I Didn't Even Get On?
The new semester arrived in the space of a blink, and the warmth of spring came with it. Birds chattered in the branches, and beneath the cherry trees lovers who had already fallen for each other at a glance were pressed close, sweet as anything.
Bihyung, by contrast, looked like a man on his way to die.
The exorcist academy, Yeongwol. The place that raised exorcists to hunt anomalies.
…Right.
On the exorcist route, coming to Yeongwol was mandatory. So mandatory that if you failed to enroll, the standing advice was to delete the character and raise a new one. For Bihyung, it was different.
A half-yokai. Half human, and half monster.
If they find out, they'll kill me!!
Anomalies and yokai were not quite the same thing. But would an excuse like that work on an exorcist? Bihyung could say it without hesitation. Whatever explanation he offered, they would try to put him down.
People running the yokai route used to whine about it on the Dokja Jeongi gallery, too. The exorcists come in swarms. You haven't killed a single person, and still they charge in with fire in their eyes.
…And when I was on the exorcist route, I hunted yokai myself.
They didn't appear often. No—once every few dozen runs, rare to the point of absurdity. But the moment a yokai showed up, anyone on the exorcist route received something like a quest.
Kill it.
Cut down the evil that disrupts the order.
So what do I do.
For a half-yokai, enrolling in the Academy was a terrible move. Even so, Bihyung was walking toward it, because there was no option that let him refuse admission.
The main story's already rolling. Which means the application went through, too.
When the main story, First Departure, began, an acceptance notice from the Academy had landed on his phone. The moment he received it, he understood he could no longer pull his foot back.
Back out now?
Then the Audit Division of the Korean Exorcist Association—the body that actually ran the Academy—would come calling. Why aren't you enrolling when you already passed? Something wrong with your ideology? Aspiring villain, are you? The questions would arrive dressed as pressure, an interrogation from every angle, and after that it would only be a matter of time before they realized he was a half-yokai.
Players had another name for the Audit Division: mad dogs. A vicious breed that could pull useful intelligence even from a corpse with nothing left but a neck. Get tangled up with them once, and even if they never learned what he was, living in any kind of peace in this world was finished.
No. I wouldn't even be able to push the main story.
Enrollment, then, was not a choice. It was compulsory. Avoiding the worst by choosing the lesser evil, perhaps. Even so, his steps were a little light, and the reason was simple pride—the pride of a fossil who had sunk years into the game.
I know every hidden piece. That alone is an enormous advantage.
He still remembered them clearly. The hidden pieces he had found himself, burning through all forty-eight hours of a weekend, and the guides other fossils had dug up. Above all—
Even the stuff that had gone fuzzy was in the comments the devs posted when the service shut down.
To honor the players who had enjoyed the world they made, and in the hope that someone would finally notice the ambitious work still left undiscovered, the developers had released information at the very, very end.
I'll grow on the back of that. While pretending, as hard as he could, to be human.
…No. I'm half human, aren't I?
Then he had nothing to be ashamed of. He would walk in with his head up.
"Whoa…"
"That height… damn…"
"That face… oh my god…"
Admiring breaths rose around him, and he felt the prickle of stares turning his way. Not three seconds after he had resolved to walk in proudly, the worry got there first. This wasn't even a three-day vow. It was a three-second one.
Why are they looking at me like that?
Did Bihyung know? Becoming a half-yokai had sharpened his features and stretched his height, and both were drawing every eye. Oblivious, he avoided meeting anyone's gaze as best he could.
They're prospective Yeongwol students too. People whose talent had been recognized in Korea, or abroad. Who could say? Maybe locking eyes was enough for someone to read everything about you. Abilities like that existed. The Mind's Eye—the power of a blind seer who pierced every affair within a thousand li and seized the information whole.
The good news is, there isn't one in Korea. At least.
Even so, he couldn't let his guard down. He was heading for the Academy on that resolve, tension held tight, when a voice cut across the gate.
