1. Bureau Hallway of Doom
Raon walked through the Bureau's executive hallway like someone heading toward a guillotine.
She'd faced cosmic remix entities.
She'd fought synth monsters.
She'd dueled Echo 3 mid-evolution.
But this?
This was worse.
A sign taped to the office door read:
> MANDATORY COUNSELING SESSION:
PATIENT: ONE KICK GIRL
THERAPIST: MAESTRO DOME
TOPIC: "IMPULSE CONTROL & THE SUN."
Raon whispered to Shion:
"Why is HE in charge of this?"
Shion sighed with the exhaustion of a thousand dead stars.
"Because the government insisted on 'someone who understands your psychology.' And Dome is the only person we've met who can't be punched through solid walls."
"…I can try."
"No."
Raon pouted.
Shion kissed her forehead like a mother sending her child to surgery.
"Be brave. Don't kick him. Try to learn."
Raon looked at her like she'd said drink lava.
---
2. The Session Begins and Already Falls Apart
Maestro Dome sat on a beanbag chair in the center of the counseling room.
He looked like a monk meditating on chaos.
Sunglasses.
One knee up.
Listening to lo-fi hip hop through headphones.
Tranquil vibe.
Raon hated it.
He gestured with slow grace.
"Sit."
She sat.
The beanbag swallowed her like a python made of fabric.
She sank until only her eyes were visible.
"…Help," she wheezed.
Dome nodded sagely.
"First lesson:
Sinking is how we recognize our center."
Raon blinked.
"…What?"
Dome leaned forward, hands pressed together like he was about to bless a nation.
"Raon.
You are not merely a kicker.
You are a vibration engine of destiny."
Raon looked at him like he'd just told her she was a forklift.
"…I'm a girl who kicks things."
He smiled sadly.
"And that belief is why you roundhouse the universe."
---
3. Actual Therapy Attempt
Dome took out a clipboard.
"Tell me about the sun."
Raon coughed.
"I didn't kick it."
He scribbled notes.
"Interesting. Guilt."
"It wasn't even the sun! It was green-screen! And the explosion was from fireworks the director bought at midnight!"
Dome wrote faster.
"Ah, projection. Symbolic cosmic warfare."
"What!?"
He steepled his fingers like a villain in a chess anime.
"Tell me.
When you see something bright… do you feel compelled to extinguish it?"
Raon was horrified.
"I shove snacks into my mouth when I see something bright, what are you TALKING about!?"
Dome paused.
"…Snack-based instinctive avoidance of luminary aggression."
Raon's eye twitched.
"I'm going to kick you."
He flipped the clipboard with casual grace and wrote:
> Subject exhibits violence response when confronted with celestial trauma.
Raon screamed into the beanbag.
---
4. Dome Introduces A "Treatment Method"
He stood.
"Raon. Let us heal."
He opened the curtains.
A giant glowing orb hung from the ceiling— a therapy lamp.
Raon pointed aggressively.
"That's a disco ball."
"No," Dome whispered.
"It is the sun's spirit."
He pressed a button.
The ball started spinning.
Lights flickered.
Soft synthwave filled the room.
Raon reeled back.
"Are you trying to give me brain damage?"
Dome stretched his arms wide.
"Strike when ready.
Face your fear."
Raon looked at him.
Then looked at the disco ball.
Then looked back.
"…You WANT me to kick it."
"Yes," he breathed.
Shion's voice in her head:
Do not kick anything.
Raon's legs:
Kill.
She shook violently like a toaster having a seizure.
"I can't— I shouldn't— Shion will—"
And then the ball spun slightly faster.
Like it mocked her.
Raon whispered:
"I have no choice."
HER LEG SHOT UP—
---
5. Shion Arrives in the Nick of Time (Almost)
The door burst open.
"RAON NO—"
Shion was too late.
Raon delivered the cleanest crescent kick in Bureau history.
The therapy sun exploded into 4,200 tiny mirror fragments.
Synthwave continued to play politely.
Maestro Dome stared at the destruction, serene as a glacier.
"…Fascinating," he breathed.
Shion covered her face with both hands.
"I left you alone for sixteen minutes."
Raon pointed at Dome.
"He told me to kick it!"
Shion looked at Dome.
Dome smiled.
"I simply offered her a chance to transcend fear."
Shion inhaled slowly.
"You spent taxpayer-funded therapy to create a disco bomb."
Dome nodded.
"And she blossomed."
Raon raised her hand.
"…I want snacks."
Shion dragged the heel of her palm down her face so hard she nearly erased herself.
"I am going to be charged with war crimes one day because of you."
---
6. Counseling Session Outcome
Dome calmly wrote final notes on his clipboard:
> Patient has embraced her solar trauma.
Patient remains a danger to light-based objects.
Patient should avoid galaxies.
He tore off the page and handed it to Shion like he'd just performed a miracle.
Shion crumpled it instantly.
Raon climbed free of the beanbag, stumbling.
"Can we leave before the ceiling collapses?"
Dome tapped her shoulder gently.
"Remember…
you are not the kick."
Raon blinked.
She considered.
Then said honestly:
"…I'm pretty sure I am."
Shion grabbed her wrist.
"We're done here."
---
7. Hallway Debrief
As they walked toward the elevator, Raon whispered:
"Was I good?"
Shion pinched the bridge of her nose.
"You kicked a therapy orb into subatomic glitter."
Raon nodded solemnly.
"…So yes?"
Shion stared at her for so long the elevator doors closed and left them behind.
Finally she sighed.
"Raon… you somehow failed therapy so hard it looped back to being therapy."
Raon blinked.
"…I'm powerful."
"Yes," Shion said quietly.
"And one day, you will kick God by accident, and the universe will sue us."
---
END OF CHAPTER 72