Chapter 10
Kang Juha carefully selected a fairy tale book. Looking down at his pondering black head, I tried using my ability slightly enough that Kang Juha wouldn’t notice, but at that moment he suddenly lifted his head. Whether because of that or something else, I was bounced back without even being able to approach his mind.
“This one.”
“…Alright.”
What? Did Kang Juha just deliberately deflect my ability?
…No way, that can’t be.
The fairy tale book Kang Juha chose was <The Fairy and the Woodcutter>. I had never properly read it either, but I roughly knew the content.
“Once upon a time, in a certain village, there lived a kind-hearted woodcutter.”
It definitely started with a kind-hearted woodcutter, but as I read the book, somehow it became a criminal confession of a voyeuristic pervert who stole someone’s clothes and even committed marriage fraud.
Is it okay to read this kind of thing to a seven-year-old child?
Unlike my increasingly serious expression as I read the book, Kang Juha seemed immersed in the story, quietly listening with his ears perked.
“This won’t do. I’ll stop reading this story. Shall we read something else?”
“Why?”
“The woodcutter seems too much of a bastard… I mean, bad.”
“Then this one.”
What Kang Juha brought this time was <The Little Mermaid>. As if he was really going to listen to the story in earnest, he covered himself with a blanket and looked at me with bright, sparkling eyes. Perhaps because of that gaze, I momentarily found such a Kang Juha slightly cute.
Of course, the moment that thought occurred to me, I quickly slapped my cheek in my imagination to snap out of it.
Kang Juha seemed more interested in listening to fairy tales than reading them, as he didn’t even glance at the colorfully drawn pictures and just stared intently at my lips as I read the story.
Naturally, I didn’t have the talent to make storytelling come alive, but I faithfully read through the written text.
Only my voice echoed quietly in the special treatment room, and absurdly, this space felt peaceful. It was something unimaginable from the outside.
Kang Juha’s return hasn’t been officially announced yet. Only the Center Director, Director Shin, and a few center executives including myself knew about his return. Even the person who knew Kang Juha’s health condition most closely was only me.
“And so the little mermaid turned into sea foam and disappeared.”
I read the ending sentence dryly. I thought it was too realistic an ending for young children to read, but in the current situation, it seemed like an appropriate conclusion.
“Can you tell me what thoughts this story brought to mind?”
I didn’t bring a pile of fairy tale books just to pass time with him.
“I don’t understand why they let the two get married.”
“Huh?”
“They said if the prince marries the neighboring kingdom’s princess, the little mermaid would turn into sea foam.”
“…That’s right?”
So far this was successful. I found out that Kang Juha was in a state where he could think logically.
“Then they should just kill the neighboring kingdom’s princess.”
“…”
“If that princess just wasn’t there, it would be fine.”
But if the conclusion of that logical thinking turns out like this, should I view it positively or negatively?
“If it were me, I would have killed that princess first.”
…I shouldn’t put this conversation in the report.
What a hopeless and dreamless choice. They say children are more cruel in some ways—is this exactly what they mean?
Looking at those bright, sparkling eyes looking at me, Kang Juha didn’t seem to think there was any problem with his words. If I had a profession related to child education, I would have tried to correct his thinking… but that wasn’t within my jurisdiction.
“Let’s stop reading fairy tales here and proceed with today’s treatment right away.”
Kang Juha seemed like he wanted to read more books, but he didn’t stop me from organizing the books.
“It might hurt a bit.”
“How much?”
“It depends on the person…”
If he quietly entrusted his head to me, it would end with just dizziness or nausea, but if he showed rejection reactions like last time, he could suffer from excruciating pain as if his head was splitting. I couldn’t be certain of either outcome.
“If it hurts a lot, I’ll stop right away, so tell me.”
I wasn’t trying to scare him, but when Kang Juha heard that it might hurt a lot, he drooped the corners of his eyes and made a pitiful expression.
“Then could you hold my hand?”
“Hand?”
“Yes… Then it might hurt a little less…”
He spoke with a face like a puppy caught in the rain, and if I refused, I felt like I’d become irredeemable trash, so I nodded as if bewitched.
