ladyjlb's manga / #cats(11)

(on Webtoon too) - Ch 239 as of 14/11/23 ** Fight bullying with superpowers ** With great power comes great responsibility ** True strength is having the courage to face a stronger opponent. - The powerful loner, Kayden Break (electrokinetic ability) transforms into a fat ginger cat to hide and recover his strength after he was severely injured from an attack by a large group of Awakened. He’ll stay as cat until he’s fully recovered but later finds out he can’t control his human transformation / it’s unstable. - Jiwoo Seo hides his awakened speed ability and lives on his own (his mother works overseas). Because of his ability, they move around a lot. Jiwoo loves cats as his 1st friend was a stray cat. - Kayden teaches Jiwoo a method to train, develop and strengthen his powers, ie grow and control his ability (ie FORCE CONTROL). Kayden also teaches Jiwoo combat moves as Kayden believes you need a balance between physical and awakened abilities. 1st ARC: - The Professor (Dr Delein) - Wooin (psycho-telekinetic ability) - The Professor illegally experiments with forced awakenings on stray animals. He is Wooin’s saviour and mentor. - Jiwoo befriends Wooin at school. - The Professor is arrested by Seongha Park and his men from the Korean Awakeners Association (KAA). - Chairwoman Jiyoung Yoo (wind ability), brother Jisuk Yoo and Inhyuk Goo are all under the Shinhwa Group. - Jiwoo and Jisuk fight in a supervised match at Shinhwa. - Wooin and Jisuk also fight each other at Shinhwa. - Jiwoo, Wooin and Jisuk all become friends. (NB: they all go to the same high school) - Wanted criminals, the Klein Brothers come looking for the Professor and face the 3 boys. Jiyoung and Kayden save them. - Subin Lee (ice ability), the KAA leader’s grand-daughter, fights Wooin at Shinhwa. Wooin rejects Mr Park’s offer to join the KAA. 2nd ARC: - Jiwoo, Wooin, Jisuk and Subin attend the new Awakened Academy event for 2 months. The Principal is Seongkik Han. - Other students are from the Baekdu Group, the Baekho Group, and the Mir Group (animals) - Unaffiliated vs Affiliated Awakened (ie conditions, privileges) - There’s a sparring match: Wooin and Jiwoo kick arse. - Jiwoo is tested for his limited animal ability with Kayden as a combat cat. Kayden also kicks butt. - Jiwoo is rated very highly by all of the teachers as a result. - Jiwoo is invited to learn under Principal Seongkik Han and the Baekdu Elder but he declines both. The Baekdu Elder takes this as an insult and attacks Jiwoo. Kayden in human form blows the roof off the gym and reveals Jiwoo is his student. 3rd arc: - Back at school: the gang is as tight as ever lol - The Professor and the Klein Bros escape from the KAA with help from Robert, an Awakened with psychic and mind control powers. - The friends agree to search for the Professor together. They split up. Wooin finds the Professor, while the other 3 face off against the older Klein Brother. All 4 get injured but are successful. - Sucheon of Baekdu challenges Jiwoo to a rematch, which he accepts. Jiwoo blows him away to win. Kayden reveals himself as Jiwoo’s teacher here too. He thanks Shinhwa for looking after Jiwoo and says he owes them a favour. - Kayden is still in human form at Jiwoo’s house. He is introduced to Jiwoo’s shocked friends when they drop by. - After much teasing by Jisuk and Subin, Choi Kangseok of the Baekho Group makes a surprise visit to Jiwoo’s place and challenges him to a match in the future. Jiwoo accepts. 4th arc: - Jiwoo is kidnapped and brutally tortured by 2 overseas criminal awakened for info on Kayden. Baekdu VP Sooman Kang finds Jiwoo and tries to save him. Kayden comes and finishes off the main torturer Dylan, while the other criminal called Dark flees. - Jiwoo is in hospital at Shinhwa. The doctor says he’ll never be able to use his powers or arms the same way again. Jiwoo’s friends visit him in intensive care. All try to keep a brave face but when they leave, his friends are angry and in despair. - Wooin convinces the Professor to help Jiwoo. While the Professor has no healing abilities, he can help with awakened abilities. The Professor tells Jiwoo that his awakened core was destroyed but he still attempts to treat Jiwoo. - Kayden asks Shinhwa to find out who leaked Jiwoo’s info. - The Baekdu VP secretly investigates the Baekdu President / CEO (and brother of VP) and finds out he’s been dealing with the Group of Flames. They’re an organisation of criminal awakened from different countries