Something's Going to Happen
"What should I eat today...?"
The most important question life managed to produce, day after day. What you put in your stomach decided the mood of the entire day.
Spicy food... not yet. Let's hold off.
I still had no idea how much heat this body could actually take. Even spicy pork belly had nearly finished me, so it wouldn't have been an exaggeration to say I ought to be rinsing my kimchi in water before I ate it.
The elevator chimed, and the doors slid open. I swallowed hard and stepped out of the building.
Nothing's going to happen today, right?
This was a place where people lived. Not a dystopia, not an apocalypse—just a world that happened to have heroes and villains in it.
"...I mean, what could possibly happen?"
The lobby door buzzed and swung open.
Cross one park and walk a little farther, and there was a convenience store. Even with these short strides, it was barely a three-minute trip. I cut through the park. Maybe because it was morning, a few people were out—unlike yesterday.
Was this place always so empty?
Mornings usually meant plenty of elderly folks, and kids tearing around, didn't they? The reason I hadn't seen anyone yesterday was probably just that this apartment complex didn't have many people in it to begin with.
At least nothing happened on the way to the store. Small mercies.
The door chime rang.
"Welcome."
I left the part-timer's flat greeting behind me and picked up four of the same drinks I'd bought yesterday.
"These are heavy..."
It was only two more bottles than last time, and still heavier than I'd expected. I braced my thin arms, clutched the drinks to my chest with both hands, and shuffled over to the triangle kimbap like that.
Starlight's soy-sauce bulgogi, Hong Gildong's tuna mayo...
Most of the labels plastered on the packages featured heroes, drawn cute and chibi, thumbs up or flashing a V.
...Spicy pork belly, I guess I have to let you go.
The thought that I might never taste that perfect food again made my chest ache. Goodbye, my favorite. Someday, once I've trained this tongue, I'll come back for you. I offered a silent farewell to the spicy pork belly I could no longer eat.
"Excuse me... I'd like to check out."
I heaved eight triangle kimbap and four drinks up onto the counter. Maybe because I'd been hugging the whole pile, the clerk's eyes went round.
"...Do you need a bag?"
"Yes, a bag, please."
"That's a hundred won."
At his words, I pulled out a card this time instead of cash.
...I didn't want to spend money whose source I could already guess.
But what choice did I have? I'd turned the apartment inside out, and aside from this wallet there wasn't a cent in the place. If I'd still had my original body, I could have picked up day labor. If I'd had adult Yuhwa's, living as a model wouldn't have been a bad option either.
But in this body, I can't do anything...
And did this body even have an identity to begin with? The childhood Yuhwa I'd seen before had black hair and blue eyes, with more of a prickly little troublemaker's air. This face was completely different—cute, pale silver hair, golden eyes.
Until I can transform whenever I want... I need to stay out of everything.
A kid living alone with no identity. Anyone looking at that would call it a villain.
"Here you go."
Just like last time, the clerk stared straight through me and ran the card without really looking. The fascinated look of someone seeing me for the first time today.
Because of the On-Site Processing Unit?
Unless my face happened to be exactly his type—twice over, enough to stun him—he really was seeing me for the first time. Their top priority was erasing memories, after all.
"Thank you."
I gave him the same goodbye as yesterday and left the store.
The bag rustled. Brown packages of meat-filled triangle kimbap—and among them, exactly one that was red. Stir-fried kimchi. I'd bought a single one, just to find where my cutoff for spice actually was.
"Hmm... I should at least be able to handle stir-fried kimchi, right?"
Not being able to eat kimchi at all would be ridiculous. Mixed in with rice, there was barely any heat left to speak of.
Once I get home... I can practice with the empty bottles.
Training my ability wasn't for any grand reason. Just enough self-defense to keep myself alive. I didn't want anything more than that. There was nothing I could do as I was now anyway. No—there wouldn't be anything for me to do going forward, either.
My goal is to stay hidden as much as I can.
In some other novel, I'd play hero or turn villain to get back home. Not me.
