By Zephyria 
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. A woman over eight feet tall leaped around, slashing everything in sight with a speed that defied her massive frame.
「Kyahahaha! Kyahahahaha!」
A Security and Protection Office employee, forced into a Choraengi mask, burst into a manic laugh as he fired his gun at his colleagues.
Vroom! A headless rider tore through on a motorcycle, stealing the necks of those who still possessed them out of jealousy.
“Fuck. This is a total shitshow!”
An Enforcement Division agent snapped in irritation while suppressing a cannibalistic fairy that lured humans with illusions to tear off pieces of their flesh. As he clamped shackles onto the fairy, a low humming reached his ears, like a gentle breeze.
「Hmm, mm, mmm. Mmm, mmm…」
The melody began slowly and gloomily, dragging along a heavy accompaniment. The moment the shape of the tone was recognized, an extreme sense of depression awakened within him.
The painful moments of his life repeated infinitely, piling up until they became wailing. Despair, grief, agony, horror, bleakness, misery, I am. Life is ultimately an ascetic journey, a time spent heading toward death because I want to die, so the ultimate meaning is probably just wanting to die, everyone is struggling and everyone makes the same choice, I want to die, I’m no different, over there is actually where I want to die, peace, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, let’s just die.
「Hmm, mmm… K-aaaaah!」
The humming, which had been kneading his brain slowly and persistently, tore apart with a strange metallic screech, as if the sound source had shattered. The agent, who had been putting the muzzle of his gun in his mouth, snapped back to his senses as if ice water had been poured over his head. In front of him, Jeil Heon was crushing something intangible into the floor with blood-stained hands.
“Do you have any Bolla-wrap cartridges left?”
“…Ah, yes! I’ll suppress it right away! Sunbae!”
The agent quickly swapped cartridges and fired the Bolla-wrap at the Aberration held in Jeil Heon’s grip. The net launched from the Bolla-wrap forced the intangible Aberration into a tangible form, suppressing it. The agent breathed a sigh of relief and reported via radio.
“Cannibal fairy and Gloomy Sunday suppressed.”
Before he could even say thank you for the rescue, Jeil Heon had already vanished, leaping toward another Aberration.
With Yi Yeong’s collapse and the shaking of the barrier, the anomalies quarantined within the Water Abnormality Worship Management Bureau had escaped. When Kang Suk-young took office as Director, she had reorganized the incantation circles within the Bureau so they wouldn’t rely solely on the Ten Thousand Waves Flute’s barrier, but it was impossible to change a system that had persisted for ages in one go.
At the Emergency Operations Headquarters, Kang Suk-young brushed back her disheveled hair and muttered a curse.
“I had a feeling something like this would happen, which is why I tried to replace all the incantation circles…”
“Still, thanks to your prior preparations, Director, not all the anomalies were released. Otherwise, it would have already been chaos outside.”
Despite the Security Chief’s answer, the bitter feeling didn’t fade. Shortly after, Jeil Heon entered the headquarters. He had taken off his jacket and was wearing only a black short-sleeved round-neck T-shirt. Kang Suk-young lightly raised her fist, and Jeil Heon lightly tapped it with his own.
“It feels empty not seeing the Mansin’s field jacket you always wore when going on missions. Anyway, good work, Sunbae. Thanks to you, Sector 5 has been cleared.”
“Among the ones left, which are the dangerous ones?”
“The Lady in Black, the Antichrist and the Pastor, the Thousand Paper Cranes… I guess? Those ones are staying quiet, maybe they’re testing the waters.”
“Those paper cranes that came from Japan? You still haven’t killed them?”
“The Japanese Onmyoryo keeps bitching that paper cranes are symbols of peace and not harmful Aberrations, and that we’re just being sensitive. It’s fucking annoying. I was planning to raise their danger level and then secretly drop them back in Japan, dammit. So you must make sure to suppress the paper cranes alive, Sunbae.”
“Oh, as expected, our Suk-ja’s temper is just lovely. I wonder who she learned it from.”
“From you.”
Jeil Heon gulped down water from a bottle while staring at the situation panel over Kang Suk-young’s shoulder.
“Take a breather, Sunbae, then head out for support after checking the situation.”
From the overlapping shadows of the two, a figure rose—a person so tall their head nearly touched the ceiling, with noise flickering across their face.
「You take the long way around when there is a simple way to solve this. Make a wish to me. I shall quarantine the escaped anomalies all at once.」
Jeil Heon swallowed a bitter smile and looked at the Aberration, the Monkey’s Paw.
