Episode 151: Return, and... (4)
Hwayeon had gone, and I was back in my room when the Certifier signaled an incoming text. The sender was Yeongeun.
A photo had come with the message. Shot from above and off to one side, looking down — and in it she was smiling cutely into the lens, a small V tucked just beneath her left eye.
I let out a short laugh, told her to go ahead, and attached every photo I'd taken of the boss to an email before sending it off.
Another text arrived at once.
"......From now on, I should be a little more careful when I name things."
"Hehe."
I texted back that it was fine, then stretched out on the bed with my head pillowed on Franc's thigh and opened the Crafters Maestro Korea site on the Certifier. If I wanted something for daily use rather than combat, what would even be good? ......Hm? What was this? Why was there no list of anything for sale?
I was still tilting my head at the search when my sister flung the door open and came in. The moment she saw me with my head on Franc's lap, her eyes wavered.
"Seoha, you...... never mind. Franc? From now on, that door is never to be closed. Understood?"
"Yes? Y-yes."
......! I had a bad feeling about this!
"Why do you get to decide that? Don't I get any privacy at all?"
"Why do you think?! Franc has a body now...... that's why! And Franc, from now on you sleep in my room with me. Understood?!"
"What?! Where is this coming from all of a sudden?! I can't sleep anymore if Franc isn't beside me!"
I protested hard against the tyranny that had just blown in, but this time she had no intention of letting it go. Eyes blazing, she shouted back.
"Can't sleep, my foot! I know exactly what you and Franc got up to in the bathroom last time! And now that she has a body, nothing says you won't do something even worse! You're a minor — that kind of thing is still not allowed!"
Ack. So she caught the can of air freshener I sprayed in the bathroom. No — more importantly—!
"Ugh. You said you wouldn't interfere with me and Franc and Hwayeon, so why do you keep this up? Keep going and I'll move out."
"What?"
"I brought back an 8,700 Phase Stone from my third run, remember? You know that sells for 8.7 billion won? You also know that's more than enough to buy an apartment in Gangnam and still have money left?"
"Th-that's not—!"
The moment I threatened, out of nowhere, to strike out on my own, she was so thrown she could only stammer. Seeing her like that was genuinely rare. The ambush had landed.
"I don't want to get up to anything dirty with Franc while Mom and Dad are both home either, you know? I'm holding back. But if you keep jabbing the one place that sets me off, I might just go off the rails myself."
"Ugh. E-even so, if you stay glued together while your blood's running hot, there's a chance something will happen......"
Was she even talking to me? Watching the two of us fight, Franc looked lost, as if she had no idea whose side she was meant to take.
Franc is obviously supposed to be on my side!
Then, as if she'd found her bearings, my sister set her hands on her hips with maybe thirty percent of her momentum restored and shouted.
"I'm telling you, you're still a child!"
"You gonna keep coming at me like that? Should I build a house next to my training ground and move out? Hm?"
"N-no, you can't!"
"I can! And another thing — you've been saying young, young, this whole time. Which part of me is young, exactly?"
"Ugh. Franc, please, say something."
"She might come up a little short in household politics, but Franc is basically on my side, you know? Fine. If you sweet-talk her, I'll just go out and demand my independence from Dad. That's all there is to it."
I shot to my feet and headed for Mom and Dad in the living room. My sister grabbed my arm and dug in.
"W-wait! Don't do that — just sit down for a second!"
I kept walking, hauling my flustered sister along, and this time she threw her arms around my back and tried to drag me backward. Mana Mode was running constantly now, though, and against me her strength didn't even match a three-year-old's.
"O-okay! I get it, so just sit down for a minute!"
In the end, as if she'd realized there was no way to stop me, her face crumpled, and she collapsed onto my floor with a heavy flop.
"Uuuugh......"
What? Why was she tearing up now? Franc, startled by the tears, sat down beside her and dabbed at the ones gathering in her eyes with a tissue.
"Sniff. I thought Seoha would stay a child forever...... waaah."
That was a horrifying thing to say. For some reason I could almost see a whole crowd of people besides me looking thoroughly fed up.
Faced with my whining sister, I sighed and sat down in front of her. At a time like this, better to throw it straight.
