IMPRINT 8

The face spitting out those characteristically innocent yet spiteful words of a young child was nothing but pure. That was why it was even scarier.

If Director Shin of the Medical Bureau or the Center Director found out that Kang Juha was in this state, there might be a salary cut or even disciplinary action. Perhaps even the privilege of eating delivery food would be snatched away entirely…. For now, I had to fix this situation somehow.

I asked with the kindest expression of a doctor I could muster.

“By any chance, Juha, how old are you right now?”

“I’m seven.”

“Aha, so you’re seven years old…”

I’m screwed, aren’t I?

“Seven years old…. What do I do if he’s seven? No, seven years old… Sigh.”

“Why? Can’t I be seven? Then I’ll be thirty-forty-five years old.”

“…That’s a bit of a stretch, but honestly, that might be better. Would you please be thirty-forty-five years old?”

“Then, Teacher, you have to use formal language to me.”

“Could you tell me why it has to be that way?”

“Hmm, because I’m older.”

As he said that, the face of the smiling Kang Juha was so bright that I ended up squeezing my eyes shut.

“Yes. Then, from now on, I am going to help Esper Kang Juha become thirty-forty-five years old. Would that be alright?”

“It’s okay. No, it’s fine.”

“Ha, thank you…”

After clasping my hands together and offering a short prayer to no one in particular, I read Kang Juha’s mind very slightly. I couldn’t penetrate into his memories. It was obvious that a child’s mental strength wouldn’t be able to endure it.

“I was wrong…. I won’t be sick. I was wrong…”

The memories seen through a vision blurred by tears were all smudged gray. From what I could roughly see, the setting was a hospital. It seemed the phrase about being scolded by his mother if he was sick was an actual memory of his.

Was he the sickly type when he was young?

I couldn’t hear the mother’s voice properly. Only a harsh voice, as if shouting, rang out with a thrum thrum loud enough to make my ears hurt. More than that, the sound coming from Kang Juha’s inner thoughts was louder. A desperate cry pleading for her not to hate him.

I opened my eyes. Whether it was because of the overload from that brief stimulation, Kang Juha had fainted again, and I leaned back against the chair, feeling a long-lost sense of exhaustion.

Perhaps because it was a child’s memory, unrefined emotions welled up inside me in waves.

The fact that Kang Juha was sick as a child and that his mother was a cold-hearted person was useless information in the current situation.

“…I think Esper Kang Juha would really feel bad if he knew.”

I still didn’t know the extent of how deep I could dig for the sake of treatment. Still, there was definitely less resistance than before, so it felt like I could try penetrating his brain if I waited a bit longer.

I stepped out of the special treatment room and looked for Juyoung first.

“Was there a dedicated Guide for Esper Kang Juha? I don’t remember clearly if it was in his profile. I think it would be good to put one in before we start the treatment in earnest. It doesn’t have to be a dedicated one, just someone who’s reasonably tight-lipped and quiet…”

“A Guide? They probably won’t come. Esper Kang Juha has the worst guiding compatibility.”

“…What do you mean?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. For starters, you have to assume there are no Guides in this Center with high compatibility for Esper Kang Juha. I heard the guiding rejection reaction is so severe that all the Guides find it difficult to guide him.”

“It’s my first time hearing that.”

“Because you weren’t interested.”

“But the Center Director told me then to recover him to the point where he can receive guiding.”

“He was probably talking about guiding drugs.”

The unexpected situation left me completely dazed. A combat-type S-class Esper performing in the field doesn’t have a dedicated Guide? No, he just doesn’t have a Guide at all?

“Does it make sense for an S-class Esper to hold out with drugs?”

“It shouldn’t. It only works because it’s Kang Juha. I heard his control over his supernatural powers is incredible. He’s also sensitive to his own physical condition. While other Espers go wild and overdo it on the field, they say Kang Juha is so quiet you wouldn’t even know if he was there or not.”

Since Espers usually feel an instinctive liking toward Guides, I thought having a Guide for his treatment might be a big help. In fact, it was the corner I was trusting the most right now…. But it doesn’t exist? Then what am I supposed to trust from now on?

“That… Esper Kang Juha’s condition has improved a bit, you see? He can speak like a human now….”

Though it was mostly insults toward my parents. Strictly speaking, I was the one who threw the first punch.

