Choi Soohan (2)

Yoo Hwayeon watched Choi Soohan walk out on unsteady legs, a collar around her neck and the crotch of her jeans soaked dark, and she made no effort to hide how tangled her feelings were.

"Unbelievable. I never dreamed Choi Soohan had a disposition like that."

The look of a headache still sat on Hwayeon's face. She turned her eyes to me, and this time the sigh that left her was a different kind entirely. Franc stepped in to defend me.

"Choi Soohan had already half given up on living. If some shock had not altered her state of mind, she would not have lasted long in the Phase World."

"Yes. It does seem she received a shock, thanks to you... whether she actually comes to her senses is another matter."

"From what I can see, she will follow Seoha."

"...You think so?"

Hwayeon studied Franc's certainty as if it puzzled her, but Franc only nodded, her face as sure as ever.

Well, of course. Franc had watched it too, through Spatial Perception — Choi Soohan climbing to her peak while her slick ran in strings down her thighs.

"Haa... Then isn't that a problem in its own right? She's in the prime of her life. If she were to fall for Seoha..."

I cut straight through Hwayeon's needless worry.

"Choi Soohan is just Choi Soohan. There'll be times I punish her as a reward, sure, but I won't take it any further than that. And once her head comes back to a reasonable degree, I mean to let her go."

"Well, then... In any case, I never imagined Mana Sieve could be used like that. Your voice ringing right beside my ear felt terribly strange."

...Is that a flicker of jealousy? Hwayeon's thighs gave a faint tremor, and when I looked through her clothes at the petals hidden in her underwear, they were a little wet.

Best to pretend I hadn't seen that.

"Truth is, part of why I made Choi Soohan the final offering was Mana Sieve."

Franc and Hwayeon both wore the look of people who had no idea what I was talking about.

"There'll be well over a few hundred people at our Time River who've seen my Mana Vision. I don't even know how many of them are women. Leave it like this and there's no telling what problems will sprout, so I figured I'd use the chance to spread a little infamy. If the bad name gets around, maybe the seeds Mana Vision planted will wither before they ever sprout."

"You mean you won't feed the buds of affection, so they never bloom."

Whether she accepted it or not, Hwayeon answered with an odd note in her voice. Her hand drifted up to stroke her own neck, then flinched and stopped, and she stole a glance at me. Seeing that, I felt like teasing her. I smiled without a sound, wicked on purpose.

"Want a dog collar too, Hwayeon?"

"If you want me to, Seoha."

"Huh?!"

The answer caught me so off guard that I startled, and Hwayeon laughed softly, as if to ask what on earth I was surprised about.

"I have lived fifteen years thinking of you. If you wish it, what great matter is a collar like that?"

"A d-dog collar seems like a pretty big deal to me..."

Even as I said it, I pictured Hwayeon in a collar. A chain clipped to it... down on all fours like a dog... naked... out for a walk... hehehe.

Ahem. Fortunately Hwayeon didn't catch my idle thoughts. She glanced at her wristwatch and went on.

"Then we'll take Choi Soohan along as our supporter. We'll leave the matter there. Next on the schedule, at two this afternoon, there will be a live broadcast announcing your abilities. We have about two hours, so let's rough out the paperwork and go to my room."

"Who's making the announcement?"

Hwayeon sat back down at the desk and started burning ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠through what little paperwork remained.

"People you know. Deputy Minister Kim Hakjun of the government's Anomalous Innovation Office, and Director Lee Hyeryeong. The contents will mostly be an announcement of your abilities, the positions of the Korean government and the Ability User Association, and a verification of your power."

"Verification?"

"The simple version ends with you demonstrating a few abilities here in the real world. If we aim for a greater effect, personnel dispatched from Time River, the government, and the Association enter the Phase World with you, record you hunting a High-Rank Variant, and release the footage to the public."

On the screen, the somewhat easygoing old man I had seen before at the deliberation committee was speaking through a baptism of camera flashes.

Beside him stood Director Lee Hyeryeong and Central Deliberation Committee Member Cha Uicheol. Cha Uicheol's face was as expressionless as ever. Director Lee stood modestly, her cheeks a little flushed.

Deputy Minister Kim Hakjun allowed a brief photo opportunity, then lifted a hand just enough to halt the storm of flashes and opened his mouth again.

