A SHAFT OF PALE MOONLIGHT SPILLED through the window, illuminating a towering figure draped in grey fur. Two fury ears rose from the top of his head, his features that of a half man and half beast.
Beneath him, a stunning young woman with sunlit hair and pale skin knelt on her knees, her amber eyes lifting toward him with visible reluctance.
"Go on," Lucien said smoothly in Japanese, his French accent curling around each word. "If you want a place in my agency, prove that you want it that badly."
She gave a small, trembling nod, fighting back tears as the weight of the moment pressed down on her.
Why was I doing this? Why was I willing to go this far just to join a hero agency?
The questions echoed in her skull as memories of her struggles rose to the surface. The day she was rejected from U.A, forced to search for other schools willing to take her in. The countless applications she sent after graduating, only to be met with silence.
Even with her diploma in hand, no agency had been willing to take her. Now, she has been given an opportunity.
The price was her dignity.
Before she could touch him, the window exploded into a shower of glass. A blade flashed in the moonlight, driving straight through Lucien's back, bursting from his chest in a spray of crimson.
He yelled in disbelief.
The girl screamed, scrambling backward until she collapsed onto the floor, shards of glass biting into her palms. Her gaze locked onto Lucien in horror as the life slowly drained from him, his body going limp beneath the cold, unforgiving glow of the night.
"Death suits you better, false hero—"
Those were the last words she heard before everything went dark, the world swallowing her in a suffocating wave of black.