“Already? That’s really fast. It’s only been a week. Should I contact the Center Director right away and ask to move him to a general ward?”

Since my original goal was one week, the current treatment speed could actually be considered very slow.

“No…! No, no. It’s not that much. There’s a slight problem, but I think I can solve it soon.”

“…Why do I feel anxious when you talk like that, Team Leader?”

“If he’s to recover naturally, I think he’ll need about 20 years.”

“Pardon? 20 years?”

“If we force the recovery, one month. No, two months? If it doesn’t go well, three months?”

“…How long is it going to keep increasing?”

The first method was to leave Kang Juha’s mind to grow on its own until his original age, and the second method was to attempt an intrusion, even if I had to risk his brain getting a li—ttle, just a tiny bit damaged.

“Could you please just act like you didn’t hear that? I don’t want to get involved in this.”

“We’re in the same boat.”

“I’m getting off.”

“You can’t. This is the middle of the vast ocean.”

“I’ll be shark bait then.”

“You don’t trust me? I’m Seong Yihyeon.”

“…How can I not trust you when you say it like that?”

“Then we’re going for it.”

Juyoung let out a deep sigh instead of an answer.

For now, I was relieved. At least the road wouldn’t be lonely.

“Tell the Medical Bureau to send a generous amount of the guiding drugs Kang Juha was using.”

“Yes, sir.”

༘⋆

I never thought I’d see the day when I’d be giving a guiding injection into another Esper’s forearm. And to a twenty-eight-year-old healthy man who had the mental state of a seven-year-old kid, no less.

As I rubbed the area with a disinfectant cotton ball with a complicated heart, I felt the sturdy forearm twitch. I’m really not getting used to this….

“Please give it to me so it doesn’t hurt…”

The face that looked like it would burst into tears at any moment was unnecessarily, pathetically handsome.

“Yes, yes.”

I answered half-heartedly. Even if it hurt, wouldn’t the needle piercing through that steel-like skin be in more pain than Kang Juha?

“Oh…. Wow, it doesn’t hurt at all.”

His two tightly closed eyes rounded in surprise. After pushing the piston all the way in to finish the drug injection, I pressed the area again with the cotton ball.

Normally, even this was a luxury. On a combat field, you just stab the needle in first, regardless of disinfection or anything else. Kang Juha would be more used to that.

“Wow…”

Well, it seems the current Kang Juha is greatly shocked by the fact that an injection might not be painful.

“Can’t you keep giving me injections from now on, Teacher?”

“…Me?”

“Yes. It’s amazing because it doesn’t hurt at all when you do it.”

“Right, I see.”

There was nothing amazing about it; he now had the steel skin of an S-class Esper, not the weak and soft skin of his childhood. He had become unable to feel pain from a mere injection needle, but how was I supposed to explain that?

In fact, Kang Juha’s forearm healed cleanly without a single trace, as if a needle had never entered. Even if I were to slash his arm with a knife right now, he would recover perfectly in less than a minute.

But I couldn’t tell Kang Juha such things. There was no method as violent as forcibly injecting reality into a patient who considered himself seven years old.

“Sure, let’s do that.”

It was a promise I had no intention of keeping. After the treatment was over, I would delete all memories of the entire treatment process that had occurred. It was to ensure we wouldn’t have to face each other with red faces.

“Then promise me. Promise.”

“Yes, I promise.”

“That’s not how you make a promise.”

When I told him I promised as he asked, he said that wasn’t it this time.

“Then how do you do it?”

“Hook fingers.”

“Hook fingers? Isn’t that… too cruel?”

Was he just spitting out cruel words because he had the mental age of a seven-year-old? Did it mean if you break the promise, you have to cut off the finger or something…?

While I was falling into serious thought by myself, Kang Juha urged me by shaking his pinky finger in front of my eyes.

“Hurry, hook it here.”

“Huh?”

“Hook pinkies and promise. Haven’t you done it before?”

“I haven’t…”

Had I ever made a promise in my life? Well, I didn’t remember well. Most truly important promises were concluded in the form of contracts; I hadn’t tried it in the form of hooking finger to finger like this.

“Do I… do it like this?”

As I awkwardly held out my pinky to follow him, Kang Juha intertwined his finger with mine. Then he shook it up and down a couple of times.

“Promise.”

I didn’t know what kind of legal effect such an act had, but I felt strangely subtle in a way I couldn’t describe.