Before I became a dentist, I had no idea people injured the inside of their mouths so often. Biting the inside of the cheek or the tongue was the most common. They thought it was food and accidentally bit down without realizing. Falling and splitting their lip was common too.
This is just my personal opinion, but if we were going to evolve to walk upright, shouldn’t we at least have solved the issue of our unstable center of gravity first? Walking on two legs is far more dangerous than walking on four. When you consider this huge body that has to be supported on the tiny surface area of two small soles, it’s a wonder such an unstable structure manages to move around without toppling over. Inevitably, when we do fall, the cheeks and lips were made thick as cushions so all our teeth wouldn’t be smashed to pieces.
It was also common for people to burn the roof of their mouths by eating hot food in a hurry without cooling it down. There were plenty of people who came in with the inside of their mouths all cut up by sharp things like crab or shellfish shells. Patients who came in after chewing on ballpoint pens or their thumbs were tame by comparison.
There were cases where someone pierced their cheek with a skewer while eating chicken skewers, or made a hole in their tongue with a fork. There were also patients who peeled fruit, then used the paring knife to spear the fruit and eat it, only to come in with several holes in their tongues. There were even cases where someone fell, and of all places, there happened to be a chestnut bur or a cactus right where they landed. All of them were unlucky accidents.
······Feeding someone needles is not common.
“This is already the third time it’s reached my ears. Aren’t you sick of that lunatic behavior yet?”
Shin Haeryang said, looking down at the other party impassively. The third time? The dental clinic only opened because I came here this time; before this, the undersea base hadn’t even had a dental clinic. Tamaki was the one who’d suffered, and Shin Haeryang was the one speaking, but I felt heat rising to my own forehead as I listened. A tremendous amount of stress washed over me. How could a person do that to another person?
“Why on earth did you do that? Why would you do something like that to someone’s mouth?”
Only after asking in a daze did I realize that asking such a question at all meant I was trying, even if only a little, to understand the other person. Surely she would give an answer I could comprehend with ordinary common sense? Sumire’s face turned blotched with dissatisfaction, and she shouted at me.
“She did something wrong first. She didn’t keep her promise!”
······I don’t think I could understand this person even if I died and was born again. My brain refused to comprehend it. I felt like if someone poked me just once, curses would pour out of my mouth by the bowlful. I didn’t even want to know what promise it was. Just imagining it made me feel like throwing up.
“So you forcibly put needles in someone’s mouth?”
Sumire turned her head to the side and stuck out her lips in a pout as she said,
“You don’t know anything! Tama-tama was the first time!”
“Then what were the other two?”
“······Other pieces of trash.”
“Other what?”
Is my translator even working properly? This is driving me insane. Baek Aeyeong sneered at Sumire and said,
“I think those are the ones Japan announced had died in accidents. There were also a few people from Engineer Team Na who suddenly retired on sick leave. Were those really accidental deaths? Not suicides?”
When there was no answer, Baek Aeyeong tapped Sumire’s foot with the tip of her own, and Sumire got irritated, moving her leg. Gang Sujeong let out a sigh deep enough to sink the ground and asked,
“What promise did she make and break?”
“······You don’t need to know! Ugly hag!”
Sumire glared at Gang Sujeong as she answered. ······I felt like she had answered my questions and the others’ questions properly enough. Deputy Team Leader Gang Sujeong, who had been insulted, merely laughed hollowly as though she found it absurd. But then Sumire suddenly went rigid, and her eyes flew wide open. Screams burst from her gaping mouth with a delay of several seconds. When I looked to see what had happened, Seo Jihyeok was picking up a dumbbell beside Sumire’s left calf.
“Oops. Sorry. My hand slips when I hear bullshit.”
“Huaaaaaaaaaah! Aaaaaaagh! Aaaaaaagh!”
At Sumire’s scream, Yu Geum was using her whole body to block Henry’s sight and ears. And she herself had her eyes squeezed tightly shut. ······I wanted to close my eyes too. Undersea base or whatever, I wanted to go home. While staying in this undersea base, I had seen scenes of violence unfold several times, but no matter how many times I saw it, I never got used to it at all. ······When I saw scenes like this in action movies, or heard about them secondhand like in newspaper articles, they didn’t feel quite this horrible. But seeing and hearing it right beside me made me want nothing more than to run away somewhere right this instant.
“Even if you’re angry, please try to use words as much as possible. There’s a child here right now too.”
At my words, Seo Jihyeok made an expression as if he had just realized that. Lee Jihyeon was watching the situation expressionlessly while hugging her pad, and Seo Jihyeok was saying things like, It really slipped. Sumire’s calf, injured by the dumbbell, showed no visible problem for the moment. But in a little while, it would probably start swelling horribly. Yu Geum and Henry began walking first to get away from this place.
After hesitating slightly, I spoke to Gang Sujeong. The reason I hesitated was simple. Ever since needles had been mentioned, Gang Sujeong had been frowning and gripping a kettlebell tightly.
“We’re headed to the Blue Dragon Wing anyway, so how about taking that person with us?”
If Gang Sujeong hit me with the kettlebell while asking what kind of bullshit that was, I felt like I could understand emotionally. Baek Aeyeong, who had not taken her eyes off Sumire, rolled only her eyes toward me at those words. The muzzle of her gun was still aimed at Sumire’s head. Gang Sujeong looked even more baffled than she had at the completely random insult earlier as she said to me,
“Didn’t you just hear what she and her teams did? I think the insult against me is probably the crime with the lightest sentence.”
