Neighborhood Patrol (2)
“Oooh…”
What the men pulled from their bags were cages made of steel.
With every cage they took out and stacked, the client let out a soft sound of admiration. Then they pressed their face right up against one of the steel cages and peered inside.
Sleeping within the cages were monsters.
Had they not been asleep, they would surely have attacked the client who had shoved their face so close to the bars.
Sickle weasels. Bomb-tail raccoon dogs. Shadow martens…
Even from a distance, spying in secret, Choi Yeon recognized the monsters at a glance.
They were the sort that appeared in the F- to E-rank dungeons around Daejeon, so he was well acquainted with them.
So it wasn’t human trafficking. It was black-market dealing in wild monsters.
“Hmm…”
“……”
Once all the cages were out, the men who had been standing apart eyed the client with clear unease.
They simply could not understand looking at monsters with such open fondness.
They tried to keep it hidden because this was the person paying them, but the feelings leaked out whether they meant them to or not.
Fortunately for them, the client was too absorbed in peering into the cages to spare the men a glance.
“Still, they’re all asleep, aren’t they?”
“We put them under with a sleeping fragrance we manufacture ourselves at Haedoreum Detective Agency. No side effects, so you needn’t worry.”
“Aha. I like the method.”
“Thank you.”
The man on the left answered carefully.
Even with praise, he couldn’t quite bring himself to sound fully grateful.
They had failed to meet the agreed quantity by today, after all.
Yet apologizing on top of that would only be asking for trouble. So the men followed the old saying that silence is golden.
Sssrk…
That was when it happened.
A scraping sound came from right under their feet.
“Ugh…!”
Wondering what it was, one of the men looked down—and nearly jumped out of his skin.
A green snake was slithering past his feet, heading straight for the client.
At the sight of it, the man let out a shrill cry.
“Ah—be careful!”
“It’s fine.”
The client, however, remained perfectly at ease.
They even stretched out a hand toward the snake that had crawled right up to their feet.
Sssrk, sssrk.
The snake climbed the right arm and soon wound itself snugly around the client’s neck.
The tail dangling down over the chest looked as natural as a single gathered lock of hair.
Saaah, saaaah!
The snake pressed its mouth to the client’s ear and hissed in a continuous stream.
It looked almost exactly as if it were speaking—
“Oh my. Is that so?”
—and the client answered, so it clearly wasn’t imagination.
Are they seriously talking right now? For real?
Leaving the men staring at each other in confusion, the client focused on the snake’s soft hissing.
Every so often they even answered with a quiet “Mm, I see.”
This went on for several dozen seconds.
When it had apparently finished saying everything it needed to, the snake closed its mouth.
“Heh heh.”
Suddenly the client laughed.
They turned their head and looked past the men’s shoulders.
Where their gaze landed was a pillar.
The very pillar Choi Yeon was hiding behind.
I’ve been found.
A voice floated over to the rueful Choi Yeon.
“Come out, uninvited guest. Or else they’ll attack, you know?”
Haa…
Choi Yeon let out a sigh and thought.
There were three things he could do from here.
One: come out quietly.
Two: come out attacking.
Three: just run for it as he was.
As a private individual, Choi Yeon’s choice would have been the third without a second thought.
The best policy with anything that looked certain to become a hassle was to get as far away from it as possible.
Unfortunately, Choi Yeon was a Dongdae Hunter.
He was the sort of person the government hired specifically to handle annoying work like this.
Simply bolting was not an option, so he decided to leave the pillar.
Naturally, it would not be by the first method.
It wasn’t as if they were going to slap the cuffs on themselves, was it?
Choi Yeon drew throwing daggers from inside his clothes and came out while flinging them.
Thuk! Thwuk!
The daggers streaked through the air and sank into flesh with wet sounds.
“Aagh…!”
“Urgh…!”
But there were only two screams.
The remaining dagger failed to reach its mark—caught in the snake’s jaws.
Crunch crunch, gulp!
The snake chewed the dagger up and swallowed it.
Watching the client merely gaze at the act with affection and make no move to stop it, Choi Yeon guessed this sort of thing happened often.
And that the snake’s stomach would probably be fine.
Is that thing not a snake but a monster?
Choi Yeon halted the attack he had been about to continue.
Blindly attacking a monster of unknown identity would get him nowhere.
Figuring out exactly what that snake was had to come first.
Just as he reached that conclusion—
the snake whispered into the client’s ear again, same as before.
Saaah, saaaah.
“Oh my. Was that so? Is your tummy all right?”
Worry bloomed across the client’s face.
