Avery had studied countless threat profiles.
She'd interviewed delinquents, prodigies, even a junior mercenary transfer student once.
But nothing—nothing—prepared her for interrogating Noah Sato.
He sat across the table, posture straight, face blank, eyes hollow.
The air around him felt heavy… sharp… primal.
Like something ancient was coiled inside him.
A Level X…? Did the higher-ups really put this monster in a school?
Avery forced herself to breathe.
"Let's begin," she said softly.
Noah nodded, but it somehow looked like a silent execution sentence.
Elias had interrogated war criminals with less oppressive aura than this teenage boy.
Every time Noah blinked, Elias felt his fight-or-flight response activate.
Why does a 16-year-old look like he's deciding where to bury our bodies?
Elias asked the first question.
"Noah Sato… your records mention… an incident. At age five. You were lost in the Amazon rainforest for an entire month."
Noah's eyes narrowed slightly.
The temperature in the room dropped.
Everyone tensed.
Avery felt a bead of sweat roll down her back.
Noah leaned forward by a millimeter.
To them, it was a predator preparing an attack.
To Noah, he just couldn't hear well.
"What… do you want to know?" he asked quietly.
That whisper?
To them, it was a demon murmuring.
And then—
Noah exhaled.
The atmosphere deepened tenfold.
An invisible pressure crashed over everyone like a wave.
Council members gripped their chairs.
Elias reached for the stun gun.
Avery's fingers trembled.
He's remembering something horrible…! she thought.
Noah opened his mouth.
They braced for a nightmare story.
Instead he said calmly:
"I… befriended a pack of wolves."
Everyone froze.
Wolves.
Plural.
A pack.
At age five.
Noah continued in the same emotionless tone, which only made it scarier:
"They offered me food, so I accepted. Raw meat. …It wasn't tasty, but I didn't want to be rude."
Avery's jaw dropped.
Rude?
RUDE?!
He ate raw meat from wolves out of politeness?!
Inside Noah's head:
Grandma said: always accept food when a dog offers it. It means they trust you. Wolves are kinda dogs, right?
But to Avery and Elias?
He was a child who negotiated an alliance with apex predators and shared their kill like a primitive warlord.
Elias swallowed so hard it hurt.
Is this kid even human…?
Avery inhaled, preparing herself.
"Noah… regarding your right leg."
The moment she said those words—
The atmosphere shifted.
The oppressive killing intent vanished…
replaced by something heavier… darker…
A grief so thick the room itself seemed to dim.
Every council member stiffened.
This… this must be the source of his trauma…
Avery continued carefully.
"The medical report says your right leg was… completely destroyed. Permanent nerve damage. Zero chance of recovery."
A silence settled.
Noah didn't look up.
His voice grew soft, flat, almost bitter.
"…They told me I'd never stand again."
Elias felt his chest tighten.
A student council member quietly wiped a tear.
He was told he'd never walk… and yet he's sitting here, legs folded normally. Impossible recovery. Superhuman regeneration? Sheer willpower?
Avery swallowed.
"Noah… how did you… overcome that?"
Noah finally looked up.
Expression blank, tone frustrated—
but to everyone watching through CCTV, it sounded like a man remembering years of suffering.
"I kept going back. Again and again. But the doctors wouldn't help me."
The room trembled.
Not literally, but emotionally.
Elias stepped forward, voice cracking.
"…How many times?"
Noah shrugged lightly.
"I stopped after the twelfth."
Twelve.
The word echoed.
Inside Noah's mind:
I went twelve times trying to convince them the report was wrong… then I gave up. They wouldn't update the file anyway.
Inside EVERYONE ELSE'S mind:
Twelve surgeries.
Twelve failed attempts to rebuild a destroyed leg.
Twelve operations on a child who refused to give up.
A boy who crawled out of hospital beds again and again…
pushing past medical limits…
defying science…
until he finally stood.
Elias felt his throat tighten.
He reached a point beyond human endurance…
Avery clenched her fists under the table.
Is this… why the government wants him back?
A weapon too strong to die?
A soldier who endured twelve reconstructive surgeries and still rose?
A senior officer watching in the surveillance room whispered:
"…This kid doesn't just have willpower. He has the raw determination of a war hero."
Another high-ranking official muttered:
"No wonder the upper brass manipulated his transfer. They want him rebuilt from scratch. They want that monster drive sharpened again."
Avery looked at Noah with a strange mix of fear, awe… and pity.
"Noah," she said softly, "you don't… blame them? For putting you through all that?"
Noah blinked.
"…Blame them? For what?"
The entire room froze.
Elias felt weak.
He… doesn't even blame them.
After TWELVE surgeries? After being abandoned?
Noah added quietly:
"I told them I could walk… but no one listened."
