Chapter 4

I pull the hood deep over my head. The horns were a bit of a nuisance, but they managed to mostly hide my face.

Being a mutant is not something I can openly declare and walk around with, so I had to be careful with my actions.

Thus, I arrived at the department store.

“Ugh… Now that we’re inside the store, I’m feeling much better. By the way, sis, isn’t it hot like crazy?”

“Sis?”

“Well, what? You want me to call you ‘bro’? That’d be even weirder, you know that right?”

“…Alright. If this is how it is, we better get used to it, I guess.”

“So, are you hot or not?”

“Not really.”

“This weather, and you’re wearing that hood and still not feeling warm? Wow…”

“Oh, is it really hot outside today?”

“Extreme heat advisory.”

The short reply from my sibling left me thinking…

“Heat advisory? Isn’t it June?”

I looked at my younger sibling and asked.

“Indeed. The weather’s gone nuts. Anyway, it’s good that you’re not feeling warm. Keep the hood on tightly though, getting noticed will cause chaos. They might even kick us out of the store.”

“You serious? That bad?”

“There are mutants who cause too much trouble, so some stores have bans on mutants. Especially in large shopping malls, they only allow mutants that have been officially certified as trouble-free.”

“Guess I have to be extra cautious. Still, why is there an entry restriction on department stores?”

“What can we do? Blame the troublemakers. There was almost a major disaster here in a department store before.”

“…”

At that remark, my tongue went dry. This meant I might end up having to wear a hood for the rest of my life.

At least, the fact that I currently don’t feel the heat was a stroke of luck.

Did becoming a dragon give me some resistance to heat and cold?

That would make things easier.

“How are we going to shop for clothes?”

“Well, I’ll measure your size and you can just wait in the changing room. I’ll handle choosing the outfits.”

“Fine by me.”

“I’ll go grocery shopping and you let me know once you’re done with finding clothes for sis.”

“Got it.”

And thus begins our department store adventure.

My sibling cheerfully picks out clothes, moving around so naturally it’s obvious they’re quite used to this.

After looking through the racks, my sibling called me over.

“Hey! Come here!”

“I’m coming.”

They shoved me into the fitting room, then came back out, grabbing a hat and placing it on my head.

“Take it off.”

“…”

What, is this some creepy line?

Anyway, my sibling efficiently measured my size and brought in matching underwear and clothes.

“Damn, this is so unfair.”

While muttering this,

“What, again?”

“Can you believe this? How does it even make sense that you’re so slim but still have such a humongous chest? It’s like cheating!”

“It might be big, but… is it really that big?”

It didn’t feel that big when I checked before… Is it due to being thin?

“Huge! At least D-cup, I’d say!”

“Hey, hey, lower your voice! Seriously, is it really a D-cup?”

“It’s because you’re thin. Anyway, we’re done shopping, so start wearing the hat first if you don’t want to keep wearing the hood.”

“Alright.”

“Why the hell does a man get such a body? It’s the worst!”

“Well, at least there are perks. You’re being treated like a walking bomb.”

“Look past that and there’s only good stuff, right?”

“That’s exactly the problem… I haven’t a clue how to navigate society yet. The perception of mutants is worse than I thought.”

I muttered this lightly, and my sibling responded.

“What? You seemed so peaceful all the time, but you actually had concerns?”

“Wasn’t that obvious? Still, as I live, things will hopefully work out somehow. It’s a relief that I don’t have bad intentions toward others. I was an outcast before, and it’s not unfamiliar to stay isolated.”

“Are the kids not gossiping behind your back?”

“Let them talk. As long as I don’t hear about it, that’s all that matters.”

What other people say about me doesn’t pose much of an issue. I already assumed my academic life was already partly ruined anyway, because my past isn’t exactly… clean.

“Anyway… Who knows, maybe you’ll become super popular.”

“Ew. That would be strange. Knowing fully well what they’ve been up to all along, if they suddenly pretend to be close friends now, I’d just feel repulsed.”

“From where I’m standing, you’re just too selective with the people you befriend.”

“Close friendships that are fewer but deeper are better.”

“Hmm. True, considering how you’ve lived, it’s not like you’d change overnight. Are there really no close friends in your department?”

“Not entirely, but I can’t call anyone a really close friend. Just classmates who study with me, friends who game… that’s about it.”

“That’s already pretty close for you, isn’t it?”

“I suppose so, but I’m not sure if they’d still think the same of me now. As you said, there may be people approaching with weird intentions. If they know me from before and still act strangely now, it would feel off.”

“If I remember correctly, didn’t you say about folding coins in half?”

“It’s just talk. I don’t want to be one of those troublemaking mutants.”

“Well, you know what you’re doing. As for the clothes we bought, do you like them?”

“For starters, I approve because there’s nothing overly baggy. No matter that I turned into a woman, putting on a skirt immediately still feels weird.”

“True. That’s understandable.”

“But then again, who knows—I might get used to it someday.”

“Hmm. Are you planning to wear them out?”

