A cool howling gale breezed through the dark alleyways of the NeoSeoul redlight district. It weaved through the small streets like a life force pumping blood through the city. It was only dusk, but dusk was what dawn was for creatures of the night. Nocturnal beings who gather in the filthy backstreets to deal their wares. Here was the melting pot of all that was criminal. Here, even Chansung and Rai felt the slightest bit intimidated.

Nichkhun’s ears picked up every tongue and conversation around him. Shrill voices peddling their bodies, grunts from behind vans, and even cries from unsuspecting victims. There was no silence here, not even with death.

Chansung’s nose was burning from the stench of the sewers and of the burly men and women around him. He smelled everything, from illegal narcotics, to , and even the smell of rotting flesh. He was disgusted, and the only thing keeping him sane was his katana strapped to his back.

Junsu had it worst of all. Plain and utterly simple he wanted to be back in the comforts of his own room. Just stay there and wait until everything was over. Unfortunately for him, he was required. His eyes picked up movements from all corners- he was expected to warn the others against attackers from all directions, but the neon lights that were starting to light up were blinding. The flickering signs of both bulbs and movements were giving him a rush of stimuli that his eyes forced themselves to shut close. It was in those moments of darkness that he felt most fear. What he couldn’t see, he was most certain could harm him.

Rai followed behind them from the shadows and the low roofs of the establishments. She was not about to go parading down these streets, even with both Sadame and Izayoi with her. She could see the looks the three members of Hell were getting as they walked with their weapons- every other person on the street eyed them well.

She watched them intently, every large man with his nose-ring, every other patron with his mohawk, every other woman with her see-through clothes. Every one of them was an enemy. Nichkhun led the pack as they walked directly into the Seiryuu’s main hideout, if one could call it as such. They were created for stealth, and as long as no one else stared at them any longer than a second, they should have been safe.

Renzaki Mamoru was a dangerous man, he held a position in the Academy Research and Development department, and everyone who even vaguely alluded to his underground associations all mysteriously disappeared, never to be found again. His association with the Fortuna Project was the icing on the proverbial cake. According to Jinwoon, The Azure Dragon took advantage of the population explosion during the warring times. Abandoned children, torn down foster care systems, orphanages, those were his targets. What he wanted was an army custom made for his own gains- Fortuna was the custom shop, and he was the supplier.

Nichkhun took a turn into an empty alley, and Chansung took the rear flank guarding against any would be attackers. Jinwoon was calm and steady in their ears as he gave further instruction. With Rai dropping down into the dark street, Nichkhun and Junsu positioned themselves next to a steel and concrete casted manhole lid. Junsu took one look at the lid and looked back at Chansung.

“Hey, let’s switch. I’ll keep guard, you lift that thing!”

Chansung rolled his eyes as he acquiesced to the request. “If anything even comes near us, and I’ll smell it when it does, I will hurt you.”

Jinwoon’s chuckling from his side was not at all reassuring to them. “The main Seiryuu base is underground, Unfortunately there isn’t a backdoor that doesn’t involve manholes and sewers. But think of it this way, after you’re all through, you can exit using the front door.”

Rai rolled her eyes as she slipped into the small gap Chansung and Nichkhun had created for her. Both men grunted as they moved the steel round cover away, but they could only do so much.

Landing on her toes, Rai quickly scanned the area for anything that could be suspicious. There was nothing else for now but light rumbles on the sides and on the floor. “Unless you think rats will kill you, you can all come down now.”

“Actually, rats can kill you,” Junsu commented as he peeked through the hole.

Rolling his eyes, Nichkhun rammed his knee on Junsu’s back, and Rai merely stepped back as Junsu toppled into the sewer. Chansung’s laughing soon followed as he and Nichkhun jumped in.

“Very nice, I feel very appreciated here. Thanks,” Junsu grumbled, rubbing his hip as he followed the rest of his so-called team. “Hey, it’s been a while, since we all went out like this.”

Chansung indulged himself in another round of eye-rolling. “Nice to know.”

Rai let a smirk sneak into her face. “Someone’s lonely.”

