Urban Vagabond: Reload

......Kim Bokja. I’m sorry.

Kim Muhyuk, Kim Muhyuk! You bastard! Get a hold of yourself!

On the way back after learning Pilcheon Style from Dr. Man.

“We’re here.”

Kim Bokja, who had been dead asleep in the taxi, woke from her nightmare at the driver’s voice.

“Ugh......”

“Miss, miss! You need to get out.”

Her eyelids trembled. Her eyes shook uneasily.

For a moment, Kim Bokja could not tell dream from reality. At last, she let out a relieved sigh.

“......Oh. We’re here.”

Cold sweat had beaded across Kim Bokja’s forehead as she murmured in a daze.

After she got out of the taxi and saw the familiar building, some color returned to her pale face.

< cafe Naru >

A place that now felt almost like home.

No, a place that really had become home.

Above it, on the floor over the café, she saw the glittering sign for <☆Lucky Rabbit Spellcraft Beauty Shop☆>.

Kim Bokja looked up at her shop and smiled.

“It makes me proud every time I see it.”

Until only a few months ago, Kim Bokja had mostly made money through illegal spellcraft procedures in the shadows.

A five-pyeong shop without even a proper sign.

Her customers had mostly been wandering martial artists or dangerous martial artists from the unorthodox faction.

I made way more money back then than I do now, but......

In exchange, she had seen too many dangerous, filthy things. Not a single day had passed with her mind at ease.

Now, even if someone offered her several times the money, she did not want to go back to those days.

She loved money more than anyone, but now she understood that money was not everything in life.

“Looks like Kim Muhyuk didn’t come in today either.”

On the third floor above the beauty shop, she could see the Blue Wolves Office logo she had designed herself.

Judging by the fact that every light inside was off, no one seemed to be there.

“......Nothing’s wrong, right?”

Kim Bokja’s expression clouded as she remembered the nightmare, but only for a moment.

As if shaking off her unease, she whipped her head from side to side, then stepped into the café and called out brightly.

“I’m back!”

The mellow scent of coffee drifted together with the sweet smell of desserts.

Kim Chanho must have stepped away for a moment, because Park Jiyeon was watching the café alone.

“Bokja, you’re back? Did you eat?”

At those ordinary words—did you eat?—a soft smile spread across Kim Bokja’s lips.

There were people who were always curious about her, always worried about her.

Wasn’t this what real family was, rather than simple blood ties?

“I ate with my master. But where did Mr. Kim go?”

“It’s a slow hour, so he went up to the fourth floor to clean for a bit. Do you kids ever clean that hideout of yours?”

“Hahaha......”

When Park Jiyeon narrowed her eyes and interrogated her, Kim Bokja laughed awkwardly and looked away.

“But Kim Muhyuk still hasn’t come in today?”

“He said he’d be extremely busy for a few days. Something about accepting a commission......”

She did not finish the sentence, but Kim Bokja could tell from Park Jiyeon’s expression that she was worried the commission might be dangerous.

“Oh, that? It just needs a lot of preparation. It’s not that hard.”

“......Really?”

Kim Bokja planted both hands firmly on her hips, as if it were truly no big deal.

“I guarantee it. You know me, right? I’m a coward, so I don’t go anywhere dangerous unless I have to. This is basically easy-money part-time work.”

Park Jiyeon giggled at her attempt to reassure her, then reached out and fixed Kim Bokja’s hair.

Her gentle fingers peeled away the strands that had stuck to Bokja’s neck when she had been sweating cold.

“Who says you’re a coward? There’s no girl who lives more bravely than our Bokja.”

“......That’s cheating. When you do that, it makes me really wish you were my mom.”

At the gentle touch she had never even felt from her birth mother, Kim Bokja stuck out her lips and grumbled.

“Oh, perfect timing. Should we go to the district office together tomorrow and file the paperwork?”

“Tch, no thanks. I’ll just have a slice of cheesecake.”

