Clash (1)
The 119 Safety Center Rescue Team had one procedure they never skipped before deployment.
"Gu Ja-min. Submitting my name tag."
Gu Ja-min looked down at the silver metal tag in his hand.
- Gu Ja-min. 20xx. O blood type.
It listed his name, date of birth, and blood type. Firefighters turned in their name tags every time they entered a fire scene so the team could keep track of who was inside. Even after every crew member had pulled out, if the tag was still left with the safety officer...
That meant they hadn't come back from the field.
Gu Ja-min let out a long breath.
Handing in the tag meant a safe return. The opposite meant a firefighter had died.
Today wasn't a deployment day. Gu Ja-min was supposed to take part in the Firefighters' Rally.
And yet he had still turned in his tag.
I need to steel myself.
He was going to stand before a crowd, expose the police corruption, and plead for firefighters' rights. It was an important role, and the weight of it pressed heavily on his shoulders.
Ugh. I'm nervous.
He took a slow breath and muttered to himself.
"I'll be fine, right? Of course I will. Come on, I can do this. Go! Go! Fighting! Hahaha!"
He forced out a loud, silly laugh, as if he could bluff his fear into backing off.
Then his phone rang.
The caller was his wife. He answered at once.
"Hello?"
"...Honey."
Something was wrong with her voice.
"What's wrong? What's happened?"
"I... my water broke."
He could hear her ragged breathing through the receiver. Her due date wasn't for another week.
Of all times...
Even so, Gu Ja-min turned on his heel without hesitation.
"Honey! Where are you? I'm coming right now—"
"Ja-min."
The team leader caught his arm.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"M-my wife..."
"What's wrong with her?"
Gu Ja-min explained everything in a rush. The team leader's face darkened.
"...All right. Go. Of course you should go. But..."
In just a little while, the Firefighters' Rally would begin at Gwanghwamun.
"Ja-min. Everyone's waiting for you..."
Even as he said it, the team leader winced, clearly hurting just as much as Gu Ja-min was.
But there was nothing to be done. Ten thousand people. Firefighters from all over the country had gathered for today.
It had all started with the incident at Red Moon. Gu Ja-min had been attacked by a villain from the Dark Alliance, and the police had stood by and done nothing. Enraged on his behalf, the firefighters had come together as one.
If the very person at the center of that outrage were to disappear on the day itself, the firefighters' solidarity would inevitably lose its force.
"You know that already. Everyone took time off, cleared their schedules. Tae-sik is even heading to Gwanghwamun even though his kid is sick..."
Except for the bare minimum on duty, everyone was scheduled to join the Firefighters' Rally today.
The team leader clasped Gu Ja-min's hand tightly.
"It won't take long. An hour? Yeah, just an hour."
Gu Ja-min's job was to read the speech and stand at the head of the protest.
"I'll let the firefighters' coalition representative know, too. I'll tell him you've got a family emergency, so you only have to give the speech and can skip the march."
"..."
"You'll still make it in time."
Gu Ja-min bit his lip, looking ready to cry.
Right. I can't disappoint everyone who came because of me.
His phone buzzed with a message.
"Honey. When are you coming?"
To Gu Ja-min, his wife was the most precious thing in the world. Nothing could replace her.
But...
Ten thousand people.
For their sake...
No. That wasn't it.
Gu Ja-min shook his head hard.
Ten thousand people or a hundred million—none of that mattered. Gu Ja-min had another reason.
He couldn't pass on a bleak future to the child who was about to be born. He couldn't let his child grow up in a world where villains ran rampant.
For our little Toughie!
He sent his reply.
"Honey. Wait a little longer. I'll be there soon."
By the time I got past City Hall Station, I had to stop the motorcycle.
I couldn't help it. The area was swarming with people.
Jesus. There are a lot of them.
Firefighters who had gathered from all over had turned the plaza in front of City Hall into a sea of bodies.
"Slowly now. Slowly."
"Don't push from behind."
"Everybody knows the drill, right?"
