"Haa..."
A couple of hours later, the classes were already over and all the students went back to their own business, including Jay.
Due to how difficult it was to be able to properly use a high level technique like "Energy Disruption", none of the students were able to successfully complete the course.
However, this was an expected outcome for the teacher, as he did not really expect anyone to be able to pull it off on the first try, rather, this class was to serve as a foundation for them to be able to attempt the energy disruption in the future.
Of course, the fact that a certain pair of students had disrupted the others certainly didn't help, as it had given them something to think about for the rest of the day, and that something wasn't related to the class at all.
With feelings of envy growing in some of the boys and interest on the part of the girls, the protagonists of the class had managed to stand out in a way that the teacher had not expected.
As for who these characters were, they were none other than Jay and Faith.
At the end of the class, the other students had thought that these two, having demonstrated such synergy in sharing energy, would spend more time together to discuss what had happened or something of the sort, but to everyone's surprise, they split up and went their own way.
The reasons for this, as well as the true nature of the "Bond" between them, remained a secret to the other students.
And now, one of them, Jay, found himself walking in the bronze city, his mind recalling the scene where he was sharing energy with Faith, but more specifically, a part he still couldn't figure out.
'...What happened back there?' He wondered, an expression of real confusion plastered on his face.
Although several unexpected things had happened in the exchange, what struck him most was neither Faith's energy, nor his little ones' ability to transmit energy, nor the synergy between the two of them.
Instead, what filled his head was that... for a moment, he had lost control and got carried away.
This was something completely new to Jay, who always preferred to follow a pre-fabricated or ready-made plan, not just go with the flow, it was thanks to this mentality that he had gotten out of many a tight spot.
However, when he came into contact with Faith, or rather, with Faith's energy, that mentality had gone straight down the drain.
While he wasn't going to deny that letting go had been an incredibly nice feeling, Jay was clear about one thing, and that was that he couldn't let it happen again.
After all, for him to end up in that state implied that he was lowering his defenses, and therefore leaving his well-being in other people's hands.
Perhaps Jay would have thought that this wasn't so bad in his early days at the academy as he thought it was a safe place, but after experiencing the incident with the chimera, he was no longer sure.
In short, not being able to think correctly was an outcome Jay wanted to avoid reaching at all costs.
Narrowing his eyes, Jay raised his right hand to his eye level, already having a clue as to why his demeanor had changed.
'It was you, wasn't it...?' Jay asked his little ones, who apparently knowing what he meant, moved from his right hand to go somewhere else, almost as if fleeing.
Letting out another sigh, Jay then decided that he should have another talk in the evening, although this time it would not only be with the system, but also with his little ones.
Coming to that decision, he lowered his right hand and continued walking towards his destination, which was, the bronze city¿s hospital.
***
In one of the hospital rooms, a young man lay in bed, his body a considerably pale shade, stemming not from his natural complexion, but from his present weakened state.
His hair, which was normally a striking wine color, was now visibly dulled.
As for his energy levels, they seemed to be so low that he even appeared to have dropped in rank.
Without a doubt, Vedran was in bad shape.
However, said esper was not sad or anything like that, instead, what he had been feeling these days was relief.
Relief that he had been able to come out alive from a confrontation against a monster that was much stronger than himself.
Relief that, thankfully, he wasn't going to leave his mother alone.
And while he was aware that his body would now have to suffer the consequences of having put it to such rough and violent use, Vedran was happy with this outcome.
As for what the consequences specifically were, aside from his weakened appearance and the fact that he would have to stay in bed for a while, he would also have to suffer permanent consequences .
Normally, thanks to supers having stronger than normal bodies, the after-effects they suffered from injuries that would usually be permanent for normal people were not half as serious.
However, the same could not be said of Vedran's case.
It would have been fine if he had broken a bone or two, or even torn muscle tissue or the like, even then, the consequences would have been light.
But this time, he not only hurt his whole body to a critical point, but he continued to fight rampantly regardless of the damage he had received, and to top it all off, the most serious part of it all, that he had used his ability abruptly.
Thanks to the latter, his body, which could no longer fight, was forced to continue, pushing him to an extreme that had long ago exceeded Vedran's limits.
As a result, the damage was so severe that Vedran's vital energy, that which was deeply related to his life expectancy, had been reduced.
Undoubtedly, he had paid a high price.
However, thanks to the fact that he had made it out alive, and that a certain person was visiting him, his mood was affected in the least by that fact.
*Tap tap*.
At that moment, the sound of footsteps coming from the hallway outside his door reached his ears.
At the same time Vedran turned his head, a relatively tall young man with green eyes and wavy black hair entered the room, in his hand holding a small oranges net.
"Hey there, how are you today? I brought some fruit." Said Jay, who had entered the room.
"...Better than yesterday and thanks but... don't you think you're bringing in too many oranges lately?" Vedran replied, with a curious expression on his face.
