Return of the Legendary Hunter

Ryota stared at Omikami with smitten eyes. He was fangirling so hard that even Omikami felt awkward.

“Can we trust Ryota?” Omikami asked.

Woojin nodded. Ryota seemed hurt by the question and Woojin replied, “Ryota, show us what you can do.”

“Hm… I didn’t expect this.”

Woojin spoke in Japanese, but Ryota knew he was a Korean Avatar. He never expected that he would be able to meet Omikami, whom he admired so much, but couldn’t even find her trace anywhere.

Ryota rubbed his palms together, took out his laptop, and connected it to the Internet.

“You are looking for Tsukuyomi and Susanoo?”

“Yeah.”

“That isn’t easy, especially with this kind of equipment. I need a facial recognition program.”

Omikami was confused.

“We already have that running.”

“Oh? Then I have nothing to do.”

Woojin sighed at such a simple answer.

“You can do better than that.”

“I can’t hack CIA’s ‘Eagle Eye’ with this.”

Omikami then smiled, “Maybe I can solve your equipment issue. Follow me.”

Omikami knew what ‘Eagle Eye’ was. It wasn’t created by the CIA. It was a program created by a genius programmer made to track down an individual by using every device in the world. It even allowed the user to access everything from satellites to anyone’s camera. Omikami wasn’t convinced of Ryota but decided to give him a chance since Woojin seemed to trust him.

They entered the ryokan’s basement. She walked up to the wall of a resting area and tapped on it. The wall opened and revealed a stairway down; there were a lot of people working in the room below. They all got up to bow to Omikami as she descended.

“Takumi. Give this man a seat.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Takumi gave Ryota his own seat. These people weren’t Avatars, but they followed Omikami. Ryota sat down and smiled in satisfaction.

“Wow, You have quite a bit of equipment down here!”

He then began to tap on the keyboard, slowly at first, then sped up as he became familiar. The people around were dumbfounded as they stared at the number of pop-ups on his screen before they disappeared. It was as Woojin remembered. Ryota was one of the best hackers. What he did in the past after getting enraged by Amaterasu’s death was amazing. He had many close calls as well, but his shapeshifting power saved him multiple times.

Ryota quickly found the access codes and smiled.

“And… we are in Eagle Eye. Let’s start.”

It displayed Tsukuyomi and Susanoo’s faces and began the search. Tsukuyomi was a beautiful woman with pale skin and black hair. Susanoo was a man with a bold-looking nose. Eagle Eye began to look for their faces and in three minutes, they found a man who resembled Susanoo. He was wearing sunglasses and riding a motorcycle. Ryota said, “Chance of the person being the target: 83%.”

Omikami smiled.

“He’s still on that old motorcycle.”

“Is that Susanoo?”

“Yes. It’s been ages, but he’s in Saitama, so he must be on his way here.”

Woojin nodded as Omikami narrowed her eyes.

“Why is he coming here after fifty-eight years?”

“I don’t know, but we must be cautious.”

Ryota then spoke after working a bit more on the computer.

“We can’t find any trace of Tsukuyomi.”

“She’s going to be harder to find, so that’s expected. But it’s amazing that you were able to hack into ‘Eagle Eye’.”

Omikami complimented Ryota and he blushed. Woojin laughed at the sight and suggested, “Susanoo’s on his way here, so we better get ready.”

“We can’t be sure that he’s coming to attack me.”

“Yes, but we still have to be ready.”

Omikami nodded and turned to Bihyung.

“Good. Even if he’s not coming to attack, it still is weird for him to come here after all this time. We’ll get ready. I’ll see if there’s someone who can protect me.”

“Yes. As much as we like to help, you need to be ready yourself.”

“Yes.”

Ryota then interrupted them.

“I can’t stay logged into ‘Eagle Eye’ any longer. I have to get out before they notice me.”

“Yeah, you can get out now.”

Ryota then got out while removing all his traces and got up.

“He’s good. I want to hire him right now.”

Omikami nodded and tried to agree, but Woojin placed his arm around Ryota’s shoulder.

“He’s with me. I won’t give him to you.”

“Yeah, I know. But how did you know such a talented man?”

“It’s a secret.”

Ryota tried to object but Woojin dragged him out. Woojin spoke when they were outside.

“I showed you a person to watch your back. You now work with me.”

“I have a chance to work with Amaterasu-sama. Why should I work with you?”

“Because we are going to protect Amaterasu.”

“Huh?”

“And save the world.”

Ryota burst into laughter. Woojin stared at him in complete silence and Ryota abruptly stopped.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t going to laugh.”

“But don’t you know anything about me?”

“You? What about you?”