"Did you really think I'd be a little kid forever?"
"......Yeah."
"But we became adults a long time ago."
"......? ......!!!"
I kept going, meeting the wide-eyed stare she had fixed on me.
"I've adjusted the plan a little since then, but originally, the moment I turned nineteen, I was going to gather only the people who knew and hold the wedding right away. I've grown up a lot more than you think. In more ways than one."
Her mouth was parting little by little. Quite a shock, from the look of it — but I had to go at least this far, or she'd only get more troublesome.
"I know how to tell right from wrong, too. That's why I behave at home as much as I can. But if you keep interfering like this...... I need you to understand that I won't just sit still either."
"Huuuung."
Lips pushed out, sniffling all over again. Nothing I said was going to land. Time for the last drastic remedy.
"You don't actually know my condition right now, do you?"
"......?"
"Dad says I'm in the early stages of PTSD."
"What?!"
She was even more shocked than when she'd heard I'd become an adult. She shot up onto her knees and seized my shoulders.
"W-what are you saying? PTSD?!"
"The night I came back after the second run, Dad told me. Early stage. So I shouldn't go near water alone, that sort of thing."
"Ah! That time!"
I caught her around the waist, sat her back down, and went on.
"Part of why I can't sleep without Franc is exactly that. If an atmosphere like the one when I was swimming, fleeing the imoogi, starts to settle in — or if I remember what happened then — my heart still pounds. It's bearable because Franc is there beside me every time. If you try to split us up, the PTSD will only get worse. Is that what you want?"
Half truth, half lie. My sister was so thoroughly rattled she didn't seem to notice that far.
"Uuuugh...... I didn't even know that...... Th-then if you slept with me......"
"Don't need that."
I refused her without a heartbeat's hesitation, sharp as a knife, and she pouted and shot Franc a small glare, as if Franc were the one at fault.
"When you were little, you only came looking for me when you were scared......"
"Ahem! Th-that was because I was a little kid, just like you said! Anyway, you understand, right? There are things even I can't help."
"......Fine."
With that she rose weakly, opened the sliding door with a truly disappointed face, and crossed into her own room.
"Lady Siha truly does seem to love you, Seoha."
"Yeah. Before I entered the Phase World, I think we were just ordinary siblings, but after I came back her worrying got a little intense."
Hmm......
Thinking back over her behavior, what came to mind was a brother complex. A brocon.
Nah. No way.
Curious what she was doing, I turned Clairvoyance on her room for a moment and found her sprawled on her bed like the dead. She looked so drained that I worried a little — but she was a strong, remarkable woman. She'd bounce back soon enough.
I lay down again with my head on Franc's thigh and searched for Crafters Maestro Korea.
Custom Korea, as Crafters Maestro Korea was commonly called, existed under the Crafters Maestro name alongside ability-user branches all over the world. Put simply, it was the Korean branch of a house that used materials harvested from the Phase World to handcraft nothing but weapons, armor, and the like.
Their range ran from something as simple as a dagger all the way to an anti-materiel sniper rifle, and their armor from vest-like leather to full plate — a comprehensive armaments firm that made everything worthy of the name. Its history was old enough to have begun with the Phase World itself. One branch per country, and only in that country's capital, with the headquarters in Washington, D.C.......
"Are you looking to acquire equipment?"
"Yeah. I don't know what they have, but I'm thinking of looking into a dagger or something. For use in the Phase World."
The Certifier, though, held nothing useful. Only that the work was ruinously expensive and made strictly to order — and that if you wanted to know more, you came in person. I turned the computer on and searched. The homepage offered nothing but a company history, and a single message.
Other arms companies turned up readily enough, second place through fifth, but the gulf between first and second was a wall no one climbed. If you wanted gear meant to last, the only advice anywhere was to go to Custom.
"Does that mean they're that sure of their work?"
"Hmm. They may be a house with a true artisan's spirit."
Franc looked a little taken aback herself.
"Don't they even have a catalog? I don't have that kind of money right now."
What I'd spent buying the training ground was all debt...... I'd meant to look around within a budget, and I couldn't even manage the modest version.
