Novels are inherently structured to present a biased perspective.
In first-person narratives, you can't read other characters' emotions, and even in third-person, since events revolve around the protagonist, you never truly understand the entire world.
The funny thing is, since information about monsters hostile to the protagonist is often included, you can learn quite a bit about them, even if not everything.
I used to think monsters weren't worth knowing about—just obstacles to be eliminated. But after the story took a bad ending, I couldn't help but think about them.
So for someone like me who had pondered countless times what these beings wanted and why they did what they did, these "Strange Ones" weren't mysterious entities.
But what good was knowing all that?
Most of my solutions were based on "if I were the protagonist" or "if I were Yoon Ha-min, I would have done this"—just mental exercises that couldn't help me escape my current situation.
Powerless and incompetent, I could only endure.
"...hic."
The Strange One gritted her teeth, apparently annoyed.
Until now, she had giggled while mutilating me, claiming she found me interesting. Now she was angry because I kept refusing to believe her. The irony was absurd.
Was she genuinely upset that I wouldn't listen this time?
If so, it was no different from the boy who cried wolf getting angry when no one believed him the third time when he was telling the truth. Who would believe him?
"Do I look like I'm constantly lying to you?!"
"Guhk, nngh..."
With a crunch, she kicked me in the stomach, and I felt like I'd been hit by a car.
My internal organs seemed to twist. I felt like vomiting, and a crushing pain enveloped my entire body.
Saliva dripped from my mouth as I gasped, but I had no time to wipe it away. I was too busy trying to regain my senses.
"How can I make you happier? How can I make you more desperate? Killing you might be what you want..."
The Strange One seemed to want more concentrated reactions and emotional changes from a single person, showing incredible meticulousness with just me. I wasn't sure whether to call it impressive or insane when her hand entered my mouth.
I instinctively tried to bite down, but she didn't care—she yanked out a tooth right there.
It came out so easily I was shocked, and the connected nerves screamed in pain.
"Huuuuh!? Huuuuh! Huuuuh!"
All I could do was thrash with my shoulder blades. At best, I could only squirm like a maggot on the floor, posing no threat to her.
She had pulled out one of my lower teeth.
Blood began flowing freely, filling my mouth.
"Aia! Aia..."
Yet her hand remained in my mouth, so I had to beg desperately. Despite how easily the tooth had come out, the pain brought tears to my eyes.
The throbbing continued as the Strange One punched me in the face.
"Shut up."
Her previously playful expression and tone were gone, replaced by a sharp voice accompanying her fist.
I think my nose broke. It felt distorted. A stinging sensation made breathing difficult. Blood flowed from my nose into my mouth.
"Urk, uuugh."
"I'll send you back. But if you interfere with me again, I'll make you experience something more painful than this. I've memorized your face and your eyes. If you interfere like this again, I'll make you experience stronger emotions than this time."
Crack—another tooth was pulled out.
I realized for the first time how immobile a human body can be without limbs. No matter how much I struggled with my head and torso, I could only writhe on the floor.
The teeth being crushed and pulled from my gums gave me sharp, excruciating pain.
How was I supposed to live after this?
I wanted to scream, to demand why she would mutilate someone like this and then let them go. But since my opponent was a Strange One, I expected her answer would simply be "because I'm a Strange One." I was just furious with the injustice of it all.
"I... won't do it again... please..."
With two teeth already pulled out, and because of the pain, my pronunciation was slurred.
I only had one chance anyway. This was the end of my attempt to stop whatever event was happening. From now on, I wouldn't do anything to upset the Strange One.
So I begged.
I was about to beg her not to pull any more teeth when the Strange One hummed and then curled her lips into a smile.
"Hmm, I like how submissive you are. But your eyes don't seem dead yet."
When I heard those words, my eyes widened.
One, two, three...
Realizing I had twenty-eight teeth, I began to cry.
Why wouldn't she just kill me instead of doing this? I was going crazy from the torment.
"Uwa, aah..."
With all my teeth gone, I felt like even my jaw structure had become distorted.
"Hehe, hehehehe, hehehe. You're cute. Like a doll. I could cuddle with you while sleeping? Though feeding you would be annoying, and dealing with waste would be a hassle."
After stroking my body repeatedly, she seemed to lose interest. She picked me up, stared at me for a while, laughed, and then dropped me to the floor.
With a thud, I hit the ground and squeezed my eyes shut in agony.
"Ugh!"
As I groaned with my face pressed to the floor, I felt her foot stomping on my head.
"I wonder what I should cut off next time."
Hearing those words, I broke into a cold sweat from fear.
