….
[Next Day]
◤-----------------------◥
[-> Pan'ku Locket:]
| Currently Available Locations: NONE
| To Be Opened:
[[Portal 001]
- Location: Tokyo Bay, Japan
- Site: Courtyard, Castle Complex
- Status: IN-ACTIVE | Will be opened in: 5D, 12H, 59M]
◣-----------------------◢
Jin-Ho's eyes narrowed, scanning the panel–
"Six and half days and some change…
"And of course it had to be another country."
He laid flat on his bed, water crackling down his face. He just finished his training session.
"These portal locations are really trying to be a pain in the ass now."
Another portal meaning another world.
Part of him was excited - there was always that pulse of curiosity about where he would end up next, who he might meet, maybe even another run-in with Tony if luck played nice.
Alas, only if the system didn't ask him to cross countries every time.
…just convincing the Yoo family head to send him to the US was troublesome enough…
Also, even if they agree.
Him being a Hunter - his student visa for the United States had already been complicated, and the plan of changing schools again won't work.
And not to mention the 6 days time limit.
It should be impossible to go to Japan through normal channels.
But after thinking a bit, Jin-Ho was able to come up with a solution. He sat cross-legged on his bed as the Rairakku mask rested in his lap.
If observed closely there black holes like things on the floor with a head popped out.
◤-----------------------◥
[Rairakku Mask]
| Abilities
-> [Summon Shadowkhan]
-> [Reverse Summoning]
-> [Physical Enhancement]
| Current Summon Limit: 1 (Ninja Khan Tribe)
| Cool Down: 00H: 00M : 00S
◣-----------------------◢
He clicked on [Reverse Summoning] ability - on which all his hopes lay on.
The Reverse Summon ability was something Jin-Ho was pinning his hopes on.
◤-----------------------◥
[Reverse Summon]: You can exchange places with your Shadow Khan.
| Cool Down Time: 24H
◣-----------------------◢
Twenty four hour cooldown.
Meaning, once he performed a [Reverse Summon], he couldn't do it again for one full day.
Which meant he needed to plan this perfectly.
Step 1: Summon Ninja Khan.. which he already did.
Step 2: Send Ninja Khan to Japan in flight, with clear instructions to reach the portal location.
Step 3: Perform the Reverse Summon.
"As absurd as this entire plan sounds…
"This is the only way."
….
[Four Days Later]
The airport terminal was chaos incarnate - exactly what Jin-Ho needed.
He had researched everything meticulously.
A direct flight from LAX to Narita International Airport would take about 11 to 12 hours, depending on jet stream and weather.
From Narita, it was roughly a 2-hour drive to reach the Castle Complex Courtyard overlooking Tokyo Bay.
And, what mattered now was finding the right passenger - someone traveling today, and heading to Japan.
Jin-Ho wandered through the terminal.
He wore his school uniform, partly because he had come straight from ditching class, and partly because the uniform made him look harmless.
Just another high school kid, maybe here to see off a relative.
The boarding screens flashed information rapidly.
Flight 247 to Narita departing in 3 hours, 412 with a connection in Tokyo departing in 4 hours, and 89 direct to Kansai departing in 2 hours.
Multiple options.
But he wasn't looking at flights. He was looking at people.
An older businessman, probably late fifties, moving with the confidence of someone who flew internationally regularly.
A young couple, honeymooners by the look of them, too focused on each other to pay attention to details.
Then Jin-Ho spotted her: a woman in her early thirties, business casual attire, traveling alone with a single carry-on and a laptop bag.
Japanese features, possibly returning home.
She barely acknowledged the people around her, focused entirely on her phone and the boarding information screen.
Perfect.
Jin-Ho followed at a distance, watching as she approached the boarding gate for Flight 247, the direct flight to Narita.
Three hours from now.
Eleven to twelve hours of flight time.
That would put her in Japan around 2 PM local time tomorrow.
The Ninja Khan just needed to get there in time.
Jin-Ho ducked into a bathroom, finding a stall in the furthest corner.
He pulled out the Rairakku Mask, feeling the familiar pulse of power as it recognized his touch.
The black holes on its surface seemed to breathe, anticipating the summon.
"Blacky." He whispered, focusing his intent into the artifact.
The shadows in the stall seemed to darken, to deepen.
The same humanoid but distinctly inhuman figure materialized - made of living shadow with a vaguely samurai-like silhouette.
As usual, the Khan bowed, waiting for instructions.
Despite being a shadow construct, it was intelligent enough to understand complex commands.
That was the advantage of the Shadow Khan's.
They weren't mindless servants.
They thought, adapted, and problem-solved.
"I need you to follow someone." He pulled up his phone to show Blacky a photo of the woman he sneekily captured.
"She is going to board a flight to Tokyo. You will travel in her shadow all the way to Japan."
Blacky made a soundless nod - acknowledgment.
"After landing at Narita, make your way to the Castle Complex near Tokyo Bay. The Courtyard is your target location."
He handed him a note containing the address and GPS coordinates.
The Ninja Khan could read, or at least, understood enough to follow the information. "After arrival, take the train toward central Tokyo, then a local route heading to Tokyo Bay. The Castle Complex is near the waterfront. Enter through the Courtyard. Wait there."
Blacky studied the note, its shadowy form seeming to absorb the information.
"Go. Get into position, attach yourself to her shadow. Don't let anyone know you are there."
The creature moved with liquid grace, flowing toward the door.
Jin-Ho waited thirty seconds before following, giving Blacky time to exit and find the target.
When Jin-Ho emerged from the bathroom, he scanned the terminal.
