Chapter 14 - First Day On The Job

Chapter 14

~

"Mrs. Chambers, I think you may want to take a look at this."

Victoria was just about finishing up some paperwork before lunch when one of her closer subordinates entered her office, raising an eyebrow when he placed a laptop in front of her.

"What do you mean?" She hummed as gathered the somewhat scattered documents into neat stacks.

"These clips are apparently footage taken from a game called the [Gauntlet of the Underworld] which most of the VR testers were invited to a couple of days ago."

"Mhmm."

"Yes. Although I said invited, they were explicitly threatened with unknown consequences were they to deny and or ignore the summons. After numerous participants eventually escaped multiple reports were filed against that digital space, enough of them to be taken seriously."

"Really? It got to that point? That's a bit surprising, I suppose the 'cyber police' moved out then. I honestly cannot fathom why they haven't given up yet. Expelling 'evil' from the digital world is a fool's errand as long as there are profits to be made."

The 'cyber police', rather than a specific group, was a term 'lovingly' assigned to people that stuck their noses were they didn't belong a bit too often for various reasons. They had frequently stepped on the toes of multiple organisations that quickly came to see them as an eyesore, eventually gathering enough attention to warrant a whole separate list of people directly banned form certain territories and establishments.

If recognized they were practically hunted down on the spot by those who's interests were threatened or opportunistic people after the bounty on their heads funded by those organisations, the total bounty amount depending on the degree of how much of an eyesore they were seen as.

Well, 'dead', in a relative sense. 'Hits' in the VR world were considered completed after submitting video footage of killing their target once unless specifically stated otherwise.

Whether that would now change after taking into account the tentatively pending program allowing others to kill through VR was debatable, but the most likely outcome.

"A few of them did, however the game had ended before anything actually substantial came off of their involvement in this case."

"I see." Victoria mused whilst storing the now neat stacks of documents into their respective drawers. Turning her attention to the laptop once she was done a few moments later, her subordinate continuing his explanation in the background as she booted it up.

"Upon first joining the digital space which was locked into [Daredevil] participants were subsequently forced to partake in a tournament where they had to fight to the death, somewhat reminiscent to gladiator fights taking place in coliseums."

"While I suppose that it is moderately interesting, I fail to see why you have brought it to my attention. According to your words it's already ended by now right?"

"Yes Ma'am, it is as you say. However, I happened to find something I think you'd be rather concerned about."

"Which is?"

"Press play, please."

"...Roy. You know I trust you, but if you're cutting into my lunch which doubles as my 'mess with my children time' for nothing then I'm going to be quite cross with you. I hope you're aware of that." She sent a look of warning his way, her subordinate remaining unpreturbed in the face of her gaze.

"Crystal clear, Ma'am." He responded succintly.

"Alright, if you're that confident. Let's see what surprises you've got in store for me." Victoria shrugged hearing him, angling the screen towards her as she relaxed back into her comfy chair and pressed started the video.

A couple of matches went by, Victoria's nonchalance persisting despite the quite viscious display of bloodshed showcased in the video, her steely eyes watching on with a degree of indifference most wouldn't think she possessed after seeing how she acted her children.

"Roy?" She called during the third match, one of her hands lazily propping up her chin the other one idly rapping against her desktop.

"Very soon, Ma'am." Was his immediate response.

And true to his words, as the participants of the fourth match appeared inside the arena Victoria's eyes shot wide open.

Immediately darting upright in her seat she sat at full attention as she leaned closer to the screen to confirm if she was seeing things correctly.

"...Is that little Nana?" She muttered a few seconds later.

"If not, someone that strongly resembles her, yes."

"Oh, yeah. You went to guard Jonah back when he met her, didn't you?"

"That's right."

"Do you think it is her?"

"Based on the following matches she participated in, I'd wager yes."

"..."

Victoria's brows slightly furrowed when she heard his words and proceeded to skim every single match the girl participated in. Towards the end of her lunch she arrived at the last one, the clip ending after the Nana, or her uncanny doppelganger, swiftly dispatched a dark skinned woman after a noticeably lengthy staredown.

Victoria sat and processed the information whilst idly skimming through the fights again, eventually randomly pausing on the scene of her standing over the 'snake'.

"That girl..." She leaned back in her chair, letting out a tired sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Something wrong, Ma'am?"

"I-... No, it's just..." Another sigh escaped her.

"I had thought that you were rather enamored with martial arts? Even the young master's love for fighting was due to your interest influencing him, no?

"Yes, well. I know that. I just... I'm not sure about how to react. Considering her performance in the tournament and the fact that her face is now out there, I'm a bit worried about what sort of consequences it could have."

She had met the girl multiple times before and throughout the entirety of their first meeting, which didn't last very long granted, she discovered more than a handful of quirks which made Nana stand out from others.

Victoria had been focused on finding out what Somchai had been alluding to during their conversation but didn't find anything in particular that would help the girl pick out her undercover agents beyond what in her eyes was an obsessive interest in martial arts surpassing even hers.

It wasn't until she had one day boredly rifled through the gym's surveillance footage and stumbled upon Chang-hoon and the girl immersed in a gruelling 'training session' the average person would've called torture in disguise that it clicked.

Now, whilst Victoria herself wasn't even close to the monsters she had hired as teachers, she was an adept fighter and possessed extremely keen eyes courtesy of consuming countless hours worth of martial arts paraphernalia, occasionally subbing in as an instructor for newbie agents, and the innumerable meetings she'd held meeting all kinds of people.

Through sheer repetition, whether you wanted to or not, you eventually started picking up on more subtle things.

A tug of the sleeve here, a cracked knuckle there, someone shifting in their seat, another casting a discreet glance at either an ally or enemy.

By now it just came to her naturally.

Although just the idea itself being borderline outrageous, she had gone back to compare older footage of the girl with her theory and the more she watched, the more likely it seemed to be despite how impossible it sounded.

The final nail in the coffin was when she had personally gone to meet the girl and test her conjecture, which unbelievably enough turned out to be true.

