After the takeoff…
Inside the chopper, all the members were sitting around, watching Yuuki change into his new gear.
"What? First time seeing me or something?" Yuuki asked lightly, not really minding the attention.
"Nah, man, just wondering if you're on steroids or something?" Ji Long joked. "I mean, you're eighteen and already two-something tall? That's crazy even with our criticals."
"Yeah, all the fighting can be called 'steroided,' no?" Yuuki answered, smirking. "Wanna take a swing in training with me later?"
"And end up with trauma? No, thank you." Ji Long scoffed and turned away.Yuuki was one of those hardcore training maniacs—side note: right now, he could bench-press two freaking tanks on each side of a bar just for a warm-up. Something barely any high-rank in the guild could pull off without energy. This fact made everyone in the guild see him as the second beast on its back.
"Okay, gather up," Wanda called from the cockpit. "Twenty minutes until the drop, so listen closely."
She lit up a hologram showing an anchored container boat, schematics on the side with hundreds of dots moving—about seventy percent green, the rest red.
"This is the live feed of our target position. Sadly, we got in at a really bad time… or good, depending on how you see it," Wanda said. "The green dots are hostages and their next shipment. So, in addition to eliminating hostiles, we need to secure the people inside."
"What's their armament level?" the sniper asked.
"Most are high-caliber machine guns, a few RPGs—the usual. We can tank them with the new suit, but don't get cocky."
Looking at Yuuki, Wanda said, "You'll lead the operation. Any plans?" She glanced at her watch and smirked. "Fifteen minutes to go."
"You sure?" Yuuki asked. After a nod from everyone, his mind switched on.
Five minutes later, he started. "Since we're using the Eagle Parachutes—something like hawk wings—I'll have Ji Long positioned here to take anyone who steps onto the deck. Mark and another one of you—along with Wanda—will make a riot on top to draw attention. Seal all the exits while you're at it, except the main one." He pointed at the deck entrances.
With a sniper on top, Wanda's deadly sword-and-gun combo, and four A+ strength members, they could handle the situation. Sealing the entrances would reduce the number of threats they faced at once.
Pointing at the ship diagram, he continued, "Below deck are the storage spaces. The hostages are separated into four storage rooms on the sides, each with only one entrance."
"So while Wanda and the others distract them, we breach the hull on the four sides and guard each entrance. Anyone we meet who isn't a hostage—neutralize them. After that, we work our way up while Wanda moves down. I'll take one side." He looked at Wanda, waiting for her comment.
"Good plan. Part of the cavalry will land with me. Have the others with you and let them work their way out. It'll ensure the hostages' safety even more," Wanda added.
"The cavalry?" Yuuki asked, not knowing what she meant.
"Every time we confirm something like this, we take some of the low-level ones to experience real deadly fights," she said, pointing to the window. "We call them the cavalry. You don't expect only the nine of us to do all the work, right?"
The mission was to take down a human trafficker group; all involved were black-marked, death penalty for hostiles, no mercy.
That made it high risk for the people inside. Additionally, it was Yuuki's first blood ritual—the last part for his A+ rank, but again he didn't know all that personally.
The blood ritual was a test of one's willingness to take life—an old Akai family teaching still cultivated.
"Okay, then we'll have each of the four points guarded with teams of six, and each of you will lead the rest for cleanup." Yuuki raised his hand. "Any questions? Then get ready. The count is in ten minutes."
All the team members geared up.
"You good?" Wanda came closer to check Yuuki's gear.
"Yeah?" he answered abruptly, not fully catching her meaning.
"That it? You know we're about to fight human beings and exterminate them, right?" Wanda said, tightening the parachute hooks on his sides, still watching his expression.
"Oh, that." Yuuki smiled in understanding. "Well, honestly—I don't know. But if you're asking if I have it in me to go on this mission…"
He looked straight at her. "People who trade others like cattle don't deserve hesitation. From what the intel shows, they do worse than that."
"I guess that's just you," Wanda sighed before patting his shoulder. "But remember—killing is not a choice or decision we make lightly. For us, Sky Guild, it's necessary when needed, not when decided on a whim."
"Countdown in two minutes. Line up!" she called, heading to the back shuttle while checking her watch.
Following her, still processing her words, Yuuki fell in line right behind.
"Mask on, gear check!" Wanda said, putting her mask on.
"Check!" Yuuki shouted, followed by the others echoing him.
[Alright, opening the hatch. Adjustments perfect. The feed of the air current and observation post position will link to your mask hub in 3, 2, 1.] Ali's voice came over comms. The back shuttle opened, and their stats adjusted the drop and flight pattern in real time.
[And BGM in 3, 2, 1], Ali added—and surprisingly, a song started playing in their comms.
