The Variable Goblin
After Batori had easily subdued those guys and we'd finished handing every last one of them over to the police, we slipped away from the still somewhat chaotic scene.
An E-Class hero didn't usually draw much of a crowd, but this was still someone who had taken down ten grown men in a single sweep. It was only natural that curiosity would start gathering around her.
She'd been fine for as long as the fighting lasted... but once the situation was resolved and people began crowding in, pestering her with question after question...
She started stalling out like a computer that had locked up.
"Haaah..."
"Are you okay? That must have been a lot."
"Y-yes... There were so, so many of them, all of a sudden... I didn't know what to do..."
"Well, you did an incredible job, Miss Batori. You took them all down in an instant. That's the only reason they acted that way — because you were amazing."
"That's... still..."
Of course I understood her reaction. More than twenty people had come crowding up to her, talking at her nonstop about every useless thing under the sun, and in a situation like that Batori's brain had no choice but to short-circuit.
I hadn't originally planned to step in... but midway through listening to them, her face had gone completely white. So I'd ignored everyone trying to talk to us and dragged her off to a quiet park like this one.
"Feeling a little better now?"
"Y-yes...! I'm okay. Y-you bought me iced coffee, too... and it's quiet here, so..."
"That's a relief, then."
She was improving through the hypnosis, bit by bit, but talking with too many people at once was still clearly difficult for her. Even so, just as I'd mentioned before, Batori had managed something that could reasonably be called a conversation with about four people.
Wasn't that at least a little progress compared to before? If she kept improving like this, I was starting to think she'd eventually be able to hold a conversation with ten people at once.
Of course... it looked like that would take quite a while.
"Hehe..."
"......"
That aside.
Just.
Why.
Was she taller than me?
That was the thought that surfaced again once the situation had settled enough for Batori to relax. I already knew the answer, but admitting it was something that grazed my pride, so I couldn't help but stare at her sitting there.
I was standing, and she was sitting comfortably on the bench, so she was still below my line of sight. And yet I could clearly tell she'd grown.
She'd broken through the 150-centimeter wall.
All those reasons I'd been doing stretching exercises every single day, taking supplements, and going to bed early just to grow a little taller... and she'd solved it with a single click of her ability.
It wasn't Batori's fault, of course, and it was also true that her ability had let us end things without any serious casualties.
I was a little sad.
No. Very sad.
Even though I now understood the reason.
"...Miss Batori?"
"Yes, what is it...?"
While I'd been at Batori's side, I'd occasionally felt like she'd gotten a little taller compared to when we first met. At the time, I hadn't thought it was because of her ability. I'd just figured it was my imagination, or that she was wearing different shoes... but even that had been her ability, huh.
"...Your height. Does it stay like that permanently?"
"Ah, th-that's not it...! It'll... probably...? Go back to normal soon...!"
"Aha!"
Hearing Batori's answer, I was able to reply with the biggest smile I could manage.
Because that meant she'd go back to being the small, cute, precious little goblin girl I knew, right?
Of course, her appearance now — nearly twenty centimeters taller than usual — was incredibly pretty too, with a completely different kind of charm!
Anyway, I was genuinely relieved.
"Is that why you always wear clothes with long sleeves, or things that are all baggy? Because of your ability?"
"Yes..."
"Your sleeves were always big enough to fit a whole extra fist in there..."
Ah. It was starting to make sense. Even accounting for how small she was, Batori had always worn her clothes absurdly oversized. If her height could jump by twenty centimeters on the spot, she wouldn't have had much of a choice.
If anything, it seemed like the kind of ability that would be more inconvenient than not in daily life. If she could adjust her height whenever she wanted, that would be one thing... but in Batori's case, it wasn't like that. Her body grew whenever she started receiving attention.
"So normally... I mean, the height you were when I first met you. That's your base height, right?"
"Yeees..."
"Hmm... I see."
I win on base height. Yeah. That was enough.
At any rate, defining Batori's normal height as 135 centimeters was now a certainty, which meant I was taller by a solid fifteen centimeters or so. I set aside my pointless worries for the moment and quietly began analyzing Batori's ability on my own.
It wasn't just her height that had increased. Her chest, her thighs... her entire body had matured. On top of that, her physical strength and various other attributes had grown along with it, which was how she'd subdued those thugs so easily. An ability type that dramatically boosted overall physical capability...?
