Chapter Text
“A… Good Friend doll?”
The Blue Mascot nodded in excitement, the plush head bobbing up and down like the cartoon caricature that it was.
In Kim Soleum’s arms was a moderately sized plush depiction of the Blue Mascot of the Cheerful Theme Park, with the same shining button eyes and soft blue fur: the size of a very large cat, or a moderately small dog. Kim Soleum might have been deeply moved and assumed that the Blue Mascot heard his earlier conversation with Hyeonmu-3’s Team Leader about finding a Good Friend doll within the Magic Bunny’s zone, if not for the fact that the bundle of plush in his arms was squirming happily as it looked up at him.
With his newfound knowledge about the park’s mascots…
“I…”
Kim Soleum didn’t know what he could say in this situation. Luckily, the others had already left (with the exception of Lee Jaheon, who was staying quiet at the side and watching this interaction). Kim Soleum had originally accepted the gifts– a shimmering scale, and now a plush– because the Blue Mascot really did seem sad to see him leave.
Of course the Good Friend doll originally in the <Dark Exploration Records> was a pink bunny, and Kim Soleum was still resolved to get the pink bunny again, but this one was perhaps more accurate in size to what the entry stated.
After all, it wasn’t originally a keychain.
The blue dragon plush in his arms waved up at him cheerfully. The claws on the doll were not sharp at all, but rather made of little felt triangles that were quite soft through the thick security uniform when the plush patted him on the arm.
Keep
The Blue Mascot patted him on the head one more time around the antlers of the mask, and then said:
Come home soon.
And with that, both Kim Soleum and Lee Jaheon left the Cheerful Theme Park for the second time.
–
Kim Soleum didn’t know how he managed to avoid the Research Team this time around. He assumed that they stayed away due to the frightening uniform, and even the now-inanimate blue dragon plush couldn’t soften that scary image enough for them to approach him.
(The same could not be said of Lee Seonghae, who had to be dragged away by the other field officers when she cheerfully attempted to invite Kim Soleum, or whatever creature was beneath the security suit, to a meal.)
It was only with Lee Jaheon’s help (along with the D-squad leader’s quiet stares) that Kim Soleum managed to leave Daydream Inc. undetected. He changed out of the security uniform outside and shoved the outfit into his arm to return to Director Ho later, and then debated throwing the plush in that storage as well, but hesitated at the last minute.
Braun, when the ghostly host had been confined as the Good Friend plush, had been aware the entire time. Kim Soleum tried his best to accommodate the keychain-sized doll with the understanding that he preferred to see and hear things around him.
He thought that it must be the same with this plush, which looked like a normal doll now that it was out of the Darkness.
A cute, but oversized, doll that Kim Soleum could in no way hide in his pocket.
“Here,” Lee Jaheon said before the two of them separated, handing him an old and battered cloth backpack as Kim Soleum messed up his hair and put on his glasses, attempting the more dishevelled look now that he was back in plainclothes. He hesitated for only a moment before accepting the backpack and thanking the team leader.
If he wore the plush this way, then he could leave the very top unzipped to allow it to peek out if it so wished (although it probably wouldn’t move on its own in the normal world, right?) while not being… too embarrassed over people seeing him carry about a plush toy.
(He could be embarrassed by the backpack, but with his bangs in his face and glasses on, Kim Soleum could easily pull off being a recent graduate still accustomed to old habits.)
Braun was one thing, as Braun had been a tiny keychain he could carry around in his pocket! But a plush of this size…
For a brief moment, he wondered if he could just leave it behind… Not because he wanted to abandon it! Kim Soleum was well aware that he could use every advantage he had in Darknesses… or Disasters, once he got back to the Bureau, but the thought of people seeing him with such a large plush…
“Thank you,” he muttered to Lee Jaheon, already feeling warm with embarrassment just being seen this way by his former squad leader. He knew that Lee Jaheon wasn’t going to make fun of him– he likely didn’t even register how a scene like this could be embarrassing.
“Be careful,” the lizard head told him evenly.
After reporting to Director Ho, lying through his teeth about Jang Heoun, and finally making it back to his motel room, Kim Soleum dropped and slept the rest of his ‘vacation’ away with vague dreams of a sparkling ocean and the sounds of joyful laughter.
–
“–look horrible,” Agent Choi said to him, and Kim Soleum blinked up at him rapidly to clear away the dryness in his eyes. The other agent placed a hand on Soleum’s forehead, frowning as he checked his temperature. “...Well, no fever at least.”
“I didn’t rest well,” Kim Soleum excused, which was partially true. Rather than six days of vacation, he worked six days at the resort with little to no rest, and then collapsed in bed last night for a much needed sleep.
Choi turned with his hand still against Soleum’s forehead and asked, “Jaekwan, what do you think?”
Standing to the side of the Hyeonmu-1 waiting room, Agent Bronze looked worried.
“I heard you didn’t even come in to charge the Dokkaebi fire,” the man said, brows knitted, “maybe we should postpone the mission today–”
“I’m fine!” Kim Soleum raised both hands, turning his wrists, “See? I just… forgot because I didn’t need it this week. But I charged it this morning!”
“Oh?” Choi asked, now more curious than worried as Soleum displayed more energy. The man ducked around Soleum to stare at the old backpack he was carrying. “And what’s this? Our youngest finally decided to carry something around? What do you have that doesn’t fit in your pocket?”
Kim Soleum shuffled to the side to prevent the curious Agent Choi from peering into the opening at the top of the backpack. He flushed as the older agent gave him a curious and mischievous look.
“It’s nothing,” he tried to brush it off as he sidestepped again. “Just– a bit of a lucky charm, that’s all.”
…He should have placed the plush into his storage. How was he going to explain carrying around a large children’s toy? But perhaps having a backpack could be useful in later situations where he had to reveal possession of an item that was in his storage.
(He thought he could feel movement from the plush in the backpack, but that couldn’t be right.)
Agent Choi only brightened at the admission.
“A lucky charm? I love lucky charms! C’mon, Grape, won’t you share with the rest of your caring and devoted team? I could do with a bit of good luck myself!”
“...I’d rather not,” Kim Soleum admitted slowly, and watched as Choi deflated in front of him, while Bronze hid a smile behind a hand. He quickly deflected, “–You said something about today’s mission?”
“Yes,” Agent Bronze admitted, both of them ignoring Agent Choi’s protesting whines. He held up a yellow file folder. “A rescue call received an hour ago by the friend of the victim: they were in contact over the phone with this person until the victim suddenly described their surroundings falling away. We have the GPS coordinates of where that person was last, and a brief description of their changed surroundings. They got lucky– the one who reported was someone the Bureau rescued before, so he contacted us as soon as the call dropped.”
