The silence that followed my words was fucking glorious.

I watched them all, cataloging reactions like a butcher examining cuts of meat. Raphael's face had gone red enough to match the Phantom's colors. Jacob looked like he was calculating the probability of surviving the next ten minutes. Soomin's eyes were wide, that pink hair of hirs practically vibrating with nervous energy.

Skylar just popped her gum again.

Then Raphael exploded.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" His fists started crackling, blue energy dancing across his knuckles. The coffee table between us rattled. "You think you're too good for us? Think being Rank One makes you some kind of god?"

He took a step forward, shoulders heaving.

"You're still just a piece of trash who ended up in the same dump as the rest of us! You don't get to—"

"You're right."

I interrupted him mid-rant. My voice was soft, conversational. I let a slow smile spread across my face, the kind Kaelen used to wear right before he broke someone's fingers for touching the wrong merchandise.

"I am in the same dump as the rest of you."

I walked forward, closing the distance. Raphael tensed, ready to swing. I stopped just outside his range.

"And that's exactly the point."

I turned, addressing the entire room now. Letting them all see me. Really see me.

"You think I chose Onyx out of some noble desire to uplift the downtrodden?" I let out a short, harsh laugh. "Christ. Don't be naive."

The room had gone completely still. Even Juan had opened one eye.

"I chose Onyx out of pure, unadulterated spite." I walked toward the center of the room, hands in my pockets, casual as a stroll through the park. "I rejected the elite guilds because when I become the strongest Hunter in the world, and I will, I don't want anyone to ever say I got there because I was a 'product of the Argent Sentinels' or a 'creation of the Scarlet Phantoms.'"

Raphael's energy flickered.

"No. They will look at me at the top of the mountain, and they will know that I clawed my way up from the very bottom." I stopped, meeting each of their eyes in turn. "They will know that I took the guild of rejects, the misfits, the forgotten, and I turned it into an empire. My name will be the only one attached to my legend."

Isabelle tilted her head slightly. Interesting.

"So let's be clear about something right now." I spread my arms, encompassing the entire shabby, beautiful disaster of Onyx House. "I'm not here to hold your hands. I'm not here to be your therapist. I'm not here to make you feel better about yourselves or validate your trauma."

Jacob made a small whimpering sound.

"I'm here to win. And if you're smart, you'll ride in my wake and become stronger than you ever thought possible. If you're not smart?" I shrugged. "Then you'll wash out, and I'll find someone else."

Carmen let out a low, appreciative whistle from her position by the shoji screen.

"Well, damn. The kid's got an ego the size of the VHC Spire." She wasn't offended. She looked like she'd just unwrapped a Christmas present.

The momentum of the friendly introductions had been murdered in its crib. Good. We didn't need friendship. We needed hierarchy. We needed to know exactly where everyone stood.

Nobody spoke.

Nobody wanted to be the next one to break the tension, to seem weak or unimportant after I'd just declared them all expendable assets in my personal saga.

The grandfather clock in the corner ticked.

Akari whispered something rapid-fire to Hikari in Japanese. Hikari's smile hadn't changed, but something in her posture had shifted. More coiled.

Carmen sighed dramatically. "Okay, are the rest of you just going to stand there and stare at your new cult leader, or are we going to finish this?" She pointed her sake bottle at the four people who hadn't spoken yet. "We're still missing... well, technically everyone's introduced themselves, but half of you gave the emotional depth of a police report."

Juan cracked open one eye from his nest on the couch.

"Juan Navarro. Kinetic Ace. I throw things and they explode." His voice was flat as old beer. "And for the record, I'm not here to be part of anyone's empire. I'm here because this house has the best rooftop for naps on the entire island." He closed his eye again. "Keep the drama to a minimum. It's troublesome."

A perfect declaration of neutrality. The genius was opting out of the power struggle entirely.

All eyes turned to Noah.

They stood ramrod straight, hands clasped behind their back like a soldier at parade rest. Their amber eyes were locked on me with the intensity of a targeting laser.

"Noah Gray. Kinetic Weave." Their voice was clipped, professional. Not a single unnecessary word. "Fabric manipulation. Close quarters specialist."

That was it. No flourish. No personality. Just cold, hard facts delivered like a mission brief.

I tagged them mentally: The Royal Guard. Loyal to another queen. A problem to be solved.

The last two.

Emi shifted her weight from foot to foot, suddenly the center of attention. Her blue hair caught the light filtering through the dusty windows. She clutched her bag strap tighter, knuckles white.

"I'm Emi Aoyama. Aura of Respite. I'm a healer."

Her voice was soft but clear, carrying to every corner of the room. She glanced at me, and I saw it there. The hurt. The confusion. I'd just told her, indirectly, that the study sessions and the karaoke and the hand-holding meant nothing.

Perfect.

She looked at the group, her reddish-brown eyes earnest and painfully sincere.

"And... I think a team is strongest when everyone supports each other. Even if we're not..." She swallowed hard. "...friends."

It was the gentlest possible rebuke. A declaration of her own values wrapped in politeness. She wasn't challenging me directly, but she was drawing a line in the sand. I will not become like you.

Good girl. Hold onto that. It'll make corrupting you so much sweeter.

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