Before Chris could even finish speaking, Yuri spoke like an order along with a chin gesture.
At those words, Chris hesitated. Both his arms were firmly bound with cable ties. At this rate, his front legs would break off when he transformed. Even as a human he was large, but it was nothing compared to when he became a wolf.
The Yuri before his eyes wouldn’t be unaware of this. However, it didn’t seem like a mafioso would accommodate a prisoner’s circumstances one by one.
‘If my arms break, I’ll have difficulties when escaping.’
Chris bit his lip.
“Could you loosen the cable tie a bit?”
The calm tone sounded as if he were asking to have a book on the shelf passed to him. Yuri quietly watched such a Chris, then answered.
“It won’t be necessary.”
It was a rather gentle tone.
“If you’re Danil, you won’t be able to transform in the first place, and if you’re not Danil…”
Yuri trailed off. It felt like he was deliberately omitting the rest to leave room for imagination.
Whatever happened to Chris Northern Light’s arms if he wasn’t Danil, it was none of Yuri Sobolev’s concern.
It felt like his heart was dying blackly.
Chris hardened his lips. If he wanted, transforming into a wolf wasn’t difficult. Though his arms would break, if at least his legs were intact, he could somehow manage when running away.
The problem was that if proving he wasn’t Danil by showing his wolf transformation ability meant Yuri had no reason to keep him alive.
After failing to search for Gillian and Aparna, he hadn’t heard anything like White Night offering a deal. The reason Yuri Sobolev had stopped at detaining him rather than killing him must have been because of the slight possibility he might be Danil.
“Are you agonizing?”
Yuri looked at him with transparent purple eyes as if Chris’s inner thoughts were obvious.
“I was thinking you might not be in your right mind.”
Chris opened his mouth provocatively. A different light gleamed in Yuri’s eyes.
“It’s the first time you’re acting rebellious.”
Trying to grate on his nerves by yapping wretchedly was fresh, yet thinking that was bad influence brought in from Northern Light wasn’t entirely pleasing.
“So. What do you want?”
At the direct question, Chris knew his clumsy provocation hadn’t worked. He plainly voiced his demand.
“I don’t want to die for pretending to be someone else at the whim of a madman.”
“I promise.”
Yuri answered without hesitation.
“If you’re a fake, I won’t kill you.”
Surprisingly compliant. Chris thought there might be a trap hidden in Yuri’s words, but right now he wasn’t sitting at a negotiation table.
He was simply being unilaterally threatened. If Yuri were to press a blade to his throat right now, he couldn’t stop him, and if torture were carried out, his body would only be injured before he could even aim for escape.
Chris closed his eyes. Since he was clothed, the moment his Beast Transformation ability activated, all the fabric would be torn off, but that wasn’t important right now.
With maximum concentration, he activated his ability.
‘…?’
The pain that should have been felt in his arms was completely absent. Chris opened his eyes again and realized his field of vision remained the same. Sitting in the metal chair, looking up at Yuri who was staring at him.
‘Again.’
Chris bit his lip. He clearly felt the energy flowing through his body. Being able to use it as naturally as breathing was no different from before. But then why?
“…Why?”
He muttered while looking down at his two arms wrapped tightly in cable ties.
‘Transform, transform.’
Chris’s energy extended throughout his body yet failed to actually transform him.
In his flustered state, he looked at Yuri. Yuri’s face, half consumed by shadow, was difficult to read, perhaps due to the darkness.
“It’s not working well, is it?”
“This has never happened before… It’s probably because of energy imbalance.”
Chris said while suppressing his anxiety as much as possible. Perhaps it was because of the drug Yuri Sobolev had used when kidnapping him.
“That book—isn’t it because of the drug applied to the book?”
It had been a drug terrible enough to knock out an Esper. There must be some side effect.
“Unfortunately, there’s no existing drug that can seal an Esper’s power. That was just a pretty impressive sleeping drug.”
Yuri said while looking at Chris. The hand in leather gloves lifted Chris’s chin. As if confirming how healthy the livestock was before slaughter, Yuri’s glossy gaze examined Chris’s face.
It was impossible to read any longing or joy from that face devoid of emotion.
“That’s… absurd…”
Confusion surged up and Chris blurted out without realizing it.
“If you were going to die, why didn’t you die before my eyes? Why did you wander around alone only to be picked up by Rosenhower of all people?”
Emotion finally tinged the cold gaze.
It was anger.
“I woke up at Northern Light. That Rosenhower, the former Alliance Chairman, I’ve only seen his face through records.”
“You really forgot everything.”
Yuri muttered. Chris’s body stiffened.
“It’s even amazing how completely you’ve forgotten. What could have carved me out of you?”
Chris barely held his breath at Yuri’s body scent felt closer than ever. He didn’t understand at all why he was tense for reasons other than fear before the man who’d kidnapped him.
Could this be because of submissiveness imprinted in the past he’d forgotten?
If it was truly because he’d been Yuri Sobolev’s dog and couldn’t dare defy him, the situation couldn’t get worse than this.
He should dismiss it as a lie and ignore it, but just considering the possibility and that possibility alone made his heart sink. It was because he’d just lost his wolf transformation ability. He was afraid of the timing when Yuri Sobolev opportunely called him Chris Danil and told him to use his power.
Though he’d frequented the bookshop often, they hadn’t exchanged many words, but he knew well enough that Yuri wasn’t someone who enjoyed empty words.
“I thought I’d be happy that you’re alive… But at this rate, it’s more troublesome than when I thought you were dead.”
The purple eyes looking down at him sank darkly.
“Are you planning to kill me?”
It couldn’t help but be a rather bold question. However, Chris also needed to gauge how much time he had. Listening to what Yuri was saying, it didn’t feel like he’d give much leeway just because he mistook him for Danil.
“No.”
Those purple eyes seemed at first glance to contain Chris, yet were gazing at somewhere distant as if yearning for something in the past, not the present.
“Prove your usefulness like when we first met.”
Yuri’s hand patted Chris’s cheek. Chris’s body trembled slightly. Goosebumps rose at the texture of leather touching his skin.
“Usefulness…”
He felt like letting out an empty laugh.
He didn’t know. Everything from beginning to end was nothing but confusion.
As far as he remembered, his life existed only in the present without the foundation of a past. Nevertheless, Chris lived each day solidly.
If he’d been asked just a few weeks ago who he was, he would have answered without hesitation that he was Chris Northern Light. An enhancement-type ability user belonging to the Esper Alliance.
But now, sitting before Yuri, who he was, what he could do, and even what he wanted had all become ambiguous.
The most ridiculous thing was that all means of proper rebuttal were blocked. He couldn’t tell him about a past he himself didn’t know, and since his previously fine ability was broken, he couldn’t insist he couldn’t use telekinesis either.
It was a situation where not doubting himself was more difficult than convincing the other party.
“Usefulness—I don’t even know what I can do, so how am I supposed to prove that?”
Yuri answered as if he’d been waiting for those words.
“Shouldn’t you finish the unfinished business?”
Unfinished business?
At those words, Chris suddenly recalled the drug dealer Anastasia. Clearly ‘Chris Danil’s’ last mission had been to eliminate the drug dealer.
“Is Anastasia alive?”
At that question, Yuri’s eyes narrowed. Though his expression wasn’t particularly prominent, somehow he seemed satisfied.
“There was a rumor that the Anastasia you last killed had resurrection ability.”
The words flowing out smoothly were like the introduction to an old tale.
“You tracked her down following my orders and found her. And for some reason, you didn’t report immediately.”
