The Hero Returns

Mitch Hewer became flustered from Su-hyeun's greeting.

It wasn't hard to understand the South Korean, since his English was rather good, but that didn't mean his motives for being here would be any easier to understand.

"What's the matter?"

Su-hyeun's question was met by Mitch Hewer grabbing Thomas by the arm and yanking him inside the door.

"Why don't you just go away, man? There's nothing to see here," said Mitch Hewer.

Creak-

Whoosh-

Su-hyeun stopped the door about to close and swung it wide open. "I had to travel a considerable distance to get here, so pardon my intrusion. I won't accept no for an answer."

"What are you…."

He ignored Mitch Hewer's protest and stepped inside the house. The latter panicked and started shouting at him.

"What's the meaning of this?! Get out before I call the cops!"

"I'll be visiting them later to write up an affidavit, so don't you worry about that now."

Step, step-

Su-hyeun waltzed right into the living room. Mitch Hewer couldn't even do as he threatened—call the cops—and could only nervously rack his brain.

<< Goddammit, why did this punk show up in here? >>

The TV was still talking about the news related to the Ranking Wars. During the event, Su-hyeun just so happened to be one of the individuals who distinguished himself alongside Gordon Rohan. Even Thomas found it impossible to subdue the South Korean.

Well, he came back here after losing to Su-hyeun in the match, after all.

<< He won't find out, right? It's gonna be alright, isn't it? >>

A punk who came here with the pretense of being Thomas's friend wouldn't be rude enough to search through every nook and cranny of the house without permission, now would he?

In the meantime, Thomas was happily smiling away while utterly oblivious to Mitch's internal conflict. Mitch Hewer thought that this must be his first time seeing that red-haired idiot smile that brightly.

"Your house is rather squalid, isn't it."

Su-hyuen's words caused Mitch Hewer to frown deeply. The first thing he said after intruding in someone's private abode was "it's squalid"? He had to know how rude that was.

"If that's all you're going to say, how about getting the hell out of my place? I don't remember inviting someone like you in."

"Have your son's friends ever come here before?"

"What was that?"

"And when your son came back home, did you ever hug him once?"

"What bullsh*t are you talking about?" Mitch Hewer asked, but Su-hyeun was already moving towards the kitchen. The former grew even more anxious and quickly stood in the way.

"Thomas! Hurry up and drag this bastard outside!"

His loud yell was met with Thomas's surprised expression. Thomas looked a little different than he did when he was in the arena. He looked anxious and scared of something.

"D-daddy, are, are you… angry?"

"Thomas! Hurry up and…." Mister Hewer couldn't finish his sentence and just stood there, frozen. His body stiffened, and his voice couldn't come out. It was as if his body had turned into stone even though his mind was still clear.

"You know, I was initially planning to come here and ask you nicely to let Thomas go, but…." Su-hyeun said as he walked over to the fridge. The foul smell wafting around the living room steadily grew worse as he got closer to the kitchen. "But, this smell is really getting on my nerves a bit, you see."

Creak-

The ancient fridge creaked noisily as it opened. And the source of that disgusting smell revealed itself.

Tumble, drop-

Slabs of meat filling the fridge slowly cascaded down. At a casual glance, they seemed like slices of pork shoved inside without a care in the world. But a deeper look would reveal the actual truth.

Su-hyeun's expression turned unsightly as he picked up one of the slabs of meat—a severed human foot. "Well, you can already tell that it's not a pig trotter."

He knew that this guy wasn't a "normal-minded" father figure even before coming here. But he certainly didn't expect this Mitch Hewer bastard to be this much of a scum. A supposed father with alcohol addiction, records of domestic violence, and the "hobby" of murder?

<< No, wait a minute. He's not really Thomas's father, is he? >>

Not a drop of blood was shared between the two, and he never treated Thomas as his son either, anyway. So, their relationship only existed within the confines of the law, that was all.

"You don't have the qualifications to be a father."

Vrrrrr-

This time, it was against a regular civilian without any abilities but Su-hyeun didn't even hesitate to use his powers. His magical energy spread out everywhere and began tightening around Mitch Hewer's neck.

"Cough, cough! Wheeze…!" Hewer coughed and collapsed on his butt. Blood leaked out with each wheezing and cough. He realized that, at this rate, he'd really die here.

Right at that moment…

"Stop that!"

Scatter-

Thomas hurriedly jumped in between the two men and scattered Su-hyeun's magical energy.

