We May Not Have a Country, But We've Got Face (Part 2)
Choi Seonggil raised his still-unfrozen hand and attempted to drain blood from Lee Yuha, yet no blood essence would emerge. She had taken Professor Kurobe’s prescription, after all. Flustered, Choi Seonggil shouted, “Why? Why can’t I drain your blood!”
Lee Yuha answered him in a voice as cold as frost. “So it was you who had been stealing blood all this time.”
She had been climbing the mountain path toward the hermitage after spotting a shoe on the trail. When she heard Choi Seonggil excitedly shouting his identity and plans in Korean, she immediately understood the situation.
“I thought you were nothing more than a good-hearted Japanese professor. Never did I imagine you were a Korean man named Choi Seonggil. And certainly not one who sucked the blood of others to impersonate a Japanese citizen.”
Beside the collapsed stone pagoda, Baek Chulyeon sat slumped on the ground. Lee Yuha stood next to him, unleashing wave after wave of freezing energy at Choi Seonggil. A blizzard of frost swirled through the hermitage, whipping her silver hair and pure-white nightgown violently. Layers of cold and ice crystals clung to Choi Seonggil, stacking thicker by the second.
“You are Korean yourself—how could you squeeze the blood from your own people, wear a Japanese mask, and cling to life like this!”
The fierce, howling froststorm surged toward him like a living thing. Before long Choi Seonggil was completely encased in ice. At the same moment, however, Lee Yuha collapsed beside Baek Chulyeon.
“Ugh…”
She had already lost too much blood to the man disguised as Professor Saigane. Her reserves had not yet recovered, and she had pushed herself too far.
“Ha… hahaha! Is that all you’ve got? My, my! A student in poor health shouldn’t overexert herself, Miss Lee! Miss Lee Yuha! Uwahahaha!”
Choi Seonggil’s voice rang out from inside the thick ice. Before the freezing power could cover his entire body, he had extended a long, snorkel-like protrusion from his mouth, keeping it outside the ice. Thanks to that, he could still breathe and speak.
He was frozen solid, yet still alive. Baek Chulyeon and Lee Yuha, however, could not attack him. A stalemate. But the moment the ice melted, he would resume draining blood. The deadlock would break, and Baek Chulyeon would be in danger once more.
—And someone was watching the entire scene from afar.
A shadow perched on a tall, dead tree a short distance from the hermitage. Long bangs swept to the side covered half her face. She was a classmate of Baek Chulyeon’s—an unremarkable female student. In truth, she was Katsurai Osue, a member of the ninja unit that had protected the Shimazu family from the shadows for generations.
Hidden among the branches like a shadow, Osue watched the standoff inside the hermitage and thought, Should I intervene?
Her lord, Renka, would not wish for that Korean student to die. Yet Renka had also ordered her not to reveal her true identity in front of Baek Chulyeon and to merely observe. Therefore, Osue could not rush in herself. Caught between intervention and inaction, she pondered for a moment before recalling the perfect person for the task.
Takahiro.
He had been ordered by Renka to guard Baek Chulyeon. If anyone should step in, it was him. Like a shadow slipping between trees, Osue leaped from branch to branch and headed back toward the dormitory.
In the first-floor lobby of the dormitory, Takahiro and his men were still detaining Professor Kurobe. Osue appeared silently behind Takahiro.
“Wh-what the—?”
Takahiro flinched at the sudden voice behind him but quickly composed himself, pretending he had never been startled. Osue continued without a flicker of expression.
Takahiro had always found this girl uncomfortable to deal with. They both served Renka, yet unlike him—who belonged to the Shimazu-gumi of the Leaf Guild—Osue belonged to a separate group known as the ninja. Japanese people were said to wear two faces, but these ninja hid their emotions so perfectly that no one could read their true intentions. That was why he always felt awkward around the small kunoichi.
“…So? What’s the report?”
“It concerns Sir Shirabayashi.”
