"Move… now."
Henry's voice dropped into a low, terrifying chill that made me flinch despite myself.
I turned around to face him.
He had stumbled out from the tree line, looking pale and wobbly after whatever mental trap Emi had locked him in. Layla must have snapped him and Julie out of the paralysis while I was trapped in Emi's memories.
His hand was trembling slightly, but the barrel of his sidearm was pointed squarely at the center of the little girl's chest.
"Wait, just let me explain—" I started, holding up my hands.
"I don't need an explanation," Henry interrupted, his gaze completely hollow.
"I've been doing this since I was twelve years old. We locate an anomaly, and we execute it. Sure, sometimes research gets to keep low-level ones for containment, but this thing? It's an SS-Class. It's too dangerous to breathe."
I immediately stepped in front of Emi, using my body as a shield.
Henry stared at me, his eyes widening with bitter disbelief before he let out a dark, breathless laugh.
"Oh, I see what's happening," he hissed, taking a heavy step forward.
"You're under the influence of the Rhohonoids, aren't you? I should have known the second I saw your eyes back there. You're already disobeying me."
I didn't budge. My vision was back to normal, I wasn't being controlled by some dark impulse. When I broke the rules, I did it to keep his arrogant ass from getting slaughtered by an SS-Class entity.
"Yeah, I used the Rhohonoids," I snapped back, my chest heaving.
"Because I was trying to save your life! And this is a six-year-old child, you bastard! I'm not letting you shoot her!"
Henry glared at me as if I'd completely lost my mind.
He closed the distance until he was towering over me, his voice dropping into a dangerous whisper.
"I don't give a shit what it looks like. It's an anomaly. It serves Yuri. If you stand in my way, you are a security risk to me, my team, and this agency. Back off, or I will put a bullet between your eyes."
The wave of suffocating anger I'd felt while witnessing Emi's past came roaring back to the surface. Before my brain could stop me, I reached out, grabbed Henry by his tactical vest, and yanked him down. The sudden move surprised him just as much as it surprised me.
"She isn't like the other monsters!" I yelled right in his face. "She was manipulated by Yuri! She was abused and murdered when she was four years old, and nobody protected her! You're just terrified of her because of whatever hallucination she forced into your head, but newsflash, idiot! You aren't the only one here who's been through hell!"
SMACK.
Henry struck me across the face with the back of his hand. The force sent a sharp, stinging pain through my jaw, hot blood pooling in my mouth.
"Are you even listening to yourself?!" Henry roared.
"You're talking nonsense! That thing forced me to relive the absolute worst memory of my life! So excuse me if I want to put it down before it does it again! Why are you fighting so hard for a monster?!"
"Because everything about her life was unfair!" I screamed back.
"Yeah? Well, guess what, kid? Life is unfair!" Henry stepped into my space, his chest practically touching mine. "You want to hear something funny? My parents fought the Abyss for decades and forced a weapon into my hand before I was even old enough to use a butter knife! Layla watched a horde massacre her entire family! Julie survived an orphanage where kids vanished into the jaws of a child-eating monster! And Jacob has a list of dead friends longer than your arm! You don't get to stand there and lecture us about an unfair life!"
I wiped the blood from my lip and stared him down. "Oh, excuse me, Your Highness! I didn't realize that having family trauma gave you a pass to murder a murdered toddler! But what do I know about shitty lives? We could just take her to containment! If I remember the handbook correctly, anomalies aren't living people, they're Entities born in the Abyss!"
Over by a nearby tree, Julie, who was leaning casually against the bark of a tree, let out an audible snicker. She even pulled a small bag of gummy bears out of a tactical pocket.
Henry whipped his head around to glare at her, but she just popped a candy in her mouth and offered him a mock salute.
Henry turned back to me, his knuckles turning white. "If you don't shut your mouth right now, Nico, you're going to regret it."
Instead of shutting up, I shoved him with both hands.
