Once the device began utilizing wavelengths and no longer required direct contact, the Guiding range gradually increased.
In the early stages, the device had to be placed on a four-person dining table with the Esper and Guide seated together for it to function properly, but before long the range expanded to the point where it could operate without issue across an entire building or the same floor.
The government then legalized the facility’s use of satellites, and at present, depending on the settings, remote Guiding can be received from a designated Guide no matter where on Earth they may be.
All of this was led by Esper Yan.
By the time the modem-type Decorker — which had succeeded in achieving Guiding using wavelengths alone — was completed, power within the facility had already shifted to the Espers.
The video summed this up by saying that power had returned to its rightful place, but based on the guidelines that followed regarding the discouragement of remote Guiding usage, it appeared to be an outcome that had come about through a rather violent process.
Judging from the fact that the lightweight Decorker had been distributed a mere two years after the invention of the igloo-type Decorker, social change had been just as rapid as the technological advancement — and the severe anomie that came with it must have been an unavoidable consequence.
The video went on to explain the policy discouraging remote Guiding.
Remote Guiding through wavelength transmission via the Decorker, unlike natural Guiding, caused extreme fatigue in Guides.
Furthermore, whereas Guiding prior to the Decorker had mostly been conducted one-on-one in enclosed spaces due to the risk of Rampage, it was now impossible to avoid having one’s power drawn out simultaneously or in rapid succession if multiple Espers were nearby.
The Guides protested to the facility.
They resisted, attempting to exercise their right to refuse Decorker use.
However, after the Decorker was distributed, the time required to stabilize Espers dropped sharply — and as the Rampage rate hit an all-time low as a result, the right of refusal and freedom of choice that Guides had once held were no longer granted to them.
To sidestep the ongoing protests, the facility used the fact that remote Guiding had become possible as its justification, and drove the Guides out of the facility under the name of “freedom.”
Subsidies were provided, but since none of their family, friends, or homes existed outside the facility, it was a stretch to call it freedom — yet neither the facility nor the Esper collective showed any interest in that whatsoever.
The only machines capable of unlocking the Decorker were held exclusively by the facility.
Criticism and protests against the facility’s authoritarian control gradually intensified worldwide, and only after the matter was covered on news outlets across various countries did the facility finally announce guidelines discouraging remote Guiding — urging restraint in Decorker use unless the situation called for it.
In practical terms, the policy only came into effect and was institutionalized a mere two years ago.
A Guide status-check function was added to the Decorker, and remote Guiding matches were no longer made with Guides whose condition fell below a certain threshold.
The guidelines were not without effect, as there had been no small amount of retaliatory usage stemming from the disparity in treatment up until then — but strict usage controls were never enforced, and there were still quite a few Espers who continued to use remote Guiding indiscriminately.
“Alright, so our student Rodeo should also exercise some moderation, and that wraps up today’s tour.”
Rodeo rubbed the tip of his chin and asked.
“Do Espers really take pride in this?”
“Of course. Apparently it feels satisfying whenever someone, somewhere, advocates for Guide human rights.”
“…….”
“If you think back to when we first entered the facility, reality feels pretty sweet now, doesn’t it.”
“Disgusting.”
Rodeo recalled the words he had heard to the point of exhaustion during his childhood.
When those words came back to him, it felt as though he was returning to his teenage self — unusually small for his age, unstable.
“Please. I’m shaking this much — just ten seconds.”
“I said no. What if you suddenly go into a Rampage the moment I touch you.”
“At this level—! I won’t Rampage at this level. The kid is in pain. Please.”
“Ahh, you won’t Rampage at that level? So that means you won’t die. It’s not even urgent — why are you making such a fuss? Shouldn’t you be able to restrain yourself at this level?”
Rodeo, who had been in the position of having to beg for Guiding after every training session, still vividly remembered the pain just before a seizure.
The sensation of a cold wind weaving between his muscles and nerves.
And what was just as tormenting — the looks of contempt and disdain that were poured onto him as he stood there, enduring it.
“What kind of nonsense—!”
“Hey, you’re the same age as him, aren’t you? You’re perfectly fine. Are you the only one who’s fine? Look around. Nobody else is trembling like him. Even the younger ones are all perfectly okay — he’s the only one who can’t handle his own power and is making a scene.”
“That’s because — some individuals are unstable while others are comparatively—”
“He’s just not trying hard enough. Or maybe…”
“…….”
“You. If no matter how hard you try, you just can’t do it — before the facility puts you down, wouldn’t it be better for you to end it yourself? Alone?”
The Guide’s words, poking at his head with one finger as though prodding a time bomb.
His fellow agents standing blankly nearby, watching from the corner of their eyes under the pretense of concern.
The hidden smirks that flickered across their faces.
Rodeo had always hated hearing those words — yet somewhere deep down, he had agreed with them more than anyone.
Because after a seizure — the precursor to a Rampage — passed and he came to, upon being told how many people he had injured, he would disgracefully find himself resenting the fact that he had woken up perfectly fine.
