You Can't Fool a Beast's Nose
Tasha watched the blur of Na Yeri’s retreating back vanish in an instant, then threw her head back with a booming laugh and shook it in disbelief.
“Puhaha. As expected… so this is how she plays it.”
“Stop enjoying yourself so much. We don’t have time. We should get out of here quickly.”
“True. So you are… Seong Jiyeong, correct?”
“Yes. That is correct. Then would you take my hand now? Teleportation requires physical contact.”
“I suppose it does. But before that…”
Right before their hands met, Tasha summoned a clone with her superpower and sent it sprinting in the opposite direction from where Na Yeri had fled. Once she left the area, the duplicate would only be capable of the simplest commands, but that would be enough to buy them a little time.
“Why go that far? You only met her today, didn’t you? And she’s clearly a suspicious person hiding her identity.”
“Ah, you did not know? That is Na Yeri.”
“Na Yeri? You mean the Na Yeri on our team? The only one with a normal sense of taste?”
“Yes. That Na Yeri.”
“She was wrapped up so thoroughly—how could you possibly tell? And do not say something ridiculous like you conversed with your fists.”
“You are strange. How do people converse with fists? Conversation is conducted with words.”
“…My apologies.”
It was an oddly principled statement coming from someone who behaved the way she did. Seong Jiyeong clicked her tongue, feeling as if she had been slapped, but the next words out of Tasha’s mouth forced an internal I knew it from her.
The answer was even harder to accept than the idea of fist-based conversation.
“I cannot help but know. You may deceive my eyes, but you cannot deceive my nose.”
“…Are you a beast?”
“This conversation has grown long. Let us go now.”
“If you are going to dodge the question like that… fine. Let’s go.”
With their hands clasped, Seong Jiyeong and Tasha disappeared from the scene in the blink of an eye.
A table sat forlorn in the now-empty space. Seong Jiyeong and Tasha sat facing each other, quietly enjoying teatime.
“Have some of this. You exerted yourself quite a bit, so you must be feeling parched.”
“Sujeonggwa. I like it very much.”
What Seong Jiyeong offered her was a glass of ice-cold sujeonggwa. Tasha, impressed by how perfectly the other woman had read her tastes and prepared accordingly, accepted it with genuine pleasure and took a slow sip.
“This is excellent. I have never tasted such a clean sujeonggwa before.”
“Of course. I prepared it myself.”
It was crisp, sweetly refreshing, with a refined bitter-spicy aftertaste that lingered elegantly on the tongue. In fact, it was more refined than any version Tasha had tried before. She had suspected the girl came from a well-off family, but even her palate was on another level.
“Where is this place?”
“One of the safe houses I prepared in advance. Even teleportation has distance limits.”
“Impressive… Your preparation is thorough. No wonder you operated for years under the name Golden Roll.”
“There is no such thing as a free lunch in this world.”
“That is true.”
After savoring another sip of the drink and letting a brief silence stretch, Tasha asked bluntly.
“The fact that you brought me here means you have a clear objective, does it not?”
“Would saying I could not simply ignore a teammate’s crisis be insufficient?”
“Did you not just say there is no free lunch in this world?”
“Ah, I did. Yes, you are right. I did have an objective.”
“What is it?”
“To recruit you, obviously. I do not know your goal, but if our objectives do not conflict, there is no reason we cannot cooperate.”
“Cooperate… That is certainly true.”
“So I would like to ask. What exactly were you searching for in Yeongdeungpo?”
“My objective…”
After a short pause, Tasha decided to speak honestly. She, too, keenly felt the need for an ally. Had Seong Jiyeong not appeared today, she would have found herself in considerable trouble. No matter how she looked at it, their goals did not seem to clash significantly, so borrowing the other woman’s strength was not a bad idea.
“What I seek is the enemy who took my mother’s life.”
“Mother… you mean your mama?”
“Correct. She was visiting Korea briefly when she lost her life here.”
“So it happened in Yeongdeungpo.”
Her mother, who had come to Korea, had died in an accident in Yeongdeungpo. Tasha had entered the country to find any trace of what happened and had been turning over every stone in the district to uncover the truth. Yet from Seong Jiyeong’s perspective, she could not understand why Tasha had been beating members of Storm half to death. If she wanted to know the circumstances of an accident, the sensible thing would have been to approach the police or the security forces.
“This ‘accident’… was it actually murder?”
“Yes. Mother would not have gone quietly, so there must have been a major disturbance. The warlord controlling this area would naturally know the inside story.”
“Disturbance… Could your mother have been a superhuman?”
“Though it was long ago, she once served in Korea’s Special Task Force. She was the one who taught me how to fight.”
“Then there really must have been a huge incident. But I have never heard anything about it. Yeongdeungpo sees a lot of trouble, but this still feels strange.”
