Scene 1. Combustion
Lee Kang ran toward the front gate.
With his bandaged body. On missing blood. His legs were heavy. With each step his knees tried to buckle. Because the blood was short. Because there was too little to send to the muscles. Lee Kang's body said as much. To stop. That if he went further he would fall.
Lee Kang's will pressed that body down.
Tear Father apart. That one thing moved his legs. Straightened the buckling knees. Lifted the heavy legs. Force of mind stood in for the missing blood. One step. And another. Quickening, little by little.
Fire poured from the front gate.
It was the elite garrison. Not the slum's military police. The shooting was precise. Concentrated. The bullets gathered toward Lee Kang's body to a single point. Lee Kang read those trajectories.
Lee Kang's body moved in a zigzag.
Left. Right. Not a straight line. Slipping out of where the muzzles were aimed. The bullets passed through the place Lee Kang had just been. The sound of split air grazed his ears. A hot wind. Lee Kang bored through between them. Into the garrison's formation.
Gunfire came from behind.
Not Lee Kang's. It was Doctor Jang. Yeonhwa held in one arm. Firing a pistol with the other hand. Aiming at the garrison's flank. The blind spot in the direction Lee Kang was boring through. One of the garrison took a round to the side and fell. He was a man taking aim at Lee Kang. Doctor Jang had removed him first.
Lee Kang did not look back.
Because there was no need. Because Doctor Jang was there. Because he was guarding the blind spot. Lee Kang's nerves concentrated on the front alone. Leaving his back empty. That empty back, Doctor Jang was filling.
Lee Kang reached the middle of the garrison.
The lead guard. Lee Kang's hand caught his throat. Twisted. Crack. The next. A buttstock flew. Toward Lee Kang's head. Lee Kang blocked it with his arm. With the arm that blocked it, he caught that guard's collar. Dragged him in. Threw him at the next guard. The two tangled and fell.
The garrison's formation broke up.
Lee Kang's body turned in the middle of it. On heavy legs. But without stopping. Catch one, then the next. The formation scattered. The concentrated fire broke up. The chaos Lee Kang made blunted the shooting.
Through that gap, enormous things moved.
Scene 2. Exhilaration
Three Ookami fell upon Lee Kang.
From the gap where the garrison had broken up. From three directions. At once. The finished type. Elite monsters that had guarded the main house. One of them was fastest. It bored into Lee Kang's flank. Swung its claws. Toward Lee Kang's side.
The claws raked the bandage.
Lee Kang tried to dodge. His heavy legs were a half-beat late. The Ookami's claws grazed Lee Kang's side. The bandage Doctor Jang had wound. The wound the coagulant had been spread over. The claws tore the bandage.
The bandage burst.
The bandage that had stiffened. The wound that the coagulant had plugged. Raked open by the claws. From inside it, blood surged. The blood that had been plugged. All at once. From Lee Kang's side, a hot thing poured. Onto his thigh. Onto his leg. Onto the asphalt.
A searing tore Lee Kang's side.
The pain of the coagulant-spread wound opening again. The pain of the claws gouging on top of it. The two overlapping. From Lee Kang's side a fire broke out. The fire spread along the nerves. From his side to his chest. To his back.
A sound came from Lee Kang's mouth.
It was not a scream.
It was closer to a laugh.
The pain told Lee Kang something else. That he was alive. That to hurt is to be alive. That to be alive is to be able to kill the enemy. To be able to kill Father. Lee Kang's brain translated that lethal pain into exhilaration.
Lee Kang turned toward the Ookami.
Toward the one that had torn the bandage. Pouring blood. Lee Kang's hands caught the Ookami's arm. The arm that had swung the claws. With both hands. Twisted. Bent it. The sound of a joint leaving its socket. Lee Kang twisted further. With blood pouring from his side. That blood like fuel.
The Ookami's arm broke.
The sound of bone breaking. The Ookami did not react. Because it had no sense of pain. But the arm was made useless. Lee Kang's hand went to the Ookami's head. With a fist smeared with his own blood. With a fist wet with the blood that ran from his side.
Lee Kang drove that fist into the Ookami's skull.
Once. The skull cracked. Twice. It began to cave in. Three times. Lee Kang's fist crushed the Ookami's skull-bone. Inward. Black blood and something else burst. The Ookami's body went slack.
Blood kept running from Lee Kang's side.
Down his leg. Making a pool on the asphalt. Lee Kang's face was going pale. But Lee Kang's eyes were burning brighter. The amber. The more blood he lost. The brighter.
The remaining two lowered their stances toward Lee Kang.
Scene 3. Disposal
The two Ookami fell upon him at once.
From left and right. A pincer. To either side of Lee Kang. Lee Kang's heavy legs were too slow to take both at once. Because the blood was short. Because the reaction was late. Lee Kang's body was trapped between the two for an instant.
A small thing flew.
Over Lee Kang's shoulder. From behind. A glass ampoule. Doctor Jang had thrown it. Holding Yeonhwa. With one hand. Toward the left Ookami's face. Precisely. The ampoule broke near the Ookami's eye.
