I had expected that going out might let me pick up some kind of clue, and in fact, I had managed to learn that the extras’ faces could not be seen.
But to think I would meet another heroine here.
It was an unexpected gain, so if anything, it left me flustered.
I did not take my eyes off the words above her head.
?? Heroine.
It seemed ambiguous to call her a perfect heroine, but still.
A branching-type heroine whose role had not been decided.
If the protagonist chose her, she would become an ordinary heroine, but if she was not chosen by the protagonist, she could also turn into a villain.
I did not know what choice the protagonist of this world had made, but for now, she was neither a heroine nor a villain, just an ordinary woman.
Perhaps I had been staring too intently, because the hooded heroine tugged her hood down as far as it would go and said,
“...I’m sorry. It’s been a while since I came outside, so I made a small mistake.”
Seeing the woman hurriedly cover her own mouth after saying that, I could not hide my confusion.
This kind of voice is supposed to be an ability?
I had imagined some intense voice strong enough to captivate people, but it was really just that her voice was nice. That was all.
As expected, there was no such thing as supernatural powers. If this world did not resemble a dating sim, I would have lived while denying the existence of supernatural powers altogether.
“...Um, don’t you feel anything strange?”
“If we’re talking about a strange feeling, I think it’s coming from my knee, actually.”
It felt damp and cool, as if a pain relief patch had been applied.
My knee had probably been torn open or something.
The person I had collided with was standing there perfectly fine, while I was the only one who had gotten injured. Feeling somewhat resentful and wronged by this one-sided damage trade, if there was a strange feeling, it was mainly welling up inside my chest.
Though it was not the ecstatic sensation I had expected from the moment I could “see” the other person’s ability, but mostly a hot, seething sort of feeling.
As though my answer was not what she had expected, the woman, who seemed about to say something like, “No, that’s not what I meant,” closed her mouth for a moment and met my eyes. Clear blue eyes that even gave off a refreshing impression.
Even though I could not see her appearance clearly because of the hood, I could tell. This woman would be beautiful in a different sense from Yu Inna, whose label had clearly said heroine.
“No, not that... No, it’s nothing. Since I’m responsible for running without looking ahead and bumping into you, I’d like to at least pay for your hospital fees. Could you give me your number? I don’t have any cash on me right now.”
My phone number, huh...
I did have a phone at home, but it had not even been a full day since I came to this world.
Naturally, there was no way I would have memorized my phone number here.
Honestly, I would not have minded just letting that woman go without taking any money, but it felt a little regrettable to let go of the result I had gained by coming outside today.
I did not even know how many heroines there were, and if I just let this situation pass, where that heroine felt sorry toward me, I might regret it later.
“I don’t have a phone. Still, if you want to pay even a little for the hospital fees, meet me at school and give it to me there.”
“...Wasn’t this our first time meeting? How did you know I go to school? And even which school?”
I guessed, of course. It differs depending on the dating sim, but usually the school is the main setting. She did not seem old enough to be a teacher, and if she was around my age, then naturally she would be attending the same school.
There was a possibility that she might be attending a rival school instead of the same one, but in that case, well, it was not like I would suffer trying to find her. I could just call it even, including the part where she had bumped into me and made me fall.
“If you don’t want to, then forget it.”
I did want to make use of this opportunity, but I had no intention of grilling her about what school she attended just to seize an opportunity that might not even suit me.
“No, that’s fine. If you’re a student at the same school, it would be natural for you to recognize me, but just because I covered my face a little, I almost treated you like a stalker. Yes, since I’ve heard your voice, if you’re inside the school, I can find you by listening for it.”
She was even wearing a hood, so how was it natural for someone to recognize her? I was inwardly impressed by the confidence with which she assumed, as if it were obvious, that people would recognize her.
That was the right attitude to have in life. If a person has no confidence in themselves, they cannot become anything. Only with confidence can one do more than what one is capable of. That aside, I think I misheard the latter part. Obviously, she must have meant that since she had seen my face, right?
