Chapter 1: The Second Nineteen

Chapter 1

It was the fleeting moment between a ripe nineteen and an unseasoned twenty. That day, a graduation ceremony, was meant to mark the end of familiar things and herald new beginnings.

“It’s… it’s collapsing!”

“Everyone, get out of the way!”

Who could have known that such a momentous day, once filled with tranquility, would devolve into nothing short of a battlefield?

Only minutes prior, the class representative had been delivering a speech on the podium; now, half of their body was gone.

Boom—!

Crash—!

My head spun from the force of the explosion. As parts of the ceiling began to collapse, red warning lights flashed erratically from every direction, disorienting my vision. I nearly got buried under the debris, but a classmate grabbed my arm and pulled me, allowing me to stumble back to my feet.

‘What… what is happening…?’

No clear answer returned to my muttered question. The surrounding chaos was a living hell, and it seemed no one truly understood what was unfolding.

Suddenly, through the half-destroyed gymnasium, a blue flame flickered.

“Look! The Esper class is here!”

“Idiot, can’t you tell? One of them must have gone berserk.”

“What? Who went berserk?”

“I don’t know, just run!”

Amidst the murmuring sounds around me, my gaze met a pair of eyes that had turned blue, like the flame itself. But only for a moment. The blue-eyed Esper casually gestured towards where my classmates and I stood.

Thump—!

Simultaneously propelled by an incomprehensible force, a massive steel beam crashed into the spot where we had just been standing. It was an ambiguous moment: had the Esper saved our lives, or had they intentionally directed the beam there?

My questions were fleeting. A deafening explosion from directly behind me threatened to shatter my senses.

“Geum-iya, snap out of it. Sogum!”

“Wh-what do we do? Someone call a healing Esper!”

“Where are all the teachers?”

The urgent cries of my classmates blended with the ringing in my ears, making my head swim. My once clear vision flickered, as if blinking out.

Even as I lost consciousness, the afterimage of the Esper lingered, sending a strange tingle through me. Everything else had faded into a blur, yet I felt certain I would never forget that blue gaze I had met.

That was the last moment I remembered of the graduation ceremony.

****

Guides and Espers constitute roughly ten percent of the global population. They typically manifest their abilities during adolescence.

Upon manifesting their powers, Espers and Guides were primarily tasked with handling anomalous phenomena occurring worldwide. However, due to annual surges in Esper rampages—instances where those who had awakened their powers couldn’t fully control them—the concerned world government decided to establish specialized academies in each nation to prevent such incidents.

The Special Abilities Academy.

Having ‘Special Abilities’ in the name was already something, but to be an academy specifically for *them*? As a student who had to attend, it was lamentable. The name was excessively blunt, as if advertising that it was an institution solely for those with powers.

Regardless of its origins, this institution, commonly known as SAA, became a place where Espers and Guides under the age of nineteen enrolled to receive compulsory education.

Initially, there was opposition from Utill, an organization dedicated to protecting those with special abilities. Utill argued that the purpose was to gather and monitor those with powers. Yet, the SAA’s actual objective—to isolate the ‘ticking time bombs’ among the general populace—meant Utill’s claim wasn’t entirely unfounded.

The SAA, as if to prove a point, remained undeterred by the various controversies. It offered exceptional conditions: all students, regardless of their rank, were admitted through special recruitment, received free tuition and meals, and were housed in two-person dorm rooms.

The benefits didn’t stop there. After successfully completing the curriculum, which was divided into elementary, middle, and high school sections, students could register with government-approved centers and operate officially.

It was advantageous for the nation to cultivate exceptional individuals with powers, and for the students, receiving high-quality, systematic education made it a profitable endeavor in many respects.

Because it was a symbiotic policy, the SAA was able to grow into an excellent educational institution without significant issues, even to this day.

Of course, just as shadows are inevitable behind the sunlit facade, this place also harbored a darker side.

Much like the utterly absurd situation I was currently facing.

“This… this isn’t a mistake, is it?”

Having just turned nineteen with the new year… Ah, perhaps it would be more accurate to say it was my *second* nineteen, having died once and returned.

In any case, now nineteen again, I was reconfirming the guiding pair matching sheet in my hand for the third time.

B-rank Guide Sogum / S-rank Esper Yoon Geon-woo

Guiding Match Rate: 94%

A match rate of 94% was an unbelievable figure, even staring right at it. How could I possibly continue to deny the truth I had so desperately tried to ignore for the past week?

‘It’s just like the dream…’

After the explosion at the graduation ceremony, when I first opened my eyes, I thought I had merely woken from a long, terrible nightmare. The familiar dorm room ceiling. My roommate’s bed, empty for winter break. Everything before my eyes was precisely as it had been a year ago, save for the copious nosebleed that had drenched the white sheets.

