Scene 1. Splash
A sound came from the puddle.
Splash.
A corner of the bunker. The place where water flowed in from the drain and pooled. The spot where the pipe fragment had floated. That water surged up. Black water leapt upward. Something was rising from beneath it.
A hand came out first.
A mud-caked hand. It braced on the puddle's edge. Then a head. A shoulder. A form in a black overcoat hauled its body out of the water. Wet shoes met the earthen floor. Water poured from the overcoat.
It was Doctor Jang.
The partisans in the bunker turned their rifles that way. Toward the intruder come out of the water. Drawing back their bolts. Doctor Jang looked at those muzzles. Once. Ignored them. Doctor Jang walked out of the puddle. Between the muzzles. Without hesitation. As if the muzzles were not there.
"Move."
Doctor Jang said.
Low. In a tone of command. The partisans faltered. Because they could not tell who this mud-caked man was. But because what rode in that voice was authority. One partisan looked at the leader. The leader—unable to take his eyes off Lee Kang—could not render a decision.
Doctor Jang crossed through that gap.
To Lee Kang. To Lee Kang frozen, holding Yeonhwa, bound in rope. To Lee Kang staring into empty air with empty eyes. Doctor Jang's wet shoes trod the earthen floor. Splashing. Doctor Jang stood before Lee Kang.
A smell came off Doctor Jang.
Opium. Disinfectant. The rankness of blood. The smell that had been beside Lee Kang for days. A familiar smell. Lee Kang's nose caught that smell. Caught it—and processed it. For the first time in days, Lee Kang's brain processed something from outside.
Lee Kang's empty eyes moved faintly.
"Move aside."
Doctor Jang said to Lee Kang.
Lee Kang did not move. Holding Yeonhwa. With his bound arms. Doctor Jang knelt before Lee Kang. He reached a hand toward the Yeonhwa Lee Kang was holding. Toward the Yeonhwa within Lee Kang's bound arms.
A sound tried to rise from Lee Kang's throat.
Grrr. Weakly. The sound that came whenever someone tried to lay a hand on Yeonhwa. But this time that sound could not rise all the way. Doctor Jang's smell stopped it. Because it was Doctor Jang's hand. The hand that had stitched Lee Kang for days. The hand that had made the medicine. A hand that was not an enemy.
Doctor Jang's hand met Yeonhwa's neck.
He felt for the pulse. Doctor Jang's expression hardened. His eyes narrowed. The eyes of one taking up a pen. Scholarly eyes. But within them was something else. Urgency. Doctor Jang's hand lifted Yeonhwa's eyelid. Looked at the pupil. Laid a hand on her chest.
"You thought I'd let her die."
Doctor Jang said.
To Lee Kang. Examining Yeonhwa. Without raising his head.
"You idiot. You fed her this."
Doctor Jang's hand drew a leather case from inside his overcoat. From an inner pocket that the water had not reached. He opened the case. There were syringes inside. There were glass ampoules inside. Doctor Jang's hand took up one ampoule. He filled a syringe with the liquid. Fast. With practiced ease.
Lee Kang's eyes followed that hand.
Into the empty eyes, something began to return.
Scene 2. Breath
Doctor Jang drove the syringe in near Yeonhwa's chest.
Without hesitation. Precisely. Between the ribs. The cold sound of a needle piercing flesh. Doctor Jang's thumb pressed the piston. The liquid went into Yeonhwa's body.
The bunker was quiet.
Lee Kang's eyes were fixed on Yeonhwa's chest. The chest that had been stopped. Doctor Jang's hand pressed Yeonhwa's chest once. Twice. Making a rhythm. A low breath leaked from Doctor Jang's mouth. The breath of one concentrating.
A sound came from Yeonhwa's throat.
A small sound. A coarse one. The sound of air forcing its way into a narrow passage. Yeonhwa's chest—.
Rose.
Faintly. Once. And fell. Rose again. It was breath. Yeonhwa was breathing. Weakly. Coarsely. But unmistakably. The chest that had been stopped was moving again.
Lee Kang's breath stopped.
Lee Kang's empty eyes watched Yeonhwa's chest. The rising and falling. The movement he had watched for days. The thing that had stopped, begun again. Inside Lee Kang's chest, something loosened. The thing that had been frozen. The thing that had been numbed.
"...She's sunk deep."
