He said he would tell me the rest of the story.

But was not our meeting and parting far too quick? There was still so much I had to hear. Important things, unimportant things.

I was sprawled flat inside the rushing train, the wind stinging against my body.

The tears on my cheeks had already dried.

The train ran a long while through the dark.

I no longer knew where I was supposed to go. Only when the train jolted with a heavy crash and screeched to a halt did I rise.

The impact shook my body. I heard gravel and sand tumbling down.

Before me lay only track swallowed by darkness.

Was Jin dead? Staggering, I lifted my head and stared vacantly ahead. They said he was one they already knew. Then perhaps they had not killed him.

I leapt down from the train with my hand resting on my scabbard.

The ground was solid beneath me.

If you hated Yehyeon and the world so much, you should have kept running to the end.

Of course, no reply came.

After staring into empty air for a moment, I began walking along the darkened tracks.

That ashen arm... I walked toward the wall of dirt where the train had crashed, trying to recall. Why had Jin’s arm turned gray? The color was strangely familiar.

I mulled it over, but no answer surfaced. Clutching unanswered questions meant nothing. I stretched out my hand and felt along the shattered cab wall.

Was there a door here?

Suppressing the urge to follow after Jin, I searched around me.

On the way here there had been no screen doors. Going back would not reveal another path.

As my eyes gradually adjusted to the dark, my hands kept searching.

I had to find a way out. Go outside, ask the seniors for help, maybe even find Jin Silver alive.

Even a hole fit for crawling...

My foot sank.

My right leg dropped downward. Reflexively I grabbed the ground. My body tilted sideways. Peering down, I saw a hollow tunnel.

Ah. This time, not to the side, but below.

I smiled bitterly, recalling Jin who sensed the approaching creature at once and cut the train loose. Truly, a sharp man.

“You’re alive.”

I spoke to someone who could no longer hear.

“I’ll come find you.”

Until I confirmed his death with my own eyes, I would not give up hope.

I crawled into the burrow. It too was pitch dark. Again I placed my left hand against the wall.

This passage was harsher than the last. I had to crawl. If I lifted my head, the back of my skull struck the hard dirt ceiling. I crouched and crawled forward, waiting for the end.

Only when my neck ached unbearably did the tunnel finally end.

But no welcome artificial light waited. Only blue mushrooms lit the tracks. Had Jin planted these too?

Ignoring the pain in my waist and neck, I slowly rose.

Drip. Drip. The sound of water falling.

I walked blindly. Since Jin’s death was not certain, I had to cling even harder to my focus.

The subway where even Badgers with over ten years’ service died one after another.

It was dangerous even just entering, yet others must still be pursuing me.

What had I done?

Following the blue mushrooms, I sorted through what I had heard. They said one day they came to Jin, who had been living outside, and told him to bring me back.

‘The leader woke a few months ago....’

I also awoke here a few months ago.

Coincidence?

Could such coincidences exist?

Who was the leader? Since being exiled outside the Core, fragments of my past spilled out, and I tried to piece them together. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Their leader. The leader of those they claimed were once my comrades.

...I could not remember.

So I tried another way. Instead of recalling superiors, I tried to think of someone I had sought advice from when making decisions.

The one I had turned to.

Curtain-like hair.

A flash tore through me.

Memory surged back. He had mocked those people. Called them ignorant, incapable of even guessing at what inevitably lay ahead.

Golden eyes overflowing with confidence. A firm voice. Clean, handsome features.

He had never looked away from me.

The stench.

That protein stench stabbed at my nose.

Before me gaped enormous teeth.

They lunged to bite off my face whole.

Shhhhk!

My blade split the gaping maw clean in two.

Flesh and bone fragments sprayed. The sword cut through its gullet, driving deeper. Its elongated body ripped apart. Its enraged shriek pierced my ears.

Kyaaaaah—

Twisting my blade free, I spilled its blood. The creature writhed, half-sliced.

I stared at the being sprawled across the tracks. I could not count its legs. But it was far too huge to be a centipede. It could coil around a grown man’s body three times over and still have length to spare.

Its many legs scrambled frantically, winding tighter.

Its head was like a fish’s.

I sighed, gripping my sword.

“Looks like I’ll have to kill everything that comes at me and push through.”

Of course, it could not understand.

Blood pouring, the creature’s legs stilled. Yet I did not advance.

Instead, I gripped my sword more tightly.

I felt the weight of the blood injection in my right pocket.

“Just let me pass.”

I lowered my body, ready to swing.

“There are people I need to find.”

The only answer was the clatter of legs.

The instant my sword cut the air, creatures poured down from the ceiling.