An acrid smell spread.
A chemical agent. The thing that burns an Ookami's eyes. The thing that cuts off its sight. The left Ookami faltered. It could not see ahead. The Ookami swung its claws toward empty air. At a place where Lee Kang was not.
Lee Kang caught that moment.
He caught the blinded Ookami's body. From behind. Wrapping its waist with both hands. Lifted it. With blood pouring from his side. With his legs screaming. Teeth clenched. Lee Kang lifted that Ookami.
The right Ookami charged.
Toward Lee Kang. Lee Kang threw the blinded Ookami that way. Like a shield. The two Ookami collided. A heavy sound. Beast crashing into beast. The two tangled. For an instant.
Lee Kang fell upon them.
Over the two tangled Ookami. Lee Kang's hand caught the throat of the one on top. Twisted. Crack. The hard neck turned all the way. That Ookami went slack. Lee Kang's hand went to the one beneath. The throat of the blinded one. Twisted. Crack.
The two Ookami went slack.
Lee Kang caught the two. The two with broken necks. One in each hand. Lifted them. With blood pouring from his side. With his arms shaking. Lee Kang swung the two toward the iron gate.
The two Ookami struck the iron gate.
A roar. The sound of enormous masses of meat hitting iron. The sound of Ookami bone crushing. The iron gate shook. The hinges screamed. The two Ookami's bodies slid down and piled beneath the iron gate.
Lee Kang caught his breath.
Raggedly. With blood running from his side. At his feet, three Ookami lay fallen. The garrison was scattered. Dead. Or fled. Before the front gate, there was no longer anything to stop Lee Kang.
Only the iron gate remained.
Scene 4. Opening
Lee Kang stood before the iron gate.
It was an enormous iron gate. The front gate of the main house. Made of iron bars. Painted black. Set above it, the crest of the Lee family. The gate Lee Kang had passed in and out of since childhood. With the gait of the idiot young master. With a stooped back. With clouded eyes. The gate he had passed through performing that act.
That gate was firmly shut.
Locked from within. To bar Lee Kang. The gate Father had closed. Lee Kang's amber eyes looked at that iron gate. Beyond the bars, the main house's garden was visible. In the dark. A quiet garden. Well-tended trees. Beyond them, the main hall of the estate.
Lee Kang's hands caught the iron bars of the gate.
With both hands. With blood-soaked hands. The cold iron met his palms. Hard metal. Lee Kang's fingers wrapped the bars. He bore down with force.
His muscles screamed.
The blood-starved muscles. Lee Kang pulled. The iron bars. Outward. His muscles swelled. His arms. His shoulders. His back. The wound in his side split further under that force. More blood poured. Lee Kang's face went paler.
The bars began to bend.
Faintly. The cold metal. Under Lee Kang's brute strength. Creak. The sound of iron bending. Lee Kang pulled harder. Teeth clenched. The strength of his whole body. Wringing out the missing blood. To the last drop.
The lock screamed.
The bolt of the iron gate. The bolt set from within. Holding against Lee Kang's strength. Then the sound of snapping. A sharp metallic shriek. The bolt snapped. One side of the iron gate buckled inward.
Lee Kang shoved the iron gate open.
Wide. The enormous iron gate swung inward. Creeeak. The hinges grinding. One side twisted. The iron gate opened. The gate that had caged Lee Kang since childhood. The gate that had made him an idiot. Broke open in Lee Kang's hands.
The main house's garden was revealed.
In the dark. Quietly. Well-tended trees. A gravel path. A fountain. Beyond them, the main hall of the estate. Lit windows. A certain window on the second floor. As if someone might be there. As if someone might be looking down.
The garden was quiet.
Too quiet. After all that uproar at the gate. The garrison slaughtered. The Ookami crushed. The iron gate torn away. Inside the garden it was still. That stillness was strange. Within that stillness was something.
It was Father.
Lee Kang did not see him. But he felt it. Inside the estate. Inside the dark. That someone was waiting with held breath. For Lee Kang to come. As if everything of those days. The flight. The cannibalism. Yeonhwa. As if all of it had been to draw Lee Kang in through this gate. That stillness was saying as much.
Footsteps came from behind Lee Kang.
It was Doctor Jang. Holding Yeonhwa. He stood before the broken front gate. Doctor Jang's eyes looked at the torn-away iron gate. Looked at the opened garden. Looked at the estate beyond.
"It's open."
Doctor Jang said.
Low. Dryly. Within that one phrase, several things were held. That they had finally arrived. But that from here on was the real thing. That Doctor Jang, too, knew what this stillness meant.
Lee Kang set his first foot into the garden.
Through the broken iron gate. With a blood-soaked body. Bleeding from his side. Treading the main house's gravel. Lee Kang's amber eyes glared at the main hall of the estate. At the lit windows. At the darkness within them.
Within it, Father was there.
Lee Kang walked toward that dark.