The snake nodded its head.
“Good. That’s a relief.”
Sssk, sssk.
After stroking under the snake’s chin, the client looked down at the men.
Sprawled on the ground, they could only clutch at the daggers embedded in their bodies and groan in pain.
Attacked, yet they neither counterattacked nor pulled the daggers free nor treated their wounds.
That was not the behavior of men who had once been hunters, even if they had since lost their licenses.
In other words, there was a reason they couldn’t even manage their own bodies.
And that reason was—
“This is the first time I’ve seen a Dongdae Hunter who uses weapons coated in paralytic poison. Ah—you are a Dongdae Hunter, right? Mr. Squinty Eyes.”
“…Dongdae Hunter Choi Yeon.”
Choi Yeon answered readily enough.
It wasn’t exactly information worth hiding. Anyone could check it on the Dongdae homepage.
“Nice to meet you. I’m… hmm, a Trainer. My name is a secret, though?”
“Yeah, I figured as much.”
He hadn’t expected otherwise.
Would a criminal caught red-handed at the scene of a crime meekly give their name?
He would have been more surprised if they had.
Is this one a few cards short of a full deck? he would have thought.
“This is awkward…. Honestly, I’d rather avoid unnecessary fighting.”
“Then how about coming along to the Dongdae with me? If you turn yourself in, there’s room for leniency. If you’ve got a prior record it might be a different story, but… you don’t, do you?”
“Haha.”
The Trainer gave a short laugh.
The smile was bright and clear, yet it carried an unmistakable refusal.
“How about this? I’ll take these children and leave quietly. I’ll even promise never to come back.”
“And I’m just supposed to pretend I never saw anything?”
“Exactly.”
“Honestly it’s tempting, but if I did that the Dongdae Chief would chew me out, so I have to decline. I’d also have to write a self-reflection report disguised as an incident report.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“Mm. Then there’s nothing for it.”
I’ll just have to thrash him and leave.
The androgynous voice rang out beneath Hyeonam Bridge.
The snake coiled around the Trainer’s neck began to unwind its body.
With every loop that came free it sped up, until it looked like the spinning blade of a chainsaw.
That alone would have been startling enough—but it wasn’t the end.
The snake’s body grew.
Like something that had been compressed suddenly expanding back to its true size, it lengthened until it could reach the spot where Choi Yeon, who had just drawn a dagger, was standing.
Wham!
A log-like tail smashed into Choi Yeon’s body.
He was sent flying helplessly, but he still reacted.
In that split second he kicked off hard in the same direction the tail was flinging him.
It was late, but it was the best he could do—and refusing to give up paid off.
Without panicking he pulled a capsule from the holster at his waist. He immediately pressed the button on the oval capsule.
Piiing, pak!
A wire shot out from one end of the capsule like an arrow.
The tip embedded itself in a concrete pier and flared open like tree roots, locking in place. The wire went taut and changed the direction Choi Yeon was flying.
He ricocheted off the nearest pillar, then again off the next.
And just like that, the Choi Yeon who had been sent flying by the snake’s tail was now charging straight at the Trainer instead.
Releasing the wire, Choi Yeon lunged with the dagger.
“……!”
The Trainer stared at him in shock.
They remained standing still, yet Choi Yeon’s attack never reached them—because the snake’s tail had already come in and struck the dagger aside.
Saaaah!
The tail that had been swung out came rushing at Choi Yeon once more.
“Oh…”
The Trainer let out a small sound of admiration.
Watching the Dongdae Hunter dodge their partner’s attacks left them more than a little surprised.
A scrape along the cheek, a graze across the thigh—but compared to being smashed flying at the start, it was excellent work.
And that was not even the end of it.
As the exchange of blows continued, the partner’s tail made less and less contact. Bit by bit, the hunter seemed to be getting used to it.
At this rate he might stop at mere evasion and start counterattacking.
As the Dongdae Hunter’s movements grew as fluid as flowing water, the thought even crossed their mind.
Am I overthinking it?
“……”
The words to deny it would not come easily.
Because by now the partner’s attacks were not touching the Dongdae Hunter’s body at all.
Strange. This is far too strange.
“…Stop.”
The snake halted at once. It slithered back toward its master in lazy undulations.
Choi Yeon caught his breath and watched it go.
He considered attacking, then abandoned the idea.
Simply dodging had already been hard enough. Now that he finally had a moment to breathe, there was no need to go thrashing through the undergrowth and stir up the snake again for nothing.
“Hmm…”
Tap, tap.