"Seriously? And why this one? It's a mission, not a dance," Yuuki said, making the others laugh.
"It has its reason, okay? Just feel the beat and let the music flow," Wanda smiled.
"Wait, you're saying we do this every time we're on a mission?" Yuuki asked, catching the rhythm of her speech.
"Only in direct confrontations," Mark replied from behind.
"That's technically every high-risk mission we get," Yuuki said, grinning.
In fact, most missions the guild handled were fight, fight, or destroy. Sure, there were crafting and investigation jobs, but high-rankers rarely took those. So the guild's already strong, bold, and crazy image just got another verification stamp with this weird… habit.
[Jump in three seconds], Ali confirmed.
[Ladies first], Wanda said, jumping into freefall with a flip, then adjusting her body to glide.
Yuuki dove headfirst with minimal movement to her position before flaring to the side. Soon the team followed and formed a formation around the two.
'To think I'll do freefall again,' he thought, smiling. Looking up to confirm, the cavalry were out too—a dozen packed human formations trailing behind.
[Death Shot, Sword 7, go ahead], Yuuki ordered.
The two in question dived nose-first, taking the lead. As they approached the deck, a pair of wings—engine units like Marvel's Falcon—opened on their backs.
This was mandatory gear for all air-related rankers. The developer was actually Anna—she couldn't get past the trauma of Yuuki's accident, so she stuck with him for a whole month to help upgrade and perfect it. The end product let any trained person fly for three hours with perfect control.
With a sharp turn, the two converted the vertical dive into a supersonic approach toward the guard post. They passed the first two and triggered a sonic boom, then curved right and left to avoid debris.
Sword 7 (Mark) threw a flying knife into one of the last guards and took his place immediately; Death Shot sniped the guard in the eyebrow just before he grabbed the comms device.
[Good work. Eyes on the entrance,] Yuuki said. [Okay, move. Let's turn and burn.]
Deploying his wings, he flew toward his position, followed by his group. The cavalry landed seconds later.
Wanda accelerated directly to the hull while others swerved to the sides.
Appearing alongside the ship, one of them retrieved a small tube and attached it to the hull. It lit up and expanded in four directions, lasers carving through the metal in a perfect circle.
Soon a two-meter-wide hole opened. And what Yuuki saw inside made his blood boil.
Maybe bad luck, maybe fate, but he found himself in a bay hold full of women in the worst condition imaginable. With all the noise and steel cutting, you'd expect some reaction—relief, panic, anything. But no. They just looked at them with vacant, empty eyes.
[Status confirmation? Hostage condition?] Yuuki asked over comms, scanning the area.
He signaled the cavalry to check the women's condition while securing the outside door.
[Second team here—hostages safe and sound. Most are kids,] the leader of the second breaching group reported.
[Third, same—most are babies here!!!] the third leader said, shocked.
[Fourth division, we have a situation,] the last leader said, voice trembling with anger.
[The bastards aren't only trafficking humans—they're harvesting organs. I found an operating room here—tools, preservation units with fresh organs. The people here have been harvested over the last few days.]
A skull icon flashed on comms. Wanda snapped back to focus. [Keep the thoughts for later. They're retreating down. Hands on guns!]
"Get ready!" Yuuki regained his focus from the shock. He looked at the women around him, sighed, drew his handguns, and stopped at the door.
"I don't know what happened to you or how long it's been." Looking back at the women bundled together, he felt sad. "But you have my word—no one's leaving this ship alive."
Leaving the medical-type cavalry with them, he gave the rest their orders.
"Engage with intent to kill. Those bastards don't have the right to breathe the same air as us." Nodding, he took the lead and said it as if nothing, but the rage was still obvious.
"Hooohaa!" With a howl, the cavalry behind switched to kill tactics. What Yuuki didn't know was that his words were transmitted through the comms; the whole cavalry heard them and reacted the same.
Soon rapid footsteps echoed in the corridor along with gunfire across the ship.
The first man who turned the corner met a bullet from Yuuki's high-caliber handgun—headshot.
That froze the traffickers for a second, giving Yuuki time to take out another four. By the time they recovered, five of them were down.
Seconds later, the cavalry's machine guns came alive on the other side of the cross, with some covering Yuuki as he advanced.
As terrorists shot back, Yuuki dodged and used the side of his gun to deflect some bullets, getting closer to them one man at a time. The tight space and his unorthodox dodges made it look like the bullets missed him on purpose; it messed with the enemy's heads and dropped bodies as they tried to retreat.
"Oh no, you don't get to run," Yuuki said, and increased his firing rate. From the cavalry's point of view, his shooting looked like six bullets at once—every burst dropping at least one target.
