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Seokga's knuckles are white around the steering wheel as the gumiho props her feet up on the car's dashboard, dangles a hand out the open window, and grins at him in a way that suggests that yes, she does know precisely how much she is irritating him. She pointedly ignored his demand to sit in the backseat, instead hopping in next to him with a cheerful, "Your car is cool."

He sneered, even as a part of him had preened in pleasure. Yes, his car certainly is cool. A sleek black Jaguar XJS, his car is his second most prized possession (the first, of course, being his sword). Which is why he now hisses, out of the corner of his mouth, "Get your feet off the dash, fox."

Hani rolls her eyes as they weave through the city streets. Instead of doing as he's demanded, the gumiho opens the mirror before her seat and fluffs up her already insanely fluffy hair.

Seokga mutters an unsavory curse under his breath and slides his sunglasses back up his nose as the morning sun flares brighter upon the city. They are nearing the residential sector now. He wonders, warily, what sort of Unruly attack this was. Chief Shim was unusually pale as he gave Seokga the address and promised to meet him there. Perhaps the Scarlet Fox has struck again. The thought has him clenching his jaw as he pulls his car into the parking lot of an apartment complex, parking between Chief Shim's patrol car and the long black hearse that undoubtedly belongs to the jeoseung saja. Bright yellow police tape has blocked off the apartment's entrance, and the haetae and white-haired reaper are waiting for him there. The reaper, he notes with no small amount of smugness, has lost his fresh-faced enthusiasm. It's been replaced by a grim sort of weariness marked by the purple shadows underneath his eyes. He wonders how gruesome the murder was.

Seokga exits the car with Hani close behind, her heels crunching on the gravel pavement. The god sighs in bitter annoyance. Kim Hani is proving to be a persistent thorn in his side. Perhaps, he thinks as he approaches the chief, the sight of dead bodies will scare her off and she'll leave. Significantly comforted by the possibility, Seokga nods a coolly polite greeting to both men. "The victim?"

Hyun-tae gestures to the black hearse. "Her soul is waiting within the car," he says perfunctorily. "I collected her just now. She died last night. I am expected to drive the Hwangcheon Road to Jeoseung shortly, so if you would like to speak to her, now will be the time."

Chief Shim glances at Seokga. "The body was uncovered by a human neighbor a half hour ago. We intercepted their call to the police and redirected it to our channel. It seems to be an Unruly attack of some sort. The victim was a gumiho."

A gumiho.Seokga arches a brow. Interesting. He expected another set of human male bodies with the re-emergence of the Scarlet Fox, but the fact that the victim is a gumiho crumples up his expectations and throws them into the waste bin. Not knowing whether to be relieved or disappointed, Seokga nods, as beside him, Hani flinches. "Do you have the name yet? Age?"

"Ah. Yes." Chief Shim glances to Hyun-tae, who straightens and clears his throat.

"Cho Euna," he promptly rattles off. "Age in human form is twenty-two. Total age, including time as a fox, is one thousand and twenty-two. Formerly employed at—"

"That's all I need." Seokga eyes the hearse. "She's in there?"

Hyun-tae nods.

"I'll be brief." Seokga starts toward the car, and to his annoyance, Hani joins at his side. He halts to glower at her. "Stay behind. I go alone."

"No." Her eyes are bright and her mouth is tight. With a finger, she jabs at his chest, and Seokga stiffens as the pad of her finger meets his crisp white shirt. Seokga feels a flare of rage—how dare she—and steps back with a cutting retort on his tongue. But Hani isn't done. "That's a baby gumiho in there. A dead. Baby. Gumiho." Hani has taken a step forward, and each word is punctuated by another jab on his chest. With a rush of anger, Seokga grabs her wrist, his eyes flashing. Hani doesn't even look fazed. "Who is probably scared and alone and hurt," she continues, yanking her arm away from his grasp. "I'm coming with you."

Seokga swallows the sharp syllables that cut his mouth, forcing down his bubbling rage at being touched with such a lack of reverence. Instead, he mulls over what Hani has said. A baby gumiho. Hani looks as if she's only in her early twenties, but it's impossible to tell her true age. "How old are—"

She cuts him off. "One thousand four hundred and fifty-two. I'm coming."

He grinds his teeth, feeling Chief Shim's stare on his neck. "Fine," he grits out irritably. "Fine." Seokga can still feel the touch of her finger, poking at him in a way that makes him contemplate the repercussions of shutting Hani into the hearse and having Hyun-tae deliver her to Jeoseung, as well.

Hani glares at him like she knows precisely what he's thinking.

The inside of the hearse smells of old wood and melted candle wax. The interior is more like a limousine than anything—the long seats lining the car's walls, the dark velvet carpet, the pristine tinted windows. Seokga ducks his head as he enters the car, sliding onto one of the black leather seats across from the soul. Hani takes a seat next to him, her eyes wide as she looks at the victim.

