X - Sneak Peak
"Who is that?"
"Caught in the cameras near the alleyway." Haseul's finger drummed against the pad of the mouse continuously as she stared at the pixel picture displayed on the monitor. "Seen a few nights ago and apparently this guy has been causing more than just a ruckus."
Chaewon raised an eyebrow, humming as she tried to study the poor quality image. She could only make out the body frame of the culprit but everything else was either overshadowed by the disgustingly dark contrast of the shadows or blurred by the excessive pixels.
"I can barely see anything with the damn quality." Chaewon cursed, running her fingers through her roots, "The government put these cameras up, didn't they? With all their money, shouldn't they buy some decent ones. Not some fifties tape recorder or some crap?"
Haseul chuckled at the insult, turning to Chaewon with a smile, "Relax. We'll find something on this, for sure."
Chaewon groaned, walking away from the monitor and falling against the comfort of the couch. She took in a deep breath, tilting her head back to see Haseul still on the computer, "You said this guy was bad news; what did he do? Is it worst than theft - usually those are common."
Haseul nodded, her eyes narrowed on the figure. The stranger's shoulders were slouched forward with it's back against the alley wall. Beside the figure was a black garbage bag that seemed rather stained - in which Haseul didn't want to even begin thinking what was in there.
"Apparently," Haseul leaned back on her chair, "He's in ITZY's area. They've been trying to find him but they still got nothing - only these pictures."
Chaewon raised an eyebrow, grabbing a pillow and placing it over her stomach, hugging it close to her chest. "Is he dangerous?"
Haseul nodded, "He is. Extremely."
Caught by the choice of words, Chaewon turned away from the buzzing tv noise and drew her attention to their leader. She opened her mouth to question his crimes but Haseul seemed to already have read what she wanted.
"He's killed 9 people, 3 of them students at the pro hero academy -" Haseul pushed herself from the desk, turning around to meet Chaewon, "- 6 of them being pro heroes."
Chaewon took in a sharp breath, looking away from Haseul's stern gaze. Six heroes. Chaewon wasn't one to be easily irked by such events, it didn't affect her as much as it would for others but still, it was both impressive and worrying.
In a span of 3 days, this shadow of a man was able to take the lives of nine people. Three of them being learning heroes and the rest being actual heroes who were trained. He was able to do that so deliberately quick and easy yet it seemed as though it hadn't reached the news yet.
Not that Chaewon has heard anything of the sort, at least.
"They're keeping it under wraps." Haseul clicked away from the image, opening a few new articles that are missing such reports regarding the death of his victims. "Yeji said if they were to report something like that, it'll only cause panic. That's the last thing we want."
"Good call." Chaewon muttered.
Haseul nodded in agreement, "Exactly."
"So he was seen three days ago?" Chaewon turned back to Haseul, "We only started night patrols yesterday, didn't we?"
"We did." Haseul ran a palm over her face, taking in a deep breath as she tried her best to calm the nerves that started to shake, "Yesterday, he killed two students and a pro hero, who is yet to be named."
"The bodies were found?" Chaewon turned her full attention to Haseul - well, it's not like she never did so in the first place. Haseul nodded at the question, to which Chaewon continued, "And they weren't identified yet?"
Haseul hummed, "Not exactly. The students - I think - have already been identified." Haseul takes a moment to mourn for the families, mentally worrying for their loss considering losing a child was as painful as getting stabbed in the heart, maybe even worst. She sighed, "As for the hero, nothing yet. The hero was completely mangled, to the point of no recognition, so that's a problem."
Chaewon leaned back on the couch, tilting her head up to ponder silently. A new villain; that's what it seems to her. A bold one at that - and quite possibly, a skilled one. To kill 6 heroes in the span of three days was immensely impressive and quick; yet it seemed as though there was no pattern to this man's streak.
"Any leads on the other victims?"
Haseul glanced at her monitor, "The third student, who was attacked the day before yesterday, survived but she's in critical condition and she's yet to show any signs of consciousness." She raked her brown locks, ruffling it with the intent of making the headache fade, "The security is tight there and the rest of Itzy are there currently guarding her."
"Yeji must be stressed the hell out." Chaewon muttered, digging her fingers through the small bag of chips. The tv was long turned off considering it was a distraction that served to only fuel their worries.
Haseul nodded, mentally sending her concerns to Yeji who seems to be the one taking the most hits for this case, "She is but we need to be careful too. This guy might as well start making his way towards our
city, so we need to be cautious."