The Trainer folded their arms and tapped a forefinger against their lower lip. They looked deep in thought.
Stopping the snake?
Caught off guard by the unexpected opening, Choi Yeon reached into his clothes for a throwing dagger—then stopped.
Unlike its master, the giant snake was staring fixedly at him.
Throwing a dagger would only turn it into the snake’s next snack.
Even the paralytic on the blades hadn’t worked, had it?
“…No matter how I look at it, this is strange.”
The previously quiet Trainer opened their mouth.
The finger still tapping their lower lip suggested the thinking was not finished.
“Those detective agency gentlemen told me the Dongdae Hunters around here were incompetent, you see.”
What was that?
Anger flared; Choi Yeon’s eyes twitched at the corners.
Seeing him glare at the men still sprawled on the ground, the Trainer laughed softly.
“I looked into it just in case, and sure enough, the nickname is ‘the Incompetent Dongdae,’ isn’t it? Something about being called that ever since they failed to dissolve a certain vigilante group…. Is that right?”
“Nnngh…”
Choi Yeon answered with a pained groan instead of words. He hadn’t affirmed it, but it might as well have been affirmation.
“That’s why I gave the job to them instead of Amhyanghoe or Jeokryeohui—the ones supposed to be the best in Chungcheong—and why I arranged the meet at this hour instead of at night…. And yet here I am, caught red-handed. By—”
Tuk.
The Trainer’s forefinger pointed straight at Choi Yeon.
“—for some reason, a hunter as skilled as you, Mr. Choi Yeon.”
“Skilled? I have no idea how you arrive at that assessment. All I did was get spotted while tailing them, fail an attack, get smashed flying by your partner, and scramble back. You saw me scrambling just to dodge until a moment ago, didn’t you?”
“Oh my, how fascinating. When you put it that way it really does sound incompetent. But you and I both know that isn’t the truth, don’t we?”
“Do we? I’m not so sure.”
“Heh heh.”
The Trainer laughed and stepped forward.
At the clear intention to face him personally, Choi Yeon’s expression twisted.
I had a feeling it would come to this…
Then, in that very moment—
“……?”
The Trainer’s gaze left Choi Yeon.
All composure vanished; their eyes flew wide, staring into the distance.
Saaaah! The snake cried out loudly.
He couldn’t understand the words, but Choi Yeon knew why the snake was making that sound.
It was a warning.
Something—something dangerous—was coming this way.
“Aha. No wonder you were only dodging. You already called for backup, didn’t you?”
The Trainer looked back at Choi Yeon.
Given the situation, if someone was approaching this place, it was only natural to assume it was one of Choi Yeon’s colleagues.
The truth was, he hadn’t called anyone.
He’d been discovered while hiding behind the pillar and never had time to make contact.
Even so, Choi Yeon did not doubt for a second.
He knew exactly how Dongdae Chief Kim Jaesang and Choi Heeseok would act when reports from the man who was supposed to be tailing the suspects suddenly stopped.
Instead of confessing the truth, Choi Yeon simply shrugged. He even put on a smile that looked plausible enough.
“Really now… who on earth came up with that ‘incompetent Dongdae’ label…”
“……”
“Haa…. Nothing for it, then.”
The Trainer shook their head from side to side.
Then they hopped lightly up onto the snake’s back.
The neatly stacked steel cages were left behind without a second glance.
“I’ll cleanly give up this time. See you next time, Mr. Choi Yeon.”
“Only if you’re turning yourself in.”
“You’re such a tease!”
With those parting words the Trainer left Hyeonam Bridge.
The snake’s enormous body sprang forward as if flying; in an instant it was far away and small in the distance.
“…There’s no way I can catch that.”
Choi Yeon muttered in a blank voice. His words, still quietly echoing around him, were—
KWAANG!
—scattered by someone who had just leapt down onto Hyeonam Bridge.
The undisputed ace of Seonhwa Dongdae. A twenty-seven-year veteran.
B-class Hunter Choi Heeseok.
“If it were me, see—”
With a massive horn slung over his right shoulder, Choi Heeseok broke into a full run at once.
Without so much as a glance back, he raced away; in moments his figure shrank and vanished from sight.
“Well then…”
Choi Yeon turned around.
He sheathed the dagger in his hand and drew a throwing dagger instead. Facing the men still unable to shake off the paralysis, he said:
“Shall we have a nice, leisurely chat?”
The blade of the throwing dagger gleamed with a cold, vicious light.
Or perhaps it was the paralytic smeared along the edge that made it shine.
Or perhaps it wasn’t a paralytic at all, but some other drug entirely…