Dusk (2)
Arius spoke.
Moon!
As the Sein family gathered, the object that had been hovering in the air slowly fell.
"Sorry."
Shirone opened his eyes slowly and said, "I taught her. It's not Miro's fault. Don't be too angry."
"What did you even do? An object flying through empty air—some kind of psychic power?"
Sein already knew.
'The ability I saw in the dream.'
No—now it was something that forced itself into his mind even while he was awake.
Miro stepped in front of Sein. "You didn't do anything wrong. I just watched you and copied what you did."
'She only watched?'
Sein felt his head go blank.
'Is that all it takes.'
Luber had called their condition a spot-the-difference—no one could tell which was the original.
'There are two different worlds. But we can't trust either as the real one.'
Still, in the dream Miro had been a seeker with the deepest of human thought.
'Shirone, Miro—this can't go on. Something is waking them up.'
Sein said, "Let's go to Gaold."
"I already went."
Gaold walked in, tossed keys and cash onto the table, and took off his shirt.
"You back?" Kangnan asked as she took his clothes.
"How was today?"
"Same as always. It was tribute day, so I didn't make much. Those guys were kind of threatening."
Kangnan never blamed Gaold for his poor knack for business.
"It'll get better. The merchant union's going to move. Soon they'll clash with the Tamo organization."
Kangnan was part of the merchant union.
"We'll hit a weapons warehouse and make it our base. We've got numbers on our side."
"Hah! Those bastards—"
"Don't be like that. Everyone's fighting for their livelihood. Our situation isn't any different."
"They think this world is everything. They don't see it as a spot-the-difference like we do."
"Right."
Kangnan smiled bitterly. "We were so cool in the dream. But you can't live in a dream forever." She wrapped her arms around Gaold's waist.
"Why are you like this? Weren't we supposed to keep living? At least until Miro comes of age—"
"Stop."
Gaold felt guilty. "It's not that. Sorry. I'm just confused too. Lately even more so—"
Kangnan felt the same. "I know what you're thinking. Sometimes… I get anxious. I worry that I'm a burden."
"A burden?"
Whatever the true picture was, Kangnan was the person Gaold cherished most.
Their eyes met and their lips drew near when—
"Sir!"
Miro burst through the open door.
"Ah!"
She blinked when she saw Gaold and Kangnan recoil in surprise. Her feelings were mixed, but she soon smiled mischievously.
"What is this? Uncle and Aunt Kangnan… ugh!"
Sein slapped his forehead. "I told you to knock before going into someone's house. You little hellion. Apologize."
"What kind of someone's house is this? Auntie, I'm home!"
Miro threw open her arms and ran; Kangnan laughed and hugged her.
"So, what are you doing at this hour?" In reality they'd be enemies, but Miro didn't know that, and Kangnan lived with Gaold. A perfect compromise.
"Where's Luber?"
Luber and Monga hadn't been seen recently, but there wasn't much reason to look for them.
"He's not here. What's going on?" Sein looked at Shirone, and Gaold popped a beer cap and said like a toast, "You back, lad?"
Kangnan nudged his side, but Shirone, as always, showed no expression.
"Hello," Sein said. "Something happened. Looks like something's up with Shirone and Miro… We need Luber."
"What happened?"
"Shirone, can you do it here?"
Shirone hesitated, uneasy, and Sein stepped forward and patted his shoulder. "It's okay. We're not here to make you angry. We want to help. Try it here."
"All right."
Shirone held both hands out in front of him. Gaold chuckled. "What's this? Some kind of trick?"
At the word, the beer bottle in his hand floated up and flew toward Shirone.
Gaold and Kangnan gaped in bewilderment while Miro shouted, "Auntie, Auntie! I can do that too!"
Gaold, who had been staring at the bottle Shirone sent back for a long time, finally lifted his head. "What the hell."
"Both of them have awakened," Monga said.
They stood on the dusk-lit shore, facing Gaold's house.
"They found a hidden code in the Immortal Function. After the Tamo organization came in, it's been a storm."
"Well, O Dae-seong denies the 1.5th floor, right? He must have implemented the feeling of reality into this world. Miro saw that and realized the same thing," Monga said, worried.
"If this kind of compromise starts to break, the 1.5th floor will be destroyed too. We have to monitor their changes—"
"Watch Gaold. He'll ultimately decide whether the 1.5th floor stays."
"Huh?" Monga tilted her head. "He's the most confused person here. Everything's shaking—this side and that side."
"That's human nature. They waver endlessly, but once they decide, that becomes everything."
That's why it's decisive.
"If O Dae-seong, Miro, and Gaold clash in reality, we can't predict who will prevail. Not because it's close, but because the result would be unimaginable." Monga spoke with a serious face. "What if Gaold awakens?"
