episode_0380

Thud! Crash!

Until Ban Harin made the call to Detective Do Jong-ha.

Nothing particularly noteworthy had happened.

“…Meow…”

“If it’s too difficult to watch, you can step outside for a moment.”

“……No… It’s fine…”

The outskirts of the city.

A quiet building with no passersby.

After clearing the perimeter, Ban Harin and “Rat” entered the third-floor office,

where they interrogated a man known as the “Team Leader” in place of Yang So-ah, the cotton-candy-like hunter.

“Now begins a demonstration by our trained interrogator.”

“Yang…?”

“We are in need of a conversation. Therefore, parts unnecessary for said conversation must be removed.”

[Rare Hunter Protection—Execution Division].

The duty to protect the “Rare Hunter” under their charge at all costs.

Permission to eliminate disruptive elements that interfere with operations was granted to Ban Harin on the day she took over as Team Leader by Chief Go Yeong-in.

That was the nature of a “Rare Hunter.”

“Wai—! I’ll talk!!! I’ll talk!!”

“How many times must I tell you? You’ll get your chance to speak later.”

“You fucking lunatics!!!”

Groan—!

The Team Leader, who had quietly allowed himself to be restrained by Yang So-ah, finally snapped.

Until now, he had stayed still, lulling them into complacency, thinking that the soft pink cotton ball wouldn’t press further.

But Ban Harin and “Rat” were different.

If he stayed passive, he would really die.

Huff… Huff… “What the hell… What kind of maniacs are you…?!”

“That’s why we can’t do this sort of thing when Master Eun-ha is around. This is our real job.”

“Wh… What?”

“That’s probably why we’re drawn to Master Eun-ha. In her presence, even we feel… lighter.”

He couldn’t comprehend what they were saying.

The Team Leader gritted his teeth and poured mana into his body.

Why…! Why are they even alive?!

Ban Harin, whose neck Yang So-ah had supposedly snapped.

“Rat,” whose heart he had personally crushed—even if she had gotten away once.

Even if Ban Harin somehow survived, why was “Rat” still breathing?

How?

That wound should have been fatal.

Something’s wrong. What did I miss?

He didn’t understand.

Former Rare Hunter Yang So-ah had been fitted with restraining metal horns.

“Rare Hunters” were buried alive in society, confined to their homes,

all for the sake of easy “management”—that was how he viewed them.

He never imagined Team 1’s “Rare Hunter” would step forward to save those she cared about.

That instead of Ban Harin having her neck snapped, she had revived “Rat,” who should have been dying.

Even if he were killed and resurrected, he would never grasp that truth.

“Bang-nya!!”

Crash!

The wall shattered.

The Team Leader, kicked once more by “Rat,” hastily activated his skill.

Groooan—!!

A hidden dagger under the table, a ballpoint pen on the desk, hydrochloric acid in the drawer.

Even a tiny syringe.

Every object flew toward “Rat” as if guided, sharp as arrows.

Crunch—!!

Ghk…!

Threads of fiber coiled tightly around his body like restraints—Yang So-ah’s [Thread Manipulation] skill. But the Team Leader didn’t stop.

That cotton puff couldn’t kill him.

He only had to deal with the other two.

“Tch.”

Tick————————— tock—————————.

But when “Rat” clicked her tongue and used her [Velocity Manipulation] skill,

the objects flying toward her froze midair.

Tick————————— tock—————————.

The slowed ticking of a second hand echoed like an auditory hallucination.

“Do you not know how much I hate this?”

Tap. Tap.

In decelerated time, “Rat” stepped forward.

She prodded the suspended weapons with a needle in her hand, and like a spell breaking, the guided objects clattered to the floor.

Clang! Thunk!

The clatter of metal.

The sizzling of acid eating through the floor.

Before him stood “Rat,” frowning as pain reignited in her revived body.

“……I surr—”

“Bang-nya!!”

Kwaaaang!

Sent crashing into the wall again, the Team Leader coughed up blood.

Something had gone wrong.

The sound of his preparations crumbling to pieces.

At what point had things spiraled out of control?

He couldn’t understand.

Haa… Haa…

“You’re the one moving, so why are you panting? Not getting up?”

Haa…… “You think… I’ll talk because of this?!”

“Did it occur to you we’re doing this precisely because we know you won’t?”

“Is this even an interrogation?! What kind of psychopaths extract information like this?!”

