[AT THE FOSTER HOME…]
It had been more than a month since the incident in the alleyway.
More than a month since the missing parcel.
More than a month since The Six were summoned, questioned, and subtly scrutinized by Big Sister Evelyn again and again under the guise of concern.
On the surface, life at the foster home had returned to normal.
But far beneath the building, hidden from innocent eyes, something far from normal was taking place.
[SECRET TRAINING FACILITY — UNDERGROUND]
Deep underground, the secret training facility hummed with activity.
The vast hall echoed with the faint buzz of fluorescent lights and carried the sharp metallic scent of sharpened steel.
Dozens of children trained across the open space.
Some sparred in pairs, others drilled precise forms, and a few practiced with firearms and bladed weapons under careful supervision.
At the center of the hall stood Ms. Evelyn.
She held a katana in each hand while a black blindfold covered her eyes.
Encircling her were The Six — Draco, Lupus, Norma, Orion, Cygnus, and Corvus.
Each gripped a real katana of their own.
Unlike the other trainees in the hall, their expressions were tense, focused, and uneasy.
They knew exactly who they were facing.
The Iron Lady.
This was not their first time fighting her, but the rules had changed.
No holding back.
No wooden blades.
No mercy.
This time they used real steel.
A suffocating pressure filled the air as Ms. Evelyn stood completely still.
Despite her lack of movement, an overwhelming presence radiated from her — cold, crushing, and predatory.
Bloodlust.
It grew heavier with every passing second.
The Six tried to respond in kind, forcing their own killing intent outward in an attempt to match hers.
It was pointless.
Their combined presence barely made a dent.
She stood there blindfolded yet utterly dominant.
Then Draco moved.
In a burst of speed that blurred his form, he lunged forward.
His katana sliced through the air in a lethal arc aimed directly at her neck.
The strike was clean, precise, and carried enough force to decapitate her instantly.
At the very last moment, Ms. Evelyn ducked.
Just slightly.
The blade passed less than an inch above her head, tearing through the air and leaving behind a violent gust that rippled across the hall.
Draco’s eyes widened in disbelief.
What—!?
She dodged that!?
Point-blank… blindfolded!?
At this point, she’s not even human—
Before the thought finished, Ms. Evelyn drove her fist into his solar plexus.
The impact was brutal.
Draco’s body folded instantly as he was launched several meters across the hall.
He crashed hard into the stone wall before dropping limply to the floor.
The remaining five froze for a fraction of a second.
That was all it took.
Corvus seized what he thought was an opening.
He rushed in and unleashed a rapid barrage of katana strikes, each one calculated, fluid, and relentless.
He aimed for vital points, hoping for even a single clean hit.
Ms. Evelyn blocked every strike effortlessly.
Steel met steel in rapid succession as she countered with overwhelming precision, forcing Corvus into a defensive retreat.
Her twin blades pressed him back step by step, her timing flawless and her movements unnervingly calm.
Frustration flared in Corvus’ eyes.
He leapt straight upward, far higher than any normal jump should allow.
As he created distance, he reached behind his back and drew a gun.
Bringing a firearm into a sword fight was a dangerous decision, but guns were his true language.
Precision and long-range attacks were how he fought best.
Mid-air, he twisted his torso and fired three shots in quick succession.
The first bullet screamed toward her head.
Ms. Evelyn shifted her body just enough for the round to skim past her blindfold.
The second and third followed instantly.
With movements that seemed unreal, she slashed both bullets out of the air, her katana carving clean arcs that split them apart.
Corvus landed, but that was the mistake.
A blade filled his vision.
The edge of Ms. Evelyn’s katana hovered mere inches from his right eye, closing in with terrifying speed.
Pure instinct saved him.
Corvus twisted his head at the last possible moment.
The blade missed by a whisper, slicing past where his eye had been a heartbeat earlier.
Ms. Evelyn paused for a brief moment.
Surprise flickered across her lips.
She had been certain no one could evade that attack.
Corvus staggered back, breathing hard, sweat dripping down his face.
Then she smirked.
The mercy he thought he had earned never came.
A sharp chill crawled up his spine as he sensed the next attack coming from behind.
There was no time to turn.
No time to dodge.
“CORVUS, WATCH OUT!” Cygnus shouted.
CLANG!
Steel collided with steel.
