Catch the Sheep

Vwoom!

As I stepped into the footwork, the hues of allure that had draped themselves over our surroundings began to fade away, little by little.

"Huh?"

And among those coming to their senses was Team Leader Woo Sang-shik.

"Are you back with us?"

"Awakener Han Jin?"

Team Leader Woo Sang-shik glanced around, the situation clearly refusing to make sense to him. Every one of the hundred-odd passengers who had boarded that plane was doing exactly the same thing.

"I'll explain on the way."

"Ah, yes, sir!"

Following my lead for the moment, Team Leader Woo Sang-shik got us out of the airport quickly. Once outside, we hailed a taxi and set off for the Japanese Awakener Association.

"I'll go over the details over KakaoTalk."

"Understood."

With that, I walked him through everything that had happened on the plane, and by the time he had heard it all, Team Leader Woo Sang-shik was complaining of a splitting headache.

"Is that truly possible?"

"It's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠possible—it actually happened, didn't it?"

Unless my explanation was the cause, nothing else could account for why everyone who had taken that flight came out of it with no memory of the journey.

"Hah..."

Team Leader Woo Sang-shik sighed and stared up at the ceiling. I had recorded footage from when we were under the allure, meant to prove the situation to him, but I held it back—showing him that looked likely to finish off whatever sanity he had left.

"Let's stop by the association, confirm the request, then head to the hotel?"

"Yes, let's do that."

His mind and body were already at their limit. Even if he heard the request in full at the association, the odds were better that not a word of it would land.

Still, it's a job. He has to hear it at least once.

Sure enough, Team Leader Woo Sang-shik never fully came back to himself until we had called at the association and reached our lodgings.

"Hah..."

Lust let out a long breath as she released her possession. It was a useful skill, no question about it—but it devoured stamina in equal measure.

"You have returned?"

"Ren?"

"Yes."

Matsumoto Ren. Matsumoto Ken's younger sister, and the demon who had delivered the Sword Demon into Lust's hands. If Ken was the right arm that reached Lust, then Ren was the demon serving as her left.

"I trust your task went as you hoped...?"

"Well enough."

And along the way, she had even found a boy she rather fancied—not on Han Jin's level, but to her taste all the same.

"And you? Is your own preparation coming along well?"

"Yes."

"Good."

What Lust had entrusted to Ren was the surveillance of Han Jin at the association and the hotel.

"Though... what shall we do about Ken?"

"Leave him be for now. Once I have that boy in my grasp, I will set him free."

"Understood."

They traded a few more words, and Ren withdrew from her presence.

Come to think of it, it should be about time for word to arrive...

The plane ought to have touched down at the airport by now. Yet no matter how long she waited, no report came.

"Too weak, then, was it?"

The stewardess she had possessed this time was an ordinary civilian, not an awakener. Which meant even channeling demonic energy had refused to go her way.

I shall simply have to try again later.

It stung to fail on her first attempt, but the opportunities ahead were still plentiful.

At least for as long as Han Jin remained in Japan.

"Ahh... this is the stuff..."

Having stopped by the association and arrived at our lodgings, I checked in and made a beeline straight for the onsen. A quick scrub, then into the water—and it felt as though every ounce of my fatigue was dissolving on the spot.

"Now this is happiness..."

The sounds escaping my mouth were the sort you would only expect from a man well past fifty. But what could I do, when the reactions simply poured out on their own?

Then again, something really was off back there.

The association, and now the hotel—both of them had seemed oddly determined to keep me lingering as long as possible.

Will Lust come around a few more times?

Just in case, I had left the room thick with holy power, saturated to the point that even a demonic-energy-wielding Lust couldn't slip inside.

"Um, I came to scrub your back..."

My footwork whipped up a shroud of mist and veiled my surroundings. At the same time, I shut my eyes and swept the area with instinct alone. Then I stepped into the footwork itself.

Carried by it, I darted into the changing room, snatched up a yukata, and bolted for my room.

"Hah, hah, hah."

By the time I made it inside, I was out of breath. Japan or not, if a woman walked in on me pulling a cliché like that, even I had no resistance to it. Then again, having dated exactly one girlfriend in my entire life, my resistance was questionable to begin with.

That lunatic Lust.

I had expected her to make contact again—I just hadn't imagined it would happen this fast.

I'll have to stay far sharper from now on.

The real problem was Team Leader Woo Sang-shik. I couldn't very well keep dispelling the allure for him every single time, but if I left him to it, disaster was certain to follow.

How am I supposed to handle this?

While I agonized, Team Leader Woo Sang-shik was already headed for the onsen.

"Far too much happened today."

Awakener Han Jin had fed him plenty of information, but none of it had truly landed. All of it sounded like fiction spun from thin air. And yet he could not afford not to believe the man. In the end, a war broke out inside his own skull, and somewhere past that point he simply gave up on thinking.

Loosen up in the hot spring, then give tomorrow my best.

So he stripped off in the changing room and stepped into the bath—where a thick, rolling fog had swallowed the onsen whole.

"What in the world?!"