Kim Soleum felt something patting at his back through the backpack, and felt a cold sweat start at the nape of his neck. Was that really…?
“We’re meant to head out as soon as our team is assembled,” Choi spoke up brightly, still stepping to try and peer into the backpack, while Kim Soleum continued to sidestep him. “Since this is still an unknown Disaster, we could of course pass this one on to Hyeonmu-2 instead if our youngest isn’t up to the task. We don’t want our precious Destruction King Rookie to break, after all! If you’ll let me see that good luck charm of yours–”
“I can do it,” Kim Soleum said quickly, and made his way over to Agent Bronze. “Let’s go.”
–
“Civilian is a woman named Han Eunkyung,” Agent Bronze read from the file as they approached the location where the call dropped off. It was a dirt road leading toward a jagged cliff overlooking a rushing river. “Age 29, she was on a biking trip across the country for vacation and scheduled check-ins with friends to keep them apprised of her safety and location. Disappeared this morning at 8:29, last heard describing a building in the style of the previous century, surrounded by fog. No prior history of mental disturbances, nor physical infirmities. In this case, it should be a simple extraction.”
“Or not so simple,” Agent Choi spoke up, “since this Disaster is completely new to the Bureau! Hopefully we can walk in and out– but look sharp, team. Don’t take any risks, and remember that safety is the first priority. The investigation team doesn’t have any information on this, and won’t get any information unless we make it out alive.”
Recreating the civilian’s steps before she disappeared, Hyeonmu-1 soon found themselves on a foggy cliffside peninsula described by the reports. The air was cool with mist and the temperature seemed to drop immensely the moment they broke free from the dirt path— only to realise that the road behind them disappeared.
There was more pawing at him from the backpack, and Kim Soleum shuddered.
Not now, he thought, and hoped that like Braun, this doll would also be able to hear his thoughts and intentions.
“Don’t you think…” he started, and rubbed at his arms, “that was too easy?”
If someone could simply be drawn into a Disaster between one step and another, this place would long since been blocked off by either the Bureau or Daydream. This shouldn’t be the first time that they received a rescue request from this area– and there should be more reports of people going missing.
(Unless it was a Disaster that hopped areas and therefore could not be contained.)
The pawing from the backpack came faster.
Kim Soleum hadn’t the time to check his phone for what <Dark Exploration Records> entry this one might be— that was the downside of having to travel by bike: his hands were usually occupied and he wasn’t obtuse enough to ride and read at the same time. Soleum hadn’t had the time to check <Dark Exploration Records> recently in general.
He had been too busy ever since the popsocket was repaired. He couldn’t even reach his phone during the time in the Theme Park since it was trapped underneath the Mascot costume.
Above them, the sky was a cloudy sleet grey that smelled like an oncoming storm, and the wind started to pick up with each step they took into the fog. Soon the mists would be blown away, although from the lapping waters surrounding the area, that might not make the situation any better.
“Maybe,” Agent Bronze admitted, and slipped the file back into the inside pocket of his jacket. He was frowning at the sky. “But with only one area to shelter here, there should be only one place to search.”
Ahead of them, seated on the rocky cliffside of the peninsula, was a large building erected in a classical Korean style with curved roofs and stone guardian statues at the front. There was moss growing on the statues, and the building itself looked worn down and dilapidated, although the walls and roofs were still in good enough condition to provide shelter against the oncoming storm.
“C’mon, then,” Agent Choi said, still cheery even as they climbed their way along the rocky ledge toward the building. “If it’s so easy to step into this Disaster, we’ll step out just as easily. Let’s figure out what this is about, and give the Investigation Team something to chew on.”
Kim Soleum kept to the end of the line. The scrambling within his backpack made his stomach twist, although he quickly mustered up a bright and eager facade when Choi turned in his direction. When the man looked away again, Soleum’s shoulders drooped.
He was…
What was he thinking!
Kim Soleum originally thought that bringing the dragon plush would be a good idea, just to get the Good Friend doll used to the environment. He assumed it would be a little bit like Braun (who he still needed to summon after this), and that it would be unable to move and speak while outside of a supernatural environment. He thought that the dragon plush would be quiet and perhaps a little observant, without being disruptive.
Now, the plush was moving around so much that Soleum was afraid his team would notice the backpack bulging and struggling if he walked in front of them.
“A historically based Disaster?” Agent Bronze hypothesized, looking about the structure’s columns and designs. He didn’t touch anything, yet took note of the surroundings. “Shamanism?”
“Probably,” Agent Choi said, voice even as he studied the structure. “One of the worst pung-su I’ve ever seen. Is this meant to be a hanok? Where are the separate buildings? The fence? Who builds on a cliff edge facing away from the water?”
“A ghost story,” Kim Soleum answered easily.
“Bah! Whatever it is,” Agent Choi said, tone now serious, “be prepared.”
Kim Soleum clenched a fist to calm his anxious heart and stood to the left of Agent Choi, Agent Bronze to the right-most, as they opened the large wooden doors with a loud creak and a billow of dust.
Despite the dim lighting outside, the inside of the dusty building was nearly too dark to see, and it took a few seconds for Kim Soleum to adjust his eyes, taking in the cobwebs around all the furniture and areas of the ceiling and floor that appeared water damaged. There were soft spots on the uneven wood that he took note not to step on, and beams of light shining in through corners of windows and small holes through the walls.
Inside was the traditional spacing of old style hanoks, with a blending of eras creating a foreign touch in the vaulted ceilings and wooden beams chosen to support the top of the house. A Japanese influence, if Kim Soleum could pinpoint anything about interior architecture.
In his backpack, the plush stopped struggling.
Agent Bronze gave a light and polite cough as he waved away the dust from his face.
Scattered around the floor, the furniture, and in corners, were signs of… children.
Toys, dolls, and shoes scattered about, along with tiny pieces of clothing that were waterlogged, moulded, and hardened into stone. These items had been there for a great many years. At the far end of the room was a display of many rows of dolls. Dolls made of straw, dolls made of fabrics, and dolls made of bark. There were also plush animals of various qualities, and suddenly Kim Soleum felt a spike of unease about the situation.
The biggest problem was…
“Don’t touch any of it,” Agent Choi informed them needlessly. None of Hyeonmu-1 would instigate an action such as disturbing children’s toys within a ghost story, but it never hurt to repeat the warning. “Stay away from the dolls especially.”
A run-down and abandoned house on the cliff in the middle of a storm that contained rows and rows of creepy dolls?
This ghost story was in no way subtle.
Kim Soleum’s thoughts raced. He thought about which <Dark Exploration Records> entry this Disaster would fall under, but then thought… Oh, if he didn’t reveal it now, things would just be worse later.
Especially with all the children’s toys in the vicinity.
