Misunderstanding

Misunderstandings always spring from a difference in perspective. That never changes.

From where I stood, I was simply rescuing a kid called Torch and taking her with me. No ulterior motives involved — and the violence and bloodshed were entirely the responsibility of Selene, standing right beside me.

But from the point of view of someone who had just arrived on the scene, I supposed things looked a little different: a villain who had wiped out an entire organization and was now standing in the middle of a blood-soaked battlefield, gripping the hand of a terrified little girl.

Maybe I should try talking her down first....

I really didn't want to start a fight in a place with a young child present. The thought of using her as a hostage did cross my mind, but villain world or not, even that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was crossing a line.

"Let's just take a breath and calm down—"

The moment I raised my hands in a placating gesture, Valkyrie's eyes spat fire.

"Unbelievable. Now you're laying hands on a child?"

"No, this is all a misunderstanding—"

"Misunderstanding, my ass! You kidnapped a kid — what exactly were you planning to do with her?!"

...Goddammit.

Figured it wouldn't work.

Whatever I said, I'd only get cursed at for it. I was racking my brain for a way out of this when it happened.

Tap, tap.

Someone tugged at my collar. I turned my head to find Kang Yurim looking up at me.

"Who... who is that person?"

Ha... how on earth was I supposed to answer that?

Should I explain the whole situation first? Or would it be better to play dumb and stonewall?

Just as I drew a short breath—

"Closer! Let go of that girl, right now! Before you find another use for a human being!"

Valkyrie's shout carved through the air. A vicious voice, charged with real menace.

She reached out and closed her hand around empty space. Light condensed, and a spear took shape at her fingertips.

Materialized light.

That was Valkyrie's power — the heroine's power. If she was pulling that out, she meant business. She'd come at me dead serious.

"No, if you'd just let me explain—"

The tip of her spear cut my words short. A blade of light stood pointed directly at my face.

"Shut up! Put the girl down first, then talk! You're the one holding her!"

It's the other way around, actually. If we're being precise, I'm the one being held captive here.

"Is that person... a bad person?"

The hand clutching my collar pulled a little tighter.

"Not a bad person, exactly..."

"He's kinder than any of those guys back there, at least. He's a hero."

Valkyrie cut in over me. It stung a little, but the fact that her light spear lost some of its force made it a net win.

Her gaze drifted slowly to Kang Yurim.

"You... what's your name?"

"Kang Yurim...."

"Yurim, you don't have to go anywhere with that man. I'll take you to the Association myself."

At the word Association, something flickered in Kang Yurim's eyes.

"...Did the Association send you? To take me away?"

In that instant, the air around her turned razor sharp.

The very density of it fluctuated so violently that even drawing breath felt like it would cut. Ah, this is bad, I thought — instinct told me outright.

Her power was waking up.

KRA-KOOM—!

Distorted light burst from around Kang Yurim's shoulders like heat haze. At the same time, the light spear in Valkyrie's hand began to convulse wildly.

The spearhead swelled as if about to rupture in an instant, and the warped radiance scattered in every direction, shoving back against her grip as if to wrench itself free.

"Wh... what the—?!"

Jarred by the unexpected backlash, Valkyrie instinctively dismissed the spear and stumbled back a step, flinching as if her fingertips had gone numb. She glared at us, eyes wide with confusion.

"Ability... amplification...."

So that was it. Now I finally understood why they called this girl Torch.

Her power itself was the amplification of other powers. To be precise, it didn't so much respect control as it dragged everything upward, no limits, no brakes. A catalyst that fanned and magnified every ability in its vicinity — a power that poured gasoline over latent potential and struck the match.

"Closer! What did you do to her?!"

...It was you, you absolute bastard.

The words never made it out, but the sentiment surged straight up my throat. I barely choked the cursing back down.

Misunderstanding or not, controlling the situation came first. I drew a short breath and raised my telekinesis to sweep away this whole shitshow in one stroke. Space warped outward from the floor beneath us in an instant.

"Wait, what are you—!"

Before Valkyrie could finish,

BANG—!

Pressure slammed down. Telekinesis concentrated across the whole of Kang Yurim's upper body locked precisely onto her forehead and the base of her skull.

Simply put: a shock to knock her out. A bit heavy-handed, maybe... but there was no other way.

I swallowed a short breath and clenched my fist hard.

Thud.

With a brief concussion of impact, Kang Yurim's body swayed and pitched forward. Her eyes went glassy and dim, and she crumpled where she stood.

...Well, this side was settled, at least.

The problem was what came next.

A stare burning into my back. I didn't need to turn around to know. That sharp presence crawling up my spine said it all. I turned my head anyway — and there stood Valkyrie.

No spear in hand this time, but her eyes were as sharp as ever.

"Explain—"

"You can stop right there."

I cut her off.

"Even if I explained, you wouldn't believe a word of it anyway."

Valkyrie's eyes narrowed to slits.

"You saw what I just did to this girl, didn't you? A targeted tap to knock her out. Nothing more — and I had no intention of going further. If, after all that, you still want to fight—"

I turned my gaze toward Selene, who was already making her way over. She still wore that tiresome expression of hers, but the killing intent lodged in her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠eyes was undeniable.

