Let's Do Just One Job Together
A guy who had wandered into the Hunter Department clutching some half-baked romantic fantasy about the glamorous hunters on TV, only to slam face-first into his own limits—no different, really, from all the other pathetic weaklings who had already packed up and gone home.
He had a bit of sense, sure, but his Awakened ability had drawn such a hard ceiling over his head that, grit aside, he was the kind of guy who'd get himself killed out in the field somewhere.
That was Cheon A-rang's first impression of Goo Seung-yong, and the verdict she had handed down after looking him over.
And yet that same guy had the gall to stare at his senior's chest—his senior, who towered over him like the sky itself—and mutter, Whoa, those tits… like he didn't know his place. So Cheon A-rang, figuring it was the perfect chance to show the surrounding freshmen what reality looked like, dragged Goo Seung-yong out to the sparring grounds and beat the living hell out of him under the polite fiction of a "match."
Usually, a little tough love like that was enough. The idiot romantics who had waltzed in humming without a clue about how cold the hunter world really was would realize overnight that this pond was not for them and run for the hills.
In fact, some of them had taken one look at her and been so terrified they never showed their faces at school again.
Watching those pathetic bugs scurry off, Cheon A-rang had assumed Goo Seung-yong would soon be sniveling his way home just like the rest of them. So day after day she kept up the one-sided thrashing she called sparring.
But a day passed, then two, and the seasons turned once over—and still he stood in front of her, still taking her fists and her greatsword full in the face. Even the great Cheon A-rang had to tilt her head at that.
This bastard's got guts like nobody else.
He was weak. Then and now, he was far too weak.
And yet, weirdly enough, his grit was something else.
She beat him and beat him again. She broke his arms and legs more times than she could count on two hands, and the next day he'd show up with his body patched back together like nothing had happened. At some point he had started volunteering for the role of her personal sandbag.
Of course, even then he never stopped sneaking looks at her chest, so she kept thrashing him for that too.
Still—knowing full well how weak he was, knowing exactly how far he could climb and no further, and still refusing to quit, still grinding his teeth and hanging on—that grit was more than enough to move even Cheon A-rang, who normally despised the weak.
"Hey. What's your name?"
"It's Goo Seung-yong. I, uh… I've told you every day…"
"Whatever. Starting tomorrow I'm going to work you even harder, so show up ready."
"Harder than this?!"
"Yeah. Before I graduate, I'm going to make sure you can at least take care of yourself. So… Goo, Goo… Goo-doo-ryong-seom? Damn, that name is actually badass. Anyway, when I call tomorrow, you get your ass out here on the double, Ryong-seom."
"Never mind calling me Ryong-seom—doesn't it strike you as weird that you just made my last name 'Goo-doo'?!"
From that day on, Cheon A-rang became Goo Seung-yong's mischievous senior.
To Cheon A-rang, the strong were truth, and the brave were friends—companions of true camaraderie.
Looking out for a weakling violated a rule she had lived by for a long time. But even if he was weak, the way he refused to give up and stood up to her head-on was unmistakably the bearing of a brave man—someone worthy of sharing friendship with her.
The small fry around her had dared offer "advice," warning that he only sparred with her for impure reasons and that she shouldn't associate with him. Cheon A-rang didn't even bother listening with half an ear.
These weren't just any nobodies—they were the kind who couldn't last a quarter of a sparring session with her before collapsing and running away. Of course she felt zero reason to give their words any weight.
Impure motives? Was there a single hunter on this planet who became one without a selfish desire or two?
Figures the bugs who aren't even worth remembering would talk such absolute shit, she thought, brushing them off without a second glance. And she kept her connection with Goo Seung-yong going—the guy who groaned and grumbled and still dragged himself out to the sparring grounds every single time.
And now—
Uwaaaaaaah—
"Huh?"
She wasn't showing it on her face, but Cheon A-rang couldn't hide her shock as she watched her junior, Goo Seung-yong, go flying with a scream after taking her fist.
He was tracking me. Looking straight at me.
It wasn't her imagination.
