Scissorhands Kang Kal-jin (1)
“Ugh, seriously! How far is that lunatic planning to chase him?!”
The chase had begun out of nowhere, in front of the collapsing Ferris wheel.
Park Hana was the one shrieking in irritation as she trailed after a suspicious man lobbing bombs, and Park Cheonho, who was chasing after him in turn.
What if something actually happens while they're carrying on like that…!
No fear. And even less sense.
What exactly did he expect to find at the end of that chase, tearing off after a man he knew nothing about? If that terrorist was only pretending to flee to lure them into his hideout, what was he planning to do then?
It was Seoul, where people would pick your pocket with their eyes wide open, but her twin brother had never once possessed a shred of caution. True, his one redeeming quality—that absurdly durable body—was shrugging off the explosions like they were nothing, but still…
No matter how tough he is, he can't hold out forever. If this gets dangerous, I'm the one who'll have to deal with it, so….
Thinking about Park Cheonho's ability, the real crisis would begin once his mana started running low. Even that iron-hard body only worked because of the Body Protective Aura wrapped around him reflexively whenever danger struck, fed by the mana coursing thick through his veins.
She had no idea how much mana he had left at this point… but after surviving two explosions already, he had to have burned through more than half.
“Hey, Park Cheonho! Just give it up and come back! Something's off about this, I'm telling you!”
“I've almost got him! Once I catch this terrorist, I'll…!”
“Terrorist or not, I'm saying this because *you* might be in danger!!”
“Huk—th-that's right! Run away like your girlfriend says! Keep following me and, hhuk, I-I might actually have to kill you for real!!”
“Who the hell is the girlfriend of that blockheaded bastard, you son of a—!!!”
The curse burst out of Park Hana in a flash of temper, and she immediately shook her head from side to side. Cooling the heat that had suddenly surged up into her skull, trying to find her composure again.
Even in that cramped neighborhood where everyone knew everyone, this temper of hers had earned her plenty of bad reputations—so losing her cool over an insult like this was a bad look.
Meanwhile, the bomber began crossing the Sky Bridge that connected the amusement park's East and West zones, and Park Cheonho followed him across without a moment's hesitation.
Wait—isn't this dangerous…?
She had no idea how many more bombs that man was carrying, but what if he blew up the bridge midway, while they were right in the middle of crossing?
From a cliff this high, even Park Cheonho wouldn't come out unscathed. And she, whose body was far more fragile than her brother's, even less so.
“Hhuk, hhuk, hhuk….”
“A-almost got… him…!”
“Hey, Park Cheonho! It's dangerous, come back!”
“Yeah! I'll catch this guy and head back!”
“That guy's the most dangerous one of all, so just come back, you idiot…!!”
Park Hana stamped her feet helplessly at the entrance of the bridge, unable to advance or retreat. And Park Cheonho, still thoughtlessly chasing after Bang Hwa-cheol.
Just as the man in the black hood was nearly across the bridge, another explosion erupted at Park Cheonho's feet.
-KWAAAAAAAM!!
“Park Cheonho………!!!”
This is exactly why I told him not to chase after him…!
The massive bridge split apart on both sides and collapsed with a deafening roar.
Getting caught in the heart of the explosion was one thing—but if he tumbled down off that cliff now, what then?
Was she really going to lose her twin brother, the person she'd spent her whole life with, this pointlessly, no matter how annoying and embarrassing he was? Park Hana frantically peered down over the cliff's edge, that thought spinning through her head—
“Kehah, kehahahahat…!! You should've watched your step, kehahahahat…!!”
“……?”
And in the middle of that hollow stare down into the abyss, Park Hana witnessed it.
-Squirm, squirm.
“Hhoo, hoo, hhoo…. I-I'll never let go… of him….”
“…….”
Park Cheonho, clinging to the half-collapsed bridge, climbing back up using the chain that had once been a railing as his own personal ladder.
…I'm the idiot for worrying about this dumbass.
Having seen that sight, Park Hana somehow felt like the fool would manage to come out of anything just fine.
I think I saw on the map earlier that you can also cross into Neverland's West zone by lift….
Even so, she couldn't quite bring herself to abandon her own flesh and blood, and went looking for another way across.
“S-stop! Take one more step and this child's life is—”
“Dark Spear!”
-Thwook!
“Kkeuk—hk…?!”
It had been about an hour since I'd started wiping out Black Moon's remnants with Cha Eunju, Han Sora, and Kim Isabel in tow.
Fewer and fewer of the bastards' hoods were coming into view. Which was to say, we'd killed an awful lot of them.
We'd probably taken out at least ten. If Jeong Byeok-hyun's word held, there'd been roughly thirty left, so the rest had likely either holed up somewhere or died at the hands of some other righteous soul like us.
In this world, even terrorists had to account for civilian resistance. That was simply how it worked whenever you launched an attack in a hunter-verse setting.
“Nnngh, hhoo, hhoo….”
“Please don't get up, sir. You need to lie down and rest for now.”
“Th-thank you….”
With fewer people to handle, Kim Isabel finally had room to tend to the wounded. Thanks to the effects of the Suggestion she'd received from me, she didn't so much as hesitate to treat a man up close.
My own little Isabel treating other men stirred a flicker of jealousy, but she still seemed to feel desire only toward me, so it didn't matter.
Besides, now wasn't the time to fuss over such things—the closing event of the amusement park attack needed to proceed. Jo Jin-hyun, Black Moon's Field Commander. This event would end with the deaths of his three executive subordinates.
