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“Can a hunter from the monitoring division accompany you?” Jin-Chul asked, not sure if he wanted the man to give permission or not.
Was it South Korean law that foreign hunters be monitored in some way? Yes. Was the provision saying foreign S-ranks had to allow the monitoring division to keep tabs on them in some way one of the few laws actually enforced against S-ranks? Yes. Did the S-ranks known as national rank hunters get to forgo even this law? Also yes.
Therefore, he had to ask permission to monitor the walking foreign superweapon.
Thomas Andre stopped in the doorway, pausing for only a second before replying, “If it’s you, then I don’t care. Ah, also, don’t let this talk leak outside.”
Which meant it was Jin-Chul’s supervision or no supervision.
Jin-Chul glanced over at the chairman, who was sending him a subtly concerned look.
Jin-Chul stepped forward, following Thomas Andre out of the room and down the hall. One should not insult a national level hunter by hesitating, after all.
He would probably be fine. The man hadn’t paid him much attention so far, even though they had talked a few minutes for Jin-Chul to ascertain what the man needed and promise to go get the chairman. Perhaps he was strong enough, Jin-Chul weak enough in comparison, that he didn’t feel enticed by Jin-Chul’s power level.
That idea still wasn’t enough to erase his nervousness as he followed the man out of the building to what looked like a sedan and a sports car smashed together, enlarged, and stretched up to be tall enough to fit the behemoth of a man. Thomas patted the top of the passenger side door before continuing to walk around the car. Jin-Chul complied with the implicit demand and entered, pleasantly surprised by the fact that the seats – besides the driver’s seat – were only slightly bigger than normal, the passenger seat being almost as slim as a normal seat to accommodate the extra girth of the driver’s seat that Thomas was maneuvering himself into.
The man looked only a little cramped in it.
They accelerated out of the Association’s drivethrough and pulled onto the road only a little bit faster than a regular speedster. Jin-Chul quickly pulled out his phone and texted Chun Sung- Won to coordinate with the police so no one would try to pull over the national rank hunter.
“You’re a hard worker, aren’t you?” Thomas asked as he turned a corner, impossibly quick and smooth.
“I certainly try hard,” Jin-Chul replied, already feeling the beginnings of regret about letting the man know he spoke somewhat decent English.
“Uh huh. But apparently tracking Sung Jin-Woo is even harder,” Thomas prodded.
Jin-Chul took in a controlled breath to try to quash his nervousness. Of course the man wasn’t letting this go.
“Hunter Sung Jin-Woo has always been a quiet and private hunter. Reawakening seems to have made him able to take it to an extreme,” Jin-Chul explained, hoping he sounded respectful enough.
Thomas hummed, the noise somewhat positive but fairly noncommittal. He seemed to be mulling over the excuse.
“Did you know him, then? Before he became an S-rank?”
“No-” it wasn’t like he really knew the man now, either. Sung Jin-Woo’s desire for privacy and to not be interrupted was just that strong that anyone could pick up on it “-no I didn’t. But he wasn’t with a guild, so the Association has all of his records from the past four years.”
“Most E-ranks don’t bother going full time. At least not for four years,” Thomas pointed out, the hint of a demand in his voice.
Sung Jin-Woo desired his family’s privacy above even his own, Jin-Chul knew. The man had been willing to indicate that enough by asking for the Association to do what they could.
Jin-Chul also couldn’t ignore or even deflect this question if it came from the man beside him.
“I believe he was trying to make money for his family.” The sister’s existence was public knowledge, at least, since the paparazzi had caught her a few times. And if he said it was just a belief, then perhaps Thomas wouldn’t push for the little more information he did know.
Thomas hummed again as he drove the car onto the ramp for the highway.
“Privacy, huh? It’s definitely one of the more unusual quirks that I’ve heard of. What about you?”
“Pardon?!” Jin-Chul startled.
“What about you? The stronger you are, the stronger your personality gets too. Plus, hunters are much freer to indulge than the unawakened. So, the higher up you get, the quirkier the bunch. You A-ranks certainly aren’t immune, especially one of your caliber. So, what about you?” Thomas expanded.
God damn it, he did not want to talk about himself. Couldn’t the man go back to focusing on Sung Jin-Woo?
“I… there’s nothing really. I think my only quirk was being boring. Which was only exaggerated by my awakening. My subordinates have certainly claimed that I’m the most mundane person they know. It contrasts with the other A-ranks in the Association. My colleague Yu Sang-Won in particular is well known for their… interesting personality.” The Association had almost lost Jee-Min to Sang-Won’s antics at the last holiday party. The poor woman still flew into a defensive rage every time she saw a green marker.
Thomas snorted, drawing Jin-Chul out of his thoughts.
“If anything, that just makes you weirder. Normal people get stuck in a room full of hunters and breakdown and run away screaming-” Jin-Chul suspected that Thomas Andre was not a man who had gotten to observe the general populace interact with E and D-ranks recently “-keeping your head cool around a bunch of superweapons is a quirk. Being polite with Dong-Su is practically another special skill- Ah, is that it? You’re obsessed with politeness or something?”
“Well, I do try to be polite, but I don’t carry around books on manners,” Jin-Chul deflected.
Boring. He was boring. Not worth noticing, not worth an S-rank’s time. If he thought it hard enough maybe it would have some effect. Nothing else he’d tried had ever worked, why not try this?
He wasn’t sure if it was better or worse that he didn’t know of any quirk to answer Thomas’s question with. Giving the man some sort leverageable information didn’t sound like a good idea, even if it might get Thomas to stop asking him questions.
“What do you carry around then? An extra pair of sunglasses?” Well yes, he did, but that was because his subordinates were likely to lose or damage theirs too frequently. And they had an image to uphold if they wanted others to take them seriously.
“Raunchy romance novels? Law books?”
Jin-Chul didn’t know the word “raunchy” but given the leering tone and smirk on Thomas’s face, he had a pretty good guess as to what it meant. So, he’d rather address the last guess.
“The law books are only occasionally, they provide more weight to arguing with unruly hunters than a google search,” he replied.
“Ha! So, you’re a by the book kind of guy, then?” Thomas asked, chuckling to himself.
“I… I think it’s important for people to follow rules. That’s how society can keep functioning. The problem is when people are in situations that make following rules hard, or where the rules aren’t easily applied.” He’d been studying to become a lawyer, before the gates appeared, before he’d awakened and realized that the rules needed the most help with controlling hunters.
“Hmm… that does explain how you’re so stable compared to most. That’s a very valuable thing, Jin-Chul,” Thomas declared as he accelerated even faster down the highway as they got past the last of the Seoul exits and the traffic decreased.
Jin-Chul couldn’t help the way his heart started beating a little harder at that. He did not want to be seen as valuable to the world’s strongest tank.
“So, your new evasive S-rank. It’s your job to track him, right? I can’t say that does much for rule enforcement. What do you actually do for that?” Thomas prodded again.
It wasn’t really the enforcement that Jin-Chul liked, so much as the interpretation and application of rules. And the results thereof.
“The monitoring division tracks all hunters in South Korea. Tracking Sung Jin-Woo is part of that. Tracking for most hunters involves making sure they aren’t using their abilities for criminal activity and sometimes directing them to accommodations if they’re having trouble living with their abilities.” He was a glorified babysitter. Nothing to write home about, nothing that should make a national rank hunter be interested.
“You really are a dependable guy, aren’t you? People with your amount of principle and skill are hard to come by. I’m envious of the Korean Association,” Thomas declared, a weighty laugh in his voice as he “lightly” patted Jin-Chul on the shoulder.
Jin-Chul could feel sweat start to bead on the back of his neck, under his hair.
“Chairman Go Gun-Hee treats me well. I’m quite happy where I am,” he responded reflexively, the words a familiar refrain that the Korean S-ranks had learned meant to stop their recruitment offer.
“Oh?” Thomas asked instead, interest now laid out bare in his tone.
Fuck. He’d fucked up somehow. He should have made some excuse about paperwork and risked letting the man go out of the country without direct supervision instead of coming along.
“Yes. Um, he treats me well. So I like the idea of staying. I am sure that you’d be able to keep someone at Scavenger if you wanted. If you find someone dependable in America.” What the fuck was he doing? Offering advice to a national rank hunter?
“Well, I do like the idea of someone like you coming to Scavenger. But I haven’t found anyone else like you. Have you ever considered coming over?” The question already half-sounded like something that was definitely not a question.
