Just trying to survive here! (SI/Multicross)

[ObsidianNoir]

Arc 1: Martial Heart​

Chapter 9.1

So, reached a new universe. And it took a day or so, in Earth time.

Honestly expected a little bit more prep time, but oh well.

There were many thing I could do, but after having changed clothes first (flexible jeans with a red shirt with a black vest), I needed to wait for Chrome to get her clothes.

So, playing twenty questions with the computer was my way to kill time.

"Why did we stop anyway?" I asked nonchalantly, spinning a little in the chair in front of the computer.

"Energy on low levels. Landing necessary."

I frowned slightly at the robot voice.

So it had some good intelligence, to determine that.

Was the fuel low in the first place or did it simply take that much to travel? How long was the distance?

All questions I thought about and actually didn't want to ponder on. They would give me headaches.

Therefore, a question that was more relevant for the situation.

"How long does it take to recharge?" I asked, leaning back in my chair.

"Unknown. Estimations range from twenty four hours to two months in Earth time units."

I blinked and leaned forward in confusion.

That was a wide range of time.

"Reasons?" I inquired and heard how Chrome left our bedroom.

"Local energy and its availability has to be analyzed. Time estimations based on crossreferencing with other Earths and its local energy rates and availability."

I hummed in interest.

Made sense, I guess. It had to access energy from somewhere and depending on what the setting was, it was either harder or easier to get.

By god, did I wish it would be the latter. Better to have the option to leave any time than be stuck somewhere with potentially nothing to do.

With that in mind, I stood up, having the information needed. The computer would notify us if it had its energy back and was ready for take off.

Turning around, I took a look at my friend...and blinked.

Chrome wore her canon uniform. Only instead of showing her mid riff and a skirt, it were blue jeans.

That was a little...disappointing, to be honest.

"Something wrong?" She asked, tilting her head.

"No, no..." I let out a sigh and waved my hand. Then, I crossed my arms. "So...you sure you wanna come with me?"

For a moment, she seemed to frown at me, but then nodded calmly.

"I would feel better if I come with you. The ship has stealth systems."

Breathing out in relief, my shoulders slumped slightly.

"Thank god. I don't wanna go out there alone anyway."

"Then why ask?"

I think she sounded a little irritated, though she looked as blank as ever.

I chuckled awkwardly and scratched my cheek.

"Dunno if you feel comfortable with going out in unknown territory without me."

"Safety in numbers," she replied and her voice, as quiet as it was, left no room for objections.

"If you say so," I dumbly said and we both walked over to the hatch. Before we opened however, I raised my hand, stopping Chrome.

We were in a mountain range, judging from the camera. Jungle or forest like too.

Therefore, I had no damn idea where we were on Earth. Or which one. It was far away from civilization, as far as I could tell.

So, better safe than sorry then.

"Let's make sure we keep up stealth at all costs. I don't like the woods. Or mountains," I explained to Chrome and I shuddered. "Too many cliches that could happen here."

The girl nodded in response.

"Alright, but we can't keep it up forever."

"Five minutes then, then we go back, which makes ten minutes. Safe enough for some scouting and we don't drop dead because of pain." Not hearing any objections, I let the ramp down and immediately fired up my hell ring.

Seconds later, our presence and visibility was basically zero as we left the UFO.

The moment we did that, the ship vanished in thin air. I whistled impressed.

"Thank god that thing has an invisibility function."

"I don't think it's simple invisibility," Chrome said after a small silence of walking between the plants and I raised an eyebrow at her when I stopped in front of her.

"Why do you think so?"

Chrome shrugged slightly, forehead wrinkling a little in thought.

"It feels like it's just...gone."

I hummed in thought and narrowed my eyes, extending my senses to where our ship was supposed to me.

She trained the aura reading thing as well. Handy enough skill and she could use it rather well. Considering her skill with it, maybe she missed something, I thought.

Well, I thought wrong, because there was not a single trace of it, as far as I could tell. Like it got erased from history. No aura, no smell, no whatever.

I shrugged in the end.

"Space magic. It just works, so I won't break my head over it."

Chrome nodded in agreement, before we resumed walking in the somewhat chilly night.

It was a bit straining and I didn't meant nature itself.

I felt the gradual pull on my reserves as I used my hell ring and I needed to focus on four things at once, while walking was more of a subconscious thing.

Chrome's organs, our presence, our visibility and our surroundings.

Thank god the first thing was basically as easy as breathing to me. Still, multitasking was not a thing I recommended. Still, this made three subjects that needed my flames and three subjects that required my focus.
Good that I wasn't alone then.

The girl was able to keep an eye out easier than me. Not that she had it too easy either.

She covered the gaps I left. In this case, the traces we left from our little patrolling. And she needed to maintain them, which meant she had to mentally map out our path as precise as possible.

Obviously, not an easy task and this system of ours wasn't completely perfect.

But it was a perfect enough set up for me.

The natural conclusion of this strain would be to stay silent as we walked.

Of course, I did not have such discipline and acted like an irrational human being.

Which meant I started to talk and had to add another illusion to keep the sound in a small bubble around us.

"Ugh, not used to this," I muttered, gritting my teeth a bit to keep up my focus.

Chrome stayed silent for a while behind me and I could feel her raising an eyebrow. But apparently she decided to humor me or whatever, because she engaged in the talk as well.

"You weren't much in nature?" She asked in her soft voice, though I could hear her focus as well. I shrugged in response as I pushed some plants out of the way.

"A forest here and there and a hill. Nothing super nature like this here." I shuddered and rubbed my arms a little when a soft wind managed to breach through the thick fauna. "Feels weird. Not a fan of this." I turned my head slightly and lowered my pace. "You?"

She shook her head as she watched the ground in front of her, before giving me a neutral look.

"Never been outside my home very often."

"You ever wanted?" I asked, noticing that the way we walked began to be easier to walk through. I looked around.

Hm, it looked like other people walked through here before. Frequently too, almost like patrol paths.

With that in mind, I moved on. We still had something like two minutes before we would need to turn back.

"Sure. But I couldn't," Chrome said shortly after my observation and my head turned at her again. She nodded a little and her mouth twitched. "It's...exciting I guess."

"You look excited," I replied, smiling at her. She in return tilted her head.

"Do I?"

"Your eye sparkles a little," I said, pointing at her, before wiping some sweat of my forehead with a small wince.

Legs started to hurt. I was not used to this ground.

Never skip leg day, I guess.

My frown quickly got replaced with a chuckle at seeing her reaction.

She pouted.

"You're joking," she said, sounding a little miffed. I turned around and raised my hands in mock surrender.

"Who knows."

I could hear a quiet, cute grumble from her and I needed to suppress a giggle.

Jesus, getting her out of her shell was working faster than expected and it was adorable as hell!

Before I could enjoy her company in peace more however, my eyes widened in shock.

I stopped in my tracks, at the same time as Chrome.

The reason was simple.

I almost fell off a small cliff. Artificially made, on a path that was created to lead up to our position.

Suffice to say, the two of us reached some sort of construction or mining site. I saw excavators, some huts and all that down in the lower area.

But it wasn't the fact that there was a mining site that made me stop.

It was the fact that my aura sense was tingling.

Barely.

I clicked my tongue, glaring at the sight like an evil spirit.

It would have been bad enough if this site was abandoned, but the fact that I could feel little wisps of presences from it was potentially worse.

Because if there were humans, I should feel a lot more than that.

Time for a second opinion.

I turned to Chrome, whose eye scanned over the entire area in a frantic manner, before noticing my gaze and raised her eyebrow.

"You feel that?"

She nodded quietly with a small frown, clutching her mini trident a bit.

"Hm. Barely, but there are several people."

I let out a sigh and scratched my hair in agitation as I looked down the area.

"Considering I almost missed them, that either means they are half dead or good enough to hide them. Since we don't see any of them in the first place..." I took a deep breath and crossed my arms. "Either way, it means bad news."

My companion nodded in agreement, but I pondered what to do next.

By all means, the safest option was to not go down there and go back to the ship. Waiting in it wouldn't be so bad and it was safe.

But it was a mystery in front of me. Where were the people, what did they want to find, what universe was this?

I shook my head and grit my teeth.

No, safety first.

Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it…

…

God damn it!

I clenched my fists and let out an irritated snort before whirling around to face Chrome. Before she could ask, I pointed down the site.

"We gotta check it out."

The girl stared at me in silence.

Then, her eye narrowed ever so slightly.

"Do we?"

Immediately, I shook my head.

"Not really, but my curiosity is beating my common sense right now," I said in a flat tone, making it very clear I hated myself.

Chrome stared at me in silence again.

Her eye narrowed even more.

"Isn't that a bad thing?" She asked, this time not even bothering to hide her accusation.

Being accused by a thirteen year old girl, you go, Sid.

Still, I nodded in agreement.

"It is. I should work on my impulse control." I let out a sigh and closed my eyes with crossed arms. "I should start a list."

When I heard some weird paper noises I opened them again.

Only to see Chrome about to pocket a notepad into her pockets. She looked up and pointed at it with an innocent expression.

"Wrote it down," she said in a neutral tone and showed me what she wrote.

"Train impulse control. Sid."

I blinked.

She blinked.

When nobody of us said something, she gestured towards me, then down the site.

My eyes widened slightly.

She was coming with me, despite the obvious dangers.

I couldn't help but smile at her. For both the note and her companionship.

"You are a dear, you know that?"

She said nothing, but I could see a faint blush on her face.

Not wanting to embarrass her further, we walked down to the lion's den, walking down the artificial ramp. Though I did grin all the way down.

Once we reached ground level, the grin was gone from my face.

It took a minute or two and the strain of the illusions started to become more noticeable on us. Our breathing grew heavier slowly, but surely and a headache slowly began to form in my head.

By all means, the two of us could do our stealth routine half an hour or so.

But them we would have to suffer to immense migraines, so it would be bad to suffer from that in the middle of nowhere.

I had to keep that in mind, so I hurried my steps a little to get through the small forest area between the ramp and the huts.

Only to step on something soft.

I looked down.

I grimaced.

"Oh, come on," I groaned and squat down.

A body. Yay.

And considering I didn't feel any aura from them, they were probably dead. Quite some time too, because their bodies were cold after I poked one of them in the face.

Which meant they weren't the ones I felt.

"Whaddya think, Chrome?" When I didn't receive an answer, I looked at her standing next to me with a wide eye.

I followed her gaze…

To see a squad of Asian military people relaxing around a bunch of other corpses and a somewhat ruined landscape, bandaging up some wounds probably received from combat.

I blinked.

Then my face distorted in disbelief.

How could I not hear them?!

…

Wait, illusions and multitasking didn't mix that well. My bad then.

"Sid. Over there."

I followed her finger and narrowed my eyes.

Another squad. I could barely feel them as well, but I could see them from our position.

Dressed similar to the dead people around the place.

So probably enemies to the resting squad.

Which meant shit was about to go down, again.

Welp, time to take a closer look while I was at it. I scratched my chin, making sure that our illusions were up.

Hm...

Look Asian, maybe Koreans. At least it sounded like they were talking Korean. Military, spec ops perhaps judging from the camo uniforms.

…

Weird, something about this reminded me of something. Only a few of these people were itching in my brain.

Fat guy, twins, masked guy, baby face, yellow mohawk guy and blue hair guy, about to get ambushed by shady people in the fauna, one of the shady people looked like a kid and about to leave the grass, while the other one looked like an albino scar face...

Where did I saw this before…

I hummed in thought, while Chrome clutched her trident a little harder with a frown.

…

My eyes widened when it clicked, from the depths of my memories.

Oh god no.

"Sid?"

I heard Chrome's worry, but I was more busy not freaking the fuck out.

I somewhat succeeded, if only for the reminder that panic would screw my illusions, which would then lead to Chrome and I to get screwed in turn.

Still, I hyperventilated a little.

Jesus Christ, this is God of Highschool. Manhwa with overpowered martial arts.

More specifically, I was in Jin Tae-Jin's flashback arc with his special team.

And this was the scene where one of the twins were going to lose their life, before Tae-Jin kicked the North Korean's squad's collective ass.

I glanced at the North Korean martial arts squad in the woods.

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Chapter 9.2

There was no way I could remotely stand a chance in close combat.

In a fair fight that is.

But if an illusionist had to fight fair, they were hardly a good illusionist in the first place.

Therefore, I had to play as dirty as possible. I had a simple, four step plan in the few moments after I made up my mind to act.

Step one, prepare a distraction in order to save this guy's twin brother.

The guy was gonna die because he was too casual. By all means, I should let nature take its course so canon won't be too derailed.

But I believed in the butterflies. And with that, I meant the moment I got here, nothing was guaranteed.

Hell, I wasn't even sure if this wasn't AU territory to begin with.

Anyway, saving the guy.

The easiest way for me was to distract the distraction. Well, actually everyone, but my main goal were the North Korean ones.

Racism not intended.

Fake killing intent and a simple clone should do the trick.

Step two, maintain the stealth and gain the initiative.

Now that was a little bit more tricky.

If the enemy spot us, we were dead. No questions asked. I wasn't even sure if Dying Will mode was physically on par with their normal physical ability. If I had Hyper Dying Will mode, I would be more confident.

But I didn't, so keeping up the stealth on top of the clone had to be a go.

Which led us to step three.

Step three, get the power to kill.

The distraction wouldn't last long, a good hit or two would make it pop like a balloon. I couldn't rely Tae-Jin's team to wipe them all out, because my clone would probably distract them as well.

