Hunting game.
It was a game it had been playing since the point where its memories grew hazy.
The anomaly could not remember how it had begun.
It had simply enjoyed itself.
It devoured all manner of living creatures and stole their traits.
And once again, the anomaly found itself on the verge of absorbing an ability.
“Get up.”
It smiled and whispered that to the Chameleon.
“H-how…!!”
—Crack!!!!!
The anomaly crushed the Chameleon’s mouth in its hand as she was speaking.
Letting out a satisfied laugh, the anomaly grinned and grabbed the Chameleon by the head.
“Is it fun?”
The Chameleon’s eyes trembled violently.
The anomaly found that terribly amusing.
Living creatures trembling madly in the face of death.
That was why it liked this body all the more.
Because as long as it stayed here, as long as it did not devour Sion, it could watch such sights endlessly.
“I can’t take this one with me.”
The anomaly pressed its own chest again and again as it said so.
At that, the Chameleon, whose mouth had already recovered, tried to beg for mercy.
But the anomaly drove her into the ground and began beating her over and over.
It kept doing so without cutting off her breath.
All it felt was delight.
* * *
“…….”
After taking care of all the humans, the three returned to the school once more.
And Yeonwoo, who was walking at the very front among them, fell silent.
‘Sion… Lee Sion’s voice.’
Because from the far end, Lee Sion’s voice was coming.
“Chief.”
“…….”
“It seems it has come.”
The Watcher remained calm even after hearing Sion’s voice, which carried an entirely different air.
Looking at that Watcher, Sohun asked a question.
“How can you be so calm?”
“Was it not visible from the start?”
“…What?”
“Rookie, did you not see the thing clinging to his side?”
Passing by the two who had stopped in place, the Watcher told them to prepare.
“Prepare yourselves.”
“…?”
“…?”
When the two tilted their heads, the Watcher created a wall of smoke before their eyes.
—Saaaaaaah....
“…What are you doing, Watcher? We have to go over there and support Sion.”
“Watcher, what are you—”
Before Yeonwoo could finish speaking.
“That sort of thing is not important.”
The Watcher’s inverted eyes were already glowing.
With a vivid red light.
—Kang!!!!!!!
“Kahahahahaha!!!!”
At the same time, Sion crashed into the black wall the Watcher had created.
“…!!!”
“…!!!”
“Because the rookie cannot control this thing.”
The black smoke slowly began to scatter.
And what came charging wildly to break through it was Sion—no.
“…An anomaly.”
An anomaly.
Just as Yeonwoo muttered under her breath, what stood there was clearly not Sion.
Yeonwoo’s expression rotted.
‘As I thought, you were an anomaly.’
As expected, it was an anomaly.
So much so that she felt stupid for having held any hope.
And seeing her like that, the anomaly grinned.
“Senior!!! Lee Sion is right here, you know!?”
Seeing even that mocking display, Yeonwoo silently drew her sword from her arms.
“You are not Lee Sion.”
“…Yeonwoo.”
“Chief, we have to kill that thing.”
“Right.”
It seemed Sohun thought no differently, for he, too, pushed his sunglasses up onto his forehead and drew his handgun.
‘If we kill you, will you come back?’
If I kill you here, will you come back?
Just as Yeonwoo closed her eyes, wishing dearly that it would be so.
—Pakang!!!
The barrier the Watcher had put up shattered, and the anomaly tore through the gap.
At the same time, the Watcher turned into smoke and easily evaded Sion’s attack.
Beside him, Sohun calmly began firing.
Yeonwoo also joined in.
* * *
“…….”
I lay there blankly and stared up at the sky.
“Ugh, dizzy…….”
I was nearing my limit. The time to die again was approaching.
Once my life was cut off, I returned in a slightly better state.
However, that did not mean my injuries healed.
Should I say it was no different from passing out for a moment and waking up?
In any case, amid that situation, I closed my eyes and opened them again.
“Ah… it’s gone.”
Maybe I had just died once, because the headache and dizziness had eased a little.
Of course, it only meant the pain would repeat once more.
In a situation where I could not die, what was I supposed to do?
All I could do was lie there helplessly and wait for pain and death I could never grow used to.
Even if I hated it, they came.
Even if I pushed them away, they came.
I hated that death and pain so terribly.
And then.
“Hello.”
“…!!!”
That thing appeared before my eyes.
Still nothing but a silhouette.
The anomaly, borrowing my mother’s voice, waved at me.
When I got up with a wary expression.
The anomaly approached me, unable to hide its shock.
“S, on… wh, y are you like this?”
Pointing at the hole in my stomach, the anomaly asked me that, and I answered while gasping for breath.
“You’re the one who made me like this and left.”
“He, al. Aren’t you going to?”
“…What?”
When I tilted my head, the anomaly raised both hands as if telling me not to be afraid and came closer.
Then it immediately placed its hand on my stomach.
“Mo, m’s hand. Healing hand.”
