Heichi’s complexion, as he looked at Lee Heewoo, cooled as coldly as the ice-filled planet Triton. Guiding was flowing out from his guide. What that meant was only one thing.
Heewoo is a guide of Black Dwarf grade or higher who can perform guiding without contact.
On Epsilon, there were as many guides who were the pairs of the espers residing there as there were espers themselves. Heichi had also left Epsilon and traveled around numerous other planets, encountering countless guides. However, throughout history, guides who could perform guiding without contact were difficult to even confirm the existence of.
According to some lost records, there was mention that Black Dwarf guides could perform what was called radiation guiding—guiding without contact. However, as it had become difficult to find even Whites, let alone Blacks, in the current generation, the facts couldn’t be confirmed.
Therefore, on Epsilon, they always taught that one must make contact with a guide to receive guiding. Mid-grade and below espers, who had no need to know about Black guides, didn’t even know of the existence of radiation guiding.
Yet Heewoo had just now, probably without even knowing it himself, performed radiation guiding…….
“Did you know you were doing it?”
“Yes, yes? Wh-what……? But, um, Heichi-ssi……”
“I asked if you knew you were doing radiation guiding just now.”
Heichi was anxious. This was a tremendous matter not only for Heichi personally, but also as the admiral of Epsilon. To think his guide could perform radiation guiding.
On Epsilon, there were over tens of thousands of espers dying from lack of guiding. Young, capable espers would at least go out into space searching for guides, but espers who had missed their timing couldn’t even do that.
The number one cause of esper deaths on Epsilon was, above all else, ‘lack of guiding.’
However, the reason Heichi’s heart became anxious wasn’t for such reasons. It wasn’t a pure heart rejoicing as an admiral, as a ruler responsible for a planet, at meeting a guide with tremendous abilities. Heichi began to feel afraid for a moment.
If he was a Black Dwarf guide who could perform radiation guiding, any esper on Epsilon would cling to Heewoo.
This wasn’t a matter of preference. Could those who had walked through a desert their entire lives ignore an oasis when they encountered one and pass it by? All kinds of espers coveting his guide Heewoo, eyeing him, and even running off after stealing him were vividly drawn in Heichi’s mind. Crack—Heichi, who had been clenching his fist, belatedly realized that one of his middle fingers had broken.
Though his finger bone had been crushed, Heichi, who didn’t bat an eye, naturally hid that hand by putting it into his coat pocket. Having confirmed earlier that Heewoo had no immunity to injuries, Heichi didn’t make the same mistake.
“Radiation……? Guiding? Wh-what’s that? Did I, did I do something strange, something strange?”
“That’s not it……”
Heichi, who had stopped mid-speech, suddenly looked closely at Heewoo’s face. The tension in his facial muscles had sharply increased, and his gaze repeatedly avoided him. His oral cavity was closed while repeating minute trembling.
Only then did Heichi notice that his guide was afraid. It was far too late. He tried to think of the cause of that reaction, but there were so many candidates that Heichi couldn’t even dare to guess, so he could only utter these words in the end.
“Heewoo-ssi.”
“Y-yes……”
“Am I…… frightening?”
At that moment, Heewoo’s face crumpled completely. His eyes scrunched up, and moisture quickly filled the surface of his eyes where the black part was larger than the white. Seeing that, Heichi felt his breath stop with a thud.
“I’m sc-scared, just now, just……”
“Yes. Just now, just.”
“Heichi-ssi, your expression is also really, cold…… Today, today you already sliced everything up here and there at the convenience store, so I was already scared.”
Heichi wanted to pull his guide, who was trembling and saying he was scary, into his arms and hug him tightly. However, if he rashly made contact now, he couldn’t even guess what he might do, so Heichi just silently listened to Heewoo’s words without taking his hand out of his coat pocket.
“But, why are you making that expression? And also, why do you always speak so difficultly……”
“……Difficultly, meaning……”
“Lower body extremities, or whatever…… Outer covering, heat dissipation. Words like that…… can’t you not use them?”
Heewoo probably didn’t even know what he was saying right now. There was no cause and effect that Heichi could understand in the words he was rambling on about. However, Heichi, who right now couldn’t hug his guide nor had the wit to lead the conversation eloquently like AJ, immediately knelt before Heewoo.
“I won’t do it again.”
He’d heard it was the apology method most commonly used by Earthlings, specifically in the East Asian area where Heewoo lived. Kneeling and begging the other person. On Epsilon, such behavior was only shown when one was invaded and about to be beheaded, but Heichi didn’t care.
“I won’t act frightening again.”
“Why, why are you doing this, please stand up……”
Heewoo, who approached in a fluster, put his hand on Heichi’s shoulder and tried to lift him up. Heichi raised the hand with an intact index finger and grasped Heewoo’s hand that had landed on his shoulder. It was a complacent thought that since he’d been permitted contact up to the hands, this much should be okay.