So I had to do it. Unfair, of course.

I should have enough time for Dying Will mode. I would need the power boost to get the speed and power to make most use of the time gap.

Dying Will mode unlocked a lot more flames for me. Downside, my illusions became sloppy. Probably because of the intense emotions.

I didn't need precision anyway though. What I needed was a short distraction so that I could rush in and do the next step.

Step four, kill them.

That one was pretty obvious and didn't need any explanations.

I took a deep breath and held my pipe ready, my hell ring already lightening it up.

It will hurt like moderately, but as long as I didn't get hit in the cross fire, I should be able to stay conscious enough.

"Blitzkrieg time," I muttered and used my left head to swipe it to the left, calling the fake into reality, while at the same time taking a strong whiff from my pipe.

Inhaling the smoke, I closed my eyes for a moment, before the indigo flame on my head burned brightly.

At the same time, my imitation spawned right over the small soldier that was about to shank one of the twins with the biggest killing intent I could muster.

Naturally, panic broke out. The soldier quickly moved his leg to kick my clone's head of from the right, the other soldiers were coming out of their hiding spot, trying to find where my clone came from and the South Korean's soldiers were busy to back off from the attack.

And all of it had beautiful, Korean gibberish as commentary I didn't understand shit of.

As I slightly hunched over for take off, I frowned slightly.

The drain I expected on my energy wasn't as bad as I thought, while I saw my fake's head getting blasted off.

Then it dawned on me and my eyes widened slightly.

Chrome.

I didn't look at her, but I could feel her energy over my own illusions.

She probably dropped the trace stealth in order to help with our personal invisibility.

Didn't plan on that, but I welcomed it.

I could focus more on the offensive then.

With that in mind and a feral grin, I blasted off the ground. Jumping into the direction of the one who took out my clone and the first of seven people, I raised my right hand and extended my index and middle finger.

Before the guy could get his leg back on the ground, I grabbed his head with my left hand and jabbed my fingers into his eyes with glee.

The glee got replaced by shock and then with disgust as I quickly backed off, shaking my right hand wildly.

Oh god, the eyes felt so damn disgusting! Not doing that again!

Still, I felt satisfaction.

The soldiers, both from the South and the North, screamed at what looked like a guy spontaneously losing his eyes.

Time to increase the horror show then.

Just to make sure then.

I swiftly hung my left arm around the guy's neck and put my right hand on his left cheek. Before the pain ridden man could say anything, I whispered into his ear with dry amusement.

"Be proud. You are my first."

With that said, I snapped my hand to the right, with the guy's neck in tow.

Obviously, it made a loud crack and the body fell down like a sack of potatoes.

…

Did I really just say that?

What the hell, Dying Will self? Not cool! I mean, it did sound horrifying and funny in a sense, but now was not the time!

I couldn't ponder on it more, because I had to touch an aggressive kick aimed at my head. I barely dodged by jumping back.

To my shock, the guy followed me into the direction I was escaping and threw a punch in high speed at my head.

I ducked and felt it graze my hair. Gritting my teeth, I rolled sideways when the soldier dropped his left leg down like a guillotine.

Fuck, we forgot the sound. They could still hear my steps.

Luckily, Chrome noticed that as well apparently, because the next steps I made didn't leave any trace this time. The guy clicked his tongue in irritation and looked around frantically.

While he did this, I caught my breath and held my head with my left hand.

Way too close…

Then, I noticed something weird and raised an eyebrow.

Where were the other North Korean people?

I surveyed the area and found my answer.

Oh, they were dead.

And the other guy stopped attacking me, because he was also dead when I checked on the others for a second.

…

Wait a darn minute.

I did a double take and yes, lifeless bodies were scattered on the ground.

I blinked and looked around.

Why were they dead?!

My head stopped when I saw the source and my eyes widened as my forehead flame went out.

Jin Tae-Jin himself, holding the scarred, albino leader of the Northern Taekwondo force at the throat.

I couldn't help but gape.

Holy shit, that old man was fast!

And I couldn't understand jack shit, but I think he interrogated the leader about where the family of his rival and technically teacher of Taekwondo was.

Well, we were safe at least now and I accomplished my goal to keep the one canon victim alive, so I turned to Chrome who reappeared to my left.

"How did you know what I was planning?" I asked with heavy breath and crossed my arms.

Chrome, equally breathing a little heavy, shrugged.

"Had a feeling."

I cracked a smirk and shook my head in amusement.

"Maybe we should train on coop tactics so that we don't have to rely on feeling when sudden stuff happens."

"I add it to the list," she said and began to write down the note.

I laughed a little and pat her head. She let out a small, adorable grumble, making me smile even more.

When I looked back at the bodies, my smile fell.

Not because I felt guilty. But I guess the lack of any big reaction from me concerned me in the first place.

Really, killing should bother me more. I knew that.

On the other hand, killing wasn't much of a gamebreaker to me even before death. Only thing that made me queasy was the act itself, not the moral connotations related to it. The feeling of eyes and blood on my fingers was the act that made me feel the most uneasy.

Even though I thought that way, I knew that killing shouldn't be that...indifferent for me.

Of course, it could be because of the mental manipulation, but I wasn't sure on that.

I narrowed my eyes as I inspected the corpses, admiring the aftermath of Tae-Jin.

Who, by the way, just broke the scarred man's neck.

Anyway, one of the bodies had stab wounds.

So Tae-Jin didn't kill all of them?

I turned to Chrome with concern.

"Chrome, you alright?"

"I'm not hurt," she said after a small pause of inspecting herself.

Speaking of hurt, my body hurt a little. Overexerted myself probably.

But I could worry about that later.

I frowned slightly and shook my head.

"I mean...about this," I said in a quiet tone, gesturing at the bodies.

The girl made an "ah" sound and blinked for a moment.

Then, she turned to me, expression a bit more subdued than usual.

"It doesn't faze me," she said in a soft tone.

Honestly, it sounded like she was more worried about me than herself.

Guess she naturally didn't see a problem with death. Maybe she was a natural born assassin, given the setting of her universe.

"Hm. Good to know," I said after a small pause.

I mean, what else was there to say?

None of us had any issue with killing, so there wasn't anything to discuss about it. Well, except of moral discussions, but if none of us felt wrong about it, there wasn't a real reason to start talking about it.

Besides, it would hurt my head to find out why I wasn't bothered by it.

Anyway, as I thought about this, I knew one thing for sure.

Staying hidden was handy.

There was no way we could have that little talk uninterrupted if they could see or hear us.

It was also good they didn't see my wince when the after effects of my actions reached me. My fellow illusionist threw a concerned look at me, but I waved it off.

Felt like a small burn in my body and the headache increased. I could bear it however. If for only a few minutes.

Still, that made me think of one issue that was going to come up sooner or later.

"Chrome, you gotta learn how to maintain your own organs. I can't multitask forever like that," I said in a tired voice. Chrome nodded with her head hanging low, almost in shame.

"Still working on it. I need a few days to get it down." Before I could tell her not to rush it however, her eye widened in shock. Then she leaned towards me, her voice growing in fear. "Sid. They see us."

My head immediately snapped to the squad, sweat running down my forehead.

On second thought, staying hidden around super martial art soldiers was not so handy. Especially when one of them was a physical god in all but name, who looked at us.

Directly looked at us. Also, he said a bunch of stuff I did not understand.

Language barrier. Only now did I actually realize the problem.

Well shit, he somehow knew where we were, despite the illusions.

And if he was pissed enough, he could break us like a potato chip.

The way he sounded more and more annoyed as he said something in a loud voice didn't help my panic.

The worst was, I couldn't respond to him. I couldn't release our stealth, because I was way too afraid of revealing ourselves and then having communication issues.

Then again, invisible killer ninjas did not make a good first impression, so I already saw our death sentence signed already.

"You don't happen to speak Korean, do you?" I asked in a nervous laugh. My voice cracked slightly and Chrome stared at me in concern, before slowly shaking her head.

"No, not really."

It took a lot out of me not to hyperventilate here and there.

Well, shit.

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Chapter 9.3

"Do you understand me now?" The old, muscular man also known as Jin Tae-Jin let out a groan and scratched his hair in irritation. "I sure hope so, because I am losing my patience. Reveal yourselves."

By all means, his casual attitude should put me at ease. Oh, and the fact he spoke English.

However, it reminded me too much of what I knew he was capable of.

Therefore, I was too busy being afraid of the consequences to do something, much less follow his request that was backed up with the promise of physical violence. My subconscious probably believed that if I didn't move, he wouldn't see me, as stupid and futile as it sounded.

The other soldiers, tensed and ready to follow their leader to kill the unknown force known as Chrome and I didn't help me at all.

Before I could go into the deep end of hyperventilating and panic, a tug at my sleeve forced me to focus on Chrome.

It was a good thing, because she was my only distraction right now.

I let out a small, questioning whine, while the girl stared at me with way more courage and determination I had.

"Sid. Drop it," she said quietly, but with force. My eyes widened and I shook my head like a small brat. She gave me a small smile in response. "It's okay. We'll be fine."

I loved to believe her words, I thought as I bit my lip.

But I still believe we were probably going to die.

Apparently Chrome saw that thought written all over my face, because she did the one action that would definitely shake me out of my depressed panic.

A kiss on my left cheek.

It confused me so much that I temporarily forgot about the situation, because no sane human would do that usually.

I hope this wasn't going to be a common thing. Me panicking and needing a kiss to make it better.

Still, as I stared at her with wide eyes, I let out a sigh when I saw her staring at me with a frown.

I wouldn't win this battle.

Well, it calmed me down a little bit. Better than nothing I suppose.

Still, memo to self, ask her about the kiss when there was a better time.

I took a deep breath, mentally working on dispelling the stealth illusion.

I couldn't let her die with me because I was lacking guts. And the chance of dying was lower if I revealed ourselves, I knew that.

Here went nothing.

I hoped to fate that she wasn't wrong.

Moments later when I thought that, we were fully visible to our South Korean audience.

Obviously, some of them stared at us with wide eyes, while others looked more confused than threatened. Some even conversed in Korean.

The only exception was their leader, who crossed his arms with narrowed eyes.

The panic was coming back in full force, but I managed to not faint or hyperventilate in the face of the toughest human on the planet being potentially pissed.

Instead, I sweated a lot and maybe breathed more heavily than usual.

No big deal.

If I freaked out now, we could die.

Repeating that in my head, I somewhat held up a good composure. Pathetic compared to Chrome's blank expression, but considering the circumstances, pretty good if I said so myself.

Anyway, we were not a usual sight to witness, especially in the mountains.

Thirteen year old Japanese girl with an eyepatch and purple hair with an eighteen year old Vietnamese guy?

Yeah, not normal.

If it bothered Tae-Jin he didn't show it as he nodded in a no nonsense attitude.

"Good. Now, who the hell are you?" He asked with crossed arms.

I opened my mouth.

Then I closed it again when nothing came out and gulped.

Well damn, I forgot to think of a background story.

And I could not think of one, given that the fear messed with my head.

Salvation came from the most unlikely source however.

Chrome took a step forward and stood in front of me as she bowed slightly in respect.

"We are illusionists that were tasked to scout out the area for suspicious activity. I am Chrome, he is Obsidian."

Like a robot, I mimicked her actions and stared at her with a somewhat blank expression.

...What?

She stood tall, relatively. She didn't avoid eye contact. She took the lead in this conversation. And her voice was loud enough, almost as if she was a leader.

All of that spoke against her very nature and it confused me.

On a side note however, I noticed that our names sounded like codenames.

How neat.

Anyway, Tae-Jin hummed in interest as he scratched his chin.

"Illusionists? Guess that would explain your little disappearance act," he said, face relatively relaxed now.

Huh, didn't know that the god power thing was already known.

Either that or Tae-Jin was fully aware of his bullshit and took other bullshit in stride.

I suspected the latter.

Anyway, the leader crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

"So, you guys against the Northern then?"

Before I could even think of an answer, Chrome nodded, her trident firmly grasped in her right hand.

"Indeed. Our leaders were contracted to research this area by an anonymous source from South Korea. We were to remain hidden at all times and avoid conflict," she replied, sounding like an actual soldier.

It took a lot from me not to blink dumbly at her and maintain the stoic act I managed to put up, despite the sweating.

Okay, Chrome was handling this. Rather well too, considering the grade A stuff she pulled out of thin air. Good, I was certain I wouldn't be able to sound that professional or confident in myself.

Bad, because Chrome could do that and she was younger and socially more repressed than me.

I felt ashamed. I didn't show it on my face though.

Personal feelings later, when I didn't have to make a first expression.

"Didn't really work out, huh?" The old man said with a snort and his subordinates chuckled in amusement.

They were all staring at me too and I felt my face flush slightly. I clenched my grip on my left hand behind my back.

Great, they could understand English. How neat.

Hell, even Chrome cracked a smile, directed at me, before turning back to them.

"He is new. Forgive him. He became overzealous and jumped in. I decided it wasn't a good idea to maintain the secrecy, since you already found us. As an offer of good will, I am willing to support you with him in your mission."

She bowed again and I quickly followed suit, trying not to gape at the sheer oratory skill she was showing off.

"Aren't you a little too young to be a leader?" Tae-Jin asked with a bit of disbelief.

As I began to sweat again, Chrome didn't seem to even bat an eye at the question.

"I was part ever since I was born. Experience over age," she humbly said and then stared him straight into his eyes. "I promise we do not mean any harm to you."

Then, silence reigned.

I did not like it.