Despite the placidly dull air she often emitted, the girl must've been the most terrifyingly perceptive person Victoria had ever met.

It made her carefully nurtured people reading skills look like kiddy stuff in comparison.

It was even to the point that if someone had told her the girl possessed intuition based superpowers she'd almost believe it.

That wasn't the end of it though.

Not only could she read others like a book, she was also able to practically instantly replicate movements with a frightening accuracy.

And although Victoria had now figured out the 'what', she was still completely stumped on the 'how', and with Somchai still playing hooky regarding anything concerning the girl's ability, she had eventually given up.

The only reason she had even continued pursuing a more detailed answer was purely because of her own curiosity either way.

At least now she knew why Somchai had changed his mind solely because of the girl.

Anyhow, although she wasn't extremely close to the little girl partly because of time constraint and partly because of how guarded she seemed to be, not outwardly, but she could see that despite not looking it, the only person in the gym she really trusted was the old man she'd arrived with.

However she had been slowly but surely warming up to both Jonah and Vanessa thanks to the frequent contact over the past two years and since they had also gotten attached to the girl she couldn't just sit still now that she knew about it.

"Roy."

"Ma'am?"

"Have someone keep an eye on the forums. If anything pops up involving little Nana notify me immediately."

"Understood."

"Also. She looks too used to killing, you ran a background check before you brought her here back then, right?"

"Of course."

"And?"

"Nothing that majorly stuck out. She had arrived at the gym she was staying at 6 years before the young master happened upon her and although I didn't manage to find anything prior to that, I'm fairly sure that she's developed that particular trait during her stay here."

"How so?"

"Do you remember the instances used during the testing phase of the VR visors?"

"..."

"You don't think..."

"I'm fairly confident, Ma'am. According to surveillance footage she was quite eager for a fight during her first day at the gym but the desire was quick to taper off the following days and didn't come back, instead taking to physical training. It may have been a coincidence but considering we know that she had a VR device on hand combined with such a sharp change in behavior it is certainly a possibility."

"Hmm..."

"By my estimates, if she substituted about 8 hours of sleep in exchange for time in VR every day on top of choosing the coliseum instance, which is very likely based on previously displayed behavior, and then selected the [Daredevil] difficulty, she has spent, give or take a couple dozen hours, roughly 5800 hours in total fully immersed in an environment meticulously fashioned to resemble that of a permantently active battle royale."

"Those are only rough estimates however, she may have even been spending 10 hours each day rather than 8 in which case those 5800 hours gets bumped up to around 7300 hours."

Victoria felt a full body shiver run through her as Roy finished his analysis. She wanted to deny it as an impossibility, but when it was Nana they were talking about, something like that suddenly didn't seem so impossible anymore.

"A few of the guards had also apparently experienced a very minute but still noticeable presence of bloodlust hanging onto her when happening upon the girl the next day, something those that had previously met her all confirmed wasn't there initially."

"..."

"...Disregarding speculation, personal evaluation?"

"Extremely dangerous and rapidly growing more so by the day but currently not towards anyone of importance."

"Chances of that changing?"

"Ranging from near non-existent to practically non-existent as long as she remains unprovoked, if her behavior so far continues to remain consistent then I'd describe her as fairly withdrawn and passive unless interacted with."

"I see... I... I'm speechless really. Either way, just... keep an eye on her. Intervene if it looks like some dipshit is about to set her off. At a distance. Don't tip her off if you can help it, that girl is sharper than a knife."

"Understood."

...

Nana spent the rest of that day going back to her old habits and went on a hunt for sparring partners willing to take her on, an endeavor made infinitely more difficult thanks to her reputation of punching even with Chang-hoon during their sessions.

She'd had no luck until the man himself appeared about an hour later, the two quickly launching into another one of their lessons shortly after.

It didn't even take Chang-hoon more than a moment to discover the oddness, by now they had sparred so much against each other that even the slightest detail would stand out.

Well, actually stand out that is.

Chang-hoon and Somchai had already, though still incredulous and jealous to various degrees, accepted her rapid growth as the norm, meanwhile Nana would most likely just spot any oddities in general regardless of if she knew the person or not with just a glance either way.

"What's up with you? You're slow as shit." Chang-hoon backed off after the first exchange and asked with a confused frown hanging on his face.

"Training..." She eventually responded in a flat tone of voice after a brief period of blankly staring ahead as she mentally continued to adjust to the added weight she felt pressing down on her.

"Training? What training?" His confused frown deepened before he walked over and snatched her wrist, finding her arm, and her whole body upon closer inspection, trembling in exertion. The girl coated with a thin layer of sweat.

"You sick or something? Or were you working out before I got here?"

When the girl sluggishly shook her head in response Chang-hoon was quick to snatch up the back of her sports top and then proceeded to drag her out of the gym. He ignored the handful of curious gazes he gathered on the way watching an instructor pulling the limp girl through the door.

Though Chang-hoon had never seen the girl anything close to sick the past two years he knew that if she were to get sick, the most likely scenario would be the girl completely ignoring it and continuing with her usual routines regardless.

However, that would only slow her recovery if she actually was sick and like hell he was going back to those boring ass training dummies after being so spoiled by his disciple. Not only did she never quit, she eventually even managed to match himself in a spar, and then, apparently unsatisfied by such a glorious achievement, she even went ahead and surpassed him without his permission.

Although he was kind of peeved at her ridiculous rate of progress, he also wouldn't have it any other way.

The 'him' of now would've easily kicked the shit out of the 'him' before he met the girl and that in itself said something considering that he had already begun slowly stagnating in his progress back then.

She was like an ever-growing, indistructible training dummy that not only fought back but also constantly forced him to improve if he didn't want get completely run over.

So. The girl remaining in optimal physical condition was of utmost importance, hence why he wasn't taking any risks.

He pretended not to acknowledge the small, very small, very, very small. Extremely small. Sense of worry he absolutely did not feel.

...

"So? What's wrong with her?" Chang-hoon eventually gruffed out after running out of patience, leaning against the wall of the medical wing with his arms crossed.

