Merging Raid Teams (5)
On one side of the terrace sat a small tea table under a roof like a little pavilion, so I led Franc and Hwayeon over and we sat. I drew them both in by the waist, an arm around each, and Hwayeon slipped a hand around my own as she spoke.
"A secret technique isn't something you use, or invent, just because you want to. It's a finishing move you pick up in the middle of a fight without even realizing it."
"Last time at the museum I watched that Hwa Joong-kang guy fight. He just condensed TP in his palm and fired it off, yelling like it was his finishing move — and the princess used the exact same thing?"
Hwayeon gave a short, scoffing laugh.
"That man's fiery bluster is famous. He goes around pulling every kind of stunt, claiming he's developing a secret technique because they look impressive, fails, and then declares that something any elemental ability user can do is his own secret art."
"......"
Wait. So I'd been completely taken in by that blustering old man?
"Firing a beam from your hand, or condensing more than a certain share of TP into your palm and setting off a massive explosion — those are ordinary abilities. I've seen people insist they're secret techniques, but what we usually mean is something like the Angel Halo Princess Lydia showed us."
"Is that so...... Angel Halo did look unusual."
"It did. The greatest mark of a secret technique is an attack that manifests in a form unlike any ordinary ability. It has to be that way. It's a method of using one's power born from a kind of enlightenment, so its shape can never be the same as anyone else's. I once saw a lightning user's secret technique together with Madam. His art raised blue plasma in empty air and literally melted the aberrants."
"Huh? Then was the Bolt of Judgment Franc showed us a secret technique too?"
At those words Hwayeon's face turned puzzled, and she looked at Franc.
"The one where the Elephantros got charred black. It had taken two Mana Cannon shots and was torn open with big wounds all over, but the wounds kept regenerating. Then Franc drove several million Phase Power into it all at once, and that's how it ended up like that."
"......Impressive. Power enough to leave a High-Rank Variant half-dead......"
"Ah — no. It was only possible because Seoha struck the weak point and left it at death's door."
Franc waved her hands, embarrassed, all modest demurral — but that didn't make the power any less real.
"Mm. Hearing you speak of it, Hwayeon, I do think that is so. It felt different from simply loosing lightning from one's hand, or calling it down from the sky."
"What did it feel like?"
"When Seoha was attacked, I was seized by a terrible fury, and before I knew it I had drawn TP in with all my strength and spread it through my whole body. Right after that, it was as if I myself had become the bolt — moving, and falling out of the sky upon the Elephantros leader."
"Hm. The Angel Halo the princess used also resonated the Phase Power through her entire body and poured out TP."
Hwayeon sank into thought for a moment, then murmured.
"Perhaps that is where a secret technique begins."
"So the conclusion is, if you resonate the Phase Power in your whole body and release TP through your entire body, it becomes a secret technique?"
"......Seoha."
Her face set hard, and she seized my shoulder.
"Yeah?"
"You must not copy that. If you did, there is no telling what would happen."
"Huh? Why?"
"Phase Power is an extremely stable energy, yes, but it is an unknown force, and little of it is understood. The problem is precisely that stability."
In all the world, I was the only one who could move Phase Power as I wished. Stability, then, meant stability in the absence of direct interference — and Hwayeon's point was that once my will entered the picture, no one could say what might follow.
"She's right. Growing stronger matters, but there is no reason to grow stronger quickly by calling down a danger we cannot even name. Imagine something like a Mana Cannon detonating at point-blank range."
......A chill ran through me.
"Your ability stands far above anyone else's, Seoha. Until enlightenment comes and you grasp a secret technique naturally, please do not practice it on purpose."
She said it while gently squeezing the arm I had wrapped around her waist, and I nodded.
"All right. I won't."
When I answered so readily, Franc and Hwayeon both breathed out in relief.
"By the way, Franc — you couldn't tell what type the princess's ability was?"
"What? No. I could confirm only the measure of her Phase Power, and its shape. I did not know it was of the light attribute. You can perceive even the attribute, can you not, Seoha? As I thought."
"Yeah. The band of Phase Power looks a different color depending on the attribute."
"That, then, must be an effect of the Mana Sieve."
The Mana Sieve had evolved into Spatial Perception, so it stood to reason the two would touch each other somewhere.
I hope Franc can use the Mana Sieve someday, too.
The penthouse on the fortieth floor — Siha had said she'd seen to the furniture and the interior herself — and in truth, we could have started living there that very day without a hitch. I was wondering what to do about dinner when a call came from Mom at six. She wanted to see our faces for once, at the Grand Blue Building.
When I told her I was already on the fortieth floor, she said that worked out perfectly and that we should meet on the thirty-ninth. I waited until I saw Mom and Dad arrive, then went down — and Siha and Director Lee Hyeryeong came in a step behind them.
