All I Ever Wanted Was Yours
Yu Eunha pushed herself upright and thought.
Huh? Didn't I die?
"Huh? Didn't I die?"
It was strange enough that she said the thought out loud, just to hear it.
She had definitely died. She had even heard that idiot disciple of hers crying at the end, so she must have properly kicked it.
Eunha went to scratch her head and realized her limbs were bound. She was laid out on a large, rectangular slab of stone like an altar, arms and legs fixed in four directions.
"Angh?"
She put some strength into it, and the chains pinning her arms tore free. Sitting up, she discovered she was wearing some strange white garment with a baggy cut.
"Hm? Ah, so this is a burial shroud?"
That idiot disciple. Instead of wasting money on something like this, she should have bought herself another scrap of meat.
Still, no matter how she looked at it, this was not the inside of a coffin.
"Meaning someone pulled me out."
Her head seemed to be working, at least. Good. She really hated the idea of her mind going soft.
"But if your head goes soft, would you even know it?"
Some people might have found that an interesting question. Eunha did not particularly care.
She looked down. There they were — the two breasts she had carried through roughly half of her twenty-eight years — so she gave them a squeeze. The flesh was fine. Bones and joints were fine. Nothing seemed to be rotting the way a corpse should.
"Huh?"
Something unfamiliar sat at the center of her chest, right over the solar plexus. What was this?
"The specimen tore free of the chains!! Soldiers—ghk!!"
She had been peeling her chest open to peer between her breasts when someone started shouting behind her. So she casually flung a scrap of chain and killed him.
"Haaah…."
Eunha let out a breath.
"Oh, it's one of those."
A Masu core. It glowed with a lustrous light and looked remarkably lively.
"Hmm."
She tore the chains off her legs so she could draw them together, and while she was at it she ripped off the manacles and shackles on her wrists and ankles too.
She peeled her chest open again for another look. Still a Masu core.
"Am I… a Masu?"
Hm. Was this something she needed to think hard about?
"Don't try to handle her alone! Surround—urk!!"
Someone else started making a racket, so she threw a shackle and killed him.
"Ah… have my muscles gotten a little weak? From dying and coming back?"
Eunha swung her arms in loose circles. Normally that throw should have punched clean through a skull, or taken a head clean off the neck — not just stuck in it.
"Ah!"
The answer flashed through her mind.
"I kept getting weaker right up until I died! Heh, see? Head's working just fine!!"
Ahahahaha! Eunha cackled and pounded the stone altar she had been lying on. The stone cracked and split like poorly dried clay.
"Up we go."
She snatched a spear someone had thrown at her out of midair.
"Why's this spear so light?"
She yawned, stretched, and stood. Armed soldiers were already pouring in.
The space around Eunha was a circular chamber. The altar she had been laid on stood at the center, lit by torchlight.
"Basement?"
She stabbed and cut her way through the soldiers while studying the ceiling.
"It is not a basement. It is night, and this chamber has no windows — that is all."
"Oh, yeah? Way out?"
"Down that corridor. You will see the main gate."
"Got it. Thanks. Who are you, anyway?"
The one who had spoken to her was an older man.
He wore a beard and neat clothing. His build was neither fat nor thin. His face was well lined, and he had the look of a learned man — a bureaucrat or a scholar.
"This humble one, you mean?"
"Yeah."
"This humble one was born a man, and seeks to surpass mankind."
"And bringing me back was part of that process?"
"Indeed. Lady Yu was exposed to an extraordinary number of Masu cores in life. When we excavated her remains for research, we found a core had formed within the corpse. It seemed possible that power might restore her, so we tried."
"Not sure I follow. So am I a Masu now?"
"You may be. You may not. It depends on how my lady chooses to see it."
"Beats me. Well, not like it matters."
It was a conversation between two people who did not possess ordinary human values, and both of them knew it.
So she asked only what she needed, and quickly. The chamber was already so thick with blood and corpses that lingering would let the stench soak into her clothes. They themselves did not care — but most of the world did, and getting tangled up with people who cared could be a hassle.
"You want something from me?"
"Nothing. By allowing this humble one to restore a human life, my lady has already granted him a great store of knowledge."
"So you won't get in my way no matter what I do."
"Indeed. This humble one has no power to stop my lady in the first place."
"Right."
Eunha gave a thoughtful hum and started stripping the clothes off one of the female soldiers she had killed.
"You mean to wear those?"
"Yeah. Figure they're better than a burial shroud."
"In this humble one's estimation, they are far too soaked in blood."
"Oh, for real? People gonna look at me weird?"
"This humble one believes they will. Shall I prepare a fresh set of clothes for you?"
"Thanks. Hey, got a sword? Not this junk — something proper."
Eunha strode right up to the man, then suddenly paused with a hum and studied his face.
"Is there something on this humble one's face?"
"You… look familiar?"
"Familiar? Ah, yes. This humble one's granddaughter appears to have been in my lady's debt."
"Wait, for real!? You're Hoeyeon's grandfather?"
Eunha grinned.
