Sa Jun's Visit
“In any case, I’ve already said what I came to say. If you cause the Association any further harm, know that expulsion will be the least of it—we may well eliminate you.”
“Yes. I’ll keep that firmly in mind.”
Kim Seong-hui answered and sent her master on his way. Oswald climbed into the battered limousine waiting at the mouth of the alley and vanished with his attendants.
“Ah, honestly. Between one pressure and another, a person can’t even live.”
Once she was certain her master had gone, she headed down to the basement. Today was the once-a-month day for reconditioning Han Se-gun’s bone marrow. She would inject drugs into the marrow that vampire factor had already contaminated, forcibly converting that factor into Psychedelic Moon.
The method had kept Se-gun from becoming a vampire, yet the price was severe. Psychedelic Moon was now produced endlessly inside his bloodstream; he would live the rest of his life as a drug addict. On top of that the process had triggered neural acceleration. An ordinary man would have died long ago. Se-gun endured the side effects through sheer force of will and the power of a body already half-turned vampire.
Still, once a month the drug-delivery tube implanted in his marrow had to be replaced. Even though Se-gun had learned magic and could use telekinesis, this was not something he could do alone. As long as Kim Seong-hui performed the work, even if Se-gun ever turned against them the longest he could last was a month. At present that was the only real leash they had on him.
“Mmm… did that master of yours, the mage, leave?”
Se-gun, lying face-down in a surgical gown, asked in a dazed voice. Kim Seong-hui nodded.
“Mm-hm.”
“Whew. I half expected the old man had come to bag me.”
“Well, it was something close to that.”
As she spoke she set the scalpel to his back. Permanently high on Psychedelic Moon, Se-gun felt no pain at all. The moment she opened the precise spot he reached back and pulled the drug tube free himself. The pure-white silicone tube was already bone-dry.
“A little later and it would have been bad. The cycle’s getting shorter, isn’t it?”
She looked at him with open worry. Because he had fought Jinma while running on impure Psychedelic Moon, Se-gun’s body ranked among the strongest even for a vampire. As a vessel that could claim the bloodlines of the Jinma Juyda and the Messiah faction, he already stood at the absolute top of vampirekind—which meant his vampire factor was produced that much faster.
“Right now you’d measure about VT 6,000, wouldn’t you?”
“Probably… If the VT keeps climbing, the concentration of Psychedelic Moon in your blood will only get denser. When that happens you really won’t be able to handle it.”
Psychedelic Moon—a magical drug refined from vampire blood—was indispensable for humans fighting vampires or other monsters, thanks to its powerful hallucinogenic effect and the special strength it conferred. Even after refining vampire blood, however, the drug was always heavily diluted. No one left the pure extract roaring through their veins the way Se-gun did. That was exactly why his body was steadily breaking down.
To dilute it inside himself he would have to drink another person’s blood. Se-gun refused. He would use any means necessary to destroy vampires—but he would never become a complete vampire by drinking human blood. That pride was absolute. The fact that he clung to life this wretchedly was already a hundred-step compromise on his part; no one could ask him to turn fully now.
“I’ll have to settle things somehow within the next year.”
Se-gun muttered it while still face-down. Of course the claim was absurd—topple Tetra Anax in a single year?
“A year is far too little.”
“Maya says partial myocardial infarctions are already starting. Regeneration patches them instantly, but… I can definitely feel the heart starting to creak. Even a year is me lasting a long time.”
He rose as he spoke. Maya was the black-market doctor Se-gun favored—a woman who had graduated from Moscow Medical School only to be sold into Korea’s nightlife. Back-alley work or not, she had performed countless surgeries and stacked serious money; she was now a well-known underworld physician.
Kim Seong-hui seated the new infusion tube in his back and wiped away the blood with gauze. The wound closed in an instant, vanishing without a trace.
“Maximum heart rate four hundred beats a minute… Never mind infarction—it wouldn’t be strange if the thing just exploded, would it?”
Se-gun snorted a laugh and zipped the racing suit all the way to his throat. At that moment the brass bell of Arjuna rang again. The shop already hung a temporary-closed sign.
“What now?”
