“Please take me as your disciple, Grandma Ghost!”
Jae-hee pressed on, his voice echoing before the dumbfounded woman.
“I… I don’t want to die yet. If, as you said, the only way to live is to fight… then please, teach me how to fight!”
“…”
“All my life, I’ve only ever run away. I don’t know the first thing about fighting back. But you? You’re unbelievably strong.”
Jae-hee clasped his hands together, begging for all he was worth.
“I’ll serve you as my master. Please, just save me!”
Ghost let out a weary breath and jabbed a thumb at herself. “Kid. Can’t you tell just by looking? I’m a lone wolf. I don’t take disciples.”
“Awww…” Still on his knees, Jae-hee’s large eyes instantly welled up with tears.
Ghost flinched with a soft grunt before letting out a long sigh. “Fine… Given the circumstances, I'll allow a deal.”
“Huh? A deal…?”
“I’ll train you so you can save your own skin, and you’ll pay me a fair price for it. This isn’t some master-disciple thing. It’ll be a transaction.”
Jae-hee asked cautiously, “And this ‘price’…?”
“I’ll bill you the moment today’s lesson is over.”
This meant he wouldn’t know the exact cost until after the training was done. Once he started, he’d have to accept whatever price she demanded, however outrageous.
Seeing Jae-hee hesitate, Ghost jutted her chin. “So, what’ll it be? Take the deal or die?”
“Gyaaah!” With a strangled yelp, he flailed his fists about in resignation. “Dammit all, in for a penny, in for a pound! Deal! Let’s do it!”
The deal was struck.
Having just signed a blank check, Jae-hee asked urgently, “So how are you going to train me? Are you going to teach me some kinda super-special move? The kind where I can swing a sword and cut everyone down, just like you?”
“As if. Even if I had a technique like that, you think I’d teach it to you?” Ghost grumbled.
Then she began her explanation. “That ‘trail of the wind’ you began to see today. I’ll help you stabilize that ability, make it truly yours.”
“Huh? Trail of the wind?”
“That’s right. I think it has far more potential than you realize.”
Ghost’s piercing blue eyes narrowed from between the strands of her messy white hair. “There’s a world of difference between vaguely sensing something and turning it into a tangible skill. I’ll help you master it in a single night.”
“Oh, ooh…”
“First, let’s give it a name.”
“Huh? A name?”
As Jae-hee tilted his head, Ghost hummed thoughtfully, then rummaged at her waist and produced a worn-out notebook—the same one she’d been carrying during the previous mission.
She flipped through the pages until she found the phrase she was looking for and recited it quietly.
“‘Before I called his name, he was nothing more than a mere gesture. But when I called his name, he came to me and became a flower.’”
Jae-hee simply stared, his mouth hanging open.
Looking sheepish, Ghost cleared her throat and snapped the notebook shut. “Ahem. The point is, giving it a name makes it easier for you to visualize and, in turn, easier to draw out and use the ability.”
“But I’m terrible at naming things… Can’t you just name it for me, Grandma?”
“Well, fine. I had one in mind anyway.” Ghost smiled, a hint of mischief in her eyes. “Since it’s the ability to see the wind’s trail… how about Stormroad?”
Excited, Jae-hee pumped his arms. “Woooh! Super Special Move: Stormroad!”
“No, that’s not the feel of it… This ability is more of a principle, a passive skill. It’s the foundation you build everything on and—”
Ghost shook her head. “—You know what, forget it. Let’s start learning, then. Your super special move, Stormroad.”
And so began the training for ‘Boy’ Jae-hee’s first Super Special Move: Stormroad, the Trail of Wind.
***
Facing Jae-hee, Ghost rolled her shoulders and asked, “This passive you just awakened, Stormroad, is the ability to see a path to survival. Correct?”
Jae-hee nodded eagerly. “Yep! I could see the best escape route, like, with my own eyes!”
“And do you know why you saw an escape route?”
“Huh? Uh… I dunno.”
“Because you wanted to escape.”
Having finished her warm-up, Ghost extended a hand. “All right, first, try to dodge this.”
