A Name Called Too Late
Juk-yo pointed at Jeong-ah, then at Ayako. Paranoid madness surged in his eyes, along with possessiveness, the envy and rage of one who had never been chosen. He set that madness in motion to heal the wound.
He had decided to live true to the anger that ruled his heart rather than any fine-sounding words. Because of that, the sheer force of his will alone was overwhelming, pressing down on anyone who looked at him.
"It's exactly the same as when that woman became a vampire! The human vessel is cracking, and life force is leaking out through the gaps! She has only two paths left—become a vampire or die! So what will it be, Chang-woon? Why not turn this woman into a vampire the way you did Ayako? Huh? Why can't you?"
Juk-yo had finally said it. Had he read her memories by parasitizing Ayako's body with his own flesh? Did he possess the insight to see through Jeong-ah's condition at a glance? Such questions rose, yet they remained questions, not doubts. Jeong-ah herself was still reeling from the dizziness and strange sense of liberation she had felt only moments earlier. In truth, Silvester had told her to choose death by her own hand. Yes. If she truly became a vampire, dying might be better!
But Jeong-ah shook her head, her expression crushed.
"No! I—I don't want to become a vampire!"
"Keuk!"
Chang-woon forced his body upright and glared at Juk-yo.
"Such a transparent lie!"
"What reason would I have to lie to you after coming this far? Huh? It's all true! How about it? If you refuse, I'll kill her in the most miserable way imaginable—so if you don't want that, baptize her with your blood. Turn the woman who made us vampires into a vampire yourself, and everything ends! Right? Besides, she was your wife once. I'm not shameless enough to force my way between a devoted couple."
Juk-yo pressed the demand onto Chang-woon. Ayako watched the scene with a gaze in which every emotion collided at once. Yet Chang-woon only shook his head.
"I can't do that!"
He declared it without hesitation. The force of those words made Ayako stagger and sink to the ground.
I can't do that.
I want her to live as a human.
Ayako turned the words over and over and lowered her head. The image of Chang-woon bleeding for her long ago, when she had collapsed before him, overlapped with the present, and an unbearable grief crashed over her. Why had he been able to do it for her, yet could not do it for Jeong-ah? Give her blood, turn her into a vampire, claim her—was that not enough? For a woman who might not even be the true Jeong-ya! For a woman who might already be becoming a vampire—why?
The answer is so simple, really… so why can't I be that way?
But blaming him was useless. Ayako squeezed her eyes shut. Juk-yo's parasite was lodged inside her body. If he wished it, she would die at any moment—what choice did she truly have? Unless she was prepared to die, she had no path but to obey him. Yes… unless she was prepared to die…
"Is that so? Then stay quiet like a pinned insect over there!"
Juk-yo formed a blood sword once more and hurled it. The blade that had been flying in a straight line bent at a right angle and skewered Chang-woon to the floor!
"Uwaaaaah!"
Yet in that same instant a black whip shattered the blood sword and lashed out. Ayako rode the momentum and sent the whip flying at Juk-yo. He caught it bare-handed and clenched it hard.
"Huk!"
"I knew it! What did you think you could do to Jinma Juk-yo with a toy like this? Huh?"
"……"
Ayako remained silent, as though she had already steeled herself in her own way. Tormenting someone like that for long was not Juk-yo's pleasure; he yanked the whip and hauled her in with a single pull. Then he drove a water spear straight through her body, leaving a horrific wound that forced her spine outward.
"Kyaaak!"
Juk-yo flung Ayako's body aside and licked the blood from his hand. The satisfaction that rose on his face was nothing more and nothing less than the sadism of destroying something Chang-woon cherished most.
"Hehehe. I knew it would end like this. Chang-woon. Do you know why that woman, who never feared death, betrayed you—and why she's trying to protect you now?"
But Chang-woon ignored every word and crawled to Ayako, pulling her into his arms.
"Tachihara! Hey! Tachihara!"
Annoyance flickered across Juk-yo's face as if the fun had been spoiled; he flicked his fingers. With a sharp snap the parasite lodged in Ayako's body shot free like a blade and stabbed into Chang-woon's torso. Startled, Chang-woon tried to seize it, but the blade became a bat once more, returned to Juk-yo, and fused back into his flesh.
"First of all, her betrayal was because of this parasite. Of course that wasn't the only reason. She never cared much about her own life. She betrayed you because she was jealous of how you clung to Jeong-ya. Isn't that right? Hahaha. Must be nice being popular."
"Shut up! Hey, Tachihara! Stay with me! Tachihara!"
Chang-woon ignored Juk-yo and examined her, yet she was already beyond saving. Then her hand rose weakly and brushed his cheek.
"Heh. Not even once… have you ever called my name. You've forgotten, haven't you?"
"W-what are you talking about? Y-you sound like someone about to die! You're a vampire. You don't die! A-ah, that's right! If I give you my blood again, you'll live!"
Chang-woon was so frantic he scarcely knew what to do. Clouds drifted across the sky, swallowing the moon, and darkness settled over the narrow construction alley. Even in that darkness Ayako smiled softly.
"No… the wound Juk-yo gave me is too deep. And I'm not a pure-blooded vampire like you."
Blood flowed from Ayako's body into Chang-woon's wounds. He stared at her in shock, but she did not stop. Juk-yo merely watched the two of them with the eyes of a man savoring the spectacle. Jeong-ah watched in horror and tried to rise, yet her body refused to obey.
"This is… returning what I received from you long ago."