The latter's gaze turned to Thomas, busy shaking his head and opening his mouth. "You mustn't do that."

"Cough, cough! M-my son, son…!"

Mitch Hewer remained collapsed on his butt as he desperately called out to Thomas. It seemed that he had found his lifeline in this situation. Su-hyeun stared at Thomas blocking his path towards the murderer and asked.

"Do you still think of that bastard as your dad?"

"If, if daddy isn't here…." Thomas's head dropped as he replied in a soft murmur. "I… I'll… really be alone…."

Su-hyeun could only look at him with pity.

What he seemed to fear the most was being left alone. It was rather likely that he was still traumatized by his mother abandoning him and running away all those years ago.

"T-that's right. Thomas can't live without me. No one in this world can take care of this boy except me, you hear?" Mitch Hewer cried out, sounding almost hysterical, after noticing that Su-hyeun was hesitating slightly from what Thomas had said.

He probably figured that Su-hyeun was trying to kill him for the sake of Thomas's wellbeing.

"T-Thomas, my boy. You're a good boy. Aren't you? T-take your friend and quickly leave. Your daddy's going to forgive you for everything that happened today if you do that, okay?"

"Daddy, but…"

"Don't talk back to me, and hurry the hell up! I said, take that bastard and get out of my sight already!!"

Maybe his fear was to blame, because he kept screaming hysterically.

Thomas flinched from the scream, curled up, and began shivering away. It was a slightly different reaction from during the Ranking Wars. The trauma caused by Mitch Hewer had been that intense for him.

"Keep that piehole of yours shut, will you."

Shuwuwu-

"Heuh, heuh-uh-uhk…."

Mitch Hewer grasped his throat with his hand as Su-hyuen's magical energy began squeezing his neck once more. It felt like an invisible hand was choking him to death.

Su-hyuen easily shut Hewer off and shifted his gaze over to Thomas.

"Thomas."

He didn't reply - too busy shivering away, even now.

"There's no need to lean on a piece of trash like him."

"But, but…."

"If it's too scary being alone, give me a call. Then, you won't be alone anymore."

"….Call you?"

Su-hyeun shrugged, then placed his hand on Thomas's shivering shoulder. "You said I'm a friend, right? Something like that is nothing between friends, you know. And besides, there are plenty of good people in this world, people who are far, far better than this scumbag. What I'm saying here is…" He stopped there and scratched his head, not knowing what else to say, before eventually settling on his next words. "All I'm saying is, don't get too hung up on relationships because you're scared of being alone."

"…"

"Please, let me through, Thomas. That scumbag isn't worth your protection."

Su-hyeun finished there. Thomas, still in the middle, alternated his gaze between the South Korean and Hewer. No matter how young you were, you were still bound to notice things. Such as, if he moved away from this spot, Mitch Hewer would be dead for sure.

"I'm sorry."

"T-Tho-mas…."

Thomas's head dropped once more, and Mitch Hewer could only cry out in sheer fluster. Of course, most of his voice failed to even come out.

Thomas glanced back at his adopted father, before completely turning his head away.

It was at that moment Mitch Hewer thought he heard a heavy rock fall inside his mind. At almost the same time, Su-hyeun's footsteps were closing in on him.

Step, step-

Hewer's eyes grew wider and wider as Su-hyeun got closer and closer. Tears of pain began dripping down from his widened, bloodshot-eyes.

"Tho… ma…. s…."

"Don't worry, I won't kill you."

Wuduk, wududuk-

"Kkeuhk, kkeok…."

Su-hyeun's hand grabbed Hewer's thigh, and crushed the man's bones right there and then.

"But your body will never be able to take another person's life. You'll rot away inside a jail cell for the rest of your life, or get judged in the court of the law accordingly."

"P-please, don't kill…."

"Right, I won't kill you. But…"

Wudududuk-

"Uwaaaahhhk-!!"

Su-hyeun crushed the bones on the other thigh and continued. "But, that doesn't mean you're forgiven."

Sometime later.

The arrest of the serial killer haunting New York City's low-income neighborhoods was reported by the media, which was soon swiftly followed by the announcement of his trial and execution.

The murderer was found in his own home, unconscious, with both of his legs crushed. The person who provided the tip had vanished without a trace.

* * *

Adel Castle.

He was Europe's most famous awakener.

