Nabi's Favorite Kind of Fun
Once I'd confirmed that more than half the people had cleared out, I opened the cap on the gasoline can.
And I called for Nabi.
[Why?]
A sulky little voice drifted back at me.
He's sulking again, apparently.
What's more, this brat had no intention of coming out. Normally he'd pop up without being called at all….
Slowly crossing my arms, I turned my gaze toward the white puppy plush doll.
"Hmm, I wonder what could have upset our Nabi this time?"
[You guys were all having fun without me.]
…Good heavens. That was the grievance?
So the whole saga of us getting dragged off in zip ties, locked in a cell, and barely escaping after making the cult leader's nose gush blood like a fountain — to you, that was just a fun little game, huh?
…Well, I suppose from your perspective, it might be.
It was an absolutely deranged thing to say, and yet somehow it put my mind at ease. Hmm… or maybe I'd finally just given up on being surprised. Either way, if that's the extent of his complaints, I can work with it.
'Because that particular complaint, I can fix right now.'
Just as I hurriedly picked the can back up off the floor and opened my mouth to call Nabi again, a familiar voice drifted in from outside. I swallowed my words and immediately stepped onto the stairs leading up to the podium.
Poking my face up just far enough to peer out, I spotted three men filing in through the underground exit.
"Ehh? Where's everyone going…? Huh? Outside? Now? Just like that?"
"What is wrong with you people? I don't care how far out in the sticks this place is, if we make a bunch of noise, someone's still going to call it in! You all must be dying to get arrested."
"Can't we just take the money and leave?"
On closer inspection, two of the three were faces I recognized.
The G-broker goons who'd dragged us here in zip ties.
'Which means the third one must be an accomplice too.'
The goons grumbled among themselves, drifting further and further inside.
"Ugh, what a pain. One minute it's 'do it inside,' the next it's 'take it outside.'"
"…Well I'm not going out there! What if someone reports us to the police while we're doing it outside?"
"I'm not going either. I already burned through way more ability-suppression skill uses than usual today. I'm exhausted."
The conclusion they'd so heatedly bickered their way to, apparently, was to slack off in here for a bit and collect their pay once the summoning ritual was over.
'That's a problem.'
The plan had been to set this place on fire once everyone left. Burn it all down to the last beam — ritual, everything, finished for good.
'But if there are people still inside, I can't do that, can I?'
With Yoo Jinchae absent, I took a long, hard look at the combat stats of me and Ahn Param through the lens of an extremely ordinary civilian — and shook my head.
'Hopeless. Both of us.'
Try to chase them out on our own, and the only picture I could see was us getting caught and tied right back up.
So what was I supposed to do? There had to be some way to get those people out of here safely….
[Oh? It's that human from before.]
[The one we played choo-choo train with.]
[But he bullied my friend. I don't like him.]
…As it turns out, there wasn't *no* way at all.
***
To recap, the original plan went like this:
1. Yoo Jinchae, disguised as the cult leader, lures everyone outside.
2. I set this place on fire and run. (Ahn Param and the cult leader get handed off to Nabi.)
3. Someone calls the police.
4. We go home.
But now, a revision was in order.
I would still be the one lighting the fire, but…
Nabi's role had changed.
Originally, he was just the pack mule — supposed to haul off Ahn Param and the cult leader in my place and follow behind me. But now…
"Nabi, you remember that horror movie we watched together last weekend?"
On a rainy weekend night, I'd put on a children's educational program for Nabi in my room and settled in with a horror film of my own.
But the moment a wild-haired ghost crawled out of an old CRT television on screen, Nabi's attention wandered — and never came back.
That grotesque, lurching body. The keening whimpers. The dreary, dreadful atmosphere. He was utterly, completely captivated.
Thinking of Nabi's emotional development, I probably should have switched it off right then and there — but he was already too far gone. It was impossible.
Anyway.
"There's that ghost you liked in it, remember? Our Nabi is going to become that ghost and scare those people right out of here!"
[Then, then can I go WAK! WAK! and startle them? You said I'm not supposed to do that normally!]
Yes, yes. Under normal circumstances, I had drilled it into him over and over — strictly forbidden, to prevent any unpredictable disasters.
But today was different.
"Just for today! I hereby give you special permission!"
[WOOOOWWAAAH!!! THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!!!]
At last, I could hear the sound of stitches being strained to their limit.
Ahn Param, who couldn't hear Nabi's voice at all, glanced warily around the moment I started muttering at empty air.
[WAK!!!]
"AAAAGH!!! Son of a—!!"
Spotting Nabi, who had appeared directly above his head, Ahn Param hit the ground on his rear a beat too late.
