"Why did you come along again?", Wonpil asked, looking at his younger brother when they stood in front of the entrance of the NCT headquarter. Seungmin had tagged along with the older without asking or even announcing he was coming along.
"Because I'm your ticket back into the mansion without being seen", Seungmin answered with a grin on his lips. Wonpil slightly rolled his eyes at that, knowing full well that Seungmin came along because of his two friends and to get some answers.
"Poor Byungho and Woosu, who have to do all the work", the older huffed and began walking again, entering the building before them. "Hey!", Seungmin complaint, running after his brother, matching his pace when they walked into the lobby of the headquarter. "My plan has a part for everyone, alright? Everyone had to use their ability including yours and mine", the younger redhead added. Seungmin was always the one making plans for things and he was really good at if you were honest.
"Yeah, yeah, I know", Wonpil snorted, tousling Seungmin's red hair, which got a cute squeak out of the younger. The older chuckled while Seungmin jumped back a little and tried to fix his hair.
The lobby of the NCT headquarter hadn't much to offer except for a reception with nobody seated behind the counter along with some plants and four elevator doors, two on the left side and two on the right of the room. Each door had something written above: 127, U, Dream and WayV. Wonpil looked around in the gigantic but empty lobby, his eyes falling onto the four signs above the elevator doors with 127, U, Dream and WayV written on them. He eyed the names with a little bit of confusion reflecting in his features, since he had no clue what the names were referring to or meant.
"Do we even know where to go now?", Seungmin asked, more or less having fixed his hair. Wonpil shook his head as an answer. "You hung up before Sungjin-hyung could say anything about this place", the older added, without an accusation in his voice while continuing to muster the four names written above the elevator doors. Seungmin followed his gaze, ultimately noticing what the older was looking at.
"127, U, Dream, WayV ... is this a riddle or something?", the younger redhead asked out loud. "Nope, those are the Subunits of NCT even though they aren't really used anymore", a familiar voice answered Seungmin, letting the heads of the two brothers turn towards it's source.
In front of a door at the back of the lobby, the demon brothers swore hasn't been there before, stood Jae along with Sungjin, Younghyun and Dowoon.
"Guys!", Wonpil exclaimed excitingly, running directly into the arms of his four friends but Seungmin would argue that it were three friends and a boyfriend. Seungmin skipped over to the group of friends but not joining the little group hug. He felt happy seeing his older brother's excitement and bliss.
"I missed seeing the five of you all together", Seungmin said with a soft grin on his face, gaining the attention of the five older males. They looked at each other before smiling brightly. Seungmin was right after all, it felt good to be together as a group again.
"Let's get going. Johnny and Taeyong are probably waiting", Sungjin stated, slowly dissolving the group hug of his friends, so they could go through the door behind them. Nobody really protested even though Dowoon sneakily took Wonpil's hand, intertwining his fingers with the one's of the older redhead. Seungmin of course noticed, making him smile a bit to himself but he said nothing and followed Sungjin, who was leading the way.
The young redhead already knew who Taeyong and Johnny were, since almost everyone knew the name of NCT's leader and Johnny wasn't only an important member of NCT but also Miroh High's English teacher. Therefore Seungmin usually called Johnny, Mr. Suh and not by his nickname but he was aware of it.
Seungmin felt the magic that surrounded the headquarter's walls as soon as they stepped through the door. It was mesmerizing how seemingly every stone the building was made of had a bit of magic in it. The young demon was surprised that he hadn't noticed that sooner but he said to himself that it was properly made on purpose, so you could only feel the magic of the place after stepping through the door. The door closed itself after everyone had gone through it strengthening Seungmin's suspicious of it being magical.
Like a curious little puppy, did Seungmin follow Sungjin taking in every last bit of the corridor they were walking down along with the staircase they then walked up. The young redhead couldn't help but noticed how every last bit of the staircase had a special kind of magic in it. Seungmin couldn't explain it properly but it felt like a protection charm was put on it but with a lot of other smaller and lingering spells attached to it, making it extremely complex.
"I have to meet the genius who put all the spells on this building", Seungmin mumbled to himself, earning a lot of chuckles from the five older males but he didn't care in the slightest. This place was just too special and genius in his opinion.
