Where Is This? (2)

"Th-th-this is impossible! No way!"

That was the scream I'd had her pegged for — Noona, white as a sheet. She didn't so much as change color. Clouds lay thick across the view, and she simply looked left, then right, along the ten-foot-wide slope.

A faint crease came and went between her brows. She nodded, and when she spoke, her voice was perfectly calm.

"Climb this, and the next island's up there?"

"...Yeah. Think you can make it?"

"Of all the times to get summoned, it had to be while I was in heels. Honestly."

She glared down at the soles, thoroughly put out. There was hardly any tread on them. A dirt slope like this would be miserable going. Her nerve wasn't the problem. The shoes were.

And seriously — how much guts did she have? Were geniuses just built like this? I was a little spooked myself. If I hadn't become an ability user, the gap in our specs would've been so ridiculous that comparing us would be a joke.

Either way, those shoes weren't getting her up a dirt slope. I crouched in front of her.

"Get on."

I was in dress shoes the secretariat had prepared for me, too. But after the ability verification, I'd finished Hwayeon's basic body-technique training — balance, setting my weight on the balls of my feet — so this much was nothing. At my current physical level, her weight was no different from a feather.

"H-huh?!"

"Why so startled? You try walking up in those and slip, and we're in real trouble. You feel lighter than a feather to me, so hurry up and get on."

"Mmn."

She seemed oddly shy. We were brother and sister — what was there to be embarrassed about? Carefully, she laid her chest against my back and wrapped her arms tight around my neck.

I reached back, braced her rear, and stood. Sure enough, a hundred and twenty-three pounds didn't even register. The wind was barely stirring. Better to take the slope while it stayed that way. The width was uneven, but it never got past fifteen feet, and with no wind on us we ought to get up fast.

"I'm not heavy? I weigh a bit much."

"Hundred and twenty-three pounds or so, right? A little heavier than a sack of rice?"

"Ugh?! H-how do you know that?!"

Guess that was the right answer. Mortified that her weight had been exposed, she pinched my cheek and squeezed at my neck.

"I can tell just from carrying you. Anyway, hold on tight. If an aberrant shows up on the way and comes at us, I'll fire a Mana Bullet. We might jolt a little."

"...Okay."

She answered primly, locked both legs around my waist, crossed her ankles, and hugged my neck hard with both arms.

"Good form. Stability's even better."

Her skirt had ridden all the way up, panties on full display, but there was no one around to see. What did it matter if it looked indecent? Embarrassment was another thing entirely. Her face went red.

I quickened my pace and started up the slope. She began to slide, and as I hauled her back into place my hand caught her rear. She squeezed my neck and grumbled.

"Hey. Keep your hands still!"

"Oh? Like this?"

"You—!"

A little mischief got into me. I spanked her with my open palm, smack, smack, and she put on an angry face and rapped my skull with her knuckles.

We'd climbed about halfway and still hadn't broken out of the fog. If this really was cloud, then we were at a considerable altitude, weren't we? The wind ought to have been blowing harder up here, and yet it was strangely dead calm. Somewhere around the stratosphere, maybe? Or was this place just naturally windless?

Curious, I asked. She glanced around at the cloud-choked surroundings, then answered.

"Clouds top out at six to eight miles, however high they get. The stratosphere is the band from about twelve to thirty miles up, and there's hardly any air. People can't live there."

"That so."

"Anyway, this place is strange."

"Yeah."

She pressed closer against my back, set her face on top of my head, and peered this way and that through the milky clouds veiling everything.

Water streamed steadily from the clothes where her body met mine, and the damp cling of it left me feeling grimy. She wasn't saying so, but she had to feel the same. Her hair had drunk up so much moisture it hung limp. I glanced down at her hands and found fingertips swollen and wrinkled. Pruned this badly by the humidity — we needed to get out of it soon, or start a fire.

Then, still scanning the surroundings, she murmured.

"It does seem to be cloud. But the color's pale, and it's spread so wide... the upper part of a high cloud, maybe?"

She tipped her head a little, as if turning something over about the clouds.

