Kai approached the group slowly, his eyes never leaving the figure cloaked in darkness.

The moment he drew near, the stranger stopped speaking. It was subtle, but Kai caught it - the uncertainty. Shadow clearly wasn't sure whether to continue with him around.

Kai didn't care.

He wasn't in the mood for awkwardness, nor did he give a damn about what the man thought of him.

He kept his posture relaxed but alert as he asked bluntly, "Who's this guy?"

Isaac, standing nearby, didn't hesitate to fill him in. Kai had been unconscious after going berserk in Nyx's lab when they last met Shadow, so it made sense he didn't know who he was.

'Second-in-command in their group. Coordinates operations. Mysterious. Handles missions, reports, and passes on messages from the boss,' Kai summarised mentally, eyes narrowing on the figure.

"Okay then, Shadow," Kai said, his voice even. "You can keep talking. Why're you here?"

The dark figure didn't answer immediately. His hazy form shifted slightly as he glanced at the others, seeking confirmation. Almost as if he was silently asking: "Is it fine to speak about our business in front of him?"

They all nodded without hesitation.

Over the past month, they'd grown to trust Kai - or at least trust that he wasn't going to slit their throats in the night. That was about as close as anyone got to friendship in this world.

Kai didn't miss the moment. He appreciated it in silence. A month wasn't long in the grand scheme of things, but when you survived constant death together and almost every waking moment side by side... it built something. Something solid.

"And what took you so long to show up?!" Nadya cut in, her tone sharper than usual. She looked genuinely pissed.

Even Sven, who usually floated through life like he barely gave a shit, frowned at Shadow with folded arms. "Do you know how many women I could have...?" Before he finished, Nadya slapped him on the back of the head.

Shadow, still wreathed in that swirling black mist, scratched the back of his head awkwardly. The motion somehow broke through the eerie haze and made him seem, if only for a second, closer to a human.

"Well…" he said, voice low and calm, "nothing came through. No alerts. No signals. No news. As far as we knew, you were still running your fight club in Volkorye and watching over Kai."

That earned a few sour looks.

"The only reason I'm here now is because I have a mission to give you. I checked the town first. You weren't there."

He paused.

"In fact, nothing was there, it was completely levelled without any sign of life."

Kai blinked. That meant the place was likely flattened out and covered up by Nyx and the Association. If anything, there would have at least been bones, rubble and traces of battle otherwise.

"So," Shadow continued, "I used something I normally avoid. A marker I placed on each of you. A way of creating an opening between me and each of you. It doesn't do much unless I activate it - and I hate using it unless I have to."

He rubbed his neck with another sheepish shrug. "Let's just say I've had... incidents. Appearing while someone was showering, or worse... Not ideal."

There was a moment of silence as everyone processed that.

Isaac looked mildly disturbed.

Sven snorted.

Nadya rolled her eyes.

And they all couldn't help but notice that he was showing more character than usual. He was often devoid of emotion in his tone, which was husky and distorted like his visage.

Shadow then turned toward Kai.

"You're not officially one of us," he said, "but it might be useful to mark you, too. If you ever get captured or need backup-"

He reached a hand out toward Kai's shoulder.

Kai stepped back immediately.

"I'm good, thanks."

Shadow paused.

"What if you get caught by Nyx again? Or something else?" The others chimed in. It sounded like a good idea to them, but Kai couldn't think of anything worse.

"It's still a no," he refused sternly.

To Kai, the idea of someone being able to appear wherever he was, anywhere in the world, was deeply unsettling. Especially someone like this. He knew nothing about the man, and even the others didn't seem to know him that well.

'If they trust him, that's their business,' Kai thought. 'Doesn't mean I have to.'

And Kai didn't trust anyone enough to want them to always be able to appear by his side, and doubted he ever would.

Shadow lowered his hand, not offended, just accepting. But the tension between him and Kai thickened. A quiet, unspoken tension as Kai studied him carefully.

'I wonder what rank he is. Maybe not built for head-on fights, but that ability…'

A shiver ran down his spine.

'He could open a rift below your feet and drop you into the sky… or Antarctica… or the middle of a volcano. Yeah. No thanks.'

'He's definitely at least A-Rank. Elite-tier. Like Takeshi.'

'But I wonder what his limits are and whether distance plays a role in his ability. There could be all kinds of factors...'

Kai stayed silent with thoughts bouncing around his head, eyeing the mist-cloaked man, but didn't push any further.

Meanwhile, Shadow also had thoughts of his own about the red-eyed artificial mutant.

'The others seem to trust him somewhat, but he's still not officially one of us. Not until the boss considers him as such. But his ability is unique, and he's quite skilled considering he's only supposedly had his ability for just over a month.'

He had intentionally sent Nadya's powerful orbs and Kai's attacks back at him to see what his defensive ability was like, and it was impressive, to say the least. But not nearly as much as his recovery, as he watched the man's burns and wounds visibly heal.

'He's quite unnerving, isn't he?' Shadow thought. Kai's gleaming red eyes, the bloodstains on his body, and his rapid recovery. It seemed inhuman, but it was ironic coming from the figure that literally looked like a Shadow.

Then there was silence, but thankfully, Nadya stepped in, clearly trying to shift the mood. "So, what's the mission you wanted to give us?"

Shadow turned toward her, his tone suddenly more serious as he remembered why he was there to begin with.

And what he said next made it clear:

In the month they'd been gone, the world had changed again and things were about to get interesting...

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