Kaijin
“Ah, hello there.”
“Are you the new arrival everyone’s been talking about?”
After shaking off Justia’s annoying little sister, I made my way up to the dais where the faculty had gathered, only to be met by several hands extended in greeting. I returned their handshakes with practiced courtesy, taking an empty seat near the edge. Almost immediately, gazes began converging on me from every direction.
Giving me the side-eye already, are they?
Some eyes held simple curiosity, but quite a few were thick with undisguised hostility. Even if it was only a temporary appointment, having a stranger with no verified background parachuted into the faculty was bound to ruffle feathers. Still, once today’s work was done, I would never have to lay eyes on any of them again. I settled on ignoring them entirely.
“Haha. The Academy tends to be quite conservative, doesn’t it?”
As I sat enduring the silent barrage of glares, someone seated beside me reached out a hand.
“Not everyone here is like that, though. Even if it’s only for a short time, let’s try to get along.”
I turned my head. The face smiling back at me was unmistakably familiar.
“Ah, forgive my late introduction. I’m Resurrection, the hero taking charge of Class 2-1 this year.”
World Rank 13: Resurrection. A man widely acknowledged as teetering right on the threshold of the top heroes—the prestigious echelon reserved for the world’s top twelve.
“Pleased to meet you. I am—”
I reached out and grasped his palm, figuring basic decorum was required.
“…Ugh.”
The anomaly struck my vision the exact instant our skin met.
“What’s the matter? Are you all right?”
…What the hell?
Letting go of his hand, I clutched my face and hung my head as Resurrection asked after me in a voice dripping with concern. Was my right eye acting up again? It had caused me trouble ever since childhood, but when I probed the sensation, a chill ran down my spine.
No. It’s both of them.
It wasn't just the right eye I kept concealed; both sockets throbbed with a searing, needle-like pain. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Could this be another side effect of Villainization?
“Are you certain you’re all right? Would you like to visit the infirmary?”
“Ah, no. I’m fine.”
Fortunately, as a few seconds passed, the throbbing subsided into a dull ache.
“My name is Oh Ji-seok. I look forward to working with you.”
Sensing that even more eyes were fixing onto me now, I forced a polite smile to defuse suspicion and shook Resurrection’s hand once more under my alias.
“Aha, so you’re Korean.”
“Yes, as you can see.”
“Mmh. Is that so?”
Suddenly, his eyes narrowed, scrutinizing every contour of my face.
“You know… for a moment, I thought you bore a striking resemblance to someone I used to know.”
…Is he suspicious?
The casual remark sent my nerves coiling tight. No matter how much my frame and subtle features had been altered, this disguise was still mapped over Kang Haneul’s original bone structure. A particularly perceptive individual might catch a fleeting trace. You couldn't write off the instincts of someone who hovered near the global top ten.
“I often find that foreigners all look rather similar to me as well, haha.”
“Do they? I suppose that’s true enough. Heh.”
Fortunately, his curiosity seemed to stall there. It made sense; after the absolute catastrophe I had wrought during my escape, who in their right mind would ever suspect I’d be sitting comfortably disguised in the heart of the Hero Academy?
“Ah, looks like almost all the students have gathered,” Resurrection noted, gesturing toward the sea of seats below. “It should be starting any moment now.”
Indeed. Everything was about to begin.
The entrance ceremony—and our operation.
Pandora’s synthesized voice buzzed softly against my eardrum, coolly laying out the countdown.
“Man, we sure took in a lot of greenhorns this year.”
“……?”
Was it just my imagination?
“Still, put them through the wringer once, and they might turn out fairly…”
Why did Resurrection’s flesh, sitting right beside me, seem to subtly twitch and wriggle beneath his clothes?
With the student body fully seated, the entrance ceremony officially got underway. Procedures that stirred deeply bittersweet memories within me marched forward in swift succession.
The ceremonial opening of the International Hero Academy’s gates. The solemn rite commemorating fallen predecessor heroes. The principal’s lecture, which proved as insufferably tedious as it was in my day. On the surface, none of it differed from a regular school assembly, yet not a single student relaxed their posture.
The towering prestige of the world’s foremost hero institution. The hall lined with legendary battle portraits of alumni. The sheer, suffocating pressure radiating from a faculty composed exclusively of household-name heroes. Every factor converged to keep the new cadets strung tight as violin wire.
“And now, moving on to the next order of business… we will have the freshman pledge.”
After the principal’s speech finally concluded—having managed to force yawns from at least a few exhausted cadets—the moment arrived.
