The Weight of a Child's Gaze
Even though talking with Seok-jun at the HHH Hunter Office had lifted her mood, the persistent stares still left Mina frowning in discomfort. No matter how young they were, the way their eyes crawled over her body felt just as disgusting as ever.
“Ugh, when I was in school, I don’t remember the delinquents being this blatant.”
She had heard vague rumors about violent cliques, but they had never been obvious about it, and she had rarely even crossed paths with them. She had never imagined they would roam around in packs like this, acting so arrogant. She had always thought that sort of thing only happened in movies or overseas.
“It’s a side effect of the increase in awakened individuals. Ever since the Gate Incident, adults started placing more importance on power. Why would kids be any different?”
When she examined their hair colors, every single one was a vivid, unnatural shade. They were all awakened, then. No wonder they were so brazen—they were relying on the fact that they possessed magic power. And they were right in the middle of that dangerous age bracket: second-year middle schoolers.
She didn’t think she would lose, but the problem wasn’t winning a fight.
“Mr. Seok-jun, what should we do? No matter what, they’re still kids…”
Even if she won, she was an active A-rank hunter, and the opponents were essentially snot-nosed brats. She had come to the school as a guest. If she caused an incident here, there was no telling what kind of rumors would spread.
“You stepping in directly would indeed be problematic, Miss Mina.”
—Rattle.
As Seok-jun answered her, she heard the sound of plastic being handled and turned to see him loading the BB pellets from the zip-lock bag he had bought at the stationery store into the magazine of the toy gun.
“Why are you suddenly loading that?”
“Using a real gun would be a bit much, wouldn’t it?”
“Even so, a BB gun isn’t suitable for self-defense!”
BB guns had caused quite a stir in the past, but they were absolutely not meant for self-defense.
“What are you two talking about that’s so fun?”
“Are you two dating? Ugh, what a waste of a pretty noona.”
“Stop hanging out with that beanpole and play with us instead. We know how to make a girl feel good, you know?”
“Ugh.”
Mina wondered how they could speak so crudely. Maybe middle schoolers really were just like that. By the time the five of them had swaggered right up and shoved their faces forward with shameless confidence, she was starting to feel genuine revulsion.
—Thwack!
A yellow BB pellet flew in and smacked the yellow-haired boy right in the forehead.
“What the hell!”
His pride wounded, he scowled fiercely and looked in the direction the pellet had come from. Sure enough, Seok-jun was aiming the distinctive orange muzzle of the toy gun at them.
“It’s surprisingly accurate at close range.”
“Pfft!”
Mina barely managed to hold back her laughter at his calm assessment of the toy gun’s performance. The yellow-haired boy must have thought she was mocking him, because his face twisted in rage.
“You son of a bitch!”
His face flushed bright red as he charged at Seok-jun without waiting for anyone to stop him.
“Ack!?”
—Thud!
He tripped over something and fell flat before he could even get close. Mina looked down and saw a rope-like object faintly disappearing. That explained why he had fallen. But—
—Thwack!
Another BB pellet struck the fallen boy in the head.
“Who do you think you’re—urk!?”
—Crack!
The boy was trembling as he scrambled to his feet and shouted, only for Seok-jun to slam the grip of the toy gun down on his head. It looked like the boy had headbutted the grip himself. He collapsed to the floor with a heavy thud, all his earlier bravado gone in an instant. Mina realized then that Seok-jun’s strength was exceptional even for a B-rank hunter. There were cases where B-rank hunters had outstanding physical abilities, so maybe that was it… but something still felt off. While she was still wondering—
“Fuck! Let’s all jump him!”
The boys who had approached Mina all turned and rushed Seok-jun at once. She moved to help him. Each of them had suddenly pulled out baseball bats, box cutters, or were floating small flames and stones above their palms. They were using their magic power without restraint.
Even if his strength was impressive, facing awakened kids with adult-sized builds might still be difficult. Or so she thought.
“They look flashy on the outside, but they’re too simple-minded.”
“Mmph! Mmph!”
She didn’t need to help after all. Before they could even reach Seok-jun, ropes had bound their feet, sending them all tumbling. And that wasn’t all—the ropes had even gagged their mouths.
—Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
“Mmph!! Mmphmmph!”
He casually fired BB pellets one after another at their bound heads, as if he were playing a game. Only then did Mina remember that he had taken down Gu Gang-woo yesterday as well. Her worry had been completely unnecessary. If he could defeat an A-rank hunter, a bunch of kids who had only just awakened were nothing.
“It’s not too bad, but it still lacks that satisfying impact.”
“You’re comparing it to what, exactly?”
Mina shook her head at the sight of him looking regretfully at the now-empty toy gun.
“But what do we do now? They started the fight, but they’re still students at this school. If this causes any trouble…”
“The recorder was running properly, so it will be ruled as self-defense.”
“Oh, right. We had the recorder.”
She usually only carried it when entering gates, so she hadn’t thought to use it in a situation like this.
“Then what will you do with these kids?”
“It would be annoying if they keep picking fights while we walk around the school. Let’s just knock them out.”
“Mmph!!”
—Crack! Crack! Crack!!
Seok-jun slammed the grip of the toy gun down on each of their heads, knocking them all unconscious, then released his magic power and walked away from the scene.
“Ah, it broke. I only just got it. What a shame.”
Because he had struck their heads with full force, the once-pristine toy gun now had a loose magazine and a grip that had split cleanly in half.
“If it was used to smash the heads of delinquent youths, didn’t it more than earn its keep?”
“Hehe, I suppose that’s true.”
They continued walking through the school. The sun was beginning to set, casting the hallways in the warm glow of dusk. Mina looked up at the man walking beside her. Beneath his cowboy hat, his murky teal eyes were unreadable. He noticed her gaze and turned to look at her.
“Did you have something to say?”
Just as Mina was struggling to find the right words for what she was thinking—
“Noona.”
“Oh? It’s you.”
Before she could speak, a girl with green hair came running up and called out to her. The small hand tugging insistently at her pant leg made Mina bend down to meet the girl’s eyes.
“What is it?”
“This.”
The girl handed her a sketchbook. When Mina took it, the child said, “I have a drawing assignment, but it’s too hard.”
“That’s… whoa!?”
She had been about to refuse, but a sudden wave of dizziness hit her. She staggered.
“Be careful.”
“Ah, th-thank you.”
Thankfully, Seok-jun caught her by the waist and kept her from falling.
“Agh, I really don’t know why my anemia is so bad today of all days.”
She gave an awkward smile, and he asked, “Will you be alright continuing like this?”
“Mm… I’d like to say there’s no problem, but this has never happened before.”
A hunter’s body was sturdy, so unless it was severe, health issues were rarely a concern. But today really did seem bad.
“I think I need to rest a little.”
“Then stay with this child. I’ll come get you once I’m finished.”
“Alright.”
Since things had turned out this way, Mina decided to help the girl with her homework.
“This wasn’t what I had in mind. I hope I’m not just getting in his way.”
As she walked with the green-haired girl toward the special class, Mina let out a small sigh. She was curious about his work, but an ill-timed bout of anemia had turned everything upside down.
“Noona!”
“Hello again.”
The moment they arrived at the special class, a boy greeted her warmly. While she was exchanging greetings, the green-haired girl placed her sketchbook on the floor and flopped down on her stomach.
“Are you going to draw while lying down?”
The girl tilted her head as if to ask what the problem was. With no other choice, Mina lay down beside her.
“Me too! I wanna do it too!”
“Oh my?!”
At the childish voice, she felt a weight settle on her backside. When she looked back, a boy was lying on top of her just like they were. The problem was that he had chosen to lie directly on top of her. And then she felt a blunt, suspicious pressure against her. She hoped it was just her imagination, but—
“Hey, you can’t just climb on top of people like that.”
“Why not?”
The boy looked up at her with an innocent, giggling face, completely clueless. There was something strangely familiar about that smile that made her feel uneasy, but she brushed it off as her imagination and gently scolded him.
“Because it makes it hard for the person underneath. Come down quickly.”
“Tch, fine.”
He obediently climbed off. Relieved, she turned back to help the girl—only to find her simply staring at Mina with the sketchbook open and nothing else.