Chaewon chucked a few chips into her mouth, "Do the others know?"
"I'll tell them before we start the patrol tonight. Jungeun already started training Yerim so you and I can start organizing these things for briefing." Haseul sighed, standing up from her seat, stretching her arms out.
The blonde opened her mouth to protest but decided against it knowing that she'll learn more about this new stranger. Chaewon curled the bag of chips and placed it on the counter, pushing herself away from the comfort of the cushions.
"Does this guy have a quirk?" Chaewon stood beside Haseul, flipping through several pages.
Haseul hummed, "Well if he managed to kill six heroes with little to no struggle then I would think he does. If not then maybe he has a few tricks up his sleeve."
"He probably has a quirk." Chaewon said, "To kill that many pro heroes within such a short time? I doubt he did all of that without a quirk - question is, what is his quirk."
Haseul nodded in agreement as she pulled up the image once more. Albeit being incredibly low quality, there were a few things identifiable or somewhat obvious in shape.
The camera was aimed towards the sidewalks; however, it still caught this masked killer on tape with barely any other space of the alleyway. He was leaning against the dimly lit alley, his hand to his face (Haseul guesses he was smoking) with a garbage bag sitting still beside him.
It didn't even seem like he was on the run, if anything, he seemed more relax than a wealthy businessman who lives in one of those modern houses.
"Hang on, I get men are a bit odd-" Haseul snickered at Chaewon's observation, "- but how are we so sure this villain is a dude?"
Haseul placed a report in front of Chaewon, much to her surprise, and swiftly opened the file, "This is the girl who fell victim to him. She got a few words in before she blacked out and said that a he attacked her."
Chaewon studied the file, her eyes landing on the student's face. She was smiling in the picture - probably taken in school - and it seemed as though it was her first year in the most highly respected school that teaches ordinary students with extraordinary abilities to become the heroes they've always dreamed of being. It was unfortunate that this had happened.
"So we have no clue about this guy's quirk, build or face, except his gender?" Chaewon raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms as she thought hard.
Haseul nodded, "Unfortunately. If the girl wakes up then surely we can get something but that's pretty much it." She sighed, "There's not even a single trace on any of the other victims. All of them are pretty much messed up to the point of no recognition."
Chaewon groaned, bending over the table as she lazily rests her head on the countless files. They were pretty much at a dead end. Sure, they were able to salvage a victim but she was practically rendered useless to their investigation if she's breathing on machines (Chaewon; however, is thankful that she's alive though). And then they have this flimsy footage that shows nothing but this man leaning on a wall, smoking his damned victories away with a bag by his foot.
"Hang on." Chaewon stopped, slightly nudging Haseul aside as she reached for the computer, "We can zoom in, right?"
"We can." Haseul yawns, "But I already tried that and the hood on this guys face pretty much covers it whole. We can't really identify-"
"No no not that." Chaewon mutters, clicking a few times around the screen, navigating through the monitor so easily that it's too quick for Haseul to comprehend. All Haseul sees is another browser being pulled up along with the pixel heavy image overlapping it. She moves closer, trying to decipher whatever it is that Chaewon found.
"Chae, what are you-"
"Look." Chaewon moves slightly, giving Haseul enough space for her to see. There was a familiar logo on the left side of the monitor, it was blood red and it was the same symbol that many of them have grown to hate. "And look at the symbol on the garbage bag. I know it's blurry but the colours seem kind of alike and the shape is pretty much the same." Chaewon said.
Haseul snapped her head to the younger girl, "So you're saying.."
"This guy isn't some random villain who popped out of nowhere." Chaewon let out a lowly growl, leaning back as her eyes narrowed at the screen. "If anything, he purposefully showed himself."
Haseul took in a deep breath, a shiver running conveniently quick up her spine as the thought started to dig itself deeper into her mind. "His victims are the warnings." Haseul muttered, chewing on her lip.
Chaewon nodded, "They're coming back and I bet this guy is their opening show."
****
"Are you sure you want me to fight you? What if I hurt-"
"Yerim, for the love of all eternity, you are not going to hurt me." Jungeun groaned, running her palm over her face for what seemed like the tenth time. "Just because your quirk is much more forward than mine, doesn't mean I'm stupid enough to get hit by it on purpose. I've got training so I'll be fine."