For now I switched the Certifier on, opened the chat, and invited Hwayeon and Yeongeun. Come to think of it, this damned Certifier needed an upgrade too.
The one I'd been issued was basic functions and nothing else — Certifier duties, Phase Power measurement, the community, calls, texts, and mapping. Add options, though, and you could take photos, video, and recordings, browse the internet, even link to specific systems the way Hwayeon did. A fully loaded Certifier, they said, ran five billion won.
So the photos Hwayeon and Yeongeun took and sent were all thanks to the full package.
A chime.
Look at that emoticon. Old enough to know better, and still this shameless. Honestly. Say it out loud and she'd come running this instant to eat me alive, so I kept it to myself.
The chat went quiet.
Whoa. Almost got caught — she means her and me, right?
Somehow I still couldn't get used to it. It felt painfully awkward. Behind me, I could feel Franc letting out a faint sigh.
Franc had been floating at my back the whole time, reading over my shoulder, and when I turned around she was smiling at me with far too much allure in it.
"You wield the stick and the carrot rather well yourself, don't you, Seoha?"
"Ahaha."
Whichever one it is, for me it's a carrot.
Late that night a call came from Yeongeun on the house phone. The point was that I shouldn't go to school for a while — that if I showed up while attention on me was concentrated to this extreme, I'd be hounded from every direction.
So it would be best to stay home until five days after the government's brief announcement about me tomorrow, until the joint press conference the government and the Ability User Union would hold on my ability.
Attendance, of course, would be handled as an exception. Under the recognition of Chairwoman Yeongeun and the principal, the entire stretch I'd spent in the Phase World would be logged as an excused absence.
The next morning I woke to Franc glancing toward my sister's room and smiling awkwardly. When I asked why, she said my sister hadn't slept all night — tossing and turning, and even sneaking over to steal a look at me asleep in Franc's arms.
And that she'd only just fallen asleep an hour ago......
Huh? From the way she told it, Franc had been watching the whole time through Spatial Perception as well.
"You didn't sleep either, Franc?"
"I didn't gain my ability by climbing the steps the way you did, Seoha. I received it as if yours had been grafted into me, so perhaps that's why. If I sense a movement nearby that worries me, my eyes simply open."
"Is that so. Fair enough — when I first awakened Search, I couldn't sleep properly for days either."
I left my sister, only just asleep, and the four of us — my parents, Franc, and I — had breakfast.
"Mom. Could you spare Franc a few of your clothes?"
"Hmm? Mom's clothes are for people a little older. They might not suit her."
Even as she said it, she took Franc's hand with a delighted face and vanished into the dressing room — and for a full hour, they didn't come out.
What on earth were they doing in there for an hour? I wanted to peek, but I held back the way you do while a gift is being wrapped, and charged the Phase Stones set into my vest.
And the Franc who emerged was wearing a white blouse, a gray high-waisted skirt that climbed to just beneath her bust and set it off, and black stockings. Beautiful past reason. Past any word I had for it.
Enough that even Dad set down the paper he was reading and looked at her. Briefly.
"I'll be off, then. I'm stopping by Crafters Maestro Korea, then on to Time River, so I'll be back after lunch."
"All right. Be careful."
"Yeah."
Dad didn't so much as glance my way. A few waves of the hand, and that was it. Consistent to the bone.
Leaving the house, I asked Franc, who kept fussing with her clothes as if they felt strange.
"How are the clothes?"
"A little awkward. I suppose it's because I went so long without wearing any."
"If it's only awkward, you'll get used to them soon enough, won't you?"
"I suppose so. But in clothes I can't pass through walls, and I can't turn invisible either, so I feel a little uneasy."
"Yeah? I like you in them, though. Feels like I'm seeing a new side of you. The clothes your body makes when it changes are a little...... different from real ones, if you compare them. The way they move in the wind, or when you move — it isn't quite natural. Is that the way to put it?"
At that, Franc smiled brightly and linked her arm through mine.
"Then I'll try to get used to them. If I phase, the clothes will slide right off, so in a crisis I'll simply shed them that way."
"Thanks. By the way...... are you wearing underwear, too?"
I grinned, wicked, and tried to lift the skirt just a little. Franc flushed, pressed it down with her hand, and kissed my cheek — make do with this, the kiss said.