"I have barely had the time to inspect her visually you uncouth racoon, do you believe it feasible for me to completely discern every single symptom, instantly know the cause and then subsequently conjure up a remedy in the span of 2 seconds?" Dai Hui replied derisively despite remaining focused on looking over the girl.

"So, you admitting that you're a quack?"

"I normally wouldn't even deign your pathetic attempt at ridicule with a response since I thought that you, if anyone, would know how little such a comment would mean to someone who truly knew their craft, but it seems that you aren't quite as confident as you'd like to portray yourself to be if in your very small mind you at some level recognize it as an insult."

"You talk like a grandpa."

"Very likely."

"That coat makes you look like a clothing rack."

"I would rather not hear fashion advice from someone with streaks of urine yellow through their hair."

"..."

A tense silenced accompanied by a light scent of gunpowder suffused the room following their back and forth, the air gradually gaining a suffocating heaviness.

Chang-hoon's fierce features slowly pulled into a grim scowl while his eyes narrowed dangerously, Dai Hui's face remaining neutral as he unperturbedly continued working completely ignoring him.

The next short while was filled with a weighty quietness only broken up by Dai Hui's occasional prompt for Nana to follow.

It was only when a set of hurried footsteps quickly approaching from further down the hallway was heard that the agitated atmosphere dissipated.

Chang-hoon clicked his tongue in annoyance whilst Dai Hui let out a sharp scoff.

A few seconds later the door was slammed open by a panting Yama barging into the room, having been notified as Nana's guardian when she was taken to the medical wing.

"What happened?" He asked worriedly, chest heaving up and down as he entered closing the door behind him.

...

A lengthy examination later the three of them stood on the side directing a flabbergasted gaze at the girl wondering how the hell she managed to get even more ridiculous.

Dai Hui and to a lesser extent Yama were obviously the more bewildered than the third person present when they discovered that she could somehow trick her body into behaving as if she was wearing a weighted body suit.

Although they were aware of the frankly ridiculous degree of control she possessed over her body, this, decidedly, was no longer something that could be attributed nor explained away with just that.

It wasn't just that she was constantly tensing her muscles, Dai Hui could find practically no differences between her current state and that of someone working out at all.

Their attempts to coax out a more detailed answer from the girl also yielded next to no results since in her words she was just exercising in her mind and didn't understand why the two of them were so hung up on it.

Unfortunately a certain idiot had, upon hearing that she wasn't sick, shortly after dragged her out of the room towards the gym most likely to get back to sparring.

He supposed he shouldn't be all that surprised though, leave it to Chang-hoon to skim over the girl's, now revealed to be firmly in the supernatural realm, ability to influence her own body and instead just want to get back to fighting.

Dai Hui let out a deep sigh as he collapsed back into his chair, removing his rectangular wire-framed glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose.

He had studied the human body almost for as long as he could remember, inspired by watching his father's work in the small family owned clinic the man ran. Observing people arriving ailed with various illnesses and then over time due to his father's efforts slowly but surely recover with his help.

In the perspective of his then sparkling, curious eyes, such feats were practically interchangeable with real life magic.

The sincere gratitude in their gazes, the respect they held for him, the tears of happiness voluminous enough to create a river with all on it's own, the smiles filled with life, and the vigour returned to their previously sickly forms.

It was miracles made by man.

That small ember sparked by his father kickstarted a lifelong journey to learn medicine in a desire to not only bettering the lives of others through his actions but also to follow his revered father's footsteps.

Throughout all of his years pursuing his interest he had seen people plagued by countless different afflictions, diseases, disorders, disabilities, illnesses, conditions and what have you, and just when he thought he'd seen it all something new always crops up eventually.

But this? This he was not properly equipped to handle.

Human bodies he could do, very good at that.

This however was no longer in the range of what he considered 'human', it was someting beyond it.

"Dai Hui... do you think it's something dangerous?"

Hearing a hesitant whisper of concern escaping his friend of two years, Dai Hui took a while to come up with a proper response.

"I... I am in all honesty not sure. This is the first time I have come upon anything like this." He eventually settled on.

Despite it prickling the pride and confidence he held in his abilities to admit his inadequency out loud, he wasn't so vain as to baselessly inflate himself just to soothe it.

In his opinion doing such things invalidated the efforts he had put into accruing the skills and knowledge he actually possessed.

Glancing at his friend and student's slumped form, eyebrows scrunched together in a thoughtful frown as he nervously wrung his hands together, Dai Hui braced on his knees and stood up with a small grunt before making his way over.

"Don't look so defeated, my friend. It does not currently seem to be causing the girl any real harm. Though I don't know to what extent, she did display the capability to control it at will which hopefully means that she can stop it were it to get too much for her." Dai Hui patted him on the shoulder as he tried reassuring the distraught looking man.

"Ah... Well... That's another thing I was worried about. I'm not sure she would stop before she really got hurt. To be honest I would almost be more relieved if she couldn't control it herself despite how odd it may sound." Yama remarked wryly.

"Then you'd do well to make sure the girl doesn't do something stupid when left alone. I am unsure of how much help I can ultimately provide, but I will try searching for anything that could possibly shine some light on the situation."

"...I suppose that's the best we can do for now. Then, thank you in advance."

---

"Oh, yeah. I have a friend coming over in a bit just so you guys know."

"You have friends?"

Kaya, leaning back against the counter of the dimly lit bar livened up with a touch of soft purple light flipped Mergen, who was lounging on a nearby couch diagonally behind her, the bird over her shoulder.

The 5 man team were currently in one of the 'mega hubs', gigantic digital spaces opened to the public that anyone could join relaxing with a bit of booze whilst idly browsing the forum for anything interesting popping up, job or otherwise.

Contrary to what most would think with them being open to the public and what not most mega hubs were set to [Hardcore]. The reason being that 'apparently' letting people who thought there would be no immediate physical consequences to their actions since they couldn't feel pain loose in... anywhere really, surprisingly wasn't the best idea.

It was a shitfest and a half for a while just after the mega hubs were launched before they eventually decided to switch from [Baby] to [Hardcore] in an attempt to prevent the worst of it.

