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clung tightly to my skin, leaving me unable to breathe. Pitch black, nothing visible. My heartbeat, blood flow, and the pressure in my lungs all felt magnified.
And yet, the sensation of my barrier—which should have been constantly deployed—was gone.

I see.
Instead of my body, my barrier had been paralyzed and petrified.
Didn’t quite imagine something like this happening.
For a moment, I thought I’d died, but apparently not. The tension drained away all at once. Safe.

I always deploy my barrier tightly fitted to my body. Since that had turned into stone, from the outside it must have looked like I myself had been petrified. I could even use it to play the part of a statue.
The fact that my invisible telekinetic forcefield barrier could be turned into stone was honestly impressive. I had no idea how it worked. It was like turning electromagnetic waves into water, or converting temperature into soil—an utterly nonsensical phenomenon. But it’s precisely because such nonsense occurs that we call it *superpowers.*

If psychokinesis could be turned into stone, then perhaps other abilities could too. Touka-chan’s flames, Ruu-denka’s lightning…
If abilities could be petrified, then even the World Shadow—water wrapped in telekinetic membranes—could be turned to stone and defeated.
So, Medu-chan could fight after all.

It was encouraging to glimpse a new potential in the Evil Eye, but the fact remained that she was starting to turn into a rampaging, humanoid disaster who even petrified her allies, including me. Would I be able to hold her reins? I’m worried.
Maybe it would be safer to strip her of her position and her powers now, before this disaster grows into a catastrophe. But having been given powers once, only to have them taken away because she failed, would leave a wound—a deep, lifelong scar. That would be wrong.

I want to be an adult who can forgive mistakes as long as possible. An adult who can say, “It’s fine, try again next time.” After all, she’s just fourteen.
That said, the unconscious mental damage she kept dishing was so brutal I was honestly about to break. We needed to do something, fast.

Lost in thought, I began to suffocate. Being encased in stone meant no air was getting through.
I re-deployed my barrier, used psychokinesis to grind the stone into sand, and freed myself.
*Mmm. The air of the outside world tastes good.*

The figure of Medu-chan, who had been right before me, was gone. The door leading from the basement to the ground floor was open—she must have gone upstairs.
Wondering how best to rehabilitate her, I climbed the stairs, only to find one of the Liberation Front boys on the first floor collapsed on his rear.

He pointed at me with a face twisted in terror, trembling violently, shouting something over and over in his native tongue.
I caught the words “stone” and “alive.” Something like “He turned to stone, yet he’s alive!”?
*So what if I’m alive?* I’m an esper—being alive after turning to stone isn’t strange at all. If it were Oyabun or Ig, they’d probably heal themselves of paralysis or petrification. Rin would just undo the status effect with time reversal.

Not seeing her on the first floor either, I used clairvoyance—Medu-chan was on the rooftop. Half-crazed, she was about to throw herself off, only to be desperately restrained by the Liberation Front children.
What a mess this is becoming. She’s being unreasonable.

I could understand her feelings, maybe… no, not really.
Probably some kind of follower-suicide thing, but I couldn’t wrap my head around the mentality of obsessive fanatic fans.

The moment I appeared on the rooftop, the suicide commotion instantly flipped into a resurrection commotion. Some fled in terror, some knelt and begged forgiveness, some froze in confusion and copied others, some cried, some raged, some laughed… a complete pandemonium.
As for Medu-chan—she let out a strangled laugh-cry, like a bird being throttled, and promptly fainted. *Man, this girl always loses consciousness.*

I carried her to bed, and the Liberation Front children, following behind me like ducklings, immediately surrounded her and started fussing over her—placing a wet towel on her forehead, changing her into pajamas, bringing flowers for the bedside, or just holding her hand.
I mostly saw troublesome-fan behavior from her, but perhaps, to the children of the Arinātaya Liberation Front, Medu-chan truly was that important. A beacon of hope for orphans.

She woke up about an hour later.
Gesturing to the kids guarding her like bodyguards, I got them to let me through. But Medu-chan herself was brimming with strangeness.

“Are you here to visit me? Thank you.”

