Kiroo suppressed his dizzying mind and headed toward the special room located at the core of the center.
Passing through the triple security doors into the inner room, Leehyun, dressed in a white coat, turned around welcomingly.
“Oh, you’re here?”
“What is it? You said it’s good news.”
“I found your paired Guide.”
“…What did you say?”
In an instant, his brain halted. Leehyun playfully tapped the shoulder of Kiroo, who stood blankly.
“You don’t look too happy? I thought you’d jump around with excitement.”
“No, th-that’s…”
It was good.
No, it was definitely good.
However, bewilderment took precedence.
So suddenly like this?
He hadn’t even heard news of a rookie Guide entering recently.
Exactly where and how did they find his paired Guide?
No, that kind of thing wasn’t the problem right now.
“Who is it?”
“Oh, perfect timing, here they come!”
Just then, the sound of the automatic door opening broke the silence.
Following Leehyun’s gaze directed toward the door, Kiroo slowly turned his head.
His two eyes widened larger and larger.
Leehyun smiled brightly, placing a hand on the shoulder of the man who had approached.
“Now, greet each other. He’s your paired Guide.”
Kiroo looked up at him with a face of disbelief.
The national hero who had stood at the pinnacle of power until just a while ago, the one he wanted to surpass by any means, and whom he had been conversing with inside the private room until just a moment ago.
Kwon Taeha was standing right there.
Shin Kiroo stared back and forth between Jin Leehyun and Kwon Taeha, completely dumbfounded.
“…Are you joking with me right now?”
“Oh, come on, Team Leader Shin Kiroo. Why would we play around with something like this?”
Leehyun let out his usual hearty laugh, while Kwon Taeha’s face remained entirely expressionless.
It didn’t look like the two of them were playing a prank, at the very least.
In the first place, they weren’t the types of people to throw around jokes concerning such a weighty matter.
“Then, don’t tell me my pair guide is really…”
When Kiroo pointed at Kwon Taeha with a trembling gaze, Leehyun nodded vigorously.
“Yeah. Taeha is going to be your pair guide from now on.”
“……What?”
In this completely absurd situation, Kiroo felt like he was the only outsider.
There was a mountain of questions he wanted to ask, but he couldn’t even fathom what should come out of his mouth first.
‘No, wait. Then, by any chance, did I have it all wrong?’
“Can an Esper guide an Esper too?”
“Puhaha!”
At that, Leehyun clutched his stomach and burst into laughter.
Feeling somehow like he had been turned into a clown, Kiroo frowned.
Leehyun wiped away his tears and barely managed to answer.
“Ah, sorry for laughing. It was just such an unexpected question. Of course not. How could an Esper guide an Esper?”
“Then how can Kwon Tae—no, how can the Team Leader guide me? You’re an Esper!”
At Kiroo’s shout, Leehyun glanced over Kwon Taeha and gave a subtle smile.
“I should explain that first. Want to follow me?”
Kiroo followed the two of them into the deepest part of the special chambers.
It was the routine examination room that Espers entered every year to measure their power levels.
The air in that room, which strictly checked whether an Esper’s rank had dropped or if they had enough power to maintain their abilities, felt exceptionally chilly.
Before long, Leehyun brought up some data on the screen.
Several graphs were drawn in a messy, chaotic fashion across the transparent display.
“What is all this?”
“It’s Taeha’s ability metrics.”
Kiroo inhaled sharply as he looked where the rod in Leehyun’s hand was pointing.
A red graph stretched out long and far above the indicators listed from Esper ranks F to SS.
It wasn’t simply a matter of having reached the SS-class level.
The lenKTH of the graph extending past SS-class was far longer than the gap between S-class and SS-class.
It was an overwhelming figure that practically required a new rank to be established.
‘What the, at this point, isn’t he just SSS-class?’
However, there was one strange thing.
Below that red graph, there was another rank indicator.
That graph, drawn in green, was fluctuating very minutely, in stark contrast to the red one.
Going by the numbers, it was roughly around D-rank.
Questioning his own eyes, Kiroo made eye contact with Leehyun. The man nodded heavily.
“That’s right. Guide powers have manifested in Taeha.”
“……!!”
His heart dropped.
He looked at Kwon Taeha, but there was still not a single trace of movement on his face.
There was no way they would show him metrics that were practically a state secret just to play a prank like this.
His head spun.
‘Don’t tell me other people know about this too?’
“Other people don’t know yet. We’re showing you first, Team Leader Shin Kiroo.”
Kiroo was left speechless by Leehyun’s answer, which read his inner thoughts like a ghost.
“Why? Why to me first…”
“Take a look at this first.”
Leehyun switched the screen.
The screen was a dizzying mess of complicated numbers and graphs that made his eyes hurt, but a single number stamped at the bottom was clearly recognizable.
98%.
Kiroo’s pupils trembled violently.
He had pestered Leehyun countless times and taken dozens of matching rate tests just to find a pair guide.
But the result was always under 10%.
It had never once exceeded double digits. Yet, such an unrealistic number was written right here.
“A 98% matching rate. It’s the guiding matching rate between you and Taeha. Well, seeing this, you understand why we’re telling you first, right?”
As if possessed, Kiroo turned his head to look at Kwon Taeha.
The moment he met those two eyes staring intently at him, goosebumps broke out, and he quickly averted his gaze.
‘No way. Kwon Taeha is really my pair guide with a matching rate over 90%?’
“Wait a minute. Then… No, putting all other questions aside, can Esper and Guide abilities even coexist in the first place?”
A case like this was a first.
He had never even heard of the two domains, which were clearly divided like light and shadow, mixing together.
At that, Leehyun shook his head and lowered his voice.
“No, that’s impossible. So, from here on, it’s a story only for Team Leader Shin Kiroo, so I’d appreciate it if you kept it a secret. Can you do that?”
“Huh? What do you mean by…”
Leehyun sought confirmation while checking Kwon Taeha’s reaction.
Soon, an incredibly hard-to-believe confession slipped through his lips.
“They say it’s a disease discovered for the very first time. Since there’s no precedent, there’s naturally no cure either.”
“Are you saying it’s… like a rare disease?”
“A disease where Esper abilities transfer into Guide abilities.”
Leehyun took over Kwon Taeha’s words and added grimly.
“From now on, all of Taeha’s Esper metrics will soon change into Guide metrics. Strictly speaking, right now is just the beginning.”
Kiroo was confused. A disease where an Esper becomes a Guide.
To think such an absurd disease existed in the world.
On top of that, the first victim was Kwon Taeha, mankind’s hero and the SS-class strongest?
