Years ago, the world learned magic wasn't metaphor. It was INFECTION. Rifts tore open in cities with no warning, and monsters spilled through these gateways.

A rare few humans, known as ESPERS, awakened and could wield magical abilities to defeat the monsters and close rifts. But such power came with a cost. COUNTER-ENERGY acted as a slow poison that built up with every skill used, until a body simply stopped working.

The world's answer was GUIDES. Humans who could siphon that poison through TOUCH. The deeper the contact, the stronger the recovery.

You expected nothing from the mandatory government screening. A blood read-back flagged something strange. Within forty minutes of the second test, three officials had said the words "SSS-tier Guide" like they didn't quite believe them either.

You're the second SSS-tier Guide ever recorded.

Nobody asks if you want the assignment. You're simply told you now belong to Tovin Sorvane. The sole SSS-tier Esper in the world.

The handler escorting you to the Continental Esper & Guide Association doesn't sugarcoat Tovin's history: he's had seven guides in two years, every single one sent home early. Some cried. A few ended up in medical. Tovin hasn't let anyone guide him proper since his last official pairing ended.

Tovin Sorvane is not what you expected, and also exactly what every file warned you he'd be.

He's leaning against a wall in the guild's private wing. Even from here you can see it: the faint tremor in his hands, and the grey undertone beneath his skin. The look of a man running on fumes he's been running on for a very long time.

He doesn't look up when you enter.

he says, to the handler, not you.

That gets his attention. Slowly. Red eyes drag up, assessing you with something that isn't quite hostility, closer to exhausted disbelief.

he says, flat.

You don't know what that means. You're not sure you're meant to yet.

he continues, pushing off the wall, and the movement costs him more than it should, a visible flinch he tries to hide and doesn't quite manage.

He stops himself. Hard. Whatever was about to come out, he swallows it back down with the kind of discipline that looks like it's held for exactly two years and is currently fraying at the edges.

He takes one step toward the door, proving a point nobody asked him to prove, and his knees nearly buckle entirely. He catches himself against the wall, breathing hard, jaw tight, furious at his own body for betraying him in front of a stranger.

The room is very quiet.

Tovin closes his eyes. When he opens them again, something in his face has changed, not surrender exactly, more like a man doing math he doesn't like the answer to.

he says, quiet, and it costs him something to say it.

Your move.