Convict Unit: Black Parade

The Rose Princess was captured.

More accurately, she had to be.

“There’s no way to kill her.”

Hae-eun handed a cup of hot cocoa to Ghost, who had a blanket draped over her shoulders.

“No matter what we try, she won’t die. Smash the Core, it regenerates. Rip the Core out, she just grows a new body around it. It’s enough to make you wonder what the hell this thing even is.”

“…”

“She’s a monster that regenerated even after your ability turned her Core to dust. They say there’s no precedent for this, even among the existing Blood Clan.”

“This world is just one unprecedented event after another.”

Ghost took a sip of the cocoa and grimaced at the sweetness. “No coffee?”

“Just get some sugar in you. You must be running on empty.”

“Dammit, why is everyone so hell-bent on forcing sugar down my throat?”

Grumbling, Ghost took another swallow before asking, “So, what’s the plan?”

“For now, we’ve brought in about ten Hunters with sealing abilities to wrap her up tight. The plan is to take her to some research facility for study, but…” Hae-eun smiled bitterly. “We don’t have anywhere to put her right now.”

“…?”

“Looks like we’ll have to keep her on our ship for the time being.”

Ghost let out a huff of disbelief. “First a prison, now you’re getting into the landfill business?”

“Fundamentally, it’s the same line of work, isn’t it?”

Ghost was at a loss for words.

“I never thought things would turn out like this.” Hae-eun sighed, taking a sip from her own cup of cocoa.

“If this mission had succeeded, we would’ve had the Hunter Association by the balls. I was planning to have some fun playing both sides, balancing between them and the government while they fought over the Awakened Protection Act.”

“…”

“Guess I got greedy. We deployed too hastily, the situation was a mess, and we didn’t have a proper grasp of their strength.”

Until now, Ghost’s mission success rate had been nearly one hundred percent. She even had a record of being dispatched to Gates in the middle of a Dungeon Break and resolving the situation, not once but several times.

Because of that, Hae-eun had let her guard down. She’d assumed Ghost would handle this one as a matter of course.

“What could I do? Better to give up the tightrope act than have a Dungeon Break detonate in our faces. And it’s better to swallow my pride and beg for medics than to lose you.”

“So it was you who called them,” Ghost ground out. “The mission would’ve been a success even without your precious backup.”

“The mission would’ve been a success, sure. But you would have been dead. In any case, the medics saved your life, didn’t they?” Hae-eun gestured with her eyes. “We still have a lot to do, Ghost. It’d be a problem if you died on me now.”

“Then stop taking on missions like this.”

“I didn’t know things would go so sideways, that the timing would be this bad. The lack of solid, firsthand intel on the Blood Clan was a major factor. They were as tenacious as you’d expect from the bastards who wiped out two continents.”

Shrugging, Hae-eun explained the situation without being asked.

“The Hunter Association is completely screwed.”

“…”

“The Dungeon Break happened because of their fundamental mismanagement. The Five Heroes cleaned it up, but the Association basically handed the government the perfect excuse to tear into them.”

First the attack on the president’s daughter, and now the Association’s failure to manage Gangnam. The opposition had lost all ground. The Awakened Protection Act would now sail through.

“In the end, His Excellency the President is the one who’s going to have a field day.”

“Hae-eun.” Ghost’s voice dropped. “Are you sure…you didn’t intend for any of this to happen?”

“…”

Didn’t you deliberately let the mission go south and call in the Five Heroes to blow things up? was the unspoken question.

Hae-eun waved a hand in disgust. “If that was the plan, would I have sent in such an elite team? I would’ve filled it with disposable pawns. The losses we took this time cut me to the bone.”

“…”

“We’re basically mercenaries. When the client tells us to bite, we bite. When they tell us to bark, we bark.”

The Black Parade was, at its core, a pack of hunting dogs that carried out unofficial, clandestine missions for the government and its subordinate Hunter-management agency, the Gate Defense Bureau.

But they also had connections—both official and unofficial—with other “higher-ups.”

With every election, the ruling and opposition parties would swap places, and the nation’s policies on Hunters would flip.

But this unit had always persisted somewhere in the gray areas. They had ties to people on every side.

Whether the discreet request came from the government, the military, the Hunter Association, or some other person of influence, they would simply run the numbers.

If the price was right, they took the job.

“Just as you’re the sword I wield, Ghost, I’m just a blade handled by our clients.”

“…”

“I have no political agenda of my own. You know that. All I want is peace for the Republic of Korea.”

“Bullshit.”

Ghost drained the rest of her cocoa, her brow deeply furrowed.

Watching her, Hae-eun chuckled and gestured with her chin. “You went through a lot this time, Ghost. Seems like you have a real brush with death every five years.”

“…”

“So I was thinking, you haven’t had a proper break in years. That shore leave you requested a while back… how about you take it now?”

Hae-eun reached into her coat and pulled something out, handing it to Ghost.

“With your disciple.”

It was a white envelope.

“What’s this?”

“A little spending money… and a gift I thought you’d like.”

Puzzled, Ghost took the envelope and opened it.

Inside was a thick wad of fifty-thousand-won bills and…

“Enjoy your vacation.”

It was a concert ticket, printed with the name of the event.

Seoul Rock Festival 2050.

“Go to a place you like. Catch your breath for once.”

