I Awakened as a Hunter!
When I came to, I was in the hospital. I'd undergone surgery to remove glass shards embedded all over my body, but I'd passed the critical stage. Fortunately, a hunter at the hospital with recovery magic healed me perfectly, leaving no scars.
Mom and Dad rushed to the hospital on the first flight and burst into tears. Even Dad, who was always so composed, shed tears right in front of me. People who cried when I was hurt—they were my parents.
"……Mom, Dad, I'm sorry."
I'd done something inexcusable to my parents.
"What do you have to be sorry for?!"
"We're just so glad you're alive."
Instead of accepting my apology, they scolded me gently while holding back their tears.
The incident made huge headlines on TV. A massive disaster during an elementary school field trip. That alone would have swept the nation in grief. But something even bigger stole the spotlight.
It was the news of Chaerin's awakening. An S-rank hunter was the nation's most precious asset among assets, treated like a walking nuclear weapon, so it generated massive buzz.
As expected of Chaerin.
She's my friend. I wanted to brag about it everywhere, but that could wait until I recovered. Maybe because I'd poured out so much energy, I came down with a cold.
I should've practiced moving around more.
As I thought that, I heard quick footsteps from outside—dodo-dodo-do.
I didn't need to guess who it was.
The door burst open with a rattle!
Chaerin appeared. The moment she saw me wrapped in bandages, tears flooded out.
"Yuna!"
"Chaerin, are you hurt anywhere?"
"Who are you to ask?!"
Chaerin yelled angrily.
"Has Chaerin come?"
"Hello, ma'am."
Dad had gone back to Seoul for work, so only Mom was there. Chaerin bowed politely to her and hurried over to me.
She paced anxiously in front of me. It was just bandages. Thanks to recovery magic, the wounds were mostly healed anyway. Her worry was over the top.
I needed to change the subject.
"Chaerin, congrats on becoming an S-rank hunter."
The moment I brought up hunters, her pretty face scrunched up.
"Everyone says that when they see me. I don't care about S-rank hunters or whatever."
Don't care? It's your business—how can you say that?
"More importantly, what's the deal? Even on TV, all these people coming to see me say I saved the kids! But it was you who saved them, Yuna!"
Ah. That was something I shouldn't have said.
My eyes flicked to Mom. She was staring at me with wide eyes.
Chaerin finally noticed Mom and froze. She'd realized I hadn't said a word about it.
They wouldn't even believe I'd gone around saving kids in the first place. To my parents, I was just a hopelessly timid child.
No matter what was really going on inside.
"Yuna, Chaerin—what does that mean?"
Mom pressed, and Chaerin finally confessed everything honestly.
After hearing it all, Mom was so stunned she let out a gasp. But she didn't scold me harshly. Instead, she cried, saying she couldn't live without me and to think of myself first if something like that ever happened again.
It was only natural from a mother's perspective.
"Sorry."
Chaerin never apologized to anyone else, even if it killed her. But to me, she did it readily. There was no point in pride between us anyway.
"It's fiiiine. It's not like you spilled some big bad secret."
Chaerin sat by my side and let out a small sigh.
"Still, I feel the same as your mom. I don't want you doing stuff like that."
She fiddled with my hand, looking pitifully at the bandages. What was I going to do with her already worrying so much? Chaerin would face all sorts of incidents ahead.
"……I'm gonna be super busy from now on."
Having awakened as an S-rank hunter, all sorts of organizations would be clamoring for her, and there'd be press conferences. Would she even be able to keep going to elementary school?
In the novel, I'd seen Chaerin as a high schooler. I had no idea how she'd lived before that.
And she awakened as an S-rank while still so young.
Other parents might complain. What if someone got upset and tried to harm her? It could turn into a catastrophe even adults couldn't stop.
She won't be able to keep going to school.
From an adult's perspective, they wouldn't just let it slide. Was I really going to be separated from Chaerin like this?
Well, from the moment she became an S-rank hunter, our paths had already diverged.
"……I hate it."
Suddenly, a weak voice slipped from Chaerin's lips.
"They might not even let me go to school anymore. Then I'd have to be apart from you, Yuna. I hate that. I absolutely hate it."
Separated for safety reasons. Chaerin couldn't accept it.
I wasn't much different. I didn't want to be parted from her over adult circumstances.
Like it or not, we were inseparable best friends. I'd leaned on Chaerin a lot through the years.
