Chapter 52: Into the Fray

“You must keep your promise.

If anything even remotely bad happens to my brother,

I’ll kill everyone in the Academy first.”

“…Hey, what kind of brutal threat is that…

Haah… with your current skill level, you don’t stand a chance.”

“That’s something we’ll find out once we try.

Don’t mistake what you’ve seen for the full extent of my power.”

Oh Sung-gyu looked at me with an exhausted expression and shook his head.

But I was serious.

If this man failed to keep the promise he made with me, they would pay the exact same price.

Even I couldn’t properly gauge how much power I was capable of using.

“No warrants.

No tracking.

Just leave him alone so he can live like someone who doesn’t exist.”

“How many times do I have to tell you I’ll do that?

I don’t know how you ended up exactly like your brother.”

“…What did my brother say?”

“He just said you’re both equally vicious, damn it.

Stop nitpicking.

Unless you want to get hit again.”

This man called Oh Sung-gyu seemed better than I had expected.

His words and fists were rough, but I could vaguely understand why my brother said he was someone I could trust.

He was fundamentally different from people who approached with hypocrisy and lies.

Even if his kindness came with an ulterior motive, it made him easier to deal with.

“Don’t cause trouble at the Academy, got it?

If you mess up, it’ll reach my ears no matter what.

Keep that in mind.”

“You should make sure you don’t cause trouble yourself.”

“Hey—!

You little bastard!

Are you trying to ruin my marriage prospects?

Where do you see an ‘old man,’ huh?!

I’m twenty-eight, damn it!”

Yeah, total boomer.

The way he flared up at the mention of age said it all.

Twenty-eight my ass.

More like thirty-eight.

I let Oh Sung-gyu’s raging voice go in one ear and out the other.

“…Anyway, especially that ability of yours.

Use it at the bare minimum.

If you use it recklessly, it’ll cause serious problems.

I’ll scout you into our team in your final semester, so don’t draw attention and just lie low.”

Oh Sung-gyu kept warning me repeatedly while we drove toward the Academy.

My brother had said something similar, so I intended to follow that advice.

There was no way my brother’s words could be wrong.

“…This is the Academy?”

I was supposed to come here with my brother,

but I ended up coming alone.

A sense of unease still lingered in my heart.

I wasn’t confident I could endure things properly without him.

As I entered the campus filled with tall, luxurious buildings, my confidence shrank even further.

But… I still had to endure it.

Here, I would learn as much as possible and reclaim my brother, Jin Se-hyun, in my own way.

No matter what it took.

Thud!

The moment I drove my fist into his abdomen,

the guy went flying several meters and slammed into the wall.

“What?

You’re a B-rank physical enhancement type,

but does it piss you off to get beaten by a C-rank?”

I could never say I was glad my brother was gone,

but for now, it felt like a relief.

There was no longer any reason to avoid fighting out of fear that my brother would be hurt by it.

I could rampage as much as I wanted, true to my nature.

Even now, when some idiot tried to establish dominance over the latecomer, I answered him immediately with my fists.

“W-what…!

Aren’t you a light-type esper?!

Cough—!

B-blood…!”

“You’d better go to the infirmary fast.

Unless you want to die with your organs ruptured.”

To be honest,

this kind of real fight suited me better than structured sports like judo.

“If you want to keep coming at me, go ahead.

The next one gets his head blown off first.”

…My brother would probably be horrified if he saw me like this.

But I didn’t care anymore.

I would never stand in front of him again as a weak child.

If I could, I would become even stronger.

So that I could protect my brother, no matter whether the enemy was a monster or something else entirely.

“That guy’s completely insane…!

Run!”

That was the initiation, I guess.

It was even more underwhelming than when I joined my high school judo club.

Back then, something similar had happened,

and I struggled a lot to resolve it without letting my brother find out.

“Yip!”

“…Go inside, Poppy.

They said pets have to stay in the dorms at the Academy.”

Sigh… this damn puppy.

For some reason, it just wouldn’t leave my side.

Since there was no one else to take care of it, bringing it to the Academy was inevitable,

but it kept trying to stick close even during lectures and practical training.

Pets were strictly prohibited by regulation,

but Poppy skillfully avoided people’s eyes and wandered around.

It only showed itself in front of me when no one else was around.

“You… be honest.

You know where my brother is, don’t you?”

Shake, shake.

“You’ve got a good nose.

Can’t you find him no matter where he is?”

“…Phew….”

…Don’t sigh.

I’m in a mood where I might just rip your mouth open.

When I shot it a slightly sharp glare, Poppy yapped and babbled nonstop.

I couldn’t understand it properly,

but it seemed to be saying it couldn’t find him.

I hadn’t expected much anyway.

If it were possible, Poppy wouldn’t have gone days without eating and fallen into depression.

This little guy… really liked my brother too.

“…Um, J-Jae-yul-nim….”

“Nim?

Aren’t you five years older than me?”

“Ah, s-sorry!

I’m really sorry…

But it’s practice time,

so they said to hurry and c-come….”

I had no idea why he was so scared.

Still, after showing my strength a few times with my fists,

the annoying incidents gradually stopped happening,

which was a relief.

“Today, we’ll be learning basic long-range attack techniques.

One by one, come forward and hit the target placed twenty-five meters ahead.

Once you’re done, I’ll coach you on any issues.”

The agent in charge of the lecture looked quite skilled at a glance.

I couldn’t gauge his exact ability,

but the unusually cold air around him suggested he was probably an ice-type user.

I sat back and casually watched the long-range espers aim at the targets and use their abilities.

Watching them made me sleepy.

How were they supposed to hunt monsters with attacks that weak?

Compared to the monsters I had faced,

those crude techniques wouldn’t even leave a scratch.

“Good job.

From now on, practice shooting with more power so you can pierce through the target.

Next… student Seon Jae-yul.”

I almost fell asleep.

Perhaps because it was the first time I was showing my ability,

or because I joined the semester late,

countless eyes clung to me.

Even as I walked to the designated spot,

I repeated it over and over in my head.

Weak.

Weaker.

As weak as possible.

For now, I would practice using minimal power, just as my brother had told me.

“…What is that…?

Light?

Was there even a type like that?”

“It’s probably electricity.

There’s no such thing as a light-type esper.”

“Shh, quiet!

Let him concentrate.”

Ignoring the noisy chatter,

I focused all my attention on forming the light at the tip of my outstretched finger,

making it as thin, narrow, and small as possible.

Surprisingly,

it was incredibly easy to shape it exactly how I wanted.

Something that had never worked when my brother was in front of me.

Shooo—!

BOOM!

The needle-thin light blooming from my fingertip vanished,

and the target twenty-five meters away disappeared without a trace.

Not even fragments remained.

It completely evaporated,

as if it had never existed in the first place.

“……”

The training ground fell into complete silence.

…I think I need to practice reducing my power even more.