OMH Chapter 26

Oh My Hero – Episode 26

26. The S-grades I Ended Up Raising (7)

Cha Woojin’s face was flustered, as if he was surprised by my reaction to the uninvited guest. I quickly composed myself.

“……Wow, Cha Woojin! What brings you here?”

I greeted Cha Woojin as usual, but his stiff expression didn’t ease.

Now I was starting to get anxious.

‘What should I do?’

I really wanted to avoid Cha Woojin fearing me, but it seemed like everything was going wrong.

Afraid that unnecessary words would only worsen the situation, I couldn’t say anything and just swallowed.

A silence filled with mutual anxiety settled between us.

In the silence that seemed like it would never end, I suddenly heard a deflating sound of laughter.

Startled by the unexpected sound, I looked at Cha Woojin, but he immediately erased his laughter and wore his own aloof expression.

Then, in a low, mellow tone, he got straight to the point.

“May I observe here?”

I really hadn’t expected those words at all.

I don’t know why a Guide would request to observe my class, which even offensive Espers are denied.

“Of course~ Please come in.”

But if the visitor is Cha Woojin, he’s always welcome.

I took a small step back to make way for Cha Woojin to enter. Cha Woojin came inside and immediately approached Cha Wooreen.

Cha Wooreen, who was playing with my Smartwatch, dropped the watch and ran to her brother as soon as she saw him. I just replaced my watch not long ago…

Regardless of my watch’s well-being, the siblings were having a deeply moving reunion.

They were playing together for a long time just yesterday, but it’s heartwarming to see them so affectionate every time.

Little Cha Wooreen sat Cha Woojin on the floor and climbed onto his lap. Then, she hugged her brother tightly, showing affection that she hadn’t shown even once before.

I thought she was just a gruff little kid, but it seems she does that when she’s happy to see someone.

I felt embarrassed to keep watching, so I stepped away to do my work.

I can’t just let the kids wander around the training room.

But the kids had already stopped running and were huddled together, chatting.

“I’m telling you, he came to seduce her. Why else would he come here?”

“Even now, and yesterday too, he didn’t seem interested.”

“That’s right. It’s just a one-sided crush.”

‘What are these guys talking about? I told them to run around the training room, and they’re just hanging out?!’

I had no intention of letting them play just because Cha Woojin came to observe, so I immediately stopped them.

“Hey, why are you all gathered here? I clearly told you to do 20 laps, and it hasn’t even been 5 minutes yet? Did you develop a speed-enhancing ability without me knowing?”

“Senior! Why did that person come? Did he come to see you?”

Today, Jang Hana didn’t listen to me and boldly said whatever she wanted.

But I’m a kind adult, so I sincerely answered that impudent teenager’s question.

“That’s not it. He just came to observe our training. You guys can do what you normally do.”

“That person is a Guide, right? Why would a Guide watch our training? Especially S-grades? That reason doesn’t make sense.”

It’s not like I haven’t thought about it, but Cha Woojin said he would. Who are you to complain?

If I keep indulging her, it seems like she’ll endlessly waste valuable training time.

I ignored Jang Hana and told the kids to run 20 laps again from the beginning.

After making the kids run laps, I took a moment to organize the curriculum and glanced at Cha Woojin. I thought he might be looking this way since he came to observe.

But as expected, Cha Woojin was busy whispering to Cha Wooreen and didn’t look over here. I focused on the kids again and organized the curriculum.

*

After watching these S-grade kids I ended up teaching for about two days, I realized something.

They have absolutely no basics in combat. I can tell just by watching them throw a punch.

To engage in combat, you can’t just rely on natural athleticism and blindly punch and dodge. You need to learn techniques to identify and strike vital points, and dodging techniques need to become natural to you.

But they don’t even know the basic techniques, let alone master them.

Even Jang Hana, whose punches I’m catching right now, is making a fist with her thumb tucked inside. Having to teach kids who can’t even make a proper fist makes the road ahead feel daunting.

Still, I’m glad that Jang Hana seems to be enjoying punching me. They need to find it fun to work hard.

She can’t even hit my palm properly, so it doesn’t make a proper sound, but let’s just assume that it is going to be alright because it’s just the beginning. If it weren’t for my Adamantine Body/Invulnerable Physique, my fingers would have been sprained in all ten fingers from being bent so much.

Of course, Jang Hana isn’t the only one without fundamentals. Jang Hana is at least a Mental-type.

The situation isn’t much different for the two Enhancement-Type friends either.

They’re just strong because of their abilities, but their form is poor, so they only make a dull sound even when hitting the mitts on my hands. I’m amazed that Ham Soyoung even came to the Martial Arts Tournament/Competition.

