Mya's body shook, her hands gripping her skirt as if it were her only lifeline. Each breath came out shaky, and every exhale felt like a whisper of fear.
Shuren's sharp gaze turned toward her. "Again," she said, her voice steady yet cutting through the tension in the room like a knife. "What's happening over there?"
Taura followed her line of sight, finally noticing Mya. Concern etched her brow. "What's going on?"
Assad stepped forward, his tone calm but assertive. "Ma'am… could we ask Taura to step out for this?"
Taura blinked, confusion flickering across her face. "Wait… me? Why?"
Assad locked eyes with Shuren, their silent exchange heavy with unspoken challenges wrapped in respect.
Shuren stayed quiet, her focus on Mya as if she were weighing the gravity of the situation. The cigarette smoke curled lazily around her fingers, the only movement in the otherwise still room.
At last, she exhaled, the smoke drifting upward like a signal. "Taura… leave."
Taura's eyes widened. "Wait—what? I'm not—"
Shuren's gaze snapped to her, sharp and unwavering. Just a glance, barely more than a tilt of her head, but it carried enough weight to make Taura hesitate. She swallowed hard, straightened up, and muttered, "Yes, ma'am," before turning on her heel and leaving the room.
As soon as the door clicked shut, Shuren's voice sliced through the silence. "She's gone. Now… let's talk."
Assad let out a long, measured sigh. "Alright… Mrs. Shuren—"
Before he could finish, Mya's body convulsed violently, her hands gripping her stomach. Her breaths turned shallow, quick, and panicked.
"What's wrong?" Assad asked, narrowing his eyes as he crouched closer to her.
And then it happened.
A soft, shimmering glow began to spread across the floor beneath her, revealing the unmistakable shape of a mermaid tail, shimmering with a faint, otherworldly light. It looked almost translucent, the scales catching the dim light like droplets of water in a prism.
Mya whimpered, her voice breaking. "I… I can't… control it…"
Shuren's calm demeanor faltered just a bit as she stood up from her chair, approaching Mya with careful, measured steps. Her eyes widened slightly as they locked onto the mermaid tail, the smoke from her forgotten cigarette curling upward.
For the first time, the usually composed Shuren displayed something that resembled… curiosity.
Assad let out a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his neck. "Well… that's actually what I was going to explain," he said, glancing at Mya. "But… maybe you should explain, Mya."
Mya froze, her eyes wide and trembling. She clutched Assad's arm, seeking comfort from the only person who felt steady in this room filled with smoke and shadows. Her voice caught in her throat, barely a whisper.
Assad knelt slightly, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. His other hand reached out, brushing gently against hers. "Hey… it's okay," he murmured. "Just… take your time. You don't have to be scared."
Her gaze flicked to Shuren, the sharp, cigarette-scented presence that filled the room with authority, and something inside Mya cracked open. Her hands trembled as she reached into her small pouch, her voice barely audible, quivering with fear and hope.
"Please… help me," she whispered. "Please… save my older sisters… I… I don't have enough, but… please… just save them…"
From her trembling fingers, she set a small pile of coins on the floor just some loose change, something most would overlook, but it was all she had to give. Tears streamed down her face, a mix of fear, desperation, and a flicker of fragile hope shining in her eyes.
Shuren's sharp gaze shifted from the coins to Mya, and in that moment, something sparked—an echo of recognition deep within her. Memories she had buried long ago came rushing back, vivid and painful: herself, years earlier, feeling weak, terrified, small, and abused, desperately clawing for even the tiniest bit of hope.
Her stern expression softened. Slowly, she crouched down to Mya's level, locking eyes with the girl, whose tears were still flowing. Mya's trembling eased just a bit at the gesture, though her chest still rose and fell with fear.
For a brief moment, the silence in the room felt almost suffocating, the weight of their unspoken past hanging heavily over Shuren.
Then, in a voice that was steady yet warm, Shuren finally spoke, "Fine."
She stood up, the chair scraping softly against the floor. Her silhouette formed a sharp outline against the dim light of the office. "We have two issues with this," she said, her tone calm but heavy with inevitability.
Assad straightened up. "And what would those be?" he asked, a mix of curiosity and caution in his voice.
Shuren's gaze remained fixed on Mya. "First," she began slowly, letting her words linger in the air like smoke, "we don't know what made her human in the first place."
Assad opened his mouth to respond. "I know what did it—it's—"
Shuren raised a hand, cutting him off mid-sentence. "The second issue," she continued, pulling a pistol from a hidden compartment and loading it with careful precision. The sharp clicks of the metal echoed in the room.
Assad's eyes widened. "Wait—what are you—"
Without missing a beat, she kept going, her voice smooth and cold. "The second issue… is that we don't know how stable it is. Sometimes, answers need to be enforced."
