Even though the difficulty of resolving Anomalous Phenomena has drastically decreased compared to the past,they still pose a major threat to humanity.
The existence known as an “Awakened One” is both humanity’s final bastion and only method of dealing with them.
Because of this, Awakened Ones are forced to live lives completely different from the average person.
Awakened Ones have no privacy.
The moment they are publicly revealed, they become the center of media attention,and if an Anomalous Phenomenon occurs, they must be ready to drop everything and deploy to the affected zone at a moment’s notice—that’s the basic rule of being an Awakened One.
The number of personnel required to handle an Anomalous Phenomenon ranges from a minimum of five Awakened Ones to as many as forty.
The wide variance alone shows just how unpredictable these phenomena are.
The more capable people, the better.
No one—not even the Association—can predict whether the phenomenon will involve psychic attacks or physical ones.
So once a phenomenon occurs, immediate deployment must be possible.
Of course, there are exceptions.
Yui Seul.
She has an abnormal hatred for collaborating with other Awakened Ones,but she’s theoretically capable of resolving any Anomalous Phenomenon on her own.
Because of her, she’s the only Awakened One who doesn’t operate in teams of five or more.
This is also why Awakened Ones rarely make appointments or schedule things ahead of time.
No one can predict when or where a phenomenon might occur.
Yui Seul summoning Lee Jiah on the day of, every time, is for that very reason.
Making appointments in advance is meaningless.
Well…it’s also true that recently, both the Association and the Awakened Ones themselves have gotten a bit lax.
After all, Awakened Ones are still human beings.
Peace makes people dull.
In the past year, although there have been cases of serious injuries due to phenomena,there hasn’t been a single death.
It’s only natural that a sense of complacency would set in.
But.
Over the past two months, the world has changed drastically.
The frequency of Anomalous Phenomena shortened from once every two weeks to once a week.
And worse yet—something presumed to be a phenomenon appeared not in a designated occurrence zone, but in a normal family home.
Fortunately, the phenomenon that occurred there—nicknamed “The Black Smoke”—didn’t cause any civilian casualties.
It merely awakened a previously ordinary woman named Lee Jiah.
So the incident was, for now, considered resolved.
But the fact that a phenomenon manifested in a private residence was a historic, unprecedented event.
Lee Jiah survived her encounter with the mysterious “Black Smoke.”
In fact, she awakened as a dual-ability Awakened One because of it.
Naturally, she skyrocketed to become one of the Association’s most important figures.
What is the connection between Lee Jiah and the “Black Smoke”?
Who is the god she serves?
Not a single clear answer has surfaced,and so the Association decided to put her under surveillance.
Though “surveillance” mostly just involved Kim Jung-hwan monitoring her stream daily,which, considering watching VTuber streams is already his hobby,made for a surveillance setup that both he and Jiah were perfectly happy with.
It’s not just the mystery surrounding her that’s important—Jiah’s abilities are also incredibly valuable from the Association’s perspective.
The Awakened Association, which protects humanity from phenomena,
categorizes its Awakened Ones by power level.
Lee Jiah was classified as a Special-Rank Awakened One.
The criteria for that rank are simple.
If a person’s ability is truly irreplaceable, they are classified as a Special-Rank Awakened One.
For reference, Yui Seul, who is completely immune to psychic attacks;
Ye Jeong-hwan, a dual-ability user;and Kim Jung-hwan, who can determine whether someone is telling the truth or lying—all three are classified as irreplaceable Special-Rank Awakened Ones.
Likewise, Lee Jiah had rapidly risen to become one of the Association’s most critical figures.
To protect her life, the Association assigned her the strongest Awakened One they had: Yui Seul.
The problem was—Yui Seul wasn’t exactly the type to obediently follow the Association’s orders.
Chairman Ye Jeong-hwan of the Awakened Association was worried about the relationship between Jiah and Yui Seul.
Fortunately, his concern turned out to be unfounded.
Yui Seul liked Lee Jiah.
The reason Yui Seul went out of her way to use her valuable time to personally teach Jiah about Anomalous Phenomena wasn’t because Jiah was an important figure—but simply because Jiah had caught her interest.
Yui Seul, who always loathed talking to people on a personal level,oddly enough, never felt like she was talking to “a person” when speaking with Jiah.
Why Jiah appealed to her—why she didn’t trigger the usual wave of revulsion that came with human interaction—Yui Seul wasn’t quite sure.
But regardless, she liked her.
Perhaps, in the ten years since she became an Awakened One,Lee Jiah was the first person Yui Seul had ever truly taken a liking to.
If someone like that—were to suddenly fall victim to an Anomalous Phenomenon one day,and die just like that—or have her mind shattered beyond repair.
“…”
That would be a problem even for Yui Seul.
And so she made up her mind.
From now on, she would personally keep Jiah by her side.
Yui Seul’s feelings for Jiah weren’t possessiveness, obsession, or twisted affection.
It was just simple fondness.
It wouldn’t be wrong to call it “a fondness between friends.”