The gumiho is blurred around the edges and translucent, and seems to flicker with an aura of pale blue light. She looks up from her trembling hands as Hani shuts the door, revealing bloodshot eyes and a beautiful face that is marred by the black veins snaking underneath her skin. Seokga's blood runs cold at the sight. Something about those veins tugs on a distant strand of memory. He reaches for it, but it slips through his fingers. Unnerved, Seokga scowls.

"Who are you?" Euna asks, her voice quavering, eyes darting from Seokga to Hani and back. "What do you want?" Her eyes linger on Seokga for a moment and he thinks he sees recognition, but it's dwarfed by terror.

Next to him, Hani swallows hard. The older gumiho's face is pale. "Euna," she says quietly. "My name is Kim Hani, and this is my partner, Seokga."

Partner?Seokga bites down on his tongue to prevent himself from correcting Hani's absurd claim. "You're dead," he says bluntly instead. "So we need to ask you a few questions about how you were murdered."

Euna's trembling increases tenfold. "W-what?"

Hani's elbow digs deep into his side and he hisses. Touching him again. The fox's insolence never fails to astound him. "You dare—"

"Shut up."

Dumbfounded, Seokga gapes. He cannot even find the words to respond. Never before has he been told to shut up.

She glowers at him for a moment longer, cheeks pink with anger, before turning back to Euna, and saying in a much gentler voice, "You've passed away, Euna. Soon, this car will take you to Jeoseung, and you'll go on to your next life. You'll be reincarnated."

"Or sent to one of the seven hells," Seokga adds, newly incensed as his shock fades. Shut up? Who, precisely, tells a deity to shut up? "There's the Hill of Knives, of course, if you committed murder. Imagine a toboggan ride down a mountain of blades—without the toboggan, of course. Not to mention the Tongue Field, where jeoseung saja stretch out your tongue until it's long enough to plant trees on. I helped design that one."

Euna whimpers, and Hani's elbow digs so deeply into Seokga's side that he can't help but to wheeze. With a violent motion, he shoves Hani off him and massages his ribs, contemplating the repercussions of murdering the gumiho with Euna as a witness, and a haetae chief waiting outside.

"Don't listen to him," Hani says, glaring. "You're not going to any hell, Euna."

"What's even better is the seventh hell—"

"Seokga," Hani warns, and the pink on her cheeks has turned to red, "shut up—"

"—where a giant saw—"

"Stop it—"

"—cuts fraudsters into pieces," Seokga finishes triumphantly, only to be met a second later with a sound like a high-pitched foghorn blaring across a bay.

Blinking hazily, Seokga realizes that the sound was in fact Hani, who had let out a screech of unintelligible rage. Ears ringing, he shakes his head to clear it of the stupefied fog (how is it even remotely possible for a throat to make that noise?) and is only vaguely aware of Hani murmuring reassurances to Euna, somehow already perfectly recomposed as if the last minute was in the distant past.

"But before you do that," he hears her conclude soothingly as his hearing slowly starts to come back, "we want to make sure that whoever hurt you is caught. You can help us with that, can't you?"

Euna swallows hard before rasping something unintelligible.

"Speak up," Seokga commands impatiently, earning another vicious glare from Hani. Slightly more wary of what invoking the gumiho's wrath can incur, he clenches his jaw, his fingers tightening around the cane. The sheer nerve…

"I said, I guess," she whispers. The younger gumiho can't even look at Seokga.

"Who hurt you, Euna?"

"I…I don't know." The soul shakes her head. "I…I don't remember."

Seokga sighs. "You do," he tells her peevishly. "Just think. What's the last thing that you recall seeing?" How did those black veins emerge on your face? Who attacked you?

Whatattacked you? Again, Seokga riffles through his memories. But he has centuries upon centuries upon centuries of memories in his head, and trying to sort through them is like trying to organize one of the precinct's filing cabinets.

Impossible and frustrating.

A long moment of silence passes. Finally, Euna whispers, "I remember…I'd gone out for drinks with my friends. We'd all passed an exam in physics. I'd passed, too, even though the last few nights had been rough. I…I'd been having nightmares. I hadn't been able to sleep much. But I passed, and we were celebrating."

"Where did you go?" Hani asks encouragingly.

"The Emerald Dragon," Euna replies slowly. "That creature club downtown. We all took the bus back to our apartments…I got off here," she says, gesturing with a violently shaking finger to the window, "and…I went inside."

"What happened then?"

Seokga watches carefully as the gumiho shivers, pulling her black shirt closer around her body. "I felt cold," she whispers. "Really, really cold. And tired. I wanted to go to sleep…I had just closed the door to my apartment when I…I think I decided to lay down on my floor. I was tired. So very, very tired."

"And then?"

"And then…"

Euna jumps as there's a sharp knocking on one of the hearse's windows. Hyun-tae bends down, mouthing something that looks annoyingly like, Time's up. Seokga scowls, and even though the jeoseung saja can't see him through the tinted glass, motions for him to fuck off. Leaning forward, arms braced on his knees, Seokga takes in Euna's shaking fingers and wobbling bottom lip. Her eyes dart from him to Hyun-tae, who, behind Seokga, is continuing to rap on the glass.

