When Sakura woke up the next day, she was disappointed to realize that the events of yesterday were, in fact, real and not just some crazy nightmare. The tech girl had brought the group to her PC where she still had her own copy of the file that the others found out was called the Agamemno Contingency. The data was scarily in depth, down to each person’s tendencies and personalities.

“Yah, I am not as childish as I used to be.” Yujin had complained when she saw her entry to which Wonyoung responded. “So what? You want her to update it right now?”

"I mean, no, but look at yours. She has your physical combat rating as a four." The puppy then points out.

"Wait, excuse me? I've been training really ha-"

“Be quiet you two.” Eunbi scolds as she looks through the file herself.

“Who do you think will be targeted first?” She then asks Sakura, thankful Yena wasn’t here to complain about “pabo” being listed at the top of her weakness page.

“Hmm, probably the isolated ones. She wouldn’t dare trying to take us all on until she was powerful enough which is why she immediately retreated when she heard the alarms.”

“Alright, so I think we should contact everyone we can to stay alert or return back to campus for the time being.” The leader says.

“I think we’ll do the same back in JYP.” Yeji adds. “With Seoyoung on the prowl, we can’t leave our home unprotected.”

The planning went on like this for a while, with Sakura highlighting the mutants they should try to meet up with before Seoyoung could find them.

~~~~

Fast forward to the current day and Sakura found herself walking along the streets of Seoul on the way to find Chaewon while Chaeyeon went to look for Minjoo. Eunbi was originally going to send Hyewon, but it was actually the cloning girl that specifically asked to meet up with Sakura when she heard the news.

It wasn’t that Sakura had anything against Chaewon. She was just surprised the younger girl had called for her since out of the twelve members, she didn’t really have many moments to talk to her. Maybe she just wanted to give her an earful for her blunder in person. Sakura wouldn’t be surprised if her other friends were upset with her too.

As she walks, her thoughts swirl back to her girlfriend who was still giving her the cold shoulder. They’d ridden the same transport going to Seoul, but the younger girl didn’t say a word. Once they got off at their stop, Chaeyeon dashed away without saying goodbye. All the times recently where Sakura would pass on eating together or hanging out to work on her files suddenly came back to her. She realized only now why Chaeyeon had been more hurt than the others by her actions, and the guilt was eating her up. This and all the other emotions she was feeling made her lose focus and eventually bump into someone on the sidewalk.

“Oh, I’m really sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going.” The tech girl says apologetically. The young woman who was knocked down slowly gets up and takes a good look at Sakura for a reason she couldn’t discern.

“You’re Japanese.” The woman says in Japanese.

“Eh? How did you know?” Sakura asks confusedly.

“Your accent isn’t like the other Koreans I’ve met.” She replies, switching to perfect Korean which only gets Sakura more confused.

“Who is this girl?” The tech girl thinks.

“My name is Nakamura Kazuha by the way, and you are?” The woman says as if reading Sakura’s mind.

“I’m Sakura. Miyawaki Sakura.” She replies, shaking Kazuha’s hand.

“It’s nice to meet a fellow Japanese person here in Korea. I was living in the Netherlands for a while, so it’s been a while.”

“What brings you here then?” Sakura asks, even more questions popping up in her head. Just who was this girl?

“Ah, I was recruited by HYVE to be a trainee, so I was going to their building today.” Kazuha replies with a smile.

“Oh, so that’s why you’ve been practicing Korean.” The older girl surmises. “I’m actually heading there too to meet a friend, so maybe I can lead you there?”

“That would be great actually! I was getting a bit lost.” And with that, Sakura brings her new found acquaintance to the HYVE building.

~~~~

“Kkura-unnie! I’m glad you’re here, and it looks like you’ve already met Kazuha!” Chaewon greets enthusiastically when she sees the two Japanese girls walk in.

“Mhm, is she going to be in your debut group or something?” Sakura queries, and at this, the short-haired girl gives a sly smile.

“You could say that. Now, come on. We need to talk upstairs.” She responds.

“Wait, Kazuha is coming with us?”