Just then a loud voice burst in from off-screen.

The room began to murmur at that, and Deputy Minister Kim Hakjun cleared his throat with a sharp ahem, then glared fiercely toward the source of the voice.

Call it an old campaigner's vigor. The deputy minister silenced not only the reporter who had spoken but every other reporter in the room in an instant, gave a small dry cough, and carried the announcement forward.

It's a kilometer and a half now. They must have dialed it down on purpose.

Deputy Minister Kim Hakjun ignored the hall, which had erupted at his words, and stepped aside as an enormous touchscreen slowly descended behind him.

And then a single photograph filled the screen.

It showed the corpse of an aberrant. At set intervals the image slid closer, approaching the body, until the sequence stopped on a final close-up, blackened and scorched.

A photo I had taken.

The moment the slides stopped, camera flashes burst all at once again.

The photo of the dead Elephantauros. Hoo. Thankfully Yeongeun had said she'd announce it under a reasonably changed name. My gloomy sense for names had nearly spread across the entire world.

Elephantros? Pretty plausible, actually. Elephant plus centaur — Elephantros.

A little more explanation of my abilities followed, and the briefing hall heated past the point where even Deputy Minister Kim Hakjun's warning could settle it.

Voices popped up here and there, people trying to get a question in, but Deputy Minister Kim Hakjun ignored every one of them and spoke again.

The announcement ended, and in the noisy hall reporters hurled questions with desperate energy at the three figures from the government, Time River, and the Association. The three pretended not to hear and left under the escort of their bodyguards.

A verification team. Would it be enough to show Franc and me taking down a High-Rank Variant together? If all three organizations moved at once, quite a lot of people were going to gather.

"When do we enter the Phase World, and with whom?"

"Five days from now. Madam Yeongeun and I, Central Deliberation Committee Chairman Cha Uicheol, and Korean Branch Director Kang Hyunwoo. Add the ability users from Hwarang, Time River, and the Association, and the current estimate is about sixty."

"Whoa, sixty? That's no joke. Count the supporters and it'll blow past a hundred and twenty easy."

"Hunting and raiding are not the purpose, so it will not go that far."

I turned to Hwayeon, who was clearing up what I wanted to know, and asked about the phrase that had stuck with me.

"What's this 'public authority under international law'?"

"Put simply, it is a declaration that laying a hand on you will be judged an infringement of this nation's rights and interests, and that we will respond at the level of the state. It is also a statement that the Ability User Association supports that position. From now on, merely identifying a suspicious group that attacks you is enough for Korea to hold its own investigative authority."

"So if people come at me like last time..."

"We will have the justification to investigate whatever looks suspicious."

"Heh. I hope they attack one more time."

Yeongeun had said she suspected Japan, hadn't she? Just let them get caught. I'd smash them so thoroughly not even a corpse would be left.

I was grinding my teeth when Franc, who had been wearing a thoughtful look, turned her back to me and started fiddling above her head, and around the base of her spine... Huh?

"S-Seoha? Would you look at me?"

Franc had turned to face me, and on top of her head sat a pair of small, adorable dog ears. Behind her slightly twisted waist, between the long fall of platinum hair, a fluffy tail of the very same color swished back and forth.

"Whoaaa! You're adorable, Franc!"

A beauty wearing a shy, bellflower smile, suddenly sporting lively dog ears and a tail — the effect was outrageous.

Leaving a dumbstruck Hwayeon behind me, I reached up and touched the dog ears on Franc's head... The best. They didn't feel like fake ears at all. They felt like real dog ears. That downy softness was unreal.

Seeing how delighted I was, Franc looked a little happy herself and flapped her dog ears. The fluffy tail that began at her tailbone was swishing for all it was worth, so I reached out and caught it, and of course that soft, cozy tail felt wonderful too.

"Aah, Seoha, honestly..."

"...Franc, that is unfair."

Franc let out a soft nasal whine and fussed, and I was grinning at her when Hwayeon grumbled from behind me.

It really was unfair. Franc must have heard the grumbling too. She nestled into my arms while I was still playing with her ears and tail, then stuck her tongue out at Hwayeon in a little blep.

"Hwayeon has that cheat of an ability called regeneration!"