Shk—!
Ghost’s open hand shot toward Jae-hee. It was just a simple knife-hand slicing through the air, and yet…
“…?!”
It felt as though the world was splitting in two.
Confronted with such overwhelming force for the first time, Jae-hee instinctively entered a state of hyperfocus.
In his slowed world, Ghost’s hand-blade closed in at an unbelievable speed… and—was he imagining it?—a grim, ink-black light glinted from its edge.
His instincts screamed: That’ll kill me!
Swoosh…!
In the next moment, an arrowhead of light burst from Jae-hee’s chest, tracing a vivid blue arc as it shot out—in the complete opposite direction of Ghost.
It streaked behind him, stretching on and on.
Stormroad fled for its life, as if telling him to run without looking back. As if it, too, were terrified.
“Wuaaaaah?!”
And so, Jae-hee did exactly as Stormroad commanded. He hurled himself backward, almost tumbling over.
Ghost’s knife-hand missed, just barely grazing his clothes.
Sssk—
Her fingertips passed the collar of Jae-hee’s shirt, slicing it clean open as if by a razor’s edge. A cold sweat dripped down his back.
With a placid expression, Ghost jutted her chin. “Well?”
“W-well, what?! You nearly killed me!”
“The Trail of Wind. What did it look like?”
Jae-hee wiped the clammy sweat from the back of his neck and grumbled, “I saw it just fine. It was hauling ass in the other direction.”
“So that’s how you dodged.” Ghost nodded. “Can you change its direction?”
“Sorry?”
“Instead of making it run away, make it go forward.”
The idea had never even occurred to him. Jae-hee’s jaw dropped.
Ghost crossed her arms and stated flatly, “Your super-speed is sealed inside this prison. Your specialty’s gone. So you have to face your enemies with only the one percent you have left: this passive skill, Stormroad.”
“…”
“You can’t survive here just by being good at dodging and running away. Didn’t I tell you? You’ve got to overwhelm your opponent.”
Ghost’s cool voice held a power that calmed the boy’s heart.
“Stormroad is your ability. Whether you leave it as a simple escape route or turn it into an offensive tool to find and exploit your enemy’s openings—that’s all up to you.”
“…”
“Focus your mind. Steer the direction of that trail. You are the master of your power. You can do it.”
Taking a deep breath, Jae-hee squeezed his eyes shut and focused inward.
Ghost continued in a steady tone. “Let the winds in your heart guide your path. Set them toward where you want to go.”
Calm settled over his inner world… but he still saw Stormroad speeding away into the distance.
With a mental gesture, Jae-hee called out. The wind’s tip, like an arrow already loosed toward the horizon, hesitated and looked back.
“Don’t rush. Slow and steady. A little at a time…”
Listening to Ghost’s instructions, Jae-hee flailed mentally, gesturing with desperate urgency.
Yo! Not that way! This way! Toward Grandma! It’s fine, she’s not that scary! She’s just pretending to hit me… probably?
Stormroad cautiously glanced toward Ghost, and then—Swoooosh!—it fled even more furiously.
You little shit! Where are you going?! I told you to go over there! OIIII!
Jae-hee screeched in his mind, jumping up and down, but Stormroad had already vanished far beyond the horizon.
Dammit all…
Gritting his teeth, Jae-hee finally yelled, “To hell with it—!”
He charged straight at Ghost—in the opposite direction of his own power.
Go ahead, then. Settle right down over there, Stormy! I’m heading this way!
In an instant, Ghost was right in front of him. In his slowed world, her hand-blade descended gracefully, wrapped in that grim, dark energy.
It was a simple motion, but one that offered no opening to dodge.
Wait a sec. If that hits, I’m really gonna d—
It was then.
Swoosh—!
A few beats late, but from far beyond the horizon behind him, Stormroad came surging back in an instant—racing toward Jae-hee in a brilliant blue arc.
Overwhelmed with relief, Jae-hee couldn’t hold back an internal cry of joy.
Stormy…!
The arrowhead seemed to shake its head from side to side, as if to say, You’re so helpless, bro.
