Chapter 13 : Traces Left On The Body

[Experiment Log 1085-BN]

• Experiment Area 6-B
  Date: March XX, 20XX
  Test Subject: Entity Name [Bakeneko]
  Threat Level: B

[Observation Objective]

To analyze behavioral changes in the Bakeneko following contact with test subject Kim Min-woo, and to assess the potential for inducing such changes for controlled purposes.

[Background Information]

• Since contact with Kim Min-woo, the Bakeneko frequently exhibits attention-seeking behavior.
• In particular, it shows an excessive obsession with Kim Min-woo’s scent, repeatedly attempting to mask it with its own.

[Observed Behavior]

• Multiple attempts to retaliate against third parties who came into contact with Kim Min-woo.
• Increasingly obsessive and possessive behavior toward the test subject.
• This emotional change is considered an abnormal case beyond the usual behavioral range of the Bakeneko. A persistent emotional fixation by an anomaly on a specific human is recorded as a significant anomalous reaction.

[Action Requested]

• Consider conducting a “deliberate emotional induction and control experiment” using test subject Kim Min-woo.
• Reactions based on possessiveness are judged to be a key variable for future anomaly neutralization or utilization strategies.

※ This document is the property of the “Future Anomaly Utilization Institute” and is classified as top secret.

Unauthorized distribution or verbal disclosure is prohibited and will be strictly punished in accordance with Confidential Protocol Article 9-1.

“Gyarururung!”

Startled by the cat’s wary growl, San Dohwa flinched and took a step back.

As her toe touched the ground, red peach blossoms scattered in all directions.

A completely different feeling from just moments ago.

Tension wrapped around her.

Even the air seemed to freeze.

Seo Yuna—no.

Another being awakened within her slowly lifted its head.

Two sleek black tails unfurled elegantly behind Seo Yuna’s back.

It was Nabi.

“You touched it, didn’t you? Something that’s mine.”

A low, cold voice brushed against her ear.

San Dohwa moved first.

With a flick of her hand, sharp flower petals rained down like a storm, flying straight toward Nabi.

But they didn’t make contact.

The petals wilted the moment they touched Nabi’s body—

Disintegrating into dust upon skin and fabric.

Pah-sseu-sseu-sseu—

A pitiful sound, like a dying scream.

“No way…! Why—why are my flowers…!”

Nabi silently walked forward.

That silence tightened around San Dohwa like a noose.

“That look in your eyes… like you arrogantly know everything…!”

San Dohwa scattered more petals.

They scattered from her fingertips like sharp spears, aimed at Nabi’s eyes.

But Nabi didn’t dodge.

With the slightest flick of her tail, all the petals were swept away like dust in the wind.

“This can’t be happening…”

Despair filled San Dohwa’s eyes.

She was drowning in helplessness.

Nabi slowly raised her hand.

The small, pale hand sliced gently through the air—

Thud!

A single blow.

San Dohwa’s body was hurled into the air.

Then slammed violently into the ground.

Boom!

The entire labyrinth trembled.

“Ugh…!”

San Dohwa collapsed, coughing up blood.

Her body had already begun to scatter into petals.

“Why… how can you be stronger than my flowers… in a human form, not even your true one…?”

Nabi looked down at San Dohwa with a clear, chilling gaze.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m prettier, and that male loves me more.”

A playful smile spread across Nabi’s lips.

But the words that followed carried a cold, threatening weight.

“I won’t forgive anyone who touches what’s mine.”

Terrified, San Dohwa desperately tried to crawl away.

Nabi slowly, unavoidably, closed the distance between them with icy calm.

San Dohwa tried to summon one last bloom,

But Nabi’s tail wrapped around her wrist before she could.

Snap—

The petals wilted before they could blossom.

San Dohwa looked at me and cried out in despair.

“So I’m being abandoned again…? I… I just wanted to be a pretty flower loved by someone…! I wanted to turn you into a flower too… so we could bloom together…”

Her voice, filled with despair and sorrow, made my chest ache.

And in that moment, I vaguely understood.

