Chapter 6. Let's go home. (2)
Chapter 6. Let's go home. (2)
I don't know.
I don't know what this woman is talking about.
Our home... our home is Soi's house.
The home I've lived in since I was young.
Soi never spoke without including me as a member of that house. Soi's parents were the same.
The only one who couldn't call them Mom or Dad was me.
Because I was the only one overthinking it, even knowing they were waiting for me to call them that.
Because there was no good in someone like me clinging to them for no reason.
If I weren't me, I would have called them that a long time ago.
Anyway, I don't even remember my biological mother, and I couldn't accept her as Mom from the moment she abandoned me at The Orphanage.
Once my kindergarten memories faded, I would have naturally called them Mom and Dad.
I have memories of my past life. Even though they've faded a bit now, I remember that the me in my past life had a family.
If I called them Mom, if I called them Dad, I felt like my past-life family would come to mind. I felt a bit sorry for them, as if they were overlapping.
Besides, I'm someone who can't properly forget those childhood memories, nor can I properly embrace the warmth of a family.
Even while thinking that, I couldn't think of a way to escape. I'm a middle schooler now, so I'd rather just live on my own once I become an adult. I'll just work hard later to pay back what I've received.
Anyway, no matter how hard I try, I won't become a Hero worthy of that family.
"Are you worried?"
Seo Arin, who introduced herself as 'Mom', asks.
"Don't you think it's a nuisance to be in that house? They have a daughter of their own. You're just taking away their attention for no reason."
"No!"
Soi's shout brought me back to my senses.
The homeroom teacher was still panting, lying face down on the floor.
What if Soi steps forward? What if she steps up to protect me?
I jumped up from my seat in a panic.
Footsteps from behind, then they stop.
"Lua......?"
A flustered voice. Is it natural, since the force blocked her from stepping forward?
I've never really rejected Soi. In fact, I didn't want to reject Soi, who was approaching me. Because I liked Soi.
Even though she's much younger than me, she always pretends to be an adult. Even in this world, she was born after me, yet she calls herself eonni, tries to do everything for me, and tries to protect me.
How could I hate a kid like that?
That's why I don't want Soi to get hurt.
I push Soi away slightly with telekinesis. What kind of expression is she making behind me? Is it a look of betrayal? Or sadness? Or a look of understanding everything?
Whatever expression it is, I don't have the confidence to look back. Because I feel like my heart would weaken no matter what expression I see.
I slowly stood up from my seat.
My legs are trembling.
I'm scared.
Because I have no idea how her head works.
"Yes, yes, good girl. You grew up to be an obedient child."
It's a situation where I have no choice but to listen.
Hostage, she's taken so many hostages.
Besides—
"......."
Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind.
"Th-this, th-this, what's happening right now."
"Hmm?"
"Th-the city, and other places are......."
"Oh, ah, yes. That's right. I knew about it."
As if it wasn't her doing, she said it nonchalantly.
"I wasn't originally going to come here, but an opportunity arose, didn't it? There's no reason for me to waste time over there."
She just utilized it because it became an opportunity.
"You, you knew......?"
Coward.
Even with a Villain in front of me, even though I've lived in a Hero's house and grown up watching Heroes, I can't even imitate that. I'm carefully using honorifics toward the Villain in front of me.
"I came here because I knew."
"I, why......?"
"Hmm?"
Once again, she asks back as if she can't understand my question.
"Th-that, such, an important matter, why go out of your way to come here and take me......."
Is it because there's something important? Does my ability have some potential, and she's trying to utilize it?
But that can't be.
In the original story, Seo Lua's ability was just a useless one. At best, it was dropping a flowerpot on someone's head—an ability specialized in bullying people without leaving evidence.
It never involved skinning people or breaking arms and legs.
"Well......."
Seo Arin tilted her head and said.
"You're my daughter, aren't you? A daughter should be with her mom, right?"
I get goosebumps at that expression and voice.
She's sincere.
I don't have the ability to read people's expressions perfectly, but this woman was sincere. In every single word she said.
"Anyway. We have to go now. It's actually getting dangerous, you know?"
