"Good news," Doctor Cho said. "We're kicking you out."
Haneul blinked from her fortress of pillows.
"Rude way to say you'll miss me," she said.
Cho snorted.
"You've consumed three times your weight in hospital resources and turned my trauma bay into an ethics experiment," he said. "I will miss you the way I miss a persistent bug ticket."
"That's a yes," she told Kael.
Kael, sitting in the visitor chair with his shield across his lap, grinned.
"She's medically cleared?" he asked, a little too quickly.
Cho checked his slate.
"Soul-structure: stabilized. Fragment: still weird, still dormant-ish, no active tearing. Body: healed enough to be considered 'ambulatory menace,'" he said. "We'll keep doing scans, but we don't have a clinical argument to keep her contained."
"You say that like we didn't literally just have a cult-scan incident in your hallway," Haneul said.
Cho's mouth tightened.
"Security's improved," he said. "And Mira's privacy gadgets help. But we can't keep you here forever because the world is stupid. You're less safe if you're permanently predictable."
Mira, leaning in the doorway with her usual folded-arms posture, nodded.
"He's right," she said. "Hospitals have schedules. Patterns. Shard-hunters love patterns. Once you're out, we can vary your movements, change routes, use you less like a stationary target and more like a… mobile protected asset."
"So I'm an armored truck now," Haneul said.
"You're a very loud, sarcastic armored truck with a god-shard in the back," Mira said. "Yes."
Kael tried and failed not to look relieved.
"Home?" he asked.
"Home," Haneul said, then hesitated. "Assuming the apartment didn't develop mushrooms in my absence."
"Joon's been watering your plants," Kael said.
She stared.
"Why would you let him near living things," she demanded.
"He said he 'needed a place to store his weapon between runs,'" Kael said. "I negotiated down to 'light watering responsibilities.'"
Cho handed over a small stack of physical forms—discharge papers, follow-up schedules, "please don't die in the next week" notes.
"And the ring stays on," he added, nodding at the privacy band. "If anyone tries another scan stunt, I want them looking at soup."
"Yes, Dad," Haneul said.
He grimaced.
"Don't," he said, and left before the conversation could get any more feelings-adjacent.
Mira pushed off the doorway.
"TRI will keep a loose perimeter," she said. "Unmarked eyes in your neighborhood. Not a surveillance net—just enough that if someone in a Root hoodie loiters too long, we know before they grab you."
"Feels weird, being the one guarded instead of the guard," Haneul said.
"You'll still stream from time to time?" Mira asked, like she already knew the answer.
"Yes," Haneul said. "People need bad Tower takes and good snack recommendations."
"Good," Mira said. "The more public you are, the harder it is for anyone to quietly make you disappear. Visibility is a shield. Annoying, but effective."
Kael winced.
"Please do not turn my sister into a para-social anti-kidnapping strategy," he said.
Mira smirked.
"Already in motion," she said.
They left the hospital in the afternoon, when the plaza was busy enough to provide cover but not so crowded it turned into a street festival.
Haneul stepped out into sunlight for the first time in weeks.
Her shard reacted.
Not dramatically; just a subtle unfurling. Like something that had been pressed flat against glass was suddenly aware of open space again.
[FRAGMENT: STATUS – DORMANT (AMBIENT INPUT ↑).]
"Feels weird," she said.
"How?" Kael asked, falling into step slightly ahead, more out of instinct than strategy.
"Like… I'd been listening to the world through a closed door," she said. "Now it's cracked open. I can hear more worth functions humming. Quietly. Far away."
"Too much?" he asked.
"Not yet," she said. "If it gets loud, I'll tell you."
"Good," he said.
Mira walked on her other side, hands in her coat pockets, eyes scanning out of habit.
"First stop?" she asked.
"Home," Haneul said. "Then street food. Then maybe a walk near the Tower, just to remind my legs what imminent death looks like."
Kael sighed.
"Please don't flirt with imminent death while I'm holding all our groceries," he said.
Their apartment hadn't grown mushrooms.
It had grown Joon.
He was sprawled on the couch when they opened the door, watching a muted Tower stream, glaive leaning against the coffee table like a particularly menacing coat rack.
"Haneul!" he shouted, scrambling up so fast he knocked a cushion onto the floor. "You're not dead!"
"High bar for friendship," she said, stepping in.
He hesitated like he wanted to hug her, then remembered who she was and settled for a dumb, bright grin and a two-handed thumbs-up.
"You look less ghosty," he said.
"You look more like you've been living here rent-free," she said, eyeing the empty takeout containers on the table.
"I was, uh, guarding your plants," he said.
She walked over to the windowsill.
One plant was thriving.
One was mostly dirt.
One had been replaced with a tiny plastic cactus.
She stared.
"Which one died?" she asked.
Joon pointed at the plastic cactus.
"That one," he said. "So I got a backup that can't die. I'm a good friend."
She sighed.
"I don't have the energy to argue with that logic yet," she said.
Kael dropped her overnight bag by the bedroom door and looked around.
It was the same cramped space: two small bedrooms, shared living area, too many cables, a framed print of an old Tower schematic on the wall.
But the air felt… denser.
Like the System's attention had ticked up half a notch.
[LOCATION: RYU_RESIDENCE.][TAGS: EXECUTOR_HOME, FRAGMENT_HOST_HOME.]
"Great," he muttered. "We're a point of interest."
"Hey," Joon said, following his gaze. "Is my apartment tagged 'himbo nest' now?"
"I like to think so," Haneul said.
Their UIs pinged almost in sync.
[TRI NOTICE: OBSERVER PRESENCE – LOW-LEVEL.]
A polite way of saying: you have watchers now.
Mira checked her wristband.
"Our people will rotate," she said. "Different faces, different routes. We're not trying to cage you, just be close enough to intervene."
"Just so we're clear," Haneul said, flopping onto the couch and stealing Joon's cushion, "if anyone tries to kidnap me, I'll bite them first and let your people be plan B."
"Noted," Mira said. "Try to avoid biting anything that glows purple."
"Also noted," Haneul said.
Her shard pulsed a faint query.
[FRAGMENT: PROMPT – "NEW ENVIRONMENT. DEFINE 'HOME WORTH.'"]
She closed her eyes and thought at it.
"You don't get to rate my furniture," she said. "Home is… where I know where the outlets are. Where people care if I come back. Where my stupid brother's stupid shield is leaning against the table."
Kael looked over.
"Hey," he said.
"I said it with love," she replied.
The shard took that in.
[FRAGMENT: 'HOME_WORTH' TAG – ADDED.][ASSOCIATED WITH: "RECURRING PRESENCES," "SAFETY," "LOCAL CONNECTIONS."]
"Great," she said. "Now god's broken conscience knows I like my couch."
"Baby steps," Kael said.