"Foul! That's a foul right now!"
Coach Gap-su roared, gripping the cage fence.
The cage rattled violently. But the atmosphere had already tilted to one side.
This had happened while Min-chan had the upper hand.
The referee shook his head, letting the match continue.
Min-chan retreated with his guard up, his vision stained red.
Sticky blood flowed from around his eyes, and his breathing was ragged.
'I had… no sensation. Did he… spit the blood before I even hit him?'
Suddenly, Min-chan's eyes wavered. He belatedly realized Brian had tricked him.
At that moment—
[Tap-tap-tap!]
The cage floor vibrated violently.
Beyond his blurry vision, Brian charged like a tank.
[Thwack!]
A suddenly extended front kick powerfully pushed Min-chan in the chest.
[Clang!]
Min-chan was pushed back, maintaining his guard, and stumbled a few steps to regain his balance.
He felt the cold steel cage behind his back.
"Hey, boy. Showtime."
Brian bared his blood-stained teeth, sneering.
And then, immediately—
He lunged like a beast.
"Ah! What's happening to Gang Min-chan? He had a chance to finish it with an uppercut early in Round 2!"
[Thud! Thud! Thud!]
"Oh no! Brian's fierce assault! The champion's resurgence has begun! A spectacular combination!"
The commentators, who had been exclaiming in confusion, immediately began broadcasting the situation as Brian's attack started.
"Ah! The legend of Korea, Gang Min-chan! His guard is shaking!"
[Smack!]
Brian aimed for Min-chan's side and slammed his fist in forcefully. As if returning what he had received.
'I've crushed his momentum… Now it's time to erase the evidence of the foul.'
[Grab.]
Brian grabbed the back of Min-chan's head with his left hand.
And then, his right arm, sharply raised.
[Swoosh!]
His elbow descended diagonally from top to bottom.
[Rip!]
The skin above Min-chan's eyebrow split open, and fresh blood gushed out.
[Trickle.]
Blood streamed into his eyes.
His vision blurred red.
Above him, Brian's punches and low kicks rained down mercilessly.
[Thud! Thud! Whack!]
"Kugh…!"
His knees buckled, and Min-chan's body staggered.
His breath hitched, and his entire body stiffened with a tingling sensation.
"Min-chan!" "Hyung-nim!" "Hyung!"
Outside the cage. The Chiyoo Gym members sprang to their feet.
Their eyes were filled with unadulterated desperation.
[BOOM!]
It was then.
Tae-geon slammed his fist hard onto the table in front of him.
His shout held no hesitation whatsoever.
"CHIYOO!!"
The gazes of the gym members, who had been frozen like stone, turned to him.
For a moment, a silence as if breath had been held.
But Tae-geon, without hesitation, slammed his second fist down again.
[BOOM! CHIYOO!]
[BOOM! CHIYOO!!]
A deepening resonance.
To that shout, echoing like a heartbeat, the gym members began to synchronize one by one.
Straining their throats as if they would break, they chanted but one name.
[BOOM! CHIYOO! BOOM! CHIYOO! BOOM! CHIYOO!]
At that moment—
That sound spread throughout the entire audience.
Korean spectators, even those who had been hesitating, clutched their hands together, pounding their chests, and shouted along.
"BOOM! CHIYOO! BOOM! CHIYOO!!"
It was as if, in a distant past, it was the stomping of feet and a shout to call forth courage from those heading to war.
— And that reverberation,
was conveyed across screens to living rooms in Korea,
to pubs,
and to offices where people were working overtime.
"…Hyung, did you see that just now? It's truly insane…"
"Wow… damn, I'm getting goosebumps…"
Someone was crying,
someone silently clenched their fists.
It wasn't just simple cheering.
It was a ritual to call back a forgotten name.
It was a reverberation that made the world remember the meaning, the roar, and the battlefield imbued in the name Chiyoo.
'…Who's calling me?'
That sound… pierced into Min-chan's ears as his consciousness faded.
Beyond his red-tinted vision, he felt it instinctively.
'That, is my name.'
'It is time for me, to awaken.'
A faint glow slowly began to rise in his eyes.
Red, deep, and terrifyingly intense eyes of a battlefield.
— Chiyoo was returning.
Meanwhile— In a Shaman's Chamber.
Inside a neatly arranged room.
On a wooden table lay a talisman scribbled with red characters and an old bronze bell.
Beside it, a smartphone screen displayed Min-chan's match live.
