Bacon. Eggs. Miso soup. And a pile of fluffy pancakes that smelled like heaven.

  I watched Hana Ryu inhale a piece of toast with the kind of focus she usually reserved for throwing deadly origami. She didn't speak. She just ate. One bite after another. Efficient. Deadly. Hungry.

  We were seated in the open dining area of the Celestial Springs Ryokan. The view of the misty mountains was gorgeous, but honestly, watching the elusive Weaponizer decimate a buffet was more entertaining.

  "More tea?" I asked.

  Hana nodded, her mouth full. I poured.

  That was when the walking corpse arrived.

  Ronnie stumbled into the dining hall. His suit was rumpled. His hair, usually gelled to perfection, looked like a bird had tried to build a nest in it and gave up halfway. He had bags under his eyes dark enough to carry groceries.

  He scanned the room like a man looking for a life raft. When his eyes landed on me, he stopped dead.

  "Elara?"

  "Morning, sunshine," I said, waving a fork. "You're finally waking up? We've been here for thirty minutes."

  "HUH!?"

  Ronnie’s jaw dropped. He marched over to the table, looking between me and his watch.

  "Waking up? Waking up!? I have been searching the entire town! I checked the ravine! I checked the roof! I almost called the police, Elara! Where were you!?"

  "Relax," I said, pointing to an empty chair. "You work too hard. Sit down. Have a melon bun. They're fantastic."

  Ronnie looked like he wanted to scream. Or cry. Maybe both. But his exhaustion won out. He slumped into the chair, groaning as he rubbed his face.

  "I can't believe this. I leave you alone for one night..."

  He reached for a glass of water. As he tilted his head back to drink, his eyes drifted to the person sitting across from me.

  Hana Ryu paused mid-chew. She looked at Ronnie. Ronnie looked at Hana.

  Hana swallowed.

  "Pass the salt," she said.

  Ronnie choked.

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  Water sprayed everywhere. He coughed, slamming the glass down, and scrambled to his feet so fast his chair toppled over.

  "Y-You!" He pointed a shaking finger at her. "The Weaponizer!?"

  He turned to me, eyes wide as saucers.

  "Elara! That's her! That's the target!"

  "You're only noticing her now?" I asked, taking a sip of my tea. "She's been sitting there the whole time. Your situational awareness is slipping, Ronnie."

  "I... She... What?"

  Ronnie looked like his brain was rebooting.

  I sighed and stood up. I grabbed his arm and dragged him a few steps away, leaving Hana to her conquest of the pastry section.

  "Listen," I whispered. "I haven't recruited her yet. Not officially. But we have an agreement."

  "Agreement?" Ronnie hissed. "She throws people through windows! How did you get her to eat pancakes with you?"

  "I'm charming," I said. Ronnie stared at me. "Okay, fine. She has a problem. A monster called the Yakshi. It's actually her own shadow that detached and went rogue. I told her we would help her fix it."

  Ronnie blinked. He looked back at Hana, then at me. His expression shifted. The panic faded, replaced by the calculating look of a Guild administrator.

  "Her shadow... detached?"

  "Yes. It's a long story. But if we solve this, she joins the team. Can you handle the logistics if I handle the strategy?"

  Ronnie looked at me. He seemed to remember something. Probably the file Gloria showed him. The file that said I used to plan raids that no one else could figure out.

  He straightened his tie. He smoothed his hair.

  "Understood," he said. "Lead the way, Vice-Leader."

  Ten minutes later, we were in my suite.

  The breakfast dishes were cleared away. Hana sat on the floor, calm and composed again. Ronnie stood by the wall with a notepad. I sat across from Hana.

  "So," I said. "Let's start with the basics. Your skill. [Weaponize]."

  Hana held up a spoon she had swiped from the restaurant.

  "It's simple," she said. "I pour mana into an object. The system registers it as a weapon. Its properties change. A leaf becomes sharp as steel. A coin becomes a bullet."

  She tapped the spoon against the table. It didn't clink. It thudded, heavy and dense.

  "Does it work on anything?" Ronnie asked.

  "Anything with physical mass," Hana said. "Or anything that can hold a shape."

  "So why the shadow?" I asked. "Shadows don't have mass. How did you weaponize something that isn't there?"

  Hana’s eyes grew distant. She spun the spoon in her fingers.

  "The Eclipse Raid," she said softly.

  The room went cold. Everyone knew that raid. It was a massacre.

  "The boss of that dungeon," Hana continued. "It had a mechanic. [Shadow Death]. If your shadow touched the ground while the boss was active, you died instantly. It spiked you from the darkness."

  I gulped. That sounded insane.

  "I was trapped," Hana said. "My team was dead. I was hiding behind a pillar, but the light was shifting. My shadow was about to touch the floor. I had seconds."

  She looked at her hand.

  "I didn't have a choice. I used [Weaponize]. I poured every drop of mana I had into my own silhouette. I treated it like an object. I forced the system to recognize it as a weapon, separate from me."

  "You... cut it off," I whispered.

  "I detached it," Hana nodded. "It worked. I survived. The boss couldn't kill me because I didn't cast a shadow anymore. But there was a side effect."

  She looked at the wall behind her. The empty space where darkness should have been.

  "I made it too strong. A weapon takes on the stats of the user. My shadow has my speed. My strength. My instincts. And because it's a weapon made from my own existence..."

  She looked me in the eye.

  "It shows itself as a curse."

  I froze.

  My hand drifted to my chest involuntarily. To the spot where the Symbiotic Bond connected me to Seraphina. Where the [Mana Frostbite] lived.

  A curse.

  Just like us.