Chapter 61
Chapter 61
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Translator : M.N 1391
Chapter: 61
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When Kim Myung took a stance to charge in, the esper from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department boosted his power as well. His whole body bulged grotesquely. He was a super-strength esper.
“Uaaaagh!”
Knowing that dragging things out wouldn’t work in his favor, Kim Myung let out a shout and rushed forward first.
A fight as brutal as brutal could be began. And a police helicopter filmed that very scene from above and relayed it to a vehicle not far from the scene.
It was a tactical armored vehicle prepared in anticipation of the rising number of esper crimes, owned by the Tokyo MPD’s special esper-response division. Aboard it, Kyungwan and the NIS agents watched the Japanese proudly showing off their arrest procedure as if it were a spectacle.
Kim Myung’s struggle was admirable. Using bioelectricity to maximize his physical abilities was impressive. But it still wasn’t enough against a super-strength esper who had undergone professional combat training and martial arts.
Kim Myung, Kanemoto Akira, was beaten so severely that anyone watching would wince, and he collapsed in a wrecked state. Police officers rushed in and cuffed the fallen man.
“Quite violent.”
When Hong Young-hye looked away from the screen with discomfort, Oh Doo-gwan replied.
“I suppose they want to make an example of him. A warning that awakening as an esper doesn’t mean you can act recklessly and get away with it.”
Japan praised itself for its high civic consciousness, but in reality, that “high civic consciousness” was founded on the government’s strong control over its citizens. Japan’s unique culture of wa emphasized group order and harmony over individual values, granting justification for sacrificing personal rights for national order.
Especially for those who committed crimes or disruptions harmful to national governance, the severity was extreme. The mass media had no hesitation broadcasting the faces of such criminals. And the criminals’ families were bullied by those around them simply for being related to a criminal.
Kyungwan tossed out a remark.
“So you’re jealous?”
“Not jealous… just saying that if something is necessary, it must be done.”
“Necessary for whom?”
“For the state and the people.”
Though his tone was passionate, the implication that one could sacrifice citizens’ rights in the name of the state and the people was almost laughable. Did he not understand that the moment you demand sacrifice from others, it becomes violence?
Humans live driven by their own self-importance, but how far can someone go in life carrying such blatant self-contradiction?
If not self-contradiction, then he was likely dressing up his own desires with righteous pretense, hypocrisy.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I just think our Section Chief Oh is going to rise through the ranks quickly.”
A person must be honest, but if they’re only honest, they get labeled as whistleblowers and exiled. To get promoted, one had to say “Hehe, our beloved department head” on the outside while screaming “That bastard department head!” on the inside.
Not everyone was like that? Anywhere humans gather, it’s the same. People who accept criticism without getting offended and reflect upon themselves are rare anywhere; virtues are virtues precisely because they aren’t easy to uphold.
Confused by Kyungwan’s out-of-nowhere “compliment,” Oh Doo-gwan made an uncertain face. Outwardly it sounded like praise, but years of NIS work had conditioned him to distrust any praise that came from Kyungwan.
“Well, in any case, this wraps things up.”
“So when are you paying me?”
With only the trip back home remaining, Hong Young-hye was filled with anticipation, until Kyungwan asked about compensation for the sacred labor of selling out a fellow Korean. She reassured him.
“It’s already been processed. When we get home, you’ll see it in your account.”
Apparently, since Kyungwan had threatened Lee Gwan-young with America and whatnot, Lee hadn’t dared to weasel out. If they ever wanted to use Kyungwan’s abilities again, betraying him wasn’t an option.
Then the back door of the vehicle opened, and a Japanese man appeared, muttering moshimoshi desu desu as he said something.
Kyungwan asked Hong Young-hye what it was about.
“What is it?”
“The officer who just apprehended the suspect wants to thank you.”
“Do we really need to receive that?”
Hadn’t they already given and taken what they needed?
Kyungwan found such formalities bothersome, but Hong Young-hye, thinking this socially maladjusted psycho should experience some positive human interaction and calm down a bit, pushed him forward.
Detective Kawaguchi, still flushed with leftover adrenaline from the fight, extended a hand to Kyungwan and the NIS agents. Oh Doo-gwan shook his hand first.
The last was Kyungwan.
[For you to come here from Joseon, a land boiling with anti-Japanese sentiment these days, to help capture a fellow Joseon-jing… This humble self cannot help but reflect on how narrow-minded I have been toward Joseon.]
“What the hell did he just say?”
“Uh…”
As Hong Young-hye frantically searched for a way to translate Kawaguchi’s words into the softest possible version, Kyungwan tilted his head.
“He definitely said ‘Joseon-jing’, right?”
“Uh… well… that’s…”
Her hesitation was all the confirmation he needed.
Kyungwan raised his index finger and jabbed it hard into Kawaguchi’s puffed, muscular chest.
“Aaaagh!”
A scream burst from Kawaguchi’s mouth, the tip of Kyungwan’s index finger had stabbed straight into his nipple. And with such force that the finger disappeared up to the second knuckle.
The nipple, a thin layer of skin packed with nerves, was a vital point.
“You bastard!”
