Chapter 42

'This can't be right...'

Leon frowned in confusion. No matter how low-grade a Guide might be, guiding wavelengths should be felt. Especially awakening beginners' abilities was nothing for her, an A-grade Guide.

But no matter how many times she tried after that, there was no effect at all.

"This is strange. Is his physical structure different since he's a dimension wanderer?"

As rumored, Nain really didn't seem to be a Guide. Otherwise, there was no way wavelength detection wouldn't work. Shouldn't he get tested once more right now? Not only Guides like herself but even Espers felt that way...

Ash, who had been looking down displeasedly at the two people's joined hands all this while, interjected between them. As if pushing away something dirty, he used his foot to lift the chair Leon was sitting in, making her fall from the chair.

Leon, who had been suddenly ejected from the chair, stood up bewildered and looked at Ash like he was trash. Ash, who had forcibly taken her place, sat down. He was about to grab Nain's hand but stopped and frowned.

"I'll hold your hand, Nain."

Even as he asked, his expression showed he was reluctant, as if he didn't understand why he had to do such a thing. When Nain, who had been staring at him blankly, nodded, Ash grumbled complainingly "What kind of nonsense is this" and placed his hand on Nain's palm.

Suddenly, Nain's eyelids twitched. He slightly opened his eyes to look down at their intertwined fingers, then squeezed his eyes shut again. He'd rather just not know.

Unlike the purely business-like contact with Leon, when holding hands with Ash, his heart strangely raced. The way he would unconsciously grip tightly then loosen his grip after feeling his subtle flinch, or the subtle warmth that clung to his skin...

'Is it because I'm too conscious of it?'

He was a little scared. If he could feel a difference just from holding hands, would he be able to handle this man alone in the future? Would he be able to avoid getting swept away beyond the purpose of guiding after getting inadvertently involved?

While the two held hands, Leon shifted her gaze to look at the measuring device screen connected to Nain's body.

'...Huh?'

She tilted her head with a puzzled expression. As soon as that bastard grabbed Nain's hand, the numbers went up, even if faintly. It was a number indicating guiding intensity. There was also change in the line that had been motionless until now. The numbers gradually rose and stopped stably after reaching a certain point.

'Nain really is a Guide after all.'

The measuring device was accurate. Unlike people, numbers don't lie. Leon, who had been carefully examining the screen showing the graph, kicked the chair Ash was sitting in with her foot and said.

"Try absorbing the guiding like that."

"How do you do that?"

"Ah, you haven't properly learned a single thing."

Leon spoke loudly. When else would she get to say such things to that bastard if not today? She had to mock him to her heart's content while she could. That aside, for someone who wasn't even a complete beginner to not properly know how to absorb guiding despite having this much experience—there was no more pathetic Esper in many ways.

Leon didn't know much about Espers absorbing guiding since she was a Guide, but she thought it wouldn't be much different from her catching and pulling Guide wavelengths.

"Think of accepting the guiding you're feeling now more deeply."

Ash just gripped the hand with more force for no reason. Nain groaned.

"Who told you to just squeeze the hand tight?"

Does he think guiding works faster that way! Leon looked down at Ash with eyes that said she was dying of disbelief. Nain had a similar expression.

"You're really nagging. Did you two team up?"

Ash grumbled. As Ash concentrated while readjusting their hand grip several times to maximize the skin contact area, he suddenly flinched at the feeling of wave-like energy surging and enveloping him. Leon made a fuss and pointed at the measuring device screen with her fingertip.

"Oh, oh! It's going up!"

She shouted. The two people holding hands looked at each other in surprise without saying anything.

"..."

"..."

Their lips moved slightly. It was only a momentary instant, but for a brief moment, he felt a chilling sensation as if electricity was flowing through his blood vessels throughout his body. Even the fine hair on the back of his neck seemed to stand up. His heartbeat rose along with the guiding numbers.

"Oh, it went back down."

"..."

"How is it, Nain? Are you getting the hang of it now?"

Leon asked. However, like Ash, Nain was also half out of it and couldn't think to answer. His blue eyes were faintly trembling.

It was a sensation he had never felt before in his life. It was certainly unfamiliar and frightening, but for some reason, his heart beat rapidly at the new sensation. Nain glanced at the man sitting right next to him and thought.

'...Well, I'm experiencing this for the first time, so that's understandable.'