Osue relayed everything she had seen and heard. When Takahiro received the full account, he could no longer hide his shock.
When Baek Chulyeon had first mentioned a vampire, Takahiro had taken it as a figure of speech and simply followed orders. The detained Professor Kurobe had looked somewhat sinister, but he had never seemed like a blood-sucking monster. Yet according to Osue, the real vampire was someone else entirely—and was currently facing off against Shirabayashi.
Still dazed, Takahiro turned to Professor Kurobe, who sat on a chair in the dormitory lobby.
“Um… Professor Kurobe.”
“What is it?”
“There seems to have been a misunderstanding on our part. We apologize for detaining you.”
Kurobe glared at him for a moment, then slowly stood.
“…Then may I return to my laboratory?”
“Well, that is… no. We would like you to accompany us.”
“Where to?”
Under Kurobe’s piercing gaze, Takahiro continued, “To capture the real vampire who has been hiding.”
“You think you can capture me? Hahaha! A hundred years too early! Miss Lee Yuha! And you, Shirabayashi!”
Choi Seonggil’s voice echoed from within the ice.
“As your general-studies teacher, I have a question! How long do you think this ice will last? Hm? It’s common knowledge! Oh dear, such poor students—you can’t even answer! …The correct answer is until sunrise! When the sun rises, this ice will melt!”
As he said, the eastern sky was already brightening with the pale blue of dawn.
“Haa… haa…”
Lee Yuha sat beside me, breathing hard. After forcing out so much freezing energy while already anemic, cold sweat beaded on her pale forehead.
“I am sorry. I came to help you, yet I have only become a burden…”
I managed to lift my hand and gently patted her head where it rested on my shoulder.
“It’s all right. You helped plenty. I’ll take care of the rest.”
Even as I spoke, I had no strength left to move. I had lost far too much blood. Meanwhile, the thick ice encasing Choi Seonggil had begun to melt the moment Lee Yuha stopped emitting cold. It was already paper-thin; it would surely vanish as soon as the sun touched it.
Choi Seonggil shouted, “Once the sun rises! Once the sun rises, victory is mine!”
Finally, beneath the brightening eastern sky, a red sun peeked over the distant mountain ridge.
Choi Seonggil basked in the first ray of sunlight that reached him inside the ice and cried out, “Ooooh! The sun rises! Behold this ascending sunrise!”
As the sun climbed, the ice melted at tremendous speed. Choi Seonggil burst through the thinning shell, shouting in ecstasy.
“The rising sun itself aids me!”
At that moment I squeezed out the last of my strength and hurled a scalpel at his face.
“Ugh!”
Infused with energy, the blade grazed his cheek with a sharp shick! A thin cut opened. Startled, Choi Seonggil touched his face. Only a little blood trickled from his cheek; the wound was shallow.
“…?”
He stared in confusion, then spotted the scalpel on the ground, picked it up, and burst into laughter.
“What is this… hahaha! A final desperate struggle, Shirabayashi? Uwahahaha! Is this the best you can do—merely a scratch? Too bad! It looks like you have no other weapons. What will you do now? Hm? Shirabayashi, my dear boy!”
While he grinned so widely his mouth nearly split, I muttered in a voice so low it was almost inaudible.
“A wound makes nerve poison take effect faster, doesn’t it?”
“What…?”
Before he could grasp my meaning, green, hazy gas began rising from all directions.
“What the… ugh?!”
“You weren’t the only one waiting for sunrise.”
I had been stalling for this very moment. Beside me lay an empty vial wrapped in black paper—the anesthetic antidote bottle I had received from Chunwol, otherwise known as Gye Chunhui. While dodging him, I had poured every drop of the antidote onto the hermitage floor.
When it touches sunlight, the neutralizing agent evaporates and the anesthetic gas returns.
Just as she had said, the liquid on the floor reacted to the rising sun. It vaporized in an instant, as if exploding, and produced an enormous volume of gas. A liquid becoming gas multiplies its volume hundreds of times over. Although the hermitage was open, the sheer quantity of anesthetic gas was more than enough to fill the entire space.
