No Matter What, I'm Going
‘W-what do I do?’
Seyul was flustered. She'd only stepped outside with a light heart, and now something enormous had happened. She didn't know the details, but one thing was clear — this was no ordinary situation.
Was she really supposed to keep walking through this?
“...I have to.”
She wavered for a moment, but the hesitation didn't last. It had been less than an hour since she'd made up her mind before leaving the house. She couldn't just turn back now, she told herself, and steeled her resolve.
‘Maybe it's just this area. It might calm down further ahead.’
Keep going, and she might leave the scene of the incident behind. Clinging to that hope, Seyul drew closer and closer to her destination — and then—
“Kyaaah!”
“I don't want to die!”
“Has anyone seen my kid?!”
“My shop! Oh god, my shop!”
“Moooom!!!”
“Somebody help us!”
“Move!”
“Don't push!”
“That guy's stepping on people!”
“Look over there!”
“Someone's looting in the middle of all this?”
“Please, somebody help!”
“No time for that!”
“I'm too busy staying alive...”
The commotion swelled with every step. Such a rich variety of voices reached her ears that Seyul had no choice but to admit it.
‘The source of the chaos is at my destination!’
The park she was headed to — or somewhere right beside it. That was the epicenter of the pandemonium unfolding now.
“Of all the rotten luck.”
So this was what they meant by the day you go out being the day everything happens. After working up the courage to leave the house for the first time in ages, an accident breaks out immediately — and its epicenter is the exact place she'd sworn to reach no matter what. It was so perfectly coincidental she half wondered if someone was playing a prank on her.
“W-what do I do?”
Now she'd moved past flustered and into a cold sweat. But even as she agonized, her feet never stopped — and that was when it happened.
“Hey, kid!”
“What are you doing over there?!”
Several fleeing pedestrians came toward her. They looked older, and seeing her small frame, they took her for a young student and worried for her.
“You need to run, right now!”
“Hurry!”
Strangers suddenly shouting at her to run left Seyul at a loss.
“No, I have business at the park just up ahead.”
She tried to decline politely, but they weren't having any of it.
“Kid, are you insane?”
“A park? A PARK, in the middle of this?!”
“A kaiju appeared! A kaiju!”
The pedestrians blurted out in a rush — and one word from among them made Seyul's eyes snap wide open.
“Did you say kaiju?”
Kaiju. The enemy of humanity that had emerged while Seyul was away in the Another World. Beings with power far beyond any human's, against which modern weaponry was utterly useless. They appeared here and there through a special phenomenon known as a Gate.
In the early days, humanity had been helpless against them, nearly surrendering its place as master of the Earth. Today they were a presence no one on the planet was unaware of — but Seyul had never seen one. Thankfully, kaiju weren't something that showed up often.
“Is the kaiju at the park right now?”
Of all the times for such a being to appear near the very park she was heading to. It was absurd. When she asked, the pedestrians nodded.
“It just appeared at the park entrance!”
“We were right there. One wrong move and we'd all be dead.”
“We got lucky there happened to be a Hunter in the park.”
Another word she couldn't just gloss over.
Hunter. After the kaiju appeared, so did they — superhumans who rose up as if to stand against the monsters.
‘Of course there'd be a Hunter here too.’
Unlike kaiju, she'd seen exactly one since her return — but to Seyul, Hunters were even less welcome than kaiju. A dragon was, when you got down to it, basically a kaiju itself, which made things awkward.
‘Maybe I should just turn around.’
Once more, Seyul's heart tilted toward going back. There were beings she'd rather not meet, and the situation was nothing like the game. If an enemy blocked her path, she could smash through and move on — but this was an accident, a disaster. When construction or an incident blocks the road and people tell you to turn around, ignoring them and pushing through isn't grit.
‘It's just being crazy.’
She was still hesitating when—
“There is a Hunter fighting in the park right now, but you should still run.”
“He didn't look all that trustworthy, honestly.”
“You know the type — won't fight the kaiju they're told to, just does his little broadcasts.”
“Before the kaiju showed up, she was wandering the park doing some weird broadcast thing.”
The pedestrians threw out one argument after another, trying to talk her around.
“Star Hunters. Those people are all the same. They puff themselves up like they're world-class when they're doing their streams and games, but the second a real kaiju shows up, they're too busy running away with one excuse after another.”
The oldest-looking of the pedestrians said with contempt. There were indeed those who made a name for themselves as Star Hunters — and the Hunter in the park fell squarely into that category. To people of a certain age, they didn't look good at all. That was why the pedestrian had grumbled that he didn't trust them.
“...!”
Unexpectedly, those words set Seyul's heart ablaze.
‘Was I just posturing too?’
Posturing was for the game. Seyul took those words and applied them to herself. In the game, she had walked her path no matter what stood in the way. And now that same her was trying to turn back in reality, and it stung.
