IMPRINT 23

Upon arriving in front of the door to the special treatment room, I saw Kim Kunwoo pacing in circles while biting his nails anxiously. It was obvious, without even looking, that he was the culprit.

Curses welled up to the tip of my chin, but now was not the time to vent my anger.

“Explain everything—the situation and the cause.”

Kim Kunwoo lifted his head and scowled the moment he saw me.

“I didn’t do it… It’s not my fault…”

“I said, explain the situation and the cause.”

“You, you… you piece of shit, right now to me…”

“Ha, Senior Researcher Kim Kunwoo. Please get a grip. If you don’t speak, I will read your memories.”

“It’s because of you. All of it! Because you ruined Kang Juha’s brain! I—I was just trying to put it back the way it was…”

I didn’t have time to listen to his gibberish. I sent a look to Juyoung and stood before the door of the special treatment room.

“I am reading your memories.”

“Fuck, don’t—touch—me…!”

The security team leader rushed out and grabbed Kim Kunwoo as he struggled violently. Just by grazing his brain briefly, I finished grasping why things had reached this state.

“Open the door.”

The lock on the special treatment room was released, and the door opened. I could see Kang Juha collapsed on the floor, squirming as he crawled to painfully grip the bed.

Looking at his rapidly heaving ribcage and hearing his panting breaths, my head instead cooled to a chill. The image of Kang Juha trapped in the underground prison, which I had read from the prisoner’s memories, overlapped before my eyes.

“Kill…”

Since a rough voice was being exhaled along with the huffing breaths, I thought he might say he’d kill everyone like before. But the words that followed were…

“Just… kill me… please.”

It was more disastrous than I thought.

Was it truly the right thing to provoke Kang Juha and make him regain his memories?

In vain of my efforts to treat him as delicately as if he were glass porcelain, Kim Kunwoo had crudely rummaged through his brain. It seemed he had the ignorant thought that physical shock would solve things quickly after seeing the report that Kang Juha had no sensation regarding guiding.

Thanks to that, the half-dead guiding sensory system was forcibly activated, manifesting symptoms similar to a rampage.

And for Kang Juha, a rampage was nothing short of a fuse that triggered his trauma.

He wasn’t in the Center’s special treatment room right now; he was in the underground prison of Sonora. It was hard to watch him appeal for death, saying he’d rather die.

“I’m sorry I can’t do as you wish…”

I whispered softly and immediately cut off Kang Juha’s consciousness. His body, drooping like a doll with a dead battery, slumped slowly to the floor.

Only after laboriously laying his body on the bed did I finally catch my breath.

Watching that face sleeping as pale as a dead person, the bitter thought occurred that perhaps dying in the Sonora Gate might have been the best ending for Kang Juha.

I don’t believe in God, but there is a saying: oblivion is a gift from God. If so, just staying like this…

“What am I thinking…”

I found my own thoughts absurd.

My mission was to help Kang Juha become sane. Since the higher-ups ordered it, I just had to do that job.

“Sigh…”

My chest felt tight. If I could, I wanted to ask Kang Juha: Do you want to regain your memories?

But since the current Kang Juha has no memory of that time, he cannot make an accurate judgment on the option of “regaining memories,” and if it were the Kang Juha who had regained his memories, it would be something that already happened, making the question itself meaningless.

Kang Juha’s guiding levels dropped fiercely. The guiding system, which had been excessively stimulated, had completely broken down and was emitting guiding energy into the air. Furthermore, because the current Kang Juha had no sensation for guiding, the guiding energy was not being converted into special abilities but was being scattered into the air in an intangible form.

Perhaps because I am a fellow Esper, I felt the aura he emitted stifling my breath. Even though it must have been a fraction of the special ability energy Kang Juha usually uses, the pressure he created was considerable.

It was a stroke of luck that I am an S-class Esper comparable to him; if that guy Kim Kunwoo had been here, he would have fainted on the spot, unable to do anything, like an egg hitting a rock.

