Midnight Turmoil at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
I spent the evening touring New York’s famous landmarks with Aris and Mimata Chieri. As expected of a world-class city, there was no shortage of things to see.
I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Mimata Chieri had traveled abroad several times for work, but she had never done so purely for sightseeing. She seemed to be having the time of her life.
Aris looked genuinely happy to show us around her hometown. Of course, as the hours passed, her expression gradually grew tense. After a rather late dinner, we returned to the mansion only to find Nae Fitzgerald waiting for us with both hands on her hips and a thoroughly displeased look on her face.
“Aris! What were you thinking, coming back this late!”
Nae Fitzgerald scolded her daughter, but the moment her eyes landed on me, her expression melted into a warm, affectionate smile.
“Did Aris give you a good tour of New York? Did you have a nice dinner? You could have stayed out longer… Or perhaps you’d like to go on a date with your aunt tomorrow?”
Aris stared at her mother with an expression that screamed disbelief. Though clearly unhappy with her mother’s behavior, she was quickly dragged away by Nae. Mimata Chieri and I headed back to my room together.
“We still have time. How about some post-dinner exercise, junior?”
Mimata Chieri lifted the hem of her skirt in open invitation. I spent the next several hours thoroughly disciplining her before we waited for the Fitzgerald mother and daughter to slip out after midnight. Around one in the morning, I sensed faint movement from upstairs. We prepared ourselves and left.
There was no need to tail them and risk being spotted. They would likely prepare at some hidden location before heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It made more sense for us to wait for them there in advance.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art stood on the eastern edge of Central Park. Mimata Chieri and I rented a high-floor room in the hotel directly across the street. We placed two chairs by the window and settled in to observe. I had booked the room online that morning just in case it was full, so we were able to enter immediately. Growing bored of staring at the same view, Mimata Chieri finally spoke.
“We’re in a hotel and all we’re doing is waiting… It feels like such a waste, junior.”
“Hey now. We already did plenty back at the Fitzgerald mansion. Be patient, senior.”
I spoke to her sternly, like an owner telling a dog to wait while food sits just out of reach. Even so, my eyes never left the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“Huh?”
A woman with long red hair, wearing a leather jacket and jeans, was approaching the museum. That woman…
“What is it, junior?”
Mimata Chieri, who had been fidgeting, turned her gaze toward the museum at my surprised murmur. Thanks to her owl-like night vision, she was far better suited for surveillance than I was and recognized the figure instantly.
“Isn’t that Otagi? The friend of that Eve woman from the underworld.”
“Yeah… but why is Otagi Yuka here at the museum?”
Otagi Yuka dissolved into red mist and slipped through the narrow gap of the museum’s closed front doors. Things were getting complicated. Surely she wasn’t going to fight the Fitzgerald mother and daughter?
Almost immediately after Otagi Yuka entered, a blonde woman in a sleek cyber suit approached the main entrance. Judging by her figure, it had to be Nae Fitzgerald.
Nae manipulated a few devices, carefully opened the front door, slipped inside, then emerged moments later looking flustered.
The guard at the entrance was probably unconscious. Knowing Otagi Yuka’s personality, she wouldn’t have killed an innocent civilian.
Nae Fitzgerald turned left and disappeared from our line of sight. She was likely going to warn Aris about the situation.
“When should we move?”
“We need to catch them after they steal the item, so let’s keep waiting for now, senior.”
We continued our vigil until a deep, roaring engine noise shattered the quiet. Several large SUVs raced toward the museum. All but one stopped outside. The remaining vehicle smashed straight through the front entrance with a deafening crash.
Men in black clothing poured out of the vehicles. They were all wearing tech armor and helmets, making it impossible to identify them, but they were almost certainly the Muyoung Squad from Kurotsuki Do.
I had felt somewhat relieved when Eve told me the Muyoung Squad had arrived in America. But that relief vanished the moment I remembered their leader, Muyounggui, was a terrible matchup for Dangsohwa.
