"..." After finishing the fight, I ended up looking for Eirwen to help her treat her wounds. Fortunately, she hadn’t gone too far—which would’ve been kind of bad if I had failed. She should have run faster.
"You really did well," I say, applying medicine to her cheek. A salve that would help a little. Her cheeks are pretty swollen.
"...You know, it’s kind of funny. Your cheeks are all swollen. What do you think of the consequences of your first real battle?"
"I-It hurts..."
"Ah, yeah, of course it hurts. And you were lucky you defended yourself well. You didn’t break any important bones... although some of your ribs seem to have cracked. You’ll need to stop by the hospital later. Don’t worry—as an academy student, you’ll get special treatment, and in a week you’ll have bones as good as new." I say, sticking a patch on her cheek.
"W-What is that p-patch for?"
"It’s a military patch. I have a lot of them. It reduces swelling, helps with bleeding, and it’s extremely strong, so it won’t come off on its own. It’ll help bring down the swelling in your cheeks."
"And my—"
"It doesn’t work miracles. Be a little more rational about it. It’s not a cure—it just relieves pain, helps with bleeding, and reduces swelling. Nothing more than that." I say before she can ask me to put them on her other wounds.
"..." I wipe her face with a cloth to clean off the blood while honestly feeling a strange sense of pride. It’s her first real battle with actual risk of death, and she did really well without supervision.
"Now, even though I’m... proud of you, there’s something I want to know." When I say that, her eyes light up and she gives a small smile.
"Why were you fighting alone? As far as I know, five of you went to fight..." Ashlyn brought me to the battlefield with one of her shadows, but since it was dangerous, I sent Ashlyn to look for the other students.
"...W-We were going to retreat... b-but Charlotte p-protected me from an attack and e-ended up falling into the fissure she created... a-and then she sealed herself in... th-thank goodness she protected me." She speaks confidently.
"..."
’That piece of shit...’ I’m certain Charlotte did it on purpose, and I know it just from this. Most of them don’t know that Charlotte is a manipulative piece of garbage, and they don’t know her problematic history, so of course it would look like Charlotte saved her.
But she just abandoned her to die without a second thought. She’s a real worthless bitch.
’I need to have a serious talk with that little traitor-in-training...’ Eirwen really seems to believe it was an accident. Or maybe she knows it wasn’t, but she’d rather lie to herself and not question why Charlotte never came back for her.
"Let’s head back to the academy. Stop by the infirmary so they can do a full-body cleaning. One of the risks of fighting monsters is being poisoned without realizing it."
"A-Am I going to die?"
"I said it’s a risk, not that you were poisoned. Besides, it was an electric monster—this is just a precaution. And not to scare you, but a lot of Kairas are highly resistant to pain and end up not noticing internal hemorrhaging, ruptured veins, or bleeding in the brain."
"You don’t want to have a ruptured vein in your head. That can kill you silently. That’s why you need to get checked, since you took a lot of hits. It’s quick—Nexus can do it in three minutes without supervision using one of the analysis machines."
"..." She makes a face like she’s been handed a death sentence, but this is routine. She took several punches to the face. For her to have some kind of problem isn’t impossible, but it’s also not as easy as I’m making it sound. I’m just scaring her a little so she doesn’t brush it off.
I’ve seen Kairas die because they ignored this mandatory checkup that should always be done after any battle where you were seriously injured.
"...P-Professor... did I really... do well?" She asks as I help her stay on her feet, taking a look at her body. There are marks starting to turn purple beneath her skin.
’How lucky you were...’ She could have really died if the monster had reached its third phase before I got here. No—she definitely would have died. She only survived because her only problem was natural lightning and not a vector attack.
’Although, from what I can see, she used what she learned well...’ The damage is minimal. Even though it looks "severe," it’s actually better than what a lot of rookies could show against something of that level—proof that she really knew how to minimize the damage.
"M-My heart is hurting..." She says breathlessly as I help her, giving her my shoulder for support.