From the ceiling, white, red, and blue silk hung in disarray.
Beneath them, fluttering like tricolor flags—
A woman in a white hanbok sat quietly.
Her jet-black long hair was neatly braided and styled with a hairpin.
Her face, fair and dignified like white jade,
was strongly contrasted only by her vivid red lips.
She watched the screen, her eyes fixed, then slowly murmured.
"Min-chan… You've finally awakened."
At that moment, in the arena, amidst the heart-pounding cheers of the crowd,
Brian felt a strange sense of unease.
'I need to end this quickly. My instinct, which has kept me alive this long, is foretelling something ominous.'
[Gasp!]
Brian took a breath again and put power into his back foot for a relentless assault.
[Flinch!]
Just as Brian was about to lunge, Min-chan's arms dropped,
and he flinched at the sight of a faint red, human-like form shimmering like smoke behind him.
He blinked, and the form vanished instantly.
'Did I see it wrong… Maybe blood splashed in my eyes earlier.'
Brian forced himself to ignore it and swung his fist with all his might towards Min-chan's temple.
[Whoosh!]
A miss.
Min-chan dodged the hook by bending his knees,
then propelled himself upwards from that stance.
At that moment, their eyes met directly.
[Shiver.]
As their eyes met, Brian felt his hair stand on end,
his body stiffened, and goosebumps rose.
And only one emotion came to mind.
'I'm going to die…'
[CRACK!]
Min-chan's right fist directly struck Brian under the chin.
Brian's head snapped back to his waist and bounced.
[Thud.]
Min-chan grabbed Brian's wrist as he fell backward, unconscious,
and pulled, making Brian's knees buckle as he stood up again.
[Thwack! Thwack! BOOM! BOOM!]
Two shots to the side, two to the temple.
A flurry of combined blows, left and right.
Brian's upper body swayed like a reed from side to side with each punch, unable to fall.
[Grab.]
Min-chan grabbed Brian again as he was about to fall,
hoisted him onto his shoulder, and ran toward the cage wall.
[CRASH!]
Min-chan slammed Brian into the cage wall, which rippled as if crumpled.
Just as Brian was about to slide to the ground—
[Tap-tap-tap]
With a spring, a massive body soared into the air.
In mid-air, Min-chan's knee exploded like a cannonball.
[BOOM!]
Brian's face squashed as he was driven into the cage floor.
His eyes slowly lost their light, and his mouth hung half-open, trembling.
The arena fell silent for a moment, as if holding its breath.
It was too overwhelming a sight.
Everyone was momentarily speechless.
Min-chan stood dazed.
His fingertips trembled, and his entire body was drenched in cold sweat.
A moment later, the referee rushed over, checked Brian's condition, and crossed his arms, waving them.
[DING! DING! DING!]
Match over.
"KO! The winner—! Gang! Min! Chan!"
[WAAH—!!]
An explosive roar erupted.
And then—
[CHIYOO! CHIYOO! CHIYOO!]
Someone's shout spread.
At first, it was just a few.
But soon, thousands of voices became one.
[CHIYOO! CHIYOO! CHIYOO!]
Min-chan himself didn't know why…
his chest ached intensely at this sound.
A strange sensation, as if he had been waiting for this moment for a long time.
After leaving the arena, Min-chan completed a brief interview and headed for the shower room.
[Whoosh.]
The cold shower water enveloped his entire body.
It was then.
In the mirror—someone else was looking at him.
Charcoal-dark eyebrows, piercing eyes, firmly set lips, a bushy beard.
A stubborn-looking middle-aged man at a glance.
But… he wasn't unfamiliar.
Strangely, his heart was 'remembering' him.
At that moment—the being in the mirror spoke.
"What is it that you fear so much, that you do not… acknowledge that name?"
Min-chan held his breath.
It wasn't his own thought or voice.
But it felt like a resonance from somewhere deep inside—
"…Who are you?"
"I am you. And, you are also me."
The voice was low and calm.
A resonance as hard as stone, and as hot as blood.
And again—the man in the mirror asked.
"What is it that you fear so much, that you do not acknowledge it?"
Min-chan pressed his lips together, then quietly opened them.
"…Because I will remain a loser of the past, remembered as a demon."
For a moment, silence.
But again—the question was the same.
"What is it that you fear so much, that you do not acknowledge it?"
"…Because my fallen brethren might resent me."
The eyes in the mirror deepened. Like an abyss, unwavering.
And the final question was posed.
