"Jennie-unnie, Jennie-unnie!!" Jennie was doing her warm-ups for her fighting lesson of the day when a cute, bubbly Yoojung came bouncing up to her. "Guess what, guess what??"
Jennie giggled and patted the cute, hyper girl's head, "Did you have a doughnut and coffee this morning, sweetie?"
Jihoon, who was right behind Yoojung, shook his head with a scared look, "Oh hell no, I would never allow that."
Yoojung's face fell into a pout, "The jerk held me down while I saw the last chocolate doughnut being eaten from afar." She let out a fake sob noise while Jihoon rolled his eyes. But then her face perked up again and the big smile was back. The sudden mood changes was rather comedic. "But anyway, that's not what I wanted to tell you. Jennie-unnie, you've been here for a month already!"
"Whoa..." Jennie suddenly realized this too, a big smile slowly growing. "Oh my Ariel, I have." She even adapted the Shifter slang. "Wow, I haven't exactly been counting the days, haha. I've been too caught up with all the action of training and just being with you great people here."
"Well you're about to get more action," Yoojung winked. "You see, after a trainee has been here for a month, they're allowed to go on missions!"
This time Jennie gasped loudly, "Yes!" She's been looking longingly at the mission board almost every day. Whenever one of her fellow trainees came back from one, she would always make them tell her stories about it and learn from them. "What the heck, V didn't tell me that. He just said I had to wait until he deemed me ready."
"I think he's just being protective," Yoojung nudged her teasingly. "But it's a tradition that you go on one after the first month and he can't ignore tradition. Besides, I was thinking that you join me and Jihoon on a mission, so you'll be safe with us B.2 trainees."
"What do you say, Jennie-noona?" Jihoon asked with wide pleading eyes along with Yoojung.
Of course, how was Jennie supposed to resist her fellow cats? "Of course! I really wanted to go on one anyway but was kind of nervous because I don't really know how they work. It would be really relieving to go with you guys."
"Aaaand where are we going exactly?" A deep voice from behind Jennie made her jump. But she relaxed immediately when she sensed the minty fresh chill, her back leaning against his chest. Jennie shot a big smile over her shoulder at V who was looking at her through narrowed eyes. "Sooo you have neglected to tell me that after being here for a month, I get to go on a mission."
V groaned and muttered under his breath, "For good reason." One of his arms lazily wrapped around Jennie's waist, a small protective gesture.
The caracals shared a knowing look at the skinship, but the older pair didn't notice.
Jennie lightly elbowed him with a pout, "Hey, I can handle myself now. Besides, Jihoon-ah and Yoojung-ah invited me to join their mission, and since you trust them, I'd be safe, if that's what you're worried about."
Her trainer groaned again, "Among other things, yes." Then he looked over at the younger pair who smiled nervously. V did indeed trust two of his best students, but he didn't want to let Jennie loose on her own just yet. "Have you picked a mission?" he asked them.
"Not yet, Master," Jihoon answered.
"Good. You mind if I lead this one?"
The caracal cat pair's eyes lit up wide, bright and sparkling at their beloved Master's suggestion. "Of course not, Master! We would do any mission with you!"
Jennie couldn't help but coo at how much they admire V. She saw how fondly he smiled at them too. "But after this one, I get to go on a mission without you babying me," she pouted.
V scoffed and playfully tickled her side a bit, "After this one, you will want to go on more missions with me. Missions with me are highly interesting, right, caracals?"
The two pumped up their fists in agreement, "The best, Master!"
"I was already planning to go on one after this lesson. But I can cancel today's and bring some of you along for this one." Sometimes V would cancel a lesson when he got busy with a mission. But his students would still be productive on those days.
After that was said, the caracal pair wasted no time and scampered off to the main lobby area to the Mission Board, chattering excitedly about their past missions while V and Jennie trailed behind them.
"I feel like I should be more worried and scared for this," Jennie said thoughtfully while her lips teased a smile. "But I'm actually kind of excited."
