TSBIRBV chapter 2- The return of the departed

“Close the window.”

At his mother’s words, Yegyeol pressed the button to close the car window. He felt nauseous from motion sickness but didn’t show it.

His body wasn’t in good condition because of a dream he hadn’t had in a long time.

‘No!’

Yegyeol pressed his temples as the voice of a man echoed in his mind.

Whenever he had this dream, something bad always happened. It was an unlucky dream.

Yet, Yegyeol didn’t hate the dream.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been to the East Sea. The last time was about six months ago, right?”

His father in the passenger seat smiled as he spoke. Unable to join the conversation, Yegyeol remained silent.

His parents chatted warmly about the delicious fried chicken and squid sausage they had eaten at a market and how beautiful the night sea was.

Though he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep, Yegyeol thought about pretending to close his eyes.

Since they were on a family trip to celebrate his college entrance, he didn’t want to ruin the mood.

“Hm? The road’s under construction here.”

No sooner had those words left his father’s mouth than the car violently jolted. The sound of something heavy crashing against metal reverberated in Yegyeol’s ears.

Something heavy collided repeatedly, followed by the roar of an overheated engine.

“Ahh!”

A scream tore through the air as pain surged through Yegyeol’s body. His sharpened senses absorbed every detail of his surroundings.

The smell of burning flesh and leather, the acrid scent of blood he had encountered long ago, and the stench of smoke blanketed it all.

His chest felt crushed, making it hard to breathe. With effort, he lifted his head and saw a bent hand at the driver’s seat.

His tilted vision was tinted red.

Amid the chaos, he heard someone’s voice.

“Hey, I told you not to push too hard. What if the target’s dead?”

“Are you joking? Do you think Espers are as weak as humans?”

As if to emphasize the question, a hand pried into the gap in the car door.

The sight of the metal bending like clay was surreal.

With a loud crunch, the car door was torn off, revealing the Esper on the other side.

“See, still alive.”

Their smile was sickening as they curled their lips, pleased with their handiwork.

“G-get… away…”

The stranger’s expression didn’t change. But suddenly, they reached in and grabbed Yegyeol by the hair, dragging him out with a strength that had torn off a car door.

He wanted to scream, but no sound came out.

More than the pain of his scalp being yanked, his wrists tingled painfully. The seal that had been placed on him when he first awakened was screaming within him.

Every Esper underage was bound by a seal to suppress their powers until they reached adulthood.

This was partly because proper guiding wasn’t possible and partly due to the Awakener Rights Act passed after the emergence of Espers.

Though Yegyeol was an adult now, he still had his seal intact. Despite scouring the global database of guides, he hadn’t found a matching partner.

“Are you sure the intel about him being an S-rank Esper is accurate?”

“If it turns out wrong, just cut off the guy’s head. What’s the big deal? And with the manpower shortage these days, even an A-rank would be a blessing, let alone an S-rank.”

Their chatter sounded so unreal, as if they were casually shopping at a market.

“Who… said you could… do as you please…?”

Yegyeol’s lips moved slightly.

These were the ones who killed his parents.

Why would he ever cooperate with his enemies?

His light brown eyes slowly began to turn yellow. Sparks of bright yellow electricity started to flicker from his wrist, precisely where his power was sealed.

The signs of an out-of-control Esper, something he’d only ever heard about.

It felt like he could finally unleash the power that had always been suppressed. The strength he forcefully summoned was undoubtedly beyond his control. The fate of an unrestrained Esper without a matched Guide was clear.

Nine out of ten die, and the remaining one becomes a shell of a person. And even then, if they’re deemed too dangerous, they’re disposed of.

But Yegyeol’s anger overwhelmed his reason.

“If you don’t want to die, you better control your power.”

The one who uttered the threat was wearing black gloves made of a special material.

It seemed that not only had the information about Yegyeol being S-rank leaked, but also that his ability was electrokinetic.

Even though he had only just become an adult and his abilities were sealed until a Guide was matched to him, they had come prepared.

“Think carefully. If you keep resisting, we’ll erase you right here. If scum like you survive and become government dogs, we’ll lose dozens of our own.”

The woman, with red liquid splattered on her cheek—whether it was her parents’ blood or his own, Yegyeol couldn’t tell—smiled wickedly.

From that smile, Yegyeol realized that their goal had never mattered, whether it was abduction or assassination.

“I told you, there’s a manpower shortage.”

His luck was just too rotten.

It had been his first trip with his parents.

Despite the awkward distance between them—his parents not knowing how to deal with a son who awakened as a monster at a young age—Yegyeol had finally begun to see them as family.

But to be targeted by anti-government Espers and lose them in such a pointless way…

“People die too easily. I had forgotten that.”

Yegyeol muttered. His words, devoid of any grief, sounded eerily strange.

This world had always been too peaceful for him.

Even though he had awakened as an Esper, as a minor, things like Gates, monsters, and anti-government Esper terrorists had seemed like distant matters.

He had been thoroughly protected.

Electricity crackled along the black band on his wrist, burning his skin as if it had been seared.

