In my past life, that is, before I was possessed into this place, the main duties of my line of work meant I always carried at least one gun.
I wasn't particularly picky about weapons, but even so, doesn't everyone have at least one that fits the hand and wins their affection?
The heavy, ink-colored bare body was dark enough to absorb even reflected light.
The smooth material, free of unnecessary ornament, clung to my hand, and the feel of it was so good that the corners of my mouth pulled up on their own.
"I ask again for confirmation, but do you truly not intend to purchase Ability Rounds? A refund on this matter will not be possible later."
"It's fine. Just like this is perfect."
"Understood. Then I will verify the collection code and hand it over according to procedure. We hope this has been a satisfactory transaction, and please make use of us again anytime."
Perhaps because the industry itself operated in the shadows, the verification process was simple.
With nothing to hide it in, I put it on right away, smiled at the employee who promised a next time, and went outside.
This weapon, which had appeared in The Original Work as well, was built so that ordinary people could also use the power of Supernatural Abilities.
Besides guns it worked with swords, bows, even a plain club, and Enchanter was the key word there.
A Cheat Item that carves an enchantable ability into a weapon, dropping it one grade but making it usable by anyone.
The dagger I borrowed from Ichi was also a weapon made the same way.
However, the one I ordered had a different grain from other Enchanted weapons.
Rather than the gun itself, the ability was contained in the rounds, and since the structure had to withstand the ability's power, special construction was required, but that was all.
That was why the seller had checked with me over and over again.
A customer who buys nothing but the shell and grins about it. Maybe his conscience pricked him.
On top of that, Ability Rounds were expensive consumables.
Fire them off recklessly because they're nice, because they're novel, because they're convenient, and you'd be reduced to a beggar in an instant.
To other people, this was an item that would make them think, 'Some bourgeois with money rotting in his pockets got a taste for abilities and is blasting away.'
Why would I happily commission a custom build of this kind of garbage?
Because this was better for me.
I had water gushing up endlessly, so I didn't need Ability Rounds, and it also served as a kind of disguise item.
I was a fugitive hunted by the government, so I could hardly use my ability out in the open in front of others.
Fire off a few shots, then joke, "Ah, well, even using Ability Rounds is a burden," and that's that.
Above all, this fellow could solve the chronic problem of my still not being used to my ability.
A water cannon that crumples steel beats a squishy splash of water.
It suited me perfectly, since I had been lacking direct destructive power.
Later on this was a villain whose very body became a cheat, but if I didn't want to die before then, I'd have to look after my own body.
"Still a newbie, though......."
For now I was at the stage of having to practice turning my ability into a round and firing it off, so tears blurred my vision a little.
***
"This is what you call being treated as a throw-in, right?"
"Rather than a throw-in......, it would be more accurate to call it an efficient distribution of manpower, wouldn't it?"
"This is?"
I had left Rushiang Street and been abandoned in front of an enormous warehouse on the outskirts of the Black Zone.
To put it accurately, I'd call it the image of a man doing his best at a job that had been dumped on him without his knowing.
The smell of preservation chemicals stung my nose.
The warehouse storing the corpse of the monster that had rampaged in front of the Ability Office last time was under control, with not a single person coming or going.
For a place with rusted steel containers stacked here and there, left unmaintained, the security Grade was quite high.
Not far off I could see the pitch-black land that lay beyond the city's boundary.
It's land that eats you whole if you set your foot down wrong.
It was also a landscape I had only been able to see from a distance, since I spent most of my time in the Other Side when I rode the Styx Cruise Ship.
I tilted my head to the side and looked at the land, so black that it seemed less like land for it.
Someday, over there too.......
"They say the preparations are finished. Is your stomach all right?"
Ichi, who had finished talking with the staff member inside, came out and smiled brightly.
It was clear that he regarded me not as an equal colleague but as a subject he had to keep watch on.
"You could look around if you wanted, but perhaps that would have been a bit much."
"Look around at what? The corpse?"
Or the inside of a monster-corpse disposal and processing company disguised as a warehouse?
Is he needling me that since I came from the research institute, it's a similar line of business? Wow!
Even after deciding to let last time's business go, he didn't hide his lingering discomfort, and it was so very Ichi that I couldn't react.
"Hmm, do you have a weak stomach, Do Hae?"
"—No."
If it were weak, I would have failed to keep my wits when I was Eaten by the Other Side, vomited, and been chewed to bits.
By an ordinary person's standard, my mental fortitude had already been ground down from the moment I first visited by way of the Styx Cruise Ship, so why try to slide past it with a Tutorial question meant for newbies?
"How about you stop fishing?"
This monster-corpse warehouse outfit did a great many things.
It began by storing corpses for research purposes in the first place, so it was obvious.
And that research, whether on people or on monsters, consisted of things that turned even a strong stomach.
On top of that, this body, which had been forced through experiments for who knows how many years, had caught that distinctive smell the moment it stepped in here and was refusing it.
So my face hardening and my clutching my gut as though I were truly about to throw up was this body's trauma kicking in.
I couldn't say a word if Ichi found it suspicious.
But I had no intention of playing along with him openly tying it to me and fishing.
"I have to go greet the Captain, so I need to manage my condition. Ah, or do you want me to make some blunder in front of the Captain? I don't think that would end well for you either, Ichi."
