Ami brushed the blood off her dress.

The creature hunt had just ended. Fifteen minutes earlier, she had received word that creatures were converging on her adoptive father Choi Jeseok's residence. She had been reading beside his sickbed when Ska called, and had rushed out of the main house.

There had been plenty of creatures, but the fight was brief. Riccardo and Ska were there too.

"Sorry to drag you out on your day off."

As impeccably dressed as ever, Ska gave Ami an easy smile.

"That dress looks good on you."

"Thanks. And it's fine. If anything, I should thank you for helping kill the creatures swarming my family home."

"The big shots threw another party, did they?"

Riccardo sneered as he watched luxury cars zip past the creature corpses.

Darkness had fallen. Streetlights illuminated the road, and the cool night breeze tossed their hair. A-Tech's security guards directed the cars leaving the mansion.

The day was drawing to a close. The gathering was over, and the creatures were dead.

Watching the guards' glowing traffic wands, Ami answered.

"Yeah. The highest of high-profile guests."

"Could've been quite a sight if we'd let the creatures reach the mansion instead of killing them..."

"Don't be so cynical, Ric. Besides, a few did get past us. Looks like they slaughtered them inside, though."

Ska looked toward the annex, a small shape at the edge of his vision.

His smartwatch relayed a message that all the creatures headed for the annex had been killed. He didn't bother raising his wrist to check. He knew full well that the elders' agents were in the annex. The highest-ranking elders' agents, at that.

The hunt would have been over in less than five minutes.

What had they discussed with those dangerous people?

As Ska stood gazing uneasily at the annex, Riccardo asked him a question.

"About Hildebert..."

Ami and Ska turned their heads.

"He's in there right now, isn't he?"

Ami and Ska reacted differently. Her already round eyes grew rounder still, while he closed his eyes and let out a small sigh.

Ami was the first to respond.

"You really like Hilde, don't you, Ric!"

Riccardo raised his eyebrows, his brow furrowing. Ska burst into hearty laughter at his comrade's reaction.

The sharp scent of blood from the creature corpses swept past their clothes on the wind. None of the cars leaving the mansion opened their windows.

"I've never seen you take this much interest in a junior."

"Is he just a junior? He's some mystery guy who fell out of a portal... And if he got invited in there, he's anything but ordinary, one way or another."

"You even said you'd go on his next mission with him. Why so prickly?"

Still smiling, Ska teased his close friend.

Riccardo gave him a crooked smile without relaxing his furrowed brow. Then he sighed in concession.

"The way he plays suicide squad reminds me of someone..."

Ska and Ami knew exactly who that "someone" was.

The Badger who could barely remember Hilde's name despite having gone on a mission with him. Every Badger knew that Jonathan Kudo was Ska and Riccardo's perennial headache.

Ska laughed, then let his smile fade a little.

"And you're any different?"

Riccardo deftly ignored the pointed remark. The green-eyed man slipped his weapon, now shaped like a snake, onto his finger and changed the subject.

"I'm not the only one who asked... I hear Walker and Richard requested missions with Hilde too?"

"Whoa! Really?"

"Well, yes."

Ska readily confirmed it.

"They'll need Yun's permission, though. Ric, you're only going on this mission with Hilde because Yun approved it. A training officer still has the authority to decide a new recruit's missions."

"Did he approve Richard's and Walker's requests? My youngest brother really never says anything. I had no idea."

"He hasn't decided, but he wasn't enthusiastic. Said he doesn't much like sharing what's his."

Riccardo let out a breathy, incredulous laugh. Ami laughed merrily, saying that sounded just like her brother.

The strengthening wind drowned out their voices. Almost no cars were leaving the gates now.

Watching his comrades' reactions with a faint smile, Ska spoke.

"Walker's request surprised me. He's never asked to go on a mission with anyone before, has he? Ami, you were on that mission too, right? Did something happen between him and Hilde?"

"No..."

Ami tilted her head thoughtfully too.

"I don't think anything in particular happened with Walker..."

"Richard says he's going to teach him to shoot..."

"Oh, right. Richard gave Hilde a quick shooting lesson on that mission."

"Apparently he seemed like he'd never fired a gun before?"

"Yeah. Poor Hilde."

Ami pitied the new recruit.

"I don't know about Walker, but Richard's way too hardcore."

The air had grown cold. Ska took off his jacket and draped it over Ami's shoulders. As she smiled and thanked him, Riccardo took a cigarette from his pocket.

The green-eyed man put it between his lips and deftly lit it with his lighter.

"Yehyeon sent you away, didn't he, Ami?"

The blunt question emerged with a cloud of white smoke.

Looking entirely unhurt, Ami nodded.

"Yeah."

"If even you were sent away, the guests must be the sort of people who make your life difficult just by knowing them... So why take Hilde to a place like that?"

"Don't dig any deeper, Ric."

Ska's warning was easygoing but firm.

He was the commander-in-chief's first aide, and served as acting commander whenever his superior was absent. His flexible yet steadfast nature had earned him the assessment "dull to his very core" from Eric, who liked unhappiness. Ska was a master of being firm without losing his easy manner.

"Dig deeper, and your life will get difficult, just as you said."

Instead of answering, Riccardo exhaled a long plume of smoke.