Since there were not many customers, Kim Bokja sat with Park Jiyeon and chatted for a while.

“Oh, right. Kangheon is in the underground training hall right now. He told me to tell you he had something to discuss when you came in.”

But Kim Bokja showed no intention of moving, focusing instead on finishing the rest of her cake with her fork.

“Doesn’t he ever get fired from the Martial Alliance if he keeps coming here every day?”

For the past several days, Shin Kangheon had been eating and sleeping in the training hall built beneath the building.

Except for the one hour a day when he went to the Transcendent Extremity Gate to learn saber art from Sunwoo Jeha, he spent almost all his time in the underground training hall, sticking close to Apricot and focusing on martial training.

Park Jiyeon looked worriedly toward the stairs leading underground.

“The White Tiger Unit commander apparently told him not to come to work for a while and just focus on training...... But isn’t he pushing himself too hard?”

Recently, Shin Kangheon had been training so madly that the vibrations sometimes reached all the way to the café, breaking through the specially thick soundproofing installed underground.

THOOM......!

Just like now.

As if that had been a signal, Kim Bokja set down her fork, and Park Jiyeon also stood up.

“Looks like he’s done training. When that happens, he usually comes up in about an hour saying he’s hungry.”

“Give me his food. I’ll take it down to him.”

A little while later, Kim Bokja took the lunch basket and headed to the underground training hall.

Her expression, bright until just moments ago, darkened again as she descended the stairs. The unease she had thought was gone had lifted its head once more.

“......It was just a dream.”

Kim Bokja shook her head and muttered.

There was one thing she had not been able to tell even her master, Dr. Man.

Why the nightmares she had recently started having made her so uneasy.

This time will be different.

Kim Bokja, who carried the blood of a shaman, had often had frightening dreams since she was very young.

And most of them had come true.

Until now, whenever a frightening future approached, she had run away, hidden, and looked the other way.

That way, at least, she did not have to face the nightmares that became reality.

......Kim Bokja. I’m sorry.

But when Kim Muhyuk appeared in the nightmare she had begun having again after so long, when she saw him suffering and dying—

Even though the scenes were skipped here and there, and even what remained was blurred as if covered in static......

Kim Bokja had sensed, with terrible intensity, that this was a future that would happen someday.

“Not this time.”

Kim Bokja no longer wanted to hide somewhere, run far away, or look away.

“I just have to stop it. I can stop it. I will stop it.”

Ghost fire bloomed in her eyes as she ground her teeth and muttered. Today, a faint purple shade mingled with the usual blue light, but she herself had not yet realized it.

When she opened the door to the underground training hall and stepped inside, thick steam filled the air.

Sssssss......

“What the hell are they doing in here?”

She stirred wind with spellcraft and blew away the steam. The inside of the training hall came into view, covered here and there in gouged-out and dented marks.

And in the recovery area set up to one side, she saw Shin Kangheon and Apricot sitting side by side in bathtubs.

The two of them were soaking waist-deep after dumping the tubs full of medicinal herbs good for recovery.

“Uuoooh—this feels amaaazing.”

Pyaaak......

Shin Kangheon had taken off his top and was making noises like an old man. Apricot lay floating on its back, holding its mother’s inner core against itself.

The water in the bathtub was boiling. The heat radiating from it felt as if an ordinary person’s skin would cook the moment they stepped in.

“Living the easy life, are we?”

“I just finished training, so I’m exhausted...... Sniff, sniff. Food!”

The moment Shin Kangheon caught the smell, he sprang up from the bathtub. Kim Bokja lifted the lunch basket and, with exquisite timing, blocked his lower half from view.

Having nearly seen something horrifying, Kim Bokja screamed at him.

“Are you insane? That’s disgusting. Put some damn clothes on!”

“I’m wearing trunks underneath, okay?”

A little while later, Shin Kangheon came out properly dressed and sat at the table. The instant he did, he swallowed a rice ball.