Junsu quickened his pace and carelessly threw an arm around Rai. “I missed you, too. Need I remind you, I’m not exactly the eager beaver in this mission.”

Rai shot him a glacial glare and when Junsu realized his mistake, he quickly withdrew his arm. Still, he didn’t fail to notice the lack of cuts and bruises on his person. She didn’t attack him, and he thought that had to count for something. “Sorry,” he muttered.

“Chansung, Staunton wants you to make sure all the children you can find are kept safe when authorities find them,” Jinwoon said. “Nichkhun and Rai can deal with the baddies, and Junsu can do what he does best.”

“Nothing?” Chansung supplied helpfully.

Junsu elbowed the taller man on the ribs. “I love how you think so highly of me.”

“Why are you in such a good mood?” Chansung replied, stepping away from a too close Junsu.

“Because he’s exacted his revenge.”

It was Nichkhun who answered, and the rest of them were very much surprised. Nichkhun hardly spoke, even rarer about Junsu. It would have been cause for celebration had they not been in the middle of a mission.

“The other Kim Junsu? You never told us what that was about,” Chansung asked, now curious about Junsu’s reasons for joining Hell. It was not something they spoke of, but that can had now been opened.

“Hold that thought,” Jinwoon cut in. “You’re about there, turn left at the intersection and there should be a gate. After that gate you’ll find the waterwheels, cross that and there should be another gate that leads straight to the base.”

As Jinwoon had said, Hell now stood a back door away from the Seiryuu base. Nichkhun looked around him- sounds were emanating from behind the door: chairs scraping, tables moving, people talking, and more shuffling, there were children crying, and the sound of a crackling fire. There might have been no one to intercept them but there was no doubt that the Azure Dragon was in business.

Junsu pulled out a small box from inside his kit. “I’ve always wanted to try this,” he said, setting up the small explosive and attaching it to the wall.

It blew up in smoke, and as soon as the door busted open, Rai threw in several smoke bombs before jumping in together with Nichkhun and Chansung. In the midst of all the carnage, Junsu pulled on a mask and slipped into the room. He wasn’t there to fight- he didn’t need to anymore, and he creeped along the wall towards the main office.

It didn’t even matter how many men there were. Nichkhun and Rai made easy work on them. Swords met flesh, and it didn’t take long for the room to be emptied. Chansung broke off from the group to find the missing children, and one look between Nichkhun and Rai had them agreeing to go to find the ring leader.

Together.

Chansung slipped into the holding cell easily. He didn’t want to use his katana, but several guards after him left him no choice. He preferred a blunt weapon, but that didn’t stop enemies as easily as a blade. Three children lay haphazardly on the floor- the three that remained alive. Beyond them were bodies, and Chansung looked away, feeling sick to his core. It didn’t matter how advanced Fortuna was, nothing mattered at all, all that he saw were dead bodies piling up and people suffering. Maybe falling into Hell wasn’t as bad as he previously thought. Perhaps accidents sometimes meant something too.

All three of the children were unconscious as Chansung picked them up. They were severely undernourished, and their clothes tattered. Chansung didn’t think they were from the usual sources, he believed them to be kidnapped children. He draped one of the boys onto his chest and a marking on the boy’s shoulder caught his eye.

An iris.

It was still raw and bloody, and that was when Chansung saw the branding iron and furnace. It didn’t take long for him to run from that room and find Junsu.

It was interesting, that much Junsu was willing to admit. He stepped over a body of one of the guards he shot down and pulled open another drawer. Everything had been neatly filed away and recorded that he couldn’t believe this was a kidnapper’s lair. From the very first set of children that had been kidnapped almost 18 years ago, until the present every name and estimated ransom value was listed.

Junsu scanned through the files before stashing them into his bag. He lifted the very first file out of curiosity, and his brows creased in the middle of his forehead. “Jinwoon, what was the name of the old fart in charge of this thing?”

“Renzaki Mamoru, why?”

“Because there’s a Renzaki Ai on the list. I’m sending you a picture now.”

“I’m looking it up. She’s his daughter.”