They stared at us, Chrome stared back and I stared everywhere but at them.

In the end, the old man nodded to himself.

"Alright then, welcome to the crew," he said with a shrug and turned around.

I wasn't the only one who blinked.

Wow, this went better than expected. It actually lifted a big burden off my shoulder and I began to relax a little.

Still, Tae-Jin was rather casual about this.

Baby face apparently thought the same, because he began to say something.

But his leader interrupted him in English again.

Guess he didn't give a damn if we understood them or not.

"They helped us out, so I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Besides, we are deep in enemy territory, so we can't just leave them here." He threw us an amused glance over his back. "Also, I can keep an eye on them."

I awkwardly chuckled.

It could be interpreted as protection.

Or as a threat.

I took both and nodded weakly together with Chrome.

With that, I didn't really focus on what was happening, only catching a few details.

The twins were sent away, probably to Tae-Jin's rival's house, whose name I forgot.

Was it Lee-So? Maybe, I didn't remember. Korean names didn't really stuck with me.

Still, while this was going on with a few bunch of other squad stuff, I had one good question in mind.

Since when was Chrome so good at lying?! How?!

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Chapter 9.4

After my brain finally reset, we began to walk towards the cave, Chrome and I put in the middle of the squad.

A squad of nineteen people.

Suffice to say, I felt a little squished. The fact that the mood was damn awkward didn't help at all.

I let out a sigh and tried not to let my gaze wander away from Tae-Jin's back, or else I would risk making eye contact with someone.

What would I give for Dying Will confidence now. However, the pain would not be worth it.

Barely.

As we all walked in silence, I couldn't help but get introspective, looking back to what happened.

Mainly my personality in Dying Will mode and outside it.

In it, I was way more confident. More willing to do stuff. Hell, I even had confidence to talk shit.

Outside it, I was a wimp. Okay, Tae-Jin might have been a big factor, but let's be honest, I was at the bottom of the food chain here outside my power up mode.

Fighting excited me and scared me at the same time. The Dying Will mode might have gotten out the excitement part of me. Would explain my glee at combat.

It didn't explain my indifference towards death though. I mean, I was callous enough to make a stupid one liner before killing someone.

I frowned as I dug deeper into myself.

I did feel glee at killing. But it wasn't killing itself. I just felt...really, really energized at having the upper hand. I felt a similar rush when I accomplished something in training or the like.

Well, not to the extent of winning mortal battle, but you get the gist.

Killing itself did not bother me. None of that did, except the moral wrongness of the act itself. I knew I shouldn't have done it.

And I could not care less, for some reason.

Guess that's why people said killing was easy.

It was. Easy way of problem solving. Easy to make myself feel good. Not the best and definitely not the good way, but I was not strong enough right now to pick the hard and good way.

Was it wrong to think that? Absolutely. Did it change how I felt? Nope.

I was not a sane person, apparently.

Well, they were bad guys, so killing them wasn't as wrong as killing an innocent child.

Good compromise, I thought. Right?

It was hypocritical, most likely, but hypocrisy was more common than people thought. I was gonna embrace it.

I frowned.

Of course, I could go the deep end if I went for killing as the to go solution. It may start with indifference.

It may devolve into gleeful murder sprees, liking killing itself, or worse, apathy to everything.

And by all means, I was not mentally strong enough to dismiss the idea. I was a bad person to begin with, not caring about killing and all that.

Before I could ponder more about it and my expression grew darker and darker, I felt a small energy surge around us.

Us, as in Chrome and I. My eyes widened.

She put up an illusion. I quickly acknowledged the intent and covered the sound we would make with our mouths with a small silence bubble around us.

No presence erasing, because that would be too suspicious.

It distracted me of my thoughts as I had to focus a bit more than usual.

Good, because I was going to a dark place there.

With the illusion put up of the two of us silently walking in the group, I raised an eyebrow at my friend to my left.

I suppressed my instinct to flinch back, at the heated glare she directed at me. Then, all power seemed to leave her in one, long suffering sigh and her shoulders slumped, making the leader figure she was minutes ago seem like a dream.

"Please don't make me do this again," she muttered and stared at the ground.

I blinked. Then I processed what she just said coupled with her tired body language.

"Wait, you were nervous the whole time?!" I hissed at her and she sent me a flat look.

"Yes. I don't talk that much." She rubbed her throat with a frown, her voice growing quieter. "My throat is a bit dry."

I tilted my head and gaped.

That didn't explain anything! If anything, she had less reasons to take control of the situation than I did!

"Then why do the lying for me?" I asked, crossing my arms with a tired expression. She in return shrugged slightly, clutching her trident in her arms.

"You looked more scared than I did." Her mouth twitched when she looked at me. "I like you more when you are happy."

"Wow...thanks," I said, eyes wide in shock.

I palmed my face and let out a deep breath.

Wow, I was more pathetic than I thought.

No, I shouldn't think like that.

Chome was just so much better than me. Keeping that in mind, I couldn't help but smile weakly and pat her head.

"You were good."

"Thank you," she said with a small blush and pouted a little at my petting.

She didn't move my hand away though, so I kept doing it. My smile grew more gloomy as I let out a sigh, my shoulders slumping when I removed my hand.

"I'll try to not panic again next time."

In return, the girl looked at me with disapproval.

"Don't push yourself." I nodded, but her expression became more flat. "I mean your body."

I stared at her for a moment, before chuckling a little and waved it off.

"Eh, it's fine."

Of course, she then needed to poke me in the rips. My right eye twitched for a moment when she looked at me with even more disappointment. I raised my hands in surrender.

"Alright, mostly fine."

Satisfied with that answer, she turned her gaze back to the front, while I rubbed my left side.

By all means, I was telling the truth. I felt a constant burn on my body, but it was not as bad as the headache I was starting to get. Not brain breaking, but like a constant beep noise.

It was annoying as hell.

Still, I needed to focus. Since we already had a cover illusion up to mask our conversation, might as well share with the class.

I tapped her on her right shoulder and when I got my attention, I didn't even bother to think about how to break the news to her.

"Baby face is a traitor and will get an American army of soldiers here, with one American special ops unit," I said bluntly without missing a beat, staring straight ahead.

"That sounds bad," Chrome said after a small pause, not sounding too concerned about it.

"Americans ruin everything, yes," I laughed dryly and shook my head. "Not as bad as the fur in that cave."

That got a bigger reaction out of her, since she tilted her head and I could feel her disbelieving stare at my side.

"Fur?"

I glanced at her and gestured with my right hand, making a tire movement with it.

"You know about the legend of the Monkey King?" When her eyes widened, I nodded and took a deep breath. "Yeah, that."

We walked a few steps in silence, before the girl managed to process the implications of the threat we were directly walking into.

"That's why you said we were dead," she said quietly and I gulped nervously.

Good job, you scared the teenager, Sid. What next, steal her candy?

I cleared my throat and put up a shaky smile for her.

"Well, as long as we stick with the old guy, we should be safe."

"Are you sure?" She asked skeptically, looking at said old man and I nodded with full confidence.

"In the...well, comic, he beat that thing. And a bunch of other stuff." I paused, then shrugged. "Not so sure if it happens here, but he is the strongest in the area right now."

My words seemed to calm her down more, because her iron grip on her trident lessened.

"Do you think your poker face was good enough?" She asked after a small duration of silence.

"What do you mean? They probably knew I was nervous," I said confused. When she still had a worried expression directed at me, I shrugged. "If you talk about baby face or any of the others, I was more busy not to imagine my death at the hands of the martial genius over there."

Chrome made an "ah" sound, but before she could say anything more, the man of my nightmares took this moment to speak up casually and glanced at us.

"Either you kids are awfully silent or you use your weird magic stuff to hide something. Whatever it is, I hope you aren't talking shit about me!"

Despite the joking exclamation, it sounded more like an order to say something.

Instantly, the two of us released the illusion and straightened up our backs in attention.

"Only respecting your ability, sir!" I responded loudly, saluting in small panic. This gathered some chuckles from the other soldiers, while Chrome tried to maintain her leader persona.

Which meant she maintained her stoic expression and sent me a look of disapproval.

Not sure if it was faked or not.

"Very cute, kid," Tae-Jin said with a smirk.

Against my common sense, I frowned at the remark, lowering my salute as we walked.

"I'm eighteen, sir," I said in a somewhat flat tone.

The leader snorted in response and waved his hand.

"And everyone here is a brat to me, so who cares?"

The troop laughed loudly at the comment and gave some remarks to their leader in Korean. This time, Chrome and I joined in to, though it was more of a giggle and snicker respectively.

Then I realized what Tae-Jin just did and I stopped laughing.

He just casually broke the ice.

I forgot that he was a military leader, not just some overpowered mountain hermit with a terrible taste of hair style.

I mean, who wore mutton chops, a small ponytail and spiky grey hair all at the same time?

Still, he probably felt the awkwardness and made sure it would not get in the way of this operation. What a genius.

Suddenly, I felt a tap on my right shoulder and I turned to look at the person.

The blue haired man with the stubble beard, Park Il-Tae smiled gently at me.

"Don't take it personally. He is always like that," he said in an accented, but calm and fluid English. I smiled weakly back, but before I could reply, another one decided to enter this conversation.

The complete opposite to Il-Tae, the hardened muscular man with the yellow mohawk, Nam Gung-Hyun, slapped me on the shoulder with quite some force, making me wince.

My reaction caused the man to smirk even more.

"Not the hardass you expected, right?" He asked casually, English less accented than Il-Tae and I scratched my cheek awkwardly.

Meanwhile, I could feel Chrome getting a bit closer to my left arm, but still maintained the leadership act she had up.

So I guess I just needed to play subservient to her. Didn't forbid me from some small talk though.

"Guess the strong can do whatever they want..." I replied nervously and the two soldiers grinned at my shaky expression.

I made a good impression then. Maybe.

Il-Tae nodded at me in a reassuring manner, while Gung-Hyun slapped my back again with some force.

The former looked like he wanted to say something, maybe to soothe my nerves, when Tae-Jin turned his head to us again with a huff.

"Damn straight I can!" Some snickering among the squad occurred again, but they quickly shut up when the leader raised his hand. "Silence. We are going in now."

I blinked and tried to peak over his side.

Indeed, there was the entrance to the cave the North Koreans dug.

Oh wow.

This walk felt longer than I expected.

Maybe it was the slow pace?

Anyway, the soldiers nodded in understanding. However, Il-Tae cleared his throat before raising his hand.

"Wait, sir." When Il-Tae got Tae-Jin's attention, he crossed his arms behind his back. "I have an idea."

"Spit it out," the leader asked with a grunt. The subordinate nodded, before turning to Chrome and I with a small smile.

"Are you limited by numbers?"

I glanced at Chrome. She glanced back.

We both thought the same. Probably.

With the small eye contact exchange done, the girl turned her attention back to the soldier and nodded in a positive.

Il-Tae's smile grew wider and warmer as a response, while Tae-Jin gave his approval with a shrug.

While Chrome and I got to work to cover the entire group, my ring lightening up under my hand, I couldn't help but become determined.

Only one survived from this mission in canon.

If I could save a handful of people, I would be satisfied. Having those little interactions with Il-Tae and Gung-Hyun made me wish for their success. They were good people.

I wanted for Tae-Jin to have at least some of his squad survive.

Also, I needed to get some damn aspirin if I had to keep spamming illusions like that.

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Chapter 9.5

Traversing the cave and killing all enemy soldiers was a walk in the park for the RE Taekwondo Force, thanks to our illusions. Normally they had to maintain complete awareness of themselves in order to be as stealthy as possible.

With Chrome and I however, they didn't need to do that, thus saving up mental energy.

Nevertheless, it was not that easy for said illusionists.

As in, our migraines did not make it easy to appreciate the stunts the superhuman martial artists pulled off.

Which led us to the "end" of the cave, an iron or steel gate, easily topping an adult by height at least five times over, that was covered by wooden planks.

More specifically, Chrome and I sat around on one of the rocks lying around, eyes closed with a strained expression and clutching rubbing our heads respectively.

Because of that, it should be easy to understand that we enjoyed the relative silence, since most soldiers of the South Korean squad were sent away by Tae-Jin to be on look out, leaving four other soldiers besides Tae-Jin. Only the occasional grunt and moving wood made some sounds, allowing the two of us to recover from the mental backlash we currently suffered from.

Still, it wasn't only the pain that made me frown.

For some reason, the traitor in canon, Sergeant Choi Do-Ha, also known as baby face, decided to volunteer for scouting the perimeter.

Which meant, if he was evil, he would be putting up his special American suit outside of our vision and then fight against us.

Oh, joy.

Sadly I could not enjoy being silent, when Gung-Hyun decided to break the silence by addressing Chrome and I.

"Can't believe you could even cover Duk-Bae with your tricks, kids."

The two of us winced a little bit, headache still present, but it was mostly an annoyance now with the ten minute break we had and the supplies the force offered us to "recharge" faster, so to say.

Because of that, I felt confident enough to reply. In pain, yet with respect.

"By all means, it's a bit tougher than average sized people," I said with an awkward smile. Then I paused and turned to the...oversized man with the shaved hair and bowed slightly. "No offense, sir."

The big teddie bear of a man simply turned his head slightly and smiled politely.

"None taken."

I let out a sigh of relief as I leaned on the wall I was next to Chrome.

However, we were not spared from social interaction just yet.

"So, you kids have any family or is this secret occult club of yours full time?" Tae-Jin asked as he carried one of the long planks with one hand, raising his eyebrow at us.