Yes, in reality she had a reason to turn back. But by that logic, had there been no reason in the game? God had coaxed and bribed her, she'd had no power at all, and every manner of enemy had blocked her way. Even then, she had declared she would walk her own path and never stopped.
And now, in reality, she was scheming up excuses about how this was crazy, looking for a way to turn around. The shame of it — posturing was for the game — snapped her mind wide awake.
“Fine. Let's be crazy, then.”
If walking forward from here was madness, then she'd rather be mad. This time, at last, she hardened her true resolve and moved her feet. Gritting her teeth, she marched straight toward the park.
“?”
“Unbelievable.”
The pedestrians who'd been trying to stop her were dumbstruck. She'd suddenly declared she'd rather be crazy, and now she was walking toward the very place they'd told her not to go.
“This kid really is insane!”
“You can't go there!”
“Stop, please!”
They tried everything reasonable to hold her back.
“Please let go of me. I've decided I'm going, even if it means being crazy.”
To them, Seyul might as well have been speaking in tongues.
“The kid's in shock. She's not in her right mind.”
“Enough! We'll drag her out by force!”
Judging her out of her senses, the pedestrians moved to haul her away.
“Wh-what are you—!”
“She didn't even budge.”
But even as several grown men lunged at her, Seyul didn't stop.
“What strength—!”
More than not stopping — she was dragging the very people clinging to her along with her.
‘S-so soft.’
‘They smell nice.’
And the moment they grabbed her, Seyul noticed the softness of the touch, the pleasant scent — leaving the pedestrians who'd seized her utterly flustered instead.
“KAIJU!!”
Then, without warning, a tearing scream rang out from nearby.
“Gyaaah!”
“Gahk!”
The pedestrians clinging to Seyul tumbled backward in fright. And not just them — everyone still in motion froze as well. Because apart from the kaiju in the park, more kaiju had been closing in.
A vicious appearance that could kill by the hundreds of thousands. Kaiju that looked like gorillas covered in crimson fur.
Known as Red Kongs. A simple name matching their appearance — but absolutely not to be underestimated. There were ten of them in total.
“W-we're all dead.”
One of the fallen pedestrians muttered. He was no expert and didn't know exactly what those creatures were, but one thing he knew for certain: when ten kaiju gathered, nothing anyone did mattered.
The Red Kongs that had appeared were all the lowest rank, E. But no ordinary human could beat one, no matter what they tried. A single lowest-rank kaiju had once slaughtered a thousand gun-armed humans. They were, quite literally, living symbols of annihilation.
Even judged by the game God's Warrior, every one of them was stronger than an Orc Chieftain. Their massive frames gave them greater strength and durability, they nullified conventional attacks like gunfire, and each possessed its own unique special ability. Stronger than an Orc Chieftain in every respect — and there were ten of them.
Nothing could be done. The fleeing people froze like frogs before a snake, unable to move a muscle.
All except one.
Tap. Tap.
While everyone stood paralyzed, Seyul alone kept walking — straight down the road to the park that the Red Kongs happened to be blocking.
“Grrrr...”
As she approached them, the Red Kongs turned their attention to her. Everyone else had frozen solid, and here was one lone figure walking closer. Curiosity stirred. One Red Kong tilted its head and moved toward her.
“I'll be passing through, so do excuse me.”
Seyul asked its pardon — and in that instant, the approaching Red Kong vanished.
“Kruh?”
“Huh?”
Kaiju and humans alike were bewildered. Why would a perfectly fine kaiju suddenly disappear? At its companion's abrupt vanishing, another Red Kong approached Seyul.
“I need to get through, so move, please.”
She asked its pardon again, and repeated what she'd done before. This time, though, at a speed visible to the naked eye. With the very tip of her finger, she gave the approaching Red Kong a light push.
And the Red Kong vanished without a trace.
“???????”
“!!!!”
Exclamation marks and question marks ran riot between kaiju and humans alike. They had seen it with their own eyes and still couldn't understand.
So let's be clear about what just happened. A kaiju — one that no modern weapon could harm no matter what was thrown at it, one that even if an attack landed would take dozens of anti-materiel rifle rounds to the same spot just to pierce — had been lightly tapped with a fingertip and erased without a trace?
When a person witnesses something too shocking, the brain simply stops. Apparently the same went for kaiju. Everyone except Seyul had stopped thinking.
“...Kyaaat!!!”
“Kraaaah!!!”
A moment later, the Red Kongs recovered their wits — and turned pale with terror. Kaiju may have lacked intellect, but they had emotions. Instantly, every last one of them panicked and tried to flee.
“Get yourselves to the afterlife.”
But Seyul was not one to quietly watch them run. With one irritated remark, every kaiju vanished mid-flight, frozen in their fleeing postures — leaving behind nothing but a single streak of blood.
No kaiju remained. People frozen solid, turned to stone. Leaving it all behind her, Seyul pressed on.
Toward the park, where the battle still raged.
‘No matter what, I'm going!’