Morning light cut through the cracks in the blinds, spilling across a room that reeked of ink, steel, and sleeplessness.

K sat in silence his sharp eyes unmoving, his hand idly tracing the map of Tashi scattered across the table. Dried blood marked several corners, a reminder of last night's failures.

Then a voice, smooth as venom.

"Looking good, K…"

He didn't turn. But the faintest crease appeared between his brows.

A soft sound followed heels clicking against the stone, silk sliding over marble. When he finally looked up, a woman with green hair stood before him, her lips curved in a knowing smile. A faint tattoo a serpent coiled lazily around her arm, its ink shimmering faintly under the light.

K exhaled. "Meduza."

She smiled faintly, stepping deeper into the room, her presence filling it like a whisper of poison.

"To think… the man who claims to be all-knowing ended up like this."

Her tone was teasing, but the glint in her golden eyes was dangerous, a predator amused by another predator's wound. She circled him slowly, each step unhurried, deliberate.

"Tell me, K, is this what genius looks like when it breaks?"

K didn't rise to it. He didn't need to. He only muttered, low and cold,

"What do you want?"

Meduza's serpent tattoo shifted slightly, as if alive, curling tighter around her wrist.

"Maybe I just missed you." She dragged a finger across his desk, tracing the cracks in the wood. "Or maybe I heard the whispers — that the great tactician of the Hollow Nine failed in Tashi. That he lost track of a mere human named Vince."

K's jaw tightened. His eyes darkened. "Watch your tongue, Meduza."

Her smirk widened. "Oh? Struck a nerve?"

The serpent's head twisted toward him, its eyes glowing faintly a symbol of her Shinrei stirring beneath the skin. She leaned closer, close enough that her breath grazed his ear.

"You could just ask for help. I'll even be gentle."

K scoffed, leaning back in his chair with a lazy, dangerous grin.

"Tsk. I don't need your help, Meduza."

Her laughter low and melodic filled the air, echoing faintly against the walls.

"You never did, did you? That's why everyone else in the Hollow Nine hates you. You treat us like chess pieces… and yet, when you bleed, you hide it."

K finally met her gaze, his expression unreadable. "And yet here you are one of those pieces, still orbiting my board."

Meduza's smile faltered for the briefest second. Then she leaned closer, whispering:

"Careful, K. Even a serpent can bite the hand that commands it."

K stood slowly, his shadow falling over hers. His voice was calm almost gentle but the air shifted, heavy with something ancient and sharp.

"And even a serpent forgets… the hand it bites once fed it power."

The two stood there silence and venom dancing between them.

Then Meduza smirked again, stepping back toward the door.

"Fine. Play your little war. But when Vince burns your plans to ash, don't come crawling to me."

As she reached the doorway, K spoke quietly almost to himself.

"Vince won't burn anything. He'll light the path I need."

Meduza paused, half-turning, curiosity flickering across her face.

"Still pretending to see everything, K?"

He smirked faintly. "No. I don't need to see everything. I only need to see enough to win."

Meduza's eyes lingered on him a mixture of pity and fascination before she vanished into the corridor, leaving only the faint hiss of her serpent behind.

K leaned back again, the faintest smile curving his lips.

"Meduza… your venom might be useful soon."

Meanwhile…

The corridor was quiet lit only by the dim glow of the torches lining the cold, stone walls.

Meduza walked alone, her footsteps echoing softly in the dark. The silence pressed around her, heavy and bitter.

When she reached the far balcony of the fortress, she stopped. The night air was sharp carrying the scent of rain and metal. Below her, the black horizon stretched endlessly.

She leaned on the railing, eyes lost in the storm clouds gathering over the wasteland. The serpent tattoo along her arm shimmered faintly, its head resting just above her pulse like it too could feel the ache beneath her skin.

For a moment, the mask of the Hollow Nine's enchantress the seductress, the manipulator slipped away. What remained was simply Meduza, a woman watching the distance where the man she couldn't reach continued to fight alone.

Her voice broke the silence quiet, bitter, almost trembling.

"K… you damn idiot. You never ask for help."

She laughed softly a hollow sound, half pain, half affection.

"You always act like you see everything. Like you're above the rest of us. But I know you, K. You carry too much… you break when no one's looking."

Her eyes glowed faintly green and sad.

"I told myself I hated you, that I'd never follow your commands again. But here I am — still chasing your shadow."

The serpent on her arm stirred, its ink moving like ripples in water, as if sensing her heart's unrest.

Meduza placed a hand over it, whispering as if confessing to the night itself:

"To tell you the truth, K… I love you, you stubborn fool."

The wind blew stronger carrying her words into the darkness where no one would ever hear them.

But far away, in his room, K paused mid-thought for a fleeting second, he looked toward the same direction, as if he'd heard something… faint, distant, and familiar.

Then his expression hardened again.

He turned back to the map.

The game had to continue.

And love, like mercy, had no place in the Hollow Nine.

K and Meduza share a complicated past.

They were once partners in strategy and infiltration, often paired together by Lucere due to their complementary strengths K's mind and Meduza's Arsenals.

During those missions, Meduza slowly grew attached to him.

But K never reciprocated, buried in his obsession with perfection and loyalty to Lucere.

To Meduza, he's both the man she loves and the wall she can never climb.

So while she teases him, mocks his failures, and calls him arrogant —

in truth, she's trying to keep his attention.

Because deep down, she loves the very man who refuses to love anyone at all.

To be continue

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