“My place is with the chairman and the Association, so I can’t say I’d ever consider it,” Jin-Chul said, trying to reaffirm that he belonged here, that he was technically Go Gun-Hee’s, another high-level S-rank’s.
“How about just a visit, then?” Thomas continued instead of stopping.
“I…” Jin-Chul trailed off. There was nothing he could really say that wouldn’t cause an international incident or be a lie. And absolutely nothing that would be able to change Thomas Andre’s mind.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you just fine,” Thomas promised, dropping a hand onto Jin-Chul’s head and petting it a few times before returning it to the wheel, focusing on driving to the airport even more than before.
He was so fucked.
Thomas pulled up directly next to what was presumably the man’s private jet. The next thing Jin-Chul knew the man was out of the car, opening his door, and offering a hand to “help” him out of the car.
Jin-Chul took in a deep breath to try to make sure he wasn’t shaking as he undid his seatbelt. He took the hand and stepped out of the car. He felt a brief rush of relief when Thomas let go of his hand, only for it to be cut off as Thomas’s arm draped across his back, hand grabbing his shoulder to herd him to the plane.
“The chairman was expecting me back within three hours,” Jin-Chul pointed out. The hand on his shoulder tightened. “I should at least alert him to any changes in that plan.”
Thomas hummed as he led Jin-Chul into the plane. Then Jin-Chul felt himself tilt and his feet leave the floor. He felt himself instantly stiffen as Thomas carried him under a very large arm like a child, or a bag of flour that wasn’t particularly heavy.
Jin-Chul was spared from figuring out how to react to that by Thomas swiftly moving towards a seat sized for the man and sitting down in it, arranging Jin-Chul between his legs, hand remaining on his stomach to keep him in place.
The top of the man’s thighs reached his waist, Jin-Chul noted a little hysterically.
“All right. Feel free to inform him that you’ll be leaving with me,” Thomas permitted.
Translation: tell him you’re leaving, don’t call for backup.
The joke was on Thomas, Go Gun-Hee knew Jin-Chul well enough to know this was not a willing vacation.
The bigger joke was still on him, of course, it wasn’t like the chairman could really do anything to help him.
[Thomas Andre has made it to the airport without incident. Departure time currently unknown. I will be accompanying him.]
Jin-Chul heard the click of a camera shutter after sending the text. He looked up and back to see Thomas holding his own phone out.
The man fiddled and then nodded after few seconds before patting Jin-Chul’s head again.
“Stay here, I’ll see about the departure time,” Thomas ordered, maneuvering himself around Jin-Chul and then pressing a hand down on his shoulder to make him stay.
Jin-Chul watched Thomas walk out of the airplane, closing the door behind him.
He was so so fucked.
[Thomas Andre has made it to the airport without incident. Departure time currently unknown. I will be accompanying him.]
Go Gun-Hee brought a hand up to his face again after reading the text once more. He shouldn’t have let Jin-Chul pick. He was always firm with himself to not coddle Jin-Chul, admittedly one of his more precious subordinates, and dictate what the man did any more than a boss was supposed to. But he should have just given in this time and had the man stay back instead of letting him out into the world enough for Thomas Andre, of all people, to be able to snatch him up.
He’d gotten the airport to shuffle flight schedules a bit, so that they would be grounded for another few hours. But while time was a valuable thing, he had no idea what he could do to actually use the time he’d bought. Goto Ryuji had thankfully been fine with him agreeing to a joint Jeju raid while leaving the door open to working out the details later, since getting an agreement within an hour was more than the man had expected. Especially since he’d called the Korean S-ranks to meet their new raidmates this evening.
The accommodation had been more than enough to get Gun-Hee a bit of leeway to not have to think too much about Jeju while he was trying to get his right-hand man back with what resources he still had.
Goto Ryuji might have been able to hold up against Thomas Andre long enough for a rescue mission, but the man had no reason to help with this.
The Korean S-ranks would have all jumped at a chance to rescue Jin-Chul, both for the sake of getting further into the man’s good graces and not wanting the man to become even further out of their grasps. But none of them had the power.
The door to his office slammed open, a woman in the usual monitoring division suit suddenly in the threshold, panting and a bit disheveled. Kim Jee-Min, wasn’t she?
“Chairman,” she greeted him, still out of breath.
“Yes?” he asked, sending her a small nod in greeting.
“We found hunter Sung Jin-Woo,” she said with purpose, despite the continued heavy breathing, “at a hospital. We sent Lee Sung-Mi to inform him that you wanted to speak to him, so his phone should be on any minute now.”
“I see. Thank you. Good work,” Gun-Hee said. She gave him a tired salute before leaving.
Sung Jin-Woo… If he told Thomas Andre that they had located the man, would the national rank hunter come back? And possibly bring Jin-Chul with him?
But he still wasn’t sure that Thomas Andre wasn’t intent on killing Korea’s new S-rank to keep Hwang Dong-Su in line, or otherwise harming him. Gun-Hee couldn’t compromise Korea’s safety for Jin-Chul, no matter how tempting the idea was. Especially since Sung Jin-Woo was probably their strongest S-rank. Gun-Hee was certain that the man hadn’t shown his full strength during his official reevaluation.
All though… if Sung Jin-Woo really was that strong…
The man hadn’t shown the same attachment to Jin-Chul as the other S-ranks. But he couldn’t be completely unaffected, and he was a good man besides that. It wouldn’t be worthless to ask the man for assistance regarding this matter.
He got out his phone and called Sung Jin-Woo.
The phone rang and rang, and Gun-Hee worried it would go to voicemail again.
Sung Jin-Woo picked up on what must have been close to the last ring.
“Hello?” asked what seemed to be a forcefully neutral voice.
“Hunter Sung Jin-Woo, this is the Association’s Go Gun-Hee,” he greeted.
“Chairman? Is there a problem?” Yes. There was certainly a problem.
“Unfortunately, yes. It is also time sensitive. Would you be willing to meet with me as soon as possible?” He kept his voice level; this was no time to get outwardly emotional. He was a grown man and perfectly capable of asking for help without also having a breakdown.
“Ah, yes. Just give me a minute and I can be on my way. Are you at the Association?”
Bless this man. He was a unique gem, to be so cooperative with them.
“I am. Do you think you can get here within half an hour?” It would take a few minutes to explain the situation and, if Jin-Woo agreed to help, another half hour to get to the airport, which would leave about an hour to rescue Jin-Chul before he was whisked off to America.
“If you open a window, I can be there in less than ten. Fifteen if you can’t,” the other man declared before hanging up.
Gun-Hee looked at his phone, startled and confused, for a few seconds before deciding that open window entrances weren’t the most unusual things for S-ranks, 24th story or not.
Reminding himself of this did not make the dragon wyvern, Jin-Woo would correct him any less shocking.
Thomas was still out checking to see if they could get clearance for an earlier departure – giving Jin-Chul a break from figuring out if being stared at or held in some manner by the man was more uncomfortable – when Jin-Chul felt a flare of magic.
He looked around a few times for the source before his eyes eventually caught his shadow moving in a very unnatural manner. It almost looked like it was bubbling or vibrating, before the movement gained enough momentum to turn into wispy tendrils coming off of a clearly expanding mass.
The darkness towered over him before collapsing into a very familiar face. Jin-Chul took a half step back and found himself going down onto the seat behind him out of shock.
Why and how was Sung Jin-Woo here?
Scratch the how, actually. Apparently, the man had a teleportation ability. Which he would need to add to the man’s file when he got back.
He could go back.
It was still just a hope, but that was much more than he’d had before.
Jin-Chul was pretty sure that if he hadn’t already tripped back onto the seat out of shock, he would have done it out of relief.
“The chairman said you needed some help?” Jin-Woo said questioningly, as casually as if an older neighbor needed help with their internet.
Jin-Chul let out a choked sound, unable to articulate anything for another moment.
“Yes. Yes, I could use any help you can provide. Can you… can you teleport other people?” Jin-Chul asked.
“I mean it’s not exactly teleportation. And I think so? But I haven’t tested it,” Jin-Woo replied.
“I’m willing to be tested on, in this case.” There were very few things he wouldn’t do to get out of this situation, at this point.
“Okay. We’re going to have to find somewhere to hide though. I can’t use it again for another three hours.” Jin-Chul felt his hope fall down into his stomach so harshly that some sort of near-anger frustration bubbled up.
“The second Thomas Andre sees you he’ll beat you into the ground,” Jin-Chul pointed out.