By the time we'd nearly finished the climb, several aberrants began to enter the range of my Spatial Perception. Whether they'd noticed us or not, the movements of the flying ones were off.

"Noona, hold on tight."

"Mm!"

She didn't argue. She did as told, putting strength into the arms and legs wrapped around me. I braced her rear with both hands, kicked off, and shot up the rest of the slope like an arrow.

Fighting on a cramped, dangerous scrap of path like a single-log bridge? Hard pass.

I sprinted up onto the second island. Call it Star Island. The moment we set foot there, four eagle aberrants were circling overhead, round and round above our heads.

Clouds packed the surroundings and shut out everything — so how had they found me? I checked where their gazes pointed. They were seeing all of it, including the ground I stood on.

First I took in the shape of the island within range.

The first island had been cloud-shaped, so Cloud Island it was. Where Cloud Island's trees had stretched out narrow and long, the trees here came in two kinds. At the far edge of my perception, part of a mountain came into view, thick with what looked like ordinary maples. Below it, on the flats and the hills, short, thick trees like baobabs grew here and there. Visibility was still awful, the fog-like clouds smothering everything.

For now... I'd head for that baobab near the mountain, the biggest and thickest of the lot.

"Noona. There are insanely thick trees all around. I'm going to hollow one of them out and make it our hideout. You good with that?"

"Yeah. Do that."

Still carrying her, I broke into a run.

The ground was grassland, thick with grass and large bushes everywhere, and dark-red buffalo and hyena-like animals hid throughout the brush — a kind of savanna plain.

"I can see quite a few animals that look like buffalo and hyenas, but none of the animals are aberrants. The only aberrants seem to be the ones in the sky right now."

"If the flying types are the same grade, they have a real advantage over ground types in attack and evasion. That's probably why the ground-type aberrants disappeared."

"True. It's an island. Nowhere to run."

Even as I said it, Spatial Perception caught hostility. I checked. The culprits were five striped hyenas with long fur down their backs, hidden in the brush three hundred feet ahead. They must have taken the two of us for prey. They broke into a charge.

"If they come at us from the sky and it gets dangerous, we run—"

"Kyaa!"

She didn't let me finish. Not a sound out of them — only eyes flashing — and one had closed to fifteen feet in a blink. Noona's scream went shrill, and she clamped down on my neck and waist.

Maybe they were wary of the eagles still circling overhead. They'd come in fast without a single bark. But they weren't even aberrants. No way I was going down to ordinary beasts.

A Mana Ray would be a waste, and the power was too much. I'd just draw a Mana Laser and take the one in the lead...

Wait. Carve them up with a Mana Laser and the smell of blood would make a bigger problem. Erasing them meant a Mana Bullet, but the shockwave from a shot might hurt Noona. Ability combat was something to avoid if I could.

I'd just beat them to death.

"Noona. Hold on tight."

"S-Seohaaaa?"

The instant they leapt, I kicked on Mana Mode - Acceleration and focused Spatial Perception with it. My mind accelerated. They came at me slow as turtles, and with the smallest movement I could manage I slipped out of the path of the lead one, jaws slowly opening.

Carefully, so she wouldn't fly off my back, so my speed wouldn't hurt her... Ah. Pinning her in place was awkward. Eh, whatever.

One hand grabbed her rear and locked her down. The other closed into a fist and blew the jaw off the hyena that had reached a foot and a half in front of me.

WHUD! Kyeeeeeng!

I'd held the force back so its head wouldn't burst. Because of that, the thing couldn't even put up a proper struggle — skull crushed, it rolled across the ground and thrashed. I felt her flinch and squirm at the grip on her rear even as I drove a middle kick into the second hyena and snapped its neck. I kicked up into the third one's lower jaw, and with the jaw shattered it started spinning through the air like a pinwheel. Then I closed in again and brought a knife-hand down on the fourth, still gaping, and smashed the skull.

Kiiiuul?!

Four of them dead in an instant. The last one startled, let out a cackling yelp, and tried to bolt.

"Noona, down."

