Nano Machine Chapter 19: This Guy, He Fooled Us All! (A)

Around twilight, on the second-floor dispensary of the academy's main building…

"Uhh… uhh…"

After being jolted by an unidentified current of electricity, Cadet Number Twenty-Three was regaining his consciousness.

He was still getting irregular spasms that were, perhaps, the result of the small electric charge still coursing through his body.

The last thing he remembered was him holding the medical knife to Cheon Yeo Woon's Achilles tendon when a jolt of electricity shocked him.

Why, why am I on the floor?

He looked around in disbelief. Seeing he was still in the dispensary made him wonder if he had just dreamt a dream.

He was sure that the last time he was awake he had seen Doctor Baek Jong Myeong leave for the day, found a knife, but then fell unconscious out of nowhere.

"What is that?"

Feeling something strange in the air, the anxious Cadet Number Twenty-Three scoured the perimeter.

Although it wasn't lengthy, the once luxuriant and shaggy hair that brushed his neck whenever he turned his head wasn't there anymore.

"… no. Can't be…"

Even though he felt assured it was a misguided suspicion, he couldn't feel anything on his head.

Filled with panic, Cadet Number Twenty-Three tried to stand up and assess the situation, but his body became as rigid as a rock and he fell back on the bed.

"Ugghhh!!"

He suffered no severe injuries, but the stitched up gash on his back was still throbbing with pain. As he rocked back and forth in pain, he squinted his eyes to look down at his body through the darkness. He realized something was tied up to his upper body and ankles. It was so tight, he couldn't get it off no matter how much he yanked at it.

"Who the hell did this?"

"It was me."

Chwak!

As Cadet Number Twenty-Three struggled to free himself from the rope's tight grip, someone drew the bed curtain aside and stood before him.

It was none other than Cheon Yeo Woon, who he assumed was asleep. Startled by his sudden appearance, Cadet Number Twenty-Three's eyes widened with fear as he stuttered his words.

"You, you…. How, how did you…?"

"What do you mean how did I? You fainted and fell on the floor, so I picked you up and gently laid you back on the bed."

"What? Faint?"

He knew his memories were correct, but, more than the fact that the injured Cheon Yeo Woon was nimbly walking around and that he had tied him up, Cadet Number Twenty-Three was more terrified about the disappearance of his treasured possession.

"What, what about my hair? What happened?"

"That's right. You're a baldy from now on."

Cadet Number Twenty-Three stared blankly at Cheon Yeo Woon's mocking expression. He began struggling to free himself from the rope as he screamed with bloodshot fury.

"Noooo! Noooooo!!! A baldy!? What do you mean I'm a…."

"Shut up!"

Puk!

Cheon Yeo Woon knocked out Cadet Number Twenty-Three with a punch, as he screamed bloody murder at the top of his lungs over his hair.

"So loud! I guess I must put a gag in his mouth too." Cheon Yeo Woon grumbled to himself as he looked down at the cadet.

After a momentary unconsciousness from the shock of knowing about the removal of his hair, Cadet Number Twenty-Three regained consciousness again. Unlike the first time though, he could wake up right away. After he broke out of his daze and remembered what Cheon Yeo Woon had mentioned right before he fainted, Cadet Number Twenty-Three once again tried to scream. However, it's not long before he realized a gag on his mouth prevented him from doing so.

"Mmm, mmm!"

Cheon Yeo Woon approached him and sat down on the chair next to his bed, while he continued to twist, turn and struggle to free himself.

At last, after a rough moment of contorting his body at the shock of losing his hair, Cadet Number Twenty-Three cooled his head enough to think of the conundrum he himself into now. On top of having his body rope-tied, he was even being gagged now. His bald head was the last of his concerns.

"Mmmm, mmmm, mmm!"

"What are you trying to say? Don't you realize you have a gag in your mouth, stupid?"

Cadet Number Twenty-Three's eyes twitched at his coldness. When he first saw the odd Cheon Yeo Woon standing at the back of the training field on commencement day, he looked innocent and simple-minded, but now this man was different somehow.

"Was he always like this?"

The expression on Cheon Yeo Woon's face turned towards him from the left looked menacing. He realized the gravity of the state he was in as his face grew rigid. Only after he stopped jerking his body back and forth and became silent did Cheon Yeo Woon open his mouth to continue speaking.

