A Friend's Tears
"I'm fine, Chaerin."
Chaerin's sudden arrival had caught me completely off guard.
The moment I sensed her presence through my puppets, my heart had leaped into my throat.
I had anticipated the police showing up eventually, sure.
But I never expected Chaerin to track me down this quickly.
Then it hit me—I had forgotten the sheer utility of her abilities.
She was an S-rank space-type Hunter. Tracking someone down based on the spatial distortions left behind in an area was child's play for someone of her caliber.
I seriously underestimated her.
Even from here, I could feel the raw, desperate output of mana she was using to find me.
If she realized I had intentionally let myself get kidnapped just to clean up Axion, I would never hear the end of it. I had kept this whole operation a secret precisely because I knew how she would react.
If I got caught now, things would get incredibly complicated.
"Guys, back inside!" I hissed, rushing down to the second floor and opening the gate to the Puppet Workshop to recall my forces.
The puppets filed back into the portal in a swift, orderly line.
Once they vanished, only Oh Jaehan remained, sprawled limply on the floor.
He was completely unresponsive, though the faint rise and fall of his chest told me he was still breathing. I could deal with him later. Right now, I had a bigger problem.
CRASH!
The entire building shuddered as the outer wall exploded inward.
A massive, gaping hole—wide enough for a car to drive through—shattered the concrete, sending chunks of debris and twisted rebar flying into the air.
Beyond the dust cloud, a young girl stepped through the void, her pitch-black hair whipping wildly around her as if caught in an invisible updraft.
The very space around Chaerin was beginning to fracture like brittle glass.
An S-rank space-type Hunter. The sheer weight of that title pressed down on the room, suffocating and absolute.
"Yuna."
Chaerin's eyes locked onto me. Then, her gaze dropped to my chest.
Because Oh Jaehan had shredded the front of my clothes earlier, my upper chest was completely exposed.
The moment she saw that, the fury in her eyes flared into a raging tempest.
The surrounding walls began to fold and crumple like scrap paper under the pressure of her mana.
Her wrath was directed at a single target: Oh Jaehan, lying unconscious on the floor.
It didn't take a genius to figure out who had done this to me.
"You absolute piece of trash."
With a venomous curse, the space around Oh Jaehan began to violently compress. She was going to crush him to death right then and there.
Before I could even think, my body moved on its own. I threw myself in front of Oh Jaehan, spreading my arms wide.
"Chaerin, stop! Don't do it!"
My spider puppet materialized beside me, adding its bulk to the barrier between them.
Seeing me and the spider block her path, Chaerin flinched. Her eyes burned with a mixture of rage and confusion as she screamed, "Yuna, get out of the way! Look at what that bastard did to you!"
"Chaerin, I'm fine! Look at me, I'm okay!"
"But he kidnapped you! He did this to you!"
Chaerin was an S-rank Hunter. Perhaps, in the distant future, a day would come when she would have to take a life with her own hands.
This world was far crueler than I cared to admit, and society would constantly push and pull at an S-rank Hunter like her. It was inevitable that she would eventually face a trial where she had to choose between life and death.
But even so...
No matter what the future held, right now, Chaerin was only fourteen years old.
A first-year middle schooler. She was far too young to bear the weight of taking a life, an age where she should still be protected by adults.
If she were an adult who had to take responsibility for her own choices, I wouldn't have stopped her. To survive in a world like this, there were times when you had to make ugly choices. I knew that better than anyone.
Even today, I had briefly debated whether to kill Oh Jaehan myself, and the scale had tipped heavily toward his demise.
But I had already lived a full life. Because I knew how heavy that burden was, I didn't want a child her age to carry it yet.
I was doing all of this so these kids could have a bright, normal future—not so they could walk a twisted path stained with blood.
Slice. Slice.
The spatial pressure radiating from Chaerin's fury was so intense that tiny, shallow cuts began to open on my skin.
Yet, I didn't take a single step back. I stood my ground, determined to keep her hands clean.
Realizing what her aura was doing to me, Chaerin hastily began to rein in her mana.
But in that brief moment of hesitation...
Scritch.
A sharp sound echoed from behind me.
Perhaps realizing he was dead anyway if he stayed still, Oh Jaehan—who had been feigning unconsciousness—suddenly bolted upright, his eyes bloodshot and wild.
It was a desperate, final gamble.
Whoosh!
He hurled a dagger straight at me, cloaking it in his invisibility skill mid-flight.
His stealth lasted for three seconds. Even after leaving his hand, the blade would remain completely invisible for that duration.
The spider puppet lunged forward to intercept it, but the residual spatial pressure from Chaerin's mana slowed its movements. Having spent all its energy shielding me from the pressure, the puppet couldn't move fast enough to block the trajectory.