Ghost’s eyebrows knitted together.

Hae-eun smiled benevolently. “Well?”

***

For a mission that had nearly wiped out the entire deployed team, the death toll wasn’t high. That was thanks to the Death Medic who’d arrived at the end to perform surgery.

But while the losses were few, they were heavy. Every casualty had been an elite, high-value operative, and the scars left on the survivors ran deep.

A total of four had died. Silken Bodhisattva had lost her lover and was a wreck. Firestarter’s rampage still hadn’t subsided, and he remained in isolation.

Incheon Port. The pier. Evening.

Crouched on the breakwater, Jae-hee stared blankly down at the funeral preparations.

On the last mission, the people who died were ones he’d had no time to get attached to. But this time, among the dead were quite a few people he’d grown fond of in passing.

The black coffins, each bearing one of the four callsigns, were lined up on the pier.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The blank gunshots honoring the dead echoed emptily over the Yellow Sea.

Hae-eun’s subordinates forcibly pulled wailing Silken Bodhisattva away from the coffins. Then, with apathetic kicks, they shoved the caskets off the edge of the pier.

Splash. Splash. Splash.

Churning foam, the black coffins were swallowed one by one into the sea.

Jae-hee whimpered softly, harshly wiping his nose on the sleeve of his windbreaker.

He was crying harder than he had ever before.

“Jeez.” Ghost came up behind him and chided, “Knew this would happen when I saw you smiling and getting chummy with everyone. Told myself you’d just get your heart broken.”

“…”

Ghost sat down next to the sniffling Jae-hee and put a cigarette to her lips. Struck a match and lit her cigarette.

She exhaled a long plume of smoke.

Jae-hee sniffled loudly and turned his swollen eyes to look at her. He hesitated for a moment before finally managing to speak.

“Master.”

“What.”

“Can… can I have a cigarette?”

Ghost looked at him, surprised. “Why a cigarette?”

“I want to learn.”

“Don’t.”

“Why not?”

“It’s bad for you.”

“Just one.”

“You won’t live long.”

“Just one.”

Jae-hee held up his index finger and gave an awkward smile, his eyes red and puffy. “Please?”

Resigned, Ghost wordlessly pulled a pack of cigarettes from her pocket and handed it to him.

While Jae-hee carefully took one out and placed it between his lips, she opened her matchbox.

“Ah.”

She was out of matches.

She considered asking someone for a lighter, but there was no one suitable nearby, nor was it the right place.

Ghost scratched the back of her head and gestured to Jae-hee, who was staring at her. “No choice. Come here.”

“Huh?”

“I said, come here.”

Ghost offered the tip of the cigarette in her mouth.

Jae-hee just blinked blankly until she gestured again. Only then did he slowly lean in.

With cigarettes dangling from both their lips, the still-unlit tip of Jae-hee’s touched the glowing ember of Ghost’s.

“Now, inhale slowly. Until it catches…”

He did as he was told, and the cigarette’s tip flared to life.

After slowly pulling their cigarettes apart, Jae-hee took a slow drag.

“Gah, kack, aagh!”

After a long fit of hacking, Jae-hee blinked, his eyes welling with tears. “Ugh, my head hurts.”

“I bet.”

“My throat’s scratchy, too.”

“I bet.”

“Why do adults smoke this stuff?”

“Because they’re idiots.”

Ghost let out a small laugh and slowly smoked her cigarette down.

Jae-hee watched the white smoke curl from her red lips, then tried to take another drag from his own.

“Kah, phuh!”

“Oh, for crying out loud…”

As Jae-hee’s coughing wouldn’t stop, Ghost reached over and patted him on the back.

“Here.” Ghost pulled something from her pocket and showed it to him.

It was the lollipop he had bought for her before.

“Alright, time for you to quit.”

Jae-hee stared at the candy in surprise, then asked, sounding wronged, “But that was my first cigarette ever.”

“It’ll probably be my last one, too.”

Ghost unwrapped a lollipop and popped it in her mouth. Chocolate.

Then she unwrapped another and handed it to Jae-hee. Strawberry.

The sunset, just before sinking completely below the western sea, cast a brilliant vermilion glow.

Bathed in that light, Ghost grinned. “Well?”

Taking the lollipop, Jae-hee slowly began to smile, too.

“…Yeah!” With his eyes still red, he beamed like an idiot. “Let’s quit!”

Side by side, Ghost and the boy sat by the sea, each with a small lollipop in their mouth.

Beneath the black sea that had swallowed the sunset, the coffins carrying the dead prisoners sank one by one.

***

[Mission Report]

[AA-Rank] Silken Bodhisattva: Survived

[AA-Rank] Hangman: KIA

[AA-Rank] Firestarter: Survived

[AA-Rank] Boy: Survived

[Old S] Ghost: Survived

[AA-Rank] Little Lamb: KIA

[A-Rank] Shield Bearer: KIA

[B-Rank] Pathfinder: KIA

[B-Rank] Jail Mojik: Survived

[D-Rank] Status Window: Survived

[A-Rank] Grease Gal: Survived

[A-Rank] The Doctor: Survived

[B-Rank] Rabid Dog: Survived

Gate Lord: Designation ‘Rose Princess’

1,000,000 P.€

1,000,000₩

2 Concert Tickets