy of being called the world's greatest.
"All right, introductions first. My name's Eve. I'll be your homeroom teacher for the next year. So, what's our little Miss Two-Hundred's name?"
"Scarlet... Evande."
"Mm, Miss Evande, then."
"Please call me Scarlet."
"Nope. Miss Evande sounds nicer."
Miss Two-Hundred... what a horrible nickname. Being called "Miss" instead of "Mr." was already grating enough on a guy stuck in a girl's body, and tacking "Two-Hundred" on top made the pressure feel like 200%. Like a teacher had pinned ridiculous expectations on me just because I'd lucked into a perfect score by guessing on the placement test.
And honestly, this name was embarrassing every time I said it. What kind of person is named...
Miss Evande~ Miss Evande~
Humming to herself, Eve snapped her fingers again. With a soft pop, something materialized in midair — a scarecrow with the most punchable face I'd ever seen.
"Ta-da! This is our specially-made Mister Scarecrow, designed for measuring abilities. He may not look it, but he's pretty tough! Go on, hit him with everything you've got, Miss Evande! With a score of two hundred, I think I can expect great things, hm?"
What exactly were you expecting from someone who couldn't even burn off her own clothes? That thing wasn't going to break unless you were on Yoon Siwoo or Sylvia's level.
Sighing internally, I decided to start by lighting myself on fire.
From experience so far, the flames seemed to ignite when my emotions surged. The trigger was probably anger — or maybe excitement. But considering my hair had only barely smoldered when I'd watched Sylvia laugh earlier, anger felt like the more reliable option of the two.
Searching for something to be angry about, the first thing that popped into my head was Yoon Siwoo. Come to think of it, he really was a damned bastard. He'd be parading around with a whole entourage of top-tier beautiful heroines from now on. He might even sic that terrifying mob on me, just because I was a girl now. But even with your face and your powers, Yoon Siwoo, there's one thing the 32nd-generation descendant of the Gangneung Evande line — me, Scarlet Evande — can have that you never will...
With a whoosh, the rage inside me burst out as flame.
But honestly, calling it "burning" was generous. It was more like the fire was just... emitting light. What was the point of a flame that couldn't burn anything?
I hadn't realized — I was an insect. I was a human firefly...
I started feeling like even the scarecrow in front of me was sneering at me. Heat flared up at the indignity of being mocked by a glorified sack of straw, and the next thing I knew I'd thrown a full-strength punch right into its face.
With a sharp fwap of bursting air, my fist connected. I was secretly impressed at how my punching power, superpowered as I was, vastly outclassed any normal human's — but unsurprisingly, the scarecrow didn't have a scratch on it. Of course it didn't. That had just been a regular punch.
"...Miss Evande, by any chance, is your real ability physical enhancement rather than fire?"
Eve was eyeing me the way you'd watch a drunk pummeling one of those punch-strength machines on a street corner. Mortified, I shook my head furiously.
I needed to figure out how to crank up the heat enough to actually burn something. The classic way to make a fire hotter was to throw on more fuel. And the fuel for my flames was anger. Maybe I just didn't have enough of it.
I thought about what made me angriest of all.
The ridiculous ending of Academy's Holy Swordsman? Or the entity that had turned me into this?
And then, suddenly, I remembered the precious friend I'd been forced to leave behind when I became a girl. The friend who'd cried tears of joy with me when I was happy, who'd grown gloomier than I was when I was sad and shared every sorrow with me — my dear, dear friend, my sojung-ie...
The unspeakable sense of loss dragged out a wave of fury, and I felt the heat of the flames around my body surge far beyond anything I'd produced before. I knew, with certainty, that this could burn something.
In your average novel or manga, fire-element users handled their flames like extensions of their own limbs. I imagined the flames flying toward the scarecrow's face and shouted in my heart.
Fireball!
The flames didn't budge.
Hellfire! Flame Emperor! Breath of Flame!
Still nothing.
And then I came to a realization. If I couldn't wield the flames like extra limbs — then I'd just have to use my actual limbs to wield the flames.
KRAANG—!
A flame-wreathed fist slammed into the scarecrow's face. I dubbed it the Fire Punch.
It looked impressive enough on the surface, but in reality all it left behind was a little scorch mark on the scarecrow's face. Still — figuring out how to channel a fire that could actually burn was no small accomplishment, was it?
"Um, Miss Evande? In the future, I think you might want to be a little more mindful of, ah, who's watching when you use your power..."
Eve's voice was suddenly flustered. Her wavering eyes were fixed squarely on my body.
Wondering what was wrong, I looked down — and was greeted by the snow-white nakedness of a young girl.
My mind went blank from sheer panic.
Now that I thought about it, of course — if my whole body was now spewing actual burn-capable flame, my clothes were going to go up too. A schoolgirl suddenly stripped bare in the middle of class was the textbook recipe for an enormous scandal. A horrifying future of being blackmailed by every boy in the school flashed before my eyes like my life flashing before me.
Twenty-four hours into being a girl, and I was already facing the crisis of a lifetime. One wrong move and I'd be a confirmed truant from tomorrow onward.
"Miss Evande, you're a girl now too, so you have to be careful about that sort of thing! For now, I'll use a little magic to make it look like you're still in uniform. I'm not sure if there are any spare clothes in the staff room, but..."
Eve snapped her fingers and, just like that, I was wearing a uniform identical to the one I'd had on.
Thank god my homeroom teacher was Eve. I'd nearly suffered something straight out of an erotic doujinshi...
Eve clapped her hands. The illusion dissolved, and the classroom came back into view. The other students must still have been in the middle of their assessments — there was no one to be seen. The students hadn't moved an inch from where they were, supposedly, so what kind of sorcery was this illusion magic?
"Teacher's going to pop down to the staff room. Stay put, Miss Evande."
Eve gave a small sigh and walked out of the classroom with brisk, even steps.
The moment she left, Yoon Siwoo's assessment must have ended too — there he was, suddenly, sitting in his seat. He must have sensed me, because he turned to look — and then sucked in a sharp breath and whipped his face away, beet-red.
I tilted my head. What in the world had happened on his side of the illusion?
.
..
...
Ah. The illusion.
Flames roared up from my body. The next moment, a Fire Punch detonated squarely against Yoon Siwoo's jaw.
Right after socking Yoon Siwoo with the Fire Punch, I'd bolted out of the classroom and holed up in the bathroom until Eve came back from the staff room with a spare uniform. After changing into it, the worst of the awkward situation was more or less patched over.
Although, when Eve returned to the classroom and saw Yoon Siwoo sitting there with a dazed expression, clutching his jaw, she sized up the situation in about half a second and burst into uncontrollable laughter.
"Pfff—khkhkhk, ahaha— hkk... hkk... Miss Evande, ahihi... I'm sorry, Teacher's never seen an ability quite like Mister Siwoo's before, so I made a little mistake there.... khihi... I'm sorry... hehehk..."
If you're trying to apologize, could you maybe try not laughing so hard while you do it...