They're Just Strangers
"W-what? How is this even possible…?"
Lee Si-a stared at the special forces operatives as they writhed, joints creaking and jerking like marionettes — the same way the students had moved when those threads seized them. It shouldn't have been possible. They were wearing far better equipment than she was, gear built so that ordinary mental contamination couldn't even get close. And yet something had punched straight through those defenses and taken hold of them.
"This isn't good," Han Mir muttered, eyes on the window.
A harsh gunshot cracked through the air.
The window right in front of Lee Si-a exploded inward with a deafening crash.
"Ghk — get down!"
A hail of bullets hammered the wall hard enough to pulverize it. Lee Si-a dropped and pressed herself flat against the plaster as special forces operatives smashed through the neighboring window and poured inside. Muzzle flashes erupted from the guns they leveled at her.
She saw the rounds screaming in, ready to turn her body into shredded rags, and her instincts screamed at her to move — but she already knew. It was too late. In the time it would take to twitch a finger, those bullets would have punched through her from head to toe and left her full of holes.
The instant she felt death coming, Han Mir stepped in front of her and took the barrage with his bare body.
"Han Mir!"
Lee Si-a's cry tore out of her, but the storm of lead pouring into him didn't stop until the magazines ran dry. The barrels overheated. Acrid smoke curled into the air. Then something clattered down in a heap at the boy's feet.
It was a mountain of spent bullets. The rounds had torn through Han Mir's clothes and nothing else. His skin hadn't even been scratched.
Lee Si-a let out a laugh that was half disbelief, half raw relief.
"Heh. That really doesn't make any sense."
Han Mir scowled at the operatives.
"Now I have to buy a new school uniform!"
He hopped lightly off the floor and shattered their firearms with a single kick. The operatives didn't so much as flinch. They drew the combat knives at their belts and drove the blades at his throat —
The steel snapped. The broken knives spun once through the air and buried themselves in the wall.
Han Mir's fist tapped their midsections, and the operatives went flying. They hit the ground far away, then immediately scrambled back to their feet as if nothing had happened, already setting themselves to attack again.
No matter how much damage they take, the threads just force them back up. This is never going to end.
He glanced back even as he dealt with more of them smashing in through the windows. Give her credit as an agent — Lee Si-a was already moving, her body as fluid and quick as a snake, closing the distance before they could pull the trigger, ripping the guns from their hands and putting them down.
"This isn't going anywhere."
Han Mir muttered it to himself as he blasted away the operatives shoving gun barrels in his face. Then he launched himself at Lee Si-a in a single bound.
"Hey. We're leaving."
"Huh?! W-wait a second—!"
He tucked her under his arm and dove straight through the window.
"KYAAAAAH!"
Lee Si-a's scream rang out across the schoolyard. The operatives waiting below all raised their weapons at once. Their fingers tightened on the triggers —
"Teleport."
Teleport
Light flared from Han Mir's body, and in the blink of an eye he was standing in the middle of them.
The operatives forced their unbending joints to move and swung their muzzles back around. The barrels were a heartbeat from erupting —
Inherent Barrier
"AAAAAGH!?!"
The operatives screamed in unison and collapsed, writhing across the ground.
"M-my arm's bent the wrong way!"
"M-my legs! My legs!!!"
Each of them howled about whatever part of them had been wrecked. Some had bones punching clean through the skin.
Lee Si-a stared at them, completely lost, then whipped her head around to look at Han Mir.
"What did you just do?"
"I deployed an Inherent Barrier. Inside this, they'll be free of that thing's control."
She tilted her head at his incomprehensible explanation and looked around. A faint, translucent wall had enclosed nearly the entire schoolyard.
Han Mir let go of her waist. She dropped straight to the ground and scowled.
"Ow! Don't just drop me like that!"
"You stay here and look after these people. This isn't my specialty, so I won't be able to hold it for long."
"What? Then what are you going to do?"