“Heewoo-ssi.”
“……Yes?”
“I am an individual who is extremely clumsy with language and expression.”
“……”
Heichi also rambled his own story incoherently.
“Though it’s an insignificant ability, I awakened a special ability different from others at an early age, and therefore lived isolated from other esper individuals for a long time.”
Heichi suddenly recalled the narrow cylindrical pod he’d lived in when he was young. Heichi, who wasn’t from a distinguished family, had to be dragged to the Epsilon First Guard Esper Research Institute as soon as he awakened his Prime-grade ability.
However, Heichi, who had been excellent at self-control and emotional restraint since childhood, had never particularly thought it was difficult during that process. In reality, Heichi’s power was immense, and even intelligent esper researchers couldn’t uncover all of Heichi’s abilities.
Nevertheless, it was true that he had lived isolated from other individuals for a long time. After becoming an admiral through conquest wars of various planets afterward, due to his elevated rank, there were even fewer opportunities to come into contact with other espers.
“But please remember just this one thing. I cannot inflict any harm upon you.”
“……”
“So there is no need whatsoever to be afraid. Heewoo-ssi, I am……”
Heichi took a deep breath.
“I am a more fragile individual than anyone else before you.”
Heichi sometimes felt as if he were stripped naked when standing before Heewoo. The tremendous ability he’d awakened, the combat skills he’d accumulated until now, the overwhelming presence of controlling others and restraining himself—everything became futile only in front of Heewoo.
The most surprising thing was the fact that he did all of this first even though Heewoo hadn’t desired any of it. If Heewoo gave him an order, Heichi would unhesitatingly use his own ability to directly sever his own neck and offer it.
“So, please……”
“……”
“Please do not distance yourself from me.”
The sense of distance that opened up each time he feared Heichi made Heichi feel a more overwhelming terror than anything else.
* * *
“AJ. That bastard.”
“I’ve locked him in Detention Cell No. 1.”
Having finished his date with Heewoo and returned to the battleship, Heichi cast off his weak self and returned to his usual self as captain of the First Strategic Fleet. Unlike other times, he didn’t chatter on and on about his guide and headed straight to Detention Cell No. 1.
“Jupiter Team 1, Team Leader Dumor 127.”
Having arrived in front of the detention cell made as a solitary cell, Heichi looked at the esper beyond the translucent glass wall. His upper body was tightly bound with special handcuffs that suppressed an esper’s abilities, and his lower body was also restrained in a not much different state. A gag had also been inserted into his oral cavity so he could only breathe, but when Heichi spoke, the gag dropped down with a thud.
Dumor’s limbs weren’t intact because he’d been swept up in Heichi’s ability once and hadn’t even received proper treatment afterward. No matter how excellent the self-healing ability of a highest-grade esper, pain seemed difficult for him to endure as well, with beads of cold sweat dotting his forehead.
“That…… good, thing…… Were you, hiding it, alone……?”
As soon as his mouth was freed, Dumor spat out words as if he’d been waiting. At the provocative tone, Heichi unhesitatingly released his ability and constricted the surrounding air. As oxygen became scarce, Dumor’s face heated up in an instant.
“What, will you do…… I’ve, already…… ‘tasted’ it……”
Creak.
Heichi silently pressured Dumor a bit more with the surrounding air. At the same time, Dumor’s heated face gradually began to turn purple.
“Black…… Is it?”
However, the opponent was also a highest-grade physical enhancement esper. Generally, physical enhancement espers had greater adaptability and healing ability than other espers, so Dumor, who was among the highest grade, would also be excellent. With his face turned purple, Dumor laboriously spat out words.
“That…… guide…… Black……”
“AJ. The interrogation ends here.”
“Radiation, can, do it…… Knew how……”
Whoosh—The head of Heichi, who had been turning around, turned back toward Dumor. When their gazes met with his characteristic golden eyes, Dumor raised one corner of his mouth and said,
“I, won’t be, the end…… Surely……”
“Jupiter Team 1 Dumor.”
“……”
Step.
The hem of Heichi’s coat fluttered behind him. Heichi, who had been outside the glass wall, stood before the imprisoned Dumor beyond the glass wall in the blink of an eye. He looked down at Dumor with inorganic eyes and opened his mouth.
“He is my guide.”
“That can’t be……”
“No.”
Heichi, raising his finger, positioned his index finger over Dumor’s black eyes that had been looking at him. The index finger that had been pointing at his eyes with about 5mm of distance smoothly drew across about 1cm to the side.
Pshhh…….
A long laceration remained over Dumor’s eye. As he writhed in pain, Heichi added,
“He is mine and mine alone.”
