Thank You for Waiting
Thunder rolled, and the sky bruised black.
"Rain? Of all the rotten luck?"
The raider who had been wiping his blade on a dead man's clothes lifted his head.
"Wh-what is that?"
A villager who had been hiding, shaking with fear, looked up at the ill omen overhead.
Someone who saw the sky closed their eyes.
"Finish it. Quickly!"
"Yes, sir!"
The raider general glared at the storm clouds, shuddering with fury.
"Ah..."
The girl, lost past all hope, looked up at the sky.
"What... what have I done?"
She understood her sin.
"Lost your wits, have you, little girl?"
The general rode in. He swung down off his horse and seized her by the face.
"Go mad, and your value drops..."
He turned her face this way and that, but her eyes never left the sky.
"O Heaven! I beg you, let go of your wrath!"
She flung herself flat upon the ground.
"Truly mad. Tch."
The general clicked his tongue, as if it were a waste.
"Well. She'll do just fine as a toy for the night."
Lust darkened his eyes as he reached for her.
And then—
BOOM!
Heaven's punishment began.
San-gun saw the flashing light. Heaven was moving.
"Keuheong!"
He dodged the fury crashing down beside him. An ancient tree that had stood for decades split left and right, and fire leapt up around the wound. The flames caught the wind and ran sideways. Smoke climbed. The same calamity was breaking out everywhere at once.
"Kyaaaah!"
Screams spread across the mountain—not the screams of slaughter, but of disaster.
Thunder. Then a blast that shook the ground. The rage was only beginning. Unnatural lightning fell in a frenzy. The mountain wailed, the earth split, and indiscriminate violence swept the whole region.
San-gun hurriedly gathered himself. One moment of carelessness and he would be meat for Heaven. He cut across the village. Raiders came bursting out in a panic, their faces rigid with terror, and those who tried to flee Heaven turned to dust in a single instant.
A long, grinding rumble. It was not the end. Heaven's anger was not aimed at them alone.
"Uwaaah..."
A child whose body was made of earth was caught in the landslide.
"No! No!"
The child who breathed fire from his hands tried to pull the earthen child free, and was swept away with him.
"Get up! Get up!"
A wild boar clutched a dead dog and sobbed. The falling bolts erased them without a trace.
"...It's over."
An old man with unfocused eyes sat blankly on the wooden floor of his house, and went down with the roof when it fell.
"Huuuuk..."
At the center of it all, the girl despaired.
How ironic. The end of the world had come down on every side, and yet the ground around her alone was untouched.
"All of this, because of me..."
She muttered it like a madwoman.
"I shouldn't have. I shouldn't have done it..."
The hands she dragged through the dirt were soaked in blood, and bloody tears ran from her eyes.
"If I... if I had only died."
"Krrung."
San-gun struck her.
"Kuk!"
Her mind had been hanging by a thread. That single blow snapped it, and she fainted.
"Krrrrr."
San-gun ached for her. Why did happiness never come to this girl?
"Krrung!"
He looked toward a place in the dark. Parting the blackness, a raccoon came out.
"What will you do?"
She approached, calm even in the heart of the storm.
"Do you truly mean to make that choice?"
San-gun looked at her. The coward he had seen before was gone.
You made a choice as well. Is that not why you came?
"Yes... Late as it is, I have come to atone for my arrogance."
The raccoon pressed her hands together.
"But it need not be you. Let me take your place—"
Enough talk.
"What is the girl to you, that you would..."
San-gun looked down at her. On the day they first met, he had felt nothing special. He had only thought that he ought to help. And yet there was her warm heart, and that clear, brilliant light. He had been helplessly spellbound, and that was how he had come this far. He had no regrets. There was nothing he wished to undo.
"Was the girl's kindness truly so great?"
Great or small, it does not matter. Is it wrong to wish a child happiness?
"...I understand."
The raccoon accepted it. She knelt, and her body blazed with light.
"I offer my life. I will gather Heaven's punishment upon you."
Her body began to scatter. Heaven trembled, as if demanding to know what they thought they were doing.
"I cannot say what will follow once this rite is done. Your existence may be extinguished. A separate punishment may yet fall upon that girl."
San-gun had steeled himself even for that.
"...Bid her farewell."
He sank down beside the girl and licked the cheek caked in blood. A few licks, and her face was clean. There had been a child who knew nothing of the world's ways.
"Krrrng."
She had made a mistake this time. Covering a mistake was an adult's duty, was it not? Next time, he would have to keep this from happening. He lifted a paw and stroked her head, then shot the raccoon a look.
"...Pardon? You wish to give her a name?"
He nodded.
"...Very well. I will give you what knowledge I have."
The raccoon passed a little of her knowledge to San-gun, and he wrote upon the ground. Her hair was red, so the surname would be Hong—the name that shared its sound with red. And, so that she might live as any ordinary person lived, he gave her Yumin.
Hong, for the red of her hair.