I felt a shiver up my spine, but Chrome quickly stepped in when she nodded respectfully.

"Full time. We don't have much personal contact with anyone else."

"Huh, so you have a good relationship with each other?" Gung-Hyun asked with a small smirk as he put one of the planks down.

I shared a glance with Chrome.

The two of us shrugged, before the girl addressed the question.

"We're friends," she said in an innocent tone.

"Just friends?" The man asked, wiggling his eyebrow suggestively.

The suggestion flew past the teenager, as she tilted her head in confusion.

"Is there more?"

I blinked. The soldiers stopped what they were doing and blinked at her as well.

She faced the stares with becoming more confused.

Wow, she did not understand the concept of dating and romance. At least, not consciously.

I did however and even though Chrome was very cute, I did not consider romance with her even once.

There were enough reasons for that. Age, the friendship, personalities. She was similar yes, but I didn't believe a relationship like that would work with us.

There had to be someone who played the more active role and I didn't want that. Neither did Chrome, so it would be way too awkward.

Maybe this opinion of mine would change in the future, but right now, nope.

Anyway, after I had this small thought line, Il-Tae tipped his superior on the right shoulder after putting down his plank and stage whispered to him.

"Sergeant Gung-Hyun, please remember her age."

The mohawk man at least had some shame as he scratched his cheek a little bit.

"It was just a joke, Corporal."

"It wasn't funny," Chrome replied instantly like a fact, despite not understanding the "joke" itself.

I snickered.

Which caused laughter by the whole squad as Gung-Hyun blushed slightly when Chrome narrowed her eye, irritated at being left out of the inside joke. Probably.

"She got you there!" Tae-Jin said with great amusement, before the squad focused back on removing the planks from the gate.

They still had five left, so I decided to kill the time a little bit more.

"Do you have any family, sirs?" I asked carefully to keep the light mood going.

Duk-Bae was the first to answer, as he scratched the back of his head with a flushed expression just as he was about to move his plank.

"I have a beautiful wife. I cannot wait to get back to her and open up a super market."

Some of his squad rolled their eyes, but smiled nonetheless with him. Then their eyes rested on Il-Tae to his left, who looked around in confusion before pointing at himself. When the others nodded, he scratched his cheek lightly.

"A son and a wife." His smile became a bit more subdued, yet soft. "It was arranged at first, but I love them nonetheless. Honestly, I feel a bit guilty that I won't be there for them."

"Just make it up when we go back, Corporal!" Gung-Hyun exclaimed, slapping the smaller, blue haired man on the back with some force, making him yelp. Then, the muscular man crossed his arms proudly after putting down his wood piece. "Good that I don't have to worry about that stuff. Can focus on my soldier career and become a legend."

Hearing the word legend, all eyes automatically turn to the legend, Tae-Jin. The man didn't even look at any of us as he carried the last wooden plank away, instead snorting in a dry manner.

"Pah, no family, no stress I say."

Some of us chuckled, myself included. Before my gaze could wander to the white masked man with the black spiky hair, Gung-Hyun waved his hand.

"Don't bother, he doesn't talk a lot anyway," he said casually.

I nodded, but before I could say anything more, I gasped in shock when a large pressure erupted from the sealed room, assaulting my senses.

Feeling Chrome flinch next to me, she felt the same thing I felt.

The fur woke up, radiating its power as a clear warning.

Do not enter.

"Care to share?" I heard Tae-Jin ask in a professional tone.

The two of us looked up to see the soldiers stare at us with confusion and worry.

I shook my head and took a calming breath, just as Chrome did. The two of us stood up and the girl took charge of our duo as she stepped in front of me, clutching her trident in its mini form to her chest.

"Something is inside there. Something...powerful," she said in a serious tone. The South Koreans looked at each other, while Tae-Jin crossed his arms.

"Your ESP?" He asked and when we nodded, he sighed as he scratched his hair. "Well, I already figured that the North Koreans didn't try to secure something here. More like, prevent escape." Then, he moved towards the gate, before gesturing to Duk-Bae and Gung-Hyun. "Sergeants, push the doors. Eyes wide open."

Not being asked twice, the two physical fittest men in the area besides their boss moved to each side of the door, before pushing with all their might.

The metal of the gate groaned in pressure as it slowly, but surely was moved against the ground.

After what felt like an eternity, all of us saw with held breath the gap between the doors growing wider and wider.

When it was wide enough to let the light flow in, I saw it and froze up.

I probably wasn't the only one.

There it was.

A dark blue skinned, muscular gorilla like creature stood tall like a human stared at us with its white eyes, growling in a low tone at us. Wearing tiger themed cloth as a skirt, arm bands and mini cape, it had some resemblance like a caveman. The only thing that was out of place was white, weirdly shaped forehead protector it wore. The same the original monkey king had.

What caused me to freeze up the most however, was the sheer, supernatural pressure on my aura sense.

It wasn't as if it was crushing me, but I could feel its weight, similar to an adult sitting on me.

The fur of the Monkey King was even more terrifying in real life than I expected.

And that was only a fraction of the real deal.

Thank fate that I didn't have to deal with it directly though.

"Get away!"

The moment Tae-Jin made eye contact with the beast, he instantly moved after yelling out his command.

Moved, as in he drop kicked into the monkey and entered the room at the same time.

All of us blinked, trying to comprehend what just happened.

From inside the room, we heard some movement of two people standing up, before Tae-Jin's authoritative, but gleeful voice reached us.

"I'll duel it, you keep an eye out!"

Naturally, the six of us did the exact opposite and hurried over to the gate, before observing the fight from behind it.

For a small moment, I felt bad.

I could have told him what he was fighting.

On the other hand, it wouldn't matter.

The old man would have a slug fest with the fur, no matter what he knew about it.

And boy, what a slug fest it was I witnessed.

I already knew it from my first fight in this universe, but what I saw settled it.

Dying Will Mode barely made me keep up with the people here. And only in the physical sense.

This list of mine did not include the two creatures in front of me.

I could feel the windblows of their attacks against each other from where I stood.

And I stood a couple meters away from the battle, further from the gate than the soldiers.

They both exchanged blow for blow, hitting each other at the same time.

Tae-Jin threw a hook? The fur threw its own. The monkey punched into Tae-Jin's stomach? The martial artist kicked the monkey against the head from the other side.

And every single blow pushed the air and the blood they spilled around them away.

Of course this caused the present soldiers to mutter among themselves in Korean and Chrome gave me a dirty look for what was happening.

I shrugged helplessly.

How could I have prepared her for the bullshit that was this world's martial arts?

We weren't even touching Chareok, also known as power borrowing from higher beings, or actual gods yet.

While we saw the fight between the two very similar looking fighters, the edge of my aura sense tingled.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance.

They couldn't wait a bit longer for me to enjoy the show?

"They're here," I muttered in irritation, gaining the attention of the soldiers. Il-Tae, eyebrow raised like the rest, was the one to question me.

"Who?"

"Soldiers. Over five hundred. Not familiar. You did not expect reinforcements, correct?" Chrome said in a quiet, but serious tone.

Immediately, the South Korean's expressions became professional and they fully turned away from the gate as they assumed their fighting positions. Chrome unfurled the full size of her trident, while I cracked my neck a little.

Welp, time to get another headache.

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Chapter 9.6

Despite my own "tough guy" act by cracking my knuckles a bit after my neck, I had no intention of getting myself, Chrome nor the South Korean soldiers into this fight.

Not mainly because of the five hundred plus soldiers, but because of that one special squad of Americans.

If my memory was right, they were only beaten by Tae-Jin. Excluding the old man out of the equation, and these guys were actually threatening.

Therefore, I needed to buy time.

I pondered how to do this, before any of my allies went into the army without any information.

Remembering Chrome's handy preference to environmental illusions, she would be the back bone of any plan to keep the enemy away as long as possible.

Question how to phrase it, since I was supposed to be her subordinate.

...

Well, baby face was gone anyway, so no need to maintain the illusion.

Blunt way it was.

"Chrome, we better keep them out. If you have any ideas, go for it. I support," I muttered to her. The soldiers around us gave us a questioning stare. But they didn't ask any questions.

Probably assumed that our friendship was above our nonexistent hierarchy they believed we were supposed to have.

For a moment, Chrome blinked at me in confusion, before her forehead wrinkled in thought.

Then her eyes widened and she nodded with determination.

Taking a step forward with me, I stood to her right as she twirled her trident and jammed it down the ground with a grunt and clear strain on her face. Meanwhile, her ring given by Kawahira lit up in the indigo colored flame of the mist.

Considering that she created a meter thick fire wall that covered the entire height and width of the cave, I didn't fault her for breaking a sweat the second she created it.

The soldiers behind me flinch back at the sudden flame that was created, but I couldn't help but frown a little.

Maybe I should be concerned that a slowly moving thick fire wall of doom, meant to engulf our enemies to horrendous flaming pain was the first thing she thought of. Coupled with the fire pillars she liked to use in canon…

Nah, too soon to judge her yet. But I should keep an eye out.

I nodded, but then caught the glare from Chrome as she maintained the fire and cleared my throat awkwardly.

Right, support.

With a slightly flushed expression, I took a deep breath, before directing my right palm at the wall as my hell ring lit up.

Gritting my teeth, I concentrated my power on it.

It already looked and felt hot and realistic from Chrome's might alone.

Path of Naraka and mist flames times two should make this sucker borderline real.

Hilariously, it looked like a normal flame, not the indigo fire our rings had.

The amusement I got from that fact was enough to make the growing pain in my head almost forgettable.

Almost.

Sadly, the South Koreans behind us had to pile up on the migraine Chrome and I started to have as we slowly moved the wall along the path.

More precisely, Gung-Hyun found his voice.

His very loud voice, as he pointed at what we were doing in outrage.

"What the hell is that?!"

I wouldn't be surprised if the people behind us had their combat stances directed at us now.

Still, that danger did not contain my snark.

"Illusions!" I yelled back, not pleased at all at the distraction.

"How are these illusions?!" The man asked in an incredulous tone.

"Very good ones!" I snarled, taking a deep breath as the burning in my head became more noticeable, because of what I was planning to do. "Making it thicker to make sure!"

Increasing the length of the wall made Chrome and I groan in pain, as widening the illusion aggravated our headache.

Still, we carried on, our juice still at half of our full tank. If we had to do anything more complex on top of what we were doing, that would have been quite the challenge.

However, we were able to focus on one thing alone (besides me with Chrome's organs), so we didn't need the higher levels of thought that were sealed away due to the growing headache.

Besides, I felt some satisfaction of this stunt actually working.

Already, I felt how a good number of the American forces were shoved against our death wall. Not one of the special squad, whose name I could not remember, but I took my wins.

Guess that's why sending an army into narrow caves wasn't always the smartest thing to do.

It was hard for the frontline to back off when there was a solid sea of fellow soldiers blocking the path.

And as far as I could remember, they were just armed normal humans.

Yeah, they were basically fodder.

I would appreciate that fact more if it weren't for my need of focus and the pain I received.

My only worry was the special squad of the American's and even the, I didn't have much fear.

I didn't care what kind of hax armor or martial arts skill they had, there was no way they could get through a ten meter thick wall out of pure fire without any damage.

And if everything would go well, they were either pushed out of the cave or burned to death.

Honestly, win-win situation right there.

If one ignored the stamina problem of Chrome and I.

"We could run out of air in here with that wall in place," Il-Tae said with some concern and I bit my lip.

I wished he was wrong.

Downside of realistic illusion.

It followed all the laws of physics an actual wall of flame would follow. Realism had its own cost. We couldn't just remove one of the rules, or else it wouldn't be real enough to hurt others.

Therefore, no fresh air came through the wall.

And there was only one exit.

Well, we weren't going to stay here for long anyway, I thought, so I shrugged.

Either Tae-Jin made a way out for us or the monkey fur.

"Boss just needs to come back and deal with it after the monkey," I replied through gritted teeth, my left hand curling up into a fist.

"We could have taken them," I heard Gung-Hyun huff behind us and I rolled my eyes.

But Chrome beat me to responding to him

"Four aura levels felt different. They were higher." She turned her head slightly and narrowed her eye, pain written over her face as sweat ran down her forehead. "No risks."

"Killjoy," the sergeant muttered and crossed his arms with a pout. Duk-Bae patted the man on the back.

Considering the height difference, it was like looking at an older brother comforting a young brother.

"Focus," Chrome said to me and I shook my head.

The flame wavered slightly, dealing less damage that it was meant to do.

I couldn't let these people suffer more because the flame wasn't hot enough to burn them to a crisp as fast as possible. That wouldn't be humane.

It said a lot about my disciplinary training thanks to Mukuro that my focus didn't break when Tae-Jin flew over Chrome's and my head, before majestically landing on his face with a grunt.

The illusionists in the room blinked as the man groaned when his legs followed gravity and hit the ground.

Moments later, his subordinates rushed over and helped him up, while the two of us grit our teeth to push the flames further out.

"Sir, are you alright?!" Duk-Bae asked in a worried tone and the old man waved them off after shaking his head.

"That damn monkey sure is tough," he muttered, wiping his bloody nose off. Getting up on his own, Tae-Jin dusted his clothes off and rolled his right shoulder.

"Did you beat it?" Il-Tae asked and Tae-Jin smugly grinned at them as he pointed at himself.

"Knocked its ass into a wall hard enough to make a big crack. It should be down." Then, the man turned around after his confident comment and saw the fire wall, several meters away from us. Turning around to us, he pointed at it with a raised eyebrow. "Where did that fire wall come from?"

