This is… a little indecent.’
Dana stealthily pulled the mop handle free.
She was about to lean it against a shelf when she noticed a CCTV camera in the corner.
The unconscious Mujin would never know he’d been used as a scabbard—or rather, a mop holder—but…
‘You never know.’
‘Thwack!’
She easily destroyed the camera with a jab of the handle and pushed all thoughts of Mujin Park from her mind.
The center would handle it from here.
‘I need to find Doha oppa.
I’ve wasted so much time.’
‘Crackle, crackle.’
She was about to leave when she turned back, drawn by the fine yellow sparks sputtering from Mujin Park.
Her eyes narrowed with suspicion.
‘Am I imagining things?
Or is this getting worse?’
She’d never heard of electricity sparking from a human body, not even an Esper’s.
At first, she’d thought it might be a unique ability, but… After a moment’s hesitation, Dana covered her left eye.
Her right eye focused on Mujin.
She activated the ‘Power of Sight.’ His body appeared hazy, unlike other people’s.
She rubbed her eye.
‘Am I just tired?’
She activated it again, focusing her gaze.
This time, she began to see white, winding lines superimposed over his body.
They looked like nerve bundles, originating from his heart and spreading outward.
When they breached the surface of his skin, an electric current sparked.
‘Zap.’ Dana was dumbfounded.
“What is he, some kind of Pikachu?”
As if he had heard her, the man’s shoulder twitched.
Startled, Dana flinched, but he grew still again.
She rested her chin in her hand, deep in thought.
‘Is his Esper Energy being expended automatically, even while he’s unconscious?’
Just then, Mujin’s hazy form began to sharpen.
The indistinct color resolved into a mass of white aura, like living threads.
Dana’s expression hardened.
His entire body was swarming with them.
She was horrified.
‘No way.’
‘Is this all Esper Energy?’
In the early days, when the awakened beings first appeared, no one knew Espers needed Guides.
Then came the horrific incident where an Esper indiscriminately slaughtered civilians.
Surrounded by police, he had made his own brain explode.
The murder spree of a maddened Esper had shocked the world.
Espers couldn’t control their own energy, and once it passed a critical point, there was no turning back.
By Dana’s own judgment, that critical point was when the white threads of Esper Energy covered about a third of the body.
But Mujin’s entire body was consumed by it.
He was far past the critical point.
He was on the verge of going Berserk.
‘How is he even walking around in this state?’
He should have either collapsed, unable to contain his own power, or be lying motionless as the Berserk Prevention Chip in his heart activated.
If an Esper as powerful as him went Berserk, it would be a disaster worse than any Gate.
One possibility occurred to her.
‘Don’t tell me… he doesn’t have a chip.’
Humanity loved Espers.
But in a way, they were a new form of humanity, not entirely the same as the old.
If they turned their powerful abilities against mankind, they would become not a sword and shield, but the ultimate enemy.
The only reason people could love and praise them without fear was because the chips in their hearts kept them in check.
The Berserk Prevention Chip was the social safety net of their world.
The benefits Espers received were the world’s reward for accepting a device that could lead to their death in order to protect others.
The idea that Mujin Park, the most honored and beloved of them all, might not have one was enough to make any non-awakened person tremble in fear.
Dana stared at him, her eyes grave.
At that moment—’Crackle, crackle!’
“…Wait.”
A look of bewilderment crossed her pale face.
Regardless, Mujin was at his absolute limit.
No matter how big a gift box, if you keep stuffing it, it will eventually burst.
Esper Energy was no different.
If you kept packing energy into a tank, you would reach a point where it could hold no more.
What happened then?
It would explode.
“Is this… a sign of explosion?”
Was he not a Pikachu, but an active volcano?
‘Zap!’
How could a person explode like a battery?
But this was an Esper, a member of the new humanity.
“Wait, wait, calm down.
Maybe it won’t explode right away…”
‘Snap!’ The spark grew larger, as if in response.
Like Pikachu gathering a million volts… The realization hit her with absolute clarity.
There was no time to be calm.
‘CRACKLE!
POP!
ZAP!’
She tore off her lab coat and threw it over him, a desperate gesture like tossing sand on a raging fire.
But how could a thin piece of fabric stop an explosion?
She had saved an Esper from being killed by demon beasts, only to be on the verge of being killed herself in his Berserk.
Dana swore under her breath.
“Damn it, no…!”
‘Crackle.’ An image of herself being blown to pieces flashed in her mind, and she squeezed her eyes shut.
Dana, who had been about to make a last-ditch effort to flee, frowned.
The crackling sound of electricity had abruptly died down.
When she opened her eyes, Mujin’s sparking body was quiet.
She stared at him with a strange expression on her face.
Suddenly, she noticed her own hand.
It was resting on his neck.
“Ah!”
Snatching her hand away, she examined her palm and blinked.
“…It doesn’t hurt.” She stared blankly at her perfectly fine hand.
Her confused gaze drifted to Mujin.
In that instant, the dormant sparks flared to life again.
‘Zzt!’
Dana’s eyes darted between her hand and his body.
Tentatively, she placed her palm against his neck.
‘Crackle… Zap…’
The sparks diminished.
She pulled her hand away.
‘ZZZT!’
She touched him again.
‘Fshh.’
After repeating the motion several more times, Dana’s face soured as if she’d bitten into an unripe persimmon.
‘It’s working… The Guiding is working.’
The effect was unnervingly clear.
Every time she touched him, the violent surge of white aura within his body would soften and calm.
Guiding him was far easier than it had been with Doha or Jin.
If a simple touch worked this well, how could he have never found a compatible Guide?
‘This is… complicated.’
Her Guiding ability was a valuable card to hold—the very reason the Lee family hadn’t cast her out.
But with Mujin, the situation became treacherous.
Inevitably, her thoughts turned to Doha.
‘I’ve already called the center, but if I let him go now… this man is a ticking time bomb.’
With one hand resting awkwardly on Mujin’s neck, Dana heaved a sigh.
When she looked up again, her expression was as impassive as ever.
‘It can’t be helped.’
Keeping one hand on the nape of his neck, she slowly lowered herself and pulled him into an embrace.
It was awkward and unpleasant, holding a strange man’s large frame.
It was a small mercy that he was unconscious.
Dana forced the discomfort from her mind and focused.
When she performed Guiding, she would visualize it—gently coaxing out the Esper’s internal energy, soothing it into submission.
She’d heard some Guides opened their pores to absorb an Esper’s breath; she figured it was a similar principle.
After some time, she released him, quickly pulling away.
The sparks were gone.
The Esper Energy was still coiled within him, but it was considerably calmer than before.
He was no longer in immediate danger.
‘I have to leave before the center people get here.’ Dana decided to bury the fact that she could provide Mujin Guiding.
He wasn’t someone she could use, like Jin.
He was too much for her to handle, and it was better to avoid any entanglement.
‘Should I tell the family he doesn’t seem to have a chip?
No, I’m not certain.’
Just as she placed her hands on her knees to stand, Mujin’s eyes flickered open.
Dana’s heart plummeted.
Her breath hitched.
He frowned, his unfocused eyes turning toward her.
“You…”
He narrowed his eyes further, trying to force the world back into focus.
Dana instinctively stumbled backward, knocking over a mop she had propped against a display shelf.
The handle toppled over, smacking Mujin squarely in the face.
‘Thwack!’
“Ugh!”
His eyes slid shut again.
A thin trickle of red flowed from under his nose.
Seeing it, Dana snatched her things and fled.