It’s shitty, but his escape from here was a wise judgment.

Kang Juha’s guiding levels, which I had managed to recover, were running wild in a mess. Because they kept dropping to the danger-level of a rampage, I couldn’t sleep and had to constantly snap open guiding ampoules.

I couldn’t tell the exact time. I merely thought that it might be morning outside by the time I had used about four injections.

And the moment I picked up the fifth injection as the levels dropped below 30% again, Kang Juha’s eyelids opened. I wondered how many times I had faced him like this already.

“Are you feeling a bit more conscious?”

“…”

Kang Juha blinked his eyelids slowly, like someone still trapped in sleep. Unlike usual, his eyes looked empty, as if containing nothing.

“If you can hear me, please blink your eyes twice.”

Belatedly, Kang Juha blinked his eyes twice at my words. Only then did I smile with a bit of relief.

“Since your brain was forcibly stimulated, your head might feel blank, your vision might be dizzy, or you might feel nauseous.”

“…”

“There’s no major problem with your body, so you don’t have to worry…”

“I had a nightmare.”

Kang Juha’s mouth opened after a long while. His voice was wretchedly hoarse, nearly a metallic rasp.

“I think it was a terrible and painful dream.”

“…”

“I don’t remember a single thing about what it was.”

After agonizing for quite a while, I decided to neglect my duties just for today. I didn’t know about anything else, but for now, I thought that today’s Kang Juha had suffered enough.

“You don’t need to struggle to remember.”

“…Is that okay?”

“Yes. For now.”

Fortunately, Kang Juha seemed greatly relieved by my words.

“Shall I put you to sleep?”

“I’m a bit scared…”

“I’ll make it so you don’t dream.”

“Then please put me to sleep.”

“Yes. Good night.”

With those words, I put Kang Juha back to sleep.

And just like that, I exited the special treatment room. As I expected, having stayed up all night inside that basement, the sky outside was dazzlingly blue. It felt as if I had come out after being in another world.

Having endured Kang Juha’s energy fluctuations all dawn and stayed tense to prepare for any unexpected situations, both my mind and physical strength had reached their limits. It felt as if all the fatigue that had been piling up recently was rushing in at once.

“Your condition looks a bit serious…”

“I was actually going to suggest that I should take a break from treatment for a while.”

“No. Not Esper Kang Juha, but you, Team Leader. Should I get you some emergency guiding?”

I slowly shook my head at Juyoung’s worried question.

“I just need to take an injection.”

“You’re going to collapse at this rate.”

“I’m an S-class Esper, aren’t I?”

“You only claim to be S-class at times like this.”

Sighing, Juyoung handed me some red ginseng.

To think an Esper would rely on health supplements eaten by ordinary people. Normally, I would have refused, saying I didn’t need it.

“Thanks.”

Since I felt like having anything would be better right now, I tore the packaging and put it in my mouth. Once I actually ate it, the sweet taste was quite alright.

“I must be really tired.”

Why does this taste edible? It makes no sense. My tongue must have been paralyzed from extreme exhaustion.

“If you’re tired, you should go sleep. Why did you show up for work here again?”

Instead of going to my office, I had clocked in at Director Shin’s office. Sipping the tea Director Shin provided, I lay down on the sofa with both legs stretched out.

Juyoung had pulled out a high-end jelly set he’d found from somewhere and was nibbling through them. He really is like a ghost when it comes to finding things.

I also slinked my upper body up and joined the jelly raid. I popped a high-end handmade jelly with chestnuts embedded in it into my mouth and feigned innocence. Even though Director Shin already knew and was letting it slide, the reason I acted like this was…

It’s fun. It makes us feel like normal people.

Anyway.

“I’m on strike today.”

“Listen to you talk about a strike. Do you think anything big would happen just because you went on strike? Oh? You’re right. If you go on strike, the National Security Bureau will collapse. So please, take care of your body.”

He really is a funny person.

“I already took a day off.”

