Police vs. Firefighters (2)
The long-legged man and the fat one both turned their eyes on me.
“What the hell is that now?”
“Shit. My car. My car…!”
One of them glared at me, while the other sank to the ground and tore at his hair. The sports car that had once gleamed so brightly was now embedded in the road like a heap of scrap metal.
The fat bastard exploded.
“You son of a—!”
“Wait.”
The tall one grabbed the raging fat man and hissed something into his ear.
What’s his angle?
For now, I did what needed to be done.
I walked up to the firefighters and said, “Please, both of you go on ahead. I’ll handle this.”
The two firefighters bowed deeply to me.
“Thank you so much.”
“I’m Gu Ja-min, a 119 rescue responder. If it isn’t too much trouble, could I at least get your name?”
I tilted my head for a moment.
Gu Ja-min?
The name was unusual enough that a hazy memory surfaced.
He was one of the victims in the Red Moon incident.
An innocent firefighter who’d been struck from behind by a villain in a club and ended up hospitalized.
And in the Police-Fire War, Gu Ja-min…
“Hunter?”
At his call, I snapped out of my thoughts.
“Ah. My name’s Choi Yongki.”
“Wow. I thought so! You looked familiar. You’re the one they call the Hero Hunter, aren’t you? Team leader, you know him too, right?”
“Of course I do! Wow. He’s even more handsome in person. And tall, too.”
Looking at Gu Ja-min, I parted my lips again.
“Gu Ja-min. Are you taking part in the Firefighters’ Rally?”
“Uh… yes. Most firefighters are joining the protest, so I’m taking part too. Is there a problem?”
“No.”
There was no time for idle chatter.
The firefighters had been delayed because of these villains. I hurried through my farewell.
“You’d better get going.”
“Yes. We have to head out for an emergency, so we’ll be off.”
“Hunter Choi Yongki. Someday, I’ll definitely repay this debt. Here’s my business card.”
Gu Ja-min pressed a slip of paper into my hand. The firefighters turned away. Gu Ja-min kept looking back for some reason, and when our eyes met, he gave me a bright, open smile. It was the kind of smile that made him seem like a genuinely good man.
Meanwhile, Jin Harang came running over.
“Th-there, Team Leader Choi! You’re not really going to fight, right? There are way too many people watching.”
Jin Harang glanced around nervously. He wasn’t wrong.
No matter how many privileges hunters had, we couldn’t just go around running wild like outlaws.
This isn’t the same as with Seo Gwang-pal.
Seo Gwang-pal had attacked innocent civilians during the fight with Big Lava. Back then, there’d at least been the pretense of monster eradication.
But now…
I don’t have much of a reason.
Illegal parking and assaulting firefighters were matters for the police.
Not exactly something a hunter can just step in and handle.
The tall one, who had been whispering, stepped forward.
“Looks like you’re a hunter.”
Jin Harang and I were wearing protective gear. Just by looking at our clothes, anyone could tell we were hunters.
“There’s no need for us to see anything ugly, so why don’t we leave it here?”
The tall one smiled nastily. He was clearly trying to talk nicely, but his real intentions were different.
Seeing something ugly, he said. Is that a threat?
Those guys belonged to the nationwide villain organization Dark Alliance. They had nothing to fear, not even from hunters, let alone the police.
So this is the real outlaw type.
I turned toward the tall man.
“Can’t do that. I can’t just walk past scum like you.”
“Heh. Scum, huh? You’re the one who smashed our property.”
The tall man went on, “You can see it over there, right?”
He pointed at the second-floor sign.
Happy Financial
“We run a proper business too. We’re decent, law-abiding citizens.”
For illegal loan sharks, they sure were good at talking.
“We do a lot of good work, too.”
On the banner hanging beside the sign, bold letters had been printed:
— Welcome, ordinary people! Interest-free loans!!!
“Zero interest for a hundred days! That’s practically a charity, isn’t it?”
Sure, the interest would be zero for a hundred days.
And then it would explode afterward.
Interest-free loans were a trap. The Dark Alliance was notorious for using loan-sharking as bait, then subjecting debtors to all kinds of atrocities.
