This Doesn't Seem Like It'll Work
“This… doesn’t seem like it’ll work.”
What was the problem? Even if I asked, the real issue was that she had no idea there was a problem to begin with. Danger’s single album Overcome was a rap track built around the theme of love as salvation: in a cruel and painful reality, you alone are my savior, and I’d do anything for you. Tasha’s part was meant to be the heroine’s answering song, the “you” replying to Danger.
But when I listened to her lyrics, they were full of destruction—smashing, tearing, ripping things apart. The worst part was how she delivered those violent lines in an even softer, more delicate tone than usual. The mismatch wasn’t just unbalanced; it was downright grotesque. It was still very Tasha, sure, but these lyrics were completely wrong for the song no matter how I looked at it.
“What do you think?”
“It’s exactly like you, Tasha.”
“You mean it’s weird, right?”
“Wouldn’t you agree? The person who requested this song definitely didn’t want something like this.”
“I suppose…”
“This isn’t it~ It’s supposed to be a love song.”
“Weird.”
Worried I might be too narrow-minded, I asked the other members. They all shared the same opinion. Of course they did—there was no room for debate here.
I waved Tasha over and told her honestly that this wasn’t going to work.
“I do not understand.”
“What don’t you understand?”
“The other party declared they would overcome all hardships and devote everything to me. I responded that I would step forward and resolve the problems myself. What exactly is the issue?”
“The vibe of the song, that’s what. This isn’t warrior and female warrior. It’s warrior and princess.”
“Hmm. Old-fashioned. In this era…”
“Exactly. Make it more tender and lovely. Imagine someone really loves you that much and write what you’d want to say to them.”
Tasha listened to my request, thought for a moment, then shook her head.
“To be honest, I do not know.”
“Know what?”
“The very concept of being loved does not resonate with me at all. I cannot imagine it.”
“I see…”
Well, if she’d been active duty at that age, it made sense she’d have zero dating experience. The problem was I was in the same boat, so I had nothing useful to tell her. Whether in my previous life or this one, I’d never had the chance to experience those soft, fluffy emotions.
In that case, maybe the members could—
“Dating experience? As if we’d have any.”
“Didn’t any of you even have a school fling? You all went to school normally, right?”
“What are you talking about~ I’m a proper, modest girl~”
“Dropped out. No school days.”
Yeah, this was hopeless. With faces like theirs, if none of them had ever even had a crush, I had to wonder what they’d been doing with their lives. Then again, I wasn’t exactly one to talk.
“Looks like I can’t help after all. Call me again once the song’s finished.”
“Me too~ I need to practice the request song I’m uploading today~ Good work, Yeri-Yeri and Sasha~”
“Acting practice. Jiyu is calling.”
As soon as the topic veered this way, they all started sneaking off. So I was stuck helping Tasha alone? Me, whose own romantic emotions had atrophied years ago. This was awkward.
Deciding this really wasn’t going to work, I changed tactics.
“Look, affection doesn’t have to be romantic, right? Friendship is… pretty different, but if a parent taking warm care of you counts as affection, then it does. If you recall any feelings like that from the past, maybe something will come to you?”
“Even if you say that, there is nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Correct.”
“Why?”
“Asking why will not change the fact that there is nothing.”
What was with this girl? Hadn’t she come to Korea to avenge her mother? She wasn’t an orphan, yet she claimed she had never been loved. For a moment I couldn’t help feeling something was deeply wrong. It simply didn’t make sense.
And when Tasha continued her explanation, even I couldn’t suppress a sigh of pity.
“To Mama, I was… a blade. A weapon to eliminate that man in her place.”
“That man being…”
“Sergey. It would be easier to explain him here as my biological father.”
“I see…”
“Therefore Mama was… far closer to an instructor than a mother to me. As far as I can remember… she never once hugged me.”
“What the hell happened?”
The story was so far outside common sense that I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Instructor? Blade? And the target was her own father? This was next-level family dysfunction.
“Do you know about the ‘Moscow Bloodbath’ from the early superhuman era?”
“No. That was before I was even born, wasn’t it?”
“True enough.”
The early days of the superhuman era, roughly twenty years ago, when Russian superhumans began forming groups and evolving into warlord factions. The United States decided Russia’s transformation was too extreme and would harm the international order—specifically the American-led order—and attempted to intervene. They dispatched special forces to Moscow and requested military support from neighboring allies. Both Korea and Japan sent superhuman units in accordance with American wishes.