By the time they reached the outside door, only seven survived, and they met their end either from a sniper round or a cavalry barrel shoved through the only open exit.
Of course, some hadn't made it to this part of the ship or had hidden. Once the life-scan pinged them, they were easy to find.
Following the trail of bodies toward the exit, Yuuki sensed a strange movement behind a wall near the door. Knocking a couple of times, he found a hollow place.
Under the surprised eyes of the cavalry, he jabbed his fingers—metal tips extending and sharpening. He ripped a whole section of the wall away, revealing a hidden room. Not surprising to find humans caged there, but the number and the secrecy made him sick.
Inside were five kids and two women. His scan froze him—shock spreading through him.
[This is Feather. I want the leader alive,] Yuuki said, voice flat. [I repeat: I want the leader alive and breathing. Hear me?]
[Aye sir. Any new conditions?] Wanda asked after confirming.
[Well, I think we got ourselves not just human traffickers, but a human experiment syndicate,] Yuuki said, reconfirming the scan.
What surprised him wasn't their condition but what they carried: all seven were awakened. That alone wasn't the nightmare—what the scan showed next was.
Despite their altered defense avatars, one thing they had in common was a "Hell Awake" signature in front of the avatar.
It wasn't literal hell, but the scan described it as "forced immature awakening causing corruption of the avatar process and mind pollution to the host, if survived."
Additionally, two of them had scan sheets filled with unreadable writing. This revealed the organization had found a way to force awakenings.
Signaling the cavalry to clear and leave guards, he stepped into the middle of the room.
Moving closer to observe, he noted all were female except two kids: three kids aged seven or eight, two mature women, and a pair of late-teen twins—the twins were the only ones that caused a glitch in his scan.
Kneeling in front of the sleeping kids to check for wounds, the women started to stir. When they woke, they squirmed against the mouth restraints.
"Hey, it's okay. You're safe now," he said, but despite his attempts, they didn't calm. Confused, he repeated, "Calm down. We already took everyone who had a hand in this."
As he talked, the twins hummed at him. Reflexively, Yuuki looked their way. They were signaling him with their eyes toward a spot at the side—several times.
It clicked just before an air-slicing sound and one of the twins tensed. Reflex took over: Yuuki moved in front of the twins, using his arm to block.
A clang rang with a small maniacal laugh. "That's not good, you know."
Yuuki lunged toward the voice but felt no contact; whatever attacked had dodged. "You know, if you let me kill the girls, I can let you walk free," the maniac taunted. Yuuki fired a few rounds at the voice's source.
"Oh, that's dangerous, you know," the voice teased. Yuuki raised his right arm; a clang echoed again.
"Really now, that's some heavy gear you use there," the voice said, followed by invisible swings that Yuuki had to dodge and block over and over.
"Ok, you're starting to get on my nerves," the voice returned after two or three minutes of this. "Can you see me?"
"Nah. If you didn't notice, I don't need to see you to know your attack is coming," Yuuki replied, voice low.
The voice hummed, then calmed. Yuuki raised an eyebrow and moved in front of a woman, guarding her from slicing motions aimed at her neck. He then turned to the kids and blocked another attack, frowning.
"Well, I like this game more. Let's see who gets tired first." The maniac sounded excited, as if he'd found a new toy—this time targeting the twins.
"Ok, that's enough," Yuuki murmured. With smooth movement, he grabbed the attacker's blade right in front of one of the twins and landed three heavy jabs, not giving it time to react. The attacker staggered a couple steps back, kneeling and starting to twitch.
When the invisibility around him dropped, it revealed a woman in her forties wielding twin short swords.
"What did you do?" she spat, shocked. "How did you even see me to begin with?"
"Never heard of infrared cameras?" Yuuki answered simply. "And what happened to you?"
Balling his arm, a small electric spark played over his knuckles. "With the shock you ate straight to the heart, you should be unconscious, not just unmoving. I'll give you that—tough one."
Taking a quick skills check and scanning the woman, he found she actually was an ability user—her avatar was chameleon-like. Sighing in disappointment at a rare ability wasted on someone who didn't know its value, he radioed in.
[Clean up. I have the leader,] Yuuki ordered. The woman's aura confirmed it. [Skull, get to my position. Bring meds. We have another situation here.]
Looking back at the women who now watched him with relief, it hit him.
"You were trying to warn me before," he said, leaning closer as he removed the mouth restraints from the two mature women.
They nodded and glanced at the twins, who nodded back. Releasing the two women, he moved closer and did the same for them.
While taking off their cuffs and harnesses, their eyes never left his—specifically his eyes, since everything else was covered by masks. When they stood and looked at each other, they smiled slightly.
with a small, delighted look as if they'd finally found whatever they'd been searching for.