"—I'll gladly yield this one to her."

Valkyrie, in her current state, had no chance of beating Selene. Even in the game, every time I'd tried the matchup with stats evenly matched, it had ended in a bloody mess — more times than I could count.

"So choose. Either back off, right here—"

I drew a quiet breath and let my voice drop low.

"—or the Association apparently got spooked enough by this girl's power to send people this way in a hurry, and we drag every last one of them into an all-out slugfest and finish it for good."

"......"

"You're a hero, aren't you? Then make the choice that saves the most people. Wasn't that what they taught you?"

Valkyrie grit her teeth in silence. I could see her hands trembling slightly. It was the face of a woman itching to conjure a spear and shove it straight through me on the spot.

"Is that a threat?"

"Not a threat. A proposal. Let's stop here before this gets any bigger. Besides — aren't you on mandatory suspension right now?"

"That's YOUR fault!!"

"Regardless."

I brushed off my hands lightly.

"You're the one who charged in blind back there, and you're the one who cornered me without the faintest grasp of the situation. Am I wrong?"

"Ghh...!!"

Valkyrie bit her lip hard. She looked like she had plenty left to say, but not a single word made it out of her mouth.

Well, what could she do? It was her own fault for attacking first without asking questions.

I didn't bother trading more words. I turned away and opened a channel to the driver.

"We're all wrapped up here. Let's head back."

With the reply received, I turned on my heel. And for a long while afterward, Valkyrie stood there without a word — lips pressed tight as if chewing down something she couldn't swallow, fists clenched white.

It's a dream...

Kang Yurim liked dreaming. While she dreamed, nothing hurt, and the people in the lab coats didn't do anything to her.

And when the man she'd met in the laboratory appeared in her dreams, the faint hum of machines vanished, the smell of metal vanished, even the cold bite of the floor beneath her vanished. It was a sensation she hadn't known in a very, very long time.

A place where I'm needed.

Did a place like that even exist? But Yurim didn't ask. Because it was a dream. Because the moment she asked, it might shatter and be gone.

The scenery shifted. Cold rain soaked into her skin.

Ah... I hate this part...

The sound of machinery. The figure in the lab coat standing before her opened its mouth.

"Hahk—!"

Kang Yurim's eyes snapped open.

"You're awake."

I watched Kang Yurim bolt upright in the bed. She was breathing hard, ragged and shallow.

"Bad dream?"

"Where... where am I?"

"Our place. A safehouse. You can go ahead and believe that for now."

"You're..."

"Closer will do. I have a real name, but around here people tend to go by codenames."

Yurim nodded silently, then curled herself even smaller in the middle of the bed, hugging her knees. For a long while she couldn't find her voice. When she finally spoke, it was carefully, haltingly.

"Then... Closer Oppa... what happened back then, after...?"

Back then, presumably, meaning right after she'd used her power.

"I calmed things down. Nobody got hurt, so you can relax."

"Oh... oh, I see."

Another question followed right on its heels.

"What's... what's going to happen to me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠now?"

"Honestly, I haven't thought that far ahead."

"Am I going to die?"

No, why did she jump straight to the most extreme possibility?

"It's not that kind of place."

"...I'm sorry. I just... assumed it was."

"But I think I'm going to need you to explain what happened to you back there. Your condition."

"......"

Kang Yurim held her silence for a long moment before slowly opening her mouth.

"It was just... scary."

"What was?"

"Everything. The atmosphere, and... that hero person, and that... the feeling like something was about to burst out of me. All of it."

I looked at her without a word.

"It's like... something that isn't me is going to come bursting out?"

Hmm. Classic symptoms of losing control of her ability. A textbook reaction from the earliest stage of power manifestation.

Normally the path forward would be frequent use and gradual training toward control... but for this girl, that was probably impossible. The moment her power activated, every ability around her went haywire.

"Well, for starters... you're going to need to learn to control it. Otherwise it's dangerous."

"Dangerous... how?"

"Because to anyone with a power, the you from back then looked like nothing more than a very, very appetizing something."

Kang Yurim's hands quietly clenched atop her knees.

That was the moment.

Knock, knock.

A knock at the door. Ah, that'll be her.

"Come in."

The door opened quietly. A familiar set of footsteps, and a black uniform — Lee Sejin, the acting commander, stepped inside.

"I heard she was awake, so I came straight up."

She turned her gaze toward me, gave a short bow, then turned her head toward Kang Yurim.

"So this girl... is Torch?"

"That's right."

Lee Sejin studied her for a moment, then let out a sigh.

"Given the situation, I think it's best we have that conversation here and now."

She dragged a chair over and sat down, and Kang Yurim went visibly tense—

"Don't worry. She's not dangerous."

"......"

No response. Yurim simply watched Lee Sejin with quiet, unreadable eyes.

"Um... care to say something? Anything?"

Lee Sejin asked gently. Kang Yurim lowered her gaze for a beat, then spoke in a small, careful voice.

"...A cliff....?"

"Haah?"

Lee Sejin's eyebrow twitched violently.

"Closer, may I swing my sword at this child? Just once. Just one time."

"......"

A headache was coming on.