MCLE | Chapter 2

Zero Nine’s eyes curved slightly. One eye seemed to close into a smile, while the other barely moved. Hexion, catching sight of those mismatched eyes, tilted his head slightly and smirked.

“You woke up with a kiss.”

Like some kind of princess from a fairy tale.

At that, Zero Nine asked, “…Did we kiss?”

“We did. On someone’s orders.”

“Orders, huh.”

Elijah’s words were thoroughly ignored.

“So, does that mean the reason I feel good right now is because of your kiss?”

“Yeah.”

At Hexion’s affirmation, Zero Nine whispered in a pleading yet feverish tone, “In that case, would you kiss me one more time?”

His lips were a bloody mess from being bitten too much, his cheeks gaunt, and his ears were tinged red despite his pale, fevered skin. Hexion took in all of it before saying, “Open your mouth.”

Zero Nine parted his lips. And so, Hexion kissed him again—for treatment purposes.

Guiding—this was the only method that had ever been discovered to stabilize an esper. In the middle of a wrecked laboratory, a long kiss scene between two men unfolded.

Clap. Clap, clap…

One of the researchers, overwhelmed by sheer relief at their survival, started clapping. Hexion chuckled dryly to himself. What kind of lunatic claps in a situation like this?

But the applause spread. One by one, the others joined in, until a dozen or so researchers were clapping in unison. Even Elijah raised both hands high and clapped enthusiastically. Ah, so this was payback for teasing him earlier, huh?

Hexion lifted his gaze to one of the monitors.

Berserk Stage: 0.51%
Situation: Resolved

Confirming this, Hexion pulled away from the kiss. Any further physical contact was unnecessary.

“Aah…” A voice of disappointment slipped from Zero Nine’s lips.

“At the very least, you should know the name of the person you kissed. I’m Hexion Theobald.”

Zero Nine blinked, looking strangely docile—an expression unfitting for someone labeled as a catastrophe-level esper. It was a peculiar face, somewhere between a smile and a blank expression.

“Call me whatever you like.”

“I will. Zero Nine.”

At Hexion’s words, Zero Nine’s lips curled slightly. It could be called a smile. A strangely captivating smile that lingered in his mind.

Then, Elijah’s smartphone rang obnoxiously loud. He picked up the call, responding in a low voice before lifting his head with a triumphant expression.

Ah, this was definitely going to be annoying.

“For now, let’s do a status check on Zero Nine. And Hexion Theobald, you, come with me.”

“…Why?”

Elijah grinned slyly.

“A recall order has come in from Germany.”

The Esper War.
The war that had been labeled World War III.

Hexion, who had retired at the young age of thirty after surviving that mess, twisted his lips into a crooked grin.

“Oh, those lunatics finally did it, huh?”

He glanced at Zero Nine, who was lying quietly on the examination table, before shifting his gaze back to Elijah, silently demanding an explanation. Elijah, grinning from ear to ear, obliged.

“It’s a cooperation request from the German government. You are to return to military service as a guide to control catastrophe-level esper Zero Nine. You have a duty to protect your country—”

With a dramatic flourish, Elijah grabbed a tablet and pulled up the cooperation request, presenting it as though he were a real estate agent showing off a new property.

Hexion, looking down at the single-page document, tapped the screen twice with his finger.

“Cooperation, my ass.”

It was an order disguised as a request. His displeasure was obvious.

Elijah, now that his job was done, just smiled at him like he couldn’t care less.

Yeah, sure. And when things go south again, he’ll come crawling back, begging for help.

“So, the main point?”

Hexion folded his arms and raised a brow.

Elijah straightened his posture and cleared his throat before answering.

“Well, the issue is that Zero Nine is officially under U.S. jurisdiction. So, the deployment plan is to have Hexion Theobald transferred from Germany to the U.S…”

“The main point.”

“…Ah, seriously. You are to stay with Zero Nine at a designated government facility and respond when summoned in case of an abnormal esper occurrence.”

