The World Is Not Equal

The world was not equal.

Your country, your family's circumstances, your parents, your face—so many things were decided the instant you were born. Some of them might improve with enough effort or luck afterward. But there was one thing that no amount of desperate struggling could ever change.

The Core.

In movies and anime they called it "psychic power" or "superhuman ability." Awakened who possessed a Core showed extraordinary talent across countless fields—artistic sense, athleticism, all five senses sharpened far beyond human norms, memory that never let go.

And for beings like them, an educational facility had been prepared: National Gaon Special Academy.

It was an escalator school, running unbroken from the elementary division all the way up through high school. It was no exaggeration to say that more than half of Korea's Awakened had come out of that place.

...All except one person.

"Miss Jiwoo, are you listening?"

Sunlight poured down through the wide living room. A woman with a textbook spread open on the glass coffee table glanced over at the girl sitting beside her.

Dark blue-black hair that fell to her waist. Sunken, water-blue eyes. A girl with a strangely calm presence for someone her age—far too composed to call a teenager.

Seol Jiwoo. Sixteen years old. An Awakened.

She was the mistress of this sprawling mansion, and she should have been in the middle of her Awakened school years right now. The woman, Yoon Soyoung, was her private tutor.

"Let's stop math here for today... Have you finished the homework I gave you yesterday?"

"Done."

Jiwoo turned her head. She seemed to be rummaging through her bag—but she wasn't.

"Oh, I must have left it in my room."

The moment she gave a small flick of her finger toward the hallway—

Fwoosh—

A textbook floated up into the air, sailed over the open bedroom door, and came gliding into the living room. It settled lightly onto Jiwoo's open palm like a living bird returning to its perch.

Magic? Sorcery? No. It was Seol Jiwoo's Core—Psychokinesis.

"Miss... I told you to avoid using your Core in your day-to-day life whenever possible."

"Ah, sorry. It just happens."

She apologized, but honestly, it couldn't be helped. Being able to pick things up without touching them—how convenient was that? How was anyone supposed to live without using it?

As if she'd read Jiwoo's mind, Soyoung let out a small sigh. And at that exact moment—

"...!"

The news anchor's voice came from the enormous TV covering the wall, and Jiwoo ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and Soyoung's gazes were drawn to it in spite of themselves.

The Abyss.

It was an unidentified hole that had appeared in countries all across the modern world. Born one day without any warning, it had rewritten human history in a single stroke. Monsters straight out of a movie screen. Mysterious viruses that modern medicine couldn't cure. Every imaginable calamity had poured out of the Abyss.

It was around that time that "Awakened" who wielded Cores began to appear, too. Among those who graduated from the special academies, the ones carrying suitable Cores were given the duty of purifying the Abyss itself—the so-called Purification Squads. Elite Awakened ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who eliminated threats on the very front line.

Thanks to them, humanity had managed some kind of coexistence with the Abyss so far... but lately, backflows like the one on the news had been growing disturbingly frequent.

"Truly the end of days, isn't it. The end of days."

Soyoung murmured, staring gravely at the screen. And at that exact moment—

"Soyoung."

"Yes, Miss?"

"Do you think Jihyo's all right?"

Jihyo. At that name, Soyoung's eyes drifted naturally away from the TV. Jiwoo's profile, still facing the screen, had gone dark.

Seol Jihyo was Jiwoo's identical twin sister—her younger twin. While Jiwoo was homeschooled here at the mansion, Jihyo lived an entirely different life. At the very least, Jihyo was openly enrolled at National Gaon Special Academy as an Awakened.

Why worry about her all of a sudden, though? Because there were exactly three places in all of South Korea where an Abyss existed.

Cheongwadae. Jeju Island. And...

National Gaon Special Academy.

The Abyss existed inside that special school where Jiwoo's twin sister Jihyo attended, too.

"Oh, come now. What could possibly happen? That's a school where only the finest Awakened seeds in the country are gathered—there's no need to worry."

"...I suppose not."

"Of course not. And next week the holidays start anyway, so Miss Jihyo will be coming back here."

At those words, Jiwoo's expression brightened a little. That's right. Next week was when her sister would finally come home.