“Do you think this looks like an interrogation?”

“Rat,” wiping blood off her shoe, slowly approached.

Her bearing was nothing like that of an interrogator.

Was this not about extracting information at all?

“Rat. That wasn’t a lie. Know some restraint.”

“Sure.”

Haa…! Haa…!

It hurt. He felt like dying.

Was this violence for interrogation or vengeance?

Purposeless brutality crushed one’s spirit, left them weak and small.

If he didn’t talk, he would really die—

No, an intuition told him he’d die even if he did.

Haa… Yang So-ah!

In the end, what surfaced was the desperate will to live.

Poof…!

Yang So-ah, nestled in Ban Harin’s arms, flinched.

“Yang…?”

“I’m sorry!! I’ll tell you everything, so stop, you bitches!!”

“…….”

“You know nothing good comes from revenge like this!!”

A threat—if they didn’t spare him, the truth about Yang So-ah’s grandmother would be lost forever.

At bloodied Team Leader’s appearance, Yang So-ah’s pupils trembled uneasily.

“Rat,” scowling, halted her kicks and looked back at Ban Harin.

Had the word “revenge” struck a chord?

“I’ll tell you everything! Just spare me!”

“…….”

“Think about it! In the end, only our Team 4 died!”

“…….”

“Don’t you realize you’re just shooting yourselves in the foot?”

Only Team 4 had died.

It wasn’t a lie.

Twitch…

Ban Harin, silently observing, furrowed her brows slightly.

“…….”

What surfaced in her mind was the image of Eun-ha, her neck snapped by Yang So-ah.

That familiar drowsy smile.

Right. In the end, they had survived.

Thanks to whom.

“…….”

“Woah, did your eyes just go dark?”

“Rat,” startled, staggered back as Ban Harin’s gaze locked onto her.

Adjusting her pure white mask, Ban Harin strode past “Rat” toward the Team Leader.

Step. Step.

Her previously silent footsteps, now loud.

An inexplicable chill crept closer, and the Team Leader instinctively clenched his jaw as he stared up at her.

“…….”

Rustle…!

Beyond the mask,

his eyes met Ban Harin’s left one–tiny pupils writhing like grains of rice.

What… was that?

“What the…?”

“They say revenge begets revenge.”

Whoosh…

Forced onto a chair,

the Team Leader was seized by the collar and slammed onto the floor by Ban Harin.

“An accurate observation.”

“Wai—!”

“Thus, in place of Yang So-ah and ‘Rat,’ who bear grudges against you, I will handle this.”

Thud.

Ban Harin’s foot pressed down on the Team Leader’s chest.

Like a massive wolf’s paw pinning prey,

or being ensnared in unbreakable white spider silk—pressure.

Guhk.

His ribs creaked as breath was forced from his lungs.

“Wait…! Hold on!”

“I bear no resentment toward you. This is not revenge.”

A frigid voice leaked from behind the pure white mask.

…….

The Team Leader saw.

The figure of the woman standing over him.

Backlit by the ceiling light,

encased in dark shadows—it.

Thud. Thud.

It wasn’t human.

Whatever stood before him.

“…….”

Was not Yang So-ah or “Rat,” who merely hated him,

but something steeped in far deeper darkness.

It declared it would kill him.

Declared this was not revenge.

“…Setting aside how you needlessly provoked ‘Rat’ and caused Master Eun-ha distress,”

“…….”

“Setting aside how you nearly got my surviving teammate killed without realizing,”

“…….”

“Setting aside how I had my cross confiscated because of you and spent the whole day tormented by monsters… I feel nothing.”

“That’s… resentment!!”

None of them were sane.

Crushed underfoot, the Team Leader gritted his teeth.

As it said, this wasn’t revenge.

If he had to name it… perhaps venting?

“…….”

The act of spewing forth accumulated hatred.

Yet no matter how much he spat out, the hatred remained.

All they had ever wanted was for you to embrace them with that unchanging smile.

『Three stomps.』

“D—…”

『Then I shall spare you. An A-Rank Hunter’s enhanced physique should endure it.』

And before the Team Leader could speak,

that thing raised its foot high,

poured every ounce of mana into its leg,

『Three stomps.』

BOOM!!!

It stomped.

The building shook violently as the floor caved in.

The agony of impact, then weightlessness—followed by deafening noise.

Ban Harin landed softly beside the Team Leader on the second floor amid the wreckage.

