SSS Awakening : I can Adapt to Everything-Chapter 14: Interrogation

Hide flinched and looked up automatically, towards the gate.

A woman walked in ahead of the air.

For a second his brain rejected what it was seeing and tried to repaint it as something more reasonable.

She was wearing hospital slippers.

...and nothing else except a white bra and matching panties.

Her body was impossible to miss. Pale skin, long legs, an hourglass line that would have looked gratuitous even in an entertainment feed, and a chest that made his gaze stutter despite every instinct yelling at him to look somewhere else.

She had a clipboard in one hand.

Her hair was tied up in a loose bun, a few strands falling artfully along her cheeks. She looked up, met his eyes and a slow, amused smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

"Good to see you awake," she said, her voice was bright, almost playful. "I was starting to think you were going to make my job boring."

Before he could form a coherent response, the door sighed again and another figure stepped in.

It was another lady in full black body-tight suit. Short hair, dark and neat. A familiar face set in a professional smile.

Hide recognized her immediately, he had seen her just before he passed out.

The leader of the emergency response team.

"Mr. Volter." Her tone was cool, but not hostile. "Glad to see you’re conscious."

Questions pushed up his throat at once.

"Where are Kai and Risa?" The words came out faster than he’d meant them to. "They were in the car. What— what happened to them? Are they alright? Tell me they—"

A sudden warm and soft pressure touched his lips.

The almost-naked nurse had stepped close without him noticing. She leaned in, bending at the waist, and pressed one finger gently against his mouth.

From this angle, her chest was directly in front of his face.

His brain short-circuited.

Heat rushed into his cheeks. He tried very hard to focus on the finger and nowhere else.

"Shh," she murmured, amusement clear in her eyes. "One thing at a time, sweetheart."

He swallowed hard down his dry throat.

The nurse chuckled, low in her throat. "Good boy."

Then she straightened and moved to his side as if this had all been a perfectly ordinary clinical gesture.

The woman in black watched the exchange with an expression that didn’t quite reach disapproval but was definitely in the same neighborhood.

"Your friends are alive," the leader said. "They’re in another wing under observation. You’ll be able to see them when we’re done here."

Some of the tightness in his chest loosened.

He exhaled slowly, closing his eyes for half a second.

"Now," the woman continued, stepping closer to the foot of the bed. Up close, Hide could see faint scarring along her neck — old, thin white lines disappearing under the collar of her suit. "We have questions. You probably expected that."

"I’m Captain Claire," she said. "From Geo Ford Extermination Agency. And this," She gestured to the nurse. "is nurse Annie."

The nurse gave a small wave with her pen.

"We’ve already been through your file twice," Annie said. "So we know the basics. What we don’t know is you."

’That... the way she said it. wait... I shouldn’t be thinking those stuff.’ He shook his head in his imagination.

"So, what do you want to ask?" He managed.

Annie perched on the edge of the bed beside him as if she belonged there, one leg folded up, clipboard balanced on her knee. She smelled faintly of floral soap and antiseptic.

"Nothing scary yet," she said easily. "Let’s start somewhere simple. Tell me about the awakening. You awakened wo days ago, right? From what I read... you are one of those extreme rare case who awaken during the third try?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"So the results were," She continued. "That you have a Unique class, infinity symbol... that’s a fun class, never heard of that before, it has a S-Rank potential and for some reason you didn’t awaken a talent."

Hide nodded, gulping silently. "Yes that is right..."

The nurse looked at him with something close to pity in her eyes.

"Right," she said. "And between then and the gate opening — did anything happen? Anything feel different in your body, your head?"

He thought of the System appearing for the first time. But that was not something he should be telling others so, he didn’t.

"No," he said. "Nothing."

It came out smoothly, but it didn’t feel right to say. He felt that he should be honest with them because they saved his life. No?

And it also, he realized, felt a little like someone else’s idea of what to say.

Annie clicked her pen and glanced at Hide, then at Claire.

"Walk us through the moment the gate opened," Claire spoke. "What you felt when that happened."

The answers rose easily, shaped and ready.

He opened his mouth, but before he could speak a blue screen dropped into his vision like a blade.

[Adaptive Override — Analysis Active]

Cognitive anomaly detected.

Location: Central nervous system (prefrontal cortex)

Source: External suggestion / mind-type interference

Severity: High — Decision-making bias toward compliance

System query: Initiate adaptation sequence for this control type?

[Awaiting command.]

’What the...?’

His jaw locked.

"Evolve," he thought.

[Adapting – 0%]

[6%]

[13%]

One of them had a talent related to influencing other’s mind and decision making.

Being aware of it... only now did he realize that his answers were coming without him even thinking about them... that was dangerous.

He let two seconds pass and then carefully answered. "I felt angry,"

Both of the ladies waited without saying anything.

"When the first beast came through," he continued, "I was angry. I’ve been angry about Calamity Beasts for..." He stopped. "A long time and I actually awakened... so I thought I could do something and save my friends. So I didn’t run."

"We noticed," Claire supported, her voice was softer now. "What happened when you decided not to run? Did anything... change in you? Like did you connect with something?"

He chose his next words like stepping on ice.

"I don’t know how to explain it," he started. "Its not a talent, obviously. But my class reacts when I’m in danger. When I received a wound, I felt weird and there was this overwhelming strength trying to run out so i let it, I do not remember much after."

Hide made up the excuse with as best as he could currently.

Annie’s pen had stopped moving.

Claire’s expression hadn’t changed, but her eyes sharpened slightly.

"So, what was that armor?" Annie asked.

"Huh? No I don’t know about any armor. I have never wore an armor in my life." Hide refuted with an innocent face.

It was true actually... that thing might have looked like an armor but it was not an armor to begin with.

"I see," Annie noted it down and asked another question. "So, when that happened did you feel like you the whole time? Or was it like watching someone else?"

Hide’s eyes narrowed at that question. What kind of weird question was that?

"It felt like me," he said quietly. "Just... a version of me that didn’t care about anything except Killing Calamity beasts."

Annie scribbled something, while Claire folded her arms and closed her eyes thinking something before speaking.

"Your class," she stated. "You said it reacts to danger, So, does it communicate with you? Give you information? Tell you what it’s doing?"

The System window hovered calmly at the edge of his vision.

[Adapting – 61%]

He kept his face neutral.

"No," he shook his head. "I don’t know much to start with. It just happened once."

Claire watched him for a long moment. He got the sense she didn’t entirely believe him.

She also didn’t push.

"So here is the main question," she changed to another question, "Since waking up, have you felt anything unusual? Like you are in a wrong place or" Her expression darkened. "you secretly want to kill both of us