Chapter 127 - Today, Today (3)

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"... Ha."

The Eyepatch Octopus let out a laugh.

"Hahahaha!"

His laughter grew louder.

"What... did you say you did to my hospital...?"

His voice sounded as though he were struggling to contain his anger.

「Gobbled it right up.」

「Want me to show you?」

「I'd have to call my underling back inside. Will you let me?」

Hyeonyul tilted his head slightly. He wanted to look as infuriating as possible.

「You wouldn't like that, would you?」

"... Are you declaring war?"

The Eyepatch Octopus glared fiercely at Hyeonyul. The power revealed through his billowing killing intent seemed similar to psychic power. At least it wasn't magic.

What kind was it?

「War?」

「No.」

「I came to kill you.」

Hyeonyul put his phone away and leisurely drew a dagger. It wasn't the dagger issued by the Black Eagles; its blade was slightly curved. He twirled it, looked at the man, and vanished on the spot.

First, he had to clear away everything that would interfere with the fight.

Having slipped into the darkness, Hyeonyul reappeared, coating his two daggers in black power. Darkness reached out from the shadows and seized the legs of every one of the Eyepatch Octopus's underlings.

An enemy deprived of movement was nothing more than an upright mannequin.

Hyeonyul slid swiftly over the darkness spread across the floor, sweeping his dagger in a long arc. A thick black line traced smoothly behind him like a tail.

At the end of that unbroken line, he turned at once. Watching heads fall like dominoes, he advanced over the darkness again. Another sweep of black spread across the fading line like an ink painting.

"..."

As more heads fell one after another amid the spurting blood, the Eyepatch Octopus gaped at the impossible sight. There was nothing he could do.

How was this even possible?

The red rain spreading across the ceiling and floor was utterly unreal.

'... I couldn't see it.'

The Eyepatch Octopus held his breath. What would happen if that dagger plunged into his own neck?

THUMP. THUMP.

His heart pounded violently.

The blood-drenched Rabbit Mask leisurely typed something on his phone.

「Come at me.」

The figure that had looked so ridiculous moments ago was becoming increasingly grotesque.

'What the hell is he?'

His mind went so completely blank that he couldn't even think of what to say.

Not one of his underlings remained standing. They had all become headless ghosts.

This wasn't the fight he had expected.

"... If I..."

His voice trembled.

"If I kill you, all that glory will be mine, won't it?"

The Eyepatch Octopus stuck out his tongue. His hand moved along the trail of thick, dripping saliva.

In an instant, Hyeonyul's body rose into the air.

"...?"

Before he could blink, he was slammed violently downward.

But there was no sound. No one was there.

"Yes. Yes. You need to be at least this good. That's how I can truly establish myself."

The Eyepatch Octopus embraced the feeling that kept making him tremble—fear, excitement, and a mounting thrill. How long had it been since he'd felt this way on his rise to the top?

Aside from the fierce battle that had cost him an eye, he had scarcely ever felt it. As his faction grew and he had more things to look after, everything had become static.

The Eyepatch Octopus turned his head, his body moving on reflex. He came face-to-face with the rabbit mask behind him.

The dagger approaching his throat looked strangely slow.

'If that stabs me, I'll die.'

He might die.

No, he would die.

That thought pierced his mind, awakening every sense in his body. Before his mind could act, his fingers moved.

Hyeonyul's body was sent to the right again. By the time he realized it, the right-hand wall was already close.

'What kind of power is this?'

Before hitting the wall, he wrapped darkness around himself as a cushion. He bounced off it and dropped steadily toward the ground.

Before his feet could touch the floor, Hyeonyul heard something coming.

'Wind?'

He moved his head.

BOOOM!

But a compressed force burst close to his head like an explosion, almost driving into it. His rabbit mask flew off, sending his black hair fluttering.

Blood pattered down after it.

"What? You have hair?"

The man's voice was laced with mockery.

'... Ah.'

Though blood blurred the vision in one eye, Hyeonyul calmly took a syringe from the darkness and jabbed it into his neck. Stopping the bleeding came first.