True to his A-Rank resilience, he clung to life.

“Kuh—! Ggh—!”

『One.』

CRASH!!

Another stomp.

The second floor crumbled like a cracker, sending them crashing into the first.

Transparent windows shattered noisily, spilling glass onto the streets.

Distant screams of passersby.

Expressionless, it landed soundlessly on the first floor and approached.

“Sto—!”

『Two.』

KRAAAASH!!!

Another stomp.

First floor.

Unfortunately, this building had no basement.

Groooan—!

The structure, now in ruins, spewed dust.

Silently, it stared down at the cratered floor, as if a bomb had gone off.

On the first floor,

no living human remained.

『……Three.』

Guhk!! CRASH!

KRAAASH!!

BOOM!

Another stomp.

Without a word.

KRAAASH!

After the third, it kept counting silently.

…….

…….BOOM!!

Thud! BOOM!

Eventually, Ban Harin deactivated [Physical Enhancement].

A sudden mana depletion left her dizzy, but it didn’t matter.

The weight in her chest hadn’t lightened in the slightest.

“Sigh…”

She exhaled heavily.

A few seconds passed. Regaining her breath, Ban Harin lightly kicked off debris, ascending through the gaping hole back to the third floor.

There, “Rat” comforted a terrified, curled-up pink hedgehog.

Ban Harin removed her mask, revealing her usual blank face as she approached them.

“…’Rat’ failed to control her strength.”

“Now I’m at fault?”

“I only stomped three times.”

“You stomped to kill. Why isn’t he paste?”

Glaring at the ruined floor, “Rat” shook her head in exasperation.

The crumbling building groaned alarmingly.

“Tch… Was it really three?”

“Approximately.”

“Felt like a dozen.”

“Margin of error.”

Should’ve handled it myself.

Massaging her throbbing temples from stress, “Rat” stewed in frustration.

They’d made quite the mess.

“What now?”

“Did we learn anything useful?”

“Just that Yang So-ah’s grandmother was a fleeing ‘Rare Hunter,’ and Chief Go Yeong-in’s colleague, the ‘handler,’ was eliminated for aiding her escape… right?”

“That much was true.”

The bare facts—what obedient subordinates might confess—without context or details.

Fzzzt…

Attempting to use [Observation], Ban Harin stopped, pressing her aching eyelids.

She’d overused mana.

“We wouldn’t have gotten more regardless.”

“These grapes decent?”

“As for Yang So-ah’s grandmother… we’ll leave that to Do Jong-ha.”

She ignored “Rat’s” irrelevant comment.

Ban Harin approached the curled-up Yang So-ah.

Swish…

On the way, she pocketed a syringe from the office floor.

“Yang So-ah.”

“…Meow…”

Poof…

Her face peeked out from the fluffy mass.

Perhaps disappointed by the unanswered questions.

Or perhaps shaken by the demise of the man who tormented her for years.

With a conflicted expression, Yang So-ah hugged an old mirror in her arms.

Only her own reflection stared back.

“……Fine… Ban Harin… unnie…”

But only briefly.

As if remembering something,

she smiled faintly.

“Still… two left…”

Pointing weakly at the two unconscious Team 4 members

she had “knocked out” in the office.

“Only… necks… wake them… up…”

Their necks twisted at unnatural angles.

Ban Harin and “Rat” exchanged grave looks.

This was… unexpected.

“Team Leader. What do we do about this?”

“Likely Master Eun-ha’s influence.”

Accurate.

Approaching Yang So-ah, Ban Harin mechanically wiped her expressionless face.

Somehow, she seemed to believe people could survive broken necks.

How to handle this…?

“……Yang So-ah.”

After a pause,

Ban Harin stroked Yang So-ah’s fluffy head and spoke gently.

“Team 1 will take responsibility for them.”

Yang So-ah still belonged to Team 4, after all.

To Ban Harin, she remained an untrusted outsider.

“Team Leader, what nonsense—? Eun-ha saved her, so we should—”

Guhk!

Ban Harin’s fingers clamped around “Rat’s” throat mid-sentence.

“Nghahk!”

“Thus, we will personally inspect the two you ‘knocked out.’ Please understand.”

“Yang…”

Silenced, “Rat” watched as Ban Harin crouched to Yang So-ah’s level.

Her icy face wasn’t frightening.

So… I’m still not trusted yet.

Of course.

Yang So-ah nodded in reluctant acceptance.