But we wouldn't get permission to stay together under those conditions.
"It's okay, Chaerin. Even if that happens."
I raised both hands and pulled the anxious Chaerin into a hug.
"You and I are best friends forever, right?"
Nothing would change our bond, no matter what. Once I made that clear, some of her anxiety faded, and she reached out to hug me back.
Our connection, started back in kindergarten. It was a tough bond that wouldn't break easily.
After talking with Chaerin for a long while and seeing her off, there was another knock. Someone else appeared.
A familiar face was there—Han Seojun.
His leg was bandaged, and he was on crutches, looking a mess. But he'd survived.
"Ha Yuna."
The moment he saw me, he bowed deeply.
"Thank you for saving me."
Why was this kid so serious about everything? It suited his alpha-male vibe, though.
A 13-year-old being that stiff was something else.
"……On the bus."
So I decided to tease him a bit.
"You were all like, 'leave me behind,' 'save yourself'—putting on all sorts of airs."
Han Seojun flinched. Now realizing what he'd done, his face turned beet red as he averted his eyes.
"Not putting on airs anymore?"
"Th-that wasn't airs. I meant it back then."
"So you meant to put on airs, huh."
Han Seojun cleared his throat awkwardly. Even a kid like that was just 13. All that posturing didn't last.
As I giggled behind my hand, he stared at me with a dazed look for some reason.
"Next time."
Maybe because of what happened, he'd grown a bit bolder. Still, he was a good guy who'd told someone who came to save him—possibly dying—to run while he could.
I didn't want to waste that connection.
"Let's play games together again."
Han Seojun's eyes went wide. Then he sniffled a little and bowed his head.
"……Yeah."
Sixth grade in elementary school. The tumultuous field trip came to an end like that.
In a bond that might lead to a brief parting from Chaerin, I felt an inexplicable sense of abundance.
Until an unexpected message popped up in front of me.
You have been chosen by the Tower and awakened as a hunter.
The Tower. A mysterious entity that appeared out of nowhere one day, considered the real cause of Dimension Breaks. It triggered awakenings.
Hunter awakenings happened in two ways. One was the Tower's choice. The other was natural awakening under inscrutable conditions.
So I was the former, apparently.
……Yuna was an awakener?
And now I was questioning my own awakening.
Ha Yuna. Best friend of S-rank hunter Yoo Chaerin. Was Ha Yuna originally an awakener?
I don't know.
The novel I'd read hadn't reached completion. Plus, I hadn't expected things to follow the story exactly after I transmigrated anyway.
So I'd shoved it to the back of my mind and lived without worrying. But now something hugely different from the original had happened, and it threw me off.
Did what I did this time cause this?
Arms crossed, tilting side to side—no answers came.
The awakening was real anyway, and nothing would change now.
A hunter, huh.
Honestly, I was interested. Hunters popped up every time I opened YouTube. Watching them in action always stirred a nonexistent masculine spirit in me.
Imagine getting to rampage like them. How cool would that be?
"Heh, heh-heh."
A bit of a goofy laugh escaped, but anyway—the point was, I wanted to try being a hunter.
Plus, if we were both hunters, I could stay with Chaerin. We could enroll in Hunter Management Middle School together.
The middle school for immature young hunters. All hunter middle schoolers went there, supposedly.
Chaerin would love that.
When I told Mom, anxiety flooded her face. Worried I'd get caught up in something because of hunter work.
But refusing hunter registration was illegal. Sorry, Mom—I found the hunter registration office on Jeju Island first.
"Hunter registration?"
"From the same elementary school as the new S-rank hunter Yoo Chaerin—could it be!?"
"Quick, bring the top-grade measuring device!"
The staff went wild. An elementary student S-rank had just appeared. Now a girl caught in the same incident had awakened too.
A historic event where another S-rank might emerge. No wonder they were freaking out.
I rested my hand on my hip, feeling a smug swell of pride. From today, timid Ha Yuna was gone.
There was only Ha Yuna, the proud hunter ready to shine!
Exciting. How strong was I? Maybe even S-rank?
"……It's F-rank, though?"
Eh?
The top-grade measuring device I wouldn't normally even touch, carefully stored away. A single "F" floated there.
"D-do it again!"
The staff rushed for a re-measurement. The result?
"……Solid F-rank."
I was an F-rank hunter, barely above a normal person.
This had to be a lie!