And You Still Call Yourself a Sorcerer? You're Just a Realist (2)

A safe house, they'd called it. I should have known better.

The terrified strawberry-nose spilled the captain's location without a fight. A hotel in District 54. On the surface, an ordinary lodging. In truth, an unlicensed clinic for underworld types who couldn't set foot in a Jujutsu Bureau hospital or the Tang clan's wards.

Click.

I quietly unlocked the suite with the key I'd taken off strawberry-nose. The room was lavish and wide, but steeped in darkness. Only the sound of running water threaded through the silence.

So Ripper was in the shower.

Perfect timing for a counterattack. Showering alone would satisfy the one-on-one condition on the spot. Ripper would die like a victim in some classic slasher film. And if Ripper turned out to be some lecher bathing with a woman, I'd just cut them both down. Hanran's struggle had definitely left them wounded, and if they were busy chasing pleasure, they wouldn't be ready to fight back.

Still. Stay careful. I cannot afford to get hurt.

I calmly shed my robe and wrapped my fingers around the hilt. In the original Jujutsu Return, Ripper was vice-leader of the Bad Friends Alliance headquarters. Right now, the district captain of District 54. Even Hanran had fallen to that vicious Innate Cursed Technique, Nightmare Binding. If the wounds from Ripper piled up, you sank into an eternal nightmare and never opened your eyes again. So I had to end this in a single, guaranteed killing blow.

Sensing the moment, I opened the bathroom door.

What I found was a girl, just lifting a scrap of thin fabric up over her thighs. With a slightly dazed air, she slowly raised her head and looked at the intruder. Her chest was unmistakably full, her figure more refined than her age would suggest. Her hair was down, but I lost my composure the instant I recognized the face.

"You're... that middle schooler I met at Seonggwan Academy?"

An Jenny, I think her name was.

This is bad. This is really bad.

No one else in the bathroom, so she wasn't some young prostitute Ripper had called in. Had strawberry-nose lied to me?

"I-if you keep staring, I'll get embarrassed."

The pink-haired girl lowered her half-lidded eyes and spoke in a round, soft voice. This would have been the perfect moment to laugh, say I'd gotten the wrong room, and walk out. Then I noticed the bullet wounds around her stomach and arms. More than ten of them, closing at an alarming rate. Had she injected Nephilim serum to regenerate, side effects be damned?

In other words, this kid was Ripper.

In the original, Ripper always wore a skull mask and a tattered cloak. I'd assumed some shady middle-aged guy.

So that's how it is!

The staggering coincidence left me speechless. The District 54 Bad Friends Alliance goons had come to Seonggwan Academy to kill Hanran. Ripper An Jenny had come to kill me. But she'd met me—the me who knew "me"—and decided to let it go for the sake of our friendship. Then Ripper saw a text saying everyone was in danger, went to the Namgung estate, and cut Hanran down.

So that was what happened.

I don't care who you are. Hanran matters to me. So I'm going to kill you.

I gripped the Changgun Sword horizontally—but nothing happened. For some reason, Beomseong Iltu would not activate.

"...Ugh?! Wh-ah—"

In that instant, a sharp sting bloomed in my side. I twisted away in time, but blood was already running.

"I've been watching from the start, yoon. Barging into a lady's bath—are you some kind of pervert, mell~~?"

An afterimage flickered, and a chameleon beastman materialized. Fresh blood dripped from the fruit knife in his hand. His left hand was gone—recently severed, by the look of it. So this was Kkameleyon.

This was bad. If even a single observer was present, Beomseong Iltu would not trigger.

"Young Captain, shall I kill him, yoon~~?"

"Awww, wait. Kim Beom oppa is... a friend."

The girl—no bra, just a leather jacket, jeans yanked on without a belt—quickly stopped Kkameleyon.

"What kind of friend in this world or the next sneaks in uninvited, mell~~!!?"

"A get-well visit, maybe."

"How would he know you were hurt, yoon? This is a night raid, Young Captain!"

Jenny, still looking dazed, finally picked up her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠chain-sickle. The blade flashed, catching moonlight that spilled through the window.

I sheathed the Changgun Sword. Then I raised my right hand high, gripping Eojang—the Five Swords Under Heaven blade I'd reclaimed from the Damcheong clan.

"Oppa, I... I tend to forgive a friend's mistakes. E-even now, please... go back."

"Friends? Don't give me that. Undo the Innate Cursed Technique you put on Hanran right now—Nightmare Binding!"

"Hanran... senior sister?"

Jenny's eyes went blank, as if she genuinely had no idea who that was.

"Namgung Hanran. Daughter of the Namgung clan, yoon. That boy is probably the Namgung non-sorcerer who first found our slain brother, mell~~."

Kkameleyon wore the face of a eunuch fawning over a tyrant. That lizard's way of talking was weirdly infuriating.

"Is that... true?"

Ripper An Jenny stared at me, mouth half-open, dazed.

"True or not, I don't care. The Namgung clan is just Hanran and me. You hurt our people, so you'll pay twice over."

"I went out of my way to become your friend. I thought you were a rare kind person... Then goodbye, Kim Beom oppa."

A warlike light kindled in those half-dead eyes. Jenny spun the chain, then flicked her wrist and threw the sickle. Aimed at my face. I knocked the blade aside with my dagger, but I couldn't stop it from bouncing back on the rebound.