The result was catastrophic. Most of the superhumans from all three countries were killed in action. No one achieved their objective. That was the Moscow Bloodbath Tasha had mentioned.
“Mama was a member of the Special Task Force dispatched from Korea. Tragically, after barely surviving, she became Sergey’s trophy.”
“The Korean government obviously denied sending troops.”
“That is what I heard.”
“Then the man you call your father, this Sergey…”
“He is Sergey Rubeloff, owner of Chyornyy Buryy Medved, one of Russia’s three major warlord factions.”
“…He’s a massive figure.”
After the operation failed, the United States, Korea, and Japan all denied sending troops. The same happened to Tasha’s mother. Abandoned by her country, she became the war prize of Sergey Rubeloff, leader of one of the three victorious warlord factions. And that was how Tasha was born.
“Sergey is an arrogant man.”
“Is he?”
“Even when Mama threatened that if she failed, her child would surely kill him, he did not kill her.”
“Huh…”
“Instead he was delighted, apparently. He gave his illegitimate daughter the surname Rubeloff and the middle name Sergeyevna.”
“Sergeyevna means ‘daughter of Sergey,’ right?”
“Correct.”
“And your mother just accepted that? Weren’t you two on bad terms?”
“She accepted it deliberately. To turn the foolish Sergey into a man who would fall for Sergeyevna.”
“That’s pretty twisted.”
So after failing her mission and being abandoned by her country, she bore the child of her enemy, then trained that child—Tasha—to take revenge on Sergey, who also happened to be her father. Something like that. The more I heard, the more horrifying it became. At this point, Tasha’s claim that she had never experienced love made perfect sense.
“So you trained from childhood?”
“Yes. My awakening came very early. I was nine, I believe. While training basic stamina, I awakened suddenly. Yes, I remember now. That was the first and last time I saw Mama smile. She was pleased that my rapid awakening meant I could become strong quickly.”
“…I see. Did you by any chance catch a brown bear when you were ten or something…?”
“Ah, there was an incident like that. You may not know, but Chyornyy Buryy Medved means…”
“Black brown bear, right?”
“Correct.”
It was real? I’d thought it was a joke. Tasha’s strength was utterly abnormal. Even with active-duty experience, it was strange. The fact that she could compete with me—a ten-year veteran regressor—at her age, plus those impossible physical specs. But if she had been raised from the start as a biological weapon for revenge, it explained a lot. She had awakened young and then endured continuous, brutal training.
“Then the organization you belonged to…”
“Russia’s Ryitser. The equivalent of Korea’s Special Task Force.”
“Because of the revenge your mother spoke of?”
“Yes. In Russia, it was the only place without warlord influence.”
“So…”
“But it held little meaning. Sergey was far too famous. I can only imagine how my declaration that I volunteered to kill him sounded to them.”
Ryitser had accepted Tasha despite knowing she was Sergey’s daughter. Perhaps because her abilities were outstanding. Perhaps to use her as a double agent. Or perhaps to confirm she was a spy and keep her under surveillance. She had faced considerable discrimination within Ryitser, openly or otherwise. It was only natural. Ryitser’s greatest enemy was the warlords, and Tasha was the daughter of Sergey, head of one of the three major factions. While her goal was to kill Sergey, it was questionable whether her vow to murder her own father had sounded sincere.
“What about your father’s side…?”
“I have never met the man even once. After conceiving me, Mama herself never saw him again, she said. He did not even care when she occasionally visited Korea.”
“Neglect.”
“If it had been otherwise, would Mama have been able to give me such training?”
“That’s true.”
To simply allow a woman to openly train her daughter to kill him… I couldn’t decide if Sergey was bold or completely insane. His attitude had probably made Tasha even more suspicious. It was hard to understand by any normal standard.
Still… Sergey of the Black Brown Bear. The name sounded familiar. In my first round, things had gone to hell because of that man…
“Hey, even later on, were you planning to follow through with your mother’s revenge?”
“Probably. My abilities are still insufficient, but that is the reason I continue to live.”
“Did your mother leave any other requests?”
“Yes… After killing Sergey, she asked me to plant the Taegeukgi on top of him.”
“Ah, I see.”
Damn. It was real.