Kim Bokja watched him with a pathetic look and asked,

“You said you had something to discuss with me?”

“It’s nothing big. I was training with Rockhead and trying out this and that, and I got curious. When I make a saber out of flame, I was wondering if I can add spellcraft to it......”

Shin Kangheon asked Kim Bokja for advice, and Kim Bokja answered as much as she knew.

After they talked for a while like usual, Kim Bokja opened her mouth in a serious voice.

“Hey, Shin Kangheon.”

“What’s with the sudden deep voice bullshit?”

Kim Bokja sighed at Shin Kangheon’s joking reply and spoke again.

“I’m serious right now.”

At that, Shin Kangheon shrugged once, then slowly nodded as if telling her to keep talking.

“I’m sorry to say this to you when you’ve been through something awful lately...... but I’ve been pretty happy these days, you know?”

Shin Kangheon’s face instantly twisted.

“So what? Why are you suddenly bragging in my face?”

“But you know. I lived without even knowing this kind of everyday life was happiness.”

“......”

“Making money normally, chatting with a friend while eating lunch, having someone who always asks if I’ve eaten. This is happiness, right?”

Shin Kangheon could not understand.

Kim Bokja was saying she had been spending happy days lately. So why was her face twisting more and more?

“But now that I’m used to it, it makes me anxious and scared. I’m afraid this precious everyday life will suddenly disappear. Going back to how things were before...... I really don’t want that.”

Faced with Kim Bokja’s honesty, something he almost never saw, Shin Kangheon also spoke seriously.

“Well, I wouldn’t go as far as saying I’m happy...... but being here is what feels most comfortable for me these days too.”

The reason Shin Kangheon had barely gone home lately and had been staying only in the training hall.

It was because traces of Shin Junhyun remained at his house.

Outside, he went around pretending he was fine. But every time he stepped into that house, the memories he did not want to recall came back to life.

That was why he had even put the house on the market recently.

“When I come here, Mr. Kim and Ms. Park are here. If I get bored, I can hang out with you or Kim Muhyuk. Teacher Sword Demon, Mr. Hwang, and Jaechun are all good people too.”

The reason Shin Kangheon had been able to recover mentally so quickly, and the thing that had played the biggest role in that recovery.

If he had not had this hideout called Blue Wolves, he would certainly have suffered for much longer.

Shin Kangheon scratched his cheek awkwardly and said,

“This place is precious to me too. Something I have to protect.”

After confirming that Shin Kangheon felt the same way she did, Kim Bokja breathed a sigh of relief.

“Then I have a favor to ask. Can you get stronger faster than you are now? It might be a little hard for me alone.”

Shin Kangheon did not understand what Kim Bokja was so worried about.

But instead of prying, he thumped his own chest as if making a guarantee.

“This body is evolving in real time even now, so don’t worry.”

“Faster than Kim Muhyuk.”

“......Ha. Seriously.”

As if he had been provoked, Shin Kangheon’s thick eyebrows twitched.

The three syllables of Kim Muhyuk’s name were words that always made Shin Kangheon boil.

But this time, something was different. A strange light wavered in Kim Bokja’s eyes as she looked at him.

“Strong enough to fight Kim Muhyuk for real and suppress him without killing him.”

“......Damn, that’s specific as hell. Also ridiculously hard.”

Shin Kangheon sprang up from his seat and snatched Apricot by the scruff of its neck while it had its beak buried in a sandwich.

Pyaak?

“So what you’re saying is, to protect our precious everyday life, I need to get strong enough to smash Kim Muhyuk? I like that a lot!”

Blue Wolves was a crew built around Kim Muhyuk.

But it was no longer Kim Muhyuk’s alone.

If something tried to ruin their precious everyday life, even if the cause was Kim Muhyuk himself, they intended to smash him.

“In that spirit, it’s back to special training! Rockheaaad!”

Pyaaaaak—!

Apricot, whose meal had been interrupted, blasted flames straight at Shin Kangheon’s face with all its might.