The One-and-Two Situation
“Counselor-nim!”
“Ah, Batori. You’re a bit later than usual today.”
“Hehe… The bus was stuck… Did you wait a long time?”
“Not at all? The appointment was set for noon, and it’s only five minutes late. I was just surprised because Batori usually arrives at the meeting spot way earlier than that.”
It was the day I finally met the cute black-haired girl with horns.
I had already planned to meet her on Monday for mentoring, but Saran’s current case had made scheduling impossible, so that was canceled.
Today marked my first time officially meeting one of the heroes I’m assigned to counsel.
From what I’d heard, Saran’s work was so overwhelming that she probably wouldn’t even make the regular counseling session tomorrow.
“Shall we head inside?”
“Yes, yes!”
Anyway, I had to focus on the Batori staring up at me right now.
I started guiding Batori through the Hero Association building.
After passing the lobby, we entered a small meeting room tucked beneath the Welfare Bureau’s offices, where several prepared documents awaited her arrival.
“Please, sit over there. It’s just the two of us, so feel free to get comfortable.”
“Yes, yes…!”
“It’s okay to be relaxed.”
The stiff, tense reply made me chuckle, but of course I couldn’t change that now.
If this had been the old Batori, she’d be trembling by now.
Instead she simply held her spine straight and looked at me, that’s all.
I supposed she’d come a long way.
In fact, I could tell just from our casual chats that she was improving, and the fact that I hadn’t needed hypnosis nearly as often lately was proof of it.
“First, here’s a graph showing your ranking growth over the past two months since we first met.”
“…You rose a lot, didn’t you?”
“Of course. There was no plateau—only upward movement. Besides, curves couldn’t happen if you keep going up.”
“Aha…!”
The massive graph on the screen neatly summarized everything: from E-class rank 666 right up to entering the top 100 of D-class in just two months.
It was a straight-line vertical climb.
If it had been a regular company promotion, someone would have been asking where the backroom money went, but heroes could do things like that.
With good talent and sheer effort, it wasn’t rare to reach solid C-class hero territory in no time.
“As you can see on the graph, Batori is growing very quickly and steadily. Among all the heroes I counsel, this is the best indicator I’ve ever seen.”
“Really…?”
“Yes, really. You’re already within striking distance of C-class. It’s only natural.”
“Hehe…”
“I called you here today for a sort of mid-term check-up. I wanted to talk about how you’ve developed and changed over these two months.”
“Yes…!”
The issues Batori originally requested help with were all about her abilities.
Expanding on that, it was still a lack of self-confidence.
She still felt it was lacking, but compared to our first meeting she’d improved dramatically, and I could tell she genuinely believed that now.
I happily moved on to the next set of documents.
“Batori, I’ve gathered some of the activities you’ve been involved in that might have raised a few eyebrows during your hero work.”
If the first document was the growth graph, this one covered the various events during that same period.
[ The little goblin girl who bravely fought the bullies who couldn’t evacuate the children trapped on the top floor of the 4th-floor villa…… ]
[ The terrorists who attacked the CHS Bank were apprehended within an hour of the report. ]
[ Recent rookie hero spotlight from the Hero Association. C-class: 2, D-class: 47, E-class: 112 ]
…
I had scraped together every article mentioning Batori online.
She was still a low-rank hero, after all, and didn’t actively push for publicity, so the coverage wasn’t massive.
But the fact that the articles had increased as I got closer to her was already encouraging.
“Everything here is about Batori.”
“Eh…? R-really?”
“Yes, really. She doesn’t have a hero name yet, and she can’t use her real name, so the articles don’t list one. Even though her name isn’t public… it’s all about Batori.”
“Wow…”
More articles about Batori than I expected.
Batori looked genuinely surprised when she saw them, but honestly, it wasn’t that big of a deal.
What really mattered was this:
“Eh.”
“The little girl with small horns on her head fought shyly, but subdued the criminals before they could say much because her voice was too soft to hear clearly. She was a mixed black-and-white-haired hero… and the height kept changing? She was so short.”
The next page.
Witness statements collected from people who had arrived at the scene after Batori.
Still far fewer than the articles, but the important part was that almost all of them described her as passive, quiet, introverted, and reserved.
“Batori is doing great at her job, but her self-confidence is still struggling. Even in everyday situations like this, she says it’s fine. Heroes have to be the face of the profession, after all.”
“Th-that’s… true, I guess…”
“I’m glad Batori is aware of that.”
When I said it like that, I thought Batori would either deny it or not understand—yet she simply nodded.
After all, Batori had known about her own problems from the start, unlike Saran or Baek Eun-hwa.
She had clearly stated what she needed and applied, so I was able to think of the right way to help her right away.