V threw an arm around her shoulder and responded cockily, "With me here, there's nothing to worry about."
"Well, I actually did get my first taste when we did that hunting trip for my ex. But I was literally a newborn into the Shifter world so I can't really rely on my feelings about that 'mission'." Jennie has had wandering thoughts about how the ex was doing, but she easily forgot his irrelevant ass soon enough.
"It's good to be excited about your first mission. It means you're confident in your skills. But it's also good to be a little anxious and nervous because it makes you more cautious and that keeps you safe. There needs to be a balance."
Jennie nodded thoughtfully about V's advice. Honestly, she wasn't too worried about the dangers since V was with her. But at the same time, she needed to trust herself and Glacia to take care of herself.
Over the past month, the Master and the new trainee have undoubtedly gotten closer as friends. Jennie wasn't blind to V's gestures and behavior towards her. There was a certain warm, protectiveness that he shows her, that she wholeheartedly admitted to herself that she enjoyed the attention. But as the honored Winter Master of the Academy, V knew the boundaries and didn't show any bias towards her. She's got bruises to prove from their rough fighting matches, but Jennie was grateful for V being her trainer as well as her friend.
When they caught up to Jihoon and Yoojung, they saw that the male caracal was having a heated disagreement with another trainee, the latter fisting Jihoon's shirt. Frowning, V pulled away from Jennie and approached the two, "What's going on here?"
Yoojung immediately escaped the scene and ran into Jennie's open arms, who sensed the female caracal's distress. "T-That's Park Jaeho, a P-Panther Shifter. They're one of the biggest rival pairs here. Jaeho l-likes to provoke Jihoon, either by bad-mouthing his skills or m-me." Jennie rubbed Yoojung's shoulder soothingly. She disliked this Jaeho guy already.
When Master V approached them, Jihoon and Jaeho quickly stepped away from each other, but the sharp-eyed Master already knew they were about to fight it out. He stood in front of them, waiting for an answer. Jaeho spoke up first, "We were just picking a mission, sir. I was just giving Jihoon advice on what he should do, considering what happened last time."
V was not impressed with the answer, shown with his blank yet cold stare, "Hmph, such advice must've come out as an insult if you two were about to fight right in front of poor Yoojung-ah."
Jihoon defended himself while glaring at Jaeho, "I wasn't going to get into an unnecessary fight with this douchebag but if someone grabs me like that, I'll gladly break their hand off me."
"Enough," V said sternly, "not in my presence. Now, I've actually chosen one already." He pointed at a Mission notice on the board with his name signed on it. Whenever someone chooses a mission, after they notify the receptionist, Jangmi who keeps all the records and info, they sign the paper and is the leader of the mission. B and C ranks have to get it approved by their Masters first. The signed paper is left up for anyone else who wants to join and taken down once it's completed. "You're welcomed to join us, Jaeho."
Jihoon tensed up and his body language showed great disagreement, but he didn't argue with his Master.
Jaeho smirked triumphantly and bowed his head, "I would be honored, Master."
V smirked back, "Good. I think I got a good number of people for this mission. Go get ready, we'll meet back here in one hour."
Jaeho glanced at Jennie and Yoojung, assuming that they were part of this team. He raised an eyebrow at this newest trainee, "The snow cat is coming along?"
Before V could respond, Jennie's sassy mouth did, "Is that a problem?"
Jaeho laughed at her face but spoke to V, "Master, I don't think she's capable of going on this mission with us. It's A ranked, she's a mere C.2 cub. She'll put all of us in danger if she doesn't die first."
Jennie flinched at the harsh words. She clenched her fists in anger but didn't say anything back because there was an uncomfortable clot in her stomach that thought he was right. She hadn't really thought of the dangers until now when the reality came like a slap in the face. She swallowed thickly, "I think you should worry about yourself first. I can take care of myself."
Jaeho scoffed at her pathetic comeback, "Why are you even letting her on this mission, Master?" There seemed to be a little less respect in his voice this time when he addressed the older.
But V just shrugged with the same blank face, "Missions are experiences, experiences are lessons, don't you think she should learn more?"