“I’m the most famous man among the Avatars right now.”

Ryota became confused.

“Huh? The most famous man among the Avatars right now is the one who wiped out the Wangjinjin fam… wait.”

“Yeah, that’s me. I’m going to be fighting with more Avatars and I need more information. That’s why I need your help.”

Ryota became dumbfounded and stared at him in horror.

“So, YOU are the crazy psycho??”

“Crazy psycho?”

“I mean, you wiped out the Wangjinjin family!”

“Yeah. I will wipe out the Dmitri family too.”

Ryota took a step back and looked at Woojin. He thought Woojin was crazier than he first thought. But it was weird that his words sounded very convincing. At least he had achieved something no one else could already.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you serious about that saving the world thing?”

Woojin nodded.

“And I need you to do it.”

“What about me that makes you say that?”

“You have to help me find them, just like you did earlier. You used Eagle Eye this time, but I need something more accurate. A program that no Avatar can hide from.”

He was talking about the program that Ryota himself made in the past. But there were others who gave him help and inspiration. Woojin was just going hurry that along.

Ryota became silent. He had been living a life doing what he wanted. He wasn’t sure if he was really getting a chance to live a life with a purpose, or that he wanted to.

“I will need a huge amount of money to develop a program that’s better than Eagle Eye. I might even need a satellite.”

“Don’t worry about money. Just tell me what you need.”

Ryota stared at Woojin. If money wasn’t an issue, he was confident he could make anything.

“Work with us. Join us.”

Ryota sighed.

“Can you give me a while to think about it?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Woojin then returned to his room. Ryota looked up into the night sky.

“I can save the world?”

Omikami thought about the past. When she found the Avatar to return to the material world, Omikami and Tsukuyomi were together. When they became the representative Avatars of Japan and made their own empire, Tsukuyomi asked her to have dinner together.

It was in this ryokan that they had that dinner, the first place they made when they got control of all of Japan. A top-quality dinner was served together with sake, during which, Tsukuyomi spoke to her.

“Sister.”

“Yes?”

Tsukuyomi hesitated a bit and continued.

“I’ll be leaving now.”

“Huh? What do you mean? We just finished establishing our empire.”

“That’s why I’m leaving.”

Omikami was shocked and confused but Tsukuyomi answered nonchalantly.

“If I stay, it will only cause trouble. You know that there are people who already want me to take the lead.”

Omikami knew that there were Avatars who supported Tsukuyomi, but she didn’t think that her sister would decide to leave. Everything else didn’t matter to her as long as they were together.

“Please take care of the empire we created.”

“You’ve already decided then.”

By the time Omikami emptied her glass, Tsukuyomi’s seat was already empty.

Susanoo, who got his Avatar later on, came to Omikami after Tsukuyomi disappeared. She allowed him to do everything he wanted, but he acted recklessly and childishly even after becoming an Avatar. Eventually, she was exhausted looking after her brother and had to let him go. She made him stay away from Tokyo, and in return she gave him all the support he needed. Susanoo accepted it and went on to hunt monsters and crazed Avatars, never returning to Tokyo.

Yet, he was coming back now. Omikami didn’t want to believe Bihyung or Woojin. She didn’t want to think that her siblings would try to kill her. She then picked up her phone to ask for help from someone who could help her if her siblings really did come to harm her.

The person Omikami called was someone Woojin didn’t expect. Maybe everyone who sided with Omikami was killed when she died on the Day of Chaos in the past. It was a middle-aged man with neat, slick back hair.

“He’s Shinatsu Hiko no Kami. You can call him Shinatsu.”

Woojin didn’t recognize the man, but Ryota shouted, “Fujin! It’s an honor, sir! I am Ryota!”

Shinatsu only glared at Ryota and turned to Bihyung.

“Bihyung, why are you here?”

“I am here to protect Omikami. I guess you wouldn’t know because it’s something between representatives.”

It seemed that both of them were on unfriendly terms. Shinatsu then turned to Woojin.

“And you?”

“I am Ko Woojin.”

“Ko Woojin?”

Shinatu did not seem to recognize the name and Omikami explained.

“He’s the rookie who wiped out Wangjinjin family.”

Shinatsu then turned friendly for the first time.

“So, you’re the one who crushed those arrogant vampires. Glad to meet you.”

Shinatsu exchanged handshakes and asked Omikami, “Susanoo’s on his way here?”

“Yeah. Stay with me, just in case.”

“Understood.”

Fujin Shinatsu was one of the famed gods in Japan. Woojin felt that if he were to help there was a chance that things would go well. Even if they were against Susanoo, this seemed like enough to fend him off. He believed that.