around the world. - Shinhwa locate Dark and Chairwoman Jiyoung faces off and defeats him. Dark is imprisoned by Shinhwa. When interrogated by Kayden, Dark asks why did he accept Jiwoo as his disciple. Kayden says Jiwoo doesn’t expect anything from him. - The Baekdu VP outs his brother the President as the one who leaked Jiwoo’s info and allowed criminals into the country. Kayden faces off with him and kills him. - Dark escapes during a transfer and visits Jiwoo but doesn’t kill him. Kayden also lets him go. - The Professor fixed Jiwoo’s arms but can’t fix his core. Kayden asks Curtin, a world ranker renowned for his healing abilities, to fix Jiwoo’s core in exchange for learning Kayden’s force control. Jiwoo declines the offer to be treated but Curtin insists on trying after Kayden agreed to teach him animal transformation. Curtin saw Kayden transform into a cat and thinks this is an extension of Kayden’s abilities, but it’s actually useless according to Kayden. - Jiwoo is healed initially but needs ongoing healing treatments by Curtin. Kayden taught Curtin the technique and he transformed himself into a scrawny white neutered cat. - Jiyoung tells Jiwoo about the Academy starting up again sooner than expected. Jiwoo is ok to participate but he must not use his powers. Sucheon of Baekdu is seeking revenge and will also be attending the Academy again. 5th Arc: - Jiwoo returns to the Academy with Kayden and Curtin as cats. Uninvited guests from the World Awakeners Academy (WAA, an international school of elite bullies) are also there. - Their reps are insisting on a sparring match between the world students and the Koreans. The world students include 2 of the strongest rookies of all, Asher Brian and Duke Grayne. - Principal Seongkik Han reminds all of the instructors that they must hide their Academy’s true strength to avoid being targeted and crushed by the WAA. - The world students keep provoking the Koreans until they get in a fight and badly injure the unaffiliated students. The affiliated ones can’t hold back any more and decide to give their all in the sparring match. The strongest aren’t included on purpose by the instructors. When the first affiliated Korean is beaten badly by a world opponent, the strongest step up to take them on. - Choi Kangseok, Sucheon and Wooin all win their matches. Jisuk and Asher end in a tie. Subin is last against Duke. Jiwoo interrupts their match to save Subin from a killer strike by Duke. Shocked by Jiwoo’s speed, Duke demands a match with Jiwoo in 3 days time. Although Subin was defeated, the Korean academy defeated the world academy overall. - Principal Seongkik Han teaches his force control to Jiwoo before his match with Duke. With his speed, tenacity and strategy, Jiwoo wins with an incredible punch utilising what he learnt. - Another world awakened student Gahin Loutrain arrives with his mythical beast panther Lancelot. (The panther is an awakened animal). Kayden as a cat wins in both encounters against this panther, with Jiwoo pretending to use his animal ability. - Iseul’s white dog Doori from the Mir Group was badly injured fighting Lancelot to protect Kayden and Curtin (in cat form). Curtin offers to heal Doori in exchange for learning Kayden’s cat punch. Curtin uses that punch on Gahin Loutrain who insulted Curtin by calling him an ugly neutered cat. - The world reps try to scout Wooin and Jiwoo to join the WAA but they both reject the offer. The reps approach all of the other strongest students who also refuse. - The world reps decide to destroy the students instead. Dark kills one of them who is targeting Jiwoo. Dark meets Jiwoo to tell him to become stronger as Kayden’s disciple, and that he’s paid back his debt to Jiwoo. - Jiyoung briefly visits the Academy. 6th arc: - Back at Shinhwa, Jiyoung receives a marriage proposal from the Patrick family who have strong awakeners in the top ranks. Veramundt Patrick is in the top 10 and his grandson Julian Patrick is expected to debut in the top 100 in the world. - Jisuk interrupts to oppose the proposal from Julian and he even says Jiwoo is Jiyoung’s boyfriend. Julian disparages Jiwoo and Kayden interrupts, angry that his student is being insulted. - Julian is forced to apologise by his grandpa. Julian challenges Jiwoo to a match, which he accepts to everyone’s surprise. They agree to meet again in a month to have the match. Jiwoo admits to Kayden that he expects to lose the match but he’ll do his very best and learn as much as he can from