The Last Esper [BL]
Chapter 44: Nebu

Chapter 44: Nebu

Eun-woo followed the creature as the rain kept falling around him. At first, he stayed close to the riverbank, but soon, the path moved away from the water, and the trees grew denser. The terrain sloped upward, with moss-covered rocks and twisted roots that threatened to trip him up with every step.

The deeper he went, the thicker the fog became. It clouded his vision until he could barely see the silhouette of the creature a few steps ahead. Several times he nearly lost his balance, but he kept going, his eyes fixed on the dark shape floating in front of him.

Finally, the ground leveled out again. Eun-woo took a deep breath. The fog grew even denser around him. He could no longer see anything, not even the trees. He could only see the faint glow of the fog enveloping the creature.

Then, he heard it.

A high-pitched metallic sound.

Eun-woo stopped dead in his tracks, holding his breath. He narrowed his eyes, and slowly, the shadow of something large and motionless took shape in the fog.

He came closer.

And when he was close enough, he opened his eyes in amazement.

Rusty swings, their chains creaking slightly in the breeze. A seesaw, its paint peeling and its wood splintered. A slide, crooked, dented, and colorless.

Playground equipment.

Eun-woo didn’t know why, but a pang of nostalgia pierced his chest. That deep sadness enveloped him suddenly.

He blinked, and for a moment, he no longer saw the rust and decay.

He saw colors.

The swings gleamed in vibrant shades of red and blue, shining brightly under the sun. The seesaw had a hand-painted smiley face in the center, and the slide was yellow. There was grass beneath their feet. Laughter. Children’s voices running back and forth. A boy shouted from the top of the slide, another pushed his friend hard on the swings. Someone sang something between rides. A red ball rolled to their feet.

Eun-woo felt his heart clench.

He closed his eyes

He didn’t remember being there. He didn’t know that place. And yet, something inside him recognized it. As if some dormant part of himself had once played in that same park, before the mist covered everything, before the laughter faded.

He opened his eyes.

The games were once again ruined.

Then, Eun-woo looked up.

Just beyond the park stood a building. The upper floors were destroyed, the concrete cracked, and the metal beams protruded like broken bones. The windows were shattered. The facade, stained by moisture, was covered with vines growing from the cracks.

The creature slithered straight toward the building.

Eun-woo followed it.

Inside, it was cold and dark, the air heavy with the smell of mold and dust. The entrance led to what might once have been a foyer, now covered in broken furniture and floorboards swollen with damp.

The sound of dripping water echoed steadily from the ceiling, the echo of pipes rattled between the walls. The light was dim, filtered through dirty windows. Dust covered everything. Tables. Sofas. Shelves. Every step he took stirred the air, causing particles to float around him.

Maybe the others are here, he thought. Maybe they took shelter from the rain...

"Rong Ye?" he called after them. "Jae? Caelan? Are you here?"

He got no response.

The creature floated down a long, dark hallway, then began to climb a wide staircase. The steps creaked under Eun-woo’s weight as he followed cautiously, one hand resting on the rusty railing to steady himself.

As he climbed, his eyes scanned the surroundings: cracked walls, half-open doors along the hallway, rusty light fixtures hanging from the ceiling. On the landing, an old sign in faded letters indicated what appeared to be a communal dining room.

Eun-woo frowned, looking more closely. Through an unlocked door, he made out a living room with sofas covered in threadbare sheets and empty bookshelves.

A little further on, he saw what appeared to be a shower area, with several stalls and broken mirrors. The doors had no names or doorbells, and instead of kitchens or individual rooms, there were hallways that connected to more open spaces.

That’s when he understood.

The building was a residential complex, designed for people to share common areas. A kind of communal residence, perhaps. Everything was distributed in common areas: dining rooms, living rooms, showers. And the rooms looked more like dormitories than full homes.

The creature entered a room at the end of the hall.

Eun-woo followed it and stopped at the threshold.

The room was simple. A single bed in one corner, old but intact, with a folded blanket at the foot. A wooden desk stood under the window, covered in dust. On the wall hung several framed pictures, slightly askew. A small closet by the door completed the space.

The creature stopped in front of the bed and turned to Eun-woo, as if waiting for his approval.