That was the breaking point.
Henry snapped, lunging forward and tackling me straight into the grass. We went down in a messy, chaotic heap. He easily overpowered me, pinning my shoulders and raising a fist to strike, but before he could land it, little Emi charged in. Despite being in the form of a tiny girl, her kicks hit Henry like iron weights.
It was a complete mess: a Section 77 captain, an unawakened teenager, and a child anomaly wrestling in the dirt.
The rest of the team didn't even bother to intervene. Julie kept eating her gummy bears, Jacob was slumped against a rock only half-conscious, and Layla just stood there, wringing her hands, completely unsure of who she should even be tackling.
Suddenly, a voice echoed through the simplified woods, heavy, distorted, and carrying an absolute, undeniable authority.
"Enough."
Every single one of us froze instantly.
Henry froze mid-stride, straddled over me with his fist hovering in the air. Emi paused mid-kick.
Stepping out from the thick fog behind us was the Chief himself. His faceless, shifting void of a head turned slowly, surveying the chaotic scene.
"I had hoped by now you would have outgrown petty street brawls, Henry," the Chief said, his deep voice slicing through the tense silence.
"I have told you time and again: diplomacy is always the superior choice when dealing with those willing to reason."
The Chief gave a curt nod toward Layla, Julie, and Jacob before stepping toward the three of us. He stopped directly in front of little Emi, looking down at her small form.
"Emi, correct?" The Chief paused, his posture thoughtful.
"The boy is correct, Henry. Anomalies cannot originate from ordinary mortal souls, within the Abyss, only Spirits hold human origins. She must have been personally selected by Yuri to serve as an anchor. If we take her to the labs, we can examine her. However, Yuri's residual influence remains a threat, so she will require high-security containment."
"But Sir—" Henry started, scrambling to his feet.
"Silence, Herbert," the Chief commanded smoothly.
"The boy is right. The girl deserves a fraction of justice, and more importantly, she is a critical asset. She can help us decipher Yuri's architecture. Yuri will discover Nico's existence soon, if he hasn't already, which means our timetable has shifted. We need answers. Now get up, both of you. You look like you're about to collapse."
The Chief extended a gloved hand toward Emi.
She flinched, looking over at me with wide, hesitant gray eyes.
I gave her a small, reassuring nod.
Reluctantly, she reached out and took the Chief's hand.
Ten minutes later, the childlike domain dissolved, returning Audubon Park to its standard, midnight reality.
The drive back to Section 77 headquarters was dead silent. Henry drove the sedan with his jaw clenched so tight I thought his teeth might shatter, his hands gripping the steering wheel until his knuckles turned bone-white. I made a mental note to stay at least fifty feet away from him for the foreseeable future.
Instead of going back to the dorms, I spent the rest of the night sitting on a metal table in the medical hub on the second floor while Layla stitched up my wounds. She looked exhausted, dark circles bruised beneath her eyes, but her hands were steady and gentle.
"Henry gets like that," Layla said softly, dabbing a cotton ball soaked in stingy antiseptic onto the deep gash on my forearm. I flinched, biting my tongue.
"Don't take it personally. He'll cool down eventually. He doesn't hold grudges against people he considers part of the squad."
"He doesn't even consider me human, let alone part of the squad," I muttered, staring at the floor.
Layla paused, letting out a soft, heavy sigh.
"Henry's parents are... hardliners," she explained, wrapping clean gauze tightly around my arm. "They fought directly alongside the Chief back when Section 77 was first founded. They're elite, powerful, and strictly old-school. Honestly? They're among the faction at headquarters calling for the Child of the Prophecy to be executed on sight."
I looked up at her, my heart skipping a beat.
"He was raised by them, sure," Layla continued, giving me a reassuring, gentle pat on the shoulder. "But Henry has his own moral code. The absolute last thing he ever wants is to become like his parents... so you're safe with him, Nico. For now."