The Fox's Brutal Lesson
"Oh, you're still alive?"
The Field Team Leader's gaze, which had been fixed solely on the Management Team Leader, only shifted toward me once the latter had entered the observation room and disappeared from view. Her lofty, downward glance made it hard to breathe, but at least I had something I needed to say to her.
"...Thank you for last time. I was too flustered to properly thank you then."
"Last time?"
Her head tilted slightly, as if she couldn't recall, sending her glossy black hair cascading over her shoulder. The dangerous scent that gripped my nose grew stronger, so I desperately pinched my thigh to endure it.
"Huuung..?"
'Still holding out? You look far more composed than last time... Did you get exposed to something similar in the meantime?'
Her sharp eyes made hiding anything pointless. I decided to deliver my message first.
"On the day of the accident... the Management Team Leader told me that you were the one who restored me, Field Team Leader."
"Restored... Ah, right. Come to think of it, I still haven't received my payment, have I?"
"Excuse me?"
Startled by the word "payment," I froze in my chair. She curled one corner of her lips upward and took a step closer. Her sweet scent grew thicker, and with each step, her curvaceous hips swayed beneath the perfectly fitted skirt, sending heat rushing to my face.
"It's fine. It won't hurt."
Swish..
"Ah..?"
I looked up at the Field Team Leader's hand resting on my shoulder with the most innocent expression I could muster, silently praying she would stop. It was a feeble resistance, closer to a prayer, but it was useless. Her crimson lips parted in a grin, revealing sharp fangs, and her vertically slit golden pupils flushed red in an instant.
"...?"
It felt as though I had been driven to the edge of a cliff with only one foothold left, forced to stare down at the dizzying drop below. My vision swayed violently, and an unpleasant chill ran from my toes to the crown of my head. My stomach churned with nausea, yet nothing came out. It was as if my insides had been completely emptied—organs and all—a strange, unpleasant sense of powerlessness I had never felt before.
"Hurk..! Ugh, hah...?"
Only after watching her pointed tongue lick her lips before retreating did the nausea subside. Her hand had already left my shoulder.
"...Quite the decent meal."
'He looked so scrawny before, but he's put on some meat since then.'
"Not that it tastes good, though."
Thud!
Her sudden kick to my abdomen sent me and the chair tumbling backward onto the floor.
"Well then... shall we begin?"
"Cough.. hack, cough..?"
"I'm from the field team. I've fought ability users plenty of times, but I've never trained anyone before."
Her kick felt relatively tame compared to the ones that had sent heavy doors flying or shattered reinforced corridor walls, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt. Especially since the Field Team Leader was wearing heels as part of her office attire!
"Kuhack!"
Reflexively curling up and clutching my throbbing stomach, I lifted my head—
"...!"
She wore the expression of a queen who found this eye level perfectly suitable. With a seductive glint in her eyes, she smiled and firmly stepped on my shoulder as I lay on the floor.
Grind..!
"Ugh... erk.."
"Still, I know the basics. When someone's life is threatened, most people end up showing me whatever abilities they've been hiding. You'll be the same, right?"
"Kuhack..!"
Her casual delivery of such chilling words filled me with instinctive fear, while the heel grinding into my shoulder finally pierced the skin, sending waves of pain upward. I tried to flee, but my body refused to move. Was it because of the kick to my stomach...? Or had she done something when she placed her hand on my shoulder earlier? Vitality... and "decent meal." Don't tell me the "payment" was taking what she'd given back? That seemed a bit underhanded...
"You can share emotions and sensations with a connected target, right? Then why not just pour all the powerlessness and pain you're feeling right now into me?"
So that had been her intention from the start. She hadn't even glanced at the dessert I'd prepared, and like the Management Team Leader—only far more brutally—she was trying to force my ability to manifest. But making her feel the pain I was experiencing... even now, some part of me hesitated. Whether because of this cloying scent clouding my mind or the fact that even her smile felt strangely seductive, I kept having these odd feelings toward her...
"Ugh, but I... how..."
"This kid's funny. Even after getting beaten up out of nowhere, you're still worrying about me? How delightful!"
Thud!
I only realized I'd been kicked in the face when a sharp pain shot through my neck and something hot began streaming from my burning nose. The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth, and I realized my nose had been broken.
"Consideration depends on who you're dealing with. To me, it just feels like you're looking down on me. If you don't do something soon, I'll kick you again."
After that one-sided declaration, she approached me once more. Only then did I truly understand that this situation was far from normal. The shock to my head and the thick scent of blood had helped clear the suspicious fragrance from my mind. Thinking back... the only normal person in this company was probably just the Response Team Leader.
"Krrgh..!"
Perhaps sensing the danger, my mind began working faster than usual. I recalled the Management Team Leader's words. The key to triggering my ability was a desperate wish for the other person to understand my feelings. If she could just know how confused and hurt I was right now, maybe this merciless violence would—
Twitch...!
Had I done it?
"..."
Just before her kick could land, the Field Team Leader's body twitched, and she halted her elegantly extended leg mid-air. I looked up at her from where I lay prone on the floor. For some reason, staring up at her from below made my heart pound violently, but the pain coursing through my entire body took priority.
'So this guy's... resistance doesn't trigger because the attack isn't recognized as one?'
Drip..
"...?"
"..Ah."
At that moment, I saw a single stream of red liquid flowing from the Field Team Leader's nose. She noticed it too, touching it with the back of her hand. When she confirmed the blood on her skin, a slightly flustered exclamation escaped her lips.
"...Even though it's sharing, it seems your emotions and sensations take precedence. Hah, this is rather interesting."
I... wasn't finding it interesting at all. Through the connection, I could feel her emotions... her sensations... writhing ferociously. Even without that, her expression—excited by the sight of her own blood—made it clear she was about to do something terrible to me. My powerlessness and pain had collided with her explosive energy and neutralized each other, allowing me to move again, but it was already too late. All I could do was watch as her smooth leg lashed out toward me once more.
Thud-!!!
*
After watching the Counselor get kicked once again by the nine-tailed fox and sprawl pathetically across the floor, the Management Team Leader clicked her tongue in pity and activated the microphone connected to the lab's speakers, signaling to stop. She snorted at the sight of the Field Team Leader leaving without so much as a glance back, but she didn't particularly disagree with her training methods. The data obtained from that brief beating had been extremely effective at revealing both the potential and limitations of his ability.
The fact that he had successfully connected despite the fox's physical and mental resistances demonstrated the potential of his power... and the limitations were precisely why she had asked for her help in the first place. The woman possessed monstrous physical specs and an unshakeable resistance to mental attacks. Even after receiving the full brunt of the Counselor's pain and powerlessness, she had only flinched briefly—proof that the shared emotions and sensations transmitted absolute values rather than relative intensity. The pain and powerlessness that had been overwhelming enough to leave the Counselor unable to move had barely affected her.
It also confirmed that his collapse and rolling around from what should have been only a mild chest pain hadn't been an act.
"Hmm.."
Still, the fact that he had made the fox bleed from the nose... whether it was simply due to an unfamiliar shock momentarily raising her blood pressure or something else... seemed worth further observation. Perhaps he could become a new Joker in their power struggle.