OMH Chapter 15
by Volare15. Esper and Guide (6)
Then, I walked quite a distance, almost to the entrance of the spectator seats.
“Hey, I have another match in 15 minutes, you know? Why are we walking so far?”
However, Lee Hwayoung ignored me and led me right out of the stadium, taking me to a nearby bench.
And sitting on the bench was Cha Woojin.
“Wow, you can already walk this far? The Medical Bureau and here are quite a distance apart, you know?”
As I fired questions at Lee Hwayoung and approached them, Cha Woojin saw me, smiled, and waved his hand.
‘Ha, good heavens, did someone turn on 100 fluorescent lights under the sunlight? I can’t even open my eyes because it’s so dazzling.’
Cha Wooreen, who was sitting on the seat of Woojin’s walker and playing with the wheels, also recognized me and acknowledged me.
Kim Sanghyuk was pushing the walker back and forth, playing with Wooreen. Was this Kim Sanghyuk’s doing again?
“Everyone said Gang Hana’s matches are fun, so we came to watch together.”
Since my angel Cha Woojin said that while smiling, I can’t bring myself to criticize Kim Sanghyuk.
Woojin’s smile, which melts away all things negative and filthy, made the thought of getting angry at Kim Sanghyuk for dragging Woojin to such a rough place vanish like snow.
‘But does Woojin even know what this place is for? He probably doesn’t even know what my ability is, right?’
I remembered Woojin being afraid of Espers, so I felt uneasy.
“But this tournament is where Espers use their abilities to compete, so are you sure you’re okay with that?”
“Ah… I just felt like I had to see Gang Hana’s match. And I think I’m okay with what Gang Hana does…”
Cha Woojin averted his eyes slightly again, his face flushing.
‘Cute. He’s saying he’s scared of Espers, but he’s okay with me!’
Seeing Woojin’s transparent, fair skin turning red reminded me of a camellia flower fallen on a snow-white field. Elegant and beautiful. As I was gazing at Woojin’s face, Wooreen, who looked just like little Woojin, took out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and gave it to me.
“What’s this?”
When I unfolded it, it was a cheering letter with a cute drawing in crayons and a few misspelled words, but it said, “Gang Hana, Fighting!” Judging from the fact that each letter was a different color and the drawings were all in vibrant colors, she probably used all the colors of the crayons.
“Thank you, Wooreen. I’ll definitely win~”
Wooreen smiled brightly even at my polite thank-you. Seeing a child who looked just like Woojin smiling so innocently was so adorable.
Having received encouragement from Wooreen and Woojin, I returned to the waiting room for my next match. As I took a step to go back, Kim Sanghyuk suddenly followed me and said.
“Gang Hana. I’ll tell you the chant for victory.”
“What nonsense is that again?”
“Cha Woojin bet on you. I lent him the money.”
That Kim Sanghyuk finally introduced Woojin to the world of gambling. He even lent him money, he’s serious about this. Anyway, Woojin bet on me?! How much did he bet?
To my question, Kim Sanghyuk told me in a whisper, even though there was no one around.
Hmm… he didn’t lend him much. But the fact that Woojin’s financial situation is on the line with my victory ignited my motivation.
I wasn’t planning on losing anyway, but my competitive spirit is burning even more.
Just as Woojin watched my boring F-grade matches diligently, he’ll watch my matches diligently too. I’ll definitely win.
Burning with motivation, I won the B-grade Martial Arts Tournament and got to participate in the A-grade Martial Arts Tournament.
The A-grade Martial Arts Tournament is the highlight of the Martial Arts Tournament.
It’s a spectacular sight to see because it’s a match where the Espers with the strongest ability firepower gather.
It is also a Martial Arts Tournament match where the defensive Magnetic Field between the arena and the spectator seats works the hardest. This is because if the ability firepower is strong, it can have an impact even from a distance.
But people like watching dangerous situations from inside a safe shield, so they like watching the A-grade Martial Arts Tournament.
Besides, the winner here is the final winner, so they are the most popular.
There is an S-grade stage above A-grade, but S-grade Espers are so few in number and dangerous that they often can’t participate in the tournament.
S-grades are inserted into the A-grade quarter-finals, so there is no separate S-grade-only Martial Arts Tournament.
Therefore, the winner of the A-grade Martial Arts Tournament is the final winner.
The A-grade Martial Arts Tournament will be held for three days from today until the final match. I waited for Guiding in the waiting room to maintain the best condition.
The match starts in an hour, but the Guide is a bit late. Are there so many participants today? I turned on the TV in the waiting room to watch the opening ceremony of the A-grade Martial Arts Tournament.
“Wow, look at all the people. They’re even setting off fireworks?”
It’s so different from the B-grade Martial Arts Tournament days until yesterday. Everyone idolizes A-grade Espers too much. How can those below A-grade live feeling so sorry? They always give the A-grades and above more money-making jobs and the Dormitory are also bigger. Anyway, they discriminate a lot.
Knock knock-
“Yes~ Come in.”
While I was grumbling about the unfair reality, the Guide finally entered the waiting room.