“He’ll try, at least. But I’d rather avoid a fight,” Jin-Woo said, still almost casual about everything.
“How do you plan on hiding from him for three hours? No. This plane is supposed to take off in a little under two hours. If you can get us out of here, we need to leave by then,” Jin-Chul explained. It seemed like the chairman hadn’t been able to tell Jin-Woo too many details.
“All right, then. Let’s leave,” Jin-Woo said, nodding his head towards the door before turning and making his way towards it.
“I can’t outrun him!” Jin-Chul hissed, grabbing Jin-Woo’s wrist. The man complied and stopped, turning back to look at him.
“I’m pretty sure I can, though, even with you. He is a tank, after all,” Jin-Woo replied, still apparently confident enough to appear unconcerned.
Jin-Chul wasn’t sure that Jin-Woo wasn’t actually insane.
But the world had gone insane long ago. And Jin-Chul’s life had gone with it. Was there any way out that wasn’t insane? Jin-Woo was insane either in a way that would go very very poorly or he was insanely strong to the point that Jin-Chul might actually have a chance to go back to the life he chose.
Jin-Chul couldn’t help but glance down at the wrist in his hand, at the touch with an S-rank he’d initiated.
If not Sung Jin-Woo, the strongest person he’d ever met that didn’t take uncomfortable interest in him, then who?
“Okay. So we run before he comes back to the plane. Do you have a plan for getting out of the airport?” Jin-Chul asked, letting go of the man’s wrist.
“I was thinking we’d just hang around and hide until I can teleport us back. There’s too much of a bottleneck at the bridges to not get caught, and I don’t have any special skills to help me swim better than any other hunter,” Jin-Woo explained. At least the man was intelligent enough to strategize a bit. This was starting to feel less like hope and more like expectation, like he was actually going to get out of this situation.
“All right. Then-” Jin-Chul cut himself off as he felt a strong presence move closer to them at a decent pace. He was unfortunately already becoming used to Thomas’s magic.
Jin-Chul meant to ask Jin-Woo if he had a way to dampen his own presence so Jin-Chul could hide him, but Jin-Woo seemed to have disappeared while he blinked.
Invisibility. Or some sort of stealth. Or maybe the man was hiding in the shadows somehow. Something else to add to the man’s file regardless.
Jin-Chul walked stiffly over to a chair against a window and sat down, still tense, watching as Thomas approached the plane.
He could barely feel the slightest tinge of Jin-Woo’s power in the air, and that was mainly because he’d gotten to see the man use his power a few times and been around him a few times more than that.
As Thomas walked up to the plane’s door, it became impossible to feel any of Jin-Woo’s presence. That was a good sign, hopefully.
At least in the short term. An S-rank being able to essentially erase their presence was not good considering what loose cannons they were, all though Jin-Chul found himself not actually worried about Jin-Woo being the S-rank with this ability.
It was a very odd feeling, to be able to trust an S-rank this much. Go Gun-Hee was trusted, but that was hard won after years of working together and, quite honestly, his old age preventing him from being too liberal with using his abilities. Jin-Woo, for some reason, was already trustworthy in Jin-Chul’s mind to not use his overwhelming strength to overstep his bounds.
Thomas entered the plane and made it two steps before stopping. The man looked around the plane, clearly tense, sunglasses not able to hide his eyes glowing with magic.
“What happened while I was gone?” the man demanded.
“I… switched seats?” Jin-Chul tried. That was true and not suspicious. Hopefully the hesitation would be taken as confusion. With his poker face, he had a chance.
That chance didn’t change his heartrate ticking up, however.
“Anything else?” Thomas demanded again, prodding.
“Um, not that I can notice.” He couldn’t notice Sung Jin-Woo at all at the present moment, after all. “Why?”
Thomas hummed, clearly still suspicious.
“Stay there. We get two windows, two hours from now and four hours from now. I’m going to make sure we’re ready for the first one,” the man declared, giving Jin-Chul’s head another pat, before turning and walking into the cockpit.
Jin-Chul watched the cockpit’s soundproof door slowly and silently close Thomas and the pilot in. The next moment there was a light tug on his blazer’s shoulder, guiding him up and towards the emergency exit.
Hopefully there weren’t guards outside of this one too, or at least not as close as they were stationed to the normal door.
“Sorry, but we’re going to have to move quick.” The words were whispered almost directly into his ear right before he felt his arm get tugged.
The next thing he knew, he was floating in the air, his position and the shape of Sung Jin-Woo under him making it clear that he was now in a fireman’s carry. Jin-Chul grabbed his leg to make things a bit more stable.
There was the beginning of a gust of incoming air and then he was flying through the air, barely hearing the start of a low beep in the plane before they were outside and landing on the apron below.
Jin-Chul barely had time to register that there was only a loose perimeter, no actual dedicated guards, before he felt the air almost get knocked out of him as Jin-Woo sprinted for the terminal, no longer invisible.
Jin-Chul heard a large, ominous thud just as they reached the edge of the building. The large service doors, presumably for the luggage vehicles, opened of their own accord, somehow, and then they were dashing into the bowels of the airport.
Jin-Chul didn’t dare look back to see how quickly Thomas was catching up to them, only partially because it could have messed with Jin-Woo’s balance to jostle the man’s shoulder.
There were many machines and a fair amount of regular humans here. And a lot of luggage.
Jin-Woo banked a few turns quicker and more precisely than had been humanly possible two decades ago and zoomed them through another open door into a stairwell just as the sound of two doors being violently flung open echoed through the space. If Jin-Woo’s gusts of wind hadn’t startled the workers before, they were certainly scared now.
Jin-Woo skipped the stairs to bounce from railing to railing, launching them up a few floors within a second. He chose a door with a 4 painted next to it, and then they were in what seemed to be some sort of staff breakroom. Thankfully, it was empt- no wait, there was one person taking a nap in a chair, using the table as a pillow.
They didn’t stop as Jin-Woo dashed out of the room into the terminal proper. The man tapped Jin-Chul’s wrist, so he let go of his leg. Jin-Woo slid him off as they continued running down the terminal at A-rank speeds. Thankfully they were at the end of the terminal so there weren’t too many people, most at their gates and not paying enough attention to notice more than the strong gust they left in their wake.
Jin-Woo had kept a hand on his wrist and used that to guide Jin-Chul into a bathroom with a cleaning sign in front of it, going into the women’s side. Jin-Chul felt his face heat a bit as that registered.
And then Jin-Woo pulled them into a stall before the employees cleaning could notice them and Jin-Chul felt that heat turn into what he was sure was a full-blown blush.
“Sorry for dragging you out of the plane, but I wasn’t sure I could hide from him for three hours. Better safe than sorry,” Jin-Woo whispered, quiet enough that anyone unawakened wouldn’t be able to hear him.
“I assure you I am more than fine with getting off that plane as quickly as you got me. And never having to leave Korean soil again. But um, why the women’s bathroom? The men’s was getting cleaned too,” Jin-Chul whispered back.
“Would you check the women’s room if you were looking for two men?” Jin-Woo asked.
Probably not the first place he’d check, admittedly.
The cleaners moved towards them, and Jin-Woo pulled him up and over, until they were balancing their feet on the bowl’s rim next to each other, hidden by the stall door.
Well at least it had just been cleaned, all though Jin-Chul felt sorry for the first person to actually use this stall.
“My sister could probably fit in that vent,” Jin-Woo commented a minute later, after the cleaning crew had left.
Jin-Chul looked up to see a vent above the stall. “I don’t know anything about your sister besides the fact that she’s definitely smaller than either of us.”
Jin-Woo hummed before letting them lapse back into silence.
Jin-Chul made his brain stop thinking about everything that could have happened on a plane trip to America and in America itself to ponder the man in front of him.
Sung Jin-Woo was one of the strongest S-ranks he’d ever seen. Definitely the strongest out of the Korean S-ranks. But Jin-Chul was pretty certain the man wasn’t as strong as Thomas Andre – or was approaching the man’s strength at best.
And yet the man didn’t covet him.
Jin-Chul knew he was a tempting person for any S-rank, strong enough to keep up but not strong enough to be a threat. And now with a national rank hunter trying to steal him away it was apparent that there wasn’t an upper limit to that intrigue.
And yet Sung Jin-Woo was seemingly immune to the draw he had for every other S-rank.
It was frightening in its own way, to be so at ease in an S-rank’s presence. He’d trained himself to always be on guard around them, half-guard around the chairman. But around Sung Jin-Woo he felt… at ease.
Protected.
