BXBX NOVEL Chapter 139: Star-forsaken Land (1)
“Kugh!”
A blunt force impacted his belly.
With his body snapped into the shape of the letter V, he saw Ha-eun on top of his stomach once he opened his eyes.
It was hard to decide where to look, as she was wearing dolphin shorts that fully exposed her thighs and a baggy white T-shirt.
“Wh-What is it?”
Ohjin confirmed the time using the phone he’d placed next to his pillow with a surprised expression.
The time was 5:38AM.
It was before the sun had even risen.
“Hehe! We’ll miss the airport bus if we dawdle!!” Ha-eun shouted as if she was a grade-schooler on the day before a picnic.
Ohjin looked up at her with a dumbfounded expression.
“The flight is at 12PM, what are you talking about?”
“Heh, you know nothing! Everyone misses their flight like that!”
“Damn it, there are reasonable limits to everything.”
Ha-eun was making a fuss when there were still over six hours left until the flight.
“Anyways! Stop the small talk, and hurry up and get prepared!” she shouted as she forcefully stole his blanket and threw it far away.
Ohjin sighed like it couldn’t be helped and tried to raise his torso up.
“Ah, wait.”
“Hm?”
She had told him to hurry up and get prepared moments ago, but she suddenly pressed down on his chest with her hands when he was trying to.
Once he tilted his head and looked up at her, he could see that she was hesitating with her cheeks heating up.
“What’s wrong?”
“J-Just wait a second, man. I need to brace myself.”
‘Brace herself?’
“Fuu. Alright.”
Ha-eun gulped as she took deep breaths with her hand on top of his chest. Positioned on top of him, she slowly lowered her back and gently made contact with Ohjin’s lips.
“Mmh.”
—Hair that tickled his cheeks.
Breathing from his nose, he could feel an unbelievably smooth sensation from his lips that touched hers.
“Fua!”
Ha-eun broke off of Ohjin as she exhaled the breath she’d held onto.
She looked away, avoiding Ohjin’s gaze, and hesitantly opened her mouth as she fiddled with the tip of her index fingers.
“M-Morning kiss…”
“…”
‘Haha… where did she learn these cunning tricks?’
Adding in some exaggeration, his heart beat like it was going to crush his ribs and jump out.
He thought that there wouldn’t be many events that would cause his heart to palpitate because they’d become lovers after being together for such a long period of time, but as if mocking him for having those kinds of thoughts, his heart beat uncontrollably to every physical display of affection.
‘Others would puke, saying that it’s cringe, but…’
So what?
Even if it was cringe-worthy and embarrassing, he felt so happy that he could die.
“Ha-eun.”
“Uh, yeah?”
Ha-eun glanced at Ohjin as she turned her head around.
As if the sunlight that hadn’t fully risen yet was beaming into the room, the air started to heat up.
While slowly extending his hand out and gently stroking her face, he opened his mouth.
“You’re heavy.”
“You fucker.”
Ha-eun’s expression suddenly distorted.
“Learn to read the room…!”
Her ferocious fists struck his chest.
Even while feeling the radiating pain in his chest, he exploded out into laughter.
He was happy.
To the point his brain was melting…
To the extent his tongue had numbed…
-Be careful of the Snakes.
Cheon Sanggil’s warning ominously crossed his mind.
“…”
He gently grabbed Ha-euns arms as she was grumbling and hitting his chest.
So that the warmth in his hands… wouldn’t stray off to an unknown place.
* * *
“The airport! So this is the Incheon International Airport that I’ve always heard about!!”
Ha-eun’s eyes sparkled as she looked around like some country bumpkin that’d come to Seoul for the first time.
“Ohjin! Ohjin! This place is reaaaaaally damn massive!”
“…Ha-eun.”
‘Please stop, you’re embarrassing me.’
“Wow, to think that a day where we go on an overseas trip would come! Indeed, you really never know where you’ll end up in life!”
Well, back in the orphanage days, they would’ve never imagined that they would go on an overseas trip together like that.