Up through yesterday, her sandbag hadn't been able to read her movements at all—he'd only realize he'd been hit after he was already airborne. But now his eyes were following her properly, locking onto every motion.
"What the hell? This guy used to flail around praying for a lucky guess like he was holding a rain ritual, just trying to predict my attack lines—and now he's rolling his eyes right along with my movements?"
She had been watching Goo Seung-yong steadily since last year. When it came to "Hunter" Goo Seung-yong, she knew him better than his own parents.
He had stubbornly asked to be taught even knowing he'd get beaten senseless. He ran bread-shuttle errands without complaint. Weak as hell, but with grit worth watching—that was what had sparked her interest and made her teach him this and that. She could confidently say she knew "Hunter" Goo Seung-yong better than anyone.
Which was why she was certain.
Her junior had changed somehow.
"The bastard looked shocked himself. Like Shim Bong-sa opening his eyes after three hundred bags of rice offerings—he was staring at my movements with his own two eyes and couldn't believe it. Something definitely happened."
Could he have gone through a second Awakening? The kind you only ever heard about in rumors?
Extremely rare, but there were Awakened who unlocked multiple abilities. Was her junior one of those cases?
She herself had run into a thoroughly vicious opponent just that morning. And of course her junior—who else—seemed to have gone through something of his own, just like his senior.
"Heh. I don't know what it is, but this is great."
Whatever had happened overnight, her junior was finally capturing her movements with his eyes instead of hunches and guesses, pushing past his own limits. Pride and a boiling competitive fire rose in Cheon A-rang together, and she smiled a savage smile.
But in that instant—
KWAANG—!!
"Ah."
From the direction Goo Seung-yong had gone flying came a thunderous crash and a thick cloud of dust. Cheon A-rang muttered belatedly, as if only just remembering.
"I didn't hold back."
Part of it was that she'd casually cracked him one for locking eyes on her properly—but that wasn't the only reason her power control had failed.
Cheon A-rang glanced sideways away from where Goo Seung-yong had landed and started rambling.
"Th-that bastard started it. Weak little shit who couldn't even meet my eyes properly until yesterday, and then he picks up some weird crap somewhere, starts acting all macho, sexually harassing his sky-high senior and even trying to grab her chest?!"
They'd been messing around the way they always did—so why, today of all days, did he suddenly have this wild edge to him?
"Come to think of it… that bastard and our junior are pretty similar in build, aren't they? Don't tell me my womb and pussy started throbbing because of… nah, what am I even saying."
Had to be her imagination.
She was still snickering, remembering Goo Seung-yong going into full impala mode staring at her in the lecture hall, when a pained groan drifted out of the dust cloud. She clicked her tongue and listened.
—Aigoo… aigoo, I'm dying…
"Ah. Yeah, something's definitely broken."
Unlike her, the guy was wearing solid armor, and still he managed to crack or break something every other day.
Cheon A-rang dragged her greatsword along the floor and walked toward the corner of the sparring grounds, now a mess of fog-thick dust—toward the junior whose eyes alone had gotten uselessly sharp overnight. As always, she was going to haul out the junior who would be sprawled flat on his back in a big X.
She was about to step into the dust pit herself when—
"Get up. I didn't hit you that hard. At most a rib or two… huh?"
Hooooooong—!!
Out of nowhere, a massive greatsword split the dust on a blade of wind.
"Knew it—you were playing dead for a sneak attack? I love that kind of sneaky shit. That kind of try, really good—ugh?!"
She had let her guard down, certain her junior was lying there in a heap. The familiar greatsword came flying straight at her side, and Cheon A-rang immediately raised the greatsword she had been dragging.
KWAAaaaANG—!!
A tremendous crash rang through the sparring grounds.
It sounded less like blades clashing and more like two enormous, blunt masses colliding. A powerful shockwave burst from the locked greatswords.
Cheon A-rang furrowed her brow for a moment, then laughed with a low chuckle.
"Heh. Something's definitely broken on you, but today you decided you were going to land one clean hit on me no matter what, so you put in extra spirit, huh?"
Just like the junior she had acknowledged.