Kinda worked, kinda didn't.

Mega hubs kinda flopped since most people got scared and avoided them in general from that point onwards while others found it boring, considering them to be too close to reality for their tastes when compared to games like [Sandbox Chatroom].

It eventually ended with people like them, digital mercenaries and others in similar professions, making up the majority of the population still actively using them practically turning select mega hubs into giant grey zones.

This being one of them.

"A friend you say? How interesting~ To think that little Kaya finally worked up the courage to interact with other kids her age instead of just hanging around us oldies. I'm so proud of you, honey." Jun's face stretched into a cheshire grin as he cooed at her from a nearby table, chin lazily propped up by one hand and nursing a drink with the other.

Meanwhile the last two members sat together at a table next to Jun's. Quill sitting as ramrod straight as ever with his eyes close occasionally sipping on a drink colored a deep amber with hints of honey and a flame-like orange. Saul slumped back in his seat, face set in a small jovial grin making the corners of his eyes crinkle with a large steel-bottomed tankard in hand, a thin crown peeking over the edge.

Kaya sent Jun an unamused stare, receiving a cheerful wink back in reply.

She was just about to reply before suddenly letting out a loud shriek when she felt a breath gently tickling her shoulders from behind, the hairs on the back of her neck shooting up as a chill flushed through her system. She frantically scrambled away from the counter in a flurry of panicked movements, almost stumbling on the way, catching the others' attention making them instinctively tense up in preparation for a confrontation.

"Mergen! I'm gonna fucking rip your throat out you slithering piece of sh-!" Kaya quickly whirled around with her heart on the verge of beating out of her chest after regaining her balance, her face set into wrathful snarl with a furious growl rumbling on the cusp of her lips.

However, her scream was abruptly cut off when her wide cat-like golden eyes was met with a pair of very familiar currently dull, muddy orbs directing a blank stare her way.

Kaya's mouth clacked shut and she went quiet for a second as her mind caught up with the situation before her expression promptly did a 180, a friendly smile stretching over her features as she surged forward to snatch the girl's calloused hand in a gentle hold.

"Oh, hey Nana~ I didn't hear you, when did you get here?" She asked happily as she saddled up next to her, hopefully as soon as possible, willing shield and sword. Throwing her other arm around the girl's robust shoulders in a side-hug.

The girl answered with a brief glance sent her way shortly after accompanied by a flat hum before she seemingly lost interest.

Kaya's smile turning slightly strained upon seeing the girl instead get up and make her way over to Quill, plopping down with her knees tucked up into her chest next to the old man who watched on with a raised eyebrow as she took out a massive bag of roasted salted peanuts from... somewhere, she was still wearing the workout outfit they'd seen her in during the tournament, an outfit conspiciously missing any semblance of pockets whatsoever.

The girl ripped open the top and chucked a handful into her mouth before offering some to Quill who after a moment of thought just shrugged and held out his hand voicing a brief word of thanks when she poured him some, Saul who was sat nearby also meekly held out a hand, his smile deepening when she poured him some as well after which the girl placed it down in front of her and hugged it against her legs, occasionally fetching another handful.

A bewildered silence only broken up by a muted crunching stretched on as a result of the inexplicable sense of normality brought by the girl's actions, as if her being there and carrying around a 10kg bag of peanuts with her was just a regular occurance rather than the downright baffling situation it realistically should've been.

Mergen was the first to snap out of it, waves of greasy black hair fluttering about as he shook off his daze.

"W- What the fuck is she doing here!?" He bolted upright, his brows pulled into a tight frown as he pointed a bony finger at the girl who coincidentally just happened to take another handful at the same time, her vacant eyes absentmindedly staring into space.

"What do you mean? I told you I had a friend coming over, don't tell me you already forgot?" Kaya's lips pulled up into a small smug smile as she leaned back against the bar-counter with her arms crossed.

"That's true Mergen, she did warn us in advance." Jun interjected sporting a playful smirk on his face, eyes glinting in amusement at the current situation.

Their replies made the skinny man sputter dumbfoundedly. Kaya he could understand since she was a bitch and probably orchestrated this whole farce in the first place, but why the hell wasn't anyone else questioning the girl's presence other than him? A girl that had unbinkingly killed them all during their last mission was currently sitting within a literal meter to 2 of their 5 members.

He usually wasn't one for being especially loud, even quite often finding himself actively avoiding such people in general due to his personal distate of the particularly annoying ones, but even his patience and calm had it's limits.

Not only was being in the vicinity of a tentative enemy he knew to be dangerous already pushing his boundaries, but having it so suddenly sprung upon him changed the premise from a somewhat manageable yet dire situation to alarm bells blaring through his skull at the clearly percieved threat so loudly it wasn't even funny.

He knew his trade, and he knew it well.

You didn't fuck around and find out. If you fucked around you were found out, and then you were fucked.

"Kaya. You may be the youngest in our team, but I thought that you were more than aware of the possible consequences of going through with this- this- this unquestionably brainless attempt at trying to... I don't even know what!" He pinned her with a severe stare, his solemn face steeping in disappointment before he abruptly spun around to snarl at the others.

"And why the hell are you three going along with this absolutely childish, absurdly stupid plan she's conjured up as some sort of sick joke!? Are you not the least bit worried that the girl could have people behind her with her strength? The thought itself is the height of ridiculousness!" Mergen growled grimly, legs slightly bending to tense in preparation as he slowly reached for the daggers holstered to his lower back.

If they continued acting like greenies then he'd just have to treat them like greenies as well, if they didn't get their shit together soon and realize how dangerous a situation they were currently in then he'd take things into his own hands regardless of what they thought.

You didn't survive by being reckless and banking on luck, you survived by meticulously eliminating any direct and indirect threat before they could even become threats in the first place.

"Wh- Hey, hey, hey! Hey!!! What the hell do you think you're doing fucking fumes for brains, you better re-sheath those daggers right the fuck now." Kaya quickly reacted when she spotted him reaching backwards and sprung up to his front in a block.