“Yes. I have a hat anyway… Though I don’t feel the heat, walking around in a hood isn’t the most comfortable thing either.”

From the clothes I bought, I put on the simplest outfit. A sleeveless black dress shirt with black wide pants.

It may be summer, but black clothing doesn’t feel hot to me, so I decided to stick to black.

There’s only one reason for picking black—it doesn’t show dirt.

My sibling called my fashion sense mediocre, but… at the end of the day, fashion is about the face.

With this face, you’d shine even in a burlap sack. So what if it’s a little dull?

“What are we doing for lunch? Let’s grab something good while we’re already out.”

“Huh? What about Mom?”

“She left early because she had somewhere to go. It seems like she should be home by now.”

“In that case, let’s just go home and order delivery. It’s inconvenient to eat in a hat.”

“Okay. How about pizza?”

“Not bad.”

“Let’s hurry to the subway. I’m dying from the heat.”

It didn’t take long on the subway before we arrived at the station near our boarding house.

Given the proximity, it wasn’t too far from the department store.

Still…

Whyaaaaaay!!

Suddenly, the calamitous alarm tone blared from every smartphone on the street, loud enough to burst our eardrums.

The area quickly descended into chaos.

Since we were on our way home, my sibling and I checked the message at the same time.

The long text message broke down to the following:

Minotaur-type Mutant escape.

Current location: Seoul Special City.

Detailed Location: Korea University Station Entrance.

…Wait. Isn’t that close to our boarding house?

Kwa-a-a-a-aang!

Upon exiting the subway station, we heard a deafening crash.

The sound of something being destroyed was clearly audible.

Unfortunately, it seemed the mutant’s chaotic location wasn’t far from us.

My younger sibling was at a loss for words, perceiving the severity of the situation.

Even more serious, my sibling seemed genuinely uneasy, fidgeting with anxiety.

Even without direct experience, I already understood this was a dire situation. For those who’ve witnessed mutants over the past few months, it’s understandable to feel anxious.

“Kiiaaaaaaaack!”

We heard screams in the distance, but with focused senses, they were eerily clear.

People screaming this desperately indicates a highly dangerous situation.

I felt urgency.

If someone were to die in the middle of the city due to a mutant, public perception of mutants would plummet further than ever.

And worse, it might restrict even my ability to walk around freely.

That has to be avoided.

I don’t want to be treated like a walking bomb.

So I must stop it.

The moment this thought struck me, it felt like my vision widened significantly.

But it wasn’t just my vision—it was all my senses that seemed to expand.

It felt like I was looking down from the skies. If such a thing as an all-seeing eye exists, this might be close.

The mutant’s position was… near Exit 2 of the subway station, a bustling area.

Ironically, our boarding house was in this bustling area.

Meaning, this brute was waiting right between us and home.

Walking my younger sibling there might put them in danger.

I halted mid-step and opened my mouth.

“Yun Seo-Ah.”

“…What.”

“Stay here. There’s a mutant wreaking havoc near the busy area. And in the worst possible place, it’s right in front of the café near our house.”

“How do you even know that…?”

“I’m a mutant too. I don’t know how, but I can see their position. And it’s really dangerous right now. If something goes wrong, someone could die.”

“Surely, you can’t be planning to go after it, right?”

“I think I need to.”

“What!? Are you crazy!?”

My sibling was shocked. I would have reacted the same way.

But I had to go.

I still plan to attend university, and if the public perception of mutants sinks to its lowest point, I might have to drop out.

Considering the tendencies of our people, a movement for mutant expulsion on campus might arise sooner than later.

Even I would have participated in that movement if I hadn’t been a mutant myself.

I can’t let my tuition money go to waste, and getting expelled from school is unacceptable.

Some might think it’s too extreme for me to take action, but this is a crucial issue for me.

After all my hard work to enter one of Korea’s top universities, I don’t want to get expelled because of some absurd incident.

And since this brute is squatting in front of our boarding house café, removing it is unavoidable.

Whether I like it or not, it’s a situation where I have to intervene.

“Think about it. If word spreads that someone got killed here, how will society look at me as a fellow mutant? Would I even be able to walk these streets anymore?”

At this, my sibling showed an expression of both unease and understanding.

“…If you go, will you be able to stop it?”

“Yeah. I don’t have much basis for this confidence, but… somehow, I feel okay about it.”

And the reason I’m so willing to go is that I have an inexplicable certainty that I can stop this raging mutant.

“So, stay here. I’ll contact you when it’s resolved.”

“…Be careful.”

“Don’t worry. The doctor said the longer we transform, the stronger we get, right?”

“And?”

“I’m the mutant that transformed the latest in the world, apparently. Remember when I said the wall panel was deformed when I threw a punch after waking up?”

“…Alright.”

As soon as I finished speaking, I ran at the fastest speed I could muster.

I had no time to control my strength.

The landscape blurred past me as if I was riding a train.

“Wow!”

I heard someone exclaim in shock, but I couldn’t spare the effort to care. I kept running.

Finally, I arrived at the scene of indiscriminate destruction.

And at the center of it, there he was.

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