Surprisingly the walk up the stairs didn't take longer than a heartbeat, which impressed Seungmin even more. Whoever the magical creature was that was able to do this had the young demon's unshakable and absolute respect.
Seungmin almost didn't noticed that they actually didn't go upstairs but rather downstairs. At least if you believed the sign which came into sight that had "Basement" written on. In the long corridor with the many doors on each side stood two males. One Seungmin already knew as Mr. Suh or Johnny and the other was obviously Lee Taeyong, judging by the scarlet hair and piercing dark blue eyes. Johnny's gaze landed pretty quickly on Seungmin while Taeyong just smiled and greeted all of them.
"This time we brought our missing group member along", Sungjin said, gesturing towards Wonpil. "I see but may I ask why Kim Seungmin came along too?", Johnny asked rather formal, looking at the young redhead before his gaze flicked over to Sungjin, seemingly wanting an answer from the werewolf but Seungmin wasn't having that. He could talk for himself.
"I came to help my older brother Wonpil and to see if my friends, who are currently in this building, are fine", Seungmin answered for himself with a steady, calm voice, sounding absolutely sure of every word he said. "Good to know", Johnny responded and he was seemingly a little impressed or at least positively surprised as far as Seungmin could tell while Taeyong was convinced that Seungmin was part of the promised help.
"Alright. I will bring you two to the huntress but be careful and leave the room immediately when something seems off or she succeeds in slowly provoking you in any way", Taeyong explained, looking at the two redheads. Both brothers nodded and then followed the guardian to the room, which was currently occupied by said huntress. Johnny and the rest of the Day6 members of course followed them.
"Let me show you the things we know until now, so you can properly question her", Taeyong said when he stopped in front of the interrogation room. The two Kim brothers glanced at each other before focusing their attention back onto Taeyong, giving the guardian a silent permission to continue whatever he thought of doing, which also resulted in Dowoon letting go Wonpil's hand.
The red-haired leader of NCT just laid his right hand on top of Wonpil's head while the other one rested on top of Seungmin's head. At first Seungmin wanted to question why this was necessary but next thing he knew a lot of images appeared in front of his inner eye, showing him a big fire in a forest, other members of NCT, Jisung and Minho while also a lot of information seemed to just flood his brain.
When Taeyong took his hands off the Kim brothers heads they knew basically everything there was to know about hunters, the fire which destroyed a good proportion of the sky clan territory of the now vanished cat hybrids.
Seungmin needed a moment to process this information and link them with the things he knew. So the terrible vision Jisung had, which came true was probably the fire at the sky clan territory, where Minho and Felix had been with their family. He had been right when he thought Jisung and Changbin would do something stupid but in the end they may be the reason Felix and Minho were safe and not where his parents were.
The young redhead noticed Taeyong's gaze on him and quickly covered his growing worry for his friends with the excitement of having the opportunity to witness a difficult spell performed by a guardian.
"This is probably the highest class of magic I ever got to see", Seungmin mumbled in pretended amazement. Taeyong seemingly didn't see through it by the way his lips curved upwards. "I am a guardian. I am supposed to have mastered even the most difficult spells", Taeyong answered with a sweet smile on his lips. Seungmin just let himself seem excited and hoped Wonpil wouldn't notice him covering something.
"So, we just need to get in there and question the huntress to get some useful information out of her?", Wonpil asked, taking Taeyong's attention away from Seungmin and to him instead. Internally Seungmin thanked his older brother for that.
"Without harming her, yes", Taeyong answered with a neutral tone even though Seungmin could see a little bit of irritation in the guardian's mimic.
"Will someone see or hear what's said or done inside this room?", Wonpil asked cautiously even though the question was kind of strange and suspicious but neither Taeyong nor Johnny seemed to mind. Seungmin found their trust kind of admirable but knowing they was surely a reason behind it let him question it regardless.