Sparks erupted as Cygnus burst into the fray, his blade intercepting Ms. Evelyn’s strike with barely a second to spare.
Though he lacked her mastery, his stance was solid and his strength undeniable.
Orion and Norma moved at the same time.
Norma hurled Orion’s katana high into the air.
Orion leapt, catching the blade mid-air and twisting his body as he descended in a powerful assassin’s strike from above.
At the same moment, Norma closed in silently from behind.
Three attackers.
Three directions.
Perfect synchronization.
They struck together.
All three attacks connected.
Or so it seemed.
What they hit shimmered, distorted, and dispersed like mist.
An afterimage.
The realization hit them all at once.
They back-pedaled instantly, blades raised and eyes darting across the hall.
The answer came violently.
Orion was launched across the hall at inhuman speed, smashing into the far wall with bone-rattling force.
Cracks spider-webbed through the reinforced stone as debris rained down.
Cygnus was next.
Before he could react, an unseen force slammed into him, sending him crashing into the wall beside Orion.
Norma’s heart pounded.
He scanned frantically, but it was too late.
She was already there.
Her palm drove forward with devastating force.
His body slammed into the wall, cracking it outward as the breath was ripped from his lungs.
Ms. Evelyn stood alone at the center of the hall, calm and radiating heavy bloodlust.
Then Lupus entered the fray.
He moved with impressive footwork, closing the distance in a blur.
Their blades clashed repeatedly, sparks flying with every collision.
Ms. Evelyn flipped backward to create distance, but Lupus pursued using a technique he had just copied from her — the Double Step.
She unleashed a devastating kick timed to shatter his jaw.
Lupus ducked at the last instant.
The compressed wind from her missed kick tore across the hall.
For the first time that night, genuine surprise crossed her face.
Lupus pressed the advantage with a low sweep, then pushed off the ceiling in a gravity-defying maneuver, descending with a powerful vertical slash.
Their blades met with explosive force.
The ground beneath Ms. Evelyn shattered from the impact.
She eventually overpowered him, sending him flying.
Lupus landed in a crouch, breathing heavily and covered in bruises.
“What the hell is she!? It’s like she can predict the future or something… I was so sure that last attack would work. She couldn’t have seen me coming, and yet she blocked it purely on instinct. That’s insane. I gave it everything I had… and I still couldn’t even leave a scratch.”
Ms. Evelyn lowered her blades slightly.
“It seems you have reached your limit. I must admit, I am impressed. You are the only one among The Six who managed to keep me on my toes the entire time. Mastering the Double Step after seeing it only once makes you a prodigy.”
Lupus’ face lit up with excitement.
She continued, her tone shifting.
“Now then, since you are already familiar with the Double Step, I want you to watch carefully. I am about to show you the Triple Step Technique.”
She dropped both swords.
Lupus tensed, ready to activate the Double Step.
She took three steps forward and vanished.
Before he could react, Lupus found himself embedded in the wall.
Darkness swallowed him.
When he regained consciousness, the remaining five stood around him, praising his performance.
The Six lined up as Ms. Evelyn walked past, finally removing her blindfold.
“Big Sister Evelyn! May I ask a question?” Norma called out.
“I hope it has something to do with how poorly you performed during training,” she replied coldly.
Norma laughed nervously.
“I noticed you were holding back a lot. Even with the blindfold on, you barely swung your sword seriously. Why is that?”
Ms. Evelyn stopped.
“As you are right now, you are incomplete. You are merely empty vessels. Until you become whole, I will train you the best way I can.”
Her voice hardened.
“There are people in this world as powerful as, or even stronger than myself. Very soon you will be unleashed into that world. When you encounter them, you may have to fight for your lives.”
“No way!” Orion blurted out.
“There are people even stronger than you?”
“What kind of people are they?” Draco asked nervously.
“They can’t all be bad, right?”
Ms. Evelyn turned back to them.
“They are. Remember what I taught you about the mafia?”
They nodded.
“They are known as the Red Valley Syndicate. In your current state, you would not have much trouble dealing with their standard members. But there is a group within the mafia that even the government fears. They are called the Mercenaries of the Iron Altar. Little is known about their identities.”
She paused, her presence growing heavier.
“So take your training seriously. Someday you may have to face me again. Next time it will not be training. It will be the real world. Kill or be killed.”
Orion swallowed hard.
