Arknights, Suika's Messenger Journey

She had three children. Her eldest son and second daughter both worked in Lungmen; only her youngest son, Wang Ke, had chosen to enlist and join the border defense forces.

According to the intelligence they had received, he was even a minor leader in the border army. By all rights, he should have had a promising future, so how had he become a defecting spy?

Swire had not really believed it at first, but when she looked up and saw the trembling figure of the man being stopped, she could not help but believe it a little more.

When Suika exposed his identity in one breath, the man was first shocked, then afraid, and finally resigned.

"I never thought you'd find me out. I'm curious. I have a pretty good memory, but I don't think I've ever seen you before, and I certainly don't know you. So how do you know me?"

Hearing the man's words, Suika's fury exploded.

"How do I know you? You dare ask me how I know you...

"Do you know there's a photo of you inside Granny Wang's stall? She said she wasn't worried about her two older children, because they were in Lungmen, where she could see them all the time.

"Only her youngest son had enlisted and gone far away. Ursus has always eyed Great Yan like a tiger watching its prey, so she worried about you every moment of every day—worried about her most beloved youngest son.

"But what about you? What did you do?!"

Before she had even finished speaking, Suika charged forward and appeared before him, then whipped her leg toward the young man.

The man clearly had not expected Suika to be so fast. By the time he reacted, it was already too late to dodge, and he could only cross his arms over his chest.

The next second, Suika's kick sent him flying several meters away. He only stopped after crashing into a large tree.

"Gah..." Wang Ke spat out a mouthful of blood. Feeling the pain in his arms, the battle-hardened soldier understood that both his hands were probably broken.

"Tell me!

"Why did you kill your mother?!

"How could you dare do something like that?!"

By the time he raised his head, Suika was standing before him again. She bent down, grabbed his collar, and her eyes were bloodshot.

"Cough, cough... Why are you so angry? How strange...

"Let me think...

"A little girl with an exaggerated pair of horns...

"I remember now. Ibuki Suika, right?

"Mother mentioned your name before. I never expected our first meeting to be under circumstances like this..."

Wang Ke's gaze was calm. From Suika's single attack alone, he knew he was not getting away.

He had only seen such terrifying combat power from the Celestial Masters in the army.

"Damn it, Suika, don't kill him."

Only then did Swire snap out of her shock after seeing Suika kick the man several meters away.

She was afraid Suika would kill the guy in one blow.

Even she had heard about how Granny Wang had looked after Suika. Children acted entirely on instinct, and in a situation like this, it was entirely possible for Suika to simply choose to kill him.

But she could not let Suika do that.

If he was a spy, then keeping him alive would be more useful to Great Yan, because Ursus's spy network could not possibly consist of only one person.

If they could pry information out of him, Great Yan could follow the trail and root out the Ursus intelligence agents hidden within the military.

Just as Swire finished speaking, Suika's fist swept past the man's cheek and smashed into the tree behind him. Accompanied by an ear-grating creak, the whole tree shattered into several pieces.

"Hiss!" Swire made another contribution to Terra's warming climate.

"That's right, I'm Ibuki Suika!

"I won't kill you, because you don't deserve to die by my hand...

"You will be judged. You will be condemned. Your elder brother and sister will despise you. Letting you die so easily would be far too merciful."

Straightening up, Suika looked at Swire in the distance and nodded. Swire took a pair of handcuffs from her pocket and walked over to Wang Ke. Looking at his limp arms hanging at his sides, she finally cuffed his ankles instead.

"That scared me to death. I thought you were going to kill him."

After standing up, Swire wiped the sweat from her forehead.

Suika had truly frightened her just now.

For the first time, she realized that someone consumed by rage could give off such a terrifying presence.

"Of course I wanted to kill him, but letting him die so easily wouldn't make me happy in the slightest.

"I don't care about Great Yan's laws. I just think he cannot die so easily."

After saying that, Suika walked back in front of Wang Ke, sat down on the ground, and stared directly at him.

Wang Ke felt searing pain shooting through both arms, and cold sweat beaded across his forehead.

When he raised his eyes and saw Suika sitting before him, looking at him with utter disgust, he actually smiled.

"My mother was lucky to have a friend of such different age as you.

"Can you listen to a story?"

After speaking, Wang Ke ignored Suika's expression. He leaned against the broken tree, adjusted himself into a more comfortable position, and began.

"There was a child who was fortunate enough to be born into this world. He had parents, a brother, and a sister who loved him, and he lived a carefree life from a young age.

"Of course, he was promising too. Since childhood, he had been known as a prodigy among the neighbors.

"But he knew his family could not afford to let him continue his education. Shadowguard Academy's tuition was too expensive. Even if his parents gave everything they had and his brother and sister went out to work, they still could not gather enough for the academy fees.

"So he chose to enlist, believing the army was fair.

"But in reality, it was nothing like he had imagined.

"Even in the army, fairness had never existed.

"But he refused to accept it. He believed that with his intelligence and talent, he would surely earn a place in the military.

"Then he spent ten years rising from an ordinary soldier to a minor banner officer, commanding a dozen men.

