Emory’s POV:

     “Hyung… when was the last time you recharged?” Heejun asked as he ate another apple slice. The three of us were all hanging out on my bed, eating the apple slices that Leo had cut up as a healthy desert. He claimed that we were eating way too much sugary foods lately and had officially placed us on a health kick. Thankfully, N slipped us some peanut butter to dip the slices in.

“A few days ago. Why?” Jihun replied with a mouth full of peanut butter.

     “Because what you just told us is 100% impossible.” Heejun threw his hands up in exasperation. “The guy’s a human who works part-time at a café! Why and how would he be able to re-freeze your coffee?!”

“I don’t know! That’s why I’m just confused as you are!” Jihun yelled back with a pout.

     “Calm down!” I yelled between them. Though I couldn’t help but agree with Heejun a little bit. After Jihun had told us about his theory about Hwanhee re-freezing his ice coffee back at the café it was a little hard to believe…

 Mainly because:

1. Normal humans don’t have powers. So if Hwanhee did have Ice powers, then that would mean that he is a Card Warrior.

And that leads up to…

2. Card Warriors DO NOT have part time jobs and go around pretending to be human.

“Don’t you guys have, like, a Spidey-sense for detecting Warriors or something?” I questioned, waving my arms dramatically.

“Spidey- what?” Heejun looked very confused.

“It’s from Spiderma- know what? Never mind. I’ll make you watch it later.” I rolled my eyes, rewording my question. “Can’t Warriors detect other Warriors?”

“Usually, yes,” Jihun nodded. “We can sense each other’s auras. But there is a type of Card that has a power to hide or suppress auras.”

“And this type is…?”

“Energy/Mind types.” Heejun answered before adding with more tense. “Who, by the way, have to be near the other Card in order to hide that Card’s aura.”

“Most of them have to do that, yes. But not ALL of them have to.” Jihun smirked like he knew something we didn’t.

     Heejun raised his brow, intrigued. “What? Are you talking about a Top Tier? Yeah right, as if a Master is REALLY using a Top Tier Card to hide their other Card’s identities so they can go to work.” 

     “Tope Tier?” I mumbled. From what Rori’s textbook told me, Top Tier Cards are Warrior Cards that level up to their most powerful level. They’re super rare since no one knows how to actually get Cards at their highest level. Rumors say that it takes at least two life times full of training or something, which I doubt anyone has time for anymore.

     “You never know!” Jihun held up his fork with a slice of apple on it and shook it. “Deck Masters today don’t go out and have battles like they used to! A lot of them are more focused on living in luxury or trying to live out their dreams! They could be using their own Warriors to help them make a quick and easy buck!”

     “He does have a point.” I said to Heejun who just huffed and turned away, refusing to reply. For a while we stayed quiet until a random thought popped into my head.

“You know…” I began. “We could just follow him.”

 “I can’t believe you guys talked me into this.” Ravi grumbled, leaning against the wall we were hiding behind. It was around five o’clock in the morning. The streets were wet from last night’s rain, and the smell of freshly baked bread from the nearby bakery filled the air, causing our stomachs to grumble.

     “We didn’t talk you into anything.” I snapped back. Which was the truth. After deciding to follow Hwanhee after his shift. We planned to sneak out super early a few days later so we could catch him. But on our way out, Ravi - I don’t even know WHY he was awake so early ‘cause he never is - had caught us right before we got to the front door. He promised not to mention anything to N, Leo, or Allissa if we brought him with us. Now he was probably regretting it since we’d been waiting for about an hour now and nothing’d happened yet.

“I don’t get it.” He went on. “Why are we following this guy anyway?”

“I already told you! We think he’s a Warrior!”

“Okay…? So he might be a Warrior. Still don’t understand WHY we’re following him.”

“Because-!”

“Shhh!” Heejun nudged me with his foot, never taking his eyes off the coffee shop. “He’s coming out.”

Geez. For someone who was so doubtful of Jihun’s theory, he sure was serious about this.

     I turned my eyes back to the shop and saw that he was right. Hwanhee really was coming out. The kid looked tired - wait, scratch that - he looked exhausted. Like he hadn’t had a proper night’s sleep for a whole week. Which was strange considering how cheerful he’d seemed last time. We watched as he sighed, adjusted his bag and then started his way home.

     “Come on!” Jihun whispered before heading after him. We all followed, trying to be as quiet as possible. Hwanhee had us walking for about twenty minutes until he started walking up the stairs to what looked like a normal apartment building. We quickly hid behind a few garbage cans, and watched as he opened the door to an apartment and went in.

“See!” Heejun pointed to the door Hwanhee disappeared behind. “He’s a normal human! No Warrior would ever be able to live in an apartment like that!”