"Move. Or you're losing an arm, I'm not risking the team's safety on something like this." Mergen stated gravely with a tone of finality as he took a step forward, ghostly pale green orbs sharply glaring down at her form with contempt dripping from a pair of tightened brows.

The situation took an unfriendly turn, aggression boiling just beneath the surface as the two held a stubborn stare. Just when the so far verbal confrontation was about to escalate into something physical, they were interrupted by a leisurely voice floating over.

"Whaaa~ Hey now~ No need to get all hostile over a disagreement. Let's all calm down a tad and talk it out. We wouldn't want anyone to do something stupid when feelings are running high and the tension has risen, right?~"

Both Kaya and Mergen suddenly stiffened up, their clash abruptly put on hold courtesy of their leader interjecting in his usual calm and cool manner of speaking. The difference being that the slight lilt of playfulness it was often accompanied by had completely disappeared, replaced by an undercurrent of coldness so chilling it could've been likened to the winds of cocytus.

Warily glancing to the side, the two of them suppressed a full body shudder as they met their leaders unfathomably deep blue irises locked onto them through narrowed eyelids, leaving only the slightest of slits through which to pin the both of them with an immobilizingly piercing gaze.

His expression wasn't any better, the amused smirk often worn replaced by an ominous tight-lipped smile giving off a foreboding sense of danger hidden just behind it.

"It's not good for teammates to fight between themselves now is it, hmm?" He cocked his head to the side with airily raised eyebrows as he mused hummingly, the terrifying, extremely unnerving atmosphere created suffusing the room with a ghastly wind.

Deciding not to push their luck against one of their usually easy going leader's rare moments of seriousness, they sent the other a scathing look before heatedly separating and returning to their previous seats with irate expressions.

They had long since gathered that although there was rarely anything that could really rile up their leader's temper, one of the biggest topics that came to mind was his immensely firm opinion when it came to team dynamics.

A harmonius relationship between each and every member was something he had strived to build up from day one. Not to the point of forcing everyone into being best friends with each other, but there was a non-tolerance on actual hostility between them.

He didn't care if they bickered, didn't care if one of them disliked someone else, within limits that is. Didn't care even if they absolutely refused to talk to one another outside of missions.

What he did care about was just one thing, trust.

They needed to trust each other.

That was the one requirement he would never budge on no matter what.

Without some form of trust present in any kind of relationship, it wouldn't last. Regardless of which type, friendships, romantic relationships, alliances, agreements, business relationships, situational relationships and so on. If you could not trust a friend or a partner then doubts would cloud and eventually erode that relationship barring extreme circumstances preventing it.

Whether that trust stemmed from the mutual belief that a business agreement between two objectively untrustworthy individuals wouldn't be violated for as long as it continued remaining lucrative, or the unshakable trust bred between two brothers in arms forged through blood and hardships.

Although to wildly differing degrees, there was a certain trust present in both cases.

Which is why he was so adamant on promoting trust between the team as well, he believed that without it the team would either crumble apart sooner rather than later or in the worst case scenario, result in their deaths.

"Aww, no need to be all sulky like that. I'm so proud that the two of you could work it out between each other peacefully." Jun immediately bounced back to his usual airy, teasing self after they had backed off, the playful grin resurfacing as if it had never left.

"Besides. We wouldn't want to scare our peanut gallery spectating from the side, would we?" His playful remark was closely followed by a loud crunch as he gestured at the table where the trio sat still unconcernedly consuming peanuts at their own pace.

Quill meticulously popping them in one by one calmly savoring the pleasantly toasty snack livened up with an addictive saltness breaking up the light sheen of oil it was coated in, occasionally taking another sip of his drink to wash it down and refresh his tastebuds.

Nana wolfing them down by the handfuls frequently displaying her sharp shark like teeth in her haste.

Meanwhile Saul who had long since run out was currently trying to coax the girl possesively embracing the quickly dwindling bag against her front for a refill.

"Either way. Moving on, not that I am criticizing your choice of friends or anything, but were you planning anything else bringing the girl here Kaya?" Jun then asked as he directed the sullen girl a look of curiosity, his fingers idly tapping the table in waves.

"...I thought I'd bring the girl along as my bodyg- as reinforcement during missions, a safety net I guess." Kaya spent a few seconds stewing in her annoyance before inwardly discarding the childish desire to ignore him out of petty spite and answered simply.

"What!? Are you out of your mind!? You want us to take her along on missions!? Absolutely not. Not only do we know nothing about the girl herself, but suddenly introducing someone unfamiliar into the picture will majorly impact our effectivity on the field!" Mergen was quick to voice his disapproval of the idea after hearing her.

"Alright, what the hell is your problem!? Seriously! We've worked alongside other teams before and you didn't say shit then, why the fuck is this in any way different, huh!?"

"Perhaps I need to get my ears checked? Do you even hear the idiocy currently spewing out of your mouth? Are you genuinely comparing a girl most likely not even old enough to drink with seasoned mercenaries operating with years if not decades of experience? It seems that I will have to seriously re-evaluate your level of intellect if that is really the case. This is unbelievable."

The two of them restarted their glaring from earlier though remained seated whilst Jun after reassuring that they weren't about to act out again, instead redirected his attention to the source of their heated argument.

"And what does the little lady herself have to say about this in response? What tempted you to accept Kaya's offer, hmm? Although our work may seem relatively risk-free from an outside perspective barring some exceptions, there have been multiple cases of people being tracked down out in the real world, you know? It's very, very scary~" He probed lightly, lacing his words with a barely perceptible sense of threat to gauge her reaction.

Jun patiently waited for her answer with a state of gradually ramping anticipation, the notion of deciphering someone as interesting as the girl making that distinct addictive thrill of excitement once again flare up within his chest.

Practically for as long as he could remember he had always had a certain love for puzzles and things in similar strokes, games of any kind that in some capacity challenged the mind specifically.

Starting with first completing them normally followed by gradually grasping the fundamental principles behind how they worked bit by bit and what technically constituted as 'solving' them and how you would usually go about doing so.