"Probably… it'll be a complete mess."
Gaold sat on the sofa and downed his beer. "Ahh, that hits the spot."
Arius lay on the rug while Shirone and Miro floated toys in the air and spun them.
"Hmm."
Sein at the table said to Kangnan, "We can get the numbers right in three days. The problem is manpower. How's the merchant union?"
Kangnan studied the bomb schematics. "We can get up to three hundred. But the men guarding the warehouse are armed with firearms. Is that really okay?"
"The first strike matters. Once we take the weapons warehouse, we'll have firearms too. The Tamo organization will crumble."
Miro cut in. "Dad, I have a good idea."
She'd been kept in the dark until now, but she already knew everything. Like Shirone, she said concentrating let her sense what was happening in the house.
"Don't butt in."
Still, Sein had no intention of dragging his daughter into it.
"Listen. The problem is throwing the bomb, right? The enemies shoot. So—"
Miro caught the toy Shirone tossed into the air and moved to the table. "This is the bomb."
The toy that had been slowly flying fell with a soft plop onto the table between Sein and Kangnan.
"Bang."
Sein's pupils trembled. "What do you think? If we do it like this, we can blow up the warehouse without getting shot."
Silence fell.
"Arthur." Gaold said, "This isn't kid's play. We can't fight with nothing more than moving stuff around."
Miro bristled. "What do you know, sir? You let the Tamo organization mess with you before. You don't even have the guts to fight."
Gaold drank his beer as if dodging the question. Sein asked, "Are you really not going to do anything?"
"No."
"Why?"
Gaold pointed at Shirone. "Are you two idiots? Can't you see this? You use strange powers. And you're going to throw bombs?"
"…What are you getting at?"
"A spot-the-difference. Isn't it clear which one's real by now?"
This world was false.
"If we leave the Tamo organization alone, they'll end this world. Then we'll wake up."
"That might happen. But if where you say is the real place, we'll die. And for you, reality is probably a nightmare we can't compare to."
A life writhing at the extreme edge of sensation.
"You wouldn't live a minute. It would be agonizing. You'd accept everything for a brief moment to meet Miro?"
"Yes."
Miro turned her head to Gaold. "Not just to die once… that's not what I mean. I mean everything that includes Miro. You, Kangnan, Shirone—none of this is my world."
"Gaold can't do that," Luber said.
"Pain is a measure of how clearly you feel that moment. Past pain doesn't matter. All that longing to go back becomes nothing once you face that reality."
"I see."
"The pain of reality is that it's already happened. But when you have a choice, humans never choose pain. There are cases where people push themselves into suffering for growth. But Gaold can't do that. The pain he would have to bear transcends the category of living things."
Gaold said, "So… I really don't want to care. Merchant union, city survival—whatever. Honestly, we could just leave it be. I'm not going to do anything."
Miro shouted, "I'm disappointed! You said you liked me, didn't you? But I hate cowards!"
Gaold drank his beer. "Well. Maybe if you grow up into an adult I'd consider it, but I'm not interested in a kid."
"You're an idiot! You fool! Damn you!" That night.
Late, as Sein tried to sleep at Gaold's house, he woke with a dreadful feeling.
'A damn nightmare.'
Maybe it was a common slice of reality, but Sein called that dream a nightmare.
"Are you sleeping well?"
Thinking this world was the lesser evil, Sein went to Miro's room where she slept.
And as he opened the door—
"Gaold!"
The house rang out.
Ten minutes later, Kangnan strapped cold weapons to her belt and muttered gravely, "Thirty bombs are missing."
Shirone, Miro, and Arius had gone; maybe they'd lost their minds, or become childish, or turned animalistic.
Sein, fully armed, asked, "Can you call the merchant union?"
"I don't know. I'm not sure we can assemble them right now, and besides the timing's off—"
As Kangnan tried to sheath a knife into her boot, Gaold came up and snatched it. "What are you doing?"
Instead of speaking, Gaold hurled the knife hard at the wall before them.
Thwack!
Half the blade stuck, and Sein and Kangnan scowled as they watched.
"You're the stupid one," Sein said.
"What do you mean? Miro's still young and Shirone's unstable. We need help."
"Right. Miro's gone." Remembering the feeling of wanting to kill even a god, Gaold pulled the knife free. "You approach this with soft thoughts—market economics, the survival of a city. That won't work."
Gaold turned after drawing the knife. "Do you even know what you're fighting for? Stop nagging and come. Go get them."
Kangnan—Sein realized, 'That's how it was.'
Gaold fought for himself.
'But we…' As if possessed, they had always watched his back and run this far with him.