Chapter 2
“Why are you really doing this to me…”
Honestly, I wanted to cry.
The special treatment room I was seeing after such a long time still looked as brutal as ever. The door made of special alloy looked so sturdy it seemed like an impregnable fortress that could never be breached. And right now, inside there was a monster-like Esper in rampage that could only be barely contained by this fortress.
“You know I’m complete soft flesh, don’t you? I sit at a desk all day, what kind of muscle strength could I have? I’m seriously dead if I just get grazed.”
I whined and tried to escape somehow, but Director Shin looked at me and started clasping her hands together, begging desperately.
“Please save me instead. You know I’m an old fool whose mental penetration doesn’t even work anymore, right? Huh? I’m retiring in 3 years. Please, Ihyeon-ah. Ihyeon-ssi.”
And so we faced each other, rubbing our hands together like flies, desperately begging.
“Um… aren’t you going in?”
A special treatment room security team employee asked, looking at us. We faced each other with our hands pressed together as if praying. Come to think of it, the one who probably wanted to cry the most here would be the security team employee at the very bottom of the hierarchy, so I quietly lowered my hands. Director Shin must have had the same thought as she lowered her hands at the same time.
“…I’ll go in.”
No matter what, we had the dignity of a director and team leader to maintain—we couldn’t show ourselves crying in front of the youngest employee.
“Then please fill out this entry consent form here, and also complete this confidentiality agreement, and please check the industrial accident processing items once. Do you have any separate insurance?”
Ah, I really think not going in would be the right choice.
Everything the security team employee was asking sounded like “You’re about to die, so have you prepared everything for the funeral?” to my ears.
“Insurance… I only have the basic ones. Oh, recently a friend recommended one so I got a private insurance too. For death benefits… Should I write that down too?”
When I was filling that out, I had wondered if someone working in an office really needed to get something like this. Still, well, since a classmate was asking and I thought of it as helping boost their performance, I had gotten the most expensive insurance… Could that person have already been looking one step ahead?
“Then I’ll need you to fill out one more personal information consent form. We need to check after the fact.”
I know the ‘after’ (사후) the employee is talking about uses the character for ‘matter’ (事) and not ‘death’ (æ»), but why does it sound different to my ears?
“Oh, I don’t have a stamp like this. I can’t fill this out without a stamp…”
“You can just write your name in block letters.”
Haha, well… You’re quite flexible with your work.
I tried to avoid the consent forms that made my feelings complicated just by looking at them by making excuses, but in the end I had no choice but to carve my name into over ten sheets of paper.
“Phew… Is this good enough?”
“Yes, it’s confirmed. Once the paperwork is processed, it’ll be registered in the system, so next time you enter, you won’t need to submit documents—just bring your ID card to the reader.”
“…I see.”
Having to come here again. I desperately hoped his brain would be fixed and his sanity would return in one go so there would be no need for me to set foot in this place a second time.
Please… please…
The heavy door opened soundlessly. I expected at least a creaking sound, but it was excessively quiet, making it even more eerie.
Feeling the cold air, it seemed they had artificially adjusted the internal temperature to lower the body temperature of the Esper who was overheating from rampage.
“I’ll pull the lever right away if anything dangerous happens.”
Director Shin grabbed both my hands and said. She called herself an old fool on the verge of retirement and was always drinking red bean tea and playing solitaire, but when it came to work, she was a veteran. And she was also the only person I trusted and relied on most in this center.
And the lever she was talking about pulling in case of emergency… was the lever for killing rampaging Espers. It was the most final and worst means that could kill an Esper in one shot.
“I hope it won’t come to that, but if I raise my left hand to signal, then…”
“Just trust me. I’ll make sure nothing happens to Team Leader Seong no matter what. I don’t want to lose Team Leader Seong like this either.”
Seeing her determined eyes, my wavering heart seemed to calm down a little.
It had been a while, but facing a rampaging Esper wasn’t entirely unfamiliar. During my rookie days, I had to deal with anti-alliance Espers who openly showed hostility toward me. Back then, I had mistakenly dealt with an Esper with cutting abilities and half my side got sliced off…
“I’m going.”
I solemnly grasped the door handle. Opening this door would reveal a long corridor, and at the end of that corridor would open the final, final, final door made of the same special alloy I had just passed through.
It would be less scary if Director Shin came with me, but what if two of the only three S-class psychic-type Espers in South Korea died simultaneously? That would be the worst-case scenario.
“Run away immediately if it’s dangerous. Don’t overdo it.”
Nodding at the voice from behind me, I finally turned the door handle. A space as dark as the vacuum of space burst into bright light at the human presence. As the door closed, the surroundings instantly became quiet, and only my breathing and footsteps echoed.