Then came the really fun part.

Entirely disregarding it and unravelling new ways to practically accomplish the same thing but whilst using a completely different method.

It was like he took a peek behind the curtain, spying the inner workings hidden behind the more obvious path laid out before him. As if he was discovering secrets that only he knew, multiple ways to solve the same puzzles not conforming to the way intended by it's creator.

Every new trick and exploit always providing him with that surge of feel good chemicals he oh so cherished.

However as he steadily worked his way through countless such challenges he eventually to his absolute dismay found that, the more he learned, the more parallels he was able to draw between them.

In the end... they ulitmately all turned stale. No matter how much they were lauded for their extreme difficulty, no matter how many people scoffed at the impossibility of beating them, he eventually reached the point where he could draw enough conclusions with just a glance to easily solve them.

He... hadn't taken it very well at the time. Entering a crazed state as he chased after that high like a man possessed, feeling like the world was an everpresent shade of incredibly draining grey.

It was at his lowest point on the verge of a breakdown from 'withdrawal' that he discovered something much, much, much more interesting than anything else he had ever tried his hands on.

Heavily contrasting the previously static patterns, the unchanging, incredibly boring experience of seeing the same things again, and again, and again, and again just wrapped in a different package each time.

An ever-evolving, ever-changing puzzle he wouldn't be able to completely solve even with a lifetime of dedication. The ultimate puzzle containing seemingly infinite amounts of variations and tiny, tiny unique kinks, quirks and variables hidden, weaved into it's equally indistinct fabric.

The supreme puzzle amongst puzzles just out there readily available to his starving self-

The so called human being.

The unsolvable puzzle, and something that sent his heart pumping with liberating exhilaration.

His desire to learn more and dissect people in such a way was one of the big reasons he even got into his current line of work, it was essentially his job to take the information he was provided, had access to, or in some cases gather it himself which in itself was a fairly refreshing activity, and then build up a profile of whoever had entered their sights at the time.

And it was his personal paradise on earth.

With that said, he much preferred picking apart people that in some way majorly differed from the 'average' person in some aspect, and he had a feeling that the girl would prove his biggest challenge yet.

A challenge he would welcome with wide open arms.

Snapping out of his self-indulgent reverie Jun blinked realizing that he had apparently zoned out as he was waiting for her response, inwardly shaking his head at his blunder when he saw the girl still immersed in her snacking.

He shouldn't let his excitement of the future hinder him from actually interacting with his target of interest in the present, in turn ironically enough impeding his progress as a result.

"Ah~ Sorry, sorry, it seems I spaced out for a bit, silly me, could you repeat that again please?" He leaned against a propped up hand directing the girl an amiable look of curiosity.

"..."

"Uh... Jun?" An awkward period of silence followed Jun's request as the girl seemingly didn't hear him prompting Saul to hesitantly call out.

"Hmm?"

"She never replied in the first place, you know?"

"Huh?"

...

Finally managing to gain her attention after ultimately having to practically crouch face to face with the girl to do so, Jun patiently repeated his question.

"So, why did you accept Kaya's offer?"

Out of all the possible answers he had conjured up in his mind, from monetary gain to desperation in some form, the words that left her mouth after she had raised her head to look him in the eyes made him unable to prevent a baffled expression briefly flashing past his face.

"...Fight... Promise..." She stated flatly, pointing at Kaya.

Jun, quite confused about how to interpret such a vague response turned to present Kaya with a questioningly lifted eyebrow, the unspoken prompt rather obvious.

"What?"

"Translate, please?"

"Can't you just use your super ultra mega brain to figure it out?" She very maturely shot back, still a bit peeved from earlier.

"Unfortunately, my core brain cells just clocked out from work and will be going on a vacation for the next two weeks which means we're a bit understaffed at the moment."

"Don't know how that's my problem."

"Please~ Won't you tell me~? I'll give you a candy?"

"...Ew. Please don't even talk or look at me like that ever again."

"I will continue until you tell me~"

"I promised her she'd get to fight strong people if she accepted."

"Oh." He blinked, straightening up into a stretch. "Hmm, well that's pretty doable I suppose. Though actually encountering anyone she'd find strong could be a bit of a challenge. It's not everyday we go up against people capable of beating Quill which is as good a benchmark as any."

"What now, is our oh so incredible leader admitting defeat already? I thought there wasn't anything you coldn't do. Shock and disappointment." Kaya huffed.

"Hey now~ I never said it would be impossible did I? A but difficult sure, but I'm sure I could find something if I got some time to dig around."

"You cannot be seriously going along with this, are you? How do we even know she's telling the truth. Who the hell in their rightly sound mind would want to expose themselves to danger, running the risk of experiencing death for such an awfully asinine reason?"

"Hmm? Could it be that you're lying to me?" Jun asked with a face covered in 'surprise' as he looked down at her.

He was met with a blank face and a pair of seemingly dull ink black eyes with a ring of intense green giving them a mesmerising quality. Holding her stare, it was only a few moments later that Jun was inwardly startled by a what he thought was movement ghosting to the surface of her orbs.

At first thinking it was due to the sheer, bordering on unsettling abyssal shade of black playing tricks on him, he was shortly after proven wrong.

It started small. A tiny, tiny sign of movement appearing in the center of her irises so small he'd normally disregard it as nothing.

But then almost before he could react it rapidly expanded, revealing itself to be a sluggishly swirling spiral pattern.

It didn't end there however.

The longer Jun was unable to tear his fascinated gaze away from the devouring whirlpool dragging him into it's depths, the more the world around him seemingly disappeared from his awareness. Eventually only leaving the unfathomable feeling of something big, impossibly big hovering just before his, in comparison absolutely miniscule form, enveloping him from all sides.

It was only when the girl blinked that he was snapped out of his trance, back drenched in cold sweat and his heart on the verge of beating out of his chest.

Jun's hand instinctively shot out to steady himself with the table as he took a few seconds to gather his wits fairly shaken up by the mysterious phenomenon he'd just went through. Although he was not exactly sure how or even what he'd just experienced, he was fairly sure the girl herself was the source.