I confirmed with Spatial Perception that no other animals were nearby, unhooked her arms and legs, and set her on the grass. Then I drove Mana Mode hard, chased the last one down like lightning, and brought my hand down on its skull too.

I didn't know the first thing about hyena habits, but letting one run — only to have its mother, its father, and its friends turn us into a raid target — was a hard pass. Noona was with me. Better to be careful. Animal protection laws? Please. This wasn't even the real world.

I cranked Physical Reinforcement as high as it would go and hurled the five ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠corpses in the opposite direction from our route. They sailed clear past the edge of my Spatial Perception. Things that had to weigh over a hundred and fifty pounds, flying off like pebbles. Physical Reinforcement, all right.

I went back to where she'd sunk down. She was half-standing, awkward, face flushed, covering her rear and glaring at me sidelong.

"You okay?"

"...I don't know. But did you really have to chase it down and beat it to death? You could've let it run."

"Let it go and it might come back with a pack. I could erase them easily enough with a Mana Bullet, but if I use an ability, the traces of Phase Power or the blast might draw the others in — and the aberrants up in the sky. That's why I beat them to death."

"Okay. I get it. Sorry for saying something weird."

"What's there to be sorry for. Come on, get on."

"H-huh?! N-no, I can walk too?"

"I'm trying to get us there fast. We've got over half a mile to cover. Match my pace to your feet and it'll take an hour. Hurry up and get on."

"Ugh..."

She hesitated, then climbed onto my back again. When I braced her rear, she kept flinching, for some reason. It nagged at me a little, but the hideout came first. I ran hard for the baobab I'd marked.

There were plenty of other scavengers around — hyenas, gray wolves, jackals — but whether they'd seen the beating or only sensed it, they did nothing but hunker down as I passed. None of them came at me, so I could move fast.

The baobab I'd aimed for was enormous, a good forty feet across and nearly a hundred feet tall. Its branches sprawled in a bizarre, surreal way, but the trunk was thick enough that hollowing it out and hiding inside would work. It stood near the needle peak at the center of Star Island, and the closer we got, the fewer beasts there were — and the more flying aberrants.

Most of them ran from Lowest to Low Grade, and they seemed to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nest on that sharply rising mountain. The peak looked to be a little under thirty-three hundred feet above sea level, and it thrust up so sharp it was hard to believe a mountain like that could exist — a needle. Like roughly hewn obsidian. Black, and savage.

More than that, there were so many aberrants. What were they eating? Beasts enough, sure, but young and full-grown alike, there had to be over nine hundred of those things. Ground animals alone couldn't feed all of them. Just as Noona had said — was there some enormous island, or a whole stretch of land, somewhere nearby?

I sensed the flying aberrants resting with their wings folded across the uneven rock. Maybe because the thick clouds had cut off the sun, most of them were nodding off. Among the thousands, the one with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the most Phase Power was Mid Grade — a bird that was somehow cute, and not at all cute in size.

Not an eagle. A round little head like a sparrow's, jet-black eyes, a short beak. The wingtips were stained black, while the body was packed dense with dark spots. Lush feathers made it look big, but the body underneath was small, and inside those feathers it was solid muscle. Ordinary birds evolve to be as light as they can, so they can ride the wind. This one looked like it flew on strength. A bird I'd never seen. An aberrant, then, growing properly into whatever it was becoming.

We reached the baobab, and I set her down. She fussed at her rear, straightened her disheveled clothes, and looked up at the tree.

"Wow. I never imagined I'd see a baobab this size in a place like this."

After a moment of admiration, she turned to me.

"How are you going to make a hole? We don't even have tools to dig out a tree."

"With a Mana Bullet."

"Huh?"

Rather than explain it to that puzzled face, I decided to show her.

My range had stretched a bit since my class went up — something in me had changed. To open a hole about ten feet across, a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shockwave-free shot at around 0.7 TP, fired about twenty-three feet up, ought to do it. There were knots here and there big enough to curl into and hide one person, but you'd never rest easy in a spot like that. Fire a Mana Bullet, make a small hole, hide inside, and the hyenas couldn't threaten us. The aberrants wouldn't find us either.