"If I've already ended up here, that's the end of it."
It had already happened to me. If I tried to force my way out of what was already done, the price would only get worse.
I'll just take it easy, use my power now and then, and grow old here.
...Though if I lived here and got married, who would I even marry? A man—absolutely not. But dating a woman again, in this body...
"...I don't know. I might suddenly get sent back again."
Whether I made it back or not, I'd just try not to die.
I headed home with that resolve to survive freshly steeled. A handful of people were still in the park. An old man standing in front of the few pieces of exercise equipment. A young woman jogging the paths. A middle-aged woman on a phone call, a little too loud. And a girl with deep silver hair, sitting on a bench.
...She wasn't there a minute ago, was she?
The silver-haired girl sat with her eyes closed, as if she'd been in that spot all along. A faint, contented smile rested on her face, like she was simply enjoying the cool spring breeze. Her black off-shoulder dress fluttered with the wind, and her hair drifted slowly along with it.
Are looks like this common here?
Faces so unreal I'd never seen anything like them in my life. And yet, in this place, even I had one.
Is it because of powers?
There were villains who'd gotten prettier that way, after all.
Just as I was about to walk past the girl with the deep silver hair—
Something tapped my back. Something pressed there.
"Eek—?!"
Something sharp jabbed me out of nowhere. I spun around in shock.
The deep-silver-haired girl with vivid red eyes was looking at me, smiling like it was all a joke.
...What?
When I stared at her, flustered, she lifted a hand and waved.
"Hi?"
"Who... are you?"
"I'm Alice. Nice to meet you."
The girl who'd dropped straight into casual speech at a first meeting introduced herself as Alice.
Alice... That was an awfully familiar name.
"Did I startle you, poking you like that?"
"What? Y-yes... you did."
"Sorry. I wanted to talk to you."
Alice rose from the bench and came toward me.
"Do you... know me?"
Standing in front of me, she was a little taller than I was.
Alice... I'm sure that name is somewhere in my memory...
What was this feeling—right on the tip of my mind, and still refusing to surface? Someone who knew this body?
"You don't know me, but I know you."
I don't know her... so she isn't an acquaintance, at least.
Then this thing that almost comes up and doesn't...
In that instant, a single figure flashed through my head.
No way... it can't be, right?
I forced the sudden, uneasy thought away.
"I-is that so? Haha..."
That didn't mean I could ignore the unease. An old martial arts novel I'd read once said to beware of women, children, and the elderly. In a world where you could be walking along and suddenly take a blade through the heart, you survived by treating every variable as a threat.
"Yeah. That's why I wanted to talk to you."
"I-I don't remember anything. And... my parents are waiting at home, so I should go...! We can talk later—"
I laughed awkwardly and tried to slip away on the most natural excuse I could manage.
A hand caught me. Held in Alice's small grip, I couldn't move another step.
"Hmm... that's strange. You really should be seeing me for the first time... so why does it feel like you know me?"
"Huh...? Wh-what do you mean?"
It seemed she really was the person I'd guessed. I did my best to act like I knew nothing, but—
"Look. If this were the first time, you wouldn't have any reason to be scared."
My body was far too honest.
"Th-that's because I'm scared of meeting people."
"Then you should have been scared from the start. You were looking at me, and then all at once your whole attitude changed."
Her vivid red eyes gleamed, unsettling. The playful smile was gone without a trace. She looked at me with a blank expression cold enough to be cruel.
...This is dangerous.
Goosebumps rose all over me.
If I just turn and run...
If she really was who I thought, running fast would only be the shortest road to dying. And with this weak body, running would only end the same way it had yesterday.
"...How interesting."
Her cold gaze swept over me. The bright, childlike lilt she'd kept until now sank all at once.
This is bad.
I darted my eyes around. I had to get away somehow. Stay like this, and something was going to happen—kidnapping, murder, anything.
Please...!
And then, behind Alice, someone came into view. A familiar woman, with brilliant blond hair and violet eyes.