But the air when Mom and Director Lee came face to face was something else entirely. Mom caught Hyeryeon's hand and shook it, overjoyed, and Hyeryeon held hers with a look half startled and half glad.
"Mom, do you and Director Lee know each other?"
I'd been about to call her sis the way I used to, but something felt off, so I used her title instead — and then a shocking line burst out of Mom's mouth.
"Of course! Hyeryeong was the friend standing right beside me when your father confessed. I never dreamed we'd meet again like this!"
Come to think of it, Dad looked a little thrown himself, and Hyeryeon clearly had no idea what to do. Well, of course she didn't. Her superior was her friend's daughter-in-law, and her friend's son was the boss of the team she belonged to.
Awkward, I scratched my head, made up my mind quickly, and looked at Director Lee — no. At Aunt Hyeryeong.
"Guess I'll have to call you Aunt Hyeryeong from now on."
Mom nodded as if that were an excellent idea and shook the hand of an even more flustered Aunt Hyeryeong.
"That'll do! Aigoo, if I'd known you were this close, I'd have come looking ages ago."
"Mm. I didn't know you were nearby either, Soyeon."
"You've gotten even prettier, Hyeryeong. How have you been all this time? You got married, didn't you?"
"Hehe. Of course I did."
Mom looked utterly lost in catching up with Aunt Hyeryeong. Siha beckoned Franc and Hwayeon over, so I followed her into the kitchen and asked.
"Did you bring Aunt Hyeryeong, Sis?"
"Yeah. She's going to be living right next to me from now on, so I invited her to dinner to introduce her to Mom and Dad. I had no idea she was Mom's friend. Should I be calling her Aunt too?"
"......I may have to change how I address her, and call her Aunt as well."
Siha and Hwayeon both looked more than a little thrown by the sudden appearance of a family tree.
What was there to be thrown about? In private, call her Aunt. In public, call her Director. Separate the personal from the professional, and that was that.
Leaving Siha, Franc, and Hwayeon to start the cooking, I wandered the apartment and took in how it had been done up.
The thirty-ninth floor had no terrace, but it was nearly twice the size of the apartment we used to live in. The layout wasn't much different from the fortieth, though without a terrace the rooms ran a little larger and longer. Floors, wallpaper, furniture — all of it had been unified in white. Aside from the wool carpet, they seemed to have thrown out every stick of the old furniture.
The largest room was Mom and Dad's. Aside from a few frames set out for the interior and Mom's vanity, the only thing in it was a bed that looked plush and warm. The moment I saw that bed, though, I couldn't help a sound of admiration.
"What is this. It's an incredibly complicated machine."
It stood about twice as high as a normal bed, which was why I'd wondered, and looking closer I saw it functioned as an ultra-compact shelter for emergencies. In a crisis the lower panel would split to either side, dropping the mattress and whoever lay on it down into the frame; then the upper panel would seal and protect the person inside. There seemed to be shock absorption, and an internal oxygen generator as well. They had bought well.
The second-largest room had become Siha's. Of the three smaller ones, one was a guest room and one was Dad's study. The last was storage.
In the study, shelves and books were packed only along the walls so they wouldn't block the window, and near the glass the place was dressed with all sorts of flowers and orchids. Dad seemed quite taken with it.
I opened the door to Siha's room. Unlike the pink paradise her old room had been, this one was white shot through with pale blue — clean, and fresh. It had been, anyway. The clothes and underwear strewn over the bed and under it drew a sigh out of me.
If you're going to peel your underwear off so carelessly, at least put it in the washing machine.
Having looked the whole place over, I dropped onto the plush leather sofa beside Dad and asked.
"You threw everything else out, so why'd you bring the wool carpet? Haven't we been using that since I was little?"
"This is the carpet your mother and I acquired when we married. A precious thing that has walked with our family's history — how could one discard it lightly?"
"Oh."
So it was that old. Over twenty years, and still fluffy as ever — impressive. Aunt Hyeryeong, overhearing Dad and me, looked at the carpet and spoke as if surprised.
"This is Hubble Sheep fur of the highest grade. Cared for properly, it is sturdy and fine enough to be used for generations. Did you purchase it, Dr. Jung Soohun?"
"Aberrants cannot approach the ground around this carpet, so we keep it as a charm."
"Ah, a fine purchase. It is true that lower aberrants find it difficult to draw near where traces of a higher aberrant remain."
"Hoh, so this was aberrant fur. There are sheep aberrants too."
I stroked the carpet — something I'd looked at for so long that there should have been nothing wondrous left in it — and Aunt Hyeryeong raised a forefinger in warning.
"You must not take it lightly just because it is a sheep. Unassuming as it looks, this was a Mid-High Rank Variant."
"Whoa."
So this was the fur of an aberrant on the same level as that Elephantros?
