* * *

PLOP!

Sinu distinctly heard something like that, faintly, in his ears.

'Cold! It's so cold!'

He felt as though he might scream at any moment. He had no idea where he was, but breathing was growing harder.

Quiet, strange sounds came from all around him. They were almost screams. Not knowing what was happening, Sinu wanted to open his eyes.

Something reached out to touch him. The sensation was so dreadful that the cold pierced his very bones, enough to make him cry.

'Stop!'

He wanted to writhe, but did not move a muscle.

'Don't touch me!'

Just as he felt a distant wave of pain washing over him, someone withdrew their hand. Sinu opened his eyes in alarm.

"Shh."

Realizing it was Hyeonyul, he let out a rush of breath, panting.

"Are you all right?"

At Hyeonyul's words, Sinu looked around with startled eyes. They were somewhere different now. It looked like the inside of a building.

"... What was that just now?"

Sinu's eyes wavered wildly. He had never felt anything like it in his life, and never wanted to again. Nausea struck him belatedly. Feeling as though something might come up, he hurriedly swallowed.

"That's why everyone goes mad when I put them in the darkness."

"... Y-you're constantly feeling and hearing all that, though."

"It doesn't bother me."

"Do you mean you've gotten so used to it that it doesn't bother you? Or are you really all right?"

"I believe it's the latter."

"... Thank goodness."

Sinu felt relief more than shock. Hyeonyul used his power constantly. How terrifying would it be if he had to feel that all the time?

Hyeonyul blinked, then opened his hand. A piece of candy appeared in his palm.

"They say eating something sweet calms you down. I also have cold water. Would you like some?"

"You carry all sorts of things, huh?"

"That's because I'm bad at organizing."

"You just shove everything in there?" Sinu asked, holding the candy.

"Yes."

At the matter-of-fact answer, Sinu chuckled and put the candy in his mouth. Hyeonyul was sloppier than he had expected.

'Now I see why Doctor Jeongmin worries so much.'

Sinu exhaled as the sweetness rolled around his mouth.

"I'm all right now. Go."

"Yes."

Hyeonyul seeped into the wall without hesitation.

Sinu let out a long, slow breath.

'Let's do this.'

He brought up the map. He did not know how fast Hyeonyul would move, but he had to keep up, no matter what.

* * *

As soon as Hyeonyul left the room, he pressed himself against the wall and surveyed the corridor. True to its status as a university hospital, the first thing that struck him was its size. It was so overwhelming that he failed to notice the blood splashed over the corridor, walls, and ceiling, or the bodies scattered along the hallway.

How many villains were spread throughout this place? Getting off work felt impossibly far away.

'Big brother Baek Sinu is extremely important to this mission.'

Hyeonyul recognized Sinu's importance once again. He possessed the power to restrain every villain wandering within Hyeonyul's sight.

'I could just kill them, but the hostages are holding me back again.'

Hyeonyul burrowed into the ceiling and caught his breath. Any enemy would feel fear with their throat held. Wasn't it the most vulnerable part of the body?

'Let's go.'

Hyeonyul darted between their shadows like a fish, pressing the location transmission button whenever he reached the exact spot. As his silent sprint continued in a frantic succession of rooms and corridors, the shadows seemed, for a moment, to stretch out in every direction.

When he reached the end of the corridor, he turned his head. Swords appeared and curled around the necks of everyone who had been wandering about. They stood motionless, stunned.

<See that?>

Sinu's message appeared. Looking at it, Hyeonyul gauged how well Sinu could keep up. This pace was just right.

'What on earth did they take over this place for?'

Hyeonyul wondered briefly, then shifted his gaze. Everyone witnessed a throat being slit the instant someone dared to move. Gradually, he heard people holding their breath and sensed that fear had taken hold.

"Speak, and you die too."

Remaining hidden, Hyeonyul exploited that fear. Hadn't he made the prospect of death perfectly clear?

"Try it if you want to die."

He deliberately sneered.

They must not realize that he and Sinu were Black Eagles. Having killed a Black Eagle, these bastards no longer saw the organization as something to fear. At this moment, discovering that another faction had found them would have a greater impact.