His panic lasted only a moment. A system window sprang up before his eyes and laid the fog's true nature bare.

The Siren's Necklace, lent to him by Awakener Han Jin. With it, he could hold out against mental attacks to a degree.

Without this thing, I'd have been in real trouble.

Having pushed back the fog, Team Leader Woo Sang-shik scanned his surroundings. Unable to find any source for it, he sensed something ominous and moved to leave the bath. That was when a voice drifted over from behind him.

"Oppa, where are you going?"

"...!"

Unable to bring himself to turn around, Team Leader Woo Sang-shik froze where he stood.

The status ailment, Allure. The exact situation Awakener Han Jin had described to him not long ago.

Then this girl... is Lust?

One of the Seven Great Demons, like Envy—the demon enthroned in the very seat of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠desire.

"Look over here, won't you..."

Resisting with everything he had, Team Leader Woo Sang-shik squeezed his eyes shut. Because he could feel that if he opened them here, he was about to commit an irreversible mistake.

"Hurry..."

Lust's hand came to rest on Team Leader Woo Sang-shik's back. As it glided down from above, he could feel his senses sharpening around every point of that touch.

She cannot touch me again.

The instant that thought landed, Woo Sang-shik triggered his skill.

"Flashbang!"

BANG!

With his eyes already shut, the flash did nothing to him—but Lust, blinded out of nowhere, cut the allure short.

I'm running—now.

Team Leader Woo Sang-shik plunged into the changing room, threw his clothes on in a frantic scramble, and sprinted for his room.

"And I've lost him again."

Murmuring her disappointment, Lust released her possession. The girl she had been wearing did not open her eyes until some time later—dead center in the men's bath.

"Draining."

"You're telling me..."

Team Leader Woo Sang-shik and I sighed in tandem. A full week until we could enter the gate. In that time we had weathered one trial after another, and now at last the two of us stood here.

"Let's finish this fast and go home."

"Agreed..."

Any longer in Japan, and there would be no lifespan left to speak of. The one saving grace was that inside the gate there would be only me and Team Leader Woo Sang-shik, so we could finally throw ourselves into the raid with easy minds.

Reading the revealed condition, Team Leader Woo Sang-shik and I felt precisely nothing.

No—we did have a thought.

"Freedom!"

"At last, sweet liberty!"

The two of us shouted it almost in the same breath. Outside, every hour, whatever we happened to be doing, had meant keeping every nerve trained on Lust. Life in Japan getting comfortable?

Like hell!

Comfortable, nothing—we had been wrung completely dry dealing with a Lust whose wounded pride had caught fire. The simple fact that we could now rest at our leisure felt like pure bliss.

"Shall we rest for a bit?"

"An excellent idea."

Team Leader Woo Sang-shik agreed with my thinking, and we stretched out across the meadow and closed our eyes. A cool breeze drifted over the field, and it felt wonderful.

Now this is healing...

Against all my expectations, this assignment had been grueling. Sleepless nights, a life steeped in exhaustion—goodbye to all of it. Zzz. Lying beside me, Team Leader Woo Sang-shik had already slipped off into sleep.

The truth was that he had suffered more than I had. The moment Lust caught on that I could withstand her allure, she had set her sights on Team Leader Woo Sang-shik with far more obsession than she spared for me.

Poor Team Leader...

Lying next to him, I felt even sorrier for him. Pity aside, I was spent as well, and drowsiness came rolling in. The moment I decided I should sleep too and closed my eyes, I tumbled straight into dreamland.

"Argh! This is infuriating!"

"What seems to be the problem?"

"What are those two, buddhas?!"

She was one of the Seven Great Demons, bearing the very name of Lust. And yet she had already failed, time and time again, to seduce just two men.

"Where are those two right now?!"

"Those two... they should have entered the gate by now."

"Hah..."

She had meant to finish things before they entered the gate. But those stone buddhas had slipped past her allure through every method imaginable—skills and items, seizing on circumstances, exploiting the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠terrain. By any means and every method, the pair had fled from Lust.

Those two know about me, don't they.

Among the demons, only a precious few knew of Lust's possession. If someone had passed along information about her, then only one culprit even entered the picture.

Envy—she sold me out before she died!

It was a wildly mistaken assumption, but inside Lust it had already hardened into something close to conviction. Craaack! Gnawing at her own nails, Lust racked her brain, wrestling with how she could make those two hers.

"Lady Lust! Lady Ren!"

Just then, a demon flung open the door and burst inside in a rush. Lust's brow creased at the intrusion—but seeing the state the demon had arrived in, her expression eased.

"What is it?"

"Lord Ken, he..."

"Ken?"

Under the searing stares of its mistress and its executive, the demon squirmed before forcing its mouth open.

"...He has escaped."

"What did you say?"

"What did you just say?"

Ken had escaped. He had shattered the confinement order that Lust herself had handed down and fled. For any demon sworn to her line, it was a tale beyond all belief.

"Where did he go?"

At Ren's question, the demon answered at once.

"It appears Lord Ken assaulted the association and then made for the gate the two Koreans entered."