“For justification.”
“Huh?”
“Because I don’t like what Guide Center Director Park Hanil did. If we succeed in this mission for sure, I’ll ask the Esper Center Director to smooth over this matter.”
Park Hanil’s shocking statement threatening the cat helmet also angered Alpha Team. Perhaps it was because they knew who the cat helmet’s identity was.
They didn’t like Park Hanil’s unilateral announcement and had petitioned the Management Bureau Director several times. But the response that came back was always the same.
<There’s nothing we can do about it. Procedurally, unregistered Guides must report to the Management Bureau.>
Even the Management Bureau Director wrapped around Park Hanil, citing procedures. Only the Esper Center Director understood Na Geonwoo’s anger.
<If you have justification, I’ll actively help.>
And Na Geonwoo thought he could find that justification here.
“What about the Management Bureau Director?”
“Hyeran, you don’t know how close the Management Bureau Director and Guide Center Director Park Hanil are?”
“Huh? They’re that close?”
“…….”
Cha Hyeran had no great interest in anything other than dealing with monsters and villains.
She teased Gu Baekyoung for being a loner, but in fact, she too had no one she was close to except the Alpha Team members.
However…….
“I don’t know. Whatever it is, Park Hanil needs to be crushed. Was it Kang Ian? He was really pretty and nice, so why is he tormenting him like that? Whatever it is, as long as you don’t do bad things, it’s fine.”
“…….”
“It’s awkward to say this, but I’m reminded of Onyul a bit too…… Fuck! I’ll try asking the Esper Center Director for help too!”
Even that simple Cha Hyeran liked Kang Onyul. Him, an Esper from another team, not even Alpha Team.
Cha Hyeran liked Kang Onyul’s kind nature. She knew his sincerity, how he always helped injured people even while speaking bluntly.
Cha Hyeran had received his therapy several times too.
When she learned that such a kind and young kid had died futilely in a rampaging Gate, she was bedridden for days.
He didn’t want to join Alpha Team, but she should have brought him forcibly and put him in Alpha Team. If she had, that child wouldn’t have died.
Was that why? For some unknown reason, she didn’t dislike Kang Ian, who reminded her of Kang Onyul.
Like Na Geonwoo, Cha Hyeran didn’t believe in reincarnation, but she fully understood Gu Baekyoung following Kang Ian around.
The two had somewhat similar aspects.
“Me too! I want to protect the manager who gave me chocolate milk!”
It was the same for Yoon Jihyuk.
Using chocolate milk as an excuse to frequently visit the convenience store, he had built up quite a bit of internal intimacy with Kang Ian. He didn’t want him to yield to Park Hanil.
“I also made a promise with the manager.”
“A promise? You’re close enough with the manager to make promises?”
Cha Hyeran tilted her head, but Na Geonwoo had no intention of telling Cha Hyeran about the promise he’d made alone with Kang Ian.
<I’ll always watch over the manager from nearby too. I’ll also make efforts to protect him.>
While asking Kang Ian to take care of Gu Baekyoung, he had promised to protect him as well.
Of course, he hadn’t anticipated that the need to protect Kang Ian would come this quickly. But it was the leader’s role to remain calm even in unexpected situations.
He pushed aside what had already happened and only thought about how to protect Kang Ian going forward.
Then he suddenly realized. The convenience store manager, who belonged neither to the Management Bureau nor Alpha Team, was on his mind to an unusual degree.
Regardless of the deal, he wanted to help him. Perhaps he too, like Gu Baekyoung, was seeing the phantom of Kang Onyul in Kang Ian.
Maybe the regret from back then, when he couldn’t protect his close friend Kang Onyul, still remained, giving him a sense of duty to protect Kang Ian.
“We’re close.”
“Huuuh?”
“Let’s really enter now.”
Na Geonwoo wielded his ability as if to say not to talk anymore. Condensed heat that could blow away the abandoned factory in one go began to rise above his palm.
At Na Geonwoo’s suddenly serious appearance, Cha Hyeran and Yoon Jihyuk also closed their lips. Fighting spirit overflowed from them as they lowered their postures and prepared to hunt.
The operation was successfully completed. It wasn’t strange, as one S-rank Esper and two A-rank Espers had participated in the operation.
Na Geonwoo, who easily occupied the abandoned warehouse, began to examine the inside. In the abandoned warehouse were various documents that hadn’t been properly sorted.
And before long, he discovered a conspicuous document.
“Gate Disruption Experiment Log……?”
It was a document that seemed related to the recent series of Gate rampages. Na Geonwoo’s fingertips became hasty as he turned the pages.
