Chapter 15 - You’re Sabom now, Erin.

Day 9

Early Afternoon

Walking into the kitchen, Erin found Noah sitting alone at the table with a coffee mug in hand as he stared into empty space, likely viewing something in his HUD.

"Since when do you drink coffee?" Erin dropped her plate and fork in the sink, then went to lean on a chair opposite Noah.

He looked down at the mug, then at Erin, consternation on his face. "Never. It's just juice."

"Why the coffee mug then?" It wasn't wrong to drink juice from a coffee mug, but it wasn't common as far as Erin knew.

"The system gave it to me." Noah was smiling now, and Erin noticed he was a lot less nervous than usual.

"That's a strange item for a reward box. What's that writing on the side?" Erin tried to read it, but she couldn't make heads or tails of whatever it was.

"It's a Java joke."

"It's a coffee joke?" Erin asked with a bit of humor and sarcasm.

"No, Java, like the programming language." He held up the cup and Erin moved closer to read it.

String[] favesons = {"Noah"};

for (String i : favesons) {

 System.out.println(i);

}

Erin scrunched her nose up, "I don't get it. This is a nerd thing, isn't it."

"Yeah, it's a nerd thing." Noah seemed a little disappointed, but also resigned like he didn't expect others to get the joke and just hoped they would.

"Have you talked to your mom today?" Erin decided on a change of topic.

"Yeah, actually I'm going to see her today. I'm just waiting for Logan to get here." Noah cheered up immediately with this topic.

"So you're getting a bike escort across town this time?"

Noah laughed, "Better than that."

"Better? Did he find a tank to drive there with?"

Angling his head noncommittally, Noah said, "Not quite…you'll see."

Erin's curiosity was piqued now, but before she could pry further, there was a firm knock on the front door before it opened.

"That's him." Noah jumped up, almost spilling the last of his juice before he downed it in one go and rushed out of the kitchen.

Following in the over-eager teenage tornado's footsteps, Erin saw that it was indeed Deputy Logan Alvarez.

"Hey Noah, Hey Erin," Logan greeted them both before focusing on Noah, "Hey kiddo, could you go get Eun-ha real quick for me?"

"Sure." Was all Noah said before he took off upstairs.

Erin's face morphed into one of concern, "Is something wrong?"

"No, no, nothing like that Erin. Sydney and I just found some things at the old DN HQ, and it led to some discoveries I felt important to share with you and your mother."

"This…does this have to do with my dad?" Erin asked as her mother came down the bottom of the stairs, a look of concern creasing her features as well.

Logan nodded to both of the Moon ladies, "It does. Do you want to sit first?"

"No." Surprisingly Eun-ha beat her daughter to the punch as she moved to stand beside Erin, "It's been thirteen years. If you learned something new, I would like to hear it. Now, please." There was a bit of heat in Eun-ha's voice, and Erin mentally noted how out of place that was for her.

"Understood." Logan said, as he held out a few folded papers. "We found what we believed to be The Antagonist's ID in a room he kept for himself." Logan took a breath, feeling the pressure and tension in the room, "He was one Thaddeus Hodgins III. I went looking for any priors we had on him. The Sheriff had extensive notes on this guy, including a lot of circumstantial and non-circumstantial evidence pointing to his involvement in the death of your father and your Sensei."

"How…why wasn't he in jail?" Erin could feel her anger rising, and tried desperately to keep it under control.

"Eye witnesses that all recanted days later, camera footage that mysteriously got erased, you name it." Logan shook his head, "The Sheriff even suspected evidence went missing from the evidence locker, but that evidence was too weak to get a conviction either way."

Eun-ha's face was bright red, a surefire sign she was containing an anger all her own.

Logan raised his hands placatingly, "I know this sounds bad, but I want you ladies to remember that he's gone. Erin turned him into mincemeat and then launched him out of the city. Never thought I'd say those words, but here we are."

"You're right, Logan." Eun-ha's face started to return to normal, and she reached a hand out for Logan's, "Thank you for coming to us with this."

