I Am Silver Rain
Jjaek, slammed into the ice-cold ground, turned his head.
There wasn't a single place on his body that didn't hurt. Their paw-punches had battered him without a shred of mercy.
Ghhk...!
He'd only turned his head to the side, and a scream tore out of him on its own. But Jjaek clenched his teeth and wrenched his head the rest of the way around.
There was only one reason.
He wanted to see the park entrance.
Just one reason.
He needed to know whether One-eye had gotten away — whether the cat who'd gone limping and staggering toward the gate had made it out of the park alive.
In truth, he already knew whether the escape had succeeded or failed. If it had worked, he wouldn't hear One-eye's scream — or any cry at all. If it had failed, One-eye's shrieks and the thud of paw-punches would already have driven themselves into his ears.
Even so, Jjaek wanted to see it. He wanted to confirm it.
That his subordinate, One-eye, had gotten out.
Nngh!
With a tremendous effort, Jjaek got his head around and looked ahead. And there, in a field of vision swollen nearly shut to a thread-thin slit, he caught One-eye.
A receding back, shrunk as small as the bouncy ball they used to play with in the Mongmong Animal Hospital playground.
Looks like he'd made it far.
Jjaek managed a faint smile.
That's it. Run.
Run, and at least you live well.
The thought had barely formed when a voice drove itself into his ear.
"What are you doing? Catch him!"
An order to seize One-eye.
Not a chance.
He would not allow it.
Jjaek gathered every last scrap of strength left in his body. And then—
"N-nngh!"
He stood.
His body swayed. Fighting in this condition was impossible. And yet—
I can't let them go after One-eye.
Like this was the first or second time he'd taken a beating and lived!
If you wanted guts, you wanted Jjaek.
He stamped a paw hard into the dirt. And then — whoosh! — he threw himself forward. Straight at that one. That pitch-black bastard.
"You—!"
THUD!
Jjaek's big, hard head slammed into the black cat's side.
"Ghk!"
The black cat went down. Jjaek collapsed on top of him as if falling with him, and—
"You little—!"
The black cat twisted, trying to throw him off. Jjaek did not budge.
His front paws, fortunately, were still intact.
Jjaek locked his forelegs around the other cat's body and squeezed. Flipped suddenly onto his back and crushed in Jjaek's grip, the black cat thrashed in a frenzy.
Thud-thud-thud-thud. On his back, raking at Jjaek with his hind legs, the black cat shouted,
"Hey, hey — you gonna let go or what?!"
At that cry, the cats who had been sprinting after One-eye came pouring back in a mob. The one yelling in a panic was, after all, their boss. The ones who'd been running turned on their heels.
The ones who returned attacked Jjaek too.
Hsssk!
Keh-ok-ok-ok-ok.
Kieeeee!
They shrieked every sound a cat could make and rained paw-punches down on Jjaek's back. But guts-of-steel Jjaek did not so much as flinch. The more they hit him, the harder he clamped down with his front paws.
No matter what happened, he would not let these forelegs go.
That was the vow he made as he held on.
Luckily or unluckily, once the other cats started attacking, the one pinned underneath Jjaek let out a scream of his own.
"Hey — hey, you idiots! Why are you scratching ME?!"
"Ah — s-sorry, Boss!"
"Instead of saying sorry, throw another punch!"
"Y-yes sir!"
And then the paw-punches came again.
Wham-wham-wham-wham.
Thud-thud-thwack-thud.
Paw-punches flying in a mindless storm. Of course they landed on Jjaek's back — but every so often, they landed on the black cat pinned to the ground as well.
Part of it was that the other cat was bigger than Jjaek. Part of it was that Jjaek, whose head still worked just fine, kept giving his body a sly little twist.
So when ten paw-punches came in, or twenty, one or two of them found the black cat underneath. Sometimes they even drew scratches.
Jjaek, of course, was taking several times that. And still he did not move.
His front paws had become a cable tie — once locked, they would never come apart unless you cut them with scissors.
Jjaek had only one wish.
That One-eye would get out safely. Holding onto that and nothing else, Jjaek did not let go.
Meanwhile, One-eye ran, and ran, and ran.
But he kept wanting to look back.
Wham-wham-wham-wham.
One-eye had sharp ears, and the sound of paw-punches poured into them without end. That sound was the sound of his precious Boss taking hits.
Nngh! B-Boss...
Tears threatened to well up and spill. One-eye forced his eye wide.
He must not cry. Absolutely must not. If he did, he wouldn't be able to see where he was going.
A blurred field of vision was out of the question.
After the Boss got me out of there!
Nngh!
One-eye clenched his molars and ran, and ran again, crushing down the urge to turn around and sprint straight back to his Boss.