"Yes, but she's starting out with an A rank mission already? That's unf-"
"I don't do well with people who irritate me on my team." V's voice dropped in warning. That shuts Jaeho's mouth up real quick. The scariest thing about the Winter Master is that you don't really know how he's feeling about you because of his stone dead, blank face and his even, low tone. Jaeho's head hung low and he mumbled an apology then excused himself to leave.
V's eyes softened when he saw Yoojung still in Jennie's arms. He puts his hand on her head affectionately, "You still up for the mission, Yoojung-ah?"
Yoojung gave a small smile, "Yes, I'll be fine."
But Jihoon disagreed, "Tsk, does he have to come with us? You know he doesn't keep his mouth shut and will only cause trouble."
"Oh I know," V said indifferently, "I know all my trainees' strengths and weaknesses. Anyway, you two go get ready. You read over the mission?"
Jihoon nodded, "Yeah, I'll start researching the area. See you in an hour." He gestured for Yoojung to follow him out and she does.
"Jihoon," she looked at him worriedly, "ignore what Jaeho said. What happened last time won't happen again."
"Maybe you should sit this one out, Yoojung," Jihoon said without looking at her. "This is an A rank mission after all. I don't think you're ready."
Yoojung didn't appreciate how he was pushing her away. She stepped in front of him to make him stop walking. "I hope you realize you just sounded like Jaeho when he was talking about Jennie-unnie."
That certainly snapped him out of his mood. He sighed and finally looked at her. "No, I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry."
"What happened last time was not your fault," she repeated firmly. "We're both stronger now." The last time Jihoon and Yoojung went on a mission together was about three months ago. That's actually quite a long time to not go on a mission, usually, a trainee would go on at least 1-2 a month. But because of a nasty trap that the caracals fell into last time when dealing with a group of Traffickers, they almost got shipped away.
"I don't want you to get hurt again," Jihoon admitted softly. He remembered clearly how he was fighting a group of those disgusting humans when he unknowingly was lured into a literal trap. He remembered clearly the feeling of being in a cage. He remembered clearly watching frail, petite Yoojung being tossed into a tiny cage like a rag doll, watching how they touched his best friend.
That was enough for his powers to enhance because of the rush of anger and sadness that allowed their team to escape and exterminate the Traffickers. But the experience left both of them traumatized and they hadn't gone on a mission since.
"We're up against a Slayer gang this time," Jihoon informed, "a newly formed one, at that. You know how they're like. I almost lost you to Traffickers. What am I going to do if one of those lowlifes get their filthy hands on you-"
"They won't," Yoojung said strongly, she wrapped her arms around Jihoon in a hug, "because I know we won't let each other get hurt."
Jihoon hugged his best friend back tightly, "I promise."
***
Meanwhile, Jennie and V watched them from afar worriedly. When they saw the two hug, there was a sense of relief. V led Jennie up to his room to prepare some things. Jennie asked worriedly, "Are you sure they'll be okay for this mission? Something bad happened to them, right?"
"Yeah, sometimes missions go bad, but they recovered. It's been three months since I set them out and I know they're ready. They're the ones who invited you on a mission in the first place and you saw how excited they were when I asked them to join me. I know they're ready, it's just foolish Jaeho can't shut his mouth and had to bring up the past."
Jennie sighed, "This is already going off on a bad start. Why did you invite Jaeho anyway? I'm worried he might interfere with the teamwork, and I just met the guy."
"I have my reasons," V shrugged off mysteriously. "I know Jihoon and Yoojung will take care of each other. I got you to watch because it's your first time out in the field. Jaeho can take care of himself, he's always been independent and I know he won't pull off stupid shit if I'm there."
Jennie heard Glacia growl with uncertainty in her mind, and she couldn't help but agree with her soul animal. "Let's hope you're right."
When they arrived in V's room, he sat down in front of his computer while Jennie sat on the armrest of the chair, wrapping her arm around his shoulders for support (caassuuall skinship). "Let me give you a rundown of the mission," he said.
