Chapter 86: Japan (5)

Translator: Dreamscribe

'Deja Vu' had triggered twice in a single day. The one that had just flashed belonged to a Subordinate from his Mercenary Corps. Kang Jae-ha was currently out of his hotel room, sprinting down the hallway.

-Tatat!

Even as he ran, Jae-ha called Go Chun-seok. His message was simple. Grab the keys to the rental car and come out to the elevator. The moment he hung up, Jae-ha recalled his first Subordinate Deja Vu in Japan.

'Her name on this side is Kamijo Yuu.'

He'd seen her face. No doubt about it, she was a Subordinate Kang Jae-ha knew. In the Deja Vu, the scene had shown her, his Subordinate, taking her own life. Kamijo Yuu, submerged in a bathtub with her wrist slit. The news anchor that followed had reported Kamijo Yuu's death. The estimated date of death was September 29th.

In other words, today.

It was somewhere around afternoon now. The Deja Vu hadn't shown the exact time. So Kamijo Yuu, his first Subordinate in Japan, might already be dead, or might not. The one certain thing was that there wasn't much time left.

-Tat!

Kang Jae-ha soon reached the elevator, and not long after, Go Chun-seok came running up fast as well. After taking the car keys from him, Kang Jae-ha placed a call to Lee Chan-hoo, who would be back in Korea. The ringing was brief.

"I'm sending you the info right now, so find out where she is and send it back immediately!"

Back in Korea, Lee Chan-hoo was a little thrown. The Commander's voice on the other end of the phone was awfully urgent. It was nothing like the ever-unflappable Kang Jae-ha he knew.

"Wh-what's going on??"

Before Lee Chan-hoo could even ask anything, the call with the Commander cut off, and a message arrived right after. Its contents were a Japanese name, and.

"Kamijo Yuu?"

A link. Sensing the gravity of it, Lee Chan-hoo tapped the link first thing. Soon a Japanese actress's profile popped up on his phone screen. The instant he saw the actress's photo, Lee Chan-hoo recognized her.

"Ah! Her!!"

It was a face he knew well. A comrade from the Mercenary Corps. Lee Chan-hoo skimmed the profile quickly for a few seconds.

"But, an actress??"

His curiosity grew, but Lee Chan-hoo immediately pictured Kamijo Yuu and used his 'ability', Search. It didn't take long, and once he opened his closed eyes, Lee Chan-hoo sent the information straight to the Commander.

However, no reply came back from Kang Jae-ha.

About an hour later.

A spot a little ways from Tokyo Station. Even so, it was fairly crowded with people, and among the tall buildings stood a lone gray apartment block. It looked pretty run-down, and in the parking lot of the building, which appeared to have somewhere over twenty floors, a white van pulled in.

Kang Jae-ha and Go Chun-seok climbed out of the van quickly.

Jae-ha ran straight for the elevator. The hulking Go Chun-seok stuck close behind the Commander, though he didn't bother asking Jae-ha why.

Meanwhile, on the building's fourteenth floor.

Two front doors were visible on the fourteenth floor, and three men in suits were pounding away at the door of 'Unit 1402'.

"Ms. Kamijo! Ms. Kamijo Yuu! We know you're in there, it'll only take a moment, please just open the door."

The men repeated similar lines over and over. Maybe because of it, the woman inside 'Unit 1402' was in agony. Dressed in a white short-sleeved shirt, she sat curled up on the sofa. She covered her ears with both hands.

But the men's shouting in Japanese kept coming through from outside the door.

"Ms. Kamijo! It'll only take a moment! Let's just talk!"

The woman inside 'Unit 1402' pressed her hands over her ears even harder. She seemed, in all likelihood, to be Kamijo Yuu, the Subordinate who had appeared in Kang Jae-ha's 'Deja Vu'. In any case, the men's shouting at the door went on for several minutes.

Just then, the elevator out beyond the entrance slid its doors open.

A grotesquely massive man stepped off the elevator first. It was Go Chun-seok. With an expressionless face, he strode straight toward the three men in front of 'Unit 1402'. At Go Chun-seok's abrupt appearance, the three men's shouting cut off dead.

"Uh-"

"Er......"

The three suited men started warily reading the towering Go Chun-seok's mood. They'd been thoroughly spooked. Naturally so, since hardly anyone in Japan had a presence and physique on Go Chun-seok's level. And even setting that aside, Go Chun-seok was plenty terrifying on his own.

Soon one of the three men forced an awkward smile.

"Ha... ha. A-are you the neighbor?"

Go Chun-seok didn't really answer the Japanese that had come out with such difficulty. He merely.

"......"