They stood in silence for a while, watching A-Tech's security guards finish clearing up.

Ska broke the lingering silence.

"He's a smart junior. I'd like to see him build his career safely and become one of our successors."

"In senior leadership?"

Ami raised her head to ask.

Ska nodded, his gaze fixed on the annex.

"You can't tell because he's so green, but he'd do well in a leadership position. It's been a while since a junior struck me as a good fit for senior leadership, so I've got a soft spot for him. I'm trying not to show it, though. It might put pressure on him."

"You don't show it at all! This is the first I've heard that you're interested in Hilde too."

"Good. That's not something you should let show."

Ska smiled handsomely, looking pleased at Ami's words.

"Not to him, or to the other Badgers—"

SCREEEECH!

The piercing squeal of tires cut Ska off. All three whipped their heads around at the earsplitting noise.

A sports car shot through the gates at a ludicrous speed and screeched to a halt in front of them. Its door was flung open, and a familiar figure leaped out.

Yun stepped out, his black coat flapping, and scanned his surroundings with a murderous expression.

"Have Yehyeon and Hilde come out?"

His voice was ominous.

The Badgers shook their heads in unison. Accustomed to confronting one crisis after another, they instinctively went on high alert.

Yun spat out a vicious curse and looked at Ska.

"It's that bastard's doing."

"With Falcon here?"

Ska understood him at once. His voice was taut with tension.

"He's never done anything with him present."

"Which means Falcon's gone home."

Yun sounded as though he were barely holding down his seething rage.

"I'm going to find them. Contact Samuel and call an ambulance."

"I'll call him now."

"I seem to be the only one with no idea what's going on... But it looks like questions should wait..."

Leaving Ami to suppress her anxiety and pull out her phone, and Ric to mutter darkly as he dialed 119, Yun wheeled around and strode back to the sports car.

His flapping coat vanished from sight in an instant. Before he could close the driver's door, Ska asked stiffly,

"The tracker?"

Rather than answer, Yun flicked his fingers.

A tiny chip flew into the air, glinting in the streetlight.

SLAM!

The car door slammed shut before the chip even hit the asphalt.

Ska ground his teeth at the sight of the tracker that had been implanted beneath the skin of Hilde's finger.

The sports car roared into motion.

VROOOOM!

Drowning out every other sound, it sped off, leaving tire marks on the asphalt.

Riccardo came over and picked up the tracker. Seeing the flesh clinging to it, Ska raised his head and let loose a string of vicious curses.

They did not hesitate.

The Badgers split up, running in three different directions.

* * *

My head hurt.

Worse than when the memories had come flooding back. A slightly different sort of pain... My body felt heavy, and I could barely open my eyes...

What was this? Had I drunk myself into a blackout?

But I didn't remember drinking...

I struggled for a long time to pry my eyelids open. Tried to move a body as heavy as waterlogged cotton.

Strange. My hands didn't seem to be free. And I wasn't lying down. I was sitting somewhere, legs together and hands pulled behind me.

Like a bound hostage...

"Hah!"

I came to my senses.

Sensation flooded in.

Trying to ignore the splitting headache, I narrowed my barely open eyes. I could see now.

But not properly. Objects swelled and shrank before my eyes. A sharp knife stretched out, then shrank back again...

A knife?

My mind cleared a little more.

I drew in a breath as I looked at the gleaming blade and the person it was pointed at.

"Jaeyeon!"

My urgent shout came out dry and cracked.

These were clearly the aftereffects of a drug. The throbbing headache, the constantly warping vision.

But I couldn't spare any attention for that.

"Stop!"

"You're awake?"

The man turned to look at me and smiled. His long eyes curved like a fox's.

It was a chilling sight. A handsome man down on one knee, holding a sashimi knife and smiling prettily. And someone lying unconscious beneath him.

The unconscious man was in a horrific state. His shirt was so soaked in blood that none of its original white remained, and huge nails had been driven into his ankles and wrists. His torn jacket lay on the floor, and his shoes were nowhere to be seen. Blood-matted hair covered his pale face.

And his body lay utterly still.

The scene of brutal violence left me speechless. I couldn't even muster a proper response when Jaeyeon smiled and said, "I've been waiting ages."

My returning memories had told me how dangerously violent Jaeyeon was. Even in the past, Colton had been the only one who could control him. He hated everything, himself most of all. His whims, his exceptional talent, his violence—all were kept in check only by the reins Colton held. Thanks to that, I had never truly witnessed Jaeyeon's violence in its rawest form.

Colton always set boundaries. Jaeyeon stayed just barely within the lines he drew.

At least, that was the Jaeyeon I remembered.

But now...

"Well, I did get to blow off some steam thanks to that."

"Yehyeon."

I called to him hoarsely.

"Yehyeon?"

Silver filled my vision.

Jaeyeon had brought the smooth blade up before my eyes. Showing me the flat rather than the edge, he cut Yehyeon out of my view. Golden eyes reflected in the polished blade.

After staring into my own vivid yellow eyes, I slowly raised my head.

And met Jaeyeon's gaze.

"You should be focusing on me."

Jaeyeon's eyes curved into narrow crescents.

"We have so much to settle between us."