The neighborhood was quiet in the way that places are quiet when nothing had happened yet.

Wide streets. Residential buildings. A park with a rusted gate nobody had gotten around to fixing. Children played somewhere out of sight, their voices carrying faintly on the wind.

"The mission isn’t as boring as you make it out to be."

Selena explained things as they walked, even though all of them already knew the briefing.

A research team had detected trace plague readings in the area three days ago. Nothing confirmed. No impure sightings. But the readings hadn’t cleared, and association protocol required a hero presence until they did. It could be nothing. It was probably nothing.

But if it wasn’t nothing and nobody had been sent, that would become a much bigger problem.

"Three days maximum," Selena said. "The research team reassesses at the end of each day. If the readings are clear, we go home early."

"Three days?" Julie repeated. Her camera went very still. "My subscribers will drop within that time."

She muttered the last part under her breath.

"There’s a hotel two streets over. The association covers the room."

Julie looked at the quiet street. At the children playing somewhere unseen. Then at Nicholas, who was surveying the area with a sharp gaze.

"This is the mission." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

A long breath escaped her mouth that came dangerously close to becoming a word Selena would have scolded her for.

"Hey, look! A butterfly!"

Julie’s eyes lit up as she spotted it drifting past the hotel entrance.

The butterfly was genuinely beautiful. Deep blue wings spread wide, decorated with patterns so precise they looked painted by hand. It floated lazily through the air before descending toward a nearby flowerbed.

Julie made a strange noise of excitement and immediately abandoned the group, camera raised, following it with the focus of someone who had forgotten the rest of reality existed.

Selena watched her leave with the expression of a woman mentally updating a very long list.

"Community service," she said, turning back to Nicholas. "Not every part of this job is action. Protecting a neighborhood, making sure nothing escalates, being present before something goes wrong rather than after—that’s what most heroism actually looks like."

Nicholas looked down the quiet street.

"As long as I’m paid for all of it, I don’t mind the nature of the work."

Selena pressed two fingers against her temple.

"So what you’re telling me is that money is genuinely the only thing standing between you and complete cooperation."

"Within reason."

"Within—"

She stopped.

"So if I paid you, you’d do anything I asked?"

"No."

Nicholas glanced at her calmly.

"I don’t do improper things, Supervisor."

From somewhere behind them, Julie drifted back into earshot. Her camera was still raised, but her attention had clearly shifted.

"Eish, Supervisor Selena." Her voice carried a grin. "I didn’t know you were that kind of person."

"Shut up."

Selena’s face immediately turned pink.

"Both of you. Get to work."

She marched into the hotel while Julie hurried after her, barely holding back laughter.

Nicholas remained outside for another moment, watching the children playing in the distance.

Then he followed them inside.

---

As they entered, the receptionist quickly assigned rooms. Selena and Julie were placed together while Nicholas received a room of his own.

The rooms were simple but clean. Nothing luxurious, but more than adequate for a temporary assignment.

Nicholas disappeared into his room without ceremony.

Selena sat on the edge of her bed and kicked off her shoes.

Julie was already cross-legged on the other bed, reviewing footage on her camera.

"You didn’t tell me that was your type, Supervisor."

Selena slowly turned her head.

Julie immediately looked back at her camera screen.

Unfortunately, her lips were still smiling.

"I will confiscate that camera."

"I’m just observing. It’s what content creators do."

"Julie."

"He’s objectively good-looking and you clearly think so too, and there’s really no shame in—"

Selena’s glare shut her mouth before she could finish.

Julie looked at the camera.

Looked at Selena.

Then made a quick survival calculation.

"I’ll go shoot some footage of the neighborhood."

She was already standing.

"Very important content. Extremely necessary. Leaving now."

With that, she slipped through the door.

The door clicked shut behind her.

Selena sat alone in the sudden silence.

Then she fell backward onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.

A few more days.

She told herself that again.

The reassurance was becoming less convincing every time.

"Why do I have to get stuck with him? And now Julie too..." she muttered.

A long sigh escaped her lips.

"This has to be a sign to quit."

---

Meanwhile, not too far away, inside a particular abandoned building.

The structure had been abandoned long enough that the insects no longer treated it as an intrusion. It belonged to them now.

They covered the walls in shifting patterns. Moved across the floor in organized trails. Gathered in corners where the light failed to reach.

The man sitting in the center of it all appeared completely unbothered.

Whether he didn’t notice them or simply didn’t care was difficult to tell.

His hair was white.

Not bleached.

White in a way that suggested it had either always been that color or had changed all at once under circumstances nobody wanted explained.

His left eye was wrong.

The iris segmented and shifted unnaturally, resembling the compound eye of an insect rather than anything human.

A butterfly landed gently on his hand.

He didn’t even glance at it.

His phone buzzed.

"Hexzzi."

His voice carried a faint resonant hum beneath it, as though it originated from more vocal cords than a human being should possess.

"Zayx."

Hexi’s uneven voice crackled through the speaker.

"Boss has a job."

The butterfly slowly opened and closed its wings.

"Tellz me morez."

Hexi explained.

Zayx listened in silence while the insects continued their endless movement around him.

When the explanation ended, the room fell quiet for several seconds.

Then his compound eye briefly caught the light.

"It seemz the hero came to mezzz."

A smile spread across his face.

Not excitement.

Certainty.

The kind worn by someone who already believed they knew how the story ended.

He lifted his hand.

The butterfly took flight.

"I’ll be readyzz."