Mera appeared at my other side. "Can you walk or do I need to carry you?"

"I can walk."

"You’re limping."

"Walking with style."

She snorted. Together, the three of us left the debriefing room. The hallway outside was packed. Students pressed against the walls, phones out, recording everything. The whispers started immediately.

"Did you see that portal combo—"

"—knocked out Nolan Traore—"

"—three abilities at once—"

"—walking with both of them—"

I ignored it all. Let them talk. Let them film. The more attention I drew, the harder it would be for anyone to quietly disappear me into an NEA testing facility.

We reached the nurse’s office. Mrs. Tanaka took one look at me and pointed at the examination table.

"Shirt off. Now."

I complied. Noel and Usagi waited outside while Mera stayed, her tail swishing as she watched Mrs. Tanaka work.

"Three broken ribs," the nurse muttered, running a scanner across my torso. "Fractured ankle. Second-degree burns on both forearms. Severe bruising across your entire back. Concussion. And you’re missing a tooth."

"That last one’s new."

"This is not funny, Mr. D’Angelo. You should be in a hospital."

"I heal fast."

"Not this fast." She frowned at the scanner. "Your cellular regeneration rate is... abnormal. The ribs are already showing bone calcification that should take forty-eight hours minimum. You’ve been out of the arena for thirty minutes."

"Good genes."

"This isn’t genes. This is—" She stopped. Looked at me carefully. "Are you on enhancers?"

"No."

"Then what—"

"Trade secret." I smiled. "Part of the adaptive response."

She didn’t believe me. But she also didn’t have proof of anything except that I healed freakishly well. She wrapped my ribs anyway, splinted the ankle, gave me painkillers I’d flush later, and told me to rest for three days minimum.

"Sure thing."

"You’re going to ignore me completely."

"Probably."

She sighed. "At least try not to die before graduation. The paperwork is terrible."

Outside, Noel and Usagi waited. Usagi looked relieved. Noel’s expression remained carefully neutral.

"He’ll live," Mera announced cheerfully.

"Unfortunately," Noel muttered.

I checked my phone. Seventeen missed calls. Forty-three unread messages. Most from reporters. Several from Angelo Corp’s PR team. One from my father that I deleted without reading.

And one from Aurora: We need to talk. Please.

My chest did something complicated.

"I need to check something," I said. "Give me a second."

I pulled up the system interface. The glowing screen materialized in my peripheral vision, invisible to everyone else but crystal clear to me.

STATUS UPDATE

NAME: Rome D’Angelo

TITLE: The Wrong Protagonist

HERO RATING: ★★☆☆☆

PROTAGONIST %: 4.7%

I blinked. Read it again.

Four point seven percent.

Up from one point eight just three days ago.

The number sat there, glowing faintly purple, mocking me with how far I still had to go. Almost five percent. Out of a hundred. After beating the actual protagonist in front of half the academy.

MAIN ABILITIES

ESSENCE DRAIN [SS-RANK]

Kinetic Echo [A-RANK] (INHERITED - 12%)

Liminal Step [B+] (INHERITED - 67%)

Gravity Jail [B+]

Fuego [★★]

Rubber Body [★★★]

Fire Fist [★]

Kinetic Echo. Nolan’s ability. The knowledge of how to feel impacts, store them, release them in explosive bursts sat in my brain like muscle memory that wasn’t mine. But the integration was weak. Twelve percent. I’d need more contact to stabilize it. Deeper contact.

That would be a problem.

SUB ABILITIES

VIRGIN KILLER [A-RANK]

SPECIMEN [S-RANK]

HARD TO KILL [S-RANK]

HEALING... FLUIDS [★★★]

SYSTEM INTERFACE [B] (INHERITED - 48%)

System Interface. Cheon’s ability. Reading Essentia signatures, applying buffs and debuffs. It had stabilized significantly more than Nolan’s ability because I’d spent three nights cycling her Essentia through the drain while we—

"Rome?" Mera’s voice cut through my thoughts. "You zoning out?"

I closed the screen. "Just checking something."

ACTIVE QUESTS

HAREM LORD

Progress: 2/7 Heroines Claimed

Time Remaining: 694 Days

Current Targets:

★ Slot 1: Marilyn Cross (CLAIMED - 87% Affection)

★ Slot 2: Cheon Hae-Won (CLAIMED - 74% Affection)

★ Slot 3: Aurora Fitzgerald (ACTIVE - 51% Affection)

★ Slot 4: Noel Stark (CONTESTED - 38% Affection)

★ Slot 5-7: LOCKED

Aurora at fifty-one percent. After one kiss and an afternoon playing video games. After I’d held her hand for ten seconds and let the drain open just enough to taste what she was.

Noel at thirty-eight. After I’d kissed her in the prep room and let her feel exactly what chemistry meant when our Essentia mixed.

The system was tracking everything. Cataloging every interaction. Every touch. Every moment where someone’s guard dropped and let me in.

NEW NOTIFICATION

Quest Complete: Orchestra of Animosity - Finals Stage

Rewards:

+150 Reputation Points

S-Rank Gacha Ticket

Title Unlocked: [DARK HORSE]

Protagonist % Increase: +2.9%

So that’s where the jump came from. Two point nine percent for beating Nolan. For showing everyone that the unranked transfer student could take down the golden boy when it mattered.

Still only four point seven percent total. Nolan had all of his locked in somewhere, built over years of being the earnest hero who saved everyone and made friends through pure determination.

I had two girlfriends, stolen abilities, and bite marks on my neck.

We were not the same.

"Rome," Cheon said, her hand on my shoulder. "You’re doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"Your face. The calculation expression. Like you’re processing three conversations nobody else can hear."

I looked at her properly. She was standing maybe a foot away, which by Cheon’s standards meant practically on top of me. Close enough that her shampoo reached me first — something floral and expensive that mixed with the faint static charge her Essentia left in the air when she’d been using it recently. We’d showered together four hours ago. The scent memory was fresh enough to be distracting.

"Just running numbers," I said. "Standard post-fight review."

"You should be resting. Actual rest, Rome. Not whatever creative interpretation you’re about to suggest." Her eyes cut toward Mera for half a second before returning to mine. "And I know what your creative interpretations tend to involve."

Mera’s grin appeared like someone had just dealt her a winning hand. "My interpretations are extremely restorative. Medically validated."

"By what medical board?"

"The one that matters."

"That’s not—"

"Your version of rest put him in the infirmary."

"He’s standing, isn’t he?"

"Barely."

I pulled up the S-Rank ticket reward, curious what the system considered worthy of a finals victory. The interface shifted, displaying the gacha wheel with new options glowing in platinum and gold. S-Rank meant top-tier abilities. The kind that changed fights before they started.

But I had thirty seconds before someone noticed me staring at nothing.

"I need to spin this," I said.

"Spin what?" Usagi asked.

"Nothing. Just—give me a minute."