Chương 27: Gray and Gozen

Gray Kim is qualified to meet his mentor. Commencing teleportation to Mentor 'Gozen Kotetsu'…

"Wait, no! Not right now!" Gray yelled at the sky, as if it might listen. White light rushed in and swallowed him whole, drowning his protest before he could finish it. When Gray opened his eyes again, he was lying face-down on a floor that burned like a stovetop. Heat crawled up through his shirt and pressed into his ribs—faint at first, then insistent, then unbearable. He shot upright, palms and knees striking the ground, every nerve in his body suddenly wide awake.

He looked down, half expecting scorch marks on his chest. Oh. There are heated floors. He lifted his head and surveyed the room. Sliding glass doors separated the living room from a hot spring outside, steam curling in the air. On the wall hung an ink painting of samurai locked in combat across a battlefield littered with the dead. And beneath it, mounted like a trophy, was a glaive with a haft carved from bone-white wood. A dining table sat at the center of the room, surrounded by four chairs.

In one of them sat a pale woman, with a scythe propped against the table's edge, close enough to grab.

"Hey, sweetie." She gave him a small wave, fingers fluttering.

"You okay there?" Gray's eyes flicked to the scythe, then back to her face. A cold shiver ran down his spine, and an old, familiar anxiety flooded into him. Afraid for his life, he scrambled to his feet, snapped his arms to his sides, and folded into a crisp ninety-degree bow.

"It is an honor to finally meet you, Master!" he blurted.

"I will take this opportunity to formally apologize for anything I might have done to offend you." He paused, chin creeping back up.

"Though… I wasn't expecting you to be a woman from the sound of your voice in the comms." Name: Ava Garcia Class: Blood Reaper Level: 30 Rank: Kaiser Ava gave off a light melodic laughter and covered her mouth with one hand.

"Oh, sweetheart. That's the first time anyone's ever mistaken me for that grumpy old man." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder.

"Your actual mentor's in the kitchen. He's a little busy at the moment." Smoke curled off a figure that blinked into existence in front of Gray. He instantly reeled back from the sudden figure appearing before him. The man stood over six feet tall, Asian, and had a chiseled physique. His shoulder-length hair was pulled into a tight ponytail, and a scar sliced straight across the bridge of his nose, stopping just beneath his eyes. He fixed Gray with a stare that felt like a hawk sizing up a rabbit.

Name: Gozen Kotetsu Class:??? Level:??? Rank:??? Gray forgot how to breathe. Every instinct screamed at him to run, to bolt for the nearest exit before this man decided to end him where he stood. Then his eyes dropped down, and the instinct died on the spot. Gozen was wearing a pink apron. Covered in smiling bears. A laugh clawed its way up Gray's throat, and he barely choked it down, disguising the twitch of his mouth as a polite little bow.

"It is finally nice to meet you, sir! You must be my mentor, Gozen. We might not have started on the right foot, but surely—" The words died in his throat. Gozen's arm cracked across Gray's cheek, wiping the smug smirk clean off his face. He pressed a hand to soothe the sting, more startled than hurt, and stared up at the man.

"What… what was that for—" Gozen slapped him again. Gray's head snapped sideways, his cheek blooming a bright red. He staggered back and tried to put some distance between them. But Gozen closed the gap in a single step. He grabbed the wrist Gray had pressed to his own face, wrenched it away, and struck him a third time in the exact same spot. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

He drew his arm back for a fourth, but Ava lunged and caught his wrist mid-swing.

"Gozen, stop! What are you doing?!" He tore free of her grip.

"Don't stop me. A slap is nothing next to what he's done."

"I don't care what he did." Her voice hardened.

"Nothing justifies beating a child, Gozen." He swung anyway. Ava's arm shot out, and a whip of blood lashed from her palm, coiling tightly around his wrist and snapping taut like a leash. Gozen's arm jerked to a halt—then kept moving. He tore straight through the crimson binding and landed the blow regardless. Gray hit the floor hard, the impact knocking the breath from his lungs. Before he could push himself back up, Gozen dropped into a crouch over his chest and shoved a finger in his face.

"Don't you ever… EVER, talk to your family in that way. Especially not to your older brother. Understood?!" His voice cracked like a whip. Gray's eyes welled up, but it wasn't the sting of the slaps that broke him. It was the truth buried inside them. Everything he'd said back at the cafe only proved Hyun right—that he was still a child playing at being grown. Tears spilled freely now, snot running, his breath hitching into ragged little gasps.

