Making Entity Mother-and-Child Oyakodon

I charged straight into the heart of the entity nest.

"Ajjajat! Ajjajajajat!!"

A full-throated battle cry!

You… you already know exactly what you're doing, don't you?

In my right hand, my ego sword — Puk-jjik-i!!

———?

———!!

And a whole pack of entity brats, frozen stiff from the sudden ambush!!!

Honestly…

Management Bureau monsters really are the best!

KRAAAASH!

I body-checked a charging entity and drove my dagger into its gut a dozen times.

It let out a nasty little death rattle — gureuph.

Had these things released some kind of alarm pheromone?

Dozens of fresh entities hatched from cocoons sprouting across the ceiling and walls.

"Tsububut. Gureureuk."

The second a newborn entity baby tried to push itself upright—

"Soccer kick, asshay!!!"

BWOOONG—

I kicked its head clean off. It burst.

A three-second lifespan. Poor little entity kids.

Puk-jjik-jjik— puk-jjik-jjik—

I was laying down stab combos in a three-quarter waltz rhythm when—

"…You're actually out of your mind."

Lael had finally joined us. Seoa was trembling behind her, scared out of her wits.

Lael began murmuring in a language I'd never heard. Blood rose above her palm and swelled until it was the size of a basketball.

Snap.

The instant she flicked her fingers, the blood shot out in a single razor stream.

It was so fast I almost lost track of the motion.

———!!!

Dozens of swarming entities were skewered in one go.

Lael watched the carnage without so much as a twitch of expression. She simply clasped her hands behind her back and whispered, languid:

"Be born."

The entities' bodies ballooned. Beneath the surface of their flesh, blood writhed and churned.

Maybe three seconds passed.

Fwahk.

Crimson spikes erupted from every inch of them. Naturally, their ribcages burst open and their limbs tore free.

A single gesture and a whisper, and dozens of them died like crushed insects.

That is violently over the top!!

I was so impressed I broke into a round of applause.

"Lee Shin. You said we were fighting. Why are you clapping?"

"Right! Isn't there anything bigger around here?"

After a performance that spectacular, I had to return the favor!

But all that was left thrashing around were a few more small-fry entity brats.

In situations like this, you bust out the magic words.

"Is that all of them? Are they even going to die? It's cleaner in here than I expected."

A-are you seriously insane? Do you want to die!?

Even Puk-jjik-i was losing her mind — that's how instantly effective the magic spell was.

Alright. Come on out!

"Gureureureuph. Ubvubvut."

Kuuung. Kuuung.

As if answering the call, something twice my size appeared. It was so tall it had to cock its upper body sideways just to keep from scraping the ceiling as it approached.

Roughly four meters, maybe?

Didn't really matter.

"It's so goddamn huge… its guts must be goddamn huge too!!!"

The mother of all the entities.

Entity Mama!

This absolute lunatic…

Entity Mama spread its long arms wide. The pose looked exactly like—

Hug me.

—so I decided to give her a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Parents' Day present.

"Lee Shin. Want help? Looks like you're about to die."

"Stay back and eat popcorn with Seoa."

I waved Lael off and reset my stance.

THWOOM—!!

I kicked off the ground and drove Puk-jjik-i straight into Entity Mama's big, generous heart.

Heartbreak combo: success.

Next up was my left hand's turn.

H-have you lost it!? With nothing but a single dagger— bleh.

What was she talking about?

Both my hands were fully armed right now.

1. Clench a bare fist.

2. Crack her with a proper knuckle sandwich.

BWOOOONG!!

With a glorious crack, Entity Mama's head exploded.

Its lush, fungal body toppled among the entities that had already departed for the great beyond.

I gave it some serious thought.

Entity Mama and her entity kids had all died together, side by side.

"It's oyakodon."

I genuinely hope you drop dead.

After turning Entity Mama and her kids into oyakodon, Lee Shin poked through the corpses of the mother-and-child rice bowl entities.

"Figured there'd be some kind of reward. Wasn't this a boss?"

"O-Oppa… you're going to get infected."

"Seoa. I think there's a design flaw in this attraction. Write this down. REWARDS are extremely important… huh?"

It wasn't a reward, but something was wriggling deep inside a massive cocoon.

He grabbed both sides and ripped it wide open — and out spilled dozens of people.

"…."

They were still breathing in shallow, intermittent gasps. Not dead yet.

"They're alive! Maybe the other cocoons—"

"Stand back. You said you could get infected."

Rrrrip. Rrrriaaip.

Lee Shin tore through cocoon after cocoon like sheets of paper.

From each one tumbled dozens more victims who had been destined to become breeding beds for the entities.

Watching this, Lael asked with a touch of genuine admiration,

"Lee Shin. Are you a Gamma-class anomalous entity or higher?"

"Nope. Delta-class."

"…Does that make any sense?"

I'm Beta-class, so whatever — that checks out.

But this guy just butchered an entire entity nest without a scratch and saved hundreds of people on top of it.

This is Delta-class? Did someone mess up his risk rating?

Well, that was the Management Bureau's problem.

If Yu Seoa was right, the Bureau would be coming to extract them soon enough.

All that was left to do was wait.

Lael let a faint smile play across her lips and gently aired what was on her mind.

"Hey, Lee Shin. Just hypothetically. What if anomalous entities were actually real?"

"Not just lore?"

"Yeah. Assume they really exist."

Lael's eyes narrowed.

"Some anomalous entities are born with abilities they never asked for. Sometimes they lose control and end up killing people. …How would you treat someone like that?"

Gulp.

Yu Seoa read the room.

That's obviously about herself…!

But Lee Shin's answer was crystal clear.

