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If it weren’t for the Hero Association’s emblem planted right at the entrance of the facility, it would have looked like some crazy lab or evil organization exploiting young Abilities Users.

That’s how hardcore the training was. The wails of the kids echoed everywhere, hinting at the intensity of the training even from outside.

So if you ask what kind of training they were doing, it varied from person to person.

“Huh, huh! Seriously, I can’t do this anymore…”

“Yes, right at that moment! Just one more, Seolhwa Student! You’ve got it in you! Just one more! You can do it!!!”

“Wahhh…! Ugh! Kyaaa!!! Huhhh…”

Seolhwa was literally pushing her limits, pulling ice like crazy, enough to stack it up if needed.

“Maria? Another one has collapsed. Can you come and check?”

“I-I think I’m going to pass out too…”

“It’s okay, Maria Student. I anticipated this and prepared backup! If you faint, I’ll heal you right away, so don’t worry!”

“Ahaha… I appreciate the thought…”

Maria, the Healing Ability User, tested her own limits while healing the kids every time one of them collapsed.

Just the fact that Maria’s cheerful smile had vanished was a clear sign of the strain she was under.

Close combat Ability Users like Fukukin and Morgan were either sparring or training with active heroes brought in by the association.

“You’re so weak!!!”

“Kwahhh!!!”

Morgan yelled loudly as he flew and crashed into the wall, while Fukukin silently followed suit and hit the same wall.

“Maria Student! Two more have collapsed!”

“I wish I hadn’t come to this…”

Maria headed towards the staggering kids, not that it would reach them, but she still whispered encouragement.

Yeonhwa, Jinhyeon, Minho, Lapiz, and Changwon were not visible since they were occupying a whole different space inside the academy due to the scale of their abilities.

“Blanca Student. Let’s start again. Ageha Student too.”

“You mean we’re not just doing this for two whole weeks, right…?”

The training we were undergoing was aimed at improving magical efficiency and increasing our limits.

Even if Ageha pushed hard, it didn’t mean she could use more types of magic, and I knew overcoming physical limits was impossible.

If growth of abilities was off the table, then we would at least grow our skills in handling magic.

Ageha, who had just recovered her depleted magical energy, wobbled briefly when she got up.

I caught her just before she could fall, and when I checked if she was okay, she blushed and struggled a bit.

“B-Blanca, you’re touching me…!”

Touching? What… oh. Our chests.

Startled, I lost my grip on Ageha, and she plopped down on the floor, letting out a hilarious ‘ugh’ noise.

“You don’t have to let go because of that…”

“I really got startled.”

Ageha protested her voice didn’t sound that surprised before quickly focusing again at the instructor’s quiet command.

“So let’s get started. Ageha Student, use your magic as efficiently as possible, and Blanca Student, keep creating material until you run out of magic.”

Ageha used the wind magic she saw during the rescue training repeatedly, while I expelled oxygen each time I took a breath.

For several minutes, we kept minimizing material loss, burning magical energy, taking breaks to recover magic, and repeating that cycle.

By the time lunchtime rolled around, it felt like we had at least figured some things out despite it being just the first day.

Lunchtime is usually bustling, but not today.

The kids looked like they had just returned from wandering the wilderness for a week, silently stuffing their faces with food in weary and worn-out appearances.

“…But hey, they say we’ll have free time after the training. So don’t be too gloomy, everyone.”

“I’d like to, but it’s just too tough…”

Despite Ageha’s encouragement, Yeonhwa complained about how exhausted she was. She was completely soaked in sweat.

“What exactly did you do to be so sweaty?”

When I asked Yeonhwa, she promptly told me about the training she had received.

When she mentioned that Jinhyeon had blasted out a huge fireball that they had to reshape into a sphere, I remarked that it didn’t seem too hard.

“Don’t even! It was a massive fireball that filled the whole room. Just the slightest loss of focus could’ve turned everything into charcoal.”

By the looks of Jinhyeon’s reactions, it seemed a bit exaggerated, but the fire must have been close enough to make her sweat that much.

“Lapiz, what about you?”

“In the open space… I was making a hill… and repeating the same thing… in between, also making sculptures…”

Good grief. More shocking than that scale was her stuttering habit seemed to have improved. Well, it was only slightly improved.

