1. The Return
"How much farther?"
Scanning.
"Hah…."
The office was always bathed in darkness. Somewhere along the way, as I'd scrambled to survive in this insane world, the space had grown as familiar to me as my own home.
I let out a sigh and scrubbed a hand down my dry face. Don't get impatient. Just a little longer… wait just a little more, and….
Having thus soothed my restless self, I rose from the sofa.
Knock, knock, knock. A knock with perfectly even spacing. There was only one person it could be.
"Han Ye-seon?"
"Ah—I didn't realize you were still inside. My apologies."
"It's fine. What can I do for you?"
The door opened, and an agent in a crisp business suit, hair neatly tied back, stepped inside. Agent Han Ye-seon, my secretary.
With a perfectly blank expression, she delivered the line she always did.
"Turn on the lights, Director. You'll ruin your eyes."
"Ruin them. Thanks to my enhancement procedure, I can see through pitch darkness as clearly as high noon."
"And who was it who always said that if you kept living like a non-human, your sanity would give out before anything else?"
"Ancient history."
That would have been around five years ago. Han Ye-seon had been the first junior assigned to me—the passionate period when I dragged her along everywhere as my second pair of hands. What I used to tell her back then was simple: Never forget that we're human. Not ever.
In a daily life spent battling things that soared far beyond human comprehension, I'd figured I could only survive long-term by carving those words deep into my skull.
Of course, circumstances had shifted a bit since then. Between the knowledge and abilities gleaned from studying the anomalies, and my physical enhancement procedures, my eyes now outperformed those of any nocturnal predator.
"Nothing urgent. I'm on duty tonight, so I thought I'd stop by. You've never been thorough about locking up after yourself, Director…."
"Are we ever going to stop bringing that up?"
The Mysterious Door—the anomalous item that connected to other dimensions. There had been an incident where it opened and nearly caused a catastrophe. Not that it had been my fault, of course. It was true I'd been on duty that day, but… who could have predicted the disaster would strike during the five minutes I slipped into the kitchen for coffee?
The problem was a researcher bewitched by an anomaly who had set the door's destination to random and flung it wide open. The man died for it, and since I'd been the officer in charge at the time, I had a rough stretch for a while.
As I shook my head, cursing that bastard, Han Ye-seon let out a small laugh, came over, and straightened my rumpled tie.
"Sunbae."
"What."
"It all ended well, didn't it? You confirmed the thing was completely destroyed, too."
"I did."
"So couldn't you let it go now? Even just a tiny bit?"
"…."
How could I? This world wasn't the one I'd been born in. Trans-dimensional displacement, they call it—or something along those lines. I went through the whole experience.
That night, for reasons I still can't explain, I'd been ravenous. So late in the evening I shuffled down to the convenience store in front of my building in my slippers, and the instant I walked out with an instant hamburger and a bottle of cola—I was standing in a parallel-universe South Korea.
It truly happened in the blink of an eye. If a truck had come barreling at me, at least I could have braced myself—ah, so I've booked my one-way ticket to another world. Instead, I returned to my studio apartment without a clue, the door lock kept rejecting my passcode, and on my fourth attempt a total stranger—a woman, no less—started shrieking her head off inside what should have been my empty home.
The police arrived, and we were both taken in. Just as I was about to be written off as some intruder who'd broken into a woman's solo apartment—
"Your tireless service is appreciated, officers."
"Who…?"
"Now, now. Gentlemen, this way for a moment…."
Two agents in sunglasses appeared out of nowhere.
"Vreee! Flash!"
"It's taken care of, sunbae."
"Bring that irregular entity over here."
"Aw, come on, we're still in the screening stage. It's not even running away, and it's reasonably easy on the eyes."
"…It could be an anomaly. Don't you dare touch it."
They neutralized the police with a memory-wipe beam straight out of a movie and hauled me away. And that was the beginning of my wise and wonderful life at the Management Bureau.
