136) Chapter 20. Because I Hate Villains! (5)
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“Hmm.”
Even after Rua left, Justina remained seated there for quite a while, lost in thought.
The only thing Rua had shown as her “ability” was telekinesis.
Whenever she looked at other children, it was always the same. She felt their abilities as though they were her own. How they should be utilized, how they could be trained to become stronger.
Of course, it could never truly be exactly the same as what those children themselves felt, but the reason Justina could serve as an “instructor” was because she understood very well how to sense abilities.
That was why she had prevented Rua from sparring with Chae-yi.
Instinctively, she could tell that Chae-yi’s ability caused Rua extreme pain.
Still, she only knew this because she had seen both Rua’s ability and Chae-yi’s ability. Chae-yi herself didn’t seem to understand exactly how her power affected Rua.
She had said they’d gotten entangled while using their abilities together when they were younger. Back then, had Chae-yi’s power never truly come into contact with Rua’s ability?
“No, that’s not what matters right now.”
If someone didn’t know, then for now it should simply remain unknown. She could warn her later if they ever truly collided. There was no reason to deliberately tell her that she had hurt the friend she cherished most.
More urgent than that was what Rua had told her.
Justina’s ability was a kind of resonance ability.
Whenever she sensed another person’s ability, she also sensed various miscellaneous “traces” surrounding it.
Among those traces, the most representative was emotion.
While hearing those words, while watching those actions, Instructor Justina could infer the emotions behind them.
That was why she knew Rua wasn’t lying.
And also that she had been terrified the entire time she spoke.
Well, honestly, it wasn’t just this time. Rua was almost always terrified.
“Haah.”
Instructor Justina let out a deep sigh as she rose from her seat and muttered,
“This is hard. Really hard.”
There wasn’t a single easy thing about dealing with children. They were at the most emotionally sensitive period of their lives, making them far more difficult to handle than most adults.
With adults, she could just wipe the expression off her face and treat them professionally.
But somehow she’d ended up in a position where people called her “teacher.”
Still, now that she had already taken responsibility for the job, there was no backing out.
More than anything, being around those lively children was actually rather enjoyable.
Instructor Justina stood up and headed straight toward the principal’s office.
She had no intention of breaking a promise made with a student.
After all, with an ability that allowed her to peer deeper into secrets than anyone else, if she lacked even that much morality, she wouldn’t be fit to act as a teacher—no, not even fit to act as a human being.
Well, anyway, the complicated and difficult things would surely be handled by the principal somehow.
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They called it “volunteer work,” but this wasn’t the kind where you just went to a local facility in the neighborhood and helped out.
This was meant to make us understand our duties as heroes more clearly.
Of course, speaking a bit sentimentally, protecting every little trivial thing like that could also be called heroic.
But naturally, what I’m talking about isn’t the sort of volunteer work that just anyone could do.
“……”
The kids were quiet.
Some had seemed a little excited at the thought of getting out of class, while others had openly looked unhappy about it.
Still, standing in front of a completely burned-down house, it was hard to casually open your mouth.
When people hear “fire scene,” they usually only think of what they’ve seen in photos or videos. So seeing it in person like this was an entirely different story.
The smell of burned things was overwhelming.
“What we’ll be doing today is helping people who lost their homes in the fire.”
Our homeroom teacher, who had brought us here, spoke.
“You all received the briefing before coming, right? These people are going through something very difficult right now, so everyone needs to be careful.”
Of course, they weren’t going to tell students like us to clean up the ruins. Superhumans weren’t invincible.
But the reason they showed us traces like this before meeting the victims was to make us understand what happened when we failed to protect someone.
“……”
And while looking at those traces, I was tense for an entirely different reason.
The villain had probably been caught. In the first place, if the arsonist hadn’t been caught, they wouldn’t have brought children to the scene where the arsonist had been. It would be too dangerous.
That was how it went in the original story too.
But—
“Rua.”
“Hwheht!?”
I nearly jumped out of my skin when I suddenly felt someone grab my arm from beside me.
“Uh, uh?”
“Are you okay?”
It was Soi.
Well, of course. If it was someone beside me, it would naturally be either Soi or Chae-yi. Lately Hyeonji and Jinwoo had been following me around too, but unlike Soi and Chae-yi, those two didn’t stand pressed right beside me.
“I-I’m okay. Yeah.”
I answered quickly.
“If it’s too hard for you, should I tell the teacher?”
No matter how you looked at it, this was a place villains had ravaged.
