The Cat and the Null
“Go back.”
Just before the girl’s feet could move, Sion issued a warning to the girl standing before him.
“In my eyes, you’re still too young. If you’re planning on killing me, come back when you’re an adult. I’ll consider facing you then.”
“I can’t do that.”
The girl’s eyes flashed, and she gripped her dagger tightly as she spoke.
“I have a reason why I absolutely have to catch you, mister.”
“You could die doing this.”
“You’re just a civilian, yet you have a lot of confidence against someone holding a blade, mister.”
Whoosh—!!
Without a moment’s hesitation, the girl thrust the dagger in her hand forward.
The blade sliced through the falling rain.
However, because Sion had moved a step back to dodge, the dagger failed to pierce him.
It was a split-second evasion.
“I’m willing to let this slide if you turn back now. Do you have any intention of leaving?”
“Don’t get cocky just because you dodged once.”
The girl’s attacks aimed for Sion once more.
Every single strike was a lethal blow aimed precisely at his vital points.
Those attacks rained down on his body at high speed, without a moment’s rest.
But.
They didn’t reach him.
No matter how much she attacked, the blade only pierced the empty air; it couldn’t even graze his skin.
And all he was doing was moving his feet a few steps.
‘A civilian is at this level?’
She had thought dodging the first attack was a coincidence.
But a coincidence happens once; it doesn’t happen this many times.
In other words, the fact that this man was dodging her attacks meant it was his own skill.
‘He’s definitely not a fellow killer.’
The file she received from the company stated clearly that this man was an ordinary civilian.
If he were a killer, she would have found him in the company’s registry.
Then why was this man...
“You seem to have done enough. Why don’t you turn back now?”
“Ugh!”
Sion grabbed the girl’s wrist, blocking the dagger that had been flying toward his heart.
“I told you. You’re still young.”
“Shut, up…!”
The girl, having barely managed to shake off Sion’s hand, tried to stab him again.
Sion didn’t defend, even though the blade was almost right in front of his nose.
The girl was certain the attack would succeed this time, but…
Sion kicked her hand with precision, sending the dagger flying far away.
“Agh……!!”
“Well, if you want to keep going, I can keep playing along. Though it would be better if you just went home.”
Sion desperately hoped she would just leave, but the girl, seemingly having no intention of quitting, pulled another dagger from her coat and gripped it in her other hand.
“I can still, do more…?!”
“Haa……. You’re a girl who really doesn’t listen.”
The girl, clutching the dagger, lunged at him once more.
Sion, convinced that if he didn’t end it here she would keep attacking all day, decided to finish it.
At last.
“Just get some sleep.”
“Ah….”
In an instant, Sion snatched the dagger away and struck the back of the girl’s neck with the edge of his hand.
Struck in the neck, the girl collapsed helplessly.
Looking at her lying unconscious on the street, Sion let out a long sigh.
“What are they thinking, sending a girl like this…”
Sion was quite troubled.
Judging by her earlier behavior, it was obvious she would keep chasing him until she killed him, but…
He didn’t have the heart to kill a child who looked, at most, sixteen years old.
But if he left her like this, the air was cold from the heavy rain, and she would surely catch a cold.
“…Haa, I don’t know.”
No matter how genius her talent was, a child was still a child.
Judging that he could easily subdue her whenever he needed to, Sion hoisted the unconscious girl over his shoulder.
He was taking her home.
“You’re lucky, kid.”
Sion walked through the alleyway, and after walking a bit further, a villa appeared.
It looked as if no one lived there, with not a single light turned on.
Sion entered the password, stepped inside, climbed the stairs, and opened the door to unit 202.
The house contained only the furniture necessary for daily life.
Sion laid the still-unconscious girl on the sofa and pulled out a blanket to cover her.
Then, he changed out of his rain-soaked clothes and sat in a dining chair, waiting for the girl to wake up.
Even then, the girl showed no signs of waking.
With nothing better to do, Sion sat quietly and watched her.
‘…Anyway, I was a bit flustered earlier so I couldn’t get a good look.’
Looking closely, she was a truly beautiful girl.
The dim light filtering through the ceiling illuminated her porcelain-white skin, and long eyelashes covered her closed eyes.
Her face still held the roundness of youth, but that alone held a certain beauty.
If the prettiest cat in the world turned into a human, would it feel like this?
Regardless, he thought her appearance didn’t suit a killer at all.
“Well, let’s just wait until she wakes up…”
***
Some time passed.
The girl, having regained consciousness, lifted her eyelids on the sofa.
What followed was the memory of being knocked out by the man she had tried to kill.
As soon as the memories surfaced, the girl searched for the daggers in her coat, but…
“Looking for these?”
Naturally, Sion had already recovered them all.
“Who… are you?”
