A Friend Made of Shadows
The sounds from the outside world had completely faded.
By the time Juhan realized that even the tiny crevice through which he could catch a glimpse of the outside had vanished...
...It's quiet?
His surroundings were already enveloped in absolute silence. No crazed woman was marching toward him, nor was any wild-eyed elf aiming an arrow at his head.
There was only Juhan.
A void of nothingness. A pitch-black darkness devoid of sound, wind, or warmth.
But wait.
Yet, strangely enough...
This is actually pretty cozy?
For some reason, he didn't feel a shred of fear.
If anything, he felt rather comfortable, as if he had lived here his entire life.
He had no idea why. Juhan simply shrugged it off, thinking, Is it just because those guys who were trying to kill me a second ago are gone?
Step, step.
With those thoughts behind him, Juhan took a cautious step forward.
He didn't even know which way he was walking. In a space like this, the very concept of direction didn't exist.
I'm not just keeping my eyes closed, am I...?
Perhaps because there was absolutely nothing to see, Juhan was starting to lose track of whether his eyes were even open.
Just in case, he blinked several times, but nothing changed. He simply wished in his heart, I wish I could see something.
After looking around in vain for a long while...
Huh? Wait.
Juhan suddenly noticed a change.
I can see!
As if responding to his sheer will, the space began to brighten.
Like a rising sun, light gradually flooded the void around him.
In that case...
Naturally, the first thing Juhan did upon confirming this was look down at his own body. But when he lowered his head to check...
W-what the? Why is there nothing there?
There was nothing. Literally nothing.
It was as if he had become an invisible man. His hands should have been right there in his field of vision, yet they weren't. Swoosh, swoosh.
Panicking, Juhan waved his hands. He could definitely feel the sensation of flailing his limbs; he just couldn't see them.
Don't tell me... did my body disappear?
It was a horrifying thought. He thought he had barely managed to escape, but was he actually just a "non-existent young man" now? A chill ran down his non-existent spine.
No, seriously, why the hell can't I see my hands?!
He screamed the words in his mind, desperate and frantic, demanding to know where his hands and body had gone.
Sssss...
W-what is that?
Suddenly, something unrecognizable began to squirm and materialize in his field of vision. Right where his hands should have been.
Squirm, squirm.
Like a living creature, it slowly began to take shape.
And that shape was, without a doubt, the hand Juhan had so desperately desired.
...
Of course, it wasn't without its flaws.
Why are there only four fingers?
Problem number one: it only had four fingers. A normal human hand should have five.
And the hand itself looks weird...
Furthermore, its appearance was far from normal. It was still gooey and shifting, looking as if it were made of black tar.
But the strangest part of all was that only the "hand" existed.
There was no wrist, let alone an arm to connect it to.
Float... float...
It just floated there like a balloon. A four-fingered tar hand hovering in midair. That was Juhan's exact assessment.
Was this some kind of joke? What was he even supposed to do with this?
A hand needs five fingers, and the texture is all wrong. More than that...
Without realizing it, Juhan began issuing commands to the floating hand, as if directing a project.
He hadn't thought deeply about it, but he seemed to know instinctively: everything in this space moved according to his will.
Fix this part. Smooth that out. Hmm, does this look a bit weird?
Losing all track of time, Juhan became completely absorbed in his task.
By the time he finally sculpted a hand to his liking...
Whoa!
It looked exactly like a real human hand.
It clenched into a fist at his command and naturally formed a peace sign.
Having successfully replicated a human hand to perfection, it was only natural for Juhan to set his sights on the next step.
Should I try making a foot this time?
Hands. Feet. Shoulders.
Like a god, Juhan began to forge the human anatomy.
Of course, even the simplest parts required immense trial and error. Repeating the process hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of times was par for the course before he could achieve a somewhat satisfactory result.
Step, step.
Before he knew it, various human body parts of his own creation were floating all around him.
Only when there were no more human body parts left to create did Juhan finally stop.
When did I make this many?
He had absolutely no concept of how much time had passed.
The sheer volume of parts drifting around him was the only indicator that an unfathomable amount of time had slipped by.
Well... now all that's left is...
Of course, Juhan didn't mind. It was surprisingly fun, and he had learned quite a lot during the process.
This goes here, that goes there. This method seems a bit better. Actually, on second thought, this way is better.
As Juhan gradually grew accustomed to his abilities...
Only one final task remained.
Now, how do I put all of this together...?
How on earth was he supposed to assemble these body parts naturally? That was his current dilemma.
Though he had mastered crafting individual parts to a near-artisan level, he had never actually tried assembling them.
Whatever. I'll just dive right in.
Naturally, Juhan's chosen method was to just wing it.
One. Two. Three...
And so, time began to slip away once more.
He accidentally attached an arm to an eye socket, and spent ages agonizing over how to seamlessly connect the waist to the hips.
Bit by bit, Juhan made slow but steady progress.
Whew...
Just as Juhan wiped his brow as if brushing away sweat...
It's finished.
Thrum.
A perfect human body stood silently before Juhan, like a mannequin.
