Oppa, Are You Okay?

“Uughh.”

Wincing, I clutched at my chest. It wasn’t only my chest that hurt, either; my whole body prickled and stung as if I’d been electrocuted. The pain was fiercer than anything I’d felt in my life, fierce enough that I was terrified I might just die right here.

I can’t let that happen.

I grabbed my phone with a shaking hand to call for help, but the pain made even pressing the buttons too much for me. And then, just as I felt myself being swallowed into darkness, every trace of the pain vanished all at once, as if by magic.

“…What was that.”

It had definitely hurt enough to kill me, and yet my body was strangely, perfectly fine. Dumbfounded, I opened and closed my hands, flexed my feet, and twisted my whole body this way and that, but nothing was wrong at all.

“That’s seriously weird.”

Was this something I should go to the hospital over, or not? If it happened even one more time, I decided, I really would have to get to a hospital. With that thought, I went back inside, where Sia lay fast asleep, and tried to get back to sleep.

The next day.

The moment I woke, the first thing to meet my eyes was, of course, pretty Sia. She lay beside me, watching me with a soft little smile, no longer the ‘grown-up Noona’ I’d seen last night but the Sia I remembered.

“Did you sleep well, Oppa?”

I’d half wondered whether last night’s setup would carry over into today, but Sia dutifully called me Oppa, same as always.

“Mm-hm. Slept great. Did our Sia sleep well too?”
“Super well.”

We started the morning off with a light hug.

“I’m going to peel an apple. Oppa’s having some too, right?”
“Yeah.”

Sia got out of bed and set about peeling fruit and making breakfast, the same as always. Nothing about the scene was any different from any other day, and yet, for some reason I couldn’t name, something about it felt slightly off. Maybe I just kept thinking about the side of herself Sia had shown me last night.

When I sat there staring blankly, Sia set the knife down mid-peel and turned her head my way.

“Oppa, what are you thinking about?”
“What happened last night.”

At that, Sia’s face began to flush a faint pink.

“Th-that— Oppa. I mean, last night was—”
“Sia-noona.”

The moment I teasingly called her Noona, the way I had last night, her face went as red as a beet, and she buried it in both hands, embarrassed.

“Nnnn…”
“Last night you devoured me like a real Noona, and today you’re all bashful.”
“Uuu. Why did I do that?”
“For someone who says that, you looked like you were having an awfully good time last night.”

She’d even been the one to suggest it in the first place. The reality of it must have caught up with her a little late.

“For the record, I liked it. Next time let’s try a different setup.”

In case Sia was feeling awkward, I steered the conversation somewhere else, nice and casual.

“Anything you want to do today?”

Munching happily on her apple, Sia mulled it over and had an answer in no time.

“A training-ground date!”

Not just a date, but a training-ground date? We’d done that together fairly often back in the day, when we were both attending the Hunter Academy. But now that Sia was a dragon so strong that training was beneath her, I didn’t see any need for dates at a training ground. So if she wanted one anyway…

“Is it maybe to get that old feeling back?”

That was probably the reason.

“That’s part of it. But besides that, I purely just want to help Oppa train, too. I told Oppa yesterday, remember — that I could see the potential in Oppa to become a Ranker in no time.”

Sia was eager to draw that potential of mine out even a little sooner. Naturally, I wanted to see my potential come into full bloom a day sooner myself… but for a week or so, at least, I wanted to stick to Sia like gum and date like an ordinary couple. After everything it had taken to meet our Sia again, surely a week of just living like this was allowed?

“Let’s do it until exactly three o’clock. After that, no more training-ground date — just a date. How’s that?”

As if she’d read my mind, Sia added a proposal of her own.

“Let’s do that, then.”
“Let’s!”

We finished off breakfast and headed for the training ground, the same one we’d often gone to back in our Academy days. I’d thought I’d never have reason to come here again.

“Being here brings back old memories.”
“Me too.”

Maybe because it sat near the Academy campus, familiar shop signs kept catching my eye, and it really did feel as though I’d traveled a few years back in time.

Once we arrived, we unpacked our things and got down to training in earnest. To be precise, it wasn’t our training but ‘my’ training. I took up the Dragon Bone Sword Sia had given me the day before, while she brought over a chair and sat down right behind me.

“Teacher, what should I be doing?”

I put a teasing lilt on the word, calling Sia Teacher.

“‘Teacher’, he says. Pfft.”
“Well, you are the one teaching me. That makes you my teacher.”

Unused to being called Teacher, Sia squirmed in her seat.

“I’m about to get goosebumps, Oppa.”
“Should I call you Noona instead, then?”
“Nnnn.”

Sia neither agreed nor disagreed. The joking lasted only a moment, though; she soon slipped into teacher mode and began overseeing my training.

“Let’s see. For the monster… a Wood Golem would be good.”
“That’s a B-Rank monster.”

I’d assumed she would pick something reasonable from among the C-Rank monsters, but Sia chose the Wood Golem, a B-Rank monster, as my opponent.

“Even so, it won’t be as hard as you’d think.”

Real combat would be another matter, but this was simulation training, so Sia said we should go bold, and I agreed.

This is exciting.

