REMINDER: Minhwa is the man the group of them had bumped into at the market that Mira felt was the Ultimate but denied it.

The nine of them stared up at the building before them with dumbstruck expressions.

"The Ultimate lives here...?" Chanyeol asked blankly as he observed the deteriorating building. The small, old house that they had just stepped in front of was in dire need of a renovation; in fact, it would have been better if it was just torn down and build anew. He jumped back abruptly when a part of the window frame suddenly crumpled onto the ground. "Is it safe for anybody to live here?!"

"Are you sure that fake didn't just give you some phony address?" Jongin asked with a cocked eyebrow and folded arms. He glanced down the road at all the other houses that were in a similar state, “I would think that the Ultimate was capable of making enough money to live anywhere other than this.”

Mira scoffed and shook her head, almost insulted that he would suggest that she was tricked, "He valued his life too much to do that. This place must be where the Ultimate lives."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Suho murmured as he bravely stepped forward to the house. He was about to climb onto the first step of the staircase before he realized that nobody was following behind. He turned around to see everybody still patiently waiting at the gate and cocked his head in confusion. “Why aren’t you coming?”

"We're waiting to see if you fall through the wood or something," Kyungsoo explained with an unsympathetic expression.

Suho’s jaw dropped at how disloyal his supposed team was.

"It's okay, Suho! I have your shadow in my grasp, so if you fall I can always save you," Mira smiled optimistically as she encouraged him to move forward.

Suho sighed and muttered something unintelligibly under his breath; he couldn’t even count on Mira to be on his side. He turned back to the house and cautiously picked up his foot to place onto the first step. He leaned his weight to test it out and flinched when a loud creak met his ears. With a deep breath, he sprinted up the remaining steps to make it to the porch. He let out a breath of relief when he stood there relatively unharmed and waved the rest of them to join him.

"Hey guys! Hurry up and come on, the steps are perfectly-"

The front door slammed open, "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Ah, you surpri- AHHHHHH!" Suhos words were cut short when the wood beneath his feet caved in, causing him to fall right through the porch.

****

"I thought you had me covered," Suho muttered under his breath, flinching when rubbing alcohol was dripped onto his wound.

"Oh, sorry,” Mira answered, seemingly unapologetic. She leaned over and nodded approvingly as Minhwa bandaged Suho’s injury, "Good work."

"So,” Chanyeol began with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms, “You're an Ultimate. Why did you lie to us when Mira confronted you earlier in the village?”

"I'm not an Ultimate, alright?" Minhwa sighed with exasperation. He internally groaned as he looked at all the familiar faces taking up all the room inside his home. “And after I finish bandaging him up I would appreciate it if you guys would leave my house.”

“Can you even call this a house?” Chanyeol muttered under his breath as stepped closer to Jongin to use as a shield in case the house began to break apart.

“First of all, rude,” Minhwa responded as he shot him a glare. “And second of all, regardless of what you guys think about my house, the important point here is that I want you out of it.”

Mira opened to speak, but suddenly stopped once she felt a sudden sensation pulse through her veins. Her head snapped to the side to detect where it was coming from, and her eyes were met with a rotting wooden door. She took a step towards the door, but was immediately intercepted by Minhwa who cut in front of her with outstretched arms.

“You can’t go in there,” he growled with dark eyes and furrowed eyebrows. “And I think you’ve overstayed your welcome long enough.”

“There is somebody else here,” Mira deadpanned. “There’s a person in that room who gives off a similar aura as you. Like how you’re the Ultimate, but not exactly complete. Why is that?”

Minhwa seemed momentarily taken aback by her bluntness, but he quickly collected himself. “It’s none of your business who or what is inside that room, and like I said earlier, get out of my house before I’m forced to make you.”

Mira’s expression visibly darkened at his words, and she nearly snarled in response, “Do you even know who you’re trying to threaten?” An almost visible darkness began to seep from Mira’s body, and the boys behind her immediately took a step back to avoid being collateral damage.

Haiku sighed and shook his head at Minhwa’s mistake. If there was one thing Mira irrationally hated, it was being challenged.

Minhwa’s expression seemed to take an equally dark turn and he narrowed his eyes at Mira’s dangerous aura. Without even a second of hesitation, he slowly began to raise both of his hands to form several jets of water. “Try me,” he growled, completely ready to attack if Mira were to suddenly attack.

He was completely taken aback when Mira began to laugh, her dark aura completely disappearing in an instant.

“Are you a child?” she laughed gently as she pointed to the streams of water that were wrapped around Minhwa. “You really gave yourself away in a childish challenge?”

It took a second for Mira’s words to sink in before Minhwa’s head snapped to look down at the water that he had began to manipulate. He cursed under his breath for giving away his status as an Ultimate even though he had been trying so adamantly to deny it earlier. He was embarrassed to have been outsmarted by a girl younger than he.

“Okay fine,” Minhwa muttered as the water disappeared. “So I’m an Ultimate, big deal. That doesn’t mean I’ll be joining you on your dumb little mission.”

“Then maybe I’ll ask the other Ultimate,” Mira deadpanned as she stared straight into his eyes. “The one you’re hiding in that room.”

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