096 – Nymphs Love Summer Vacation! #3
I had a relatively calm drinking habit.
Since becoming an Awakened, I rarely got drunk.
I didn’t even drink to the point of intoxication.
“Ugh, my head.”
But today was different.
It felt like I had a film cut, and whenever I tried to recall yesterday’s events, my head throbbed as if it would break.
Such a terrible hangover.
“Ugh. Ugh.”
After throwing up several times in the toilet, I felt a little better.
At that moment, something rustled.
“Hioong….”
It was a familiar cry. It sounded very pitiful.
I turned my head, trying to locate where the cry was coming from, and upon listening carefully, I realized it was coming from the ceiling.
Swoosh—
When I raised my head to the ceiling, I saw the colorful ghost spider Bang Bang!
The problem was that Bang Bang had a bunch of balloons stuck to its arms and legs!
“Bbang Bang…!”
“No, Bang Bang! Why are you up there!”
Bang Bang was hanging from the ceiling.
It was tied up with some weird chain-like thing!
“I’ll let you down!”
I quickly freed Bang Bang and untangled the chains wrapped around its body.
Only then did Bang Bang wiggle its body left and right on my palm as if it finally felt safe.
“Hioong…!”
“Who tied up Bang Bang with those chains? What on earth is going on?”
Swoosh—
I looked around.
As I had felt earlier, it was a strange room.
It wasn’t the lodging I was supposed to stay at.
“Where am I? Where are Kkungkkungi and Kalilnoi? What about Inoi and the other nymphs? Where are Jina and Ari? I can’t remember anything that happened at all.”
I came out into the corridor with Bang Bang.
Walking down the corridor with a red carpet, I decided that I needed to get back to the pool where the nymphs were playing yesterday.
“What a fine morning it is…! Today, Inoi starts the day with morning gymnastics…! Everyone should do gymnastics with Inoi…!”
“This Coris slept really well last night…! There was a strange sound in my dream, but dreams are like that…!”
Near the swimming pool, Inoi and Coris were doing morning exercises.
They were stretching their limbs in various ways.
“Ah! It’s the owner of the house…! The owner of the house…! The nymph Illinois isn’t here…! She hasn’t returned since last night…!”
“This Coris was supposed to go with the Illinois sisters to the Telos theme park today, and I’m worried because I can’t find her…!”
“Really?”
Inoi and Coris said that Illinois had vanished last night.
Of course, I had no idea what had happened.
“Kkungkkungi and Ahn Ahn are also missing…! Kalilnoi flew somewhere…! I’m very curious about what happened last night…!”
Swoosh—
I headed toward my lodging, rummaging through my belongings.
I wanted to check if I had lost any valuables like my wallet or weapons.
Fortunately, my wallet and weapon were intact.
“I think I’ve lost my phone. It has important information, and I need to find it. Seo Ye-rim said she would contact me today, so I must have my phone.”
Creak—
Just as I closed the door and stepped into the corridor, I met Ari, who looked a bit disheveled.
And she flinched upon seeing me.
“S-Senpai, good morning. How are you feeling? You overexerted yourself last night. I went to bed early, but you seemed to be out quite late.”
“Really? I don’t remember anything from the night before.”
“Really? The last time I saw you, you were downing the alcohol that Illinois made, straight from the bottle… But senpai, that’s…”
Swoosh—
Yu Ara gazed at my hand.
Now that I looked closely, there was a ring on my left ring finger.
No, to be exact, it was a tattoo in the shape of a ring.
It was twisted like a coiled string.
“Uh, what is this? What’s going on…!?”
What kind of ring tattoo is this?
Soon, Yu Ara spoke.
“Left hand ring fingers usually have wedding or partner rings, don’t they? Senpai, what exactly happened? What is this? What happened last night?”
“I don’t know. What is this? Why is it not coming off?”
Swoosh—
I moved my hand to try to erase the tattoo on my left ring finger, but it wouldn’t come off.
Soon, Yu Ara, who was holding my finger and examining it, said,
“This is a Mana Engraving! It’s a tattoo etched with magical ink, and special mana processing is needed to erase it! This is definitely a couple’s Mana Engraving! It’s something Awakened couples often post on SNS!”
I had heard of it too.
Getting a tattoo on the body using mana ink.
I knew it was once popular for Awakened couples to match mana engravings instead of rings.
I thought it had nothing to do with me.
Why would I have done that?
“Maybe there’s a trace in my pocket or something!”
Swoosh—
I struggled through my pockets while enduring the headache from my hangover.
Soon, something clinked and fell from my pocket.
It was a key.
“What kind of key is this?”
It had “022” written on a black plastic handle, and I had never seen it before.
I also grabbed a piece of something that seemed to be packaging.
“Senpai, what’s that? Is it—oh, it’s ultra-thin! What is going on? What happened? Senpai!”
“…I don’t know. What the heck is this? What is it?”
I had no clue what was going on.
If there was going to be a clue, it was the tattoo on my finger and the key marked “022.”
And the ultra-thin packaging.
“Ah! This Coris knows what that key is…! It was a locker that the potential Core Jina borrowed to store Yuranoi’s precious items!”
Oh—
At Coris’s words, we headed toward that locker.
It was located on the first floor of the Telos Hotel, where Cha Yura was staying, where lockers were stacked up in rows.
Swoosh—
I approached the locker marked “022.”
