“Excuse me, sir. Just a moment. ‘Mascot Development’… what does that—”
I grabbed the doorknob and flung the door open.
“…!!”
I heard the employees clamp their own hands over their mouths to stifle screams.
No wonder. What was in front of us was…
[My, how avant-garde!]
In the center of the huge Development Lab, a gigantic red body, only half-stuffed with cotton, was visible.
It was a gigantic, monstrous… thing. Hind legs with sharp claws, grand and sinister membranous wings, a severed tail, only the lower half remaining.
“Urrrp—”
People froze with fear.Then, a lively voice piped up beside me.
“Oh, it’s a mascot suit!”
“…!”
“But it looks unfinished, doesn’t it? There’s only half of it.”
That’s right.
On closer inspection, the half-finished lower body on display was empty inside, with bundles of cut hair stuffed in to substitute for cotton here and there.
Traces of trying to create a mascot suit in-house.
‘Huu.’
With my lamp-lit vision, I inspected the lower half of the strange beast more closely.
It was covered in dense scales.
Those were human fingernails.
‘…Ha.’
And that wasn’t all.
All over the spacious ‘Development Lab’ were parts that had never been assembled, just left scattered about.
A yellow, vertically slit eyeball, small fin-like membranes, huge birdlike foreclaws, a tongue, bits of flesh from a snout.
Remnants of mascot development. Many of the materials hinted at their disturbing origins, making me nauseous.
Apparently, they had never managed to officially introduce or use this as a mascot for the theme park.
This was, after all, the zone of the red rabbit, Magic Bunny.
That majestic and overwhelming form simply didn’t fit this cute, colorful amusement park.
Cheerful Theme Park would never have allowed it.
“Instead of the rabbit, did it… want to use that as the new mascot?”
“……Who knows.”
I could hear the agents whispering.
[Developing a new image! A cliché but classic idea. What’s your take, Mr. Roe Deer?]
Hmm.
‘…I think it might be the opposite.’
[Hmm?]
‘I mean, maybe it was trying to restore its original form with that suit.’
The Magic Bunny had completely lost its original form inside the mascot suit.
‘So I think it tried to remake the suit in the image of its true self.’
Whether by instinct or calculation.
But in the end, it failed.
‘And judging by those fragmented pieces, the original identity of Magic Bunny was…’
At that very moment, something moved.
“AAHHH!”
I quickly grabbed the civilian by the back of the neck and tossed her toward the agents.
Ssssslurp…
The scaly tail the civilian had been staring at intently started to move, dripping some viscous fluid.
“Huuuhk.”
A remnant of Magic Bunny.
It had been clinging to the inside wall of the tail-shaped mascot suit, writhing.
No limbs.
No collection of organs or limbs harvested from missing persons and guests.
Just the residue from inside the mascot suit, having lost its original shape.
But its cunning and aggression seemed unchanged.
And then.
Creakcreakcreakcreak.
Sounds began echoing from all around.
All the mascot suit parts in the Development Lab began to vibrate.
And the huge mass in the center started to twist its joints, following the tail.
Beneath the red costume, even redder things were writhing and swelling.
“AAHHH!”
Some screamed, others hesitated on the stairs, unsure whether to run because they couldn’t look back, and agents took defensive positions with the civilian between them…
“Should we destroy it?”
“I feel like we could actually fight this one?”
N-No, that’s not it!
I quickly shook my head and manipulated the black smoke again.
I sent it toward the huge figure that had quietly waited in one corner of the lab, the one that had followed us from the very back.
The true body of the Blue Mascot.
“…!”
The one who had shed the Blue Mascot suit was engulfed in my black smoke, momentarily hidden from everyone’s view.
‘Now!’
I gestured for everyone to evacuate up the stairs.
The employees rushed to the stairs in a panic, and I followed, taking up the rear and pressing my back to the lab door.
Standing the same way, backs to the lab and sweating coldly, I drew back the smoke I’d sent to the Blue Mascot and formed new words.