Yet, a week later, I found myself doubting whether what I’d dismissed as a terrible nightmare wasn’t, in fact, something I had actually experienced. Every moment I’d believed to be a dream was repeating itself, word for word, without a single deviation.

Moreover, a suspicious new ability, one I hadn’t possessed before, had been added to the mix.

Temporary Pair Confirmed

My mind was a tangled mess. I squeezed my eyes shut, looking at the words written at the bottom of the paper. ‘Confirmed’ by whose authority, exactly?

Typically, when one reached their final year, they were given the opportunity to select a ‘temporary’ pair based on matching rates. While it was customary for Espers and Guides to form a pair by mutual agreement, the SAA had, once again, taken matters into its own hands.

‘No. Not that bastard Yoon Geon-woo again…’

Espers, those who manifested and utilized unique abilities from their internal energy, possessed extraordinary powers. However, with each use, toxins accumulated steadily within their bodies, escalating the risk of rampage.

Guides were the sole beings capable of purifying an Esper’s body, tainted by these toxins, and preventing their rampages. Thus, it was a mandatory rite of passage for graduating Espers and Guides-in-training to form ‘temporary’ pairs and become accustomed to this system for their educational completion.

However, if the pair was Yoon Geon-woo, it was an entirely different matter.

Holder of the youngest ability manifestation record.

The only S-rank Esper in the academy, and one of only three rare S-rank Espers in the entire country.

Yoon Geon-woo, a top-tier Esper adorned with a myriad of dazzling epithets.

Yet, he possessed one fatal flaw: he was a guiding refuser with a fiery temper.

As an S-rank Esper with immense power, he required regular guiding for his safety. However, for some unknown reason, he rejected the guiding of all Guides, regardless of their rank or match rate.

Perhaps because of this, even before my regression, I had the painful memory of our pair being unilaterally dissolved by Yoon Geon-woo after only about a month.

“See the percentage there? We checked the matching rates for the entire high school division, not just the central office, before making this placement.”

The SAA Vice Principal pointed to the match rate written on the sheet once more with a fingertip.

‘I know, I have eyes. I just wanted to *pretend* I didn’t.’

“Is this really acceptable? I’m B-rank, how can I possibly care for an S-rank…”

Suppressing my complicated feelings, I uttered the same response as before. Of course, the SAA Vice Principal’s answer would likely be identical, but this was a sort of reconfirmation process.

“Among the Guides without a pair, you are the only one with a match rate over 90% with Esper Yoon Geon-woo. With a figure like that, even with a difference in rank, it falls within the scope of what can be managed with intensive, repetitive guiding.”

Oh, of course. The Vice Principal delivered the anticipated response. While their tone was smooth and friendly, peeling back the layers revealed it to be utter nonsense. This particular Vice Principal, always sporting an inscrutable smile, made it impossible to gauge their true thoughts.

“I think that’s far too much of a gamble…”

“Why, are you worried you won’t do well? The first time is always difficult, but with practice, you’ll become proficient.”

“You’re… you’re talking about guiding, right?”

“Haven’t you learned? That a Guide’s most important virtue is to purify an Esper’s body.”

‘Is he out of his mind?’ Even if we’re in the graduating class and temporary pairing is allowed, we’re still students. For the school’s Vice Principal to say something like this seemed utterly inappropriate.

‘Even hearing it again, it’s preposterous.’

Naturally, I had mastered all the basic guiding protocols through the previous curriculum. However, having no experience with intensive guiding, the Vice Principal’s proposition was understandably difficult to accept.

In the past, I would have nodded weakly at this point, but now, anger inexplicably simmered within me.

“Well, in a world where I’m busy just trying to protect myself…”

My nerves frayed, I retorted without backing down. The Vice Principal’s eyebrows twitched, as if surprised by my reaction.

It was a minor act of defiance, but it brought a small thrill of satisfaction.

“And even if we use the method you suggested, me alone caring for an S-rank Esper presents a problem.”

“What problem would that be?”

“While the quality of guiding might be good due to the high match rate, the absolute quantity will be insufficient. If Esper Yoon Geon-woo starts using his abilities extensively, the guiding deficiency will become even more severe.”

At my timid resistance, the Vice Principal’s eyes sparkled with what seemed like interest. It was still a goddamn infuriating attitude, like watching the final struggle of a fish caught in a net.

“So?”

“With this much of a rank difference, even for a single field mission, at least three guiding sessions would be necessary. It’s incredibly inefficient.”

“Since you know the method, why not just implement it?”

“Pardon?”

When I asked again, surprised, the Vice Principal lightly scanned my entire body, a serpentine smile playing on their lips.

“Three times a day. And if that’s still not enough, then do more, wouldn’t you agree?”

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