The three of them reached for standard issue flashlights, clipping it onto their jacket pocket to provide hands-free light in this dark house, and Kim Soleum gnawed on his lower lip for a moment.
“Um,” he raised a hand tentatively, catching the attention of both his teammates. Soleum flushed at the curious looks. “...I didn’t take this one from this Disaster, I brought it in with me.”
With those words, he unhooked the backpack from one shoulder and swung it in front of himself, unzipping the main compartment to pull out the moderately sized blue dragon plush.
Luckily, it didn’t move.
“I didn’t know we’d be coming to a Disaster featuring toys,” Kim Soleum said in a low apology, “I’m sorry.”
He looked down for a moment, but not before catching Agent Bronze’s eyes. The other man looked a little stunned, but before Kim Soleum could feel ashamed, Agent Bronze’s expression turned to something more complicated and a little sad.
…It made sense. He had seen Braun before, after all. The rookie Agent Grape wasn’t known to go around with a stuffed animal the same way that Roe Deer of Daydream Inc. was, but it wasn’t out of the norm for that company to be a bit eccentric, while this may be too much for the normal Bureau employee.
“Wait, it’s a plush?” Agent Choi blurted out. “The lucky charm was a stuffed animal?”
Kim Soleum avoided looking at him.
“Yes…” he muttered under his breath. “I didn’t want to get it mixed up with– the other ones in this Disaster.”
There was little chance of that, seeing as the dolls lying around were dirty and broken, while the blue dragon plush with shiny button eyes and soft fur was drastically different.
Agent Bronze moved closer, and there was a muffled noise of pain from Agent Choi before the man continued, “–not that it’s a bad thing! It’s a very cute, uh, doll, Grape! A good choice! Do you like dragons?”
“You don’t have to pretend to be interested,” Kim Soleum said, a little mortified. He clutched onto the dragon plush and continued, “We can just– look for the civilian and leave. I just didn’t want you to think I took something out of the Disaster.”
This was much worse than what happened with Braun, whom the Daydream employees just pretended not to see, as if it was just a quirk of their infamous Roe Deer. But then again, Braun was a small keychain and therefore would not get in the way, whereas the blue dragon…
“It’s very well made,” Agent Bronze tried to placate him. “I’m sure it’s a very good charm.”
“...Please stop talking,” Kim Soleum said, shoving the dragon plush back into the backpack and zipping it up loosely so that the head could peek out. He slung the backpack onto his back once more and then pushed past the other two members of Hyeonmu-1 with his head down. “Let’s just– keep going.”
It was good to know that apparently his mortification could cut through the fear he usually felt at having to confront a ghost story— enough that the usual terror that came with a room full of broken dolls and children’s toys just brushed him by.
Within the backpack, the squirming started again, and then a small paw patted him on the back.
Kim Soleum mentally thanked the plush for staying inanimate when faced with the other members of Hyeonmu-1, and took some consolidation in the touch.
…He kind of missed the conversation that Braun brought, the tv show host usually having plenty to say in most Darknesses. By contrast, the blue dragon plush didn’t say anything, but moved a lot more. It seemed to take pleasure in reassuring Soleum.
A hand pulled at his arm a few moments later, and he turned his head to see Choi with a finger to his lips, expression serious as he then pointed down. Just ahead of Soleum had been a weaker area in the floor, a puddle collecting on warped wood.
Oh. Yes.
This time around, the dilapidated house might be just as dangerous as the ghost story itself.
Kim Soleum opened his mouth to say something, only to see Agent Choi shake his head. He closed his mouth again, apprehension flooding him. Weren’t they just joking around a moment ago?
Next to them, Agent Bronze was now looking unusually tense. Soleum tensed as well, and looked around the large room.
…All of the dolls on the ground, against the walls, and tossed to the side… all their heads were turned to look directly at them.
Kim Soleum felt a spike of fear jolt up his spine, eradicating his earlier embarrassment.
Above them, where there should only be rafters, they could hear the giggling of children and the sound of a bouncing ball. What appeared as a dilapidated house was rapidly settling into a haunted house, a classic staple of a ghost story.
There couldn’t be more than a few rooms within this building, not with the size of this open atrium and how it looked from the outside. It wasn’t that big.
The three of them retreated toward a side of the house where they could now hear the gathering storm outside, the splashing of waves against the rocks and the howling of wind through the corners and crevices of the house creating sounds of creaking wood that would clank against each other from time to time as it struggled to stay upright.
“What do you think?” Agent Choi asked in a low voice as they huddled in a corner, keeping a careful eye on their surroundings. “...An orphanage of some sort?”
From the amount of children’s clothing and toys, it seemed likely.
A haunted children’s home? That was– Kim Soleum shuddered, and then sneezed from the dust. Why were so many Disasters associated with scary children? Weren’t they supposed to be saving a civilian woman this time around?
Above them, the first splatters of rain hit the tiled roof, shockingly loud in the dark. Within seconds, the sounds multiplied into a downpour, and the storm started in earnest.
In his backpack, Kim Soleum could feel the dragon plush wiggle.
“We should find the civilian,” Bronze reiterated for them, “and leave. Construct our own shelter if need be. The primary source of supernatural activity may be within this house.”
It usually wasn’t so simple to walk right out of a ghost story, but if that was an option, then it would be better for them to stay outside the house even with the burgeoning storm. There were far too many ghost stories featuring the souls of children and scary homes for Kim Soleum to narrow this down to a single <Dark Exploration Records> entry.
(Although he was narrowing it down to a handful encountered by the Disaster Management Bureau, taking place in the middle of the woods.)
“You take the left side,” Choi agreed with Bronze, and gestured to each of them. “Grapes, you take the right side rooms. I’ll clear out the ones in the back and we meet here when we find Miss Han. Stay on your guard. Speed will be of the essence right now, as most hauntings take a while to start. Watch your step, and don’t touch anything suspicious.”
“Shouldn’t we stay together instead?” Kim Soleum asked nervously, understanding the horror tropes. He also understood the need to do things fast– horror movies lasted two hours only because the characters dithered for too long and allowed the hauntings to gather strength. That was usually the time to build up suspense in a story… except for the <Dark Exploration Records> entries, which tended to have ghost stories lying in wait for the unsuspecting victim, the tension already long since built up in the time prior to their arrival.
“That would be the smart thing to do, wouldn’t it?” Choi asked barely above a whisper, voice cheerful. He patted Soleum on the shoulder reassuringly. “If anything happens, yell. We’ll come find you.”
The slight admonition in his tone reminded Kim Soleum that he was still considered the rookie of Hyeonmu-1, while the other two were meant to be ‘experienced’ seniors. And they were, for the most part, even if Soleum had half a year’s experience with Daydream that Agent Choi was not supposed to know about. Choi had been dealing with supernatural forces for many years already, and Agent Bronze moved with the experience of having spent years weaving around ghost stories, so in truth Soleum was still new compared to them and without the full instincts that came with years of experience.
