“……Ugh—!”
A small amount of liquid that hadn’t been fully blocked fell onto Hae-il’s shoulder. He had tried his best to hold it in, but a cry escaped him regardless.
The burning pain in his flesh made his arm go slack, and he slipped downward.
“Seo Hae-il, you—!”
Moon Woo-shin registered the situation that had unfolded in the span of a few seconds, a moment too late. He immediately dropped the gun he’d been holding and hauled Hae-il up hard with both arms, pulling him into his hold.
The pressure only made the pain worse. Hae-il clamped down on his lip. A metallic taste spread across his tongue.
It seemed the liquid had been at least partially neutralized by passing through the water. If not, his shoulder would probably have melted on contact and his arm would have been severed long before now.
Moon Woo-shin cursed through gritted teeth as Hae-il felt him urgently push guiding in.
It was only a stopgap measure while the two of them were still falling through the air. Even so, when the familiar wavelength swept through his body, a wave of calm steadiness rose up. A response befitting an Esper.
“Where exactly?”
“Shoulder, ngh — right, right shoulder.”
The moment the words left his mouth, the guiding concentrated directly into his shoulder. Curing it outright was too much to ask for right now, but at the very least, the pain eased somewhat.
When he forced himself to close his right hand, it moved properly, if a little sluggishly.
“Ha…….”
Hae-il exhaled slowly and deeply. It would be fine. As long as they made it out of here alive.
At that moment, an enormous boom rang out. The monster’s cry.
And in that same instant, everything changed. As if they had been trapped behind an opaque membrane and then dropped into reality all at once, their senses expanded simultaneously. A light that stung flooded his vision, and sharp air rushing past his ears replaced the silence. The damp, stale smell was swept away in an instant by a gust of wind.
The sudden brightness flooding his surroundings made it impossible to see clearly. Hae-il felt the arms locked around him tighten sharply.
Unable to confirm what was happening, he moved on instinct. He gathered water beneath Moon Woo-shin’s back, underneath him.
The next moment, the two of them plummeted straight to the ground.
“Ugh!”
There was no time to brace further. With a heavy impact, their bodies were slammed roughly into the earth. The cushioning hadn’t been sufficient — the rebound sent their bodies bouncing up, and a second impact came as they were thrown back down again.
Moon Woo-shin, still holding Hae-il, rolled with the landing. Their field of vision flipped and flipped again in a dizzying blur.
Carried by momentum for what felt like a long time, the two of them finally skidded to a stop a considerable distance from where they had hit the ground.
It was the worst. Every part of his body ached and his head was spinning. Whatever was beneath his back was hard — genuinely solid ground.
He desperately wanted to pass out, but Hae-il forced his eyes open. Tears came reflexively from the sudden flood of light. After blinking forcefully a few times, his vision finally cleared.
“Hae-il.”
Their eyes met immediately. Moon Woo-shin, who had been wrapped around him, must have taken the harder impact from the fall — yet he was already checking Hae-il’s face first.
“Are you alright?”
He barely managed to ask the question, but got no reply. Instead, Moon Woo-shin’s gaze dropped downward. He seemed entirely focused on scanning his body. Then he lifted Hae-il’s left wrist, and his expression went rigid.
“It’s broken.”
An almost compulsive flood of guiding pushed into his body immediately. Having fallen with almost no cushioning, Moon Woo-shin’s own condition was bound to be a wreck too.
Hae-il reached out to stop him — and then caught sight of something else, and his eyes went wide.
“Oh, shit.”
There was no passing out now.
“Found them! Survivors located, survivors located!”
People who were unmistakably Special Abilities Agency were swarming toward them from far in the distance.
“Where were these people all this time, and now they show up — ah, damn it.”
Hae-il scrambled to get up in a hurry and winced sharply. The moment he instinctively pushed down on his right arm, a sharp burst of pain shot through him.
“Stay still.”
Moon Woo-shin quickly moved to support him. He had to have heard them approaching too, but he seemed to have no interest in them whatsoever. Keeping his eyes fixed solely on Hae-il, he placed a hand lightly on the arm near the shoulder and attempted to guide him directly.
Hae-il grabbed that hand as it was and jerked his eyes toward the approaching agents.
“We need to run. Now.”
“Get first aid first, then we go.”
“Are you insane? If they catch either of us, we’re completely screwed.”
“At least we’d be screwed after getting treated.”
“Injuries like this heal fine after a few rounds of guiding later.”
Moon Woo-shin arched one eyebrow at an angle.
“…Okay, maybe more than a few rounds — but I’m fine either way.”
“Hae-il.”
He said his name with an ominous note and pressed down hard on the hand he’d placed over his arm.
“Ah!”
A cry that was almost a scream slipped out instantly. His injured spot had been grabbed without the slightest care, and it felt like his shoulder was being wrenched off.
“Stop being reckless and just listen. We’re not going anywhere until you get at least a rough disinfection and some wrapping done.”
“No, this isn’t being reckless—!”
Before he could say another word, Moon Woo-shin swept his other hand across the bare ground and wiped it straight across Hae-il’s face.
“What are you doing?!”
“Disguise.”
Mud was smeared in patchy layers over his face, which was already undoubtedly splattered with monster blood.
While Hae-il wiped at the corners of his eyes and around his mouth, Moon Woo-shin dragged that same hand across his own face just as carelessly. Then he stood up as if nothing had happened.
At just the right moment, one of the male agents at the front of the group reached them.
“Are you alright? We’re from the Special Abilities Agency. Did the two of you just come out of the Gate—”
“We are not alright. Is there a doctor?”
“Ah, a guide will be with you shortly—”
“I don’t need a guide. I asked if there is a doctor.”
His manner was openly domineering, yet strangely urgent at the same time. And somehow, not a single thing about it looked out of place.
Perhaps that was why the agent didn’t seem to register that he’d been cut off mid-sentence — he just stood there flustered before saying just a moment, and ran back toward the others.
Anyone watching would have thought Moon Woo-shin was some impossibly senior superior.
But no, wait — was he seriously suggesting they risk identity checks just to get a little bit of first aid? They were going to need proper treatment afterward anyway — whether that meant a proper course of guiding or a visit to an Esper-specialized hospital.
Thoroughly baffled, Hae-il was looking up at Moon Woo-shin when he spotted a wave of more agents rushing over — and immediately threw himself flat on the ground.
“A Class-A special Gate, and just the two of you cleared it? Which organization are you with?”
“Excuse me, we have a lot of questions about the Gate. The doctor and guide will be here shortly, so if you could just come this way—”
“Aaagh! Nngh….”
Hae-il cut every inconvenient question short with a sudden, pain-wracked groan. Subtly pressing his injured arm while writhing for good measure.
The attention that had been converging on Moon Woo-shin, who was standing perfectly fine, snapped to Hae-il in an instant.
Moon Woo-shin moved before anyone else, bending down and sliding his arms under Hae-il’s back and behind his knees, lifting him clean off the ground. The unexpected timing sent his body floating upward — his acting nearly cracked. Hae-il quickly pressed his face into Moon Woo-shin’s chest.
“Let’s see the doctor first. He’s in very bad shape.”
Moon Woo-shin declared it firmly and headed off in the direction the others had come running from. From behind him, fragments of words — emergency patient, doctor — drifted back at scattered intervals.