After studying their rigid expressions, Hyeonyul looked upward. To bring an entire building under control, he had to go everywhere inside it. Only then could they get the hostages out safely.

<I'll head upstairs. For now, there are no hostages on this floor.>

<Hyeonyul, you said earlier that you thought there might be someone important here, right?>

<Yes.>

<I'm starting to think so too. These numbers are worrying. What do you think about requesting backup?>

<If backup can come, that would certainly help. But unless we can overwhelm them with numbers, it's better that they don't. All the hostages would die, and whether we like it or not, that would translate directly into the Black Eagles' incompetence.>

As long as the Black Eagles proclaimed themselves to be "good," there was much they had to protect. He found that deeply irritating himself, but what could he do? If they could not coexist with evil, they had to look different from it somehow.

<Our staffing shortage really is... serious, isn't it?>

<It's only natural that no one wants to die. Didn't those bastards make criminals seem like nothing?>

<Right. That's why it's such a relief to have you on our team.>

<I believe this approach is only possible because you're here, big brother Baek Sinu.>

<I can brag about that, right?>

Hyeonyul had no idea why Sinu wanted to brag so badly, but answered anyway.

<Yes.>

<Yes!>

After receiving the reply, Hyeonyul moved.

* * *

Starting on the first floor, everything went smoothly until the very last one. They advanced quickly, and the villains had let their guard down as though a single victory had won them everything. Both the circumstances and the timing were right for catching them off guard.

They encountered hostages here and there, whose condition was as poor as expected. Anyone who needed to come to a university hospital could hardly have been well to begin with. Some could barely breathe from the sudden stress and anxiety, suffering fits as they lay dying.

The villains looked at them like garbage to be cleared away, because of the foul smell that gradually spread whenever another corpse appeared. Even though quite a few hostages were still alive, Sinu showed his anger each time.

Hyeonyul went up to the final floor. As he checked the villains' positions as before, a voice caught his attention.

"... Something's strange."

The speaker sounded as though they had noticed something. Hyeonyul sent his eyes in that direction. It was an examination room. Inside, a woman leaned back in a chair with both legs resting on the desk.

"What is?" she asked her subordinate, waggling her foot.

"They're not responding."

"Responding to what?"

"Their reports are due, but nothing's coming in."

"Leave them be."

After glancing at her subordinate, she reached toward the dead doctor with a knife embedded in the back of his neck.

"Pardon?"

"I said leave them alone. Who did we kill today?"

"A Black Eagle!"

The woman grinned at the emphatic answer.

"Then don't spoil such a happy day. Those bastards are bigger cowards than we thought."

"... Pardon? Cowards? But the warning I've heard most often is to be careful of the Black Eagles."

"Of course you should be careful. That goes without saying, doesn't it? When I call them cowards, I mean they're an organization in the end. One of them died. Who's going to step up? That's practically telling them to commit suicide. Would you do it?"

The woman pulled out the knife and immediately drove it back into the corpse without hesitation.

THUNK!

"I-I would! Just give me the word, whatever it is!"

"Quick on your feet, aren't you?"

She snickered.

"Anyway, leave them alone and just make sure those cripples stay alive a little longer."

"The... patients?"

"Yes. It'll be a problem if they die too soon. Those Eagle bastards have to come back at least once more, don't they?"

"Understood."

As the subordinate bowed his head, intense pain struck him.

DRIP.

Bright red blood fell, and then he felt something running down him.

'Huh...?'

His body collapsed before he could comprehend what had happened.

The woman's eyes shifted, then her gaze rose. Hyeonyul held his dagger at the villain's throat and asked a question. She appeared to hold some rank, at least.

"Who are you?"

The villain burst out laughing.

"Every little nobody thinks they can throw their weight around."

"Don't you know what I'm here to do?"

The villain raised her middle finger and turned her head.

"Fuck you!"

Without a moment's consideration, Hyeonyul slit her throat. Blood streamed down as the villain stared at him, her eyes widening.

A Black Eagle?

Ignoring her uncomprehending gaze, Hyeonyul used the darkness to retrieve her phone.

Asking was the quickest option, but if it failed, he was not without other methods. Nothing supplied information quite as helpfully as a phone. Suppressing the urge to check it immediately, Hyeonyul sent a message.