Not possessed, but protected.
Which was especially apparent right now, trapped in an airport hiding from one of the most powerful beings in existence, with only a flimsy bathroom stall door and Sung Jin-Woo to protect him. And yet somehow this felt like enough. This was enough somehow to give him hope that he’d be able to go back home to his apartment and sleep in his own bed and head into work tomorrow and drink awful breakroom coffee with his colleagues again.
Hope, however, was a not a guarantee, Jin-Chul was reminded as an already-too-familiar magic presence came within range of his senses. Thomas Andre was spreading himself out oppressively, clearly reaching out to search. Jin-Chul bundled his own magic up tight, trying to hide himself.
Jin-Woo faded away, using whatever stealth ability he had, hiding even his large magical presence.
Thomas Andre drew closer, his magic becoming even more potent. The man was clearly enraged, and Jin-Chul was stuck in a bathroom with no armor and no way to defend himself. He could feel his heart rate picking up already, preparing for flight or fight despite the fact that either option would be useless.
Something warm touched his hand, pulling him out of the beginnings of panic. He flinched and looked down to see that most of his lower half was now enveloped in shadow. He watched the darkness writhe and creep up him, shocked into passive fascination. It felt like… smoke, but solid. Or dry water. And warm and comforting like a favorite blanket.
The shadows crept up his neck, his face, and Jin-Chul was worried for a moment that he wouldn’t be able to breathe before it covered his mouth and nose and he discovered he could breathe normally. Better, even, like the air was freshly filtered. When the shadows covered his eyes he wasn’t worried, but he was surprised by the purplish-blue tint the world took on.
He had assumed he wouldn’t be able to see at all.
Less than a second later, the shadows must have finished covering him, because the world outside was muffled, especially the magical energy. Which meant his own energy was probably further muffled.
Sung Jin-Woo was hiding him. Literally enveloping him in his shadows to protect him.
Jin-Chul swore he could almost feel a desire to protect, somehow. Which… logically was a projection of his own emotions, but the longer he spent in here, the more he was pretty sure he could feel other existences that had to be the man’s summons. And weren’t those summons psychically connected to Jin-Woo in some form?
There was a flash of red beside him in the shadows, not one that he saw visually, but something that he knew somehow was red. The red presence felt like it clasped a hand down onto his shoulder, reassuring, not restraining. The red bannered knight that he’d seen in the orc dungeon, Jin-Chul was pretty sure.
This was… this was beyond explanation. While everyone called it magic and some of the particulars, especially the causes, were still unknown, they had figured out more or less how the abilities of the awakened worked. This was something beyond that.
He wondered what he was actually going to be able to add to Jin-Woo’s file. Was he allowed to just put a handful of question marks into the abilities section?
He… He really did have a good chance of getting back.
The realization seemed to be hitting him over and over again, each time more real than the last.
Jin-Chul could feel his heart calm down, breaths slow down, as more time ticked by while he stayed safe in Jin-Woo’s shadow.
Everything felt so stable, so sure now. It was a foreign feeling, Jin-Chul was used to diving headfirst into instability to try to give others some certainty. The only certainty for him in the last four years was the unending piles of paperwork and emails, and the nervous wariness around S-ranks proving prudent.
Which was just another thing Jin-Woo had flipped on its head. Jin-Chul couldn’t remember ever feeling as safe as he did right then, directly under the power of Korea’s strongest S-rank.
And then he wasn’t, the seal of shadows breaking and falling down around him, the world coming back into raw focus. Thomas Andre’s magic was still present, but more muffled than it had been before, further away.
“He’s past us now. Let’s double back before he notices,” Jin-Woo planned, still whispering. “Do you know how high and fast he can jump?”
“Um… well there was that meme a while back where he jumped to the top of a six-story building. And the video was only three seconds long,” Jin-Chul replied, befuddled. What did the jumping have to do anything? Jin-Woo should have gotten an idea of the man’s speed from him running after them earlier.
“Hm, Kaisel probably can’t take off fast enough then. Hiding it is,” Jin-Woo said, sounding vaguely disgruntled at the end, Jin-Chul was pretty sure.
What was a Kaisel?
Jin-Woo lightly grabbed Jin-Chul’s forearm before he could ponder that more and tugged him along as they made their way out of the bathroom. Thankfully the cleaning sign was still up while the cleaning crew did the men’s room so there hadn’t been anyone else coming in.
Jin-Woo had them jog back down the terminal at a decent clip, neither of them utilizing active magic that could have alerted Thomas.
They got to another stairwell, one for anyone, not just employees, and Jin-Woo led them down a floor.
The third floor was much busier, which Jin-Chul hoped would make it harder to find them, even if he instinctively started worrying about collateral. Jin-Chul dug his heels in a little to remind Jin-Woo to slow down as they moved away from the door.
They slowed down to a brisk walk before too many people could notice them, thankfully.
“If we’re going to hide in plain sight, running around won’t exactly help,” Jin-Chul pointed out softly.
“Ah, good point,” Jin-Woo agreed easily, slowing down a bit more and letting go of Jin-Chul’s arm. Jin-Chul knew that Korea was unusually blessed with relatively reasonable and cooperative S-ranks, especially once Hwang Dong-Su had left, but Sung Jin-Woo really did take it to new heights.
“But if it’s hiding in plain sight…” Jin-Woo continued, looking him up and down, “we’re still a bit too conspicuous, aren’t we?”
What was that supposed to mean? Jin-Chul pondered the thought as Jin-Woo led them down the terminal to the main concourse. His hair, while not a normal Korean color wasn’t too outlandish, especially among those awakened, and wasn’t even too out of place in an international airport. His suit certainly wasn’t out of place, and Jin-Woo’s clothing was perfectly normal for more casual travelers. If it wasn’t for his magic, Jin-Woo could still easily pass for a civilian, since the awakening hadn’t touched his pigmentation or given him any particularly extreme physique, look-wise.
They reached the main concourse with little interference, all though Jin-Chul could feel that Thomas had stopped more or less above them, probably pacing around and trying to locate them more specifically.
And then Jin-Woo dragged him into one of the cafes.
There were thankfully only two people ahead of them in line, who ordered together. Jin-Woo ordered two simple black coffees, and received them before the sugary monstrosities of the people in front of them were half-way finished, before leading Jin-Chul to a table pushed up against a wall.
They both took a seat facing out into concourse out of caution, which left them literally rubbing shoulders.
“You realize most people don’t wear their government issued sunglasses indoors unless they’re on government business, right?” Jin-Woo asked before sipping his coffee.
Jin-Chul felt his face heat up a bit. He was very used to wearing them wherever and whenever at this point, at least when he was “in action” in some form. Which running from a national level hunter definitely counted as. But Sung Jin-Woo was unfortunately right.
He slid his sunglasses off of his face, squinting a bit at the increase in light. He felt mildly uncomfortable as he put them in his pocket, vulnerable.
He slid his suit jacket off too for good measure.
“So… what now?” Jin-Chul asked before following Jin-Woo’s lead again and sipping at his coffee.
How was this better than the Association’s breakroom coffee? It was airport corner coffee, for crying out loud!
“I mean… unless he’s willing to cause an international incident, he won’t break through the floor. Which means once he figures out we’re under him, he’ll have to run for some stairs. Which gives us time to run away. Until then we should just drink coffee and hope he doesn’t notice us for a while,” Jin-Woo explained, still seeming fairly unworried about this whole situation.
Jin-Chul sighed into his cup, watching his reflection ripple as his breath disturbed the once placid surface.
“How long until you can not-teleport us?” he asked.
“Two and a half hours.”
Jin-Chul watched his reflection blink. He must have been in Jin-Woo’s shadow for at least twenty minutes then.
It took about an hour for Thomas’s magic power to switch from a slow building aggression to a spike of determination, and then for the man to move very very quickly away from them. The man must have searched the floor above meticulously.
Jin-Chul slid his jacket back on as Jin-Woo shoved the other half of his croissant into his mouth as they stood and started to make their way out the café. They walked briskly, but only as quickly as someone making sure they could get to their gate in time would.
“So, what’s the next plan?” Jin-Chul asked.
“I was thinking either heading up the luggage carousel into the sorting process parts, or we could try to get on a shuttle train to the other part of the terminal,” Jin-Woo suggested, still calm.
Jin-Chul wondered if his subordinates would still call him as stony and inert as bedrock if they saw how unperturbed the other man was in this situation.
