Chương 62: Chapter 16 Beyond the Gate: The Crimson-Eyed Witch(Part 3)

"Water, huh?" She followed my gaze toward the massive stone. The Water Mage class possessed remarkable versatility. I could create water from nothing. Shape it. Launch it. Compress it. What she had demonstrated earlier—high-pressure blades capable of slicing monsters apart—was technically within the same category of magic. Yet despite all that, my own understanding remained shallow. When I thought of water, simple things came to mind. Drinking water. Rain. The human body. Nothing more.

I raised my hand toward the boulder. A sphere of water roughly the size of my palm formed and shot forward. It struck the rock exactly where I aimed. The water burst apart harmlessly. She watched quietly before speaking.

"You're avoiding something."

"... Avoiding something?"

"If you're satisfied with that, then that's your choice. But if you intend to reach the middle ranks, it won't be enough." I frowned.

"My image of water isn't particularly strange. Flowing rivers. Hydration. Things like that."

"No." She shook her head immediately.

"Your image and your magic don't match." The words hit harder than expected. An uncomfortable feeling settled in my chest. She couldn't possibly know about my parents. I had never told her. And yet... The direction of her criticism felt painfully familiar.

"Are you telling me to think about my parents?" The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"No." Her answer came instantly.

"That memory is certainly powerful. But it's not what you're actually using." I closed my eyes. Parents. Disaster relief. Countless corpses. Rotting flesh. The smell. Flies. Maggots. Collapsed buildings. Ships thrown inland. Exhaustion. The endless days of searching. Recovery. Reconstruction. The vivid memories began surfacing one after another.

"You're overthinking it." Her voice interrupted my thoughts.

"You're already going too far. Any farther and you'll lose yourself." I opened my eyes. What had I been trying to remember? This wasn't about my parents. It was about water. Only water. Nothing else.

"That's right." Her expression softened.

"What frightened you? What inspired you?"

"... I see." A bitter smile escaped me.

"Magic really is troublesome."

"It can't be helped." She tapped her pipe lightly against her shoulder.

"But the fact remains that you chose this path." Now I finally understood what she meant. Imagination. A simple word. Yet everything depended on it. If I continued misunderstanding myself, then I would always need stronger and stronger external images to compensate. And that wasn't sustainable. The answer had been obvious all along. The ocean wasn't what defined my image of water. The tsunami was. The tsunami that swallowed lives. Destroyed towns. Left entire regions buried beneath devastation. A catastrophe.

A force beyond human control. Yet even that wasn't what moved me most. What truly remained in my memory wasn't destruction. It was what came afterward. People rebuilding. People moving forward. People refusing to surrender. The sea had taken everything. Yet humanity continued walking. I thought I had accepted that reality. But perhaps I had been standing still all this time. Perhaps I had refused to face the image that truly shaped me. No wonder she called my magic incomplete.

"Let me try again." This time my thoughts were clear. The fantasy had become reality inside my mind. If imagination shaped magic, then this image already existed. I didn't even need to raise my hand. A tsunami wasn't something that required permission. It simply happened. The boulder shattered. Not cracked. Not chipped. Shattered. A massive pillar of water erupted upward. The stone disintegrated into fragments before the water gradually settled and vanished like a receding tide. She nodded.

"That's a good wave."

"Yes." I stared at the empty space where the rock had stood.

"It destroys everything. Yet it cannot stop people from moving forward."

"Then all that's left is overcoming whatever unreasonable thing stands in your way." She smiled. Then immediately became distracted by something else.

"Anyway, we should get moving." At some point she'd lowered her pipe and begun glancing ahead repeatedly. Apparently she was eager to resume hunting monsters. I couldn't blame her entirely. For the first time since obtaining my class, I felt like I actually understood it. The power was no longer something vague. It belonged to me. Looking over, I saw Dr. Takatsuki putting his shoes back on. He appeared much more rested now.

"Takatsuki," she said.

"If you're still tired, drink the weakest recovery potion. It should help."

"Really? Then I suppose this one?" He retrieved the palest-colored vial and removed the seal. Without hesitation, he drank the entire contents. There were no visible wounds to heal. At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then his face lit up. His eyes practically sparkled.

"Ho ho ho! This is incredible!" He laughed loudly.

"It feels like someone mixed an energy drink with vodka and then added garlic!" She blinked.

"... I have absolutely no idea what that means."

"But I'm assuming it's a compliment?"

"It absolutely is!" The old doctor looked rejuvenated. Almost absurdly so. Whatever was inside that potion, it clearly worked. ──── Side: Tsukasa ──── Takatsuki had recovered completely. The reaction reminded me of certain illegal substances I'd heard about years ago. Still, this was a recovery potion. Probably safe. Probably. Hyodo had also finally broken through whatever mental block had been holding him back. His magic had become noticeably sharper. Everything was proceeding smoothly.

At this rate, we might actually reach the exit without incident. Unfortunately, something else had become increasingly annoying. My sixth sense. Originally, I thought it had developed after seeing the old woman in the hospital and noticing inconsistencies involving my wife. But the truth turned out to be more complicated. The moment my eyesight deteriorated and I used a class ability to restore it, things changed. When I later saw the old woman outside the hospital, they connected to the outside world.

Normally, classes are selected based on compatibility. They grow alongside their users. Mutually understanding one another through experience. In the end, they're just tools. Nothing more. No will. No consciousness. No thoughts. But I was an exception. Because I'd been granted the right to choose. As a result, I obtained classes completely unrelated to myself. That alone wouldn't have caused problems. The problem was the rewind ability. The intended sequence should have been: Class → Potion → Rewind.

Instead, mine became: Rewind → Class. That reversal changed everything. The classes couldn't properly integrate with me. And because they couldn't settle into place, they had nowhere to go. So they accumulated inside me instead. By themselves, they were merely power. But then my undefined sixth sense became involved. Using class abilities, those fragments transformed into an entirely new sense. The classes connected to the outside world through my eyes. They observed. Learned.

And eventually wrapped themselves in human-shaped shells created from my own self-image. The result was a brand-new sensation. A method of using classes that shouldn't exist. And now they wouldn't stop talking. Mostly the Witch.