Everyone interpreted that as:
Even after twelve failed operations… they didn't believe in him.
Yet he stood on his own anyway.
Avery's voice trembled.
"Noah… you're… incredible."
Noah tilted his head in confusion.
"Incredible… how?"
Elias couldn't stop himself from whispering:
"…You stood when no one believed you could. You forced a ruined leg to work. You endured pain that should've broken a grown soldier…"
Noah stared blankly.
What are they talking about? I just walked home after the hospital gave up on correcting the paperwork…
Avery wiped a tear she pretended wasn't there.
"No wonder they want you back," she murmured. "A boy who crawled out of hell once… can climb it again."
Noah blinked again.
Huh? What hell? The waiting room at the hospital?
Elias took a slow breath, bracing himself.
"Noah… about your scars."
Noah perked up instantly.
His expression softened from blank to nostalgic, even cheerful.
But to everyone else…
that smile was the smile of a veteran remembering deadly missions.
Avery hesitated.
"You have dozens of healed cuts, bite marks, impact wounds—your file calls them 'high-frequency danger scars.'"
Noah nodded proudly.
"Oh, those? Nana gave them to me."
Every person in the room froze.
Dead silent.
Avery's eyes widened.
"...Your grandmother gave you those… scars?"
"Yep!" Noah said happily.
Inside Noah's mind:
Grandma's rescue missions always got me scratched by cats, geese, dogs, ducks, raccoons, and that evil swan…
Inside everyone else's mind:
A ruthless handler.
A legendary operative.
A demon who forged a child soldier through brutal missions.
Surveillance Room – High Rank Officers
A general leaned toward the monitor.
"Nana…? That name sounds familiar."
A colonel bit his lip.
"I think I heard it once during a black-ops summit."
Another officer typed rapidly.
"Searching codename: NANA."
A loading screen spun.
ACCESS RESTRICTED
SECURITY LEVEL: OMEGA-9
AUTHORIZED FOR PRIME MINISTER ONLY
The officers stiffened.
"C–Codename Nana is Omega-level?! That's the highest restricted class!"
The general swallowed.
"Override requested. Confirm identity."
A moment passed.
The screen shifted.
Only one line appeared:
NANA – SAVIOR OF THE NATION
Current Status: Retired (Untrackable)
Mission Record: [REDACTED – 98 Pages]
Do not engage. Do not investigate. Do not approach.
Everyone in the surveillance room went pale.
"His handler… was her."
"No wonder the kid sits like a demon."
"He grew up under the SAVIOR OF THE NATION."
"Of course he befriended wolves! Of course he survived the Amazon!"
"Good god… what did she do to him…?"
Back in the interrogation room—
Avery whispered:
"Noah… what did she… make you do?"
Noah happily answered:
"Oh! She gave me rescue missions!"
A council member gulped.
"...Assassination rescues? Extraction operations? Hostage retrieval?"
Avery's pen shook in her hand.
Noah, cheerful as ever, nodded.
"Oh! Well… yeah. I rescued a lot. Like…
'Puppy,' 'Kitten,' 'Raccoon,' 'Goat,' 'Fox,' and 'Swan.'"
The room went silent.
Dead silent.
Avery froze mid-blink.
Elias's pupils shrank.
Every council member turned pale.
Inside Noah's head:
Yep, all the animals Nana told me to rescue! That raccoon was kinda vicious though…
Inside everyone else's head:
He just listed six underground criminal syndicates.
"'Puppy'––the black-market traffickers."
"'Kitten'––the child smuggling cartel."
"'Raccoon'––the organ-harvesting ring."
"'Goat'––the rural extremist militia."
"'Fox'––the international hackers."
"'Swan'––the legendary assassin group that leaves no survivors."
A council member nearly fainted.
Elias whispered hoarsely:
"He… rescued targets from all those organizations? As a child…?"
Avery's hands trembled.
"No wonder the government classified him…
No wonder Nana trained him…
He's been fighting international syndicates since kindergarten."
Noah rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Yeah, 'Raccoon' was the meanest. Bit me three times."
Everyone shivered.
Bit him.
The organ-harvesters BIT him?
He survived?
He beat them?
Avery felt sweat drip down her back.
"And… 'Swan'?"
Noah visibly shuddered.
"That one was the worst."
The room leaned in.
He whispered:
"I barely made it out alive."
Elias nearly dropped his weapon.
He survived the SWAN syndicate.
As a child.
No wonder his scars look like that…
Meanwhile Noah's brain:
That swan chased me across the lake and smacked me with its wings… evil bird…
Avery bowed her head.
"We will… never speak lightly of your missions again."
Elias nodded.
"We apologize for treating these like simple scars. You survived hell."
Noah blinked.
Huh? Hell? It was a bird.