‘Today it’s B-grade Guide Choi Dowon. He looks very tired.’
With a pale face, Choi Dowon rolled up my sleeve, grabbed my arm with both hands, and performed the first stage of Guiding. Well, Guides must be more tired than Espers because of the Martial Arts Tournament.
Originally, there were fewer Guides than Espers, and they were busy being called around to provide Guiding to the participants before and after the matches.
There are so few Guides that they are scraping together F-grades and using them.
Anyone participating in the tournament like me can’t help but know this situation.
Usually, they assign Guides that match the Esper’s grade, but three F-grade Guides came to provide Guiding to me the other day.
If the grade difference is too big, the burden is very heavy, but since there aren’t enough people, they solve it with numbers.
But since the same grade came today, it seemed like the situation had improved.
“Guiding is finished. Esper Gang Hana.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Guiding was over while I was lost in thought.
“But Choi Dowon, you don’t look well at all, are you okay?”
I thought they sent a Guide of the same grade because the situation had improved a bit, but Choi Dowon’s appearance was a mess.
Now that I look at it, his lips are all chapped, and there are bruises on his neck and wrists that are visible between his clothes.
Even though Choi Dowon looked like that, he smiled weakly and even encouraged me to do well in the match.
No, you don’t look okay at all. What are the medical team people doing, not treating the Guides? Did they prioritize the Martial Arts Tournament participants and postpone it?
Well, if that’s the case, it can’t be helped since Choi Dowon isn’t an emergency patient. It’s not the first or second time the Association has acted like this.
Understanding the bitter reality, I headed to the arena.
A-grade is similar to fighting a B-grade, but you need to be a little more careful.
The method of sparring is the same, but the ability firepower is much stronger, so it hurts if you get hit.
When you hear this kind of talk, it seems like the skill needed when a B-grade fights an A-grade is evasion, but if you only evade, it’s difficult to attack.
So the path I chose is no different from what I’ve been doing.
It is to dig in and break the opponent’s balance.
For example, someone like the person I’m facing now, who measures distance with their feet, is hopping around balancing on one foot, so if you grab their foot like this and twist it to knock them over, they’re bound to fall.
There are hardly any cases where you can counterattack the moment you lose your balance and fall.
I knocked out my defenseless opponent by hitting their jaw in rapid succession.
“Waaaaaa!”
The audience shouted as they saw the opponent knocked down.
I turned my back on the shouts and left the scene of victory.
All the morning matches were over.
I was taking a breather in the waiting room when my Smartwatch vibrated.
It was a notice from the Association.
Because there is a shortage of Guides, Guiding is now subject to austerity measures, so please minimize the use of abilities.
‘No, we’re in the middle of the Ability Martial Arts Tournament?! What does this even mean?’
I was dumbfounded when I saw the document saying that Guiding would be minimized at a time when there were so many people getting hurt.
‘Ah, but if I minimize the use of abilities, I’ll rely more on martial arts.’
In an instant, my thoughts changed as enlightenment flashed through my head.
In the current situation, I have the advantage. Everyone will be afraid of going berserk and won’t want to use their abilities too much.
I immediately started thinking positively and calmed my mind.
In the midst of all this, someone suddenly knocked on the waiting room door and came inside.
It was Kim Sanghyuk, Haemi, and Seunghwan.
As they came in, they had turned the same positive circuit as me, and they told me that it was fortunate that I had a more advantageous condition.
Since I met my friends, I went to have lunch with them.
We ate together at the Central Center cafeteria, talking about who had won how much money and which Espers seemed likely to receive good evaluations and which Espers seemed likely to receive bad evaluations.
And Kim Sanghyuk was very proud of me, who was a strong championship candidate despite being a B-grade.
“Hey A-grade friends, look at Gang Hana. She’s a B-grade Enhancement-Type, but she already finished the middle of the A-grade competition in less than 2 minutes. She’ll definitely finish it in 2 minutes even if she fights an S-grade. Grade is nothing, you know? The Association should stop discriminating by grade. Gang Hana, the hope of us B-grades, the dream of the Enhancement-Type, will kindly let you know.”
But the reactions of the A-grade Espers Park Haemi and Jo Seunghwan were lukewarm.
“How much difference is there between B-grade and A-grade? They do almost everything that A-grades do.”
“That’s why those A-grades who already have everything are no good. Didn’t you see them setting off fireworks when the A-grade tournament started? Until now, they just gave a rough speech and ended it. You guys even have rooms in the Dormitory. We all have studio apartments.”
“We have S-grades above us, aren’t you jealous of them? They’re the ones who get the most money, right? They’re also the number one priority in the Association.”
“They live like they’re trapped in the Research Center, so I’m not very jealous of that. Their Dormitory is also inside the Research Center.”
Hmm, Kim Sanghyuk, you were secretly, no, very jealous of the A-grades. Being able to output strong firepower is cool. The Association takes good care of them too.
Come to think of it, only Kim Sanghyuk and I among our classmates are B-grades, and everyone else is A-grade, so it was easy to compare the treatment by grade.
But what’s the use of having outstanding abilities? They’re always being called to the Research Center.
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