Admiration Rides the Smoke
"Pretty gutsy, for an examinee."
I meant that. The courage to step forward against someone far stronger than herself — a dangerously unhinged villain, no less — while her body shook like a leaf from the pain of a broken arm was not something just anyone had. It was more than enough to pass as an Academy student. Courage alone wouldn't cut it if she ever went pro, of course. But that was a problem for later.
Right now, I had to reel in this naive kid, starving as she was for someone to recognize her.
Hmm. I was short on time and hadn't prepared a thing, so I'd toss her a few convincing words and a small gift — just enough to keep her from falling into some actual villain's hands.
The proctors had installed CCTV, but none of it covered this rooftop. Those drones hanging far off in the sky wouldn't catch a word of whatever we said up here. Meaning I could use a little power without exam headquarters ever knowing.
I perched on a chair I'd woven from Ichor tentacles, drew out a stick of Mana Herb, and tucked it between my lips. A spark jumped when I clicked my Metallized index finger against my thumb. I didn't inhale. I just held it there, and looked Yi Rumi over the way you'd appraise merchandise.
Pheromones bloomed from my body at the same time. A colorless, odorless fragrance dissolved into the air and brushed the tip of her nose. Nothing spectacular — just an ordinary aroma that eased tension, settled the heart, and made a person a little more inclined to listen. And to trust.
The chair clicked as I shifted my weight.
"You've got talent. Shame about the rest, though."
I locked eyes with her and whispered. A light began to glimmer in the depths of my pupils. This was only ever a supporting act. Persuasion, in the end, is done with the tongue.
"...What the hell are you talking about?"
"You still haven't figured it out?"
My tentacles drifted around her head and body, teasing at a hair's breadth from contact, looking her over like a cat toying with its prey. She'd gone head-to-head with a villain who outclassed her by a mile, without even trying to hide. The fact that she hadn't gone down in a single blow already meant Yi Rumi had passed.
"Stay still if you don't want that bone going in crooked."
A wet crack answered the words. In the same breath, I popped her dislocated arm back into place.
"Ghhhk...!"
"If you're already this good without hitting your ceiling, I can't wait to see what you look like once you grow."
"Ah... that's..."
Shock washed over her face. Exactly the reaction I'd wanted. I'd gone straight for the one sore spot she least wanted exposed. Yi Rumi wanted to hide the fact that her ability hit its limit almost immediately. I'd called it out first. Once something's laid out raw, the reaction always changes.
The moment that old trauma switch — prodigy, genius, gifted child — clicked on, I tossed another line her way.
"What, you didn't know? Don't tell me you've been thinking everything you've done so far is your limit. You've been living as a frog in a well and you didn't even realize it."
I looked at her and shook my head.
"Huh...?"
Yi Rumi chewed on my words for a moment, then her face went half-vacant. What did she just say? I haven't hit my limit? That was the question written all over her. It was what she'd believed all this time — which was why she'd been running, trying to deny that ceiling, and why she was only now, at last, trying to find her courage. And then I'd casually dropped a line that shattered the world she'd known. Of course it hit her hard.
"W-wait a second...! What do you mean by that?"
She took a desperate step toward me. I took one back.
"Exactly what I said. You built that ceiling yourself."
I framed her between the thumbs and index fingers of both hands, as if she were sitting inside a picture.
"When it can be this easy."
I pressed my hands together, then pulled them apart, as if to say it was that simple.
"That's not true! I really...!"
Tried. Yi Rumi couldn't quite get the word out. For the past few years, chasing the glory she'd lost, she had wandered the streets and thrown herself against her own limits. After slamming into that wall again and again, she'd finally come to accept reality — at least a little.
Yeah. I knew all about it. I knew she was a pitiful kid who'd grown up spoiled, called a genius from childhood, who had never forgotten how sweet that praise and attention used to taste. I also knew she was stubborn enough to roam every Area looking for a way to break through her ability's ceiling, just to claw that glory back.
I had no intention of feeding her the usual boring lecture about hard work or the coldness of reality. I was going to tell her something else.
"You worked hard, I'm sure. Just in the wrong direction. Knocking around the streets wasn't a waste, but you'd have been better off keeping a good teacher close. Lucky you applied to the Academy, huh? Worked out well."
"Ah...?"
I said it like I knew her well, tossing it off as if it were nothing. As if the only problem had been the direction of her effort — as if there was still hope. Room to improve. Room to grow. Every word she most wanted to hear. The you've got talent, keep going play.
Besides, my own power-up mattered more than spending time on this. What I needed to do right now was feed Yi Rumi enough sweet hope that she wouldn't go down a dark path. Other people's recognition is a dangerously sweet thing. She might deny it now, but eventually she'd want to believe it. And then she would.
"P-please... could you tell me a little more? What am I supposed to do?"
She had to be desperate. Even during those years she'd spent wandering under the excuse of being lost, no one had understood her worries, let alone solved them. She'd searched, then given up — and now someone who seemed to know the answer was standing right in front of her. Of course she was climbing the walls. If I hadn't been playing the villain, Yi Rumi would've been on her knees, offering me anything I wanted, begging for help.