But disappointment lingered—her lips jutted out slightly,

and her cotton-like hair drooped like a drenched puppy’s.

She longed for tomorrow to come quickly.

To see Eun-ha, be held by her, have her head patted.

“…….”

Poof…

Unable to resist, Ban Harin embraced the squirming fluff.

Her expression remained blank.

“It’s fine, Yang So-ah.”

“…?”

“Stay as you are. Never kill anyone. Believe that.”

Because Eun-ha needed someone like Yang So-ah.

That was her faith.

Squirm… Poof…

Words hard to comprehend now.

But Ban Harin’s embrace was unexpectedly warm.

“…Yang…”

Eyelids slowly closing, Yang So-ah nestled into Ban Harin’s arms

as they quietly exited the ruined building.

Rumble…!

[Rare Hunter Protection—Execution Division] Team 4’s office.

The structure, now devoid of lingering regrets, collapsed with a deafening roar.

Only resentment remained.

…….

…….

Ring…

“—Yes… This is Do Jong-ha Detective Agency.”

“Detective Do Jong-ha, I presume?”

“Oh, if it isn’t Ban Harin-ssi. Is Eun-ha-ssi doing well? And yes, this is Do Jong-ha.”

After that, nothing unusual happened.

Leaving the collapsing building behind, the three boarded Ban Harin’s car and called the [Detective] Do Jong-ha.

Their goal? To uncover the truth behind Yang So-ah’s past.

Not through hearsay—but through Yang So-ah’s own eyes.

Perhaps this was the most proper method.

“There’s a past incident I’d like you to investigate.”

“Past, you say?”

“Rat failed to restrain her strength…”

“Is that so…?”

“You fucking Team Leader, you want me to die here?!”

“Is that incorrect?”

The plain gray sedan drove forward.

Toward the rural village where Yang So-ah once lived.

“Master Eun-ha. Borrowing her for a day.”

“Where should I go?”

Fortunately, Do Jong-ha’s professionalism prevailed—he readily accepted the request,

prepared to close his office and head straight to the destination.

“Did you get the person’s permission?”

“Have you ever seen Master Eun-ha refuse?”

“…….”

“Besides, she’s been worrying about Do Jong-ha’s well-being. Two birds with one stone.”

From the backseat, Ban Harin stroked Yang So-ah, sprawled across her lap.

Her cotton-candy hair sprawled like an infant hedgehog’s, fast asleep.

Naturally, she’d feel more at ease with Ban Harin—who’d helped remove her horns—than “Rat,” whom she’d just met.

“Rat,” now behind the wheel, grumbled silently, her long tail swaying irritably.

Vrooom…

Time slipped by.

5 PM—the sky’s edge burned red as the sedan arrived at a tranquil countryside village.

“…Ban Harin… unnie…”

“Here?”

“Yeah…”

Skies free of skyscrapers stretched clear.

Parking beside a modest wall, Yang So-ah—face shadowed—hesitantly stepped out.

Time flowed slower here than in the city.

Beyond the wall… lay a place untouched by time.

“…….”

A derelict house.

Wild weeds and broken sliding doors.

Frozen in the day its inhabitants vanished.

Yang So-ah’s warm past remained preserved here.

Poof…

She pushed open the gate and stepped into the yard.

The footprints of a child long gone.

Her grown steps now overlapped those faint traces.

“…….”

A place of memories.

Forbidden by guilt, by others’ gazes—

a place she never dared return to,

one she thought she’d never see again.

Our home.

“……I’m… home…”

Poof…

Kneeling before the empty house, Yang So-ah spoke haltingly.

No reply came.

…….

…….

Creak—!

Time flowed on.

A vintage foreign car halted by the wall.

“Long time no see. Name’s Do Jong-ha.”

“Nothing unusual, it seems. We’re counting on you, Jong Do-ha-nim.”

“It’s Do Jong-ha.”

“Those cats here too?”

“Who pissed in your cereal? The hell’s your problem?”

A day without Eun-ha.

In her stead, these people helped Yang So-ah to her feet.

“Let’s begin.”

Thus—

“I’ve never traced a past this old. No telling what we’ll find.”

Yang So-ah—

“……Please……”

—the woman with unstained cotton-candy hair, clenched her lips

and resolved to face the past before her.

…….

…….

Flash—

“—……Silver bell… crack…”

“—So-ah… You…”

And so,

Yang So-ah saw.