Creeeak.
Tearing through the silence, metal screamed as it was pushed aside. Since no noise had been permitted up until this point, the dull friction sound became an especially sharp thrill that bored into his eardrums.
Park Shinui unconsciously stopped in his tracks. A strange sensation that was hard to explain swept over his entire body. Even though he hadn’t yet crossed the threshold, the weight of Kang Taejun’s existence inside the room was transmitted intact through the air.
The violent energy he was emitting and the waves of pain crushed within it. They clung to Park Shinui’s skin like living creatures. His heart began to beat as if convulsing, and all his senses stood on edge as sharply as if balanced on a razor’s edge. It was the first time in his life he’d been aware of another person’s existence so vividly—no, so intensely it was almost violent.
— Shinui-ya, anyway, right now no one can go in except you. You know that, right?
“……I know.”
— Yeah. Then I’m counting on you.
“……”
Instead of answering, Park Shinui placed his hand on the heavy shielding door. Then with careful but firm force, he pushed the door open.
When the door opened, cold and damp air much colder than the corridor penetrated deep into his lungs. The alien chill was enough to make his body tremble just from inhaling.
Park Shinui slowly stepped into that abyss. The emergency lights hanging from the ceiling blinked reddish illumination, creating dizzying afterimages, but the space was eerily quiet. A silence so deep that not even the sound of machinery could be heard pervaded the area.
Raising his head to look at the ceiling, Park Shinui realized the identity of the cold energy enveloping the room. Whitish liquid nitrogen gas spraying out like fog. It was lowering the indoor temperature to the extreme to suppress the esper’s thermal rampage.
Taking another step inside, a transparent restraint bed placed in the middle of the room came into view. Kang Taejun lay bound on top of it.
Park Shinui stopped walking and let out a long breath. Cold sweat ran down his spine and his mouth was parched dry as if he’d chewed sand.
Where did the man who had acted so arrogantly two days ago, as if he had everything beneath his feet, go? His once neat hair was soaked with sweat and messily stuck to his forehead, and his limbs bound in restraints were rigid and pale with tension. Only his breathing, gasping roughly like an injured beast, proved he was alive.
Kang Taejun doesn’t rampage.
Even knowing that fact, the scene before his eyes was far more horrific and shocking than he’d imagined.
— Shinui-ya? What’s wrong? Is there a problem?
Lee Haneul’s voice coming through the communication brought him back to reality.
“……No.”
After answering briefly, Park Shinui moved his feet again. The purple energy suppression barrier wrapped around Kang Taejun’s body was trembling intermittently. As if the rampage energy swirling inside was trying to tear through the barrier and break out, vibrations of pain were transmitted intact through the air.
Taking another step closer, his face finally came clearly into view.
“Ah……”
Lying there without any movement, he wasn’t asleep. Pain was spreading beneath his tightly shut eyelids. His distorted jawline beaded with sweat, his neck convulsing with bulging veins, even his wrists with no blood flow due to being pressed by the restraints. His chest trembling with each inhale showed exactly how desperate a struggle he was waging right now.
— Shinui-ya, just in case, approach carefully for now. If you overdo it……
“Just a moment.”
Park Shinui firmly cut off Lee Haneul’s warning and stepped forward without hesitation. His body, which had been shrinking in fear just moments ago, moved naturally like metal drawn to a magnet. Park Shinui cut through the cold nitrogen fog and reached out his hand toward Kang Taejun, who was glowing red with high fever.
He’d only trained for a day at most, but at this moment, no technique or theory was necessary. The instinct called ‘guide’ was awakening inside Park Shinui and crying out. Only the desire to stop that man’s terrible suffering dominated his mind.
— Shinui-ya. Your training isn’t finished yet. If you make contact so recklessly, there’ll be an energy backflow……!
It was the instant Park Shinui’s fingers touched Kang Taejun’s arm. Thump— His heart surged, skipping a beat. At the same time, invisible energy poured into Kang Taejun as if a dam had collapsed. A strange sensation, like something deep inside his body, a source that had been closed for a long time, burst open with a pop. Ah. Is this what Lee Haneul called the ‘power of guiding’?
“……Kugh.”