"Of course we do. Safety comes first."
The firefighters looked bright and eager. They walked forward together, keeping their distance from one another and watching out for each other.
From the start, the firefighters' coalition had advocated for a peaceful demonstration. There was no reason for them to turn the protest into some ugly, violent mess.
So far, so good.
But only so far.
It wouldn't be long before villains slipped into the rally and the whole thing turned into a brawl.
I had to stop them before things got out of hand.
With the feeling of a bomb ticking away in my chest, I got off the motorcycle.
From here on, I'm walking.
Just as I started forward, I heard the sound of a window shattering behind me.
I looked back.
"Get inside, now!"
Several men wearing disposable masks had attacked a store selling home appliances.
They had smashed the glass with a chair and forced their way in.
"Oh! The latest iPhone? There's a laptop too?"
"Jackpot! Hurry up and grab everything!"
Now that the Firefighters' Rally had created a vacuum in public order, the city had turned into a lawless mess.
Damn. They’re faster than I expected.
It had been predictable, sure. But in my past life I hadn't been on the scene, so there was no way to know exactly when or where things would happen.
Several firefighters near the store stepped in to stop them.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"What? What're you gonna do about it? You all wanna die?"
One of the petty thieves pulled a knife from inside his clothes.
"Get lost! You want me to cut you?"
As he waved it threateningly, the firefighters hesitated.
Firefighters put out fires and carried out rescues. Keeping order and catching criminals was the police's job.
"This way!"
On the other side of the street, another group had slipped into a small supermarket.
They weren't part of the villain alliance. I couldn't feel any mana from them.
Just common thieves.
They were the kind of people who usually kept their heads down and only crawled out when the world started falling apart.
I clenched my teeth.
...What do I do?
Every second mattered. I couldn't afford to get tied up by trash like this.
And yet if I ignored them, innocent civilians would get hurt.
If I ignored the Firefighters' Rally, though, the damage would be on a completely different scale.
Between the two, the latter was far more serious.
But then...
"W-why are you doing this?"
A voice came from inside the supermarket.
An elderly woman was trembling with both hands raised.
Fear was written all over her wrinkled face.
"Open the register. Hand over everything you've got!"
"P-please, young men, don't do this..."
"Move!!!"
One of the thieves shoved her.
Thud!
Goods scattered everywhere.
"Grandma!!"
A little girl who looked like her granddaughter wrapped herself around the old woman as she fell.
I stopped moving.
I know.
If I tried to handle all of them one by one, I'd end up missing the really important thing.
I know that in my head, but...
My feet wouldn't move.
The thief overturned the register, and coins spilled across the floor.
"What, that's all you've got?"
He glared at the old woman.
Her granddaughter wrapped herself around her and said, "We don't take cash. That's all we have..."
"Then hand over your wallet."
"What?"
"Can't you understand plain fucking language? I said give me your wallet!"
"Eek!!"
I couldn't stand it anymore.
My body moved before I could think.
I shot into the supermarket like a ghost.
"You're gonna bet your life over a few bucks? If you don't hand it over now—guh!"
A fast, snapping kick slammed into the thief's side.
"Argh. My ribs... I-I can't breathe!"
He rolled across the floor, gasping hard.
I glanced at the old woman and the girl, both staring at me in shock.
They bowed their heads at once and hurried out.
At the noise, the thief's accomplices came rushing in.
"Who the hell are you?"
"A delivery guy?"
It made sense; I'd come here on a motorcycle.
I slowly took off my helmet.
A purple mask was revealed beneath it.
"I've got an appointment at Gwanghwamun."
There was no time for small talk.
"Let's end this fast."
The moment the words left my mouth, I slapped one man's jaw with my palm and smashed the back of another man's neck with the side of my hand.
The petty thieves dropped like autumn leaves in the wind, collapsing one after another as I brushed past them.
They weren't Awakeners or villains—just ordinary criminals—so a light touch was enough to drop them flat.
Let's hurry.
