It Ends Today
One thing I was genuinely grateful for about coming to this world:
The information systems weren't all that different from the ones back home.
As someone who'd majored in IT, I was pretty confident when it came to handling computers and machines. And seeing how thoroughly I'd been milking that advantage ever since I arrived here—yeah, I could call that a real stroke of luck.
Starting with the fact that Lee Yeon-hui lived right next door. Figuring out exactly who I was and what kind of situation I'd landed in. And going further still—protecting Lee Yeon-ah from the crime that was about to unfold.
A kid like me telling a Hero or the police that Yeon-ah was going to get kidnapped? They wouldn't take me seriously for a second. And if I tried some half-baked threat? I'd get a polite warning and that would be the end of it.
Which meant I needed to put on a performance threatening enough to prove I wasn't talking nonsense. That performance was hacking the information networks of both the Heroes and the police. And just in case that wasn't enough, I went ahead and stirred up the firewalls at City Hall and the Hunter Association too.
I'd actually come up with this plan a while back. But I'd held off, hoping that if I watched the situation a little longer, a better method might present itself. The preparations for the hack had been finished for a long time.
So after cracking both agencies' systems, I left a threat letter sitting on their networks.
I have hacked City Hall's personal information network. I will kidnap the third-generation children. Stop me if you can.
I wrote variations of that same message in the most aggressive language I could manage. Targeting only Yeon-hui or Yeon-ah specifically might have drawn suspicion the other way, so I included myself along with kids of a similar age. To rule out the possibility they'd write it off as a simple prankster, I deliberately left traces of having pulled third-generation children's data from City Hall. I even impersonated the name of a criminal organization that had gone quiet lately.
And after all that effort—here we were.
"Please don't worry too much, ma'am."
"Yes… thank you. I'm counting on you."
Lee Hyeon-seong was doing his best to calm Yeon-hui's mother, who kept fretting endlessly. Watching the scene, a strange guilt washed over me.
I'm sorry, Auntie…
But what else was I supposed to do? It wasn't like I was doing this for fun.
I was silently offering up my apologies when Yeon-hui sidled up beside me and spoke.
"Hey. What kind of psycho said they were gonna kidnap us?"
"…Maybe that psycho had his reasons?"
"What kind of bullshit is that?"
"..."
Yeah. Even I had to admit that was bullshit.
In the end, Yeon-hui's mother left for work without fully shaking off her worries. Only after seeing her off did we finally set out on the walk to school.
I'd known she would be anxious, so right up until the last moment I'd wondered whether this was really the right approach. But it was the most reliable method available—there hadn't been any other choice.
The one silver lining, at least:
"Mister, what do Heroes actually do?"
"When a Gate opens, we fight the monsters. And when bad people do bad things, we team up with the police officers here and go catch them."
Our most important protectee, Yeon-ah, was more energetic than I'd ever seen her. Thanks to the threat message I'd sent, the two of them—Lee Hyeon-seong and Choi Min-ho—had been assigned as our escorts, and they were walking to school right alongside us.
One from the police side, one from the Hero side, huh…
Both of them were incredibly young. Younger than I'd been in the other world, even.
Mid-twenties at most, by the look of them…
"So what's the difference between what police do and what Heroes do?"
"Hmm~ The police tend to focus more on criminals than on Gates."
Choi Min-ho answered Yeon-hui's question. Both girls had looked uncomfortable at first, but seeing a real Hero and a real cop up close—something you didn't get every day—seemed to have sparked their curiosity.
With the Awakened title becoming so common, you ran into people like that among criminals too. That was exactly why police and Heroes were such high-profile careers, working the front lines. Getting to chat with them this casually wasn't normal, so I understood why the girls were excited.
Still.
"What are your Hero names, misters? I wanna look you up!"
Seizing the opening of Yeon-hui and Yeon-ah's question barrage, I threw out a question of my own with an innocent face.
"…Uh… well…"
Unlike their smooth answers up to that point, clear embarrassment bloomed across both their faces.
"W-we haven't received our names yet, so searching won't turn anything up."
"Ah! I know that! You're interns, right?"
