Chapter 19 - A Little Acceptance Goes a Long Way

Day 11

Afternoon

Now that she had properly injected herself into the affairs of local law enforcement and a military force sent by the Federal Government, or whomever was in charge, Erin felt she could use some more training to blow off some steam. Maybe she could tape a picture of that Lieutenant to the automaton and beat it up. He was an arrogant, chauvinistic, self-important asshole, and she had no delusions about how things would end with him.

When she reached the Dojang, Erin pulled on the door out of habit, then registered that she had left without locking the door. Mentally kicking herself, she was actually glad that she hadn't activated the time dilation. If a low level student entered, they probably would have died.

Erin stepped into the building, then locked the door from the inside. Walking towards the back, she also registered that the automaton was still on the sparring mat. "Automaton, return to your resting location beside the others."

"Yes, Sabomnim."

"Just call me Erin. That goes for all of the automatons."

She was met with a chorus of, "Yes, Erin."

"Automaton 1, can you change colour or something?"

"Our hands and feet can change colour to distinguish in team sparring."

"Awesome. Starting from automaton 1, you're blue." Pointing to the next in line she said, "You're red." and moving down the line of six, "Green, yellow, orange, pink. I expect if someone calls your colour you will respond as if it's a name, understood?"

Another chorus of "Yes, Erin."

Continuing her path towards the back office, as she got close Erin noticed a pair of legs visible through the door, positioned as if they were sitting in one of the guest chairs. Moving cautiously, ready to attack at a moment's notice, Erin edged closer to the door only to find Zack sitting in the chair.

"Hi Sabomnim Moon." He had a big grin on his face.

"We're outside of class with no other students around, you can call me Erin." Leaning back against the door, she added, "What's up Zack, how come you're here?"

"I heard you had been training in here since last night, I wanted to check in and see when classes could start up again."

"Your timing is not-quite-24 hours early. I was planning to send out a message through Guild chat, but I keep getting distracted." Erin looked a little chagrined, but more irritated about the constant interruptions.

"Oh yeah, those military guys rolling into town, eh? Are they here to help out?"

Erin shrugged, "Their leader, a General of all things, seems like a decent guy except that he's hiding something. The next guy down the chain is probably going to be a bigger problem than the leader of the DN was."

"Is he that strong?" Zack seemed surprised, like Erin was admitting there was a fight she couldn't win.

"No." Erin shook her head, "It's his attitude that's a problem, if anything. He's only level 22, so I'm sure I could take him. If the others jump in, it could get interesting though."

Zack got a bit eager at that, "Need me to get some of the seniors together?"

"Absolutely not!" Erin crossed her hands in an X and swiped them outward to drill the point home. "I'm not even allowing anyone access to the quest system until I've assessed each student's level, skills, and abilities, and that's probably a fraction of the danger taking on a bunch of soldiers would be."

His eyes went wide, "Wait, quest system?"

Erin sighed, "Later Zack, I'll discuss it with everyone tomorrow."

"Okay, just don't forget to send that message." Zack turned to his left, looking at the chair behind the desk, "Look, I might not be the brightest guy or the most skilled at Taekwondo, but I see you eyeballing that chair like it stole your lunch."

"It's nothing."

Throwing his hands up, Zack said, "Wow, paint a big target on that topic and call in the artillery fire, I hear they just rolled some into town."

"It's a tank, not artillery…I think, and it's not…don't worry about it."

"You don't feel like you belong in that chair?" Zack softened his voice, trying to be more empathetic.

"What? Who told you…* Erin sighed, "I really don't, Zack. I'm too young to be in charge of over a hundred students."

"Sabomnim Ryu clearly disagreed."

"He was dying, Zack. They were probably questioning him about me so much that he couldn't think of anyone else."

"Wow, confidence issues much?" Zack switched to sarcasm and went for the frontal attack, "Don't beat around the bush, you were his favourite student. Some of the others were jealous, I wasn't. I'm not." Frustration seeped into his voice as well, "You walked in here, barely eight years, and kicked everyone's ass except the seniors and Sabom Ryu."

"With other martial arts though." Erin's voice was subdued at this point.

Zack shook his head and sighed, "Martial arts you hadn't practiced since the day your dad and sensei passed, and you were only training for what…two…three years before that night?" Zack threw his hands in the air. "I get it, you're younger than most of the seniors. You're also stronger, faster, smarter, more technical, and frankly more dangerous than them."

Erin refused to look at him.

"We need someone who can train us to survive. This isn't about self-defense anymore, or simply being more disciplined as individuals. It's about survival!" Zack raised his voice, "The world outside is going to hell, and if you're not going to accept the entirety of your position, you need to say so and get the hell outta the way. At least then you won't be giving the others hope."