She decided this because, realistically speaking,facing phenomena alongside her was the best way to increase Jiah’s chances of survival.
If there had been even one Awakened One stronger than herself,Yui Seul would have forcefully assigned Jiah to that person instead.
But honestly—for humans, this kind of emotion is extremely common.
Whether it’s a friend,a lover,or family—the thought of “I can’t let this person die”is a natural one, even with the smallest bit of affection.
However—this ordinary, universally understood feeling was something utterly foreign to Yui Seul.
In the early days of the Anomalous Phenomena, even when other Awakened Ones were dropping like flies, Yui Seul didn’t bat an eye.
Well, in that sense—Now that the so-called strongest Awakened One had made the decision to preserve her life,Lee Jiah probably couldn’t die even if she wanted to.
Yui Seul personally teaching Jiah about Anomalous Phenomena was also for the sake of increasing her chances of survival.
Of course, even someone as critical as Yui Seul admitted the Awakened Association’s anomaly education curriculum was quite solid.
But maybe that was the problem—it was too perfect, theoretically speaking.
Anomalous Phenomena aren’t things you can solve with “theory” or “ideals.”
They have to be solved with “intuition” and “emotion.”
At least, that’s what Yui Seul believes.
In any case, Yui Seul had taken time out of her valuable schedule to properly teach Lee Jiah about anomalies today.
She got in her sports car and sped toward the address Jiah had given her.
And then—“…Ha.”
She was stunned.
Yui Seul, who never got flustered no matter what kind of anomaly she faced,was visibly thrown off.
This house, which looked like it might collapse at any moment.
Even she was taken aback.
Wondering if she’d input the wrong address, she called Jiah again.
[“You see the open front door on the third floor? That’s our place… Oh, I see you now.”]
Yui Seul had good eyesight.
Actually, even if she didn’t.
That pink bowl-cut girl, cheerfully waving both her hands and chest,was very hard to miss.
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
“You probably get it by now, but I’m not someone who cares much about other people’s business.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty obvious.”
“So I don’t really care what you do at home on your own time.”
“Right.”
“But.”
Yui Seul pointed at something, an expression of disbelief on her face.
“What the hell is that.”
What she was pointing to was unmistakably a trace of the Price of Blasphemy.
No reason to lie.
“That’s from when I smashed my head on the floor.”
“…Ha. I mean, I’ve watched your streams recently, so I kinda get it… that, what do you call it, the concept?”
“RP?”
“Yeah, RP. But if there’s an actual hole in your floor like that, it’s not RP—it’s real…”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“…Ugh, whatever. Let’s just move on, my head hurts.”
Finally pulling her eyes away from the mark of blasphemy,Yui Seul began silently scanning the rest of my apartment.
How many seconds had passed?
Yui Seul gave a short review of my apartment.
“…This is serious.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty bad.”
“Just asking out of curiosity, but—why have you been speaking in that mosquito-crawling voice this whole time?”
“There’s no soundproofing. I was just about to say, but if you could lower your voice just a little…”
“Nope. And anyway, I don’t believe you. I mean, even if the soundproofing’s awful, still—talking this quietly—”
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
A reaction exploded from the neighboring unit—begging us to keep it down.
Yui Seul looked completely dumbfounded.
I just shrugged.
“See?”
“…This is ridiculous. You call this a house?”
“Exactly, so why did you even want to meet here in the first place? We could’ve just met at the Awakened Association or some café.”
“You’re a VTuber.”
“Right?”
“That… red pill? Blue pill? Whatever. You need to keep your identity hidden, don’t you?”
“…Yeah, I guess?”
“That’s why I said to meet at your place. The Association is a paparazzi paradise.”
“Ah.”
“Just so you know—if you ever have to visit the Association, never go through the front entrance. Always use the restricted underground parking lot. Just take a taxi and show your ID to security. They’ll let you in.”
“Uh… th-thank you.”
“What. Why? Got something to say?”
“No, just…”
I was a bit surprised.
Yui Seul—this person.
According to the Wiki, she’s someone who doesn’t care about anyone.
I knew from the start she had a favorable impression of me.
But still.
Even if I’m a valuable asset, I didn’t think she’d go this far to be considerate.
‘This is…’
No way.
Seriously?
Oh, shit.
Could it be that?
I finally blurted out what I’d been holding in.
“Do you like me?”
Yui’s gay gay.
Wait, no—that came out wrong.
Yui’s les les.
In response to my question, Yui Seul didn’t say a word.
“…”
She just stared daggers into my eyes.
And in that moment, I felt a chill run down my spine.
Sensing I’d just said something stupid, I frantically waved my hands and tried to explain.
“I-I was joking! Just a joke!”
“Whatever. Let’s go. Training or not, if I keep breathing in this dump, I’ll die of stress.”
“That… kind of sounds super rude to my house…”
“So what?”
“Where are we going?”
“Where else?”
Then Yui Seul spun her car keys around her finger and spoke again.
“To my place, obviously.”