Arrival in Cambodia
The special unit buzzed with activity from the moment the sun rose.
"Did you hear that??"
"Team Leader Nam Gyuho recruited another Special Class shaman."
"For real?? So now we've got three shamans in the unit?"
"I heard they're joining today's briefing. Everyone's dying to know who it is."
"Kim Dosa looked pretty grim yesterday before heading out. Guess that explains it."
"They say the first-class shaman on loan from headquarters is coming too. Rumor has it it's a woman."
"Female shamans are rare. That's impressive."
When Nam Gyuho walked into the office, everyone pressed their lips shut.
"Good morning!"
"Morning, Team Leader!"
Right behind him came Kim Dosa, white robe fluttering, a neat gat perched on his head, an old bamboo staff in one hand and a company access card in the other.
"Hehehe. Good morning, everyone. My, my, Officer Kim—your face is burning with fire energy. Didn't sleep well last night?"
"Ah, yeah… my kid had a fever."
"Just as I thought."
Kim Dosa pulled a small blue envelope from his sleeve and handed it over.
"Use this."
"What is it?"
"Two convenience-store patches and children's fever medicine. I breathed some energy into the envelope on my way in. The child should recover before the day is out."
Officer Kim accepted the envelope in a daze.
"How did you even know… Th-thank you."
"Hehe, think nothing of it."
"How on earth did Kim Dosa know your kid was sick?"
"He's incredible, just like always! Our Kim Dosa!"
"Hehehe. After all, who looks after the special unit better than me? Hehehe."
Kim Dosa gave his robe another dramatic flutter and produced a small water bottle. Still muttering incantations under his breath, he poured the liquid into a porcelain bowl. Once the yellow gardenia water brimmed near the edge, he dipped a talisman in it and began flicking droplets across the door.
"Hum nai om mara, om mada rada."
Everyone watched in respectful silence as he chanted with solemn focus.
That was when the door opened again.
"This is the special unit, right~?"
A girl in a short skirt and white Adidas jersey poked her head inside, a small bag slung over one shoulder, smiling brightly.
All eyes snapped toward the entrance.
"Looks like it is."
At her muttered remark, Kim Dosa's brow creased. He had sensed the insidious spiritual energy radiating from her body—like a warning that she was a shaman of considerable caliber, so don't even think about messing with her.
"Namu Amitabha, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva."
Kim Dosa greeted her with joined palms, and the rest of the unit immediately recognized her as a fellow shaman.
The girl strode in like she owned the place, kicked a meeting-room chair out with her foot, and plopped down. She crossed her legs, leaned back lazily, and slapped her bag onto the table.
"I'm Samada Miku~ Dispatched after receiving first-class certification. Please take care of me~"
The revelation that she was a first-class shaman was surprising enough, but her bouncy, perky attitude made the corners of the rough male agents' mouths twitch upward in amusement.
"Nam Gyuho."
"Ah! I've heard so much about you, Team Leader!"
She flashed a bright smile, shot to her feet for a quick handshake, then dropped back into her chair as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Looks like you quit smoking. I can tell by the way you're chewing that pen."
"Yes. Gave it up last year."
"I quit recently too. In Korea, smokers have zero rights. It was so unfair I just stopped. I'm even wearing a nicotine patch."
She suddenly yanked her collar open, revealing cleavage that looked ready to burst from her bra. Every agent's eyes went wide.
Nam Gyuho turned his head in embarrassment.
The nicotine patch was stuck right on the upper swell of her breast.
"Can't see it? Here."
Miku kindly stood up and proudly displayed the patch to the rest of the team. The agent named Lee Jun sitting beside her turned beet red.
"Oh my, is this oppa feeling shy? Shyness is my department! Hahaha!"
Her skirt fluttered, flashing white panties, but she didn't seem to care. Nam Gyuho's head throbbed, yet he pulled the room back to order and began preparing the briefing.
"All right, everyone gather up. Officer Park, get the projector going."