The terminal’s other building would put more distance and obstacles between Thomas Andre and them. But getting there meant getting bottlenecked into a small shuttle car that moved at a predetermined speed. And there was a very good reason they weren’t running for the bridges.
But Thomas Andre couldn’t be too conspicuous and cause a scene, not if he wanted to avoid the sort of international incident that would give the chairman a foot in the door to take Jin-Chul back. Which meant the man was at least somewhat limited.
“Let’s try the other building, then,” Jin-Chul answered.
Jin-Woo just nodded and continued walking, Jin-Chul a half step behind.
It hit Jin-Chul again, suddenly, that he had a real absence of wariness around Sung Jin-Woo. And not just because his brain was picking the Korean hunter sent by the chairman over the American national level hunter trying to abduct him.
Sure, he knew in the abstract that the man was frighteningly powerful, he’d been there for most of Jin-Woo’s curb stomp in the A-rank dungeon with the orcs. But Sung Jin-Woo was scary in the same way typhoon season was something to be wary of. A naturally strong and nigh unstoppable force that wouldn’t hurt you unless you were in its path. There was nothing personally terrifying about Sung Jin-Woo, at least not as long as Jin-Chul didn’t do anything to get on the man’s bad side, which was seemingly reasonably difficult to do.
It was frightening, in its own way, to be so close to someone so powerful and feel no terror.
But that little bit of frighten was nowhere near enough to overcome the ease that came with feeling protected next to this man.
Jin-Chul followed Jin-Woo a little closer as they jumped more than ran down the stairs.
Thomas Andre was definitely willing to cause a small scene, if the much quicker pace the man’s presence was moving was any indication.
They managed to reach the first floor and increased their own pace into a light run, which was faster than most people’s sprints. Thankfully there weren’t too many people milling about at this time, most either waiting at the clogged up check-in desks or had gotten to the airport early for their evening flights and had settled down out of the way.
Getting to the shuttle loading zone gave Jin-Chul relief that lasted for only a fraction of a second. There were two whole minutes until the next shuttle would arrive. It took another minute to open the doors, let out the first set of passengers, let in the new passengers, and close the doors.
Thomas Andre would be quick enough to get there in three minutes if the man ran at a decent pace. With whatever pace he was running at right now…
“If there’s enough people in his way, we might make it,” Jin-Woo commented thoughtfully, a hand on his chin, apparently thinking along the same lines. However…
“If there are too many people then he’ll just jump over them all,” Jin-Chul responded.
Jin-Woo hummed in acknowledgement. “All right then.”
That was all Jin-Woo said before grabbing Jin-Chul’s wrist and tugging him along in a light run again.
Nothing. There truly was no worry or panic to getting tugged along according to Sung Jin-Woo’s will. If Jin-Chul wasn’t still absolutely terrified of Thomas’s ever closer presence and what he knew that would bring, he would have worried that he had lost his self-preservation instincts.
They wove their way through the crowd and managed to get to the luggage carousels with still a fair distance between them and Thomas. Jin-Woo let go of his wrist and for a moment Jin-Chul actually felt a brief panic at the absence of an S-rank’s touch.
Jin-Woo leapt up onto a currently unused carousel and to the chute, smoothly grabbing onto the chute’s top and swinging himself down. Jin-Chul followed right behind, being careful not to grab the chute too tightly and damage the relatively flimsy metal.
Jin-Chul followed the black blur of Jin-Woo’s coat into a corner, behind and between a few different automated conveyor belts. They were out of sight of the few employees loitering around, who apparently hadn’t noticed them.
Jin-Woo stopped and leaned up against the wall of one of the belts. Jin-Chul stopped a step and a half in front of him, focusing on lowering his slightly elevated breathing.
Thomas’s presence was very very close now. And stopping. Jin-Chul managed to sneak a glance at the chute they had entered the area from.
“He won’t be able to fit,” he informed Jin-Woo. Who just stared at him, blinking, for a moment.
“Won’t he fit if he just pushes it apart a bit?” Jin-Woo asked.
“Too much of a scene.” Hopefully.
Jin-Woo hummed and then suddenly took a step closer to Jin-Chul.
With the decreased distance, the shadows were able to cover him much quicker than last time.
Jin-Chul observed the tinted world for a few seconds before focusing on the shadows around him, calm enough for some of his curiosity to perk up. The red knight was nearby again, and it almost felt like their banner brushed up against him as he focused on their presence. There were other, less distinct presences around him. And then… a chill? A bit like a cutting winter breeze, but with heft behind it.
An ice bear, his brain registered after a moment. He’d fought them before, and their magic had that sort of energy to it. And he was fairly certain that he’d seen some ice bears amongst Jin-Woo’s summons in the A-rank dungeon. Including the one that was larger than any other ice bear he’d ever heard of.
Jin-Chul had barely felt-not-felt the brush of fur beside him when the shadows retreated, depositing him back in the real world. Thomas’s magic indicated that he was now much further away.
“Wait until he gets close to here and jump back up a chute?” Jin-Woo suggested from beside him.
He’s… actually coming all the way around?” Jin-Chul asked. He’d expected the man to be a bit more forceful by now, if the way he’d behaved in the car and plane had been anything to go by.
It suddenly occurred to Jin-Chul that Jin-Woo’s magic was still locked down tight against the man. Did Thomas think he was acting alone? A sole A-rank would merit less force than Jin-Woo and anyone else…
“I guess. Do you think we could make a run for it to the other building? Or a hangar? It might take him a few minutes to get here still,” Jin-Woo suggested.
“No,” Jin-Chul immediately shut down the suggestion, “a tank like him will do much better with a nice open plain to charge at us without worry, compared to weaving through the airport.”
Jin-Woo hummed. “All right,” he agreed easily a second later. Suspiciously easily, almost.
“You… you don’t plan on fighting him, right?” Jin-Chul found himself asking.
“I mean I do want to. He’s strong.” Oh god, he should have known. Even if Sung Jin-Woo had apparently avoided the power coveting craziness of every other S-rank, that didn’t mean he wasn’t infected with other S-rank unreasonableness. “But the chairman asked me to bring you back, not fight him.”
Oh, thank goodness for the chairman.
Thinking of S-ranks and Jin-Woo though…
“May I ask, hunter Sung Jin-Woo, why you did agree to this? I appreciate it, of course, but…” but you’re not mildly obsessed or possessive with me. So why are you bothering with this?
Sung Jin-Woo shrugged. “The chairman asked.”
At this point Jin-Chul honestly couldn’t tell if the mysterious act was intentional or something that the man was somehow completely oblivious to.
People did not go up against one of the three strongest people in the world purely because a respectable man asked them.
“Just because the chairman asked?” He knew that Jin-Woo knew that he didn’t have to listen to the chairman.
“Er, well, I mean. I also don’t think people should be abducted in general?” Jin-Woo added on, clearly a bit flustered and uncertain. “If you had asked for help yourself I would have come too.”
From any other S-rank, it would have sounded like another cajolement, another attempt to consider going under their protection permanently.
From Sung Jin-Woo, it sounded like their relationship already meant he had the man’s protection with nothing further owed or expected from him.
“You respect the chairman, don’t you?” Jin-Chul asked, keeping his voice level and light.
“Of course. You do too,” Jin-Woo replied, eyes narrowing slightly. You should know that Go Gun-Hee is widely respected, and you know enough about how I treat him Jin-Woo did not add on. The man had apparently caught onto his prodding.
“What about me?” Jin-Chul asked, despite the slight tightness growing in his chest, “I am not the chairman, but I work for him. Most hunters, however, aren’t exactly fans of the monitoring division, and prefer to not interact with me and the rest unless they have to.” What exactly do you think about me to be here to help me, because it can’t just be the chairman’s request he didn’t ask.
Jin-Woo just stared at him for a few seconds, and then turned his gaze towards the room at large.
“You’re… competent. And steady. Things run better when you’re around and you’re not annoying about it.” Jin-Woo made a face at the word annoying, presumably remembering someone who counted as such.
The answer itself was short, both vague and straight to the point. And it’s actual meaning…
Sung Jin-Woo considered him a minor, not unpleasant part of his day?
That was… mundane, in a way he didn’t get to be most of the time, certainly not around S-ranks.
Well, Sung Jin-Woo was already logic defyingly unusual, in person and on paper, Jin-Chul would just have to appreciate the unusualness being beneficial for once.
“I see. Thank you,” Jin-Chul replied, a small smile on his face.
The smile disappeared as Thomas Andre’s magic, still on the edge of his conscious perception, suddenly started moving quickly. And back towards them, he could tell a second later.
