Previously on HELL’S RETURNERS:

  Luna Nordics annihilated Lumen Dei—yet the world did not become kinder.

  A new armed force is rising to exterminate Returners: Guardians of Humanity.

  In the shadows, Avalonia twists “equality” into law, turning human rights into a weapon.

  Gray Archives shelters nearly a thousand Returners underground—women, children, and those without Exceed.

  And now, the enemy’s gaze is shifting toward that sanctuary.

  Season Two begins not with gunfire… but with policy.

  Objective: We will crush the election itself—before it crushes us.

  Season Two begins with a quiet kind of violence—a policy sold as “equality,” turning everyday life into a weapon.

  The policy began that morning. The first test was a locker room.

  A unisex locker room. In the middle of changing, Elina’s shoulder was seized hard by a sweaty, foul-smelling PE teacher.

  In that instant, Elina began shaking violently and vomited straight into his face with all her strength.

  “Ggghaaa!”

  Maybe it got into his eyes—he clutched his face and staggered back in pain.

  The stench made the others scream too. “It reeks!” “I’m gonna throw up…”

  —I can’t stop. If what I just did doesn’t end as a mere reflex, the next thing will be him grabbing me, and that’ll be it.

  Elina shoved the boy in front of her aside and burst out of the locker room.

  “‘To eliminate discrimination, the locker rooms will be shared.’”

  The school-wide broadcast repeated the words hollowly.

  (If he’d kept hold of me… I’d have been finished.)

  Elina still didn’t know that day would become the beginning of her nightmare.

  After escaping the middle school, she activated her wristphone while running and placed a call.

  “Fae! You actually came to school today, for once, right? I haven’t seen you since. Are you in Zero Room 100?”

  In the chaos, Fae had been swallowed by the crowd and vanished.

  Her ash-brown bob bounced as she ran, tears streaming from her pale-blue eyes as she asked. Zero Room 100—the private room in the underground library.

  The area where Elina’s middle school stood was a rough district—an influx of immigrants had made public safety unstable. Even in broad daylight, kids in uniform loitered on the streets, and an aggressive atmosphere hung in the air like it was normal.

  She’d sprinted at full speed until her breathing turned ragged. Nausea surged up again. She clapped both hands over her mouth and, with all her will, swallowed it back.

  Pale-faced, Elina steadied her breath, then slipped into a back alley with little foot traffic. She stayed alert—watching for anyone tailing her, for anyone dangerous.

  She checked her wristphone’s sensors too, confirming once more that no one was nearby.

  Elina reached for a steel manhole cover tucked deep in the alley.

  With Returner strength, she slowly lifted the manhole cover—something even an adult would struggle to raise.

  Inside was a foothold. Farther down, there was light.

  It was the entrance to the Returners’ underground organization: Gray Archives.

  —and then, Elina descended underground.

  “Unisex locker rooms, huh. Didn’t think they’d actually do it.”

  After seating Elina in a chair and handing her a can of coffee, Faelan perched on the desk across from her. He brushed back his unruly black hair and stared at Elina with dark, steady eyes.

  Zero Room 100—Gray Archives’ library, and a place both Faelan and Elina loved.

  “For boys, maybe it’s actually good. For girls, it’s the start of hell.”

  Elina finally popped the tab, took a small sip, and exhaled.

  “Even for someone like me who’s been skipping school lately… I can’t say it has nothing to do with me. What happened?”

  “It was before PE. I didn’t think they’d really do it either. But they made us use the locker room together—boys and girls.”

  Her shoulders trembled as she started.

  “Together? That’s insane. At least there was a curtain or something, right?”

  Faelan opened his own can and drank—more to calm himself than anything.

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  “…Nothing.”

  “Nothing?”

  “…There was nothing. The boys’ eyes were glued to the girls the whole time. Some of them were grinning… The girls froze. Nobody… could move. Every girl’s breathing just… stopped.”

  Elina clenched the can tight.

  “This is beyond fucked…”

  Faelan let out a sigh. Just imagining what he would’ve done if he’d been there made his head ache.

  “…So the girls said we can’t change like this… and someone went to call a teacher.”

  Elina’s expression darkened further.

  “And?”

  Faelan swallowed a mouthful of coffee.

  “Then the PE teacher came. He said, ‘I’ll be watching, so you can change without worry,’ and he just stares at the girls the whole time! I started shaking so bad I couldn’t stop…”

  Her voice broke into tears.

  “It was the same for all the girls… Nobody could move. Then he walked closer…”

  Elina’s gaze sharpened into something dangerous.

  “He said, ‘Elina Vetra, this shared locker room is also an education in equality. If you don’t like it, that’s your discriminatory mindset. This is guidance too. I’ll help you change,’ and he grabbed my shoulder—hard. So I ran.”

  When she finished, Elina covered her face with both hands, trembling.

  “…You did the right thing. If you couldn’t get away, it would’ve been even more dangerous. I hate it. That teacher—and that middle school for allowing it.”

  After a brief silence, Faelan spoke his honest reaction.

  “What… should I do starting tomorrow?”

  Elina asked through eyes reddened from tears.

  “I’ll ask my brother. Wait a sec. I see… okay.”

  Faelan activated his wristphone, had a short conversation, and ended the call.

  “…He says every girl should switch to online schooling. School is something you use. Don’t let it use you.”