Finally stopping in front of that final door, I looked at the CCTV mounted in the corner. Director Shin would be checking my condition through the monitor connected to that camera. Looking at it and nodding to signal, the massive door began to open with a mechanical whirring sound.
It was dim and cool like a morgue. Despite being called a special treatment room, not a trace of life could be felt. Instead, I could hear something like growling, like the breathing of some wild beast.
Kang Juha.
I instinctively realized it. The angry energy I felt from the right was surging as if it would devour me. If it had been an ordinary Esper, they probably would have collapsed while vomiting.
This is why no one could approach this place.
The precious S-class Guides probably weren’t allowed anywhere near the special treatment room. According to reports, it wasn’t that he rejected Guide guidance, but that he had an adverse reaction to guiding drugs.
That’s why I was deployed. What the center demanded of me was just one thing: restore Kang Juha to a state where he could receive guiding.
And they added one warning: be careful because Kang Juha had bitten the neck of the A-class Esper who was restraining him and sent him to the ICU.
Imagining that horrible scene made my own neck ache.
“Hello. I didn’t expect to be greeting you like this. I had hoped we’d never have to meet in our lifetime… I’m Seong Ihyeon, Information Team Leader of the Information Security Division, National Security Bureau Center. You probably can’t understand and won’t remember anyway, but I have an obligation to inform you.”
I slowly approached the iron cage placed in the center of the special treatment room.
Kang Juha was completely restrained on the operating table inside the iron cage, baring his teeth at me. Without the muzzle, he looked ready to pounce and tear my entire body to shreds.
The pupils in his glowing yellow eyes narrowed to pinpoints. He seemed ready to unleash his abilities on me at any moment.
“I’m going to try approaching your mind a little. It’ll be very painful, but I trust you’ll endure it?”
Whether it was because the interior was cool or because of the current situation, it felt like goosebumps were rising all over my body. I was in such a tense state that even my hair seemed to stand on end.
Only after getting right up to the iron cage could I fully see Kang Juha’s condition.
“…”
Is this really alive?
Setting aside the fact that his whole body was covered in blood, he was so mangled everywhere that it was hard to see it as the body of a living person. My worry that he might die caught up in rampage seemed pointless—the current Kang Juha looked like he might die even before going into rampage.
Looking at the long scars across his shoulders and chest, it seemed like he had been properly tortured somewhere…
“Did you perhaps make contact with the anti-alliance?”
It was the alliance forces that had transported him to the center, but what if he had been staying with the anti-alliance before that? No, had he been captured as a prisoner there? This wasn’t something I’d heard from the center.
If that were the case, the situation was even worse. Those anti-alliance bastards play around with people’s brains disgustingly.
It would be much easier to reverse if he’d been caught up in a Gate and attacked by some strange monster inside…
I could feel murderous eyes scanning me. I didn’t know for sure, but those eyes definitely couldn’t be called the gaze of a human looking at another human.
“…Then excuse me.”
Whatever he had experienced, whatever state he was in, I couldn’t know without opening his brain to look. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and opened my abilities.
“Ugh…! Urgh!”
And I immediately had to retch. Dry heaving came along with a splitting headache. As I staggered and grabbed the iron cage, Kang Juha thrashed his body violently. The chains binding his body made a horrible sound.
“Shit… I’m going crazy.”
All the blood vessels in my eyes must have burst because my eyelids felt hot. Tears dripped down regardless of my will. Kang Juha was still glaring at me as if he’d kill me, writhing, and I too glared at him with bloodshot eyes.
After confronting each other for a while, I finally took deep breaths and gathered my wits. I hadn’t done much, but I could feel my internal guiding levels being sucked dry.
Ah, it hasn’t been long since I received guiding.
“What kind of bastard… Ha, what kind of bastard’s hands did you fall into for your brain to be melted to this extent?”
It was the first time since my rookie days that someone had rejected my penetration.
Director Shin was right. In South Korea, I would be the only one who could handle Kang Juha in his current state. This wasn’t the work of some monster from inside a Gate. It was 100% the handiwork of some psychic-type Esper bastard.
“They really worked you over thoroughly…”
I didn’t know what bastard had created this masterpiece, but it was definitely the work of a human bastard.
Ha, I can’t stand this.
“Kang Juha-ssi, if I fix you, will you do me one favor? I need to see the face of the bastard who made this.”
It seemed like I’d need to either search through Kang Juha’s brain completely to find the bastard who brainwashed him and beat him up, or modify that bastard’s brain to make him my subordinate before I’d feel satisfied.
I was already worried about not having any useful people, so this was actually a good thing. His personality would be a bit trashy, but I could educate him on that. Even if it was shoddy, he was definitely someone with considerable natural ability.
And catching that bastard would probably be… Kang Juha’s job. If I could snatch him and bring him back then, it would be a perfect plan.
“But first, it looks like I need to scrub Kang Juha-ssi’s brain clean.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
