BBS (81)

Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost

 

〈Chapter 81〉
 

As the trap activated, the hunter who laid down the trap naturally had to appear. They heard the footsteps of several people quickly coming towards them. Between whispered words, very sharp laughter rang out clearly.

“Hahaha! At last, I caught it.”

“That’s amazing, taoist-nim. You’ve at last captured the legendary moon rabbit!”

“The things that deceived the eyes and ears of those stupid bastards are nothing. We should quickly cut their stomach and took out the neidan before anyone gets their eyes on them.”

“Wait a moment, taoist-nim. The neidan won’t go anywhere, so why don’t we skin them first? If there are cut marks on the skin, the price will drop significantly.”

“You’re worrying about nothing. Then we can just skin them alive!”

“Alive? Aigoo, taoist-nim. How are You going to skin it alive when it thrashes left and right?”

“You know nothing! The moon rabbits are famous for their deep love for their partners. If you point a knife to one of the pair, saying you will kill it, they won’t rebel even if you skin them alive, that’s what all books say. Even if they’re wrong, I wanted to at least try it.”

The taoist and his gang were chatting without holding back, like they already put their hands on the moon rabbits.

“Ah, those crazy bastard, really!”

Yu Dan’s face twisted. He sometimes felt it when watching things like news, but the human’s cruelty was different from ghosts and yokai’s cruelty, it had something disgusting in it.

“I don’t know any book that say anything like that at all.”

Baek Ran was also frowning. Other yokai didn’t say anything. Their faces were turning red and pale.

“Cheonho-nim, we’re going to just leave those bastards alone?”

“Sister, calm down. We’re only spectators in this world, remember?”

“Right, unnie. We’re completely useless, even if we step forward.”

The trees and bushes shook slightly, and at last they appeared. Behind the taoist, with disheveled graying black hair, followed a group of ruffians with bamboo spears. They were about to head towards the traps with a mirth, when they halted in their tracks — faced with an unexpected sight.

“No, what is that?! What are those petty things swarming like this? You dare to stride into the human world without knowing your place? Truly arrogant monsters you are!”

The taoist shouted. The face of the middle-aged dokkaebi started to turn red and pale again.

“You, you know what you’re saying?”

“The moods of the listening monsters are very bad, eh!”

Heuk-yo pushed aside Do-ssi and stepped forward. With a face, that seemed to be made out of ice, the blue eyes flashed with a dangerous glint.

The taoist gang momentarily shrank back under her murderous aura.

“This monster bitch! Do you know what you’re daring to do?!”

“I know very well. Whether I envelop this place in icy winds, or cross my arms and watch, nothing will change. I’m just wasting my strength. So if I was reasonable, I should stay quiet, but you bastards are really testing the limits of my patience! Take this moon rabbit out, when I’m talking nicely!”

The taoist gang burst out laughing like there was something absurd about it.

“Now I see! You’ve gone mad, eh! Some weak girl has picked up some old sword and is acting out, aren’t ya!?”

Heuk-yo turned her head and looked at her own group.

“Cheonho-nim, I tried to hold back. Really.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Then it’s done.”

His vision flashed. He thought Heuk-yo was pulling out her sword, but in the next moment she was aiming for the taoist’s neck. Powerful winds, which picked up when she flung her body a moment ago, swept everyone a step after her.

The taoist’s eyes opened wide.

“This monster bitch!”

He held up a circular metal board with a yin-yang symbol against the blade enveloped with the terrifying energy, and blocked it with a clang.

“You must have known that everyone, your gang included, will be all slowly skinned alive by this taoist-nim! But you can’t wait and are getting impatient, huh! Everyone catch this bitch!”

“Yes!”

Everyone pounced, swinging their bamboo spears. In a second, Heuk-yo was surrounded. Do-ssi looked at them with a sour face.

“Kids-ah. You don’t have weapons, right?”

“Yes. We didn’t pack anything.”

“We didn’t expect it would be this genre.”

The three sighed, and jumped into the fray. Do-ssi hit the villagers’ head with a fan and the twins were using bare hands techniques to snatch the bamboo spears.

What should he do?

Yu Dan hastily took after them. But something was not right.

The people were darting around like lightning, and bamboo spears brought storm-like winds. They looked like experts from martial arts movies. The taoist was almost a god. Even Heuk-yo’s terrible sword bounced off a few times.

If he joined in, would he even be able to pick up his bones together?

His feet instinctively stepped back, and obediently turned around to Baek Ran.

“What the hell is this place? Wasn’t it an ordinary mountain village?”

“It’s indeed an ordinary town.”

“Then why is everyone so powerful? Look, even the serpent yokai is getting pushed back! They’re going to conquer the world like this! Just like that!”

