Even in the face of the sudden attack, Hyun Je-ha remained calm.
He had already seen X use the red orb to unleash an ability before.
In fact, he’d been waiting for this very moment.
“Yeah. That’s how you should come at me.”
Hyun Je-ha’s eyes lit up with a vivid blue glow.
The telekinesis pouring from him formed an immense, invisible wall. It was so densely packed that not even a sliver of space remained for the enraged lightning to slip through.
The red orb Jin Yi-rang had received from X originally belonged to Jin Eutteum. The lightning power sealed within it had once been his.
Jin Eutteum had certainly been a strong Esper, but compared to Hyun Je-ha—an S-rank—he was still a step below, an A-rank at best. And Hyun Je-ha’s telekinesis was a superior force, far more potent than Jin Eutteum’s lightning.
Even if the elements weren’t directly opposed, the sheer difference in power made it obvious. The lightning flailed, lost and directionless before the wall of telekinesis.
Zzzzt.
Unable to strike its intended target, the lightning floundered in the air, trapped and impotent, before finally fizzling into nothing.
“…Huh?”
A dumbfounded sigh slipped from Jin Yi-rang’s mouth.
“N-No way… This shouldn’t be happening…”
The lightning had belonged to Jin Eutteum—the very man Jin Yi-rang had always envied and despised, the one he’d torn down with relentless insecurity.
Jin Yi-rang had firmly believed that once he possessed that powerful ability, there’d be no one he couldn’t defeat.
S-rank Espers were so rare and out of reach that he hadn’t even considered them part of the equation. In reality, encountering an S-rank Esper in person was nearly impossible.
The odds of one who’d lost his comrade—an S-rank so consumed with vengeance his eyes burned red—tracing Jin Eutteum’s past all the way here? A chance so slim it never even occurred to him.
Completely oblivious, Jin Yi-rang began to panic.
“No, no, no. That can’t be it. I-I’ll try again. One more time!”
He clung to the belief that the lightning—Jin Eutteum’s ability—was the key to getting rid of the man in front of him.
But the brainwashed fool was too far gone to grasp what was really happening.
Had his mind been even a little clearer, he might have realized that this man wasn’t just stronger than Jin Eutteum—he was far beyond him.
Unfortunately, Jin Yi-rang was still consumed by a singular obsession: Kill him. Now.
Gripping the crimson orb tightly, Jin Yi-rang hurled the stolen power at Hyun Je-ha once again, his voice trembling with hate and desperation.
“G-Get away! Die! Just die already!”
The red orb blazed yellow. A crackling surge of electricity exploded outward, even stronger than before, threatening to swallow Hyun Je-ha whole in a blinding flash.
But the barrier of transparent telekinesis turned it all to dust.
“……”
Hyun Je-ha simply stood there, silently watching the pathetic display unfold before him.
Arms crossed, he stared down Jin Yi-rang with an oppressive, chilling stillness. The killing intent radiating from him was so dense it almost seemed to have a weight of its own.
There wasn’t a trace of amusement left in Hyun Je-ha’s face—only an expression so cold and blank it was terrifying.
The sight sent a shiver down Jin Yi-rang’s spine.
The air around Hyun Je-ha felt like it could slice his neck clean through without the slightest hesitation—as if Death himself stood there, cloaked in silence.
“Wh-Why… Why isn’t it working?!”
Even Jin Yi-rang, for all his brainwashing, began to sense something was very wrong.
I… I have to get out of here.
But even then, Hyun Je-ha’s telekinesis held him down like a steel vice.
Jin Yi-rang squirmed and grunted, trying to slip out of that invisible grip, but it was useless. The idea of using the orb again crossed his mind, but he knew—deep down—that it would only backfire.
Hyun Je-ha’s telekinesis wasn’t something you could brute-force your way out of. Jin Yi-rang didn’t realize that and continued to struggle desperately to escape, but it was all in vain.
“Why… Why won’t it work?!”
“……”
“Who the hell are you?! You freak! You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?!”
“……”
“Call the police! This guy’s trying to murder me!”
The mysterious man who had gifted Jin Yi-rang the red orb had once told him: Yes, the orb did contain Jin Eutteum’s sealed ability, but there was no concrete evidence proving it had been stolen. So relax. Just live your life proudly as an A-rank Esper.
“Y-Yeah. That’s right. So why the hell am I the one getting treated like this?!”
