Saran and Batori’s mentoring seemed to be going better than I’d expected.
At the end of the day, both of them were heroes.
Putting aside slight differences in personality and their own individual issues, they were people with the same occupation.
Of course, there were some differences in their methods, but…
Saran taught her things like her own personal know-how, and Batori nodded hard at every word, absorbing it all. It was quite a pleasant sight.
All I did was spend the time beside them, cheering them on with all my might.
From midway through, I thought it would be fine even if I didn’t stay with them, but both of them insisted so strongly that it would definitely be better if I remained there… so I had no choice but to stay like this.
“Fighting~”
As I cheered her on, Batori, who was just a tiny bit shorter than me, charged at the two mannequins in front of her, striking one in the shoulder with her palm and attacking the other’s solar plexus hard with her opposite leg.
The movements themselves were one thing, but the way it all happened in an instant was enough to surprise me a little.
No matter how I thought about it… even if she didn’t grow taller than me like last time, she was plenty strong.
At the very least, I felt like she could comfortably take a place among the upper ranks of E-rank heroes as she was.
And if she grew taller like back then, or even taller than that… wouldn’t she have no major problems when it came to hand-to-hand combat?
It wasn’t an especially flashy style, but at its core, this was work that involved dealing with living beings.
Naturally, having good physical ability could only be effective, and Saran, watching Batori, also looked at her with eyes that seemed to say she wasn’t bad.
“What do you think?”
“She’s decent.”
“I don’t know much about this field, but in your opinion, Saran… do you think she’ll make it to C-rank?”
I asked lightly.
I’d met many heroes, but separate from that, it wasn’t as if I was the personnel bureau that decided hero rankings.
Saran also wasn’t someone included in the hero rankings, but she must have seen many heroes regardless.
The question came from the thought that she might know, at least a little better than I did, how far Batori could grow in the future.
“Hmm… For now, it might be possible. But before that, she needs more real combat experience.”
“Real combat, as in what kind?”
“She needs to face villains, not petty robbers and the like.”
“As expected?”
“Unlike E-rank, from upper D-rank and C-rank onward, you deal with real villains. She needs to experience fighting other Awakened.”
“Hmm…”
She was right.
The people Batori had faced so far were mostly ordinary petty criminals, just robbers holding up convenience stores or restaurants.
It would probably be better for her to gradually try facing Awakened like herself.
“Speaking of Awakening, there’s something I’m a little curious about… Saran, what abilities do you have exactly? I can see a little of the snake-like appearance, but…”
“……”
“Ehehe, was that a bit of a slip of the tongue? Personally, I’m really interested in people like you, Saran.”
Then came a casual question.
After all, transformation-type Awakened tended to have fairly diverse abilities.
No, it was obvious from the start that there were all kinds of abilities even within the various classifications of Awakened, but… I wasn’t particularly interested in people who weren’t transformation-type or shapeshifting-type.
What exactly did a snake transformation-type Awakened like Saran have?
I couldn’t help but be a little curious.
“…I’ll show you.”
“Oh, really?”
“It’s nothing difficult. Um… from now until work ends, you’re staying in the training room, right?”
“That’s right?”
Saran accepted my suggestion far more easily than I’d expected and asked that.
Of course I had to stay in the training room.
To begin with, the two of them had asked me to stay and watch, so I had no choice but to remain… and spend the time here until I got off work.
Thanks to that, I’d ended up handling most of my work in the morning, which had made things slightly—no, very—intense.
Still, it was fun to watch like this, and since I’d finished all my work, it was free time.
It wasn’t really a big problem.
“All right. Then I’ll do it once.”
“Hehe, yes. What kind of ability is it? I’ve never seen a snake transformation-type Awakened before, so I’m curious. I feel like agility and flexibility would be a given… what else is there?”
“Stay still. Nothing dangerous… mm, no.”
“Huh.”
…Dangerous?
…Saran’s words made a chill run through me for a moment, but Saran wasn’t a bad person, nor was she someone who would do anything bad to me.
For now… for now, I stood still in proper posture.
What in the world was she really trying to do?
I quietly looked at her and waited as she came closer to me.
And then.
“Hah.”
“Hyak!!?”
Saran suddenly bit my hand lightly.
I felt her teeth sink very, very, very lightly into my skin, and in that instant, like a syringe, I felt something enter inside.
Could what she’d mentioned be…
“Poison…?”
“It’s not lethal. Just a very slight paralysis. Even that had its amount and concentration adjusted, so it’ll wear off within five minutes.”
