The Price of Sweets
I began to focus on Victor's words. My eyes diligently followed his rapidly moving hands. They moved at a blistering speed, leaving behind whipping afterimages, but if I focused with all my might, I could keep up without too much trouble.
"And the answer is?"
Victor's hands stopped. Watching the crackling blue currents slowly dissipate from his fingers, I confidently pointed to one side.
"Right here!"
"Correct."
Victor handed me a candy for getting it right. It was grape-flavored. I immediately unwrapped the candy and popped it into my mouth. A rich, sweet grape aroma burst across my tongue, bringing instant joy. A silly grin spread across my face, and I rubbed my cheeks as I nodded happily.
"Let's do more!" I said, eyeing the large bag of candy Victor was holding. There were still plenty left.
And so, the training resumed. A cycle of guessing right and wrong repeated. The speed kept ramping up, making my eyes incredibly tired. Rubbing my aching eyes, I whimpered.
"Isn't this way too fast?"
"You are fully capable of keeping up," Victor spoke with absolute confidence. I had no idea what he saw in me to make him think that.
With a tearful face, I stared blankly at the candies disappearing into Victor's mouth. The sound of his massive mouth crunching and pulverizing the candies echoed in my ears.
"That's so unfair."
"Let's take a break."
I let out a long sigh of relief at his words. My eyes were hurting too much to focus any longer, so the break came at the perfect time. *Crunch, crunch.* Victor, chewing on his candy, sat down on a plush mat and watched the others training. Stealing a glance at him, I crept over and sat down by his side.
My stealthy attempt to reach out and snatch a candy was thoroughly thwarted.
"Did you really think I wouldn't see that?" Victor said, smugly hoisting the candy bag high into the air. It was far too high for my short stature to reach.
My entire body trembled with frustration. Huffing to myself, I snapped my head away. *Fine, I won't eat it.*
"Jeff."
"Yes?"
Victor spoke to me while continuing to unwrap candies. One by one, they were fed into the meat grinder that was his mouth.
"When I told you to focus, I meant concentrating your ability into a single point."
"Huh?"
Concentrate my ability into a single point? After dropping that line, Victor stood up.
"I'm going to the restroom."
Victor walked off toward the restroom with rather brisk steps. He had definitely just given me a hint. Concentrating my ability.
Concentrate my ability into one place...
I began to channel my power just as Victor suggested. The blue electric field spreading over my palm began to shrink. The way it crackled and emitted tiny sparks of light was almost as cute as a puppy. I molded the current with both hands, shaping it into various forms as I pondered.
He couldn't have meant for me to use it normally. The purpose of this training wasn't to learn some run-of-the-mill application of my power either. What I needed was dynamic visual acuity to control high speeds. And reaction time.
I dispersed the current from my hands throughout my entire body. A blue light began to envelop me. Blue electricity crackled and surged along my hands and arms. My white hair began to flutter and rise. The electricity coursing through my body began to move faster than the speed of my brain's neural commands.
Standing up, I threw a punch into the empty air. *Whoosh, whoosh!* It wasn't a sound from my mouth, but the sound of my fist tearing through the air. So cool.
But this kind of application wouldn't be enough to pass Victor's training. I pulled the electricity dispersed throughout my body toward my heart. If I were in the Jeff Origin state that I used with Rain, I wouldn't need to resort to this, but I wasn't right now. The electricity gathering around my heart formed a circular ring. A spherical orb spun slowly, as if shielding my heart. I would artificially replicate that sensation. Taking a shallow breath, I stimulated my heart.
*Zap!*
“Jeff~ Jeff~”
A faint voice echoed. It was a familiar voice.
“Jeff~”
“Mmh...”
I sat up as a hand gently shook my shoulder. The blanket covering my body slid down, letting in the cool air.
“Shine?”
“Jeff.”
Shine was sitting beside the bed. I sniffed at a faint scent. As my senses gradually sharpened, my nose identified the smell. Medicine?
“You're awake.”
A white room. It was Rabin's Clinic. Why on earth was I here? As I sat there lost in thought with my mouth half-open, Shine handed me a small slip of paper.
“Victor left this for you.”
“Victor...?”
I carefully took the note. It rustled in my small palm. It was a half-hearted slip of paper, looking as though it had been carelessly torn from a small notebook. I immediately checked the contents.
Dumbass.
“What does it say?”
“He called me a dumbass.”
“Victor did?”
“Yeah.”
I nodded blankly. My memory was fuzzy. I couldn't remember what I had been doing just moments ago. The last scene I could recall was Victor greedily crunching on my candies.
Shine snatched the slip of paper from my hand. Just as the smile faded from Shine's face, Rabin handed me a vitamin.