     “What if it’s his Master’s apartment?” Jihun questioned, crossing his arms. After that they started arguing, but my attention was already far too focused to pay attention. I just couldn’t look away from that door. It was almost like… like it was calling to me. But why?

     “You little! GET OVER HERE! NOW!!”

I jumped from the sudden screaming voice.

“What was that?!”

The others looked at me, confusion etched on their faces.

“What was ‘what’?” Ravi asked with a raised brow.

“That scream!” I replied.

     “THIS is how much you made today?! SERIOUSLY?! I doubt it! Where’s the rest, you THIEF!!”

“There it is again!” I exclaimed.

“What are you talking about?” Heejun asked in bewilderment.

“You really can’t hear it?”

The guys all shook their heads. Just… what the heck?

     “You little-! Looks like I’m gonna have to teach you a lesson today!”

     “N-no! Please! I’m sorry!”

The last voice made me gasp. Now I kinda knew what was going on. “It’s Hwanhee’s Master.” I said with panic. “She’s about to hurt him.”

     “Wait wait wait!” Ravi waved his arms as if to pause a scene. “Are you telling us that you can hear what’s going on inside that apartment? And that it’s because this… Hwanhee kid… really is a Warrior and is getting punished by his Master?”

     “That’s exactly what’s going on.” I said before turning back to the building and watching as the door opened, revealing a very angry looking girl pulling out a very scared looking Hwanhee by the ear. By the way she dragged him behind her, I knew she wasn’t going to go easy on him.

“We have to help him!” I started to walk towards them but was pulled back by my collar.

     “Whoa! Hold on a sec!” Heejun held me back firmly. “Okay, I can see now that he really might be a Warrior. I admit it! But that doesn’t mean that we can just bust in on them and save him from a punishment! Do I have to remind you that we’re trying to stay OFF the radar?”

     “He’s right, Ems.” Ravi nodded. “How do you think the Council will react when they hear that Emory Cleus is going around with Card Warriors and stopping other Masters from doing their everyday life? They could get suspicious about you and end up sending people to look into the situation.”

Shoot, he had a point.

“But we can’t just sit here and let this happen!” I argued back. “I have a REALLY bad feeling about this! We have to do something!”

“What feeling?” Jihun looked at me as if I’d said something really interesting.

“I don’t know! Just-! It feels as if there’s something inside of me telling me to go after them! To stop them!”

     It wasn’t just a subtle feeling either. If I had to explain it in better detail, it was almost as if it was a voice, telling me that something bad was going to happen if I didn’t stop her. It almost seemed to be pleading with me to save Hwanhee.

Ravi, Heejun and Jihun all shared a concerned look. Like they were contemplating what to do.

“Are you sure about this?” Heejun asked seriously. I nodded with full confidence. He and Ravi both sighed with frustration.

“Alright. Looks like we’re gonna have to challenge her.” Ravi rubbed his face. “If only I didn’t wake up to get water. Then I wouldn’t have to be in this situation.”

“What?!” I almost yelled. I was not expecting that suggestion.

     “I agree.” Heejun nodded. “If we stop the punishment, then that’ll just raise questions. But if we challenge her, then we’ll be able to save Hwanhee… and maybe even another Warrior if we’re lucky.”

“Wait.” I held up a hand. “Are you telling me… that the only way to save Hwanhee... is to bet one or two of you, have a duel and win?”

“Yep.” All three nodded.

Jihun, who had been quiet up till now, patted my arm. “Don’t worry. I have a plan.”

I was nervous. The plan that Jihun had come up with seemed almost impossible, but it was the only one we had at the moment.

     “Don’t worry. You look completely different so she shouldn’t be able to identify you.” Heejun whispered to me, keeping his hand on my back, pushing me forward as we made our way to the back of the apartments where we saw Hwanhee and his master disappear. Jihun’s plan was to use Heejun’s powers to completely change my appearance and pretend I was new in town or something, and was looking for someone to duel with. Gosh, I wished I could stop my heart from beating so hard.

  We were just a few steps away from being seen.

“Don’t worry.” Ravi whispered this time. “We’re right behind you.”

I nodded, still unsure with myself, but this was for Hwanhee. We need to save Hwanhee.

     With one last deep breath, I stepped out so that we were in full view of Hwanhee’s Master and - with my best impersonation of a spoiled Deck Master academy student - I yelled…

 “Well, well, well~! What do we have here?”

Surprise! So I originally wanted to wait and post this after I had finished writing a new chapter, but it's New Years and I think ya'll deserve it! Hope you like the chapter! Trust me, the next one will be full of action, which I'm not entirely good at writing. So I guess we'll all see what happens. hehe! Happy New Years!