"Sungjin already informed us about your special conditions, so whatever is said or done in this interrogation room won't be seen or heard by us. We trust you, the both of you", the guardian said, now sounding rather serious while looking at the two Kim brothers. For a short moment the young redhead's eyes flickered to Sungjin, thinking the other had told Taeyong and Johnny about Wonpil and him being demons. The werewolf noticed the little gesture and shook his head barely noticeable, letting the tension in Seungmin's body ease up. The werewolf wasn't the person for telling somebody else's secret.
"Alright. We won't disappoint you", Wonpil said, mimicking Taeyong's tone slightly. The guardian nodded, wishing the two Kim brothers good luck before opening the door of the investigation room with a special hand gesture. He held the door open for the two brothers, who quietly slipped into the room, not daring to speak before the door felt shut behind them.
Seungmin's eyes fell pretty quickly onto the woman, who was strapped to a chair, which stood behind a rather large table and glared at not only him but also Wonpil. Both brothers would have glared back but that was not their strategy for now.
"Are they sending two warlocks now? Pathetic", the woman hissed with a in venom drenched voice. It made you question a little who the demon in the room really was. The two brothers only looked at each other, ignoring the woman in front of them.
"Let the games begin, hyung" Seungmin said in his demon voice, so only Wonpil could hear him while he pushed his worries for his friends into the back of his mind. He needed to focus on the task at hand now.
"I guess this means we will let our parents genes come to good use today", Wonpil mused, stretching a bit while a light smile adored his lips. "True. We are allowed to play after all", Seungmin added, letting himself smirk a bit.
For once the two demon brothers had no fear of showing someone who they really were, after all they only hide being demons because they didn't want people to be scared of them. Now they had the opportunity to purposely scare someone, to play with someone like a wicked demon would do it.
The huntress only continued to glare at the brothers when Wonpil picked up the second chair from the floor, seating himself in front of the huntress with only the table separating them, while Seungmin confidently hopped onto the table, swinging his feet back and forth in the air like small child while he kept watching the woman's every move from the corner of his eyes.
"I'm not afraid of two useless warlocks like you", the woman spat, only making the two demons smirk wider. "You will be afraid soon enough", Seungmin singsonged, now concentrating on his swinging feet. "And just for clarification, we are no warlocks", Wonpil added, letting his head rest on top of his palm while holding eye contact with the woman. "Oh, if you two are no warlocks then what are you? You are no stupid elves or fox spirits", the huntress almost growled like a werewolf.
Seungmin let out an amused chuckle and looked back to the woman. "Guess", he simply said with a smirk still present on his lips but slowly this smirk dropped. Now he began to officially play with her.
"Guess and make your last wish because the devil comes rarely out to play", the young redhead repeated with a much lower, warped and dangerous voice, which easily could send a shiver down your spine.
A flash of fear could be seen in the huntress' eyes when she let her gaze wander from Seungmin to Wonpil, whose expression had turned as cold as ice. This caused the fear in the woman's eyes to be more prominent than before even if she tried to hide it.
"What are you?", the woman hushed almost fearfully. "You need to guess, human", Wonpil said, his voice matching his icy facial expression. It would have let the flight instinct of every animal kick in. The huntress seemed to have only one suggestion in mind, judging how she slowly began to tremble.
"Class ten creatures, Demons ...", she hushed like the word was forbidden. "Demons...", she repeated maybe to make herself realize it properly. "Well done, human", Seungmin congratulated her, smirking almost evilly while clapping slowly for the woman. He almost took a liking in seeing her afraid, considering what she had done to Minho.
"Now that you have realized what we are, care to answer our questions?", Wonpil asked, still using a very cold tone. "But hyung. I wanted to use my hell flames on her, so she would answer our questions while screaming in pain", Seungmin whined and bluffed like a master, looking at his older brother. Wonpil lightly shook his head.
"It's unnecessary, now is it?", the older demon almost asked, looking at the woman. The huntress still seemed scared but suddenly the fear disappeared from her eyes. "You are bluffing", she said glaring at the brothers again but neither of them fell out of their little role. Seungmin faked anger while using a bit of the one he really felt and hopped down from the table, letting the woman not see his face while his feet made hard contact with the ground, letting it sound threatening.
The young demon purposely let his naturally dark and demonic aura run loose while he also made his horns and devil's tail visible. His head snapped towards the woman, making her flinch in her chair. The fear was written all over her face, her lips trembled like she wanted to say something but was now too afraid to do so.