Her tone was flat.
Her cheeks weren’t flushed.
Her eyes weren’t glittering.
She didn’t throw herself at me with a smile.
The very fact that nothing seemed off was, in fact, off.
She was acting like just an ordinary, pretty, brown-skinned girl.

“I’m sorry for worrying you. I’m fine now. Training will proceed as scheduled.”

*Is she really okay? Did she hit her head?*
When I reached to check her forehead, she quietly pulled away.

*…Eh?*
*What’s going on with you? Where did the clingy, hands-on, greedy Medu-chan go!?*

“I beg your pardon. But I am not someone who should be touched by Lord Sago.”
“It’s just touching, isn’t it?”
“No. I might end up killing—hurting you again. I can’t. I couldn’t bear that. Please, cherish yourself. As long as Lord Sago lives in good health, I am happy. I finally understand that.”

Placing her hands on her chest, Medu-chan spoke softly, with eyes as clear as if she’d never harbored a single wicked thought in her life.

*Wait—huh?*
*What the hell. Split personality?*
*She’s like a different person… Ah!?*
*Is this that “reformation of Medu Sagrogo by Sago Kinemitsu” thing?*
*Is that what this is!?*

“Reformation” or more like “reprogramming”—the change was that drastic.
Why do espers, whether it’s Shouta-kun or Medu-chan, always repent so extremely? They turn into different people overnight. Not that I have any room to talk, quitting my job to start a secret society and all.

If she didn’t want to be touched, then I’d just use psychokinesis. As I secretly checked her pulse and temperature with my invisible force, my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was Shiori calling.
It was a little unusual for Shiori to call first. Something must have happened.
I stood up immediately.

“Sorry, my wife’s calling. I’ll step out for a bit.”
“You have a wife?”
“Ah.”

A chill like ice water poured down my back.
Maybe I was way dumber than I thought. How many times was I going to slip up in a single day? All it took was losing my competent adjutant, and I was already falling apart.

Timidly, I checked her reaction. But Medu-chan, staring off into space, murmured dreamily to herself:

“Lord Sago having a wife is so precious…”

She’s fine. Guess anything goes at this point.
For the record, Shiori’s call was about whether this summer’s swimsuit should be red or black. She was apparently in an apparel shop. I told her any color was fine, but not to show it to any man other than me.

Since the “Kinemitsu Sago Petrification Incident,” Medu-chan had become absurdly reserved. As if to compensate for how clingy she used to be, she now kept her distance, often standing silently outside the room I was assigned, or making handwritten Invisible Titan-propaganda flyers and posting them at shops around town after getting permission. She’d stopped her pushy recruiting and veteran-fan posturing.
Sometimes she’d even put on sunglasses, stare at me secretly from the shadows, then, once she realized I noticed, she’d blurt an apology and dart away.
She was no longer a troublesome fan, but still a devoted one. Honestly, it was a little embarrassing.

Her enthusiasm for psychic training, however, remained unchanged.
When I casually mentioned maybe it was time to fight the World Shadow, the next day she showed up wearing a homemade eyepatch on her right eye, with a sewn-in metal plate sturdy enough to block a knife thrust.
She said it was an anti-sealing countermeasure.

Indeed, the Evil Eye ability becomes useless if the eyes are blinded.
A flashbang or handful of sand would cripple her combat ability. By keeping one eye covered and protected, even if her active eye were blinded, she could remove the eyepatch and instantly restore her combat strength.
Smart.

Also, the combination of the military uniform and the eyepatch looked incredibly cool.
She wore the uniform simply because it was the sturdiest clothing she owned, and the eyepatch was a purely practical measure—but the result was super chuuni.
I couldn’t help but snap a photo and send it to Shiori. Thirty minutes later, she replied with a high-quality selfie of herself cosplaying in a military uniform. My wife is adorable as always.

With her military training background, her days of thieving that honed her practical reflexes, her terrifying petrification ability, her dedication to battle readiness, and her high motivation… Does Medu-chan really need a “tutorial fight” against the World Shadow? Probably not. But this too is a rite of passage.
So we’d be heading into live combat—just with the difficulty dialed slightly up.