Currently, inside a massive conference hall, numerous awakeners had gathered around this man, who represented the 28 nations of the European Union.

"It's so wondrous to see all of you gathered here like this. You're all renowned for your independent personalities, after all."

Adel Castle acted as their representative and got the proceedings on the way. All of the folks present were quite proud individuals, but none dared to voice a contrasting opinion from his.

It didn't matter what anyone said, he was one of the top awakeners in the world, ranked alongside the likes of Gordon Rohan. As such, he was more than qualified to lead this conference.

"What business do you have with us?"

"As you may well know, we're standing on a very important crossroad."

"An important crossroad?"

"I'm referring to the Ranking Wars, of course. Our honor is at stake, and so does our national prestige."

'National prestige'.

That wasn't a term often muttered by awakeners, but it was a different story with Adel Castle. Even before he gained his powers, he was already an aristocrat in Great Britain. His love for his country ran extremely deep, and so did his pride in being a British.

Besides, he wasn't wrong with his assertion.

It was rather clear that the yardstick used to measure each nation's awakener combat strength would undergo a fundamental shift after this Ranking Wars.

If the numbers of the S-Ranks in a country was used to measure its combat strength until now, then in the future, it'd be the individual awakener's rankings that determined the ranking of each country, instead.

"We can't be stuck in the shadows of these three nations—America, South Korea, and China, forever and ever, now can we, everyone?"

When Great Britain was mentioned, people usually referred to it as the fourth in the rankings. It fell behind China, who had pushed forward with its massive numbers, and even to America and South Korea, who enjoyed greater numbers of high-ranked awakeners.

And the current Ranking Wars was a perfect opportunity to overturn that ranking in the blink of an eye.

"You sure know how to beat around the bush, don't you? Okay, so what? Are you suggesting everyone in the finals should all work extra hard together? Like, we should gather around, share some booze and cheer everyone on?"

A Swiss awakener famed for his short fuse voiced his displeasure. He failed during the first round and hadn't advanced to the finals. That's why he was thinking that there was no reason to sit here and listen to Adel Castle's stories.

"I have two matters to discuss with you." Adel Castle raised two fingers, then folded one while continuing. "First. I suggest to you the establishment of a European Awakener Federation."

"An awakener federation?"

"So, it finally got the green-light?"

The European Awakener Federation.

Anyone interested in the information coming out of Europe would know what that was, since matters related to the federation had been discussed for a long time within the European Union.

This subject was now being brought up as if it was nothing special, that it was something inevitable finally happening for real.

More than half of the awakeners present in the conference were already thinking about the composition of the federation. When many people joined up, the gathering would prove to be a powerful force regardless of what happened in the Ranking Wars.

"And the second thing is?"

"The second matter is…" Adel Castle folded the remaining finger. "Please, lend me your aid, everyone."

He spoke with a brightly-smiling face.

Lend him aid - the main topic of the conference had been revealed now. But the 'how' was going to be tricky to discuss. His aim was, without a shadow of a doubt, overall victory in the Ranking Wars.

"Help you? How?"

"There are hindrances in my way." Adel Castle raised two fingers once more. "Two of them."

"…Gordon Rohan, and Kim Su-hyeun."

Someone murmured the two names.

Adel Castle nodded. "Correct."

"Wait, could you be…?"

"It'll be fine as long as those two aren't around."

No one here was too slow to understand the gist of the story now that it had come this far.

The surroundings were stirred up in an instant.

"If it were only Kim Su-hyeun, fine. But…."

"Isn't Gordon Rohan a bit too dangerous?"

"You're right. A few of us can manhandle him somehow, sure. But dealing with the aftermath will be tricky."

Adel Castle shook his head at those worry-filled voices. "Indeed, he's insanely wealthy and possesses incredible power, but, the fact is, even the American government doesn't view him in such favorable light. He's just too independent-minded, and has frequently rejected requests from their government, after all."

"Okay. Is this your personal request, or did the EU come up with the idea first?"

"It's both."

"And what about the consequences?"

"There will be none."

That was a confident, straightforward answer.

If indeed the EU was getting involved here, then there shouldn't be too big a problem in dealing with the aftermaths. Even more so if the American government and Gordon Rohan were at loggerheads, as claimed.

"For now, why don't you tell us the details first?"

"You made a wise decision," said Adel Castle, a deep smirk etched on his face.

Only one day remained until the start of the finals of the Ranking Wars.

The story was quietly but quickly marching forward.