Dark Espers

In a bar within the slum area of Alpha City, three men were casually playing cards while smoking their cigarettes of a unified brand, one that was produced locally in the city by a famous pharmaceutical company. Their movements were dexterous as their dealer shuffled out the cards and dealt them, the other players snapping them up quickly and eyeing their opponents with wary eyes.

"Alright Lyle, what's the fucking bet? I don't want another goddamn situation where you renege at the last moment because we didn't specify beforehand." One of the players spoke, being a short and staunch man with a striped player's tuxedo.

The one called Lyle, the dealer, smiled as he pressed his pencil-thin mustache and then stroked his goatee. "Relax Barnes, that time was a fluke, I was just helping you guys learn about how to avoid being swindled."

"Bullshit!" Barnes roared as he slapped the table, causing its metallic surface to crack visibly and the entire room to shake.

The third player raised a hand to pat Barnes on the shoulder and shook his head. "Calm down Barnes, don't spoil the game."

Looking at the hand on his shoulder, Barnes calmed down as cold sweat formed on his back. He dared to speak to Lyle however he wanted since they were both D rank Dark Espers, but the man who touched him right now was one of the organization's top C Rank Dark Espers!

"Fine Leo, but only because you said so." Barnes huffed with reluctance.

Leo's sharp brown eyes, his neatly combed black hair, and average face normally made him out to be someone who would live and die an unknown commoner in the world, but his awakened power was something that both Barnes and Lyle had to take seriously.

However, they had been assigned to Alpha City as a squad with him as their captain, in order to—

No, their goal was too grand to be even casually thought of, lest some clairvoyant within the other factions, especially the officials, pick up on it.

"By the way, where is Carla? She was supposed to be gathering information about the target." Leo asked casually, his eyes sweeping their surprisingly well-furnished bar despite its overall environment.

"Don't bother, I won't be surprised if she somehow went on a hunt after finding nothing. That bitch has the weakest control over her desires among us." Barnes sneered as he placed his cards on his chest.

"Yeah, but that 'bitch' is a half-step C Rank Esper. Be careful not to piss her off, because your big stomach contains a lot of fat and meat that she can gorge on." Lyle retorted cruelly, not giving his colleague any face.

Anger lines formed on Barnes' temples, but he suppressed it with a deep breath. The trio continued to play their cards in relative silence, but at the end of it, they were interrupted by a call from Leo's phone.

This was his special line connecting him to his handler in the organization, meant for delivering orders or important updates, so it naturally took precedence over everything. Leo put his cards down and picked up the phone right away, his expression calm as he reported his authentication details to his handler.

Barnes and Lyle listened in, but knowing these details were useless because they also had their own, and the final important password was organization-wide, so there was no point pretending to be Leo.

Leo listened to his handler quietly, not uttering a word until the end, where he stated that he would get the job done, before ending the call. He then put the phone down and pushed his cards aside, leaning into his chair with a thoughtful expression that left Barnes and Lyle as curious as a cat.

"Carla is dead." Leo finally said, causing the faces of the two to change greatly.

"What?! How?!" Barnes cried out as he stood up.

Lyle also jumped to his feet with disbelief, shouting: "Impossible!"

Leo pointed to the phone silently, and this caused the two men to share looks but sit down quietly. Leo didn't even need to say a word, the fact that the organization themselves called to inform them was proof enough that it was true.

In fact, not only was it true, but this was a terrible outcome. They reporting upwards about Carla's death, having full grasp of the information and promising to provide a solution was far different from them being ignorant and having to be clued in by the higher-ups.

They now seemed lazy, incompetent, and useless, severely affecting their fates within this cruel organization for sure. They were only D rank Espers, the organization had countless more where they came from, so they would not be lost nor missed in the grand scheme of things.

"What happened?" Lyle asked seriously.

"She went on a hunt for a high-value target unrelated to our goal and was killed." Leo answered simply.

"Fuck! I knew we shouldn't have indulged her whims at all! Now, not only are the officials likely aware of our presence, but our mission target may have been leaked if she was tortured beforehand!" Barnes snapped as he smashed the table again with his fist, causing it to shatter into metallic shards.

This time, Lyle did not chide him because not only was she dead and not worth protecting, but he fully agreed with his colleague that her behavior was downright atrocious.

"What orders did the organization give?" Lyle pressed on.

"We are to apprehend the target she failed to kill. According to our sources within the official faction, the target survived only because a Light Esper intervened to save his life, but even the officials doubt this reason."

Leo nodded to Barnes. "As Barnes stated, the organization also worries that she might have leaked our mission details to either the light esper who killed her or to the target who might be hiding the truth. To the organization's think tanks, the most likely case is that the Light Esper actually exists and interrogated Carla and the original victim happened to overhear the details. He was then likely sworn into secrecy by the Light Esper, hence his sketchy behavior during interrogation."

Both men nodded, as they did not doubt the organization. Barnes stood up immediately and affixed his hat atop his head firmly, nodding to both men with a look of severity in his eyes.

"Let's get going then. If the organization has given us an order, we cannot afford to fail."

Lyle also got up and felt this held true, but Leo remained sitting with a troubled expression. It was then that Lyle remembered an important detail that Leo casually revealed earlier, and then pursued it.

"Earlier, you said the target was high value… how high value are we talking?"

Leo sighed. "Extremely high. I don't even know how crazy Carla was for trying to hunt such a person, but she has caused us endless difficulty."

Leo raised his head and looked at the two men seriously. "The target's name is Kaizer Lunin. Yes, that Lunin, the very family that now sponsors 70% of the funding for the official branch in Alpha City."

Both Barnes and Lyle felt difficulty swallowing as sweat emerged on their foreheads. They both wanted to curse because in this era, trying to deal with any of the Lunin family was akin to trying to assassinate the president of the country!

What the fuck!