After leaving the café, the place Erika went to, with her group members trailing after her like tails, was the crosswalk. It was the place where Erika had nearly gotten into a traffic accident, and also the place where she had first met Iska.
Beside the white-haired girl, people painted black were waiting only for the signal to change, but unlike the others, the girl was not waiting for the signal. She was waiting for a certain woman to come here. Even though she had not properly told her the destination.
However.
‘She’ll probably figure it out.’
They had bought ice cream together, and had even been kidnapped together. When someone said to meet “there,” the place that usually came to mind would be where they had first met.
But even if the other person was going to come to this place, it would inevitably take time. With nothing to do, Erika’s gaze came to rest on the place where she had “almost” had an accident.
A place where something called the system had almost shoved her forward with an irresistible force at her back. No, in truth, Erika could not even know whether that was right.
Whether she had been unable to resist, or whether she had not resisted. It was similar, if anything, to the affection system she currently possessed.
Just as she could not tell whether she was developing affection for someone because their affection level had risen, or whether their affection level was rising because she had developed affection for them.
Back then, too, she had no choice but to be unable to know for herself whether it had been an irresistible force that had shoved her back in that instant, or a force she had not resisted.
Even to someone who knew nothing of her circumstances, Erika’s figure as she kept staring fixedly at a place where cars were passing by as if nothing were wrong looked somehow unstable.
Because she felt faint, like a mirage.
An uneasiness, as if she would vanish if one truly reached out a hand.
The fact that the people at the crosswalk had changed several times over, yet she still remained there without crossing, made that feeling all the stronger.
Just as Yu Inna, unable to bear the anxiety any longer, was about to step forward, a certain woman embraced Erika tightly from behind before she could. As if to keep her from moving even if she felt the impulse to run into the road.
“You have the same eyes as back then.”
“You’re at an angle where you can’t even see my eyes.”
Even though she realized that the one she had been waiting for had finally arrived, Erika’s expression did not change much. The matter she had wanted to speak about, even going so far as to call Iska out.
Now that she was about to bring up that matter, it naturally became difficult to pay attention to something like joy at the arrival of the person she had been waiting for.
To begin with, she had believed that Iska would definitely come. Since she had said she listened to Kim Haneul and stayed by his side for two weeks, it was only natural that she would come if he called.
“It’s just a figure of speech. A figure of speech. ...So why did you call me out, even going through Kim Haneul? You and Kim Haneul aren’t exactly on good terms. If you went so far as to call me through someone like him, doesn’t that mean it’s important?”
That was because she could not possibly like Kim Haneul, who was trying to play tricks on the people around her, but knowing that this was not something to say to Kim Haneul’s family, the girl did not make any separate excuses regarding that.
“If you ask whether it’s important, then yes, it is. But first, let’s run away. There are people who followed me.”
Instead, what came out of her mouth was what they had to do.
Because what she had to say was not something she particularly wanted others to hear. And while they were at it, she could also slip out of Iska’s arms.
However, Iska did not let Erika go. As people began walking under the traffic light that had turned green again, and as Yu Inna’s group behind them was about to simply approach the two of them.
Iska tossed out a remark.
“You were curious about my ability, weren’t you?”
Tok.
A sound reached Erika’s ears. It sounded like a drop of water falling, or perhaps like rain beginning to fall. But she realized through the sound that followed that this had been a mistaken judgment.
Tak.
Like a clock hand moving, the sound of something striking with a click. It was nothing more than a small sound, and yet for some reason, it rang so loudly that even the exhaust noise of the cars was drowned out.
“It wouldn’t be bad to tell you on this occasion. My ability is simple. The ability to return to a place I’ve remembered.”
—LOAD.
The moment the name of the ability she had not even shown against the queen of the school came from Iska’s mouth, the two disappeared from the sight of everyone there. As if they had never existed in the first place.
“...Did she go with someone who has teleportation powers? Oh, I’ve never seen someone like a teleporter before.”
Kim Haneul’s childhood friend interpreted the “ability” of the person beside Erika that way, but Yu Inna, who was favored by the world, felt their movement differently.
It felt as if only their time had flowed backward, as if a flow completely alien to the current of this world had appeared for an instant and then vanished.
What should she call it? Should she say that a repulsion even greater than when the former queen of the old school had arrived as a transfer student had surged up for a moment, then disappeared?
Yu Inna shot a glance at the former queen, who had come all the way here after becoming a transfer student in a new form, then soon looked away.
After all, the reason she had taken part in this ridiculous tailing was to follow Erika and find out what she was doing while staying with the others as much as possible so that she would be hated less.
“What’s with her all of a sudden?”
In other words, now that Erika had vanished before their eyes, there was not the slightest reason to keep moving around together. As Yu Inna immediately turned her back and disappeared without even a farewell, only Kim Daseul spoke in a bewildered voice.
Lao, who was on her phone, and the transfer student whom Yu Inna had looked at last, casually scattered toward their respective destinations as well. There was no reason to continue following anymore.
“What the heck, where is everyone going!”
The girl, whose goal had been to interview everyone, panicked when she saw them all scatter and head elsewhere. In the end, rather than following someone else, she decided to return home. She had to go to school tomorrow anyway.
Just as the meeting had been arranged out of nowhere, their parting, too, was one-sided. Only after confirming that they had all left did the boy called Kim Haneul, who had been watching from atop a building, finally disappear from that place.