They forged financial fraud using copies of ID cards, forced people into labor under the pretext of debt, and in the worst cases, even sold off organs.
On the surface, they looked clean. Just like the tall man said, they looked like decent businessmen helping ordinary citizens.
“Hunter. You go on your way. We’ll take care of our business and be done.”
The tall man lifted his chin and delivered his final warning.
At a glance, it was obvious.
Awakened, then.
Mana flowed from both the tall man and the fat one. A sharp tension settled into the air.
Jin Harang, standing beside me, swallowed hard.
“Jin Harang.”
“Y-yes?”
“What do you think?”
“A-about what?”
Something Jin Harang had once said came back to me.
“I think hypocrisy is still a kind of goodness.”
They pretended to be kind on the outside.
And they really did do some good things.
So could people like that really be called good?
“Should we just look the other way and go eat malatang, if we take them at their word?”
“…”
Jin Harang said nothing, pressing his lips together. After a moment of thought, he shook his head.
“No. I’ll figure out a way.”
Then he rolled up his sleeves, snorting angrily.
I glanced again at the tall one and the fat one. Judging by their level…
They’re nowhere near Seo Gwang-pal.
There was no problem with Jin Harang, a D-class hunter, taking them on.
But there were two of them. If things went wrong, they might even counterattack.
“Team Leader Choi. I’ll explain everything in a way they can understand, so—huh?”
I grabbed Jin Harang by the shoulder before he could move ahead.
“Forget it. I’ll handle it.”
A few of the people who’d been watching from around us were filming with their phones.
The fat one shouted at them.
“What are you looking at? Never seen a show before? Put your phones away!”
Too bad.
If I were wearing a mask, this would be easier.
As long as my identity stayed hidden, I could move freely.
The reason I’d been able to blow the heads off two villains in Red Moon was because I’d been operating as Purple Devil.
But right now…
Dio Guild hunter, B-class.
Call sign: Typhon.
I need some kind of justification.
Then inspiration struck.
“Jin Harang. Give me your bag.”
“My bag? Sure. Here.”
Jin Harang handed over the bag hanging from his shoulder.
I slung it over my own shoulder and walked forward.
“Good. Let’s see some ugly business, then.”
The tall one knit his brows and frowned.
“Are you really going to do this? This has nothing to do with you.”
“It does. I was in the middle of a very important mission. You idiots interrupted it.”
“What the hell are you talking about…?”
I pulled a glass bottle out of the bag.
Inside the reinforced square glass container, a purple slime wriggled around.
Slimes came in thousands of varieties, depending on their type and traits.
Right now, this one hasn’t been classified yet.
It was a sample I’d collected from inside a Gate to deliver to the Dio Guild research team.
Now then.
Shall I show off the premium bullshitting skills of an S-class liar?
“See this? Very dangerous. If you make a loud enough noise, it’ll go boom like dynamite. You guys were making so much damn racket that you nearly caused a disaster.”
The tall one clenched his teeth.
Of course, there was no chance the slime would actually explode.
This is just an excuse to pick a fight.
Again, hunters were a privileged profession.
Property damage, destruction of belongings, injury—most mishaps that happened during combat were not really our responsibility.
The slime was an obvious ruse.
And yet…
It sounds pretty convincing.
The moment the slime entered the picture, Dio Guild’s official mission began.
And once a hunter had a monster at his side… whatever he did…
He got a pardon.
I lifted the glass case.
“See this? You can tell there’s a little tear here, right? That’s because of all the shouting you were doing earlier.”
Pointing at the slime, I said, “That’s obstruction of extermination duty.”
Under hunter law, when a hunter is engaged in combat with a monster, third parties are not allowed to threaten or interfere with the hunter.
If they violate that, the hunter is granted the right to immediate execution.
That was called obstruction of extermination duty.
And besides that…
“How are you planning to compensate me? This little guy is precious, you know. And ridiculously expensive. It’s not even in the same league as that heap of junk over there.”
I pointed at the smoking sports car, and as if on cue, it sagged further inward.
The fat one couldn’t hold back anymore.
“You son of a bitch! What kind of horseshit are you spouting?”
