Voyage
“Hey, student! That way’s restricted—you can’t go in there...”
“Sorry. I’ll just step inside for a moment and be right out.”
Thud—!
“Ghk...!”
The black-haired woman in a short bob struck the facility manager who had barred her path across the back of the neck, dropping him cold, then strode straight into the engine room.
Inside, two crewmen in ordinary sailor uniforms looked up the instant they spotted her and tilted their heads in confusion.
“What the hell? Didn’t they stop her outside?”
“That idiot’s dozing off again, isn’t he?”
“Listen, kid. This is a restricted area—authorized personnel only. If you want to play around, go hit the concert hall up on deck...”
“Sorry, but I already know exactly what you’re doing.”
“What?”
At her single calm sentence the men’s faces hardened.
“You just said—”
“I said I know. You’re trying to plant bombs in the engine room. Did you really think no one would notice?”
“You... you’d better be ready to take responsibility for those words.”
“Responsibility? Spare me. Just hand over the detonator while I’m still being nice. Do that and I’ll at least make sure you die without too much pain.”
“You crazy bitch...!”
“I’ll take that as a no.”
One of the men yanked a pistol from his coat and fired at the woman standing right in front of him.
Bang—!
The heavy report of the shot rolled through the room. He never doubted for a second that the single round would blow her skull apart.
What appeared before his eyes instead was a sight he could scarcely believe even as he watched it.
“If you thought a handgun would be enough to stop me, you were badly mistaken.”
“Insane...! You think cutting a bullet with a sword makes any damn sense?!”
“I just showed you, and you still don’t believe it? Fine. I’ll make you believe.”
She spun the curved saber in her hand once through the air—then vanished.
In the space of a heartbeat she was gone, and the two men plunged into panic.
What the—where’d she go?
They swept their muzzles wildly around the room, exchanging frantic glances, and quietly reached for the radios in their coats to report the attack to their organization.
The very instant their fingers closed on the handsets—
“G-gahhhh!”
The left hand of the man pulling out his radio sprayed blood as it was severed clean off.
“I’m not finished yet.”
“You son of a bitch!”
They squeezed their triggers at the woman who had appeared from nowhere, yet not a single pistol round found her. If she had thrown up a barrier like other ability users it might have been different, but she simply slipped past every bullet with an almost casual, uncanny grace.
Crunch—!
In the next breath her fist closed the distance and smashed into one man’s face, caving his nose completely.
Seeing his partner collapse in a spray of blood, the remaining man’s voice shook violently.
“U-uhhh...”
“So. Is that all you’ve got?”
“Y-you stupid bitch...!”
Even with terror written across his face he forced out a sneer and raised the detonator he had kept hidden in his coat.
“One click and the entire engine room goes up in flames...! Once the fire starts it’ll chain-react and take the whole ship with it! If it’s come to this, we die together!”
He screamed the words and jammed his thumb down on the button.
Nothing happened.
“W-why isn’t it—”
“Looks like that’s the end of it.”
“W-wait! Why isn’t the detonator—”
“You never had a chance from the moment I used my ability.”
She sliced the detonator he still clutched and held up the clean cross-section. The interior was sheathed in ice; tiny icicles had punched straight through the electronics, reducing the device to half-ruined scrap.
“Th-that’s impossible...!”
Even as he spoke he felt the temperature around them plummet. White breath fogged from his lips, and a piercing chill slipped through the thick fabric of his crew uniform.
“Ha... haha...”
“If you’ve got nothing left to say, then goodbye. I’ll take care of that god of yours for you.”
Slash—!
The man’s head hit the floor.
She stood over the two corpses, let out a single quiet sigh, and changed clothes. Once the bloodstained garments were gone she looked for all the world like a handsome young nobleman.
“First, recover the bombs...”
She collected the remote-controlled explosives that had been stuck in a corner of the engine room and slipped them into her bag. Devices built to destroy the ship would now be used to protect it.
“And the bodies still need dealing with...”
That part was a mild headache. The engine room sat at the very bottom of the vessel; hauling corpses up through the decks carried a high risk of being seen.
“Well, no choice. There’s one small catch, but...”
She drew a pocket watch from her coat and checked the remaining time. The large dial with its hour, minute, and second hands meshed with a smaller circle marked for thirty days. Yet the time it showed bore no relation to reality. As if it followed some private standard of its own, the watch stood completely still.
“Three days, eighteen hours, thirty-seven minutes... I’ve burned through quite a bit.”
She had thought she was being thrifty with it, but the recent incident had eaten far too much of her spare time. For a while she would have to keep use of the watch to an absolute minimum.
With that thought she turned the hands.
The bodies on the floor dissolved into golden motes of light and sank into the pocket watch. The sight was almost beautiful, yet she watched it with a blank expression. She had witnessed far worse at least a few hundred times already.
Only when every last corpse had become golden dust and been absorbed did the watch begin to tick again. It ran for a brief moment, then stopped once more. She checked the minute hand and exhaled.
“Thirty-seven seconds? That’s stingy. You could’ve given me a full minute.”
She grumbled at the watch, but of course it could not answer. In the end she simply slipped it back into her coat and left the engine room.
“Hmm... let’s see... next is the deck, right?”
She had to keep moving without rest. The four days she had been given were not free.
Prepare.
Prepare to meet the distant enemy who would come on a storm-lashed night, leading the armies of the deep.
I sat up in bed and checked the time at once.
Eight in the morning.
I had only managed to fall asleep past four the night before, so my body had every right to feel wrecked—yet Darwin’s super-regeneration and overflowing vitality kept me in peak condition. Waking without dizziness or the drag of sleep debt felt better than I could have imagined.
I washed my face, changed clothes, and clipped on the nearby earring.
Good morning.
“Yeah~ good morning. Anything to report?”
Last night there was a small-scale terrorist incident at Incheon Port...
“That kind of thing happens all the time.”
Nothing else.
“Good. Then let’s head out.”
I left the cabin and made for the dining hall. Passengers were already eating breakfast. I claimed a seat and was about to start my own meal when a familiar face caught my eye.
“Oh? We meet again.”
“...Good morning.”
Black hair, black eyes, and that half-dead look. She was the spitting image of the person I had seen last night.
“Last time you were muttering nonsense. Looks like whatever ‘thing you had to do’ got sorted out?”
“It’s still ongoing.”
“Hmm...”
I looked her over carefully the moment we met. Still dressed as a man—so she really was trying to hide her identity. The dark circles under her eyes had grown deeper, too.
Did she pull an all-nighter like me?
She clearly hadn’t slept properly. An ordinary person might have chalked it up to seasickness, but I saw something else.
That’s... the smell of blood...
Faint, but unmistakable. Human blood. Darwin’s razor-sharp sense of smell had picked up the residual scent even after she had washed most of it away.
“Interesting...”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing. By the way, how about we introduce ourselves properly? Last time we never even exchanged names.”
“Ah... I’m Yeon-woo.”
“Yeon-woo? That’s your given name?”
“Yes. Family name Lee, given name Yeon-woo.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Seo-hyun. Oh, and is it okay if I speak casually?”
“Y-yes? O-of course.”
“Great. Let’s get along.”
“Uh... yeah... I mean, okay...”
I smiled at the way her face seemed to flush. Yesterday I hadn’t been able to dig up a single scrap of information on her. Today was different.
Just now, decisive evidence that let me guess her identity had fallen right into my hands.
I have acquired shipboard CCTV footage containing the surveillance target “Yeon-woo.” Review of the recording confirms she infiltrated the engine room last night. Engine-room CCTV further shows her neutralizing two crew members and disarming the bombs...
Got you, little fox.