He should really proceed carefully, but he is impatient. "And then you were brutally murdered. What did it?" Seokga's voice is sharp, and as Hani slaps her palm against her forehead, something shifts in the victim's eyes, clear comprehension replacing murky confusion as they meet Seokga's own. Stiffens as terror shines brightly within the brown depths—pure, undiluted terror.

He braces himself as Euna's hands fly to her head, as her eyes bulge out of their sockets in horror.

"Euna," Hani says in clear worry, leaning forward. "Euna, it's okay—"

But the soul begins to scream.

And scream.

And scream.

Her voice is hoarse and guttural as the screams tear from her lips, loud enough that Seokga flinches back, his teeth gritted. He fumbles for his power to calm her, to restrain her enough so that he can find his answers—but Hyun-tae yanks open the door of the hearse and gestures impatiently for Hani and Seokga to get out. "That's enough," he declares over the din. "If she stays on Iseung any longer, she'll miss her window for reincarnation."

Damn it. Seokga opens his lips to protest, but there's no use. He is out of time. Reluctantly, he and Hani step out. A moment later, Seokga watches, grim-faced, as the hearse speeds away with a squeal of tires. The sounds of Euna's screams still ring in his ears.

Hani is quiet next to him. He casts her a sideways glance. "If you want to quit," he says, "now's the time."

She sends him a vicious glare. "I'm not quitting."

Chief Shim comes up beside them. "Her body is in the apartment. We should take the investigation inside. I've contacted Lee Dok-hyun, and he's agreed to join us here before examining the body in the morgue." He sighs wearily. "The jeoseung saja will be contacting the family soon. They'll have questions for us, so let's find some answers before their visit.

"By the way," the old chief adds hesitantly as Hani starts toward the complex's entrance, "that sound from the car, that…shriek? The one that sounded almost like a horn?"

"Hani," Seokga seethes, "apparently has strong vocal cords."

Euna's body is crumpled on the creaky apartment floor just a few paces from the flimsy door. She is curled into a ball, her eyes closed, one desperate hand outstretched in the direction of the nearby sofa, as if she'd been staggering to it before she'd fallen.

Seokga crouches above the dead gumiho, frowning as he takes in the bulging black veins that snake up her neck and cover her face in their spidery black web. Her arms are also covered in the veins, and he is sure that they also spread underneath the black T-shirt and blue jeans. Hani kneels beside him, her lips in a tight white line.

"She died scared," Hani says quietly.

So she did. The gumiho's face is forever frozen in an expression of horror, the eyes squeezed tightly shut, the brows drawn together, and pale lips parted in terror. Small curved claws protrude from her knuckles, yet it is impossible to tell what the gumiho had hoped to use them against.

"Her soul was disoriented," Chief Shim adds from where he is examining the door for any signs of a scuffle. "She was found wandering around the park. I'm not sure if she knew she was dead. Most souls remember their passing, but Euna didn't."

"Until she did," Seokga says, rising to his feet and glancing around the apartment. Aside from the body, there is no sign of a fight, no sign of forced entry. Chief Shim moves away from the doorway with a frown. "Check the surrounding rooms for clues. Maybe whatever did this was lying in wait in the kitchen, the bedroom, or the bathroom."

Hani nods and disappears around the corner, her brows set in clear determination.

"What do you think did this?" Chief Shim asks Seokga under his breath. "This is like nothing I've ever seen before. The veins…"

Seokga shakes his head, leaning on his cane in contemplation. Whatever memory that seeing the dark veins sparked is still reluctant to surface. "A demon, perhaps," he says slowly. "Some escaped creature of Yeomra's realm. But the veins aren't the only things that are bothering me." He taps his cane on the floor, the end of it hitting the wood just inches from Euna's face. "Euna died in her sleep."

Chief Shim gapes. "What?"

Seokga nods. "According to Euna, after a night out with friends, she returned home. Upon entering this apartment"—he gestures to the door—"she felt cold and overwhelmingly tired. She laid down on the floor, and from what I can guess, closed her eyes to sleep. But she never woke up." Seokga's mind whirs, connecting the fragments of testimony that he had managed to collect from the gumiho's soul.

We'd all passed an exam in physics. I'd passed, too, even though the past few nights had been rough. I…I'd been having nightmares. I hadn't been able to sleep much.

"For the nights leading up to her death," Seokga continues slowly, "Euna had been having nightmares."

"Nightmares," Chief Shim repeats.

"Yes. Nightmares." Seokga pauses as, finally, an inkling begins to blot the corner of his mind in dawning suspicion. "She'd been having nightmares." He turns to Chief Shim, his jaw tight. It's coming back to him now. Unfortunately. "When Dok-hyun examines the body, I want him to make an incision in one of these veins. I want to see what's inside." Because if it is what he thinks it is…"I want security camera footage for this apartment, too. For Euna's route home. I want to observe every stop she made, every person she passed. I want footage from the Emerald Dragon. I want to see who she danced with, who she flirted with. I want to see everything."

"Seokga." The chief's voice is grave. "Do you know what this is?"

"I have a suspicion," he replies quietly. "And if you love this city, Shim, you'd best wish that I am wrong."