“I only meant to gather information, but the man insisted he knew nothing and attacked me instead. I had no choice but to demonstrate my ability.”
“I see.”
If an incident had occurred in the back alleys of Yeongdeungpo and Storm had buried it, it made sense that neither the security forces nor the police would have proper records. The real question was why Storm had gone to such lengths. If complicated circumstances were involved, this might prove more difficult than expected.
“Did your mother leave behind any special message? Why had she come to Korea?”
“I can guess what you are suspecting, but it is probably not that. After giving birth to me, Mother lived only in Russia. Her visits to Korea were at most once every few years, and even then she simply visited her hometown in Yeongdeungpo for her maternal grandmother’s memorial. There was nothing that would have entangled her in strange affairs.”
“So the chances are high it was simply an accidental incident. But in that case we will not obtain proper information. It is even possible that Storm truly knew nothing.”
“I think so as well. Still, is it not the right of those left behind to struggle and grasp at anything they can?”
“That is true.”
“And the more you squeeze men like that, the more something eventually comes out. Even if it is not something big but trivial, I would like to obtain at least one clue.”
Tasha also believed her mother’s death had been close to an accident, so she kept in mind the possibility that Storm held no significant information. The back alleys of Yeongdeungpo were frequented by many transients, and her mother had always become unusually sentimental upon returning to Korea. She had likely drunk quite a bit. Even so, the way they had feigned complete ignorance was infuriating. At the very least they should have shown some sincerity before she could accept it.
“What I want is information. If an enemy exists, then revenge as well. How about it? Is it worth joining hands with me?”
“It does not conflict with my objective. However…”
“However?”
“I am not sure if the scales are balanced. If your mother’s death truly was an accidental incident, the matter is simpler than I expected. What I intend to do is far grander and more complicated.”
“Interesting. Then what is your objective?”
“To reduce the number of villains who commit serious crimes with superpowers as much as possible.”
“That is truly boundless.”
An obviously impossible goal. When Tasha’s gaze cooled, Seong Jiyeong hurriedly offered an excuse.
“I know it is impossible for crime to disappear from the world. I only mean to do what I can. If I can reduce their numbers by even one, the number of innocent victims will decrease even slightly.”
“That is one way to see it.”
Tasha did not think Seong Jiyeong’s goal was bad. It was simply absurd. Still, if more people like her existed, crime might decrease even a little. She gave a willing nod.
“Then let us do this. An infinite time limit would indeed be endless, so we set a limit. While we form a team together, I will help you with your goal as well.”
“Really?”
“In exchange, if the situation allows, assist me with my revenge. Nothing has surfaced yet, but since I plan to remain in Korea for some time anyway, something will come of it.”
“Then it is settled.”
In this way, Tasha and Seong Jiyeong resolved to work together for a time, each for their own purposes.
This was exactly what Na Yeri had wanted. But the situation began to flow in a strange direction…
“Your ambition is excessively large. To at least make it look feasible, you will need more comrades.”
“Finding trustworthy people is not easy. Besides, since we will be operating illegally, there are more than one or two things we must be cautious about.”
“True. In that case, what about your current teammates? We discovered a fine prospect today.”
“Current teammate… You mean Na Yeri?”
“Yes. Someone of Na Yeri’s caliber would make an excellent asset.”
Having arrived late at the scene, Seong Jiyeong had not witnessed Na Yeri fighting firsthand. She had heard the girl fought Storm alongside Tasha, but was she truly skilled enough to warrant a recommendation from Tasha?
“Is Na Yeri’s ability that outstanding?”
“You did not see her fight?”
“No. Something urgent came up, so I joined later than planned.”
“I see. Before the warlord of Yeongdeungpo interfered, she fought me bare-handed for over ten minutes. It was an unfair battle, truly. My specialty is boxing, yet she handled weapons far more skillfully.”
“That is impressive.”
If she had fought Tasha on equal footing for ten minutes, she was undeniably skilled. Tasha was suspected of belonging to the Russian special unit Ryitser, so the fact that a mere idol trainee could display comparable ability was significant.
Yet that only made her more suspicious. Considering Na Yeri’s profile—becoming an idol trainee at thirteen—her current level of skill was simply impossible to explain. No matter how capable she was, joining hands with someone untrustworthy was out of the question.
“Skill is important, but trust is even more so, is it not? Yet with Na Yeri…”
“What is the problem?”
“The problem is that there is nothing. No information at all on how she acquired such ability.”
“Is that so? Strange. Could she have belonged to a special unit whose identity cannot be revealed?”
“But she has been a trainee since she was thirteen. No unit in Korea would permit that kind of parallel life.”
“Then it truly is strange. She clearly possessed considerable real-combat experience. How is that possible?”
“No, you cannot ask me that, Tasha. You were the one who recommended her.”
Though something felt off, Na Yeri’s skill was undeniable. The two women’s doubts about her could only grow deeper.