Kawaguchi grabbed Kyungwan’s hand and exerted crushing pressure. But what was this? The pain that should have shattered Kyungwan’s hand never came. Unfazed, Kyungwan instead reached toward Kawaguchi’s head.
Kawaguchi instinctively jerked back to dodge, but Kyungwan’s fast, precise movement caught his ear.
And with tremendous grip strength,
Rrrrip!
“Aaaagh!”
He tore the man’s ear right off.
“A–are you insane?!”
Hong Young-hye screamed at the sudden bloodshed, but Kyungwan only tossed the torn-off ear onto the floor as if to say, “And?”
When the ear hit the ground with a tock, Kawaguchi’s eyes went wild. The ear on the floor and the searing pain from his head told him exactly what had happened.
“Die!”
Muscles swelling grotesquely again, the super-strength esper swung a fist at Kyungwan filled with killing intent.
But Kyungwan slipped under his armpit like a feather, or a greased eel, and drove his elbow between the latissimus and pectoral muscles where the tissue was thinnest.
Crunch!
It looked like a light graze, but a rib snapped.
“Uaaagh!”
Kawaguchi threw a wild spinning backfist, but Kyungwan ducked under his other armpit as if predicting it and smashed another rib on the opposite side. Again, crack!, the rib broke.
Then facing him head-on, Kyungwan dodged the punch and lightly pushed his chest with both hands. The harder Kawaguchi tried to swing, the more the broken ribs pressed against his lungs. With enhanced muscle contraction from his ability, that pressure only intensified.
To apply force, one naturally engages the core. And the ribs were closest to that core.
Kawaguchi wheezed, hff! hff! , as his face blued. Clear oxygen deprivation.
Kyungwan toppled the now power-less Kawaguchi and stepped on his back.
“I may be a Joseon-jing, but I will not tolerate being called one!”
What kind of bullshit was that?!
The NIS agents stared speechlessly, and the Japanese police were stunned, not only by the nonsense, but by seeing their esper taken down by someone who didn’t even look like one. Then, when Kyungwan grabbed Kawaguchi’s remaining ear, they screamed.
“Yamete!”
The one shouting seemed to be a fellow officer.
Kyungwan tilted his head at him.
“Yame, te?”
“That’s right!”
“Yame! Te!”
“Aaagh!”
Kyungwan screamed back and tore off the remaining ear. Then he threw the ear at the officer who had yelled yamete and said with a smile:
“You said ‘Stop’, so I stopped, for him.”
“You, ! You lunatic! That’s what he meant!”
Regaining himself, Oh Doo-gwan pointed and shouted.
Kyungwan answered with an innocent face.
“I don’t speak Japanese. You know that.”
“You don’t watch porn?! How can you not know ‘yamete’?!”
Most Korean men, at least below the waist, were practically pro-Japan; not knowing yamete meant you weren’t a man.
But Kyungwan tilted his head again.
“Now that you mention it… I don’t recall ever watching.”
Raised by a father who couldn’t even buy him a computer, his body had no memory of porn. Being bullied every day left no room for… solo activities.
“Don’t lie!”
“I’m serious. Didn’t you guys investigate me?”
Driven mad by Kyungwan’s shamelessness, Oh Doo-gwan continued roaring.
“What are you going to do about this?! If relations between Korea and Japan sour because of you, what then?!”
But Kyungwan was even more shameless than he imagined.
He waved dismissively.
“Why should a mere criminal like me care about something that annoying? Besides, none of that was written in the contract.”
“You didn’t have to go this far!”
“And I didn’t have to hold anything in either.”
Truthfully, even if he never proudly called himself Korean, Kyungwan still wore that “Korean” label. And this Japan, drunk on anti-Korean sentiment, mocked and belittled and discriminated against him simply for being Korean, did they expect him to sit there and take it? That was not in his personality.
It was Japan’s own fault, at least from his point of view.
Of course, Japan would not understand his reasoning, and he was soon locked up in a detention cell.
And now the Korean government and the NIS had a migraine.
After receiving furious calls from higher-ups and regaining his composure, Oh Doo-gwan visited Kyungwan in his cell.
“Why did you do that? You behaved in America!”
He truly couldn’t understand. But Kyungwan’s answer was simple.
“In America, nobody harassed me just for being Korean.”
Kyungwan blamed Kawaguchi, who had approached first and called him a Joseon-jing, and Oh Doo-gwan felt his insides twist.
“You could’ve let it go once. For the sake of the country.”
“I did let it go. That’s why it ended with just his ears. If this were lawless territory and someone talked to me like that, I would’ve stomped every joint in his body until manners soaked into his bones.”
“....”
Opening his mouth helplessly, Oh Doo-gwan stared blankly. Kyungwan then delivered what he considered a universal truth.
“If someone treats you like shit for no reason, it’s only natural to give them a reason. Then they can justify treating you like shit, and I can accept it. Everyone wins, right?”
“Win? What about this is winning?!”
Oh Doo-gwan exploded again. Even he had limits on the nonsense he could endure.
But sadly, he was a civil servant. Someone who had to swallow his rotting feelings and keep a straight face even when his boss spouted absolute bullshit.