It's only during the holidays that I get to see her face at all.

Jihyo attended the special academy. Jiwoo was homeschooled at the mansion. Though the two had been born on the very same day, the reasons they had ended up living such utterly different lives were many.

Unlike her little sister, who had been born healthy and strong, Jiwoo had been whisked off to an incubator the moment her umbilical cord was cut. She'd even been handed what amounted to a time limit—she wasn't expected to survive ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her first twenty-four hours.

The reason was that Jiwoo's Core was dangerously unstable. One moment of carelessness and it would surge into a berserk episode, convulsions following close behind. She might have been better off born an ordinary person—because as an Awakened, her body simply couldn't bear the weight of its own Core.

Then there were the rather complicated circumstances of the family layered on top of that...

In the end, unlike every other Awakened, Jiwoo hadn't even been able to enroll at the special academy. She simply stayed home.

But it was fine. Every single holiday, Jihyo came to see her.

...I can't wait.

That movie they'd talked about over summer break—it had finally hit the streaming service. She'd ask Jihyo to watch it with her. And she'd dig out the snacks she'd been saving for just this occasion. They'd eat them together.

And so Jiwoo waited, and waited, for the day her sister would come.

......But no matter how long she waited, Jihyo never came.

A sense of creeping dread took hold of her. And a bad feeling, as it always did, proved right.

"...An accident?"

Her heart plummeted with a sickening lurch. Soyoung, visiting the mansion for the first time in a while, had brought not a lesson but the worst possible news.

"It's... it seems Miss Jihyo was in an accident, during a practical training class at school."

Jihyo's Core was Regeneration. Because of it, minor wounds closed up almost instantly—even a broken bone would knit itself back together cleanly within a few days.

That child had been in an accident. Which meant it had been severe enough that even her regeneration couldn't keep pace. And it had happened at school, of all places.

"Tell me exactly what happened. An accident—what kind of accident?"

"About that... I think it would be better for you to see for yourself than to hear it from me."

Soyoung held something out.

A red memory card. No manufacturer's name, no capacity printed on its surface. Jiwoo knew it was no ordinary memory card.

"It's a copy of Miss Jihyo's memories."

Soyoung's Core was Psychometry. Through physical contact, she could read a person's memories—and she could store what she read onto a memory card like this one.

"I made contact with Miss Jihyo in secret while she was being transferred back to the main estate. Please steady yourself first, Miss... and when you're ready, take a look."

"......"

Jiwoo carried the memory card into her room.

Every part of her wanted to throw caution aside—to forget the card, tear out of this house, and rush straight to Jihyo at the main estate. But...

The Chairman of Seolhwa Pharmaceuticals. And the twins' paternal grandfather. As long as that man was at the main estate, Jiwoo could not go to Jihyo. No—she couldn't take so much as a single step beyond this mansion.

...Jihyo is hurt, and I can't do anything at all.

Rage boiled up through the helplessness. And yet, there was nothing she could do.

Jiwoo stayed curled up on the floor of her room the entire day, neither eating nor sleeping. It was only when the following evening came that she seemed to finally make up her mind, closing her hand around the memory card.

I should at least look at this.

It was the only thing she could do right now.

The room was pitch dark. She slotted the card into the reader, and the pale blue glow of her laptop washed faintly over the darkness. Under the low whir of the spinning drive—

The first thing that appeared was a black screen.

...What is this?

She'd expected to see everything from Jihyo's first-person point of view, since it was her memory—but apparently not. It looked more like footage shot from a CCTV camera. And even that was heavily blurred, as if the memory itself had sustained severe damage.

She scrutinized the screen. In a dark space where not a single ray of light entered, someone with disheveled hair was crying.

──There was no way she couldn't recognize her.

It was Jihyo. Her sister.

But then... why was she crying in a place this dark? Where was this? A storage room? A bathroom? Or...

the Abyss?

A terrible premonition crawled up Jiwoo's spine. Her ragged breathing slipped out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠between clenched teeth, trembling.

And then—static crackled, and the screen changed at blinding speed.

"KYAAAAH...!"

Together with her twin sister's scream.