Chapter 141: Star-forsaken Land (3)

Chapter 141: Star-forsaken Land (3)

Drip—

—A basement full of humidity.

The droplets of water that built up on the surface of the wall dropped down onto the floor as if rain was leaking from the roof.

The only noise that rang out in the dark, gloomy basement was the sound of falling water.

Tak—

"Ugh, the smell."

"No matter how many times I come here, this place doesn't fail to disgust me."

As the switch of the faint lamp was turned on, a man and woman were revealed.

The woman, who had piercings in her nose and blocked her nose and mouth with her hand, looked around the interior of the basement. The interior looked as if a mad scientist, determined to create the strongest organism, had conducted countless inhumane experiments.

Large, round tubes filled with clear water were lined up against the walls, and pipes that were installed like veins connected the tubes together.

Would it have to be called a relief?

The tubes that appeared like they would normally contain aliens or chimeras made from horrifying experiments were completely empty.

"It looks like we'll have to clean the digestion facility."

"Ehh... I can't be bothered. Can't we just make the feed we caught do it for us?"

Digestion facility... Feed...

Words that gave off an ominous feeling were mixed in their conversation.

The man, hearing the woman's idea of ordering the feed to do it, shook his head in detest.

"Calm down. What if the feed makes a scene and one of the tubes ends up breaking? The day that happens, Sir Sosuke will have our heads."

The man drew a line across his neck and shook his head.

After hearing his words, the woman pouted her mouth, which also had piercings, and shook his head.

"So what, he nearly never shows himself."

"That's because we're small fry who just put the feed in the digestion facility."

"Goddammit, what do you mean by small fry? You're making the small fry feel unpleasant."

The woman smiled playfully and cackled out.

They were joking around by ridiculing each other as small fry, but their positions in the Hippocampus faction were actually considerably high.

The only ones who were allowed to enter the 'digestion facility' in the first place were mid-rank Templars and above.

"Oh right. Now that I think of it, I get promoted to a high-ranking Templar next week."

"Oh, really? Looks like we'll have to set up a celebration party."

"You're going to use this as the present, right?"

The woman fumbled around the lower half of the man's body with erotic hand movements as she laughed bewitchingly.

The skull-shaped piercing in the middle of her extended tongue shone.

Laughing out loud, the man kissed the woman deeply.

"Well, let's think about the party later and finish what we're here for first."

"It's tiresome so let's finish this up quickly," said the woman with an uninterested expression as she pointed with her chin.

"Wait here for a second. I'll bring the feed."

The man smiled and went up the stairs.

"Uub! Uuuub!! Uub!"

A few moments later, he dragged over a young man who was restrained in a naked state. Unlike the man with handsome looks, the young man wasn't good-looking.

His thick glasses made his already small eyes look smaller, and his skin full of acne was reminiscent of a toad.

Thick disgust was expressed on the woman's face as she looked at the restrained young man.

"Just looking at him is disgusting. Let's hurry up and shove him in there."

"Wait, let me take off his glasses."

After the handsome man took the glasses off of the youth, he dragged him to a tube filled with water.

"Hyup."

Splash!—

"Blurgh! Bluruh!"

The young man's body was thrown into the tube.

Every time he struggled, the water inside of the tube overfilled and splashed onto the ground.

"Begin."

After confirming that the young man was completely submerged in water, the woman opened the door to the control room that was in the corner of the basement and went inside.

Inside the control room full of massive mechanical devices stood an extremely skinny young man.

"..."

The young man was wearing a white gown like laboratory scientists wore and was looking down at the mechanical devices with shaking eyes.

The woman approached the young man, who looked like a coward, and frowned.

"What are you doing? I said to begin."

"W-Wait..."

"Hurry up and start, you bastard!"

Bam!—

The woman roughly kicked the young man.

"Kugh!"

Bang!—

He was sent flying back and crashed into the wall.

As the white gown he was wearing was slightly removed, the surface of his decapitated left arm could be seen.

"Do you need to get beaten up again for you to snap out of it, Yuji?"

"I-I'm sorry!"

The young man named Yuji shivered while his expression turned pale.

"There's no such thing as taking care of newcomers here, so do your work properly. Aight?"

"...Yes."

Yuji answered with a shaking voice and stood in front of the mechanical devices once more.

His remaining right arm that was operating the device suddenly stopped.

"Sob... sob."

Tears ran down Yuji's face.

"What are you doing?"

"I-I can't do it."

"What did you say?"

"I can't do it anymore! Such a horrifying thing...!"

"Sigh."

Yuji's body was sent flying back again.

"Kugh! Kuk!"

"Would you look at this ridiculous fucking idiot."

The face of the woman with piercings was heavily distorted as she approached him.