"We made it, but it's getting really exhausting!" I replied loudly, breath as heavy as my companion. The man whistled in response and turned around.

"Drop it, I'll make you cover."

Not having to be said that twice, the two of us released the flame and hunched over a little as we caught our breath, Chrome supporting herself on her weapon and I on my knees.

The moment the flames vanished, Tae-Jin planted his left leg on the ground, arms hanging loosely near his body, before he spun his right foot across the ground in a full circle.

Moments later, the earth exploded in front of him, breaking stones apart and throwing them forward, creating a big, crescent formed trench, easily fitting a ten men squad at least.

I blinked.

It was even more impressive to see it in person. Renewal Taekwondo.

Letting out a breath, Tae-Jin straightened up, before wrinkling his nose.

"Ugh, I hate the smell of burning corpses."

He gave Chrome and I a pointed look.

We lowered our heads with an embarrassed smile. Smiling back, the old man then turned to the front and cracked his neck as the rest of us jumped down in relative safety.

Right on time, because a hundred or so armed Americans stepped over the charred remains of their allies, aiming their guns at the old men.

"Hm. Americans, ey?" He said and scratched his chin with a smirk when four people stepped into the front. "Fancy suits."

The special squad of the American forces arrived.

As the others and I peaked behind our cover, I frowned.

They all looked ugly as sin. Just like I remembered them.

Skin tight, greyish suits of questionable materials eye covering visors.

Of course, they all had their own, special quirks.

As far as I could remember, one, who was skinny and had a one red eyed visor, with weird blue shoulder spike guards, had some sort of cannon in his arm.

The second one with the three slits in a pyramid formation on his helmet, smaller than the first, but way more packed with muscles and two exhaust pipes out of his back, was powerful enough to sent Duk-Bae flying and leave a crack on the wall.

The third one, as big as the first one, wore a two eyed helmet, though it had two spikes growing out of it, like a homage to bats or something. He was fast enough to leave after images.

And the last, carried by the first one, with a helmet with four red slits had…

Had…

…

My eyes narrowed.

Huh.

I didn't recall him having any special ability besides being a dwarf.

Well, he probably was terrifying on his own level.

Long story short, they had a variety of abilities, dangerous to even highly trained soldiers, like Il-Tae and the likes.

"Let's team up-"

All of that meant nothing to the man known as Jin Tae-Jin, who buried his knee into the muscled man's face.

A beat later, and the guy's head exploded into a big splatter. I etched a bit as Chrome flinched away to my left.

Anyway, the now dead man's allies quickly got over their shock, unlike the normal soldiers, and the speedy one ran circles around Tae-Jin after he landed, leaving three after images behind him as he did his weird Naruto run, arms stretched behind him.

The old man had none of that and promptly shot his leg up towards the ceiling rather casually. A loud crack later and the enemy was stuck on Tae-Jin's foot.

Quickly discarding the body, the martial master focused his attention on the last two special targets.

As the taller one removed part of his arm and the smaller attempting to move forward, Tae-Jin threw a right straight and a left low kick almost simultaneously with great force.

Great enough to break the sound barrier and hitting the two targets like super sonic cannon balls.

Suffice to say, they went down like potato sacks after being sent flying to the back of the army.

That all happened in five seconds.

Naturally, the American's were intimidated and promptly raised their guns to fire at the monster in front of them.

They never got to fire.

"True Roundhouse Kick," Tae-Jin said in a malicious voice as he leaned forward, with his right leg positioned behind him.

Then he raised his right knee and threw the kick.

I didn't see the action itself. Simply because I had to duck with Chrome under my left arm to avoid the debris that was thrown at us.

Thrown at us, by the attack that had a force similar to a railgun, blasting away everything in its past.

As the earth shook around us, I gaped at the wall in front of me.

I was starting to believe the only reason he had a squad was because he needed more hands and eyes for scouting, not for actual fire power.

Well, and the fact that he might be running out of stamina if he had to solo everything by himself.

When the vibrations stopped, all of us raised our hands. As I removed my arm from Chrome, I let out a weak laugh.

There was nothing left in front of Tae-Jin.

It was a clean, lifeless hole.

"Anyone else feeling a bit small here?" I muttered to the others as the old man let out a sigh and stretched his back, as if this was a normal thing to do after the mass destruction he wrought.

The soldiers chuckled in sympathy, Gung-Hyun being the loudest.

"Boss is not normal, don't let it beat you down, kid."

I shrugged weakly at his consolation.

I could not relax though and this time, my companion did not restrict herself from punching me lightly in my side as she stared at me with pure disbelief.

The reason?

A powerful aura flared up behind us.I snapped my head around and couldn't help but groan.

"Oh, come on."

The soldiers followed my gaze. Their eyes widened as well.

Of course Tae-Jin wouldn't have beaten it that easily.

The monkey glowed in a bright, white light as it knelt, showing its back at us.

It was gonna blow up.

Like a nuke, if I recalled.

"MONKEY!" I screamed at Tae-Jin, who turned around casually.

"What?" He asked confused. Then he saw the monkey and blinked. "Oh."

Rolling his head a little, the man then quickly jumped forward, grim expression in place as he already reeled his right leg back, probably to prep it for another True Roundhouse kick if he landed on the other side of our trench.

If, because Duk-Bae quickly grabbed his leader at the left leg and pulled him down.

"Hey!" Tae-Jin yelped, but couldn't object more as we all threw ourselves on the ground.

Or on the only girl in this place, in my case.

Just as I covered her with my own body, the fur went off as I expected.

In the mere moments before the light engulfed us, I let out a suffering whine.

My hands were not even close to my ears when the explosion went off.

///

AN:

...Yeah, "illusions" will be the to go explanation for a lot of stuff.

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Chapter 9.7

One of the many things I never wanted to experience was to suffer from the aftereffects from a close, nuke like explosion.

But fate was a bitch and made me experience it anyway.

I had the feeling fate was going to make me experience a lot of stuff.

How did it feel like?

My head hurt more than ever before, maybe only exceeded by hell itself. It was ringing, it was pounding and my vision was hazy as hell. I wasn't even sure where up or down was.

I was also sure I was lying flat on my face, futilely trying to get up.

Well, at least I covered Chrome's ears as I leaned over her, using my own body as protection. Wasn't sure if my hands were still on her ears, but I think I was staring towards the sky.

I assumed it was the sky. It was blue, from what I could tell from by my blurry vision.

However, this blue got invaded by some weird...purple and green.

I...I think that was Chrome?

Something black moves in the middle of the whitish area above the green and below the purple and some weird noise came out, probably words.

"Wha...?" I slurred out, but slowly and surely, the weird purple and greenish glob got some form.

Blinking wildly, I shook my head when I started to recognize where my limbs were and remembered how to use them. Pushing me upwards, I found out two things.

One, I was lying on my back. Two, I did not have my full body control back, so I fell back on my head.

Thankfully, something slowed down the fall. It felt like a hand or something.

I decided to just lie around until my brain was not having a rave party in my skull and relax for a while.

Not sure how much time went by, but it couldn't be that long, since nobody said anything.

Considering what just happened, that was odd. Perhaps they waited for me to recover.

Well, lucky them, because I now was confident enough to move on my own. A bit, at least. Opening my eyes, I saw the concern written on Chrome's face.

Then I realized my head was on her lap.

…

Not seeing the super appeal in it like all the romances like to shout out.

Raising my head, she backed off a little, before I raised myself, pushing my back against the wall of the trench.

"Is he alright?" I heard Il-Tae ask and Chrome leaned towards me, staring me in my tired eyes.

"His eyes seem okay," she muttered. Then, she raised her right hand with a frown. "How many fingers?"

"Two," I said without missing a beat and shook my head again before letting out a breath.

Wow, comparing my headspace to now and before, it was like heaven.

"And that answers the question about his ear drums as well," Gung-Hyun said with subdued cheer. Looking around in the hole Tae-Jin made, I saw that including the martial master, only seven people were present.

Myself, Chrome, Duk-Bae, Gung-Hyun, Il-Tae, Tae-Jin and the guy with the mask.

Taking a deep breath, I shook my head and leaned back against the wall, my face directed towards the sky with a tired expression.

Damn. I felt a bit bad about all the other soldiers.

Still, there wasn't much I could have done to prevent this while still ensuring my own survival.

No hard feelings, soldiers.

Shaking off the thoughts, I refocused on the others, who sat in a rough circle in the trench, with Tae-Jin right in front of me.

Said leader let out a sigh.

"Alright, status of everyone here present seem stable." The old man glared at the big man who pulled him down from the explosion and crossed his arms. "I could have taken it."

"Didn't want to risk it, sir. Apologies," Duk-Bae replied with a lowered head, but didn't look sorry at all.

Tae-Jin probably realized that as well and scratched his neck in irritation. Still, he moved on and glanced over the wall behind him to take a look at the situation.

"Yeah, sure is one nuke. Damn monkey..." Taking his eyes away form the kneeling fur, he sent Chrome and I a skeptical look. "Did you know about this?"

"Our leaders didn't tell us that, no," Chrome replied, sitting to my right, but she still seemed a bit...spooked by what happened. Nevertheless, she managed to uphold her illusion of being a professional rather well.

Or so I thought.

"Do you even have leaders?" Tae-Jin asked with a small growl, eyes narrowed. His soldiers stared at him in confusion, but I focused on the girl next to me instead.

She shrunk down considerably, letting out a small "meep". I clicked my tongue.

She was at her social limit.

Letting out a sigh, I raised my arm in front of her and bowed my head slightly at the leader.

"It's a long story and when this is done, we come clean. I promise."

I felt the sweat run down my forehead as Tae-Jin judged me and my friend, who also bowed.

With bated breath, we endured the awkward pressure.

"Corporal, what are you doing?"

Just for the old man to change topics with a casual tone.

Suffice to say, the two of us snapped our heads upwards with disbelief.

Indeed, Tae-Jin looked away from us, instead staring at Il-Tae, who was writing a letter currently. Noticing everyone's stares, he blushed slightly, yet he straightened his back.

"Just writing to my family, sir!" He exclaimed.

Naturally, his colleagues gaped at him, just like the two illusionists gaped at Tae-Jin for brushing our matter off.

"Il-Tae, we are in the middle of enemy territory!" Gung-Hyun yelled and slapped him on the head. The victim took it like a man and simply bowed his head.
"Apologies, sir!"

However, he did not notice how his letter escaped his hands because of his superior's action and landed nicely on the ground.

Like vultures, we all leaned over it. Of course, neither Chrome or I could read it.

Thankfully, Il-Tae was nice enough to provide illustrations.

Illustrations of the fighting style he was developing, that is.

"Nice illustrations," Chrome said in a soft voice, voicing out my opinion as well. The mask guy then pointed at a certain drawing.

"That's the super kick the boss did, isn't it?"

I narrowed my eyes.

Huh. Indeed it was. It even had some lines showcasing the force it had.

Obviously, Il-Tae spluttered at his secret being found. Followed by being at Tae-Jin's mercy, who subjected the Corporal to a headlock with a rather displeased expression.

"Heeeeh? Plagiarism, Corporal? Shameful. Shameful indeed." Then, the old man raised his eyebrow at taking a closer look at the letter. "Hm? You wanna include Renewal Taekwondo to make up for the weakness in Practical Taekkyeon?"

Everyone in the round hummed in interest.

It was for a good reason.

From what I remembered, Practical Taekkyeon was an old Korean martial art that used a lot of kicks, but also focused on locks and full body usage.

I didn't know what the weaknesses of the martial art were, but I assumed that Renewal Taekwondo would give it more power and versatility in leg techniques, like leg hooks and the like.

However, I was not so sure about it. I wasn't a martial artist expert.

Still, judging how the expert read through the notes without permission and whistled in amazement, it had to be a very insightful.

I didn't doubt that Il-Tae's new system would be world shattering, considering what his grandson accomplished in the story.

At Chrome's question marks over her head, I raised my hand in front of me in a chop form.

Later, I tried to message to her. Seeing her nod, I think she received it.

"Hey, those ideas are pretty good!" Duk-Bae complimented Il-Tae after giving him the letter back. As the rest of the squad nodded in approval, Il-Tae scratched his cheek in embarrassment.

"Uhm, thank you, sirs!"

His smile however quickly got replaced by an expression of suffering when Tae-Jin increased his grip on the poor man.

"You still need my permission, you brat!" He yelled in a grumpy tone and his subordinate apologized without end.

We all laughed for a little, but when my aura sense tingled again, I let out a groan.

The soldiers noticed it, while Chrome heaved a sigh.

"Let me guess. Monkey. Round two then." At my nod, Tae-Jin cracked his neck and jumped out of the cover. But not before pointing at us. "You just stay here. And don't forget the promise."

With that said, he ran towards the monkey, who roared in defiance.

Alright, he didn't just brush us off. Good to know?

Anyway, while the soldiers were content in hugging their knees while shockwaves occurred left and right behind them, I turned my attention to the other thing that I sensed.

Or rather, other person.

The traitor, Sergeant Choi, also known as baby face, was busy digging his way up.

And I was sure he did not intend to flee.

My eyes narrowed.

Why was he still here? His mission was clearly a...failure...

...

I totally forgot about the monkey king baby inside the green crystal.

The green crystal the Americans couldn't dug out because Chrome and I cockblocked them long enough for the real monster to arrive.

…

Well, okay then. Still manageable.