Yumin, so that she might live as one among the people.
That name was engraved upon the world, and it became the girl's.
San-gun said it quietly.
Live happily.
With that, the raccoon's prayer reached Heaven.
"...Thank you."
"Krrung."
And I, you.
A brilliant light swallowed the world. Heaven's black clouds scattered, and peace returned to the earth.
"Nngh...?"
The girl clutched her head and got to her feet. Ruin lay all around her. It had been a village.
"What in the world happened?"
She remembered nothing. Not why she had fainted, not even why she was here. Her head ached.
"Seokche! Yeomsu! Yongnyeo! Donpal! Raccoon! Dog! Is there not a soul left?"
She wandered the village.
"Was there a landslide?"
Nothing was as it should have been. The houses had fallen, the mountain had burned, the earth had split, and the people were gone without a trace.
"Even a typhoon wouldn't do this..."
The bleakness of it crawled over her skin. She ran for the raccoon's house.
"Raccoon!"
A bright sky lit the collapsed path, and she forced her way through by whatever strength she had.
"Raccoon...?"
Where she arrived, there was no raccoon. Her house was gone as well. In its place—
"Krrrk!"
A sinister monster stood scattering black smoke.
"Y-you. What are you?"
The girl stumbled back. It was as if every impurity under heaven had been gathered into one place.
"KYAAAAK."
It had the shape of a tiger, but the cry it spat out was a human scream.
"Kuk!"
She covered her ears. The sound alone made her mind reel.
"I... I... I am..."
The monster fumbled its mouth open.
"A-Ak... Akho."
"Akho...?"
What was that supposed to be? Then she saw the clothing beneath its paws. It was the raccoon's.
"You..."
Fear vanished. Rage flooded in to take its place, and heaven and earth shook as if in answer.
"The village below. Was that your doing?"
Akho did not answer. It only looked at her. And yet, somehow, that gaze seemed to be laughing, and the girl found it hateful.
"You will not speak?"
The ground rumbled.
"It matters not. I can see well enough that this was your work."
Akho lowered its head.
"Heh heh heh."
"You laugh?"
Flame roared. Something burst. An explosion went off beneath Akho's jaw.
"Kyak?"
Its face snapped upward, and in the same instant blasts erupted on either side. Akho shook its head and threw them off.
"I will honor the souls of those who died, and you shall be the offering."
The girl's eyes blazed.
"Heh heh heh!"
Akho lunged at her.
"Hah... hah..."
KYAAAAAAK!
A colossal firestorm was burning Akho.
"Damn you. You will not even die..."
The girl looked sick of it. The purifying flame had been burning Akho for days, and still it would not die, as though it were something that must never be allowed to die.
"There is nothing to be done."
She sighed.
"Since nothing else can be done, I shall seal you here."
"KYAAAAAAK!"
Akho howled.
"I swear it. One day I will kill you."
She drove Akho into a nearby cave. Inside, it went on burning without cease, and endless screams echoed off the stone.
"Even if I must stake my name upon it."
Hong Yumin. Upon those three syllables, she swore.
"Rot there for a long, long time, monster."
"KYAAAAAAAK!"
Together with the fire, Akho was sealed.
"Kuk!"
Her heart hurt. She had bound the seal to her own life, and with her skill as it was, this was the best she could do.
"Haa..."
The girl fought for breath.
"I suppose I have no choice but to live here."
She muttered it bitterly. For all she knew, it would be the rest of her life.
"But... was Hong Yumin my name?"
The doubt rose, and she forgot it at once.
"I would not mistake my own name. The village must have given it to me."
She thought little of it.
"I ought to raise graves, at least."
She went down into the village. The ruins had to be put in order.
Inside the seal, Akho continued to burn. But his gaze was calm.
This was enough. This was enough.
When he closed his eyes, a grudge steeped in hatred opened its own. It swore revenge upon the one who had made it this way. Even if that revenge took hundreds of years, it would see it done. First, it would demand an accounting for the sin of the firestorm burning this body.
Within that crossed fate, the years went by.
Beneath a lonely night, Phantom was watching Hong Yumin.
"It's about to begin."
Darkness crept from Hong Yumin's body. It turned its back on the moon and gathered in the empty air.
Die, or live. Could it be avoided? Or not?
"How's this going to go?"
Well. Let it go however it goes. Only—Hong Yumin would not die the way she had in the original.
"Mr. Phantom!"
"Yumin!"
The Dan couple came running.
"You didn't have to come..."
He had meant to settle it quietly. So much for that. He was going to catch hell for this, wasn't he?
"Well. With an audience, the show ought to heat up."
The darkness opened wide. And so did I.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for waiting."
He bowed his head, an apology for the delay.
"But the tale is heading into its final act. Please, watch until the very end."
"This is the last stage."
"What will it be? What will it be?"
"What becomes of Hong Yumin? How does the ending go?"
KRAAAAAAA!