Join Us
The television would not shut up about Unjinhoe. The papers were shouting, YouTube was shouting, people on the street were shouting — the whole country had locked onto the story.
"Bit of a surprise, isn't it? I didn't think it would go out this clean."
I asked around the straw, sucking down my juice.
"Well. I pulled a few strings here and there. Simple work."
Dan Miryu said it as if it hardly mattered.
That was supposed to be easy?
Still, having every eye in the country on it was all to the good. In the original, the affair had barely become known at all — and the other way around, they'd come within a breath of being thrown in prison.
"You had to work it that hard. There must have been a lot of people tied up in this."
"Yes. Quite a few of them thought they were playing games."
Dan Miryu's face went bleak.
"They've been thieving for decades. It's time they paid for it."
"I'll be counting on you."
"Of course. This is, after all, our specialty."
Blood was going to fly. This wasn't going to turn into one of those movie stories, was it — people getting suicided, or vanishing without so much as a rumor? The realization that I was sharing a room with someone that dangerous set my hands shaking. Slip once, and I end up the same way, don't I?
"How is the inland side?"
"We're working with the police to round up the remnants inland, and we're in the middle of rescuing the people taken for trafficking."
Dan Miryu let out a sigh.
"......The ones still being held were already in the triple digits."
"......"
That wouldn't be the end of it. Villages and districts that had gone along with Unjinhoe. People sold off and never brought back. Drugs and guns already loose on the street. Add in the ones who'd taken dirty money, and the stress bearing down on Dan Miryu was past anything I could imagine.
"I feel as if I've laid an unfair burden on you."
"It's all right."
Dan Miryu forced a smile.
"And China?"
"I'm sorry. Even I can't reach that far......"
China was a foreign country. Nothing to be done.
"Unjinhoe will come to Jeju. From there they'll take ships to the peninsula."
"How can you be sure?"
Because in the original, once Incheon and Busan were cleaned out, they came through Jeju.
"This is a small war. Unjinhoe has to take Korea back, but if they bring a large force in, they'll be caught on this side without fail. Split up and come in pieces, and they risk being picked off one by one."
Stealth was not something you could count on in an age like this. These weren't Koreans. They were Chinese, and not a few dozen of them either — hundreds, every one of them looking like a thug. Something like that would hit the top of social media in an instant. China was no different.
"On Unjinhoe's side, they have no choice but to come in through Jeju, where they still have a few strings to pull."
The inland was already being turned inside out by Dan Miryu and the police. Korea was a country whose villains, even at their worst, amounted to street thugs — and now the entire nation knew that a Chinese villain organization had been running wild on Korean soil. Public opinion, international relations: Korea was on a hair trigger.
"Jeju slipped the inspections, didn't it?"
"Yes. I saw to Jeju on purpose."
Unless Unjinhoe was stupid, they'd realize it was a trap.
"They probably won't come all at once. They'll split up and get in as fast as they can."
Drag it out, and the disadvantage was theirs.
"Or they may come in as a small elite."
If Unjinhoe went begging to the other organizations under Negus, a handpicked few was possible too. It didn't matter. However many showed up, Dan Miryu was here. Unjinhoe's boss, some other boss of Negus — however strong Cloud became, he was still beneath Sword. Unless every boss of Negus descended at once. And realistically, that was impossible.
"More importantly, Mr. Phantom."
"Yes?"
Dan Miryu held out a bankbook.
"What's this?"
"Black money that turned up while we were clearing the branches. It's been laundered."
"Why give it to me?"
"Haha. It's pocket change, and I don't particularly have a use for it, so I'm giving it to you."
An unlucky thing to say, but he wasn't wrong, and I couldn't argue.
"But this is something I'm actually allowed to spend, right?"
"You don't need to worry about the law. I couldn't put it in your name, but simply spending the money won't be a problem."
Then I'd spend it with a clear conscience. I'd been broke, and here was a jackpot.
I opened the bankbook. Inside were a single card and a slip of paper with the PIN. I tucked them carefully into my wallet and checked the balance......
"......Unjinhoe had this much money?"
"Yes. Drugs, guns, people — they sold whatever they could get their hands on, and with what the branches had scraped together on their own, it added up rather nicely."
"......And you call this pocket change?"
Zeros stacked on zeros, and he called it pocket change? I could loaf and feast for the rest of my life.
