Crimson Eyes
Then what would suit Jo Shin-hye?
On the specialty-code classification chart, the medical track stood out above everything else. That wouldn't do. I'd said we ought to hold back on anything too high-end, and medicine was the premium specialty everyone coveted.
Then this would be better.
"In any case, I'd rather not assign my sister a medical specialty right away, either. So—"
"Then this is the one."
The instructor track.
"……Why do you think so?"
"Do I need to explain? You're family. You should know better than anyone."
Jo Shin-hye had the mind of an educator. She valued the process as much as the result, and she was good at talking people around. Watching her handle Jo An-na, I'd seen her blend warmth and firmness in just the right measure.
"I know that, because I'm family. You've only seen her for a few days, haven't you?"
Useless nitpicking. Ignore it.
"Where's the nearest restroom? Does a fancy office like this come with its own?"
"……Yes. The door over there."
"Then I'll just finish with this and—"
Instructors weren't all the same. What mattered was which kind she took, and two of them caught my eye.
"For a start, marksmanship would suit her, and—"
I'd seen it on the way out. Jo Shin-hye's shooting stance was surprisingly good. Even in the middle of a crisis she'd held a textbook form, which meant her fundamentals were solid. People who understood the value of teaching stayed faithful to the basics. She would be more than enough to handle basic marksmanship instruction.
"And forensic medicine. That's an elite specialty too, but the work is grim enough that everyone avoids it, so assigning it shouldn't be difficult."
She had properly analyzed the body of Postman Kim-ssi, the one the bomb had killed. Long years in the military outside had left her with no aversion to corpses, and more than anything, the work sat close to her own field. That was the greatest advantage. She'd been a veterinary officer, but she'd also spent a long time as the settlement's only doctor, so she would have studied the human body a fair amount. It left her able to examine both people and animals. There was nothing unreasonable about making her a forensic instructor.
Talk about the restroom, and now I actually have to go.
Meanwhile Jo Yong-han was just sitting there, listening to me. Did that mean he agreed?
"Both would be fine, but if it were me, I'd pick marksmanship instructor. So, the restroom—"
"One moment."
He stopped me, suddenly urgent. I was every bit as urgent as he was.
"Of the two, why marksmanship instructor in particular?"
"Hm? Just my personal opinion."
"I'd like to hear that personal opinion."
Well, that was new. Since when did this man actually listen to me?
"Shin-hye only just arrived at Headquarters. She'll need time to settle in. She went through a lot at the settlement right up to the end, and the escape must have been hard on her."
Better, then, to start her on something easier on the mind. But—
"Even as an instructor, forensic medicine means handling corpses, day in and day out. The stress is unavoidable."
Of course she had a tolerance for bodies. Even so—
"I know Shin-hye is used to looking at the dead. But even someone worn all the way down still has something left to wear away."
Grim work could wait until she'd settled into life at Headquarters.
"Anyway, this is urgent. If I just go right here, is there a function that cleans it up on its own?"
"……There is no such function. Please use the restroom."
After Jungkook bolted for the restroom, Jo Yong-han turned past the specialty-code classification chart. Two documents that had stayed hidden the whole time came into view.
He was certain he knew Jo Shin-hye better than anyone else alive. That was why he had been able to prepare both forms in advance. He had only been running through the chart again in case he had missed something.
The reason he had kept two documents, and not one, was simple. No matter how he turned it over, he could not choose between them. In the end he had decided to let Jo Shin-hye choose for herself. Once she finished Headquarters entry processing, he would show her both and explain what each posting actually entailed.
Jo Yong-han went still, as if his breath had stopped.
Then he drew a pen and left his signature on only one of them.
The restroom was something else. My stomach wasn't that bad, though. I could enter this office whenever I wanted, which meant I could use this restroom whenever I wanted, too. The thing mounted on the toilet had to be the bidet I'd only ever heard about. Next time I had a minute, I'd come back and try it while humming.
"Whoa. Some restroom—"
I stepped out feeling considerably lighter.
Whirrr.
The railgun was powering up. Thirteen in all, colossal railguns stationed across Yeouido. At a glance they looked like buildings raised wrong, vast bodies tipped just slightly toward the sky. A railgun used no gunpowder. Electricity alone hurled a metal slug to intercept a Giant Rod. The slugs were blunt, with no penetrating power; they twisted the Rod's falling path and kept Headquarters intact. The thirteen hadn't been clustered together. They stood as far apart as the ground allowed, a layout meant to answer a Rod no matter where it fell, or at what angle.
"There's one thing I failed to mention. This office has a drawback."
Whirrr.
"You don't have to say it."