At a glance it just looked like an ordinary fire scene, but once you knew the “reason” behind it, the atmosphere here felt completely different.
“N-no. I’m okay.”
Maybe because I’d gotten tangled up with villains in so many ways, and some of it had even become trauma that left lingering aftereffects, she thought this would be especially hard for me.
But every kid here had experienced something related to villains, directly or indirectly.
Hadn’t there been what happened in the mountains last time? Even if they hadn’t seen the witch directly, there had still been kids who broke their legs.
I didn’t want to be the only one saying, “I’m not okay.”
When I answered firmly enough, Soi nodded.
Chae-yi still looked worried, and so did Hyeonji and Jinwoo.
But for now, we followed the teacher’s lead.
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Superpowers weren’t abilities possessed by only one person each. For example, if there was a “healing ability,” there could be several people with that exact same healing ability.
Abilities were mostly hereditary. If someone got married and had many children, there would naturally be quite a lot of people with abilities similar to theirs.
In that sense, healing abilities were actually fairly common.
Compared to the number of doctors, they were still very few, but there were enough of them to function as part of this country’s medical system.
Even so, there were still many people here undergoing treatment.
Healing abilities weren’t omnipotent.
They couldn’t regrow completely lost limbs. Ordinary injuries could be healed so cleanly that not even scars remained, but if the wounds were deep and complicated, then even healing abilities required a significant amount of time for recovery.
Burn injuries, for example.
“……”
The children, who had gone quiet in a different way than when they saw the destroyed houses, busily moved around helping people here and there.
Of course, we couldn’t perform medical treatment or anything like that. Usually, we just carried supplies or helped patients move around.
We carried relief goods that kept arriving, escorted patients who wanted to use the restroom, helped them drink water, and things like that.
Rather than working directly with patients, I helped with moving supplies. Part of it was because people were considering my mental health, but my ability was also especially specialized for carrying things.
“Phew.”
“Student, you’re amazing.”
As I carried yet another stack of boxes, one of the ordinary civilian volunteers smiled and praised me.
“Thanks to you, the work went really smoothly. If we’d done it ourselves, it would’ve easily taken half a day.”
“O-oh, no, this much is…… I-I wasn’t doing it alone either……”
“Well, it’s not like we can just stand around. If we made only the students work while we did nothing, we’d get cursed out. Here, want a drink at least?”
“Ah, yes, thank you.”
“It’s fine to rest for a bit.”
“Ah, okay……”
It felt awkward to refuse, so I accepted the canned coffee and sat down for the moment.
I felt strangely anxious.
My own task was already finished, but the other kids were still busily moving around.
Soi was carrying moderately sized boxes around. She was being careful because she still wasn’t skilled enough to completely separate her flying ability from her fire-starting ability.
Chae-yi, Hyeonji, and Jinwoo were the same.
Chae-yi’s ability was meaningful only against ability users, and the same went for Jinwoo. Hyeonji’s ability… well, honestly, in a place like this, a refrigerator was probably more efficient than her actual power.
I opened the canned coffee and drank it slowly. It tasted overly sweet, like there was too much sugar in it.
At least while carrying heavy things, I’d tried to focus on the work. But it wasn’t easy.
My thoughts kept drifting elsewhere.
I kept wondering whether villains might show up here too.
In the original story, there definitely had been villains plotting something, even if it wasn’t a major event.
I know it’s the fate of academy stories and all, but as someone who actually has to live in this world, I honestly wish they’d cut me some slack.
Instructor Justina probably told the principal, right? She said she would.
If so, maybe they could resolve it before we got attacked.
And if not, then maybe I should just—
“Rua!”
Thud.
I heard someone sit down beside me.
When I turned my head, it wasn’t Soi—
It was Jinwoo.
“Huh? You finished already?”
“Yeah. Somehow.”
Then she grinned.
No, but right now she’s a guy. Is that still okay?
…….
Ah, I don’t know anymore.
Honestly, when it came to Jinwoo, I’d decided not to think too deeply about it anymore.
Still.
……If this keeps up, it feels like Soi and Chae-yi are going to get mad again.
Thud.
Huh?
This time I heard a sound from the opposite side and turned to look.
“Hyeonji?”
“They told me to rest for a bit too.”
“Oh.”
It’s, well, how should I put this.
It’s kind of a fascinating arrangement that I’ve never experienced before.
……And somehow, it’s also making me a little uneasy.
Soi and Chae-yi, who were still working far away, kept glancing over here repeatedly.
It was a little scary.