"What the hell did I do in my past life to deserve babysitting some useless rookie like you?" Shion grumbled, stomping down the narrow alley ahead of Leon. The smell of dampness and decay hung in the air between the crumbling buildings. "If Master Xiao Yan wasn't playing favorites, no way would someone like me waste my time dragging dead weight around!" Each word cut through the silence like a knife.
Leon just made a quiet "mm" sound, keeping his eyes glued to the broken stones under his feet. His mind kept drifting back to Eva. Her face. That last smile. The blood on his hands. The memories hit him over and over like they'd happened yesterday instead of days ago. He was scared those nightmares would come crawling back, and that fear sat heavy in his chest like a rock. He wouldn't look at Shion at all. The space between them felt cold and hostile, like two strangers forced to walk together.
"Hey!" Shion spun around so fast Leon almost crashed into her. Her amber eyes blazed with anger as she stared him down. "I'm talking to you! Did you go deaf or what? Or maybe that pathetic training scrambled your brain?"
Leon flinched and glanced up for a split second before looking away again. He felt like some criminal getting interrogated.
"Why are you acting all sketchy and weird, like some dirty rat sneaking around for scraps?" Shion put her hands on her hips and leaned in close. Leon caught a whiff of something floral from her red hair. "Or wait..." Her expression turned nasty. "You're just a coward, aren't you? Acting tough during practice, but the second things get real, you turn into a scared little bitch!" She smirked. "If you're gonna be that useless, just crawl back to base and hide! Don't make me babysit your pathetic ass! I could handle this joke of a mission by myself!"
"It's not like that!" Leon tried to argue, but his voice came out weak and shaky. He clenched his fists, feeling his face burn with embarrassment.
Before Shion could tear into him again, screaming and crashing sounds erupted from a beat-up wooden house at the corner. "You bastard! Our kid's missing and you just sit there like nothing happened! Don't you have a heart? Say something!"
Shion's whole attitude changed in an instant. Her combat instincts kicked in and she forgot all about chewing out Leon. She jerked her head toward the noise and motioned for him to follow.
When they got to the house, Shion didn't mess around. She used the handle of the huge sword on her back to bang on the rotting door hard enough to nearly knock it off its hinges. Soon the door flew open, revealing a middle-aged woman who looked completely wrecked. Her gray hair was all over the place, her eyes red and puffy from crying, her clothes torn and dirty. She looked like someone who'd lost everything.
"Who are you people? Can't you see I'm dying here!" she snapped in a raspy voice. But then she spotted the massive sword on Shion's back and her anger shifted to wariness. Leon noticed the sword too - it was way bigger and heavier-looking than the twin blades he'd seen Shion use in training.
"We're from Special Operations Unit Four," Shion said, trying to keep her voice steady despite still being pissed off. "We're here to investigate the missing person cases in this area."
The woman's expression softened a bit when she heard that, though she still looked devastated. "Oh... Special Ops? Sorry about before... I kind of lost it."
"It's okay," Shion replied. "We get it. Can you tell us what happened?"
"Yes... please, come in," the woman said weakly, gesturing inside.
The house was dark and stuffy, with this heavy feeling of sadness hanging everywhere. Leon looked around and spotted a man sitting completely still in an old rocking chair in the corner. His face was all sunken in, his eyes just staring out the broken window at nothing, like his soul had already left his body. Everyone stared at him. The woman looked at her husband with this mix of anger, disappointment, and pity.
"Let me get you some water," she said with a shaky voice, heading toward what looked like a tiny kitchen.
"Thanks," Shion said quietly.
The woman came back with two old glasses full of water. "I'm really sorry about how I acted before."
"Don't worry about it," Shion said, trying to smile. "Let's just get to the point. The faster we figure this out, the better."
"Right." The woman nodded slowly, then started talking in this broken, trembling voice. "My son... my little boy... two days ago he went out to play around here like kids do..."
"How old is your son?" Shion asked.
"Twelve... he'll be thirteen next month."
Shion nodded, looking thoughtful. The woman kept going. "That day, he came home all excited, saying he'd met a new friend near the woods at the edge of town. I didn't think much of it at first - figured he'd just run into some local kid. But yesterday evening... he snuck out without telling anyone. That was really weird. He's normally such a good kid, never does stuff like that. I was worried sick, thought maybe he'd gotten hurt or something. But then he came back... came back real late at night and didn't say a word to me. Just walked straight over and started whispering something to his father over there... I could tell they were acting strange, but I didn't think too much about it. The second I turned away to do something else... they both just disappeared. Gone from the house that same night!"
"And this morning... my husband came back alone, looking like a zombie... but my son... my precious boy... he didn't come back." Her voice started breaking. Tears filled her eyes. "I got so angry I almost went crazy! I keep asking him what happened, but he won't say a damn word! Just sits there like some kind of robot!" She slammed her fist on the old wooden table with a loud bang, then collapsed and started sobbing uncontrollably. The sound was heartbreaking - pure pain and despair.
Shion quickly knelt down next to her and rubbed her back gently. Even though she wasn't usually the comforting type, seeing this much raw grief got to her. "Try to stay calm. We're going to help find your son."
She glanced over at Leon, who'd been sitting there like a statue the whole time, staring at the floor and refusing to look at anyone. Shion frowned at him with annoyance and suspicion before turning back to the crying woman.
The woman looked up at Shion with red, swollen eyes. She grabbed Shion's hand like it was her only lifeline. "Please... please help find my boy... he's everything I have."
"I promise," Shion said firmly. She didn't know what they were getting into, but she couldn't turn down such a desperate plea. "We'll do whatever it takes."
After asking a few more questions and making sure they had all the details they could get, Leon and Shion said goodbye and left the house. Outside, everything was quiet except for their breathing. As they walked past the broken fence around the property, a hoarse, ice-cold voice drifted out from the shadows inside the house - the father's voice...
"Don't... stick your noses... where they don't belong..."