"So before that, we change course, like turning the rudder before a storm. Training in a sealed room won’t cut it; from now on, Flashblade Red joins every run."

The strike on the Gauntlet factory was a stone hurled at the Twin Towers, a crack running up a cliff face.

The two heroes not only walked out whole, they erased an entire support squad on the spot, like chalk wiped clean.

It may not dent the Twin Towers’ body, but it will whip up a fiercer gale, a front rolling in.

Heroes churned up a tornado that slams the Sinister Organization’s roots, fear buried like old roots in the public mind.

To let that wind howl harder, and to live through the squall, Ling Yi needs steel from real battle, a blade tempered in rain.

She’d been benched for many reasons, like knots in a net; from now on, no more knots.

"...!"

Heat flared first, then Ling Yi’s gaze settled like a drawn bow.

Pain pricked next, because Liu RuoYuan pinched her hard under the table, like a crab’s claw.

"What about her studies? Senior year is a crossroads, like a fork in the river!" Liu RuoYuan protested, voice like a thrown pebble.

Yekase had missed that, scratching her head like ruffling a bird’s crest. "Uh, Ling Yi’s grades are good, right? We’re not looking for trouble 365 days a year. Push when it’s quiet… right, Ling Yi, which university, which major?"

"If it’s ‘originally’…"

Her head dipped like a flower in drizzle.

"...I haven’t decided," she said, a blank page flapping.

"Then decide when the time comes," Yekase summed, like closing a file.

"No, no, no, you don’t leave life’s big choices to a coin toss!" Liu RuoYuan shot back, a spark jumping. "I hope you treat your life like that—oh, right, you did!"

She almost forgot: this genius dove into mechanics and Infinite Power in junior year like a swallow to spring, then walked that road into night, even cold-warring with family, bolting to college in the Twin Towers.

"We can’t decide a life like this with four people at a table," Yekase shrugged, shoulders rising like small waves. "Next topic. Ling Ya, if you joined our ops, what snags?"

"I thought about it the moment I knew Sis was Flashblade Red," she replied, voice steady as a compass.

"You know the Beast King Squadron’s HQ, the hangar, is in Liudong City, like a den across the river. Even riding the Dragon God Pioneer is fast wind, but not always in time. And Liudong’s hero pool runs shallow; the Professor will shore them up first."

"Mm… what if you came alone?" Yekase asked, a test balloon rising.

"Doesn’t work. The suit hits its stride with five shoulder to shoulder, like a phalanx. If it’s just me… no, even adding Fang Tang, who moved here to run this bar, we’d be under half strength, like a boat with two oars. We’d drag you down."

"I see. Then we’re stuck," Yekase said, like a door that wouldn’t budge.

Ling Ya didn’t dodge blame; her words were a clear mirror, and a mirror doesn’t lie.

Yekase turned it over, thoughts clicking like beads.

"Speaking of Fang Tang—where is she?" The question popped like a light switching on.

…

Valhalla’s doors stood open like a yawning cave, but the bar was empty, a stage with no actors.

Good thing this place hides in an alley like a fox den, or it’d be stripped by five-finger discounts.

Yekase looked to Ling Ya, the one who knew Fang Tang best, eyes like spotlights.

"I don’t know either," Ling Ya said, shaking her head like wind brushing grass.

"Call her?"

Ling Ya dialed; seconds stretched like rubber, and only the busy tone droned, a thin saw.

The brother and sister—now sisters—traded a glance, two sparks crossing.

"I bet your next line is, ‘The wind smells like an incident.’"

"The wind smells like… grass?"

So much for acting cool in front of her—future declared like a judge’s gavel, Yekase rose from her seat.

"Showtime," she said, a knife leaving its sheath.

A hero snatched from a newborn base without a ripple? That’s a bad joke tossed in your face.

Yekase’s Infinite Power vision swept the bar and the back kitchen like a lighthouse beam, wrapped the room, and found nothing, clean as fresh snow.

Fang Tang had been here; Ling Ya had already confirmed with Professor F, a stamp in wax.

And besides her and Yekase, no one had the keys to Valhalla, a gate with two wardens.

So what else could it be? The question hung like fog.

"Ling Ya, do your teammates have a locator? Even basic sensing?"

"We can sense each other!" Ling Ya nodded, words like a lifeline. "Through shared Soul Power, I can feel their positions, like intuition tugging a string. But I need to focus."

Yekase reached out and caught the Polaris Staff, like plucking a star.

"I feel you by my side."

After the change, her aura shifted like light through leaves. When the original stayed quiet, she was a still beauty; this form felt like a cute girl faking maturity, a mask with a wink.

The Ling sisters told themselves the clock was burning, and barely held back the impulse to poke and prod, a cat batting yarn.

"Sensing is enough. Ling Ya comes with me to find her; Ling Yi stays here and guards Liu RuoYuan—"

Yekase’s gaze slid to Ling Yi and stalled, a needle catching.

"I just said Ling Yi needs field time to build her edge. Then both of you come—no, it could be a tiger-lure-from-the-mountain trick. I can’t leave Liu RuoYuan alone, a lantern in the wind."