Erin surprised her mother, Logan, and herself by wrapping her arms around Logan in a hug. "Thank you, Logan. This means a lot to my mother and I."

For his part, Logan looked a bit embarrassed, and may have blushed a little as he gently rested his hands on Erin's back. Once Erin released him, Logan took an awkward step back and cleared his throat. "Umm, Erin, there are people here to see you as well. I think you'll want to go out and talk to them."

"Who's here?" Erin certainly wasn't expecting guests.

Eun-ha waved her hands at Erin, "Go see for yourself. Logan has done one good deed for the day, and he still has to drive Noah across town."

"Okay, okay, Eomma, I'm going." Erin stepped past Logan, opened the front door, and stepped outside to…something she couldn't put words to. Standing on the street in rows were over one hundred of the students from Gumiho Dojang. In the middle was, surprisingly, Zack.

"Zack, what's going on?" Erin started walking towards them, but before she got too close, the collective voice of every student said in one voice, "Sabomnim!" and then bowed to her.

Habit, if nothing else, overrode her surprise, and she bowed back to them. When everyone returned to a stance of attention, Zack stepped forward to meet her halfway. "Again, Zack, what's going on?"

"They're here to show their support for you, as per the wishes of Sabomnim Ryu." Zack said, no hint of mirth.

"What do you mean, his wishes?" Erin looked and sounded incredulous, even to her ears, but the situation warranted it.

Zack looked a little awkward as he said, "Sooo…news has been spreading of what happened last night. What you did to the DN leader, and what happened to Sabomnim Ryu. But when he passed, every student received a notification." Zack's eyes went distant for a second as he pulled the message up and read it.

As per the Last Will and Testament of Ryu Jin-soo, recorded by the System during his captivity, all members of Gumiho Dojang are to receive the following message.

"To My Students,

I must first say that I am proud of you all. You honour and respect me every day as you come into Gumiho Dojang and embody the art of Taekwondo.

It is with great sadness that I will not be able to see any of you again to tell you this in person. Know that these words are the honest truth of a man facing his end.

Secondly, I am naming my successor, Moon Ye-rin, to lead you from here forward. She is a talented martial artist, and is growing powerful under this new paradigm we find ourselves in. She will need your help though, as she cannot carry this burden alone. Trust her as I have, believe in her, and support her.

Sincerely,

Sabom Ryu Jin-soo"

Erin felt tears welling in her eyes. Even though Zack read the message, she could hear Jin-soo's voice, but as she looked at Zack she could see he had tears running down his cheeks as well. Now she wished that she had read the Last Will and Testament last night, but now wasn't the time.

"That's all we received." Zack wiped his eyes, and she could see more than a few students doing the same. "Everyone who could come, excluding the youngest students, gathered this morning to come here."

Erin's thoughts were all over at this point. She was only 19, hardly old enough to lead a Dojang. She wasn't even the oldest student, just the most experienced and talented because of her early start. "Okay, I still haven't gone through Sabomnim Ryu's Last Will and Testament, which the system gave me last night, so for now I want everyone to set up communication lines based on where everyone lives." Take charge, don't let them see your uncertainty, Erin. "Avoid going anywhere alone, and until I say so avoid the Dojang. DN members might be lurking and we don't want to give them easy targets."

Zack bowed deeply, "Yes, Sabomnim!" Followed by all of the students, mirroring the actions and the words.

"If anyone wants to practice, arrange groups that can meet up at someone's house. Try to arrange for a senior of at least the first Dan to be present." Erin looked out at the lines of students. "I'm going to need a few days to figure things out. Have everyone brown belt and up send me a friend invite before leaving the area."

"Yes, Sabomnim."

"And Zack?"

"Yes? I mean, yes, Sabomnim?" The habit not yet fully formed, Zack caught his slip-up at the last second.

"Thank you."

"Of course, Sabomnim." Bowing one last time, he turned towards the other students to repeat Erin's orders for those who couldn't hear them.

Turning to head back into the house, Logan and Noah came out as she reached the door, Logan looked out at the students as he said, "That was an impressive display."

"More impressive than that monstrosity you have parked across the road? Erin asked in jest as she threw a thumb over her shoulder. "How did you get a vehicle working?"