[WOOOOWAAAAAH!! SO FUN!!]
…Sad to say, it seems this really is where his true talents lie.
No matter how many times I drilled ethics and morality into him like a cassette tape on repeat, nature apparently wins out.
…No. Wait. That's not right.
'There's no such thing as a born good kid or bad kid. It's all in how people are raised.'
Right. Nabi is a work in progress. Having fortified my convictions once more, I turned to Ahn Param.
"Excuse me? 'Son of a' what?"
Seriously — since when does a high schooler get to curse up a storm just because he got startled?
"…S-sorry."
"Let's be careful out there."
After that, I briefed Ahn Param and Nabi on their roles, then stepped up onto the podium.
There, I uncapped the gasoline and quietly splashed it across the platform. Even now, the G-broker goons were too busy bickering to notice me.
Alright. Now for the fire….
Hold on. I don't have a lighter.
I'm not a smoker. Have you ever seen a kindergarten teacher who smokes?
I knew perfectly well it wasn't there, but in my panic I found myself patting down my pockets anyway — and something came flying at me from behind. I caught it.
'A lighter?'
"Use mine! It's mine!"
Excuse me? Why does a high schooler have a lighter?
You and I are going to have a conversation later.
But desperate times. I flicked the lighter to life and touched the flame to the gasoline pooled across the floor.
The fire began to spread with terrifying speed.
Right up until the flames swallowed the podium whole, the goons remained blissfully occupied, arguing over how they'd spend the money they were about to be paid.
Quietly, through the rising blaze, I looked across at Nabi.
The great black hand, now fully emerged from the doll, met the fire head-on and radiated an overwhelming, crushing presence.
But instead of charging straight for the goons below the podium as I'd expected, the first place Nabi went was… the washbasin sitting atop the altar.
'What is he doing?'
Just as I was about to remind him to stay focused, I saw Nabi dip his hand into the basin and pull something out.
Then, under the lights, he turned it over and gazed at it, slow and deliberate. The runes etched across the black hand rippled like waves.
And in that moment, the back of my neck went cold.
'Did I just… see an expression on that thing? Or was I imagining it?'
It had looked, unmistakably, like rapture. Pure, gleeful joy….
I stood staring at it like a man hypnotized — until the horrified shouts of the goons finally noticing the fire snapped me back.
"Wh-what the—!! Fire!! There's a fire!!"
"Where'd that come from?!"
"Are you blind? The podium's on fire! Somebody grab the extinguisher, now!"
Seizing my opening, I shouted toward Nabi.
"NOW!!"
The fire was spreading faster than I'd estimated. From over there, looking back toward this podium, my figure would be nothing but a blur behind the flames.
I watched as Nabi closed the distance to the G-broker goons at a horrifying speed.
Strangely enough, the farther he stretched, the larger the black hand grew.
"…A demon?"
"AAAAAAGH!!! WHAT THE HELL!!"
"Is that real? Did the summoning actually work?"
"Son of a— where's the cult leader? Did that idiot summon this thing here by mistake?"
Amid the chorus of metal-scraping shrieks and profanity, I descended from the podium with Ahn Param.
By then, Nabi had swollen to such an enormous size that he filled half the cavern, shielding us from view.
Gripping the open gasoline can in both hands, I began splashing the floor methodically as I went, with Ahn Param clinging close on my heels.
At some point, I noticed Nabi plucking up the goons one by one and hurling them out the door.
"KYAAAAAAAAGH!!!"
"Please! Please spare me, spare me, please!"
"Crazycrazycrazy!! Stay back!! I said stay back!!"
Scream or don't scream — Nabi paid it no mind. Like a kid who'd discovered the joy of claw machines, he plucked people up, one after another, and tossed them outside.
[WAAAH!]
[Puhahaha! So much fun!]
The moment I confirmed the last of the goons had cleared the stairs, I broke into a dead sprint for the underground exit myself.
By the time I neared the exit, the ceiling overhead had already vanished, swallowed whole by fire.
Hurrying out of the underground with Ahn Param, I spotted the crowds milling beyond the glass doors — and Yoo Jinchae, still disguised as the cult leader, among them.
'It's over. We're actually going to make it!'
—BOOM!!
A violent explosion erupted somewhere behind me, but I didn't look back. I ran until my legs felt like they'd shatter, steadying Ahn Param as he teetered on the edge of collapsing beside me, wrenching the cult leader off his back and flinging him down as I ran.
Dense smoke closed in from both sides in an instant.
The floor was slick, and I nearly went down more times than I could count, but I gritted my teeth and kept running.
'Almost there! Right in front of us!'
And at last, when we reached the door…
I threw myself through it with everything I had left.