“Will the freshman representative please step forward?”
Here it comes.
I curled my fingers into fists beneath the desk, keeping my knuckles out of sight. Down in the front row, a slender figure rose and began walking up toward the stage.
What if I just lunged forward right now and snapped her neck?
Lumia Obsé. Top scorer of the entrance examinations and the undisputed crown jewel of the new generation. As she walked, bathed in the spotlight while media outlets continually hailed her as the true successor to Justia, every eye in the auditorium locked onto her graceful stride.
“Greetings, everyone.”
I’ll admit my throat tightened slightly. If she recognized me here, everything would unravel in an instant.
“I am Lumia Obsé, representative of the incoming class.”
Fortunately, that catastrophe didn't come to pass. Bearing an immaculate, benevolent smile, she glided quietly past my side and took her place behind the podium microphone.
Crunch…
My jaw clenched until my molars ground together, my heart thumping violently against my ribs. If I struck right now, could I kill her? Could I tear her apart where she stood?
Calm down. Think rationally.
There were far too many eyes. If I acted on impulse, I would be subdued before getting revenge, dragged back to a cell to rot. And for true retribution, keeping her breathing until she was completely captured and broken was infinitely superior.
“It is truly an honor to deliver this freshman pledge—”
“Ugh.”
As I focused my gaze and tried to wrestle my mind into submission, a sudden, blinding heat tore through both my eyes once again.
Do I need to check into a hospital or something?
I couldn't afford to cause a scene on this stage. Clenching my teeth through the stabbing pain, I endured it until Lumia’s voice cut through the air once more.
“It is time for us to finally step out from the shadow of the Justia incident.”
At those obscene words, the pain evaporated in an instant, replaced by a surge of pure fury that tore my eyelids wide open.
“Clinging to the past accomplishes nothing; in the end, it is only we who suffer the harm. What has passed belongs to history, and what lies ahead belongs to the future.”
“Huh?”
Right at that exact second.
“We are the budding sprouts entrusted with the responsibility of an uncharted age.”
“What… the hell is that?”
An unbelievable, grotesque spectacle unfolded before my eyes.
“Therefore, we must march forward, toward tomorrow, toward—”
Scattered across the crowded auditorium,
Buried deep within the flesh of several people sitting among the audience—
…Tentacles?
Hideous, pale, worm-like appendages were squirming beneath their skin, pulsing with nauseating clarity.
“R-Resurrection-ssi.”
Staring dazed at the horrifying sight, I frantically turned to the man beside me. “D-Do you see that? Down there, those things…”
The chair next to me was empty.
The hero who had been sitting beside me only seconds ago had vanished without a trace.
“Mr. Resurrection stepped out to use the restroom a moment ago,” an instructor to my left scolded with a deep scowl. “Keep your voice down, please.”
“E-Excuse me. Can you see it?”
“Pardon?”
“The… the tentacles!”
I grabbed her forearm, pointing frantically down toward the crowd. She looked at me as if I had completely lost my sanity.
“What on earth are you babbling about?”
“Right there! The front of the second row on the right. And the third seat from the back! You really don't see them?”
“……?”
I pressed with utter deadpan gravity, but she merely stared back, thoroughly baffled.
“Ahem. Hmph.”
Just as the sheer absurdity made me wonder if I had to snap a photograph to prove it, a dry cough sounded from the senior faculty row.
“Silence on the dais, please.”
Several professors were glaring in my direction.
What… what is going on here…?
Beneath the tailored suits of two or three of those very professors, foul, pale tentacles were writhing vigorously through their muscle tissue. Utterly dumbfounded, my gaze snapped back toward the stage. Lumia was staring straight at me, an inscrutable, knowing glint in her eyes.
Wait.
Tearing my eyes away from her, I noticed something even more suspicious unfolding across the floor.
What are those bastards doing?
The individuals carrying the parasites were exchanging silent, imperceptible glances. Then, one by one, they rose smoothly and began slipping toward the rear exits. The movement was executed with such seamless stealth that not a single regular hero or cadet noticed their departure.
Except for me, the only person who could see the squirming horrors coiled beneath their clothes.
“Excuse me.”
Staring at the vacant seats left in their wake, I didn't hesitate.
“I need to step out to the restroom for a moment.”
Whispering the excuse to the scowling teacher beside me, I rose quietly from my seat and slipped out into the corridor, trailing behind them.
“………”
Where are these freaks heading?