“And why the hell are you suddenly speaking so formally?”

“…Whatever. Hexion Theobald will be assigned to the Esper Special Management Unit and will hold the rank of Special Officer.”

Hexion let out a crooked smile.

“Captain-level?”

“Colonel-level.”

“Wow, you’re really handing out the big titles.”

Hexion sneered. Meanwhile, Elijah was basking in the satisfaction of having done his job properly, regardless of Hexion’s attitude. He had stopped Zero Nine from going berserk, delivered the cooperation request and its contents, and now, all that was left was to secure this guide and assign him to the Special Management Unit. Then, his work would be done. Ah, what a long and arduous journey it had been.

“Zero Nine has been guided, so he’ll stabilize quickly. Once the sedatives wear off, he’ll come to his senses.”

“You pumped enough into him to kill an elephant.”

“Espers don’t die from that.”

That unique perspective and way of speaking, as if espers weren’t human. Hexion didn’t frown; instead, he just smirked with a crooked smile. It hadn’t been that long since they were formally called “espers.” Before that, they had been labeled as monsters, modified humans, and the like. Before guides were discovered, espers had been treated as ticking time bombs—walking disasters just waiting to explode.

Just then, the researchers finished checking Zero Nine’s condition and began detaching the devices stuck to his body. Zero Nine, still looking somewhat drowsy, climbed off the examination table and followed them.

“When is he going to give me a proper greeting?”

Espers under the influence of drugs and guiding were usually docile. With the amount of sedatives he’d been given, let alone the guiding, there was a good chance he wouldn’t even remember that he’d kissed him once he came to. Elijah scratched his head.

“The detox process won’t take long. That’s just how espers are.”

“What’s his usual personality like? He seemed pretty quiet just now—kinda cute, actually.”

“I wouldn’t say cute, but since he was kidnapped by A Country as a child and subjected to all sorts of experiments, he’s generally pretty quiet and cooperative here. He’s never caused any major trouble.”

“But managing him was a hassle because he didn’t have a high-matching guide?”

“Something like that. But now, that problem’s solved.”

Elijah shrugged. Hexion tapped him on the shoulder, clearly signaling him to cut it out because it was annoying. Regardless, now that he was back to being a soldier, Hexion started asking about the things he needed to know.

“What’s A Country’s situation these days?”

“After losing the war, things are quiet—at least on the surface. They’ve had all their limbs cut off, so there’s not much they can do.”

A Country was a socialist republic located in Central Asia and the instigator of World War III—also known as the Esper War. Hexion smirked, wrinkling his nose. The war had dragged on for nine years. Saying that his entire twenties had been consumed by it wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

“A Country lost all its espers to the Allied Nations. They don’t have a single esper left. Any new espers that emerge within A Country are inevitable, but with the world watching, they won’t be able to pull the same tricks as before.”

A Country held the record for discovering the first esper. The problem was that they had hidden this fact, trained those espers as human weapons, and started a war. They had scoured the globe, kidnapping anyone suspected of being an esper and successfully brainwashing them.

For years, A Country concealed the existence of espers before unleashing them in war. The other nations, unaware of their existence, had no means of countering them. A single individual who could withstand dozens of artillery strikes—of course, civilians who knew nothing about espers had called them monsters.

“Back then, A Country was the only one with espers, so we were helpless. But that’s not the case anymore.”

Elijah spoke, and Hexion reflected on A Country. During the war, they had come up with the worst possible tactics—things only a mind completely devoid of humanity could conceive. It was one thing to have insane espers flying around overhead, but the real problem had been the absence of guides.

Back then, no one knew that espers needed guides—not even A Country, who had built an army of them.

In the middle of the war, a few espers went berserk and completely wiped out A Country‘s own forces. Ironically, the very weapons they had created had forced them to retreat. Since guides hadn’t been discovered at the time, one could only imagine the sheer chaos and suffering they had endured.

And after all that, the strategy they finally came up with? Something utterly inhumane.