Agent Bronze gave Kim Soleum a softer look.
“If you need,” he offered, “we can move as a pair. We’d be able to search faster this way as well.”
It was a silly offer, and Kim Soleum knew it. If nothing else, that made him shake his head. Despite his reluctance to go on his own, he was mortified at the idea of being babied like that.
“No, Agent Choi’s right,” he said, even if he was internally shaking and didn’t believe it, “we should each search a corner and get this done as quickly as possible.”
Above them came a flash of light that illuminated the space for a brief second, followed almost immediately by the roaring strike of thunder.
Kim Soleum twitched.
A cotton paw patted his back soothingly, and he was reminded that at least he wouldn’t be wandering the haunted house alone.
“Nothing scary here,” Agent Choi told him, “just a bunch of dolls and a civilian that’s probably hiding from the storm. We find her, we regroup, we get out. Easy, right?”
“...Right,” Soleum reluctantly agreed, and the three of them all went in different directions.
Outside, the sound of the storm was nearly enough to drown out all other sounds, even within the shelter of the hanok. The cacophony of rain upon the roof tiles combined with the howling of the wind coming through the walls made for a chilling atmosphere.
Kim Soleum rubbed at his arms as he carefully made his way into what looked like a communal bedroom with weak beams of light cutting through layers of dark and dust as he stepped on creaking wooden floors. He made sure to test his steps before putting his full weight down on them, well aware of the safety hazards presented by a run-down house.
After all, it would be harder to run away from danger if he stepped in a soft spot and fell through the floor.
Inside, he covered his nose as he was hit by the thick musty smell of moulded fabrics, far stronger than in the main room because of all the sheets and the smaller space. There were numerous small beds all pushed up against each other, and then spaces on the floor where rotten straw mattresses lay as well, likely a haphazard addition when the children grew too numerous for the furniture to match.
Small handprints littered the walls, along with shaky drawings and writing close to the ground, practicing words like flower and moon. On the walls near the doorways were dark finger paints that spelled out, ‘watch out, watch out!’
Strewn around were cheaply made dolls and toys carved from clay and straw, all of them staring at Kim Soleum.
Just dolls, Soleum told himself again and again as his heart attempted to pound out of his chest. Nothing’s happened yet, so there’s nothing scary about that.
Another flash of lightning lit the room unnaturally through the window, and then the roar of thunder came again, and all of Kim Soleum’s senses were caught up by the light and noise, painting a terrifying premonition of horrors to come within his frightened psyche.
Damn it, he didn’t want to search for anyone in a room like this. There were too many places in darkened corners and underneath stuffing that might be easy for an adult woman to hide in, and he didn’t want to get closer to those dolls if he could manage it.
“Miss Han Eunkyung?” He asked hesitantly, voice barely heard over the patter of rain on the roof. He cleared his throat nervously, making his way around a group of beds to peer at the spaces in-between, and tried again, louder, “Miss Han Eunkyung?”
He couldn’t hear the other members of Hyeonmu-1 over the sounds of the storm, and wondered if they were calling for the lady as well.
Behind him, the rotten screen door slid closed with a resounding snap, and Kim Soleum whirled around to stare at it, blood curdling in his veins.
He froze for a moment, and then decided that no, he wasn’t going to just stay in this haunted room like the first victim in any archetypal ghost story. Kim Soleum had yet to figure out exactly what entry this was and therefore he would rather regroup with the others before he added his own trouble to the civilian rescue.
He turned to retrace his steps, quick, and reached out to push at the screen door–
The floor suddenly gave way underneath him, the wood long since damaged by water and rotted through, and Kim Soleum fell.
He might have screamed.
He certainly flailed, and then had all his breath knocked from his chest as he was yanked to a sudden stop, feet dangling in the darkness while his weight ended up on his shoulders, like two arms wrapped under his armpits to lift him up. The flashlight at his chest shone uselessly in the dark.
He looked up.
In the dim lighting, he could see a small shape hanging onto the rotten floorboards in the room, pulling at him from behind.
Another flash of lightning, and Kim Soleum saw the shape of a rounded head with button eyes and soft horns looking down at him, one clawed hand grasping the broken floorboards and the other reaching down… he couldn’t see it, but was it pulling at his backpack?
It– how could a cotton plush hold onto the weight of a full-grown man?
As if that thought manifested in reality, the grip the plush had on the floorboards started slipping… only for the blue dragon to hold on tighter.
In the end, that didn’t matter, as that rotten floorboard rapidly gave way, bending and then breaking to fall down with them.
–
They fell into the water.
Cold enough to shock, to steal his breath away, and to seize up all his muscles in a pivotal moment that made him inhale reflexively. Above, the storm raged, and below, the waters churned in a way that cycled him uncontrollably through the rough currents, ice along his skin and clogging his airways.
He struggled, thrown about like a rag doll within the cold tempest of water, his orientation of up and down cast askew as he reached, reached, tried to grab hold of anything even as the shock to his system attempted to drag him into unconsciousness. He whirled, spun, and was carried down by the currents that gave no leeway and allowed not even a moment for him to gather his bearings.
His body was heavy, losing coordination as his vision grew dark in the black of the water, and he finally grew faint as his body quickly became unresponsive, tossed every which way until his flailing hands finally scraped against the sharp rocks on the river bed, and then he tumbled, felt the cuts along his arms and legs, and finally hit his head against the rocks at the speed of the currents.
Kim Soleum did not remember anything after that.
–
In the dilapidated house above, Ryu Jaekwan tensed as all the dolls within the room he was searching suddenly shook, their eyes which were previously following him now watching the floor, watching below, many of them falling face first onto the ground as if to get a closer look.
He shivered with the understanding that something happened, and then retraced his steps carefully to make his way back to the main room because he wanted to check in with the others. As important as the civilian rescue was, his team was his first priority, and he knew that Choi would agree with him.
Something happened and had he been on his own, he might have just taken note and moved on, but he was here with the rest of Hyeonmu-1 and Agent Grape was still traumatised from previous missions.
He frowned at the sound of thunder boomed around him, the brief flashbang of lightning now illuminating small scrawls of old writing along the wall that he hadn’t noticed before.
Liar, liar, liar, liar.
–
“Me? A child?”
There was the boundless ocean and an endless blue sky that stretched on forever, to infinity. The roar of waves and storms, and the love of winds and currents.
There was a boat on the calm waters, and a tiny creature that was laughing, sticking their not-fins into the ocean.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been called that. I admit I’m flattered. Is this because I tried to explain what a child is to you?”
The not-fins, feet, kicked at the water under the boat.
