It was last night.
"A passage from Sugungga came to mind, you see."
"Sugungga?"
"Sugungga.... You know, the Tale of the Rabbit. The folk tale where the rabbit gets dragged off to the Dragon Palace, nearly loses his liver, and wittily escapes."
"Ah, I know it. The rabbit and the terrapin. I read it as a picture book when I was little."
The Jade Emperor, fallen ill. The terrapin who came ashore to find the cure. The rabbit who nearly lost his liver.
Jang Si-woon clapped her hands, saying she remembered.
"There's a passage in it that matches the quest."
"Really?!"
"And there's a very famous painting where that beast and the magpie appear together."
Ah. Only then did I fully understand, and I nodded toward Go Gyu-min.
The beast that had dimly surfaced the moment he said Sugungga now came back to me with certainty.
Go Gyu-min pulled up the corners of his mouth in a wicked-looking grin.
"Let's bring that beast down."
***
"Now, then. It's time for the beast that will crush that thing to come down."
Back to the present.
Go Gyu-min spoke the very line he'd recited last night, smiling with full confidence.
'The beast we predicted last night and the beast the Jangsan Tiger tried to erase were one and the same.'
Now it was time to punish the Jangsan Tiger with conviction.
Snap-
Go Gyu-min spread the fan and drew a great breath, swelling his belly.
Bracing his core, he hurled a mighty sound at the Jangsan Tiger.
It was the very passage from Sugungga he'd explained to us last night.
That one yonder, snout gaping red, all mottled and dappled — to-to-to, be that not Master Ho?
Chirp-chirp-chirp-
The instant Go Gyu-min poured out that rich, gravelly voice, birds began to sing outside the cave.
The ground trembled as the cave ceiling slowly split apart, and sunlight streamed in.
"Grraaagh!!"
"Mr. Go, it's working. Keep going!"
At Go Gyu-min's song, the Jangsan Tiger twisted its body and howled.
As the Jangsan Tiger's fur whipped about, white powder scattered in every direction.
'The painting is surfacing!'
Ink was spreading across Go Gyu-min's fan, and a picture had begun to draw itself.
It was, unmistakably, the painting the painter had been made to paint.
"Krrgh.... Foolish creatures. Your deduction is wrong."
"Mr. Go, pay it no mind!!"
"I am a tiger. Yokai though I may be, I am the tiger of these eight provinces' peaks and streams. Though I wear a white hide, my roots are those of a tiger. Above all, my very name ends in tiger."
The Jangsan Tiger snickered and jeered, chilling to the bone.
He pretended otherwise, but the Jangsan Tiger's words must have gotten to Go Gyu-min — the ink on his fan bled away, and it turned back to plain white.
'The sun...!'
The sky had turned a deep orange.
Soon this sunset would end and the dark night would come.
Seizing its opportunity, the Jangsan Tiger grew all the merrier in its deceptions.
"I am a tiger — a tiger. Harm me, and you will never defeat the Skeleton Yokai."
"Cut the nonsense!!"
Jang Si-woon opened her leaflet's tool window.
Fwish-
Name: Snout-Shutting Bell.
Description: It rings but once! Count sixty seconds, and the snout opens again.
[Tool equipped.]
Jang Si-woon gave the belled rod a vigorous shake, and a single clear, refreshing note rang out.
Ding-
"...!"
The Jangsan Tiger clamped its mouth shut, its two eyeballs rolling wildly.
By the bell's power, the Jangsan Tiger truly could not make a sound.
Now we had to finish the beast within sixty seconds.
"And so I called, and deep in the layered mountai- aaargh...!!"
"Mr. Go!"
This time, the Jangsan Tiger lunged at Go Gyu-min.
It seemed intent on pinning him down, the way it had yesterday.
'A yokai that deceives with auditory and visual hallucinations throwing physical attacks on top of it — that's cheating!!'
"Ji-san!"
Jang Si-woon rammed her body into the Jangsan Tiger with everything she had.
The instant the Jangsan Tiger staggered, I ran, dagger in hand.
The hand holding the dagger trembled violently. Why had this knife come to me, of all people?
CRUNCH-!
I squeezed my eyes shut and drove the dagger down into the Jangsan Tiger's foot.
Unable even to scream, the Jangsan Tiger writhed.
Though I'd driven the dagger in as hard as I could, the Jangsan Tiger didn't shed a single drop of blood.
Perhaps because it was a lump of data fabricated inside the museum, but-
"You're not the real Jangsan Tiger. You're a fake wrapped in a white hide."
At my words, the Jangsan Tiger's body shuddered.
And the Jangsan Tiger was reflected in the blade of the dagger that cleaves falsehood.
The moment I grasped its true identity, the Jangsan Tiger's real form appeared in the blade.