What more could she possibly cut off? I was terrified.
Would she remove my internal organs while I was still alive?
"It won't hurt."
"Ai, haia..."
With all my teeth gone, my pronunciation was so slurred I couldn't speak properly.
"Aah, aaaah! Uwaaa!"
*
A day later, students who hadn't been in contact finally managed to communicate through their parents.
There were various reasons—fleeing far away, device malfunctions, and so on.
So most students were accounted for, but one was still missing.
"...Kanna?"
I turned my head reflexively.
But of course, she wasn't there.
Despite the monster invasion, the area had been quickly restored, and anyone who wasn't injured should have returned promptly. But Kanna hadn't.
She wasn't out on a hero practicum—she should have just been taking shelter within the Academy.
Only Kanna had disappeared.
Occasionally, rumors circulated that she had taken the opportunity to run away since she was always at the bottom of the class.
Sometimes, people suggested she had made a pessimistic choice.
In this meritocracy, being at the bottom of the pyramid made one nothing but prey.
It bothered me how blatantly this was being pointed out.
"...This is too much, no matter what."
I muttered this, but I knew I had no right to speak.
I had thought she wasn't really related to me, and I even assumed she would be fine on her own, so I had been among the bystanders.
Perpetrators and bystanders—to Kanna, we probably all looked the same, so I had nothing to say.
But once I started caring, I couldn't stop, and I became anxious for no reason.
I worried that Kanna might really be dead.
Being Wednesday, exams continued.
After finishing the exam and receiving my grades, I quickly left the Academy.
"Yoon Ha-min! Where are you going in such a hurry?"
Orca followed behind me and asked.
I hesitated.
"...Kanna is missing..."
"Do you know where she went...?"
"No, I don't."
I sighed involuntarily.
I didn't even know why I was rushing when I had no clues.
Orca looked around for a moment, then finally gazed at me.
"...If you want to find someone, I can mobilize people from my family."
"..."
Orca's offer was tempting.
I wondered if we needed to go that far, but then I thought we might not find her otherwise, and I groaned.
"Then, would you do that for me?"
"Alright."
Orca said this and contacted someone through her device.
Watching her for a moment, I looked around.
She wouldn't have been trampled by monsters. And she certainly wouldn't have been eaten.
So where could she have gone? I kept worrying.
I had things I wanted to say to her, questions I wanted to ask.
The worst possibility crossed my mind—that she had made a pessimistic choice about her life. But I shook my head, thinking such thoughts would only bring bad luck.
"I'll start looking around here."
"...Ah, okay. I've contacted them, so they should find her quickly if she can be found."
At Orca's words, I nodded and headed toward the bus stop.
First, I went to where the monster had reportedly appeared.
Of course, I couldn't find Kanna there.
I was looking around assuming she had been taken by a monster or Strange One, but I wasn't even sure if that was correct, so I kept feeling like I was going in circles.
"Kanna... where on earth did you go?"
Everyone else in the class was accounted for, but she alone had disappeared, leaving her device behind so we couldn't contact her.
I wondered if there was any point in searching like this.
It felt like I was looking for a totem, like Kanna had claimed she was doing.
It seemed absurd to be searching around the Wall when I wasn't even looking for a totem.
So what was the result again?
Kanna said she had seen and resolved it herself, but I didn't believe her.
I absentmindedly looked up.
Was it like finding a totem? Would I find her if I just kept looking?
Even though I didn't know if she was there or not?
How long would it take? One day, two days, three days, four days, five days.
How much time would I need to spend?
"This is frustrating."
I didn't want to chase after uncertainties.
But when I thought about needing to find her, I walked on, wishing she was there despite the uncertainty.
Before, when Kanna was beside me, I just went along with things, but now I felt lonely and bitter for some reason.
A day passed. Two days passed.
Days flowed by meaninglessly until finally four days had gone by.
After spending all of Sunday searching without any progress, I suddenly felt like my surroundings were familiar. When I looked around, I remembered Kanna pointing to this place, saying her totem had been here.
I smiled wryly.
I told you that you won, but in the end, I couldn't believe you—I felt somewhat disgusted with myself. As I was about to call myself a repulsive person with that bitter smile, a figure caught my eye.
It was someone walking unsteadily.
Was this how Kanna felt when searching for her totem?
If it really existed, this must have been how she felt.
"...Kanna!"
Empty eyes followed mine.
Her staggering steps collapsed, and her body fell to the ground.
I ran to her and embraced her.
"Kanna...!"
Without saying anything, she looked at me and then closed her eyes.