Hana woke six hours after she collapsed.
Ji-hu was still holding her when her eyes opened. No fever. No confusion. Just clarity, like she'd slept a full night instead of fighting for her life.
Hana: Oppa.
Ji-hu: Don't move. I'll get help.
Hana: I'm fine.
She sat up easily. Too easily. Her hands looked normal but Ji-hu couldn't stop staring at them.
Hana: Stop looking at me like that.
Ji-hu: What did you do?
Hana: I don't know. I just... I couldn't let it take you.
---
Word spread fast.
By midday, people were finding excuses to walk past their tent. To stare. To whisper. A girl who made water explode. A girl who killed a monster with her bare hands and something else.
Ji-hu stayed close. Hana stayed quiet.
Then the suits came.
---
Two of them. Clean clothes in a camp full of dirt. No uniforms, no badges, just dark jackets and calm faces that didn't belong in a disaster zone.
Man: Hana?
Hana: Who are you?
Man: We're here to help. Can we talk?
Ji-hu stepped in front of her.
Ji-hu: Talk about what?
The man looked at him. Measured him. Found him wanting in less than a second.
Man: Your sister did something remarkable. We're collecting data on people like her. Understanding what happened.
Ji-hu: She's not going anywhere.
Man: She doesn't have to. We just want to ask questions.
Hana touched Ji-hu's arm.
Hana: It's okay.
It wasn't. But she went anyway.
---
They took her to a tent at the edge of camp. Ji-hu waited outside. An hour passed. Two.
He looked at the sky. The rift was still there. Always there. Like a second sun that never set.
He wondered if his parents could see it from wherever they were. If they could see anything.
Then screams ripped through the night.
Not Hana. From the trees beyond the camp.
Ji-hu stood. His leg hurt but he didn't care. Hana was in that tent.
The trees exploded with movement.
Goblins.
Small, wiry, green-skinned things with pointed ears and too many teeth. They poured out of the forest in a wave, climbing over each other, clutching crude weapons made from bone and rusted metal. Dozens of them. Maybe more.
Guards opened fire. Some goblins dropped. The rest kept coming.
---
The tent flap opened behind Ji-hu. Hana stepped out.
Ji-hu: Get back inside.
She didn't listen. She was staring at the goblins, at the chaos, at the people getting dragged down and killed.
A goblin broke through the line. Ten meters away. It saw them and charged, raising a jagged knife.
Hana moved.
Not like a fighter. Like a scared girl who didn't know what she was doing. She ran at it—stupid, reckless—and when it swung, she ducked on instinct. The knife cut air. She grabbed its arm with both hands and water burst out, pushing, shoving, throwing the goblin off balance.
It fell. She fell on top of it. They rolled in the dirt.
Hana: OPPA!
Ji-hu limped forward, grabbed a rock, and brought it down on the goblin's head. Once. Twice. It stopped moving.
He pulled Hana up. She was shaking. Her hands were dripping.
Hana: I didn't mean to—
Another goblin came. Then another.
Ji-hu pushed her behind him. He had the rock. That was all he had.
The first goblin lunged. He swung. Missed. It tackled him and they hit the ground hard. The rock flew away. The goblin raised its knife.
Water hit it in the face.
Not a blast. Just a sudden spray, right in its eyes. It screeched and clawed at itself, confused. Ji-hu shoved it off and scrambled for the rock.
Hana was on her knees, hands outstretched, water still dripping from her palms. She looked as surprised as the goblin.
Ji-hu: Again!
She didn't understand. The second goblin was already running at her.
Ji-hu: DO IT AGAIN!
She raised her hands and water sprayed out—wild, unfocused, but enough. The goblin stumbled. Ji-hu hit it with the rock from behind. It dropped.
Two down. More coming.
---
They fought like that for what felt like hours but was probably minutes.
Ji-hu with his rock. Hana with water that came out whether she wanted it to or not. Every time a goblin got close, she'd spray, he'd swing. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't skilled. They got cut and bruised and knocked down more than once.
But they didn't die.
When the last goblin in their area finally stopped moving, Ji-hu collapsed. Hana dropped beside him. Both bleeding. Both breathing too hard.
The camp was still fighting elsewhere. Gunshots. Screaming. But for this small patch of dirt, it was over.
Hana: I threw water at it.
Ji-hu: I saw.
Hana: I don't know how.
Ji-hu: Me neither.
She looked at her hands. They were just hands again. Normal. Empty.
Hana: Is this what I am now?
Ji-hu didn't have an answer.
---
The suits found them after the fighting stopped.
Goblins were everywhere—dead ones, mostly. The camp had held, barely. Bodies burned in piles. People mourned. The suits walked through it all like they didn't see any of it.
They stopped in front of Ji-hu and Hana.
Man: You both alive. Good.
He looked at Hana.
Man: You. Come with us.
Ji-hu: Where?
Man: Somewhere safe. Somewhere she can learn what she is.
Ji-hu: I'm coming too.
The man shook his head.
Man: No. Just her.
Ji-hu: Like hell—
Man: You can't do what she does. You'd slow her down. Get her killed. Is that what you want?
Ji-hu opened his mouth. Closed it.
Hana grabbed his arm.
Hana: I'm not going without him.
Man: You don't have a choice.
---
They left before dawn.
Hana fought. Screamed. Cried. Clawed at the truck doors. Ji-hu tried to run after it but his leg gave out and he fell in the dirt, watching the taillights disappear down the ruined road.
He lay there until the sun came up.
When he finally stood, he looked at his hands.
Still empty.
Still nothing.
---
END CHAPTER 3