"You did well. I’m not one to give empty compliments. And your heart hurting is normal. Adrenaline works in a very abnormal way because of the core in your brain. You’d be shocked if you knew how fast our hearts beat in life-or-death situations..." I won’t say anything more, so I don’t scare her.
But our hearts beat so fast that they can literally burst if you don’t have a trained physique. Fortunately, I’ve been helping them with physical training too, so this won’t be a problem, and her heart will hold up fine.
’Haaa... I remember the first time my heart hurt... it really sucks...’ Right now, I don’t feel anything. My body is already used to it and trained to endure it. But when I was a rookie, I felt like I was going to die from the pain. It’s really terrible.
"C-Could I have won?" She asks as we leave the destroyed area, seeing that the police have cordoned off the site, and the press is already arriving to cover it.
’This is going to cause problems...’
"You could have, yes." I’m not lying. She just wasn’t creative enough. It wasn’t easy, but she had options.
"H-How?"
"That monster regenerated. Your powers are ice-based. The best way would have been to sacrifice your arm by driving your hand through its body and using your powers directly inside it. But because of the electric current, you would have lost your arm." That’s exactly what I did.
The difference is that I have prosthetics. Nothing would have happened to my arms in that case. But for her, her arm would have been destroyed by the electricity.
"..."
"There were other options too, but they would have required much more refined control of your powers."
"...Th-Then how? How could I have won... without sacrificing anything?"
"...You know well what cold is. It’s the deceleration of particles. The colder it gets, the less they move. Your power should be able to artificially reach absolute zero, which is −273.15°C."
"In that scenario, the lifespan of a lightning bolt would be extremely short. Actually, the monster wouldn’t even be able to generate lightning. It would be too cold for it to even start those attacks. You could have neutralized its powers completely."
"R-Really?"
"A lightning bolt is essentially a plasma channel. Electrons are accelerated and collide with atoms and molecules, ionizing the gas. Forming plasma under those conditions is... impossible." Natural lightning, of course. There are one or two scenarios where it could happen, but that’s beside the point.
"At least for that monster. In the end, our powers still have to obey physics. Plasma doesn’t form under those conditions. The monster could still use the lightning stored in its body."
"But after that, it would have no means of attack besides its own body, and it would freeze to death in seconds, since without stored lightning its body can’t stay warm."
"W-Woah!! Th-That!! That happened!! I-I couldn’t freeze him b-because he was too hot on the inside!!" She says, amazed by the possibility, realizing that she really could have won and that I’m not just lying to make her feel better.
"Sometimes we don’t need to deal with someone’s power—just stop it from forming. I hope you take that lesson with you. It’s a very important one, especially because your power is perfect for it."
"What do you mean?"
"A lot of things can’t happen in a scenario that cold. Many chemical, physical, and biological reactions practically stop or become incapable of forming. Honestly, your power is scarier than it seems—you just need experience with it. And you’re getting there." You can’t underestimate "basic" powers like ice, water, wind, etc.
Actually, the more basic a vector is, the greater its potential for efficient, fast, and practical application. It’s an advantage that comes with that type of power. Though it reduces the chances of having variants, it greatly increases many possibilities.
"You’ll have a very promising future with that power, really. But of course, only after a lot of training. Get ready to get beaten up a lot, rookie. That beating you took today is just a casual day on a mission, hahaha." With my praise, she smiles—a big, bright, excited smile.
I know when I should praise someone. And she really does deserve the praise this time. I would have liked to have been praised after my first life-or-death fight too. And I was praised by Nadir. I understand that these moments need something to truly give them value and validate them.
’...Nightmare...’ I look at Eirwen, and I know she could kill Nightmare in the future. Her power is perfect for it. All of Nightmare’s power depends on flesh, and she always escapes because her range is enormous. But Eirwen has an immense range too.
’...This is good. Really good... Seeing that the new generations can solve problems my generation couldn’t is... strangely good...’ It’s strange to feel proud of someone else. Is this what it means to be a teacher? I kind of... like this feeling.
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