A burst of giddy joy bubbled up inside of him at the thought, the girl was time and time again surpassing his expectations with all of the unusual quirks about her. If he was unsure about what to do before, which he wasn't, then now he was more determined than ever.

There was no way he could just let her slip past his fingers when he had a feeling that there was so much more hiding just outside of view.

After reassuring the others that he was fine with him suddenly freezing up and then stumbling without a clear cause, he immediately started scrolling through the forums for anything that fit his new search criteria.

Something the girl would find interesting, at least enough to hook her into staying with their team. Unfortunately he only seemed to find jobs that he would consider relatively slow paced instead of anything with a chance for some action.

Whilst Jun busied himself Kaya and Mergen were still surrounded by a prickly air, occasionally sending each other glares at a distance during the pauses in between Mergen voicing his dissatisfaction with Jun's apparent decision to bring the girl along and Kaya arguing against him, mostly pointing fun at his loss at Nana's hands.

Meanwhile the 'peanut gallery' were still doing their own thing calmly relaxing in a comfortable silence.

"Just my luck that the one time I actually start looking for something relatively dangerous I end up with nothing at all." Jun let out a disgruntled sigh after a few minutes of searching, scratching at the back of his head.

Taking as sip of his drink to perk up he was just about to dive back into slogging through the board of requests when he got a call.

Checking the caller ID he was a bit surprised to see who it was wondering what he could want considering the last he'd heard of him, the guy's business was as popular as ever which in turn lead to a very busy schedule.

Shrugging after a short pause, he accepted the call.

"Hey, hey, hey~ Jun honey, it's your favorite person in the whole world calling you~!" An exuberantly flamboyant voice with a distinctly masculine lilt emerged after he accepted the prompt, the system window changing to show the other party.

A somewhat tan man somewhere in his thirties with a wave of luscious glossy black hair swept to one side and faded sides appeared leaning towards the 'camera'. He wore a tight leopard patterned open-chested shirt displaying a fairly muscular build and a pair of matching brown leather pants held up by a black belt with a gold buckle fashioned into an intricate looking swan symbol.

Light stubble lined a sharp jawline set in a relatively slender face, a pair of golden rimmed black lensed aviator glasses perched on the bridge of his nose whilst a pair of equally golden earrings shaped into the same aforementioned symbol glittered showily hanging from his ears.

The man raised a hand covered in an array of rings to lift his glasses revealing a pair of startling, attention grabbing gray eyes only further emphasized in contrast to the rather warm colors he wore.

"Julius." Jun nodded with a light smile appearing on his face. "What's the occasion? Last time I checked you were pretty busy with everything going on."

"Yes, yes! That is very true indeed! My lovely little boys and girls are doing a fantastic job at attracting customers, and they're so hard-working too! I couldn't ask for better staff you know~" Julius gestured dramatically in tandem with his words, sporting a wide confident smile showing a row of shining pearly white teeth.

Jun chuckled at the dramatic display as the two engaged in some idle small talk just for the sake of it talking about everything and nothing, having not had contact since a few months ago.

A couple of minutes later Jun suddenly remembered what he was supposed to be doing before Julius called and spoke up, wanting to at least find a lead on something before the girl decided to leave.

"Ah... right. While it was nice doing a bit of catching up you Julius I've gotta go back to something, kind of on a time limit over here. Sorry for cutting it short."

"Oh, non, non, non, none of that darling I know how busy you can be. Though if it's nothing secret, could I ask what you're working on right now? I'm a bit curious of what you and the team are up to you see~" Julius asked curiously, leaning against his hand as he shifted his footing to get more comfortable.

"Hmm? Oh, nothing like that. We just got done with a pretty big job last week and decided to relax a bit before taking on another one, but Kaya brought a person I'm rather curious about along with her so I'm looking for another job with some action involved to get her to stay. Hopefully."

"Oooh, how exciting~ It's been a while since someone had caught your attention to the point you'd want to actively observe them, hasn't it."

"Just hadn't found anyone interesting enough."

"I suppose~ Though if you're looking for something a bit more exciting in terms of jobs, I think I have one that would fit your requirements quite nicely."

"Really? If that's the case then you're a lifesaver, I've browsed the forums but it's like anything that could lead to more than light a scolding and a slap on the wrist has just vanished overnight."

"Is that so? How odd. Regardless, if you're up for it then I'll send over the details?"

"Please."

A few moments later, he received a notification from his mail.

"Thanks Julius, I owe you one." Jun sent him a grateful look over the call.

"Aw, no need honey it was my pleasure. However if you really want to repay me, then be sure to bring along your new target the next time we meet, you've gotten me curious now."

"Will do."

"Good. Well I'll let you get back to it, also say hi to the others for me, bye bye~"

"Later."

As the call disconnected Jun brought up his mail and opened the one titled 'Good luck honey!' sandwiched by a plethora of emojis on both sides, speaking up to the room whilst he looked through it.

"Julius sends his regards."

"He called?" Kaya looked over.

"Mhmm."

"What'd he want?"

"Nothing in particular, though he possibly provided us with a job."

"Which is?"

"Looking through it now."

Jun finished a few minutes later. It was nothing special just another hit ordered on a fairly popular casino that had just sprung up by a rival business getting pissy with having a competitor so close to their 'territory', one specializing in the same trade no less.

On top of that, the boss of the casino had apparently tried putting his hands on something that didn't belong to him.

He unfortunately also didn't see anything that would elude to the casino hiring any one person or group that would be particularly challenging to take on, but at least it was something. He just hoped it would be enough of a taste to convince the girl about joining up.

...

"Kaya, do you think you can get access to the surveillance?"

"Easy, just give me a few minutes." Kaya confidently replied as she sat down in a crouch, getting started on unpacking her equipment.

"Quill?"

"So far I've spotted 14 cars with 23 people in total scattered throughout the parking lot and around the building. No snipers from what I can see from here but I'm unsure, caution advised, there's also very likely a decent chunk of them assigned as security on the inside."