I gathered TP at my fingertip and launched a Mana Bullet at a solid section about twenty-three feet off the ground.

A Mana Bullet a little bigger than a bean punched through the surface, and with a soft hiss, wind bled out through the hole it had made. I heard Noona let out a small sound of awe as the pale clouds around us were pushed back.

All that was left was to climb up and widen the entrance a little. Then we were done?

I told her to wait, climbed while keeping watch with Spatial Perception, activated Mana Mode, and with a hand hardened like steel carved a rectangular opening about twenty inches wide. Make the entrance too big and the flying aberrants might spot it. Anything Mid-Low Grade or above could probably smash the tree, but they'd die to me before they got the chance. For now the idea was simple: invisible from the sky, and high enough off the ground to be safe from the animals.

I made the entrance and looked inside. Just as I'd expected, a clean spherical room about ten feet across had formed. I ran a hand along the wall. Smooth — as if it had been sanded. We could roll around in here and not pick up a single splinter.

I climbed back down, got her on my back, scaled the tree again, and stepped into the hole. She gasped.

"Whoa, it's bigger than I thought?"

"The tree's huge. I figured it could take a hole this size, so I made it a little big."

Open ground must have unsettled her. She let out a small sigh, sat down, and murmured.

"I think I can finally relax a little."

"Good that you can. Now we make water. Let's try it your way."

"No water around here either?"

She gathered her long straight hair to tie it back, realized she had nothing to tie it with, let it fall, and sighed.

"Yeah. The mountain's practically all cliff and dirt. I don't see anything like water."

"Hmm. Then climb up top and cut me four or five long branches."

"Huh? What for?"

She hesitated a moment, then took off her suit jacket — and the thin blouse with it.

With the thin silk blouse gone, she was in a bra with cute flower embroidery across the cups. I had no idea why she bothered with a bra when she didn't have the chest for it.

"...You just thought something weird."

"I did not. What are you going to do with that?"

Was no chest the weird thought? She stared at me, suspicious, pouted, then held up the blouse.

"I'm going to try making drinking water with this. There are so many clouds — the blouse itself will soak up the moisture and work as a filter. We just need a bowl under it to catch the water. I saw you carving wood with your bare hands earlier. Make me one."

She pulled the jacket back on over bare skin and shivered all over.

"Cold?"

"Ugh. The jacket's cold..."

"Take it off and hand it over. I'll wring it out for you."

She took it off again without another word and passed it to me. I went outside, wrung it thoroughly, tossed it back, and climbed the tree.

I quickly cut several branches that ran straight for about a yard, and when I returned she took them and slid the sticks through the blouse's sleeves, turning it into a scarecrow.

"Make holes here and here, just big enough for these sticks. Angle them downward."

I did as she said, focusing Mana Sieve into my fingers until they were hard, and dug. She planted a stick in each and hung the scarecrow-clothes on them. The blouse covered the entrance completely.

"This way, the fog pushing in from outside will turn into water."

"Oho."

Before long, droplets ran down the blouse, gathered at the hem, and began to fall one by one. I tore a square out of the wooden wall, hollowed it into a bowl, and set it beneath the drip. Drop by drop, water started falling into the wooden bowl.

"That solves the water."

"Yeah. And safety. If I'd been alone, I'd have been completely lost. I'm glad you're here, Seoha."

She stroked my head and told me I'd done well.

I watched the droplets start to fall, slow, one by one, then sighed and lay back.

"You're going to rest?"

"Yeah. I stood watch all night, so I'm a little tired. I'll take a short nap. If anything feels off, wake me right away."

"Ah... yeah."

I didn't have to sleep, and nothing was urgent, but you rest when you can. She looked startled at the news that I'd stood sentry all night, then guilty. She came over, offered me her lap, and began to stroke my forehead, gentle and slow.

I closed my eyes under her hand and sank into thought. What now. Hold out here until she awakened an ability? If safety was the point, that was the better play. Beasts all around, so food wouldn't be a problem either.

"Achoo."

Maybe she was cold. A faint shiver, then that small, odd sneeze — and the moment I checked her body, worried she might be coming down with something, I got a shock.