That was about as far as I took the analysis.
"Hmm... Miss Batori."
"Y-yes..."
"Want to try climbing the hero rankings a little faster?"
"......Excuse me?"
Once I'd finished thinking it through, what I said to Batori was about her hero rank. It was a somewhat random remark. No — anyone would have found it sudden. But I couldn't help it.
If anything, I was saying this for Batori's sake.
"You're an E-Class hero right now, Miss Batori. The lowest rank. You've been climbing little by little lately, but... you're still E-Class."
"Th-that's right...? But I don't really understand why I need to raise my ranking... um... Could you maybe explain a little more?"
"Of course."
I had no intention of just telling her to raise her rank and leaving it at that. Naturally.
"At its core, your ability could be summarized as... a change in physical size. Right? It's a transformation-type ability called Eodeokshini, but it also comes with the condition of other people's gazes and attention."
"Yes..."
Batori's ability conditionally transformed her body and strengthened her physical capabilities along with it. I didn't know what the upper limit was. But that much was fact, and in Batori's case, it wasn't just one part of her body that grew — her entire physique matured, which made the inconvenience all the more severe.
"Even when you buy clothes, you always have to think about your ability. And even while you're wearing them, you can't help but worry, right?"
"That's..."
"If you wear anything even a little tight, it might burst. Or you might end up... exposed."
"...Yes."
"But starting from around C-Class, the Hero Association begins providing heroes with costumes. Clothes designed so you can use your ability without any inconvenience — or to help you build a unique identity."
"Th-then... maybe...?"
As I talked about the costumes, Batori seemed to realize what I was getting at. After I'd gone this far, she could hardly miss it. It wasn't a particularly difficult concept to begin with. And from the perspective of someone who actually lived with that inconvenience, she must have thought about her ability fairly often — especially when it came to clothes.
"We raise your ranking to C-Class, and then we apply for a costume."
"Th-that's... wouldn't that be too hard? I'm still... only E-Class..."
"Yes, you can do it. I believe you can, Miss Batori. What you showed today was incredible, and once you get more used to your ability, I'm sure your ranking will climb easily."
"......"
"There's also the option of commissioning one from a company instead of going through the Association... but that usually takes money."
Unless a corporation was separately sponsoring a hero, the easiest way for a hero to get a costume was to climb the rankings. That was why I'd recommended it to Batori.
"You really will be able to do it. Just trust me."
"I-is that so...?"
Whether she actually could or not — honestly, that wasn't even the important part. The reason I was saying all this was a kind of... goal-setting. So that this girl named Batori would work even harder as she continued her hero activities going forward. And ultimately, I thought it would be a way to keep her from being so completely swept away by other people's attention while doing hero work, the way she had been today.
"Yes, of course."
Considering Batori's personality, it might be a bit of a stretch in a lot of ways. But if she had a goal important enough that other people's stares couldn't throw her off, that would be enough.
"I believe you can do it, Miss Batori."
I was just affirming her, that was all. What Batori needed right now wasn't technical support or financial backing. Just having someone who believed in her was enough. If she could move forward slowly like that, that would be enough.
"...Yes, I'll just believe what you say, Handler...!"
"Heh heh."
Anyway, as we talked like that and I helped Batori calm down, about thirty minutes had passed since her body had grown. Then Batori's height, her chest, her thighs all began to shrink, little by little.
Watching her frame gradually deflate, like air slowly leaking from a balloon, was strangely fascinating. Even her horns — the one part of grown Batori's appearance I could wholeheartedly approve of — returned to that cute, compact look.
"Ehehe..."
"It really is a fascinating ability."
I'd seen any number of ability users in my time, but this was definitely not a typical kind of power. It was unique. A truly goblin-like, wondrous ability.
A variable goblin who could look adorable and petite, or generously endowed and voluptuous.
Because of that distinctive quality, I had a feeling that if Batori kept being active and steadily climbed the rankings, her popularity would inevitably grow right along with them. It would naturally affect her ranking, too. If she started drawing real attention at D-Class... I even found myself thinking she might climb to C-Class more easily than expected.
"Hmm."
I'd been a little disappointed that she'd ended up taller than me. But the grown version of Batori, produced by her ability, had been genuinely captivating. Even I — who'd been shocked and despairing at the sight of her towering over me — hadn't been able to keep from nodding in acknowledgment.