Folkwang/Story

Spoilers!*"Your greatest villain Drake shall warn you, SPOILERS AHEAD!"*The following article or section contain **spoilers!** Viewer discretion is advised.

Overview**Story**VoicelinesGallery

## Behind the Scenes

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Yoon Ah-yeong

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Risa Mei

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Haruka Shiraishi

## Profile

A member of Nepenthe, an athletic "squad" under Tetra Line that promotes the Ark's quality of life by hosting and competing in sports events. A quirk in her physiology has left her with no tolerance for heat, leaving her in a state of constant sweating. As a result, Folkwang is never seen without an ice cream in her mouth and a portable fan to cool off, though it seems she still sweats a prodigious amount.

### Nikke Backstory

An athlete from Nepenthe. She is sweating all the time due to having no resistance to heat, but she is full of vigor.

## Story

### Character Story

#### Episode 1 - Nutritional Supplement Dependency

The protagonist is in the gymnasium with Rumani and Epinel, the latter asking him about Folkwang's whereabouts. The lack of leads is unsurprising to the skater, given how as of late, the perpetually-sweating athlete has been acting unusually strange. Both she and Rumani have seen Folkwang downing a ton of pills, which the athlete claimed were "nutritional supplements". Epinel can only guess at what the motive is, but in all likelihood, Folkwang is trying to solve her sweating problem, which she's always had a complex about. The protagonist becomes increasingly concerned as he hears of Folkwang's constant shoveling of pills into her mouth, and resolves to go see her...right after he finishes this set of exercises Rumani has ~~coerced~~ guided him into doing.

One grueling regime later, and Epinel's legs refuse to move. Seeing the skater flump to the ground, the protagonist decides to go see Folkwang himself.

At the dorms, Foklwang is still sweating up a storm and wiping said sweat off, even while muttering about her dosages and how much she's still sweating. The protagonist decides to bring up the quantity of the doses the athlete has been taking, which after some mental math totals up to **thirty coolant pills of varying concentrations**. Despite the protagonist's understandable alarm, Folkwang insists on taking at least this many, if not upping the dosage.

According to the athlete, these pills are the key to making her sweat less and improve her physique and performance. Since she's been sweating less and feeling less heated ever since she began taking the pills, they *have* to be working, right? The protagonist tentatively accepts this explanation, but makes Folkwang promise to cut it off if she feels anything off. A few days later, his fears are vindicated...

#### Episode 2 - Overdose

Folkwang comes crying to the protagonist, complaining about how a few days ago her sweating began to increase again. Parsing through the athlete's explanations as she wipes her sweat, the protagonist learns she stopped taking them yesterday, but there's yet to be any improvement. So the next step would be to talk with the people who sold her the supplements.

Folkwang adds the protagonist to the Blabla chat with the seller, who turns out to be Yan from Talentum. After a rocky start involving unspoken allegations, Yan learns with no small amount of horror about Folkwang's idea of a "reasonable dosage", and demands she stop texting to go to the Repair Center and get a once-over by Seraphim. With the meeting adjourned, the protagonist brings the downtrodden athlete to the Repair Center.

Mary diagnoses Folkwang with a temperature-regulation deficiency due to overdose of cooling supplements. While the doctor assures that one month without the medicines will fix the problem, but Folkwang immediately vetoes it. She's due for a competition in 2 weeks, so she can't spare a month to recover. Since the athlete insists on getting better quickly to compete, Mary decides to propose an...alternative solution that may or may not run contrary to her obligations as a doctor.

The "heat versus heat" method, as Mary describes it, is a method to handle heat problems using heat itself. Despite how dubious it sounds, Folkwang jumps on the opportunity...

#### Episode 3 - Heat versus Heat

As Folkwang and the protagonist look over the hot spring, the cornerstone of "heat versus heat", they think back to how this all came to be.

Mary explained that the excess cold caused by Folkwang's coolant overdose stimulated her body to heat up in order to maintain a stable temperature, leading to more sweat as the body keeps heating itself up. Normally, one would simply stop taking the coolant and letting the in vivo concentrations dissipate naturally, but since Folkwang is in such a hurry, the idea is to immerse herself in a hot spring, exposing her whole body to a significant influx of heat and causing an accelerated version of this process. Eager to get started, the athlete rushed off to the nearest hot spring.

Which brings us to now, with Folkwang and the protagonist standing in front of a hot spring. Unfortunately, neither of them can recall any instructions from Mary about what happens *after* dunking Folkwang in the drink, but the athlete simply wades in, confident everything will work out fine.

30 minutes later, a mildly-heat-hazed Folkwang is mistaking her own sweat dribbling down for the protagonist splashing her. The man himself merely denies the allegations and watches on as Folkwang ~~sweats~~ soaks in the waters.

20 more minutes later, Folkwang is mirthlessly chuckling at herself. With how long she's spent in here, it's probable that the water-sweat ratio of this pool has tilted more towards sweat. Despite the protagonist's growing concerns, Folkwang insists on continuing with this treatment(?)