“Excuse me? Why would he subject his four year old daughter to something like that?”

Junsu felt something stir behind him, and he was relieved to see it was Chansung coming in with the children. “Look at this, the big bad’s daughter is on the list.”

Chansung peered into the sheet of paper, but his eyes were more fixated on the picture than on the name. “Hey Jinwoon, whatever happened to these kids?”

“The three children were never found. The police just got a tip about some old warehouse and when they got there they just found everyone in there dead and no trace of the missing children.”

The gears in Junsu’s head were turning, “That sounds familiar. Too familiar.”

“Yeah,” Chansung agreed, “kinda like what we’re doing now.”

“I’ll look into it,” Jinwoon answered. “You think The Main Office had something to do with it?”

Chansung hummed a reply, but he was too focused on the photo, “Call me crazy, but this kid...she kinda reminds me of Rai.”

…

Nichkhun didn’t even have to do anything as Rai’s brutal assault had guards dropping one after the other. She was anxious about something, ever since they started walking through the offices- she became more aggressive with her strikes and her kills. Less precise and methodic, but more deadly than Nichkhun was used to seeing from her.

She crouched low from her latest kill. She had attacked from above again as she loved to, bouncing off a wall and driving her short swords straight into the much larger than her man’s neck. Her hands shook as she flicked the blood off the blades of her kodachi, and Nichkhun was almost tempted to ask.

“How many more rooms?” she asked, her voice shaky and out of breath.

“Just the last one. Be prepared, I have a feeling it’s going to get interesting.”

Nichkhun was not expecting silence from the last room, and he was most definitely not expecting the enemy to just wait for them as they pushed the large double doors open. Behind the large steel table was their main target, Renzaki Mamoru. He had his hands steepled together in front of him, and his old dull brown eyes searched each of Nichkhun and Rai’s faces.

She had no patience, and as soon as the old man looked at her, Rai launched herself at him. Renzaki Mamoru nodded to himself, amused with his karma. A bitter smile spread across his lips as he recognized this girl that was about to kill him with absolutely no hesitation at all.

As Rai dove towards the target, Nichkhun’s ears tingled with a sudden rush of awareness. He was hearing breathing from somewhere inside the room with an all too familiar sound of something being snapped locked.

Almost in slow motion, he saw it happen before his eyes. Rai on top of the table as she slit Renzaki’s throat, and another dark figure emerging from the shadows underneath her.

He swung his sword immediately, and a large blade blocked his attack. He recognized the sound of the metal against his Krabi. The way its shaking made a rumbling sound and the way it sparked in his ear. It was when a loud piercing bang shot through the blade that Nichkhun knew where he had heard this sound before.

“Suijin!”

Her eyes were betraying her, she was certain of it. There was no way Suijin could still be alive, not when Rai witnessed his death firsthand. Her lips trembled as she walked into his line of sight. He was still the same as before, the only difference was his black hair was now silver. Rai stared straight into his eyes that were so dark they were almost black. Suijin was alive! “Suijin...”

He smirked at her, his playful lips glistening as his tongue slipped out. “It’s Kazuki now, or again, actually. And it’s nice to see you again too, Ayame. Nice to know you survived.”

Rai couldn’t breathe. Suijin was alive! “Sui...but at the...the...Nichkhun...he...” she stuttered out every single word, unable to completely express herself. Only one thing was on her mind, and that was the fact that Suijin had been alive all along.

Nichkhun was seething. How was it that every man he killed somehow turned up to be alive. “The doppelganger, it was you, wasn’t it?”

Kazuki bowed his head slightly. “The same way you couldn’t kill me then.”

The blonde gripped his sword so hard his knuckles were white. “I won’t miss this time.”

Rai was lost in a sea of her own emotions making themselves known. “Suijin, where are the others?”

Kazuki raised his gunblade to focus on Nichkhun. “Wouldn’t know, might be dead, might be alive. You’re no longer needed by these people Ayame, come with me and we’ll make something better of ourselves.”

