The ARES headquarters sat inside a secured compound on the outskirts of the city.
Inside, Park Jin-cheol stood in the operations room with his arms crossed. He wore his military uniform. His glasses sat on the bridge of his nose and he was smiling.
Albert Kim stood across from him and spoke in French, calm and unhurried. "Director Nam failed his mission. He is currently in the medical bay. Santiago is treating him."
Park Jin-cheol said nothing for a moment. The smile stayed exactly where it was. "How bad?"
"Broken nose. Fractured ribs. Significant soft tissue damage across the face and torso." Albert paused. "He was conscious when they brought him in. He tried to get up twice before Santiago sedated him."
Park Jin-cheol exhaled through his nose. "That sounds like him."
"The client, prosecutor Choi Kangmi, was taken from the scene before our people could reestablish contact," Albert continued. "The individual responsible has been identified as Gun Park."
Park Jin-cheol uncrossed his arms. "Gun Park. Who is he?"
"According to our sources, he should be related to the Yamazaki Clan from Japan."
"Yamazaki?"
"Yes," Albert said.
Park Jin-cheol was quiet again. He walked to the window and looked out at the compound. "Nam took that assignment personally." He turned back around. "How is he actually doing?"
"Santiago says he will recover fully. It will take time."
"Good." Park Jin-cheol nodded once. "Make sure he gets enough rest."
Albert nodded. "Understood."
Park Jin-cheol picked up his phone from the table and looked at it. "Gun Park." He said the name again, quieter this time. "All right. Keep me updated on Nam's condition. And find out where the procecutor currently is."
"Already working on it," Albert said.
Park Jin-cheol put the phone in his pocket and looked at the door. The smile had not moved.
---
Across the city, the junkyard was still and wrecked. Bodies lay scattered across the ground and the rusted car frames sat knocked sideways off their stacks.
Gun Park stood in the middle of it all and looked up.
Johan Seong sat at the top of the wrecked pile with his brown mullet hanging low over his eyes. He looked down at Gun with an expression that was difficult to read.
Gun rolled his neck slowly. "So when are you coming down, Goddog?"
Johan dropped from the top of the pile and landed in front of Gun. He brushed the dust off his sleeve and looked at the bodies on the ground around them. Jake, Jerry, Eli, Warren, Mandeok, Yuseong, all of them down. Then he looked at Daniel, face-first on the asphalt.
He looked at Gun last.
Gun stood with his shirt off, one hand pressed against his cracked ribs, breathing harder than usual. The cut above his eye had dried. "I have been waiting, Johan Seong. I won't expect much, since your eyes aren't normal."
"It's fine. I can see," Johan said.
"Did the little puppy who used to play with shoes get help from someone?" Gun said. "But you see, that doesn't change anything."
Gun rushed at Johan with his fist aimed at Johan's face.
Johan moved his head slightly and the punch passed by his ear. "Gun, why do you talk so much?"
'He dodged it?' Gun thought. 'So easily?'
Johan kneed him in the midsection. Gun folded over and countered with a punch, but Johan slipped that too.
Gun's expression turned serious. 'He said he can see. He's not the Johan Seong I know. He has improved. A lot.'
"Kyokushin, was it?" Johan said, dropping into a Kyokushin Karate stance. "Is this how you're supposed to do it?"
Gun looked at him properly for the first time. 'Now I understand why he disappeared for so long. He was learning.'
"Did you figure something out?" Johan said, and came forward. "You're not smiling anymore."
BOOM!
Johan's first punch landed straight on Gun's broken ribs. Gun's body seized from the impact. Johan's second punch came immediately after and smashed into Gun's face, sending him flying back into a car frame. Metal buckled and the frame toppled sideways.
Johan stood where he was. "There are many things I would have liked to say. But I understand now that nothing I say will make a difference. You told me once that incompetence is misfortune." He looked at Gun pulling himself upright from the wreckage. "Today, your misfortune will be your incompetence."
---
Seongji sat on a bench outside the courthouse entrance, one hand pressed against his side. The briefcase sat between his feet.
Vin Jin sat beside him, his leg bouncing. "Teacher, can Johan Seong really get prosecutor Kangmi back? After all, it's Gun Park who has her. Shouldn't we go too?"
Seongji leaned back and a small smile appeared on his face. "Vin Jin, do you know why Baki kept Johan Seong close but never taught him anything?"
Vin Jin tilted his head. Then he grabbed his own hair in frustration. "Teacher, we are really in a rush. This isn't the time for this."
"Answer me first," Seongji said.
Vin Jin sighed. "I don't know. Maybe Johan didn't meet Baki hyung's standard?"
Seongji turned to look at him and laughed quietly. "It's the opposite. Baki didn't teach him because Johan had already surpassed what Baki could teach."
Vin Jin stared at him. "What?"
"There are people in this world who cannot be measured against others," Seongji said. "Baki is one of them. And Johan Seong is one of them too. People like that don't need someone to teach them. They need experience." He looked out at the street.
---
Johan came forward again. A straight right to the jaw, a low kick to the thigh, a follow-up elbow to the side of Gun's head. All three landed clean.
CRACK!
Gun staggered. He caught himself on a bent car door and steadied his legs.
Johan didn't stop. He closed the distance and drove a hook into Gun's ribs, same spot as before, and Gun's breath came out in a sharp burst. Gun tried to grab Johan's arm and Johan pulled it free and stepped around him, landing a short punch to the back of Gun's shoulder that knocked him forward into the car frame again.