As soon as Seo Arin said that, my body was pulled forward sharply.
Thud, rip.
My knees, which had barely managed to stand, slammed into the ground, and I was dragged along the floor.
"Lua!"
The child who came running out while shouting that was Chaeyi.
No.
Chaeyi is in danger too. She's a woman who can make people look like that with her ability. Having that happen in front of me—
I reached out toward Chaeyi. I felt a sensation as if something was subtly touching my fingertips. The expansion of the sensation unique to telekinesis.
That sensation, while slightly pushing Chaeyi's body away—
"......!"
Then, a sharp pain—
The next memory isn't that clear. I think I pulled the hand I had reached out toward Chaeyi back toward myself.
I think I screamed after that, too.
I see Chaeyi's eyes widen, and she loses strength in her legs, landing on her bottom.
It hurts, it hurts. I don't know what happened.
It was a sharp pain I had never experienced in my life. It didn't hurt this much when I was hit in school, or when I rolled around in the military.
My arm feels like it's burning.
So— it feels like it's been severed. My arm.
With teary eyes, I looked down at the arm I had reached out toward Chaeyi, but not a single drop of blood was flowing. It was hanging limply, but I could still move my fingers.
"Ugh, ugh. Sob."
Every time I moved, a sharp pain flared up.
"Oh my."
For the first time since she arrived here, Seo Arin looked genuinely surprised.
My ability isn't a visible one. It just shows the result of an invisible hand moving something.
It's there, and I can feel it, but it's an intangible force that can't actually be touched.
Yet, did Seo Arin see something?
Her eyes narrowed.
"This, this might be dangerous."
Seo Arin said that and reached out her hand.
"Ah......!"
I fell flat on the floor again and writhed.
No.
Chaeyi, Chaeyi is in danger.
There are no rules to this woman's actions. She just moves as she pleases. A woman whose world revolves only around herself.
So, there's no principle like "not killing" here either. No matter how young the kid in front of her is.
Swish, swish. I hear some chilling sounds.
The sound of something being cut in the air.
Panting, I barely managed to turn my body, and I saw a very faint, subtle movement in front of my eyes.
I tilted my head and looked at where that faint line was coming from, and there was Seo Arin.
Is that what it would look like if she extended dozens of hands from her back?
An intense presence. Just that faint form alone looks like it could tear something apart.
Is it only visible to my eyes? Because I know how to use that kind of power?
"Ah, right. Lua. Look closely."
Seo Arin, on the other hand, stood perfectly still and smiled while looking down at me.
"Your ability is one that requires you to adapt to pain. The senses are connected, you see. So, when you fight, it hurts. If someone stabs you with a knife, it hurts as if you've been stabbed; if you grab fire, it feels like it's burning. If you grab something cold, your hands feel chilly."
"......."
If I pick up a rock, I can feel how rough or smooth it is.
"But it's okay. It's fine if it all gets cut off. It's fine if it all burns. It's not a real hand anyway. So, it's the same even if you cut it with a power that cuts abilities."
Ah.
Come to think of it, what was Chaeyi's ability?
In the original story, what exactly was it? It was a completely different ability from Cheong Hwirin's. She wasn't a blood-related daughter anyway. It was an ability specialized in bullying other kids. It was one that Seo Lua, whose own ability was useless, used diligently.
Ah.
Right.
Nullifying abilities.
If someone breathes fire, she cuts that fire. If someone lowers the temperature, she cuts that energy before it touches her body.
If the ability is an expansion of senses, she probably cuts those senses too.
Is that why Cheong Hwirin wanted it?
The scream continued for a long time. The fact that I can think about this in a corner of my head is probably because a corner of my brain has gone completely blank.
Rip.
My body is dragged toward Seo Arin again.
"Eek!?"
Even though she cuts them, the hands grow back one after another, and Chaeyi is eventually pushed back. Fortunately, it doesn't seem like Chaeyi's body was directly grabbed.