She couldn’t drag a civilian with no combat power into a fight, a dove into hawk sky. Sending her home might cost rescue time, sand draining fast.

"How about this, Doctor."

Ling Yi stepped forward, resolve rising like tide.

"I’ll go with Ya-ya to bring her back. You stay and protect Sister Liu RuoYuan."

"That…" Yekase asked with her eyes if they could swing it, like tapping a bridge with a stick.

Ling Ya nodded, solemn as a bell.

"…All right. Then go make it count," Yekase said, a long sigh leaving like steam.

She tossed the Polaris Staff back into the portal case, a star falling, and sank onto the nearest booth’s sofa.

Ling Yi and Ling Ya sprinted past her, two arrows loosed.

"Flashblade Activation!"

"Starry Sky Striker ACE!"

"ZEROS!"

"Dragon God Shark!"

A red and a blue streak flared at the edge of her vision, twin comets, and the footsteps faded down the hall like receding rain.

Liu RuoYuan took the seat across from her, a calm shore.

"Worried about them?" she asked, voice soft as dusk.

"Yeah. Ling Yi’s always fought to my calls, like a dancer to a drum. Ling Ya leans on her team and Professor’s coordination. Acting on their own—this is a first flight."

"You don’t even have a girlfriend, and you’re already a dumb parent," she said, a teasing breeze.

"Dumb parent?!" Yekase slapped the table, a crack of thunder. "It’s a sane worry! The enemy’s in the dark, and they snatched a squad member like plucking a fish. They’re no light breeze."

"If you worry that much, you shouldn’t have pushed them onto the field," she said, a blade in a velvet sheath.

"…"

Words dried up, a well gone empty.

Liu RuoYuan leaned onto the table, chin tipped up, eyes meeting hers like stars peeking over eaves. "Hey, I’m not picking on you. Trust them. If you know hero work isn’t child’s play, then this is when you trust them."

"Feels like you’d make a better support than me," Yekase said with a crooked smile, a cloud lifting. "I keep stepping onto the field, and I can’t even brew a decent pep talk."

Liu RuoYuan kicked her hard under the table, a trap sprung. "Pep talk? You call my heartfelt truth ‘soup’?"

Silence fell between them, soft as snow.

…

Minutes later, Liu RuoYuan snapped her head up like a flame catching. "Let me and—"

"No," Yekase cut in, a door slammed.

"…Why?"

"Because I have to protect you," she said, a wall planted.

"But even they picked up weapons," she countered, a spark testing the stone.

"There are two Liu children. If you get hurt, Mother and Father will be crushed, like pillars cracked."

"What about you?" she asked, eyes searching like lanterns.

"I’ve got thirty-three gadgets and twenty-seven ways to make that person regret being born," she said, a knife wrapped in cloth.

Yekase shut her eyes and sank into the sofa, like a stone to riverbed, no room for bargaining.

"I can scrape intel online, do psych first aid, analyze the case with you. I don’t have to touch the front line. I want to help you, help them—gege," she said.

Liu RuoYuan stood, grabbed the arm she hugged to her chest, fingers speaking like Morse code without a tremble.

"…"

The girl stayed silent, a lake holding wind.

"You told Ling Yi to do what she believes is right, didn’t you? Then I’ll do what I believe is right, here and now," she pressed, a bell struck.

Yekase opened one eye, a moon through cloud. "You just called me brother."

"Mm," she answered, small and bright.

"Then I have to answer as a brother," he said, voice set like iron cooling.

"I’ll keep you off the battlefield. No one gets to touch you, not even Shadow Curtain International. I’ll find a way to hide you elsewhere, I’ll go cut down their cadres, I’ll kneel and beg anyone with a door. But I won’t let you fight, not even a smokeless fight."

"Because you’re my sister," he finished, a vow carved.

"...Die-hard sis-con…" she muttered, a feathered dart.

"??????"

"Looking like that while saying this has zero bite. It’s even kind of cute," she said, a shrug like drifting willow.

"No signs of a fight in the bar means she was talked out, led like a fish on a line. With a hero’s caution, some nobody from an unknown group couldn’t lure her from a base, let alone make her vanish. That leaves one shape."

"I’m not doubting your deduction…" Yekase began, a stone skipped.

"But there’s another kind of unknown who doesn’t trigger alarms—the culprit is a hero. Someone with a bit of a name in the Twin Towers, enough for Fang Tang to know his face," she finished, a net closing.

"Right. That’s the only one left," Yekase said, the line taut.

She lifted her finger off the push-to-talk, like easing off a trigger.

A burst crackled in her ear. "A hero?! Why would a hero do that!" Ling Yi shouted, panic fluttering like startled birds.

"Don’t rush it. Could be a foot soldier impersonating a hero. Heroes wear masks; impostors slip in all the time…" Yekase paused, breath held like a bead.

Under Liu RuoYuan’s urging glance, she added the last line, a blessing sent down the wire.

"Good hunting. Stay sharp out there."