The moment I thought so, the agent blasted of from the ground and dusted himself off.

The South Korean squad immediately put up their guard, while I made sure that Chrome was behind me with a glare.

Same stupid armor as the special squad, only his visor thing had two yellow ovals in the same vertical line, with some yellow stripes directed at the upper, bigger one, like sunrays.

By all means, this guy was lethal. With his wires, technology and martial skill, he could take out Gung-Hyun, one of the twins with the brown, gelled hair and Il-Tae.

Logic said I should not taunt him.

However, logic forgot that I hated guys like him and I needed to fulfill my quota of shit talk.

Yes, I made that quota up.

The bullshit thrown around made me feel small and I needed that.

"So, how are you doing, Sergeant Choi?" I asked loudly with a fake smirk.

This made everyone to snap their heads at me in shock.

"What?!" Gung-Hyun yelled in anger and looked like he was ready to punch me.

Quickly, I pointed at the traitor with a little bit of panic.

"Yeah. Same aura." Then, I put my grin back up and threw my thump over my shoulder as I stared at him "Your objective is buried behind us, isn't it?"

For a moment, Choi stared at me in silence. Then, he grinned and clapped his hands.

"Ho, you know a lot for a shitty brat!" He yelled cheerfully. His voice made the other soldiers widen their eyes in shock, but I shook my head in fake casualness.

"I know a lot of things, you USA freak." Crossing my arms, I raised an eyebrow, voice growing mocking. "Need some fancy tech to save your ass, hm? Like that laser thing in your chest?"

Choi gasped momentarily and Il-Tae glanced at me in confusion.

"How do you-"

I cut him off with a hiss.

"Doesn't matter, just kick his ass before he-"

The traitor began to gesture with his hands.

I saw a light glint.

Thanks to the fact that I knew about his wires and that my body was ready, I managed to duck away with a jump to the left.

I felt some of my hair being cut away, so that was some sharp wire.

Rolling over the ground, I let out a heavy breath and took in the situation.

Il-Tae and Gung-Hyun managed to dug under the wire attack and dashed towards their former ally, dodging the attacks against them at the same time.

Chrome was in the arms of Duk-Bae and the girl looked horrified by something, before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

I raised an eyebrow. The rest of the force had some anger and sadness mixed into their expression, but why was-

Oh.

I saw the head of the masked guy rolling away from the dead body.

Judging from the way it was lying on the ground, I assumed that he managed to push Chrome away into the giant's arms, since she had not the reflexes to dodge.

I grit my teeth in anger.

I didn't even know his damn name!

Taking a deep breath, I mentally thanked to soldier, before surveying the situation.

The two soldiers managed to reach Choi, but they couldn't get any solid hits on, as he used his wire as crowd control. Also, the two of them were wary of my warning, since they kept a close eye on the traitor's chest.

Meanwhile, Duk-Bae reached my side with Chrome in his arms. The girl looked at me with a determined expression.

"Shouldn't we vanish?"

Before I could reply, the giant man dashed towards me, my companion held under his left arm. Swiftly putting me under his right arm, he covered us as wires dug into his skin. He grit his teeth, but he managed to dodge away before they could do any more damage.

"Thanks," I said in relief, but also in shame. Duk-Bae smiled at me warmly, despite the strain on his body.

"No problem."

Then, we all focused back to Choi and his opponents.

Damn, the traitor was good, able to throw an attack at me despite being pressured.

Clicking my tongue, I took a deep breath.

The I yelled at Il-Tae with all my might, across the several meters we were afar.

"Corporal, now might be a great time to use your new stuff!"

For a moment, he seemed confused as he dodged the wires. Then his eyes widened and he nodded determined, before saying something to his sergeant. The latter seemed irritated, but rolled his eyes, before yelling something in Korean as well.

I raised an eyebrow. But I couldn't say more, because just as Gung-Hyun fought Choi alone, while Il-Tae took the time to take his shoes off, Duk-Bae ran the opposite direction of the battle with the two illusionists in tow.

"What did he say?" I asked as I hung around like a sack of potatoes.

"He said to take cover out of range," he muttered, but then had to stop himself after some meters.

For good reason, since we saw the monkey.

Only, we gaped in shock, three times bigger than before.

And it was busy stomping on Tae-Jin.

Duk-Bae could not have noped out more than that, as he ran into the direction that was in neither of the battles, speak down in a sense.

Or up, I had no idea.

As we were carried, I looked at Chrome, who blinked at the gigantic creature. She turned to me when I raised my voice over all the chaos.

"Anyway, the guy was too fast, I couldn't focus! Now wouldn't work, because we are too far away and these guys are too fast! Friendly fire is also the issue!" I let out a dry chuckle and lowered my gaze. "Besides, I'm not sure if my juice still works. Or my focus."

Considering that Chrome did not object, she came to the same conclusion.

After we were far enough away (a block or so, maybe), Duk-Bae let us down and began treating his own wounds.

Chrome and I would have helped, but we were more focused on the events in front of us.

The martial fight on the left.

Il-Tae tagged out with Gung-Hyun, who seemed to suffer from a strong found on his left arm. Still, he managed to destroy the traitor's helmet with a knee attack.

Better than losing the arm like in canon.

Anyway, Il-Tae stuck close to the enemy, easily dodging the attacks of his opponent, now that he could use his full potential.

A sideway knee to the enemy's stomach.

Swaying away from a wire attack, using the momentum to spin horizontal to the ground and smash his left heel on top of the traitor's head.

Quickly landing, left foot in the back and ducking under the palm stab, jamming his right elbow into the armored stomach.

When a wild left swing was aimed after him, Il-Tae ducked under it, spun around and jumped at the same time, before hitting the head of Choi with his left leg again, this time with the front.

Irritation was visible on the traitor's face, who couldn't help but block the barrage of fists the Corporal threw in a cross motion.

Mimicking the motion, Choi threw his wires out, but Il-Tae only ducked under it, ready to dash forward with a counter punch.

However, the traitor grinned widely and I saw how his blue chest piece began to glow up.

This would be the part where Il-Tae would be shot, with no chance to survive.

If he were alone that was.

The beam got fired, but only grazed Il-Tae's right arm.

All because a simple stone was thrown with great force against Choi's right shoulder, diverting the direction.

Guess Gung-Hyun was not out of commission just yet, despite the bleeding.

Anyway, Il-Tae managed to bury his fist into his enemy's stomach.

After moving back a few inches and spitting out some blood, the traitor snarled and threw his leg up for a front kick.

But Il-Tae only waited for it, as he firmly planted his left foot on his opponents knee.

Only despair was on the enemy's face, before the Corporal shot his leg towards his own back, towards the sky, setting the traitor on fire, scorching him immediately.

With that done, Il-Tae fell down on his butt, clearly out of breath, but content nonetheless.

At the same time, I witnessed the natural disaster on the right.

It was less complicated, but even more breathtaking.

Tae-Jin managed to keep the giant foot from smashing him by holding it up with his own two feet.

But no, that was not enough for the monster.

He had to push the giant monkey away, making it lose its balance and wall on its back.

Though it swiftly jumped back up, Tae-Jin was already on the move, running against the fur.

Both reared back with their right leg and kicked forward.

The legs met as Tae-Jin jumped and a great shockblast reached even us.

For a moment, it seemed like they were frozen in the air.

Then, cracks appeared on the monkey's leg, before the martial master cut through it, removing the limp from the fur. As the giant monkey fell to the ground and created a big dust cloud, Tae-Jin comically held his leg, hissing in minor pain.

But it wasn't finished yet.

The monkey, back to its normal size, was on all four, mouth wide open as it focused a powerful energy in it.

A sane person would run.

A powerful monster would face it head on.

Naturally, Tae-Jin reared his right leg back, just as he did against the American soldiers.

And both threw their attacks at each other.

Divine energy blast by the fur of the monkey king, versus a roundhouse kick of the strongest human that was alive in this universe.

The two forces met.

And to call it a nuke was appropriate.

This time, I covered my ears and eyes from the bright light.

It took some while, but the two figures resurfaced from the destruction they created.

Both walked towards each other, clearly exhausted.

Tae-Jin threw a sloppy punch.

The monkey reatalitated with a sloppy uppercut.

Tae-Jin attacked with a straight punch, then swung his right leg around, so that his back was directed at the monkey.

Sensing the incoming kick, the monkey raised its arms as a guard.

But no attack came.

A hook instead, arrived. Cleanly slipping his right leg inbetween the monkey and his guards, Tae-Jin calmly lowered the defense of the monkey.

Then he showcased that he still had some juice left.

Three kicks

It was almost simultaneous, executed was enough to make it look like it happened in an instance.

A kick from the left with the right heel.

A kick from the right with the left heel.

And as a finisher, a kick from behind, with the top of his foot.

Third Stance, Hwechook.

Calmly walking behind the monkey, Tae-Jin began to move away, as the monkey was frozen in place.

Then, the world realized the action and delivered the results.

The monkey's head was flung to the right, then to the left, before at last, it got smashed forwards.

As if to demonstrate to god, the force of the last kick destroyed the ground in front of the monkey in a sector shape.

A ridiculously gigantic sector shape.

As I witnessed these two fights, though I focused more on the left than on the right, my fists were curled up in anger.

Both sides hammered own thing into my head.

Useless.

I felt useless. Weak.

My accomplishment of having the initiative at the beginning of my stay in this world, the ability to kill a martial artist…

It was a childish thing to believe I was strong. Only my illusions made me cheat.

It didn't change the fact I was weak.

Judging from how Chrome clenched her trident until her knuckles gained an unhealthy color as she observed the battles, she must have felt the same.

I let out a sigh, trying to relax.

I had a lot to learn before I could be considered strong.

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Chapter 10.1

Did you ever had to show new people in your house around and it was rather awkward most of the time?

Replace new people with South Korean martial artist soldiers and house with UFO.

So yeah, it was a bit weird at the start.

Luckily it got better the moment they knew we had a Saiyan Pod of Healing, a bathroom and actual, cooked food.

Anyway, I should better explain what happened after the fights.

First of all, Tae-Jin brought the crystal with the monkey king inside to us.

The reactions of the squad were hilarious, gaping at their leader who acted like it was no big deal that he had that thing on his left palm.

Said crystal was put to the right of the healing pod, like some sort of furniture.

Right after that, the twins Lee Geum-Do and Lee Eun-Do arrived and obviously were baffled by the fallout site and became even more shocked when they got informed by what happened.

While the soldiers exchanged information, including the twins telling Tae-Jin about his rival's family in the coal mines, I decided to try something out.

Long story short, the UFO somehow managed to listen to my command from wherever it was and floated towards us from where we entered the mountain.

You could say that today was a day full of surprises for the RE Taekwondo Force and describe every reaction they had for everything up until now.

Up until now being the whole group sitting around on the couches, enjoying the food and tea Chrome and surprisingly Duk-Bae whipped up.

Rice, vegetables, meat, blabla, we were Asians.

And boy, did the men look way more fresh after taking that bath together.

I took the healing pod for healing.

I was not comfortable sharing some quality time with these people.

Still, it was pleasant to have some peace now, eating some food to relax.

Sadly, business called and Tae-Jin knew that.

After finishing his fifth bowl, he put it down, downed his tea and crossed his arms as he leaned back, staring at me in expectation.

The seriousness kind of lost impact, considering he took the longest to finish and had a random cat video behind him running on mute.

We all ignored that little fact, for the sake of our own health.

"Alright, truth now please," he asked in an impatient tone.

I nodded and folded my hands as I leaned forward.

"You ever heard of multiverse theory?" I asked, nervous smile in place.

The reaction was as expected.

Some blank stares, like from Gung-Hyun and Duk-Bae, some confusion, like the twins glancing at each other, one thoughtful expression, like Il-Tae, as if the words said something to him…

And surprisingly irritation, from Tae-Jin, who rolled his eyes and stared at the ceiling with a sigh.

"Oh, for fuck's sake."

After he waved his hand for me to continue.

First, I explained about my origin, Chrome's origin and the fact that I knew the story of this universe.

They were rather understanding that I hid the knowledge, considering the traitor and all. They were especially forgiving when I told them that only Tae-Jin would have survived according to canon.

I then recounted said canon as far as I could remember.

How Tae-Jin would fight the Six, six very powerful individuals of South Korea, how the monkey king baby would awaken and would be adopted as his grandson as Jin Mo-Ri.

How Il-Tae's son would die from insanity caused by the nine tailed fox possessing him, only to enter his grandson's body later on.

I noticed how Il-Tae gritted his teeth, but remained silent. Sending him an apology with a glance, I carried on.

On how Jin Mo-Ri would enter the God of Higschool tournament, meetng his future friends, the karateka Han Dae-Wi and the swordswoman, Yu Mi-Ra.

How these three would form a team and enter the South Korean wide tournament and discover Chareok and deeper conspiracies, like the promoter Park-Mu Bong with his judges to free themselves from the gods or Nox, led by the Jade Emperor to maintain the "balance" of the world like some sort of templar organization.

I also told them about Jin Mo-Ri's awakening as a god at the end phase of the tournament, before being flung into the Sage Realm to regain his godly memories.

How the monkey king would kill the son of the Jade Emperor, only to have a fight with the granddaughter of Tae-Jin's rival, while the planet was blowing up.

How Jin Mo-Ri couldn't escape in time and his clone, Mo-Ri Hui had to take his place and enter the international God of Highschool tournament, controlled by Nox at the time.

Suffice to say, shit got crazy, with the confrontation against the Jade Emperor being the last thing I knew.