“They probably won’t be able to conquer the world. They aren’t that powerful in reality, they are only powerful against us. In this world, we’re impurities that cut in for a moment. We’re weaker than bugs in this world.”

He gaped at the fox’s words.

“That’s a scam!”

“You said that. By cutting in, we’re committing a scam.”

Baek Ran struck down again with a ‘clang’ and hit it with lightning. It felt like his eardrums ripped, and his eyes went blind. However, even then, the trap remained intact, not a single corner broken.

“Now it’s certain.”

Baek Ran lowered his hand.

“This trap was never broken in the past.”

“Then what should we do?”

Yu Dan looked at the male rabbit. He was restless, but hearing the fox’s words, he bowed his head.

“I guess that’s really it. But that’s too much. We didn’t do anything wrong. I guess I was born as a moon rabbit for some sin and have to watch my wife die a horrible death at the hands of those cruel humans.”

No, wait. Did they cross the Milky Way to watch this?

As he turned to look at the twins, he saw the children fight like madmen. A few of the taoist’s gang members shook off the twins and were running towards them.

“Leave them alone! Grab those moon rabbits first!”

Out of panic, the female rabbit slammed her whole body into the trap again, trying to break it. But of course, it was no use.

“It won’t work. Honey, You run.”

“Where can I go without you! If we die, we die together!”

The two rabbits grasped each other’s front paws through the iron bars and quivered.

Yu Dan’s heart sunk. It felt like he was standing before an enormous wall. No matter what they did, they couldn’t change the events that already happened. That was a truly hateful story. But even if they said that, what he hated even more was not doing anything.

At that moment, he had an idea.

Yu Dan suddenly picked up the trap. The soil and grass, which the taoist’s gang covered it up with to mask it, fluttered down.

“If we can’t break it, we can just take it and bolt!”

Baek Ran looked at him in absurd.

“Say it however many times You want, but can You flee?”

“I don’t know! Please hold them back!”

He grabbed the male rabbit, who was dangling from the trap and blindly ran forward. The taoist’s gang shrieked.

“Taoist-nim! That strange yokai is stealing the moon rabbits!”

“No!”

The taoist pushed back Heuk-yo and swung the yin-yang metal plate.

“… Be quick as the law!” [1]

As he shouted the spell, a pitch-black giant rose from the ground. The moment it formed, it instantly swung its foot.

Peuk!

Yu Dan tumbled down with the trap and male rabbit in arms. It was so huge, so how could it be so fast? Without giving him a chance to think, the giant raised its foot high again. His face turned white.

He was going to be flat like a sheet of paper.

In that second, he had a thought.

The moment it came, the dokkaebi horn appeared in his hands right away. Just when the enormous shadow covered Yu Dan.

“Aack!”

The rabbit pair screamed. Just when they were about to be flattened by the giant, Yu Dan hurriedly swung his hand.

The giant’s foot shook in shock.

Alright!

Yu Dan’s eyes flashed, as he looked at the giant. But the brilliance in his eyes disappeared fast.

No?

The giant remained in good health. Nothing happened. No. Something did happen. The space around the giant strangely twisted and a gap like a black stare appeared on its boundaries.

Ah, damn.

He was too late to realize.

Before he could do anything, his body was sucked in. He plunged somewhere dizzily, landing with a thud.

Yu Dan quickly scrabbled up.

He looked around, but it was just all dark and dark. His heart raced.

Perhaps some kind of side effect occurred, because of the strange power contained in the ancient dokkaebi’s horn — the space twisted and he was thrown into a strange place. Taking out the moon rabbits, it was just him.

“Where is it!? Where is everyone!?”

He shouted, but there was only silence.

Should he just let himself be trampled instead? He was so confused and bewildered, that he had such a thought. The air felt completely different and much heavier. He walked mindlessly, while looking around, when he noticed a blinding light ahead. Yu Dan quickly approached.

“Is this it? Is it?”

His running feet came to halt.

The ‘it’ was not a yokai. It was some child walking, dragging some kind of animal wrapped in cloth. The blinding light Yu Dan saw was coming from under the cloth.

The child glanced at him, hearing footsteps. Yu Dan asked.

“Where is it?”

“Where is it? It’s Sillim.”

A calm answer.

Looking closely, the child was a mess. His hair was disheveled, his face was wounded, and his clothes were ripped here and there. It didn’t seem like a situation where you should leisurely walk and inform other people of the location. But the only person around was this child. Yu Dan followed the child.

Sillim — was it an old Sillim neighborhood?

The surrounding scenery slowly entered his eyes. It was a forest bathed in moonlight. Giant trees lined up, and wet moss sparkled with night dew. How the hell long was it?