Then Kang Juha immediately brightened up and took one of my hands, preciously wrapping it with both of his hands. Since they were already big, my hand was barely visible when caught in his two hands.
Kang Juha’s hands were warmer than I had thought.
“Ahem, then I’ll proceed.”
“Yes…”
With our eyes meeting like that, I opened my ability. I instantly penetrated his mind, and starting from the hospital memories I had seen before, the childhood memories most clearly remaining in his current brain quickly flashed by.
Rummaging between memories, I stopped in front of something lumpy and pitch-black. Until now, I couldn’t even approach it to know what kind of brainwashing had been done, but seeing it like this, it was newly horrifying.
How could someone butcher the inside of a person’s head like this?
If I recklessly undid this brainwashing, Kang Juha would definitely go mad, unable to distinguish what among the memories embedded in there was fact and what was injected falsehood.
Even I, an S-class psychic-type ability user, needed a lot of energy and time to distinguish the authenticity of memories.
Originally, memories couldn’t exist 100% perfectly intact. They were bound to be slightly modified or distorted depending on the person, and even when experiencing the same event, everyone saw it from their own perspective, so there were often gaps between what they believed to be truth and actual facts.
Well, sorting that out was my job.
I skimmed through the clearest memories nearby first. I glimpsed the faces of Alpha team members I had seen at the event before, and scenes like moving to the operation site by helicopter after joining the allied forces.
Wondering if there was anything to glean, I looked closely and saw allied Espers showing interest in Kang Juha and Kang Juha finding them bothersome. And I somehow got the impression that Kang Juha was keeping his distance from the center’s Alpha team.
No, was it rather the opposite?
Through Kang Juha’s view as he responded half-heartedly to the allied forces’ barrage of questions, I could see the faces of the Alpha team members huddled together.
And I read a familiar emotion from those faces. It was the same look I had received when I was in the medical department.
Despite clearly being in a relationship where they had to perform the same mission as one team, they had eyes full of hostility as if looking at a common enemy.
It felt unpleasantly like old memories I had almost forgotten were rising up. I wanted to easily erase them like other memories, but since they were work-related memories, I couldn’t carelessly touch them and had left them, which occasionally made me feel dirty like this.
I barely extracted part of the memories tangled by brainwashing. A desert covered in sand dust. The sound of storm-like wind and gunshots ringing harshly in the ears. Nothing could be seen through the hazily blurred vision, and Kang Juha stood still, staring at something.
A pitch-black dot appeared in the sand dust, then cracks formed with a crackling sound. It was gate formation.
Everything began to be sucked into the instantly split gap. Kang Juha crouched down and calmly reported the situation via radio.
The crack that split the sky kept growing larger, and there wasn’t a single structure on the desert ground that could be grabbed and endured. The storm created by the crack’s aftermath engulfed Kang Juha’s body, and his vision was instantly filled with pitch-black darkness.
“Ugh!”
Along with Kang Juha’s pained groan, my ability was bounced back as it was. My vision returned to reality. I caught my breath for a moment.
After looking into one person’s memories for a long time, I always had to establish my bearings. Otherwise, who I was, when it was now, and where this place was would all get mixed up.
“…It hurts, it hurts.”
“It’s over. Don’t worry.”
Comforting Kang Juha who was complaining of a headache, I classified and stored the information obtained through my ability in my mind.
Thinking I should retreat for today, I was about to take out a chocolate from my pocket to give him, but Kang Juha didn’t let go of the hand he was holding.
“Kang Juha-ssi? No, Juha.”
At my call, Kang Juha let out a pained groan and said pitifully,
“Save me. Save… save me. Please…”
Only then did I see that his pupils were dilated. The memories I had released seemed to be having a delayed effect.
“Kang Juha-ssi, snap out of it.”
I left the caught hand as it was and gently patted his shoulder with my other hand. But Kang Juha began to tremble as if trapped in his own memories.
“Kang Juha-ssi! Juha, Kang Juha!”
He was gripping so hard that the caught hand felt like it would burst. Veins bulged angrily on Kang Juha’s neck and blood vessels writhed fiercely on his forearm.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
