SSS Awakening : I can Adapt to Everything-Chapter 15: Interrogation (II)

Hide stared at Claire for a moment.

"Kill you?" he repeated. "Why would I want to do that?"

"It’s a standard question," Annie said, scribbling something without looking up. "Don’t take it personally."

"It’s really doesn’t sound standard to me," he said flatly. Raising an eyebrow.

"For your situation it is," Claire said. She unfolded her arms. "When we found you, you were standing in a posture we associate with Calamity Lord-controlled hosts. There was a fucking crown on your head, that didn’t help. There are cases where partial possession leaves a... residue and Impulses that aren’t yours. We need to rule it out."

"Uh... what? A crown? And host for a calamity lord?" Hide blurted out in shock. A chill ran down his spine. He had never heard of something like that, but it seems that Calamity Lords could control humans and his transformation had kicked that same nerve.

"There’s nothing like that," he said. "I know what my own thoughts feel like."

Claire studied him for a moment, then moved on.

"Alright," she shrugged. "Then let me be direct with you. We need you to be honest with us, Hide. Fully honest. Whatever happened out there, whatever your class can do, we need to understand it. Not to take it from you. Not to lock you away. Just to understand what we are dealing with, you see."

He looked down at the black bands on his ankles.

Then back up at her.

"You want me to be honest," he said quietly.

"Yes."

"Then answer something first." He nodded toward his legs. "How am I supposed to trust you when you walked in here and I’m bound to a bed like this? I woke up alone, with no explanation and no one to answer when I called, cameras in every corner." He held her gaze. "I don’t even know if I’m under arrest."

The room was quiet for a second.

Annie’s pen had gone still and she looked at him with narrowed eyes, then let out a heavy sigh.

Claire exhaled through her nose. Not impatiently, but more like she’d been expecting exactly this.

"You’re not under arrest," She explained. "There are no charges. You saved civilian lives in an active gate zone. That’s the opposite of a crime."

"Then what is this?" he asked.

"This," Claire seemed to be at a loss of words, "is us not knowing what you are yet."

She stepped slightly closer, her voice dropping to something more direct.

"When we extracted you from the scene, your body was saturated with the mana from the gate for some reason. Your neural signature had a partial overlay, like an external pattern printed on top of your own. For the first three hours after we brought you in, our containment team was operating under the assumption that a lesser Calamity Lord had attempted to seize control of your body."

Hide listened it with a poker face. That made sense, and well that was normal for people to be afraid of things they don’t understand.

"The key word is attempted," Claire confirmed. "It didn’t take. By the time the second scan ran, the overlay was gone. Your cognitive patterns were clean and... You’re you."

Annie set her clipboard flat on her knee. "The bands are standard procedure for suspected possession cases, they don’t hurt you in any ways. They just make sure that if something else woke up in you and tried to walk out of here, it couldn’t."

Hide sighed heavily. He had gotten himself into a mess without knowing and there was nothing he could do about it other than making sure to not reveal too much.

"So, now that Its confirmed. Now what?"

"Now the scans are clean," Claire nodded with a smile. "You’ll be released soon."

The interrogation didn’t last much longer after that.

Claire asked a few more questions. And Hide answered her with as much as he could spare without revealing anything about the system.

None of it was a lie.

None of it was the whole truth either.

"Someone will come back for you," Claire said at the door as they were leaving. "Sit tight."

Annie gave him one last look over her shoulder and then they were gone.

Hide sat silently, looking at the system screen that had opened during the interrogation. But back then he didn’t pay much attention to it.

It was the screen for the new skill the system had generated.

[Adaptive Override — Adaptation Complete]

Analysis: Complete.

Counter-Skill Generated:

[Unshaken Will — Rank B (Passive)]

– Resistance to mind-affecting effects (fear, charm, suggestion, confusion).

– Automatic alert when external cognitive influence is detected.

– Duration and intensity of higher-rank effects reduced.

He sat with the silence for close to an hour, checking everything he could about the system.

What he understood was that the system gave him skills, as opposed to Talents. Using talents took mana, but his skills did not. So, it was a cheat in its own.

It was something akin to having infinite mana. But at the same time, they all depended on his mental and physical attributes. So, he saw the daily quests in a whole new light.

It was terrifying actually. He died 19 times! that was not something small, it was painful and it felt very, very real.

Gulping hard... Hide did his push-ups on the bed only. Fifty of them, arms shaking by the end, the System ticking the counter up with each one.

He threw punches at the air beside the bed until his shoulders burned.

Then the door slid open again.

Claire walked in alone this time.

She had a small, matte grey and vaguely rectangular device in her hand, with a single strip of blue running along one edge. She crossed the room without preamble and crouched at the side of the bed.

The device touched the first band and with a soft tone, then a click.

The band split open and fell away.

She moved to the second one and released it as well.

It was magical that Hide suddenly was able to feel his legs properly.

Hide flexed his ankles the moment both were off. The sensation this time was mild warmth and a quiet return of weight.

Claire straightened and dropped both bands into a small case she’d carried under her arm.

Then she reached into the chest pocket of her suit and held something out to him.

A card.

Clean white, with a logo on front that he didn’t recognize and the words Geo Ford Extermination Agency beneath it.

On the back, handwritten in black ink was a number.

He took the card and bowed slightly.

"If you ever decide you want to do this properly," she started, "contact me. I’ve seen enough in the last twenty-four hours to know you’d be useful. With my recommendation you’d get in without the standard waiting list."

He looked up. "Ohh? I have heard there is a test for getting into Extermination agencies."

"There’s always a test," she deadpanned. "But it’s manageable. For someone like you, very manageable."

He turned the card over once and clutched it in his hand. "Thanks," he said. It came out more genuine than he’d expected.

She nodded once and started moving to the gate.

Hide looked down at himself after standing up and felt kind of... weird. He was wearing hospital gown and that too had gotten wet from sweat.

"Can I get some clothes?" he asked.

The corner of Claire’s mouth twitched as she turned back and looked at him. Her cheeks flushed red just slightly.

"About that... you see, we found you naked," she shrugged. "Whatever you were wearing when the gate opened didn’t survive the manifestation."

He thought of his jacket, shirt pants and most importantly his phone.

"...Great," he muttered.

"Your possessions, that was your phone that we found there... are on the counter outside." She turned toward the door. "We sourced something for you to wear. It’ll be waiting."

"Before we go," he said. "Where are Kai and Risa. Can I see them?"

Claire paused at the door panel.

"Kai left the hospital this morning,"

Hide blinked. "He left?"

He fell behind her in the corridor out of the room.

"He is an exterminator, heh, an awakened. Awakened people heal faster than normal humans and he didn’t have any major issues to begin with."

Something between relief and mild irritation moved through Hide’s chest. Typical Kai.

"And Risa?"

Claire stepped out of the corridor without answering immediately.

He followed her, the floor cold under his bare feet, the hallway was quieter and longer than he’d expected. Pale walls, faint hum of ventilation. A counter ahead with a small sealed bag on it — his things, presumably.

He fell into step beside her.

And when she still hadn’t answered, he looked at her directly.

"What about Risa?" he asked again.