145) Chapter 21. ......Huh? (4)

As obvious as it might sound, the me from my previous life never became such a philosophical person.

Honestly, from the perspective of someone just living an ordinary life, philosophical problems are often very far removed from practical reality in many ways.

Like, take the famous trolley dilemma. No, seriously, if you saw people tied to tracks, wouldn’t you just call 112 or 119? Why would you put your hand on some lever when you don’t even know how it works?

More importantly, how often would I ever end up in a situation where I had to decide which to save or kill between one person and five people?

So even if someone asks something like, “Does having power necessarily mean you must help other people?” it leaves me at a loss for an answer.

The Association employee did not sit next to me like she said she would.

Forget next to me—she sat completely far away. Far enough that to anyone else, she would look like a completely unrelated stranger.

“......”

Even when I stared fixedly at the back of her head, the woman never once turned around to look at me.

Even when getting off the bus, she didn’t deliberately follow me off. Well, if her mission was just to guard me, there was no reason to follow me any farther. The moment I entered the Academy, her mission would be over anyway.

So I should have just stopped thinking about what that woman said.

But for some reason, those words kept bothering me.

Had I ever thought something similar before?

Was that why I empathized with it, even a little?

“Rua?”

“Huh?”

Maybe my expression looked especially vacant, because the kids were looking at me with slightly worried expressions.

Huh, when did I even make it all the way to the classroom?

I’d been absentmindedly lost in thought the whole time, so by the time I realized it, I was already opening the classroom door.

Come to think of it, the others had greeted me too.

But by the time I realized that, it was already awkward timing for me to return the greeting naturally, so I decided to answer the question instead.

“Ah, no, it wasn’t anything like that. They just said to come back once more next week. They said there’s no major problem.”

“Then what? Did you run into some weird person or something? Your face is full of worry.”

“Ah, no, it’s not really that.”

A weird person.

Yeah. I did meet a weird person, I guess.

But that person didn’t bully me or anything.

“Uh, it’s just... finals are next month, right? So when I thought about missing the morning classes, it just felt a little...”

“Ah.”

Only then did the others snicker at my answer.

“I took notes for you.”

“Though obviously my notes are superior.”

“What? Aren’t you usually half-assing it? Obviously my notebook, where I work harder than you normally do, would be better for copying.”

“Hmph, not true? I know perfectly well what Rua’s notes are usually like. My notes suit Rua’s notebooks way better.”

Chae-yi and Soi suddenly started bickering.

Well, that happened often enough normally too.

“......I have notes too.”

“M-me too.”

While the two argued, Chae-yi and Jinwoo also placed their notebooks and textbooks on top of my desk.

Ah, no, I wasn’t expecting this much.

“No, more importantly, you guys just casually look at Rua’s notes usually?”

“Hmph, no we don’t? I only borrowed them because there was something I needed help with from Rua’s notes.”

“No, but then doesn’t that just mean you don’t care about your own notes at all?”

At Chae-yi’s exasperated voice, I ended up letting out a small laugh without realizing it.

And at that brief laugh of mine, the others’ expressions also lightened a little.

As expected, they were trying to cheer me up—

“So look at mine, Rua. If you want, I’ll even show you all the notes I’ve taken this entire year.”

“No, then Rua would just suffer more, wouldn’t she? Look at mine, Rua. I wrote them perfectly in your style.”

—maybe not.

I’m not sure if I should just unconditionally enjoy the kids bickering because of me.

Still, it’s better than not being loved by anyone at all.

*

It would have been nice if I could have just shaken it off like that.

Unfortunately, my brain is structured to quickly forget good things while remembering and replaying bad things for a very long time, so while showering, I suddenly remembered what that person had said.

After washing my hair and body and coming outside, Soi was waiting while holding a hairdryer.

Today was Soi’s turn to shower first.

Incidentally, strangely enough, Soi and Chae-yi didn’t simply go in one after another in order when showering. Instead, one of them always preferred to shower either immediately before me or immediately after me. At first they hadn’t cared about things like that, but at some point they started doing it.

Sometimes I wondered if there was some kind of benefit to going in right after I showered.

Though if they went in before me, then they could dry my hair like this after I came out.

......Could drying my hair really be considered a reward, though? It took forever to dry all of my long hair.