Muyounggui was an outstanding close-combat warrior, but his true nature was that of a necromancer who commanded the dead. He usually relied on melee combat rather than necromancy. Only when melee proved insufficient did he resort to his true art. His poison attacks were devastating against living beings, but they were meaningless against corpses. That made it nearly impossible for Dangsohwa to win. Moreover…
“Police, junior!”
While I was considering Muyounggui, the wail of sirens filled the air. Several police cars screeched to a halt in front of the museum. A dozen armed officers leveled their weapons at the entrance.
“Criminals inside the museum, listen up! Come out with your hands raised and we won’t shoot! But if we have to come in, there will be bloodshed!”
One officer shouted through a megaphone. Soon after, a figure emerged with both hands raised. But no matter how you looked at it…
“Isn’t that a corpse?”
“It is, isn’t it, junior?”
Muyounggui had to be inside. It seemed the corpse had come from the vehicle that had crashed through the entrance. We hadn’t seen Muyounggui enter from outside after all.
The corpse approached the officers with both hands raised in apparent surrender. One policeman grabbed its wrist and snapped on the cuffs. Then the corpse exploded.
A massive blast sent bone fragments and toxic blood flying like shrapnel. Most of the officers were caught in the explosion and collapsed. They had likely died instantly.
The few officers who had avoided the first blast were wiped out by the subsequent explosion of a headless corpse.
“I should stop trying to surprise Aris and Nae by catching them in the act. We need to go help them now.”
“Understood. Let’s move, junior!”
We opened the window and climbed down the building’s exterior. Our room was on a high floor, but there were plenty of handholds. With our enhanced abilities, the descent wasn’t particularly dangerous. We sprinted toward the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mimata Chieri, who had come unarmed, snatched up a pistol one of the fallen officers had dropped during the chaos.
The crashed SUV had left a gaping hole in the entrance. The moment we rushed inside, we were greeted by pure pandemonium.
A knight in black armor—most likely a death knight—was locked in fierce combat with Otagi Yuka. Meanwhile, the Fitzgerald mother and daughter were battling the Muyoung Squad. From the rear, a figure shrouded in black fog and wielding a massive scythe—undoubtedly Muyounggui—provided support to both the death knight and his squad.
The vampire Otagi Yuka was holding her own against the death knight. And the Fitzgerald mother and daughter, whom I had assumed would be weak in direct combat due to their thief backgrounds, were putting up an impressive fight against roughly fifteen Muyoung Squad members with their agile movements.
“Senior, switch to the squad’s guns. They were probably loaded with silver bullets to use against Otagi Yuka. Silver should also work on Muyounggui and that black knight, so they’ll be more effective than standard police firearms.”
“Oh, good point!”
Mimata Chieri grabbed a gun from the bisected corpse of a squad member. Since the body was already in two pieces, it seemed Muyounggui couldn’t make use of it.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Reinforcements.”
Hearing our voices, Muyounggui turned in our direction. I didn’t have a clever answer ready, so I simply said reinforcements. Still, for Dangsohwa’s sake and everyone else’s, it looked like I would have to kill Muyounggui here and now.
“Senior, cover me.”
“Leave it to me!”
I clenched a fist infused with the Abyss and charged straight at Muyounggui.
“You think you can defeat me with your bare hands?”
He swung his scythe in a wide arc as he rushed forward. His movements were excessively large—clearly he was underestimating me. To an ordinary person, that speed and the scythe’s power would mean instant death by horizontal bisection. But I was no ordinary person.
Shoten Isshoku was an upward kick technique from the Deep Sea Eight Hands style. I knocked the scythe off course, closed the distance instantly, and drove a short, explosive punch into his abdomen.
The sensation was unmistakable—his internal organs should have burst. Yet Muyounggui showed no sign of pain and continued swinging his scythe. Of course. The body wrapped in fog was not his true form.
Muyounggui was both a necromancer and a possessing spirit. That was why he was so difficult to kill. I needed to completely destroy this possessed vessel to force him into the next phase. Time to dismantle it.
I dodged the sweeping scythe while continuously using Deep Sea Eight Hands techniques to tear apart the fog-shrouded body. The occasional silver bullets from Mimata Chieri caused him to flinch, making the destruction even easier.