He raked his hair back and climbed the stairs. At the entrance stood a man in a black round-neck T-shirt. Same age as Se-gun, give or take. Se-gun was not short, yet the newcomer still stood a full two hand-spans taller.
“Hey? You Han Se-gun?”
Whirr!
The words were barely out before detonating cord whipped around the man’s throat. Se-gun completely enveloped him with the wire and yanked, dropping him flat.
“Uwaak!”
“Are you an idiot? Don’t ask pointless questions. Smiling at a wanted man and asking, ‘You’re the wanted man, right?’”
Se-gun was already about to hit the switch when Kim Seong-hui stopped him.
“Stop it, Se-gun.”
She threw herself between them. The man tangled in detonating cord looked at her with something like gratitude. Se-gun, puzzled by the woman, took his hand off the detonator.
“But…”
“Are you planning to paint the shop floor with blood? Even for an occult café, that’s going too far.”
“Huh?”
That was the reason? Se-gun shot her a sidelong glance. The man scrambled to his feet.
“Ahem, ahem… Anyway, let’s talk first and then die.”
“Talk and then die without regrets?”
“Hardly.”
“Then die right now.”
Se-gun jerked the wire—only for it to snap with a sharp ting. The tungsten coil parted; the man slipped free of Se-gun’s grip and stepped back.
“Truly a mad dog just like the rumors. A mad dog.”
“…I don’t have to take that from you, Sa Jun.”
Se-gun reeled the wire in and glared. No human strength could break that detonating cord. Just as with Sarhyuk, the younger brother was clearly no ordinary man. Sa Jun looked startled.
“Eh? How’d you know?”
“Because you’re wearing a face that looks way too much like your brother’s.”
Vampire hunter, lycanthrope, and former Taoist sorcerer Sarhyuk, and the man now standing in front of Se-gun, resembled each other to an uncanny degree—narrow eyes, all-back hair, tough features, sharp bone structure. The only difference was age: at least ten years younger, roughly Se-gun’s own generation.
“As expected… just like my brother’s lover.”
Sa Jun winked and leered.
“….”
Instead of flaring up, Se-gun smiled coldly. He could swallow most provocations, but anything involving Sarhyuk was hard to let slide.
“So what brilliant idea brought you all the way here? Decided you want to die? Did your big brother show up in a dream last night and call your name?”
Se-gun advanced, voice dripping sarcasm. Sa Jun was also a being who had left humanity behind—a resident of the moonlit night—yet he was no match for Se-gun. That he had come in person meant he had some other scheme in mind.
“Actually… I came with some good information, but if that’s the attitude I’ll just leave.”
“What information?”
“About your little wolf cub and Giovanni Vantero. By now that cub’s already been taken.”
“What?”
Se-gun stared at him in disbelief and immediately switched on the receiver. The motorcycle he had given Seo Rin carried a transmitter; if the boy were ever attacked, the location would light up.
“It’s definitely stopped right now. But how the hell do vampires pull something off in broad daylight?”
“The mages of the Isaac faction are cooperating. Perception-obstruction magic of that level is no problem. And Giovanni Vantero has a powerful ability that lets him operate even under the sun. Want to know what it is?”
Sa Jun preened like a child who had just learned something clever.
“…Why did you come here?”
Se-gun’s eyes were ice. Knowing this much detail was proof the man was selling out his own client. An information merchant, maybe—but worthless as a broker.
“Just wanted to get friendly. Isn’t it smart to at least exchange faces with Korea’s hottest hunter? Word is you’ve monopolized the Psychedelic Moon supply and are raking in serious cash. Let’s be pals.”
The only vampire hunter left in Korea was Han Se-gun. Yet the market for Psychedelic Moon—refined from vampire blood—was still very much alive. Its potent hallucinations and super-sensory effects appeared only in magical narcotics; once addicted, escape was impossible. Se-gun held a monopoly on domestic supply, so while he could never match the fortunes of vampires who had centuries of history behind them, he was still pulling in considerable money.