Still, whenever I tried to refuse, they would make expressions like their country had been destroyed, so in the end I had no choice but to surrender my hair and sit down.

“......Something really did happen earlier today, didn’t it?”

“......Uh, um.”

While drying my hair, Soi asked carefully.

Her voice was quiet enough to nearly be drowned out by the hairdryer. It seemed like she was being careful not to let Hyeonji hear.

Though Hyeonji was sitting at her desk with earphones in, completely absorbed in studying, so even without all this caution, she probably wouldn’t hear us anyway.

“Won’t you tell me what happened? Did someone bully you again?”

“No, I mean, who’s going to bully me while I’m just going to and from the hospital...”

“Hmm, maybe you ran into someone from your middle school.”

Ah, I guess that could happen.

But at this point, if someone suddenly came at me trying to bully me again, that would feel kind of strange too.

Back at school, they had strength in numbers, but on the street it would be one-on-one.

......No, come to think of it, even in a one-on-one situation, there probably wasn’t much they could do.

If they used abilities to restrain someone, that alone would probably count as something close to intimidation.

And even if they confronted me barehanded, the moment people knew I attended the Academy, they might decide I was the one more at fault.

Was that what that person’s words meant?

“Hmm, it wasn’t really that......”

“It wasn’t?”

After hesitating for a moment, I decided to just tell Soi.

Because Soi’s dream for the future was to become a hero.

Wasn’t she a girl who dreamed of following in her wonderful parents’ footsteps and becoming an amazing hero herself?

“This isn’t something I heard directly from someone, but, um, I overheard it from the smartphone of the person sitting next to me.”

“Mm-hm, mm-hm.”

“It was about superhuman abilities. I heard someone ask whether those abilities absolutely had to be used to save people.”

“......Huh?”

The hairdryer that had been diligently drying my hair abruptly stopped in midair.

When I turned around, Soi was blinking.

As if she’d never expected to hear something like that from me.

“Uh, Soi?”

“Ah, right. Uh, s-sorry!”

Soi hurriedly started moving the hairdryer again.

Maybe she thought I got burned or something?

It had only stopped for a very brief moment, so it wasn’t particularly hot. More than that, Soi didn’t even use overly hot air because she worried my hair might get damaged.

“S-so, why did you start thinking about something like that? Did that question make you feel something?”

“Hmm, rather than feeling something.”

Honestly, it wasn’t like it struck me particularly hard or anything.

It was just... suspicious that an “Association employee” would say something like that.

I even wondered whether I should tell the teacher, but then again, it felt wrong for that one sentence to potentially affect the person’s livelihood.

“I was just wondering if there are really people who think that way.”

“Mmm......”

Soi sank into thought for a moment.

The silence dragged on long enough that I thought she might just brush it off vaguely, but then Soi opened her mouth again.

“If you ask whether they absolutely have to be used only to protect people, then no, I guess not.”

“Huh?”

When I turned around again, Soi stopped the hairdryer.

“What? Did you think I’d say those abilities exist for the sake of people?”

Hmm.

Honestly speaking, a little?

Because Soi’s mother and father were also the most famous hero duo in this country.

“They’re just an individual’s power. If what they’re doing with it is legal, does anyone really have the right to criticize them for it?”

“......No.”

“Right. So using that power for yourself is a freedom. But......”

Soi hesitated briefly. As though she was wondering whether or not she should say this to me.

But just like I had asked Soi, it seemed Soi decided to simply say it to me too.

“But it’s also true that you shouldn’t use that power to harm other people, right? Because that ability is basically the same thing as ‘strength.’”

“Ah.”

“If someone is physically strong, that doesn’t mean they can go around hitting people with that strength, right? And just because someone is smart doesn’t mean they can use that intelligence to scam people either. Um...... honestly, I’ve never thought this deeply about it before, so I don’t really know beyond this. But that’s just what I think.”

“I see.”

Because this is that kind of world.

They call them “superpowers,” and to the people of this world they still feel like somewhat special abilities.

But in the end, isn’t this a world where those powers have already become part of everyday life?

Just like how some people can run faster or swing their arms more strongly, these abilities are simply like that too.

So people should just use their abilities according to their own capabilities.

“How is it?”

“It helped.”

At Soi’s question, I answered with a faint smile.

Edit

Pub: 27 May 2026 06:33 UTC

Views: 21