Wonpil picked on his younger brother's slightly different strategy, looking at him while faking worry. The kind of worry, where you hoped that your younger brother wouldn't tear tear someone apart. "Minnie, calm down. We don't want her dead. Yet", the older demon made a little pause before saying yet while making eye contact with the woman.
"I-I can't tell you much, I am only a mere soldier, nothing special. I-I was just part of the unit that attacked and imprisoned the cat hybrids. It was only an oder given to me", the huntress began to blur out, while her eyes fearfully looked back and forth between the two demons.
"You made a whole cat hybrid clan disappear. That shouldn't be a human's ability", Seungmin growled like the demon he was, making the woman flinch once more. "I-It was the doing of our ally, a female warlock who goes by the name Zendala. She used a bunch of spells, seemingly good ones. She teleported us into the forest undetected, while also letting everything start to burn without the flames hurting us. It was also her, who let the majority of cat hybrids disappear with just the snap of her fingers", the woman answered with a stutter, while her wide eyes continued to flicker between the two brothers.
"Did she also gift you with the black crystal you wore?", Wonpil questioned, referring to the crystal, which had hurt Taeyong's hand when he ripped it off her.
"N-no. The crystal is a heirloom, passed down within the families of hunters for generations. Its said to make you invisible to supernatural creatures", the huntress responded. Wonpil looked at the woman like he wanted more information, making the woman even more afraid.
"It seemingly also can't be touched by supernatural beings since this red-haired man hurt himself while having the crystal on his palm", the woman added, fearfully looking to Seungmin who still looked very pissed off in her eyes while in reality the young demon only observed her, trying to figure out if she told the truth or lied straight into the faces of his brother and him. He found nothing in her eyes except for horror and fear, it made him almost miss her cold glare.
"Any names you can give us that are useful?", Seungmin barked at her and once more succeeding in inflicting more fear into the woman, who now frantically shook her head. "E-Every hunter uses a Codename and not their real name while hunting", the huntress stuttered, making Seungmin let out an annoyed huff.
"Your name would help too", Wonpil stated, his gaze piercing through the woman. "M-My huntress name is Emily, my real one Park Minah", the huntress answered quietly but still audible.
"Alright, Emily. Where did your hunter friends go with the whole clan of cat hybrids?", Seungmin asked with an angry voice but he underlined his faked anger by slamming a hand onto the table, making the huntress jump a little in her chair.
"I-I don't know where Zendala brought everybody after retreating. I-I got captured by this young, blue-haired warlock we were ordered not to harm and had to wait until he was gone so I could get my weapons but after I got them I was captured again by this red-haired male, so I couldn't go to the meeting place", the huntress answered.
The part with the blue-haired warlock got the Kim brothers' attention because thanks to Taeyong they knew Jisung was the one to capture Emily the first time. "Why aren't you allowed to harm the blue-haired warlock?", Seungmin questioned his faked anger slowly resolving into a very real irritation and urgency, which made the young demon's aura even stronger, causing the huntress's extreme fear to slowly become panic.
"It was Zendala's order! I don't know why she wanted this boy completely unharmed!" the woman screamed in horror. She tried to hide away from Seungmin by closing her eyes, whimpering to spare her life.
"Seungmin get your aura under control, now!", the young redhead heard his brother's demon voice say. Immediately Seungmin pressed his eyes close and focused on his aura that was chugging down the woman's fear like delicious food. He turned it down, made it stop and submit to his will, so it disappeared again along with his horns and devil's tail.
When he opened his eyes again the woman's head was hanging low. She wasn't passed out just too afraid and exhausted to look at the demon brothers again.
"I think that's all. Thank you, Emily", Wonpil said sweetly, switching from cold to normal in the blink of an eye. The huntress didn't respond, so the two brother's just quietly filtered out of the interrogation room, facing the others again.
They immediately had the full attention of the six males when they closed the door behind them. "Did you crack her?", Jae asked from his sitting position on the ground. Both demon brothers nodded as an answer. "We got some important information to share", Wonpil stated.