WORD COUNT: 1.0k // SUMMARY: In which a monster is caged. // TW: body horror
“Shouldn’t you be waiting with the rest over there?“
Konoe shook his head. “That’s for VIPs only,“ he grunted, settling down into his chair, and hefted his flamethrower in his hand. It had been specially designed by Ms Bae for their use, and would doubtless be sold on the black market once they were done with it. It was a very fun device to use, to be honest, and Konoe would miss it. Its barrel was designed to discharge a steady stream of intense heat, and there were electrical speakers mounted at regular intervals designed to dispense highly potent bursts of ultrasound. Konoe didn’t really know how the devices actually worked, of course - he wasn’t an engineer - but he had to admit that there was a certain comfort in hefting them in his hands.
Ms Bae’s voice filtered through the speakers. “Right, then. Let’s begin.“
The room in which they were standing contained an airtight, transparent cage, which contained a girl. She had been kept in this cage for an interminable duration of time, furnished with every amenity under the sun. She had food, of course, and water. She had books to read, TV shows to watch, and people to interact with. She didn’t have much privacy, but her condition meant that at least one person had to have eyes on her at any one time, so as to ensure that nothing happened.
“Ms Kang, are you there?“
The girl sat on the cool, featureless floor of her cage, pale and shrunken, and for a few heart-stopping moments, there was no reply.
“Excellent,“ Ms Bae answered, a little too quickly, the relief in her voice clear as day. “We’ll be dropping the inhibitor in shortly. There will be a count-down, so you should be able to prepare yourself.“
This was the third such test. The previous two - which had been conducted while he’d been managing his organization’s meagre interests in Seoul - had failed, and much blood had been spilled to force the monster back into its cage. Konoe could not but feel a little resentful, but such was life. And, in any case, he was positioned closer to the exit than the rest (seniority had its perks), so if things went sideways, he’d be able to escape in time.
“- five,” Ms Bae said, her voice jolting Konoe back into the present. “Four.“
The girl in the cage started to twitch. Konoe tightened his grip on his weapon, and there arose a faint hum as his comrades did the same.
The girl in the cage had not seen the sunlight in a while, and so her skin was pale and sickly. As Konoe watched, gossamer-thin threads of black began to creep across her skin, sneaking out from beneath her loose, simple smock. They thickened rapidly, crawling up her neck, and someone beside him muttered a quick prayer to his ancestors as the smock started to tear.
“Two,“ Ms Bae barked, the speakers unable to cover up the tremor in her voice.
The girl in the cage was no more. In its place was a hulking brute of a monster, its flesh oily-black and sickeningly wet-looking, its jaw wide-open, its eyes reduced to a pair of wide, staring pits. With one massive paw, it batted at its cage, and the walls shook.
“One. Inhibitor deploying.”
The airlock separating the cage from the rest of the world opened, and the monster leapt up, only to be batted back by an avalanche of ultrasound. The VIPs up in their viewing chamber would be spared, but Konoe could feel his teeth ache and a blood vessel in his nose rupture as the ultrasound roared on, and on, and on. The monster flinched, falling back to the floor with a plop, and readied itself for another try -
“Inhibitor deployed,“ Ms Bae rattled off, her voice having gone up by an octave. “Manually activating.“
There was another pulse of ultrasound, weaker yet more concentrated than the last, and Konoe watched in repulsed fascination as the monster’s flesh peeled back, tendrils of shadow slithering away in the face of this technological onslaught. Beneath, the girl emerged, her face thin-lipped and determined as she made a grab for the inhibitor. Above, the airlock sealed itself shut.
As her hand closed around the inhibitor and she pulled it to herself, the monster melted away, its tree-trunk thighs and rippling calves dwindling into nothing, and the girl was once more recognizably human.
“Secure it around your neck.”
“Okay,“ Ms Bae said. “Now, we wait.“
A fair bit of tension leaked out of the room as the speakers shut off, and Konoe swiped at his bleeding nose with the back of his hand. “This is what we have to deal with on a daily basis,“ one of the men quipped, shoving his weapon back into its holster. “And it’s six more hours until the next shift -”
The speakers crackled again. “Mr Konoe, please come up to the viewing chamber.“
Konoe slumped a bit at that, but complied.
The viewing chamber was quiet, but surprisingly spacious. It was furnished luxuriously, but the design was not overly flashy, and Konoe, if he’d been well-versed in such things, would have called it tasteful. Ms Bae was still standing by the windows, staring down at the girl in the cage, and gave no indication that she’d noticed his entrance. There was a middle-aged couple there, too, accompanied by a pair of bodyguards, and it was this couple which approached him when he entered.
“Mr Konoe, yes?“ As was typical, it was the husband who spoke for both of them.
“I will be entrusting my daughter into your hands, I understand.”
“And you will take care of her?“
“To the best of my ability.“
“Good.“ The older man stepped back, inclining his head briefly, and strode away without another word. His wife followed.
Our first foothold in Seoul, Konoe thought, with no small hint of satisfaction, and left.