"Would you let go of me!?"
"Aw, come on, let's just trade numbers. Yeah? I'm asking nicely."
A quarrel at the main gate—no. A man pestering a woman all on his own, and the woman caught up in it.
Hm?
She was glancing around in a panic, tangled up with him, when her face flashed into view. Someone from Bihyung's memory. Not a heroine, not a hidden NPC, but he knew that character's future.
She becomes a villain later, doesn't she.
A woman who had enrolled at Yeongwol to treat her ailing mother. For enrolled students, the Exorcist Association covered their families' hospital bills in full, a welfare measure. But she got into a fight and was naturally weeded out, was that it? She never even made the entrance briefing, and so she never took part in the important test. There had also been a clique that shoved her out from behind, on the excuse that they didn't want to trust their scores to a woman whose ability hadn't been proven.
Assignments, exams, even live combat. All failing marks.
Not long after, she was held back. Welfare shrank for students who failed to advance, and overnight a woman without a coin to her name had to shoulder the hospital bills herself. To claw the benefit back she needed to prove a certain record—but how many people were willing to take on someone already tagged as a holdover?
And so—
Her mother died.
That was what turned her into a villain.
The one who terrorizes the Academy early on. In other words, the mid-boss of the early story.
A beast of an outline, and a filthy, finicky boss. Well—once you'd fossilized enough to memorize every pattern, she went down easy.
Mm. Even a brief dip into the past brought the old glory back in pieces. The first time he cleared a mid-boss and cheered. The way his heart hammered as he stared at the reward screen. The time the Audit Division, out investigating the villain, tossed in an extra reward of their own……
…Huh? Wait.
The Audit Division?
Did he just think Audit Division!?
He ransacked the memory, and yes—the investigation definitely came out of the Audit Division. Of course it did. A villain appearing at the Academy, and no audit? Impossible.
Damn it all!
Alarms went off in his head. The only way to keep the Audit Division from coming was to twist the story. Which meant saving that woman.
Bihyung moved fast.
"Hey!"
He called to her in a rush and caught her by the other arm.
"What are you doing out here? I've been looking all over. The briefing's about to start. Come on, let's get inside!"
They had never met, but he tried to haul her along anyway. At this point the man would assume she had company and back off……
"Hey. I was talking to her first."
Son of a—
Of all people, a Golden Sun. Copper-tanned skin, bleached hair, part of his shirt undone so the accessories could show themselves off without shame. A Golden Sun, no question.
And who is this? An extra who doesn't even show up in the game!
Golden Sun, signature trait: once he decides, he does not quit. A law proven across countless works of popular media chose this exact moment to assert itself.
"If you've got business with her, take a number and wait, yeah? Actually, nah—perfect timing. I was about to get her number myself. How about we both get one while we're at it?"
The wild Golden Sun moved to seize Bihyung by the shoulder.
But why?
Why is he so slow?
The instant he registered a fight, blood seemed to surge up through him, violent and hot. At the same time, the things around him crawled. Half-yokai blood would not tolerate a filthy hand on his shoulder.
Thwack!
Bihyung's hand snapped out like lightning and closed around the Golden Sun's wrist. Caught without warning, the man startled hard and tried to yank free.
Not a chance. His opponent was a half-yokai.
Crrreak……!
The more he thrashed to pull away, the deeper he seemed to sink, and the grip did not so much as twitch. Then the Golden Sun's eyes met the man in front of him.
A man a full head taller than his own frame, and he was already past six feet. Shoulders broad as a gate, muscle so well-knit it showed through the uniform. And above all, the eyes looking down at him, utterly blank.
"That's enough, don't you think?"
The moment that flat voice reached him—
"Hhk…"
Like prey before a predator, the strength left the Golden Sun's legs.
Wh-what?
He didn't know why. Only that if he kept resisting like this, he might actually die at the other man's hands. The thought seized his head.
