Hina stood in the base's firing range, the only sound the thwack-thwack-thwack of high-velocity rounds slamming into reinforced steel targets.
The air was thick and metallic, smelling of gunpowder and ozone—a scent Hina had always found calming.
It was the smell of control.
She was still wearing her usual clothes.
She didn't even change into something more different.
For her, that was her battle suit, in a certain way.
Hina kept shooting, not caring about the world around her.
Her aim was perfect.
It looked like she was shooting at someone in particular with the right intention of killing the target.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
Five shots, delivered with the devastating speed of an automaton, ripped through the silence.
Hina lowered the pistol slowly, the smoke curling from the muzzle like a question mark.
She didn't need to see the targets.
She knew.
A manic, almost euphoric smile, began to stretch across her face.
It started small, a tremor at the corners of her lips, then widened until it felt wrong, too wide, exposing the glint of her teeth.
Her eyes, usually empty grey pools, seemed to hold a flicker of white-hot obsession.
This wasn't merely practice; this was a manifestation of her deepest desire.
Kai.
Her mind conjured the image of him in the meeting room, his face pale with fear, the way his jaw had clenched in a desperate act of rebellion against Rei.
She thought of their kiss, the desperate, near-violent collision of their mouths that sealed their fate.
The memory sent a shiver of pure yandere excitement spiraling through her core, a feeling that intensified the electric tremor in her limbs.
She was going to see him tonight. She would hold him, claim him, reinforce the new, dark pact they had forged.
"He's finally mine. He's finally broken, and he's finally free to be mine... no... he finally found himself..."
The thought was fuel, enough to make her entire body feel tingly.
She loaded a fresh magazine, slamming it home with decisive force in the blink of an eye.
The three other members of Rei's elite unit, who had been lazily warming up at adjacent lanes, suddenly stopped.
They glanced at Hina, then at the target, their easy camaraderie dissolving into palpable unease.
Even among the violent ranks of the Vigilantes, Hina's cold intensity was unnerving.
She raised the weapon again.
This time, she wasn't thinking of Kai.
She was thinking of the man who dared threaten her happiness, the man who dared to manipulate the one thing she cherished: Rei.
Ten shots.
Ten lives.
Then chances to kill the target.
She fired.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
The rapid succession was deafening.
The ten empty casings clattered onto the floor.
Hina finally turned to face the targets, her smile still unnervingly wide, daring the onlookers to speak.
The three soldiers, hardened men used to blood and close-quarters kills, involuntarily took a step back.
On the silhouette target, every single round had impacted within the space of a silver dollar—right through the heart.
It was impossible perfection.
A clear message that Hina's focus was not on accuracy, but on lethal finality.
Her movements, her terrifying consistency, spoke of a training that far surpassed anything the military-trained members of Rei's unit had received.
One of the soldiers, his voice thick with apprehension, finally managed a hesitant, "Holy shit... that's... scary."
Hina simply gave him a long, unsettling look—the kind of look that suggested she had already mentally plotted ten ways to kill him—before turning back to disassemble and clean her weapon with meticulous, calm strokes.
The implicit truth hung heavy in the air: She was training to kill Rei, and she had just proven she couldn't miss.
After that, Hina kept shooting for a little longer, before finally finishing the bullets.
Everyone could see her satisfied look on her face.
But at the same time nobody had the courage of speaking to her.
There was a bloodlust aura surrounding her that was literally screaming "STAY AWAY".
Having finished her cleaning ritual, Hina exited the firing range and headed toward her private quarters to change.
She ignored the lingering stares of the unit members.
They didn't matter.
Only Kai, and the mission to secure their future, mattered.