It felt a little strange at first, but the old memories and the question of how much strength I could put out had me excited. Just what talent did I have, that it had drawn out the Dragon Bone Sword’s power? And where was its limit? Before we started, I took a few practice swings, but as expected, I still had no idea.

“Even if it’s a simulation, you know how it goes, right, Oppa? Don’t think of it as training — think of it as giving everything you’ve got.”
“Of course I will.”

I was fairly sure that was a line I used to say to Sia back on our training-ground dates. I’d never imagined I’d get it handed back to me today.

“Think of every Wood Golem that comes out from here on as a bitch coming to get Oppa’s number. One clean cut, snap, snap! You know what I mean, right?”
“Obviously.”

Her tone was playful, but the look in Sia’s eyes said she wasn’t saying it idly.

Fair enough.

If I’d been in Sia’s position, it would probably have bothered me too. Should I laugh, or take it seriously?

Anyway.

With a rallying cheer, the simulation training began. The instant it started, practice Wood Golems came spawning out of the far wall.

What’s the right way to take these down?

For starters, today’s opponent, the Wood Golem, had considerably high defense, but in exchange its movement speed and attack power were unimpressive for a B-Rank. In the end, agility and stamina would be the crux. Going back over yesterday’s fight, agility didn’t look like much of a problem; my stamina would be.

Still.

I’ll just have to do it on spite and guts.

Wasn’t there a saying about that, a while back? That what matters is a heart that doesn’t break.¹

Chewing over that one thought, I gripped the sword tight and charged into the middle of the enemy line. The Wood Golems lumbering toward me began to pick up speed, but I paid them no mind. For this moment at least, I’d decided that boldness came first, last, and always.

I picked out the golem farthest from the pack, ran straight for it, and swung.

— Swish!

It might not have shown on the outside, but I could feel it clearly.

“Got it.”

From the way it staggered, the blow had landed properly. I couldn’t let myself be satisfied with that, though. I rolled forward under the golem’s sluggish attack, and the instant I’d dodged it, I cut through its leg with a horizontal stroke.

— Shk!

It wasn’t my imagination. With this sword in my hand, something was definitely different.

But she said this wasn’t simply because of the sword’s power.

I had to keep working out the reason as I swung, all the more because this was training. The golem’s massive arm came swinging; I ducked under it, leapt with everything I had, and drove my blade into another golem.

The reason I can run wild.

The Dragon Bone Sword. Being made from a dragon’s bones meant, in other words, that a dragon’s power was held inside it.

A dragon.

Right. Let me start by focusing on the dragon as a being. How was I supposed to draw out the power of a dragon, the being that reigns as the highest there is on this earth?

Sia said a dragon is a being that reigns and dominates.

Reign and domination were the keywords. I felt close to grasping something, but it wouldn’t quite click; words like reign and domination hardly fit a mere D-Rank Hunter like me. But if I meant to draw out even a little of the dragon’s power held in the sword, didn’t I first have to become a man worthy of that standing?

According to Sia, those who had drawn a Dragon Bone Sword’s power out to its limit in the past had mostly become rulers. A nobody rose out of a worthless station to become king and reign; the king of a weak little nation unified a continent and reigned over it. In that case, shouldn’t I be swinging the sword with the ambition to become a ruler myself?

I still had no clear idea what had let me draw out this sword’s power so far, but I had a vague sense of the frame of mind I ought to wield it in. I mustn’t take the stance of a challenger. I had to swing as though I had towered over them from the start, not as someone here to learn, but as someone here to teach.

I struck the golem the way you’d strike a practice dummy.

— KRRRAAACK!

With a heavier impact than before, one golem went down in a single blow. Once I’d confirmed it was down, I checked Sia’s reaction.

“Nice, Oppa!”

Her face was full of astonishment and delight.

“One number-grabbing girl down.”

I said it teasingly, pointing at the golem still swaying a little from my blow. Dragons being what they are, she’d never be able to forget yesterday’s unpleasant memory, but this way the bad feelings might at least be diluted a little.

“Not that they can even reach our Sia’s toes, anyway.”
“Right? Right.”

I’d tacked on a deliberately toe-curling line, and Sia nodded along, apparently satisfied. She was satisfied, and bit by bit, I was starting to get a feel for it. All that was left now was to push forward.

Forget what sword I was holding, and what enemies stood in front of me. The Wood Golems kept multiplying, but I swung without a care in the world. A confidence I’d never tasted before, and an exhilaration with it, began to sweep through my body. Was this what they called the realm of selfless absorption? Little by little, my mind began to drift away.

…No.

At first I mistook it for that, but something was different. My mind was drifting, yes, but at the same time pain began welling up all over my body, unbearable. It was the very same pain I’d briefly gone through on the roof the day before. It was too much to endure, and the strength started draining out of my legs.

“Oppa, are you okay?”

I needed to tell her I wasn’t okay, to ask for help, but strangely, no words came out. At this rate, I was probably going to collapse before long.

— CLANG!

The strength went out of my hand and I dropped the sword, then reached straight out toward Sia for help.

“Si…a…”

But for some reason, the words wouldn’t come out right. The last thing my eyes took in was Sia rushing desperately toward me.

I lost consciousness.