I applied for the leave, and I stamped it myself. While I was at it, I gave Juyoung a day off too.

Since I had nowhere to go even with a day off and didn’t want to stay cooped up in the dormitory, I had raided the Director’s office.

Approaching with a trundling gait, Director Shin sat on the sofa. Juyoung caught her eye and placed the last remaining jelly in front of Director Shin.

However, Director Shin didn’t seem interested in the jelly, and Juyoung’s face showed regret within a second of giving it up to her.

“I’ve handed over all the documents. The higher-ups said they would deliberate. I think the results will be out by next week, but the Medical Bureau seems desperate to get you out by any means before then. They openly demanded a change in the person in charge.”

“To whom?”

“Me.”

“…”

“Don’t worry. I have no intention of doing it unless you ask me to. Why should I listen to them and do them a favor? Once you yield to something like this, they’ll demand endlessly after that. Those people have no shame.”

A sigh came out naturally. Why is everyone acting like this?

“Why is there such a fuss everywhere?”

“Because the one at stake is Kang Juha.”

“…”

“If the person who returned this time was just an A-grade Esper—no, even if he was the Alpha Team Leader—it wouldn’t be this bad.”

Wait a minute. Something is a bit strange.

“Wasn’t Esper Kang Juha the Alpha Team Leader?”

“Kang Juha? No.”

I had definitely seen him with the Alpha Team people at an event last time. And even in the memories, the one Esper Kang Juha had worked with was the Alpha Team… what? My head was confused.

Reading my expression, Director Shin took a sip of tea and spoke.

“Esper Kang Juha is like a mercenary. He does individual missions, and sometimes moves as a team. Since the group with similar ability stats is the Alpha Team, he mostly works there. He’s not a member of the Alpha Team. That’s why he’s not on good terms with them. When Kang Juha joins, the mission leadership passes to him.”

The hostile gazes of the Alpha Team members I had seen in the memories surfaced again. So they expressed such blatant hostility because Kang Juha wasn’t a team member to begin with.

“Heroes are destined to be lonely.”

At that moment, a truly nonsensical hypothesis occurred to me.

“This is just my thought. When he got caught in the Gate in Sonora, is there a possibility that the Alpha Team left Esper Kang Juha behind and escaped by themselves?”

“…Would there be a reason to do that? Surely humans wouldn’t go that far…”

Director Shin’s voice trailed off. There were plenty of evil humans. And we, belonging to the National Security Bureau, knew that best. This was a place that looked into the bottom of humanity.

“Still, let’s not make too many conjectures.”

“I won’t. Just… how many Espers participated in the operation back then?”

“First, there were four from the Alpha Team in total… but one person returned early due to injury before the Gate burst. I understand the remaining three and Kang Juha went into the Gate together.”

“Then are the three who went in together safe?”

“They returned, but one died not long after. The remaining two were the Team Leader and the Vice Team Leader, and they are still active on the Alpha Team. It’s the same for the Esper who returned to the Center first.”

We said let’s not make conjectures, but a faint suspicion was also loaded in Director Shin’s eyes as she explained.

Just then, the sound of someone running down the Director’s office hallway was heard. The thunderous sound of footsteps echoed through the entire floor to a threatening degree.

“What’s this? This familiar situation.”

Director Shin looked at the door then turned her gaze to Juyoung, who was now coveting the last jelly.

“Secretary Park is here, though?”

“Pardon? Me?”

Juyoung asked while pointing to himself in confusion, and Director Shin jumped up from her seat.

“Then who is that outside?”

The thought that perhaps a terrorist attack or an equivalent emergency had occurred made my whole body stiffen.

“I’ll borrow a gun.”

I ran toward the emergency firearm case hanging on the wall, broke the glass, and grabbed an automatic pistol. And the moment I hid behind the sofa backrest and pulled the slide back.

Bang!

As the door opened.

“…Kang Juha?”

I saw the face of a being I knew all too well, but who should not be here.