"Hmm......, an excuse? Or a threat?"
"......It's a rational judgment, thank you."
"Haha, I will grant you that. You are quite the coward, aren't youuu."
Ichi, having switched tracks to teasing me with drawn-out word endings, grinned wide and clapped me on the back a few times.
Ha, seriously, heh, honestly, did I look so clumsy that you would watch me with that proud-of-the-kid face?
"Are we leaving right away? Are we taking a train?"
"We will be riding a freight train. Have you ever ridden one?"
"......Would I have? How thrilling. Wow, it's my first time, so I have a whole pile of questions! Please explain them kindly."
When I answered with a beaming smile, the corners of Ichi's eyes creased.
What?
Wasn't the charm of a timid, freshly grown adult who had only just shed his down feathers worth indulging?
Completely shaking off Ichi's suspicion was an impossible task.
There would be no stripping away a mind that ran in that direction by nature, either.
To win over an Ichi like that, I needed to show him that I was a bastard who was entertaining just to watch from the side.
Of course, putting on this bright sunshine character right now wasn't for his amusement.
I was just a little pissed off.
At being treated like a kid.
Just then a red container was carried out from inside the warehouse.
As it came closer, the chemical smell stabs at my nose even more viciously.
What Styx Company wanted was a corpse as intact as possible, so the body, unprocessed apart from the preservative treatment, was revolting even without taking it in with my eyes.
"You must not forget that this is a security assignment in preparation for an attack, however unlikely."
"Are there actually bastards who would come to steal this?"
"You think there aren't? Haha."
No, fold that up.
Fold up that flag.
Come on.
***
RUMBLE, RUM—BLE.
The regular sound of the train treading the rails drummed against my backside along with a faint vibration.
Since no corner had been set aside for people to ride in a freight train, I was loaded into an empty freight car like a piece of luggage and had to barely endure my back screaming.
In the car right beside me, a horrifying monster corpse.
Right beside me, Ichi's grinning face.
I would rather just pass out, so would you wake me when we arrive?
Lately the thought that had been coming to me was that Seo Mok was easier to have around than Ichi.
When I read The Original Work I favored Ichi over Seo Mok, but experiencing him firsthand was a bit.......
They say a Madman is more beautiful the farther off you view him, and Ichi was exactly that case.
'What do I have to do to get affection grinding to run smoothly.......'
Saving his life? Rejected.
Putting on a song and dance? Rejected.
Getting hold of a weakness? Hmm.
Ichi was known as a Non-Ability User out of the Resistance Army.
Strip that away and he possessed a terrifying and useful ability that blocked the Other Side, though.
His raw physicality alone was top-tier, so he could use just about any weapon, and his strength was brutish enough that swinging an enormous scythe was effortless for him.
His mind turned fast enough for him to leisurely pull off being a double spy, and he was using that mind to suspect me.
'Ha, this genre isn't my field.'
Come to think of it, in my past life there had been a guy like Ichi on my team.
We fought and brawled worse by the day, took disciplinary action from above several times, and got scolded with "what on earth is the problem between you two."
And yet our rhythm matched well, so working together was easy.
As I glared at Ichi through narrowed eyes, Ichi raised an eyebrow in question.
"Is there a problem?"
"There might be?"
"Oho, don't tell me you noticed?"
"......?"
Before I could understand, Ichi's main weapon, the scythe, revealed its true form and filled the cramped freight car.
CRUNCH—.
Before I could even follow the flashing arc of the scythe, bright sunlight poured into the pitch-dark freight car.
The top of the freight car had been sheared off whole and sent flying with one swing of the blade.
Ichi, who had made that mess, calmly did nothing but watch the gaps between the buildings alongside the tracks.
"Ah......."
When I belatedly widened my detection range, small things shoved their heads into the tips of my nerves.
The buildings strung along both sides of the elevated railway were old construction, and half of them were decrepit and empty.
Broken and abandoned after an Other Side burst open at some point and monsters ran wild, they were perfect places to hide something.
Like those bastards springing out nimbly in pitch-black outfits, for instance.
"......An attack?"
"You have good eyes, Do Hae."
There weren't many factions with the nerve to openly target a monster corpse.
The Government Troops were reluctant to operate in the Black Zone, and the Resistance Army had no wish to run wild inside Styx's sphere.
Then who were those?
Vampires who lived hand to mouth while pulling strings with the great factions here and there.
And among them, the ones who would dare touch cargo stamped with Styx's logo.......
"The government's dogs."
"Haha, so you can identify even that. You were in the government's employ until recently, so do welcome them."
Identifying them was easy.
The government had a distinctive obsession with the color black.
For starters, every uniform was black, and they had slathered black over everything down to the logos and fine details of their jurisdictional agencies.
They pushed a slogan about becoming the shadow of the people and doing everything for them. Tell them to cut the bullsh*t.
They only carried on that way out of an inferiority complex over losing the Black Zone to Styx.
"Sooo—o glad to see them. Glad enough to want to kill them all."
When I flashed a grin, Ichi laughed out loud.
Ha, I really was trying to live a wholesome life.
The reason the government's dogs were after a monster corpse.
It was all to secure material for that damned Supernatural Ability research.
The very research this body had been ground up in from birth.
That's kind of pissing me off.