Even in this state, refusing to quit and still trying to land a hit on her somehow—it was almost too endearing.
Especially when he didn't stop there and came at her again with a spinning slash. Cheon A-rang shifted her blade and blocked his greatsword once more—
KWAAang—!!
The moment their greatswords collided again, Cheon A-rang's eyes went wide.
"This bastard… he's swinging the sword properly…?!"
He was controlling the blade.
Not toppling over from the sword's weight and centrifugal force the way he used to—he was swinging it clean and true, straight at the target in front of him.
And the power loaded into that greatsword… this isn't D-class hunter level…!
At the very least, C-class.
Kiiik—
"Ugh…?!"
"Oh? Still holding on even like this? Oho…?"
She tested him with a few rounds of pure strength contests, then lightly twisted her blade and guided Goo Seung-yong's greatsword down into the floor.
His greatsword slammed into the ground with a heavy thud, advertising its massive weight. As the dust thinned and her junior's figure emerged, Cheon A-rang grinned so wide her mouth nearly split.
"What the hell? For all that groaning, you're fine."
"What, am I not allowed to be fine? Now being fine bothers you too?"
"N… no? That's not it…"
There's no way he should be fine.
He couldn't be fine.
She was the one who had hit him—she knew. When her fist met his armor, she had felt that distinctive hand-feel ride up her knuckles along with the crunch from inside the plate.
Normally her junior would be clutching a broken rib right about now, moaning and groaning.
And above all, the sensation was still lingering in her hand. No way it was a mistake.
Did he hide in the dust and chug a potion? No, that can't be it either. Nothing's rolling around by his feet. And besides…
Cheon A-rang tilted her head as a faint, strange aura drifted off his body.
It felt weirdly familiar.
That's definitely… yeah, that's it. The same thing that happens when I get hurt in a dungeon or a Gate… so why is it coming off my junior?
Had he actually gone through a second Awakening, the thing she had only joked about?
While Cheon A-rang was still slightly puzzled by her junior's overnight growth spurt, Goo Seung-yong grunted, recovered his greatsword, and asked her,
"I kind of figured, but… did you really hit me that hard because I tried to touch your chest?"
"Yeah. A junior talking that much shit is just plain arrogant. But you're fine, so what's the problem? What kind of man makes a fuss over something like that?"
"Wow… so you really swung intending to break something?"
He had seen what he shouldn't have been able to see. What should have broken hadn't broken. The greatsword that should have been shoved aside by hers long ago hadn't been shoved aside at all—instead he had come at her with a strength contest, practically daring her to try him.
Whether her hellish training had finally paid off or something else entirely, she didn't know—but the junior she had written off as lucky just to take care of himself had, even if only a little, broken past his own limits and was standing on two solid legs right in front of her.
At this level I could almost let him touch my chest once as a reward for being so damn endearing… no. No way. Praise this bastard and he gets high on himself and starts running his mouth again.
Her heart was racing at her junior's growth, and at the same time—just in case, though it couldn't be—she asked Goo Seung-yong as if checking something off a list.
"Hey, just asking, but you didn't take any kind of drug, right? I heard there's stuff floating around the black market that juicing your strength."
"Drugs? I did eat something good, but… not that kind of thing. Besides, do I look like the type who'd do that to you, Senior?"
"No. No way you would."
Right. Even if he did have a second Awakening, that's still our junior's own power. All the effort up to now finally paying off.
So all that work had finally started to shine?
She was smiling warmly at her junior's growth when a thought suddenly lifted its head in her mind, and she let out a low hum.
Wait a second… D-class would obviously be a no, but at C-class level, maybe…?
"Mmm…"
"Senior?"
His manner might look light, but he kept his mouth shut when it counted, and he was a junior she could trust.
Maybe, for her right now, he was exactly the talent she needed most.
After a short deliberation, Cheon A-rang looked at Goo Seung-yong—who seemed a little more recovered than before, settling back into stance and preparing to swing his greatsword at her again—and said,
"Hey. You and me—let's do just one job together."
"Huh?"
Goo Seung-yong's head tilted to the side.