“That’s really bad. How did I end up here? How am I going to return?”

“You’re awfully loud.”

The child stopped in his tracks again. He looked around the darkness.

“Isn’t that perhaps where you came from?”

“Where?”

He looked where the child pointed into the darkness.

At last, he saw it. Between the trunks of enormous trees, he saw a piece of the Milky Way. The stars were swirling with darkness.

“Ah, is it? Thanks!”

He thanked him, and was just about to turn around, when the snout of the animal stuck out from under the cloth. He thought it was a deer, but it wasn’t. A single horn sprouted on a head resembling a dragon. Yu Dan was shocked.

“Is that a qilin?”

“How did you know? This one is ‘qi’. Mom.”

“Mom?”

“They’re called Mowalqi(牡曰麒) and Biwollin(牝曰麟)[2]. Mom is qi. Dad is lin. The pups don’t have a mom, so I stole it to give it to them.”

Yu Dan was speechless for a moment.

How can you so confidently say that you stole something? He did all kinds of things when he was young, but he never stole anything.

Really, what period was that?

“Ah, right. You’re working hard.”

Yu Dan turned around and ran. He jumped into the Milky Way sweeping between the trunks of giant trees, but he glanced back.

The child was staring at him. His two eyes shining strangely.

What?

He had no opportunity to think about it. The tumultuous winds snatched him up and flipped him around.

“Uncle-ssi! Here!”

Chaeseol was hastily grabbing the male rabbit, who tumbled before her eyes.

“Hold tight!”

Chaeu dodged, and hugged the trap holding the female rabbit.

Those were night mountains. It was the place where he was almost trampled by the giant’s foot. He came back, huh? He was so relieved, he almost teared up.

“Yu Dan are you okay? You screamed so loudly.”

“I-I’m fine.”

Yu Dan awkwardly replied.

But what situation did he return to?

He looked around to check, when the sky sparkled with strange brilliance. Looking behind him, the form of the giant the taoist summoned cracked and scattered in all directions. In the middle of it, stuck Baek Ran’s spear.

“No, that fox bastard!”

The taoist jumped high.

It seemed that in the brief moment he fell into that strange place, the time here didn’t move much. The giant, who tried to trample Yu Dan and the moon rabbits, was split by Baek Ran’s spear, and the twins were running quickly, throwing their bodies around. No one noticed Yu Dan’s short disappearance. He could just think he was enormously lucky. Something really bad almost happened. If that child didn’t tell him the way…

But who was it?

He was really really strange. He wanted to think about it more before he forgot, but someone shook Yu Dan.

“Quick! Run, while Cheonho-nim is buying time!”

Do-ssi pointed at the trap.

“Ah, okay.”

Somehow, the trap that locked the female rabbit, felt much heavier than before. Yu Dan joined forces with Do-ssi and quickly lifted the trap.

Heuk-yo ran ahead, cutting all the branches and clearing the way. The twins hugged the male rabbit and ran behind them. The female rabbit closed her eyes tightly, as she pressed against the iron bars.

“Sorry. Because of us… I’m really thankful.”

Yu Dan shook his head.

No matter how they struggled, the past couldn’t change. He had no idea what they were doing. He felt like they were riding a car driving off a cliff. Even so, he felt that everyone would combine their powers and do their hardest to somehow control it to the end. That’s what it meant to push a boulder[3], right?

“Ack!”

Heuk-yo, who was running ahead, clearing the way, halted.

The mountain slop ended and what they saw in front of them was briskly flowing river. Dawn was shining on the horizon.

Baek Ran suddenly appeared.

“I escaped too. Now what should we do?”

They heard screams behind them. It seemed that the taoist gang was descending from the mountain. Yu Dan spoke urgently:

“We can’t let them be snatched like this. Even if they were snatched in the past, we can’t let them be snatched.”

“What nonsense are You spouting?”

“There is a boat!”

The twins jumped and shouted.

Everyone ran in that direction. To the riverbank was tied an old ferryboat, rocking on the waves. They quickly climbed into it, untied the rope, grabbed the long poles and pushed them against the river banks with all their might.

The small ferryboat followed the motion of the river. Pushing with the poles against the river bed, they flew into the middle of the vast river.

“Stop right there!”

The taoist and the people shouted.
 
*~*~*
 
[1] “… Be quick as the law!” — 急急如律令, a phrase taoists, shamans and etc often end their spells with.

[2] Mowalqi(牡曰麒) and Biwollin(牝曰麟) — So Mowalqi means ‘Male called Qi(Qilin)’, Biwolgi means ‘Female called Lin(Qilin)’.

[3] push a boulder — in raws ‘shoveling’.
 

Translator’s note: Flash news! The highschooler yokai stole the moon rabbits!

 

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