“What about you? What would you consider to be your version of a child? What you are, that is? Would it be– hatchlings? Surely there must be smaller versions of you!”
The water was calm, almost mirror-still in a rare moment on the ocean when the sky and sea were merely reflections of each other until there was no definite up or down. The clouds were in the water, and the water was in the air, until it felt as if the horizon was where the world began, and the rest stretched out into infinity.
“What a strange way of living. Do you know about the concept of time? How interesting! Hmmm… how do I explain it? For us, children are little ones that we are obligated to protect and shelter. To teach and entertain. We humans have short lives compared to the rest of you, so our children are our legacy. They are what survives when we’re gone. They are our future. Because of that, I think we might be a bit hard on them.”
A splash, and the ripples echoed out from that movement, concentric circles ever expanding upon the infinite blue.
“I don’t have children of my own, so instead I’d like to leave something behind for them in general. Something cheerful, I think! Maybe a lot of cheerful things! Things that are wonderful and magical, because I think children need to feel like magic still exists in our world.
“What do you think, ■■■■■■■■?”
–
The first thing he noticed was a painful constriction, a suffocation, and pressure atop his chest.
He coughed, and then found that he couldn’t cough, so he curled up and coughed more until finally there was something expelled from his lungs and out his mouth, the warm liquid reluctant to leave as it made its way up his airways and out onto the ground. Kim Soleum coughed and coughed, until only spittle and slime was left and his throat tasted like sandpaper and pain, and then he inhaled great gulps of air, wheezing breaths into wet lungs until enough oxygen in his blood was finally carried to his brain to start recognising the world around him.
He was wet, hair sticking to the sides of his face, and his body was both aching and shivering uncontrollably. He was cold, no, freezing, with his soaked clothes sticking to his skin and leeching more warmth from his body. Everything hurt, and his head most of all, like the worst hangover he ever had in his life.
Next to come back was his hearing, and he could make out the roar of water around him, a gushing river raging by as a storm continued overhead. The rain was falling, spikes of cold needles on his skin that made him flinch away as he finally recognised it.
Beneath him was mud and rocks, and he hurt as he grasped against it, fingernails picking up the sand as he heaved breaths and opened his eyes to a vision of muddled grey and brown from the storm clouds and sludge, and then a shocking bright blue that seemed out of place in the stormy atmosphere.
There was a blue stuffed animal, entirely soaked and dragging itself next to him, in the shape of a cute dragon toy. It was standing on heavy limbs and patting at his hair carefully, brushing away soaked strands from his face as Kim Soleum continued to gather his bearings.
For a moment, the vivid blue of its fur reminded him of an almost forgotten dream of blue waters and sky, a sharp contrast with the storm all around him.
He gasped, giving one last cough as his throat protested heavily, and then pushed himself up to his elbow despite the world wavering around him, limbs shaking from the freezing wind and rain and from an exhaustion that permeated his bones. It was cold, too cold to be outside, and the river looked like it might flood any moment the way it was so loud and so fast next to him (and he was just barely out of the water, as if he had been very painstakingly dragged out), and there were blurry trees all around him, as if only half solidified, and the other half ghostly.
“How–?” Kim Soleum managed to croak out before he started coughing again, the force of it bringing tears to his eyes and a pain to his diaphragm and chest.
He… remembered the house.
He remembered stepping into a ghost story to rescue a civilian, and the house with all the spooky dolls, and having to explain that he too was carrying a plush around to Hyeonmu-1 because he didn’t want them to think he took something from the ghost story.
He remembered searching on his own, and then…
A fall into water.
The blue dragon tried to save him, and then did save him.
“Thank you,” he croaked out, and the dragon plush seemed to puff up its chest in pride, patting him sweetly on the head before it backed up a step to give him some room to push himself up.
Kim Soleum painstakingly pushed himself to a seated position and winced at the stinging rain, and then shook as lightning flashed overhead, quickly followed by the deafening roar of thunder that was louder in the open. It sounded far too close to be safe. His left palm stung as he pushed against the dirt, and he brought up his hand to see the weakly bleeding cut nearly bisecting his palm.
Similarly, his clothes were not only waterlogged but also torn in places, stained red at those areas with sluggish bleeding. His glasses were lost to the river. He reached up with his injured hand to touch the area on his head that hurt the most, and winced as he pulled away to see more blood on his fingertips.
It seemed his stint in the river hadn’t just drowned him.
His hand was shaking. How far away was he from the rest of his team? How long and how far had he been swept down the river? How far did this ghost story extend?
For a localised ghost story, being far from the entrance was extremely dangerous. There was a reason why people couldn’t just leave Looky Mart randomly, nor could they walk out of the Steps Alley without having completed all their steps. To leave the origin without completing the story was to be trapped within the ghost world forever.
Was this… actually better than dying?
Kim Soleum stared down at his bloodstained hands in despair, the shaking intensifying as his body registered the cold, even as the blue dragon plush waved frantically next to him, hopping in one direction and then the other in a panic.
With a sudden thought, Soleum moved to search through his pockets, his action jerky and uncoordinated as shaking fingers went through thin folds of fabric until he finally pulled out his phone–
His entirely waterlogged phone with a crack against one edge of the screen.
It wouldn’t turn on.
He let his hands drop down to his lap in a belated despair, and turned the phone around to breathe out a slight sigh of relief when he saw that the pop socket wasn’t damaged. He could always replace the phone, but… that required him to make it out of this Disaster, one that he couldn’t pinpoint.
There was another flash of lightning that whited out the sky, and a boom of thunder that echoed mere moments later. Kim Soleum shook, and then decided that if nothing else, he had to find some form of shelter from the storm.
He would have to figure a way out of the Disaster later, and figure out how to get back to that house on the cliff–
His feet slipped as he tried to push himself up, bringing him tumbling down against the rocky shore in a way Soleum knew would leave a dark bruise on his hip and a lingering pain when he got feeling back in his skin again.
The blue dragon plush paced around him in worry, placing wet paws on his knee to encourage him as Soleum attempted to stand a second time. It was barely taller than his knee standing up, and Kim Soleum allowed himself a moment of reassurance as he pushed himself up on the slippery rocks again, hands sinking into the mud before he managed to retain his balance. He took one step to test, and another, until he finally made his way off the rocky shore onto a more stable shelf of mud and wild grass. The plush followed along carefully, arms up as if ready to catch him if he fell again.
Kim Soleum slipped several times in the heavy rain, but after that first fall, he managed to just barely catch himself each time, his soaked shoes sliding a good distance in the mud but stopping against some clusters of grass.
He tried to follow the river upstream, assuming that he was washed down with the rapids and thus the exit to the ghost story must be upstream.