The logic was simple: I had nowhere to go and wasn't a citizen of this world, so I'd work as an agent under Bureau surveillance until further notice. From there, well—I bashed in assorted minor anomalies, dragged along kind seniors and juniors who needed a knuckle sandwich as I racked up achievements across the board, tore apart the conspiracy of the worldwide Management Bureau coalition, crushed the bastards of the deranged world government, and then thoroughly trounced the entities you might call the final masterminds of it all, until…
"Director. You're spacing out again."
"…Haah, sorry. I've had a lot on my mind lately."
"When haven't you? Anyway, head home and get some rest."
"Sleeping here or sleeping in the dorm—what's the difference?"
"The dorm is… you're the Director, so be a Director. Commute from the off-site residence. Give yourself a little breathing room."
"Doesn't that just lengthen my commute?"
Why would I give up a three-minute walk to work?
Thump. And there it was. Han Ye-seon's signature move: the speechless fist tapping lightly against my arm—tap, tap. I let her land a few, then spread both hands and gave her some light sparring practice in return.
"…How long are you planning to keep this up?"
"Until the anger wears off."
"Fine, go ahead."
I had no idea what she was angry about. Had I been working her too hard? Still, there was nothing for it—
"Keep your resolve strong, always. The next Director is you."
"And that's exactly why you shouldn't—"
Just then.
Report.
A parallel world satisfying your specified criteria has been located at 99.2% correlation.
The parallel world that was presumably Director of the Administration's 'home dimension' has been confirmed.
"!"
My home dimension. The world I used to live in!
"Finally…!"
"S-Sunbae?"
"Ah, sorry. Just remembered something. I'll be in the lab."
Han Ye-seon hurried after me, but I had no time to wait. I wanted out of this insane world as soon as humanly possible.
I've already taught her everything the job requires. She's competent. She'll manage fine on her own.
One could argue that a Bureau Director leaving like this is monumentally irresponsible. But I'd been preparing to leave for a long time, so it's fine. This world's Management Bureau has weathered every crisis thrown at it, maintains friendly relations with every other Bureau on the planet, and possesses the finest talent pool in its history. One Director more or less isn't going to sink it.
And honestly, I've more than earned my keep. The worst anomalies I've personally neutralized number over thirty. If the Bureau wants to live up to its name, it can handle the rest without me.
So—use that thing, just as planned?
Yes, Director. Utilize the anomalous item <Mysterious Door>.
And the coordinates?
I have preset them remotely. You may depart immediately.
Good work.
Five whole years. I'd survived five full years in a mad world crawling with anomalies! I'd crawled and crawled until recognition landed me, half by accident, in the Director's chair—but I had never once intended to keep living here.
In this world, one misstep in containment and Earth is sliced into thirty-two pieces and scattered into cosmic dust. That kind of thing nests in the planet's core, after all. And beyond it, every bizarre and outlandish horror imaginable lies around in heaps. Knowing what I knew, how could I possibly carry out the Director's duties with a straight mind?
So I searched for a way back. And at last—at last—
I can go home!
Preheating of the anomalous item <Mysterious Door> is complete.
Ding! The elevator arrived at the laboratory. I sprinted over, flung open the containment chamber entrance, and with a heart full of joy, turned the rusted handle of the Mysterious Door.
And then—
WHUMP! I was caught in a violent swirl unlike anything I'd felt before.
"Ghk—?! Status Window! What's happening?!"
Operating normally. As this is a passage linking to another dimension, the energy currents are stronger than anticipated—but I have calibrated them to safe levels.
"I see."
All that mattered was arriving in one piece.
Director. Do you recall the 99.2% correlation I mentioned earlier?
I remember. Why?
A 0.8% margin of error. It is thanks to that margin that a way back has opened to you.
Brace yourself.
…What?
Before I knew it, I'd reached the end of the blue vortex, and—
FLASH!
An unbearable brightness swallowed me whole. And what it revealed was… a blue sky, and clean sunlight.
Congratulations, Director. You have achieved a complete return to the home dimension you so longed for.
Though its face has changed somewhat from what you remember.
"…Field report! A Gate, presumed 5th rank, and…huh?"