<Big brother Baek Sinu.>

<Nothing's happened, has it?>

<For now, I've killed someone who appeared to hold a high rank and obtained a phone. Something else briefly caught my attention. I apologize for not informing you beforehand.>

<Why apologize over something like that? You went quiet, so I thought something had happened.>

<I killed two people.>

<Don't worry about that. Let's go.>

<Yes.>

As he replied, Hyeonyul looked briefly at Sinu's message. Any way he looked at it, it seemed like concern. At first, he had been suspicious, believing Sinu was trying to drive him out, but his actions were increasingly at odds with that assumption.

'I don't know what to call this.'

Shaking off the thought, Hyeonyul burrowed through the wall and came out on the other side. Perhaps because this was the top floor, there were far fewer villains here than below. He easily relayed their positions to Sinu.

Only after confirming that swords had wrapped around every villain's neck did Hyeonyul boldly reveal himself and walk among them.

A Black Eagle.

The villains followed his appearance with lingering, startled gazes. Hyeonyul was heading toward a desk to hack the phone when he spotted a villain blocking his path and immediately kicked them. His unhesitating action spattered dark red blood across the floor and wall.

"Figure out for yourselves how to avoid dying."

Hyeonyul disliked repeating himself, so he left it at that and entered the nearest room. They would undoubtedly turn the question over endlessly in their minds: was he really a Black Eagle or not?

Hearing breathing the moment he entered, Hyeonyul walked over without hesitation and reached out. As soon as he caught hold of something, a figure appeared as though color had been painted onto it. The person looked about teenage age. They even wore a hospital gown, but that did not change Hyeonyul's actions. Who knew whether a villain might pretend to be a patient?

"Who are you?"

Drawing his dagger and holding it at the ready, Hyeonyul quietly asked before killing them. Huge tears suddenly began spilling down their face.

"... P-please spare me."

"Tell me who you are."

"... Hic."

"Crying won't solve anything. If you still refuse to answer after I've asked several times, there's only one conclusion I can draw."

As Hyeonyul's dagger drew closer, the patient squeezed their eyes shut and spoke.

"I'm a patient here. It's true! I really am... a patient!"

"Can you prove it?"

Nodding at his question, the patient rolled up a sleeve and showed him their arm. There were marks from numerous injections.

The patient raised their head to urge him to look, only for their gaze to fix on one spot. They saw the eagle emblem.

'... A Black Eagle?'

Could it be real? The look in their eyes as they regarded Hyeonyul changed.

"Are you a Black... Eagle?"

"Yes."

At his matter-of-fact answer, the patient burst into tears again.

Hyeonyul watched quietly, focusing on his sense of smell. Long-term narcotics use could certainly ruin someone's arms. He smelled various medications, but no narcotics.

'They really are a patient.'

Having finished checking, Hyeonyul released them and bowed his head.

"My apologies."

Then he walked to the desk. As soon as he sat down, he took out his laptop and set it on top.

"A follow-up team will come to rescue you, so stay here for now. All the villains have been subdued, but if you wander outside, you'll see some unpleasant sights."

As he informed the patient of the situation, Hyeonyul connected the phone he had brought to the laptop.

"... The villains came out of nowhere. They suddenly stormed in. They grabbed people at random and k-killed... killed them."

The patient broke off and covered their mouth. Their expression suggested they had barely managed to suppress the urge to vomit.

"Villains always come without warning. No villain announces their arrival."

He stopped short of saying that villains ordinarily killed everyone without any regard for hostages. Even he thought that would be inappropriate for the situation.

"... Why didn't you come sooner?" the patient asked, sniffling.

"Do you blame us?"

"That's not... I just... I'm sorry. I was scared. I was so scared, that's why."

Burying their face in their hands, the patient trembled.

"People were dying, and I heard screams. I didn't know what to do, but a nurse told me to stay here. ... I don't know what happened to everyone. I have a power like a chameleon's that lets me blend in with nearby objects, so I hid here, but they kept coming in, looking for someone. So... every time, I thought I was going to die..."

The patient could not continue. Tears pooled in their palms.

"Wait a moment. Did you just say the villains were looking for someone?"

That was one detail Hyeonyul could not let pass.