Even if I go back now, I can't save him.
Which meant he had to ask his comrades for help.
That was it. One-eye had not escaped in order to run away, the way Jjaek had wished. He was racing toward reinforcements to call for aid.
And so the place One-eye ran for was Neulpureun Park.
He had to tell the others there what was happening. With that single thought, One-eye ran on his hurting leg, and ran, and ran.
When things are too hard and too painful, anyone wants someone to lean on. And the situation at hand was far more than he could bear alone.
So One-eye's mind turned, of its own accord, toward the one he relied on. Toward the great being of this territory. The legendary one.
King Boss! Please save us!
Was this what it felt like to pray? One-eye ran for Neulpureun Park, where the others were, searching and searching for the King Boss, howling as he went. And in that moment—
"It's One-eye, nyaong!"
The prayer had been heard.
Right in front of him, the King Boss — Hoesaegi — stood with his head high.
And it was not Hoesaegi alone.
"Hey, One-eye!"
Gkamnyangi too.
"Vice-Boss!"
"Vice-Boss, where's the Boss?"
The Song-i Park family as well. And behind them, even the cats of the Neulpureun territory — the ones they had been sharing food with only a little while ago.
A procession with no end in sight.
He had been so wretched, so frightened, so bitterly wronged. He had run this far without even being able to breathe properly. Now One-eye sucked in a single great lungful of air.
"Nngh—!"
And then the tears welled up and spilled over.
"Waaaaaah!"
A paw-punch came scything through the air.
Whoosh!
And with a wind-noise to match, a tremendous blow.
THUD!
It landed clean. This stubborn pest would go down now for sure.
The cat who had thrown the punch was just starting to split a grin when a death-cry burst out.
"Ghhk!"
And the cat who had driven the punch down froze in dismay.
The one he'd hit was not Jjaek. It was their own boss, pinned underneath him.
"Hhk! B-Boss! I-I'm so sorry. I was trying to hit this guy and I just—!"
"...Sh-shut up. Just get this one off me."
A small mishap, then — but the paw-punches never stopped coming. Jjaek's strength was draining away, bit by bit.
Nngh. I can't hold on.
The moment his front paws gave out, he would take a beating of a completely different order. Jjaek could see what was coming as clearly as if it were already here.
Perhaps that glimpse of One-eye's receding back, a little while ago, would be the last thing he ever saw.
At least I got to see all my boys today.
Was this why he had met every last one of his subordinates today? He'd gotten lucky, then.
So there was nothing to regret. No — honestly, it was regrettable, and it was bitterly unfair.
If I'd only been a little stronger. If I'd been truly strong, like the King Boss...
Then none of this would have happened.
And then — tok.
One toe went slack.
At the same time, the Cat Town in Neulpureun Park, where he had been only a little while ago, rose in his mind. A snug, good place. If he had been strong, his subordinates would have been living there in comfort.
He regretted that he had not been able to give them that.
I'm sorry. Your boss was this weak...
If their boss had not been him, but the King Boss — if it had been the legendary Silver Rain — how much better that would have been!
Tok.
Another toe went slack. The one underneath him noticed.
"Oho! So you've finally run out of strength."
The black cat put power into his body as if he had been waiting for this.
He heaved.
This is it, then.
That was what Jjaek thought.
And then—
THOOM!
The ground shuddered.
Dum. Dum-dum-dum!
The vibration rolled through again. And then—
Doodoodoodoodoodoo!
A strange sound, rising. The whole park was shaking, and the black cat still pinned to the ground went round-eyed.
"Wh-what is that?"
Before his subordinates could even answer, war cries erupted from every corner of Song-i Park.
"Waaaaaah!"
"B-Boss!"
"Boss, we're here!"
And among them, a voice that slid straight into Jjaek's ear.
"Who do you think you are, nyaong!"
Hoesaegi's voice.
"Wh-who the hell are you?"
"S-Silver Rain?"
The black cat's startled voice. Hoesaegi buried it.
Whoosh!
Hoesaegi came flying in on the wind itself. And then—
One roundhouse kick, airborne.
KRA-KOOM!
The roar rolled across Song-i Park.
"Gack!"
The black cat screamed. If the angle had been off even a little, that terrifying kick might have hit Jjaek. But it landed square, and it landed true, right on the black cat.
"How dare you! Hitting my friend!"
Gkamnyangi's voice thundered like a storm, and in the same breath—
"Attack, nyaong!"
Hoesaegi declared battle.
"Attack, attack!"
"Charge forward, nyaong!"
At Hoesaegi's command the cats surged ahead, and—
"Spread to the sides! Don't give them an escape route!"
At Gkamnyangi's command the cats fanned out as they ran.