The shutters were down, so I couldn't see outside. I knew anyway. The railgun was very close.
"I have spare earplugs. Would you like them?"
The plugs Jo Yong-han held out didn't feel ordinary.
Adhesive earplugs.
Put one in your ear and it clung, tacky. The performance was outstanding. Drop it on the floor even once, though, and you'd spend an age picking the dust off.
"I'm fine. Covering them with my palms is enough."
"It will be much louder than you expect."
"Then I'll plug them with my fingers."
"I did warn you."
It wasn't as if this was my first time. This close, though—that was a first. The high-grade plugs would certainly have been comfortable. I'd refused them anyway, because—
I hadn't cleaned my ears.
Stick those tacky things in and pull them back out…… Tsk. Should've washed up first.
Crackle. Crackle-zap. The railgun began to gorge itself on electricity. Jo Yong-han jammed the plugs in, folded his arms, and closed his eyes.
Hiss. An overheated railgun blowing out a hot breath. The signal that everything was ready.
"Hup."
The instant I drove my fingers into my ears—
CRACK! BOOM!
"Gah—!"
A heavy blow slammed into my heart. A thin whine started up in my ears. I clenched my fingers and plugged the canals as deep as they would go. If one shot wasn't enough, there would be another.
Thud. The aftershock rolled in, the metal slug burying its head in the Giant Rod.
Crackle. The railgun gathering power again. Damn it. A second shot.
"Hup!"
ZZZT! BOOM!
"Kkh……"
Thoom. Cold sweat broke under the shockwave. Every hair on my body stood up. Even if I couldn't wash, I should at least have cleaned my ears. Please, let it end here.
Fssss. The railgun let out a sigh of relief. Shutdown. The defense was over.
Ugh. That was rough.
The Giant Rod that had been plunging down on us would be tumbling somewhere far off by now. Usually they came down not so far away. Sometimes they flew a considerable distance. With bad luck, one could hit a settlement—a settlement that hadn't even received an air-raid warning. A bolt from a clear sky, in the most literal sense.
Worse luck was being hit while hiding in a ruined building, or walking an empty plain. Giant Rods only fell on places with a function, or where people gathered—facilities, settlements—so you weren't supposed to get caught wandering alone. A blind strike like this was a different story. If I'd been out on a delivery, it wouldn't have been someone else's problem. That was why Headquarters was good. They'd kick me back out within a few days, but still.
It should have landed by now.
Anyway. I was alive.
For the sake of my peace of mind, I tried the bidet and came back out. I'd heard it relaxed the whole body. The effect wasn't what I'd imagined.
"How was it?"
"Not bad. A bit damp, which is a strange feeling. And I don't know why they tell you not to use paper afterward."
"Was the drying time too short? You can run the dryer again. It doesn't have to be only once."
There was a dryer?
"I did tell you it would be much louder than you expected."
It hadn't been merely loud. Was this what it sounded like up close?
"What fell today was the largest on record. The railgun's output was at its highest as well, so the noise was bound to be on another level."
So it had been a completely different situation from usual. Then he should have said so.
"……If that was the case, you should have explained it properly."
"Earlier, Mr. Jungkook, you clearly asked me to give you only the conclusion, whenever possible, and never the reasons."
Down, fist.
Once the power was back, we changed rooms and met Hocheol and the sisters, their entry processing finished.
"I've become a Headquarters man, I have……!"
So he had. Yesterday, capture would have meant a death sentence. Overnight, he was a civil servant.
Jo Yong-han handed Hocheol a map of Headquarters.
"Please proceed directly to the Postman Training Center. Every procedure has been completed."
"I will repay this kindness, no matter what—I will! Does this mean I'll get to see you now and then, Postman?"
"You and I are in different units, so we won't see each other often. More precisely, I don't have a unit at all. Still, we'll run into each other coming and going."
If he kept surviving the delivery runs, that was.
"Anyway, you're a postman now too. Having you call me Postman is a little awkward."
"Then, as I thought, hyung—"
"You'll call me Senior."
"Understood, I will!"
After Hocheol left, Jo Yong-han slipped in the thing he hadn't been able to say.
"Mr. Hocheol seems to have trouble with his leg."
"Well. Anyone could tell at a glance."
Even so, Yong-han had let him become a postman without making an issue of it. He was probably thinking the same thing I was.
"Setting that aside, the rest of his physical condition seems excellent."
"Better than ordinarily excellent."
A man like Hocheol was talent enough. Even with clearance to enter Headquarters, a postman was the bottom of the bottom. Proper medical care was hard to come by, so plenty of them worked with a disability or two. Aside from a slightly inconvenient leg, Hocheol's body was superior. For a postman, he lacked nothing.
