You Really Do Take After Your Brother
Dan Chuyeon sat on the bench and waited for his friend to come.
Peaceful...?
For all the disasters that had struck, the street was still crowded. Cars passed without end, and the restaurant signs were lit, open for business. The news made a fuss—crime was up, villains were appearing, people ought to watch themselves outdoors—but in truth everyone was simply getting by.
"...Right. You can't spend every day grieving."
Emotion burned energy too. Grieve and ache every single day, and a person could not hold out. They buried it in memory and in the chest, and in the time that kept moving, they lived again. Hurt and sorrow did not stop the clock.
The families left behind by the terror of the Heavenly Punishment and the dragon would be no different. They would scratch and scratch at the wound in the heart, then shove it into some corner and go back to the life they had known. A wound left alone became a scar, and they ate the day's meal praying that scar would not fester, would not split open.
"Were Mom and Dad like that too...?"
It had all happened before Dan Chuyeon was born. He could not begin to guess what pain his parents had suffered, or what hardship. How deep had the wound cut into their hearts been? How long had it taken before that wound turned to scar? What did a day feel like, lived beneath a scar like that—and what had it felt like to show it to their child?
"...Hey."
"Huh?"
"What are you doing?"
He tipped his head up. Childlike silver eyes shone, bright and clear.
"Wangrang? When did you get here?"
"Five minutes ago. You just sat there until I walked up and said something."
"...I did?"
"Yeah. Some pretty person walk by?"
He stood, brushing off the seat of his pants. The moment his eyes rose, those silver ones dropped to the level of his chest. Dan Chuyeon looked at his friend, Na Wangrang.
Hair like a wolf's mane. Eyes gleaming silver. A fang jutting past his lip. He looked less like someone who had lived in human society than someone who had survived a jungle's.
"Pretty again today. You wearing makeup?"
"You fucker!"
Thud.
Dan Chuyeon lightly turned aside the fist driving for his gut. Na Wangrang's brow twitched.
"You blocked that? Oh-ho."
Tack. Tack. Tack.
Head, shoulder, knee, foot, knee, foot. From the first punch a beast's torrent followed, and Dan Chuyeon knocked it aside without effort.
"You blocked all of that?"
Na Wangrang's eyes went round once his friend had stopped every strike.
"I'm not the me from back then, punk."
Dan Chuyeon clapped the dust from his hands.
"The guy who only ever got hit... What the hell happened to you these past few months?"
"Long story. There was a tale so grand you couldn't even imagine it."
"Like what."
"Like meeting a god in Hawaii...?"
"Bullshit."
Na Wangrang snorted.
"If you met a god, then I'm a werewolf. King of every werewolf, at that."
"A girl werewolf?"
"You son of a bitch!!!"
A flurry of blows carrying a wolf's roar started up again.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing on a main street!"
"I'm a man! I'm not a woman!!!"
"Why did I have to hit the freak-out button?!"
He had teased a friend he hadn't seen in ages a little too hard.
Na Wangrang had a serious flaw. Taken feature by feature, he was a wild man to the bone, but the flaw had turned that wild man into a herbivore—soft, passive, nothing like the beast he looked—and then led him even further past that.
A dainty height no one would take for a high school boy's. A face cute enough to be mistaken for a girl's, for all the sharp cut of his eyes. Bare skin without a scrap of muscle. A sweet scent rising off it.
Everything about Na Wangrang was fine. He simply had not been born into the right sex. As if some god had botched the proportions by mistake, only the pair below and a chest flat as the open wild proved what he was. Everything else argued the opposite.
"Hff. Hff."
"Wangrang, I was wrong. The joke went too far."
"Forget it. I'm not hanging out with you."
"Wangrang!"
Dan Chuyeon caught his hand.
"Let me off just this once. I'll pay for the internet café and the coffee. All of it."
"Don't need it. I'm going home to rest."
"This is the only time I can get out. The second I go home, I'm locked in. No exceptions!"
"Why should I care? Let go. I swear I'll kill you."
Dan Chuyeon clung to Na Wangrang for dear life. Anyone who knew them would have called it a petty spat between friends. Anyone who didn't...
"A lovers' quarrel? Brutal."
"Even high schoolers are dating, and here I am..."
...said things like that.
Na Wangrang's sharp ears caught even those faint voices, and his cheeks went red. He could not forgive the friend who had caused this disaster.
"Aaaaaah!!!"
In a flash, Na Wangrang lifted Dan Chuyeon in both hands. It was monstrous strength, nothing those paper-thin arms should have been able to produce.
"Save me! I was wrong!"
"Do you know how many times I've been mistaken for a girl because of you!"
"I'm sorry! I'll do whatever you want!"
"Fuck off!"
Dan Chuyeon sailed through the air and slammed into a heap of trash.
"Gack! The smell!"
"Hah. Hah."
Maybe the violence had burned the shame out of him. Little by little, Na Wangrang's color settled.
"Get over here."
At that icy voice, Dan Chuyeon scrambled over on his hands and knees.
"...There won't be a next time. Do this again, and we're done."
"I'll take it to heart."
"Haa... I can't live like this."
Na Wangrang pressed a hand to his head and blamed his own stupidity for keeping a troublemaker like this as a friend.
"It's a sickness. A sickness. If you're going to tease someone, do it properly."