I also focused on the power Chareok had, the power borrowed by the gods.

Ranging from physical enhancement from Bruce Lee, to elemental control, like Phoenix, to exotic effects like absorption, in the form of Greed.

And I did not forget to emphasize how hax the Jade Emperor was, who was basically the main villain from where I left off.

A super katana, the Blade of Tathagata and his special ability, the control of the fundemental forces. Gravity. Electromagnetism. Weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force.

I wasn't even sure if that was the guy's full power, because the last chapter I read was him taking over a younger body, thus making him much stronger.

Still, I didn't forget to include the power levels of the other characters, like the Jade Emperor's Bishops, and the heights Jin Mo-Ri and his allies reach.

By the end of my recount of the events to the best of my abilities, I had to down two or three glasses of water to keep my throat wet.

"...And that's it so far," I finished and let out a sigh in the face of the wide eyed silence I received, leaning back on the couch. "Shit probably got worse, but I didn't get to read more."

The soldiers in the UFO lowered their gaze, Chrome next to me giving them worried looks.

Only one man didn't seem down from the information.

"Sounds like a real pain in the ass," Tae-Jin commented crudely and huffed with crossed arms, ignoring the stares he received from his subordinates. "Pah, now that I know that they are going to cheat, I just have to watch out for that. Easy." As his men began to grin with determination, Tae-Jin smirked at me as he rested his chin on his right hand. "The shit that would happen won't happen here, brat."

"Also, we are alive, so kicking ass is already in the program!" Gung-Hyun exclaimed to his leader's right. Duk-Bae nodded at his neighbor to the right.

"Still feels weird to have a story about this world and the whole other universes...but it isn't really that world breaking, considering the circumstances," one of the twins commented in the opposite of the muscular men and his other twin hummed in agreement.

I blinked.

They took it better than expected.

"Right, before I forget," the old man suddenly said in a serious tone and looked to his left. "Corporal Il-Tae." When the subordinate straightened up his back, Tae-Jin glared at him and nodded in approval. "You seemed to have done a good job with combining the two styles. I overlook the plagiarism for now."

For a while, Il-Tae stared at his superior in shock. Then, he lowered his head with a shaky smile.

"T-thank you very much, sir!"

"But..." Il-Tae froze at Tae-Jin's growl, as the latter hovered over Il-Tae's head threateningly. "I heard you saying some shit about my style having weaknesses."

The Corporal sent a look of betrayal to the two men that witnessed the battle, but they found the cat video behind Tae-Jin more interesting than their comrade.

"Uhm-"

Before Il-Tae could bring up an excuse, Tae-Jin jabbed his right finger into his chest.

"I want a match. Perfect your..." He trailed off and frowned. "What's the name?"

"I decided to call it Ssam-Su Taekkyeon," Il-Tae meekly replied and Tae-Jin nodded, before making the poor man swear to hone his skills for a later match.

I felt pity.

But I also looked forward to see how a match would look like.

So I decided to grin like the soldiers, while Chrome stifled a chuckle.

Still, the amusement quickly vanished when Tae-Jin's expression became professional again.

We all instinctively straightened up.

"Soldiers. I have one final mission for you." He paused to look at every single one of his subordinates. "Visit the families of the fallen and give them the grievance money. I have a promise to uphold."

As they gave their verbal acceptance of the orders, my eyes widened slightly.

Right, he was going to search for his rival's family. Might as well give him one more hint I forgot to mention, as unimportant as it seemed.

I raised my hand and Tae-Jin let out a grunt.

"In case you aren't on time, she will probably be recruited by some black ops team to teach her ITF," I said after lowering my hand.

"Not really specific, but thanks for the intel," Tae-Jin said with a shrug and I shrugged back. Then, Duk-Bae seemed to remember something and frowned a bit.

"What about our government?"

The leader clicked his tongue while his expression darkened like his subordinates.

Chrome blinked in confusion and gave me a look, but I raised my finger in front of my mouth.

I knew the reason, but she would figure it out herself.

Americans in the area meant that their government sold their soldiers out. And said, surviving soldiers knew that.

"Right, gotta give them a piece of my mind as well..." Tae-Jin muttered, cracking his fists with an evil chuckle.

I frowned.

It would waste time used finding the family.

I shared a look with Chrome, who stared at me with a blank expression, before realizing what I was going to do after tilting my head at Tae-Jin's direction.

It wasn't like we would have anything else to do besides waiting for the UFO to recharge.

"We could do that." I scratched my neck when I gained the attention of the soldiers. "Well, I always wanted to try out how it feels like to threaten someone."

"Me too," the girl said quietly, raising her hand.

The adults blinked at us.

"Kids, that is not a normal thing to say," Gung-Hyun said in a disbelieving tone and his comrades nodded in agreement.

I pouted in response, crossing my arms.

"Hey, I was only on the receiving end, can you fault me?"

Shaking their heads, they then stared at Chrome, who shrugged innocently.

"I just want to try it out. Lord Mukuro sounded like he had a lot of fun when he threatened others."

This time, I mimicked the gaping at Chrome.

What the hell did Mukuro teach that girl?!

Anyway, the soldiers shared a glance. Then they nodded, agreeing on the one coping mechanism they could use in this situation.

They decided to ignore the comments and carry on.

I shrugged. Fair enough.

"How will you get to South Korea? It would take a long time to fake records," one of the twins asked calmly. His brother smacked him across the head and then gestured around.

"They can just use this to fly, idiot."

"Didn't they say anything about juice?" The other brother said with a hiss.

Chrome and I blinked.

I looked at the ceiling and cleared my throat.

"Computer, how much does flying cost from here to South Korea?"

"Approximately one week."

"Eh, I can live with that," I said with a shrug and Chrome nodded in agreement.

"That's a lot," Duk-Bae said in a worrying tone.

"No idea about the ratios, so not complaining." I gestured around, to make my arrogance in the matter more clear. "Hell, I don't even know on what this thing is running."

The soldiers accepted the explanation for my lack of concern.

"Alright, you all know your roles." Tae-Jin stood up from his couch and stretched his back, before giving Chrome and I a smiling look. "You go on ahead, we have to go back the old fashioned way."

"We can give you a ride to the point," I offered, raising an eyebrow.

The old man immediately sat back down with a blank expression and bowed his head.

"Appreciate it."

This time, we could not hold back our laughter.

And I like to say that the punches did not hurt that much.

Though I did regret that Tae-Jin made full use of the healing pod.

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Chapter 10.2

It didn't even take a day to arrive in South Korea, sneak into his office and do our stuff.

It was...a bit disappointing, honestly.

Threatening the South Korean prime minister was less fun than I thought.

Sure, it raised my spirit a bit at making the man piss himself with the horror show we put on, with all the fire and spooky furniture tornado, while also punching some walls because I felt like it, but it was so easy to scare him.

Chrome didn't seem impressed at our actions either, muttering something about "maybe I did it wrong" and Mukuro.

I couldn't fault her. It didn't made me feel as good as kill-

I shook my head.

Nope. Not going there. Morally bad, even though you don't care, Sid.

I just had to find better targets to bully. Or better ways to make myself feel better.

Probably in reverse order.

Anyway, right now we were wandering around the streets of South Korea, in some random city whose name I didn't care for, in the middle of the night.

Any thugs that wanted to mess with us were swiftly diverted by illusions of cops.

Ah, the blessing of super powers.

Still, that left the issue of boredom. And random internet videos were only that much fun. The video games were saved up when we would be in between dimensions, even though Chrome didn't look like she had experiences with games.

However, it would take a whole month for the UFO to recharge enough for the jump, if the calculations were correct.

Therefore, Chrome looked at me with a blank expression after being done with her muttering.

"What now?"

I hummed in thought.

We could do the tourist thing and do some sightseeing. However, I felt it was a waste of time. Sure, relaxation and all that, but without Korean knowledge and the fact that it didn't help us become stronger, I dismissed that thought.

Scratching my chin, I frowned.

We could work on our illusions. We lacked more speed and accuracy, considering that the martial artist were too fast to affect. Though normal mental training for stamina would be helpful too.

My eyes widened.

Speaking of training...

"You think Il-Tae is willing to teach us?" I asked with a glance. As she tilted her head, I gestured around as we stood still in between the buildings. "We could need some martial arts on our journey and I think he said something about living in this town."

"Do you know his address?" She asked with a small frown.

I blinked.

…

Shit.

Chrome narrowed her eye, but simply let out a sigh and nodded.

"Let's start tomorrow. I mean, how hard can it be?" I said with a shrug and an awkward smile.

My companion was still angry at me for those words, even when we finally found Il-Tae's home.

This time, I had no chocolate to bribe her.



You have no idea how many people had the name "Park" in South Korea.

It took us a week to find his damn house!

Guess what, it was on the other side of the city, so as far as possible from where we parked the UFO.

Hurray.

We needed a navigator, because neither Chrome or I could do that.

Also, language barriers were a bitch to deal with.

Still, we finally arrived.

At the same time as Il-Tae.

Suffice to say, it was a bit awkward as we stared at each other in silence, before his wife opened the door to see her husband stare at a young adult and a teenager.

It was a blessing it disguise, I guess, that Il-Tae spent the whole week getting back to South Korea, getting his paperwork done in order to be dismissed from military service and meet the families in this town to give them the grim news about the soldiers that lost their lives.

Because of that, we roughly arrived at his rather simple house at the same time.

Simple, as in rather poor looking. It wasn't on slum level, but it was barely something I would consider comfortable to live in.

I remembered that his family didn't like him that much, but this was just cruel. I wasn't sure if the military money would be helping much as well.

But even though the living arrangements were not perfect, the family looked happy as they invited us into their small kitchen.

The table was barely big enough to handle all four of us, our legs hitting each other when we weren't careful.

His wife was a rather lovely woman, with short brown hair. She didn't talk a lot and was indifferent to our time travel, multidimensional story. However, she still had a gentle demeanor about her.

Especially when handling her baby son.

My eye twitched slightly, while Chrome hovered over the baby with interest, poking it in the cheek.

The child squealed happily, making Chrome do an "oh" sound in amazement, before continuing to poke it.

I could not handle children. They made me feel uncomfortable. Like some unseen, heavy expectations were thrown at me when a child was nearby. I didn't like the feeling, so I didn't even pretend to hide my little problem.

Thank fate that Il-Tae and his wife were understanding. Hell, the man joked how he felt the same before, but then managed to come to terms.

Apparently the two of them disliked each other at first, because of the arrangement, but after giving it a try, it worked out.

Good for him, I suppose.

Anyway, his wife left the kitchen with her baby after Il-Tae told her he needed a private talk with us. I tried to tell him it wasn't that important, but he waved it off, seeing how we were a bit subdued when we wanted to ask something.

The martial artist scratched his chin a bit, after Chrome and I requested him to train us. To my surprise, he shrugged.

"Well, I guess I need some practice in teaching someone else," he said with a casual smile.

Chrome let out a sigh of relief to my left at the agreement, but I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"Isn't that supposed to be a family martial art?" At their questioning stares, I raised my hands in a placating manner. "Not objecting, just asking."

"As long as I can teach my son, I don't really care who gets to learn it," Il-Tae explained with a smile. Then, he chuckled a little. "Besides, since you are, you know what, my son would still be the first one to learn from me in this world!" After we shared a laugh at the small joke, the man became a bit more somber as he lowered his gaze. "Also...I wanted to thank you for your warning."

I bit my lip.

He gave me too much credit.

"Your son can still die," I said in a grim tone, making sure that he realizes that my warning didn't have to change anything. Chrome sent me a confused stare, but Il-Tae sighed in surrender.

"Yes. I know. There isn't much I could do to prevent it." He shook his head, then looked up with determination, folding his hands. "But I can try. And if that doesn't work...I can at least learn to accept it ahead of time."

The two of us nodded at his sad acceptance and I scratched my hair awkwardly.

Well great, I managed to destroy the mood.

Considering how my companion kicked my leg a bit, she probably wanted it to go away as much as I did.

Subtle distraction then.

"Do you have a training spot?" I asked a little bit too loud and too fast.

Il-Tae jumped a little in his seat, as did Chrome, before the former blinked at me.

Nailed it.

"Well...my father and brother don't really like me, so they won't let me use the dojo...It's in another area of South Korea anyway..." Awkwardly, he laughed as he scratched the back of his head. "We'll improvise, I guess?"

Chrome and I stared at him with a blank expression. When he titled his head, Chrome decided to explain our reaction in a slow manner.

"We...do have a space ship."

Il-Tae blinked.

"Oh. Right," he said lamely and leaned back in his chair, clearing his throat with crossed arms. "Does it have a name?"

Obvious attempt to distract from his minor mistake.

I was going to play along.

"Not really. We are still looking. Currently, we have Flying Mist, Silver Chariot and a bunch of other stuff," I said with a shrug and the man nodded.

"Good luck with finding a name." He paused, then frowned a bit at us. "But it didn't look like there was a lot of room."

"We can program it," Chrome said in a simple tone, but this increased the confusion on Il-Tae's face.

"How does that work?" He asked in an incredulous tone.

Chrome and I shared a look.

Then we shrugged at the same time.

We weren't majoring in Space Science Magic, so who knew?

"Hm," Il-Tae hummed, then decided to take in stride, before grinning a bit. "Well, you better prepare yourself. My training will be harsh, I won't lie."

There was a small feeling of dread, but I ignored at as I shared an innocent glance with my friend and nodded in agreement.

Eh, the training couldn't be that hard, right?

