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1: Boy Meets Evil
JUNG HOSEOK CATCHES the wispy tail end of a silvery aura from afar and immediately leaps from his perch at the corner ledge of the abandoned Management building. He has always used his lithe build to his advantage, but right now, as he dashes from rooftop to rooftop in his beat-up trainers, joints protesting, he wonders if he should take up Kang-sunbaenim’s offer to bulk up on some muscle at the downtown gym.
Not that he needs it – not really – but recent nights have proven rather troublesome for the guild. The most action he’d seen as a freshman was Seokjin’s fiery dispersal of migratory insect-type chimeras that had found nest in the university’s Museum for Biological Specimen, and even that had not taken more than an hour. Not that his hyung’s elemental show of force wasn’t impressive to Hoseok every time it happened now, but with the influx of new students this academic year, the frequency and virulence of beasts that had been spawning at hand were far too close, too cutthroat, and way too common for anyone’s liking.
In fact, right this moment, Hoseok was gunning after what was his fifth specter-type beast of the week. Jimin, his charming dongsaeng, hadn’t been prepared to deal with mana-draining bats the night of his first campus bonfire but he’d had do that alone (and the loss of Jimin’s Off-White™ cap during the fisticuffs had since been a touchy subject for the boy), and Taehyung, frequently unlucky, had been encountering mutated fiends during his trek back to the dormitory from his night classes since the current semester began.
So Hoseok hunts. He idles for hours, stalking potential trouble, keeping gaunt creatures in his sights and senses despite the worsening metropolitan fog.
This one, though… It stays in the confines of the university. Closing in on its macabre presence, Hoseok notes its lucent, rotting, claw-like limbs in better detail. Sparse ashen hair caked in mud… Hollow eye sockets... But what really keeps him at bay is the threat of its bone-chilling screeches: it could be calling out to more of its kind – dormant, nearby, just lurking in the shadows.
There was no other way to put it: Seoul National University had finally become spawning grounds for the Accursed, and Jeon Jungkook, their youngest guild member, felt personally liable.
“I’m so sorry, hyungs,” the maknae had apologized out of nowhere in the middle of dinner, entirely cheerless, catching them all by surprise. Not even the mountainous pile of his favorite Chinese takeout had livened the poor freshman. “I should’ve just stayed in Busan.”
Despite their own fatigue, Namjoon and Yoongi sobered up and admonished Jungkook right then and there. Yes, it was true the arrival of a demigod who had just come-of-age could contribute to mana pollution, but—
“—the Accursed aren’t tied to you, Jungkook-ah,” Yoongi had said firmly. “And who’s to say the flux isn’t due to any of the other guilds’ newcomers?”
Nodding sagely in agreement, Namjoon shared his thoughts aloud: “I myself have considered that this isn’t just a matter of who’s here and how many. SNU used to have over fifty guilds in its vicinity before, worse than the mishmash of sorcerers and demigods it has now, but never had it experienced a Reckoning as unprecedented as this. So don’t blame yourself.”
“And you are Shrouded by me, Kook-ah,” Seokjin had supplied comfortingly from the end of the table, passing their youngest a bowl of almond jelly. “Have faith in hyung’s magick. I would never have encouraged you to come here if I didn’t think I could look after you.”
Jungkook quieted after that, but Jimin couldn’t help himself. Out of them all he was most affected by the septicity in the air.
“Should we do a cleansing?” Jimin prodded, setting his chopsticks aside.
“This is still manageable. Rituals require too much. Just keep safe, keep Bangtan out of trouble.” Namjoon replied evenly. “Twice had to file a term leave for Jeongyeon, you know. She still hasn’t fully recovered.”
Taehyung’s brows pushed together. “The empath? The one that stumbled upon the orc horde at the parking lot?” Namjoon gave a curt nod. “Damn.”
“I can drop by the university hospital and give her a few bottles of homebrewed tonic,” Seokjin offered. “Eomma sent over a lot this time.”
“That’s a great idea, hyung. I’m sure Jihyo would appreciate it.” Namjoon encouraged, then turned back to the rest of his peers, declaring: “Now that other university guilds have stopped pointing fingers, people are starting to agree… This Reckoning has to be some sort of call from the Abyss.”
Ah, shit. Hoseok winced hard. “A freeborn?”
Frowning, Jungkook muttered, “But that means…”
“The Accursed aren’t here to wreak havoc. They’re here because they can smell power,” Jimin breathed out in realization. “Power they can corrupt.”
And that was all it had taken for Hoseok.
Sometimes he wishes he wasn’t so responsible. That he didn’t stretch himself thin juggling course requisites, attending rigorous dance practices, taking over whichever of his hyungs’ night patrol shifts he could just because he could see how drained they were about the spawns lately. Prelims hell week was coming soon, none of his class notes were in order, and he really wishes it wasn’t in his innate, moral nature to exorcise the hell out of this wraith.
But. But.
Like an idiot, the wraith had mindlessly crept into his guild’s territory of Seouldae, and then right into the trap he’d set up at a nearby parking lot. He’d spent the early hours of the evening drawing sigils and dousing rotten pork with deviled vinegar as bait, and the entire ordeal had been foul to his own nose, but clearly it had been time very well spent.
Because once upon a time, Jung Hoseok had been a freeborn, too. Un-guilded, un-awakened, unknowing. Unclaimed power seeping from his bones. Dealing with monsters and curses only he seemed to see, chased out of his own hometown at thirteen, the only reason he’d been able to get back on track to attending university – to having a life – was because he’d been found and saved from near-death by a certain busybody named Kim Seokjin.
Hoseok can’t imagine how he would have survived if he hadn’t crossed paths with Bangtan at the age he did. He certainly had the scars to prove it. But somebody out here in Seouldae, an actual freeborn, made it to their twenties, alone – alive – and that meant somebody out here was just like him once.
Hopeless.
As a matter of principle, Hoseok wouldn’t let any of the Accursed find this freeborn. Those filthy faces… Their wicked hands… All too sorry fucking excuses for bones and flesh.
Hoseok would send them all back to the depths of the Abyss.
Starting with this goddamn wraith.