“How much longer until your skill is usable again?”
“One hour, two minutes, twelve seconds.”
How did he know it that precisely?
“So back up into luggage claim. And then what?” Jin-Chul asked, feeling far more confident and less concerned than he had two hours ago.
They were most of the way through this game of hide and seek, and Jin-Woo hadn’t faltered yet. Jin-Chul felt safe trusting Jin-Woo to be in charge and take care of him and their escape.
“Well, you did pick going to the other building earlier, I figured we should stick with that plan,” Jin-Woo said with a small shrug.
Jin-Chul let out a small snort. This man was ridiculous.
And Thomas was getting closer.
But Jin-Woo was still standing still.
Jin-Chul heard the beginnings of rubber screeching on asphalt as Jin-Woo said “Now.”
Jin-Chul jumped up onto the nearest stationary conveyor belt and swung himself up and out. He landed and startled a few people but paid them no heed as he started running. Jin-Woo had been behind him and the man was already half a step in front of him again.
They got to the shuttle’s platform again to see they had a two-minute wait time again. Thomas’s presence was already moving away from them to get back to an actual entrance.
“I’m kind of surprised he’s not just going through the employee doors,” Jin-Woo commented, looking in the man’s general direction.
“Well, he can’t read the Korean signs. Only the public ones have English. He can’t tell what will lead where or if it will have an alarm,” Jin-Chul pointed out.
Jin-Woo just hummed and looked back at the shuttle’s tunnel.
“Hopefully he won’t run out of patience for that for the next hour,” Jin-Woo commented blandly as they watched the shuttle appear down in the tunnel. Jin-Chul did not need that kind of anxiety inducing thought, only a little less than he needed the anxiety the actual scenario would cause.
Thomas’s presence had slowed down by the time they got to board the train, clearly already back inside the building.
Jin-Chul grabbed a pole as hard as he could without damaging it as Thomas drew closer and closer and the doors finally slid shut. There were only five other people in the car with them. A family of three, a parent, a teetering excited toddler, and a slouching punked out teenager. An elderly person using a walker and coke bottle glasses. And finally, a younger businessperson in a suit who kept glancing from a phone to glare at the toddler.
How mundane.
The train pulled into the other building’s station. Thomas Andre was… relatively behind them, but Jin-Chul couldn’t tell if he was actually at the other side’s stop or still a bit further away. Did they have five or ten minutes until the man got here?
Jin-Woo tugged on his elbow. Jin-Chul followed him out of the shuttle’s station into the terminal proper. This building, unlike the first one, was a simple straight line. No curves or hallways branching off.
Jin-Woo stopped a little off to the side of the station, looking back towards the other building. There was a noticeable spike in Thomas’s presence, the magic not being controlled as much.
“He didn’t make it,” Jin-Woo explained, “Should we get on the next one and make him miss us again?”
“No,” Jin-Chul decided. Thomas must have been very angry, to let his magic flare out like that. There might have been a few people fainting from it, even. “If we pass him in the shuttle he’s likely to just tear apart the doors and go after us.” There were two tracks, but only one service tunnel for both trains connecting them, after all.
Jin-Woo hummed before walking away, down the terminal. Jin-Chul followed.
“Remember when we hid under him in the coffee shop so he’d think we were hiding behind something on his floor?” Jin-Woo asked.
“That won’t work twice. I think he’s been memorizing my magic too, to be more specific in his search.”
“What if we move around while we’re doing it?”
Jin-Chul blinked a few times, collecting his thoughts. This building had fewer gates, which meant fewer people, but still enough that it could be difficult to find someone, which meant enough room to properly run. But there were better sight lines, it probably wouldn’t work for long. But Thomas Andre would still have to figure out which floor they were on, and the vertical plane was harder for humans, even hunters, to distinguish between.
But it was still far from fool-proof…
Jin-Woo turned around as they got onto an escalator. “Trust me?” he asked, a small smile on his face. The sun was beginning to set, washing the hunter in golden light from behind.
Jin-Woo looked unfairly like some sort of salvation.
“Of course,” Jin-Chul responded, trying to fight down the bit of overwhelmed heat he could feel on his face. And it was, embarrassingly, more a truthful phrasing than just plain politeness, Jin-Chul found.
Jin-Woo nodded and turned around as they reached the top of the escalator before stepping off and beginning to weave through the crowd, apparently trusting Jin-Chul to follow.
They made their way to the third floor. Jin-Woo led him a bit away from directly on top of the shuttle’s station.
Jin-Chul wondered for a moment if Jin-Woo had gotten a passive battle sense skill with his reawakening. Most hunters wouldn’t know how to properly play bait until taught, and Jin-Chul knew that Jin-Woo had never been taught. And then he remembered that while the S-rank was only a few weeks to months old, the hunter had been successfully raiding for four years. If anyone knew how to avoid getting in over their head enough to survive and succeed, it was the man who had lasted four years as the world’s weakest hunter.
Jin-Chul let himself slip his sunglasses back on about ten minutes later, as Thomas’s presence drew near and slowed down, indicating the man would soon be in the same building as him again. Jin-Chul could feel most of his muscles tense, a shiver run up his spine, as the S-rank level presence got too close for comfort.
It really did contrast with Jin-Woo’s effect on him, reminding Jin-Chul once again that the man beside him made very little sense.
Thomas stopped moving, presence hovering as the man presumably moved a few feet to disembark and then mill around to sniff them out. And then the man was moving quickly, not running enough to immediately cause damage, but fast enough that Jin-Chul felt a reflexive urge to scream at the hunter to not cause a scene.
The man quickly made his way towards where they were, but had definitely only gone up a floor.
Jin-Woo grabbed his arm and pulled him back, moving them further from Thomas. Jin-Chul easily followed. Jin-Woo kept them away from the escalators, and the few open drops that were supposed to let light down to the lower levels but would have also let Thomas potentially spot them.
Thomas slowed down, either trying to refine his search, or perhaps there was a crowd in his way. It gave enough leeway to slow down so Jin-Chul could realize that his heartrate had picked up again, that wary fear of S-ranks drumming up high once more. Even with the one S-rank who didn’t make him afraid protecting him, an S-rank going after him so deliberately was still one of his worst nightmares come to life.
They managed to last about five minutes, by Jin-Chul’s estimation, in this odd demonstration of magnet mechanics, before Jin-Woo made another sudden move.
Jin-Woo stopped and turned around, charging forward while leaning over a bit. Before Jin-Chul could do anything, he was over Jin-Woo’s shoulder and they were halfway to the employee stairs.
There was a gust of air and Jin-Chul just barely managed to see the end of a beige blur in the nearest lightwell move up to the fourth floor before Jin-Woo moved them into the stairwell.
Jin-Woo only jumped down one floor before rushing out onto the second floor.
Jin-Chul was pretty sure he heard another stairwell door slam open even as Jin-Woo started zigzagging across the second floor. Thankfully they were moving fast enough that Jin-Chul couldn’t see anyone actually manage to do more than look up from their phones before they disappeared behind another person, unrecordable.
Jin-Woo managed to get them into another stairwell, about halfway down the terminal, before Jin-Chul heard another stairwell door slam open again, accompanied by a much closer presence than the first slam.
They jumped up two floors this time and then Jin-Chul found his feet on the ground, Jin-Woo’s hand on his elbow. He immediately started fast-walking with Jin-Woo, all though that meant they were moving faster than most people could sprint still. It at least looked unconcerning enough that people wouldn’t be trying to record it, even if they were now slow enough to do so.
Thomas’s presence moved to underneath them, hovering. Instead of confused, though, now it felt determined, anticipatory. Like Thomas was hunting.
They slowed down a bit more, and Jin-Chul was pretty sure Jin-Woo was edging them towards another stairwell.
“We’ll feint that way,” Jin-Woo said with a nod towards the aforementioned stairwell, “and then jump down to the first floor again.”
“Are you-” sure? Jin-Chul cut himself off from asking. He was trusting Jin-Woo, both consciously because the man was his best chance and because the man actually somehow had his genuine trust. “All right. Understood.” He said instead.
Jin-Chul saw Jin-Woo look around them a few times and when there were few people around, and even fewer looking at them, Jin-Woo leapt forward towards the stairs, dragging Jin-Chul with him. The stair doors were quickly thrown open, and then Jin-Woo threw some shadowy substance that Jin-Chul could feel magic from down the stairs.
Thomas was still dashing towards the stairs when they jumped down the lightwell.