"Well. We are the Dan clan."
Dan Miryu's smile was pure triumph. I could have fallen for that smile on the spot.
"From this day on, you're my big brother."
"Hahaha! So you like money too, Mr. Phantom!"
He seemed to take it as a joke. I was serious. To think I'd ever lay hands on money like this!
So that's why the protagonist went on those insane spending sprees! I'd always wondered how he lived in the original without a money problem in the world. The family was fucking loaded. Of course he threw cash around. I should have known the moment a high schooler owned a building in Gangnam and lived in a luxury officetel.
"Ah. Didn't you say you were going somewhere today?"
"Yes. There is somewhere I need to go."
Driving Unjinhoe out was all well and good, but Korea was still on shaky ground. We couldn't manufacture another case like Unjinhoe. What we needed was a defense of our own. In the original, the moment Unjinhoe was gone, other bastards had started creeping in.
Japan did. Russia did.
Protecting Korea was seriously hard work. Dan Miryu was holding the line for the country now, but I couldn't leave him to do it alone forever. He'd said his strength was already less than it used to be. Building up our forces was essential — all the more if we meant to be ready for what came later.
I still don't know whether the mastermind has let go or not. Whether the assault on Seoul would come or not, Korea growing stronger was a good outcome either way.
"Then let's go."
"Where are we going?"
"To Korea's heroes."
Dan Miryu startled at that.
"I know there are unofficial heroes in Korea. Do you mean to go find each of them, one by one?"
"No. To be precise, we're going to the Temporary Hero Association."
"The Temporary Hero Association?"
A gathering of unofficial heroes, and the center of gravity for Korea's own.
"That's where we're going."
"Understood."
Dan Miryu and I went by car.
"Is this the place?"
Dan Miryu asked as he stepped out of the car.
We had arrived in Gangwon-do.
"Yes. That's the headquarters of the Temporary Hero Association."
"A bar?"
"Not much to look at, for something calling itself the Temporary Hero Association."
Horangi Bar. Dan Miryu and I went in.
A person or two sat scattered through the place, drinking.
"One fried chicken, and two beers. Five hundred cc each."
"Coming right up!"
We'd taken our seats and ordered.
"......This feels like a spy film. My heart's pounding."
"Honestly, so is mine."
We were, after all, both men.
"Here you are."
After a while, a plate of piping-hot boneless fried chicken was set in front of us. Dan Miryu asked, voice low.
"Coming was all well and good, but do you actually have a plan?"
I ate a piece and tapped the beer glass with a finger. Tiny droplets clinging to the glass fell onto the table and formed letters.
Would you happen to be looking to hire?
Dan Miryu gave a small nod. His eyes were full of questions, but for the moment he seemed willing to trust me.
There will be quite a lot of them.
"Don't worry about the money. I have plenty."
That answer let me breathe.
That's one thing settled. Next was what to do about the people in here. I ate and looked the place over. The customers drinking. The employee at the counter. The one serving. The one cooking in the back. Every one of them was a hero. Dan Miryu wouldn't know it, but we had just walked into a tiger's den.
A bell chimed.
A huge old man came in.
"Yeongsik. What's going on?"
He was an old man who filled the room the way a tiger does.
"Boss. It's just — well."
The employee called Yeongsik pointed at us.
"Who's the guy in the mask, eating chicken?"
"Haa......"
Dan Miryu lowered his head. The old man stared at me, curious, as I went on eating chicken without taking off the Smiling Mask.
"How are you even eating?"
"Because I'm a phantom thief."
I answered the old man's question.
"Mr. Phantom Thief. What brings you here?"
"I came to see you, Mr. Hwang Seokgu."
"For what?"
Silence.
Everyone but Hwang Seokgu stared at me as if I'd lost my mind.
"Wh-what kind of bullshit is that!"
One of the customers shot to his feet, but Hwang Seokgu lifted a hand and stopped him. Hwang Seokgu laughed, low and easy.
"Afraid that won't do."
"Is that so? What a shame!"
Hwang Seokgu and I laughed at each other. The mood in the bar might as well not have existed; the two of us laughed as much as we pleased. Still smiling, Hwang Seokgu came closer, one slow step at a time.
Those steps belonged to a tiger. A tiger was stalking its prey. And the prey was me.