"If it weren't for Hoeyeon I wouldn't have seen the family resemblance at all. Hey, you got any other descendants?"
"No. There were some. All dead now."
"Ah… can't make more?"
"This humble one lost his reproductive function. Gave it up as the price for something, ten years ago."
"That so?"
Eunha scrubbed at her blood-red hair.
"Do you wish to see Hoeyeon?"
"You know where she is?"
For the first time, Eunha's eyes lit up.
"I can tell you the last place she was confirmed, and where she is believed to be now."
"Yeah. Tell me."
"Follow me. I will prepare clothes, a sword, and a map."
"Thanks!"
The capital of Sang — a nation that held a third of the known world — was a vast city inherited from dynasties past. Hoeyeon's head felt like it was spinning.
"Uwaaah…."
People. Everywhere she looked, people packed the streets. It was night, and yet the avenues blazed with light. Oil lamps lined every thoroughfare, and a handful of shops catering to the wealthy had hired mages to keep them lit.
"Hoeyeon! This will not do."
Gayul took Hoeyeon's hand.
"Would it not be wiser to step inside somewhere first? Hoeyeon seems overwhelmed."
Arang took her other hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Unlike when she had been trapped in a child's form, she was now concealing her fox ears and tail under her own power.
"Should we find an inn?"
"This one has an acquaintance in this city. A lesser creature who recently incurred a debt to me — I could demand board and lodging of them."
"Can they be trusted?"
"Eight parts in ten."
"In the remaining two parts, we may have to kill them."
"Thy words are just. Let us seek lodging elsewhere."
"Uwaaah…."
Her head was spinning. The light was one thing, but the noise was another. Even the market square of the town where the dojo had stood had never been this loud.
"Ladies! Where are you headed?"
"Hey, big sis! How long has it been! It's me — your little brother's best friend from next door when we were kids! You remember!"
"A fine gentleman just came on shift — care for a moment of his time? If you come now I can show you in right away; the schedule just happened to open up."
Gayul and Arang did not look tired, but their expressions hardened by the minute. They were concentrating hard on not losing Hoeyeon in the crowd, which only made it worse.
And so they were too late.
Something was wrong.
It was not the killing intent of a beast fighting to survive.
It was not the greedy killing intent of a person who coveted and meant to take.
It was not the hateful killing intent of someone nursing a grudge.
It was not even the gleeful killing intent of someone whose nerves of pleasure and murder had tangled together, who killed for the joy of it.
It was a killing intent like the deep water of a cave, like a night sky no light could reach — something that simply could not be known, simply could not be understood.
"Ah! Disciple!"
She was a woman in red.
Her hair was the color of blood. Her eyes were a fresh, prairie green that only made the red of everything else stand out more sharply.
She wore the kind of robes a Daoist might, but she had left the chest open for comfort and hacked the sleeves and pant legs short however she pleased. A sword hung at her waist.
"Uh."
Hoeyeon thought she must have heard wrong.
But the figure walking toward her was far too vivid to be a hallucination.
"Aww, how long has it been! Ahahak!!"
The people in the street did not notice how alien she was.
It was not a matter of malice. Good and evil could not measure her. But she was far too dangerous, and utterly incapable of coexistence with humanity — and so she was something that had to be excluded.
"…Ma… ster…?"
"? Hoeyeon, what are you—"
"What are you looking—"
In the next instant, Gayul and Arang realized their hands were empty.
"Aww, my idiot disciple! You've grown so much since then! Hey hey hey, how old are you now?"
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, that presence had peeled away the two hands holding Hoeyeon's and taken both of Hoeyeon's hands firmly in her own instead.
"Master… is that… really…."
"Angh? If I'm not me, who else would I be. Kahahahahak!"
What… is this!?
Gayul sifted through the countless spells she had memorized, searching for one that could safely pull Hoeyeon free.
What… in the world is this!?
Arang calculated which path she could take to flee if she assumed her fox form.
They could hear their own nerves creaking. The thing before them reeked of death.
But it was not a smell just anyone could catch.
"Hey!! Don't just stand in the middle of the road, huh!? You're in the damn way."
A rough-faced drunk shouted at them. A moment later he was cut in half.
"My disciple."
The way a person at prayer cups something between both hands, Eunha clasped Hoeyeon's hands tight.
And she whispered.
"Master held back, you know. Originally, I mean. Really. I actually held back. I held back and died. Thinking about it again, I was incredible, right?"
"Ma… ster, right now……."
Screams began to erupt from every direction. The stench of corpses and blood was drowning out the noise of the bustling pleasure district.
"But hey — they're asking me again? Right? That's too much, isn't it? I held back once — just once! — and now they're asking again. Giving me another chance. Then I can't hold back this time, can I? Right?"
Eunha looked into Hoeyeon's eyes.
"…Ma……."
For the first time, Hoeyeon saw the being called Yu Eunha. The being called Yu Eunha showed herself to Hoeyeon without hiding anything.
"Master — I can fuck you, right? Hm?"
Amid something that could neither be described nor understood, there was a single emotion — or light — that alone could be understood.
Longing.