To San Dohwa, “flowers” weren’t just decorative things.

They were her form of love.

A wish to preserve her wounds in the most beautiful form possible.

A clumsy confession—wanting to be forever connected to someone.

Twisted beyond saving, yet heartbreakingly understandable.

I wanted to run away… and yet, I pitied her.

Maybe, even just once, she wanted someone to sincerely say she was beautiful.

Of course, her methods were undeniably warped.

So I responded with the gentlest compassion I could offer:

“Even without being a flower, you were already beautiful. I think you were lovely just the way you are. You didn’t need to become a flower.”

San Dohwa’s eyes shook violently.

“Really…? Even like this… I’m pretty?”

Her eyes welled up.

She bowed her head slightly and gave a faint smile.

“Everyone just used me… You were the first to truly see me. As I thought, you were… my partner…”

Her bowed head remained still.

And then—

“That’s why… I can’t let you go… Hehehehe…”

I hadn’t expected it.

She suddenly lunged at me.

It happened in an instant.

Her claws grazed my arm.

A shallow cut, blood beading up.

At the same time, Nabi grabbed her leg with a voice seething with rage:

“How dare you…!”

But San Dohwa’s body was already turning to petals.

As the petals fluttered through the air, she cast one last gaze at me.

“My partner, my partner, my partner! We’ll be together forever… as one!?”

San Dohwa vanished like a scent.

Leaving only the faintest echo behind.

And on my arm, a faint flower-petal-shaped mark remained.

♪ This heart that no one noticed ♪

♪ You looked at it, even once ♪

♪ You were my spring ♪

♪ You were always my flower ♪

The sorrowful San Dohwa from moments before was nowhere to be found.

Only the echo of a cheerful song remained in the air.

She had said she would leave a mark.

And she did—

A mark I had never had in my life before.

A flower-shaped scar, like a tattoo.

And now, silence filled the space where San Dohwa had been.

It was Nabi who broke that silence.

“It’s mine! It’s mine! It’s… mine…”

She slowly approached and looked at the wound on my arm.

Without a word, she stuck out her tongue and licked it.

“Go away… I don’t want anything else on what’s mine.”

Nabi obsessively licked the wound and rubbed it with her claws.

But the flower mark only grew more vivid, as if mocking her effort.

Nabi’s expression twisted.

“So annoying…!”

Without warning, she rubbed her face against my shoulder—

Then lightly bit my ear.

It was too sudden to dodge.

She climbed on top of me in an instant.

Poke—

“I’m leaving a mark too.”

She slowly spread her saliva over the wound.

Then quietly leaned on my shoulder, her body swaying.

The two black tails vanished.

“Don’t look at anyone else…”

With eyes losing their light, Nabi looked up at me and said those final words before collapsing into my arms.

Leaving only her warmth behind.

I stared blankly at the two marks.

On one side, the sorrowful trace of a peach blossom.

On the other, the cat’s kiss still lingered on my ear.

“…What the hell is this.”

And in that ridiculous moment, the only thing that popped into my head was something Senior Yuri once said:

“Someone like you, Min-woo, is the type who’d be really popular.”

Am I… actually popular with monsters?

Should I like this? How am I supposed to take this?

A complicated feeling crept up on me.

My legs lost strength.

I felt like I was about to collapse and sat down on the floor with a thud.

What had just happened didn’t feel real.

A monster that turned people into flowers appeared,
and the butterfly that had vanished reappeared and attacked me.

“…Did you come back?”

I didn’t know what had happened.

The two people, Lee Mina and Song Min-taek, who were clearly butchered and dead, had returned to human form as if nothing had happened.

And Jayden’s arm… was back on.

Even after seeing that, I couldn’t believe it.

I couldn’t tell if what had just happened was reality or a nightmare; I couldn’t distinguish it anymore.

I just stared blankly around, when my eyes happened to fall on a manual that had dropped on the floor.

The manual I had been holding… and there, on an open page, was an entry about Sandohwa.

And the contents had definitely changed from what I had seen before.

