The Art Of Sword

Hours later!

Sunz wakes up and gets blinded by the bright ceiling light when he opens his eyes. His hand automatically moves on its own to find the hood of the Windbreaker. When found, he immediately tugs it over his face, successfully minimizing the brightness of the light.

Sunz *mumbles* (Really no dream. Don’t we usually talk after my failure? And why was the ability glitching out with Jihu?

Jihu: What the hell are you talking about?

Sunz: Nothing…

After a few seconds of silence, Sunz asks “Where are we?”

Jihu: If I say heaven, will you believe me?

Sunz moves his finger to the cut near his cheek but nothing was there.

Sunz: No I won’t.

Jihu: That’s your answer… How is your chest?

Sunz: Nothing but cold, I guess. Question, during the whole practice were you planning to inflict any damage on me at all?

Jihu: Dumb question! Of course not, you asked me to be a healer and I did just that.

Sunz: Then why did it take you so long to do anything?

Jihu: I was waiting for an opening. Since Grace was the aggressor so, I aim to strike at the moment you have no way to protect yourself.

Sunz: But with the intention to heal?

Jihu: Yeah!

Sunz takes a moment to think

(So the reason I couldn’t predict Jihu’s attack was because he has no intention to hurt me… And at the end when I couldn’t see his attack. Must mean my ability had finished upgrading.)

(At least today's training wasn’t for nothing. Even though what I gain is close to nothing. But now, I can detect whether my enemy is friend or foe)

Jihu: Hey man sorry for ruining your training today. If I didn’t pull that stunt, maybe you could’ve got a couple more hours in.

Sunz sits up and says: Nah, you were right to pull that shenanigan. A couple more hours wouldn’t close any gap between her and me.

Jihu: So what’s the plan now? You still have a couple more hours today and tomorrow before your fight with her.

Sunz: Training is the only option at the moment. So I will ignore it by asking you stupid questions.

Jihu sounds annoyed: This again… But ask away!

Sunz: Well, since you’re ‘Korean’ and we’re living in a world where people have superpowers. Does that mean, you have a ‘System’?

Jihu: You know what stupid? This is the first time you ask me that question.

Sunz: Well the only information I have about you is “Charismatic Korean Guy.” not the “Son of a powerful clan.”

Jihu: You kinda exaggerating things a bit, but back to the question.

“There is no way I could have that because I lived in Canada most of my life. So that’s made me unworthy of owning one.”

“What about you aren’t you ‘Chinese’? Don’t you suppose to be in a Sect?”

Sunz: Well, I can’t be in one because I never visited China before! And you know for the longest time I never understand what does ‘Sect’ mean.

Jihu: Ever thinking about visiting it in the future?

Sunz: Not really, my parents left there years ago before I was born. I asked them why they left and ‘Mom’ just laughed and said “My whole family hates your father so I decided to leave them and take him overseas.”

“Plus I also don’t have any interest in visiting it. Even if I do, the only reason would be the food there. But that reason would be invalid because both ‘Mom and Dad’ know how to make Chinese food.”

Jihu: That makes sense.

Sunz: Well, back to that ‘System’ stuff. If a ‘Hero’ has it how much disadvantage will we have in the war?

Jihu: Not that much to be honest. There are a lot of resources that are unknown to the normal world. So we’ll be fine.

Sunz: Unknown resources? Just like those weird ‘Mist’ plants in the Flower Forest.

Jihu: Let me guess Sogae took you there right?

Sunz: Yeah.

Jihu: Yep just like those. They were gifted to us from the ‘Aster’ clan. If you can’t remember the clan name just call them ‘Flower’. They are my clan's most important client.

Sunz: Judging from the name they must be specialize in herbs right?

Jihu: Herbs and other plant-based medicines, and drugs. Those are extremely helpful in life or death situations or to go in ‘100% Performance’.

Sunz: ‘100% Performance’ like they just dope up!

Jihu: Yeah!

Sunz: But isn’t it…

Jihu: Dangerous! That was what I thought when I heard about it too, but there is too little information about that drug for me to know how bad or good it is.

Sunz: Mmmaybe..you’ll knnnow more…about it when…you’re ooolder.