There were no real paths along the river, although there were gaps in the tall grass as if people sometimes made their way through the area. The rain was cold, painfully cold, and coupled with each gust of wind leeched all the warmth from him until he was left shaking so hard that he could barely move.
Another flash of lightning, and this time it landed so close that Kim Soleum froze in shock and fear as he watched a tree across the raging river light on fire, cracking in two immediately as the thunder boomed out through the sky, loud enough that it felt like a physical force seeking to push him back.
It looked like a divine revelation.
The fire lent more light for a few minutes until the rain put it out. Soleum found his knees had locked up from the combination of cold and shock, and he collapsed once again under the minimal shelter of a slim tree beside the water edge. He pressed his back against the tree trunk as he shook, shivered, and tried to will his unresponsive limbs to work again to no avail.
His teeth were chattering and he was just on the side of too injured, losing blood sluggishly with each step. His head was pounding, made worse by the noise of the rushing river and the loud platter of rain– not to mention the wind that cut right through his soaked clothes as he shook.
The early spring air felt like midwinter thanks to that combination, and although there was no snow on the ground, Kim Soleum felt like he might soon reach the stage of hyperthermia.
He couldn’t stop here, not when he was so chilled. Not when his shaking was uncontrollable and his fingers felt like blocks of ice. He almost thought it might be warmer in the freezing water because at least that would be shelter from the howling wind through the trees.
His right hand jerked, and then tugged, and pulled him just hard enough that he managed to stumble back to his feet again. The plush hovered next to him, wet cotton pressing against his legs from time to time in an attempt to support him.
He walked, arms holding himself tightly in a futile effort to conserve warmth, head ducked against the gusts of wind and stinging, freezing rain, until he came across an open field. The unfiltered light caused him to look up, squinting against the battering rain.
There were the remains of what looked like an old village in the distance, small homes with thatched roofs and clay walls. There were only a few buildings left, most of them having eroded from the test of time, but it was more than enough for Kim Soleum who just wanted some shelter to hopefully conserve warmth until his brain thawed out enough to deal with matters other than his immediate situation.
He needed to think about what came next, but thinking was difficult when he was bombarded with everything currently wrong. He needed shelter, and he needed to get warm again, and perhaps dry his clothes and patch up his cuts. There wasn’t much pain at the moment with how numb his skin felt, but the fact that it was still bleeding was a bad indication.
He made his way into the first complete hut he could reach, pushing through a ruined door to get himself out of the rain. The broken walls just barely kept out the cutting winds and rain, even if the water dripped continuously from holes in the roof.
The plush looked up at him curiously with its head tilted and an arm resting on Kim Soleum’s trouser leg when they entered.
“It’s okay,” Soleum muttered to the blue dragon, words slurring from his chattering teeth, “there’s no one here. It’s abandoned. Um. See? Everything’s broken. If it’s all broken, it means no one is coming back to this place.”
That seemed to mollify the small plush.
He leaned against a wall with the sheer relief of being out of the elements as the blue plush puttered about the hut gathering bits and pieces of things like straw and broken furniture pieces. The plush laid its findings in a pile on the ground a small distance away from Soleum, and then waved happily before going to find more things.
Kim Soleum raised a slightly trembling hand (and he wasn’t sure if he was grateful that the Dokkaebi fire seemed to be faring better than the rest of him, or concerned that it was trembling at all) to search through his storage for some basic supplies such as a lighter and some bandages. He should have added antiseptics as well, but had yet to come across a situation such as this.
…Should he need it, he still had some Nostalgia Candy, but he wanted to save that for a moment when things got desperate. As of right now, he had shelter, and with the help of the dragon plush, might soon enough have a fire to warm himself up with.
He thought about it further, and then took out one of the remaining Nostalgia Candies and put it in his mouth, deciding that he would use it just for a few minutes– just enough so he had the strength to get the fire going and maybe figure a way to contact his team.
The change was immediate. Kim Soleum sat up straight as his body warmed and strength came back to his limbs, and for a moment his right arm twitched and then was encased with a blue flame that quickly coalesced into a confused and curious ball that floated next to him.
Just the lack of pain helped him perceive his environment better. He saw now that the hut looked like a small one room home, with a clay stove for both cooking and heating the place now fallen into disrepair. Next to the stove was an old straw mattress with a doll made of bark slumped atop it.
It did not move, unlike the ones up in the hanok .
On a shelf built into the wall above the sleeping area was a small effigy and shrine, with burnt husks of incense within a clay bowl, now covered in spiderwebs. The small hut had turned into a squalor with words repeatedly scratched into the walls:
Only the gods may judge us. We did what we had to do.
He shuddered and decided not to read more.
Kim Soleum quickly moved to his feet and organised the small pile of burnables, noting the blue plush that dropped its armful of items in surprise.
“Here,” he said, and the dragon plush hurriedly gathered the small sticks and straw again, almost running over to help, the black button eyes shiny with curiosity and joy. “I’m going to take a quick look outside. You can stay here and–”
In protest, the plush dropped its items in the burn pile and raised its arms, shaking its head. It hopped up with its arms raised, and Kim Soleum’s expression softened.
“Alright,” he agreed, and picked the waterlogged plush up against himself, arms around its middle like a child clutching onto a toy. It made an unpleasant squish and soaked his stomach, but thanks to the Nostalgia Candy, the feeling was merely skin-deep.
The plush squirmed happily and patted at his arms, and then turned its head as the blue Dokkaebi fire came close to examine it.
“Just for a few minutes,” Kim Soleum said to himself, and stepped out from the run-down shelter back into the storm.
It hadn’t gotten any better in the minutes he rested, and the rain, nearly hitting him sideways with the high winds, was the first thing he registered. Next was the way his hair was blowing into his face even while wet, because of just how strong the gusts were. It was terribly cold outside, but he persevered with a hand raised to shield his eyes as he tried to take in the environment now that he was more cognizant of his surroundings.
He didn’t know how long he was walking into the forest, following the river, but it must have been some time. He could almost see the peninsula in the distance from the way the land parted around the village and led up to a steep climb towards a rocky ledge. It spoke of just how far he must have originally fallen before hitting the water.
He wasn’t that far away now, but in the storm, it might as well be an impossible stretch with the slippery rocks along the road and the trek upward. Coupled with wind speed, he could easily be blown back into the water before he got there.
So close and yet so far.
Kim Soleum frowned, and then retreated back into the small hut, shaking the water from his hair when he was inside. He set the dragon plush back down on the ground, and bit his lip when he saw just how dirty the bright blue doll had gotten, mud turning the legs and tail a brackish black and dulling the fur.
“Okay,” he said aloud to himself, “let me think.”