Struck by it anew, I ran my hand over the carpet, then turned toward the noisy kitchen. It was large enough that five people could move through it without trouble, and Siha, Franc, and Hwayeon were chattering as they prepared the meal. In the living room Aunt Hyeryeong was saying things that might have been flattery and might have been praise, and Mom was blooming with smiles.
"A son like that — you must feel terribly secure."
"The finest Special Type ability user for a son. I'm envious."
Amid all of that, Dad slowly turned the pages of a medical text, absorbed in it. In the noisy room I felt almost drunk on the soft rustle of those pages.
"You're still reading medical books, Dad? You said you were preparing for a conference — it isn't done?"
"It is set for the end of August. Two months remain."
"Where?"
"A conference of some renown, in London. It is not the sort of thing one prepares for in a month or two and simply begins."
"It's abroad?"
Dad explained that for a prestigious international academic conference, invitations and notices went out at least half a year ahead, and depending on the number of attendees there was a mountain of preparation — hotel lodging, cars for transport, interpreters, and everything else besides — so the organizers' work alone took three months.
England, then. Wouldn't it be a little dangerous for Dad to go to Britain? Britain was one of the IWO's permanent member states, but the very fact of leaving Korea left me uneasy. If something happened to him, this warm gathering would vanish with it. I'd have to speak with Yeongeun later about security for Dad.
Simply...... not simply at all. Under Siha's direction, with Franc's skill and Hwayeon's added in, dinner had been laid out in grand style. While we ate, Yeongeun came to mind, and I sent her a text telling her to make sure she ate properly too. No reply. She must have been terribly busy.
After dinner, over tea, I looked over the office wing and the two business-support wings with Spatial Perception. Integration work must have been in full swing — employees were still hard at it, putting off even going home. Were they splitting into halves and eating in shifts? People seemed gathered at the restaurant on the commercial floor and around it. So that was why the restaurant row had opened first.
Aunt Hyeryeong, who had eaten with us, finished her tea, said she had to get back to work, and took her leave of Mom. Siha followed her out, her own work unfinished.
"Are you going too, Hwayeon?"
"Team adjustments for the second entry, and supply management, are still left. I'll be going in on the second entry myself, so I need to prepare properly."
"Huh? You're going in too?"
"On the first entry, Second Boss Park Jiwoong went in, mainly with members out of Time River. On the second, I have to lead, mainly with Hwarang members."
"I see. So that's why I didn't see that guy."
I was nodding along when Franc asked.
"Each of you leads those who come from a different team?"
"Yes. Before the raid team is formally launched, we must come to know every member by face. Time River and Hwarang have each been divided into four groups, and from the first entry through the fourth we will rotate and cross-enter, so that all may become acquainted. We will see it done before Seoha's school lets out, and once he is on his break, we will hold a unity ceremony."
Mm. They were going to be comrades from here on, so there had to be an occasion for faith and trust, and she seemed to hope this would be it. Nothing bound people together like the camaraderie of having fought side by side.
Hwayeon crossed over to the office wing as well, and I felt as if I had nothing left to do. Going back to Yeongeun's mansion, or up to the fortieth floor, didn't appeal either. I was lolling on the wool carpet, thinking I might cling to Franc while she and Mom tidied the kitchen, when Dad closed his book and looked at me.
"What? Got something to say?"
"When your first daughter-in-law enters the Phase World, none but you will remain to bear responsibility for the raid team. When that time comes, you will keep your place in your office as well."
"Huh? Now that you mention it, yeah. But I don't even know the work. What's the point of just holding down a seat......"
"Even if the one at the top does nothing but keep his own seat, those beneath him gain a psychological steadiness. That is the way of it."
"Hmm. All right."
Dad really did have a way of teaching you something important while pretending it was nothing at all.
That night Yeongeun got off work, came up to the fortieth floor, and nestled into my arms. Living alone in that huge, sprawling house, she said, was something she couldn't even imagine anymore. She wanted to greet my parents and couldn't, and the regret on her face was genuinely hard to watch. When she told me she would soothe it for now by sending a housewarming gift, I held her tight.
On the grounds that Hwayeon would be gone for five days starting tomorrow, she took the center that night and became the main course, climbing atop me, and we spent a night brimming with pleasure. Somehow my lovers all seemed to prefer being on top. One of these days I'd have to take them from behind and give that asshole a thorough tormenting, too.
The next day I rose after Hwayeon, who was up early on Friday morning, and looked at the clock. It pointed to four.
"You're leaving already?"
"The one in charge has to get up first and get ready. You sleep a little longer."
Meaning to wash, she rose from the bed without covering her naked body. I glanced at Franc and Yeongeun, both dead asleep, then decided I ought to wash with her and followed her into the bathroom. I stroked her lower belly — softly swollen, still full of the hot traces of the night before.
"Hnnn......"
A wanton little moan slipped out of her.
"We won't see each other for five days. Want to go one more time?"
