The One I'm Cheering For Is a Baby Goblin
Sniff.
Well. That could happen.
I'd spent the entire day taking care of an idiot who'd come down with a full-blown cold, and I'd even spent the night at the fox's place. We hadn't slept in the same bedroom, sure... but we'd been in the same house the whole time, and I hadn't worn a mask.
Sniff.
Catching a cold was only natural. I'd actually seen it coming, too. Yeah — I just looked like a bit of an idiot sitting here sniffling, that was all.
Sniff...
The silver lining was that, thanks to my spending the whole day looking after her, Baek Eun-hwa had been able to go back to her normal schedule starting yesterday. Unlike that idiot fox, who'd been running herself into the ground for years, I hadn't been pushing myself at all. If anything, I'd been taking it easy lately — so what I'd caught wasn't a full-body flu. Just a slight head cold, really.
"I'm meeting Batori today... should I at least wear a mask...?"
It was only natural that the thought crossed my mind. Even though the heroes I was assigned to were all transformation-types with overwhelmingly sturdy constitutions... passing a cold along to them wouldn't be good. Anything that might inconvenience other people was better prevented in the first place.
"Hmm."
I decided to buy a mask on the way. It was summer, so I'd planned on just throwing on a thin three-quarter-sleeve T-shirt... but since I'd somehow caught a cold, I dressed a little warmer instead. Once I stepped outside, I headed straight for the Association building.
"Batori's probably been there for a while already.... As for Saran..."
I browsed my phone as I walked, traded a few texts, and stopped by a pharmacy to pick up a mask. Then I walked into the Association building and headed straight downstairs. I swiped my card in the lobby, took the elevator down, and stepped into the training room I'd reserved....
"Ah, Manager...!"
"Is the mentoring going well? Sorry I'm a bit later than we first discussed."
"I-it was going well...!"
"We were doing fine."
"That's a relief."
The two of them had arrived first and were hard at work tormenting a training dummy. There'd been a time when I'd stayed from the start of mentoring to the very end, mediating between them, cheering them on, and generally making myself useful... but I'd gotten busier. And besides, inserting myself into a pair of heroes who were already training hard was pretty pointless.
"Whew. If it was going well, that's a real relief. Saran's been quite busy, after all. It's been a while since we had a proper mentoring session, so I was pretty worried."
"Hehe..."
We'd agreed that the two of them would start mentoring first, and I'd arrive well after the session was already underway. The biggest reason was that I literally didn't have much to do. All I really needed to contribute was some cheering so Batori's ability would activate... and Saran was a veteran. There was no need for me to give anyone orders. It would also be more comfortable for the two heroes to talk freely about work among themselves. Anyway.
"Have some coffee, you two."
"Ah, th-thank you...!"
"Yeah, I'll enjoy it."
I handed them the coffee I'd bought on the way over, giving them a chance to rest for a bit. Mentoring, as it turned out, was a lot more intense than you'd think. Both Batori and Saran had abilities that demanded a great deal from their bodies, so of course the process put a physical strain on them. Which explained the sweat and the damp patches on their clothes that they'd clearly worked up before I even arrived. Just looking at that, you could tell how hard the two of them had been going.
"Did you do something harder than usual today?"
"Just something light. We tried sparring."
"Oh..."
Sparring between heroes — not civilians. Hmm. Just imagining it made me a little worried about how exhausting it must have been, but a veteran like Saran would never do anything dangerous against Batori. And after spending time with her, I already knew Saran was a much better person than I'd first given her credit for. So I decided to watch how their sparring went instead.
"So far you've only been using knuckles, but eventually you won't be able to avoid using other weapons in the field. Dagger work, though — in terms of reach, and overall — is pretty similar to hand-to-hand."
"S-so this time I should use a dagger...?"
"Yeah. Grab a dagger and swing it."
"Y-yes...!"
Thinking back on the costume Saran had worn last time, everything she was saying now made perfect sense. She'd been in something like a black bodysuit, covered in a conspicuous number of belts, straps, and holsters, with weapons of every type stowed in them. It naturally occurred to me that a serious-mode Saran would fight by deploying a variety of weapons, each in the right place at the right time. Her outfit itself looked designed for exactly that.