Jennie watched as profiles of boys in their teens to twenties popped up on the screen. Some looked innocent, some totally fit the stereotype of a bad gangster. "Are you also a pro hacker?"
V chuckled, shaking his head. "Once you're certified to be a Mission Leader, you get access to request information from Blue Hope databases that has information on everybody with a social security number. Absolutely no hacking involved, that's how powerful their systems are. We just cover up our purposes extremely well."
Jennie was getting more of the feeling that they were special secret FBI agents with all this power she was being informed of, but putting this Shapeshifter twist on things was hella badass.
"We're dealing with a newly formed Slayer gang on this mission," V continued. "Slayer gangs tend to start off on the outskirts of the city, picking off the Shifters from areas that aren't well known, basically places where the police force are the Slayers." Jennie's jaw tensed at that. What kind of justice even existed then?
"We get word about Slayer gangs soon after they're formed. Our scouts are literally everywhere. We keep a watch on them and only take action when they start too much damage that can't be ignored. Of course, there's too many to keep track of so we try our best. Also, as sad as it is to say, we can't get rid of every Slayer we find because that would raise too much suspicion. So we only deal with the really, really nasty ones."
"And this new gang is already causing a lot of trouble," Jennie frowned.
"'Trouble' would be a light way to put it..."
***
"Alright, we're all connected. Drive safely, see you all there." V checked to make sure everyone's mini bluetooth speaker was secure on their ears and connected. Jennie was amazed with their advanced technology. The bluetooth was basically an earring that came in all sorts of styles.
The team was split and would drive to the destination using different routes and arrived at different times. "Every step we take," V had told her, "is planned out carefully to make our presence as subtle and as ghostly as possible." Sometimes Jennie's so impressed with his wise advice that she has to remind herself that he's only 23, young yet so experienced. She wondered sadly sometimes about how much he had to witness at a young age to be the great Shifter Warrior he is today.
The car ride was silent. V had gone over the plan with Jennie in his room before they left. He wanted to lightly converse with her to let her mind rest, but he could tell she was in deep, concentrated thought about the whole mission.
This was Jennie's first time outside of the Academy's isolated, hidden grounds. She was fine when they were driving through rural areas of hilly roads and forests, but as soon as scatterings of human civilization appeared, she was so on edge.
Her mind kept making scenarios of being caught and shot down by the officials because they somehow knew that they were Shifters. Or that regular people would recognize their faces, especially V's. Like seriously, she thought that V's been out in the field so many times that someone must've seen his face by now... right?
The tiny rational mind that was left knew exactly how ridiculous those thoughts were. But her body was reacting badly too. She didn't realize her hands were shaking until V reached over and covered both of her clasped hands in his one big hand.
"Why am I so weak and anxious?" Jennie whispered, feeling useless already.
"First mission nerves," V answered simply. "Remember how scared you were when you were about to confront your ex? You were about to back out. But then you pushed yourself and felt so good and confident after the first second of confrontation. This is just the same."
Jennie wanted to counter by saying that this mission is a lot more dangerous with the Slayers they're going after, but she knew the negative thoughts would not be appreciated by either of them. Instead, she took a slow deep breath and held V's hand for the rest of the ride.
The destination was on the southeast outskirts of the city. They had to pass a nice, quiet neighborhood before getting to an old warehouse further out where the targeted gang called their base.
Jennie sat straighter and more alert in her seat. No time for looking like a weak cub, she was on her first mission to prove herself. They were the first to arrive at the scene. V parked the car on the edge of the forest so that it was hidden. Now they just had to wait for the others while Jennie took the time to observe the entire area.
Seeing the place on a computer screen versus in real life was completely different. Jennie could visualize what she saw on V's computer in the bare, grassy land in front of her, nausea twisting in her stomach ...
..."Ten members so far. Every gang has their own way of doing their thing. This one, likes to drag their victims back to their base to finish their business." The profiles of the members were made smaller and moved to the side while a video played on the computer. Jennie gulped nervously.