"Huh? Uh… yeah, that's right."
Just as I thought…
No matter how I looked at it, they were just too young. Not that it didn't make sense. Both the Heroes and the police were stretched thin on manpower right now—they didn't have the luxury of assigning people to an incident that might or might not even happen. These two were definitely rookies. In military terms, they wouldn't know their left from their right.
But they shouldn't be lacking in raw power, at least.
They'd be way behind in experience, sure—but with Awakened, the younger generations tended to manifest stronger abilities more often. Ability-wise, I didn't need to worry.
Currently, people in their forties to sixties were the first generation. Twenties to thirties were the second. And kids my age belonged to the third. Of course, there were mutants who transcended generational lines, but setting those aside—
"Don't worry, though. No matter what happens, we'll take care of it."
They must have said it because they were worried we'd be anxious about them being interns. And it worked—Yeon-ah and Yeon-hui both looked a little more at ease.
I watched the kids' expressions, then carefully shifted my gaze down to my phone screen. Choi Min-ho. Lee Hyeon-seong. Neither of them showed up in official searches yet, being interns—but as official interns, the police and the Hero Association both had files on their abilities and specs. I was browsing those now, peeking at their stats.
Not bad.
Lee Hyeon-seong, with his obviously massive build, was a power type. The leaner Choi Min-ho was a speed type. A speed-and-power combo was a decent balance, all things considered.
Please let this end without anything happening. Remembering Yeon-hui's mother, who still hadn't managed to relax her face that morning, I offered up a silent prayer no one would hear, and headed for school.
"Hey. Why were you playing dumb earlier?"
"What?"
"When you were asking those guys questions. You were laying on the whole innocent act."
"..."
The whole innocent act… Well, I had been channeling those bespectacled little kids I'd seen in comics. But I hadn't gone full oh my, how strange~ or anything.
"I was just as curious about Heroes and cops as you guys were."
"Liar. At least spit on it first."
"Slurp slurp."
"Ugh… gross."
Yeon-hui's face cycled through about eight different colors as she scrambled away from me.
Tch. This is why sharp-eyed brats are the worst!
Something I'd learned living around Yeon-hui: her instincts were ridiculously sharp. We'd only been hanging out closely for about a week, and she was already guessing the intent behind most of my actions.
Was this a protagonist buff?
She'd probably only brought this up now because our two protectors had positioned themselves a little ways off. Having them come all the way into the classroom might have made people uneasy, so they'd split up—one near Yeon-ah, one near us—waiting in empty classrooms close by.
We should be relatively safe while we're at school, at least.
Public institutions each had Awakened stationed on-site. And because I desperately wanted to prevent any attack at the school no matter what, I'd made sure City Hall's warning notice included personal info on students from the same school whenever possible. That way, escorts would naturally congregate during commute hours, and whoever was planning the kidnapping would think twice about causing a major scene here.
One big problem, though.
We can't keep this up forever.
We'd been at a disadvantage from the start. They could come after us whenever they wanted. We had no idea when they'd strike. And the biggest reason we were losing: time.
Right now, Heroes and police were being mobilized over a threat message about an incident that might or might not happen. That message didn't have a long shelf life. They were already short-handed. Even if these two were just interns, command wouldn't keep personnel diverted here indefinitely. Ten days at the absolute most. After that, they'd be recalled.
Part of me wondered if I'd rushed things. But—
No. Considering what those bastards were going to do, they won't drag this out either.
Based on the information from the novel, Yeon-ah's kidnapping was connected to that thing I had in mind. Which meant they weren't exactly sitting pretty on spare time either.
Having to hope they'd show up—the whole situation made my head spin.
I'd never had bodyguards before, so I'd worried it might feel awkward. But day-to-day life didn't change much. At school they kept their distance and watched. On the walks to and from school, we talked together. And when we ate at home, they joined us—enough that I was actually starting to get attached.
Yeon-ah especially seemed fascinated by Heroes and police; the questions never stopped pouring out.
"Mister! Mister! Do Heroes—"
"What about the police—"
And yet neither of them showed a hint of annoyance, answering every single question diligently. Maybe a little kid's interest wasn't such a bad thing after all.