“Eh, th-that…”
I felt it at the same time I heard Saran’s words.
Paralysis.
Strength slowly drained from my body, and then I went completely limp and began collapsing to the floor.
It wasn’t that I’d lost all sensation.
It was more like being drunk, unable to properly control my body.
“Eh…”
“How is it?”
“Ugh, abubu……”
Saran said it was a very light level, but I instinctively realized that this was… dangerous.
It wasn’t that I was in danger right now, but if Saran’s poison had been the real, serious-mode poison, I felt like she could easily send off a person or two.
Of course, if she had to inject the poison through her teeth like just now, it might be a little difficult.
But from what she’d just said, I inferred that Saran could control the type and mixture of poison as she pleased, and I was certain that even simply scattering poison instead of injecting it could become a lethal attack.
“How was it?”
“I-it seems like… an amazing ability…! So you really could use poison like an actual snake…? I had no idea.”
After five minutes passed and the paralysis completely wore off, returning me to normal, I was sincerely impressed.
Because she really was like a snake, wasn’t she?
Until now, while spending time with Saran, the only things that made her feel snake-like were her appearance at most, her eyes and tongue.
I had truly never imagined she could even use poison like this, so I couldn’t help but find it incredibly fascinating.
“Could you do it one more time?”
“…Hm?”
“I think a poison that feels a little different would be good too. Please, just once…”
“…Should I show you something else instead?”
What…
There’s something else…!?
At Saran’s words, I had no choice but to widen my eyes in surprise.
I mean, I’d already been incredibly shocked by the poison, but there was something more… Just how much are you planning to surprise me, Saran…!
At her words, I nodded like crazy.
“Hmm… Ah, if you go outside the training room right now, there should be two people in the hallway.”
“…Pardon?”
“Hurry and go check.”
“Uh… all right?”
At Saran’s words, I nodded for now and briefly stepped out of the training room.
The moment I opened the door and turned my head slightly… I saw two employees walking along while drinking coffee.
I immediately ran back to Saran, and I couldn’t help but worship her.
“How did you know?”
There had been quite a distance, and the training room blocked outside noise and the like.
How on earth had she done that from a place like this…?
My heart was seriously startled, but I tried to shift my thoughts in a somewhat rational direction and think it through, and the answer I came up with was…
“Heat detection…?”
“Yes.”
“Waaah…”
That thing some snakes had—so even that was included in her ability…
It was truly fascinating.
It was such a fascinating ability that it made me realize once again why I liked transformation-type Awakened.
Her body improved, she could produce poison from her fangs, and she even had heat detection.
“Amaaaazing…”
“Cool?”
“Incredibly cool…”
I answered Saran’s light question sincerely.
Lately, because I’d been in charge of Saran and Batori, I’d been short on time in many ways and living a busy daily life, so I’d grown a little tired.
But just properly confirming Saran’s ability was enough to make my motivation grow again.
“Saran, by any chance… could you use the poison just one more……”
“…Don’t say weird things.”
“Hing.”
I wanted to experience it one more time.
It was a little disappointing.
“…Manager, how long are you going to, um, keep talking with Saran?”
“Ah.”
…In the middle of that, because of Batori, who had been fighting the mannequins by herself, we naturally ended up focusing on the mentoring again.
Originally, we had simply been having a light consultation about Batori’s progress, like a visiting tutor for a workbook.
I didn’t know how the conversation had somehow gotten this far.
But the mentoring project was still underway.
Saran and I both focused on Batori again and spent the time like that…
“Huaaa… Today was really exhausting too…”
“But it was wonderful to see how hard you were working, you know? And besides, everything you learned will be useful when you actually fight, won’t it?”
“Th-that’s… true…”
“Hmm.”
After the mentoring ended, once I got off work, we all ended up going out to eat together.
Even before, since the mentoring continued until quitting time, Saran and Batori had invited me to eat with them before… but back then, I’d had a little overtime work to take care of.
Because of that, I’d never spent more time with them after mentoring until now.
But today, I’d handled every bit of my work in the morning smoothly and perfectly, so we were on our way to eat like this.
Unlike consultations or the light conversations we usually had when meeting now and then, this was simply a place to wrap up the day neatly.
And, while we were at it, to help Saran and Batori get friendlier with each other?
“Hmm…”
By the way, taking the two heroes I was in charge of out to eat like this.
Could I charge this to the company card?
I seriously thought about it.