A Suspicious Hand Extended
Twenty skilled fighters whose affiliations I couldn’t identify at all. On top of that, my teammate Yu Hana was acting just as shady. When someone I couldn’t trust suddenly showed up leading a group like this, I couldn’t help but stay on edge. Truth be told, this scene itself was my weakness. Whether they were villains or not, they’d slaughtered over a dozen people. If it were someone I could trust completely, maybe it’d be different, but Yu Hana wasn’t that person to me. Even if she came here with good intentions, I had no choice but to react sharply.
“...What are you doing here?”
“Aww, Yeri Yeri~ Don’t be like that. I couldn’t help it either~”
“Cut the sweet talk.”
“Listen, okay? Seoseo suddenly started moving this way. That’s weird, right? Seoseo never goes anywhere except the company building or the hardware store nearby. But then even Yeri Yeri came this way.”
“So?”
“So I looked into it, and there’s this abandoned factory that’s been shut down for years. The previous owner ran off in the middle of the night, and the new owner who showed up has a murky background. Something smelled fishy, so what could I do? There’s no way I’d miss out on something this interesting, right?”
“Ha...”
“But... did I get here too late? The atmosphere’s already wrapped up, huh?”
There wasn’t a single thing that didn’t feel absurd. I had no idea where to even start pushing back.
“How the hell did you know Ji Seoeun was here? And me?”
“Our Seoseo? Hehe~ Well, there are ways to know everything, you know?”
The first thing that came to mind was a tracking device. Or maybe some location app installed on her phone. But it didn’t seem like something that simple. Yu Hana had only started taking an interest in me recently, and if she’d planted a tracker on my body, I would’ve noticed. I’d never given her an opening to mess with my phone either.
“Don’t tell me... it’s your superpower?”
“Dehet~”
So in the end, it was her superpower. Only a superpower could produce results that made no sense otherwise. Thinking about it, that “Beautiful Voice” superpower of hers was strange too. It just meant her voice was pretty, right? Superpowers came in all shapes and sizes, but this one felt completely out of context. I was already scamming people with my “Beauty” ability, yet I hadn’t realized hers was a scam either. Even if something felt off, everyone believed her because her voice was just that sweet. Even I’d been fooled into thinking it was a real superpower. Her ability probably had something to do with electronic devices—hacking, maybe, or something more complex. Whatever it was, it clearly let her track team members’ locations instantly. That explained where she was getting all that information.
“Ha, you really...”
“Yeri Yeri~ So let’s calm down first. We’re not like that with each other, are we~”
Yu Hana suddenly revealing her superpower to me was probably meant to ease my wariness a little. Some kind of weakness exchange? Her own way of showing she had no intention of becoming my enemy.
“But... Yeri Yeri’s fine, so why is our Seoseo wearing something weird? This won’t do. We need to get inside quickly. Our Seoseo’s skin might get damaged. Looks are part of an idol’s competitiveness, you know.”
“Get inside?”
“Yep yep, leave the cleanup to me. I showed up late, so I’ll make sure everything’s spotless. Yeri Yeri~ You don’t trust me?”
“No, what am I supposed to trust?”
“Wung~ If you’re gonna be like that, I’m hurt. Still, I came all this way to help you and Seoseo.”
“Ugh.”
She was really difficult to deal with. In situations like this, the cleanup was often more important. If the aftermath was sloppy, problems could come up later. But outright refusing here felt awkward too—she was extending a hand in her own way. Of course, Yu Hana was an extremely strange person. Even now. There were multiple corpses right here, yet she was chatting with me like it was nothing. That wasn’t normal. But I couldn’t just cut her off either. With her skills and reputation, she wasn’t someone the team could afford to kick out. And since I had this “error” on me, I couldn’t easily give up on being an idol either. That meant we’d be working together for years, so constantly keeping her at arm’s length was ridiculous. Plus, this incident was pretty big. I couldn’t just erase everyone here to destroy evidence. If I were still in the Special Task Force, maybe, but I was a trainee now. If I wanted to avoid another regression, I probably had to debut somehow.
“Fine, whatever. I’ll leave it to you then. But it has to be clean.”
“Yep yep, don’t worry. Cleaning’s my uncles’ specialty.”
“Uncles... Right. Got it.”
I decided to take a gamble. It didn’t feel entirely right, but she hadn’t tried anything shady yet, and she’d been pretty friendly for a while now. I chose to trust that and go straight through. I couldn’t keep living in constant anxiety. So I took the hand Yu Hana offered. If she wanted to stay on good terms with me going forward, she’d handle these little things herself. The most important thing—Dr. Oh’s laptop—was already gone, so there wasn’t really anything left to hide here anyway. If this became a problem... I’d deal with it then. There was still too little information to make any solid judgments.
“There’s a car outside. Take that.”
“...Right.”
“Yep yep. See you tomorrow~”
Yu Hana was Yu Hana to the very end. She even waved as I left. From now on, she’d probably be the most troublesome member to deal with in the group.
***
“Whew, they’re gone. They’re gone.”