Jihu: What’s wrong with your voice?

Sunz's body is shivering: Well…my body is extremely cold right now… What did you set the A/C at?

Jihu with a confused look on his face: There is no A/C in this room.

Sunz suddenly realizes why the room is so cold: It’s her isn’t it?

Jihu: Yep.

Sunz turns his head around and sees that Grace has crawled up into a ball sleeping with drool hanging out of her mouth.

Sunz then immediately jumped out of bed over to Jihu's side, placing his arm on Jihu’s shoulder. Then he asks “Why is she here?”

Jihu: What's wrong, can’t the girl have some rest?

Sunz: Bullshit, before you sent me to heaven she was full of energy and now she is sleeping like a log. Something must have happened while I was out cold.

Then both Sunz and Jihu hear some weird noise from Grace.

She giggles softly while squirming on the bed then suddenly stops.

Sunz: Where’s my answer?

Jihu: Well… right after I “Killed” you she suddenly went berserk and tried to Kill me as revenge. We fought and I managed to hold her down…barely. Then luckily Sogae arrived in time to save me…

…

Sunz: ???

Jihu: In order to calm Grace down she gave her a very good massage. Which will knock her out for at least 12 hours.

Sunz: Well, what matters most is that we are all ok. It’s just misunderstanding here and there.

“So how do we wake her up? Do we need to call Sogae for that? Because I have her number.”

Jihu: I don’t think we need to. Maybe you can wake her up.

Sunz: How?

Jihu: Just shake her shoulder, touch her cheek or any way you can think of.

“Come on do it.” Jihu gave Sunz a few pats on the back to encourage him.

Sunz: Ok I’ll try.

Sunz then tries to get close to Grace and the closer he gets the colder the area becomes. Ignore the harsh conditions Sunz finally makes it to the center of the ‘Storm’.

When Sunz places his hand on Grace’s shoulder, he suddenly hears “Ame don’t wake me up, today is my day off, don’t dress me up.”

Grace’s eyes then slowly opened and she saw a blurry figure in front of her face “Wait you’re not Ame…” then the figure slowly got clearer.

“It’s me Sunz.” After hearing that and seeing what is in front of her face. Grace jumped out of the bed and started hugging Sunz very tightly.

“Oh my god I thought you were dead!” she said with so much joy in her voice, like a burden just got lifted off her chest.

On the other hand, Sunz nervously says “You can’t get rid of me that easily.” While thinking (Always forgot that she is physically a lot stronger than me.)

After hugging for a bit she noticed Jihu was watching them with a smile on his face.

“Consider yourself lucky this time! And what are you smiling for?” she said while glaring at him.

Jihu: Oh nothing! Seeing you two happy made me happy too.

Right after Grace hugged Sunz. Jihu saw their Aura flow through each other, mixing to create a different color.

Grace: Since Sunz is ok, I’m willing to ignore what you did to him.

Jihu: Thank you! And would you mind deactivating your ability?

Grace said with a confused look “What do you mean by that” Then she noticed Sunz was shaking while hugging her. Realizing what was going on she immediately deactivated her power.

Sunz: Thank you! I almost freeze to death.

Grace awkwardly laughs “Hehe! Sorry about that. But why was my ability activated on its own and it also feel different?

Jihu: Because right after I ‘Kill’ Sunz. Your body emotionally evolved in order to kill me. Or in short, you evolved through anger.

Sunz: And why was your ability activated? I guess it must be your dream that triggered it. Were you having a good dream? We even heard you giggle.

Grace’s face blushed a lot: Haha, who know? I barely remember what I was dreaming about.

“Well, I guess we should call it off today. And continue your training tomorrow.”

Sunz: OK then, but I don’t plan on training tomorrow.

Grace: But! You only have one day left before fighting against her.

Sunz: Well, I noticed that training in that short amount of time wouldn’t change anything so I thought that resting might be better.

Grace: Can’t say that I’m not worried but you know yourself best.

Jihu: Well then, let’s call it off today. If you need any of us for anything just call.

Suddenly the door to the room opens and Yama comes in.

“Hey guys I brought some cake. I think you guys might want some after that intense training.”