Chapter 38 - Escape (1)

Fortunately, I had an answer ready for that question.

“As you can see, I don't heal very well, so my training officer taught me a little ahead of schedule.”

“Who was your training officer again?”

“Choi Yun.”

It wasn't Kudo who reacted, but the chairman of Cureus. He made a strange noise. I turned toward him, stroking the head of the four-year-old tugging on my white hair.

“You don't mean that Choi Yun?”

“What do you mean, that Choi Yun?”

“The A-Tech chairman's adopted son! Who the hell are you, not knowing something everyone knows?”

Apparently deciding this conversation was pointless, my senior turned away. Kudo splashed through the ankle-deep water toward the south entrance. That, too, was blocked by rubble. I could barely make out the sturdy stairwell door that presumably led to the underground parking garage.

I headed toward him as I answered the chairman.

“I grew up without parents, so there are quite a few things I'm lacking.”

The chairman at least had the decency to flinch.

“The Black Badger Choi Yun was adopted into a corporate family?”

“He's your training officer, and you don't even know that? ... Well, I suppose he wouldn't tell you himself.”

He had that right.

I nodded and adjusted my hold on the squirming children. They had both been terrified when I found them, but my idle chatter while I applied the splint seemed to have helped them relax. The children, who had been frozen stiff, were starting to move around.

The girl, who had introduced herself as Becky, tugged on my hair. The boy, Luke, waved his uninjured arm wildly in the air. Ignoring the pain of what felt like my hair being torn out and the flailing in my field of vision, I came to a stop behind my senior.

“Can we get through?”

Instead of answering, Kudo adjusted his grip on the sword in his right hand. He looked ready to cut through the piled-up rubble. I took a step back.

“What's that mister doing?”

Luke pointed at Kudo's back.

“Is that a real sword?”

“It is.”

“Can a sword cut stone, too?”

Becky gave my hair a long tug, pulling my head to one side. Watching Kudo's blade trace an elegant arc, I answered slowly.

“Depends on who's holding it.”

SHING

THUD, BOOM!

The piled-up rubble broke into small pieces and collapsed to the floor. The cut surfaces were clean and flawless. Delicate, fluid strokes followed, slicing the remaining rubble into even smaller pieces.

“Wow!”

Becky finally let go of my hair in her admiration.

“That mister's so cool!”

“Whoa! Awesome!”

“What are you doing?”

Beside the children with their unreserved admiration, the chairman found fault. I turned from watching my senior sweep rubble away from the door with his shoes. Meeting the chairman's contemptuous gaze, I gave a lopsided smile.

“I'm a complete rookie.”

“You can't do that?”

“He can't do that!”

“Useless bastard.”

That's harsh, Becky.

The sad thing was, I couldn't argue. I gave a good-natured laugh and hoisted the slipping children back up.

I walked over to my senior and joined him in kicking the rubble aside. Naturally, the man who called himself a chairman didn't help, and I had no intention of setting down the children, who offered to lend a hand. My senior and I silently cleared the debris blocking the door.

RUMBLE...

Was this tower seriously going to collapse?

Just as the building shook with an ominous sound, Kudo opened the stairwell door.

The lights were out. The only light came through the open door. I'd have to watch my footing. If this was any indication, the underground garage would be pitch-black, too.

My senior must have had the same thought, because he turned to look at me.

“Give me one.”

He smoothly sheathed his katana and held out a hand.

Becky leaned far toward Kudo. I handed the girl, arms flailing, to my expressionless senior. Without any visible emotion, he settled the little girl in his left arm and began descending the stairs. The measured taps of his shoes echoed through the eerie stairwell.

The chairman pushed past me, announcing he was going first. I let him through and followed. Footsteps echoed down the stairwell.

“Hey!”

The chairman shouted as he stumbled down the stairs.

“There are cracks in the walls!”

“Then let's get down before they collapse.”

I spoke with my eyes on my senior, who looked as if he was holding back his temper.

“Don't waste your energy...”

BOOM!

I nearly tumbled down the stairs.

RUMBLE, CRASH!

The building shook again. The precarious structures on the upper floors collapsed into the lobby. The deafening crash behind me reverberated through the narrow stairwell.

Chunks of cement poured through the open doorway. The smell of dust rolled in. The space darkened. In an instant, the light spilling into the stairwell dwindled. It had already been cramped and eerie; now even the lit patches were shrouded in darkness. The falling rubble seemed to have blocked the open door.

“Light up the stairs with your phone!”

The chairman shouted, his voice trembling slightly.

“I can't see a thing!”

“Watch your step.”

I held Luke close as he let out a long “Whoaaa,” sounding like a middle-aged man.

“You'll be fine if you go slowly.”

“Mister, are you married?”

Ahead of the panicking chairman, Becky asked her bold question.

What a fearless child.

Kudo's matter-of-fact reply drifted back through the darkness.

“I used to be.”

“Why used to?”

“Hey, Becky! You're not supposed to ask that!”