“Do you have colored pencils—”
“Here, crayons!”
“Thank you.”
The boy immediately handed her a plastic case full of crayons. The moment she took it—
“Ugh!?”
A sharper pain than before stabbed through her head. She pressed a hand to her forehead, barely managing to keep from collapsing forward.
“Is today really that bad? No, this doesn’t feel like anemia…”
“Doesn’t it seem strange?”
“Mr. Seok-jun?”
With a scrape, the classroom door opened and Seok-jun walked in. Just as Mina was looking at him in confusion, she suddenly felt something brush against her chest and jerked backward in surprise.
“Huh? What?”
What she saw was the boy, his hands bound by ropes that had sprouted from the floor. He was squirming and whimpering, unable to move. The sensation she had felt against her chest had been the tips of his fingers.
“What is this…?”
While she stood there in a daze, the boy gave an awkward giggle.
“Hehe, you looked like you were about to fall, noona. I was trying to catch you.”
But Mina could no longer let her guard down at that smile. Because while it looked like the innocent grin of a child, it was mixed with the same kind of sly lewdness she had seen in those delinquents earlier. That was the true source of her unease.
“Ugh! Why won’t this come off!”
The boy grew frustrated that his hands wouldn’t move and started huffing angrily. When she looked at him, he switched back to that clumsy smile and said, “Noona, can you untie this for me?”
But Mina could not bring herself to approach him. It felt as if something that was not a child was merely imitating one, and that feeling weighed heavily on her.
The boy, deciding she wasn’t going to help, scowled again and glared at Seok-jun.
“Ugh! Ugh! It was you! You did this! Undo it right now!”
He shouted fiercely, throwing a tantrum, but Seok-jun simply looked down at him with an expressionless face. The boy’s breathing grew ragged with fury, and he screamed again.
“Get rid of that thing!”
“Okay.”
The one who answered was the green-haired girl sitting beside Mina. The moment she nodded, the door Seok-jun was standing on began to writhe.
“Mr. Seok-jun! Behind you!?”
It wasn’t just writhing—the wooden material of the door had come alive and was growing, stretching toward him like tentacles. Seok-jun paid it no mind and simply walked forward, placing a hand on the green-haired girl’s head as if stroking her.
“Ah.”
The growing wood stopped at once. The girl blinked as if coming back to her senses. Mina had suspected as much, but—
“What are you doing?! Get rid of it now!”
“I don’t want to.”
The girl spoke firmly, as if she had never obeyed the boy in the first place.
“Get rid of it! Get rid of it! Get riiiid of it!”
The boy grew even more hysterical. While Mina simply watched, Seok-jun finally spoke.
“So most of the incidents that occurred at this school were your doing after all.”
“Then the reason you came to this school, Mr. Seok-jun…?”
“Yes. I was commissioned to identify and remove the psychic-type awakened individual causing trouble.”
“Oh my god. So this child was…”
She shuddered at the realization that she had been treating the girl like an ordinary child without knowing any of this.
“But her hair color and eye color didn’t change at all?”
There was still one question left. Awakened people were supposed to have changes in hair or eye color, yet this girl showed none.
“If that were an absolute standard, how would they identify awakened individuals in Western countries?”
Now that she thought about it, plenty of Westerners had naturally colorful hair even without being awakened.
“There is one common misconception people have. They assume that children with intellectual disabilities are automatically kind.”
Mina closed her mouth. The truth was, she had been thinking something similar deep down.
“The boy used that very prejudice to evade the investigation net.”
“Hehe! Hurry up and untie me! You can’t take me in anyway! I heard it from the other kids!”
Mina realized with a start. That was right—common knowledge was that punishment was reduced for those who were very young or mentally underdeveloped.
—Click.
But.
“Huh?”
As if mocking that very fact, Seok-jun drew a gun from his holster.
“That applies to civilians. Awakened individuals are governed separately under hunter law.”
It wasn’t the toy gun he had gotten as a prize at the stationery store. It was a large revolver made of cold, gleaming metal.
“Because I’m the guy who hunts bastards like you.”
—BANG!