Chapter 122: Escape
Chapter 122: Escape
#
Shhhk. Thud.
The hood slowly slid back, finally revealing Eun-ah's face.
Her head was remarkably small, almost childlike.
Her large, round eyes brought a puppy to mind.
Her soft, pale cheeks retained a trace of baby fat and looked irresistibly pinchable.
"Disgusting, right...?"
"It must've hurt terribly. Let's eat."
When Eun-ah looked at me, I carefully controlled my expression and pretended nothing was unusual.
Without any further conversation, we picked up our spoons.
Burn scars were the reason she had hidden her face so completely.
I'd already suspected as much when she told me her parents died in a car accident.
The damage covered one side of her face, from her forehead down to her cheekbone.
A dark-red burn scar remained there in a hideous mass.
Unlike the pale, smooth skin around it, the scar was rough and uneven, painful even to look at.
Most striking of all was one eye with no visible pupil.
The burns she suffered at five had cost her the sight in that eye.
"People said it gave them goosebumps. They called me a monster."
"Motherfuckers."
"I often heard that I should cover my face and stop forcing people to look at it."
"Absolute fucking bastards."
After finishing her meal, Eun-ah calmly began telling me about her past.
"The other children laughed at me, mocked me, and tormented me. Whenever anything bad happened, they brought up my name for no reason, and the harassment never ended. Not one person took my side... Everyone either hated me or avoided me. I thought about dying countless times..."
"What good were their mothers and fathers if they never taught them basic decency? You did well to endure it. I know it's difficult, but forget those worthless bastards."
"Please save my daughter... Until the moment she died, trapped inside the car, my mother kept repeating those words. Whenever I wanted to die, that memory returned."
"Hoo... You've suffered so much. You endured it well."
Children are cruel.
They might have spoken without thinking, and perhaps now that they're adults, they would never say such things...
But for the person they tormented, those years had been unbearably painful.
A heart carved apart by their words still carried those throbbing wounds.
Had they ever considered, even once, that they had driven another human being to the edge of a cliff?
They probably slept comfortably without a care in the world.
The boys and girls who had been demons to Eun-ah were probably beloved sons and daughters when they went home.
"Fucking pieces of trash. You were surrounded by cowards..."
If only one person had stood on her side.
It easily could have happened.
If a single person had defended her, perhaps all of them could have become good friends.
Children were easily swept along by others.
Eun-ah had simply been terribly unlucky.
"When I grew a little older, I couldn't even get a part-time job if anyone saw my face."
"..."
"I had to wear a hat, an eyepatch, and a mask even at home."
"That fucking bitch. Goddammit!"
BANG
The rage I'd suppressed while listening to her heartbreaking story finally erupted.
I already knew about the aunt who had taken Eun-ah in.
She had been a truly cruel woman.
Her aunt had regularly taken young Eun-ah to the hospital for examinations.
But only because those visits were required to obtain a disability rating.
Once Eun-ah's permanent blindness was confirmed, her aunt neglected her.
Naturally, she received no treatment for the burns, and she was fortunate if she was even fed.
"Eun-ah."
"Yes...?"
"Do whatever makes you comfortable. When it's just the two of us... No, even outside, you don't need to struggle to hide yourself. Do what you want."
She had been abused throughout her life.
The accident had taken her parents and left a permanent wound on her body.
It had wounded her heart as well.
"And please, try to forget it. Don't force yourself to relive it. Don't let the past keep tormenting you."
"Hic... How can I? Whenever I close my eyes, I still remember everything."
I didn't know the answer either.
I wasn't a counselor, nor had I experienced pain like Eun-ah's.
And our present reality was hardly conducive to good mental health.
"I don't really know. Let's create many different memories. If we keep making better ones together, then eventually..."
"Mister."
"Yeah?"
"Please call my name often."
"Alright."
"My mother and father were the only people who ever said my name as kindly as you do."
"All right. I'll say it often."
"May I call you Dad?"
"No. Not that."
No matter what, that was out of the question.
She wasn't going to ruin a bachelor's marriage prospects.
"Pfft... I'm kidding."
"All right, Eun-ah. But could you move away a little?"
After neatly folding the raincoat she'd removed, she had somehow ended up sitting pressed against my side.
Her seated height was so short that her head only reached my upper arm.
Squirm squirm.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
"I feel a little cold after taking it off. May I sleep like this for a while?"
"Haa... fine."
"Thank you."
Instead of moving away as I'd asked, she climbed onto my lap.
Then she rested her head against my chest and squirmed until she found a comfortable position.
It was hot enough to kill me. Cold, my ass.
"Then, instead of Dad, may I call you Big Brother?"
"Call me whatever you want."
"Okay..."
Eun-ah soon fell asleep, her breathing becoming slow and even.
Feeling her slight weight against me, I closed my eyes and rested as well.
'I didn't get my after-meal cigarette...'
#
Woof woof woof
'Did I nod off...?'
The sound of barking woke me.
The barking came from fairly close by.
I checked my watch and saw that roughly two hours had passed since I fell asleep.
"Eun-ah."
"Mmnn..."
"Wake up."
The faint sounds in the distance were ominous.
Human screams and shouts were mixed among them.
I took Eun-ah by both arms and gently shook her, but she wouldn't wake.
'This won't work.'
I scooped Eun-ah up, turned her to face me, and adjusted my hold.
As my hands slid beneath her armpits, I felt something soft and squishy.
The thought occurred to me that her insolent chest had stolen all her nutrients and prevented her from growing taller.
I left the rest of our gear behind and stepped outside with Eun-ah in my arms, taking only the raincoats and my weapon.
Once outside, the sounds of what seemed to be a fight became much clearer.
