Convict Unit: Black Parade

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Jae-hee heard the sound of falling water.

At the same time, he felt something cold splash against his cheek.

“Ngh…”

He forced his twitching eyes open.

The world was upside down.

His groggy mind took a beat to process the situation—he was hanging by his feet.

Something extending from the ceiling had bound his legs, leaving him dangling in the air like a slab of meat in a butcher shop.

As consciousness returned, Jae-hee took in his surroundings.

The space that had once been a subway platform, bustling with people, was now completely covered in unidentifiable veins and fleshy walls, all of it squirming and pulsating like a single, living organism.

“Eek!”

Jae-hee had always hated gross things. He instinctively writhed, opening his mouth to scream.

“Whoa—mph?!”

But a hand clamped over his mouth before he could make a sound.

He thrashed in renewed panic, but a familiar voice made him freeze.

“Shhh. Boy-kun! Calm down desu!”

“Window? Is that you?”

“It is desu, so don’t scream desu.”

Status Window slowly removed his hand.

Seeing his friend’s unharmed face, Jae-hee finally felt a sliver of relief. “Where are we?”

“Inside the Rose Princess’s castle desu. Or rather, a castle under construction. This must be the monster’s main base. The Realm Erosion is off the charts, and we can’t get any signal out…”

“A castle? This looks less like a castle and more like the inside of some monster’s stomach.”

Status Window nodded grimly. “An accurate assessment desu.”

“Huh? What is?”

“The part about being in a stomach.”

He offered a hollow smile, as if he’d resigned himself to everything. “All that’s left for us now is to be eaten…”

“…”

“Heh, it’s fine desu. I’ll just log out and restart…”

There he went again, escaping into his own bizarre reality.

Jae-hee drew his dagger, Mountain Child, and slashed. The vein constricting his ankle snapped, and he was free.

Thud.

He landed on the fleshy floor and stretched his stiff legs.

Just then, a gloomy voice drifted over from nearby. “I knew it the second I saw her…”

It was Hangman, the seaweed-haired prisoner, hanging upside down right next to him.

He chuckled, his face even more unhinged than usual.

“That monster…she’s not something I can mess with, heheheh…”

“What the hell are you so proud of?” Sitting slumped on the floor, Jail Mojik snapped in irritation. “Shield Bearer and Firestarter are dead because of you, you crazy fucking troll.”

“It’s not like I did it on purpose… I just lost the battle of Evil Eyes against that vampire.”

Hangman sounded entirely unapologetic. “Heheheh, and you clearly don’t know about Firestarter’s ‘ability,’ do you?”

“…?”

“I made the best possible decision in that situation…”

“You son of a bitch, I swear—”

Having reached her limit, Jail Mojik raised a fist to slug Hangman.

Whoosh!

But Jae-hee darted between them, catching the punch just before it connected with Hangman’s jaw.

“P-please, don’t.”

“What?”

“Brother Hang… I’m sure he did his best. I believe that.”

Jae-hee forced a bright smile and turned to Hangman. “Right, Brother Hang?”

The seaweed-haired prisoner stared at Jae-hee for a long moment before letting out a hollow laugh.

“You really are a strange kid…”

With the situation barely defused, Jae-hee surveyed the area.

Some of the captured prisoners were hanging upside down, while others sat dejectedly on the floor.

Then he saw Ghost, collapsed nearby. “Master!”

Jae-hee scrambled toward her.

The Doctor was at her side, the cuffs of her white coat stained with blood as she administered treatment.

“Doctor! Is my master okay?!”

“…The injuries are severe.”

The Doctor’s latex gloves were soaked in blood, and they glowed a faint chartreuse—a sign her ability was active.

“Everyone has injuries, some worse than others, but Ghost’s are fatal.”

The Doctor explained, “My ability is ‘Local Anesthesia.’ I can stop time for a designated area. It suppresses pain, too.”

She gestured toward Jae-hee’s chest.

“The stab wound you received—I’ve stopped its progression, including the bleeding.”

“Oh, that’s why it didn’t hurt much.”

His windbreaker had absorbed the initial blow from the Rose Princess, and the Doctor’s ability had frozen the damage that got through.

“But my ability only pauses the wound’s progression. It doesn’t heal it.”

The Doctor examined the piercing wound just off the center of Ghost’s chest.

“The other prisoners at least have a chance of survival if they get proper treatment back on the ship. But Ghost…”

Jae-hee’s eyes widened at her next words.

“The moment my ability stops, she’ll die.”

“But…” Jae-hee stammered, waving his arms frantically. “B-but isn’t there some way? We could bring a healer…”

“The wound is too severe.” The Doctor shook her head. “Within the limits of healing abilities as I know them, no one can fix this.”

Jae-hee froze, paralyzed by shock.

Just then… lying as still as a corpse, Ghost began speaking.

Her voice was raw and hoarse.

“Ha. So this stubborn life of mine is finally over.”

“Master!”

She staggered, pushing herself into a sitting position. “I was just waiting to die anyway. This is for the best.”

“Don’t say that. There has to be a way!”

“Ever seen anyone live with a hole in their chest?”

“Yes!”

“Who?”

“Uh… Model Student, maybe…?”

“He was a goddamn zombie…”

The absurdity of it made Ghost let out an involuntary chuckle, which quickly turned into a grimace of pain.