Her head shook as she tried to take in every word Kazuki uttered. His voice was the same deep timbre as she remembered, his heartbeat still the same. It was the same man, but somehow something was different. “What?”

“Raijin,” Nichkhun spoke as calmly as he could.

Kazuki laughed. “Still going by Raijin? The shinobi are no more. Come with me and we’ll establish a new world order. We no longer have to live in the shadows.”

“Rai! Don’t listen to him!” Jinwoon’s voice in her ear was loud and demanding.

“Come with me Ayame, you can do better than them.” Kazuki continued to taunt her.

“Enough,” Nichkhun spat out the words as he lunged after him. He was afraid Rai was going to get in the way, making things more complicated, but the girl stayed glued to her spot.

“Suijin, what are you talking about?! We live in the shadow! We were raised for that, for a...a mission.”

Kazuki grunted as he parried off Nichkhun’s attacks. “Ayame the shinobi are no more. All that remains is me and you, this world doesn’t need the shinobi.”

Rai couldn’t believe her ears. “Sensei trusted you with Izayoi! He trusted you to lead the clan and you’re going to let it die?!”

Nichkhun continued his relentless assault on Kazuki. The former shinobi was quick and strong, nothing like Rai was when they fought. He was calculated and much more refined in his technique, even Nichkhun found himself slightly struggling.

Another laugh and Kazuki jumped back creating a gap between him and Nichkhun. “Anyway, I’m only here to see what happens. I have to leave, so, Ayame, shall we?”

Rai was at a loss, and before she could even begin to think, the hilt of Nichkhun’s sword met the base of her neck and she fell unconscious in the other assassin’s arms.

“Interesting development,” Kazuki commented. “Well, I have to go. I will see you very soon.” With that, he disappeared into the shadows and into the night ahead.

~ ♛ | ♜ ~

When Wooyoung told her that there was somewhere he needed to be, Mai didn’t think it would be a hospital. The white-washed walls sent chills running up and down her limbs and back, and she desperately held back the urge to hold on to the Inspector as they walked down the old building. It didn’t appear to be a hospital, if anything, to Mai, it looked like a nursing home.

The strode down the long empty corridors, and Mai wished she could hear something else besides the clacking of their boots on the tiles.

She wanted to ask Wooyoung what they were there for, but her tongue would so often waver back into . She said nothing more, even when they walked into the last wing on that particular floor.

Two nurses were stationed on the desk, and both looked at them intently. By instinct, Mai read off the names, Jena and Sunghee. Names that were of no consequence to her, but she needed to a sense of normalcy. The two nurses said nothing as they passed by them, but their stared continued to haunt her. She could feel them looking at her every move even after they’d passed by them.

The Inspector stopped at a room- he appeared hesitant by the door, and it took him a good moment before grasping the cold door knob and twisting it open. Inside nothing was different. The room was all white- the only form of life in it was a vase of fresh camellias on the night stand and the switched on television.

Even the woman lying unconscious on the hospital cot was surreal to Mai. The various equipment next to her told them she was still alive, but there was nothing about her that said so. She was pale, the contrast highlighted by her long black hair, but this didn’t mar her beauty at all.

Who was she? And how did Wooyoung know her?

“June...you’re alive.”

Mai thought she misheard Wooyoung, and she stepped closer towards him. The same expression he had earlier when he spoke about that saying was back. For once he didn’t appear angry, his face was serene even though his lips shook the slightest bit.

She turned away and towards the television, feeling as if she was invading a personal moment.

“Breaking news, this is Noi Daniels live from Kapitel. The Police Chief Lee Sooman has issued a public statement regarding the deaths of General Yang and Wahrheit. Suspects include a group of rogue officers from the station: Inspector Jang Wooyoung, Detective Ok Taecyeon, 2nd Officer Im Seulong, and 1st Officers Tran Mai and Lee Junho. Circulars will be given out regarding these personnel-”

~ III ~

end scene

Two shadows run as the wind is strong

Even if they are gone, blown by the wind

In the next life they will repeat the same

As a nameless bloom they scatter away

- Fate, Noriyuki Asakura, Yui Murase -