***

My shoulder hurt.

At least these centipede-things had no venom in their fangs. Otherwise I would already be dead.

At any rate, it was over. I pressed my torn left shoulder tight with my right hand. My sword, drenched in blood, I had only just sheathed.

A chilling silence weighed on the place.

Now nothing moved here but me.

The walls and tracks were smeared with gore and flesh.

Pressing down on my shoulder, I trudged along the stinking rails.

Corpses squelched underfoot. There must have been another way through this station. Or perhaps I should have veered aside before reaching their nest.

But now those choices were gone.

I had killed them all, but at a heavy price. Even after injecting more blood, dizziness clouded me.

I frowned, trying to steady my wavering vision.

“Still, haven’t I improved a lot?”

Though no one listened, I muttered into the darkness.

“Maybe I could even cut the hem of a marksman’s coat now.”

Maybe I could fight alongside Yehyeon.

And if I won, perhaps I could claim the sword I had once seen in that recording.

With no outside distraction, my thoughts drifted back again. Dragging my heavy body, I recalled Jin. If Jin Silver had not cut the train and forced me onward, I would have collapsed into instinct.

The sword...

My sword. Forcing myself onward, I dredged up even older memories. The sword I had wielded. The one I had crossed against the black-haired man.

Where was it now?

Broken, buried underground? Or was the sword Yehyeon held mine? I longed to see it in person. Even if I could not take it from Yehyeon, I wanted to see it with my own eyes.

In my mind, that voice kept circling.

The voice I had remembered while Jin drove the train.

‘Want to spar with me?’

Like old times?

Kraang!

A claw raked.

Flames of hatred filled the station. Ash-gray hair crisped and dried. Human-like features twisted.

I deflected the talons lunging for my throat with my blade.

Impeccable movement. One instant empty air, the next right before me.

I swung with all my strength.

Whoosh!

Instead of bouncing off, it staggered back a few steps.

Our eyes met. It had come from the direction of the faintly glowing tracks, the way I had been heading.

This was not the one Jin Silver had held off. Its hair was short.

“Traitor.”

That word again.

“You.”

It closed the distance in a flash.

Its words were guttural, as if something clogged its throat. But its gaze blazed with hatred.

“You, if only you hadn’t.”

“Sorry, but I’ve forgotten every shred of the past. Annoying as it is, could you explain what I did?”

Clang!

Its swing knocked my sword away.

Such power. If I had not pulled my arm back in time to block with the blade, my throat would have been pierced.

Claw met steel.

It pressed with grotesque strength, shrieking in fury.

“You!”

“Yeah, me.”

“You, back then!”

Back then... what?

“If only you hadn’t betrayed Kyle then!”

Kraaang!

A flash burst, distance opening between us.

We both steadied ourselves, panting. He glared, bloodshot eyes full of rage. I stared back, sword clenched.

Eyes drained of hope.

Memory returned.

Not complete, but seared into me. A scene etched now forever in my mind. A moment I could never forget again.

Kyle.

Golden eyes burning. Clenched teeth, hair whipping. The sword pointed at me.

Behind him, comrades stood.

Each held their weapons. Feet on a floor pure white. Eyes raging with fury.

The place shimmered blue.

I remembered those betrayed eyes, declaring no hope remained in me, that they would break everything, even me. Their fighting spirit seared into me.

And I remembered the words I had forced out, burying my grief.

The full context was gone, cut like a fragment of film.

But I had pleaded then.

With Kyle, and with the comrades behind him.

“...It’s not too late.”

“Turncoat bastard!”

“If we act now....”

We can still undo this.

Kwoooom!

My body flew back. His blow, fueled ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ by rage, overwhelmed me. I crashed against a square pillar dividing the tracks.

Thud.

The impact reverberated through me. Reflexively I gasped.

But there was no pause. I twisted away from the claw striking down.

Thoom!

“Time out!”

Thooom!

Of course he would not listen. Then I would have to knock him down.

I steadied my breath and rolled desperately along the floor, dodging.

When he stumbled for an instant, I planted my blade and rose.

Clang!

I shoved back his descending claws.

We fell apart again. I steadied myself. Good. Now I could counter. This time I had to be ready to kill. Half measures meant my own death.

I braced both legs on the tracks, gripped my sword with both hands.

Lifting it over my shoulders, I drew breath.

That moment when my plea had failed.

That moment when they charged me. That moment when I knew there was no turning back. I remembered steeling my heart through grief, clenching my teeth, raising my sword.

The strike I had unleashed then.

It split the ground.

It pushed back those who had become my enemies.

Kwooooom!

A chilling slash tore across the tracks.