Familiar, Yet Unfamiliar
Queens, New York, is a complex place.
There are high-income, predominantly white neighborhoods.
There are low-income areas populated mostly by Hispanics and Black people.
There are countless factories, and just as many offices.
And Hope's workshop was located in the basement of an abandoned factory in the Queens industrial complex.
'Well, the exterior doesn't look much different now than it did in the future.'
A rusted shutter and sign.
A faded "For Lease" notice clinging to the chain-link fence.
The only thing it had going for it was a creepy atmosphere.
Rrrrrrrumble—!
"Get in."
Hope walked into the space as if she owned it, confidently throwing open the basement door.
And then.
"...Huh."
The interior was a stark contrast to the outside.
Tools lined the entire wall, and mechanical arms slid along rails mounted on the ceiling.
Whirrrrr—!
"Just so you know, don't touch anything. You'll die if you mess up."
Dismantled drones and exoskeleton frames lay on one side.
On a desk in the corner, dozens of monitors were lined up, simulating her gear.
'...Nice.'
I genuinely liked it.
Her workshop in my past life... hadn't felt very human.
It had always smelled of blood and burnt metal.
And instead of failed prototypes, it was filled with the personal effects of the people she had given gear to—mementos of the dead.
But right now, it was still just a workshop.
A pure workshop with no flaws in sight.
I really didn't mind this at all.
"I am well aware."
With that, I slowly followed her inside.
Then.
Thud—!
"..."
The workshop door I had just walked through slammed shut automatically.
Click, whirrr—!
At the same time, the mechanical arms moved in perfect unison.
Hope pointed them right at me and spoke.
"Strip."
"Excuse me?"
"I need to take your measurements to make the suit. Or do you want to wear some poorly fitting Pax gear and die?"
...Right, I knew this would happen.
That was exactly why I hadn't wanted to come here.
Well, it wasn't like I had veto power, so I slowly took off my clothes.
Creak, click.
"Here, this is a measurement suit. Throw it on."
"Will do."
I put on the clothes she handed me.
"Now, go over there."
Just like in my past life, I walked toward the testing area.
Then.
"Alright, starting now."
Vrooom—Boom—!
"...?!"
A plasma bullet, more than capable of killing a man, grazed past my head.
"...Sigh."
Fortunately, unlike in my past life, there were fewer drones.
'But one slip-up, and I'm still dead.'
I was reminded once again that this woman was definitely not normal.
Of course, I already knew she was like this, and I had dodged it using my ability.
"...What is the meaning of this?"
I was still taken aback, but to her, this was just part of the "process" and "verification."
"You said you only see it when you're in danger."
"So I made it actually dangerous."
"I would have died if I hadn't dodged."
"But you did dodge. Good to know your precognition isn't a lie."
"..."
She didn't seem particularly impressed.
At the same time.
"Now, this is where the real work begins."
Whirrrrr—!
"...Whew."
Dozens of drones began overheating their barrels.
Boom—!
I twisted my entire body to dodge the barrage of plasma beams fired by the drones.
"Hup!"
Then.
"Hmm, good. Let's see a bit more."
The drones entered cloaking mode.
Thrummmm—!
The deafening roar of massive speakers filled the room, completely drowning out the sound of the drones.
'Hiding their forms, hiding their sounds. She wants me to dodge purely using my ability.'
Hope wanted to grasp the exact limits of my power.
Verifying my precognition and seeing how far it could go—this harsh testing process hadn't been a pleasant experience in my past life either.
But still.
"Can I break the drones?"
"If you can."
All the more reason for me to put in the effort and give her the data she wanted.
[Visualizing the future.]
The trajectories of the drones' attacks.
Their flight paths.
And the movements of the mechanical arms that were about to strike.
"Hup...!"
I immediately twisted my body to dodge the attack of the drone directly in front of me.
Crunch...!
I grabbed the drone in my hand and slammed it into another one.
Crash—!
"Next."
I grabbed the bundle of wires hanging from the wrecked drone.
Whoosh, whoosh!
Swinging it like a flail, I smashed the drones targeting me one after another.
Crash—!
"That last drone remaining. Should I break it, or leave it alone?"
When I pointed directly at the drone aiming at my back, Hope spoke, sounding utterly dumbfounded.
"That's enough."
The drones froze in unison, and the noise from the speakers cut out.
But her next words were quite unexpected.
"Scrap the reactive suit."
"...? Why is that?"
I trusted her judgment completely.
Hope was crazy, but her gear never lied.
And she hated nothing more than someone dying because of a flaw in her equipment.
That was why I couldn't understand.
In my past life, she had recommended the reactive suit, and I had worn it.
Thanks to that, I survived multiple times.
But I had only survived.
