Days turned to weeks. Weeks turned to months. Months turned to a year.
Ji-hu never came back.
At first, Hana refused to accept it. She used every resource Valiant Storm had, every connection, every favor owed to her. She searched hospitals and shelters and every Zone that opened within a hundred miles. She made broadcasts on every channel, pleading for anyone with information to come forward.
No one did.
Ara searched too. She went back to the arena where he vanished and spent hours staring at the empty space where he should have been. She tried to recreate the teleport, to open that space again, to find some trace of where he had gone. Nothing worked.
Yuna kept the dojo running. What else could she do? She had a shop to manage, customers to serve, a life to maintain while waiting for someone who might never return.
Minjun trained harder than ever. His chaotic energy now carried an edge of something darker, something desperate. He woke before dawn every day and practiced until his body gave out.
Soojin watched him, but she also started watching others. She helped Yuna in the store, learning prices and customer names. She sat with Ara sometimes during her silent vigils, not talking, just present. She grew quieter but also steadier, like a tree putting down roots.
---
The tournament victory brought money and fame.
Yuna expanded the store. It grew from a small shop into a proper establishment, with more inventory, more customers, more staff. High-level hunters started visiting regularly, drawn by the legend of the Nameless Guild that had beaten Valiant's top team.
But they never registered the guild.
Customer: When are you making it official? Everyone's waiting.
Yuna: Not without him.
Customer: It's been months. He's not coming back.
Soojin: He is coming back.
The customer looked down at the seven-year-old who had spoken with such certainty.
Soojin: My brother says so. And he's usually right about things like this.
Customer: Usually?
Soojin: Sometimes he's wrong about food. But not about people.
Yuna smiled despite herself.
---
Ara disappeared for weeks at a time now.
She traveled to Overlap Zones across the country, searching for any sign of him. She followed rumors and whispers and hunches, chasing shadows that always dissolved before she could catch them.
She always came back empty-handed.
One evening, Soojin sat beside her on the dojo steps.
Soojin: You're going to find him.
Ara: You don't know that.
Soojin: I know you won't stop until you do.
Ara looked at her. This quiet child who watched everything.
Ara: You're different from your brother.
Soojin: He's loud. I'm not.
Ara: That's not all.
Soojin: Maybe not. But I'm still learning what I am.
Ara nodded and said nothing else. But she felt less alone with the girl beside her.
---
On a normal evening at the dojo, they sat down to dinner together.
Minjun and Soojin. Yuna. Ara, who had returned that morning from another fruitless search. The table was full but it felt empty.
Minjun: Remember when he used to burn the rice because he was too busy training?
Soojin: He never got better at it either. Even when you showed him the right way.
Minjun: I showed him like twenty times!
Yuna: He was focused on other things.
Ara: He always focused on the wrong things first. Training before eating. Fighting before resting.
Soojin: That sounds like someone else I know.
She looked at her brother.
Minjun: WHAT? I EAT! I REST! SOMETIMES!
Soojin: Sometimes is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
Yuna: She's got you there.
Minjun: TRAITORS! ALL OF YOU!
They laughed. It felt strange, laughing without him. But it also felt necessary.
Yuna: He'd want us to keep going.
Ara: I know.
Minjun: He'd want us to win the next tournament too.
Soojin: There's no next tournament announced yet.
Minjun: YET! That's the key word!
Soojin: You're very focused on words today.
Minjun: I'M ALWAYS FOCUSED!
Soojin: That's news to me.
Ara almost smiled. Almost.
Ara: He'd want us to eat dinner together.
Yuna: Yeah. He would.
They ate in silence after that, but it was a comfortable silence. The kind that comes from people who have learned to be together even when someone is missing.
---
The next morning, an alert hit every console.
Region-level Zone. Unusual classification. High dominance. White Tiger Guild was already on scene, but something about this one felt different.
Ara felt it before she saw the alert.
A pulse. A hum. Something she hadn't felt in a year.
The mark. Ji-hu's mark.
Ara: He's there.
Yuna: What?
Ara: JI-HU IS THERE!
She was already running.
Yuna: ARA, WAIT!
Minjun: I'M COMING TOO!
Soojin: Oppa, you don't even know where she's going.
Minjun: I'LL FIND OUT ON THE WAY!
He ran after Ara. Soojin looked at Yuna.
Soojin: Should we follow?
Yuna: We'd never catch them.
Soojin: Then we wait.
Yuna: You're very calm.
Soojin: Someone has to be.
---
The Zone was cordoned off by White Tiger.
Hunters everywhere. Officials shouting. Barriers set up to keep unauthorized personnel out.
Ara didn't stop.
White Tiger Hunter: MA'AM YOU CAN'T ENTER THIS ZONE!
She teleported past him before he finished the sentence.
Minjun arrived seconds later, breathless.
Minjun: WHERE DID SHE GO?
Hunter: Who are you?
Minjun: I'M WITH HER! LET ME THROUGH!
Hunter: Absolutely not.
Minjun looked at the barrier, then at the hunter, then at the Zone entrance.
Minjun: FINE! I'LL FIND ANOTHER WAY!
He ran along the perimeter, looking for a gap. The hunter didn't bother chasing.
---
Inside the Zone, the dominance was heavy. The sky was wrong, painted in colors that didn't exist in the real world. The air was thick with alien energy that made breathing difficult.
Ara pushed through, following the pulse of the mark. It was stronger here. Closer. Real.
Deeper and deeper she went, toward the heart of the Zone.
White Tiger's S-rank hunter was there, fighting desperately against a massive boss creature. It was a towering thing of stone and rage, too powerful for even an S-rank to handle alone. His team lay scattered around him, unconscious or worse.
He was losing.
Ara didn't care about any of them. Her eyes were fixed on the space beyond the boss.
The presence was there. Moving closer.
Then an attack came from behind the creature.
Single. Clean. Perfectly placed.
The boss crumpled and fell, its massive body hitting the ground with a thunderous crash.
The S-rank hunter froze, unable to understand what had just happened.
Behind the fallen creature stood a man.
Taller than before. Broader. Muscles carved like stone from a year of constant fighting. A beard covered his jaw, dark and thick. His eyes held something old and new at the same time—the same Ji-hu she remembered, but changed, hardened, sharpened. He stood very still, watching everything, saying nothing.
Ara moved.
She crossed the distance between them in seconds, her heart pounding so hard she thought it might burst. He was real. He was here. He was alive.
Ji-hu stared at her like he was seeing a ghost. His mouth opened but no words came out. He just stood there, frozen.
She reached him. Grabbed him. Hugged him.
He was solid. Warm. Real. After a moment, his arms came up slowly, carefully, and held her back.
Ara: You're alive.
He didn't answer. Just nodded against her shoulder.
---
END OF CHAPTER 31