I grabbed the guy whose ribs I'd broken by the collar.
"How many of you are there?"
"Aaaah! Please, please, just let me live!!"
"Answer me."
"I-I don't know. If you count my friends too, maybe... a-about thirty?"
"Come with me."
"Huh? I-I was wrong!"
"Shut up."
"Kgh!!"
I kicked him in the stomach and put him down nicely.
Then I dragged him outside.
I frowned beneath the mask.
Damn.
It wasn't just the appliance store. Some were robbing convenience stores, and others were trying to rip ATM machines out of the ground.
Stopping them wasn't hard.
The problem was that if I took them down one by one, I'd never finish.
I hesitated for a moment.
Should I use Infinite Acceleration?
The Speeder's power, moving at extreme speed, would end this in a single second.
But...
I promised I wouldn't spend any more of my Awakener's Balance this time.
The stage of history was nothing but one unpredictable event after another.
No choice.
This wasn't the time to save money.
I grit my teeth and was just about to click it when a crash rang out and thieves spilled out of the convenience store.
They looked like they'd been beaten senseless by someone.
"Guh."
"Ugh..."
...?
And then, strolling out among the wrecked thieves, there was a man who looked perfectly at ease.
"What a bunch of fucking losers. Where the hell do you think you're making a scene?"
He was wearing a hoodie, shorts, and slippers dragged lazily across the pavement.
I stared at him as he yawned with his mouth wide open.
That face was far too familiar.
Na Sang-min?
What kind of connection did I have with Na Sang-min in my past life? Why did I keep running into him like this?
Na Sang-min was carrying a shopping basket in one hand.
That...
I checked the brand printed on the basket.
It was from a large mart near City Hall Station. HK Mall.
HK Mall was famous for giving hunters huge discounts.
Everything does get an extra ten percent off, but...
Na Sang-min muttered, "The mart was a damn mess, and this place is no better."
I kept my mouth shut.
So this isn't a coincidence?
Na Sang-min lived in Gangnam. Of course there was an HK Mall there too.
He had no reason to come all the way here...
Then I remembered a conversation we'd had.
"If you can, stay home tomorrow. Something feels off. Something is definitely going to happen."
Na Sang-min had said he took the day off too.
The day he wasn't going to Dio Guild.
So he came because he was worried.
I had been wrong to think hunters didn't care about Gyeongso Daejeon. Some of them were so fired up with a sense of justice that they took it upon themselves to become vigilantes and restore order.
People like...
Na Sang-min.
A voice rang in my ears.
"And who the hell are you?"
I was standing there dazed when I met Na Sang-min's eyes.
I swallowed.
This was the first time I'd ever faced Na Sang-min as Purple Devil.
"What are you, huh? You little fucker."
True to his aggressive nature, he looked ready to come at me on the spot.
Shit.
I took one step back.
It wasn't because I was scared.
I had guessed there might come a day when I'd have to fight Na Sang-min, but...
Today isn't that day.
I dropped the thief I'd been holding onto the ground.
Na Sang-min looked down at the man who had been robbing the supermarket.
The old woman and her granddaughter, who had been waiting outside, said to me, "Young man, thank you for helping us."
"We're really grateful."
Na Sang-min's expression softened.
He must have understood what I'd just done.
His gaze fixed on my shoulder.
He's looking at the sword on my back.
I had deliberately modified the Heoksikdo a little.
If I fought while wielding the black blade I had inherited from Na Sang-min, it would be as good as advertising to the world that Purple Devil was me.
From a distance, he won't be able to tell.
Even while we were locked in a standoff, the thieves kept tearing through the area.
"Tsk."
Na Sang-min clicked his tongue and turned away.
"Get lost. Unless you're here to fight."
Dragging his slippers along, he leapt far off into the distance.
I let out a breath of relief.
I almost ended up fighting a monster.
Na Sang-min started beating down the thieves, one hand still hooked through his shopping basket.
Thanks, Na Sang-min.
Silently thanking him, I pushed myself into the crowd.