Rhys remained suspended in the air, delicately wrapped in the vaporous tentacles. His inert body floated as if in deep sleep, but his skin still glistened with moisture, and droplets of water trickled down his neck, his jaw, soaking the clothes hanging from him.

Eun-woo looked at him and understood that he had to get those wet clothes off as soon as possible.

He nodded slightly and hurried to the closet. His trembling fingers touched the rusty handle and he quickly opened it, hoping to find something useful, but when he saw inside, he froze.

There were many modest dresses, with simple cuts and high necklines. All feminine garments, in dark tones, well-preserved but useless for what he needed.

He frowned, closing the door softly.

He would have to look in another room.

Eun-woo went out into the hallway and checked two more rooms before finding one with men’s clothing piled on a shelf. He grabbed a pair of cotton pants, a flannel shirt, and a faded sweatshirt. He returned with the clothes and, with the creature’s help, began undressing Rhys.

They carefully removed his wet layers, taking care not to disturb him. Between the two of them, they replaced the soaked clothes with dry, albeit somewhat dusty, ones. Then Eun-woo carefully laid him down on the bed, covering him with the blankets.

He sat on the edge and placed the back of his hand against Rhys’s cheek. His skin was warm... too warm.

He couldn’t leave it like that.

Eun-woo stood up, determined to explore the building in search of medicine. As he turned to leave the room, he noticed something that made him stop in his tracks.

The creature was no longer floating next to the bed.

It was inside the closet.

Or rather, curled up on the closet floor, much smaller than it had been minutes before. It had compacted into a mass of fog the size of a large puppy, its dark vapor drifting gently as it settled among a cluster of wrinkled old blankets, surrounded by what looked like... dog toys?

Eun-woo blinked, confused, and knelt in front of the closet.

There, among the blankets, he spotted worn-out stuffed animals, half-chewed rubber balls, and a couple of plastic bones with teeth marks. But what caught his eye most was a word written on the wall, just above the creature, in colored crayons:

Nebu.

Eun-woo spoke the word softly, almost without thinking.

"Nebu?"

The creature stirred immediately, as if it had heard its name. Its body suddenly vibrated, and a small burst of steam danced in the air around it. It settled onto the blankets like an excited dog, raising some of its mist in the form of short, waving tentacles.

Eun-woo tilted his head in surprise.

"Is that your name? Is your name Nebu?"

The creature stirred again, emitting a low, low hum reminiscent of a muffled purr. The mist surrounding it shimmered faintly, almost in affirmative response.

Eun-woo couldn’t help but smile.

"Nebu... It’s okay. I need to find medicine for Rhys. Stay here with him, okay?"

Eun-woo left the room, leaving the door ajar behind him. He walked slowly, opening one door after another in search of something useful. A first-aid kit, a forgotten box of medicine on a shelf, anything that might lower Rhys’s fever.

As he searched through an old cupboard in what appeared to have been a makeshift infirmary, he couldn’t help but wonder... What kind of person would have a creature from a Rift as a pet?

Because that was Nebu. An interdimensional creature. A being that shouldn’t exist in his world, let alone live among humans... and yet, someone had given it a name. Someone had made it a bed in a closet. Had left it toys. Someone had cared for it.

The idea seemed as absurd as it was disturbingly familiar.

He let out a sigh, crouching down in front of a low, rusty piece of furniture. When he opened it, he found several bottles, almost all of them empty or unusable, but among them, he found a pill bottle with faded writing. He took it carefully, examining the label with a frown. He couldn’t be sure, but they might help.

He sat up and looked around. The long hallway, the open rooms, the layout of the common spaces...

The structure of the building, the silence, the single beds, the shared showers...

It was too similar to the place where he had been locked up.

Only this... this was different.

Here, there were no shackles or Men in White.

Here, it seemed that people like him had lived.

And then he understood.

That building had been a residential complex for Espers.

The thought stopped him in his tracks, as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice water over him. Everything made sense.

Nebu had been the pet of one of them.

The creature had not brought him there by chance.

When he asked it to take him with the others... he never specified who.

He just said "the others."

And Nebu had understood it in his own way.

It had recognized him.

It knew he was an Esper.

That’s why it brought him here.