"What is it that you fear so much, that you do not acknowledge it?"
Min-chan's eyes trembled.
And then, a brief but profound confession emerged.
"…I am afraid of losing. Afraid of losing someone again, of being robbed… It terrifies me."
At that moment—
The man in the mirror quietly nodded.
And slowly, a blood-soaked, scarred fist and Min-chan's relatively clean but calloused fist met on the mirror's surface.
[Thump.]
At that moment—
The mirror rippled like water.
The Chiyoo in the mirror wavered, and Min-chan's vision shimmered like waves.
[WAAH—]
With the roar of the battlefield, his vision was stained red.
A blood-soaked field. Corpses piled like mountains.
Beheaded brethren, burning banners, crumbled shrines.
"Advance! In the name of Chiyoo!"
Someone shouted. No, it was himself.
Pungbaek's laughter.
Woosa's rage.
Hwansa's tears.
And, the day of Zhuolu, when he and his brethren held out until the very end.
"Huangdi! You motherf*cking bastard!"
Min-chan stared directly into the mirror.
And opened his mouth.
"I am Gang Min-chan. And—I am Chiyoo."
The figure in the mirror chuckled heartily,
then crumbled like sand,
and the name, blood, and memories overlapped as one.
"From now on—I reclaim my name and my past."
[Whoosh—]
Min-chan stared at the mirror for a while, then quietly exhaled.
The man beyond the mirror had vanished, but his gaze still remained in Min-chan's heart.
…Now, it was time to fight in his name.
The shower water stopped, and Min-chan ran a hand through his hair,
slowly opening the shower room door.
[Click.]
At that moment—
Someone's back view, sitting on the sofa watching a replay of the match on TV, caught his eye.
A pristine white hanbok, a hairpin neatly styling long hair, a bronze bell in her hand.
'Who is that? Hanbok? Hairpin? Bell?'
Min-chan tilted his head, then
froze at a clear and serene voice.
"Hmm… Should I call you Min-chan?
Or—should I call you Chiyoo?"
'That voice… No way—'
Min-chan's pupils dilated, and he blurted out.
"…No, how?"
(…How did she know?)
"…No, how did you…."
(…How did you get in here?)
Then, a leisurely chuckle.
"Ah~ how did I know?
Well… I've been—watching you since you were little, you know."
The hairpin twisted slowly in her braided hair.
"Now that your mind and body—are all washed clean, isn't it about time you came out?
I'm tired of waiting. To make me come directly, Chiyoo-ssi, really."
Min-chan instinctively yelled.
"Wait! Don't turn around!
Don't look! …My towel! Where is it, damn it—!"
Min-chan hunched his body, clutching the towel.
Naked, he hastily covered himself and shouted.
"Hey!! Hey, hey, hey, hey!! Did you just come into the shower room?! Are you crazy?!"
Song Dam-bi, sitting on the sofa, crossed her arms and looked down at him with an indifferent expression.
"There's nothing to see anyway, so why hide it?"
"What?! You, you crazy—!"
"By the way… your eyes have changed a bit."
Dam-bi tilted her head.
"…Did you, perhaps, remember?"
Min-chan wrapped himself tightly in the towel and snapped.
"Memory or not, I'm naked right now!! Get out!!"
Dam-bi grinned and turned her back.
"Alright, alright. I shouldn't have come and seen it~
Don't worry, you don't have any scars."
[Click.]
Just then, the shower room door opened, and Coach Kim Gap-su's voice was heard.
"Min-chan… Ah~ I'm sorry, something urgent came up."
[Thump!]
Seeing the naked Min-chan and Dam-bi, Coach Kim Gap-su quickly closed the door, muttering.
"If I had been a little later, it would have been a big problem."
"What happened, coach?"
"Coach, is Min-chan Hyung still showering?"
Young-beom and Do-yoon, who had followed behind, poked their heads out and asked.
"The stronger a man is, the more secrets he has. Let's go get ready first."
With that great misunderstanding, Coach Gap-su grinned and pushed Young-beom and Do-yoon away.
Far across the sea, in a room shrouded in darkness somewhere.
A man sat in front of a small monitor.
On his screen, Min-chan's match video was replaying.
Blood-red eyes, the moment of final awakening.
And—the name echoing beyond the screen.
[CHIYOO! CHIYOO! CHIYOO!]
The man quietly pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
His gaze never left the monitor for an inch.
And in a low, cold voice, he murmured in Chinese.
"…Juéxǐngle."
(He's awakened.)