The instant the beam projector flickered to life—
"Hello?"
A man stepped through the door. He looked like he'd only recently graduated college; traces of boyishness still clung to him. Nam Gyuho's eyes flew open.
"Aigoo!! Look who it is."
Nam Gyuho practically sprinted to the door with a lightness no one had ever seen from the man who usually carried the team's heaviest burdens.
"Teacher Kang Suho!! You came! Thank you, thank you so much!"
Miku realized the person Nam Gyuho greeted with such genuine delight was the Special Class shaman they'd been expecting. The difference in warmth compared to how he'd received her stung a little.
"What? He's so young. That's the Special Class shaman?"
"Namu Amitabha, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva."
Even Kim Dosa seemed stunned by the identity of the new arrival; he kept spinning his prayer beads and muttering under his breath.
Beaming, Nam Gyuho escorted Kang Suho before the team and made the introduction.
"This is the Special Class shaman who will be working with our unit—Teacher Kang Suho."
Miku found Nam Gyuho's proud tone irritating. She didn't like how the spotlight had shifted entirely onto this man instead of her.
"He doesn't look like a Special Class shaman at all, does he?"
When she asked the agent beside her, Lee Jun simply nodded repeatedly, starstruck that such a beautiful girl had spoken to him.
"Y-yes… I suppose you're right."
"Tsk. I don't like this. I barely feel any spiritual power from him. Grandpa, what do you think?"
Her grandfather, who always hovered nearby like a protective spirit, remained silent.
"What? Where did Grandpa go? White Wolf, summon!"
A low growl rumbled through the room as the wolf suddenly materialized. Everyone jumped.
It was a white wolf the size of an adult human—clearly her shikigami.
"White Wolf. If you fought that man, could you win?"
The wolf glared at the stranger and growled on command. Then the man's gaze met the beast's eyes.
"Grr…?"
The wolf's head snapped around. Suddenly it was baring its fangs at Lee Jun instead, as if that had been the target all along.
"White Wolf? What are you doing?"
Miku grabbed its collar, trying to force its head back toward Kang Suho, but the wolf kept snarling at the terrified agent.
"Hiiik… Miss Miku, I'm scared. I… I don't like dogs."
"White Wolf… I asked if you could beat that man."
That was when the man slowly approached and stroked the wolf's head. This was the same white wolf that allowed no one but Miku to touch it. Her eyes widened in shock.
"The agents are getting scared. Could you stop intimidating them? Good boy?"
At the man's voice, the white wolf's tail began to wag.
Miku stared at her own shikigami in disbelief. She had never seen it wag its tail for anyone else—an absolute first.
"Hey. Why are you ordering my White Wolf around?"
The moment she protested, she thought she glimpsed a massive spider hovering above the man's head. Miku rubbed her eyes and looked again.
Must have been a trick of the light.
"Sorry about that. Since we'll be on the same team, let's work well together. I'm Kang Suho."
"Samada Miku."
She took his offered hand on reflex. Even as they shook, an uneasy feeling refused to leave her.
Where did Grandpa disappear to? I wanted him to check this guy's true identity.
That ominous feeling followed her all the way to Cambodia. Her grandfather never reappeared.
The moment the airplane door opened—
Whoosh—
Cambodia's heat slammed into their faces. It was nothing like Korea's spring. The air itself felt thick, like stepping into a heavy, damp quilt.
No matter how many times I come, Cambodia never feels familiar.
Phnom Penh International Airport looked surprisingly modern, but the atmosphere changed the instant they stepped outside. The stench of exhaust mixed with dust. Horns blared nonstop. Tuk-tuk drivers waved at them through the windows.
"The bus is waiting. All equipment was sent ahead on the transport plane, so we can head straight to the FOB."
Nam Gyuho was always impeccably polite toward him. Suho didn't exactly dislike it. Having listened to the man brag about his seventeen-years-younger wife's cooking the entire flight, Suho was unusually hungry.
A wife seventeen years younger… What a thief. Never would have guessed it from looking at him.