• The wounds that couldn’t be healed were covered with greater affection.
• Sandohwa was to be given sincere love and vowed to cherish that love.

The first time I saw it, it had said, ‘A wound that could never be healed in a lifetime’

‘Never once had she received sincere love,’

But now, it was different.

Once again, the manual had changed.

I was gasping for air.

Kwon Hyuk-min was running without looking back.

The mist he had inhaled deeply scratched his throat like sharp glass shards.

It’s over.

He gritted his teeth.

Everything had gone according to plan.

The contract to summon Sandohwa, hidden from the administration, and the order to capture Kim Min-woo.

There seemed to be no problem.

Then why?

Why did Sandohwa disappear?

He couldn’t understand.

A monster feeling affection for humans and disappearing satisfied?

A monster?

Kwon Hyuk-min placed his hand on the wall, nervously.

The structure of the maze was changing.

Goo-goo-goo-goong~!

The ground trembled.

At the same time, a strange presence from the hallway behind him made itself known.

It felt like something massive slowly rising in the forest.

“Karsra…”

He whispered.

The ‘manager’ monster of this maze.

It had noticed Kwon Hyuk-min’s tricks faster than anyone else.

As soon as he summoned Sandohwa through the contract, it immediately targeted Kwon Hyuk-min,
forcing him to flee.

“Damned bastard…”

The plan had been simple.

Massacre the surrounding people with Sandohwa, isolate Kim Min-woo, and secure Kim Min-woo.

But, the plan was ruined, the monster disappeared, and now…

It was his turn to be hunted.

“That’s far enough, Mr. Kwon Hyuk-min.”

In an instant, the mist ahead parted as if it was being torn apart.

Click, click-

The sound of high heels echoed, and through the mist, the silhouette of a woman appeared.

With cold, detached eyes, a document was held in her gloved hand.

It was Dr. Im Hyo-rin.

“Affiliated with the Future Anomaly Utilization Research Institute, experimental research department. You’ve infiltrated while hiding your true identity…”

Kwon Hyuk-min gritted his teeth and stepped back.

“Hahaha, so why did you poke the hornet’s nest? Why did you steal our precious resources from the lab!”

Im Hyo-rin gave a cold smile.

The Future Anomaly Utilization Research Institute.

The place where the Kim Min-woo and Pamyoh incident had occurred.

A group that had been illegally researching anomalies without the administration’s knowledge.

For the administration, it was incomprehensible that they had managed to sneak under their radar.

“You’ve ruined sacred time, so you’ll have to take responsibility for this.”

Suddenly, a strange shape began to move behind the wall.

It was a lump of something that looked like either wood or flesh.

At its center, something translucent and crystalline was embedded, and it shone faintly as if staring at Kwon Hyuk-min.

“Karsra…”

Before Kwon Hyuk-min could react, the roots of Karsra shot out from the wall.

Crisp!

The black roots wrapped around his legs, and with one swift motion, he was thrown to the ground.

Without even a chance to scream,

Kwon Hyuk-min was dragged away.

Im Hyo-rin silently watched, then turned to the agent behind her.

“Got him. Restrain him and transfer him to the interrogation room.”

“Yes, Dr. Hyo-rin.”

“And what about Min-woo?”

“The field agents are expected to arrive soon. The recovery procedure will begin shortly.”

“Good. Let’s end the exercise for now… The outstanding trainee, though inevitably, turned out to be the one we expected.”

The administration hadn’t anticipated this accident at all, and it was a truly troublesome result.

However, amid the chaos, there was someone who managed to survive and take control of the situation.

“Kim Min-woo, as the outstanding trainee, who will he contract with as his reward?”

Her voice was soft, but the curiosity it contained was heavy.

As a result, every anomaly had shown favorable reactions in front of Kim Min-woo.

Even the hard-to-handle one like Sandohwa.

If that was the case, would the anomalies that had been sealed due to danger show a different face in front of him?

Im Hyo-rin smiled silently.

It was the usual brief, shallow smile, but its meaning was unclear.

“…I’m quite looking forward to that result.”

Then, once again, she stepped into the mist.

To be continued…