Jo Yong-han handed the sisters their new identification, each marked with a specialty, and a map apiece.
"Mechanical repair? So from now on I just live by fixing machines?"
"Yes. I'm sorry I couldn't arrange a better post—"
"Thank you, big brother!"
She threw her arms around him before he could finish. Come to think of it, Jo An-na's problem wasn't anything else. It was that face. I'd heard everyone at the settlement had taken an interest, and this place wouldn't be any different. If anything, it would be worse. The place was full of people comfortable enough to waste time thinking about romance.
"A-and thank you too, Mr. Jungkook. Really."
For getting them out and this far, she meant.
"You don't have to keep thanking me. I've already been paid plenty."
"Oh, this is something else. Back then, when I got stubborn…… What I mean is—"
"Hm?"
"Mr. Jungkook likes the conclusion without the explanation, so you don't have to spell it out for him."
Jo Yong-han stroked Jo An-na's head and grinned. Something about the way he treated me had shifted. Put kindly, the distance was gone. Put unkindly, he'd stopped bothering with courtesy.
"Thank you, then! I'll head out first!"
So what, exactly, was she thanking me for?
"Sister, you'll go to the Marksmanship Training Center."
"A marksmanship instructor……"
Her eyes went round at the identification he'd handed her.
"That's my little brother. It's been quite a while, and his sense is still sharp."
"Ah…… Sister, the truth is—"
"How's a man with no family supposed to get through the day without feeling sorry for himself? Stick around Mr. Jo and it's one sorry thing after another, so I'm off to do my own work."
Don't even think about bringing me into it. She'd figure out I'd been watching her closely, and anyone looking on would decide I was interested. None of it was my business.
"If we get the chance, see you again, Jungkook. Thank you."
"Yeah. See you next time."
As if there would be a next time.
I turned and checked where I was.
To get to Dr. Myung…… this way.
I ought to look in on the doctor, for the first time in a while. The evolution of my ability might have left some change in my body that I didn't know about. Ability evolution was unknown territory, and the only clue I had was this body of mine.
I have to learn as much as I can while I'm at Headquarters.
I needed a clear grasp of the conditions and the limits on using the ability, and there wasn't much time. A new delivery assignment would come down tomorrow. I'd have to leave within three days at the latest. See Dr. Myung first, and then—
"Doctor Myung Hwa-young?"
The name came out of nowhere, from behind me. Jo Shin-hye's voice.
"Yes. Take this with you, and you'll be able to receive treatment."
"Really, you're the only one I can count on. Thank you. Then I'd better see the doctor first."
She was going to see Dr. Myung.
"You're going to see the doctor?"
"Ah, yes. The truth is, I haven't felt quite right since the escape, and I'd like to be examined. Out there it would be a dream, but Headquarters has good facilities."
……If things stood like this, not going with her would make for the stranger picture. Let her go alone, and see the doctor myself later?
"I follow the map to here, right?"
"Yes, but…… this part of the map came out wrong. I know the way, so I've never gone by the map and didn't realize. Once you're actually walking, it won't quite match."
"I'll just ask as I go."
"I'd like to take you there myself, but there's something I have to handle urgently…… I'm sorry, Sister."
"What are you on about? You think I can't find one road? Stop hovering."
Get lost there, and bad luck dropped you into a one-way corridor. Then there really was no way out.
Tch. Company again.
I felt it once more today. Bend probability to my side? Please. I was a man with rotten luck, through and through.
"I happen to be heading to Dr. Myung myself. Let's go together."
As always, guards stood at the clinic door. Four of them, no less. Not every clinic was like this. Guarded clinics were few enough to count on your fingers, and Dr. Myung's had the heaviest detail of them all. There was a reason.
"What, a postman? Take it to another clinic."
"How about you check the ID."
"It's not even clinic hours. Turn around."
I pressed the identification into the guard's hand anyway. He looked down at it with a sour face, then nodded and opened the door. Jo Shin-hye, coming in behind me, showed the certificate she'd received from Jo Yong-han, and like me she walked in without any further procedure.
"Dr. Myung. You in?"
Come looking for her outside clinic hours, and a cough met you first. Thick cigarette smoke did the welcoming. Jo Shin-hye coughed, and kept coughing.
Dr. Myung stood in a white coat with a cigarette between her lips.
"Been a while, Woo Jungkook. Another year on you, and the body isn't what it was. That it?"
When she took the cigarette from her mouth, a red lipstick mark stood out vivid on the paper. As vivid as the blazing crimson eyes that marked her as an Immune.