Luke craned his neck and shouted.

“Just ask things like how work's going these days!”

“Is this your second time around at life?”

While I marveled at Luke's precociousness, the bold little voice came from below.

“Were you married, too?”

That question seemed to be for me. She wasn't calling me “mister,” after all.

Carefully descending the stairs, I answered without any particular thought.

“I don't know.”

“You don't know? Why don't you know?”

“Hey, Becky! He already answered you!”

Luke raised his voice again.

“Stop asking!”

That wasn't what I meant.

I was a little taken aback, but didn't correct him. Nor did I answer the chairman's incessant grumbling about turning on my phone's flashlight. I felt I needed to keep my other hand free in case something happened.

The stairs were narrow and dark. We'd probably have to go down about two floors to reach the underground garage. A missed step or something falling on us along the way could be disastrous. And the state of the building wasn't exactly reassuring...

... Hm?

Something grated on my senses. My careful steps slowed, Luke in my left arm and my right hand on the railing. I could see the silhouettes moving below. The chairman groping his way down. My senior, already half a flight below.

And a faint, flickering scarlet glow across their backs.

Scarlet...?

I whirled around just as a volley of fire arrows came pouring down.

THWIP!

An arrow pierced my right thigh.

“Hey!”

“Aaagh! It's back!”

Luke and the chairman shouted. I was the one who'd been hit, but for a moment, the piercing pain left me unable to make a sound.

That fucking hurt.

But the pain sharpened my senses. I looked up the stairs we'd come down. A ball of flame floated above the first flight, writhing as it prepared to fire another arrow.

“Luke. Curl up!”

I shouted, pressing the boy close to my chest.

“Move, move!”

Panicking, the chairman bolted down the dark stairs. Kudo set Becky down and ran up toward me. I raced down past him.

There was something I'd spotted before the stairwell went dark.

“The fire hose cabinet!”

I leaped down half a flight in one bound and reached toward the wall with my right hand.

“Sir, let's use the fire hose!”

CLANG!

CLANG. CLATTER. CLANG!

The fire arrows ricocheted off Kudo's blade. Flames struck the walls with heavy thuds, gouging out chunks.

The chairman gave a sharp cry and crumpled to the floor. I set the silently trembling Luke down behind me and opened the fire hose cabinet.

“Spray it.”

Facing off against the creature, my senior gave the order without looking back.

“As soon as the next attack ends.”

“Yes, sir.”

I gripped the hose and waited.

After unleashing several powerful attacks, the Fire Shield had to pause before attacking again. I needed to send a jet of water into that gap. Narrowing my eyes, I watched the fire arrows light up the darkness, looking for my moment. Hadn't Yun explained this? Exploit that split-second opening.

Like Yehyeon driving his sword into the level-ten creature...

“Now!”

Kudo shouted sharply and twisted aside.

FSSSSSH!

Water surged out of the hose under tremendous pressure.

Kudo nimbly leaped down the stairs and scooped up Becky just as the water from my hose struck the creature. It was being pushed back—that floating ball of fire the size of a soccer ball.

So why wouldn't it go out?

“Hey!”

As I ran up the stairs, Luke cried out in alarm behind me.

“Hey! Don't go!”

[Creature: Fire Shield]

As I drew closer, the creature field guide read out the rest of the entry.

[Extremely difficult to eliminate completely. Avoidance is recommended upon encounter. Its method of reproduction is unknown. One of the creatures that cannot be captured alive. Attacks in response to movement...]

BANG!

The instant the creature was driven out of the stairwell, I kicked the red-hot door shut.

WHOOSH!

Flames flared through the gaps around the door.

“Taleb!”

My senior, who had picked up Luke as well, shouted from below.

“We're heading for the underground water tank. Get down here.”

Without another word, I dropped the hose and raced down the stairs.

* * *

“Should I try calling Mr. Mühlen?”

The underground parking garage was pitch-black. Having put some distance between ourselves and the Fire Shield, we stood beside a pillar to catch our breath.

The chairman and the two children were silent, perhaps half out of their minds with shock. Only my senior and I moved about in the darkness. Watching Kudo impassively stanch the bleeding from my thigh, I said,

“I feel like he might be able to tell us how to kill that thing.”

Kudo, who was binding my wound with a strip of torn clothing, shot me a look as though he'd never heard anything so bizarre. He stared at me in silence for a long moment before asking,

“Mühlen?”

“Yes.”

“John Mühlen?”

“Yes. From the Science Department.”

“You can reach him by phone?”

Kudo raised his brows, almost muttering to himself.

“You have his number?”

“Yes, I do. I'll try calling him.”

Ignoring my senior, who looked as if he doubted his own ears, I made the call. Nothing to lose. He was a scientist supposedly on par with Einstein, after all. Couldn't he offer a fresh perspective on dealing with that creature?

“... You're calling him?”

“Oh, he picked up.”

Good timing.

I brought the phone to my ear.