“I told you, it’s not a trip. Ah, did you bring your translation device?”
“Of course! I’ve had it equipped since this morning!”
Ohjin smiled and confirmed the ticket for the flight he’d reserved.
‘It would be more comfortable if we went through the sanctum, but…’
Unfortunately, they couldn’t go to Japan through the sanctum because there wasn’t any leading to Japan in the first place.
‘Did they call it… the Star-forsaken Land?’
It was an insult people used when they mocked Japan, where sanctums didn’t exist.
‘Though it’s just that they don’t have access to the sanctum. It’s not that they don’t have Awakeners.’
Although it wasn’t certain if that was the cause, Japan stood out for having a small number of Awakeners.
Even if there were Awakeners, the vast majority of them were at a low star rank. Not a single high-rank Awakener above or at the 9-Star rank existed in the entirety of Japan.
‘Which is probably why it’s been overrun by the Hippocampus faction that is ranked the lowest in the Black Star Organization.’
According to the information obtained from Cheon Doyoon, the Hippocampus faction’s forces were so weak that they would pale in comparison to the Noctua faction.
The difference was clear just by the fact that the one called the King of Seahorses, ‘Kusanagi Sosuke’, was ranked 7th out of the Executors of the Black Star Organization and was an 8-Star Awakener.
‘The difference between someone being a 9-Star or not is heaven and earth.’
He had become certain of that as he had witnessed Ha-eun recently becoming a 9-Star Awakener.
‘In any case, he’ll be the best prey.’
If Kusanagi Sosuke was a 9-Star Awakener like Cheon Doyoon, he wouldn’t be able to go on the hunt without any hesitation like he was currently. Even if he became a 7-Star, it still wasn’t enough to face a 9-Star Awakener.
“Ohjin! Ohjin! Let’s hurry up and check out the duty-free shops!”
Ha-eun, who was excited about being in an airport for the first time, dragged Ohjin around.
A faint smile was smudged on Ohjin’s face.
‘Is there anything you want to buy?”
“Cigarettes! I heard that they were cheap here!”
‘Oh right. She was a smoker.’
He had momentarily forgotten, as she rarely smoked when he was around her.
“Okay. Then I guess I’ll have a look around to see if there’s anything I want to get.”
Ohjin followed Ha-eun to the duty-free shops.
He would’ve scolded Ha-eun for smoking even as a joke in the past, but the reason to do that disappeared ever since she’d become a high-rank Awakener.
‘Waste doesn’t pile up in the body after the body goes through reconstruction.’
In her current state, as long as she smoked while making sure it didn’t cause harm to others nearby, it was a perfect item of personal preference that caused no damage.
‘It really is overpowered.’’
There were two steps remaining until he became a 9-Star Awakener.
Suppressing the urge of wanting to quickly climb up the remaining two steps, he followed her inside the shop.
After buying cigarettes from the duty-free shop, they passed a gate to board the airplane.
In the middle of walking to the tunnel after their tickets were checked, Ohjin looked back at Ha-eun as if he had thought of something.
“Oh right. Ha-eun, you remember what I told you yesterday, right?”
“Hm?”
Ha-eun tilted her head for a moment and soon clapped her hands together as if she had just remembered now.
“The thing about having to take your shoes off before you board the plane?”
“Yeah.”
“Fufu. Bastard… just what do you take me for?”
Ha-eun looked at Ohjin like he was being ridiculous and showed off her left leg that was wearing sneakers.
“That’s why I wore sneakers that are easy to take off!!”
“That’s my girl.”
“Hehe! Now this is what you call ‘preparedness’!”
Ohjin shrugged and smiled delightfully while looking at Ha-eun walking in front of him.
* * *
Just like that, they arrived at Osaka International Airport.
“O-Ohjin, you son of a bitchhhhhhh!!”
After getting off the plane, Ha-eun stared at Ohjin as her cheeks reddened from embarrassment. From behind, she could see the flight attendants smile while looking at her.
“Wow, I didn’t think that you’d actually believe me.”
“Y-You piece of…!”
