The Vitality I Never Felt
Crunch— I tried to tear at the barrier made of wooden planks. But my strength was still lacking, and I couldn't rip away the planks held firmly in place by superpowers. The force was nothing like the planks that had flown at me earlier. There were four people beyond this barrier. One or two of them. Or maybe all three or four were superpowered. Some of them had shifted from moving the powder to erecting this barrier instead. Thanks to that, the range of floating powder around me had shrunk. Even so, I didn't have much time left. I had to break through somehow, right now.
Creak— The gaps between the planks were small, but my soft, flexible body was more than enough to squeeze through them. The durable clothing made it uncomfortable, but it wasn't impossible to force my way in.
"Hurry up and stop him!!"
The villain in front, who saw me pushing through, shouted and focused the planks toward me. They blocked and blocked again. A few struck my face or wrapped around my body. Crunch— I couldn't afford too many injuries. My mind knew that. Too many injuries would be bad. But why was I doing this? My body wouldn't calm down from its excited state.
They were so focused on maintaining the barrier that they didn't use their powers directly on me. If someone who knew what my power was had given the order, they wouldn't have dared use their abilities on me so carelessly. "Hurry up and stop him!" they urged in panic. But it was already too late. Most of my body had slipped through the planks, and I could feel another superpowered person trying to move the barrier, but their powers tangled with the others and weakened instead. Only my ankle remained stuck. Still—
Whoosh— I twisted my ankle, the shoe slipped off, and I pulled free through the gap. Now I could get out. Without even taking a deep breath, I started sprinting forward. They hurriedly activated their telekinesis on me. They were flustered. I could see it on their faces. They should have lifted the powder to block me instead. Their expressions showed they knew what my power was and had avoided using theirs directly until now, which meant they had plenty of information about me. But they didn't understand why that was important or why they had to be so careful.
Their telekinesis only gave slight resistance and couldn't stop me as I closed the distance with my ankle now free. Crack—! "This damn brat." The words echoed in my ears. Someone approached from the side and struck my head with something. The heightened senses that wouldn't fade made it easy to notice only after being hit. The blow was so strong that my head turned, and I couldn't see who had done it or with what. I felt dizzy. But it didn't hurt.
Crunch— I turned my head back to its original position. Then I reached out toward the direction the blow had come from and grabbed something. Crack—! They hit my head again, but this time there was only a slight tremor; my head didn't turn. I looked at the thug caught in my hand and threw him toward the villains. My strength had grown far beyond what it was at the start. After repeating [Regeneration] so many times, I now had enough power to hurl a grown man. The thug flew and stopped right in front of the villains. The barrier behind them crumbled a little too. They must have loosened their telekinesis slightly to catch the flying thug.
I ran past the airborne thug, using him to block their line of sight. Other thugs were starting to join in, so I had to deal with the villains first. I kept my mouth shut tight and charged straight into their midst. Maybe because there were so many people, or because they thought the attention would be focused here, there was no one around except the person floating above me under telekinetic influence. Thanks to that, I didn't have to bother distinguishing between them—they all wore the same clothes and had similar appearances.
I leapt at one of the villains, grabbed his collar with one hand, and slammed my other hand down on his face. Thud— I struck again. Thud— And again. Thud— Of course I wouldn't have gone this far if he didn't have powers, but he was a villain who could rejoin the fight later, so I had to make sure. Thud— One final blow, then I released his collar. I felt telekinesis trying to restrain me, but it didn't matter. Now the next one—
Thud—! Gah— Something struck my side. The impact didn't just push me sideways; it sent me flying across the ground. Then a foot stomped down on my prone body, pinning me in place. Kicks, rolls, and being crushed followed in quick succession. Had the villain changed the nature of his telekinesis? No, if he could do that, he would have from the start. Besides, this wasn't telekinesis. I had considered there might be another villain, but since none had appeared, I assumed there weren't any—or if there were, they weren't combat types. But of all things, it had to be a speed-type villain.
Still crushing my back, he shouted, "Hey! Bring that powder over here quick!" My ears were still ringing. I needed to get out of this situation fast, but everything was getting fuzzier. Sound, vision, thoughts. I could see the telekinetic villains releasing their powers and bringing the powder over. The plank barrier collapsed and the floating thugs dropped, confirming they had stopped using their abilities to focus on moving the powder instead. Other thugs and superpowered people arrived carrying white powder and sacks of it.
"Hey, you forgot the knife too." "You want me to tear this? Are you crazy?" My ringing ears cleared again. I twisted my arm behind me and grabbed the ankle of the leg pinning my back— Squeeze— "Ugh." The moment I grabbed it, he yanked his foot away, dropped to his knee to crush me down, grabbed the back of my head with his hand, and shoved my face hard into the ground. "Hey. We don't have time to mess around. Press down already!" The moment he finished speaking, someone grabbed my flailing ankle while another climbed onto my back. My one free arm was twisted behind me, still restrained from trying to grab the villain's ankle. No matter how much my strength had increased, resistance was meaningless with several people on top of me.
"Whew, this is getting manageable. Why is dealing with one guy so damn hard? Hey, bring me a knife." Rip— The villain who had been restraining me moved to the side and tore open one of the white powder sacks he had been sprinkling on me. I couldn't turn my head to see elsewhere, but I heard something tearing on the opposite side too. "Now pour it." I thrashed and shook my head. "You're resisting now? It's too late."
Whoosh— They began pouring the powder from the sacks. The powder itself wasn't very heavy. "Hey, you have to do it on bare skin. What the hell are you doing?" He grabbed the collar of my shirt with both hands and tugged hard. He must have been trying to tear it, but the clothing was too durable for that. Eventually he gave up and yanked it backward to expose my neck and back. The powder touched my bare skin, and I felt its coldness and strange sensation. When it had been scattered around, I hadn't noticed, but having this much in direct contact at once brought on a wave of discomfort. Still, I didn't understand their intent. At first I thought they were trying to drug me with something [Regeneration] couldn't keep up with. That would have explained everything. But what was this? The other thugs showed no hesitation about being exposed to it themselves as they poured it onto my skin. I thrashed in resistance. Finally my face scraped against the ground, creating a small wound. But the injury was far too minor to change the situation.
"Alright, this should be enough." Stab— Someone said that and drove a knife into my body. As expected, they had overlooked something crucial again. This level of injury was enough to turn things around. I began [Regeneration]. I felt power surging through my body. There was a subtle sensation mixed in, but it wasn't unpleasant. I planted my toes into the ground and lifted my heels. I took a breath, tensed my body, and tried to spring up using the momentum… That was how it should have gone. Power and vitality coursed through me, yet the expected result didn't happen. Wait… vitality? Had I ever felt vitality before? There had been many times I'd felt it due to psychological factors. But in a situation like this, there was no way psychological factors would make vitality surge like this, right? Thinking that and doubting it, one fact came to mind. Ever since I obtained this power… I had never once felt vitality. And I had possessed this power since birth, from the very first moment of my memories. That meant I had never felt what vitality was until now. Then what had I been mistaking for vitality all this time…? My heart pounded. An emotion I had never felt as a hero—yet somehow familiar—rushed over me. For the first time as a hero, my consciousness was fading not by my own will, but by someone else's. For the first time as a hero…