“If I made a wish to you, I feel like the aftermath of quarantining the Aberrations would be that all the agents who touched them during suppression would also turn into anomalies and be quarantined together.”
“Or the quarantined Aberrations might merge into one hideously terrible Aberration. So stop wandering around acting smug about granting wishes and stay glued to me until the job is done.”
「Heh heh heh.」
“Suk-young. More importantly, is Darling alright?”
“…Not good. To be honest, it wouldn’t be strange if he passed away at any moment. And we still haven’t found the next Sealed One.”
Up until now, there had been only one instance where the sealing of the Ten Thousand Waves Flute was not immediately succeeded. Six hundred years ago, when the Sealed One was swept up and killed in the assassination of Jeong Mong-ju before he had time to prepare a successor.
The Seowungwan fell into chaos, and the anomalies cheered at the disappearance of the barrier that had oppressed them.
“Back then in Gaegyeong, a Night Parade of One Hundred Demons almost occurred. Fortunately, Princess Gyeongsune volunteered to be the Sealed One and we overcame the crisis, but who do we have now? Should we just blindly kidnap imperial descendants and wait for the Ten Thousand Waves Flute to pick who it likes as its Divine Artifact?”
Kang Suk-young muttered to herself, rubbing her face roughly.
“I’ll use any means necessary for the stability of the Bureau, but I wonder if it’s right to rely so heavily on an anomaly. Look at this. The moment the Ten Thousand Waves Flute shakes, the effect reaches the Bureau instantly.”
“….”
“Maybe in the past, but for the current Bureau, is that damn flute really an indispensable tool?”
“…Suk-young.”
It was just as Jeil Heon, who had been listening in silence, opened his lips. The internal Contamination Level, which had been updating rapidly, began to spike in a specific area, and warning alarms started to blare.
「There is one who wishes!」
Simultaneously, the Monkey’s Paw shouted in a voice full of ecstasy and vanished as if springing away. Before Kang Suk-young could grab it, she hurriedly turned her gaze to the monitor.
“Exactly where!”
Before the Security Chief could answer, Jeil Heon already knew. Wooooong. The sound of a daera vibrated through the air.
* * *
The world was quiet, and nothing had happened. Even searching through news articles or SNS on the internet, no particularly notable accidents or strange phenomena had occurred. That made it even more unsettling. If Gong Ran-sa, who had gone to look around for a bit, hadn’t explained it, he would have been clutching his heart alone until Jeil Heon returned home.
“A-Aberrations escaped from the Bureau?”
「Do not worry too much. Seeing as no unrest is appearing outside, the Bureau must be handling it quickly.」
“If it reaches a point where the outside knows, it means it’s a huge deal…”
The question of what had happened was resolved, but the worry deepened. Since electronic devices might be contaminated, Jeil Heon had left a message saying that even if a call came, it wouldn’t be him.
How much time had passed while he calmed his anxious heart by chatting with Gong Ran-sa? Yoo Jiha suddenly tilted his head.
“Eh, what is this sound?”
「Do you hear something?」
“Teacher, can’t you hear it? It’s like, a heavy, low ringing… I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere before…”
As he clumsily described the sound, he belatedly realized the reason for the déjà vu. It was the sound of the flute played by the Prince, the Sealed One of the Ten Thousand Waves Flute.
The Monkey’s Paw is an anomaly that grants wishes but realizes them in a twisted way, usually resulting in horrific outcomes. The Bureau had cooperated with the Monkey’s Paw under a condition: it must not grant the wishes of humans who were not designated as test subjects by the Bureau.
「Who is the one who wishes!」
Thus, the current Monkey’s Paw was not breaking its contract with the Bureau. It had simply agreed not to grant the wishes of ‘humans.’
The Vengeful Spirits of the Special Guard Unit—Aberrations like them—spoke.
「The current Sealed One has served his purpose.」
「The anomalies will gain power.」
「The people will fall into chaos. If that happens, we will be defying the Elder’s will.」
「A new Sealed One is needed.」
The Monkey’s Paw shouted.
「A new Sealed One. Is that your wish!」
「A young Sealed One who is healthy and living in the present, not in twisted space-time.」
The noise-filled area of the Monkey’s Paw’s face spun rapidly, capturing the faces of the Vengeful Spirits making the wish one by one. Soon, a giant beast’s hand covered in fur emerged from the Monkey’s Paw’s shadow and gripped the empty air.
「The wish shall be granted!」