"Th-that is merely my ability!"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"This is my ability too!"

What followed was the two of them trading blatant dirty talk — "An infinitely regenerating hymen is a cheat no matter how you look at it!" and "An ability that can reflect Seoha's tastes on the spot is even more of a cheat!" — and I listened while fiddling with Franc's dog tail and thought, so this is what happiness is.

A few days after the announcement, the fact that it had gone out live on terrestrial television meant Mom, Dad, and my sister seemed to be suffering through the calls pouring in from relatives and acquaintances. Under Mom's protection, though, I got to rest easy for five days.

The only people who knew my phone number were family. Hwayeon and Yeongeun only had my Certifier email address, so no calls were coming.

It crossed my mind to wonder whether Han Go-eun and her crowd were doing all right, but I figured they were. Still, it was a little disappointing that we hadn't gotten to go to the pool together. It would have been a chance to see Hwayeon in a swimsuit...

Once the fuss died down, I decided, I'd rent out an indoor pool and play there with Yeongeun and my sister both. Thinking of swimming nudged the trauma switch up a little, and my heart gave a lurch, but Franc was beside me, and the anxiety settled quickly.

Yeongeun really must have been unspeakably busy. Invite her to the chat room and she couldn't even come in, and when I sent a text the reply only arrived long afterward.

Hwayeon was just as busy, putting together the dispatch team for the verification and clearing her backlog. Even when I went to the building she only stared at documents and couldn't talk to me, and since we couldn't be sweet even when I came to see her, her stress seemed to spike hard. From the third day on, I stopped visiting.

In the meantime I found Choi Soohan, took her to the warehouse, and — with Franc watching — re-imprinted her, in words and in physical pain, as a masochistic female. The order to wear the collar at all times went with it.

The first collar I'd given her was a problem no matter how you looked at it. I bought a new necklace, one anyone could still tell was a dog collar but not so extreme that daily wear was impossible, and fastened it on her.

Collar locked in place, the genuine masochist Choi Soohan shook her hips and leaked her fluids in strings under the physical punishment. Her tongue had gone so slack she couldn't even pronounce properly, so I yanked the finger-thick steel chain leash on the collar. She gagged, eyes unfocused, drool running, and it was... kind of hot.

At least on the outside, the half-dead fish eyes and the atmosphere thick with resignation were completely gone, and she was gradually finding her right mind, which confirmed that my judgment had been correct. The problem, if I had to name it, was Choi Soohan herself.

She had fully realized her own sexual identity, and I worried a little whether she'd ever be able to marry properly.

After that I went in and out of the training hall, drilling Mana Bullets and Mana Lasers, charged a reasonable amount of TP into the high-grade Phase Stones set in the Phase Stone vest Hwayeon had given me, and — dodging my sister's watch — injected TP into Franc's body and her Soul Stone, passing the time until verification day.

The five days went quickly.

The assembly point was not the Association's Phase World entry hall, but a large clearing near Bukaksan, behind Gyeongbokgung Palace and the Blue House.

On the morning of June 2, I rode out to the site in the car Hwayeon had sent for me, and found four hundred people gathered on the well-packed lot, moving in a busy swarm.

The clearing was crowded with tents and ability users, their clothes split among Time River dress uniforms, government uniforms, and Association uniforms.

Were these the people mobilized for the verification? Hwayeon had said about sixty, and there were over three hundred.

Off to one side of the lot, reporters and correspondents were clustered, already transmitting. I followed Hwayeon into the tent set aside for us, and Yoo Yeongeun was already waiting inside.

"You're here? Assembly's soon, so let's change quickly."

"Hey. We're entering the Phase World, but is it okay to do it out here instead of at the branch?"

"Given the special nature of the case, we decided to do it here rather than at the Association's entry standby. The ability users outside were called as spot guards, in case something happens."

The "special nature" being the friction between the government and the Association after the attack on me?

"Normally they'd issue an Early Entry Permit without a verification like this. Why complicate the procedure for no reason? If they'd been cooperative, we would have cooperated too. Since they're being this fussy, we have to answer in kind."

She looked apologetic, as if the permit's delay genuinely bothered her, so I gave Yeongeun's cheek a light kiss as I answered.

"I heard you helped station ability users around the house, too. Thanks for looking out for me in so many ways."