“…?”
“Like this, rub rub. Then here……”
As it said that, the anomaly took its hand away from my stomach.
Where the anomaly’s hand had vanished, my wound had closed as if by magic.
“…!!”
“Does, it hurt?”
“…….”
The anomaly asked if it hurt.
Unable to close my mouth, I shook my head.
“It… doesn’t hurt.”
“That’s, good.”
“…….”
“That’s good. Right?”
“…Maybe it is.”
Answering that, I could not hide my wonder.
My body had been pierced through, yet now it was this perfectly fine.
“…Is it possible because this is consciousness?”
When I asked that, the anomaly only stared fixedly at me.
Just as I was about to tell it to say something in reply.
“S, on.”
“…?”
The anomaly opened its mouth and made a gun shape with its fingers, pointing it at me.
“N, ow. Do it, yourself.”
“…What?”
“Here I go.”
The anomaly aimed the muzzle at me as it said so.
I was startled for a moment.
“Pew, pew, pew.”
“…?”
The anomaly pretended to shoot my neck, heart, and stomach in turn.
Naturally, nothing happened.
“Does, it hurt?”
“…What did you do?”
“Does it hurt?”
The anomaly asked if it hurt.
At that, I stiffly shook my head.
There was no way it hurt.
After all, they were not real bullets.
Then the anomaly rose from its seat and snapped its fingers once.
“What about now? Does it hurt?”
“…What kind of—”
I tried to ask what kind of question that was.
But my voice no longer came out.
Come to think of it, it was hot.
My chest, my neck, and my stomach.
Something hot was flowing from all of them.
So I lowered my gaze.
‘…Huh?’
Blood was flowing.
Holes had been punched through me, and blood was pouring out.
Only then did the pain reach my body.
My body twisted madly.
“Kehuk!?”
Clutching my throat, I coughed.
Every time I tried to speak, the sound of blood bubbling up came out, and I failed each time.
As I writhed in pain.
The anomaly looked at me and grinned.
“Now it hu, rts.”
“…Sa…ve…me.”
“…….”
“I don’t… want this, a, aaagh…….”
The anomaly stared blankly at me.
Then it quietly apologized to me.
“I don’t, want to go inside.”
“…!!”
“I’ll play, just a little longer.”
“…….”
“Take a few attacks for me?”
“…No, mmph?!”
The moment I tried to say no.
The anomaly covered my mouth and brought its index finger to its lips.
“Shhhhhhh……”
“…!!!”
“Mom’s hand, healing, hand.”
After saying that, the anomaly made me rub the wound myself with my own hand.
When I slowly rubbed it, the anomaly smiled brightly.
“Good job.”
“Haaah… kehuk…!!”
“I’ll be back.”
“W-wait, don’t go…!!!”
“No.”
The anomaly mocked me as it disappeared.
Now I could heal myself.
I could deal with the pain when it came, but.
“No… no, no, no, no, no…!!!”
The fact that any kind of pain could now strike me without warning was unbearably agonizing.
“Aaaaaaaagh!!!!!!!”
I tore at my hair and screamed.
Please, save me.
* * *
Sohun looked down at the fallen anomaly and nudged it with his foot.
“…No response.”
Three clean shots.
They had pierced the neck, heart, and stomach in precise order.
And had successfully ended the anomaly’s life.
“…If he recovers, he’ll return to being Sion, right?”
“That’s how it’s been until now…….”
“You look worried, Yeonwoo.”
Sohun encouraged Yeonwoo as he said so.
Just as he was saying there would be no abnormalities.
The anomaly, lying face-down with its eyes closed, opened its eyes.
“…!!”
“…!!”
“…!!”
At the same time, the three had no choice but to step away from Sion.
Because there were still white X-marks in both of Sion’s eyes.
Sion staggered to his feet.
If it were the usual Sion, only one of his pupils would have a black X-mark embedded in it.
But now, it was different.
In both eyes, a vivid white X-mark shone, larger and clearer than before.
—Crack...!!!
Stretching its neck, the anomaly looked straight at the three of them.
Then, loosening the buttons of its bloodstained shirt slightly and throwing off its tie, the anomaly grinned.
“I revived, didn’t I?”
It looked down on the three as it said so.
At that, Yeonwoo stepped forward and spoke.
“Then… die again—!!”
Yeonwoo charged in with her sword at a speed invisible to the eye.
At that, the anomaly, which had been smiling faintly, had its arm cut off in an instant.
‘It isn’t resisting…?’
Thinking that, Yeonwoo looked back.
Even though its arm had been severed, the anomaly only smiled as if it were enjoying itself.
And Sohun blew a hole through the anomaly’s head.
—Bang!!!!
—Thud.
The anomaly collapsed in an instant, and it seemed the matter had been settled for the moment.
“…Kihih.”
This time, the anomaly rose with a hole still pierced through its head.
And it muttered something meaningful.
“I’m not the one getting hit.”