Huh?

I sat bolt upright and scanned her again with Spatial Perception. I hadn't seen wrong. In fourteen hours, her Phase Power had gone up by seven?

"No way."

I stared at her, dumbfounded. She looked back, puzzled — what's gotten into him?

"What's wrong?"

"No, wait. Seven in fourteen hours means fifteen days — 360 divided by 14 is 25, times 7 is 175? No! It goes up by one every two hours, so 360 hours is 180!"

"What are you talking about?"

One hundred eighty? G Class by the time we got out? Damn. My first awakening had been on the third day. I'd come back F-Class, but that was from absorbing giant Franc's Phase Power. If awakening hit the moment Phase Power reached ten, then Noona would awaken in six hours. Faster than me?! A cheat character. There was a cheat character standing right in front of me!

"Wow."

She was starting to worry about my sanity, so I explained what I'd found. At that, she flushed, pressed her legs together, and covered her chest with both hands.

"Y-you... don't tell me you can see through clothes and look at naked bodies whenever you want?"

I stared.

"It's a detection ability. Obviously?"

"..."

Under that look, I felt a cold sweat coming on. Times like this, you had to go on the offensive.

"You're not suspecting me of walking around freely scanning people's naked bodies or something, are you?"

"You didn't?"

"Wooow... Noona. I'm disappointed."

I lay back down as if I truly were, and turned my back on her. She looked down at me, half convinced, eyes still suspicious. Leave it like this and that suspicion would harden into certainty. The feeling made my heart go cold.

Get caught, and there was no telling what kind of lecture would come down...

"Hmph. I checked you because I was worried you'd caught a cold, because I wanted to look after you — and you decide I'm some pervert who goes around scanning naked women. If I asked Franc or Hwayeon to show me, they'd show me anytime. Why would I need to look at that?"

"..."

"I've been on edge since yesterday, worried about you, watching every direction... You're really too much."

The longer I grumbled, the more her face shifted — suspicion to guilt, guilt to apology.

"I looked because of that cough just now, wondering if you were getting sick, and I only mentioned it because it seemed like you were becoming an ability user... I haven't even slept, trying to keep you safe. So that's it. You looked at your own little brother and saw a pervert."

"N-no~. That's not what Noona meant, I just... Noona's sorry, okay? Seohaaa."

That apology was a trap! But I couldn't keep up the sulk forever. Overdo it, and I'd only make her more suspicious.

She took my shoulder and shook it gently, wheedling in a nasal voice for me to stop being mad. I counted to five, rolled over toward her, and spoke curtly.

"Fine. Anyway, seven Phase Power built up in your heart over fourteen hours. How's your body?"

"Hmm? Oh... now that you mention it, I do feel a little lighter. And the stiffness in my shoulders and knees is gone."

Good lord. Twenty years old, and already dealing with joint pain?

She touched her knees and shoulders with a wondering look. Maybe because the blouse was gone — she'd buttoned the jacket all the way, but every time she moved, the cleavage she didn't have, and the bra, showed anyway. She looked a little cold, so I peeled off my summer uniform top, more or less dried by my own body heat, and tossed it to her.

"If Phase Power really does fill by one every two hours, then you'll awaken in six hours, too."

"Really? Then why are you giving me your shirt before that? You should be wearing it!"

"I'm good, thanks. A brand-new beginner, worrying over a high-rank ability user? Know your place."

"What was that?"

At my you-must-be-joking face, her pride looked stung, but I waved her off and cut her short.

"Anyway, put it on. Hmm... And once you awaken, I'll look at your ability type and carry you for fifteen days. I'll run you hard, so brace yourself."

"...You said you'd carry me. Why are you telling me to brace myself?"

"Don't go looking for a free ride. I've got a recovery ability too, so you've got to get some real combat in!"

"Oh, that's what you meant. Okay. Noona will work hard too!"

I liked that she didn't get scared and start whining. I couldn't even picture that proud Noona of mine whining. What kind of ability would someone who awakened in a single day come into? I was a little curious.

More than that, I was glad I'd steered her off the subject. Heh heh heh.