8 A New Job

The Blue Prison Project officially entered the training camp to prepare for the Japan U20 competition, during which the final eleven players for the official match would be selected. When it became known that Sae Itoshi had been called up to the Japanese team for the first time, the sentinels within Blue Prison harbored various thoughts.

As usual, Chigiri was taking care of his hair after his bath, but today, unusually, he added a hand care routine.

Kiyoshi glanced at him in surprise, twisting open a bottle cap to hydrate himself. He knew tomorrow was the day for mental guidance but didn’t understand why Chigiri was making such a fuss.

Clearly, Kiyoshi wasn’t the only one puzzled.

“Don’t you know? From now on, she and a few other guides will be the ones providing our mental guidance,” Chigiri said calmly, tucking a few strands of his rose-red hair behind his ear as he continued to care for his hands.

“Pft—” Kiyoshi sprayed water out of his mouth.

“Huh? But isn’t she Sae Itoshi’s guide?” Hachiro tilted his head, his tone unmistakably excited.

“There’s a sentinel with an even higher compatibility now,” Eshin Jinba’s voice rang out just at the right moment, and everyone turned to the electronic screen. “But he’s a foreigner, so there’s no need to worry for now.”

Ah, a foreigner on the level of the new generation’s Eleven Elite. Of course, Eshin didn’t reveal his identity.

Pushing up his glasses, Eshin’s unremarkable black eyes focused on the screen. “So you all need to seize the opportunity even more—”

Immediately, a list of several guides appeared on the screen, including you. These are people who have demonstrated high practical results at the Guide Academy and have volunteered for guidance here.

“This time, the selection of guides will be based on training rankings, and everyone can freely choose their guide. One guide can counsel five sentinels.”

If the remaining guides unfortunately don’t have enough matches, the guidance process won’t be so comfortable—Eshin didn’t say it aloud, but every sentinel present understood perfectly.

Kiyoshi quickly scanned those around him; it seemed many had their own thoughts. Obviously, those who had been guided by you last time would definitely choose you if given the chance.

The tricky part was that more than five people wanted to pick you...

The water bottle in his hand was squeezed and deformed, and a fighting spirit ignited in Kiyoshi’s eyes.

He absolutely had to rank in the top five in training—no, first place!

*

The next day, Anri arrived on time to take you to Blue Prison.

The other guides did not accompany you on the way.

It was your second time inside this building: a cold, sunless corridor and almost deserted, spacious paths.

You emptied your mind, following behind Anri, but your thoughts drifted back to yesterday.

She had clearly expected you to take responsibility for something; after exchanging a few words, her expression turned faintly angry, scaring you into fleeing so quickly you even forgot to return the earphones.

You felt somewhat troubled.

The earphones looked expensive, so you didn’t dare throw them away and just left them in a corner of your bedroom.

The message you sent to Sae Itoshi showed as read but went unanswered, and he didn’t reach out to you either, so you decided to rest at home.

Everyone here was strange in their own way—you didn’t want to bother with it.

Anri brought you not to the guidance location but to the office of the person in charge, Eshin Jinba.

It was your first time meeting him like this.

You were both shocked and admiring of Eshin’s bold decisions; even his black bowl-cut hairstyle radiated an iron-fisted aura.

The conversation was uneventful, merely explaining what long-term work would require. Besides weekly guidance sessions, you could freely come and go from Blue Prison during the rest of the time. Of course, staying longer was better; sentinels needed reassurance from their guides, which was crucial for their upcoming matches.

You nodded vaguely, lacking much knowledge about guides and sentinels, making it easy for you to accept what others told you.

*

Anri listened quietly as the conversation turned to your recent matching partner.

“Are you still in contact with Sae Itoshi?”

“No,” you shook your head. “He hasn’t replied to me. It seems there’s a sentinel with a higher compatibility now?”

“Yes, his name is Caesar Michel. He’s German,” Eshin raised an eyebrow. “Did someone notify you?”

Anri frowned. She knew nothing about these matters, and foreign involvement after just a few days made her unsure what the football association was up to.