He could sense Miku and Kim Dosa keeping a slight distance. Even though he was concealing his power, their intuition seemed to make them wary of him, so he found it hard to approach first.
Mongsil, you didn't secretly threaten the shamans, did you?
…No.
The bus carrying the entire team headed for a small hotel near the Korean embassy—large enough to house over thirty people.
"We've rented the whole hotel. It's our forward operating base. Since you joined us, Teacher, I picked the most comfortable location possible. Verifying the advance intel on-site will take roughly two days, so the actual operation is scheduled to begin three days from now."
They weren't launching straight into action. Two days of conditioning and local acclimation were necessary. In Suho's view, that was basically free time.
"I have some personal matters to handle. Is it all right if I move independently for a while?"
"Once we reach the hotel and you're assigned a room, feel free to come and go as you please. Just return by nightfall?"
"Of course."
The hotel sat near the embassy. After receiving his room key and dropping his luggage, Suho headed straight out again. Intense sunlight baked the asphalt, sending heat haze shimmering upward.
That woman Miku is tailing me.
I already knew that much.
……
You figured I'd just curse at you if you told me.
Yes.
He had once searched Phnom Penh hospital for traces of his late father but found nothing. Now he understood exactly what he needed to do: squeeze the Chinese nurse who had worked there.
Master, the target is moving.
At the hospital entrance, the Chinese nurse emerged after changing out of her white coat into civilian clothes. Mid-forties, short bob haircut, tired face, yet her eyes remained sharp—the eyes of a survivor.
Suho hailed a tuk-tuk and followed at a relaxed distance. Rush hour in Phnom Penh was pure chaos: motorcycles, tuk-tuks, and cars tangled together, horns blaring nonstop while street vendors fried oily, spice-heavy food. Exhaust and fragrant spices blended in the air.
The nurse took one bus, then walked twenty minutes before stopping in front of an old apartment complex.
Where's Miku?
Three o'clock, fifty meters.
A quick glance back revealed Samada Miku in her Adidas jersey and short skirt, picking mangoes at a street stall. If you're going to tail someone, at least change your outfit.
Their eyes met. Miku bit into the mango and grinned. Suho shook his head—a clear warning to stop following.
He settled into the café across from the apartment building, ordered an iced Americano, and waited. Roughly two hours later the nurse emerged again, this time without her bag. Looked like she was heading to a convenience store.
Now.
He rose and casually matched her pace. Inside the store, he stepped beside her at the refrigerator.
In quiet Chinese he said, "Ms. Liu Xiaoyan."
Her hand froze.
"Don't be alarmed."
Fear flashed across her face as she slowly turned, then quickly sank away—the reaction of someone who had lived in hiding for years.
"…Who are you?"
"There was a Korean patient who died recently in a medical accident tied to the Triad. I need information on the Koreans who came to see him. Tell me what you know and I'll leave quietly."
Her lips trembled faintly. She already understood.
"I'm that patient's son."
A long silence followed. Liu Xiaoyan picked up a drink, paid at the register, and as they stepped outside she murmured, "…Follow me."
On the dimly lit landing of the second floor in a five-story villa, she turned to face him.
"How did you find me?"
"That isn't important."
"…You're right. I remember the patient. He was strange. At night he became an entirely different person. During the day he remembered none of his own actions."
Half-Human Half-Shikigami?
She glanced briefly at the ceiling.
"He kept talking about his son until the very end."
Suho said nothing. Rage felt like an awl stabbing straight into his heart.
"A famous Korean chairman came to see him too. With a male secretary."
"Chairman Kang Rokgi?"
"Yes. Kang Rokgi."
That was when it happened.
"Kek!!"
With a choked scream, a horrible wet crunching sound filled the stairwell. Her body began to twist violently.
The nurse's body contorted with sickening cracks as an invisible force took hold—dark shamanic power twisting flesh and bone in an instant.
Chapter 6. Arrival in Cambodia. The End.