"This is the video caught by our scouts that sent the mission alert." The scouts were all sorts of animals that could easily maneuver their way around human-filled areas unknown. Whether they were birds or rodents or others, they could record what they're seeing with their video-recording eye contacts with no suspicion. "Are you sure you want to see this?"
"I gotta start somewhere," Jennie's voice was monotone to hide her true feelings.
"Be warned. We don't usually hunt down new gangs. But they're... really extreme already."...
As the two silently walked towards the warehouse hidden by the tall yellow grass, Jennie noticed a faint trail of grass that was bent down and dirt that was kicked up.
It happened right here just yesterday...
...The video started as an aerial view from the bird scout. The bird's eyes found a commotion going on among the tall yellow grass and zoomed in and Jennie witnessed the most disgustingly horrid scene ever.
Three of the Slayers present at the scene and one was dragging a middle aged man along the ground. The victim was clearly beaten up beforehand to weaken him. Each one of his wrists was tied to a rope that was dragged by a Slayer at inconsistent forces. The victim was shirtless and had deathly red open wounds all over. He was kicked and flipped over at times, so that the rocky ground would mercilessly rip at his skin from the front and the back.
The man's cry was loud and pleading.
The boys' laughs were mocking and... joyous.
"W-Why can't he just shift?" Jennie asked shakily, almost frustrated.
"Because he's either a weak Shifter, a weak animal, or... some part of his body is paralyzed... Unfortunately, one of the biggest weaknesses of Shifters is that when a big enough portion of your body is paralyzed, you can't shift. Your souls have to be able to connect with every sense in order for shifting to work."
That new information struck fear into her like a sudden arrow. She couldn't even imagine how much fear the man had experienced.
Two other boys joined the three Slayers when they arrived at the front of the warehouse. They were older, one seemingly the leader as he stepped forward and wickedly grinned down at the victim. "Well done, boys, that's gotta be your biggest catch yet."
"Newbie Kangmin here paralyzed him!" One of the Slayers clapped the young one who had done the dragging.
The leader nodded in approval with a smile, "Oh yeah? Wanna finish the job and get your initiation halfway done?"
"With pleasure, boss."...
Walking through the tall, dry grass, Jennie could practically see the scene again as if her brain was the projector of the video. The memory was still vivid, enough to fuel her anger for revenge, despite the sickening fear she felt. V stopped the video before the new Slayer could "finish his job". He told her that they hung him and discarded the body.
Jennie didn't even have to ask what the said Slayer job was. She remembered him telling her before. She had taken it lightly because her head was set on getting rid of Jason at that time, but now the saying sounded more haunting and alarming.
Kill two, rape one. That was the way to be a Slayer.
There was an uneasy knowing feeling that this wouldn't be the most horrifying thing Jennie will ever witness if she continued her path as a Shifter with the Academy like the others, as she was doing now.
Everything was quiet, as expected. V had two bird scouts come along and they checked the area before the team arrived to make sure the gang was out. The plan was for the team to arrive at different sides of the warehouse, wait for the gang to arrive, then trap them inside.
"I'm going for that newbie kid," Jennie declared, she already had her mind set on her main target as soon as she saw the video.
"Awww that's too bad~ He ain't here right now, but I am."
Gasping, Jennie whipped her head around to see a tall teen boy holding V in a headlock with a knife pressed to his throat. How could I have not noticed? She thought in panic.
******
I'M BAAAAAACKK!!!
I'm so sorry to keep you all waiting for over a month!! To be honest, a lot of things have been happening this last month and especially this last weekend. It wasn't just school work, but I've been having personal problems too (feelings ugh)
But I'm fine now and got my motivation back to write again!! After I'm done with this week's exams, I'll be diligent in writing again because you all deserve a good story cuz (insert Jungkook's voice) OH MAN HOLY SHIT THIS BOOK GOT POPULAR WHILE I WAS AWAY WHHHAAAATTT???
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH, I CAN NEVER STOP SAYING THAT :D:D:D