“I’ll be going now. I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”
Together with music I had never heard before in my life flowing out from her earphones, she slowly disappeared to the far side of the alley.
I was about to head home as well when a thought suddenly occurred to me, and I turned my head back.
That girl had not taken her earphones out of her ears the entire time.
And music had continued to flow faintly from those earphones.
Then how had she been able to hold a conversation with me?
Normally, my voice should have been drowned out by the music.
Holding onto one unresolved question, I returned to the place that had now become my home.
*
An ability that ordinary people cannot obtain no matter how hard they strive their entire lives, an ability that transcends effort, is called a supernatural power.
In modern society, combat-type supernatural powers that produced fire or ice were surprisingly not in the spotlight, and were even few in number. This was a problem that arose because the power of supernatural abilities was not as great as one might think.
In a world where a person could die from a single gunshot, combat-type supernatural powers inferior to guns could not possibly change society. Rather, as time passed, the number of people possessing non-combat supernatural powers that could be usefully employed even in daily life gradually increased.
Non-combat supernatural powers.
Among them, a girl named Han Yeseul possessed the supernatural power of voice. A demonic ability that let her hear people’s voices even when she covered her ears, and that made people captivated when she spoke.
For the girl born with that power, the whole world was unbearably noisy.
She could pick up the voices of everyone within one kilometer. Those who heard her words all showed favor toward her and cheered, and she could even hear the voices of the hearts of those before her. If she used her ability strongly, she could even “force” people’s actions.
Furthermore, as time passed, instead of declining, her supernatural power developed again and again, until she became capable of captivating people through her voice even via broadcast media.
In other words, by around high school age, she had been able to crush the efforts and talents of countless people and become a popular idol.
For her, the world became quite boring at that moment, and in another sense, dangerous.
Because for some people, cutting or stabbing her body with a knife was also a way of expressing love.
Even when running through places like alleys, she always had to wear a hood and avoid speaking as much as possible. Otherwise, some dangerous person might be captivated by her and stab her.
Of course, if her goal were simply to exercise, she could have used a treadmill, but for a woman who always had to live either at events, on broadcasts, or trapped at home, she enjoyed running while concealing her identity to a suitable degree.
As long as she was not ambushed, she could escape any crisis with a voice capable of forcing people’s actions, and the “sound” of people’s inner selves helped her avoid being ambushed.
Unless someone committed the taboo strictly forbidden by the nation, using a supernatural power to commit murder, it should have been normal for no one to be able to cause her any harm.
In that sense, the accident that had just occurred was, in truth, something that should not have happened.
“I couldn’t hear her.”
Even when she drew close, she could not hear the voice of that girl’s heart at all. And that girl had not been captivated in the slightest even after hearing her voice.
As if an inviolable power were protecting that girl,
a girl with an appearance that seemed loved by God.
Was she someone with a supernatural power, like herself? Or perhaps she truly was a girl being protected by someone. Though there was a high probability that she was a supernatural power holder.
The latter kind of ability was a type of supernatural power not known in this world at all, but supernatural powers that protected oneself had already appeared in several forms in the world.
Since it was the concept of protection, there was a high chance that even the person herself did not know she possessed a supernatural power.
But if that guess was correct, it was astonishing. Unlike herself, who possessed a supernatural power that made the world noisy simply by speaking, here was a girl with a supernatural power that would not affect the world at all and would protect only herself to the very end.
The supernova who had recently swept first place on the music charts quietly curved her lips as she thought of the girl who had just left.
The fact that she possessed a supernatural power that was the exact opposite of her own was considerably interesting. If only the other person had not been hurt because of her mistake, she could have been purely happy about this meeting.
Feeling regret over that small point, and looking forward to becoming friends with her at their next meeting, she began running again.
...Unaware that the other person had spoken without even knowing whether she attended the same school as her.
Looking forward to tomorrow’s meeting at school, three heroines headed to their respective homes.
The school where this world’s protagonist was waiting.
Among them, two would move their feet in order to meet not the protagonist, but one heroine.