"Ah, y-yeah! Th-then shall we change?"

The gentle kiss brought a faint blush to her face, and with a flustered air she set a bag the size of a large carrier up on the table.

Hwayeon set the bag she had brought on the table as well and began pulling something like clothing out of it. Then, without a moment's hesitation, she stripped — underwear and all — and there they were, Hwayeon and Yeongeun, bare and white, checking their combat gear.

Two beauties' naked bodies shimmering right in front of me. My face was going to go red.

They pressed something like a silicone pad over their groins, put on shaping bras that kept their breasts from swaying, and unfolded the things they had taken out.

The clothes were... some kind of futuristic tights.

Black, cut to leave the arms bare below the elbows, the legs bare below the knees, and the neck and head open. The fabric had the texture of scales.

"The place we're entering this time is my Phase World. The target is a High-Rank Variant that appears there... Seoha? Are you listening?"

On their legs were slender plate boots covering everything up past the thighs, and on their arms plate vambraces that ran all the way to the torso, finished with sleek gauntlets.

The tights were the skin-tight kind, clinging so close that the curve of the breasts, the slimness of the waist, even the hollow of the navel showed through.

...They're going to stand in front of people like that?

"Huh? We're entering Hwayeon's Phase World, right? But what are those tights? They look like tights stitched together out of scales."

The whole thing was pitch black, so it matched the black hair she'd tied up in a ponytail and looked good enough — but were they really going to stand in front of other people in an outfit that showed off their figures that completely?

...I don't like that.

"Haa. This is shape-memory alloy tights armor, made from an idea taken from the materials of Peak-Rank Variants. Inject Phase Power and it changes into armor."

Ah. So this wasn't the whole of it. I stepped closer at Hwayeon's words and touched the tights armor, and it was very soft. Then I felt the plate armor on the arms and legs, and it wasn't iron at all — something soft, and raspy...

"Now, now, feel mine too?"

Yeongeun slipped in between Hwayeon and me, caught my hand, and guided it to her breast and to the axe scar. The boldness of it sent the heat back into my face as my hand met Yeongeun's large, taut breast... Huh?

Unlike Hwayeon's, it was extremely hard. Even with my body reinforced under Mana Mode, the shape wouldn't deform. I kicked in acceleration and put real strength behind it, and only then did it change, little by little, under the force of my hand.

Between Yeongeun's legs was just as hard. I applied force, and her body only lifted slightly under it — the shape there didn't change at all, which was absurd. And that was the strength of a D-Class physical enhancement user.

"Hwayeon's was soft a minute ago... Isn't this stifling to wear? Seems like it'd be hard to move."

"Hehe. This tights armor is a masterpiece among masterpieces, made by Paul Dict, said to be the greatest artisan of custom work. That's why its name is Paul Dict's Tight Plate Armor."

Use a Phase Power operation technique, she explained, and the tights take in the Phase Power flowing outside the body and harden — going rigid without hindering the wearer's movement in the slightest. A full-body armor with the latest technology applied to it.

Now that she mentioned it, she had been using the technique a little all along.

Yeongeun began to use the Phase Power operation technique in earnest. The rotation of her Phase Power kicked into a sharp acceleration, and in that instant the tights swelled rapidly, angled into form, and became plate armor with elegant engravings cut into it.

"Whoa!"

At the thighs in particular there was a clack, the tights twitched, and they connected as if becoming one with the plate boots. The arms linked at the shoulders to the vambraces, and the whole of it transformed into a sleek suit of full plate.

Turned into plate armor like that, every particular curve of the body was hidden, which I liked.

"See? The Tight Plate Armor has a wear requirement as well. Below a D-Class physical enhancement user, you cannot even put it on, and to use it properly you need to be C-Class."

"That's incredible... It looks amazing."

I clapped and praised her, and Yeongeun lifted her nose and poured out an explanation of just how hard the Tight Plate Armor had been to obtain, and just how expensive, like a military otaku who had finally found an audience.

Watching Yeongeun go on like that, and Hwayeon staring at her as if she were hopeless, I felt my ears grow warm.

It was probably because I had watched, from the very start, as Hwayeon and Yeongeun casually threw off every stitch of clothing and underwear in front of me and dressed again from the skin out to the armor.