Had the visitor not been Sarhyuk’s brother, the motive would have been perfectly understandable. But he was Sa Jun—Sarhyuk’s younger brother. And if money were truly the goal, Giovanni Vantero was a far better bet. A Central American drug lord. Even Se-gun’s monopoly on Korea’s Psychedelic Moon was a drop in the ocean, a bacterium on a cockroach’s leg, next to him.
“Looking at your face makes my skin crawl.”
Se-gun made no effort to hide the hostility as he drew a Glock and pressed the muzzle to the man’s forehead.
Se-gun was one thing, but this guy was genuinely insane. Sarhyuk and Se-gun were mortal enemies, foes heaven itself had matched. In Three Kingdoms terms, Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi. In the end Sarhyuk had died by Se-gun’s hand. And now the little brother walked in saying, “Let’s be friends”? Was that a reaction any normal mind could produce? Kim Seong-hui stepped in again.
“Stop it, Se-gun. Right now getting Seo Rin back is what matters.”
“Even so, things with Sarhyuk are… awkward. Just swallowing info his brother brings feels—”
“Awkward is for turtles. If we leave this alone, information about Lilith reaches Tetra Anax. Then everything you’ve done keeping Seo Rin becomes wasted effort—you’ll be one step too late.”
Sa Jun’s words had clear logic. Se-gun lowered the pistol and demanded,
“Then talk. How exactly did they grab Seo Rin in the middle of the day? Even if the kid’s an idiot, once he’s been caught once he shouldn’t get caught again.”
That was precisely why Se-gun had allowed Seo Rin to wander freely. A certain amount of trouble was necessary for the boy’s skills to grow. He had even half-hoped for trouble—only for the enemy’s boss to snatch the kid personally, which was simply ridiculous.
“Well, Giovanni Vantero went out himself. The mages used suggestion to lure him into a theater, then Vantero stepped in and took him.”
“Is that even possible? A theater is dark, sure, but you still have to cross daylight to get there.”
“That’s exactly the problem—it is possible. Giovanni Vantero has a space-transition ability like the Jinma Zein. Far more developed than Zein’s, and the scale and instincts to match a drug kingpin. Even you can’t guarantee you’d win against him.”
Sa Jun laid out Giovanni Vantero’s power. Zein was the Jinma Sarhyuk had killed—the one who had settled in Japan during the black-ship era and become a yakuza boss. Compared with a yakuza boss, a Central-South American drug lord certainly operated on a larger stage.
“So he’s solidly Jinma-class. Teleportation. That’s a headache.”
Teleportation ranked among the highest of vampire bloodline abilities; only outstanding casters of Jinma rank could wield it. Giovanni’s face looked anything but intellectual, yet he could teleport… he clearly possessed unexpected talent for the arts. Se-gun headed outside and crooked a finger at Sa Jun.
“Follow. I can’t leave you at Arjuna.”
Kim Seong-hui was a superb mage, yet her close-combat ability was virtually nonexistent. Sa Jun was a lycanthrope from Sarhyuk’s circle; if the two ever closed the distance she would die. How could Se-gun leave him behind? Sa Jun seemed to understand perfectly; he trailed after Se-gun with a playful grin.
“Of course. We going by motorcycle?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“How about my car?”
“You crazy? Who knows what trap you’ve got set?”
“Come on. I know full well I can’t be your enemy. Even if I dug a trap I couldn’t stand against you.”
Sa Jun was unexpectedly humble. Se-gun still didn’t trust him. The way the man had snapped the detonating cord alone proved he was not operating at a level that required humility. Even vampires who had seen real combat lost their heads and died to that wire. And this one was Sarhyuk’s little brother.
“Believe a guy who talks like that and get your foot stomped—that’s national-treasure-class idiot.”
“It’s not a trap. Look.”
Sa Jun opened the rear of his vehicle.
“Huh?”
The car was a kind of camper van; a rack in the back could hold a motorcycle. Apparently he meant for Se-gun to load his bike there.
“We haul your bike with this, then when the moment comes—zoom—you shoot out. Like The Cannonball Run. I spent a fortune on it; I just want to try it once.”
“The Cannonball Run… never saw it. Was there a scene like that?”
The movie had been made before Se-gun was born. He sounded reluctant even while he lifted his motorcycle and loaded it into Sa Jun’s car.