Sunny looked at the blue-haired girl. He jerked his chin towards the commotion. "She looks like she can fight. You going to talk to her?"
The blue-haired girl didn't even turn her head. "Too bothersome." Her voice was flat, like she talked about the weather.
'Great.' He thought. 'All that power and she can't be bothered to walk ten feet.' He looked at the red-haired girl again. She was still yelling at the bigger guys. Her face was flushed. 'Damn it. Looks like I have to do everything myself.'
He sighed, a quiet sound lost in the noise of the hall. He pushed himself off the wall and started walking. The crowd parted a little around him. He felt their eyes, but he ignored them.
He reached the edge of the argument. The red-haired girl was really laying into one of them, her voice sharp and angry.
"...and if you think I'm carrying your useless hides, you've got another thing coming!" she spat.
She must have sensed him, because she suddenly stopped and whirled around. Her eyes, a startling green, narrowed when they landed on him.
"What do you want?" she snapped. Her voice was like gravel.
'Just like Nyx. Perfect.' Sunny kept his face blank. "We need a team," he said. His voice was calm. Too calm, maybe. "You look like you can handle yourself."
The girl's eyebrows shot up. A smirk twisted her lips. "Oh, the famous Orc-slayer thinks I can 'handle myself'?" Sarcasm dripped from every word. "I'm so honored."
'Here we go.' He felt a familiar weariness. "I saw your display earlier. You are strong."
"My display?" She scoffed, crossing her arms. "You mean where I actually fought, instead of getting a lucky one-shot on a broken monster?"
His jaw tightened. 'Lucky? She calls that lucky?' The image of the berserk Orc, the sheer unexpected rage, flashed in his mind. 'If I was a second slower…'
"We need three more people," he said, pushing the anger down. "Are you in, or am I wasting my time?"
She pushed herself off the wall she leaned against, stepping closer. She was shorter than him, but she took up space like she was seven feet tall. "And why should I team up with the new golden boy? So you can hog all the attention when we pass?"
'Glory? Attention?' He almost laughed. 'I just want to pass this stupid exam. And maybe not get killed by my own teammates for a change.'
"I don't care about attention," he said, his voice flat. "I care about results. About surviving."
Her smirk widened. It wasn't a nice look. "Big talk for a guy who was probably sleeping in a gutter before this exam. Cleaned up nice for the cameras, though, didn't you?"
That hit a nerve. His old life, the grime of SEM, the constant hunger – it wasn't that far behind him. 'Shut up. Just shut up.'
"Look," he said, his voice tight now, the calmness gone. "I don't have all day. You're strong. We need strong people. Are you joining, or are you going to stand here and run your mouth?"
Her green eyes flashed. "Maybe I like running my mouth. Got a problem with that, Orc-slayer?" She poked a finger into his chest. Hard.
He looked down at her finger, then back up at her face. 'She's really trying to start something. Doesn't she know who I am? What I did?'
Apparently, she did. And she didn't care. Or maybe that was why she pushed.
"Yeah," he said softly. "I've got a problem with wasting time on idiots."
Her eyes blazed. "Idiot?" she snarled. "I'll show you an idiot!"
She threw a punch. It was fast, aimed right at his jaw. He saw the anger fueling it, the raw power behind the compact movement.
But he was faster.
He didn't dodge. He didn't block it with his arm. His hand shot up, quicker than her fist, and clamped over her mouth and jaw, hard. His fingers dug into her cheeks, his thumb pressing under her chin, forcing her head back slightly. Her punch stalled inches from his face, her momentum abruptly halted.
Surprise, then pain, flashed in her eyes. Her body tensed, ready to fight his grip, but he already leaned in, his face too close to hers.
The noise of the hall seemed to fade. He could feel her breath, hot and ragged, against his palm.
"Be careful," he said. His voice was a low whisper, "You don't know who you're messing with."
He held her there for a heartbeat, his eyes locked on hers, letting the warning sink in. Then, just as suddenly, he released her and stepped back, his hand dropping to his side.
The red mark of his fingers lingered on her skin. She gasped, sucking in air, her hand flying to her mouth. She stared at him, the fight draining out of her, replaced by a wary, shocked stillness.
He watched her, his expression unreadable. The hall still buzzed around them, but it felt distant. "So," he said, his voice back to its flat calm. "Are you in?"
Her eyes, still wide with a mixture of shock and lingering fury, narrowed. She took a shaky breath, her chest rising and falling. Then, her lips curled into a sneer, though it lacked its earlier confidence.
"Fuck off," she spat, her voice hoarse.
He didn't react. He just nodded slowly. "Good. That's all you had to say."
He turned his back on her and walked away, leaving her standing there, hand still pressed to her mouth. He didn't look back to see her expression. It didn't matter anymore.
He rejoined the blue-haired girl, who hadn't moved. She still leaned against the wall, watching him with those sharp, unblinking eyes.
"Useless," he said, stopping beside her. "She's too prideful. Thinks she's better than everyone." He let out a quiet sigh. 'Wasted my time.'
The blue-haired girl finally shifted. She pushed herself off the wall, her gaze still on him. "Was all that really necessary?" she asked. Her voice was quiet, but it cut through his lingering irritation. "The… grabbing."
He glanced at her. 'What's it to her?' "She threw a punch. I stopped it." He shrugged. "She needed to understand."
"Understand what?"
"That some people aren't worth provoking." He thought of the armored knight, of the casual brutality he witnessed, and inflicted. 'This exam is just a game compared to the real world.'
The girl considered him for a moment, her head tilted slightly. The rhythmic chewing motion, which had stopped when he confronted the redhead, resumed.
"You're not like the others here," she observed. It wasn't a question.
"Neither are you," he countered. He looked at her then, really looked. The calm, the Aura, the way she dispatched those goblins. 'She's definitely not just some B-rank candidate.'
"What's your name, anyway?" he asked. The question felt abrupt, even to him.
She popped an imaginary bubble. "Suzy," she said.