“I heard you collapsed during training. If it gets too hard, you're always welcome to come here and rest.”
I nodded and popped the vitamin into my mouth.
“Ugh...”
An explosion of sourness assaulted my taste buds. Through my heavily squinted eyes, I saw Shine rising from her seat. I reached out and grabbed her hand.
“Shine.”
“Yes?”
“Where are you going?”
“To see Victor.”
“Why?”
“To show him who the real dumbass is.”
I frowned, racking my brain. My memories were starting to clear up.
“No, no. Victor didn't do anything wrong,” I shook my head quickly. My memory had fully returned. The dumbass was me. I had foolishly thought that if I stimulated my heart to beat faster, everything would slow down just like it did back then.
“I was the dumbass,” I said with a small sigh.
“Is Jeff a dumbass?”
“Yeah...”
I was an idiot and a fool. What would happen if you suddenly delivered a massive shock to a normal heart? The conditions were completely different from the Jeff Origin state. I recalled the sensation from back then. A colossal bolt of lightning had enveloped my entire body, so intense that it felt like electricity was flowing through my veins instead of blood. No, in that moment, I was lightning itself.
“How long was I out?”
“About two hours?”
“Ah... What about today's training then?”
“Victor said you don't have to come back today.”
I clutched my head and let out a sigh.
“You can just do well tomorrow,” Shine stroked my hair, comforting me.
After leaving the clinic with Shine, I headed straight back to our room. Rain was sitting alone on the floor, drawing.
“Jeff! Shine!” Scrambling up from the floor, she ran over to greet us with delight. “Did your training go well?”
Instead of answering Rain's question, I gave an awkward laugh.
“Victor didn't do anything mean to you, did he?”
“No. Victor was actually pretty nice.”
“Nice? Victor?” Skeptical of my answer, Rain crossed her arms and turned her head. “You're totally being tricked.”
“Tricked?”
“Victor is not nice at all.”
“Really?”
It felt like the Victor I met and the Victor Rain knew were two completely different people. I sighed and walked over to the refrigerator. I wanted a cold cola and some delicious chocolate.
“Ah, Jeff.”
“Yeah?”
“Amy said she's cutting back on our snacks from now on.”
The shocking news hit me just as I opened the fridge door. As I blinked in sheer disbelief, Rain added, “She said she's only going to feed us healthy things.”
I hurriedly scanned the inside of the refrigerator. The fridge, which used to be packed with candies and chocolates, had been completely cleared out and replaced with all kinds of leafy greens.
I gasped. The shock was so massive that my legs gave out. I collapsed right there on the floor.
“What about... the cola...?”
I slowly shifted my gaze to the spot where the cola was always kept. There was no cola. Instead, there was only a plastic bottle filled with some bizarre, green vegetable juice-looking liquid.
Only now did I truly understand what Victor meant when he said those candies were my snacks for the day. I hadn't thought much of it at the time. Once I get back to the room, there'll be tons of delicious treats anyway, so why obsess over a few candies? That was what I had thought.
But Victor's words were the absolute truth. Unless this entire situation was a dream, it meant the only snacks allowed to me were the candies I could win from training with Victor.
“No way!” I sprang up from the floor and rushed over to Shine. “Shine! What about the credit card?!”
“Amy took it.”
Amy was thorough. She had meticulously stripped away every single one of my sweet treats. There was absolutely nothing a small, powerless, and fragile girl like me could do.
Letting out a sigh, I trudged back to the refrigerator. It wasn't just vegetables inside; there were sweet fruits like apples. That was my saving grace. I grabbed a bright red apple and bit into it. *Chomp, chomp.* I chewed with pure spite. Sweet juice burst forth with a crisp crunch. It was delicious.
I pondered as I ate the apple. What was the reason for today's failure? Victor had thrown me a proper hint. I had simply misinterpreted it.
“Jeff. Is the apple good?”
“Yeah.”
Shine showed interest in the apple I was eating. I handed the half-eaten apple to her. Shine poked her tongue out and gently licked the exposed flesh of the apple. Her small tongue moved as if carefully evaluating a fruit she was tasting for the first time. I couldn't tear my eyes away from her bright red tongue as it flicked.
“Here, you can have it back.”
After licking the apple, Shine took a small bite of the flesh and handed it back to me. It seemed she didn't quite care for it.
“Uh, okay...”
I took the apple back with both hands. Shine stared at me intently with a smile, as if urging me to eat it. Fawning under Shine's intense gaze, I offered an awkward smile and finally bit into the apple. *Crunch.* The wet, lukewarm juice of the apple flowed into my mouth.