“Um... kind of,” you hesitated for a moment, then spoke honestly. “He came to me himself. Just yesterday.”

...

The office fell into dead silence.

Eshin took a deep breath, holding his teacup suspended in midair.

He hadn’t expected the sentinel to act so quickly and felt a bad premonition.

“What did he say to you?”

Seeing Eshin’s face grow serious, although you weren’t sure how you could tell from those pitch-black eyes, you suddenly felt nervous and began to recall.

“Basically, he said our compatibility was very high, that his mental fluctuations needed my help, and asked me to conduct a guidance session for him...”

You continued, trying to understand the reason behind the events in his mental landscape, “But this session was very different. I entered his mental scene without any resistance, and his rose garden seemed like it wanted to devour me...”

Sure enough, things were not looking good.

Eshin put down his teacup, his mouth curving downward further.

“This kind of situation is far too rare among ordinary sentinel-guide pairs... which is why no one taught you.”

“Entering the other person’s mental landscape is a form of mental fusion that requires extremely high compatibility. Such a marked behavior greatly deepens the bond between both parties and inevitably triggers the sentinel’s separation anxiety.”

Eshin pushed up his glasses and repeated with emphasis, “Do you understand? Mental ‘fusion.’”

“...???”

You and Anri both looked bewildered.

Your face began to flush.

So that was why he had that expression yesterday... No, no, this isn’t the time to think about that!

“So what happened afterward? He should have been following you all day today.”

Eshin’s glasses flashed as he asked the question you least wanted to face.

“Uh...” You scratched your face, feeling guilty about what you were about to say.

If such behavior was described as fusion, then what you said yesterday sounded very much like...

“Don’t be afraid. If he forced you, I would have him sent to the sentinel punishment facility!” Anri held your shoulder, worried that you were hiding something that Caesar could use against you.

You closed your eyes.

“I told him, ‘I have other things to do. You can’t follow me,’ and he said, ‘How can you not be with me when I have separation anxiety? Are you trying to make me take medication?’...”

At that moment, Caesar’s delicate and beautiful face, filled with accusation and disbelief, flashed through your mind again. No wonder he looked like that; you suddenly understood completely.

Both of them waited for you to continue.

*

You mustered your courage to finish, adding a little defense.

“I was just upset because of him... I, I said—”

“‘Then go take your medicine.’”

...

Silence.

You keenly noticed Anri’s hands stiffen on your shoulders.

Yeah, it really did sound awful.

“I’m really sorry. I didn’t know about this. I’ll go apologize to him.”

You clasped your hands in regret.

Next time, you definitely shouldn’t casually provide guidance to people outside of work, no matter how high the compatibility.

Eshin rubbed his forehead. “Setting that aside for now, do you feel like you are very close to the mental landscapes of every sentinel you enter?”

You recalled the few sentinels you had contacted; indeed, their landscape entrances were not far apart.

“Seems like it, and Sae Itoshi’s was already very close...”

“I see. Let’s prepare then. I’ll handle Caesar’s case. Don’t worry about him bothering you again.”

You didn’t seem like someone who could be easily deceived, which reassured him.

“Of course, you can also sincerely apologize to him if you want.”

The most urgent matter now was to find you a reliable guide to teach you the deeper aspects. Otherwise, the next guidance session might go wrong again...

He definitely didn’t want to see several sentinels bawling and clinging to you before the competition. And if that happened, your identity as a dark guide would likely be exposed quickly.

“Alright, thank you, Mr. Eshin.”

Such a trustworthy adult gave you a sense of security and moved you deeply.

*

Just after finishing lunch and returning to the classroom, the pink-orange-haired girl received a notification.

Before she could say a word to her fellow guides, she eagerly opened her phone to check.

Her friends understood immediately and teased, “Starlight, you get to see your sentinel again!”

The girl affectionately called “Starlight” said nothing, but her expression answered everything.

Sure enough, it was another notice for her to go to Blue Prison this weekend to provide mental guidance for Seiji.

The smile on her lips was unrestrained, and after a moment of joy, she noticed the message that followed, accompanied by a photo of a girl.

—Are you free this weekend to tutor a guide?