Bihyung glanced once at the man staring up at him, dazed, legs gone slack, then turned away.
"Let's go."
With that short word, he headed for the auditorium first.
The woman who had been caught by the Golden Sun stared blankly at his back.
What… he helped me, right?
It was the first time in her life. Help, from another person. When her mother fell ill, even blood relatives had shaken her hand off. Just now, when she was in trouble, everyone else had hurried past, busy with their own business. Maybe that was why. Even the obvious rule—that you thank someone who helps you—failed, for a moment, to surface at all.
His name… Shin Bihyung.
The name written on the name tag came back to her.
Next time I see him, I have to thank him first. I have to!
Thinking that, she followed the path he had taken, toward the auditorium. The entrance briefing was about to begin.
He had been standing in the auditorium only a little while when something much like a principal's address back on modern Earth got underway. Thank you for submitting your applications to this Academy, and so on. It is an honor to teach you, who will shine so brightly in the days to come, and so forth. A man whose hair was already half gone rambled for a good thirty minutes.
When his turn ended he stepped down, and in his place a woman in a sharp suit came up to stand at the front.
"Ah. Ah. Talks forever, the bastard. What could he possibly have that much to say?"
The moment she was up, she opened by dragging the man who had just left, and then she went on.
"Good to see you. I'm one of the professors at Yeongwol Academy. My name… I'll tell you the next time we meet."
A tone that looked down on the incoming students as thoroughly beneath her. It was as good as asking whether any of them would even be standing here next time. Even so, no one in the hall managed a word of protest. The aura coming off the woman who called herself a professor. What this world called Rank—the measure of a superhuman's strength. A professor of Yeongwol had to be at least 6th Rank to hold the post. For reference, the people who had walked in seeking admission were only now around 1st Rank.
Looks like even a 6th Rank can't read me.
Then there was no need to freeze up.
"Right, then. From this moment, we begin a time-honored tradition of Yeongwol Academy. All of you—do your best, and pass the test."
The entrance test. An annual affair that ranked the incoming students, valedictorian on down.
And then everyone blinked once, and they were standing in a place none of them knew.
"A subway anomaly."
Bihyung looked around. Worn walls. The way that should have led up to the surface was gone, sealed off. On top of that, old bulbs cast a dim light over everything. In the middle of it, he stood alone.
"The clear is to board the incoming train, get off at the designated stations in order, and board again."
An anomaly that didn't need to be exorcised. The Academy had already brought it to heel, so all you had to do was judge the way out correctly and leave.
Hoo. Why does this feel more settling than outside?
After being packed in among swarming exorcists, being left alone put his mind at ease. He was smiling at the unexpected comfort when—
Ding! Ding! Ding!
A sound that should never have rung in a dead subway station rang out, and the dim lights suddenly began to strobe red. The display board that had been dark flickered on.
The line shown there was not a number. It was plastered over with the word for death, scrambling his vision.
Clunk. Clunk. Clunk.
The sound of a train on the rails grew louder.
Kiiiiieeeee—
The music from the old speaker sounded like a woman's scream.
About time to board.
Even so, Bihyung waited for the approaching train with a strangely calm face.
I can see it.
Half-yokai or not—yokai enough, perhaps—his eyes fixed on the driver's cab of the train coming in from far off. He could see the engineer. The mouth was torn all the way to the cheeks, the flesh laid bare, and the curved eyes had sunk until they nearly met the upturned corners of that grin. Inside it, teeth sharp as a shark's and a drooling maw were the real showstopper.
And then, in that moment—
"……Huh?"
The engineer who had been drooling an instant before suddenly made a face like that, and his eyes met Bihyung's. The smile that had been crawling across his skin collapsed into pure fright.
And then—
SCREEEEECH!
He poured on so much speed that the wind tore at Bihyung's bangs, blowing straight past the station where Bihyung stood, well above the limit.
"What the…"
"Sir? I didn't even get on?"