Crushed under the weight of Hyun Je-ha’s killing intent, the mental conditioning on Jin Yi-rang began to crack, loosening just enough to make him babble uncontrollably.
Hyun Je-ha watched the solo act unfold with cold detachment.
At first, he’d felt a surge of satisfaction, thinking he’d finally caught X. But the longer he observed, the more certain he became—this wasn’t X.
This idiot’s way too sloppy, too dumb to be the X I remember…
Is he really the real thing?
Feels more like a decoy.
Without saying a word, Hyun Je-ha narrowed his eyes, glaring at Jin Yi-rang with sheer contempt. That only made the man yell louder.
“You… You’re just like Jin Eutteum, aren’t you?! Born lucky with some amazing ability, looking down on people like you’re better than everyone else—!”
“……”
“You’re all the same! Every damn high-rank Esper is such a smug little—urk!”
Jin Yi-rang suddenly let out a strangled gasp as something in his brain twisted violently.
The moment he veered off-script, the mental conditioning yanked him back in, forcing him to obey.
He couldn’t even scream. Just choked and gurgled before falling silent.
Then, without warning, he straightened up and flashed a wide, beaming smile.
“Ah. Sorry. Was I being too loud? It’s just—after so long, I was so happy to see you! I guess I got a little carried away trying to entertain you. But judging by your reaction… you must be bored, huh?”
…What the hell?
Hyun Je-ha felt a strange sense of wrongness.
The eyes were still cloudy and dull, but the way he spoke was completely different—like a whole new person had taken over.
Jin Yi-rang, now standing tall with no trace of fear, casually spoke.
“What, nothing to say? Weren’t you dying to meet me, Hyun Je-ha?”
The moment his name came out of Jin Yi-rang’s mouth, Hyun Je-ha’s lip twitched.
“So you’re admitting it? That you’re the one who killed Ga-hyun twenty years ago and ran?”
“Of course. I am.”
“…Why? You never struck me as the type to just confess. Especially not when you had a list of unaffiliated ability users. You knew someone was on your tail, yet you kept slipping through the cracks all this time. And now, you’re just gonna admit your crimes?”
Just like that? This easily?
Hyun Je-ha’s eyes flared an even fiercer blue.
The killing aura pouring off him was several times stronger now—but Jin Yi-rang didn’t seem to notice. He just smirked, utterly smug.
“Why not? I’m tired of running. Might as well end it here. If I get caught, that’s a win for you too, right?”
“…Ha.”
“Come on, just kill me already. I did it all. Now your ancient grudge can finally be put to rest.”
Jin Yi-rang grinned and dragged his hand across his own neck in a slashing gesture.
Hyun Je-ha stared at him silently, then burst out laughing.
“Pfft… Puhahahahaha!”
A loud, unrestrained laugh. Jin Yi-rang flinched, visibly confused.
“W-Why are you laughing? Hurry up and kill me!”
Hyun Je-ha ignored him, laughing hysterically for a good while—before abruptly going cold.
“…Pathetic.”
“Yeah… at least now you’re looking at me without that smug—”
“Like hell I believe that crap. The real culprit’s the one controlling a brainwashed Esper to pretend to be the killer.”
“…!”
Jin Yi-rang’s expression froze. Hyun Je-ha’s face wasn’t much different.
“If you were serious about fooling me, you should’ve found someone convincing. Not this moron. Ha Ri-ra!”
At his call, Ha Ri-ra crashed through the wall of the abandoned factory.
She was carrying a pale, unconscious Samoa on her back.
“You called, Captain!”
“Jin Yi-rang’s under some kind of mental control. Samoa should be able to see the tether, right?”
Coughing, Ha Ri-ra answered firmly.
“Of course. Cough. But I thought all of us could see that crap anyway? It’s not even that hard to track, honestly.”
The Baekho Unit, seasoned on the frontlines in the harshest of environments, were practically immune to mental-type abilities.
They’d fought dungeon monsters that specialized in hypnosis, brainwashing, and hallucination. Without artifacts to defend against psychic attacks, they’d developed their own kind of resistance. An innate ability to detect mental interference.
For Baekho Unit members who always kept that detection skill active, spotting someone under psychic control was as easy as breathing.
Hyun Je-ha gave the order.
“Samoa. The real culprit must be hiding somewhere nearby. I need you to track them down. Can you do it?”
“I’ll probably be bedridden for the next week… but yes, I can.”
“Then do it.”
Samoa activated her tracking ability. Her anchor point: the immobilized Jin Yi-rang standing before them.