Ayako spoke into the empty air; her eyes had already lost their focus. Chang-woon seized her hand, but her life force was already leaving, and in its place his own wounds closed. He shook her in panic.
"Ayako! Stop!"
It was the first time Chang-woon had ever spoken her name. Yet she closed her eyes without hearing the name she had so longed to hear from him.
"……"
Chang-woon held her lifeless body in silence. He must have wanted to weep. But a vampire's tears are never cheap. They are so costly that even when one wails, the tears will not fall; emotion only circles and circles, piling up nothing but self-loathing. Juk-yo leaned against the wall and waited; when Chang-woon finally lifted his head, a strange smile curved his lips.
"Nice expression. Do you hate me? Huh?"
"Keuuuuk!"
In that instant Chang-woon's eyes blazed pure blue. Every passion he had held back until now erupted at once into fury and killing intent. Until now, Juk-yo's slaughter of Jeong-ya had been something Chang-woon could understand. The despair and rage Juk-yo felt toward the woman who had turned both brothers into vampires and then chosen Chang-woon as her partner had been immense. Chang-woon himself had been the one who inflicted that wound, so he had been able to endure.
But what crime had she committed? And what was this—creating ghouls merely to pad the numbers? In the end the wounds Juk-yo had dealt far outstripped any he had received. And—no, such judgments of good and evil no longer mattered. That bastard had killed Tachihara Ayako, his daughter!
"S-stop it! You're brothers! Why go this far!"
Even Jeong-ya knew the words made little sense, yet she could not keep silent. Juk-yo's reaction was savage.
"You shut your mouth!"
He kicked Jeong-ah. Her body flew and crashed far away, yet she rose again almost at once.
"Huk… huk! Why…?"
No matter how carefully Juk-yo had held back his strength so as not to kill her, there was no way she should have been unharmed after being kicked through the air. Yet she even managed to stand. The sight delighted Juk-yo so much that he clapped and roared with laughter.
"Ahahahaha! You're already half vampire! The human vessel is breaking and the life force is pouring out. When that strange power runs dry, you'll die. How about it? Aren't you thirsty? There's blood everywhere—drink as much as you like. The blood of these vampires! Hahahaha!"
In that same breath Chang-woon charged and drove a fist into Juk-yo's face. The straight punch carried almost no emotion, only razor sharpness; the sound of its passage was like a train or a jet ripping through the air. Juk-yo seemed about to be launched skyward, yet he twisted midair and landed cleanly. His lip split and blood ran, but the wound sealed with unnatural speed.
"Looks like you've finally found the will to fight."
"Shut up! I'll kill you!"
"Ooh~ terrifying! Then come after me!"
Juk-yo taunted him and leapt. With unmatched agility he soared the height of four stories in a single bound, kicked off the scaffolding beside the building, and climbed higher still. The moment he dove into the unfinished structure he sent piles of scrap material flying at the Chang-woon who pursued him. Chang-woon raised a wall of wind, shoved the debris aside, and snapped his fingers.
"Unforgivable!"
"Ah, I hear you."
Five fierce streams of wind shot forward like drills. Juk-yo ducked beneath them, though holes punched clean through his clothes. Chang-woon gathered a violent gale before his chest and kicked it outward as a spear of air. Juk-yo flung himself outside, warped his body, and vanished.
"Keuk!"
Suddenly something burst through the ceiling with a heavy thud-thud and attacked. Chang-woon rolled across the ground, rose, and saw blood-red orbs transforming into snakes that lunged at him.
"Damn it!"
Juk-yo's mutation ability was the very power that had ranked him among the strongest vampires alive. Yet Chang-woon's killing intent had climbed to its absolute peak; he was unleashing every scrap of his true strength. Shallow tricks would not work. The wind he summoned swept across the ground like a storm and tore the snakes apart.
Chang-woon sprang onto the hammer of a drilling machine abandoned outside, then launched himself higher and landed atop it. On the steel framework of the unfinished roof Juk-yo stood waiting; a thin crescent moon hung between them, casting its light. Jeong-ah could only stare, helpless. The feud between these two brothers stretched across four digits of years. Who would dare step between them?
"Juk-yo!"
"What is it, little brother?"
"In all the long years we have lived… how much meaning is there in being born a single year earlier?"
"Just one year. Now that you mention it, yes. Then you should answer the question yourself. What meaning does the time you spent loving Jeong-ya hold against this endless span of years?"
"I have not fallen so low that I need to answer that. There are many questions in this world that require no answer."
"Playing it easy, are we? I intend to force an answer from you. Come face me with strength!"
Under the moonlight their exchange sounded almost gentle, the soft banter of brothers who knew each other too well. Then the mood shattered; two shadows moved at once. Juk-yo and Chang-woon kicked off their perches, soared through the air, and crossed. Juk-yo's arm became a serpent and sank its fangs into Chang-woon; Chang-woon drew his own blood into a blade and slashed him open.
Chang-woon landed on the unfinished rooftop and slammed his fist into the concrete. A roaring vortex of wind rose like a barrier and shattered the blood orbs Juk-yo launched.
Juk-yo kicked off the opposite building, vaulted higher, and charged again. Chang-woon caught the serpentine arm on his blood sword, yet he was driven backward, sliding until he toppled from the roof. When he struck the ground the wounds in his side and chest tore open once more; blood poured freely.
He staggered, clutching the injury. Even Ayako's blood had not been enough to heal him completely.
"Uuugh!"