Ch.21Chapter 21. Crunch (2)

To be honest, Cuss is a bit cute.

No, actually she’s very cute.

Silver hair, snow-white skin, and those bright, sparkling eyes.

If it weren’t for her slightly awkward speech, she’d be practically the perfect beautiful girl.

Who would suddenly suspect this child of being controlled by an alien parasite that’s drained her brain?

“Tsk…”

If only she didn’t have these tentacles, things would be so much better.

Glancing discreetly, I could see Cuss was completely absorbed in watching television.

Looking at the tentacle swaying gently from side to side, I couldn’t help thinking it resembled a tail.

Especially since it protruded from just above her buttocks.

Isn’t it growing right from her tailbone?

“Hmm…”

I gently grabbed the tentacle.

While Cuss would throw a fit if I pulled it hard, this much seemed fine.

It felt smooth and slightly squishy—if I squeezed too hard, it seemed like it would just collapse.

I lowered the tentacle slightly and lifted her skirt to get a better view of where it was rooted.

This isn’t just for me, it’s for your sake too.

So please bear with me for a moment.

I raised the kitchen knife in my right hand and…

Thwack!

I brought it down, cleanly cutting off the tentacle.

“GYAAAAAAHHH!!!”

“Oh shit.”

Cuss sprang up like a coiled spring and let out a bizarre scream.

I had planned to grab her immediately after cutting and restrain her in the chair, but her reaction was much faster than I expected, and I missed my chance.

“What are you dooooing?!”

“Hey, hey. Just a second. Ow.”

Cuss lunged at me, scratching at my neck with her nails.

With a knife in my hand, I couldn’t move my arm carelessly.

But if I dropped the knife, the agitated Cuss would likely grab it and try to stab me.

In the end, I had to hold my knife-wielding arm high in the air while trying to restrain Cuss with just one arm.

“It hurts! It hurts! It hurts, I tell you!”

One arm wasn’t enough to completely restrain the frenzied Cuss.

As she rushed at me, pushing, hitting, and clawing, my hands and neck were left in a complete mess.

Shit, this isn’t what I wanted.

“You betrayed me! Traitor! You fucking bastard! You goddamn…”

“…”

Noticing something odd about her voice, I looked closer and saw tiny teardrops rolling down Cuss’s cheeks.

Damn, now I’m feeling like the bad guy here.

“Hey. Calm down.”

“I can’t calm down! It hurts too much! It hurts, I tell you…! Huh-huuuh…”

Cuss pounded on my chest repeatedly, then buried her face against it and began to sob.

I could see her buttocks trembling in pain.

This is making me feel terrible again.

When I tried to comfort her by patting her back, Cuss swatted my arm away.

Suddenly I found myself standing with arms spread, holding Cuss in my embrace.

Normally I would have told her to get off long ago, but since I was in the wrong, I couldn’t.

“Hic… huh-huh…”

“Are you feeling a bit calmer now?”

Feeling guilty, I placed my hand on her head, but she swatted it away again and glared at me.

By now, Cuss’s skirt was soaked with bright red blood.

Anyone seeing it would think she was having her period.

“Let me look at your wound for a moment.”

“…”

With Cuss biting her lip and glaring at me, I went behind her and gently lifted her skirt.

The bleeding had already stopped.

It seems Cuss’s healing ability is on a completely different level from normal humans.

“You bastard…”

Cuss finally spoke.

“I’m sorry.”

“It hurt! It hurt so much! I told you not to touch the tentacle!”

“I’m sorry. It was for your own good.”

“Liar. You did it for your own convenience.”

“…”

She hit the nail on the head.

I have nothing to say to that.

“I never asked you to cut it off! It’ll just regenerate anyway.”

“What…?”

“And every time it grows back, it gets a little longer.”

Motherfucker.

Then there’s no point to this at all.

Actually, cutting it makes things worse.

What the hell did I just do?

“Why are you only telling me this now?”

“Because I didn’t think you’d cut it off without saying anything! You should have at least told me first!”