My straight punch slammed into the exact center of his chest. With a heavy thud, the body possessed by Muyounggui began to shatter apart.
-Kieeeeee!
An unpleasant screech rang out as the fog coalesced and rose upward. The destroyed body fell to the ground with wet thumps.
“Otagi! Watch out!”
At my warning, Muyounggui’s spirit body flew toward Otagi Yuka. She leapt backward at my shout, but the spirit wasn’t aiming for her. Its target was the black knight she had been fighting.
Kukukuku!
The moment Muyounggui’s spirit entered the black knight’s armor, thick black smoke poured from every joint as if a raging fire had ignited within.
Blue ghost flames burned inside the knight’s helmet. Its movements became far faster and stronger than before. Phase two had begun.
Muyounggui abandoned Otagi Yuka and charged straight at me. It seemed destroying the body he had been comfortably possessing had drawn the most aggro.
“Die!”
A spine-chilling voice echoed from within the armor as it thrust its greatsword. The strike was far quicker and heavier than before.
At this level, his strength and agility stats clearly surpassed mine. But battles were not decided by stats alone.
High base stats made things easier, but equipment, technique, and traits carried far more weight. It was the same reason a bodybuilder with superior strength could still lose to a skilled boxer.
Muyounggui possessed strength, speed, and decent close-combat skill, but he was ultimately a necromancer. Against a martial artist like me in a pure melee fight, he stood no chance.
I dodged what I could, blocked what I had to, and slowly dismantled his armor. Behind me, Otagi Yuka waited for an opening with a sword radiating golden and crimson energy. With Mimata Chieri’s support, Aris and Nae Fitzgerald had finished off the remaining Muyoung Squad members and were now aiming their guns at Muyounggui.
“Now!”
I stepped back and shouted. Three guns roared at once while Otagi Yuka slashed at his back with her golden blade. The full-body armor prevented major damage, but I was counting on it being weakened.
Extending my senses to the limit, I confirmed the right flank had taken concentrated fire. Cracks had formed, and black smoke was leaking from the gap.
“Otagi! Cut his neck!”
At my command, Otagi Yuka swung her sword. Muyounggui turned left to block it, completely exposing his right side to me.
It was my first time attempting it, but I unleashed two techniques simultaneously. The Shadow Skewer pierced the cracked section while the destructive penetrating force of Ten Fingers Full Bloom exploded from inside the armor.
Rumble!
An explosion erupted within the armor, reducing the corpse inside to pulp. Muyounggui dropped to his knees and collapsed.
“We did it! Thank you, Taira!”
“Wait!”
Otagi Yuka hopped toward me cheerfully, but I raised a hand to stop her. As I had said earlier, Muyounggui’s true body was his spirit form. We weren’t finished yet.
Even a spirit would have taken heavy damage from my Abyss-infused techniques, but it likely hadn’t been completely destroyed. After all, this was a monster that had lived for hundreds of years, far beyond human.
Just as I expected, the smoke rising from the armor coalesced and tried to fly away. I quickly thrust out my Abyss-infused hand and seized the clump.
-Kie…
The unsightly sound came from the smoke bundle that was Muyounggui. Now… what to do with him? One idea came to mind.
Still holding his spirit form, I gathered the death knight’s armor and greatsword, then placed Muyounggui’s giant scythe on top. They were all powerful items, but they were demonic weapons meant exclusively for the undead. Humans could not use them, so I felt no attachment.
“It’s been a while since my last offering.”
I murmured to the Daughter of the Abyss and activated the offering magic circle. The ground split open with a deep rumble and swallowed the death knight’s armor, sword, and Muyounggui’s scythe. I then tossed his spirit body into the gaping crevice.
-Kieeeeee!!
Inside the Abyss, he would taste eternal torment. For a necromancer who had toyed with death for hundreds of years, it was a fitting punishment.
I combined the “bunny girl” from IseibI’s main heroine bunny girl illustration with the “mother-daughter” theme from Kkobukdan’s mother-daughter cover to create the Fitzgerald mother-daughter bunny girls lol. Below are the unused covers.