She devastatingly twisted Ohjin’s side as he was laughing out loud.
Even while feeling pain that made it seem like his flesh was going to tear off, Ohjin’s shoulders didn’t stop shaking with laughter.
“D-Don’t you ever get sick of making fun of me? Huh? Answer me!”
“Not at all. It’s fun and feels new every single time.”
“Goddammit!!!”
“Hahaha!!”
Taking along the rampaging Ha-eun, Ohjin went out into downtown Osaka.
After leaving their luggage behind in a hotel located near Nanba Station, they headed outside.
* * *
* * *
“Well then, shall we start our search for those seahorse or seafood whatever bastards?”
It seemed that her anger had settled down on the way to the hotel, as Ha-eun stretched and cracked her knuckles.
“That’s new. I thought you’d say that you want us to go play somewhere.”
“Well, I do want to, but getting Vega out of those chains comes first.”
Ha-eun smiled bitterly and continued.
“But are you sure that you’ll be able to use Heaven Unfolding if Black Heaven’s level rises?”
“I’m not sure about that yet.”
In the first place, he wasn’t even sure if the Black Heaven would go through its sixth awakening after hunting down the Hippocampus faction.
“Whether it works or not, we’ll have to try everything we can.”
“…As I thought, won’t it be best to absorb a little bit of my eye?”
“I said no.”
“But still…”
Ha-eun fumbled around her left eye that had an eyepatch equipped and sighted briefly.
‘The way she doesn’t take care of her body still hasn’t changed.’
“It’s strange, considering you used to fight with Vega all the time.”
“Well… it is technically my fault for getting kidnapped like a fucking moron…”
She continued while scratching her head.
“And what is it… I do also slightly miss her flying around everywhere like a fly and whining ‘my child~ my child~’.”
When all was said and done, Ha-eun was quite close to Vega.
“We’ll be able to get rid of the restriction in no time, so don’t worry.”
“Tch. Well, I guess it’ll also be a problem if we return too quickly since we came here after you lied about trying to obtain Adam’s Apple.”
Ha-eun clicked her tongue and nodded.
“So how are we going to find the Seahorses?”
“I’ve heard the location of a couple of branches.”
Ohjin was originally planning to secretly infiltrate one of the branches in Osaka and find information leading to Kusanagi Sosuke, but…
“I was thinking of meeting the person called Sakaki Ryo first.”
He looked at the contact info he’d gotten from Cheon Sanggil.
“Alright. Did you contact him?”
“Yeah. He said that he’d send over someone near our hotel and for us to ride the car to him.”
“What kind of person is he?”
“I wonder… there wasn’t anything weird that stood out during the call.”
Other than his slightly blunt voice, there were no other special characteristics to mention.
‘He said that his personality is a bit unique.’
It appeared that they wouldn’t be able to find out what was unique until they met him in person.
“Hmm, well, we’ll probably find out once we get there. When will the car come?”
“It’ll arrive soon.”
Ohjin took out his phone and checked the time.
Since the assigned meeting time was at 4PM, which was an hour from then, it was about time for the car to arrive.
Vrrrrrm—
“Ah, is it that car?”
He looked in the direction Ha-eun pointed.
A cool limousine was approaching them.
“Wow, it’s a limousine. How awe… huh?”
‘Wait a fucking minute. What’s that?’
Vrrrrrm!—
Vrrm!—
Beeeeep!!—
As if spreading out into a formation, ten black vans flocked from behind the limousine.
Once the limousine came to a stop, the vans surrounded them in an escorting manner.
Click!—
The doors of the black vans opened and intimidating men wearing black suits flooded out.
The group of nearly one hundred men spread out into two lines like they were performing military training.
Bang!—
“We have come to escort Oyabun’s guests!!!!”
““““We will escort you comfortably!!!”””””
The army of men in suits standing in a straight line bowed down simultaneously.
“…”
Ohjin and Ha-eun looked at them with their mouths wide open.
“What the fuck…?”
‘The person he introduced me to was a yakuza?’