“What kind of terrifying girl is that...”
“Look at these cut surfaces.”
“Whoa... She’s a real pro.”
“How can she still look so fresh after making this mess?”
“Means she completely dominated them.”
Once Na Yeri left the factory, the men who’d been holding their breath let out sighs and shook their heads. Her presence had been overwhelmingly intense. Even Yu Hana had been a little tense. She hadn’t expected the situation to be this bad. She’d only moved because something felt off—how could she have known a massacre was happening? The one most on edge had been Jeong Seo-cheol, the “One Flash” uncle who’d come along as her escort. If things had gone wrong, he would’ve been the one facing Na Yeri directly. Even now, he was staring at his beloved weapon with a stiff expression, stroking it.
“Uncle, were you nervous?”
“Honestly, I almost drew my sword. But...”
“But?”
“Even if I had, I couldn’t guarantee I’d be able to protect you safely against her.”
“Hehe~ Really? Our Yeri’s really something, huh.”
“Is that girl really an idol trainee?”
“Why? Just looking at her face, it screams idol. Oh, right, you had it covered.”
“Even just the visible parts were impressive, but...”
Yu Hana chuckled to herself about how impressive Na Yeri was, then asked Jeong Seo-cheol again.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you this tense, Uncle. Who was it last time...”
“Heracles, you mean?”
“Ah, right. Heracles. How does she compare to him?”
“The feel is a bit different, but... even if Heracles were still active, I wouldn’t have been confident in an easy victory.”
“Oh, really?”
Code name Heracles. A special combat superhuman from the Superhuman Bureau’s Special Task Force who only dealt with superpowered violent criminals. Though he’d retired this year, he’d been active right up until the end, and every major wanted criminal had been crushed by him. He was like a suppressor for the back alleys. There was even data showing that violent crime rates in Seoul’s underworld had risen noticeably after his retirement. And yet even Heracles wouldn’t have an easy time against Na Yeri. Her teammate was apparently a much bigger deal than she’d thought.
“What on earth is she? Uncle, do people completely change when they burn out?”
“Mental issues are mysterious, but even so, can a person really change that completely?”
“Exactly. It’s so strange, right?”
So it started around the debut audition? Her long-time trainee colleague had suddenly become a different person. Before, she’d been like a wary stray cat, but at some point she’d started looking down at the world with the languid, bored eyes of a well-fed tiger. And even when full, a beast was still a beast—if something provoked her, she’d radiate such a terrifying aura that even Yu Hana, who prided herself on having seen everything, felt chills down her spine.
“Well, maybe it doesn’t matter. This is more fun anyway.”
If someone asked whether she disliked it, the answer would be the opposite—she liked it. Watching Na Yeri radiate killing intent with those beastly eyes made something deep inside her tingle, like hot energy welling up. And yet she was also adorably docile most of the time, which was its own kind of charm. There was no stimulation more thrilling or fresh than watching Na Yeri in her otherwise boring daily life.
“Is there really a reason to form a team with someone that dangerous?”
“Aww, why? It’s only just getting fun now.”
“What if something happens during activities...”
“That won’t happen. Only people on my level can even sense it—normal people wouldn’t notice at all. Ah, maybe the other teammates would? They’re not normal people either.”
Killing intent and aura weren’t things she radiated openly for just anyone to feel. It only registered if someone was at a certain level. And as long as you didn’t provoke her, she was docile, so there shouldn’t be any problems during activities. Except for a few areas, Na Yeri actually had a pretty wide range of tolerance. In that sense, she really was a well-fed tiger. Besides, if you looked at it that way, this team was already doomed. What kind of idol group members...
“That’s what makes it even more fun, though. I only started this trainee life as a way to kill time, but I never expected it to get this interesting.”
Anyway, for her own enjoyment, she needed to stick with Na Yeri for a long time. To do that, she had to clean up today’s mess properly. Actually, getting to share something more intimate with Na Yeri through this incident was a good thing. She’d been tense, thinking she might really die when Na Yeri started radiating that aura, but in the end, the other girl had taken her hand.
“Uncle~ There’s a bloodstain over there. Clean it up nicely for me~”
“Yes, Miss!”
“And it looks like some of them got away. Did you find them?”
“Yes, I’ve already sent people to the location you specified, Miss.”
“Make sure there’s no loose talk afterward. Understood?”
She wondered what Na Yeri would say when she returned after cleaning everything up so neatly. Would she be surprised, or would she accept it as natural? She kind of hoped Na Yeri would be shocked enough to widen her eyes.
“No, she probably doesn’t even have time for that right now. She’ll be busy talking to Seoseo.”
Thinking about Na Yeri whose outfit was about to burst because of Ji Seoeun somehow lifted her mood.
“Ah, just thinking about it is thrilling. It’s a shame I can’t witness it directly, but we’re moving into the dorm tomorrow anyway. Somehow I’ll make sure to room with Yeri...”
She needed to finish this annoying task quickly and head back to start packing. If she was moving into the dorm tomorrow, organizing her things was essential.