A skeleton, draped in a shaggy white pelt, clacking its teeth.
Even the tiger's front claws were, in truth, a skeleton's finger bones.
"The reason you could play at being the Jangsan Tiger is that you're a component of this quest — a work fabricated by the tower."
"...!!"
"Soon, your performance will lose its effect."
The white powder scattered around the Jangsan Tiger. That split-second voice that had shifted with every syllable, just like the Skeleton Yokai's.
This thing was no Jangsan Tiger — it was the Skeleton Yokai's underling. Or an extension of it.
'Why is it so strong...?!!'
The fake Jangsan Tiger rattled its body, thrashing to tear itself free of my knife.
In its final struggle, the beast swung its remaining leg.
Its bared claws raked toward my face.
"Disgusting bastard — get lost!!"
"?!!"
Jang Si-woon laid her hand over mine, pressed down on the dagger, and twisted.
The dagger drove in deeper than before, smashing the rotted bone without mercy.
The fake Jangsan Tiger's body contorted grotesquely.
The tiger deep in the layered mountains, first in his life to be hailed a gentleman, delights at the sound and comes on down
And at last, the painting on Go Gyu-min's fan was fully complete.
A Joseon folk painting of a magpie and a tiger. A jakhodo.
"Gyaaaagh-!!"
The sixty seconds must have passed — the fake Jangsan Tiger screamed.
The shrill scream nearly burst my eardrums.
In the moment between closing my eyes and opening them, the fake Jangsan Tiger had crumbled entirely to powder and vanished.
Only white bone-dust lay heaped on the ground.
"It's gone."
"...We succeeded, right?"
Go Gyu-min, who had barely kept his song going, let out a sigh of relief too.
"Ahh.... How bitter my grief. How bitter."
Right then, the Skeleton Yokai's voice sounded from outside the cave.
The fake Jangsan Tiger was gone, but the final boss still remained.
"I-isn't the Skeleton Yokai coming this way?"
With no house-sized beast appearing to defeat the Skeleton Yokai, Go Gyu-min grew so anxious he even stammered.
"?!!"
Before we could so much as scream, the cave collapsed at speed.
Rather than the ceiling caving in..., the holes bored through it expanded rapidly until even the walls were gone.
The sun hung snagged on the earth's edge. Above, darkness was beginning to settle over the sky.
'What is this? Why isn't anything happening?!'
Chirp-chirp-chirp-
Then a flock of magpies came flying.
Countless magpies settled in the trees and sang as if in chorus.
And..., all together, the magpies sang in clear, ringing voices.
The tiger comes down. The tiger is coming down.
Down the deep pine-forest glen, a beast comes down.
"That's the Sugungga passage I sang earlier."
Go Gyu-min stared at the singing flock of magpies, dumbfounded.
THUD-! THUD-! THUD-!
"Isn't that the Skeleton Yokai?"
"...No."
As the ground shook heavily, Jang Si-woon looked at me with anxious eyes.
The ground had rumbled like this when the Skeleton Yokai approached, true.
But this was different.
'This tremor is coming from the forest, far away.'
I turned around and looked toward the pine forest.
The gazes of the magpies, gathered and singing, were all fixed on the pine forest.
Down from the mountains, the beast of the eight provinces' peaks and streams was descending.
"It's a real tiger."
THUD-! THUD-! THUD-!
The tiger comes down. The tiger is coming down.
Down the deep pine-forest glen, a beast comes down.
A tiger that looked as if it had leapt straight out of a jakhodo was coming down the mountain.
Splendid markings. A softly rounded body line. Even huge, round eyes. Comical, and yet a delight to look at.
Its body was so large that even from a distance, we could see the whole shape of it swaying its tail as it descended.
'To see the tiger of a jakhodo at this size....'
"Break my bones, I beg you. Please, break these bones...."
"Only those who have watched the setting sun three times shall become bone...."
I was so lost in the tiger's majestic figure that I didn't even notice the Skeleton Yokai crawling toward us.
"Young Kim!!"
At Go Gyu-min's shout, I came to my senses too late.
The Skeleton Yokai had already stretched out its long arm, pinched my clothes in its fingers, and lifted me slightly.
'Is it already preparing to eat me?!'
The sun was still snagged on the edge of the earth.
And the Skeleton Yokai was merely holding me — it took no action beyond that.
The Skeleton Yokai's hollow eye sockets stared at me.
"Only those who have watched the setting sun three times shall become bone."
Humans cannot defeat this thing.
Only the house-sized beast — only the tiger — can.
THOOM-!!
"The tiger has arrived."
At last the tiger had come, come to sink its fangs into the Skeleton Yokai's neck.
Where the courage came from, I don't know — but I looked the Skeleton Yokai straight in the eye and gave it my warning.