I had dismissed my other puppets into the workshop to hide them from Chaerin. Even if I summoned them now, the delay would be too long.
If I try to dodge...
I could probably avoid it. It was a blind throw from a man who had already been beaten to within an inch of his life; there was no way he could aim with proper strength or precision.
But if I dodged, the blade would fly straight toward Chaerin.
Her spatial barrier would likely deflect it, but I couldn't risk that "likely." If she or the spider failed to react in time, the consequences would be catastrophic.
If so, then...
I knew the general trajectory. I twisted my torso and raised my shoulder to meet it.
Thwack!
The blade bit deep into my shoulder. A sharp, searing pain tore through my skin and sank into the muscle, and warm, crimson blood immediately began to soak my clothes.
A split second later, the spider puppet slammed into Oh Jaehan, pinning him instantly.
"Yuna!"
Chaerin screamed, rushing toward me as my knees buckled and I collapsed to the floor.
"...Chaerin, I'm fine."
"How is this fine?! Look at you! How can you say you're okay?!"
Tears welled in Chaerin's eyes. To keep them from falling, I forced a weak smile through the sweat and pain on my face.
"So... don't kill him. I don't want my friend to become a killer because of me."
My words finally reached her. The suffocating spatial pressure around us dissipated completely. She scooped me up into her arms and took off into the air, desperate to get me to safety.
Perhaps because this small body didn't have much blood to spare, a wave of dizziness washed over me, and my consciousness began to slip away.
In the distance, the wail of sirens echoed through the air. Watching Chaerin's panicked face, I let my eyes drift shut.
Inside the abandoned building that served as Axion's hideout, Kang Yongchan was pacing back and forth, waiting for Oh Jaehan's call.
What was taking so long?
If that bastard failed after making such a massive fuss, he was dead. Kang Yongchan would use his family's connections to hire every high-ranking Hunter he knew to bury him.
Just as his impatience was reaching its peak...
Screeech!
The harsh sound of tires squealing echoed from the street outside.
Kang Yongchan hurried to the window. His face paled as he saw a fleet of police cars pulling up, officers pouring out and rushing toward the old building.
He realized, with a sinking feeling, that something had gone horribly wrong.
No way. There was no way.
"Y-Yongchan, is that the cops? Why are they coming in here?" Hwang Seonghyeok stammered, panic finally setting in.
Kang Yongchan couldn't find his voice. No matter how mature he tried to act or how cruel his tendencies were, he was still just a fourteen-year-old boy. The situation was spiraling far beyond his control.
Within moments, the police burst into the Axion clubroom.
"Kang Yongchan. You're Kang Yongchan, correct?"
"There he is."
The lead officer identified him immediately.
"You are under arrest for solicitation of aggravated assault, kidnapping, blackmail, and the organization and activity of a criminal group."
"W-What?! Why are you arresting me?!"
"We have already secured the logs and evidence of your communications and instructions to Oh Jaehan."
The moment Oh Jaehan's name left the officer's mouth, Kang Yongchan's jaw dropped. He couldn't utter a single word of protest. The realization that his life was ruined finally crashed down on him.
Though a brutal legal battle lay ahead for him and his parents, that was their problem. The immediate fallout of the incident slammed directly into Hunter Middle School.
A middle school student hiring a criminal to kidnap and attempt to murder a classmate—and the culprit being the heir to Yongho Mulsan—was a recipe for a massive public scandal.
The news media ran front-page stories on the incident, and video sharing platforms exploded with coverage. Public opinion quickly turned hostile, sparking fierce debates online.
With a Hunter Middle School student at the center of such a heinous crime, the school was blasted for its lack of supervision. Soon, the criticism expanded to the entire Hunter community, with critics painting them as morally bankrupt and prone to violence.
Arguments flared up online, claiming that because Hunters were trained to kill monsters, they had no qualms about killing humans, and that legal regulations on Hunters needed to be drastically tightened.
Hunter organizations tried to mitigate the damage, pleading with the public not to generalize, but their voices were drowned out by the outrage.
Naturally, the firestorm swept back to Hunter Middle School. Once it was revealed that Kang Yongchan was part of an illicit student circle called Axion, the school was accused of turning a blind eye to delinquent gangs.
Despite the administration's excuses, the evidence of Axion's existence was undeniable. Ultimately, the police intervened, leading to the forced summons, disciplinary action, and official disbandment of the circle's members.
It was a chaotic, whirlwind of a week.
And while the storm raged outside, what was Ha Yuna doing in her hospital room?
"We are withdrawing you from that school immediately."
"M-Mom! No, you can't!"
I was currently clinging to my mother's arm, desperately begging her not to pull me out of Hunter Middle School.