ep13. Where Blood Rains (11)
There are moments when you feel it — this is what it was all for.
When, having endured without ever knowing why you existed, you finally stumble upon a sentence.
When a cold, ancient hatred melts away without reason beneath the dawn light.
When you watch others step into the same despair you barely crawled out of.
I thought: ah, so this moment was the point.
All of it — every last thing — was foreshadowing laid down for this story.
Squelch—!
A sensation of stepping on empty air rose up from beneath my feet.
It was an absurd way to describe it, but there was no other way to put it into words. The moment I crossed the crack, a world of indescribable texture opened up to greet me.
Gravity that felt strangely off-kilter. Air carrying an odd character that was neither fragrance nor stench. Paths and corridors that failed to properly reflect light, their very existence questionable.
Conscious of all these unfamiliar sensations, I followed Cha Si-eon.
Just as he'd said, the inside of the crack was tangled like a maze. But Cha Si-eon, who had walked this route before, navigated it without a single hitch.
About five minutes must have passed before he switched off his searchlight. Light began leaking in from beyond a corridor that bent out of sight.
Here. The target.
Cha Si-eon signed. I gave a single nod to show I understood.
Our plan was simple. Once Cha Si-eon drew the Big Cat's attention, I would scoop up the fragments and run.
There was no need to fight the thing to tear pieces from its body. Picking up what had already fallen to the floor was enough. That was possible because the Big Cat was already in a complete wreck of a state.
Why had it ended up like this? Why was it trapped somewhere like this instead of its own territory? I had no idea. I couldn't begin to guess the circumstances — but one thing was certain: this was a chance that would never come again. A chance we could neither wait out nor walk away from.
Which is why I couldn't help thinking it — wasn't everything that had swept me up so suddenly leading to this very moment?
Yes, an overly romantic delusion. I knew that. And yet, somehow, I had a feeling it would all work out. Grab the fragments, return safely, stop the special zones from operating. If I could end this interminable fight, I'd gladly submit a written apology to the god I'd been cursing all this time.
Test.
Cha Si-eon signed again. It meant: get yourself accustomed to the real thing first. This was a mandatory step for agents facing the Big Cat for the first time before deployment.
I nodded and searched the space beyond the corridor for the Big Cat with my eyes.
In that instant, my overflowing hope became despair.
It was — war made flesh. The bastard child of dominion and death. A dictator wielding its father's authority. An executioner borrowing its mother's breath.
SMACK—!
"……."
The slap snapped me back to my senses. At some point I'd been dragged back into the depths of the corridor, and standing before me was Cha Si-eon, the hand that had just struck my cheek still raised.
Breathe.
Only then did I realize I had stopped breathing. I forced my lungs to expand and sucked in air. After a few deep breaths, my mind finally returned.
You all right?
I nodded and wiped my face. I'd only looked at it, and it felt like my skull had been raked open. The pressure was nothing like what I'd felt the first time I laid eyes on a Hazard Entity at the Railway Station or the Hospital. I'd heard plenty about a first encounter with the Big Cat, but I never imagined it would be like this.
Once my heart had settled, I signed to Cha Si-eon.
I'm fine. Again. Test.
This time Cha Si-eon nodded, and I stuck my head back out toward the corridor's mouth.
"……."
Perhaps because the initial shock had worn off, this time I could examine it with a clear head.
Beyond the corridor lay a space about the size of a school auditorium. Unlike the pitch-black passage we'd come through, it was reasonably lit — and so I saw it, fully and completely. The wounded, fallen Big Cat.
Its crouched body was a little larger than a one-ton truck. A dense thicket of bone jutted up through its hide like iron plating, and at a glance the thing looked impressively built. But look closer, and beneath that armor you could see a body so gaunt it was almost offensive. Its flesh was slick and seamless, impossible to tell whether a layer of skin had been peeled off or whether its insides and outsides had been swapped. Hairless, glossy hide crisscrossed with blood vessels tangled like electrical wiring — the whole thing resembled a science-lab specimen turned inside out.
If that were all, the skinned thing would merely have been repulsive. But bones had punched out from within and twisted its entire frame into a chaotic jumble. Laid flat, the bones resembled a serpent's scales; standing on end, they looked like a hedgehog's spines — except their wildly inconsistent sizes and lengths kept either arrangement from ever being harmonious.
And of course, the least harmonious thing of all was its face — impossible to say whether it wore a mask or whether its bare skull had been exposed.
Why had they named it the Big Cat? The skull protruding outward like ears. The thickly folded haunches. The sharp claws sprouting from its toes. Those were cat-like, sure — but that was all. Not a single one of a cat's charms. The thing had none of them.
The entity's original name had been the Skinned Beast. That straightforward name hadn't lasted long. Announcing it to the public was pointless — survival rates on first contact were zero regardless. Worse, the Bureau's own agents feared the Skinned Beast. So the name was changed. So that agents would face it with contempt rather than dread. Big Cat — the cutesy name was a deliberate insult, a way of talking the thing down.