Slowly stepping on the surface of his decapitated left arm, she continued.

"I heard you lost this arm to Sir Sosuke because you stood up to him."

"E-Eek!"

Yuji's shoulders shook as his face paled from fear.

The woman stuck out her tongue and shot a frightening glance at him.

"If you don't want your other arm to become disabled as well, obediently follow my orders. Got it?"

"...I-I'll bear that in mind."

"Tch. Seriously, I can't even kill him because Sir Sosuke sent him personally."

The woman spat on the ground and turned around.

"......"

Yuji got up with his staggering body and stood in front of the device. He closed his eyes tightly after looking at the young man who could be seen on the screen.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry..."

Repeating his apologies that couldn't be heard, he used his right hand to operate the buttons.

And then—

Rumble!—

—bubbles started to boil up inside the tube.

The youth's struggling became rougher, and the stigma engraved on his left chest started to pour out light. However, soon after, his body started to melt like it was dissolving in the water.

"Hehe. He's dissolving well~"

The woman with piercings took in the sight of the young man's melting body while smiling brightly.

The handsome man approached her and pulled in her hips.

"Should we get something to eat after this is over?"

"I think we should."

Even when a horrifying scene was taking place, their expressions were at peace. Once around five minutes passed, the young man's body finished fully dissolving.

The water inside the tube that had an entire human body melted wasn't red but shone with a gentle blue light.

The woman looked at the blue fluid inside the tube and smiled.

"For the reconstruction of the forsaken land."

"For the reconstruction of the forsaken land."

The sound of their creepy voices echoed out inside the basement, followed by laughter.

* * *

"It's an unfamiliar ceiling."

Looking at the ceiling made of luxurious wood, Ohjin raised his body up.

It had been a long time since he'd last slept on the floor with a blanket, but his back didn't hurt thanks to the super fluffy blankets.

"Ugh... my head."

He frowned as he rubbed his throbbing forehead.

Ohjin recalled the alcohol party that'd started as a welcoming party.

'I don't think I'd be able to drink that much, even if it was water.'

Sakaki's alcohol intake was as incredible as his large build.

As the alcohol party that started at day extended past night and even continued until dawn, not even Ohjin, who had a superhuman body, could avoid getting a hangover.

"Well, we were still able to get fairly close thanks to that."

Once they drank alcohol together, they were able to build up a friendship that was as if they had been best friends for twenty years.

-Kuhahaha! We're family from today onwards! Call me Oyabun from now on!

Ohjin smiled as he recalled how their arms were on each other's shoulders with them being in an extremely drunk state.

'There should be no case of them facing difficulties from other territories.'

According to Sakaki, the Kuroushi clan had strong control over the Kansai region. As even the government couldn't step up to the group, there would be nothing that caused them discomfort inside of Japan.

The capabilities of the members weren't bad, either.

Compared to the average skill of Japanese Awakeners, the members of Kuroushi could be said to consist of considerably skilled individuals.

It was probably thanks to the Star of Celestial Pivot's 'teachings' that Sakaki mentioned before.

"They'll be nice to take advantage of."

* * *

* * *

Ohjin took off the blankets with a thick smile.

"Uugh."

"Huh?"

He was only then able to discover Ha-eun sleeping next to him.

Ha-eun, who was basically half-naked, was sleeping while hugging onto Ohjin tightly.

"Ha-eun, wake up."

"Uhhh. Don't wanna..."

The thick smell of alcohol gushed out of her mouth as she complained.

'Ha-eun was no joke last night, either.'

It'd appeared that she was shy, as she only stuck next to Ohjin at first, but once the mood started to get headed, she started to lead the crowd and chug down drinks.

-Kyahaha!! Bottoms up! Chug them down, you bastards!

He recalled how Ha-eun had shouted out while holding a whole bottle of sake.

"Seriously, she really does like alcohol."

While Ohjin was smiling bitterly and looking down at Ha-eun, the black dot on her left cleavage stood out to his eyes.

"..."

—Unstoppable impulse.

Looking at the black dot that moved up and down with her deep breathing, the urge of wanting to push it with the tip of his finger surged up.

He was thinking of holding it in, but for some reason, his hand moved on its own.

'No, thinking about it now, there's no need for me to hold it in, right?'

They had already confirmed what they thought of each other. Rather, not showing that much physical affection when they were lovers was a potential problem.

"...Khm."

Ohjin cleared his throat and carefully moved his hand.

At that moment—

"Mhh."

—Ha-eun slightly turned her body around and got in a position that made it easy for Ohjin to touch her chest.

Ohjin narrowed his eyes.

"Ha-eun..."

"Mmhhhh."

"You're not sleeping, are you?"

"Mmmmhhhh."