That was when Eun-ah woke.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know. Let's go see."
Once I set the now-awake Eun-ah down, she picked up her raincoat and put it on.
Apparently, she still felt more comfortable with her face covered.
Then Eun-ah held both arms out toward me again.
"..."
"... Fine."
I cradled her like a child and carefully headed toward the noise.
After walking a short distance, we reached an open clearing bathed in orange light.
Woof woof grrrr
"Fuck, these mutts!"
"Enforcer!"
"We're almost finished. Hold out a little longer."
It was an open clearing in the park we'd crossed earlier.
The light came from fire.
Burning trees and corpses scattered across the ground illuminated the area brightly.
Twelve humans and nearly twenty feral dogs were locked in a bloody battle there.
Three human corpses were cooling on the ground, alongside the bodies of roughly ten dogs.
"Whoa, what the..."
"..."
Eun-ah and I hid behind chest-high shrubs and watched the battle.
The dogs appeared to have outnumbered the humans roughly two to one at the start.
Despite suffering heavier casualties, the feral dogs showed no intention of retreating.
They had surrounded the humans and launched hit-and-run attacks from every direction.
"Uh... I don't think that man realizes there's a dog directly behind him."
"..."
Eun-ah watched the fierce battle without saying a word.
A team fight needed commentary, yet she kept her lips firmly closed.
"What should we do? Leave them to fight and slip away?"
"Their ears..."
One person spat fire, while another swung something resembling a long whip.
The spectacular display of varied abilities had completely stolen my attention.
Only after Eun-ah spoke did I focus on the humans' ears and notice that each had part of one earlobe cut away.
"Huh? You're right. Are they the pursuit team?"
"Yes..."
They were persistent bastards.
I hadn't imagined they would continue chasing us this late into the night.
I had no idea how they'd found our trail.
"Hmm... What should we do...?"
Every human was exhausted, and nearly all of them were injured.
The dogs' numbers had fallen considerably, but those remaining still looked vigorous.
There was no telling which side would win.
Then the balance shifted in an instant.
"One Million Volts!"
The Enforcer was an overweight man in his thirties wearing glasses.
The man they'd called the Enforcer raised one hand toward the sky and shouted.
A bolt of lightning crashed down from above.
KURURURUNG BOOM BOOM BOOM
The entire area flashed brilliantly.
The humans scrambled to cluster around the heavyset Enforcer.
My vision flashed white, and I immediately wrapped Eun-ah in my arms and ducked down.
"Quick! Finish them all!"
The man who'd shouted 'One Million Volts' bellowed the order.
When I reopened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the pack of feral dogs lying charred black and gasping for breath.
The few still standing didn't appear to be in normal condition either.
Their fur stood on end, and several convulsed where they stood.
"A Pikachu?"
The ability reminded me of a cartoon I'd watched as a child.
The humans, previously forced onto the defensive, seized their weapons and launched a counterattack.
The only dog that appeared unharmed was a black beast larger than a person.
"Eun-ah, hide here. I'm going to use this opportunity to eliminate those bastards."
"Okay... be careful."
Eun-ah obediently moved away from me.
Crouching low and using the shrubs as cover, I circled behind the Pikachu bastard.
I pulled a stone from my pocket and hesitated.
'I need a cool-sounding technique name...'
I aimed at the back of the heavyset Enforcer's head and prepared to throw.
Envious of active ability users who could shout the names of their techniques, I paused briefly.
But I couldn't deliberate for long; I needed to act before the humans slaughtered every dog.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Shouting at the top of my lungs, I hurled the stone and attacked the humans from behind.
The stone buried itself in the back of the Pikachu bastard's head, and he immediately collapsed.
My baseball bat passed judgment on the man hurling fireballs.
Whoosh! Thwack!
"Sword Slash!"
"A heretic!"
"Are you insane? That's a fucking baseball bat!"
The bastards began panicking at my sudden intrusion.
The massive dog seized the neck of a distracted man and tore it open.
At that moment, a long whip cracked across my back.
Crack!
"Ack, that stings! You little bastard!"
I quickly caught the retreating whip and wrapped it around my hand.
When I jerked hard, the whip user rose into the air.
"That's an interesting whip you've got."
It wasn't a separate weapon he'd prepared; it extended directly from his hand.
The other humans rushed toward me to rescue the whip user.
Using the trailing man as a counterweight, I spun around and around.
"Whirlwind!"
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
"Gwaaaargh! Stop, you lunatic!"
The whip user's durability was remarkable.
Even after causing a five-person pileup, he remained lively enough to scream at full volume.
"'Stop'?"
"S... Gah... Stop!"
"Fine. I'm getting dizzy, too."
Spinning continuously and slamming him into the other humans was making me increasingly dizzy.
Having reached an understanding with the whip user, I released him without hesitation.
"Gwaaaaaaaaaah!"
Ignoring the man flying into the distance under centrifugal force, I gripped my baseball bat again.
The two humans struggling to rise after being knocked down by the whip user were no match for me.
Puhwaaak! Sploosh!
As I rapidly finished off the remaining humans, an enormous splash came from the Han River.
It came from the direction I'd sent the whip user flying. A gigantic snakehead fish had raised its head above the surface.
Even at that distance, it was so enormous that I immediately recognized it as the monstrous creature I'd seen before.
In an instant, the snakehead swallowed the whip user, created a whirlpool, and vanished beneath the water.
"Whoa... Gyarados. We shouldn't even look at the Han River. Right, doggy?"
The open lot was brightly burning all around.
Humans and dogs were strewn about in a mess, and now, a situation where only one from each species remained on its feet.
The single dog, bigger than most humans, stared at me intently.