Twisted Time and a Pipe to the Face
The police station mediation session #008. The enormous distortion of my sense of time had manifested in reality. The delinquents’ fists had slowed to a crawl, and my own body began to feel impossibly light.
“You—elf—bastards—!”
Even the voices reaching my ears were warped and stretched. It was too sloppy to be a temporary superpower and too slow in its mana flow to be proper magic. It sat at the pinnacle of ambiguity, closer to the realm of pure sensation. So I decided to treat it like a rope had been dropped from the heavens. Whatever it was, something useful had clearly come my way.
I dodged the flying shards of ice one by one. At such close range they still sliced my skin, but the cuts had zero impact on the fight. I tilted my head, twisted my torso, shifted my footwork—and finally reached the punk right in front of me. He made one last desperate grab for my face, but—
“Ugh?!”
I slammed my fist down hard. That put an end to his nonsense. Because of his sloppy control, the spell he’d been preparing fizzled out abnormally. The delinquent’s arm began to tremble violently, as if suffering from backlash.
Mana reflux.
It happens when you stop a spell without properly dissipating the mana you’d stockpiled. His arm had clearly gone temporarily numb. A golden opportunity.
I drove my fist straight into the middle of his dazed face. The satisfying crunch of his nose collapsing sent him staggering backward. The spot he stumbled into was occupied by the other thug currently flinging spells at Cheon Mari. The two collided, lost their balance, and toppled over together.
“““Gaaah!”””
The moment the tide turned. I flicked my eyes to the side and saw Cheon Mari charging forward, covered in ice magic. Pure grit and insanity. There was no other way to describe it.
“These bastards dare to shoot magic at me without fear?”
She mercilessly swung the steel pipe into the delinquent who was barely trying to stand. She must have been holding back her strength—there was no sound of bones shattering—but the brutal thuds of impact kept ringing out.
“You’re telling me!”
I, who had nearly been on the receiving end, joined in and started kicking. The other delinquents became targets too. Anyone who tried to get up was immediately knocked back down.
“Kuh, kuhuuuueeegh……”
“Cough, cough!”
“P-please… spare us……”
The delinquents were beaten into bloody pulps. After I finished off the last one, the only thing left was a bunch of bodies rolling around on the ground. This wasn’t a fight between high schoolers—it was between elementary and middle school kids, yet it felt utterly absurd.
I walked closer and checked their name tags.
“Sangsan Hunter Middle School, second-years? Not even first-years, but second-years?”
“Pathetic. Losing to elementary schoolers.”
It was a bit much to call it pathetic when we had launched a surprise attack, preventing them from responding properly. Still, the fact that they had lost remained unchanged.
While I was watching the thugs twitch on the ground, Cheon Mari’s hand gently landed on my shoulder.
“Surrounded and still beating them down with your fists. You’ve got more balls than I thought?”
“Is that a compliment?”
“Of course it’s a compliment. Your judgment, your movements—everything was solid.”
It was the first time I had ever heard praise from her. Coming from someone who was practically my nemesis, it felt strangely unsettling.
“……Thanks for the compliment.”
“Yep, yep. So always be grateful. All of this is thanks to me constantly fighting and brawling with you.”
“Ugh… I take it back.”
Her narcissistic tone made me let out a dry laugh. Cheon Mari scooted even closer and began explaining in great detail how she had returned. To summarize, she had simply gone to a construction site and stolen a pipe, but the sheer length of her explanation was astonishing.
Wait a second. Was it really okay to just steal that?
“It’s fine, it’s fine. They won’t raise a fuss over a single pipe.”
That’s oddly reassuring.
I shook my head and lowered my gaze.
“Anyway, what do we do about these guys?”
The thoroughly beaten delinquents. The problem was that they were too beaten. We could probably run away like this, but I had a bad feeling the situation would spiral out of control. Even if we were juvenile offenders exempt from criminal liability, fleeing after doing this much damage would definitely cause problems on the civil side.
When I asked, Cheon Mari made a cat-like expression.
“……We should probably call the police?”
Looked like I wasn’t getting home on time.
* * *
Doki Doki Police Station mediation session.
With guardians from both sides assembled, the unexpected catastrophe caused the officers’ hair to practically fall out from stress. Whether it was bringing in lawyers or dragging in the night-shift legal team, both sides bickered fiercely while countless people came and went from the station.
One interesting point amid all this chaos was that the two families—who usually only met because of trouble—were now on the same side.
“You must be Mari’s grandfather? Excuse me, but what did the children say?”
“They claimed they were heading home together when they were dragged away. Then Sian was beaten, and Mari says they tried to extort her. Four hundred and ten thousand won, handed over politely—what on earth is that supposed to mean?”
“Good heavens… those awful children. Still, it’s fortunate they were walking home together and it ended at this level.”
“Indeed. Middle schoolers these days are really something else.”