*
She remembered the park where her ice cream had been stolen and eaten. It was also the place where she, who had never imagined she would be kidnapped, had been kidnapped.
And so, when Erika saw the ice cream stand in one corner where money had been extorted from her, she immediately realized where she had been moved.
“A spatial movement type?”
It seemed like an ability completely unrelated to the technique with the chains she had used back then, but if it was an ability that made one reach a destination somehow, then it also made sense that the chain had wrapped around the queen’s ankle without any particular movement.
While Erika was forming her own understanding of what had happened yesterday, the woman smiled awkwardly.
“If I say yes, then yes, and if I say no, then no... Well, you could say my ability is to load the record of a space I’ve saved and move toward it.”
It was a little complicated, but did that mean she had the ability to teleport to a place she had saved?
Erika could not fully understand the woman’s vague words, but for now she nodded as if she did.
She was not going to fight that woman anyway, and even if she did fight, she would definitely lose. She had no intention of digging into the mechanism of her ability.
Even if she did dig, there was no guarantee the woman would tell her the truth. But perhaps finding that strange, the woman asked first instead.
“There are parts I didn’t say because I can’t talk about them. Aren’t you curious? You should know, shouldn’t you? That there are blanks in what I said.”
“I have something to ask of you, so I’m not shameless enough to pry into what someone else is hiding.”
“You?”
Just what had Kim Haneul told her for that “you?” to come out?
For a moment, Erika felt anger toward the boy who was not here, and who seemed to have slandered her terribly, but since the one here right now was the boy’s older sister, she did not reveal that anger and hid it instead.
Well, she had sometimes acted in ways that could seem brazen.
“Are you busy next week, by any chance?”
“Why next week all of a sudden?”
Because she also had something to ask of her.
Perhaps finding Erika’s question about her schedule strange, the woman looked at Erika’s face to understand what was on her mind, but there was nothing she could read from it.
Not because Erika’s poker face was especially outstanding, but because even if she read an emotion like solemn resolve from it, there was no way to know what she wanted to say.
All she could tell was that the story about to come out was important.
Once the woman’s attitude seemed to become a little more serious, Erika finally brought up the reason she had wanted to meet the strongest woman she had seen, even going through Kim Haneul to do so.
“Can you come with us next week when we go on our school trip? If you come along, I can pay all the expenses for it.”
The money saved by her original self, which she had intended to avoid using if possible. Even if she had to take it out and use it, she felt that if this woman joined them, they would be safe no matter what happened then.
“Why go that far? Do you think a threat on the level of the former queen is going to appear during your school trip? Is that why you’re trying to call me, even offering money?”
“Exactly.”
At the woman’s voice, which said exactly what Erika had wanted to say without any need for further explanation, Erika nodded happily.
She had not known at first, but if Iska could move through space, it would be easy to resolve any incident that might happen. She would only need to move the police there.
“Even if it’s Busan, if you cover everything yourself without any support from the school, it’ll cost a lot. Can you handle it?”
“That much...”
Before she could say that she could handle it with the money she had saved, the woman shook her head.
“Forget it. Knowing why you’re saving money, I can’t take that kind of money from you.”
“You stole and ate my ice cream with my money, though.”
“Then should I take it?”
“No.”
After exchanging pointless chatter, the woman thought to be Kim Haneul’s older sister bent her knees to meet Erika’s eyes and spoke.
“I don’t know how you know that an incident will break out during this school trip, but be careful. The things that will appear there aren’t something an ordinary student can handle.”
Iska spoke as if she herself were not an ordinary student. Looking at that Iska, Erika thought of a certain older sister.
“Are you affiliated with the Association?”
The Association that controlled ability users.
If Iska worked there, Erika had thought that she was saying the school trip incident was something she knew through “common sense,” but if she was affiliated with them, then perhaps she had obtained the information through some ability user.
“Who knows. I might have been affiliated with them in the past, but I’m not too sure about now~.”
It was the guess that had immediately come to mind because Erika’s older sister belonged to the Association. But the woman only gave her an ambiguous answer.
“Anyway, the ones who’ll appear then are dangerous, so you’d be better off being careful.”
I’m calling you because I want to be careful. Do I need some other preparation?
Not missing the question that surfaced on Erika’s face, the woman added further words.
“If the attackers appear, others will deal with them, but you’d be better off not meeting them at all.”
Blessing.
Erika trusted that one performance, if nothing else. So when the woman spoke as if even her blessing might be dangerous, she became even more curious. But although the woman once again read the doubt on Erika’s face, she did not resolve that question for her.
“This time, it’s on me.”
Instead, she merely pointed with her finger at the ice cream stand where they had eaten last time.
Saying she felt wronged had been a bit of a joke, and afterward Iska had also saved her when she had nearly been caught by Kang Yuri, so it would not be an exaggeration to say that Erika was the one who owed her. However, refusing this kindness might disappoint the other party...
“Then next time, I’ll buy.”
It did feel like they were simply passing the favor back and forth, but answering this way was the best Erika could think of.
“Sure, sure.”
Even though there surely could not be much of an age difference between them, Iska smiled as if Erika were cute and ruffled her hair.
[You dislike having your head patted. Affection decreases by 1. Iska’s current affection cannot be viewed.]