He pushed together the pile of burnables, and flicked the lighter toward it. It took several tries and nearly a full minute in itself to light the damp straw, and he had to blow at it to encourage the flame to build, soon realising the cost of warmth would have to come with the amount of smoke that damp wood gave off. That was the downside of starting a fire in the middle of the hut because the stove was too damaged to use.
Good thing there were holes in the ceiling or else he might worry about suffocating himself. Good thing that the wood and straw had been mostly protected from the elements within this hut so that it would catch fire at all.
The plumes of smoke rose as the fire finally caught, and started to crackle merrily.
Kim Soleum sat down, thinking he could wait out this storm, or that the smoke would be helpful– if he couldn’t make his way over to the original hanok, then the others might be able to see him here thanks to the smoke.
…Although perhaps not with the gloomy grey skies.
Would they even think to look outside?
He didn’t know if they had yet to notice he was gone. They must have, right? He had been walking for some time already, and didn’t know how long he’d been passed out before that. He couldn’t rule out the possibility that they already completed and left the Disaster.
Could he find a way out by himself? He’d have to get back to the original house, and then figure out what the rules of the Disaster were.
With his mind clearer, he sat next to the fire and leaned against a wall, closing his eyes and promising himself that he would stop using the Nostalgia Candy after just another minute.
A <Dark Exploration Records> entry involving a haunted house and dolls… an alternate space, perhaps with a village attached to it? Maybe even a storm… It felt familiar enough he knew he read the entry before; it was on the cusp of his thoughts, but he couldn’t seem to grasp it.
It was another minute before he gave up and decided to save the rest of the Nostalgia Candy, carefully bringing the wrapper to his lips to have enough left for when he desperately needed it. He couldn’t afford to use it so carelessly anymore. It was the same with the Happy Maker, especially since it should be used only when he desperately needed it— or was preparing for something especially dangerous.
The pain hit immediately, the sluggish bleeding starting up again, and Kim Soleum grit his teeth as the ache in his head tried to overwhelm him. The blue Dokkaebi flame flickered in surprise for a moment before it shot down toward where his sleeve emptied, filling up the space of his right arm and hand.
His body was cold despite the hot fire nearby, and he quickly pulled out the bandages from his storage and wrapped it around the worst of the cuts– the one on his palm first, and then a long jagged scrape down his right calf, and a shallow but continuously bleeding cut close to his shoulder. He could feel there was another injury on his shoulder blades, but it wasn’t one he could reach, so he would have to give up on that for now.
He heard several wet steps and then the blue plush was there again, looking up at him. It raised its paws and within a few moments drew water from itself until the cotton started to look dry, and offered the floating blob of liquid over to Kim Soleum. He stopped his careless bandaging and stayed still as the plush plodded around behind him, and cool water cleaned the stinging wound.
…In fact, now that he put the Nostalgia Candy away and bandaged up the worst of the wounds, the smoky fire in front of him felt warm as a toasty bed. He pulled his knees up to rest his arms atop them, letting the blue plush work as he rested his head on his arms, and slowly closed his eyes.
Just for a moment.
–
“Balloons!”
The woman laughed as she spread her arms out against the blue of the sky, her white lab coat fluttering around her. The lights of the Theme Park haloed her from behind, blurring out facial features but highlighting the wisps of hair that escaped from her bun. The world was softened at the edges, promoting a land where pain and hardship were nothing but fiction.
“Cotton candy! Floaties! What do you think? What else would children want? Dolls, maybe? Maybe dolls that can be their friends! Candy that can make them feel better! What other souvenirs should we have? Oh, I’ve also thought of two others to recruit—”
The surroundings were bright and excessively cheerful, but somehow it all felt… dull. In contrast to the bright woman, he was moving… slowly. Sullenly. Devoid of energy. The happy atmosphere only served to further his exhaustion, every noise and sight a pain to experience.
The woman– so very small, only a tiny thing that stood close to the ground, only noticed after several minutes of prancing about, and her energy dimmed as well. She came closer as he stopped moving, and placed a hand on– something.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her touch barely a speck of warmth. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
Loss… that was right.
It was loss he felt. A deep abyss of nothingness where there should have been something. Like a maelstrom, a well into the earth that endlessly devoured while giving nothing back. It drained energy, life, until even the most beautiful things grated. Until he felt alienated by the world at large.
“You’re not getting better,” the human said, voice dimmed. “Should I…?”
The lightest of touches against cool scales.
“Should I help you forget?”
–
“What do you mean he’s missing?” Agent Choi’s smile was frozen, incredulous, as if the dark hole in the ground didn’t make any sense. Ryu Jaekwan winced at the look on the other agent’s face. The older agent pinched at the bridge of his nose, expression switching to that of a grimace. “...Agent Grape, just how do you manage to get into trouble all the time…?”
“We need to find him,” Ryu Jaekwan urged, worry tingling across his skin. He couldn’t help feeling this was his fault; if only he had urged them to stay together the way Grape wanted them to— if only he paid more attention to the look of unease on Grape’s face, knowing that the other had ridiculously accurate intuition. While he and Grape were similar in age, it was Jaekwan who was his senior. He was the one who had more experience at the Bureau. That meant it was partially Jaekwan’s responsibility to look out for him until he gained said experience, and managed to shake the trauma from working at that horrid company.
“We will,” Choi soothed, and then sighed as he brought his hand down. His expression was grim; serious. He knelt down on the ground next to the hole, heedful of the rotten wooden beams. “If he fell down here… from the sounds of it, he would have hit water. That means he should still be fine.”
It sounded like a lie.
Agent Choi shone his flashlight down into the hole at the rushing black waters. It was unlikely that Agent Grape would still be trapped in the small area underneath the house.
Ryu Jaekwan felt his gut churn.
Those were not calm waters in any way, and he didn’t know how deep that river was. A fall from this distance could still be fatal at a shallow end with sharp rocks underneath.
The only consolation he had was that there was no body floating in the water.
Agent Choi grimaced. “The moment we’re done here, we’ll go find him.”
Between working to save a civilian and ensuring that a member of their team survived, there was no question– every member of the Bureau would move to save their team first, if only because they lost far too many of their own. There was a common understanding that if a member of the Bureau lived, they would potentially save more lives than a civilian might. It was a cruel thought made the slightest bit bearable by looking at the math.
…But they couldn’t just leave a civilian in a dangerous situation.
Ryu Jaekwan mulled over this for a moment before he shook his head.
“You go after him,” he said, “I’ll find the civilian and take care of the Disaster here.”
He had enough experience under his belt by now to do solo missions and act as a guide for rookie agents.
Choi hesitated and gave him an intense stare, “...Are you sure?”
“Yes.” Jaekwan nodded solemnly. “I’m familiar with stories like this.”
Growing up in an orphanage, he understood the scary stories that children would tell each other, and the places they might hide or avoid. He was better at appealing to children, even the ghosts of them, and coaxing them into cooperating.