Just stared down at the three men, expressionless. But the force of it was tremendous. Like cornered rats, the three men exchanged glances, then gave the door of 'Unit 1402' a light knock before.

"W-we'll come back tomorrow, Ms. Kamijo."

They cautiously stepped away. The three men edged around Go Chun-seok and moved toward the elevator. They quickly ran into Kang Jae-ha and his chilly expression too. Flinching, they barely managed to board the elevator and vanished without a trace soon after.

Once the men were gone, the hallway fell quiet again.

Thanks to that, the woman inside 'Unit 1402'. No, Kamijo Yuu, slowly pulled away the hands she'd pressed over her ears.

"......"

Mercifully, the men seemed to have left. In the newfound silence, Kamijo Yuu ran a hand through her hair. Shoulder-length black hair, a cute face. A slight flush bloomed on both cheeks. Her arms and legs, though, were long and slender.

And in that state, she stared blankly into empty air.

Her eyes were empty of a great many things. Things like hope, or happiness. If the mood were rendered as a color, it would be gray. Kamijo Yuu slowly lowered her gaze and fixed her eyes on her own wrist.

A short sigh.

"Haa-"

Hidden in that sigh was resolve, too. Something she'd been turning over not just now but for a long while. Kamijo Yuu rose slowly from the sofa and opened a kitchen drawer. Many kinds of knives lay inside. She probably liked to cook. Then Kamijo Yuu picked out a small but sharp-looking knife and shut the drawer.

She was calm and quiet.

With composed steps, Kamijo Yuu moved to the bathtub in the bathroom and turned on the water. Adjusting the temperature with her hand, she murmured softly in Japanese.

"...I don't want it too cold."

A little warm. But it couldn't be hot. Because that might make her feel good. Pleasantly lukewarm was just right. Having started filling the tub, Kamijo Yuu perched on its edge. With the sound of the rising water as her music, Kamijo Yuu drifted into reverie.

She thought back to the past.

No, was it really the past? Hadn't it just been a dream? Kamijo Yuu was thinking right then of her Mercenary Corps days over in the Other World. It had been frightening and terrifying, but.

"Maybe that was better......"

Having murmured it quietly, she smiled faintly.

-Slide.

She slowly brought the knife in her hand to her wrist. It was the moment Kamijo Yuu was about to put force into the hand holding it.

-Knock, knock, knock.

Once again, someone knocked at the front door. Faltering, Kamijo Yuu wondered if it was those people again. The three men from before, that is. But the knocking was a bit softer. Either way, Kamijo Yuu let out a sigh.

"Hoo-"

She'd thought they were gone, but maybe not? In that moment, a low man's voice came from beyond the door.

"Kamijo Yuu. Can you hear me."

It was strange, it wasn't the voice of the three men who'd been tormenting her. Lifting her head slowly, Kamijo Yuu looked toward the front door. Had someone else come? Soon the man's voice rang out again.

"If you can hear me, stop what you were about to do. Don't do that."

At the stiff, clipped Japanese.

"......"

Kamijo Yuu's expression changed. Understandably so. The voice from outside the door, its tone, sounded like something she'd heard somewhere before.

'This voice, this way of speaking. Definitely somewhere-'

As thoughts piled up in Kamijo Yuu's mind, the man's voice seeped in once more.

"If you go like that, the Mercenary Corps guys who used to eat your cooking will miss it."

"!!"

In an instant, Kamijo Yuu's eyes flew wide. The knife she'd been holding dropped with a clatter, and she rose slowly to her feet. Her eyes and mouth slightly parted, and in her mind right then one face stood out vividly.

The Commander of the Mercenary Corps.

A man who'd been unstoppable, blunt, and brutal. And yet more steadfast than anyone, with a quiet warmth to him. The voice just now was unmistakably that Commander of the Mercenary Corps. Above all, hadn't the words "Mercenary Corps" come right out of his mouth?

Shock written across her face, Kamijo Yuu walked toward the front door, slowly, sluggishly.

Repeating to herself, no way, no way.

She touched the intercom mounted near the front door. At the same moment, she gasped.

"Ah."

Two men were displayed on the intercom monitor. Because one of them was the very Commander she'd been picturing.

"......My God."

Having murmured it briefly, Kamijo Yuu this time threw the front door open with a clack. The door swung open with a creak, and right away the Commander's face. No, Kang Jae-ha greeted Kamijo Yuu. In fluent Japanese.

"You been doing all right."

Even with the Commander right in front of her, Kamijo Yuu blanked out for a few seconds. She barely managed to speak.

"...H-how are you here."

Jae-ha's expressionless answer was short.