"What do you think? I'm going to wrap this up in one shot. Too much of a pain otherwise."
With that, Han Mir stepped out of the barrier. The school, which until moments ago had been shaking loud enough to rattle the entire building, had gone dead silent.
"So you noticed, huh?"
A crooked smile tugged at his lips as he strolled inside at an unhurried pace.
Shurun's absence is hitting extra hard today. If she were here, this would've been over ages ago. Instead I'm dragging out something that should've been finished already, and it's a pain in the ass.
Han Mir walked the empty corridor, glancing around as he went. The students who'd been swarming in packs were nowhere to be seen — only the wreckage they'd left behind.
Then a girl appeared far down the hall. She stared at him, her joints jerking like a limp puppet being forced to move, then slowly started walking. As if telling him to follow.
Anyone could see it was a trap. Han Mir followed her anyway, like it didn't matter in the slightest.
The girl led him to the rooftop. A cool breeze stirred his hair.
The rooftop was packed. Teachers, students, security guards — every last person in the school building had been herded up here. Some of them had even been forced onto precarious structures where a single misstep would send them plunging to their deaths.
Han Mir turned his head. It wasn't just the main building. Crowds stood waiting on the roofs of every surrounding school facility.
"D-d-ddddon't—"
The girl who'd led him here opened her mouth.
"D-don't… d-don't inter… interf-f-fere."
Like a machine glitch slowly correcting itself, her voice grew clearer with every word.
"Don't interfere. Do not interfere."
When a complete sentence finally came out, Han Mir gave a light round of applause, genuinely impressed by the effort.
"Nice pronunciation. You could be a news anchor."
"I-if you keep interfering, I-I'll kill them."
"Kill who?"
"E-everyone. I'll t-throw every human here off and k-kill them."
So that's why it herded this many people onto the rooftops. Threatening me with the lives of the hostages it's controlling.
Han Mir spoke with complete indifference.
"I really don't get guys like you. You treat your hostages like bugs you're about to squash, then turn around and say you'll actually kill them if I interfere — when you were going to kill them all anyway. And then you demand my life on top of it if I want them saved."
"N-no. I-I only want one thing. G-give me that g-girl. Then I'll let the hostages go."
"Girl?"
"I-I need that girl. The one l-locked in the strange box. S-she was ours from the start. J-just give her back and I'll leave quietly."
The strange box… it means Park A-yeong, doesn't it? Yeah, there's always been something off about her. She was the only one in the whole school being tormented by monsters, and when this mess started she suddenly had a fit and started screaming.
There were constitutions like that, sometimes. People who attracted monsters. Even in the Other World, you'd occasionally run into someone that creatures just inexplicably flocked to.
"Why do you want her?"
"L-like I said. S-she was ours from the beginning."
"Hmm."
Han Mir rubbed his chin and closed his eyes for a moment. Still thinking, he started walking, leaning against the people packed around him, slinging an arm over a shoulder here and there as he picked his way through the crowd.
A stretch of silence passed. Just as the girl opened her mouth again, unable to stand the wait —
"I-if you don't bring her here right n—"
"Alright. I've decided."
Han Mir's eyes snapped open, and he grinned.
"…D-do you even understand what you just said?"
"Yeah. I understand just fine, you perverted bastard who goes after high school girls. Go ahead and kill everyone here. Finish them off for real. Come on. Do it."
"W-why? A-aren't you human too?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
Han Mir dug in his ear like the whole conversation was a chore.
"They're not my family. They're not anyone I care about. They're just strangers. When you see a fatal accident on the news, do you burst into tears and fall apart? No. You feel a little bad, that's it. Because those people are just strangers. Because their deaths don't actually cost you anything."
He locked a pair of ice-cold eyes on the girl being controlled.
"So kill them. Right now. Show me that merciless, bloodless, tearless side of yours."
He even waved her on, goading her to hurry up. This time, it was the Anomaly that fell silent.