Strange. I had mixed bodies with the two of them more than a few times, and I knew the particulars of their bodies better than they did themselves... Was it just the situation?

Hwayeon began explaining the place we were about to enter.

"My Phase World is a vast swamp, neither deep nor shallow. The targets are a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠humanoid aberrant about seven meters tall with a moss-colored body — the so-called swamp troll — and a plant-type aberrant, the Swamp Trent."

The troll, she said, was a High-Rank Variant with outstanding bodily regeneration and monstrous strength, its speed only on the level of a D-Class physical enhancement user, and it was characterized by acting alone.

The Swamp Trent was, literally, a High-Rank Variant made of dead wood. Its movement was extremely slow, but its attack range was wide and its power strong.

"Above all, their physical defense is horrifically high. Swamp Trents also act alone, so we set them as the targets of this verification."

"The targets feel... almost as if they were chosen to fit Seoha."

"They were. Seoha's close combat is painful to watch, so through negotiation with the Association we specially selected them to match."

Hmm. Was that it? There were a few things I wanted to confirm.

"How big is the gap in strength between a Mid-High Rank Variant and a High-Rank Variant? I'm curious about the gap between High-Rank and Peak-Rank, too."

At my question Hwayeon closed her eyes and sank into thought for a moment, then nodded and answered.

"Think of the difference between Mid-High and High as the difference between an ordinary person and an ability user who possesses Phase Power. Ordinary people have no means of blocking an attack made of Phase Power, but ability users do. They also have tough bodies."

"You mean their resistance is as high as that analogy suggests?"

"Yes."

That was an enormous gap... If the boss hadn't been wounded by the Mana Cannon back then, I wouldn't have been able to take it down.

"Peak-Rank Variants are the same. They surpass High-Rank Variants in the physical sense as well, but the greatest difference is that they begin wrapping Phase Power around their skin, and you must pour out tremendous attacks to pierce that barrier-like Phase Power. That is why we are taking more than a hundred ability users."

"Lower-ranked ability users wear down the barrier's durability, and higher-ranked ones deal the damage?"

"Correct."

Hearing that, I remembered the Mid-High Elephantauros that had canceled my Mana Bullets at the skin and blocked them. What was this — did the principle of the barrier Hwayeon was describing apply differently to Mana Bullets?

"..."

I had a feeling I shouldn't follow the combat methods of ordinary ability users.

I might need to test, on my own, how things adapted to my abilities, tolerated them, resisted them. No. I should follow the information I had gained fighting the Elephantauros.

Over the past five days of repeated training — whether it had become possible because I had risen to C-Class, or whether I simply hadn't known — I had found a way to raise the power of my Mana Bullets and Mana Lasers by a marked degree.

The method was not to emit a shockwave. Through experiment I had learned that the method of not emitting a shockwave produced the same effect as a Mana Cannon.

As the shockwave vanished, the attack range shrank, but the power concentrated by that much.

I had learned on the third attempt that I could control the generation of the shockwave by will, tested it, and it had been the right answer.

As for the Mana Laser, condensing the beam a little further was enough. The range shortened drastically, and it grew that much stronger.

The TP cost rose sharply in exchange, but that much I could accept.

On top of that, hard training in the hall over those five days had raised my proficiency a great deal, and the time it took to condense TP had been drastically shortened.

A 50 TP Mana Bullet could now be fired with almost no delay, and taking a hint from an anime I watched while resting at home — one where I battled monsters — I could fire Mana Bullets from all five fingers at once.

Its name? The Five-Finger Mara Bolt!

...I'm kidding. In any case, gaining knowledge that collided with what I thought I knew had left me a little uneasy, but I was confident that the power earned over five days of training would be more than enough to handle a High-Rank Variant.

I had Spatial Manipulation and a Spatial Barrier, after all.

I had gone quiet, and Yeongeun, who had been watching my mood, poked my cheek.

"Peak-Rank Variants aren't that much stronger than High-Rank, you know? They're strong beings, of course, but the gap isn't as wide as the one from Mid-High to High, so you don't need to be that tense."

I nodded along with Yeongeun's comfort.

If I ran into a Mid-High Rank Variant this time, I would systematically check the power of my attacks, and what they actually did, all over again.