"Just worked out that way."

"......"

Mouthing wordlessly, Kamijo Yuu rubbed at her eyes with one hand. A hallucination? An apparition? But Kang Jae-ha and Go Chun-seok stayed right where they were, and with her shock mounting, she raised her index finger and cautiously poked Kang Jae-ha's shoulder.

"Oh!"

Kamijo Yuu stepped back. Because what she saw was the real Commander. Jae-ha let out a short laugh and answered.

"Does this look like a hallucination? We're coming in."

Kang Jae-ha stepped into the entryway. So did Go Chun-seok. With Jae-ha and the hulking Go Chun-seok standing there, the entryway was packed full. Having taken off his shoes, Kang Jae-ha turned his gaze straight toward the bathroom. The water that had been filling the tub was overflowing, and a small knife lay fallen on the floor.

Jae-ha, who had been quietly taking in the scene, fixed his gaze on Kamijo Yuu, who stood before him still deep in shock.

'Looks like the timing worked out, thankfully. A little later and I might not have stopped it.'

Her whole body rigid, Kamijo Yuu realized in that instant what this sensation was.

'That's right. When I first saw the Commander.'

It was the same emotion, the same feeling as when she'd first laid eyes on the Commander back in the Mercenary Corps. The fear coming off that frigid stare, the pressure coming off that brutal aura. Her fingertips trembling slightly, Kamijo Yuu forced her heavy lips to move.

"C-Commander-nim???"

"Yeah, that's right."

It was at this point. A woman's voice reached both Kang Jae-ha and Kamijo Yuu. The funny thing was.

【Encounter with comrade in a foreign country confirmed.】

【The comrade (Subordinate) who has encountered the Commander is now subject to 'Absolute Obedience' toward Kang Jae-ha-nim.】

The fact that the woman's voice was delivering this in Japanese rather than Korean. The guidance must have swapped over to match the changed country, no doubt. Jae-ha was perfectly fine, but Kamijo Yuu's face, as she listened to the woman's voice, was filled with confusion.

"Ngh! Huh?!"

A while later the woman's voice finished its announcement, and silence settled in for a moment. It was Kang Jae-ha who broke that stillness first. Pointing toward the bathroom, he asked in Japanese.

"Trying to die?"

Still not over her shock, Kamijo Yuu stared hard at Jae-ha and answered as if in a trance.

"......Yes. For now, anyway."

"Why."

"Huh?"

"Why were you trying to die, I'm asking. And by your own hand, at that."

"Ah-"

Coming back to herself a little, Kamijo Yuu let out a hollow laugh.

"But honestly, I still don't really get what's going on. Why are you in my home, Commander-nim?? Don't tell me you came from the Other World?"

"No, from Korea."

"What? Korea?"

Fumbling for words, Kamijo Yuu's eyes landed on Go Chun-seok, who stood behind Kang Jae-ha. Noticing her gaze, Jae-ha murmured.

"His name's Go Chun-seok. You know who he is, right? He came from Korea with me."

"Good to see you."

At Go Chun-seok's solemn greeting, Kamijo Yuu glitched out again, then rebooted a few seconds later. Dragging a hand down her face, she spoke up.

"Haa, please, both of you, have a seat for now."

Kamijo Yuu shut off the bathtub water in the bathroom, and Jae-ha and Go Chun-seok sat down on the sofa. Perhaps because of Go Chun-seok's weight, the sofa let out a creaking shriek. Then Kamijo Yuu came back to the sofa.

"Can I get you some tea or something?"

"No need. You sit too."

"...Okay."

She carefully settled herself down on Kang Jae-ha's right, then, gauging the mood, scooted a little farther away.

"How is it that you're in Japan, Commander-nim? Don't tell me the Other World and this world have merged or something? Like in a manga??"

At the Japanese tossed his way, Kang Jae-ha tugged up the corner of his mouth slightly.

"That'd be entertaining, sure, but no. I just came back, same as you."

"......This whole time I thought I was the only one who came back."

Jae-ha settled his gaze on the living room wall. Several plaques were on display, and a fairly large poster of Kamijo Yuu hung there. With his eyes on the poster, Kang Jae-ha asked in a low voice.

"You were an actress."

Following the Commander's lead, Kamijo Yuu turned her gaze to her own poster and smiled bitterly.

"Yes, I'm an actress. A pretty famous one, at that."

"And Japanese."

"That's true, but-"

Trailing off, she gave an unexpected answer.

"I'm a Zainichi Korean." [TL Note: A Zainichi Korean is an ethnic Korean residing in Japan, often descended from those who migrated during the colonial era.]

*****

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