Yerim murmurs in silence, protesting how she didn't like the idea of fighting Jungeun hand to hand using her quirk when she can barely control it as well as others can. Technically, she can control her quirk but to use it in battle with Jungeun - who is much more trained - is a little bit of risk to her. She hasn't used her quirk for those purposes so this concept of using her quirk for battle is new to her.
"If it makes you feel any better, we can start by training without quirks." Jungeun sighed, straightening her back with her hands to her hips, "How about that? That way you can just practice hand to hand combat rather than jumping straight into quirk control."
Yerim thought for a little while before nodding, "I like the sound of that!"
Jungeun let out a breath, relieved that they finally got to a compromise, "Alright. Go drink some water and come back when you're good to go." Yerim was quick to dash away from their make shift ring and to the bench.
They were in this old facility - well, old isn't quite the word Jungeun would use but it was somewhat in that state - where LOONA trains and, often than not, where ITZY often pay a few visits.
(They haven't done so in a while but they used to when they had the time; those were some fun memories.)
Jungeun looked around the interior, wallowing in the way it was still at such a large scale, something she can never really get used to. It was almost like a warehouse where their things were tucked away in a secret little bunker hidden underneath; to which no one but the LOONA members can access (it was never really touched though). Jungeun chuckled at the thought that everything in there must be covered in dust.
She glanced around the building, catching a few decaying dummies in the corner that had several bruises and scratches from old fights. Jungeun smiled, remembering the times when they had spent hours in here training their butts off to be deemed as worthy of the Pro Hero title.
The building in itself wasn't quite old looking as it appeared on the outside. On the outside it looked like an abandoned box with lopsided signs and flickering lamp lights sitting outside; however, the inside was much more presentable.
It had tables with arranged seats, a kitchen that stored nothing but water (it used to be filled every day), training dummies and mats stored away in the corner in an orderly fashion and a few couches that hung around a broken TV. Well it was better than what it should look like for something that hasn't been visited or tended to for 2 years.
Though it wasn't an empty building, the high ceiling still made the whole facility feel like an abandoned cave with nothing but the cold echo.
Or maybe it just lacked their old chatter.
"Ok! I'm ready." Yerim ran up to her, determination burning in her eyes. She looked more than ready with the way her body was starting to get in some sort of stance.
Jungeun hid a snicker and smiled, "Whatever you say kid." She chuckled at the way Yerim pouted at the nickname. "You get the first punch - don't hold back, ok?"
Yerim raised an eyebrow, "What if I hurt you?"
"That's only if you hit me." Jungeun winked which only seemed to fuel the fire in Yerim's eyes, much to her luck.
Yerim furrowed her eyebrows at Jungeun; a part of her wants to acknowledge the older girl's sudden arrogance and go full out, but the other wants her to take it easy and maybe even be a tad bit clumsy.
Jungeun smiled at her with a Cheshire grin, "So? Are you going to stand there or are we going to start?"
Yerim flashed the older girl a quick smile before rushing in, confident that her punch will be as strong as the push she starts with. She swings her right fist, a victorious smile readily growing, and Yerim feels her energy pouring into that one punch and-
-and she misses.
Jungeun's hand grabs her attacking wrist with ease, twists behind Yerim and pushes her palm hard into Yerim's side - much to the younger girl's expense.
"Ah!" Yerim stumbles forward, straightening her back with such flimsiness Jungeun feels a tad bit guilty for starting with a quick yet forceful push. "You- That- How did you-?"
Jungeun chuckles at Yerim's loss of words, and fairly flattered, "It's not complicated to read what your moves were going to be. Although you learned combat, you only learned how to probably punch and kick, right? Your stance was strong and stable, but your punch was naive and innocent."
"How can a punch be naive and innocent?" Yerim raised an eyebrow.
"Albeit being strong-" Jungeun demonstrated Yerim's attack plan as she brought up her own fist and shot it forward, "-your punch was your obvious plan of attack, it was naive to think that I wouldn't be able to read that. Your punch was aimed towards my face, you were innocent for thinking that would be the best course of action."
Yerim brought up a finger, opening her mouth as if to protest but she stops and lets Jungeun's words filter into her thoughts. She thinks for a while and let's out defeated sigh, "I.. may have underestimated you."
"You did." Jungeun snickered, finding it rather pleasing to have proven Yerim wrong in such a way that screamed style. It was a childish brag, but it was worth it. "Ok, are you ready to learn?" Jungeun smiled.
Yerim shakes away her own doubts, nodding as she resumes her former stance, smirking.
"Teach me everything you got!"