“The positive side is that her hero work has improved dramatically, and the negative side is that the public-facing aspects of her official activity haven’t changed much. That’s how I’d summarize it.” “Hehe…”
“Of course, I think these changes are definitely in the right direction. You’re getting better every day, after all.”
In the end, the best thing about Batori was that she could finally do her hero work and respond to calls.
It was absurd to deny that her response rate and frequency had skyrocketed by hundreds of times.
She worked all day long, over and over, just like Baek Eun-hwa used to—only it made me happier because she seemed genuinely glad about it instead.
I decided it was more heartwarming than worrisome.
“So from now on, try to build up a bit more confidence and self-esteem.”
“Yes…!”
“I’ll help you, too. With Batori, you can definitely do even better.”
“Th-thank you…!”
Well, this was a mid-term check-up.
The conclusion of our talk had to be that she should work hard on boosting her confidence and self-esteem.
“Uwah… My talk ended faster than I expected. We still have time. Want to grab lunch?”
“Sure!”
“Then let’s get up. I’ll take care of the documents later.”
“Yes!”
No need to push her like Baek Eun-hwa; our little horned girl would do just fine on her own.
Batori had achieved far better results than I’d expected in just two months.
Filled with anticipation for her future rather than worry, I left the meeting room.
“Oh, Team Leader.”
“Charlotte?”
“What are you doing here?”
“…Isn’t that my line?”
I ran into the magical girl… I mean, the Team Leader.
Huh?
“I was just using the conference room to talk with my assigned hero.”
“Ah… That explains the meeting room.”
“Yes, it’s Batori, the one I mentioned last time. She’s so cute, right?”
“Yeah, she’s adorable. Ah, hello. I’m the Team Leader of the Welfare Bureau, Charlotte’s superior.”
“U-um, h-hi! I’m the D-class hero Batori!”
“Huhu, no need to be so nervous. You can treat me like a regular older sister.”
“Older sister? The age difference is ten years…”
“……”
I didn’t mean to tack it on, but the sudden ‘unnie’ slipped out before I could stop it.
No, but I didn’t call anyone ‘unnie’ except Saran and Morgana, and even then, I was ten years younger than the Team Leader.
I couldn’t forgive her for the slip.
I couldn’t let Batori off the hook for the slip—especially since the Team Leader had heard it.
Instead…
“Just think of me as the neighborhood auntie next door.”
“Wow…!”
“Eh, u-um, that…”
This was wrong.
No, this was right.
Of course I had no intention of teasing the Team Leader anymore, and I certainly hadn’t planned to keep the two of us alone in the meeting room.
Looking at Batori was only natural.
“…So, I work as the Welfare Bureau Team Leader. Don’t treat me too formally. Just be relaxed and casual.”
“Yes, yes!”
“…So, what were you about to do? The meeting seems to have ended.”
“Ah, the timing was perfect. I was thinking of grabbing lunch with Batori. What were you doing, Team Leader?”
“We were just finishing a meeting from earlier. We’re taking about two hours of break.”
“Oh, I see.”
Only then did I realize we were meeting here because of the conference rooms.
I hadn’t thought about it because I’d been so swamped lately.
“Um… Well, since it’s a rare chance, let me buy you lunch.”
“Eh?”
“I was about to grab lunch myself too. I’ll buy it. What do you say to eating together?”
The Team Leader’s sudden offer left me a little stunned.
The Team Leader, who was never one for after-hours socializing, was suddenly buying food.
No, wait… she did it sometimes anyway.
It was completely unexpected to be offered a meal while taking Batori out.
“…You’re the kind of auntie who loves chatting with the little kids.”
“…Hey.”
“Fufu, just kidding. I do tease her a lot, but she never looks her age. No need to worry.”
“……Is she trying to butter me up or just messing with me?”
“Fufu.”
Of course there was no reason not to accept the lunch offer.
After all, the person treating you to food was the best kind of person in the world.
“Batori, would you like to eat with the Team Leader?”
I asked the question of the tiny goblin standing right beside me.
Batori was quite shy, after all.
It was better to ask once and make sure.
Of course… In a one-and-two situation, refusing might have been awkward… but—
“…Yes, it’s fine. I’ll eat with you.”
“I’m glad.”
Batori gave a good answer.
Her voice had sounded a little lower than usual, but I decided it was just nerves from meeting the Team Leader for the first time and let it go.
---
[The little girl with small horns on her head fought shyly, but subdued the criminals before they could say much because her voice was too soft to hear clearly. She was a mixed black-and-white-haired hero… and the height kept changing? She was so short.]
[Witness statements collected from people who had arrived at the scene after Batori. Almost all described her as passive, quiet, introverted, and reserved.]