"Mergen?"

"As if that wall will stop me, I have something that'll eat through it in a couple of minutes tops." He scoffed derisively.

"Good. Alright,our first objective will be to remove the guards and anyone that'd put up a fight from the premises-"

"Degree of violence?" Quill gruffed out, keeping a sharp gaze directed at the casino. The casino itself was a large rectangular building with a bottom stripe of black and a white top broken up by a thin stripe of blue running around it's middle.

Light, voices and the sounds of different games spilled out through the entrance, the parking lot directly in front abuzz with activity as guests both arrived excitedly and left despodently in equal measure.

"Unspecified. Though try not to involve the civvies as much as possible I guess, never know who it could be. Otherwise it doesn't really matter."

"Hm."

"Listed targets includes a main vault and a trio of sub vaults located spaced out through the building they want emptied or destroyed, the boss of the place-" Jun brought up a system window displaying a slender, suave looking man with blonde hair in a sharply cut suit smiling with an arm wrapped around a woman with a scowl on her face, "Apparently the guy tried getting handsy with our employer's sister when she decided to scope out the competition."

"Other than that he wants us to rough the place up a bit to scare off customers or at least delay them with time spent rebuilding it and anything else we think will cause them losses in general."

"Got anything on possible teams on the other side? Anything I should look for specifically, I mean." Kaya asked after getting through the security, a grid of camera feeds appearing on her screen.

"Nothing concrete but keep an eye out for anything you recognize and notify me if you find anything that stands out."

"Uh huh."

"Alright then let's get this show on the road, Kaya if you would?"

The bootleg telepathy reached out connecting to all of them though struggled a bit with their tentatively new member.

<"Quill. Saul. Mergen."> Jun called out through it before the four of them made their way towards the exit, having squatted on a rooftop opposite the casino to scope it out, leaving a member and a half behind.

"Weird, it's not latching onto Nana properly..." Kaya muttered in confusion and turned to look up at the taller girl from her crouch. "Nana do you feel anything? If should feel kind of like someone 'poking' the area around your brain but not really actually touching it."

"Mn."

"So it is functioning fine? Why's it not connecting then? Try imagining grabbing that line with your mind. I know it sounds kind of stupid saying it out loud but it worked fo-" Kaya tried explaining as best she could but was suddenly stunned by the coms log starting to fill up with lines of text at an incredible pace, taking just an instant before Jun's message got pushed up and out of view.

Simultaneously, her 'ears' were peppers with a non-stop barrage of words firing at a machine-gun like speed to the point it was blending together into just a constant stream of flunctuating noise, as if hundreds of people trying to speak at the same time.

"What the fuck!?" She was about to let out a startled scream that was instinctively clamped down, instead emerging as a harsh whisper, and after snapping out of her daze she immediately got to searching for any problems.

It was extremely difficult to ignore the thought-smothering cocophony of voices and actually focus, and it was only when she was full on panicking that something in her mind clicked in place.

"Nana? Nana! Nana, let go of it! Quick!" Kaya instantly whirled around and surged up to grab the girl's shoulders, shaking them urgently. Well, tried to. Nana remained unmoved despite her efforts but did allow the tether to escape her clutches.

Kaya sagged in relief when the noise disappeared the next moment, though it was shortly after replaced by alarmed shouts courtesy of her concerned teammates.

Spending a minute to reassure them that she'd fixed it for now, she went back to her laptop to figure out what had actually happened.

Not finding anything with the program itself she went to check the logs and as she scrolled through what felt like hundreds of rows upon rows of words, her expression turned more and more incredulous. Eyes wide like saucers and mouth hanging open in stumped confusion as she read through a few of them.

<"Rear back, slip around, dash in, right uppercut, duck, right hook, bat away retaliatory strike, reach out and snake around elbow to lock arm, grab the other arm, knee to crotch, headbutt, let go, follow to ground, target throa-">

<"Right arm severed by blade, sloppy, file away to reflect on later, current limit acting as sole focus against faster armed combatants, simultaneous enemies 24, search remedy for lack of vision, file away note, medium priority, optimal state 360 degree vision, other ways to mitigate or remove weakness? Unknow-">

<"Extremely trace amounts of improvement of strength during VR dive detected, translate to reality? Unknown, further testing required, testing commencing, check for results over next week, tentative additional way of training discovered, increase priorit-">

<"Multiple cases of dodging undetected projectiles present during coliseum instances, reason? Reason unknown. Possible reason? Unknown. Did not know projectiles would arrive, reason for dodging, unknown, start testing, possible additional sense discovered, instinct? Dangerous? Unlikely, possible solution to lack of vision discove-">

<"Commence test, strength, increase, heavy, strain, burn, walk, heavy, manageable, increase weight, heavier, heavier, heavier, crumble, reason, legs and back destroyed, reason, too much weight, restart, reduce weight, heavy-">

<"Bored. People. Weak. Weak. Weak. Weak. Weak. Bored. Explore? Explore.">

Kaya sat frozen in place as she stared at the screen for what felt like an eternity, unable to process or even make sense of the information that stared back at her.

"What in the actual f-fuck? A-Are these her surface thoughts? I- Wha- What even is th-?" She flabbergastedly muttered in incomprehension. What was even weirder was that the logs showed, although legible, words, they were all sort of blurred and crooked which shouldn't even be possible if she didn't somehow change the font and forgot about it.

It was a phenomenon that had only happened during testing when the program couldn't yet properly interpret thoughts and translate them into actual words, the logs looked pretty much identical to this.

Filled with choppy grammar and sometimes readable and sometimes not text.

But why would it even have trouble reading Nana specifically?

Kaya delved deeper into that idea to temporarily ignore Nana apparently being able to produce the thoughts equalling that of 6 people thinking simultaneously, unusually swift thinkers at that.

She was so lost in thought that when she eventually roused from her trance she quite quickly discovered that something, or rather someone, had gone missing when she turned around to ask what the hell that was about, and finding herself alone on the rooftop.

"N-Nana? Nana! Nana!? Nana!?!?"