Urban Vagabond: Reload

After Kim Muhyuk finished dinner with his family, he was eating fruit for dessert.

“Muhyuk. About your teacher.”

Park Jiyeon, who had been pushing apple slices into her son’s mouth and saying he needed to eat well for his body to recover quickly, spoke as if the thought had just occurred to her.

“Did he say he needed anything? Or maybe something he wanted......?”

“Why are you suddenly asking about my master?”

At his son’s puzzled reaction, Kim Chanho stared at him with a look of disbelief.

“What do you mean, why? Your teacher’s birthday is coming up soon. Don’t tell me you didn’t know.”

“......His birthday?”

Kim Muhyuk’s eyes widened at the news he was hearing for the first time.

Master’s birthday was coming up soon?

Honestly, he had never thought about it.

He was not exactly the sort of person who liked talking about himself, either......

Flustered, Kim Muhyuk asked his parents,

“No, but how do you two even know that?”

“Obviously, I asked him casually. You call yourself his disciple and you don’t even know your master’s birthday?”

“You ungrateful brat. Do you at least remember your mom and dad’s birthdays?”

The combined attack his parents launched from both sides was powerful enough that even the Strange Sword Heroic Swordsman under heaven could not withstand it.

“Ugh......”

Kim Muhyuk had nothing to say back.

It was true that he had not known Choi Geon’s birthday was coming up soon.

Meanwhile, the two people who had easily suppressed their pinnacle-expert son continued talking among themselves.

“Honey. We’ll just have to decide on our own. What should we get him as a gift?”

“He wears the same clothes every day, so why don’t we have a suit tailored for him this time?”

“That sounds good. And this time, let’s go a bit farther out and eat something delicious too.”

“It’s the first time we’re celebrating it for him, so a surprise event would be nice too......”

Kim Chanho, who loved events like this more than anyone, came up with an idea, his eyes shining.

“How about we pretend we don’t know, then show up at his place right at midnight and surprise him? Then we take him straight to the sea!”

Park Jiyeon usually stopped her husband when he got this excited, but at times like this, her eyes sparkled like a mischievous girl’s.

“I think he’d like that! But would someone that sharp really be fooled?”

“That’s why we have to plan it well. I’ll contact him like I’m worried about Muhyuk......”

The couple had gotten excited all on their own and were already planning a surprise birthday party.

Sitting between them, Kim Muhyuk began to look as if he wondered whether he should stop them.

“Isn’t that too much? Master might feel burdened.”

At that moment, both of them turned to look at their son with expressions that seemed to ask what nonsense he was talking about.

“So what if it’s a little too much?”

“We’re celebrating a family member’s birthday.”

The moment he saw his parents treating Choi Geon as family, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Master would probably......

Kim Muhyuk thought Choi Geon would like those words more than anything else.

Grin.

“About the surprise. How about doing it like this?”

Soon, Kim Muhyuk also joined in planning his master’s surprise birthday party.

*****

WHIIISH!

Every time Choi Geon leaped from one rooftop to another, the scenery changed in quick flashes.

He pursued the faint scent of blood left in the air. Each time he brought his nose to the bloodstain smeared on his finger, the direction he moved shifted little by little.

It must be someone who bears me a grudge.

Spilled water does not return to the basin.

Once committed, a deed cannot be undone.

Choi Geon chewed over the words that had been written on the wall and recalled the killings he had committed in the past.

......It was impossible to narrow it down to anyone specific. That was how much countless blood had stained his hands.

But Choi Geon could be certain of one thing.

Every one of them deserved to die.

Even if his justice had been violent and radical, its standard had always stood on the side of the weak and in the destruction of evil.

“If it had been someone who could speak of revenge openly and proudly...... they would not have done something like this.”

Choi Geon thought of the photo the culprit had stolen and clenched his teeth. When he thought of the people inside it, his teeth ground together.

Grind.

The vast qi sense of a supreme master, his five senses strengthened by internal energy, and the tracking techniques and intuition he had learned while operating as the Martial Alliance’s Shadow Sword were all mobilized.

The late-night pursuit was by no means easy. All kinds of city smells mixed with the scent of blood, and the traces the culprit had left grew fainter and fainter.

But Choi Geon continued the pursuit with patience. He changed direction several times along the way, came down to the ground, and examined even the finest traces.

Patter. Patter......

Sssssss—

To make matters worse, a passing shower began to fall.

The blood on Choi Geon’s fingertips was slowly washed away.

But the blood scent engraved in his mind remained as it was. If anything, the longer time passed, the stronger it seemed to grow.

“......The trail ends here.”

Looking up at the night sky as rain began pouring down, Choi Geon stopped in the middle of the street.

Rainwater that had pooled for a moment on the goblin mask he wore dripped down to the ground.

“Heh-heh-heh......”

Choi Geon laughed in a cracked voice, his shoulders shaking.

He thought it was truly fortunate.

Fortunate that the place where the trail ended happened, by coincidence, to be inside the territory of one of the Five Great Unorthodox Sects.

“You there, plump one.”

Choi Geon addressed the person with the thickest killing intent among the people passing nearby.

“It has been a long time, so my memory is hazy. Whose territory is this, exactly?”

“Hah? What kind of crazy bastard is this?”

Killing intent surged in the eyes of the man who raised his gaze fiercely and approached.

A plump body, tattoos exposed outside his clothes, and a foul stench wafting from his mouth.

Choi Geon had seen countless breeds like this decades ago as well. Insects that stubbornly survived no matter how thoroughly they were exterminated.

“You pest who lives by threatening innocent people with that shabby martial art. When an elder asks a question, you answer. Is that mouth of yours only for stuffing food into?”

“Do you really want to die—!”