“You’ll find out why soon enough.” Chaewon says before leading them to one of the building’s meeting rooms.

~~~~

“So, what is it?” Sakura asks, getting right down to business. If Chaewon was going to yell at her, she wanted it done and over with as soon as possible.

“You mentioned in the group chat that Seoyoung was back, right? Well, I want to track her down, and I need your help.” The older girl is confused by this request, especially with Kazuha in the room with them.

“Are you sure you want to be talking about this with her here?” Sakura ends up saying. The whole undercover operative thing kind of relied on their knowledge remaining undercover.

“Yes, she does because she’s a mutant too.”

“What? You said you were a trainee.” Sakura says while turning to the Japanese girl.

“I never said what kind of trainee, unnie.” She replies with a giggle.

“Mhm, which brings me to my next point. The reason I asked for you was because it was a request from HYVE themselves. They’re building a team, and I think you’d be a perfect fit.” Chaewon eventually says. If Sakura’s brain wasn’t already overheating with the information overload, it certainly was now.

“Wait, can we go back to the beginning. Why is HYVE suddenly making a mutant team?” At this, Chaewon scratches her chin in thought.

“If I had to guess, it’d be publicity. Hunter Geun getting exposed as a psychopath swung public opinion back towards us, and they wanted to capitalize. I agreed on this because it gives chances to mutants whose dreams were to be in the music industry. I also have control of all the missions we go on ‘as long as they’re within the law’, but who’s really checking that?” She says, putting air quotes on the last bit.

“Still, out of everyone in IZ*ONE, why me? It’s not like I’m interested in singing and dancing like Yuri.” Sakura replies in disbelief.

“Well, Yuri is under contract with Wakeone, so that’s a no go. They actually asked for Minjoo too for their acting division, but she said she only likes working quietly with IZ*ONE which I totally respect. In your case, they actually want you not as a performer but as a content creator. They're opening a streaming division, you see, and they wanted another Japanese member to have good chemistry with Kazuha. When they asked me if I had anyone in mind, you kind of hit two birds with one stone.” Chaewon says, referencing how when Sakura wasn’t working on her PC, she was playing video games.

The older girl considers the offer for a bit. It was her childhood dream to be a live-streamer, but this was certainly a big ask. She’d gotten used to being a person who worked in the background, and taking on this job would put her right in the spotlight. Chaewon senses her friend’s indecision and speaks up again.

“Listen, you don’t have to give me an answer right now. You can even discuss contract stipulations with HYVE as well. What I’m asking for is a chance to show you what working with us would be like. We’ll still be IZ*ONE, but think of it as another sub-team like Yujin and Wonyoung have with IVE.” The short-haired girl says. Sakura is silent again for a few seconds. Having another group would always help in handling new problems whenever they popped up. Her thoughts then drift to Chaeyeon and what it would mean for their relationship that wasn’t exactly smoothly sailing at the moment.

“Maybe this is an opportunity for me to show I can fix things…” She thinks before finally giving her response.

“Okay, Chaewon. I’ll join your team for now, and I’ll give you my final answer after the mission.”

“Great! I’ll introduce you to the other two members now. One of them definitely has a score to settle with Seoyoung.” Chaewon says with a smirk as she picks up a phone and gives an order.

After a couple minutes, the doors open to reveal a young girl that looked similarly aged as Leeseo, and a familiar face- Heo Yunjin.

“What’s up, Sakura-unnie? It’s been a while!” The tall girl greets with a wave. The last time she’d heard from her was when she and Gaeun had gone back to Pledis’ mutant facility. Though they said they wouldn’t return there, Eunbi and Seunggi had put Gaeun in charge of reorganizing the place in accordance to their new vision for what mutant centers should be like.

“Alright, everyone. This is Miyawaki Sakura, my teammate and friend in IZ*ONE. She hasn’t officially joined us yet, so let’s show her we’ll be a great team to work with.” Chaewon says before turning to the eldest girl.

“Now, Kkura-unnie, I’m sure you remember Heo Yunjin. HYVE had actually acquired Pledis to be their main mutant facility partner, and Yunjin had always wanted to be a singer, so it made sense to ask her to join.” Though Gaeun was always protective of the younger girl, she knew she had to let Yunjin live her life, and having the older girl’s stamp of approval was all she needed to jump at the opportunity.

“Next up is our maknae, Hong Eunchae. Don’t let her age fool you, she’s a great dancer. As for her power, I’ll let you see it in action when we go on the mission.” Chaewon says, putting her arm around the blonde girl and hugging her tightly. “Isn’t she precious?”

“It’s nice to meet you, and I’m looking forward to working together.” She greets with a cheerful smile.

“And finally, you’ve already met Nakamura Kazuha. She’s from Japan, but worked as a spy in the Netherlands for a while. She’s also a pro ballerina, which is how HYVE found out about her and why she was initially recruited..” At this, the gears start turning in Sakura’s head. Kazuha definitely had an aura of mystery from the second she’d met her, so the younger girl being a secret spy wasn’t exactly a surprise.

“Okay, with introductions out of the way, I think it’s time to brief everyone about Seoyoung.”

“Wait, the ability absorber? She’s back?” Yunjin asks, rubbing the left side of her chest where a scar was- a souvenir from almost getting killed by Seoyung’s blade.

“Yeah, she infiltrated PD Campus yesterday and unfortunately stole some data Sakura had been collecting about mutants.” Chaewon replies, not wanting to give the full story which the tech girl was grateful for.

“Having two new mutants she has no information on will probably be really helpful, so Eunchae and Kazuha will be big.” She continued, and Sakura could just feel a little bit of Eunbi in the way Chaewon was speaking. She and Yujin really learned from the best on how to be a leader.

“So, how do we track her exactly? If she has locations for that many mutants, it’s hard to predict where she’ll strike first.” Kazuha queries.

“Actually, that’s something I haven’t relayed to Chaewon yet.” Sakura replies, taking out a phone. “I developed a distress app that everyone could just download on their phones. If anyone gets in trouble, we’ll be pinged their location.”

“Uhh, unnie, is it supposed to be blinking red right now?” Eunchae asks when the older girl had opened the app to show the others.

“Wait, what?” Sakura turns the screen towards her and sees what the maknae had pointed out. The screen was flashing with the name of one of their friends, Na Goeun.

“Looks like we’re jumping right into it. Kkura and I will explain what usually goes on in our missions on the way there.” Chaewon says before leading the group to an elevator which takes them down to the HYVE garage.