I hadn't saved everyone I wanted to save.
Why had her decision changed this time?
Hope immediately provided the answer.
"It's inefficient for you."
"...Is that so?"
"You see danger. And you dodge it. You could predict everything even with your eyes covered and ears blocked."
"That is correct."
"So the suit doesn't have much to do."
Hope frowned in annoyance.
"A reactive suit is gear meant to handle near-death crises. It's not a bad piece of equipment. It's quite useful under the right conditions."
'...And indeed it was.'
I swallowed the thought.
"But it's overkill for you. Didn't you say you need to 'rehabilitate' someone? That crazy bitch."
"..."
"If you were just going to operate alone and beat the crap out of every goddamn villain you saw, I would've recommended the reactive suit. But that's not the case here."
"...Ah."
"Especially since your movements are already tailored to your ability. Putting a reactive suit on you might actually throw off your rhythm."
Only then did I fully understand her point.
"I see. I will need... other things, then."
"Exactly. What you need... are tools."
Clack—!
With those words, she manipulated the mechanical arms to slide open a drawer on the ceiling.
"Stun gun, smoke bombs, flashbangs, a grappling hook, emergency patches, an independent communicator, mini-drones, disposable EMP bombs... I'm going to cram all of this into a tactical coat."
"Is that possible?"
"Three days for the finished product."
Hope tossed a black coat onto the workbench with a mechanical arm.
"Is it impossible to get it today?"
"Today... only the prototype. Sit over there. It'll be done soon."
She sat me down on a chair in the corner.
Screeech—!
Then, the four mechanical arms attached to her back sprang to life.
"Hmm, I think adding a heat-shielding film and dispersion fibers should do it."
She ripped open the coat's lining and embedded a thin metal frame.
"Let's add this too."
A small launcher went into the inner wrist.
"Ah, right. Need to do this as well."
A modular pouch was attached to the waist.
"The communicator... Hmm, should I add a wiretapping function for now?"
An independent communicator was placed inside the collar.
And when the entire process was finished, she held up my coat, inspecting it from various angles.
"This should do it. Here, try it on."
She thrust it toward me.
'I never saw this in my past life.'
On the outside, it looked like a perfectly ordinary coat.
Thud.
But when I actually put it on, it felt quite heavy.
Since it was just a prototype, there were some rough edges in both design and performance, but...
Shhhk...
The sensation when I tested the launcher on my wrist was...
"Hmm."
Not bad.
"Come back in three days. It's missing a few features right now, and I don't like the design."
"I will do that."
"And if you get into a real fight, come straight back."
"For a gear check?"
"Your body too."
"My body?"
"If you're wearing my gear, your body is part of the equipment."
Hope looked up at me with her signature dead eyes.
"I need to see where you break so I can compensate for it when I make the next suit."
"...Understood."
As expected, Hope was highly capable.
To make something like this in just a few hours.
When I thought about how a woman like her had died so suddenly in my past life... it felt incredibly tragic.
But it wouldn't happen in this life.
She would survive.
Because I was here.
Because I knew the future.
I would prevent such things from ever happening.
Location: Bank of United Tower
Incident: Robbery in progress. Five awakened hostiles.
[Immediate backup requested.]
I will resolve this perfectly.
"Ha, speak of the devil."
"Well, that's just how New York is."
"Oh, and by the way, that coat collects combat data. Make sure you come back alive."
Hope immediately added.
"...Actually, even if you die, don't ruin the coat."
I chuckled at her words and replied, "I'll try my best."
With that, I left the workshop, wearing gear different from my past life.
Even after the door closed, Hope stood in place for a long time.
"..."
The monitors in the workshop still displayed the records of the test from moments ago.
The time elapsed between danger detection and precognition activation.
The delay between precognition and the actual evasion.
The angle of his wrists.
The tension in his muscles.
Even his grip strength at the moment he grabbed the drone's wires while dodging the plasma bullets.
Hope scanned all the data with cold eyes that held a strange, subtle thrill.
At first, she had thought he was just a bizarre client.
A crazy bastard who belonged to Pax but didn't trust them, claiming he would survive by Great America's side.
But he wasn't.
"...Interesting."
There were plenty of strong people.
Plenty of fast ones, too.
But someone who knew their own weaknesses so precisely, and sought to cover them with gear, was rare.
No... almost non-existent.
Hope tapped Hajun's vital signs on the screen with her fingertip.
His heart rate graph was beating in a steady rhythm.
Watching it made her feel strangely annoyed.
There were still too many things she didn't know about that body.
How much it could endure.
Where it would start to break.
What kind of gear would keep it alive the longest.
She wanted to verify all of it.
"Don't die," Hope muttered softly.
"I haven't seen everything your body can do yet."