“Isn’t that a question I should be asking? You’re the one who got caught.”
The girl shut her mouth at the undeniable truth.
Even so, the gaze she fixed on Sion was sharp, not dead in the slightest.
“Not scared? Don’t you think you could die?”
“If you intended to kill me, you would have done it earlier. And you wouldn’t have brought me to this house.”
“Haven’t you considered that I might kill you after getting information?”
The girl pointed toward the kitchen with her finger and spoke.
“I know you live alone. But the meal you prepared is for two. Didn’t you make it for me to eat?”
“You’re shameless, but sharp. You’re right. I have no intention of killing you.”
Sion picked the girl up and sat her in a dining chair.
Then he brought over utensils and placed them in front of her.
“Eat and go home. If you want to kill me, come back when you’re an adult. I’ll face you properly then.”
At his unexpected behavior, the girl looked at him with a confused expression.
“…Why are you doing this?”
“Hm?”
“I’m the person who tried to kill you. But why are you letting me sleep here and giving me food?”
“Your guarded look is no different from a cat.”
Sion chuckled and sat down as he continued.
“…Just because. When I was around that age, there was no one by my side to hold me back. That’s why.”
Hearing his words, the girl looked down at the utensils.
They were very ordinary, simple dishes, but… strangely, the weight of the utensils pressed down on her whole body.
“…Don’t act like an idiot.”
She muttered the words.
However, Sion heard her and asked.
“What’s idiotic?”
“Doing things like this. Bringing the person who’s supposed to kill you into your house, making them food, and sending them back. Caring about a kid like me……”
Her words and actions were truly just like a stray cat.
Thinking that, Sion didn’t react much and began to eat.
“Idiotic or not, I’ve already brought you here and made the food. I was going to throw it away anyway, so you can just eat. I didn’t poison it.”
“…….”
The girl didn’t speak for a while, then picked up her spoon and took a bite of rice.
The warmth of the rice spread through her mouth.
At the strange feeling of warmth spreading deep inside, the girl swallowed the rice with an unreadable expression.
“……It’s not tasty.”
“Then don’t eat it.”
“You said you were going to throw it away. That’s a waste.”
The girl pulled the rice bowl toward her and continued to eat.
Small droplets were dripping from her cheeks.
“So, what’s your name?”
“…I won’t tell you.”
“You won’t even tell your name to the person who saved your life and gave you a meal?”
After a moment of silent contemplation, the girl opened her mouth.
“……Garam. Yoon Garam.”
“A pretty name that suits your face.”
“Shut up.”
“You’re like that even when I give you a compliment. How old are you?”
“…Fourteen.”
Sion was surprised inwardly at her younger-than-expected age.
He knew she was young.
But it was because she had that much talent at only fourteen years old.
“You’re young. Did you come here after training at Obelisk?”
“Yes. But now I can’t go back. Because I couldn’t kill you.”
Certainly…
If she came from Obelisk, that would make sense, Sion thought.
It was a company that killed the killer who received the contract if they failed to assassinate the target.
“Then do you have nowhere to go?”
“…Yes. I don’t have a family either.”
“Hmm…”
If Obelisk sent Garam to him, it meant they intended to kill her from the start.
Sion thought for a moment before making a decision.
“Then do you want to live with me?”
“With you, mister?”
“Yes. You said you have nowhere to go anyway.”
“Can you even afford to feed me?”
“I have enough money for that, and I also have the ability to help you operate on your own once you’re an adult.”
Sion, having finished his meal, stood up from his seat.
“Follow me.”
“…What should I trust you with?”
“If you don’t want to, don’t. I was going to show you something cool.”
At the mention of showing her something cool, Garam followed Sion with a face that suggested she was giving in just this once.
‘As expected, a kid is a kid.’
After leaving the entrance and going down the stairs, there was an ordinary basement door.
When he opened the door lock and went inside, a state-of-the-art door with a completely different feel than the villa appeared.
Sion scanned his fingerprint, then brought his face close to the iris scanner, and only then did the door open.
And what appeared inside was…
“Whoa…”
The interior of the basement was filled with state-of-the-art firearms and a training ground capable of various drills.
Garam, who never imagined such a space would exist inside an old villa, opened her eyes wide and looked around the basement.
“Mister, what is your true identity? No matter how I think about it, a civilian having that level of skill and a space like this… I can’t understand it at all.”
“Curious?”
Sion smiled and ripped off the latex mask he was wearing.
Then, his real face was revealed.
At this, Garam’s pupils widened to a size incomparable to before.
“You…”
It couldn’t be helped.
The man’s face revealed before her was…
Because he was the person who once wrote the legend at Obelisk.
“You…?”
The retired S-class killer, code name Null.
He was in front of Garam.
“Now you know I have the ability to feed you, right?”