Lee Yuha, too, inhaled the gas. Her mind grew hazy. In a fading voice she asked me, “Baek Chulyeon… what is this…?”
“It’s all right. Just close your eyes for a little while.”
“What are you suddenly… mm… I can’t…”
She could hold on no longer and fell asleep. As had happened at the Kikda-jeom, this magical anesthetic gas had no side effects beyond inducing sleep. One good rest and she would wake fine. There was, however, one exception: Choi Seonggil, who wore the face of Professor Saigane. He was allergic to the compound. Or rather, not allergic—when exposed, he lost control of his transformation ability. That was why he had killed the Kikda-jeom robber Gye Hyeongbok to eliminate any future threat.
Starting from the cut on his face, his skin began to boil and writhe as if every pore were bubbling.
“Aaaagh! My face! My face!”
With his control gone, the face of Saigane Seiji that Choi Seonggil had mimicked began to collapse. I spat at the man as he clutched his melting features and rolled across the ground in agony.
“That face was never yours to begin with.”
A bastard without a face. We may not have a country, but we still have our pride. A Korean who disguises himself as Japanese, living by murdering innocent people? Disgusting.
“Blood! I need blood!”
In his panic he reflexively raised a hand to drain mine, but before the ability could reach me it only sucked in the thick anesthetic fog still swirling around us.
“Graaaaagh!”
The collapsing Saigane began to lose even his body shape. The shapeshifting ability allowed him to become anything, but once control was lost and it ran wild, he could no longer maintain a human form. It was over for him.
“Graaaaagh! Shirabayashi! Shirabaaaayashi!”
From the writhing mass of flesh, the face of a white-haired old man suddenly protruded.
“You think you have the right to kill me?! …”
That face, too, melted like mud. Another upper body emerged—this time an elderly woman. Her voice screamed in Japanese.
That torso collapsed as well. A boy’s face appeared next, shouting in Korean.
“You’re the one who wants to become Japanese!”
Even that form crumbled. Finally only a mouth remained, screaming in Japanese once more.
“…”
It was nonsense not even worth answering. Me, wanting to become Japanese? He was only spouting assumptions based on my name. It was my father, Baek Nopyeong, who had thrown in with the Japanese. I had never once wished to be Japanese. Yet the reason I stayed silent was that, in another sense, his words had struck a nerve.
Just as Choi Seonggil lived by stealing the real Saigane Seiji’s identity, I too was living inside the body of the dead Baek Chulyeon. I was pretending to be Baek Chulyeon when I was not the real one. I was using Baek Chulyeon’s social status even though I was not truly him. Just as Choi Seonggil could never become the real Japanese Saigane Seiji, I too was not genuine.
So I murmured, “I’m not sure whether I have the right to kill you.”
“However,” I cut him off, “at the very least, the child of the person you killed should have the right to take revenge on you.”
“What…?”
It was an abrupt statement, but awakening abilities are often hereditary. Even if the parents or children themselves never awaken, the trait can appear as a constitution. My father Baek Nopyeong was a non-awakener, yet he was strangely resistant to poison—an example. Therefore it was not strange that, after seeing Gye Chunhui’s ability at the main house, I had thought of the Kikda-jeom robber. At first I believed it coincidence, but when I learned she had been abandoned by her father as a child and later discovered the robber’s name was Gye Hyeongbok, I became certain. A rare surname. Similar ability type. A lost father. It was no stretch to assume that Chunwol—Gye Chunhui—was the daughter of the dead robber Gye Hyeongbok. In fact, it was all but confirmed.
Of course, Gye Chunhui had said that even if her father were alive she would rather he drop dead… but that was surely a lie born of resentment. No matter how much she hated the father who abandoned her, she would not have wished for his death. If she learned he had been murdered, she would certainly have sought revenge.