the experience. - A month later and the match is held at Shinhwa. Julian offers to concede defeat if Jiwoo can lay a scratch. Initially Jiwoo tricks Julian to think he uses electrokinesis like Kayden, then Jiwoo launches a massive speed attack that surprises Julian. - Jiwoo injures his arm, but Julian is pushed back and his clothes are shredded. Julian concedes it was his loss this time. Jiwoo wants to have a rematch when he’s fully qualified to do so. 7th arc: - Dr Kang Yoojung, Jiwoo’s mother returns home briefly. - She’s a pharmaceutical scientist for an overseas company. - She chose this line of work to learn more about Jiwoo’s ability and see if there was a cure. (She saved Dark in the past?) - When Jiwoo tells her that he’s discovered he’s an awakened one, she already knew this through her work. - She decided not to tell Jiwoo to protect him from the very dangerous world of awakeners. After meeting his friends and Kayden, she realises he’s much happier as an awakened one. - Jiyoung drops by with a fruit basket (Jisuk messaged her). 8th arc: - Curtin confirms Jiwoo’s core is fully recovered and no longer needs treatment. Curtin extends his stay with Jiwoo. - Vator, world rank no. 50, is in Seoul looking for Kayden. - Baekdu are threatened by Vator to bring either Kayden or Jiwoo to him, or risk the group being destroyed. Sucheon visits Jiwoo to get Kayden and Jiwoo to meet Vator themselves. - Jiyoung comes to help Baekdu and show the world the strength of South Korea’s awakeners. She fights Vator who uses up too much energy against her. He retreats but is met by Kayden who attacks Vator until he concedes. Vator sees Curtin with Kayden and wants Curtin to remove the scar from his face. Vator keeps asking and Curtin keeps refusing. 9th arc: - Chairwoman Kim Hyeyoung, Mir Group. - Hyeyoung is also Iseul’s grandmother. - Hyeyoung wants to meet Jiwoo and his cats. - Iseul takes Hyeyoung to Jiwoo’s house. The other cats are all over Hyeyoung while Kayden and Curtin as cats remain wary. - Hyeyoung offers to teach Jiwoo how to communicate with animals. He politely declines as he doesn’t think he could handle the responsibility of knowing what animals think and feel. Hyeyoung understands and says the offer is there if he changes his mind. - Principal Seongkik Han receives an invitation for admission to the World Awakeners Academy (WAA). The students invited from the Korean Academy are Jiwoo, Wooin, Jisuk, Soobin, Sucheon and Kangseok. They will be away for about a month. The true purpose of the invitation by the WAA is to analyse everyone’s abilities while breaking everyone’s spirits. - Jiwoo wants to go even though it’ll be dangerous. He’s keen to fight and learn from other awakeners like Duke. - Inhyuk Goo and Seongha Park chaperone the students to the WAA. Kayden and Curtin as cats are also with them. - Kariss Loutraine, WAA principal. - She’s an Elder and head of the Loutraine family. - Lia Eresby, president of the WAA student council. - She’s 1 of the top 10 students at WAA. - Duke and Gahin are friendly with Jiwoo and the others. - Jessica officially challenges Subin to a sparring match which is allowed under the WAA rules. Jessica had earlier provoked Subin and got punched in the face. Subin overwhelmingly defeats Jessica. Subin also issues a challenge to Duke. - Fjord, WAA vice principal - He is supportive of the Korean students. The WAA has become stagnant and reflects the real world of awakeners too much. - Kariss visits Jiwoo in his room to see the cats for herself. She detects the strong killing intent from Kayden and thinks he’s a naturally awakened cat. She asks Jiwoo to give Kayden to her but he refuses as Kayden is his family. She then asks for Kayden’s kittens (!) She later gives Jiwoo some photos of prospective mates for Kayden (!!) - Glant Gesimov, 1 of the top 10 students at WAA - Jiwoo officially challenges Glant to a sparring match. - Glant has impenetrable defence as his strength. - Jiwoo knocks out and defeats Glant by using a powerful combo of super speed and electricity. Even though he lost, Glant knows he gave it his all and has no regrets. - Curtin helps to heal Jiwoo’s injuries from the match. - Jiwoo lets it slip by mistake to Lia that Curtin healed him. - Kariss thinks a cat has awakened with healing abilities. - Jiwoo says he wants to challenge all of the top 10 WAA students. He’s just excited and enjoying the experience. The other Korean students decide to officially challenge the top 10 with