"Not really..."
Since the day Vedran regained consciousness, Jay had been visiting him daily, to keep him company and make sure he was recovering properly.
And also, to a lesser extent as an extra and almost unimportant reason, to find out if Vedran had seen anything of him and the chimera.
Since Vedran was not used to a person caring about him outside of his mother or grandmother, this action not only improved Vedran's opinion of him, but also made the esper trust Jay even more.
This could be seen reflected in Vedran's body demeanor, which relaxed considerably, plus the way he spoke to Jay had become much more familiar.
And while this didn't mean that Vedran now saw Jay as a brother or anything like that, it was already decent progress.
Without wasting much more time, the two began to talk, with Jay explaining to him what they had done in class today among other things, not forgetting of course to eat the oranges that Jay himself had brought.
In that way, time passed, with seconds turning into minutes and these in turn turning into hours, until the sun began to go down, which indicated that visiting hours were about to end.
"Seriously, everyone kept looking at us, I think they'll even start rumors in a couple of days...I hope they don't defame me, I have a reputation to uphold as a pristine and honorable guy, you know? Otherwise no one will want to marry me..." Jay said as he acted in an exaggerated way.
Seeing this, though he said nothing, Vedran couldn't help but let out a small chuckle before standing still, causing the atmosphere to go silent for a few seconds, he then let out a long sigh, as if preparing for something.
"Ah, right-" Jay said.
"Jay..."
Interrupting Jay, Vedran suddenly spoke up, his gaze meeting directly with that of the first mentioned.
"I... saw what you did to the chimera's body." Vedran said.
Immediately, Jay froze for a moment, his shock was so much that even his little ones inside his body grew restless.
These past few days that he had been visiting him, Vedran had not shown any kind of sign that he knew anything about the chimera incident, specifically what he had done with the chimera, so Jay was already going to rule out this possibility.
Therefore, this sudden confession took him by surprise.
Not wanting to waste any more time, all his little ones then began to move to Jay's right hand, the latter reaching out to touch Vedran.
He didn't know exactly how Vedran knew this, but he had to make sure that the chimera incident remained a secret.
*Bam!*
"!"
Before he could do this, however, Vedran grabbed his right wrist with both hands.
"Jay, I want you to know... that while I don't know how exactly your ability works, I know it's not nasty or gross or.... dishonorable!!!" Vedran shouted as he looked directly at Jay, "Regardless of its effect, its a part of you and what's more, it allowed you to defeat such a strong monster, so please, be proud of it...!!!"
At the same time he said this, his grip on Jay's wrist increased slightly and slowly, but noticeably.
"If you don't want to show it, I won't say anything about what happened, even when they ask what happened to the chimera that attacked our group, I'll still say it was the same one I encountered myself... for my part, I'm going to keep your ability a secret until you tell me otherwise."
Vedran's words overflowed with honesty, and in his eyes, an amalgam of emotions that Jay could not explain could be seen present, along with a redness around them whose origin was unknown.
However, this, to Jay, did not make Vedran look vulnerable at all, but instead, made him feel ashamed to try to manipulate such a person, who despite being in a deplorable state himself, still cared about someone else.
Faced with this, Jay could do nothing but relax his grip completely, abandoning the idea of manipulating Vedran.
"...Thank you very much and.... you really are a good person, Vedran." Jay said with a smile that could not be described as bright, but more like apologetic.
Although Vedran couldn't understand why Jay seemed to have an apologetic expression, he preferred to keep quiet, as he didn't have much else to say.
"Ah, wait, what did you mean by 'your part'?" Jay asked, realizing this detail just now.
Realizing that he had been holding Jay's wrist a little too tightly, Vedran quickly let go before responding a little nervously.
"Oh, um, well..."
*Pin!
However, at that moment, Jay's smartwatch then received a notification, coming from an unknown sender.
He would have ignored it as it looked like Vedran was about to say something important, but several notifications suddenly came in.
"Sorry, let me see this first..." Jay said as he turned on his smart watch and checked the messages.
As soon as he saw the messages, his pupils widened, while the familiar attitude he had maintained with Vedran disappeared almost instantly.
This made Vedran worry, but just as quickly as Jay's expression changed, it returned to its former self, making the above seem simply like a misunderstanding on Vedran's part.
"Again I'm sorry, but I have to go, Vedran, something happened at the training center and I have to get back right away, I'll be back tomorrow, then you can you tell me what you had to say!" Jay said.
"Ah... yes, that's fine." Vedran replied.
With that exchange of words as the last, Jay then left the room in a hurry, leaving behind a confused esper.
As for what had put Jay in such a hurry, it was quite simple really, it was a photo along with a line of text.
The photo was of someone he knew very well, Vilda, gagged and with visible bruises all over his face.
As for the text, it was instructions on how to get to a certain place on the outskirts of the city.