“Enough — just get on with the Guiding already!”
“Ink, run… run away… I… sei, seizure… it’s com, coming, I th—”
“…!”
“…Huh?”
But one day — one of the countless ordinary days when Rodeo had been begging for Guiding — the ringing that had been rattling his head in a way that made his skin crawl vanished in an instant.
The place where everyone’s gaze had stopped.
A face high up, not easily visible when he turned around.
Black hair swept back.
Lips pressed firmly shut.
A large hand that had found its way to him before he even noticed.
“Chalice, why are you bothering with someone like that—”
Deep blue eyes, looking straight at him.
“…….”
At that memory, Rodeo shook his head and stood up.
“I still don’t know yet. I’d have to experience that freedom myself to say, Carousel.”
“Oh, sure. You’ll like it. I’m the one who picked your place, after all.”
“For all that bold talk, it’s pretty ordinary.”
He had half-expected something like a penthouse in the middle of the city, but where the facility staff dropped him off was a studio apartment in the suburbs.
The building itself was tall and sleek, but situated in a quiet area, so there wasn’t much to be impressed by.
The staff member who handed him a temporary keycard with the unit number, a slim black wallet, and a phone said that everything he needed would be inside — then left without any further explanation.
Still, telling himself it had to be better than a single room at the facility, Rodeo stepped inside — and the moment he did, the sight of the sunset visible beyond the windows, the spacious interior, and an olive tree in a planter sitting in the middle of the living room made him smile despite himself.
[Marble with wood? Since when did you know me this well?]
He sent a message to the number on Carousel’s business card, which he had kept in his pocket, and a reply came immediately.
[The planter’s yours. The vase I left in the study isn’t. It’s for greeting your neighbor.]
“Who brings flowers just to greet a neighbor… But where’s the study.”
As luck would have it, the study was at the very back of the apartment — so with no other choice, he quickly toured the rest of the place and entered the last room, where Rodeo found a modest little vase.
A single white iris and a single blue iris were placed in a slender glass vase.
[Make sure you do it. You’ll have plenty of reasons to lean on them as you adjust.]
Lean on them?
Rodeo fell into thought.
Since becoming an adult, he had never once been in a position where he needed to ask anyone for help.
Everything in this world had been a matter of give and take, and the stronger his ability grew, the more help was always within arm’s reach — offered before he even had to ask — and the price for it was something he could hand over lightly without any trouble.
“Help…”
Rodeo murmured the word over and over, feeling the weight of his own situation all over again.
A person who had come from the past.
Someone who needed to adjust, who needed help.
Someone who had crash-landed in a place full of familiar faces that had changed, and unfamiliar faces he had never seen.
Someone who could not return to where he had been.
An unknown device in his hand, an unknown device on his wrist — and freedom thrust upon him before he even understood what it meant.
All at once, the beautiful apartment filled with an unbearable silence.
“…Right. The greeting.”
As if chasing the silence away, Rodeo busily took off his coat and picked up the vase in one hand.
He cleared his throat a couple of times, reminded himself of the fact that he had stepped out into the world beyond the facility alone, and the anticipation of meeting an ordinary person for the first time — then quietly murmured once more.
“Freedom.”
“…The present.”
In a rather light-hearted mood, Rodeo stepped out of the study and walked down the hallway toward the living room.
Then he stopped, standing still, and looked toward the front door.
The vase in his hand caught his eye and he looked down at it quietly.
Silence settled again — but it was soon broken as Rodeo’s steps turned toward the front door.
The sound of him humming to himself was quite cheerful.
His head lifted once more, a smile resting on his face.
“…….”
“……!”
But the moment the front door swung open and the hallway light turned on, the corners of Rodeo’s mouth dropped in an instant.
A tall figure that nearly reached the ears of Rodeo, who stood at over 190cm — with black hair swept neatly back.
A muscular build where the broad chest and shoulders were particularly striking even through a black turtleneck.
And above all else — a faint cologne that seeped in with each breath, a blend of light jasmine and forest.
Another changed face of someone he once knew, standing at the door.
Rodeo’s expression was something to behold — hostility flooding in, twisting his face entirely — but the man before him was no less visibly flustered.
It was an expression rarely seen on his face, but Rodeo had no regard for that rarity whatsoever, and stepped forward in a defensive stance — at which the man took one step back in turn.
In the taut tension between them, only the vase in Rodeo’s hand was untimely elegant.
“…What are you doing here?”
At Rodeo’s sharp voice — the first to speak — the man blinked slowly a couple of times.
Only then did Rodeo notice that, uncharacteristically, the man was flustered — but that too lasted only a moment, and before long the black-haired man returned to his expressionless face and spoke in a dry tone, his voice very low, as though he had never been surprised at all.
“I came to… say hello.”
“A greeting? To me?”
“The facility sent word that an Esper was moving in next door.”
“So Chalice came — without even knowing who it would be — all the way here in person, just to greet some stranger of an Esper?”