"Something came through! Site team, are you all right?! What came out of there?!"
"It's…a person."
"…What? Another species?"
"No, sir. A human. Business suit and sunglasses. Male, roughly late twenties to early thirties by appearances."
"What in the…."
A cluster of armed soldiers, and another group clutching greatswords, bows, staves, and other wildly exotic armaments, all eyeing me warily. The combination didn't belong together, and my head tilted on its own.
Director. This world is suffering a calamity: strange structures called 'Towers' have erupted from the ground, and portals connecting to other dimensions—known as 'Gates'—are generated at random.
However, this is undeniably your home dimension, Director.
Your return is complete, so I will now close the inter-dimensional passage.
Do it.
The blue vortex raging behind me shrank bit by bit, then vanished with a soft pop.
"The Gate…closed on its own?"
"Who is that man?"
"Translation artifact ready, sir."
"Understood. You there—where did you come from?"
I took off my sunglasses and answered.
"Galbitang."
"…I'm sorry?"
"Does anyone here know a good galbitang place? Short beef-rib soup."
"DIRECTOR!!!"
Han Ye-seon, personal secretary to the Director of the Administration, had boarded the adjacent elevator the instant his car began to descend, racing to catch up. She was roughly three floors behind.
The Director had seemed faintly excited—unlike his usual self. It was a side of him she almost never saw, and it worried her. And her instinct proved correct.
The Mysterious Door, disgorging a colossal torrent of energy the likes of which she had never witnessed—and the Director marched into it with all the bearing of a man off to inspect a facility.
BOOM!
"D-Director…?"
Only after the passage closed did she cry out, but quietly. All that remained in the containment chamber were the Mysterious Door and her.
"How…how could this…."
She hadn't finished shouldering his burdens yet. She hadn't repaid even half of what he'd done for her. She'd survived to this point, in truth, thanks to him—and without him, she couldn't imagine anything anymore.
The Director had left without a single word of explanation. No—that wasn't quite true.
The next Director is you.
So that was it. Her sunbae—the Director—had been ready to leave at any moment, all along.
She was a sharp-minded, quick-acting agent. She didn't waste time on useless despair or dragging her feet. She swiftly announced the Director's absence and, exactly as planned, assumed the post of Interim Director—which granted her access to classified material she'd never been permitted to touch before.
Click.
[Director of the Administration, Nam Hyeon-seung.]
She began combing through everything her sunbae had kept hidden, piece by piece. With a state of emergency declared, she ordered the agents who'd sprinted in at dawn to stand by outside, and she pored over every classified document until the sky began to lighten.
And then—
"…He was from another dimension?"
For the briefest moment, she could not hide her shock. But really—did it matter? How long had the two of them fought back to back for survival? Another dimension? The two of them had crossed to and fro through things like that more times than she could count.
Screech! Thud!
Having steeled herself, Han Ye-seon stepped out of the Director's office. Every agent snapped to attention.
"At 00:17 today, the Director of the Administration utilized the anomalous item <Mysterious Door> to cross into another dimension."
"…Sir?"
"Then what happens to the containment of the top-risk entities…?"
"If <Dark Maiden>, <Eight-Foot Ghost>, and <Hera> find out, all hell breaks loose…."
"There's more than one entity that turns vicious the moment he's gone…."
The agents murmured among themselves.
"But—"
Han Ye-seon spoke up.
"We still need him. Isn't that so?"
Every head nodded. At the central headquarters, at least, the agents were of one heart and one mind.
"We find him."
If he had crossed over once, he could cross two, three more times. Even if it seemed impossible, they would make it possible. The Management Bureau had always found a way. They would certainly manage it.
And so—
"We will bring him home. No matter what."
"YES, MA'AM!!!"
Meanwhile, at that very moment—
"…Um, sir?"
Sluuurp—
Nam Hyeon-seung, former Director of the Anomaly Management Bureau, was in the Awakener Association Investigation Office, savoring a proper bowl of galbitang for the first time in ages.
"Haah! That's the stuff!"