I Shall Eat Well
They arrived at Unjinhoe's branch on Jeju and watched the grounds from a careful distance. Cloud might not even be inside. It was only a precaution, but they watched all the same, and they did not have to watch for long.
A hero of the Temporary Hero Association, one with a gift for observation, spoke up.
"A van is going in."
He kept the reports coming.
"Five people got out."
"Is Cloud among them?"
They had stayed far enough back to avoid being seen, and at that range faces were hard to make out.
"Yes. One of them matches the wanted poster."
That was him.
"There are others, though. More faces from the notices."
More? It wasn't common for anyone in Unjinhoe to let a face get out.
"It looks like Mugangdan's boss, and the executives under him."
"You're certain?"
Mugang came? Cloud didn't come alone?
"I believe so."
A tight breath caught in his throat.
"Not only Cloud? Mugang came as well?"
"Two bosses from Negus's core organizations, here...?"
Dan Miryu's eyes caught fire, and so did Hwang Seokgu's. Neither man looked afraid in the slightest. Truth be told, there was nothing to fear. More vermin gnawing at Korea only meant more vermin they could crush, and that was nothing to complain about.
Hwang Seokgu's instincts still bother me, though...
"Then we go in."
They would finish it fast, before any other force could arrive.
It happened just as Cloud was finally pulling his forces together at the Jeju branch. A thunderous boom rolled in from outside, and he sprinted to the window.
Black smoke boiled up from the entrance, and figures came through it. A massive old man, fierce as a tiger. A tall, handsome man with green hair. And a man in a suit, wearing a smiling mask. There seemed to be others behind them, but the three in front were the dangerous ones.
Cloud's gut told him at once that they were tied to the Dan clan.
I was careful, and they still found me!
He hadn't let his guard down. He simply hadn't imagined the Dan clan would move this fast—and they had caught him off guard at his weakest.
"C-Cloud, sir!"
The branch chief flung the door open and rushed in.
"Rally everyone and hold them off! Don't you dare fight them head-on!"
The Jeju branch had absorbed what remained of Busan and Incheon, so it was stronger than usual. Even so, it was nowhere near enough for those three. If only a handful had come to raid this place, it meant they were that sure of themselves. Any one of them might be enough, alone, to take Cloud on.
"Get word to Mugang too! Assemble, now—"
"C-Cloud, sir! Behind you!"
He turned at his man's shout.
"Good day, Mr. Cloud."
A phantom thief stood beyond the window.
"I am the phantom thief Phantom."
Cloud reacted at once. Decades of surviving every kind of hell had long since cured him of freezing over something like this. A short plume of smoke surged up over his body, and he fired lightning at the thief. The bolt smashed the window and vanished into the sky.
"A rather violent greeting, Mr. Cloud."
Somehow Phantom was already inside the room. At his feet the chief of the Jeju branch lay twitching.
When?!
Cloud's lightning was not faster than the real thing, but it was fast enough that the eye could barely follow it. This man had moved faster than that, and put the branch chief down besides?
No ordinary man.
"You with the Dan clan?"
Cloud played for time. Behind his back, smoke began to gather.
"I have ties to the Dan clan. Close enough, you might say."
"And all of them outside as well?"
"You already know. Why ask?"
Phantom was not tense in the slightest. With Cloud standing right in front of him, he was making instant coffee from the water dispenser in the room. The sight of that smiling mask tipping back a cup made Cloud shake with humiliation.
"How long do you mean to keep me waiting, Mr. Cloud?"
Phantom set the empty paper cup spinning on his finger. It came apart piece by piece and took the shape of a cloud.
"I gave you ample time to bring your ability online, did I not?"
"...!"
The moment the words left Phantom's mouth, Cloud hurled himself out the window. The smoke he had prepared detonated the instant he cleared it, spraying lightning with enough force to erase an entire floor. He formed more smoke in midair and landed on it, then looked down.
"Damn it! Mugang, what the hell are you doing!"
Drawn out by the blast, Unjinhoe's people and Mugang were already fighting, and the fight was utterly one-sided. Forces Cloud had never even laid eyes on were being swept aside by the old man, and Mugang was losing ground to the green-haired one. The Crushing Nine-Force Trio was backing him up. It didn't matter.