Doctor Jang said. With his hand pressing Yeonhwa's chest.
"The heart's beating again. But she won't wake. That's the state she's bound in. So she doesn't get worse. For now."
Lee Kang did not understand all of Doctor Jang's words. But one thing he understood. That Yeonhwa was breathing. That Yeonhwa was alive. That she had not died.
Doctor Jang drew out a scalpel.
He brought it to Lee Kang's wrists. Cut the rope. One side. The other. The coarse rope severed and Lee Kang's wrists came free. Into the bound places spread the prickling of blood returning. Lee Kang's hands became free. The hands that held Yeonhwa.
Then a sound came from the ceiling.
The sound of cracking. The sound of earth and wood splitting. In the bunker's earthen ceiling. An enormous fissure was running. The sound of a beam bending. From above, something was bearing down. An enormous weight.
Doctor Jang looked up at the ceiling.
Lee Kang looked up too.
The two men's eyes met. For an instant. There were no words. Doctor Jang's eyes said something. Lee Kang's eyes received it. What was coming from above. Who had sent it.
Inside Lee Kang's chest, the empty space began to fill.
That empty space, left when it was confirmed that Yeonhwa was alive. Something else was filling it. An enormous thing. A thing directed at the one who had made all of this. The one who had made Yeonhwa like this. The one who had made Lee Kang like this. The one who sent monsters from above.
It was Father.
Scene 3. The Slaughter
The ceiling collapsed.
Earth and wood poured down. Into the bunker. Dust rose. The kerosene lamp swayed. Through the collapsed hole, forms dropped. One. Two. Three. Four. Enormous things. Things wearing uniforms but whose bodies beneath the uniforms were not human.
They were Ookami.
The finished type. Not the degraded version. Different from the one Lee Kang had torn apart in Chapter 36. The joints were not misaligned. The motions were not mechanical. Larger. Faster. Smoother. From the falling motion the next motion already followed.
A smell came.
It stabbed Lee Kang's nose. The smell of rotted blood. The smell of the main house's cellar. The smell of the cellar beneath this Count Lee's estate. A smell Lee Kang had caught somewhere. In Chapter 19. During the escape. From the enormous vats. That smell came off the Ookami's bodies.
In Lee Kang's head, that smell gathered into a single point.
Father.
The partisans fired.
At the Ookami. Bullets lodged. Lodged—and ricocheted. Off thick bone. Off hard flesh. The Ookami did not stop even as the bullets struck. One lunged at the nearest partisan. The partisan's body tore like a sheet of paper. Blood sprayed across the bunker wall.
Lee Kang rose.
Yeonhwa toward Doctor Jang. Doctor Jang received Yeonhwa. With both arms. Drawing back behind Lee Kang. Shielding Yeonhwa with his own body. Bracing Lee Kang's back.
Lee Kang's body grew light.
Because Yeonhwa's weight had gone to Doctor Jang. But this time that lightness was not unease. Because Doctor Jang was guarding Yeonhwa. Because the anchor had been entrusted to another hand. Because Doctor Jang was guarding Lee Kang's back.
Lee Kang leapt.
Toward the nearest Ookami. The Ookami that had torn the partisan. Lee Kang's body flew through the air. Lee Kang's fist drove into the Ookami's face. The sound of impact. Close to a roar. The Ookami's head snapped back. The Ookami's body flew into the earthen wall. The wall collapsed.
The Ookami rose.
Even taking Lee Kang's fist. With its face caved in. It rose. Turned toward Lee Kang. With empty eyes. Lee Kang looked at those eyes. Eyes with no sense of pain. But different from the degraded version. Fast. The Ookami's arm reached for Lee Kang. For Lee Kang's throat.
Lee Kang's body dropped low.
The Ookami's arm passed over his head. Lee Kang bored into the Ookami's chest. Lee Kang's two hands caught the Ookami's arm. The shoulder joint. Twisted. The sound of bone misaligning. The Ookami did not react. Because it had no sense of pain. But the arm was made useless. Because the joint had come out.
Something flew.
Past Lee Kang's side. A small thing. A glass ampoule. Doctor Jang had thrown it. Toward the Ookami's neck. The ampoule struck the Ookami's nape and shattered. Liquid splashed. The Ookami's neck muscles went rigid for an instant. Seized. Doctor Jang knew the drug's effect. The thing that bound the Ookami's nerves for a moment.