He whipped out his phone and called someone.
“Everyone, down here!”
Boots thundered from somewhere above us.
A few hulking men came down from the second floor. In an instant, they surrounded me.
Apparently planning to intimidate me, one by one they started stripping off their shirts. Once their full-body tattoos were exposed, the air grew even more grotesque.
The citizens watching nearby backed away, putting some distance between us.
The fat man stroked his protruding belly.
“You get the picture now? You’re screwed, asshole.”
Before I knew it, the corner of my mouth lifted.
I counted them in my head.
Two, four, six…
Sixteen in total.
Now was exactly the time I needed practice fighting one against many.
Perfect.
Surrounded by pigs, I said, “Got any more? I don’t mind if you call in more. Three digits would be even better.”
“Tch. Acting all calm, huh!”
The fat one charged.
He must have thought he was moving quickly in his own way, but—
“How dare you mess with the Dark Alliance…!”
“You’re so slow it’s painful to watch.”
I grabbed the back of his thick neck.
Then I tightened my grip, forcing mana into my hand.
It was the so-called follow-up to Judgment of the Superhuman—Judgment of Courage.
With the sound of something tearing apart, the fat one’s nape was ripped away, skin and all.
“Kyaaaah!!!”
He let out a crow-like shriek.
I flung the chunk of flesh in my hand onto the asphalt. It landed with a wet slap, like a newspaper soaked through in water.
A butterfly tattoo had been carefully etched into the slab of flesh.
I had deliberately torn off the Dark Alliance emblem.
I shook the blood from my hand.
“You think you can touch a hunter?”
“You fucking—!”
The tall one, who’d been watching, kicked at me.
I didn’t dodge. I swung my leg right back.
Crack—his shinbone snapped clean through.
“Aaaaagh!!!”
The tall one screamed and rolled across the ground.
“Get that bastard!”
The fat man, clutching his bleeding nape, shouted the order.
The rest of the meat lumps charged at me at once.
I grabbed them one by one.
Starting with the tattoo on the back of the hand.
Then the flank, the back, the thigh of the one wearing shorts…
Everywhere I saw a butterfly tattoo, I ripped it off.
“Gaaah!”
“I-it hurts!!”
“Agh, agh! S-sorry, I’m sorry!”
Shrieks that could split the eardrums rang out all around me.
Chunks of skin, still sticky with thick fat, were strewn across the ground.
I slowly lifted my head.
“If I missed anyone, raise your hand.”
I shook the blood from my fingers again. Red droplets scattered across the ground like a painting.
“…”
“…”
“…”
The men lay scattered in defeat, completely drained of fighting spirit.
I walked slowly toward the fat one.
He flinched and retreated.
“Why aren’t you coming at me? I was thinking of peeling your scalp off this time.”
“…”
The fat one was drenched in cold sweat.
He clutched his sagging belly.
“Ghk!”
I shook his wobbling stomach like a toy.
“From now on, if I ever see that disgusting butterfly tattoo, I’ll kill every last one of you.”
It wasn’t an empty threat.
Dark Alliance had everything to do with my younger brother’s death.
If revenge was what it took, I was prepared to do anything.
“No answer?”
The fat man avoided my murderous stare and dropped his eyes.
“…Understood.”
“Get lost.”
The villains who’d been eating away at the city fled like cockroaches.
The crowd watching them broke into cheers.
Gangnam Fire Station Firefighter
Gu Ja-min.
After the whole mess was finally over, I looked down at the paper in my hand.
Rain clouds had gathered in the sky overhead.
…
My expression darkened.
Gu Ja-min would take part in the Police-Fire War.
He would stand before the public, representing the firefighters, deliver a speech, and take the lead in the protest…
And die.
Gu Ja-min would be brutally trampled by the villains deployed there and killed on the spot.
And that was only the beginning.
The Police-Fire War hadn’t even truly begun yet.
Once the police and firefighters faced off and the villains got involved…
Gu Ja-min wouldn’t be the only casualty. Countless others would fall as well.
The future deaths were too many to count on my fingers.
I clenched my fist tightly.
I’ll stop it no matter what.
No—if I was a hero, I had to stop it.