The problem wasn’t that they split up, Ryu Jaekwan rationalised, it was that something happened while they were split up. Each of them were competent agents who could act alone. It was just that strange things tended to happen around Agent Grape, and Jaekwan should have predicted something would happen in this Disaster as well.
“You can find him and get him out first,” Jaekwan said with a nod. Both he and Choi had items that could bring people out of a Disaster, but they only had two each. With this, worst comes to worst, Choi would be able to bring Grape out, and Jaekwan could bring out the civilian woman.
…Why had they never given Grape the shoelaces when he became an official member of Team Hyeonmu-1?
Choi looked like he didn’t want to agree, but then clenched his jaw, nodded, and got up from the floor.
“I’ll make my way out,” he said, “follow the river. Bronze… stay safe. Watch your step. If anything happens, you get out first.”
“I will,” Ryu Jaekwan lied, and watched as Agent Choi’s face dropped. They both knew each other well enough to tell the lies, but wouldn’t call each other out on it.
Choi grabbed at his shoulder, fingers digging into the coat for a moment, and then turned to leave.
Ryu Jaekwan took a deep breath, and then set out to work.
–
It was the smoke that woke him, along with the frantic patting on his leg.
Kim Soleum coughed, waved a hand in front of his face, and then opened his eyes blearily to see the thick black smoke gathering in front of him. It was too much to escape through the small leaks in the ceiling all at once.
Outside, the rain continued to pour, and he could hear the wind whistling in through the small crevices of the run-down hut. It was loud and horrible, and he was shivering with cold as he–
He was under a blanket of sorts? Dirty and stiff with dried mud and who knew what else, but his back was covered in a way that it hadn’t been earlier, keeping him warm as the fire in front of him billowed both smoke and heat.
He coughed again, and then scooted away from the fire until his back was pressed against a clay wall. His hair had dried in the brief time he was unconscious.
Or was unconscious even a term for it? He felt like he dreamt something important, something that he could almost but not quite make out. Thoughts that felt deep and dark, almost hopeless, but so significant somehow.
Next to him was the cute blue dragon plush that stared up at him while patting him on the leg.
Kim Soleum knew that he should be more wary of it, of a creature connected to a ghost story and one that seemed like a Good Friend, except he hadn’t conducted the summoning ritual, had he? Didn’t that mean that unlike Braun, the blue dragon wasn’t bound to help him? It could betray him at any moment.
…But he didn’t think that would happen. The plush had been trying to protect Soleum the same way that he associated with the blue mascot of the Cheerful Theme Park.
His body ached, but there was no screaming pain to immediately require his attention, and Kim Soleum counted that as a win.
“Thank you,” he told the blue dragon plush, which perked up at the words. It held its own head with cotton paws as if a bit shy, and Soleum couldn’t help but smile at the action.
He pushed himself to his feat and took stock of his injuries. His hand hurt a great deal, and then his head, but the rest of his body was a fairly normal mess of aches and sores. Nothing that he couldn’t survive.
There was more smoke as he stood, and he covered his nose with a sleeve as he made his way toward the door. He hadn’t meant to black out. Even if the storm was still going strong, he had to find a way back to the house on the cliff and solve the Disaster.
The brief respite allowed him time to think– after all, why was the village so far from the hanok on the cliff? Why have a house with children at the very edge, away from everyone else? The clues were staring him in the face.
A terrible storm (it started just as they entered the Disaster, which could mean it was triggered by the arrival of people) that beset a tiny village by a wide river, and a dwelling right next to the water, atop it, housing numerous children. More children than a sparse village like this was likely to produce.
Old villages were communities that took care of each other’s children. If it was a more modern tale, then they would have more elderly than children, as children moved away to more prosperous areas. There shouldn’t be an excess of children that the village wouldn’t take care of, sending them to live in a dangerous house.
With the style of the hanok on the cliff, there was a religious touch to it– shamanism, Agent Bronze observed.
Combining all of that, the story came together in his mind.
The Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau Agency’s designated 1002PSYA.2024.DA02. A Breaker type Disaster with less than thirty percent survival rates.
Oh. That probably wasn’t good.
Next to him, the blue dragon plush grabbed at his trouser leg, and Soleum bent down to pick it up. The backpack was long lost in the river and there was no other way to carry the plush if he didn’t want anyone to see that it could move on its own.
…It was probably a minor miracle that he hadn’t lost his phone, now stored within his arm for safekeeping.
The plush looked up from where Soleum was holding it to his chest, head tilted back to stare at him, and it kicked its legs out and reached a paw to pat at his arm reassuringly.
“Should we brave the storm?” Kim Soleum coughed and muttered to the plush, despite knowing that it wouldn’t answer. Unlike Braun, the blue dragon was energetic when it came to movement, but silent. He was used to Braun’s chattering inside his head, and for the tiny rabbit keychain to stay unmoving for the most part, even within a ghost story. It was strange to face a direct opposite.
The plush wiggled in response, although whether that was an answer to his question remained unknown.
The plumes of smoke from this hut would attract attention only if someone glanced in this direction, and while in a haunted house style ghost story, it was unlikely for anyone to look outside the haunted house. As this village was in direct line of sight to the house on the cliffs, he could have the fire going and still make his way through the story.
Kim Soleum needed to contact his team now that he recognised the dangers of this Disaster.
…The problem would be making his way there.
For a moment he gave another thought to the Nostalgia Candy. It would certainly help him with the strength needed to climb, but he wondered what would happen if he slipped and fell from the cliffs. If he had the candy in his mouth, and he fell all the way to the bottom… did that mean he wouldn’t suffer any injuries at all? Or, and this thought was the frightening one, would all those injuries reappear the moment the candy dissolved in his mouth?
What if he fell and died? Would he not even know it until the candy dissolved?
…It wouldn’t do to dwell on those thoughts and scare himself further. He had to be proactive about this, which meant the best time to act was before his health decayed any further. Any more and he would really have to rely on the Nostalgia Candy to get through this ghost story, which wasn’t a good idea when he didn’t have money to spare.
He could always look for Nostalgia Candy in the Steps Alley, but that would require time off to go there, and the dangers of running into Agent Choi once again(he was wary of this now thanks to the Faceless Market)… or any of the Daydream officers who thought he was dead.
Kim Soleum would have to wait before he could restock on supernatural items again, a task made difficult thanks to his lack of funds. It meant that for the time being, he had to be more conservative with his consumables.
In his arms, the blue dragon squirmed, and then looked up at him, and then squirmed again. It patted him on the arm, and then pointed in the direction of the house on the peninsula.
“Yes,” Soleum confirmed grimly, pushing his way out the door of the hut, “that’s where we’re going.”