That one moment, Lee Kang caught.
Lee Kang's hand caught the Ookami's head. The head over the seized neck. With both hands. Twisted. The seized neck twisted. Crack. The sound of hard bone breaking. It did not break in one go. Lee Kang twisted further. Teeth clenched. The shoulder muscles swelled.
The Ookami's neck turned.
To an unnatural angle. All the way. The Ookami's body went slack. Lee Kang let go of the head. The Ookami collapsed onto the earthen floor.
Lee Kang mounted it.
Lee Kang's hand bored into the Ookami's chest. Fingers between the ribs. Tearing flesh. Inward. Lee Kang's hand seized something. Pulled. Tore it out. From the Ookami's chest, a dark red thing was torn loose. Black blood poured.
Lee Kang rose.
He threw the thing in his hand. Onto the earthen floor. Lee Kang's arm was soaked in black blood. It had splashed onto the corner of his mouth too. Onto his chest too.
The bunker went quiet.
One Ookami lay gruesomely torn apart. The monster off which human bullets had ricocheted. By Lee Kang's bare hands. The partisans watched the sight. Frozen. Rifles in hand.
From the hole in the ceiling, more of the things were pouring down.
Scene 4. Declaration of War
Lee Kang looked up at the hole in the ceiling.
Black blood ran down Lee Kang's chin. The Ookami's blood. Lee Kang did not wipe it. He let it run down from the corner of his mouth to his chest. Lee Kang's amber eyes turned toward the hole in the ceiling.
From the hole, shadows were descending.
Ookami. Two. Three. More. And behind them, other things. The sound of military boots. Japanese shouts. The Imperial Army. The Empire had found the bunker. With the Ookami at the front. From above. Downward.
Doctor Jang was behind Lee Kang's back.
Holding Yeonhwa. A drug case in one hand. In the other—a pistol. Doctor Jang drew back the pistol's bolt. Click. Behind Lee Kang's back. Ready to cover Lee Kang. Watching his weak points. Bracing his field of vision. A comrade guarding his back.
Light had returned to Lee Kang's empty eyes.
The amber was burning. The thing that had lost its light days ago before Yeonhwa's death. It was burning again. But it was a different light. A deeper thing. A colder thing. A thing with sorrow for fuel. A thing with loss for fire.
Lee Kang looked back toward the partisans.
The leader was there. Rifle in hand. The rifle that, moments ago, had been aimed at Lee Kang. The rifle now raised toward the hole in the ceiling. The leader's face was rigid. What it was they had drawn in. And what was now pouring down upon them. Caught between the two.
Lee Kang looked at the leader.
Lee Kang's mouth opened.
For the first time in days. A mouth holding something that was neither rage nor despair. It was not an empty face. Not a numbed face either. Something had returned to that face. Purpose. Direction. A place to be aimed.
"I'll kill them all."
Lee Kang said.
Low. Flat. It was not a growl. It was a declaration.
The leader heard those words. He could not tell whether they were directed at them or at the enemies in the ceiling. But the next moment he knew. Because Lee Kang's amber eyes turned toward the hole in the ceiling. Toward the Empire pouring from it.
"Every one of them."
Lee Kang finished.
"And the one who sent them, too."
The one who sent them. Father. Count Lee. The one who cultivated monsters in the cellar of the main house. The beginning of everything that had made Yeonhwa like this.
Lee Kang lowered his body toward the hole in the ceiling.
Into the stance just before a leap. The leg muscles drew taut. Black blood dripped from Lee Kang's body. Onto the earthen floor. Behind Lee Kang's back, Doctor Jang stood guarding Yeonhwa. Pistol in hand. Bracing Lee Kang's back.
The partisans stood to either side of Lee Kang.
Rifles raised. Toward the hole in the ceiling. Those who, moments ago, had aimed at Lee Kang. Now looked in the same direction as Lee Kang. Toward the same enemy. Because the enemy was too vast. Because what was pouring down could not be stopped alone.
Lee Kang's feet kicked the earthen floor.
He leapt.
Toward the hole in the ceiling. Toward the pouring Empire. Into the middle of the monster-pack Father had sent. A blood-soaked bare body surged into the air. Amber eyes blazed in the dark.
The Tiger of Gyeongseong threw himself into the war.
With a comrade at his back.
With the sorrow in his arms for fuel.