  “Huh. …You get so smug whenever you talk about Ethan.” Elina’s lips finally curved into her first smile of the day. “But… thank you for listening. And for connecting me to Ethan.”

  —Around the same time, at the Luna Nordics building.

  Ethan was in the break room, coffee at his lips.

  His public-facing job was assisting attorney Alicia Werner.

  His Exceed, Veritas Chain—stole lies from anyone who held his gaze for five seconds.

  His main work was gathering evidence by leveraging that ability, but with Faelan’s call on top of everything, fatigue weighed heavily on him today.

  Maya entered the break room.

  She offered a light greeting. Ethan nodded without a word.

  “Did something happen? You look serious.”

  Maya ordered tea and sat across from him.

  “Avalonia,” Ethan answered bluntly.

  “That organization that preaches Returner supremacy, right? Director Beatrice also told us to be on high alert. Did something happen?”

  Maya held Ethan’s gray eyes.

  “Maya. Question. What do you think is the most effective way to strip people of human rights?”

  Ethan asked with a mean-spirited smile.

  “Control or brainwashing. Like Lumen Day.”

  Given her upbringing, it was the obvious answer for Maya.

  “That too. But if you use human rights as a shield, simply opposing you makes you a ‘discriminator.’ …That’s how you shave away rights behind a legal face. Avalonia does that.”

  The coffee cup clinked with a cold sound.

  “I’m sick of it.”

  The smile vanished from Ethan’s face.

  “Is that… even possible?”

  Maya couldn’t quite believe it. She couldn’t see how it could be abused like that.

  “With that method, you can implement a ‘unisex locker room.’ In the end, the ones who get hurt are the weak. The annoying part is that Avalonia is moving into politics and doing it legally.”

  Without realizing it, Ethan bent the coffee spoon with his fingers.

  Maya fell silent at his words.

  It wasn’t like Ezekiel—this was a different kind of predator. Something cold crawled up her spine.

  Her fingers trembled faintly.

  We already defeated them. And yet her trembling fingertips said it wasn’t over.

  “The kids at Gray Archives are dealing with that…”

  Maya drew in a breath and forced her voice out.

  “That middle school’s district is controlled by a mayor with deep ties to Avalonia. Even switching to online schooling might only buy time.”

  Ethan exhaled, a bitter sigh.

  Maya lost her words.

  Ethan set the bent spoon on the table.

  It rang once on the tabletop.

  —That was the moment.

  An emergency signal came through to both Maya and Ethan’s wristphones.

  “An unwanted visitor has infiltrated the first floor. Combat personnel, assemble on the first floor immediately.”

  An unwanted visitor—

  The elevator doors opened.

  Three men lay on the floor, bound and already subdued.

  “You two are late. These three are mafia Returners involved in human trafficking, so I held back enough not to kill them.”

  Emma spoke with easy confidence, never taking her eyes off the men.

  “No—no, that’s not it. Yeah, we’ve clashed with you before. But we didn’t come here to fight today.”

  The man who looked oldest—around fifty—opened his mouth.

  “What do we do, Ethan?”

  Emma asked, still watching him.

  “I see. Then tell me why you came. And the real reason too—everything.”

  Ethan’s gray eyes glinted as he met the man’s gaze.

  Trembling, the man’s words spilled out.

  “We got hit by them. It was an armed group. Probably not Returners. Their discipline was straight-up military.”

  “I don’t know if it’s some secret unit in this country’s military, or an organization built to execute Returners. But my outfit got raided—my guys were wiped out. So please. Please, hide us here! If it’s not warriors like you, we can’t fight them. Help us!”

  His pleading was cut down in an instant by Elisabeth, who had come down to the first floor without anyone noticing.

  “I already neutralized them, but regardless of what they said, there were micro GPS trackers attached to their car—and to their bodies.”

  “If mafia members show up here, it becomes easier to raid us under the pretext that we’re affiliated with them.”

  Cold light flashed behind Elisabeth’s glasses.

  The temperature in the room dropped.

  When everyone looked up, Beatrice was standing there.

  “I see. A decoy, then. We’ll thank you for the information. But we can’t help you. Don’t kill them—however, throw them out of here. We’re on the side that protects. Don’t get dragged into this.”

  Beatrice’s voice was calm, yet carried a pressure that allowed no argument.

  At Beatrice’s order, Emma dumped the mafia men outside the city—“not protection, but removal.”

  In Maya’s mind, Ethan’s words from earlier overlapped with what the mafia had said now.

  They had destroyed Lumen Day, yet the world hadn’t improved even a little. If anything, it was moving in a worse direction.

  (Human rights aren’t only for protecting people. They can be used to take them away, too.)

  Remembering Ethan’s words, a bad feeling took root inside Maya like a black plant spreading through her chest.

  —Meanwhile, somewhere aboveground.

  Victor Holloway, leader of the anti-Returner organization Guardians of Humanity, smiled at Daniel and the others before him.

  “Your sweep of those mafia groups the other day was superb. Do not think of Returners as human. If you do, we will be eaten—literally. Your next target is Gray Archives.

  Child or woman, show no mercy. You may call this a trial—one that will make you warriors who fight for true humanity. Until the assault begins, devote yourselves to your assignments.”

  (Warriors who fight for true humanity—now I can protect Ria. As a soldier of justice.)

  As Daniel listened to the orders, he couldn’t suppress the surge of exhilaration rising inside him.