Why even Ash was surprised and frozen was a mystery.

After that, Leon tried to teach him how to properly utilize the sensation called guiding, but when he held hands with her, Nain felt absolutely nothing like a ghost. And it was the same for her.

Though she didn't want to admit it, it seemed like Ash was probably the only one who could teach Nain guiding.

"What kind of misfortune is this? Why does it have to be Ash?"

"I can still hear you..."

Ash let out a hollow laugh as if incredulous. However, Leon ignored even those words and firmly held Nain's hands.

"But what about learning to control radiation guiding? You can't learn that properly from an Esper?"

"Nain doesn't need to learn such things. He's already leaking guiding constantly because he can't control it normally."

"What are you talking about?! That's exactly why he needs to learn it. If a Guide can't control radiation guiding, it's not the Guide who's in trouble but other Espers who are in danger! What if a Guide on the street can't control radiation guiding and ends up catching some innocent Esper? How many Espers have had adverse reactions from mismatched guiding wavelengths..."

"Isn't that my story?"

At the gentle question, Leon shut her mouth. Though it was annoying, it was closer to Ash's story.

No matter what Guides they brought and paired with him, his matching rate was always zero. Far from being guided, that bastard would be displeased with them all the time and go to the brink of rampage. Among people working at the center, it would be rarer to find someone who hadn't seen Ash show rampage symptoms. Ash had strangely bad luck with Guides.

"...Anyway. You know this better than anyone, yet you say a Guide doesn't need to learn radiation guiding?"

"..."

It probably didn't matter anyway. Ash looked at Nain persistently and said.

"Nain is low-grade so it's fine. Nobody even knew he was a Guide anyway, right? It's enough if only I can feel it."

"Yes, sorry for being low-grade."

Nain answered indifferently.

'That bastard dares.'

Leon's fist clenched. She was frustrated with Nain for staying quiet even at a clearly Guide-disparaging remark. She was about to step in and say something but stopped because it seemed presumptuous.

'At times like that, you should get angry...'

If it were me, I would have hit him. Ah, and she needed to tip off Ched too. That fucking bastard had become even more obnoxious while she hadn't been watching...

Anyway, that fucking bastard was a unique specimen in the world. When there were countless Espers and Esper teams clamoring for higher-grade Guides to be assigned to them, he said Nain was fine because he was low-grade...?

The two people who had confused Leon left early, saying they needed to move luggage before it got later.

After sending them away, Leon, who had been calling her younger brother Ched to curse about Ash, suddenly felt a sense of dissonance and tilted her head.

"Ched, didn't they say those two had an 8% matching rate?"

—That's what they said. That's why it leaked out somewhere and there's chaos now.

"...Are you sure?"

—Probably. Why suddenly?

"Ah, no, just..."

Leon mumbled vaguely.

8%? Does that make sense?

Neither of those two people showed signs of finding guiding unpleasant. Moreover, the numbers on the measuring device and the graph lines looked stable and fine to her...?

Now that she thought about it, it was also strange that Nain, who people said wasn't even F-grade but waste-grade, could sanely handle an A-grade Esper. Especially Ash, who was always struggling with guiding deficiency.

There were quite a few things bothering her.

'He's already leaking guiding constantly because he can't control it normally.'

Moreover, thinking back to that bastard's words, it meant Nain was doing radiation guiding all the time without controlling it. That too, 24 hours a day! It was strange that he had any energy left.

Radiation guiding required tremendous energy consumption. Even she, an A-grade, would be completely drained and get body aches if she properly did radiation guiding for thirty minutes targeting multiple Espers.

'Is his body structure really different from ours since he's a dimension wanderer?'

Leon, who had been pondering with a blank face, let out a complicated sigh. She didn't really understand what was what, but it was enviable. Being a Guide was a job where stamina management was as important as for Espers. No, perhaps Guides needed to pay even more special attention to health management than Espers.

She didn't know how much Guide work the dimension wanderer caught up with Ash would end up doing, but right now she was really, really envious of him.

Nain might have such tremendous talent that calling him waste-grade would be rude, to the point where it was regrettable that he got involved with such an Esper.

She stopped her wild imagination and chuckled.

"...As if."

Though there was a possibility, it was very low. The center's test results were generally accurate. Leon shrugged as she closed the examination room door and came out.

"Well, if not, then not."