“…”

Cuss started hitting me again, breathing heavily.

Though she seemed to have lost her strength, so it didn’t really hurt.

“I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry…”

I applied some ointment to the area near her tailbone, which was still sulking.

I briefly wondered if removing the entire tailbone would prevent regeneration, but decided against acting on that thought.

If I did something like that, Cuss and I would become complete enemies.

Ah, maybe it’s already too late for that.

“I won’t do it again.”

“Hmph.”

“Let’s change your clothes now.”

I grabbed the hem of Cuss’s dress as she stood rigidly like a master waiting to be served.

She raised her arms on her own.

I quickly removed the blood-soaked dress and helped her into a different one.

Seeing her walk with a slight hunch, as if her tailbone area was hurting, made me feel even more sorry.

Then I took her to the bathroom to wash her face.

It was a mess from all the tears.

Even after that, Cuss avoided my gaze and tried to keep her distance from me.

When I approached, she moved away.

When I approached again, she moved away again.

I wonder if she’ll ever forgive me.

If I were in her position, I wouldn’t want anything to do with someone who cut up my body either.

It’s probably better to leave her alone for now.

She must hate me enough to want to kill me.

I sighed and returned to my room.

“What.”

“…”

In less than three minutes, Cuss appeared at my door, fidgeting.

The sharp glare she had given me earlier had softened considerably.

She slowly walked up and stood in front of me.

Her hands were gripping the hem of her skirt tightly.

“I’ll try.”

“What?”

“To not get caught. To not cause trouble for Jinsoo. I’ll try.”

Cuss kept her head down, clenching her fists tighter.

That’s going to wrinkle her skirt.

“I’ll hide the tentacle… as much as possible. I’ll make sure you don’t worry. So… so… please don’t abandon me. Please don’t give up on me.”

“…”

Cuss started crying again, tears dripping down.

Once again, I was at a loss for words.

Come to think of it, I was in a position where I could kill Cuss and throw her away, or cut off her limbs and lock her in the basement at any time.

It seems this incident had reminded her of that possibility and instilled considerable fear in her.

I hadn’t even thought about that.

I was only trying to figure out how to send this damn girl to school without getting caught.

How do I tell her all her worries are unnecessary?

“I won’t abandon you, you little shit.”

I placed my hand on Cuss’s head and began to stroke it gently and slowly.

I’m not sure if she’ll believe the words of someone who just held a kitchen knife and cut off a part of her body from behind.

But this time she didn’t push my hand away and stayed still, which suggested she was feeling a bit better than before.

“If I was going to abandon you, I would have chopped you up, killed you, and dumped you in the ocean long ago.”

“Hic…”

“Why would I go through all this trouble? I’m trying to believe in you. Trying to make you into a person. So I won’t abandon you. No, I can’t abandon you. I’ve spent too much money on you to throw you away now.”

“…Really?”

“Really, of course.”

It seems she understands my feelings a little bit.

Satisfied, I smiled and was about to remove my hand when Cuss grabbed my wrist.

Then she tried to place my hand back on her head.

I could have easily pulled away with a little force, but I was so surprised that I just went along with it.

“Human bonding expression… I didn’t understand it at first. But now I think I do.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s… it’s somehow comforting.”

As I gently stroked her head, Cuss closed her eyes with a broad smile.

I think this is the first time I’ve seen her smile like this.

After always seeing her yelling and screaming, seeing this expression gives me a strange feeling.

I continued stroking Cuss’s head for hours.

Grrrrrumble…

Until Cuss’s stomach clock went off.

“Shall we eat?”

“Yes.”

***

“They really sent it by mail.”

Pulling a document envelope from the mailbox, Juliane sighed.

So there are still people who use regular mail.

She had thought the mailbox was only for package deliveries, not document envelopes like this.

Once again, Juliane thought her superior was quite old-fashioned.

“Why use something like this…”

Even in the elevator, Juliane couldn’t shake her doubts.

It wasn’t like it had security features like a package.