You don't lecture someone like this with textbook advice about hitting the books.
"Flailing around because you can't pick even one thing out of everything overflowing within arm's reach..."
I'd already popped her arm back in, so I'd throw her just one hint in exchange. A hint, and nothing more.
"If all you've done until now is scrape things together like a treasure goblin, isn't it time you actually used what you've got?"
"...There's too many. I don't even have time to test them one by one."
"Nothing but excuses."
"Ugh...! Can't you just tell me straight?"
"Hunter, hero — whatever you want to become, that's your choice, isn't it? Then grow on your own. You think someone's going to spoon-feed you everything?"
Yi Rumi couldn't argue. She just trembled. She looked pitiful enough that I let my tone imply I'd give her one thing.
"First, put it all down and think again. Just because something's familiar and comfortable doesn't mean it's what suits you best."
She needed to stop looping the same efficient elemental tricks she already knew — fire, ice, lightning. Hmm. What would work best? Something efficient. Something that hit hard.
"If handling everything yourself is too much, try making time just to think. Looking for an ability like that wouldn't hurt. You've got at least one, don't you?"
I stepped in close, pulled the Mana Herb from my own lips, and tucked it between hers. She startled at the sudden move. I held it there until she'd taken a deep drag, then let go.
Cough, cough!
"What do you think you're doing...?!"
Yi Rumi was mid-fury over being forced to inhale the smoke when she noticed the change in her body.
"Huh? My mana's filling up?"
Not some forbidden drug. Not an elixir of death, either.
"Mana Herb mixed with Magic Stone powder. Smoke it. It'll help."
Being a jack of all trades, master of none was a problem — but she had one more fatal flaw. A tiny mana reservoir. Yi Rumi had been born with a vessel for mana that was vanishingly small. It was like a phone packed with features that died thirty minutes after charging. Useless. That was why, for all her talents, she so often couldn't use them properly — and even when she could, she only got a few shots. That was the decisive reason a girl with such outstanding abilities never got a fair evaluation.
Mana Herb wouldn't fix it completely, but it could patch the gap a little. Like an external battery, in a way. You can't exactly shoot up or chug a potion mid-fight, but you can keep a Mana Herb tucked in your mouth the whole time. Worst case, you could even chew it like gum. It was a little addictive, sure — but for Yi Rumi's chronic mana shortage and that temper that ran hot at the drop of a hat, it was the perfect patch.
I pulled a pack of Mana Herb from my coat, tossed it to her, and turned away.
"That's all the free service you get. I talked more than I meant to."
With that, I strolled toward the edge of the rooftop. I looked down over the drop as if Yi Rumi no longer existed, already deciding who my next target would be.
Huh...? That's it? Tiss, you're not gonna do the thing? Heheh... "Do you desire power?" Y'know. That kind of bit.
I nearly laughed. Shan's face was radiating pure cuteness instead of wickedness.
It looks fun, sure, but do you really think we could pull a stunt like that under the eyes of a witch like Baba Yaga?
Uh... no?
Let's save that kind of thing for actual bad guys, next time. Honestly, corrupting Yi Rumi here with zero preparation, then having to babysit her afterward while also building a normal friendship with Siu and Sia... my head already hurt just thinking about it. And more than that, it was a pain.
Let's leave it here.
Alright. Yi Rumi was handled. Time to move on to the next target. Even after she got into the Academy, she'd be too busy studying the hints I'd given her to cause trouble for a while. That alone would get her a little progress. One last line, then I vanish. Done.
"As for the rest — get into the Academy, study hard, and figure it out yourself. Don't end up twisted like me."
"Ah...?"
That was all I said before I leapt straight off the rooftop.
Yi Rumi watched the small white-haired monster recede into the distance.
"So cool."
Her eyes had gone hazy and wet — in a direction slightly different from what Tiss had intended. Yi Rumi was overwhelmed. She'd just seen a true powerhouse, the kind of person she had always yearned, endlessly, to become.
She didn't know why the girl had spared her. Whether she was a villain or not didn't matter to Yi Rumi in the slightest. Who cared? Her head had already blossomed into a field of flowers. Process and reason didn't mean a thing.
It was the first time. The first person to say those words to her. The first person to actually see her limits. All of it, for the first time.
"She told me I could do it."
Not the usual of course you can everyone else always said. For the first time, someone had talked about possibility. And she'd even handed over a fragment of that possibility herself.
She wanted to believe it. No — she had no choice but to believe. Yi Rumi sincerely accepted the judgment of someone whose tremendous skill even the Watchers acknowledged.
Just one thing.
Let's never see each other again.
That one line, she had no intention of following.
Her fingers closed tight. Yi Rumi picked up the Mana Herb that had fallen to the floor, its ember gone out. The Mana Herb that had touched that person's lips. She put it back in her mouth and lit it again.
—Cough, cough!
It still burned. But for the first time, something that had been hollow in her chest felt like it was being filled.