Never look back
And then.
Splash.
A sound came from the Development Lab.
“……”
The one who had been inside the Blue Mascot moved.
To do what had been promised.
A massive, powerful step moved slowly. An oceanic presence. The master of the deep. There was a grinding sound, as if, with a sense of regret, it surveyed the scattered mascot suit pieces and their contents…
At last, this moment has arrived
O wicked seed of a foreign land
It devours.
“…!!”
The remnants of Magic Bunny’s contents in the Development Lab were crushed and sucked in, as if by a raging tidal wave or vortex.
Just like the ‘bad child’ who’d been sucked into their mouth at the water park.
Devoured.
Grotesque screams, monstrous emptiness.
“Huuhhk.”
“Urk!”
Instinctively, people clamped their ears and bowed their heads, not wanting to witness or accept what was happening.
But…
Someone was looking at me.
The one wearing the yellow mascot mask.
Jang Heowoon was smiling faintly.
As if he were already completely subsumed by something else, as if he no longer capable of feeling fear in this situation.
As if he could turn around at any moment if he wanted and look directly at what was happening now.
A different kind of chill ran all over my body.
But even behind me, the immense presence reached its peak.
A huge surge of something lashed around the lab like a massive whip or tail. And then.
It vanished.
“……”
“……”
Those who’d had their ears covered slowly lowered their hands.
From behind us, a will that seemed to try to be gentle could be felt.
It is done
“……”
And then.
The staircase began to move.
“Huuuuh?!”
It shifted like a wave, pushing people gently up the stairs as if being remodeled in real time.
“W-What is this?”
At last, the ‘Authorized Personnel Only’ door opened, and as they burst out into the open… they witnessed something astonishing.
“Uh…?”
All the red rabbits had disappeared from Magic Castle!
The grotesque symbols he had created were still there, but every rabbit character that used to fill the Magic Castle was completely gone.
Instead, a new image was appearing.
Blue Dream.
Here and there, the figure of a cutely deformed blue dragon was showing up, as if hurriedly renovating before opening hours.
“…!”
“I-It worked?”
The staff glanced at me, somehow, and I nodded.
The Magic Bunny zone had been overtaken by another mascot.
Completely!
Now
Safe
“Ah!!”
“We… We did it!”
Seeing the words I wrote in smoke, people let out sighs of relief. Some even smiled or laughed with joy, though they still couldn’t look back, so the sound just escaped their mouths.
“Um, thank you.”
“Thank you!”
They said, directed at the Blue Mascot.
The shadow behind me, cast by my yellow lantern, seemed to sway happily.
That shadow…
“…A dragon?”
“Team Leader?”
“A dragon or an imoogi[1]… No, never mind.”
The team leader started to say something, then stopped herself.
“……”
A thought crossed my mind.
‘I was forced to take up the mascot role, too.’
If the one behind me was something else before becoming the Blue Mascot…
And if that mascot suit just now really was Magic Bunny’s true original form, now lost…
What if… Cheerful Theme Park had captured powerful beings from other ghost stories or legends and forced them into contracts as mascots.
“……”
Didn’t the board game you play to enter the theme park also come from Cheerful Research Institute?
‘It’s an odd feeling.’
Anyway, it’s not something to worry about right now.
What matters is…
The Magic Bunny is gone now.
Even if someone remains in the resort, there’s no longer any chance of being killed by the Magic Bunny.
‘It’s done.’
My heart felt lighter at that.
[You’re the one who worked the hardest, Mr. Roe Deer!]
[Thanks to you giving all the credit, that mascot, who now thinks he’s the star of a drama, will probably get even more full of himself.]
Huu.
‘Still, it’ll be fine.’
I led the staff out of Magic Castle.
Dawn was breaking.
Note/s:
[1] Imoogi – a creature from Korean mythology that’s a mix of a land god, a snake and a dragon, and it’s sort of a pre-evolution of a dragon (like dratini -> dragonite). Read more over here: namu.wiki/w/이무기 ↩
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