~~~~

15 minutes ago a couple of blocks away…

Chaeyeon was in deep conversation with Minjoo at a cafe outside the actress’ agency. The brunette had just finished wrapping up her lessons when her friend showed up at the building’s entrance.

“Unnie, don’t you think you went a bit overboard with Kkura-chan? She said she was sorry.” The younger girl says. When the feather girl showed up earlier, she was informing her about the recent developments with Seoyoung, and the safety measures Sakura had developed like the distress app. At the mention of the tech girl though, Chaeyeon slowly began to break down until Minjoo was the one who had to comfort the older girl.

“I know…I was just so upset.” Chaeyeon replies.

“I’m sure we are all upset to a degree. Having a friend keep your weaknesses and profile in a file behind your back isn’t something we can brush aside, but I feel like there’s something more to it. Has everything been going alright between you two before yesterday?” The older girl is surprised, her emotions being read so easily that she doesn’t try to hide it anymore.

“Not really, Minjoo. I feel like she’s been so focused with work lately that we haven’t been able to hang out as often. I know that she’s usually a homebody, but I guess finding out what she was staying in her room for was the final straw. I just wish she trusted us enough to get our opinions on it before deciding on it herself.”

“Hmm, at its core, Sakura’s idea makes sense. If anyone gets captured, and we aren’t around to help, it’d be important to have a database that could guide whoever had to deal with it. You do have a point though. That should’ve been voted on by the group. Maybe you should just make up and apologize to each other.” Minjoo says after some thought. Having open lines of communication is important for any relationship. She was thankful for Chaewon in that regard because they always had honest conversations. The younger girl was actually afraid how Chaewon would react when she rejected her offer to join HYVE, but the short-haired girl simply asked why and nodded understandingly after her explanation.

“You’re right. Maybe I should do that before she does anything rash to fix things first.” Chaeyeon says when her phone starts beeping.

“Is that the distress app? Someone must be in trouble!” Minjoo says worriedly.

“Yeah, it’s Goeun. We’re close so let’s move. Hop on my back.” The older girl says, motioning for her to get on so they could speed over there. Minjoo was a bit hesitant, remembering the last time she had to do it, but eventually agreed because it was a matter of life and death.

Meanwhile, Sakura and the others were already in a van on the way to their friend’s location. She was determined to set things right and take back what was hers.

“You’re going down, Seoyoung.” She and Chaeyeon think at the same time.

A/N: Hi again, everyone! We're back with part 3 of this story now which will probably be the last update until next week because I'm out for the weekend and as y'all know, my job is starting on Monday. Feel free to follow my twitter (@TofuBeagle22), for any updates because it'll be slower from here on out or ask anything on my CC which is linked in my profile on twt/wp.

Also, special happy birthday shoutout to Eunchae! What a coincidence she shows up for the first time in my story today of all days HAHA

Thank you once again for all the likes, comments, and support! I hope this chapter was enjoyable despite it being a bit of a cliffhanger, and I'll see you all in the next one!!!