"It's the same when killing people. If you want to tear someone apart with your bare hands, you have to put that much strength into it. And, if you put in a lot of strength, it hurts. If you dig your fingernails into bare skin and pull, wouldn't your fingernails come off, too? If you hold a knife and swing it wrong, you might slip and cut your hand, and if you try to bend something hard in the opposite direction, it's just as difficult."
Seo Arin poured words at me, smiling brightly, as if she wanted me to empathize with her.
"But it's okay. It's all an illusion anyway. It's not a real arm, so you just have to endure it. And if you endure and endure, pleasure eventually comes at the end. The more you overcome pain, the more wonderful results you can create."
She couldn't grab her directly, but those hands were slowly approaching Chaeyi. Chaeyi cut through the abilities again and again, and again. Even so.
"Let, let Lua go......!"
Soi barely managed to stand up from her seat.
I reached out my hand again.
This time, not toward Soi, but toward the ability Seo Arin was extending.
"Oh my."
I grab one of those abilities. It feels like a person's arm. Only, it was much thicker and harder than anything I had touched before.
So, she's saying I should endure the pain, right?
I dig my fingernails in and apply force, strong enough to make those fingernails flip back.
"Ugh, kgh......!"
It hurts.
It hurts.
Honestly, I just want to stop everything. I wanted to just give up at this point and tell her to take me.
But then?
If I ask her to do that, would Seo Arin just leave these kids alone? She's a woman who wouldn't find it strange to just finish them all off under the pretext of disciplining a disobedient child.
"......Hey."
Seo Arin's voice turns cold.
My hair is lifted. No, she grabbed my hair and lifted my head up.
And again, to the floor.
Thud, a dull sound is heard.
There was pain in two places. A dull pain in my head that didn't 'hit' the floor. And a pain as if my fingers were being crushed between my head and the floor.
It's not my hand.
Like Seo Arin said, an intangible hand.
Thud, thud.
Several times, in succession.
I scream and groan, but I endure. Even when the hand I dug into my arm was grabbed by another hand and twisted, I struggled and endured. Because that's all I could do.
I regretted it.
Wasn't there a slightly better way from the beginning? Should I have just gone down beforehand and called her Mom, Mom, and asked her to take me? Before Chaeyi showed that kind of ability. Before Soi stood up to save me.
"Ah......!"
And soon, my head turns completely blank. Chaeyi's panicked ability decorates the air. The arm I was forcibly holding is severed. My arm, and Seo Arin's arm.
A deep frown forms on Seo Arin's brow.
"......Why?"
Seo Arin asks.
"Why are you making things so complicated? I went out of my way to be considerate."
"......."
I was gritting my teeth to keep from fainting, so listening was all I could do.
"Ah, as expected, I should have just done it cleanly from the start. What kind of parent-teacher meeting is this, anyway. I thought I'd spare you because you said you were a teacher. I thought I'd let it slide because I thought you might have friends."
Seo Arin's gaze turns toward the children.
"Looking at me like I'm a monster, it doesn't look like you're friends."
Is she talking about the gazes directed at me?
But that can't be helped.
It's all because of you.
"Right. Since it's come to this, shall I teach you?"
Seo Arin said.
"A clean solution. You just have to clear away what's in your way. You have that kind of power, don't you? It's a method that only has advantages in many ways."
Seo Arin said that, and the ability ripples and surges from her back.
All the children are just trembling even after seeing that ability. Even Chaeyi's eyes, which were cutting through the abilities, are wandering in the air.
So, I'm probably the only one who can see it. Maybe because of the blood relation, or maybe because I awakened a little more in this situation.
I barely manage to reach out my arm.
But that invisible arm is caught in the middle, and snap.
"Aaaagh!"
It was a sound that surprised even me, that I still had the strength to scream this loudly.
"Then—"
Seo Arin looked at the children with a proud expression.
And she stopped the steps she was taking toward them. And muttered.
"......What is this?"
Something ripples.
Something hot and— no, rather than that, a warm sensation.
At the edge of my vision, a light like a burning sun.
"......You."
Seo Arin's voice.
"......Let Lua go."
And, another voice.
A voice I know well.
A voice I hear every single day, from morning to night,
A voice that is so comfortable and pleasant,
Said, while completely furious.