“We have to get out of the undersea base safely first before we can put her in prison or receive an apology, don’t we?”
“Don’t you think being left here in that state is punishment for the crimes she committed?”
“······I don’t think so.”
Even if she was a mad serial-killer lunatic son of a bitch, let’s talk after we get out of this undersea base first. Besides, even if we abandoned her here with a broken leg, would this person realize what she’d done wrong even once before she died?
I didn’t properly know the crimes this person or her team had committed. Hearing about Tamaki made me think that I needed to gather every piece of information about what was happening in the undersea base as quickly as possible. Whether it was about someone I truly wanted to survive, or a human being I couldn’t sympathize with in the slightest. I couldn’t keep living in ignorance anymore.
······If I had noticed sooner, could I have treated Tamaki better?
Whether it was the Infinite Church, armed engineers, or torpedoes, the reason I got thrown into confusion every single time I gained information was probably because I knew nothing.
I thought of the people who had been in the research center in the Vermilion Bird Wing and were now submerged. ······No. Let’s stop thinking about that. The inside might be fine. Right now, I needed to do what I could here.
We had to escape Undersea Base No. 4 with as many people as possible. That way, when we met the cultists in the other undersea bases, if we had a lot of people, we could at least respond. Or at least increase the chaos.
When the wave of pain had retreated after one bout, Sumire, who had been screaming, began sobbing while spewing curses in Japanese at Gang Sujeong and Seo Jihyeok. When she was hit in the thigh with the barbell, she hadn’t cursed Shin Haeryang. Gang Sujeong stared at me for a while, then shook her head with a face like steel.
“When we went to the Vermilion Bird Wing to get Miss Gayoung, I believe I told you once. I’ve already decided in my heart who I’m taking with me. Even if someone else is added, it won’t be her.”
She had said we should escape with only the Koreans. Because of Team Leader Shin Haeryang, Tumanako and Henry had been added to that.
“Mr. John Doe was added too.”
Gang Sujeong looked the Infinite Church believer up and down. There did not seem to be a single part of him that pleased her. Because of Gang Sujeong’s plane-blade-like gaze, the Infinite Church believer retreated a few steps on his two free legs, but because of his wrists, he couldn’t move any farther. Gang Sujeong frowned and said to me,
“The cultist’s brain may be rotten, but at least his legs are fine. Her brain is fried, and now her leg seems to be fried too. Besides, who is going to take her, and how?”
“Mr. John Doe can take her.”
“Pardon?”
“Mr. John Doe can carry Miss Sumire on his back. Let’s tell him to carry her only as far as the Blue Dragon Wing first. Carrying an adult woman of about sixty kilograms······.”
“No. It’s forty-two kilograms.”
Sumire, who had been crying tears of pain, suddenly looked at me with a serious face and said that. Startled, I quickly corrected myself and said,
“Carrying a person of about forty-two kilograms on your back over flat ground shouldn’t be difficult. If we’re lucky and find a Medic along the way, we can put her in that and move her too.”
Thinking back to the previous round, I had never seen a Medic on the way to the Blue Dragon Wing. But who knew? This time might be different. Besides, even if we didn’t find a Medic, if someone could support ninety-six kilograms and climb a staircase high enough to fit more than two mountains, then this should be possible too.
With a sigh, Gang Sujeong turned her head to the side. I also turned my head to the side. Receiving the gazes of two people, Shin Haeryang opened his mouth. John Doe shook his head violently and made sounds like, Mmmmmmph! but everyone ignored him. Shin Haeryang looked at the two of them, then asked me without changing his expression at all,
“May I abandon them along the way?”
“There’s something I want to test. Let’s keep them with us as much as possible.”
“Not him. ······Team Leader Shin. You can carry me.”
Gang Sujeong said the young thing seemed impressively insane, then grabbed Sumire from behind and lifted her up. Then she placed Sumire on the back of John, who had tried to run away and been caught, like luggage.
Like a horse loaded with cargo it disliked, John caused a commotion, and Sumire was suddenly thrown to the floor twice. Now Sumire began pouring curses at John Doe like a waterfall. Can’t you do it properly?! Just die! You piece of trash! You’re my Keep-kun! You’re nothing but legs! Mmmph! Mmmph! Mmmmmph! John, too, seemed to be openly cursing Sumire.
When it seemed like they were going to hold things up for more than two minutes, Seo Jihyeok muttered a few words into John and Sumire’s ears. The gist was that if they didn’t cooperate, his hand might keep slipping onto the tops of their feet or their heads.
Both of them had to carry or be carried while their wrists were bound in front of them, but Shin Haeryang apparently had no intention whatsoever of tying John’s wrists behind his back or untying them even though John had to carry someone. When John’s bound wrists were lowered as far as possible, and Sumire’s legs, from where she was being carried on his back, were wedged between his arms, the two of them had no choice but to become a forced community of fate.
Every so often, Sumire would thrash and complain that her leg hurt, and true to her personality, she would bite John’s ear and chew on his shoulder. Whenever she did, John would fall flat on his back with Sumire on him.
Around the time Sumire, who had almost cracked the back of her head wide open on the floor, finally quieted down, John suddenly toppled sideways. Sumire, carried on his back, had put momentum into her upper body and swung them sideways like a pendulum.