She was simply amazed that someone would use mail that anyone could easily tear open and steal.

They had said it was important data that even the Department of Justice shouldn’t see.

“Hmm… what is this?”

Feeling it from the outside, she could sense something rectangular and hard.

What could it be? An old-style hard disk?

What if I don’t have the right jack for it?

Surely it would connect with a universal jack?

“Damn. I’m worried.”

That person might be a bit old-fashioned…

She began to have an ominous feeling that none of the jacks might match.

-Ding. 85th floor.

As soon as she entered her apartment, Juliane tore open the envelope.

Putting her hand inside the torn opening, Juliane…

“Tapper.”

-Yes, Juliane.

“Disconnect the internet.”

-Understood.

“Stop recording too.”

-Stopped, Juliane.

Before taking out the contents, she gave commands to her AI to ensure security first.

Whatever was inside, it couldn’t hurt to be careful.

“What… is this…?”

Walking into the living room and taking out the contents, Juliane’s expression twisted.

The rectangular object, which looked like it was made of plastic, had two holes in the middle.

It was something Juliane had never seen before in her life.

There was a note attached to the back.

-This is the data you wanted. Never play it in front of others. If you think you might get caught, incinerate it immediately. Get rid of this note right away too. I’ve never seen this data.

“Ha.”

What could it be to cause such a fuss?

Juliane threw the note into the shredder and sat on the sofa with the plastic object.

“Tapper. What is this?”

-It’s a cassette tape.

“A cassette tape?”

-Yes. A small magnetic tape storage medium that became completely extinct in the 2030s.

“My goodness…”

This was completely outdated.

Where on earth did they get something like this?

And is there even a way to play it anymore?

“How do I play this?”

-It’s possible with a cassette tape player.

“I don’t have anything like that at home.”

-Would you like me to try? I don’t have a cassette tape player function, but I can recognize magnetic patterns, so I should be able to play it.

“Hmm…”

The latest AI, Tapper, should probably be able to do it.

Juliane opened the cassette’s cover and pulled out the black tape inside.

She handed the end of the tape to Tapper’s robotic hand, and Tapper began to slowly draw it in.

-Static… static…

At first there was only noise, but with Tapper’s adjustment, it began to sound like a human voice, and soon a fairly natural voice recording was playing.

The playback speed was also adjusted to a normal speaking pace.

The sound quality was quite poor, but not to the point where the words were unintelligible.

Soon even that noise was cleared by Tapper’s adjustment, resulting in clear audio quality.

Juliane leaned back on the sofa and began to focus on the voice.

-So what are you curious about?

-First, let me confirm. You were the weapons officer on the USS Cleveland at that time? And you testified twice at the trial?

-That’s right.

The Aegis-class USS Cleveland.

It was the ship where Jinsoo Kim was serving when he committed his crime.

The captain of that ship was the husband and father of the mother and daughter whom Jinsoo Kim raped and murdered.

-So at that time, it wasn’t clear who the perpetrator was?

-The guy was incredibly meticulous. There was absolutely no evidence left.

-But they caught the perpetrator, didn’t they?

-That Asian Petty Officer Second Class? That guy just got unlucky and got caught up in it.

-What do you mean?

-That guy was close to the Captain’s wife. The Captain had suspected an affair before, and when the incident happened, the Captain was determined to crush him.

-Wait, so they detained him without evidence? How is that possible?

-The moment the Captain targeted him, he was already confirmed as the perpetrator. The Captain was so determined to catch and punish him that even the admirals had to cover it up. When the Commander of the Pacific Fleet gets directly involved, can’t the military police make one petty officer into a rapist and murderer?

-So that Petty Officer Second Class was innocent?

-At this point, who knows.

-Right. Thanks.

-Hey, but why are you suddenly asking about this…

“Stop playback.”

Juliane felt dizzy as she brushed her bangs back.

Sweat was beading on her forehead.

If this tape was real.

If all of this recorded content was true.

This would be one of the worst scandals in U.S. military history.