"You finished charging that shot eighty-three seconds ago, didn't you?"The man's cold, steady voice slid from the comm inside his helmet calm, but heavy with pressure.
"But holding it for the climax makes it way cooler!"A bright, playful girl's voice rang back, her tone bubbling with laughter as though amused at herself.
The man's tone sharpened."If you had been late by even 0.01 seconds, that rookie would be a corpse right now."
"But I wasn't late, was I? I hit dead center, right on time!" she chirped, dragging out the words like a child showing off. "Rin-Rin is the coolest, isn't sheee?"
Silence answered her for a moment. Then the man's curt reply came:"Withdraw. Now."
"Roger that! Rin Glasya pulling out!"
With a sing-song declaration, the girl lifted her head from behind a sniper rifle nearly twice her size. On the rooftop of a derelict building, rain poured down in endless sheets. A black cloak snapped aside, revealing twin-tied hair of gleaming pink, sparkling like fire beneath the neon glow of the city.
Rin moved swiftly, ejecting the magazine and clearing the chamber with precise motions. In one practiced sweep, she packed the massive weapon into a reinforced backpack engineered to carry weights far beyond her small frame. To her, it was nothing more than a schoolbag slung over her shoulder.
She tapped the comm at her ear, her voice sing-song and confident."Prana Concealment Mode on. ETA to rendezvous in two minutes."
And then she was gone leaping from rooftop to rooftop with impossible agility, her figure darting through the storm as though the giant rifle were weightless. Rain burst apart in lines where her body carved the air. Her pink hair flared in arcs of shining light, reflecting the glow of streetlamps and lightning strikes. To any who saw her, it would not be an assassin they remembered—but a goddess of the storm, treading across the heavens.
Far below, the underground command center roared with noise.
"Where did it come from!?" The commander's voice thundered across the chamber.
"Still verifying, sir!" one console officer stammered, fingers flying across his keys.
On the ten-meter display wall, feeds from drones, heat maps, infrared scans, and energy graphs scrolled wildly. Then came the report.
"Analysis results from ANEW…" Another officer's voice, breathless but firm.
"The beam was generated from compressed pure-prana. Element—Wind. Confirmed firing origin: abandoned building, southwest sector. Exact distance, ten kilometers from the battlefield."
The room froze for a heartbeat. Then came the conclusion:"High probability eighty-nine point two percent that the interfering party is The Trigger: Rin Glasya."
The commander's jaw clenched. His teeth ground audibly. His narrowed eyes glowed with venom."Those bastards… again."
Tension pressed down on the chamber, machines and warning sirens hammering like a war drum.
"Shall we dispatch a capture unit?" a younger officer asked, voice wavering.
"Too late," the commander growled, cold and sharp. "And more importantly—we can't afford to stir the city any further. Explosions like this in the middle of the district? The civilians will swarm the site before long."
His gaze fixed back on the monitors. His voice struck like iron."Order Shadow Three to withdraw. Support team to retrieve. Wipe everything clean."
"Yes, sir!"The command echoed as one, loud and disciplined, reverberating like the shout of an army.
The screens split into imagesA lone boy, standing atop a roof, rain cascading as if the whole world bore witness to him alone.Another man, gaze lifted skyward, eyes burning with hatred and steel.And the commander himself, lips pressed thin, watching in silence.
On the battlefield, Shadow Three stepped back into the haze of smoke and rain. His form blurred, then vanished, as though he had never existed.
ANEW (All Things Are Under My Surveillance. Nothing Escapes My Watch)—The omnipresent AI, infiltrating every network, every camera, every signal in the air. Nothing eluded its gaze.
"Haaah…"Kira exhaled, long and heavy, as though releasing the weight of his soul. Rain continued to pour, drops striking broken tiles around him.
"Is it… over?" he whispered, though confusion lingered in his tone."No… what was that just now? Why would anyone want me dead, when I "
Whack!
A sharp palm strike landed on the back of his neck. His eyes flew wide—then darkness swallowed everything. His body slumped, caught by unseen arms.
The man who appeared seemed almost ordinary. Thin glasses, casual air, nothing of a warrior's aura. Yet his face carried a strange familiarity. Effortlessly, he lifted Kira's body against his shoulder and sighed as if inconvenienced by something trivial.
"Sorry, kid. I'm in a hurry." His tone was calm, almost friendly, as though speaking to an old acquaintance rather than a stranger."See, the finale of Doctor Dimension's Redemption airs tonight. I'd hate to miss it."
Adjusting his glasses with one finger, the man stepped back into the storm, his figure melting into the shadows of the alley. Only the sound of rain and the ruin of shattered rooftops remained.
"Phase Three clear… rendezvous point."