"……."
Staring at the Big Cat made me want to break down wailing. I wasn't joking — a few more seconds of this and I genuinely thought the tears would come. So I withdrew back into the corridor and worked on my breathing.
Good. You're doing well.
Cha Si-eon encouraged me. But I was in too much agony for courage to come easily.
Give me time.Three minutes.
He answered my sign with a three-minute grace period. I was grateful for every one of them as I breathed deep and slow. Just looking at the thing eroded my sanity — what kind of monster was it, really? I understood now why Cha Si-eon had tried to shake me loose before it even showed itself. He knew. He knew what that thing did to anyone seeing it for the first time: knocked the mind clean out of them.
Part of me wanted to lose consciousness right there, but that wasn't an option. If I let this chance slip, everything slid back into fog and uncertainty. When the Island Where Blood Rains vanished, the Big Cat would vanish with it. Granted, if this was some uniquely special specimen, it might resurface in some form or another — but that was pure speculation. Even if it did reappear, tracking it down again and testing the fragment's effect would be a distant, tangled affair. So right now, there was nothing to do but steel myself and get it done.
I smothered the churn in my stomach and opened my eyes. Then, for the third time, I faced the Big Cat.
Had I built up a tolerance in the meantime? My breathing no longer shook. My eyes no longer burned.
But—
Gulp.
"……?"
Mid-stare, I swallowed, loud and hard. For some reason, my mouth had filled with saliva.
A reaction I couldn't explain even to myself. In any case, the fear was completely gone.
Having confirmed I'd adapted, I came back and signed.
Ready.
Cha Si-eon nodded.
I go in first. When you hear the third gunshot, come in.
He gave the brief order, and I started to nod — then stopped. Cha Si-eon looked at me as if to ask what was the matter. I thought for a moment, then held out my hand to him. Then, with my other hand, I signed.
Good luck.
Unlike me, who only had to grab the fragments and run, Cha Si-eon had to lure the Big Cat and hold it off — and buy time. A situation where he might well die. I wanted to honor that, in my own way.
But this guy. Why was he just staring at me like that?
Cha Si-eon held the gaze until I started feeling awkward, then snorted with insolent disdain. Then he slapped my outstretched palm flat and simply walked past me. As if to say: worry about yourself.
Seriously, what is this guy's problem?
Fine. I know you're amazing. So keep being amazing — alive.
Cha Si-eon entered the space where the Big Cat waited, body low. Almost simultaneously came the grinding scrape of bone on bone. The Big Cat had registered his presence and reacted.
BANG—!
The first gunshot.
Keegigidididid—!
That grotesque cry rang out in answer. Was it my imagination? Something about the sound felt familiar.
TAANG—!
The second gunshot cracked through the air. I steadied my breath and scanned the situation outside. Cha Si-eon had been driven toward a corner of the space — no, driven was wrong. He'd lured it there. The Big Cat chasing him had pulled far from its original position, and the spot it had abandoned was now a traffic-accident scene of scattered debris, fragments shaped like shattered bumpers strewn everywhere.
Giiiiik—!
The Big Cat swung its forepaw at Cha Si-eon, cornered against the wall. He rolled clear of the blow, then plunged straight beneath its legs and drove a knife up into the gap between its armor-plate ribs. Startled, the Big Cat sprang back — then reared its head high, lashing its whip-like tail in a fit of fury.
Kirik— gikgikgik—!
With a sound like a wound-up spring, the Big Cat's skeletal frame swelled at once. The thing ballooned to enormous size and began to glow, bright as a swallowed lightbulb.
I braced for the shock and ducked back into the corridor.
KWAAANG—! WHAM—! WHAM—! Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa—!
Roar after roar, explosion after explosion. It was Fire Spitting — one of the Big Cat's attack patterns.
Even with the wall between us, the impact was brutal. The violent vibration passing through my body turned my stomach inside out. Clamping a hand over my mouth against the rising nausea, I forced the retch down and looked out again — into a hopeless sight.
Fire spat by the Big Cat burned scattered across the ground on all sides, and above it rose a thick, dense curtain of black smoke. Through that acrid haze, all I could see was the Big Cat's hideous silhouette.
I couldn't find Cha Si-eon.
What happened to him? Was he alive? He had to be. Don't you dare die, you bastard!
My heart hammering, I searched for any trace of Cha Si-eon. And then—
TAANG—!
The third gunshot.
You're alive after all, you son of a bitch!
Relieved that Cha Si-eon was still breathing, I burst out of the corridor. The smoke had narrowed visibility to almost nothing, but it didn't matter. I'd already confirmed the direction and the distance.
I sprinted — and in one motion, snatched up the Big Cat's fragment lying on the ground.