"Yes. That's correct."
"If someone hates it and tells you to stop, you stop. Am I right, or not?"
"One must not."
"See? So why did you?"
Na Wangrang sat him down and poured out a full lecture. Dan Chuyeon thought blood might start running from his ears, but he bore it in silence. The scolding did not end until a whole hour had passed.
"...I'll stop here for today. It's gotten far too late."
"Thank you."
Dan Chuyeon gave a short, proper bow. Na Wangrang sighed out what was left of his anger.
"Chuyeon, where should we..."
Dan Chuyeon looked, puzzled, at the friend who had suddenly gone quiet.
"Wangrang? What's wrong?"
"Urgh...!!!"
Na Wangrang shook like an aspen. Tossed naked onto the Siberian plain, he might not have trembled this hard. Dan Chuyeon had never seen his friend shake like this.
"Are you hurt somewhere?! Wangrang?!"
"R-r-run..."
Na Wangrang could not even steady his breath. His legs had already given out; he had been leaning on Dan Chuyeon for some time.
"Quick on the uptake. You've got a good friend."
A chill went through him. Dan Chuyeon felt a knife sink into his heart.
"This voice..."
Still holding his friend, he forced his creaking neck to turn. There stood the young man he had seen before. Dan Miryong, with Mi Soryeong dangling from one hand.
Dan Chuyeon's face hardened.
"You... What did you do."
Soil spat up between the paving stones. The air entering his lungs went cold, and the heat of his skin spiked. Clouds crashed in like waves, and the light spun as if someone had set a mirror ball turning.
"This?"
Dan Miryong turned Mi Soryeong's face toward Dan Chuyeon. Her head dropped, limp.
"Don't worry. She's not dead."
Dan Miryong grinned, crooked and mean. Sparks leapt in Dan Chuyeon's eyes. A single thread of wind grazed Dan Miryong's neck.
Ting!
A bright metallic ring spread, clean and clear.
"What..."
Dark crimson scales had risen along Dan Miryong's neck, a color so mixed it seemed blood and darkness had fused.
"Surprised? All that hell these past few days was worth it."
His gaze went lazy. Inside it, killing intent welled like lava. Only then could Dan Chuyeon really take him in: a little taller, pupils split vertical, scales mimicking skin, an air gone savage. And hair and eyes in which not a trace of nature's color remained. Destruction and slaughter lived there.
"Let Mom go."
"Why would I?"
Dan Miryong shook Mi Soryeong like a toy. Dan Chuyeon's brain heated on the spot.
"You need to taste it too. What the grief of losing your family feels like."
Dan Miryong's hand went for Mi Soryeong's throat.
"Don't."
"No."
The hand drove in, and a line of blood stitched the empty air.
"...Dad?"
"Thank you for pulling his eyes away. Because of that, I could save your mother."
Dan Miryu's hand had locked hard around Dan Miryong's. Blood dripped from Dan Miryu's palm.
"Dan Miryu...!!!"
KRAAAAAAAAH!!!
Killing intent detonated. It climbed into the sky and blotted out even the sunlight, and the whole district darkened as if storm clouds had settled over it.
"Shut up!"
The killing intent became a storm and lashed outward. Dan Miryu caught Mi Soryeong in his arms and sprang well clear.
"Dad...! How are you here?!"
"The details later. Take your mother and stay out of this."
Dan Chuyeon received her. Warm skin told him she was alive.
"Ch-Chuyeon, let's run. Hurry!"
"...Dad. I'll go get Master."
"Who said you get to run!!!"
Killing intent sheeted across the ground, and Dan Chuyeon had no choice but to stop. Dark crimson intent climbed through the soles of his feet. A burning heat stabbed clean through his nerves.
"Grrraaaagh!!!"
"Gyaaaaaah!!!"
Dan Chuyeon and Na Wangrang groaned in pain. Before the two could collapse, Dan Miryu opened the necklace.
Nature bloomed. It announced the beginning of Life to the sky, and a gentle warmth settled over a place choked with killing intent.
"Dan Miryuuuuuu!!!"
Half man and half dragon, Dan Miryong glared at Dan Miryu. A killing intent dreadful enough to make even Dan Miryu hesitate came roaring in.
Leave this as it is, and this whole district becomes a land of death.
The killing intent had turned draconic. It was not a killing intent any human could hold. It stood above even the Heavenly Criminal, the Third Apostle.
Was he always this far along? No. If he had been, Soryeong and Chuyeon would already be dead.
"Krrrrrk!!!"
Blood-flushed eyes showed themselves. Dan Miryu knew at once that this was neither human reason nor human instinct.
Something happened these past few days. And not for the better.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
A wall of Life closed around them.
"Kraaaah!!!"
"Chuyeon, are you with me!"
"Yes!"
"I'll hold him as long as I can. You get out of here!"
Dan Miryong charged, and Dan Miryu met him. A shockwave tore through, and the three behind Dan Miryu were caught and flung.
"Hurry!"
"Nnngh!!!"
Dan Chuyeon barely hoisted his unconscious friend and Mi Soryeong and forced his feet to move.
"Hold—!!!"
BOOM!
Damn it...!
Dan Chuyeon bit his lip until it hurt. Fury climbed to the crown of his head. But the only thing he could do was run, dodging the killing intent under his feet.
Dan Chuyeon ran.