"Uhh, yeah, that came from the System." Logan nearly choked on the words, because he didn't want to admit that it came from a You've Been Saved By a Girl Reward Box. Not that he had any issues with being saved by women, but she would want the details of the reward box and he didn't want to share the message that came with it. Logan zoned out for a moment as he remembered the words all too vividly.

You could at least drive her home afterwards instead of letting her ride on the back of your bicycle like some lovesick teenager

"Logan?" Erin waved her hand in front of his face.

Oops, really did zone out. "Uhh, yeah, sorry, what?"

"I asked what tier it is? It looks at least better than Bronze."

Looking at his brand new Fjord Police SUV he smirked, then looked back at Erin and said, "Exalted."

"Bullshit!" Erin blurted out before covering her mouth. Too late.

"Language!" Came Eun-ha's voice inside the house.

"Sorry, Eomma!" Erin's cheeks burned for some reason, but she didn't quite understand the embarrassment she was feeling.

"Oh yeah. Noah is excited to check it out. This thing pulls fuel from the air around it somehow. It's up-armoured without increasing weight or impacting handling, and it has a dimensional lockbox in the back." Logan had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face.

"So, you read the manual then? What's a dimensional lockbox?" Erin's question was one part jibe and one part earnest curiosity.

"No idea, but I'm sure Noah can tell me."

Noah looked at both of them in turn, then rolled his eyes. "Dimensional lockbox? It's like your mother's Silver Bag of Organized Chaos."

Logan and Erin both looked thoughtful before Erin mussed Noah's hair and said, "Sure thing, kiddo. Hey, are you coming back here?"

Noah looked at Logan before he said, "I'm hoping Logan can help talk my mom into coming back with us. We don't have anyone on that side of town. Mrs. McGibbons said it was okay, and with the new SUV we can bring some of our things."

Logan put an arm around Noah's shoulder, "Speaking of which, we should get going Noah. Between talking your mom into coming here and packing up some things to bring, the day is going to disappear quickly."

Erin stepped out of their way as Logan and Noah walked by, "Hopefully see you guys in a bit then." With that, Erin waved and went inside.

She wasn't two steps in the door when her mother said, "That boy is sweet on you."

"Who, Noah? He's too young. Don't say weird things like that."

"No, Logan. He looks at you the way your father used to look at me."

"I repeat my last statement: Don't say weird things like that." Erin gave an eyeroll, and then suddenly felt self-conscious, like a teenage girl rolling her eyes at…well, her mother.

"You need a strapping young man in your life, Ttarai. Or strapping young lady, I'm not judging and that Sydney is quite attractive…an aggressive alpha female kinda way." Eun-ha's voice was playful, if a bit earnest-sounding.

"Wow, I can't believe this conversation actually got more awkward. Did the system register that as one of your skills or abilities? Rated it at a nine, right?"

"I won't always be around, Ye-rin, and I just don't want you to be alone." Eun-ha's voice took a more serious tone.

Erin kept her tone light-hearted, despite the shift in topic making her heart beat faster, "Nonsense, you and Mrs. McGibbons both look younger since the System assessment ended."

"Ttarai," Eun-ha's voice was trending towards a lecture now, "We both know things are more dangerous, and getting worse by the day."

"It doesn't matter Eomma, because I will stop anyone who tries to hurt you, or my friends."

"And when you can't stop them all?" The question was asked in a gentle tone, but Erin's ire was flaring inside.

Looking at her mother, the heat of the sun burning like embers in her eyes, Erin said through clenched teeth, "I will END anyone who tries to hurt you or my friends." Then Erin was gone, leaving out the back door to blow off steam with training.

Eun-ha stood there for a few moments, hand to her chest. It wasn't just the anger in her daughter that concerned her. That had been a constant companion since Erin was six. No, it was the light behind her eyes that made them glow slightly, and the subtle way Erin's skin and hair seemed to flare with a thin layer of energy that shifted their colour ever so slightly. Her beautiful daughter was changing, and it worried Eun-ha so very much.