Ms. Evelyn dismissed them with a final command.
“You are all dismissed.”
The training hall fell silent as she walked away, leaving The Six to reflect on her words and the terrifying gap that still remained between them.
Moments later…
The training hall fell into a heavy silence after Ms. Evelyn dismissed them.
The Six remained standing in formation for several long seconds, chests heaving and bodies aching from the brutal session.
Sweat soaked their clothes, and fresh bruises bloomed across their skin where her strikes had landed.
None of them spoke at first.
The weight of her final words still hung in the air like a blade pressed against their throats.
Lupus was the first to break the quiet.
He rubbed the back of his neck, wincing slightly as he tested a sore muscle.
“Kill or be killed, huh?” he muttered, half to himself.
“She wasn’t joking around with that one.”
Draco pushed himself up from the floor where he had been recovering.
He groaned as he straightened his posture, one hand pressed against his bruised solar plexus.
“She never jokes about anything,” he said.
“That’s what makes it terrifying. I thought I had her with that first strike. Clean angle, full speed. She ducked it like she saw it coming before I even moved.”
Corvus holstered his gun with a sharp click.
His hands still trembled slightly from the adrenaline.
The memory of her katana stopping inches from his eye refused to leave him.
“She blocked bullets. Blindfolded. I’ve never seen anyone move like that. It wasn’t just speed. It was like she knew exactly where everything was going to be. I switched to guns because blades weren’t working, and she still made me look like an amateur.”
Cygnus helped Orion to his feet.
The latter winced as he rotated his shoulder, checking for serious damage.
“We all got wrecked,” Orion admitted.
“Even when we coordinated the triple attack from different angles, she turned it into an afterimage. That’s not normal. That’s not human.”
Norma stayed quiet for a moment, staring at the cracked floor where Ms. Evelyn had stood.
His mind kept replaying the palm strike that had sent him flying.
“She called us empty vessels,” he said finally.
“Incomplete. I hate how right that feels. We train every day, push ourselves harder than anyone else here, and she still treats us like we’re barely worth the effort.”
Lupus let out a short, bitter laugh.
“Speak for yourself. I actually got her to use the Triple Step on me. That has to count for something, right?” His excitement faded quickly.
“Still got planted into the wall though. She wasn’t even using her full strength. You could tell.”
The group slowly made their way toward the exit of the underground facility.
The other children in the hall gave them respectful distance.
Everyone knew The Six trained under Ms. Evelyn directly.
Everyone knew what that meant.
As they climbed the hidden stairs back toward the main foster home building, Cygnus spoke in a low voice.
“Do you think she’s preparing us for something specific? The way she talked about the Red Valley Syndicate and those Mercenaries of the Iron Altar… it sounded like she expects us to run into them soon.”
Draco nodded.
“She’s never been one to waste words. If she’s warning us about them, then they’re already on the move. Or we’re about to be sent somewhere dangerous.”
Orion rubbed his sore jaw.
“I still can’t believe there are people stronger than her. She’s the Iron Lady. She’s the one who runs this entire place with an iron fist. If there are people who can make her worry, what chance do we have?”
Lupus smirked, though it lacked his usual confidence.
“That’s the point, isn’t it? She’s forcing us to get stronger. Fast. Because the world outside this foster home isn’t going to wait for us to catch up.”
They emerged into the quiet upper levels of the building.
The normal evening routines continued around them — younger children getting ready for bed, staff moving through the halls with practiced calm.
To the outside world, it was just another peaceful night at the foster home.
But The Six knew better now.
The training they had just endured was not simply practice.
It was preparation for survival in a world where monsters like Ms. Evelyn existed — and worse.
As they reached their shared quarters, Norma stopped in the doorway.
“One thing keeps bothering me,” he said.
“She said we might have to face her again someday. Not in training. In the real world.”
The group exchanged uneasy glances.
Lupus leaned against the wall, arms crossed.
“If that day comes, we’d better be ready. Because next time she won’t be holding back. And she won’t be wearing a blindfold.”
Draco exhaled slowly.
“Then we train harder. We watch each other. We learn everything we can. Because if the Iron Lady is scared of what’s coming, the rest of us should be terrified.”
The Six nodded in silent agreement.
They had survived another night of training under the Iron Lady.
But they all understood the truth now.
The real test was still ahead.
And it was coming sooner than any of them wanted to admit.