"Un… understood, sir," he wheezed. Something in Gozen's face cracked, and the scowl melted into guilt. He hooked his arms under Gray's and hauled him upright, smoothed down his disheveled hair, and brushed the dust from his shoulders as if nothing had happened at all. Ava shoved past him and pulled Gray into her arms.

"You went too far! Are you happy now? You nearly beat the boy senseless!" Gozen rubbed the back of his neck.

"…Sorry, kid." Gray's tears vanished as fast as they'd come. His face twisted into something far less innocent—a sly, satisfied grin—and he stuck his tongue out at Gozen over Ava's shoulder.

"You little brat!" Gozen lunged. Ava let go and spun around, throwing her arms wide to block him.

"What do you think you're doing? Haven't you hurt him enough for one day?" She jabbed a finger toward the kitchen.

"Go finish cooking his food. Now." Gozen stabbed a finger back at Gray.

"But the kid… he's a devil—""THIS INSTANT." Ava raised her voice. Gozen's shoulders sagged. He heaved a long sigh and shuffled back toward the kitchen, shoulders hunched. Ava knelt in front of Gray and pulled a handkerchief from thin air, summoned straight out of the ring on her finger. She dabbed the tears from his cheeks.

"Are you okay, sweetie? Honestly, it's a miracle you're still breathing. A Kaiser's slap could take an Awakened's head clean off. Thankfully, he held back." Gray stiffened at the comment, then reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, sheepish.

"Mr. Gozen held back a lot, actually. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would." He lowered his gaze to the floor.

"The reason I was so upset… was because everything he said was true," Gray murmured. Ava tilted his chin back up and finished dabbing away the last of the tears and snot.

"I didn't see what happened out there. But grown-ups putting their hands on kids? Never acceptable. No excuse changes that." She rose from her knees and crossed her arms, tipping her chin toward the kitchen.

"You're miles behind on your education, and that's because somebody decided to neglect you." She turned back to Gray.

"I'd love to start teaching you the essentials. But is there something you're itching to learn first?" Gray perked up and shrugged off his tattered robe, holding it out to her with both hands.

"Could you actually fix this? I owe it my life." Ava took the Nimbus Robe and lifted it toward the light. She turned it slowly, studying the frayed threads and gaping hole in the back. She brought the fabric close to her face, squinting at the weave—then her eyes went wide. In one motion, she balled the robe against her stomach and spun to face away from the kitchen. Gozen materialized behind her, palm already out.

"Give it here, Ava." She sighed and handed it over without a fight. Gozen unfurled the robe, running his fingertips along the gaping hole torn through the back, then snapped his gaze up to Gray.

"How did you manage to destroy my robe? It should've shrugged off anything the Natural Selection threw at it," he muttered. Gray scratched the bridge of his nose.

"About that… it sacrificed itself for me. I wouldn't even be standing here without it." He paused.

"Wait, did you just say your robe?"

"Mm. A gift." Gozen shook his head and clicked his tongue.

"So that's how you managed to survive this long."

"But I pulled it out of a Loot Portal." Gozen spread the robe out fully, studying it inch by inch.

"It was taken from me, not given. Every disciple I've ever trained died before clearing the first level. None of them lived long enough to reach this stage to claim a boon from me. So the System confiscated several of my items." He nudged the fabric higher.

"It gets added to a kind of loot vault, reserved for whichever disciple of mine comes next, to give them a fighting chance at survival. This robe was one of those items." He tossed it back into Gray's arms.

"But sir, is there a way you can you fix it?" Gray held the ruined robe out, his eyes wide and pleading. Gozen narrowed his eyes to slits.

"I'll consider it."

"Thank you! I'm in your debt forever!"

"I said I'd consid—""So is that why you won't train me?" Gray interrupted before he could finish.

"Because every disciple before me couldn't pass the first level?" Gozen didn't answer. His body dissolved into a thin haze and vanished, leaving only a smoky outline hanging in the air. A beat later, the clatter of pans rang out from the kitchen.

"He's a little occupied right now," Ava said, a smile tugging at her lips.

"Let me answer any questions you may have instead."