'He can move anything.'

What the man had moved just now was air. He had used it like a bomb.

'What a nuisance.'

It was a silent, unpredictable power. Hyeonyul understood why the man's strength was considered that of a major player. Without a way to counter it, it was indeed dangerous.

Before Hyeonyul could draw breath, he realized he was being pulled somewhere. Before he could blink, the man was before him, looking at him with a smile.

"Oh dear. You're bleeding a lot. Does it hurt?"

Hyeonyul was unshaken by the taunt. It was only words. What he needed to consider was how the power worked.

'... His fingers?'

It had only been for a split second, but the fingers and hand had moved first.

'Do I just need to cut them off?'

He wasn't certain, but it was worth trying. At this distance, one thing was clear: the man wasn't a psychic.

"You look more normal than I expected. Hey, are you dead? Say something."

Hyeonyul's hand melted away as he aimed for the man's idle left hand. The instant he thought the dagger had made contact, the man hurriedly raised his hand.

'Too shallow.'

Hyeonyul melted straight into the shadows.

'His reflexes are incredibly good.'

This wasn't a matter of thought. It had happened unconsciously. That made him difficult in another way.

"... Wow."

The Eyepatch Octopus was genuinely impressed. A moment slower, and he would have lost his arm. This was dangerous.

"Rabbit. You didn't take the Poison King's faction for nothing."

The Eyepatch Octopus looked around. His opponent had suddenly hidden himself, and he couldn't sense where he'd gone at all.

No. There was no presence to sense.

"Maybe I should get serious too."

The Eyepatch Octopus removed his eyepatch. Light rose in the empty socket.

From within the shadows, Hyeonyul watched his eye. Something brushed past him in an instant. This was a different power.

'... What is it?'

Before Hyeonyul could finish analyzing that power, he noticed the view around him changing. The man was in front of him.

How had he known?

Hyeonyul furrowed his brow.

"Normally, a person has one ability. Whatever it is, it's randomly determined at birth."

A sound tickled his ears. Perhaps it was air moving, as it had before. If it exploded here, it would be dangerous.

"But sometimes, you see, someone is born like a mutant."

Only then did Hyeonyul see something burning like a flame in the formerly empty socket. It was a second power.

"And that's me!"

Hyeonyul smiled as soon as he heard what the man said next. Whatever he said, Hyeonyul had only one thing to do: make him cough up information related to him.

He considered cutting off those troublesome arms first, then stopped.

'... Let's change tactics.'

Hyeonyul used darkness to extinguish the lights. Darkness fell over the abandoned building, and he disappeared.

"You think I can't see you just because the lights are out, Rabbit?"

The Eyepatch Octopus burst out laughing. The lights had gone out. So what? With this eye, he could see his opponent wherever he was.

'Got you.'

The Eyepatch Octopus moved his hand. But there was nothing there.

BOOOM!

He detonated the air. There was no sound from his opponent.

'...?'

Something felt strange. He could clearly see him, yet he couldn't catch him. It felt like looking at a ghost.

Suddenly, he felt his legs being seized. An intensely unpleasant, ominous sensation followed.

"I'm something of a mutant myself."

With that mocking voice, he was dragged downward.

PLOP.

He heard the sound of something falling into water—water that shouldn't even exist here.

At that moment, strange things appeared before the Eyepatch Octopus's eye. He had merely shifted his gaze, yet several places switched in an instant, as though countless locations had been crushed together.

It was a profoundly grotesque space. Merely looking at it made him dizzy, as though his head were spinning.

"This place..."

The moment he spoke, something approached. Countless hands—crushed, torn, and ragged.

Found you.

Found you.

A cheerful voice whispered in his ear.

I'll take the head.

Then I'll take the eye. It's pretty.

Then I'll take the toes. I want to walk.

They were unmistakably sounds, yet something about them was wrong. His stomach churned.

He tried to flee the reaching hands, but his feet were caught. Countless hands seized the Eyepatch Octopus. A chill swept through him so intense that he thought every place they touched had frozen.