Korea had power like this?!
In a Korea with no heroes, monsters like that had simply appeared.
Is this the Dan clan's strength?!
Cloud hesitated. Should I use it?
The new enhancement drug he had bought at a ruinous price from Negus's narcotics man. Use it, and he might break this open. No. The risk is too great. The boss of that division had said so himself: use it, and you might die. The dead-serious face on a man who had already lost his mind had left a deep mark on Cloud. I don't touch it unless the moment is truly desperate.
They were being driven back without recourse, but it was not over yet. If he joined them, surely—
"Mr. Cloud, were you not going to help them?"
"What!"
He spun around. Phantom stood there without a scratch, sharing the very smoke Cloud had made.
"You shouldn't be unmarked! How?!"
"Who stands still and takes a blow they watched you prepare in plain sight?"
Phantom wound a chain round and round the cloud-shaped paper.
"Mr. Cloud, perhaps you ought to surrender."
"What?"
Phantom looked down.
"Can you not see it for yourself?"
"Ghk—!"
Cloud had no answer. In that brief span, defeat had settled hard over them. Mugang was cursing and thrashing, and every thrash was useless. If they took Cloud here as well, it was over.
"I'm the boss of Unjinhoe. You think this ends that easily?!"
All or nothing. Cloud activated his ability.
His power was cloud-lightning: form clouds, and fire lightning from them. Making a cloud took time, but if he forced it, he could make as many as he pleased. Several clotted together around his body. Before Phantom could act, the cloud under his feet tried to bind him. Phantom jumped clear first.
"Ah... I really should have subdued you before we started talking."
"Haaah—!"
Cloud roared and let the lightning go. The bolts flew not only at Phantom, but at the green-haired man and the old man as well. Those two fell back, and when Cloud dropped in among his own people, the fighting lulled for a breath.
"Goddamn it, Cloud! You crawl out now?!"
Mugang, covered in wounds, snarled at him. Cloud sneered.
"Negus's muscle, and this is all you amount to? Pathetic."
"You motherfucker!"
Before Mugang could lunge, Cloud fired lightning from a cloud and checked him.
"You got a brain, Mugang? Can you not read the situation?"
Every one of these enemies was a monster. They were already losing. If they could not even work together, they would be wiped out.
"Nnngh—!"
Mugang knew it, so he swallowed his rage by force and turned his eyes on the enemy.
Useless bastard!
Cloud resented every coin and every hour he had spent on trash like that. His hand found the drug inside his coat.
No choice. I'll use it.
Better to die than lose everything to them. He steeled himself and drew it out: a syringe labeled D-1.
"Jisu! Shoot, now!"
The old man came charging with a face like a vengeful ghost. He looked desperate, as if he had sensed something.
Too late!
Cloud smiled in triumph at the reaction. He didn't know why, but if that man felt danger, it was good news. The moment he drove the dark crimson drug into his arm, an unknown light came flying. Mugang blocked it before it could touch him. What Mugang had blocked was an arrow.
"Fuck! You owe me for this!"
"Ha! You earn your keep after all!"
He had nearly died. Cloud gave Mugang his due without hesitation.
"I'll make you regret laying a finger on me!"
The injection finished. His vision flooded black, and strength roared through his body. The clouds darkened and spat lightning in every direction.
"Worth... staking my life... on this...!"
He could not control it. To be given power like this—there was nothing left to fear.
But why am I hungry?
He was hungry. No. Hungry did not cover it. He was starving as if he had never eaten once in his life.
Hungry. Hungry.
An emptiness he had never known. His mind was slipping. He was going to go mad.
I have to eat something. Anything.
There was sturdy meat right beside him. Rich, nutritious meat. Cloud seized it. His hands were thinner and sharper than usual, which was strange, but they caught the meat so easily that he decided it was better this way. Look at that. Meat, and it dared to struggle.
"Hey! Cl—! You shi—"
Some sound reached him. He was too hungry to care. He drew the meat close and opened his mouth, and his jaw stretched to its limit—wide enough to take the meat in a single bite.
"AAAAAAAH!!!"
Crunch.