Just like that, time flew by in the middle of ordinary life, and the tenth day arrived. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, nothing special had happened. No incidents, no accidents.
Weekdays passed, the weekend rolled in, and we were spending time at my place as usual with our two escorts when—
Ding-dong—
The doorbell rang.
It was Saturday, so Yeon-hui's mother was out on her morning shift. There was no particular reason anyone would be coming to our house.
"Anyone expecting company?"
"No."
"I'll get it. You guys stay here."
I answered with a nod. Lee Hyeon-seong and Choi Min-ho exchanged a look. Hyeon-seong approached the door while Min-ho pulled us behind him.
"Who is it?"
"..."
"If you don't answer, I'm calling the police. Who is it?"
"Pff—"
"Answer right—"
"Pffhahahaha! Hyeon-seong, it's me."
"Team leader?"
From how quickly he recognized the voice, it was clearly someone Hyeon-seong knew. Reassured by the familiar sound, he opened the door, and a middle-aged man in a round-brimmed hat appeared.
"Sir!"
"Good work."
"Sir!"
"So you're the one deployed with our Hyeon-seong. You've been working hard."
"Not at all, sir!"
He exchanged light greetings while receiving salutes from Hyeon-seong and Min-ho.
"I was wondering if you'd gone soft, so I thought I'd mess with you a bit—but you're still sharp! Hahaha!"
"Thank you, sir!"
It was a heartwarming scene, but I was nothing but tense. A superior officer showing up when the escort detail was nearly ten days old. This was almost like—
"Your deployment ends tomorrow. I could've just called, but I figured I'd come in person and check on things."
"We appreciate the consideration, sir!"
He clapped both men on the shoulders with words of encouragement. And then—
"Right. So both of you, take the rest of today off."
"Yes, sir! Underst— wait, what?"
At those next words, I frowned. He'd said until tomorrow—and now he was suddenly telling them to stand down? Figuring nothing was going to happen and pulling them out early?
That thought had barely formed when—
Thud.
Lee Hyeon-seong and Choi Min-ho's bodies crumpled bonelessly to the floor.
"Huh? Mister?"
Yeon-ah called out to the two of them as they collapsed, but neither showed any sign of getting up. The middle-aged man stepped past their fallen forms and walked slowly toward us—staring straight through me and Yeon-hui at Yeon-ah behind us.
The worst-case scenario I hadn't wanted to think about.
"I'd have preferred to take my time, but things are rather urgent."
"Yeon-hui! Grab Yeon-ah and run!"
The instant the words left my mouth, Yeon-hui scooped Yeon-ah into her arms. I pulled the kitchen knife I'd hidden in my clothes and charged the man.
Tap!
There was a height difference, so I stepped up onto the chair beside me, launched myself, and swung the knife—
Thup.
The man casually caught both the arm swinging the blade and my throat.
"Hmm. Not bad for someone so young."
"Park Yeon-chan!"
"I'm… f-fine… just run…!"
"Oh dear. I'm afraid I can't allow—"
Shunk.
The gaze that had been turning toward Yeon-hui slowly swung back to me. The easygoing light in his eyes from a moment ago cast a cold shadow.
"Kid. What exactly are you?"
He asked in a frigid voice. Blood dripped steadily from the middle-aged man's right arm—the result of driving the knife in with my free left hand while the other was pinned.
"Son of a… bitch…"
I'd gone for his throat the moment his attention shifted, and he'd blocked it like it was nothing. I tried to move my arm somehow, but no strength would come. The captured arm went limp, and the kitchen knife tumbled into empty air.
Please…!
I wrung out the last of my strength and kicked the falling knife, sending it flying—
Swish!
"Once was quite enough."
The middle-aged man dodged it with easy composure, as if to say there would be no more carelessness.
"Time to sleep now."
"You… bas…"
"Let him go, you bastard!"
Through my fading consciousness, I saw Yeon-hui swinging a wooden bat at the man for all she was worth.
I told you to run, you idiot…
That was the last thing I saw before I blacked out.