The Skeleton Yokai set me down and peered around.
"Grrrrrr-!"
"...?!"
Before the skull's hollow sockets could even turn, the tiger's jaws closed on its neck bone.
KRAK-!!
"Graaaaah.... My bones...."
"The attack is landing clean!"
We hurriedly got clear.
Swept up in a battle between a house-sized beast and a yokai, we could meet a pointless end.
Pressed under that tiger's paw, we'd be flattened into dried jerky on the spot.
"Grrrrr-!"
The tiger slashed its claws fiercely, shearing the Skeleton Yokai's bones to pieces.
Strong as it was, the Skeleton Yokai was slow — and the tiger dismantled it with speed.
"Ahh.... The tiger.... The tiger's claws, like a brand-new sickle, are breaking me apart...."
"Please, just let it end quickly!!"
Both of the Skeleton Yokai's arms were already shattered; only the torso and head remained.
With darkness nearly settled over the sky, Go Gyu-min was burning with impatience.
"GRRRRR-!!"
Just before the sun vanished completely, the tiger let out a tremendous roar.
Then it pounced, pinning the Skeleton Yokai down, and severed its neck bone clean through.
KRAK-!!
The Skeleton Yokai's separated head and body toppled in different directions.
A heavy thud rang out, and dust rose from the earth.
The skull rolled over and over, and to the very end, a thin voice escaped between its teeth.
"Aaah.... At last.... I become ash...."
A lament, or a thanksgiving?
The Skeleton Yokai murmured its final words to itself, and then, at last, crumbled entirely to powder.
The same end the fake Jangsan Tiger had met.
Around the time the white powder had scattered on the wind and vanished completely.
The leaflet we'd waited and waited for rose into the air.
Fwish-
=================
[Floor 2 Exhibition: The Tiger That Cleaves the Abyss]
-Oh me, onlookers. So ye've climbed the stone stair.
-Monstrous strange beasts abound here. Even a bag o' bones among 'em.
-Yet that skeleton be no mere skeleton — 'tis people, transformed!
-Once the sun has turned thrice over, this thread of life shall snap, helpless as can be.
-How could human strength e'er bear such a thing?
-But one way there be.
-Past the one draped in white hide, a beast big as a house shall come down.
=================
[Visitor Kim Ji-san]
[Visitor Go Gyu-min]
[Visitor Jang Si-woon]
[Floor 2 Quest.]
[Success.]
"We did it!!"
The three of us thrust our fists into the air as one and cheered.
'We survived....'
This time, the quest had truly been grueling — physically and mentally both.
I could only pray the ones ahead would be less of an ordeal than this.
...As if. The higher the floor, the more brutal it'll get.
'There'll be no ash for the broken components, though.'
The Skeleton Yokai had said it was glad to finally become ash — but that, too, was only the system.
The powdered components would cycle back around and become the Skeleton Yokai again.
Thinking of a future where the eliminated became the Skeleton Yokai once more and harmed other eliminated visitors, my heart couldn't be entirely light.
"Quest complete! Complete!!"
The magpies all chirped the quest's completion together.
"Haah — if they work us like laborers on the bottom floors, what are we supposed to do later?"
"We decided to climb, so we endure. What else."
Go Gyu-min and Jang Si-woon, trading words. The two of them were thoroughly worn out as well.
Ah — come to think of it, my health had been shaved down during that illusion earlier.
Fwish-
[Leaflet Ink]
-Current Status: [■■■□□]
...It wasn't a devastating loss, but with the third-floor quest ahead, it was an awkward number to leave unfilled.
"Should I eat a berry?"
Staring at the leaflet's health window, I folded my arms and agonized.
At that, Go Gyu-min shrugged beside me.
"Everyone judges for themselves — but I barely took any damage, so I'll hold out."
"Will you, now?"
"Yeah. I got my taste of sweetness, so that's enough. It was nice, wetting the throat."
Go Gyu-min smacked his lips, recalling the berry's sweetness.
At that, Jang Si-woon narrowed her eyes flat beside him and shot him a sidelong glare.
"Mr. Go, you got to sample a free berry in the first place, and you received one berry same as us. Isn't that far too much profit for you alone?"
"It's nothing special, that. Tasted bitter."
"...?"
Jang Si-woon and I blinked and looked at each other.
TL Notes:
TL Note: Sugungga — one of the five surviving pansori epics, the tale of the rabbit and the terrapin, whose best-known passage is "The Tiger Comes Down."
TL Note: Ho-saengwon — in the passage Gyu-min sings, the terrapin stammers over "To-saengwon" (Master Rabbit) and it comes out as "Ho-saengwon" (Master Ho), accidentally summoning the tiger down the mountain.