My reason for tailing them was simple: I could not tolerate unknown variables. Unless I had suffered a psychotic break, this bizarre infestation was an undeniable anomaly. If an unforeseen event ruined the raid and allowed Lumia to slip away, my singular chance for vengeance would vanish into thin air. We still had a bit of time before the scheduled strike. I needed to identify what I was dealing with before the clock ran out.
Locking onto the last student who had exited the hall, I shadowed his footsteps through the silent, marble-tiled hallways.
Going higher?
He continued ascending the stairwells. Aside from classrooms, the upper floors housed only the faculty offices, the headmaster’s suite, and the infirmary. Was his destination one of those three?
“You.”
Midway through my deduction, the student stopped dead in his tracks.
“Who’s there?”
He whipped his head around in the blink of an eye, eyes glowing with an eerie, predatory light as he challenged the empty air.
“………”
Dead silence fell over the hall. He glared fiercely at the corner where I had been standing, tilted his head in slight perplexity, and then resumed walking forward.
That was close.
Fortunately, I had reached the end of the intersection in time to tuck behind the concrete wall. But for him to react so violently to the faintest shift in air pressure meant he was on high alert. Just what on earth was he?
“Excuse me.”
“……!”
Just as I let out a breath of relief, a crisp voice rang out directly behind me.
“I don’t recognize your face.”
“You don’t look like a student. Who are you?”
Two second-year student committee members, tasked with managing the entrance hall logistics, were eyeing me with blatant suspicion.
“…I am a newly appointed instructor at the Academy.”
“Ah, I see. Forgive our rudeness.”
Cursing internally that my tail was compromised, I flashed my temporary faculty pass with an annoyed grimace, and the female student gave a polite, understanding nod. Then her gaze drifted past my shoulder, landing on the figure further down the hall.
“Hey, you over there!”
An icy, suffocating dread surged through my limbs without warning.
“You’re wearing the freshman blazer, aren't you?”
“…………”
“The ceremony is still in progress. What are you doing loitering up here?”
It was the sixth sense I had honed through years of clandestine black-ops work—an instinct screaming that mortal danger was bearing down.
“Ditching on your very first day? That’s quite bold.”
“Return to the auditorium immediately. If you refuse—”
Why was every nerve in my body howling right now?
“*Haah.*”
As I instinctively dropped into a defensive stance, the solitary student standing down the corridor exhaled a heavy, shuddering breath and tilted his head.
“You people really have terrible luck.”
At first, it looked like a simple neck stretch. But the motion didn't stop. Forty degrees, sixty degrees—his vertebrae snapped with sickening pops until his head dangled at an impossible, grotesque ninety-degree angle against his shoulder.
“You might have lived through today otherwise.”
The student committee members turned ghost-white, stumbling backward in horror.
“…Damn it!”
I couldn't afford to second-guess the alarm bells blaring in my brain. My arm shot forward on pure reflex.
Defense (Lv. 1)
◈ Effect: Deploys a cooldown-based barrier capable of blocking enemy attacks.
◈ Cost: The user’s physical defense is temporarily reduced in proportion to the absorbed kinetic impact.
“What?”
Before I could finish reading the translucent window floating in my vision—
BOOOOOOM—!
A shockwave detonated down the corridor as a strike hurtled toward us at terrifying speed.
“Kyaaaaah?!”
“What in the—?!”
The lethal blow smashed into an invisible spherical barrier mere inches before my face, stopping dead. And the thing that had unleashed it—
Squelch… squelch…!
Thick, pulsating tentacles had erupted through the broken flesh of the student’s snapped neck, coiling and melding until he resembled nothing human—a beast sculpted from living nightmares.
“Holy shit.”
How was this possible? A human transforming into a beast? Beastification was a phenomenon strictly confined to non-human fauna.
“What the hell are you?”
The monstrosity before me was not a Magical Beast.
“*Grrrrr…*”
It was a Kaijin.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
Meanwhile, back in the main auditorium.
“Well, look at that.”
Disguised among the student body, Paradise flashed her signature breezy grin and slipped a hand into her uniform pocket.
Slash—!
A playing card sliced through the air like an anti-material round, puncturing cleanly through the skull of a nearby faculty member.
“Looks like we’re starting earlier than planned.”
“KYAAAAAAAH!”
A few seconds later, shrill screams tore through the ceremonial silence of the hall.
“Hello there, my little puppies.”
Smiling leisurely as chaos erupted, Dice’s eyes reflected the dead instructor’s corpse—where clusters of pale, violent tentacles thrashed in agony before finally going limp.
“Time for your deworming medicine.”