The atmosphere was completely different from earlier, when Cheon Mari and I had been arguing about whether or not to call the police. After all, a fight between classmates at school and getting shaken down by much older students were two entirely different matters. The former could be handled internally by the school. The latter absolutely could not.
This could easily make the newspapers. It could even escalate into a serious legal matter.
Of course… because of all the bad blood between our families, the two households weren’t exactly friendly. Instead, beneath the tension, sharp words flew—
“Ah, I heard the two of them fought again today. I’m truly sorry for causing trouble like this for so many years.”
“Oh goodness, no need to apologize. If Mari hadn’t been there, those middle schoolers might have done something terrible to Sian.”
“Not at all. I was the one who sent her to apologize for the fight I started in the first place. Back in first grade—”
“It’s really fine. That’s all in the past now, isn’t it? Please don’t dwell on it.”
“……Still, I heard that every time they fight, Mari is the one who starts it and Sian is the one who takes it. Thanks to that, Mari’s cold personality has improved a lot compared to before, so I feel even more sorry.”
“Kids fight as they grow up and influence each other, getting closer in the process, don’t they? Compared to first grade, they look so much better now.”
“Well, my wife and I were like that back in the day too… so I suppose you’re right.”
…Or were they? The adult world was still a mystery to me.
Anyway, in the middle of all this confusion, Cheon Mari and I were quietly huddled in the corner.
“Mom! Dad! They hit me with a metal pipe!”
“You fucking bastards. Who told you to use magic to rob someone?”
“Waaah! He called us fucking bastards!”
“Watch your damn mouth! Shut that trap!”
“Waaaaah!!! He told me to shut my trap!!!”
Correction: we weren’t quietly huddled. We were just huddled.
Because of the situation, the five people sitting across from us avoided Cheon Mari’s growling glare. Instead, they turned their eyes toward me. Since Cheon Mari came from an impressive family and looked like she had a nasty personality, they chose me as the easier target. They kept sending contemptuous looks my way until I finally opened my mouth.
“What are you staring at? Got a problem?”
“Look at that! Neither of them is showing any remorse! They deserve to be sent to juvenile detention!”
“That’s right, exactly!”
“Remorse? Juvenile detention? Are you insane…?”
“Excuse me? Do you really think you’re in any position to talk about remorse?! Extorting children and using magic on them!”
“So our child—who came back with all his teeth broken and beaten to a pulp—is the one at fault?!”
“Do you have any idea how heartbroken we are every time we see our children like this?”
“Then are you saying the kids who were dragged off, extorted, and beaten with magic are the ones at fault?”
“Middle school guardians, please be reasonable. Do you honestly think it’s normal for second-year middle schoolers to do this to a fourth-year elementary student?”
“That’s not even up for discussion! You two! If we start weighing who’s more at fault here—”
Social status, degree of fault, etiquette, law, common sense—everything had been thrown out the window. It was a complete mess where both sides were at a disadvantage. Of course the guardians were losing their minds, but I had a feeling this was going to blow up spectacularly.
In the end, it was only after they returned from the hospital and the lawyers arrived that things were somewhat settled. The guardians stayed behind while the students were sent home. Cheon Mari was supposed to return to her fancy mansion, but instead she trailed after me like a lost puppy.
“……What?”
“I need to record an apology.”
“Your grandfather seems like he’s willing to let it slide today.”
“I don’t want to give him any excuses later. Besides, I need to leave photo evidence that I went all the way to your house.”
Thorough as always. On the other hand, the word “excuses” sounded like she was planning to keep fighting with me in the future. What the hell had I even done wrong?
“Ugh.”
I let out a deep sigh as we arrived in front of my house. Cheon Mari recited her half-hearted apology like a scripted song. It was the same generic speech I had heard every time we fought. The only difference was that her voice sounded especially tired today. It was bittersweet, and somehow pitiful. Honestly, I couldn’t just send her away like this.
“……Hey! Cheon Mari!”
I called out to her as she walked away dejectedly after finishing the recording. She turned around with drooping eyes.
“It’s already dark. Come in and have dinner before you go.”
“……”
Cheon Mari fell silent at my invitation. I didn’t expect her to accept. After all, she was a diamond spoon; eating expensive food at home would obviously be better. This was simply my way of showing gratitude. A token of thanks to the regressor who had saved me from those delinquents, even discarding a huge sum of money from her wallet. Even if she was my nemesis, if she was my benefactor, offering her one meal was the least I could do.
“It’s not like adding one more person will change anything.”
“Oh, really?”
Her eyes lit up instantly. The refreshed, bright tone and expression were a bonus. When I gestured for her to come in, she followed me inside with light, cheerful steps.
Looking back, that was the moment I extended my hand—the turning point that completely changed the course of my life. From then on, my once-normal school days began to slowly veer off track.
* * *
“Sian… what on earth…?”
Near my house, Lim Hana couldn’t believe her eyes.