The Doctor hastily reapplied her ability to the wound.

“You got hurt saving me…” Tears welled in Jae-hee’s wide eyes. “I’m sorry, Master. I’m so sorry…”

“It’s not your fault… you idiot.”

Ghost started to snap at him but instead covered her mouth, coughing up a thick glob of blood.

“Hah, hah…”

“Master!”

“Damn, this hurts like a son of a bitch. Shit.”

Ghost, her face pale, managed a weak smile for Jae-hee. “It’s fine. I’ve been clinging to this miserable life for long enough. My time has come.”

The Doctor quickly mixed a painkiller and injected it into Ghost. “This is the strongest I have. It should make things a little more bearable.”

Ghost didn’t resist the potent stimulant. “The one thing I never wanted was a dose of your homemade stimulants…”

Whether it was thanks to the drug or not, the haze in Ghost’s eyes cleared slightly.

She looked around. “Why didn’t that monster kill us? Why bring us here?”

“I can speculate on a few reasons desu…”

Status Window, who was researching the Blood Clan's ecology on his interface, answered in her stead.

“It seems she brought us here as both ‘food’ and… ‘thrall candidates.’”

“Thrall?”

“Minions of the Blood Clan desu.”

Status Window gave a brief explanation.

A vampire Lord could create a first-tier thrall by personally feeding a victim its blood. That first-tier thrall could then create a second-tier thrall by feeding its own blood to another victim. In this way, they could expand their forces exponentially.

“So it’s like a multi-level marketing scheme?”

“Exactly that desu.”

Nodding at Jae-hee’s comment, Status Window continued.

“That’s why Lord-level Blood Clan members are very careful when choosing their first thralls desu. They’re picking a lifelong MLM partner… I mean, subordinate.”

“So she hasn’t killed us yet because we’re candidates?”

“And it’s also a convenient way to keep a fresh supply of food in storage desu.”

“That’s sick…”

Jail Mojik walked over and added her two cents.

“That’s probably the ecological reason, but right now, I think she’s just too wrapped up in her little feast over there to notice us.”

“Huh? Her feast?”

“Look over there.”

Jail Mojik jutted her chin toward the center of the station. Jae-hee peeked around a fleshy pillar to see.

Gulp, gulp, gulp…

The Rose Princess was greedily sucking blood, her face buried in the neck of the fallen Little Lamb.

“N-no way…”

“Yeah.” Jail Mojik clicked her tongue. “Little Lamb is a Resurrector. That vampire is consuming his life, over and over.”

“Oh god, Little Lamb…”

“He’s unintentionally playing the role of a resurrection tank.”

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, Little Lamb’s lover, Silken Bodhisattva, was still unconscious.

Glancing in her direction, Jail Mojik continued, “But there’s no guarantee a Resurrector can come back forever. If Little Lamb’s lives have a limit…”

Then this reprieve would be over.

Their annihilation was a foregone conclusion; this was just a pause.

The Doctor spoke, her hand still pressed to Ghost’s wound.

“Of all the firepower we have left, the only thing that can cut that monster down is your ‘ability,’ Ghost.”

Ghost met the Doctor’s gaze, her expression strained.

The Doctor nodded. “You have to do it.”

Jae-hee jumped in. “But in her condition…!”

“It’s fine. Might as well succeed in one last mission before I go.”

Ghost waved him away and, with a grunt, forced herself to her feet.

“What’s the difference? Getting eaten by that thing, or dying while taking its head? If it’s all the same, I’d rather choose the latter.”

“Master…!”

Jae-hee wanted desperately to stop her, but he couldn’t think of another way.

No way to defeat the monster, and no way to save Ghost.

Ah…

A fresh wave of realization washed over him.

I’m still…so damn weak…

The Doctor spoke with cold pragmatism. “But the moment you activate your ability, the monster will notice, just like before.”

“It will.”

“We need a way to hold it down for ten seconds.”

Jail Mojik clicked her tongue. “How are we supposed to restrain that thing now? We couldn’t even last ten seconds when we were all still alive.”

Everyone fell into a grim, troubled silence.

Jae-hee clutched his head, trying to force his sluggish brain to work.

If his master was going to fight with the last of her strength, then as her student, he had to give it his all, too.

But how…?

He slowly scanned the faces of the surviving prisoners.

That’s when he saw it.

Inside Status Window’s torn clothes, he could see the ropes that bound him.

“…!”

An idea flashed through his mind.

“That’s it.”

“What?”

“That’s it,” Jae-hee repeated, pointing at the ropes tied tightly around Status Window.

Everyone stared, confused.

But Jae-hee’s eyes were shining as he shot to his feet. “Before, we walked right into the monster’s base and fell into its trap.”

He looked around at the other prisoners and nodded.

“This time, let’s be the ones to lure it into a trap.”

The Doctor, still not understanding, asked, “We’re inside the monster’s stomach. How?”

“That just means it’s the perfect environment for a parasite to run wild, right?”

Jae-hee grinned. “Let’s give it a real bad case of indigestion.”

“…Just explain it properly.”

Pressing a hand to the hole in her chest, Ghost gestured with her chin toward Status Window.

“What, are you suggesting we tie up the Rose Princess in that tortoise-shell style, just like our friend over there?”

Jae-hee snapped his fingers. “Exactly!”

The others blinked. “What?”