Jiwoo. Duke, Asher, Gahin and Glant have already fought with the Koreans. There are 6 WAA students left to match up with the 6 Korean rookies. - Sucheon (gravitokinesis) vs Laura Jenson (ground manipulation) - Wooin vs Jean from Omega (fire control) - Kangseok vs Eley Pikaroon (close combat) - Subin vs Lia (barriers / shields) … interrupted - Fjord suddenly imprisons the WAA staff, Kariss, Inhyuk Goo and Seongha Park behind a special barrier. A criminal trio called Earthquake appears. Fjord and Earthquake are members of the Group of Flames. They plan to kill everyone. Fjord activated another barrier that traps everyone in the stadium. - Jiwoo gets Earthquake to focus on him instead of killing the other students. He is also trying to stall for time until the barriers deactivate after 30mins. The other Korean students join Jiwoo to distract Earthquake. Their teamwork and self sacrifice shock the WAA students who are only accustomed to seeing the strong trampling the weak. There are no true friends or allies among the awakened in their ongoing power struggle. - Kayden in human form arrives just in time to save Jiwoo from Earthquake. Curtin in human form protects the other Korean students. Kayden confirms he is Jiwoo’s teacher. Then he wipes out Earthquake and Fjord for harming Jiwoo. Kayden declares war on the Group of Flames. - Andre from the Group of Flames is a top 10 world ranker. - He arrives to stop Kayden. After rejecting Kayden’s challenges to fight in the past, Andre finally agrees to fight Kayden. - Curtin protects everyone and activates his spatial isolation barrier to minimise the surrounding damage. - Andre and Kayden clash with enormous power. Andre voluntarily stops the fight for now. Kayden declares he is still intent on fighting all of the top 10 world rankers in the Group of Flames. Curtis heals Jiwoo’s life threatening injuries. - WAA is indebted to Jiwoo and Kayden for saving them. - The world students all thank Jiwoo for his bravery. - WAA will close temporarily while they install countermeasures to ensure everyone’s safety. The Korean students will return home early as a result. - Gahin discovers Duke is actually a Group of Flames member. Duke joined them in exchange for learning force control from 1 of the top 10 world rankers. Jiwoo saves Gahin who is badly injured by Duke. Curtin arrives and Duke runs away. - Rost, Schnauder’s disciple & a top 10 world ranker. - In the past Kayden refused to let Rost (and anyone else) be his disciple. Rost attacks the WAA to meet Jiwoo. Roar challenges Jiwoo to a fight. Dark suddenly appears and provokes Rost by mentioning Kayden’s past rejection of Rost. They fight but are interrupted by Kariss and her massive familiar Phoenix. 10th arc: - Subin’s grandfather and head of the KAA. - He only has about 3yrs left to live. Subin’s parents died after they were betrayed by awakened who were their friends and colleagues. He avenged her parents but sacrificed his health to do so. He forbids Subin from seeing anyone outside of the KAA and makes her focus on training and getting stronger. - The Professor treats Subin’s grandpa after Wooin begged him. Then Curtin examines Subin’s grandpa after Kayden and Jiwoo hurt Curtin’s pride in his healing abilities. After a few days undergoing treatment from Curtin, Subin’s grandpa is completely healed. Subin returns to play with the boys and cats. 11th arc: - Kayden warns Jiwoo to maintain control when he’s trying to get stronger by using force control. Uncontrollable power can cause severe internal damage. Kayden teaches Jiwoo how to knock someone out by shocking their brain with electricity. - Ian Patrick, Julian’s younger brother - He warns Jiwoo to be wary of Julian … - Jiwoo is worried when he hasn’t been able to contact his mother Dr Kang Yoojung. He takes Kayden and Curtin (as cats) and visits her home address, but the apartment looks like no one has ever lived there. He visits her workplace at Ohin Pharmaceutical. Jiwoo agrees to go with some men who claim to know where Dr Yoojung is. They drive for a long time then try to kill Jiwoo when he gets suspicious. - Dr Yoojung was hiding the fact she had a son. - She’s been secretly helping awakened test subjects escape? - She’s being interrogated by Layla, a psychic awakened. - After beating up the men, Jiwoo makes one of them take him to Dr Yoojung. He sees his mother’s bruised face and Layla admits she plans to use her psychic ability to extract intel while driving his mother insane. Jiwoo beats up Layla…