He could hear the woman gripping his collar cursing in a language he couldn’t understand.

As his vision burned white, lightning struck where they stood.

Once, twice, and then repeatedly.

“He’s out of control!”

The attacker, realizing their captive was out of control, flung Yegyeol’s body away. With a loud crash, he slammed into the car’s body.

Instead of Yegyeol, the car’s engine screamed. The electricity that had spread throughout his body was the cause.

Smoke and flames began to rise, obscuring Yegyeol’s vision. Something sticky dripped down, soaking his eyelids. But Yegyeol stubbornly tracked the shadows of the attackers with his gaze.

Lightning sparked from his outstretched, trembling hand.

“Guh!”

A faint, pained groan reached his ears. A slow smile crept onto Yegyeol’s lips.

The electricity chasing after them was burning not only his enemies but also Yegyeol’s own flesh, yet he didn’t care.

More important than the pain was resisting the heavy sleep threatening to close his eyes.

This wouldn’t last much longer. The flames closing in as the engine was about to explode were creeping closer.

Death was already at his throat.

‘So much for living longer this time.’

Ironically, at the last moment, Yegyeol didn’t think of his parents’ faces.

It was the face of a man who had always appeared in his dreams.

Dressed in a torn oriental uniform, sword in hand, the man called out to Yegyeol.

‘No! Yegyeol!’

If I die, will I be reborn again this time?

That was Yegyeol’s final thought before he drifted off into unconsciousness.

“Gasp!”

Yegyeol woke with a rough intake of breath. Like a fish pulled out of the dark depths of the sea and left to gasp for air on land, he struggled to breathe.

Whether his vocal cords had been damaged, even his screams and groans were deathly silent.

Propping himself up, he lifted his head and looked around.

He was certain he had died on the highway, yet here he was by a fog-covered riverbank. Or was it just his vision that was foggy?

Everything was a blur, yet the scenery felt oddly familiar.

Even with his compromised sight, the pain was sharp and clear.

It was as if an invisible hand was carving into his flesh with a scalpel, every moment his skin prickling painfully.

The fire that had exploded in the engine must have transferred into his body.

The next thing to find him was a ringing in his ears.

The noise of the car skidding, his parents’ screams, and the casual conversation of the attackers mixed together with the threats hurled at him, all scrambling his mind.

If this was the aftermath of going berserk, then maybe the government’s ‘disposal’ of surviving Espers was actually the more humane option.

‘Those bastards, they’re still alive, right?’

The thought that suddenly popped into his mind made Yegyeol bite his lip. He had no idea how lethal his power was since this was his first time using it.

But despite the possibility that he might have killed someone with his own hands, Yegyeol felt no guilt.

He couldn’t help but think that his sense of morality was far too shallow for a 21st-century Korean.

The instructor at the Center had drilled into them that while it might be acceptable to kill monsters from the Gates, harming people was off-limits, but that seemed to have been for nothing.

Then again, Yegyeol had memories of living in a lawless world that was far more brutal than South Korea.

‘It does look a bit like the scenery I saw back then.’

Trying to distract himself from the pain, Yegyeol’s attention turned to his surroundings, and he froze.

A shadow had appeared in a place that had been empty just moments before.

‘An attacker?’

The thought crossed his mind, but Yegyeol shook his head. The silhouette was too billowing.

More importantly, just as the landscape had felt strangely familiar, so too did this figure.

“Who, who are you?”

His voice sounded like a witch who had swallowed a frog.

It was horrid even to his own ears; what must it have sounded like to the other person?

Breathing was becoming increasingly difficult, as if his lungs were filling with water. As Yegyeol coughed, he suddenly spat out blood.

The pain, identical each time, repeated itself dozens, hundreds of times over.

Yegyeol instinctively knew that it would continue until the moment he died.

This wasn’t just a typical berserk episode.

The aftereffects of forcing his power out of its seal were tearing Yegyeol apart.

“…Ugh.”

Clutching his chest, struggling to breathe, darkness suddenly fell around him.

It wasn’t because he had lost his sight. The silhouette that had been standing some distance away had stepped closer.

“Kill… kill me…”

Yegyeol managed to grab hold of the figure’s garment, pleading.

Whoever they were, if they could end his pain, he would be indebted to them for life.

The situation would be different if he could receive guidance, but it was impossible to find the matched Guide he had been searching for since his awakening over a decade ago in the middle of this wasteland.

“Please… have mercy.”

When a blood-soaked person begs for death, most people would flee, but the figure did not shy away from Yegyeol’s wretched state.

“…Yegyeol?”

A cold voice called his name.

As the person’s hand cradled Yegyeol’s face and lifted it, his cloudy eyes widened.

The ringing in his head ceased, and the searing pain that had been cutting into his skin subsided. Even the fire coursing through his veins slowly began to calm.

It was like a breeze soothing raging waves, like rain falling on a barren land, and at the same time, it was a miracle that had come at the most unexpected moment.

A single tear slid down Yegyeol’s blood- and dirt-streaked cheek.

‘A Guide…’