Trust

Grim had two choices:

Break free and escape immediately, or wait, observe, and find out what this intruder wanted with him.

His instincts screamed at him to run, but his gut told him there was more to this than just an ambush. And just then:

DING!

A new notification appeared.

[WARNING: UNSTABLE MEMORY FRAGMENT DETECTED]

[DO YOU WISH TO UNLOCK?]

Grim's breath hitched.

Another one?

He hesitated. Then, slowly, he whispered:

"Unlock."

The world fractured, and then he was somewhere else.

******

Standing in a ruined city, he watched as fire reflected off the rain-slick pavement. Bodies littered the streets - some human, some… not.

And in the distance, standing atop a mountain of corpses, was a figure cloaked in shifting shadows. And behind it... loomed the tower from his dream.

I've seen that before.

Interrupting, a voice whispered from the void - a low, distorted, inhuman imitation of a human.

"Grim… you are not ready."

Just then, the vision shattered, and Grim gasped as he was thrown back into reality.

******

He barely had time to process it before the intruder's voice cut through the darkness.

"You felt it, didn't you?"

Grim snapped his gaze toward the intruder, and the man smiled.

"You're closer to the truth than you think."

Grim didn't respond. Instead, his gaze found a new subject - the investigator lunged.

"SGA doesn't negotiate with terrorists—"

But before he could finish, the intruder countered.

A pulse of mana erupted from his palm, blasting the investigator backward. In seconds, his body slammed into the steel wall with a sickening crunch. As a result, the woman screamed, scrambling for her grimriore, but a simple gesture from the intruder sent her flying as well.

In the manner of seconds, only Grim remained - conscious and alive.

But still bound. However, still watching... still calculating.

The intruder turned back to him, amusement flickering in his shadowed expression.

"Come now, Grim. Don't tell me you're still following the laws of these people."

Grim exhaled slowly, annoyance flickering in his expression.

The system's error messages were still flashing, and his body still ached from residual strain. But he ignored it.

Instead, he asked one question:

"Who are you?"

The intruder's smirk widened.

"Someone who doesn't want to see you end up a pawn on the wrong side of the chest board."

He raised his hand - and the restraints binding Grim snapped open.

The moment they did, a message popped up and Grim vanished.

[SYSTEM BACK ONLINE]

[CAUTION: STABILITY DROPPING FAST]

Lightning-fast, his instincts took over. His blood katana began to form in his grasp, his body surging with the last remnants of the Reaper System's unstable energy.

For the first time since he was captured, he was free.

But now, the real question remained—

Who was he going to kill first?

The instant Grim's blood katana finished materializing, he placed both hands on its hilt, coiling his muscles, prepared to strike.

The intruder merely watched, his smirk never wavering.

"Easy now," he said, stepping back, his hands raised in a gesture of false surrender. "I just set you free, didn't I?"

Grim didn't lower his weapon - even taking a step closer.

"That doesn't mean I trust you."

Across the room, the investigator coughed violently, struggling to push himself up from the dented wall. The woman's grimriore flickered weakly in her trembling hands, but she didn't move to attack - not yet.

The SGA facility shook again, another explosion reverberating through the corridors. The entire compound was under siege. Not only did he have to deal with this new threat, but to his inconvenience, the building felt ready to collapse on top over everything.

However you judged it, thing were definitely bad.

The intruder chuckled, motioning toward the chaos beyond the interrogation room.

"We don't have much time. If you stay here, they'll either execute you or dissect you for answers. Your choice."

Grim's grip on his katana tightened even more, his knuckles whitening in effect.

He didn't need the system to tell him the truth behind those words. He had already seen the fear in the SGA's eyes, the way they had studied him like something unnatural. But, the way the investigator looked at him - suggested the kind of interest a businessman showed amongst competitors.

Suddenly:

"Grim!"

His head snapped toward the voice.

"Detective Backstabber?"

Nozomi stood in the doorway, breathless and disheveled, her coat soaked through with rain and blood, alluding to the current damage of the rest of the building. He didn't know how long she had been watching, but the look in her eyes said enough.

She wasn't here to arrest him.

"Don't go with him," she said, her voice shaking, but firm. "You don't even know who he is."

Grim hesitated. While he never planned to, she was right.

But Nozomi didn't stop there.

"If you leave now," she continued, stepping forward, "they'll brand you as a gami. A rogue. There won't be a single safe place left for you - not in any division, not anywhere."

She was pleading with him - not as an officer, nor as an investigator. But as someone who still believed in him.

The intruder sighed, rolling his neck.

"This is touching, really, but we're out of time."

His voice darkened, his patience thinning as he continued:

"Come with me now, Grim, or stay here and die with the rest of them."

A simple choice.

But one that would define everything.

Nozomi stepped closer, her gaze locked onto his.

"Grim," she whispered, her voice raw, "I'm sorry for betraying you... even after you saved my life."

His blood ran cold.

She apologized.

For a moment, the battle raging outside didn't matter. The alarms, the gunfire, the rising flames - it all faded into a deafening silence.

And for a second, it was just him... and Nozomi, locked in a toggle of raw emotions Grim never knew was possible for someone like him.

However, the feeling left as quick as it came, shattering the illusion and bringing him back to reality - his reality.

"I don't trust none of you upper division scum!"

With speed resembling teleportation, Grim's body blurred out of sight - leaving Nozomi's and the Figure's lives in limbo.