“Senpai! Open it quickly! No, don’t! I need to mentally prepare myself! Huh—.”
I didn’t know why Ari needed to prepare herself to open a locker.
I inserted the key into the slot and turned it to unlock.
And I was shocked.
“Ugh, what the hell is this?”
Inside the locker was a severed arm!
An arm painted with red nail polish!
To be precise, it wasn’t a real arm but a mechanical arm covered with artificial skin.
It was a mechanical arm holding a Japanese sword stained with red blood on its sharp blade.
The wires were cut, and the covering was roughly torn off, making it look like it was forcibly ripped apart.
“What is this? It’s a left arm.”
“Senpai! Look at this!”
Swoosh—
Ari soon pointed at something.
On the ring finger of the mechanical arm was a Mana Engraving identical to the one on my left ring finger.
It was in the shape of a ring with a twisted string pattern.
“This is… a couple’s engraving.”
Why is a mechanical arm with a couple’s engraving on it in a locker?
I couldn’t understand at all.
One thing was for sure: this couple’s engraving would help me retrace my memories.
# # #
Telos Island.
It was a resort, and there were all sorts of shops.
Tattoo shops were no exception.
Ari and I wandered the tattoo shops until lunchtime, and eventually found a clue.
“This looks like Yokos work. It seems like the mana engraving was made beautifully by Yoko from Onigarasu.”
“Where can we meet her?”
I asked the tattooist.
He thought for a moment and then said, “Go downstairs.”
“Downstairs?”
Does this island have a basement too?
Then Yu Ara said,
“There are rumors that the Telos Corporation and the ‘Awakened Yakuza’ from Japan are working together. I heard they’re running some business on this island….”
Is that so?
I followed the tattooist’s directions down to the basement.
It seemed like they had tried to build a subway on this island long ago, as the basement had stations with lines just like a subway, and the neon signs were dazzling.
Swoosh—
I found the sign for “Raven with Sharp Teeth.”
It was closed.
“It seems there are people inside.”
At Ari’s remark, I knocked on the door.
Since there was no reaction, I kept knocking, and soon someone flung the door open.
“Mata, urusai yo. Moo—.”
“Are you Yoko? I—”
“Ah? Temee—No, you. Yesterday was quite something.”
She spoke Korean awkwardly, and she was a woman with piercings on her lips.
Her hair was purple, and her fingers were covered in tattoos.
Then the woman Yoko grinned.
“Where did that girl go yesterday? I gave her a couple’s engraving on your arm. Today you brought another girl. So when are you going to pay? 500,000 yen.”
500,000 yen? That’s about 6 million won, right?
That was expensive!
However, I knew for sure that I had gotten a couple’s engraving done with another girl.
“Who was that girl?”
“I don’t know. Her face was covered. Just pay up. Give me 2,000 yen for the taxi. I covered your taxi fare here.”
I had no choice but to pay with my Visa card.
Soon the tattoo artist Yoko chuckled.
“I practiced on that mechanical arm as a sample. In any case, I definitely received the payment. Take the animal I was holding as collateral. It was a honey ant, right? I got attached overnight because it’s so cute and draws well.”
Swooosh…!
Yoko handed me the honey ant Ahn Ahn.
Seeing the honey ant Ahn Ahn made me feel both delighted and flustered.
Then Yoko said,
“But is that okay? That arm. It belongs to the boss. The Yakuza was looking for you yesterday. I told them I didn’t know. But being found out is just a matter of time. Hehehe. Look, here they come.”
From a distance, I could see a group in black suits with swords at their waists approaching me.
They were young men and women, and wearing sunglasses made them look quite cool.
Were they a mix of regular people and Awakened?
Their Awakened levels didn’t seem to be high, probably around E or F.
Someone spoke in surprisingly fluent Korean.
“You. Don’t cause any trouble and come along quietly. The elder wants to see you.”
“……”
“……”
Ari and I exchanged glances.
It seemed wise to follow what they said.
I followed these individuals, who appeared to be the Japanese Awakened Yakuza.
Someone was sitting in a restaurant filled with fresh seafood, and their hair was scarlet.
“Welcome, please come in…!”
“No way. You’re Illinois. You’re the elder of the organization?”
“Of course…! This Illinois was once the boss of the gang ‘Fairy Tale,’ also known as the Godfather, or should I say Godnymph…! Holding a high spot among the Yakuza can happen overnight…! I’m a complete last samurai…!”
It was a moment that simultaneously relaxed my tension and left me astonished.
Then Illinois spoke.
“First, return the arm of the boss that you had forcibly stolen…! Why on earth did you steal the boss’s arm…? Stealing the Yakuza’s mechanical arm is an illegal act…! If I hadn’t stopped you, I might have called a lawyer right now…!”
“Uh, yeah. I’m sorry. I didn’t do it on purpose, okay? This, right? I’ll return this. But, the tattoo on my ring finger… it can be erased if I want it to be.”
Swoosh—
With a very awkward and apologetic feeling, I returned the arm I had been holding.
Soon, a woman in a suit revealed her expression.
“My, my arm! I’ve really gotten it back! Without any bloodshed from that terrifying cadaverous drunkard—! Nymph-sama, sugoi desu! Arigato!”
“Muhuhuh, I made a promise…! Then, the owner of the house, you took away the Core Reiko whom I had left behind at the restaurant. Where exactly have you taken the princess of the Japan branch?”
Who do you want me to return?