"......If you want to, Seoha."
"Then we shouldn't."
It felt oddly like a game of push and pull. I laughed to myself and drew back, and Hwayeon looked briefly flustered, then plainly disappointed.
"Be honest. You want me to, don't you?"
"......I want it."
We had already joined our bodies more than a hundred times, and still she was shy. And yet she turned, spread her hips, and tempted me with a bold little gesture — unbearably cute. I had her bend forward and brace her hands on the tub. I moved to enter her, but perhaps because her legs were so long, the height of her petals didn't line up.
"......Spread your legs a little."
When she opened those two deer-slender legs, her plump rear lowered, baring the slightly raised mound of her triangle and the cleft valley — and above the cleft, one snow-white little bloom, her rear entrance, twitched like a chrysanthemum. She hadn't expected to be taken from behind. She turned her head a little and looked at me over her shoulder, and at that flushed face blood surged hard into my other self.
I took hold of my little guy and pushed the cock she loved into the opening between the parted cleft. The hole, already slick and wet before I knew it, took me in without resistance.
"Ah...... so good......"
"Want the big one, or the small one?"
Franc usually wanted the big one. Hwayeon and Yeongeun only asked for the larger size when a masochistic mood took them. This seemed to be one of those times.
"The big one. Do it hard......"
Her voice trembled as if her heart were melting, and her inner walls writhed, biting down on me. I traced a finger lightly down her twitching spine, and with a nasal hitch of "Hyuk" the muscles of her back writhed too.
I focused the Mana Sieve as she wanted, and the cock buried in her grew steadily larger and longer, pushing her womb upward. Her rough breathing echoed off the bathroom walls. I lifted my head. Beyond the window — unseen from outside — the city lay drowned in dark. Sex while looking down at the ground from a high-rise bathroom. Something at the base of my skull tingled.
My heart was pounding, my breath growing a little rough, and I drove the enlarged shaft deep into her petals, again and again. Hwayeon's panting, as if her breath might give out, bounced off the walls and teased my ears. Feeling her legs tremble, I gave her rear hole little prods, and each time I did her petals tightened in answer, so that every thrust came sharper, electric.
I wanted to watch her face twist with shame and pleasure just like this, but there wasn't much time. Ten minutes had already passed since we'd come into the bathroom. If she was going to wash and get ready, it was time to finish.
I drew a trace of TP out through my palm and spread it over her body like oil, never stopping the thrust and withdrawal. Slick ran more and more from where we were joined, and her petals twitched in a steady rhythm.
"Haaaahn......! Aaah!"
The moans were changing from that sweet sound into something violent and uncontrolled. She was about to peak. I focused on my little guy, gripped her hips, and slammed up into her hard enough to make a wet, pounding sound.
At the hard knocking against the gate of her womb, Hwayeon climaxed a step ahead of me, her hair — grown a little longer — tossing as she spilled out a fierce moan. I yanked the ponytail tied at the back of her head. Her neck bent, and the walls gripping my other self clenched harder still. I reached with my free hand and seized her breast, and her inner walls bit down on my little guy without a hair's gap, squirming as if demanding I give up my semen at once.
Satisfied with that motion, I erupted splendidly into her belly.
She washed me first and sent me out, then, in a shamefully exposed posture, began to wash away the semen running from inside her. I watched through Spatial Perception while toweling my wet hair, and when I came out into the dark living room, the far edge of the pitch-black sky was loosening into a deep blue. The sun would be up before long.
Hwayeon washed quickly and came out after me in a bodysuit cut like a one-piece swimsuit, with only Paul Dict's tights-armor over it, then the blue leather jacket and leather pants I'd seen before.
"Not wearing the plate boots and the gauntlets?"
"No need to go that far. It's only a Mid-Rank Variant subjugation. Tights-armor and Forspeed leather armor will do."
True enough. Even Phase Power technique alone made you remarkably tough. No need to go in the full set.
I walked up to her, now that she was ready, took her hand, and said with a grin.
"Don't play with yourself just because I'm not there. Hold it in. Got it?"
"?!"
She jumped at that, and suspicion hit me all at once. I'd said it as a joke. Had she actually been touching herself?
"You really did?"
"......!!"
A little dumbfounded, I stared at the face that all but screamed How did you know?! and watched it flush red as a beet.
"So it was true. When you get back, I'll torment you until you can't even think about touching yourself, so hold it in for five days. I'll be checking!"
"A-all right. I'll be back. See you in five days."
Flustered, she offered a goodbye that was barely a goodbye and hurried for the elevator, so I caught her hand and pulled. I drew the startled Hwayeon into my arms and pressed a light kiss to her lips. She covered her face as if embarrassed, then stole my lips again like a thief, darted into the elevator, and shut the door.
Through the closing doors, I waved and smiled at that embarrassed face.