“So I simply did it in her place.”
“What are you… graaagh! Save me! Save me! Plea—”
From the shapeless mass that could no longer control its transformation, another young man’s head burst out only to melt away. An old man screamed and collapsed again. A young woman wailed and dissolved once more. All those faces belonged to the dozens—hundreds—of people whose lives he had stolen over the years. Like the liquid-metal robot in a movie falling into a smelting furnace, he was reconstructed and destroyed dozens upon dozens of times until finally the movements slowed, grew sluggish, and at last he crumbled into nothing but a handful of dust and the clothes he had worn.
“Hoo…”
It was over. The creature that had threatened students’ lives even before the school term truly began no longer existed. With the tension gone, my already exhausted body felt even weaker. I looked at the crown of Lee Yuha’s head where she slept peacefully against my shoulder. The anesthetic gas had already dispersed into the air, but once asleep she would not wake until forcibly roused.
…
Watching her lean against me, I too felt drowsiness creep in. Thanks to my poison resistance I was unaffected by the gas, yet I was just as anemic as she was, and I had not slept a wink all night. Gazing at the slowly brightening eastern sky, I thought, It’s already Monday…
I had barely rested over the weekend and had stayed up all Sunday night. Now Monday morning had arrived. I was wondering whether I should skip class and just sleep when voices rose from the mountain path below.
“Young master! Young master!”
“Shirabayashi!”
Takahiro and Aikawa appeared, climbing toward us. Aikawa spotted me behind the stone pagoda and ran straight over.
“Shirabayashi! Are you all right?”
“Her first, not me.”
I pointed at Lee Yuha. She had lost blood and then expended a massive amount of energy; she needed Aikawa’s simple vitality restoration more than I did. The small female student who had climbed with Aikawa supported Lee Yuha while Aikawa poured energy into her. Soon Takahiro approached me.
“Shirabayashi… young master!”
“Yeah.”
“Are you all right?”
“Other than having some blood sucked out. Help me up.”
Takahiro supported me to my feet. Besides Takahiro, his men, Aikawa, and the short female student, one more person had come up the path.
…Professor Kurobe!
Kurobe watched for a moment as Aikawa restored Lee Yuha’s energy, then walked to the lump of flesh that had been Choi Seonggil in the center of the hermitage. He prodded it with his pointer, then took out a sheet of paper and held it against the mass. Shaking his head, he muttered, “So it was him… Professor Saigane…”
Then he noticed something glittering beside the remains. He bent down and picked it up.
“This is my scalpel.”
Kurobe turned to me. In a heavy voice he said, “Shirabayashi.”
“…Yes.”
His sunken eyes glared at me fiercely from their sockets. His face always looked intimidating, but right now he was clearly furious. After being held all night because of a misunderstanding, he had every right to be.
“You suspected and detained me based on illogical, groundless speculation. Furthermore, you broke into my laboratory without permission and stole equipment. Regarding these outrageous acts of yours—”
I had nothing to say in my defense. It was true I had detained him out of suspicion, true I had broken into and ransacked his lab. Now that the misunderstanding was cleared, the fault lay entirely with me. Would I be suspended? Surely not expelled?
“—I will overlook them.”
“Pardon?”
What came from Professor Kurobe’s mouth was completely unexpected. He continued, “Anemia caused by blood-draining has been occurring among other students and even outsiders. The police asked me to investigate. Since you ultimately found the cause and resolved it, I will let the matter go this time.”
“Ah…”
“I will handle the cleanup. Leave the remains; I will collect them. You should receive treatment at the infirmary.”
With that, Professor Kurobe turned and descended from the hermitage.
“We should head down as well, young master.”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
It was fully morning now. The chatter of students leaving the dormitory for class drifted up from the trail below. Leaning on Takahiro as we left the hermitage, I glanced back one last time. The abandoned old temple and the remains of a man who had never truly become anyone were bathed in the lonely light of the morning sun.