Yet another 10 minutes later, and Folkwang is absolutely delirious. Hearing her start to see a winged figure beckoning her to ~~the afterlife~~ iced Splendamin and air-conditioning, the protagonist frantically pulls her out of the water.

Soon after, Folkwang puts down the water bottle she was chugging and thanks the protagonist for bailing her out. Curious, the commander asks Folkwang for her motivations on reducing her sweat output. After some mild embarrassment, the athlete regales him with a tale of how she slipped on sweat and fell to the ground during a previous competition. With great effort, the protagonist holds back his incredulity, settling for simple acceptance.

Seeing Folkwang so hellbent on getting rid of her sweat, the protagonist stops her from going back in the spring and decides to suggest another solution; rather than try to get rid of the sweat, why not try to make use of the sweat to run?

#### Episode 4 - A Girl Running on Sweat

Some time later, a moderately-bruised protagonist takes Folkwang back to the hot spring, who notices a few key differences, such as the scattered puddles. The athlete isn't too confident in her ability to traverse such slippery terrain by running, to which the protagonist clarifies this is not *running* training. This is *slipping* training, with the intent of allowing Folkwang to glide along the ground using terrain slicked with water (or sweat) in a fashion not too dissimilar to Epinel's skateboarding. As for *how* he knows such a thing is doable, well...

Flashback to some time ago, when Epinel was assisting the protagonist at this very hot spring regarding liquid-based propulsion. Despite the skater's valid concerns for the safety of this maneuver, she offers her support, knowing how hard the protagonist is trying to help Folkwang.

The scuffs and bruises the protagonist now sports are the price of learning how to slide with moisture, having only succeeded *once* in his entire practice. But even one success works as a proof of concept in his book, so he's going to see if Folkwang can give it a go. The athlete is already onboard with this, acknowledging the protagonist's ~~sweat~~ efforts and their price.

One hour later, and Folkwang is trying (and failing) to keep her balance amidst the puddles, lest she take an unexpected dive into the hot spring. The protagonist jokes about how pleasurable it must be to train *and* get a chance to soak in a hot spring.

Two hours later, Folkwang very briefly finds her balance before tumbling over. The protagonist checks her over for injuries, but thankfully nothing was broken or bruised.

Three hours later, Folkwang manages to find and keep her balance on the moisture, but unfortunately keels over when she tries to run on it. Laying on the ground, Folkwang briefly debates with the protagonist on who's overdoing it, then gets up and gives it another go. She thanks the protagonist for giving her this idea to *use* the sweat, as she'd always thought the sweat was just a detriment that needed to be removed.

Some unspecified amount of time later, Folkwang finally manages to run while sliding on the liquids. Overjoyed, she runs towards the protagonist, only to slip into his arms and send them both falling to the ground. The athlete blissfully sighs in the commander's arms, finding his body as pleasantly chill as ever. The protagonist then urges Folkwang to get back into training so she doesn't forget the technique or feeling, pinky-promising to let her hug him as much as she wants if she wins.

#### Episode 5 - The Sweat of Victory

The final day of the Nikke Track and Field leaves the contestants standing in the sweltering heat at the starting line. Among them is Folkwang, who seems to be in top form today. It would seem that the heat versus heat treatment had some merits to neutralizing the overdose symptoms, given how the athlete's sweating has returned to normal levels. Even with the everchanging faces in the cheering crowd, there's one face that always stands out to her. The face of someone who put his all, mind, body, and soul into helping her...

The starting pistol jolts Folkwang from her thoughts, and she begins running. Each step is punctuated by beads of sweat falling to the track. Enough of it pools for her feet to become slick, and as everyone else thinks she's about to tumble...she doesn't. Gliding along with the moisture, Folkwang takes first place, and her body shimmering with sweat basks in the light of victory. The crowd's clamorous cheers wash over her frame, but there's only one person on her mind...

Back at the Commander's Room, Folkwang and the protagonist watch a sports channel detailing the athlete's new "Sweat Slide" technique that won back her championship. Folkwang herself is over the moon at being the top athlete again, though she *is* concerned that her technique might not be doable since she's undergone a bit of a reduction in sweat volume lately. It would seem that for better and for worse, Mary's heat versus heat therapy was actually effective.

Of course, now that Folkwang has a new ability that relies on her prodigiously sweating, she has a favor to ask the protagonist; she wants to recommence the 30 coolant pills daily dosage. The protagonist voices the possibility that after the overdose and the therapy, Folkwang has developed a resistance to the coolants, with the intent of curtailing this instance of athlete drugging up to win.

Folkwang relents as she wipes some more sweat off herself, but then remembers the promise the protagonist made with her. The commander briefly plays dumb, pretending the bump to his head from the hot spring jostled the memory loose, but eventually makes good on his word and hugs Folkwang. Basking in the cooling feeling of the embrace, the athlete blissfully sighs...then tries to convince the protagonist to let her take a marginally smaller dose of supplements.

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