"Ahh..."

This place wouldn't even allow him to scream. A hand thrust into his throat. He wanted to retch, but it allowed him nothing.

'What is this place?'

It's warm. I don't have any.

Me too. Share it. Give me some too.

You took it away. Now give that warmth back.

'Stop!'

They whispered. They kept whispering.

'Stop! I said stop!'

Where the Eyepatch Octopus reached out with all his strength, he saw someone's feet.

"I've never seen anyone last this long in this space."

CLAP, CLAP.

He heard applause. Those hands didn't touch that man.

'... Rabbit? Is that Rabbit?'

"Can that eye see what's inside this darkness?"

Hyeonyul approached the Eyepatch Octopus. His eye was beginning to lose its sanity. No matter how strong his mind was, this was difficult to endure.

"I was going to cut off both your arms, but I decided to ask questions first. I didn't want to repeat the same mistake."

Hadn't he accidentally killed the president of the cosmetics company Linda? He couldn't let that mistake happen again.

"If you feel ready to answer, I'll take you out. I can't wait long either. It's revolting."

Hyeonyul looked down at the Eyepatch Octopus. Putting objects into the darkness was fine, but putting bastards like this inside felt like swallowing gasoline.

As he waited for an answer, he applied a large adhesive bandage to his still-bleeding head.

The Red Witch had at least possessed magic that let her fly through the air. Did the Eyepatch Octopus have that power?

His upper body suddenly jerked, and he rose into the air.

'I have to escape!'

Up.

Higher.

"You can't get out."

Following those cruel words, hands swept across the Eyepatch Octopus's vision. They dragged him down again.

"They adore anything that has warmth."

He didn't know what Rabbit was babbling about. But this much he knew for certain: this was a trap. A trap he could never escape.

The Eyepatch Octopus looked at Hyeonyul. Terror slowly seeped into his eye.

Let me go.

I'll talk.

Hyeonyul brought the Eyepatch Octopus up. As the air changed, the man flailed his arms and crawled across the floor.

"... Gah, cough, cough!"

The lights flickered, then came back on. Shadows formed beneath them.

"Now, answer me."

Just as the Eyepatch Octopus's fingers twitched, a chill approached. Hyeonyul plunged his hands straight into the darkness. Seeing his eye waver, Hyeonyul judged that he was finally ready to talk.

'Those fingers were the problem after all.'

He took a chair from the darkness and sat down.

"The questions won't take very long."

He could feel blood continuing to run down. He had no intention of dragging this out either.

"Do you know about the drug that gives even the powerless abilities?"

"... What are you? Why does something like this... something like this exist?"

It was strange. Far too strange. He didn't seem human.

"That isn't what I asked."

Hyeonyul replied in a weary voice. He had seen the things in the darkness countless times, but whenever the anniversary of his escape approached, he was always like this.

His stomach felt sick.

He shoved the man's head down while he took out his medicine and swallowed it. He could feel the desperate thrashing in his body.

Using darkness to grip his hair, he lifted him back up. Saliva dripped from his mouth.

"Do you know about the drug that gives the powerless abilities?"

The Eyepatch Octopus nodded rapidly, over and over.

"Who gave it to you?"

"... Take it from the business premises. I'll give you... more."

"Who gave it to you?"

As the repeated question came with a sensation in his hair, the Eyepatch Octopus quickly shook his head.

"No! I can't tell you...!"

Seeing him abandon all dignity and pride, Hyeonyul tilted his head.

"Why not? You're going to die anyway."

His guess was that the Eyepatch Octopus didn't know who he was. Those bastards were the ones who had wanted this power. If he knew, he would already have been giving Hyeonyul strange looks.

"..."

The Eyepatch Octopus's eye widened. It seemed his mind was only now beginning to work.

He had already lost the moment he was dragged into the darkness. As that fact sank in, terror slowly filled his eye.

There was only one thing left for a villain who lost a fight.

Death.

"You know that, don't you?"

Hyeonyul twirled his dagger.