 

[ObsidianNoir]

Chapter 10.3

Since I knew I was something like a Self Insert character, I should have known better than to call Murphy and tell him to shove it, while dancing on his mother's grave.

But, it was not natural to believe oneself inside a fictional scenario, so I forgot about it.

The training should force me to remember in the future.

I would probably forget it anyway, then have this thought line again.

Apologies, future self.

Well, I didn't give myself enough credit.

Considering I stood tall despite several seconds passing by, I had improved.

Still, I was already out of breath, while Il-Tae just observed me calmly, as we circled around each other, while slowly closing the distance in between us.

By all means, as a friend, I should drag this out for Chrome, who was still busy catching her breath outside the training arena, her black T-shirt soaked as much as mine.

But god, dragging it out was impossible. We've been at it for like two minutes, and already I was at my end.

Still, gotta bear it.

Our right wrists touch.

I strained my focus as much as possible, in order to gain every single drop of information from his muscle movements.

Ssamsu-Taekkyeon. Awareness.

However, this worked both ways.

As in, I was trying to peek into his window, while Il-Tae hacked my facebook account.

That I could predict what he was gonna do to me did not help my dread.

Nevertheless, I grit my teeth and moved.

Left fist against his face.

Get parried, right heel kick towards head incoming.

Duck under it, grab it and let it carry me.

Use the momentum to aim a right knee against skull.

He evaded it by completing the spin around himself and swaying back at the same time.

Let go, before he could use the spin to use his left leg against me.

Rolling over the ground, get up immediately.

As fast as possible, execute three kicks.

Left low kick with the heel. Spin, middle right kick. Then, another spin, high heel kick with the left.

Ssamsu Taekkyeon. Falling Blossom.

Il-Tae however, did the same and parried every single one of my kicks with ease.

Backing off when my assault failed, I clicked my tongue.

Not fast enough.

The two of us touch our wrists again, executing Awareness.

And this was how it went on.

Almost casual, total fluid movements, super close range, grappling, attacking from every angle.

That was Ssamsu-Taekkyeon.

To be honest, it was a lot more complicated and up close than I was used to, compared to half contact kick boxing.

Still, I could not deny it was a powerful art. Though it was tough on my body and mind.

Thank god he wasn't using any grappling against me, because he could have ended it already.

He was limiting himself to pure strike attacks, while he let me use everything.

Not that it would change that he was still above me in any category.

Anyway, next up was a left elbow against the nose, in a vertical fo-

"Chrome, you're up," Il-Tae suddenly said in a calm tone.

I raised an eyebrow, even while I was executing my attack.

Wait, we weren't even-

My eyes widened when I remembered one weakness of Awareness.

It couldn't reliably read to attacks at the same time.

As in, an elbow and a palm, for example.

I predicted the first one. My head swayed to the left and I tried to counterattack with my own palm against his chin.

But his right palm landed calmly on my chest, while I already was in motion.

Il-Tae calmly looked me in the eyes as he returned his elbow to himself and tilted his head with little movement to dodge my incoming strike.

He shifted his weight on from his right foot towards his left foot.

One step forward with the left foot, entering my area completely.

And he pushed with the force accumulated by our movements.

Pain flared up in my stomach and I almost puked.

However, I suppressed the reflex.

Instead, I decided to use my well trained vocabulary to express my emotions.

"DAMN IT" I screamed loudly like a manly man as I was flung against the metal wall of the UFO.

I should have set the wall on jelly mode, if only to spare my back from the pain.

The burning palm imprinted on my stomach was worse enough.

"Oww...Kiss my ass," I muttered as I tried to remove myself from the wall.

Il-Tae may look like a nice guy, but I should not have forgotten that he was the master of this art and did this longer than I lived.

He didn't even hit me with full force or else I was sure he would have cracked my rips with ease with the pure shock wave his attack would have created.

"Watch out!"

The yell of my teacher shook me out of my musing and I looked up.

Then, a Chrome flew against my stomach like a cannonball.

This time, I spat out some spit, just like my friend.

Hilariously, we formed a weird human cross before dropping on the floor like wet towels and grovel on the ground in pain.

"Training hurts..." Chrome muttered, holding her stomach with some tears in her eye and I groaned in agreement.

Il-Tae jogged over to us, a sheepish expression on his face as he scratched his hair and bowed slightly at us.

"Sorry. Still need to find out the proper force for sparring."

"Good that you can test it out before your son gets training," I snarked in a weak tone, before standing up, helping Chrome right after I managed to do that. The girl nodded in agreement and took a deep breath like I did to catch her breath.

Il-Tae chuckled awkwardly at my comment.

"Yeah...Sorry about it." He nodded then pointed at us, then to the sparring arena with a serious expression. "Anyway. Again, both of you. This time, I won't hold back. Final lesson and all that."

I let out a small whine and Chrome lowered her head. We both accepted our sentence and entered the arena.

With Chrome to my right, we wait for Il-Tae to give us the signal.

When he nodded, the two of us raise our arms. The right for me and the left for Chrome.

Alright, touch his wrist with my own, use Awareness and-

I'm on the ground, as well as Chrome.

The two of us blinked.

Then the delayed pain hit us with full force, making us groan on the ground.

I covered my face and noticed that my nose was bleeding a lot, clogged up as it was. Maybe even broke. It was probably the worst damage, considering my body felt like it was massaged with bullets.

Glancing at Chrome next to me, I think she got a good hit at her left temple, considering her eye looked rather dizzy as she held the spot.

I think I received a punch barrage, I threw a desperate right straight and he then locked his arms behind me, tipped the back of my left leg with his right leg and propelled himself of the ground to smash a right knee into my face.

Then he probably let gravity do its work, as I fell backwards.

If Il-Tae would have wanted to kill me, all he needed to do was keep his knee on my face.

Instead, he let it miss on purpose, hitting the ground next to me.

The small imprint did not help my imagination.

Against Chrome...I dunno, maybe a normal Hwechook, speak high spin kick with the front of his foot?

Speaking of the culprit, he stood over us, cheeky grin in place as he had his hands on his hips.

When we looked up to him with pained expressions, he cheerfully opened his mouth.

"Dead."

"How do you know how I feel right now?" I asked with heavy breath, yet with sass.

It would have sounded better if my broken nose didn't make my voice sound so weird.

Anyway, our teacher laughed at my comment, as well as Chrome. The latter however, quickly winced at her action and threw me a dirty look.

"Well, you two heal up for now, while I review your actions."

Il-Tae didn't have to tell us twice as we limped towards the two healing pods.

Yes, we had two. It was a good decision, after the first day of training.

While we were healing up, Il-Tae stood in front of us, arms crossed with a contemplating expression.

"I'm sorry to say, but your bodies aren't that accustomed to this yet. Way better than at the start though." He winced when we lowered our heads in shame.

We did try to keep up the power training, but we still were a semi fit eighteen year old and a technically terminal patient respectively. There wasn't much he could have done in the three weeks to speed it up, unless magic was involved.

"Still, your technique is not half bad! Keep this up and you could get a belt." His cheerful expression changed to a thoughtful one. "If this had belts..."

I chuckled slightly with my fellow patient and shook my head.

The man cleared his throat awkwardly, then gave Chrome apologetic look.

"Again, sorry I don't have any staff training for you, Chrome. You have...some more difficulties than Obsidian to utilize the techniques." He let out a sigh. "No offense, but you aren't meant to be a front fighter, I believe. Not like him, with unarmed combat. It clicks easier for him. You always look so...uncomfortable when we spar."

I couldn't see Chrome, but I could imagine how she nodded in somber acceptance.

"I'm sorry. The trident just feels more..natural." Her tone becomes more soft and I imagined her smiling weakly. "It's okay. I just have to learn by myself. It isn't your fault that I don't have talent."

I frowned at this.

Okay, time to chime in.

"Hey, you are still better than most people. These skills aren't useless. And talent doesn't mean anything," I said in an encouraging tone. It felt a bit awkward that I couldn't see her, but hey. Intent counted.

Thankfully, Il-Tae decided to support me on this one, before Chrome could reply.

"He's right. You are still a good student," he said with a warm, gentle expression.

For a while, only silence reigned in the UFO.

"Thank you," Chrome at last said in a quiet tone.

With that, none of us said anything, as we waited for the healing pod to heal us.

After a while of absolutely nothing happening, our teacher decided to speak up all of a sudden.

"What do you want in life?" I and probably Chrome raised an eyebrow at his serious question. He scratched his hair awkwardly. "You're young, but you should have some sort of goal in mind. Something to look forward and work towards to."

Hm, he was our teacher, so the question was justified.

I opened my mouth...Only to close it again.

I blinked.

Huh.

I...actually didn't thought about it.

Considering that my friend didn't say anything and that Il-Tae stared at us with calm expectation, I couldn't help but shrug weakly.

"I...have no idea...Living?" I asked more than said. After the martial artist glanced at Chrome, who I assumed did something similar as an expression of ignorance, Il-Tae smiled at us in a warm manner.

"Well, not everyone achieves enlightenment that easily. Give it time. Having no aim at first isn't something to be ashamed of. As long as you find something worth living for."

His words filled my heart with warmth, just when he complimented me when I did something right when training Ssamsu-Taekkyeon.

Because of that, I nodded and let out a grunt of determination.

Just when I nodded however, the pod made a "ding" noise, opening the hatch.

Gravity handled the rest and I fell flat on the ground.

This time however, I managed to save my face by stopping my fall with my arms.

Il-Tae and Chrome chuckled quietly and I quickly stood up with a flushed expression.

"Never happened," I said a bit too quickly before averting my eyes.

That only caused them to giggle more.

Anyway, with the two of us healed up, Il-Tae went towards the hatch, before stopping.

Chrome and I went on our knees, as obedient students.

There was a reason for the formality.

Today was the last day of training. The ship had enough energy to make the jump and we already decided not to stay here forever.

Crossing his arms, he cleared his throat.

"Since this was our final lesson, I thought I should tell you a few words. But then I realized I wasn't much of a speaker...I'll try anyway."

Taking a deep breath, he looked at us with pride.

"Obsidian. When I first met you, you were lacking confidence in yourself. Fear was in your heart when you faced my captain." I bit my lip, but remained silent as he was not done yet. "But you have a sharp mind. You feel when and where to apply certain skills. Skills, you learned very quick." A soft smile was directed at me. "With courage and more training, you will be unstoppable. "

I nodded, not trusting my voice to say something without breaking it.

Damn it, Sid, don't get overly sentimental!

Luckily, Il-Tae focused on Chrome, features soothed back into seriousness.

"Chrome. Your body is weak. You are aware of that. Because of that, your determination shined the most to me. The will to do anything, despite the difficulty." Il-Tae took a deep breath, before smiling gently as Chrome curled her hands up in fists as she tried to remain calm. "You are observant. I saw it when we fought. While Obsidian shows heated emotions, you remain calm, like a soothing, concentrated flame. You analyze your foes and you know when to use your skills. So get rid of your hesitation. Work on your strengths and become your own person. Yo do not have to be like Obsidian. If this doesn't suit you, adapt to something else. I will not fault you."

Only the shivering in her lips told me that the words hit her hard. Her eye was a bit wet, I think.

Like mine, because it was infecting me as well. I didn't even feel mad anymore.

Anyway, Il-Tae was not done yet, as he knelt in front of us, hands on our shoulders to give us an encouraging squeeze.

"But I cannot forget the most important thing, the two of you share." He pointed at our chests. "Heart. The will to do good. To yourselves and your surroundings. And that's why, I am proud to call myself your teacher."

Okay, you know what, this time I couldn't hold my tears.

Chrome lost some tears as well, so we both quietly cried a bit.

Il-Tae didn't lose some water, but he still had a soft expression, looking like he would want to do that.

"And if this wasn't good enough as a farewell, a present should work." He searched around in his back he carried with him and got out a simple, grey looking book. "Translating was a bit tough."

I wiped my face with my arms and opened it in confusion.

Then I saw the title.

The Evolution of Taeekyeon.

My eyes widened, as did Chrome's.

"This...is Ssamsu Taekkyeon. Everything you thought of?" I muttered in disbelief and Il-Tae chuckled a bit.

"Well, you are my students and since I can't come along, I should give you something for self study, correct?"

This time, we lost all control and the two of us hugged our teacher for his gift. He was taken aback for a moment, but then patted our backs reassuringly as we sobbed into his shoulder.

It took a while for us to get a hold of ourselves, but goodbye had to be said eventually.

With the hatch open, we waved to Il-Tae as he waved back from the outside.

"We will meet again! I have a feeling!" He yelled at us with a wide smile, which me mimicked.

"Until then! Thanks for everything!" I yelled back, with Chrome nodding in agreement.

With that, the man turned around and walked back towards his house.

We lowered our arms, taking a deep breath.

"Do you think they will be okay?" My companion asked quietly.

"With all the shit that will be coming for them?" I said in a low tone and let out a dry snort. "Okay would be a miracle."

Chrome nodded subdued at my words.

With that, the hatch closed, before the UFO began to fly.

But I couldn't help but smile, even with my rather dark words, as Chrome went to the bathroom first.

Miracles weren't that rare in this universe.

Arc 1: Martial Heart - End​

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AN:

You know, trying to describe a fictional martial art based on a manhwa that doesn't give a lot of explanations and visual help is very hard.

I watched a video on normal Taekkyeon, but I wasn't sure if the dance movements were part of practical, much less Ssamsu.

Basically, I am pulling shit out of my ass and hope it sounds right enough.