Forward, and to the flanks. An assault that left no gap at all. In an instant they had the enemy surrounded.
"Advance!"
"We charge, nyaong!"
"Charge, charge!"
Pababak-bak.
Dadadadadada.
In a heartbeat, a rain of paw-punches came pouring down over Song-i Park.
"U-uaaaaah!"
"N-no...!"
"S-spare this cat...!"
With screams, cats went down in heaps. The ones who managed to dodge the blows were seized by the instinct to survive.
In their eyes, the black boss was gone. All that remained was the raw need to get out of this place.
"R-run!"
"Let's get out of here!"
"Wh-where to?"
"Straight ahead!"
"What? How? The paw-punches are coming from there!"
"Then jump to the side!"
They couldn't even put up a proper defense as they fled, and even the fleeing fell into confusion. A situation that had exploded without warning. They had lost the ability to think.
The cats scattered in a panic, dodging the incoming paw-punches as they ran.
But only for a moment.
THUD!
"Where do you think you're going?"
Waiting for them, One-eye greeted them with a smile full of killing intent.
"Thanks for coming to us on your own! Kids!"
One-eye called the subordinates lined up behind him, and they bared their teeth, eyes glittering.
"How dare you set foot in our territory? Yah! Take this!"
"I saw the whole thing, you know? You were hitting our Boss!"
One punch for daring to set their sights on Song-i Park, their home and their ground. One punch for hitting their boss.
The Song-i Park crew loaded every ounce of that fury into the paw-punches they drove down on the invaders.
Dododong-dong-dong-dong-dong-dodong.
The payback for what those cats had done to Jjaek and One-eye went on for some time.
In front, the legendary boss Silver Rain, and Shadow, who had always challenged him. Their forces attacked.
In back, the true owners of Song-i Park held the line and gave them nowhere to run.
The black cat's pack collapsed in an instant.
"Kh...!"
Someone walked up to where the black cat was crouched, all but flattened to the ground.
It was One-eye.
The one eye looking down at the black cat burned.
"How DARE you hit our Boss!"
One-eye's paw-punch flew.
The paw-punches he himself had taken. The paw-punches Boss Jjaek had taken. All that bitter unfairness, loaded into a single blow.
THUD!
One punch, packed with rage, and the black cat's lights went out completely. Helpless, having done nothing but take hits, he finally lost consciousness.
"Ghhk!"
One-eye glared down at the collapsed cat with a terrible look, then went straight to Jjaek, who lay sprawled beside him, and dropped to his knees.
"Boss!"
Well done. What a good boy. And thank you. From the moment One-eye had appeared, Jjaek had been watching him with all of that in his eyes.
When their eyes met, he mixed in one more feeling.
"I told you to just run..."
The thing he had genuinely wished for.
"How could I leave you behind all alone and go, Boss?"
"You never listen, do you."
"That's why you like me, isn't it?"
"Yeah. I damn well do!"
"Heh — heh heh heh heh. That's right. It's damn good, sir."
"Yeah. It is."
Jjaek smiled with the same expression as One-eye. Still smiling, he turned his gaze to his subordinates.
"Thank you."
"Not at all. The King Boss and the Black Boss stepped in, so..."
"So that's how it was."
Jjaek had poured every last bit of strength in his body into holding the black cat down. Standing was hard. But he had to stand.
For the benefactors who had saved his home, and theirs.
"Nngh!"
Jjaek made a sound and put strength into his body, and One-eye caught it at once and braced him. With most of his weight leaning on One-eye, Jjaek stood in a precarious posture and bowed his head.
"Thank you. King Boss. Black Boss!"
"You've done well, nyaong."
"Does it hurt much?"
The faces and the words were full of worry. Jjaek gave a small shake of his head.
"No, sir. Thanks to the two of you, we held our territory."
At Jjaek's thanks, Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi both turned their heads slightly to the side. Toward the same place.
"It's thanks to Norangi, nyaong."
"Norangi did the heavy lifting."
"Norangi did?"
"That's right, nyaong. Norangi saw you walking out of the park and told us, nyaong."
"Without Norangi, we never would have known."
Meaning: thanks to Norangi, the cat army had arrived in time.
Jjaek looked at Norangi with a startled expression.
"I owe you one."
"If I'd been you, I would have come looking out of worry too."
Norangi answered as if it were nothing. And then a great clamor rose from behind them.
"Thank you, Norangi!"
"We're grateful, Norangi!"
"Thanks to you, our Boss made it out alive!"
The Songi District cats poured their thanks onto Norangi, and watching them, Jjaek's expression brightened.
Hmm. Have they taken a liking to Boss Norangi?
If that's the case...
His whole body ached, but Jjaek wore a gentle smile as he studied the faces of Norangi and his own subordinates.