"At first, he was quite satisfied. He had even found love in the army—a kind and beautiful military doctor.

"But good fortune had never favored him. Just when he was preparing to leave the army with the doctor, return to Lungmen, open a small clinic, and spend the rest of their lives together, terrible news came..."

"The officer who had been transferred in from above took a liking to her. She betrayed that boy and became the officer's woman.

"The boy's love, sacrifices, and dreams all came to nothing. He became a joke in the army. Even his own subordinates mocked him over it.

"He hated it. Why were some people born above others?

"Why could some people have everything?

"Why did his hard work look like a joke in other people's eyes?

"Then, someone who would change his life found him.

"That person told him that as long as he provided intelligence from within the army, he could obtain a large sum of money.

"The boy wanted to rise above others. He wanted to break through his social class, so he agreed.

"During his dealings with the mysterious man, he discovered the other party's identity—they came from the enemy across the border. Not only was he not afraid, he was overjoyed.

"He made a plan and watched with his own eyes as that officer and that damned woman walked straight into the enemy's ambush.

"Their deaths brought him immense pleasure.

"However, the power behind that officer was even greater than he had imagined. After the officer died, the army actually began a thorough and meticulous investigation.

"The boy knew that if they traced it back to him, he would certainly die, so he decided to flee and defect to the enemy.

"But if he went over empty-handed, he would have no value to them.

"So he decided to steal the military district's defense and patrol map.

"To use it as a stepping stone for promotion.

"But there was one troublesome issue. Everyone entering or leaving the army was searched, so he had no way to take that important map out directly.

"At that moment, a letter from his mother happened to arrive at the military headquarters, and he was overjoyed.

"Then he used a special liquid to draw the entire defense map on the back of the letter.

"After the letter was sent out, the investigation into him was about to begin.

"Knowing he definitely could not evade the investigation, he secretly escaped the army with the mysterious man's help.

"After returning home, he had originally planned to quietly take the letter and flee far away, never to return.

"But he searched for a long time and could not find the letter. He even woke his parents..."

As he said this, a woman's handbag flew past his head, leaving a bloody cut across his face.

Not far away, Swire stared at him with a livid expression. She held a phone in one hand, while the other was empty. The handbag that should have been in her hand now lay beside Wang Ke.

"So you strangled your parents to death, then found the box containing the letter and set up a trap in the house, trying to burn all the evidence away in one fire, right?!

"You're a beast!"

The normally gentle yet proud little tiger was also filled with fury. Just now, she had contacted Hoshiguma and learned from her everything that had happened at Granny Wang's home.

Hearing Swire's words, Wang Ke opened his mouth, then finally lowered his head weakly.

"So you think you're someone fighting against an unfair fate? A rebel raising his weapon against those in power?

"Pah!

"Don't make me laugh. From beginning to end, you were nothing but a selfish, self-righteous idiot. A petty villain.

"You and your story disgust me."

Suika walked in front of Wang Ke and looked at him with revulsion. Earlier, when he said he wanted to tell a story, she had thought there might be some twist, or that Granny Wang's death had not been his doing. Now, she only wanted to wash out her ears and scrub away the garbage story she had just heard.

A long police siren sounded in the distance. Suika looked toward Swire.

"That fast?"

After all, during their pursuit, Suika had never seen Swire take out her phone. Their only communication had been just now.

Hearing Suika's question, Swire gave an awkward smile and turned her head aside.

"What do you mean by that?

"Wait, you didn't think I was telling the truth, so these people came to arrest me?"

Suika calculated the time. Whether they had come from the town or from Lungmen, no police cars should have been able to arrive this quickly.

There was only one possibility: Swire had called them ahead of time.

"You can't blame me for that. What you said was full of holes. Forget me—no Lungmen police officer would have believed it.

"And you appeared at the border spouting all that nonsense. It was only normal for me to take some precautions!"

Swire explained the things Suika had said when they first met.

"Lungmen's entrances and exits are guarded around the clock by top experts. Once the gates are closed, there's only one small path in or out. Forget people—even a fly couldn't leave Lungmen at night without authorization...

"So your claim that you followed someone from Lungmen all the way here in the middle of the night was simply impossible."

Swire laid out the flaws in Suika's story.

"So that's how it works. It was my first time leaving the city, so I really didn't know the procedure was like that." Suika nodded.

"But speaking of which, I'm curious. With Lungmen's entry and exit controls so strict, how did you get out of the city?"

Swire reached out, rubbed Suika's forehead with her finger, and asked with a puzzled expression.

"I didn't go through the gate. I found the direction of this place, walked to the border, and jumped down," Suika said as if it were only natural.

"Huh?" Swire looked utterly unconvinced.

Even the lowest parts of Lungmen stood a hundred meters above the ground, while some places might be as high as two hundred meters.

Even Terra's superhumans would not dare jump down from such a height lightly.

After all, someone from Terra might survive a fall of several dozen meters, but from a hundred meters up, they could only go splat and become one with the ground.

"We've already come this far. Why would I lie to you? If you don't believe me, I can demonstrate it for you later." Suika spread her hands helplessly.

By then, the police car had already pulled up nearby.