"...Ghk..."

Before I knew it, the sickle was buried in my chest. Right through the heart.

"What do you see in your nightmare, oppa? A skull? Hell? Or just... darkness?"

My heart stopped.

Black cursed energy crept outward from the heart that had stopped. A dark stain slowly overran my vision. An unpleasant hallucination rang against my eardrums, like a demon giggling. A helplessness gnawed through my entire body. Worst of all, I no longer felt like myself. My existence was fading.

Was this a taste of the nightmare swamp?

An Jenny yanked the sickle from my heart. Not a single drop of blood came out, but a straight puncture wound remained on my chest.

"Hah... hah..."

My heart started beating again, but a skull-shaped stain was slowly devouring my vision. And I was insanely tired. I wanted to forget everything, collapse onto that bed, and fall into a deep sleep. Once the skull completely overtook my sight, I would sink into an endless nightmare, just like Hanran.

Five minutes left, at most.

I launched myself at Kkameleyon. Instinct chose the higher-odds path before my brain could think. Going after ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this one first, rather than Ripper, gave me better chances.

"Planning to take me as a travel companion, mell? Completely useless, yoon~~~!"

Kkameleyon drew a revolver from his aloha shirt, his colors fading. This guy had an Innate Cursed Technique that blended him into his surroundings.

I stared straight ahead, my heavy eyelids trembling. Even as my mind went blank, I didn't let go of the dagger. Cold. Hurts. Dammit. Blood poured from the gash in my side. The blood loss was scrambling my thoughts.

As my consciousness teetered on the edge of the abyss, a realization flashed through my head. I immediately stabbed my own wrist with Eojang. Blood sprayed in the opposite direction.

"Puhahaha. Self-harm, mell~~~!"

The instant Kkameleyon laughed in contempt and perfectly blended into his surroundings, I shook my wrist and scattered blood through the air. For a split second I found a space where the blood seemed to hang, suspended. I wrung out every last ounce of strength and threw myself forward. I drove the dagger in deep, and something burst.

The colors around me flickered and warped, and the chameleon beastman dropped his camouflage. Kkameleyon, stabbed through the heart, shuddered for a moment, then squeezed out his last remaining strength to speak.

"This... fucking hurts..."

Bloody foam overflowed from his lips, and his eyes—which had been spinning a full three hundred and sixty degrees—stopped. Dropped the annoying speech tic at the very end, huh.

That made the Hanging Ghost, the Skin Walker, the Chameleon Man... and the Last Words Collector. Every last one of Ripper's comrades was dead.

"Kkameleyon! H-how...?"

Ripper's eyes flew wide. She must have thought someone at my level could never find him once he vanished. I kept my gaze forward and locked eyes with her.

"In exchange, you've lost everything. Hwang Seonpung, Mo Hae-yeon, Pi Hyeokjae, even Kkameleyon—I killed them all."

"I... I don't understand. That I don't have a single friend left—"

The girl snapped her eyes wide.

"It means District 54 of the Bad Friends Alliance is finished. Well. One of you is still left."

The unmatched slash from my half-open right hand tore into Ripper's stomach.

"I... suppose so. I'm glad... that someone as strong as you, oppa... is my last friend."

Ripper—no, An Jenny—seemed to sense the end, and smiled faintly.

With that, the Bad Friends Alliance of District 54 was annihilated.

From that day on, a rumor began circulating through the jujutsu world.

...Isn't that way too exaggerated?

By the time I returned to the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Tang clan hospital after the slaughter, dawn was breaking. Fortunately, the severe bleeding stopped soon enough.

"Namgung and Tang—two great houses hit in a single night."

"I heard they specifically targeted and stole a valuable test subject."

"Tsk. Both houses have little girls as clan heads, so of course they got targeted first."

I pushed through the hospital, thrown into chaos over the stolen Greater Salamander, and hurriedly opened the hospital room door.

"...Hanran."

The black cursed energy that had been circulating with her breath was gone. As expected, Ripper's death had undone the nightmare binding. The puncture wound from the sickle on my own chest had vanished without a trace, after all.

"Hanran, wake up! I bought you a carrot cake, even if it's just from a convenience store. Why won't you eat?!"

I called out urgently, trying to wake her, but she didn't budge. Had something gone wrong? I leaned in to check if she was breathing.

Her breath touched my nose, my cheek.

Hanran lifted her eyelids. Her flawless, fine skin and those dark-gray eyes you could fall into squeezed my heart.

"Hanran, wait—"

As if refusing my protest, she pressed her lips to mine. The soft sensation, the faintly wet sound of contact, ravaged my exhausted brain and body.

"——"

A moment later she pulled away, planting both hands on her hips like she was about to lecture me. I naturally dropped to my knees on the bed. Formal seated posture—practically a conditioned reflex.

"Beomie doesn't know, I see. The jujutsu for waking a sleeping lady is a kiss, you know. I'm teaching you this personally, as your senior sister. Do you understand?"

"Give me a break. There's no such jujutsu. Did you sleep well last night?"

A Namgung-style practical lesson, I guess. I asked with a slightly weary look, and she answered with a bright, blooming smile.

"I did. I slept... the very best I ever have—"

Hearing that, I finally let out a breath of relief.

Was it just my imagination? The fading morning star at dawn seemed to glitter more violently than usual today...