The city hadn’t gone quiet yet when I locked the door.

  I leaned back against it for a second, listening. Three heartbeats behind me. Uneven. Shallow. Alive.

  Good.

  I rolled my shoulders once, easing the lingering stiffness from the fight. Not active, not gone either. Like a warning I could feel if I focused too hard.

  I turned and looked at them.

  They were laid out across the living room, exactly where I’d put them. No restraints. No circles. No seals. Just distance. Space enough that if one of them woke up swinging, I’d have time to react.

  The first to move was Ayame.

  Her fingers twitched, then her eyes snapped open, sharp and instantly aware. No confusion. No panic. She assessed the room, the exits, then me.

  She pushed herself upright with a wince. “So this is where you take people before killing them?”

  “Relax,” I said. “If I wanted you dead, you’d still be in that alley.”

  That earned me silence.

  Reina came back next, breathing shallow as she curled in on herself, eyes darting until they landed on me. Her face went pale.

  Kaori followed last, jolting up with a sharp inhale, already halfway into a spell before she stopped herself.

  They all froze.

  Recognition hit them at the same time.

  None of them tried anything.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Good instincts.

  “You interfered,” Kaori said, voice tight. “That wasn’t your fight.”

  “It became my problem when they sent cleaners instead of questions.”

  Ayame’s expression darkened. “You noticed.”

  “I tend to,” I said. “Especially when snipers aim for the head.”

  Reina swallowed hard. “They were going to kill us.”

  “Yes.”

  No softening it. No point.

  “They never told us,” she whispered.

  “They never do.”

  That was when the weight of it finally landed.

  Not failure.

  Disposal.

  Ayame closed her eyes for a moment, then let out a slow breath. “So that’s it. One mission goes wrong and we’re erased.”

  “Welcome to how the association handles assets,” I replied. “You stopped being useful the moment you failed.”

  Kaori laughed quietly, bitter. “Then why are we still breathing?”

  I looked at them. Really looked.

  Three people who had nearly killed me.

  Three people who had still tried to follow orders right up until those orders turned on them.

  “Because I already decided you weren’t my enemies,” I said. “And because I don’t like people being erased for convenience.”

  Ayame stared at me. “You saved us.”

  “I interrupted an execution.”

  “That’s the same thing.”

  She stood slowly, ignoring the pain in her movements, and then did something I didn’t expect.

  She bowed.

  Deep. Formal. Unmistakable.

  Reina gasped. “Ayame—”

  “She’s right,” Reina said suddenly, forcing herself upright before bowing too. “You didn’t have to do anything.”

  Kaori hesitated the longest, jaw clenched, pride fighting survival. Finally, she bowed as well, sharp and stiff.

  Three elite operatives.

  All bowing to me in my own apartment.

  That made my stomach twist.

  “This isn’t some debt,” I said flatly. “And I don’t want loyalty.”

  Ayame straightened, eyes steady. “You pulled us back from death.”

  “That doesn’t make me anything special.”

  “It makes you something they couldn’t erase,” she replied.

  That was worse.

  I turned toward the window, city lights flickering like distant signals. “You stay here until you recover. After that, you decide what you want to do. I’m not your leader.”

  Silence stretched behind me.

  Then Ayame spoke softly. “Even if you don’t want followers… people will still believe.”

  I didn’t answer.

  Because part of me already knew she was right.

  I had broken the association’s judgment.

  I had taken what they marked for death and refused to let it happen.

  Stories grew from less.

  I stared out at the city, jaw tight.

  For now, I needed answers.

  Why they were sent.

  Why I was worth erasing.

  And why saving three people might end up being the most dangerous move I’d made yet.