The woman was still by the gate, checking her boarding pass, and if he looked very carefully at her shadow—
Yes. There. A second shadow, slightly denser than it should be, moving with an unnatural fluidity, Blacky was in position.
The woman had no idea she had picked up a passenger.
Now came the hard part: waiting.
Jin-Ho sat down at a terminal gate, not the one where his shadow-passenger was boarding, but close enough to monitor.
He pulled up a virtual flight tracker on his phone, watching as Flight 247 prepared for boarding.
The woman lined up with other passengers, her shadow moving with her, perfect camouflage.
When she walked through security, Jin-Ho held his breath.
Security cameras, metal detectors, maybe even Hunter's whose job was to spot anything unusual.
But Blacky was a shadow, technically not a physical object, more of a conceptual extension.
It slipped through security without triggering anything, because there was nothing to trigger.
The woman collected her things on the other side and continued toward her gate without a second glance.
Flight boarding commenced at gate 7. He watched from a distance as passengers filed into the jet bridge. The woman took her turn, her carry-on rolling smoothly behind her.
And once she disappeared into the jet bridge, he could no longer see her figure.
But he trusted the Shadow Khan.
By this time tomorrow, a construct made of pure shadow would be in Japan, walking through the streets of Tokyo in broad daylight, completely invisible because it was technically not a separate entity, just an unusually dark shadow following a woman on her commute.
….
The parking lot of LAX was relatively empty this late in the evening.
Jin-Ho sat on the curb, still wearing his school uniform, watching planes take off into the darkening sky.
Flight 247 had been in the air for about an hour now.
Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, a woman was watching a movie or reading a book, completely unaware that a shadow construct was traveling with her, perfectly synchronized to her every movement.
The hard part was done.
But now, sitting alone in the gathering dusk, a different problem surfaced, one that Jin-Ho had been successfully avoiding for weeks.
"If I were to disappear again–
"What will the Yoo family do this time around?"
It was a question that had been lurking at the edges of his mind since he had arrived in this world.
He had been so focused on survival, on obtaining strength, power jumping from one portal to the next that he hadn't allowed himself to really think about it.
The Yoo family, his family - Supposedly.
Jin-Ho pulled out his phone and scrolled through his messages.
There were three unread texts from his Sister, each one progressively more concerned:
===
[Noona] | Jin-Ho, where are you? Your school called about you missing classes.
[Noona] | If you are in trouble, tell us. We can help.
===
His father was Yoo Myung-Han, a man Jin-Ho had met exactly twice since arriving.
Both times, they had maintained the awkward distance of a parent and child who didn't quite know each other.
The resemblance was there, they shared the same sharp features, the same gray eyes, but there was no familiarity, or comfort in that similarity.
Jin-Ho has memories of this man teaching him to ride a bicycle.
He also has memories of his mother's cooking or her voice calling him to dinner, and memories of family dinners or arguments or the ordinary, mundane comfort of a home.
He had a name.
Yoo Jin-Ho.
And a face that matched that name, and parents who were apparently concerned about his wellbeing.
But does this family… Belong to him?
"A family?"
Jin-Ho said aloud, his voice hollow in the empty parking lot.
He sighed, a sound heavy with resignation. "I actually don't know what that means."
It wasn't a joke.
It wasn't self-pity, though there was perhaps a hint of that too.
It was simply the truth.
In his previous life, he had existed in a different context entirely.
He had no parents to miss, no siblings to worry about, definitely not a home that had felt like home.
And now, in this new world, he had been given all those things.
A family name.
Parents and siblings with concern in their voices.
It was slightly suffocating in a way he couldn't quite articulate.
Jin-Ho looked up at the sky, where stars were just beginning to emerge.
He wondered if something, God, the system, fate, coincidence, whatever force had brought him to this dimension - was listening.
"If I was thrown into this world."
He asked quietly, his voice steady but tinged with bitterness. "Couldn't you have at least made me an orphan?"
It would have been so much simpler.
An orphan without any background could disappear without consequence.
An orphan didn't have parents losing sleep over his whereabouts, didn't have a father who was apparently asking questions, concerned that something was wrong.
An orphan wouldn't have to lie to a family that cared about him.
An orpha–
Buzz–!
Jin-Ho's phone buzzed again.
This time it wasn't a message but a call.
It was his sister.
He lifted the call, and talked, she was pretty serious but the tone was still not yet radical.
In the end, she had asked him to reach his flat without fail, and not to go for Gate ride - it wasn't a request but a requirement.
He checked the time: 6:47 PM.
But he didn't move immediately.
He sat there for a few more minutes, watching planes take off and land, thinking about the strange weight of a name that wasn't really his, worn by a body that technically was.
And…. he was about to disappear again.
The thought made something uncomfortable twist in his chest.
Guilt, maybe. Or something closer to regret.
But he didn't have a choice.
This world is dangerous, and he needs to get stronger.
The Yoo family's concerns were valid. But they were also secondary to the weight of fear of losing his existence - once the plot begins.
Finally, he stood up, and headed toward the taxi stand.
He would go home.
And in a few more hours, he would use the [Reverse Summon] to reach Japan - leaving his worried parents to deal with another unexplained disappearance.
"Sorry."
He whispered to the empty parking lot, to the universe, to the Yoo family waiting at home for his return. "But I was never going to stay."
He got in the first taxi that pulled up and gave the driver the address.
As they merged into traffic heading toward the Yoo family home, he stared out the window at the lights of Los Angeles, thinking about the conversation he was about to have with his sister.
The lies he was about to tell.
The weight of a name that wasn't quite his, worn by a boy who had never asked for it.
….
.
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
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