But what was written in it wasn’t about recent events. The document detailed in full the ‘Illegal Awakening Incident’ that had shocked South Korea in the past.
That incident was committed by fanatics called Genesis, who believed that the new humanity—namely Guides and Espers—were the only ones who could save the world.
They regarded Gates as divine devices, thinking that only the new humanity who passed through God’s countless trials could live in the world.
Thus, they induced forced awakenings to create stronger, better ability users.
The targets were young children with exceptionally outstanding physical abilities before ability manifestation, and they conducted heinous experiments kidnapping them and inducing awakening.
And that experiment was also connected to Gu Baekyoung.
“Why is this coming out from here?”
Confused, Na Geonwoo’s brow narrowed. He was engulfed in contemplation about whether to report this matter to the Management Bureau.
***
Onyul had confidently told Gu Baekyoung that he could get one over on Park Hanil, but in fact, to do so, he had to completely resolve one thing.
Namely, fully awakening as an Esper.
Normally it would awaken naturally with time, but Onyul didn’t have much time. Because the time Park Hanil had proposed was one week.
Of course, he hadn’t assured Gu Baekyoung without any thought.
‘……There is a method to artificially awaken.’
Before the anti-Management Bureau was created, there was a similar organization.
It was an organization called ‘Genesis,’ created by fanatics dreaming of a new world. They kidnapped young children who seemed likely to manifest as ability users and attempted forced awakening.
After numerous experiments and failures, they succeeded in forced awakening.
Fortunately, there weren’t many successful cases. Because they were suppressed by good ability users who discovered their headquarters.
The Espers and Guides who brought down Genesis established the Ability User Management Bureau and proclaimed they wouldn’t repeat the same tragedy.
The Management Bureau, backed by the public’s trust, even secured the nation’s full support and rapidly expanded its influence.
That was the current Management Bureau.
The Espers who made the greatest contributions were A-rank Esper Gu Hyeonseok, the current Management Bureau Director; A-rank Esper Jeong Myeongsu, the Esper Center Director; and lastly, A-rank Guide Park Hanil, the Guide Center Director.
And among the young children rescued at that time was Gu Baekyoung.
He was the first case to succeed in Genesis’s forced awakening and the most perfect successful case.
Gu Baekyoung had awakened as an S-rank Esper at the age of only ten. It was the moment South Korea’s youngest S-rank Esper appeared.
Gu Baekyoung, as reported in the media, wasn’t a victim kidnapped at a young age but had become a ‘monster’ of a child. Rather than feeling sorry for Gu Baekyoung, people were more interested in how to deal with him.
His parents had been murdered by Genesis, and because he was an S-rank Esper, his relatives were also reluctant to care for him.
In the end, it was the Management Bureau that took him in. The Management Bureau Director willingly adopted Gu Baekyoung and protected him until he became an adult.
And as soon as he became an adult, he joined Alpha Team and became the Gu Baekyoung of today.
‘……Come to think of it, Baekyoung has never told me about his past.’
Gu Baekyoung hadn’t told anyone about his past, including Onyul. Of course, there was no one who asked about those events either.
Because they were afraid of carelessly running their mouth wrong and offending the S-rank Esper’s mood.
Onyul didn’t bother asking about his tragic past either. He just hoped he would live well in the present.
The strange thing was that Gu Baekyoung didn’t seem close to the Management Bureau Director, his adoptive father, either.
After becoming an adult and becoming independent, he hardly met with the Management Bureau Director. That’s what Onyul knew.
Anyway, Onyul intended to try using the method Genesis had used for forced awakening.
In the past, when he was working as an Esper, he had accidentally read documents about Genesis.
Of course, he wasn’t going to use heinous methods like they did.
They drove young children to the brink mentally (Gu Baekyoung’s parents being killed also fell into this case), made them compete for survival, created illegal drugs, or induced awakening using Guides.
Among these, the method Onyul would use was the utilization of Guides.
‘What was the method? It was forcibly injecting Guide energy into the body of an unmanifested young child and awakening them as an Esper through a Guiding reaction.’
How many children lost their lives through that method…….
Even now, it was a horrific method.
Onyul planned to use that horrific method—in other words, operate the Guide energy he could use to the extreme and awaken as an Esper.
Fortunately, Onyul wasn’t a young child, had already awakened as a Guide, and had also manifested as an Esper. He believed he wouldn’t lose his life like in Genesis’s experiments.
‘Hmm. I wish there was a place to safely experiment.’
As he was pondering, a sweet voice was heard by his ear.
“Honey, what are you thinking about instead of sleeping?”