Kang Taejun’s body jerked up violently as if convulsing. His limbs bound in restraints shook with metallic friction sounds. One of his tightly closed eyes flashed open. Bloodshot, beast-like pupils fixed chillingly and precisely on Park Shinui.
Gasping for breath, Kang Taejun trembled as he let out a sharp moan through his teeth. At the same time, the energy that had been sleeping suppressed beneath his skin began to penetrate Park Shinui terrifyingly through their touching hands, as if coming alive and moving.
“Ugh……!”
— Shinui-ya! Park Shinui, answer me!
“Ah, ah……”
Is it because of the guiding pouring out like a waterfall? Momentarily, his vision flickered and severe dizziness rushed over him. Park Shinui reflexively tried to pull his hand away, but his body didn’t budge as if paralyzed. It was as if invisible chains had bound him and nailed him to Kang Taejun.
Park Shinui suddenly realized in an instant what phenomenon this was. Kang Taejun, having lost his reason, had instinctively activated his ability to hold onto him so as not to lose the guiding.
“Kang Taejun…… ugh, wait a minute……”
But that power, knowing no moderation, drove Park Shinui to his limits. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead and his lips turned pale white, trembling. The amount of guiding being sucked out was exceeding the permissible amount compared to the contact surface touching.
“Kang, Taejun…… hup……!”
Park Shinui bit his lips tightly as he looked into Kang Taejun’s eyes that seemed ready to shed blood. His chest constricted as if about to burst and his vision spun, but he was helpless about what to do.
“Please…… calm down……”
But Kang Taejun didn’t hear him. Unable to regain his reason at all, he was desperately leaning his body toward Park Shinui while heaving his entire body. Finally, his limbs fixed to the restraint device rattled as if about to devour the bed, and heavy metallic sounds echoed throughout the bunker.
“Ha…… haah……”
It wasn’t guiding. It was predation.
— Shinui-ya! Snap out of it! Can you hear me?
“Yes…… yes……”
— I just administered a stabilizer, but this has exceeded the standard so I can’t do more. Let’s take it step by step for now. Try to separate from Esper Kang Taejun.
“That’s…… ugh, I can’t……”
— Pull your hand away! Esper Kang Taejun’s power is currently blocked to below 10%. You can do it!
“Yes……”
But it wasn’t as easy as it sounded. For Park Shinui, whose physical grade was the lowest F-rank even though his guiding grade was S-rank, an esper with only 10% of his power remaining was still an ability user he couldn’t defy. Contrary to his will to separate, Park Shinui’s upper body began to fall helplessly over Kang Taejun’s chest as if drawn by a magnet.
— Park Shinui?
“Ugh……”
— Oh my, look at this?
“Noona…… that’s not it.”
He tried to make an urgent excuse, but before he knew it, he was in a position as if mounting on top of Kang Taejun’s body. Park Shinui confirmed his own embarrassing state and blushed in confusion.
“Noona…… please help me. My body won’t separate.”
— Hmm. What to do about this.
Lee Haneul’s playful voice came through. Is it because the contact area has widened? Kang Taejun’s rough breathing began to gradually subside. The cold sweat that had been running down his forehead stopped, and his brow that had been distorted in pain slowly smoothed out, regaining human-like warmth. Just by overlapping their bodies, he could feel throughout his entire body how the terribly tangled waves were being organized.
But that was only the calm before the storm. Kang Taejun was still flowing an overwhelming current as if he would swallow Park Shinui whole.
— Keep doing that. You’re doing well.
“No…… this isn’t my intention……”
— Just now, Esper Kang Taejun’s contamination level dropped to 93%. The effect is definite.
“R-really? That’s a relief. Then now……”
— But you know, Shinui-ya. At this rate, even if you hold him like that all day, there won’t be much effect.
“Then?”
— Instead of that, how about doing ‘mucous membrane guiding’? I think it’ll stabilize quickly that way.
“Mucous membrane…… guiding?”
— Yeah. Like kissing, you know, that kind of thing.
“……K-kissing?”
Having uttered the word that was difficult to even say aloud, Park Shinui’s gaze shifted to Kang Taejun’s face as if entranced. A distance of not even a span. In those blood-colored pupils staring as if to pierce through him, a strange, unusual glint resided. It was different from just moments ago when his consciousness had been hazy. Inside them, a clear and vivid ‘desire’ was rippling.