Besides, Jo Yong crushes his chair all the time, so he probably doesn’t even know how to properly utilize his ability.

It’s a good thing that the training room at the Central Center requires Smartwatch authentication to open the door. If it were a door with a handle, it would have been broken long ago.

“Okay, Yong, just sit on the floor since you’re tall. There are your fingerprints all over the chair’s joints and legs, how can you use it?”

“Everyone else is sitting on chairs, it’s unfair that only I have to sit on the floor.”

“Then don’t break the chairs.”

Soyoung and Jang Hana seemed to have similar thoughts as me, as they both reproached Jo Yong. It seems like he spends his time breaking things even when it’s not my class.

I listened to the kids chattering and briefly reviewed their profiles.

I know their abilities, but I don’t want to miss any specific details.

Name: Jang Hana

Type: Mental (Multiple)

Grade: S

Abilities: Mind Reading, Illusion Projection, Memory Sharing

Special Notes: Outside

–

Name: Jo Yong

Type: Enhancement-Type (Multiple)

Grade: S

Abilities: Body Enhancement, External Physical Impact Negation

Special Notes: Immature, Outside

–

Name: Ham Soyoung

Type: Enhancement-Type

Grade: S

Abilities: Body Enhancement

Special Notes: –

I knew it. Jo Yong has been with the Association for almost three years, but look at how immature his ability is.

Also, ‘Outside’ written in the special notes means ‘external suppression is required.’ It means that the Esper can’t control their ability well and is prone to outbursts, or is antisocial.

The fact that the kids are like this even though they’ve been members of the Association for a long time is probably because the Esper Guide Association only focuses on data measurement for S-grade Espers and doesn’t provide proper training.

And now that some data has been accumulated, they probably called me in to use them in outside missions.

But since I’ve taken on the job, I plan to work hard. I need to refine these guys well enough so that they can go out on missions.

“Okay, everyone, listen carefully because I have something important to say.”

Jo Yong, who was sitting on the floor alone, and the kids sitting on chairs were chatting noisily, but they looked at me. I seriously started the conversation.

“I’ve been observing your level until today. Now I’m going to tell you the results. I think you probably know it too, but, well… you guys have absolutely no fundamentals. So I’m going to tighten the training schedule a bit…”

“The puppy training is already tough, what more can you tighten?!”

Jang Hana jumped up and protested, even though we’ve only been doing basic physical training.

The other two also seemed to feel bad about being told they have no fundamentals, and they grumbled that I don’t know anything after only meeting them for two days.

Well, if they just live locked up in this building, they might not have a sense of reality.

I opened my mouth to explain to the inexperienced kids.

“I know that you’ve been constantly training at the Research Center. You’ve probably done these physical fitness tests several times, similar to what we’re doing now. They probably made you run around the training room and lift dumbbells, just like now. But the purpose of the Research Team’s training and my class are different. The purpose of the Research Team is to figure out your thresholds. They only test when you start to get tired, and test your limits. They had you do it to record it.”

“……”

The kids, who had been chatting noisily, stopped talking and looked at me.

They seemed surprised that I, who am not someone who lives in the Research Center, know this.

I like that they’ve quieted down. I continued.

“But the purpose of my class is to raise you to a specific standard. And you’re not even at the starting point of that level yet. Your basic physical fitness is so poor. I have to focus on building up your physical fitness before we can even get to the fundamentals of martial arts. But our training is classified as general combat training? The class name is ‘Special Education for High-Risk Ability Users,’ which is a grand name, so I thought we’d be treated specially, but no. Anyway, since it’s like this, we have to achieve something within this year, at least.”

“What kind of achievement are we supposed to make?”

“I’m saying that we have to successfully complete one mission with you guys. Because this class is classified as combat training, we have to follow those standards. You know that the class will be abolished if we don’t meet the training standards, right? It’s all recorded if the training class is abolished. Once something like this is recorded, it affects your staff evaluation forever. How hard will it be to make up for it later?”

Combat training aimed at actual combat must achieve results at least once a year to be maintained.

But absurdly, that standard is not from when the training starts, but from the moment the year begins. So it means it’s over when the year ends.

‘So training schedules are usually made at the beginning of the year, but not for me…’

Besides, there are less than two months left this year, so I’m very worried.

The kids have the combat sense of ordinary people who haven’t received training, but the Association wants weapons that can fight even without using abilities…

Monsters are in hibernation, so those missions are in the off-season. Even if I wanted to choose an easy mission, there are no missions to choose from, so it’s difficult to even go out.

But it’s almost hooligan season, so I have no choice but to do those missions, even though I don’t want to.

‘Hooligans are more unsettling than monsters… but it can’t be helped. They’re easier to deal with than monsters.’

I should prioritize the kids getting a sense of the field.

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