Erin's face shot up, meeting Zack's eyes. She had anger, frustration, embarrassment, sadness, and so many other emotions warring behind her eyes, but she knew he was right.

"Sit in the goddamn chair, Erin. Accept your role as our Sabom completely now, or close up the Dojang, go home, and tell the students to do the same." He was on his feet and angry now, and Erin wondered where this side of him was coming from. Zack wasn't overly aggressive or forward most days, no matter how angry he got.

Slowly Erin edged around the desk. Her legs felt leaden, barely cooperating. She stared at the chair for a solid minute. When she finally grabbed the arm of the chair, she sat in it so quickly, she didn't give herself time to think about the action. Erin took a really deep breath, then released it, pushing some of the tension out of her body.

Without warning, Zack was knocked back through the door of the office as energy exploded from Erin. Something burned inside her, pushing outward from her core. Moving through her bones, her organs, her veins, as she writhed before it burst out of her skin, launching her onto her feet. Erin's Ki was pulsing and shimmering above her skin, not quite colourless anymore, it had taken on a faint bluish tinge like the cobalt blue of her dobok.

There was a sizzling, then a clattering on the desk, and Erin spun, just barely quick enough to see that she had a…tail…made of Ki. "What the fuck!?"

"You have a tail!" Zack called in surprise and excitement from the floor.

A notification forced itself open on Erin's HUD.

Congratulations! You have accepted your role fully as the Gumiho. You will now represent the power of the nine-tailed fox. Unregistered ability, Dragon King's Wrath, has evolved into Unregistered ability, Gumiho's Wrath, 1st Tail. Records updated to reflect changes.

New Quest chain assigned: Unlock The Nine Tails, 2nd Tail

Description: Discover how to unlock the 2nd Tail, further unlocking your power.

Rewards: Undetermined

Penalties: Failure may result from death. Death is its own penalty.

Notes: Holy shit! Hawthorne is going to shit his pants when he sees this!...That…was NOT a hint…disregard this message.

"Woah, quest chain? That's kind of a big deal, right?" Erin was a little shocked at everything that just happened, so much so that she was ignoring the Ki tail burning things behind her as it wagged back and forth.

"You're going to burn the place down, Erin." Zack was pointing at her tail.

"What? Oh! Umm…" Erin retracted her Ki, pulling it back into herself, and by extension the tail. "Nothing actually on fire, just smoldering or smoking. Maybe a melted desk corner…that might be hard to explain."

"To who?" Zack laughed, "You're Sabom, remember?"

"Right, yeah…right."

"Erin," Zack's voice suddenly got serious. "Someone knew this would happen."

The concern on Erin's face mirrored Zack's at that statement, "What do you mean?"

"I was given a quest last night. It didn't make sense until I got here today. It said to Make her sit in the chair."

"That is…oddly specific, yet cryptic."

Zack nodded, "Yeah, and then you…and the chair…and…and this happened."

"There are a lot of weird things happening, Zack. The quest to save Jin-soo…it gave me a bottle of his favourite Soju as one of the rewards. It had a message on there in Korean that read In Memory of Jin-soo."

Zack's face turned to one of shock, "That is…very, very personal."

"Yeah, and the final notification for that quest kept flashing on my HUD, like the System was impatient for me to acknowledge it. When I finally opened it the System AI read it in a sombre voice, like it was sad or something." Erin felt her adrenaline rising. It wasn't just her that was experiencing odd behaviour from the AI.

"What the hell is going on, Erin?" Zack's voice was full of trepidation now.

Erin set her jaw and looked him straight in the eyes. "I don't know, yet, but it sounds like something is coming."

"What are we gonna do then?" Zack was clearly looking for answers and direction, which Erin had to acknowledge was part of her job now.

Erin firmed her resolve, hoping Zack absorbed some of that false confidence, "Train hard, train fast. Prepare for whatever is coming."

"And when it gets here?"

"Give it two choices. Get in line, or get the hell out of our way." Erin smashed the knuckles of her fists together, flaring her Ki as she did so. "But first, I have a message to send."

Message to Guild members of Gumiho Dojang:

Declaration by Sabom Moon.

Training is no longer optional.

Anyone level 10 or higher is required to train at the Dojang for a minimum of one hour per day and commit to additional criteria.

Instructions to follow.

Anyone under level 10, communicate with your seniors. We'll arrange training solutions for you.

It is critical that no one under level 10 attempt to enter the Dojang under ANY circumstances.

Any questions, filter them through Zack.

Sabom Moon

Honour the memory of Ryu Jin-soo