“I feel like I should share too. I just ran around inside the association building, taking notes.”

“Guess the academy really won’t leave us alone even during break. We’re not machines, you know.”

“Look on the bright side, maybe they have high expectations of us?”

While the kids somewhat agreed with Jinhyeon, the moment Seolhwa mumbled, ‘but I still want to rest,’ they nodded even more in agreement.

Kids will be kids, I tell you.

Just as the mood was about to lighten up, a couple of guys in black suits approached me, saying they had urgent matters to discuss.

“Who are you?”

Like I would know who you guys are.

Even though I recognized them, I felt like being difficult.

“We’ve come from Heros Company.”

“You guys aren’t here to take me away again, are you?!”

“What’s this all about?”

As the conversation dragged on, the kids stepped in front of me, trying to shield me from them.

They looked like they were having a hard time, whispering to each other, before finally proclaiming something to the kids standing guard.

“It’s not what you think. It’s just a confidential matter that can’t be disclosed publicly… We ask for your understanding. We’ll have her back before lunchtime ends, truly.”

Seeing the black suits act much more politely than expected, the kids had nothing else to say and stepped aside quietly.

“Looks like I have no choice. I’ll be back soon, so rest well in the meantime.”

I waved goodbye to the kids and followed the black suit guys upstairs where a heavily fortified door opened, and researchers greeted me warmly inside.

“Nice to see you, Blanca. It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other face to face.”

Instead of returning their greeting, I asked why they called me here.

The money they offered was nice, but they weren’t so great themselves.

“It’s quite chilly today, isn’t it? You’re so cruel.”

“Just get to the point.”

“Understood. You don’t wish to prolong the conversation. First, please accept this.”

“What’s this…?”

When I told them to just get to the point, they handed me a file straight away, making me wonder what this was about.

I took it, opened it, and found numerous transformation and combat cases of ‘Mimics’.

“This is about enhancement training, right? Well, I apologize, but those Mimics are a part of your strength, Blanca. I thought it might help.”

Combat cases of Mimics, huh.

…Sure, even if I can’t mimic transformations, I could at least learn to observe and follow along.

After all, I had already created a massive axe blade or thorny tentacles on my own.

If I read it thoroughly, I could learn various types of attacks.

“Oh, and just so you know, you can’t show this to anyone else. The information about Mimics is classified material.”

“I value my life too, you know. So, did you really come just to give me this?”

“Of course not. We’ve come to ask you to take on a task related to Mimics.”

Of course, they did.

“Are you aware of the Mimic attack that occurred on the outskirts of Heros City?”

I was about to casually say yes until I realized it might sound weird, so I corrected myself and said I saw it on the news.

“So you are aware. It’s only natural; you’ve had previous encounters with Mimics before, haven’t you?”

The researcher went on about how long-winded his chatter could be and finally got to the point.

“Actually, there are suspicions that the leader of those Mimics might be a Mimic itself. Analysis of all the captured Mimics revealed they were indeed all Mimics.”

“…Dissection?”

“They couldn’t be considered normal humans, could they? More like dough that isn’t fully cooked, partly formed humans.”

The important part wasn’t that, as the researcher continued.

“The key point is that they didn’t have the original body like you, Blanca, but were purely made up of Mimics instead.”

These kinds of Mimics had attacked Heros Company’s important facilities, and it was possible that among the survivors, there were Mimics mixed in.

That’s why the researcher said he wanted to entrust me with the identification.

“…Can’t I just run the tests like I did before?”

“Your Mimic… oddly enough, was an easy case since it had its consciousness stripped. But those weren’t so clear cut. We only came to the conclusion they might be Mimics a week ago. Until then, we had no clue what was going on; we were just conducting research.”

After all those years of surviving and undergoing various mutations and experiences, they had most likely come to the point where they seemed identical to the real thing.

The researcher asked if I could cooperate.

“If I say no, you’ll drag me in or punish me, right? Fine, I’ll do it.”

“Thank you for your cooperation, Blanca. We’ll see you in about two weeks.”

Why can’t I just relax comfortably?

I sighed to myself as I headed back to the kids, file in hand.

 

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