"Did that entity kill people on purpose?"

"Huh? No. They don't even remember. And if they could help it, they wouldn't want to kill anyone."

"Then it's not murder — it's manslaughter. Even a middle school dropout like me knows those two are different. There should be consequences, sure, but you don't just slap a blanket label of 'evil' on them ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and call it a day."

He'd dealt with something similar running Sunshine Orphanage.

"Kids sometimes do things without even knowing they're wrong. Yulha, who grew up in the alleys, was like that. Her hands were sticky as hell."

"…So what did you do?"

"I wrapped her up in love. The world has plenty of irredeemable trash that needs a hard reality check — but there are also just kids who've lost their way."

For a moment, Lael was speechless.

She hadn't expected to hear something like that from a man so much younger than herself.

At some point her life had filled up with nothing but regret — no purpose, no direction, just the bare fact of still being alive.

Standing next to Lee Shin, she felt a conviction that something might actually change.

"I really do like you."

"Is this a confession?"

"Coming in hot. Do you have zero sense of atmosphere?"

Lael clasped her hands behind her back and swayed.

Yu Seoa watched from a step away.

Uuuung…

Lee Shin and Lael seemed to be getting close. Something in her chest squeezed tight and ached.

But Oppa's like that with everyone — so much kinder than he looks.

That's probably why he said what he said to me, back on the day we first met.

When was that? Fifteen years ago? It's so long ago it's all fuzzy.

— …Hey. What ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠should I do? I… I think I did something really awful.

When I burst into tears, Oppa answered me like this.

Yu Seoa started to drift into the memory, then stopped.

Does Oppa remember? The moment I fell for him. …He probably forgot.

A small, lonely feeling settled over her.

A few minutes later, a blinding flash erupted from the Backrooms wall. Through an artificially opened rift, a heavily armed Special Containment Unit poured in like a flood.

"Reality piercer operating normally. Entry into SIN-100 Backrooms complete."

"All extraction targets confirmed alive. Unspecified number of additional victims confirmed. Commencing biological decontamination, and—"

From among the crisply coordinated task force, a woman of notably small stature stepped forward. It was Tatiana.

"998. Assistant Researcher Yu Seoa. Glad you're unharmed. SIN-077? Will you cooperate with recontainment procedures?"

She deliberately kept her tone flatter than usual, but her voice still climbed a fraction.

Behind her gas mask, Tatiana was smiling faintly.

"998. Upper command monitored your every action. …This afternoon, you will be meeting someone of considerable rank."

Clap.

Clap clap clap clap.

What the hell.

The second we got back to the Management Bureau facility, someone started applauding.

As I walked the corridor in handcuffs, more and more people crowded in.

"Is that the guy? He really does look like a gangster."

"Shh. They say he killed an entity progenitor all by himself. With his bare hands."

"Stop lying."

"Want to see the recording? It's real. One punch and the head went pop, I'm telling you."

ID badge colors and uniforms were all over the place. All I could tell was that a bunch of different departments were represented.

Beyond a transparent glass wall, people who looked like civilians were receiving some kind of treatment.

A few of them glanced at me, then ran over and started knocking on the glass.

"Mister! You're the one who pulled us out of those cocoons, right?"

"Thank you so much. I thought we were done for… wait, where are you going!"

I asked Tatiana, who was gently nudging me forward from behind.

"Who are they?"

"The people you saved. Soak up the gratitude while you can. They're about to get their memories wiped and forget all of this."

"Ah, so that's—"

"Part of the lore. …Heh."

This woman seemed a little different. For someone who always looked so stern, she wasn't being particularly forceful at all.

Tap. Tap-tap.

She was lightly patting my back, even.

Is she in a good mood? Why?

Cranking my worthless brain produced no useful answers.

"Tatiana. Where are we going, anyway? What about Lael and Seoa?"

"Those two can't come with us. A very highly placed individual wishes to speak with you alone."

Just how highly placed?

Even as I wondered, I was starting to get a feel for it.

We transferred elevators several times, descending deeper and deeper underground to floors I couldn't even guess at.

"…Confirmed. You may pass."

We cleared more than ten security gates manned by armed personnel.

And the people nearby all wore ugly expressions — tense faces, the look of people terrified of catching blame for something.

I knew this feeling somehow.

This is exactly like when the president comes through for inspection…

Just as those dainty, absolute-shit memories from my Marine Corps days drifted past—

A gray metal door of some unidentifiable material stood before me.

"…998. I can't go any farther than this. Neither can the base overseer. This is quite the special privilege."

"So who's inside? Why does this door even exist?"

Pat-pat.

Instead of answering, Tatiana gave my shoulder a couple of pats. The height difference was big enough that she seemed to be up on her tiptoes.

The metal door slid open without a sound.

I stepped across the threshold, half-bewildered.

The moment I crossed, the air changed.

As if I'd come from somewhere very far away — as if that door had connected to an entirely different space.

Inside was a small room with a warm atmosphere.

A table of solid wood, neatly arranged bookshelves. A fireplace flickering in one corner.

And a woman sitting in a wheelchair.

"Ah, welcome. SIN-998 Director. I've been waiting for you."

Red hair.

Pitch-black eyes set against it.

A woman whose irises and pupils were nearly the same color, giving her a strangely unsettling presence.

"Have a seat. Shall I pour you some tea?"

"Who are you?"

"I'm not anyone particularly important. So I'd prefer you treat me casually."

The woman rested her chin on her hand and smiled brightly.

"Just the unremarkable chairwoman of the Peace Council."

After the introduction, she brought up a completely unexpected topic. And it was a proposal I couldn't refuse.