Jeong Byeok-hyun was already handled—he'd been taken care of in the ambush at the park entrance—so no concern there. As for Bang Hwa-cheol, if I just left him alone, Park Cheonho would presumably deal with him himself. Park Cheonho's ability was practically a direct counter to Bang Hwa-cheol's.
Setting aside the leader himself, only one remained: Kang Kal-jin. In a certain sense more dangerous than even Jo Jin-hyun—the main villain of this event.
He'll undoubtedly go after Han Sora, but I still have to plan for every possibility.
Kang Kal-jin's hobby was shredding beautiful women's faces to ribbons with his scissor-blade fingers.
In the original novel's Owlbear event, Kim Isabel had been wearing her veil, leaving Han Sora as the only person with a conspicuous face—but last time, I had entered the battle with Cha Eunju in Seo Woojin's place.
No matter how much of her face she hid behind that curtain of limp bangs, there was no denying Cha Eunju was a beauty, so it was entirely possible Kang Kal-jin might come for one of the two women—or both. I had to stay on guard without letting up.
“Whew…. Looks like we've taken down everything in sight, at least?”
“Almost no enemies left standing, but we should keep an eye on our surroundings anyway.”
“Seonho, you really never let your guard down until the very end, do you? You seemed unusually careful back during the Owlbear too.”
“That's the Support Department's job. If you lack combat power, you have to cover the gaps elsewhere.”
“That 'Support Department' talk again? The only reason everyone here can even fight like this, me included, is because of your buffs in the first place.”
“Fair, but that doesn't mean I get to slack off just because I've cast my buffs and called it a day. And not just in a situation like this—in dungeons, or when a Monster Wave hits, this is the kind of work that falls to the Combat Support member, who's got the most breathing room.”
“Keeping watch in every direction is something anyone can do, not just a Combat Support.”
“If anyone can do it, then the Combat Support should be the one doing it. In exchange, you, Eunju, and Isabel handle the things I can't.”
“Seriously, you're diligently responsible in the most pointless ways….”
In truth, I was dredging up every excuse in the book to prepare for Kang Kal-jin's attack. Watching a heroine get injured at an amusement park event I'd brought her to specifically to raise her favorability was not the development I wanted.
So there I was, scanning our surroundings for all I was worth, when a figure with a distinctly eye-catching appearance emerged from the crowd.
“Aaagh! S-save meee…!!”
Yellow hair, brown skin, and an appearance that was unsettling in some hard-to-name way.
The moment I spotted the tall man sprinting toward me and Han Sora, bleeding heavily from what looked like a gash on his arm, I racked the rifle in my hands.
“Are you alright?! That wound—”
“Aaagh, it hurts so bad I could die! Aaagh…!!”
“Hold on! I-Isabel! We've got a critical patient over—”
-TAANG!
“……Huh?”
At the gunshot that cracked out beside her, Han Sora stared at me for a moment with a stupified expression.
Then Cha Eunju's and Kim Isabel's heads turned toward me one after another, each wearing a rather flustered look.
“S-Seonho…?”
“…What just happened, if I may ask?”
“Hey, hold on…! What did you just do?!”
“Stiff yellow hair, brown skin, and huge height. That guy is Kang Kal-jin, the executive we heard about earlier.”
“R-really…?”
“What do you mean…? It could just be a coincidence…! And he came all the way here injured—how could he be a terrorist….”
It was a little frustrating, but there was nothing to be done about it. Real combat experience was built exactly this way.
Asking Han Sora, a mere academy freshman, to make a cold, decisive judgment was premature—but given the situation, I explained clearly and precisely why I had shot the man.
“Hey, Han Sora. Focus.”
“……Huh?”
“Have you seen a single one of the terrorists we've encountered so far carrying anything other than a gun? And that wound on his shoulder—anyone can see it's a cut, like from a blade.”
“…….”
“An unusual appearance stacked on top of that is suspicious enough, but then he comes rushing straight at us out of nowhere begging to be saved, and I shot him. If the wound carved into that man's body had been a bullet wound instead of a blade cut, maybe I'd have hesitated too.”
“B-but, what if he really was just a civilian….”
Han Sora showed her emotional turmoil through trembling eyes, still unable to fully commit to certainty.
Which was, frankly, a fine opportunity. A chance to teach her, still short on real combat experience, just how vile the tricks villains were willing to stoop to without a moment's hesitation.
Had Kang Kal-jin actually died from a single gunshot, she might never have shaken off the misunderstanding that he could have been an innocent—but the man was never a target that a mere bullet could kill in the first place.
“…Wow, sharp eyes there, huh~?”
“S-Seonho…! That man, he…!”
“…Surely, Mr. Lee Seonho aimed for the head, did he not…?”
“……Uh, uhh…….”
Three women reacting with bewilderment, doubt, and sheer disbelief.
By all rights, my single bullet should have pierced the man's forehead—but no such thing had happened. The slug lodged in Kang Kal-jin's brow had crumpled as though it had struck solid steel plate, unable to break through the bastard's skin.
“Hey, they bounced~! Every last one of them, come on out, you bastards~!”
-Rustle, rustle.
The instant Kang Kal-jin's voice rang out, five or six remaining organization members came springing out from behind the trees and vending machines.
The main event of this amusement park attack—the battle against Scissorhands Kang Kal-jin—had begun.