They hit the ground easily, taking off before the few people around could finish opening their mouths to gasp. Jin-Chul followed Jin-Woo down the terminal again. Jin-Woo slowed down to a more discreet pace as they weaved through the still fairly populous floor. And then he turned back into the shuttle stop.
Jin-Chul followed, even as his gut twisted nervously.
The clock above them said there was under a minute until the next shuttle. But Thomas was descending back down the building only a little slower than they had, likely running down the stairs instead of dropping. The man did have a harder time to not break things when he broke a fall than them, after all.
“Don’t worry, we’re not getting on,” Jin-Woo said calmly beside him. Jin-Chul whipped his head around from where he’d been staring out at the terminal to look at the man. He still looked fairly unperturbed, not disheveled or nervous.
“He’s going to be more willing to get violent in the tunnel, without civilians around,” Jin-Chul pointed out. Because if they weren’t getting on the train then surely Jin-Woo was thinking of hiding amongst the service platforms and tracks.
“We won’t be staying there either, don’t worry,” Jin-Woo said, a small smile on his face.
“Okay,” Jin-Chul answered after only a second of hesitation.
Jin-Woo’s gaze, more than calm, was still steady with a hint of the determination that Jin-Chul had seen when the man had declared his intention to fight to the chairman. It was a gaze that was so used to danger, to death, that there was nothing left but a dedication to living, to surviving.
Jin-Chul knew he could follow that sort of gaze through any danger, even the sort brought about by a national level hunter.
Said national hunter was also quickly drawing closer, of course.
The train pulled into the station and stopped. The departing side’s doors of the train opened and let out the passengers.
And then the boarding side’s doors opened.
Everyone else was further down the platform, the closest person to them seven meters away and on their phone, so no one noticed the two men disappear within a second by jumping up and sliding through the little space between the first set of doors and the top of the train.
They ran down the train, keeping their steps light. When they leapt off of the train onto the walkway on the side, Jin-Chul thought he saw Jin-Woo’s shadow writhe and extend out of the corner of his eye.
When he looked back at the train, once he’d settled far back enough into the shadows that the passengers were unlikely to see him, he saw one of Jin-Woo’s shadow soldiers crouching on top of the train.
The soldier gave Jin-Chul a thumbs up.
Jin-Chul gave it a tentative thumbs up back.
He stepped further back against the wall and tried to pull his magic in even tighter as Thomas got closer. Within a second, he could feel the now somewhat familiar sensation of Jin-Woo’s shadows swarming up and enveloping him.
Jin-Chul took in a breath reflexively as it crawled up his neck, before it covered his mouth. He breathed out once the shadows sealed him and muffled the rest of the world. He could see the light of the shadow on the train flare for a moment before settling down again.
The train pulled out of the station.
A few seconds after it picked up speed, Jin-Chul heard a few alarms. A beige blur with a blue middle moved passed them, paying them no mind.
Jin-Woo’s shadows had had high levels of magic, some enough to almost match Jin-Chul’s unbridled power levels, and a few beyond. Jin-Woo must have been using his soldier as a decoy. Hopefully Thomas Andre wouldn’t notice how different their presences felt.
Jin-Chul felt the shadow’s seal break again and immediately tightened his hold on his magic, drawing it tighter and smaller than he could ever remember doing.
The shadows finished receding and then Jin-Woo was jumping over to the station doors that Thomas must have pried apart. The man had clearly been waiting to see if the A-ranked presence was on the train or just trying to trick him into boarding.
It was clever.
Jin-Chul eyed Jin-Woo as he also jumped back over to the doors and swung through.
To realize that Thomas would likely use that strategy was also clever. To use that to plan a ruse to turn the tables without hesitation was frighteningly clever.
Was this how the man had survived four years with virtually no strength?
Jin-Woo made eye contact with him for a fraction of a second before taking off, a blur of black and grey. Jin-Chul followed. Thankfully no workers had been able to make it to the station yet to check on the alarm.
They slowed down as they went up the closest escalator, exiting at a normal, unremarkable pace. The sun was almost finished setting, the remaining little red light from the windows was darkening into the night sky, leaving the LEDs to wash the airport in unnaturally bright light.
There were now far fewer people in the terminal, the night meaning that the airport would consolidate more flights in the concourse building and terminal 2.
By the time they got to the third floor, everything but the 24-hour convenience stores were closed and there were barely any people. They made their way down the floor silently until they were nearly at the end. The gates themselves were all closed here, their lights off.
Jin-Woo picked the second to last gate and sat himself down before gesturing to the seat next to him. Jin-Chul settled down next to him.
“We have just over half an hour before I can transport us without drawing attention. I’ll try my best to keep you unnoticeable for that time, if you’re fine with it,” Jin-Woo offered.
“You’re asking this now?” Jin-Chul questioned, a small but amused smile on his face. This would be what, the fourth time in Jin-Woo’s shadow?
Jin-Woo’s face flinched before quickly smoothing out again. “Apologies. I would have asked but there wasn’t really time to discuss wi-”
Jin-Chul held up a hand to stop Jin-Woo. “It’s fine, hunter Sung Jin-Woo nim. It was a bit odd at first, but your shadow isn’t unpleasant, and it seems quite safe,” Jin-Chul reassured the man.
Jin-Woo observed him for a moment, before apparently accepting the answer and closing his eyes.
The shadows wrapped up and around him more… enthusiastically? With more vigor than before.
The world was blue-purple again. The presences also hidden in Jin-Woo’s shadow were around him and clear where the rest of the world was not.
The big bear definitely brushed up against him, hefty and with thick, softer than expected fur.
Jin-Chul focused more on the shadows around him than the world outside of it. After only a bit of that Jin-Chul could make out the individual soldiers in full. There had to be at least a hundred of them. Their presences seemed to move around more as Jin-Chul was able to focus on them in more and more detail.
Another large presence seemed to draw near, accompanied by a few of the smaller ones. The large presence was… loud and bull-like.
And then the now somewhat familiar presence of the red knight was next to him.
The loud presence and its companions drew back after a moment, back into the bustle of the other shadows. The knight took up a post at Jin-Chul’s back.
A strong and steady presence. Jin-Chul found himself focusing more and more on the knight’s presence until all of the others blurred into currents in the other parts of Jin-Woo’s shadow. Jin-Chul could also feel his breaths calm and slow down the longer he spent in the shadow.
The shadow itself was calming too, and warm. It was comfortable, in part because of the feeling of safety that seemed to permeate the air. It was backed up by some sort of strong, undeniable determination. Jin-Chul was certain now that that was Jin-Woo’s mind, his intentions and relationship with his shadows.
It was no wonder the soldiers were so loyal to the man, so easily following his orders. If Jin-Chul had the opportunity to live somewhere that made him feel like this, he would also help enthusiastically whenever the being responsible for it asked for assistance.
It was almost regretful that he would have to leave here eventually. It seemed so simple here, so easy to just stay somewhere both neutral and benevolent and just wait until-
The seal broke, dragging Jin-Chul back to the raw outside world and reality.
What the fuck.
What the actual fuck had he just been thinking.
“Sorry, I… I didn’t know that was a risk,” Jin-Woo said, sounding not completely calm for the first time since he’d trespassed onto Thomas Andre’s private plane.
Jin-Chul was also certainly less calm than he had been.
“What was that?” Jin-Chul demanded with a gasp.
What was Jin-Woo’s power, that it could… tempt and seduce someone to want to remain in the man’s shadow. Remain under S-rank Sung Jin-Woo’s power.
“I don’t know, I’ve never put anything but my shadows in my shadow for that long before, let alone anyone. It was fine until you… relaxed? You weren’t as guarded and started like… exploring more. And then I realized you were connecting your magic with mine and it was feeling like my shadows’ so I pulled you out,” Jin-Woo explained hurriedly.
It had been his fault then. Jin-Chul had almost doomed himself by getting greedy around the one bit of S-rank power that didn’t covet him, and had almost made himself coveted by trying to make himself part of Jin-Woo’s strength.
He felt vaguely nauseous.
“It was me who did it then. I’ll make sure to-”
Jin-Chul’s reassurance was cut off by a loud, violent thump.
Now he felt explicitly nauseous. Thomas’s presence was so close, it could only be him who had just jumped up onto their floor. Jin-Chul immediately muffled his presence as much as possible, even though he knew it was too late.
There was a tug on his suit sleeve from an apparently invisible Sung Jin-Woo, who he followed over to a closet. Jin-Chul could feel his legs start to shake a little as they went, the pressure emanating from Thomas increasing noticeably.