Perfect.
It was his masterpiece. Perhaps because he had built, modified, and destroyed it countless times...
I couldn't make it any better than this.
It was a flawless human physique, completely devoid of imperfections.
Yet, perhaps because it was too perfect, it paradoxically failed to feel human. Of course, Juhan didn't care about such trivial details.
...
But that didn't mean his problems were fully solved. It was a realization that only struck him after he had finished creating this perfect figure.
No matter how hard I worked on this, it's still just a mannequin.
No matter how much effort Juhan poured into it, it was ultimately just a doll.
It possessed no emotions, no ego, and no personality. It merely stared blankly in Juhan's direction with lifeless eyes.
Fortunately, Juhan knew exactly how to solve this. It was a trick he had picked up from his experiences in this void.
Hmm, let's see... I wish it could think and act on its own.
Simply wishing for it. Projecting his "will" to make it so.
That was the key. The very method that had resolved every obstacle Juhan had faced so far.
...Is this a bit too much, though?
Honestly, even he felt a bit shameless asking for this.
Sculpting something like clay was impressive enough, but creating life was on a completely different level. If he could do even that...
He would essentially be a god.
But at that very moment...
Swoosh...
W-what's happening?
Juhan suddenly felt energy draining from his body.
He couldn't see it with his eyes. He only felt it instinctively.
He felt a sudden wave of exhaustion, as if roughly ten percent of his total energy had been siphoned away.
And the destination of that energy was, naturally, the doll Juhan had created.
...
Juhan watched the scene unfold in silence.
It was only natural that he found himself on guard against the doll, even though he was the one who had created it.
...What's going on?
But something was off. Despite absorbing all that energy, the doll remained completely motionless.
It sucked up his energy like it was about to go wild, and yet nothing was happening?
Just as Juhan took a cautious step closer, caught between wariness and disappointment...
Thud.
Whoa, you scared me!
The doll suddenly dropped to its knees and bowed deeply before Juhan.
"..."
It didn't say a word. It simply remained prostrate before Juhan, as if offering a solemn bow.
...What is this?
A tense standoff ensued between Juhan and the doll.
Surprisingly, it was Juhan who broke the silence first.
Can you hear me?
Perhaps hoping it would understand him, Juhan found himself speaking to the doll.
To be honest, his initial wariness had faded, replaced by an inexplicable sense of kinship.
It felt as if he were looking into a mirror. It was only natural, considering he was the one who had made the creature.
And the first words that came from the doll were...
"My... God."
...
If Juhan had to rank the phrases he hated hearing most, that sentence would easily take the crown.
This little punk...
A wave of intense irritation washed over Juhan, but there was something he wanted to confirm even more than his annoyance. For now, he held his tongue.
Ahem.Can you hear me?
It was a reflexive question.
Though Juhan didn't realize it, this might have been the very thing he wanted to confirm above all else.
The proof that "Am I existing as myself?"
Hearing Juhan's question, the creature replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"I hear you."
...
"From the very beginning, until now. Always."
Upon hearing those words, Juhan's response was surprisingly simple.
I-in that case...
"..."
Should I give you a name?
He asked if he should name it. Naturally, the creature didn't offer an opinion, silently indicating it would follow Juhan's will.
"Hmm..."
Juhan stared into the void, lost in thought. To be honest, he wasn't overthinking it.
He had no desire to give it some grand, pretentious name. Besides, a complicated name would just be a pain to pronounce.
After a brief moment of deliberation, Juhan settled on a name: Kkamangi.
Right. From now on, you're Kkamangi. To be precise, Kkamang No. 1.
"...Kkamangi."
The creature showed surprisingly little reaction upon hearing its new name.
He couldn't help but wonder, Does he not like it? Not that Juhan had any intention of changing his mind, of course.
But at that moment, Juhan felt it clearly.
The creature was beginning to truly awaken to its own existence. It was as if a giant exclamation mark had popped up over its head.
From then on, time passed quite peacefully.
It was only much later that Juhan realized Kkamangi, the doll he had crafted and named, possessed an incredibly blunt and humorless personality.
How did he know? Couldn't it be that everything he created just turned out that way?
Not at all.
No. 4, No. 6. Come over here.
"Yes!"
"Did you call for us?"
Because after Kkamangi, Juhan went on to create seven more human dolls.
Perhaps because each doll absorbed a different amount of his energy, their personalities were wildly diverse.
Some were hyperactive, while others were slightly blunt—though none quite matched Kkamangi's level of stoicism.
Every single one of them had a distinct personality, just like real human beings.
And after creating No. 7, Juhan stopped making human-shaped dolls altogether.
There was no particular reason. He just wanted to try making other things.
A three-headed dog. A deer with bizarre, snake-like horns. A winged lizard, and so on...
With the help of his various Kkamangis, Juhan brought everything he could possibly imagine to life within that void.
As if he had been the master of this domain from the very beginning.
And so, time continued to flow.
Without him even realizing that his simple plan of Let's just stay hidden a little longer...
Had stretched on for over a thousand years.