"Ready. Start."
"Hah...!"
Anyway, today Saran was teaching Batori a whole range of weapons through sparring. Starting with daggers, she worked through a variety of them — teaching her firsthand, along with talk of fighting based on things you'd commonly run into in everyday life. Daggers, then hammers, screwdrivers, mid-length blades: everyday objects that counted as weapons. She'd hand one to Batori and tell her to come at her....
"Hyaaah! Hah! Hut, hap! Hah!"
Batori swung them wildly and earnestly, aiming for Saran's vital points. The eyes, the neck, the shoulders, the wrists. Of course... they were all fake weapons shaped like the real thing, not actual blades, so it wasn't a real problem.
"Haaah!"
Even if Batori was only a hundred and thirty-five centimeters tall, her body was anything but ordinary. Her attacks were far stronger than you'd first expect — fast, powerful strikes. I wasn't a combat-type Awakened, and I wasn't someone used to this kind of situation to begin with... but even accounting for that, Batori's attacks were fierce.
"Eut, hyah!"
"Too slow. Faster."
Of course, Saran had already been a hero for years, and she was a truly skilled one. She handled Batori's attacks — those hasty, impatient attacks — without breaking a sweat. Even though the weapons were made of a harmless material, they were still weapon-shaped tools being used to repeatedly strike vital points — and Saran was batting them aside with nothing more than a casual slap of her palm. It was a display that forced you to acknowledge just how huge the gap between the two of them was.
"Weak."
"Hah!!!"
But the biggest factor was probably the difference in physical specs. It was a matchup between a hundred-and-thirty-five-centimeter baby goblin and a snake well over a hundred and sixty, with a height difference of more than thirty centimeters. It wasn't just a reach problem — there were issues of strength, and plenty of others besides.
But you know. When Batori was out doing hero work — when she was actually fighting — she wasn't a hundred and thirty-five centimeters. Thanks to her Eodeokshini ability, she'd grow in proportion to the attention she received, and her strength and speed would jump dramatically as well. I'd already seen it happen more than a few times. And watching her keep getting pushed back, struggling, was getting a little boring.
"Batori, fighting! You can do it!"
I started cheering from the corner of the training room. For a moment both Batori and Saran looked over at me with startled expressions, but they both immediately refocused on the spar.
"Fighting!"
Sorry, Saran, but of course the one I was cheering for was the baby goblin. As a matter of personal taste, rooting for the underdog was more fun than cheering for the overwhelming favorite, and the feeling when the results came in was more satisfying too. And leaving personal preference aside, this mentoring session itself was for Batori's growth. Not height growth — rank promotion, and various other things. So I figured Batori fighting Saran in a stronger state was actually a good thing....
"Haaaaah!!!"
Was it because of those cheers, repeated over and over? Before I knew it, Batori's height had broken past 149.9 and hit 155. Even that would still leave her on the shorter side compared to Saran, but Batori's ability wasn't just about getting taller and gaining reach. It made her stronger in terms of power, speed, and every other aspect as well.
"Kh...!"
"Hah...!"
Bit by bit, ever so slightly, I could feel Saran starting to get pushed back. Of course, "pushed back" was still a stretch, and the gap in experience was still glaringly obvious.
"Hah... hah...... haaah..."
"That's enough."
"Hah.... I-is it...?"
They'd gone back and forth incredibly hard, and over the course of thirty minutes Batori had attacked Saran like a woman possessed, but...? It was only natural that the goblin was the first to collapse onto the floor and concede. Watching her toss the fake weapon aside and gasp for breath, you could tell today's sparring had been pretty tough.
Was it because Batori had suddenly flopped onto the floor? A certain fox crossed my mind... but she'd already fully recovered.
Cough.
Unlike me, there was no need to worry about her. For now, I decided to keep watching the mentoring-slash-sparring.
"...You caught it?"
"Ah."
But after the mentoring had more or less wrapped up, Saran — wiping the sweat off with a towel — figured out that I'd caught a cold. In her case, she could even distinguish body temperature, which left me in a rather awkward spot.