Gun pushed off the car and turned around. Johan was already there.
BOOM!
A straight right landed flush on Gun's jaw and his knees buckled. He went down on one knee and his hand hit the concrete to stop himself from going all the way down.
'When did he get this strong,' Gun thought. 'He has changed. He has evolved. He's not just copying anymore. He has made everything his own.'
Johan didn't give him time to recover. He grabbed Gun by the back of the head and drove his knee up into Gun's face.
CRACK!
Gun's nose broke. Blood poured down over his mouth and chin. Johan released him and stepped back, and Gun swayed on his feet before catching himself against the car frame again.
Johan hit him twice more in quick succession, a hook to the ribs and a straight right to the jaw. Gun's body fell backwards.
'I am losing,' Gun thought. 'To Johan Seong. I am losing to Johan Seong.' He pressed his hand flat against the concrete and felt the cold of it against his palm.
---
Vin Jin was quiet for a moment. Then he asked. "Does that mean Johan can defeat Gun Park?
Seongji didn't answer immediately. He kept his eyes on the street and sighed. "No."
Vin Jin tilted his head in confusion. "No? Why?!"
Seongji closed his eyes. "Because Gun Park is also one of them. One of the people who can't be measured."
---
Gun's hand pressed flat against the concrete. His blood dripped down and pooled beside his fingers.
Then he got up.
He rolled his neck once and came forward and the first punch he threw dented the car frame behind Johan's head when Johan slipped it.
BOOM!
The second punch landed and Johan flew back. He hit the ground and rolled and came up already moving, but Gun was right there, and the next hit caught him across the ribs before he could fully reset.
CRACK!
Johan's back hit a concrete pillar and it split down the middle.
"Johan Seong, you have finally made up for your weakness. Your endurance, it's gotten better. Now, I am curious about where you were all this time." Gun pressed forward without pausing, a combination of strikes landing faster than the previous ones.
Johan blocked what he could and absorbed the rest and kept moving, adjusting, reading.
'Okay,' Johan thought. 'I see it now.'
He stopped retreating.
Gun threw a straight right and Johan slipped inside it and drove a hook into Gun's jaw. Gun's head snapped sideways. Johan followed with a body shot to the ribs and then stepped back out before Gun could grab him.
Gun turned to face him. Blood ran freely from his broken nose. "Haha! You're keeping up," he said.
"It's over now," Johan said.
"Over? You're the one who's done for!" Gun almost smiled. He came forward again and Johan met him, and the fight leveled out into something different from what it had been. Neither of them pulling ahead, neither of them losing ground. A punch landed, a punch got blocked. A kick connected, a step back absorbed it.
CRASH!
They separated and stood apart, both of them breathing hard.
Gun looked at him. "I know, Johan Seong." He chuckled, low and dry. "I know you didn't come here to kill me. So are you here to cut your ties with me?"
Johan looked back at him. Then he shook his head. "I'm not here for that. I don't consider that we have any ties." He wiped the blood from his lip with the back of his hand. "Maybe before, some part of me would have wanted to. But now I understand it's meaningless. What ties did we ever have? What we had was business. You used me and in return I grew stronger. That's all. Nothing more, nothing less."
Gun was quiet for a moment. Then he laughed, a real one this time. "You've certainly changed."
"I've changed for better," Johan said.
"Yes," Gun said. "You've done a good job." He raised his guard again. "I'm glad you let it go."
Johan looked at him for one more second. Then he exhaled slowly and closed his eyes.
Gun's expression shifted. 'What is he doing.'
Johan opened his eyes.
Something had changed. His posture, his breathing, the way his weight sat over his feet. Every muscle in his body had aligned into something unified and total. He looked the same but felt completely different.
'This is,' Gun thought, and then the thought didn't finish because Johan was already moving.
BOOM!
Dust kicked up under Johan's first step.
Gun got his arms up and the punch hit his guard with a force that drove him back two full meters, boots tearing grooves into the asphalt. He hadn't been pushed back like that all night. Not by anyone.
Johan was already there for the second hit before Gun had fully stopped moving.
BOOM!
It broke through the guard entirely and caught Gun square in the chest. Gun's body left the ground.
CRASH!
He landed on top of a car and the roof caved in under the impact. He slid off the side and landed on his feet by pure reflex, but his legs shook badly beneath him.
'Perfect,' Gun thought. 'His body is moving like a perfect machine. Just like Daniel Park.'
Johan crossed the distance in a step and drove a straight right into Gun's jaw. Gun's head snapped back. A left hook followed before he could recover. Then a right elbow that caught him across the temple and dropped him to one knee.
Gun's vision went white at the edges.
Johan grabbed him by the collar, lifted him, and put him on the ground on his back. Then he came down with his elbow.
BOOM!
The asphalt cracked around Gun's head from the impact.
Another elbow. The crack spread further.
BOOM!
A straight punch drove Gun's head into the concrete and the surface gave way beneath it, a shallow crater forming around his skull.
Gun's arms fell. His eyes stayed open for a moment, looking up at the gray sky, and then they closed.
The junkyard went quiet.
Johan straightened up. He stood over Gun's unconscious body and looked down at him for a moment.
Then he stepped back and pulled out his phone. He dialed and waited.
Seongji picked up after two rings.
"It's done," Johan said. "Gun Park is down." He looked across the junkyard at the one-story house at the center of the compound. "I'm going to get the prosecutor now. I'll bring her out."
"Understood," Seongji said.