"You know… have you ever thought about, with all the bounty on my head, how I've made it alive to this day?"

Cadet Number Twenty-Three couldn't answer a single word because of the gag in his mouth.

Unaffected by his lack of response, Cheon Yeo Woon continued. "How many times do you think chumps like you tried to kidnap me and poison me over the course of my life?"

Cheon Yeo Woon's voice dripped with murderous intent. The short life he had to weather through alone until now was a hellish hurricane filled with hardships and pain.

"I wonder what this is?"

Cheon Yeo Woon waved an object in his captive's face from each side as he lies immobile on the bed. It was the medical knife he had planned to used to hurt Cheon Yeo Woon earlier in the night. Cheon Yeo Woon brought the knife he was waving right up to Cadet Number Twenty-Three's throat to taunt him.

"Since you were the one who grabbed this knife to pull a little prank on me, you should know how sharp this thing is, huh? Probably sharp enough to kill a person."

His facetious tone brought fear into the heart of Cadet Number Twenty-Three.

"All right then, tell me!"

*Gulp.*

A loud swallowing sound came from Cadet Number Twenty-Three's tense throat.

"Who sent you? Who sent you to this crap?"

As Cadet Number Twenty-Three's fear grew and reached unbearable levels, his brain worked a mile a minute as he weighed a hundred different alternatives to help him out of the position he's in. Then, he had an "aha" moment.

"Mmmm, mmmm!"

When Cheon Yeo Woon realized his captive was trying to say something, he pulled the elastic gag from his mouth to his chin.

"Speak!"

"Ha… ah… ha… ah…" As the gag came out, Cadet Number Twenty-Three let out a loud gasp. After gaining composure, he opened his mouth to speak. "I, I don't know what you're talking about."

"What?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, and, do you think you'll be spared from the consequences if you slit my throat and kill me?"

The escape plan Cadet Number Twenty-Three could come up with was to use the rules of the academy as leverage.

It was fair game for cadets to injure or kill another cadet during intense training or an official arena battle, but rules forbid them to engage in violent behavior with an intent to cripple or hurt.

"You think you can hurt me?"

Unlike a minute ago, Cadet Number Twenty-Three had a look of triumphant air over the brilliant plan he could muster in his great panic. Cheon Yeo Woon put on a look of distress.

"Hmm, it seems you'll give me a run for my money."

"What did you expect? Trust me, even if you torture me you're not getting anything from me."

Since he showed his determination, he thought Cheon Yeo Woon would relent, but on the contrary, his face took on a bone-chilling, eerie expression.

"I guess we'll find out about that."

"Uh, what?"

*Snap!"

"Mmmm, mmmmm!!"

-What the hell is he doing?-

After putting the gag back on his captive's face, Cheon Yeo Woon searched around the dispensary's display cabinet. He turned around and came back with an eight-inch acupuncture needle. Unable to speak a word, Cadet Number Twenty-Three's eyes bulged out in fear.

"Mmmmmmmmm! Mmmmmmm!"

What the hell is that thing? What's he planning to do with that?

"Man, I had none of this stuff when I used to live back at home, but I like it here because of these interesting toys lying around everywhere."

Cadet Number Twenty-Three once again fell into a great panic, as he broke out into a cold sweat.

With an apathetic stare, Cheon Yeo Woon watched the sweat drop from his forehead. He then grabbed one of Cadet Number Twenty-Three's bound wrists.

Out of fear, Cadet Number Twenty-Three clenched his fist real tight, which his captor pried open posthaste.

-What the…? How is he so strong?-

Although he struggled with all his might to keep his fist clenched, he couldn't withstand the inordinate strength of Cheon Yeo Woon. This baffled him. How could someone who had no inner power got enough strength to force each of his fingers loose like that?

"Mmmmm, mmm, mmm!"

-Darn it!! No, please!!-

As soon his whole palm opened, Cheon Yeo Woon taunted him with a cynical smile.

"It's going to hurt a little."

As soon as he said that, Cheon Yeo Woon inserted the eight-inch needle right underneath the fingernail of his victim's pointing finger.

Puk!

"MMMMmmmmm!!!!"