The man was probably furious.
Jin-Woo somehow managed to open the closet, maneuver them into it, and close the door without making a sound. Well, no, not completely close. The latch must have been too much of a risk. Jin-Chul could still see just a small sliver of faint light intrude into the dark of the closet.
Jin-Chul looked from the light over to the dark mass that was Sung Jin-Woo, his eyes glowing enough to be seen clearly even through Jin-Chul’s sunglasses. The eyes were steady as they looked back at him.
“Jin-Chul,” Thomas’s voice called out, ripping Jin-Chul’s gaze back to the light, “I will admit that you have impressed me a lot this evening. But it’s time to go now. Our plane takes off in an hour and the guild can’t really afford for me to spend the night here. Come out.”
An hour. Which meant it was basically time for Jin-Woo’s teleportation to be usable again.
“Jin-Chul Woo!” Thomas roared, “you do not want to test my patience any more than you already have, I assure you.”
Jin-Chul could hear the slap of sandals on concrete draw closer.
He looked back at Sung Jin-Woo. Even if he couldn’t stop himself from letting go again, he’d rather be Sung Jin-Woo’s than Thomas Andre’s.
“Please,” he barely whispered, more mouthing the word. Thomas could probably still hear it.
There was one more slap of a sandal and then a gust of air rattled the closet, leveraging the door open a bit more.
Jin-Woo grabbed him and tugged Jin-Chul against his chest as Jin-Chul saw a pale hand grab the inside of the door and open it further, letting more light spill in.
A glint from the front of Thomas’s sunglasses entered Jin-Chul’s sight before everything went black.
The Korean hunters had been more or less disappointing. But Ryuji supposed that was a good thing, in the end.
There had been nothing unexpected about the S-ranks, even if Cha Hae-In was decently strong. One on one, she could probably take down most of his S-ranks. Well, the old man was technically strong as well. It was an objective shame that he was too old to be able to handle fighting.
The only ones he hadn’t seen were the retired S-rank healer, who was essentially a non-entity in their plans, and the new shiny S-rank.
The new guy seemed to have not been called to this sparring match, nor had he been mentioned at any point so far. It was safe to assume that, S-rank or not, Korea didn’t want to send a newbie into the worst gate in their history.
The kid probably wouldn’t be worth much anyways, so who cared about him being missing. Either goal A would work out better because the rookie wasn’t there to get in the raid’s way, or goal B would work out and the rookie would be forced to take on too much too quickly and fall sooner rather than later. Or both, if Ryuji was really lucky.
He expected goal B to at least work out, given the way the chairman and all of the S-ranks seemed so tense and clearly had their minds elsewhere, likely focusing on their anxiety about the upcoming raid.
Still, to show their anxiety that much just proved that the Koreans lacked discipline.
There was a flash of magic on the side of the gym, and Ryuji looked over, preparing himself.
He still wasn’t mentally prepared for the chairman’s shadow to rise up and turn into some weird black and glowing knight thing.
The glowing bits faded, getting covered up by the black shadowy substance, and then the whole thing collapsed. Left behind were two men, including the rookie S-rank, the shadows still clinging to them as they slid down and writhed until they finally disappeared.
And Ryuji thought Matsumoto got dramatic.
At least he knew the other man was a mage now, and one with some sort of teleportation ability. That was going to make goal B much harder, since there was no way the Koreans would sideline even a rookie with that sort of ability. At least goal A was easier now, though.
The other man, about the S-rank’s – Sung Jin-Woo’s – height was definitely less powerful and also… being held intimately close.
The light-haired man was also awakened though, although it took a moment to really fish out which magic was his. Another S-rank? No. Not quite. A-rank, but strong for an A-rank. Stronger than Hanekawa, at least. A tempting amount of strong, the man would be useful in virtually any situation.
The relief from the Koreans was practically palatable as they realized who had just appeared. The five S-ranks practically dashed over to meet back up with their teleporter, plus the chairman who only had to turn around.
Or at least Ryuji had thought they would be excited to see their teleporter.
Instead, the chairman had grabbed the other man’s elbow, smiling in clear joy and relief, and looked half a second away from hugging the man himself. The other S-ranks swarmed the A-rank, chattering on, also clearly relieved.
Ryuji noticed the way the man tensed under their light touches, unlike the chairman’s, and how he ducked away after letting them each touch once or twice.
Sung Jin-Woo started talking to the chairman as Ryuji nodded at Hanekawa and they approached.
“They’re saying something about a safehouse and transportation. I don’t have enough context though,” Hanekawa whispered to him.
The other S-ranks had gotten tenser as the two men talked, the still shirtless Baek Yoon-Ho actually growling a bit at some point as they walked over.
“Ah, Goto Ryuji-san,” the chairman greeted him.
Ryuji nodded back and then slid his gaze over to the two newcomers.
The A-rank flinched at his gaze, he was pretty sure, all though it was quickly covered up. The man didn’t seem afraid though, not like some of the high-level awakenings with the wrong personality to hunt that he’d seen. No, the man was standing strong with more than magic. He just apparently preferred to draw back from other strong hunters.
It was intriguing.
“This is chief Woo Jin-Chul, head of the monitoring division at the association. And hunter Sung Jin-Woo. He just returned from an errand. They’ll both be leaving shortly, unfortunately,” the chairman said. Ryuji got the sense that the chairman didn’t consider this particularly unfortunate for some reason.
“I see,” he replied, “will either of them be joining in the raid?” he asked, letting his gaze settle on Woo Jin-Chul. The S-rank may have been a teleporter, but the A-rank was interesting. He hung right in the paradox of neither strong by Ryuji’s standards, but also useful by the same standards.
The A-rank seemed to still himself into more neutral, blank body language the longer Ryuji stared at him.
Associations didn’t usually pay much. Ryuji idly wondered if money would be enough to intrigue the man to come over to his guild. And a language tutor was perfectly within the guild’s budget in addition to that.
Sung Jin-Woo shifted slightly so that he was a bit in front of the A-rank, his face both blank and distinctly unfriendly.
“No,” the chairman replied, stepping much more directly in front of the both of them, “Chief Woo will not be on the raid. And I have yet to properly discuss the matter with hunter Sung.”
Ryuji glanced over the man’s shoulder at the chief in question. “All right. Then I suppose they both have business to get to, unless they have the time to stick around here.”
“Correct,” the chairman said with a smile.
Ryuji nodded and turned to make his way back to his side of the gym.
“Research chief Woo when you get back to the hotel,” Ryuji ordered Hanekawa in a whisper.
He glanced back to see Sung Jin-Woo and Woo Jin-Chul leaving together, the other S-ranks watching them go. Or, more specifically, watched Woo Jin-Chul leave.
The chairman hadn’t cared about hiding a teleporting S-rank mage. But he had tried to hide and obfuscate the A-rank.
It was definitely interesting.
As they climbed higher into the sky, moving towards the mountains and away from the city, Jin-Chul couldn’t help but laugh into the wind. Jin-Woo looked back at him, but Jin-Chul just shook his head instead of trying to articulate everything or anything.
They were literally flying away from his worst nightmare. To a safehouse provided by the first S-rank he’d ever trusted (not that the chairman would know which association safehouse they were going to, the man needed some plausible deniability for the inevitable phone call from the scavenger guild). And the second S-rank he’d ever trusted was the one taking him there, flying him through a safe, dark sky away from all the other covetous S-ranks and the lights of the cities and their airports.
“Hold on tight,” Jin-Woo called back to him. But wasn’t he already holding on tight?
Still, Jin-Chul complied and grabbed Jin-Woo’s waist a little tighter, squeezing his legs against the wyvern a little more. Jin-Woo leaned further forward, dragging down Jin-Chul with him
And then Jin-Chul was pretty sure they were approaching the sound barrier.
“Why didn’t we just fly out of the airport with the wyvern?!” Jin-Chul yelled.
“She’s faster at night, with more shadows. And she’s much slower on take-off,” Jin-Woo yelled back.
Right. The man had asked about Thomas Andre’s jumping capabilities, after all.
Did all of Jin-Woo’s shadows get stronger at night or in the dark? Did Jin-Woo get stronger when there was more darkness? Did Korea have a near-indestructible S-rank half of the time?
Well, Jin-Chul supposed he was going to be sticking around to find out now.
He let himself smile into Jin-Woo’s back, letting himself not worry about more than his current basic task for once.