Ohjin could see Ha-eun's eyebrows flinching.

"Sigh."

Well, there was no way she would be suffering from a hangover like he was when her body had already gone through reconstruction.

"Wake up, you fox."

"Ah!"

He lightly flicked his finger over the tip of Ha-eun's nose.

"Damn it. You nearly fell for it."

"You can't fool me."

"Heh. I think it was pretty close, considering that."

Ha-eun giggled playfully and poked his side.

"Let's stop playing around and get up."

"Alright. Ah, before that..."

Ha-eun closed her eyes and stretched her lips out.

When Ohjin smirked and tilted his head close to her lips...

Bang!—

"Have you woken up?! Let's go relieve our hangovers together!"

"Kyaaaa, fuck!!"

"Kugk!"

Ohjin was struck by Ha-eun's reflexive kick and crashed into the wall.

"Hmm?"

Sakaki smirked after discovering the appearance of those two.

"Kuhaha! It seems that I've unintentionally interfered with your quality time!!"

"Groan."

Ohjin scratched his head as he got up.

"Have you had a good night's sleep, Mr. Sakaki?"

"Mr. Sakaki? Didn't I tell you to call me Oyabun?!"

"That's a bit..."

Calling him Oyabun when he wasn't in the group could cause unnecessarily misunderstandings.

"Hmm. Is that so?"

It looked like Sakaki didn't really mind, as he changed the topic.

"Let's cure our hangovers with breakfast and discuss how we're going to catch those Seahorse bastards!"

Sakaki closed the door and headed out.

"D-Damn it... I'll make sure that bastard pays later."

Ha-eun stared at the spot Sakaki was in before he'd left.

* * *

After eating the gorgeous breakfast that had all sorts of delicacies on the table, Ha-eun, Ohjin, and Sakaki gathered up in one spot.

"We're focusing our investigation in areas where people went missing... but when it feels like we're on the verge of catching their tails, they somehow find out and disappear like ghosts, which is stopping the investigation from progressing."

Sakaki unfolded the map of Osaka on top of the table and marked the areas that had missing people cases.

"All missing people are Awakeners. Other than that, there isn't anything the missing people have in common.

It meant that they were indiscriminately kidnapping them if they were Awakeners.

"But what are these bastards doing with the kidnapped Awakeners?" Ha-eun asked as she furrowed her brow.

"We don't know that either."

Sakaki shook his head and continued.

"Let's start by going to find their branch. Koshi just so happened to have discovered a place that is suspected to be their branch recently.

"Where is that?" Ohjin asked Sakaki, despite having already heard about the location of the Hippocampus faction's branches from Cheon Doyoon.

"This place."

Sakaki circled a particular building that was on the edge of the city.

"It's an asylum that collapsed after being attacked by monsters in the past."

"It's the perfect place for criminals to hide."

The place Sakaki pointed out was one of the three branches of the Hippocampus faction that Ohjin had heard about from Cheon Doyoon.

It meant that the information Koshiro had given was accurate.

"Well... we've investigated places like this a couple times in the past just to find nothing."

Sakaki clicked his tongue and shook his head.

"We'll have to catch those bastards this time."

"Is there a reason why you're after the Black Star Organization?"

"There are a couple of our family amongst the Awakeners that those bastards kidnapped."

Cold killing intent gushed out of Sakaki's eyes.

"I can't let them get away with harming our family."

Well, it was clear that Sakaki's personality wouldn't allow him to sit still when his members were getting harmed.

"But, old man, shouldn't there be Awakeners that were kidnapped from other groups and guilds? What are they doing?"Ha-eun asked, as she couldn't understand.

"Hmpf. Those guilds don't even think about fighting the Black Star Organization because they're afraid after getting beaten up by them a couple times."

"Even though their guild members keep getting kidnapped?"

"That's right."

"They're fucking idiots."

Ha-eun clicked her tongue as if she thought they were despicable.

No matter how afraid they were, what kind of guild were they if they just sat back and watched while their ordinary guild members were getting kidnapped?

"You took the words out of my mouth!"

It seemed that Sakaki had a lot of built-up emotions, as he intensely nodded his head.

"Anyways, I'm planning to investigate this area today. Will you go with me?"

"Of course."

"Haha! I wish those guild bastards that shiver when they just hear of the Black Star Organization would follow your example."

Liking the answer that came without hesitation, Sakaki slapped Ohin's back as he laughed out loud.

'By the way...'

Ohjin looked down at the map that was spread out on the table.

He confirmed the time and position of each incident that Sakaki marked on the map.

There were a total of fourteen disappearance incidents that happened near the asylum, and all within the past week at that.

'Something's strange...'

Ohjin's eyes narrowed as he examined the map.