Then it twisted its trajectory into a bizarre angle, forcibly carving out a new path.
A path born of Jae-hee’s will, right beside Ghost, one that would let him graze past her attack by a hair’s breadth. Following that route, stitched together from a thread of possibility and the will to live, Jae-hee practically rolled across the floor.
And then—Shhhk!
Though one side of his collar was now sliced through and dangling, he had succeeded in passing right by her.
Ghost stared at him, eyes wide with surprise.
“I had some hopes,” she muttered. “But pulling that off on your first try…?”
“Haah, haah!” Jae-hee felt his neck several times to make sure it was still attached, then yelped, “Did I do it?!”
“Yeah. You did it. I did hold back a bit, but you dodged it perfectly.”
Several more tests followed.
Each time, Stormroad tried to flee in the opposite direction, but Jae-hee gritted his teeth and charged toward Ghost.
And each time, as if it had no choice, Stormroad would show him a new way out, and Jae-hee would follow it to narrowly evade Ghost’s knife-hand strikes.
“Good. You’re adapting faster than I thought. Dodging is no longer a problem.” A slight smile touched Ghost’s lips as she announced the next phase. “Now, let’s try counterattacking.”
“Eh.”
“What do you mean, ‘eh’? Did you think you were just going to learn how to dodge? Didn’t we go through this?”
Ghost deliberately made a wide, sweeping motion, exposing an opening.
“Dodge the attack, get inside their guard, and then counterattack their weak point.”
“Easier said than done…” Jae-hee hesitated, then asked cautiously, “How do I even counterattack?”
“What?”
“I… I don’t really know how to throw a punch… I’ve never even hit anyone…”
Ghost stared at him, dumbfounded, before letting out a huff of air. “You are, without a doubt, the softest kiddy to ever set foot in this prison.”
“S-soft? No, it’s more that I just don’t know how to fight.”
“How can you be an Awakened and not even know how to throw a proper punch? Then again, hearing you’ve never smoked or drank, I guess I should’ve known. You damn goody two-shoes.”
“What? I just never had the money for booze or ciggies…”
Life had really taken some wild turns for Jae-hee Han (major felon, 300-year sentence) to end up being called ‘Goody Two-Shoes.’ He was utterly baffled by the name.
As for never getting into any proper fights? Well, it was always safer to flee with his fast feet than to risk getting hurt…
“Throw that weak-willed mindset away. To survive, you have to fight.”
Ghost raised a long index finger and pointed to various spots on her own body.
“The points to strike to neutralize an opponent are the jaw, throat, temple, solar plexus—their weak spots. When an opponent is attacking, their guard on these vital areas will be down. Use your Stormroad to evade and close the distance, then just give them a little jab with your fist.”
“Ooh…”
“If you can’t get to a weak spot, aim for the joints.” Next, Ghost pointed to the joints on her body. “Wrists, elbows, armpits, knees, the back of the knees, ankles. Be flexible, depending on the situation. Strike from the inside to make the joint buckle.”
“Oooh…!”
“If your opponent is attacking, you want to break the flow of their motion before it’s complete. You’re fast. With your speed, that’s all the force you’ll need.”
Ghost raised her hand-blade once more.
“All right, I’m going to repeat the same downward strike. You get in close and either hit me or break my posture before my attack is complete.”
Jae-hee, crouched and ready to run, asked timidly, “Uh… but what about a specific stance…?”
“What?”
“Isn’t there, like, a set order of moves, or martial arts forms like in the movies…?”
“Just focus on reaching the weak point. My technique has no Form. I only teach principles. Figure out the stance yourself, whatever’s comfortable for you.”
She was a harsh teacher, one who taught only the principle and forced her student to figure out the rest for himself.
As Jae-hee continued to stand there uncertainly, Ghost lunged. “Experience is the best teacher. Here I come.”
“Wuaaah! Wait a minuuuute!”
“This will never end if you only ever dodge…!”
Ghost swung her hand-blade, and Jae-hee hit the deck with a scream.
The hellish training to purge his “rotten cowardice,” as Ghost put it, had begun.