Somehow, she seemed to be building a tolerance for the teasing.
Custom Korea stood near the Ability User Union's Korean headquarters in Gangdong District.
It occupied a seven-story building entire, first floor through seventh. You took guidance on the first, went up to the second to record the form and features of what you wanted, confirmed whether the craftsman you'd chosen was available, had your hands, build, and movements recorded, and last of all decided the materials that would go into the piece.
The third through fifth floors were production workshops, and the sixth and seventh handled special orders and specially crafted work. Apprentice workshops on three, four, and five, and master workshops on six and seven?
Once we arrived, I swept the place with Spatial Perception...... and saw no reason to go in.
"You're not going in?"
"No. What I want isn't a weapon. It's a blade for everyday use, and everything they make in there looks like a masterpiece — the kind where using it that way would insult the maker. And it's not as if they sell anything off the rack."
There were plenty of finished pieces, and every one of them tagged. Commissioned. Already spoken for.
"Even so, since we've come all this way, wouldn't it be worth going in to at least have your measurements taken for armor? If you need materials, Hwayeon will supply them. Think of it as a look around."
"Not a bad thought, but I'm still growing, you know? I'm nearly an inch taller than I was two months ago. More than that, the price looks like no joke. Let's just head back. I'll ask Hwayeon if she has a spare dagger I can use as a tool."
Franc heard me out and nodded, persuaded.
Walking back toward the main road for a taxi, I watched every passerby turn for Franc at least once. Golden proportions, a figure that made whatever it wore look expensive — even clothes Mom had worn in her youth came off with a kind of antique grace. Call it that. A charm that turned heads whether you were a man or a woman, young or old.
Just then a boutique that counted as luxury caught my eye. Weekday afternoon, and still plenty of people shopping.
Come to think of it, I'd said I'd buy Franc clothes...... Right now she'd draw far too many eyes. Later, once things quieted, I'd make a date of it.
And come to think of it, I'd never once given my girlfriends a gift. Maybe I'd ask my sister to help me choose, and cheer her up while I was at it. Buy something for her, too, while I was at it.
Out on the road for a taxi, people were staring at Franc in earnest. Stopping mid-step, hesitating, weighing whether to come over — that was the way to put it.
Even without that, the black-and-white contrast already pulled the eye, and with nothing imperfect from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes, man or woman, the stare just locked.
I flagged a passing taxi and got in. The driver's eyes went round.
"Time River Building, Yeouido, please."
"Ah, y-yes."
The taxi pulled away. I took Franc's hand and started fiddling with it, and she stroked mine in return.
"When are they making the announcement? It's only nine — this afternoon, maybe?"
"I asked her. She said it was scheduled for two in the afternoon. I heard it would be a joint announcement by the government and Time River."
Her — Yeongeun? She couldn't toss the president's name around casually, so she was keeping it vague. Were they writing each other?
"Did you text her on a tablet?"
"Texts and email both. We chat, as well."
"Is Hwayeon still only sleeping two hours?"
"She said she lies down from three to five in the morning."
Should I send her a short text now and then, too? I wasn't sure she'd find it a bother. Yeongeun would definitely like them if they came often...... Which probably meant Hwayeon would, too.
Franc saw the look on my face, smiled — I heard the driver suck in a breath — and nodded.
Then I saw the driver up front carefully finding his voice.
"Um...... you wouldn't happen to be Blue Genius, would you?"
......
Hearing the nickname that did such violence to my sanity come out of a complete stranger's mouth, the shock seemed to double.
"Hehe. That's right. This is Blue Genius — the one who stopped the attack by ability users from abroad this time as well, and returned from his third run having advanced in class once again."
"Ohh. So it really was true. Actually, my daughter is a high school student as well, and during the museum incident she came through safely thanks to you, Blue Genius. I'd wanted to offer my thanks, and here we meet."
"Ah. Yes."
"If it isn't too much, might I ask for an autograph when you get out? My daughter is a fan of yours."
"I-I suppose I should......"
While I barely got the words out through the shock, Franc was beaming, delighted that the driver had recognized me.
So my suffering is Franc's happiness......