The instant the man tried to swing his fist, Choi Geon shot out his hand like lightning and seized the man by the throat.

“Keheuk! Wh-what......!”

The giant, who looked easily over one hundred kilograms, was lifted lightly in Choi Geon’s hand.

Choi Geon met the eyes of the man flailing in the air and growled savagely.

“I will ask one more time. Which unorthodox faction has the greatest power around here?”

“S-spare me......”

“Tsk, tsk. You always make me ask twice.”

A short while later, after hearing the answer, Choi Geon threw the man onto the ground.

As an extra measure, he broke the man’s arms and legs and destroyed his lower abdomen so he could no longer harm the world.

Step. Step.

“A subordinate of the Nine Dragons Society, is it...... Then they must be especially poor stock.”

Choi Geon walked toward the sect the man had told him about.

A sprawling manor that had clearly been built by stealing other people’s property.

As if it were inviting him to come in, the main gate stood wide open, and Choi Geon strode in without hesitation.

THOOM—!

The gate closed behind him, and enemies burst out in an instant, surrounding Choi Geon.

“Why are you watching for cues? Move aside or come at me.”

With his sword hanging low, Choi Geon walked toward the enemies encircling him. His pace was neither fast nor slow.

A flicker of bewilderment crossed the face of the man who seemed to be their leader, but he soon filled his voice with internal energy and unleashed a thunderous roar.

“Attack—!”

Dozens of unorthodox martial artists charged in to kill Choi Geon.

SHRAAAK—!

Choi Geon split the enemy who charged first straight down the middle.

The sword he swung next severed the neck of the man beside him, and his rising foot shattered another enemy’s jaw.

After he repeated that a few times, the men faltered. Choi Geon took another leisurely step toward them.

Step. Step.

Amid the screams and shouts his enemies let out, Choi Geon’s voice seeped in calmly.

“I know that you are breeds with no value left in keeping alive. Leeches who fatten yourselves on the blood of others. Trash who smile while exploiting the weak, then beg for forgiveness and plead for your lives before the strong. Cockroaches who never hesitate to bury a knife in someone’s back, surviving slyly and swelling your numbers. You tedious, dreadful evils......”

Choi Geon’s voice rang out at an even pitch, like the voice of a high monk reciting scripture, and his enemies were seized by extreme terror.

“Fuck this......!”

“What kind of monster is that!”

“Kill him, I said kill him!”

In the eyes of the unorthodox martial artists, Choi Geon was a demon they never wanted to meet even in a dream.

A being wearing a goblin mask terrifying enough to chill them just by looking at it, walking toward them at a steady pace while slaughtering their comrades without mercy.

Choi Geon’s eyes filled completely with madness.

“I shall show you mercy and kill all of you, so that you need not live on committing more sins.”

The madness of the Sword Demon, suppressed for so long that no one in Blue Wolves had ever seen it, exploded for the first time in more than twenty years.

Choi Geon smiled brightly and said,

“May you be born good in your next lives.”

Choi Geon the Sword Demon’s old madness.

It was a deep-rooted hatred of evil.

His father, who had been a heroic swordsman of the orthodox faction, was brutally murdered while pursuing a martial-world public enemy in the year his son turned ten.

His mother, who suffered severe trauma from the shock, hanged herself a few years later.

After losing both parents and being left alone, Choi Geon endured a harsh childhood.

Fortunately, thanks to his innate talent for martial arts, Choi Geon quickly obtained the power to punish evil.

—......Geon. Your hatred of evil is crossing further and further beyond the line.

There had been many people in the Martial Alliance who expressed concern over Choi Geon’s violent methods.

His master, who had passed away long ago, had worried over his disciple and felt sorrow for him until the day he closed his eyes.

—The orthodox and the unorthodox, good and evil, are ultimately two sides of the same coin. If you understand that and overcome your deep hatred, the path to the realm of a peerless master will surely open before you......

Choi Geon respected his master for his entire life. But when it came to his beliefs, he never compromised to the very end.

If I must make room in my heart to tolerate evil, then becoming a peerless master would have no meaning at all.

That resolve had not changed decades ago, and it had not changed now.

Choi Geon had never once regretted becoming a demon in order to destroy evil.

“Heh-heh......”

Choi Geon discarded the goblin mask, which had broken and shattered until it had lost all meaning. The bomber jacket stained with blood had long since become rags. Small wounds showed through the torn clothes.

Even so, he did not stop and continued walking toward the inner part of the manor. Because he could feel that the one who had invited him was inside.

Splash. Splash.

Rainwater mixed with blood and flowed down to the ground. With every step, the footprints spreading behind him left red traces.

It felt as though the killings he had committed in the past, the grudges of the dead villains, had become rain that battered his shoulders.

“Whoo......”

Choi Geon stopped in place and brushed his hair back as he steadied his somewhat roughened breathing.

At the end of the path he had walked after breaking through the encirclement, he saw the people who had laid a trap and waited for him.

“So. Is that the end of what you prepared?”

A large-framed middle-aged man radiating a tyrannical presence, and a woman whose age was impossible to guess.

The two sat side by side inside the building, looking down at Choi Geon.

“......Hah, the Sword Demon really has returned.”

“I was half in doubt until the very end......”

The Nine Dragons Society’s society leader and the Black Night Gang boss.

Two giants of the Five Great Unorthodox Sects, both supreme masters, had been waiting for Choi Geon together.

Choi Geon bared his white teeth and smiled at them as if he were glad to see them.

“Heh-heh. I know those familiar faces, you dregs. Seeing you after so long, you have grown very old and ugly.”

He did not hesitate to speak abusively even with two masters of the Five Great Unorthodox Sects before him.