Before anyone had a chance to react, Shuren raised her pistol and fired. The bullet struck the door frame with a loud crack, sending splinters flying. The sharp sound made Mya flinch, and Assad's jaw dropped in shock.
He could barely whisper, stunned, "She… she just—Taura…"
His eyes darted toward the door. Taura, who was supposed to have left, now stood in the shadows outside, completely silent, her eyes wide. She had heard everything. Eavesdropping.
Assad's heart raced in disbelief. "She… was listening the whole time?!"
Shuren didn't respond. Instead, she holstered her pistol, her gaze shifting between Mya and Assad, like a calm predator sizing up her prey, already several steps ahead in this tense game.
Then, her eyes snapped to Taura, narrowing into a glare so icy it could freeze steel. The air around her seemed to thicken.
Taura froze mid-step, then bowed deeply in a traditional, apologetic gesture. "Gomen-nasai… Mrs. Shuren," she whispered, her voice barely above a murmur.
Shuren exhaled slowly, letting the smoke curl around her like a dark halo. "Move it," she commanded, her tone sharp and unyielding. "You need to stop this obsession of yours… eavesdropping on others. Otherwise…"
Her eyes bore into Taura with the intensity of a predator. The room fell silent, save for the faint hum of the holo-pad. "Do you want to visit the Pleasure Gate again?"
Taura's face went pale. Her legs shook. "N-no… ma'am!"
Without another moment's hesitation, she bolted, slipping out of the office like a shadow fleeing the sun, her heart racing, fully aware she had narrowly escaped Shuren's fury.
Shuren turned her attention back to Assad and Mya, her expression unreadable, as if the entire scene had been nothing more than a minor inconvenience. The cold aura lingered in the room, a stark reminder that authority here was absolute—and mercy was a luxury that didn't exist.
"Now," she said coolly, as if the gunshot from moments ago hadn't just blown a hole through her door. "Let's tackle the first issue."
Her eyes shifted toward Assad, calm yet expectant. "You were about to explain. So, start talking."
Assad nodded slowly, still glancing at the smoking hole in the door before refocusing on her. "Right… well," he began, adjusting his collar, "the drug that Taura and I were sent to retrieve… wasn't SAZ."
Shuren raised an eyebrow, a faint smirk playing on her lips. "I'm all ears."
Assad's voice dropped lower. "It was JABE."
The word hung in the air like static. Mya didn't get it, but Shuren did—and the faint tap of her finger against the desk stopped instantly.
Assad's voice remained steady, but his eyes flicked toward Mya for a brief moment before returning to Shuren. "It wasn't just any JABE," he continued. "According to Mya… it's a version that can turn Beastfolk like her into humans."
For a moment, silence enveloped the room — only the hum of the old ceiling fan and the faint hiss of Shuren's cigarette broke it.
Her expression didn't waver. No shock, no disbelief. She simply leaned back and exhaled, the smoke curling around her face like fog. "Beastfolk, huh? I've known they existed for years," she said coolly. "But a drug that can turn them human…"
She tapped her cigarette against the ashtray, her tone growing colder. "That's a new one."
Shuren flicked away the last of her cigarette and crushed the butt under her heel. "Alright then," she said, her tone even. "It's settled. We're going there ourselves."
Assad blinked, taken aback. "Wait—both of us?"
Her gaze snapped to him, sharp as glass. "You got a problem with that?"
He straightened up immediately. "No, ma'am."
"Good." She turned her attention toward Mya, who was still trembling beside the desk, her mermaid tail faintly shimmering under the dull light. "Now, how do we handle her?"
The question lingered heavily in the smoke-filled room. "She still has that tail and those fins," Shuren continued, crossing her arms tightly. "We can't just stroll her down the street like that. We need to find a way to change her back… but we're out of that JABE stuff."
Assad's lips curled into a sly smirk. "About that…"
He dug into his pocket, the soft jingle of glass breaking the silence. When he pulled his hand out, ten small pills tumbled onto his palm, each one a dull silver that glimmered in the flickering light.
"I managed to snag a few from the briefcase before everything went sideways."
Shuren's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "You stole them?"
"Borrowed," he replied with a casual shrug, a hint of a grin playing on his lips. "Thought they might be useful."
For a brief moment, a flicker of amusement danced in Shuren's eyes before it was replaced by her usual composure. "Smart move," she said softly. Then, after a beat, her tone turned sharp again. "But let's hope you didn't just bring a fuckin' problem into my office."
Assad crouched down next to Mya, extending his open palm filled with pills. "Alright," he said softly. "How many do you usually take?"
Mya blinked through her watery eyes, still shaken. "I-I'm not sure… But I remember my sister, Ano—she gave me two. That's all I can recall."
Assad frowned slightly, narrowing his eyes as he turned the small, glimmering tablets over in his hand. Two, huh? he thought. If she's right, that should trigger the reaction without overdosing her… probably.
He hesitated for a moment longer, studying the faint glow of the pills against his skin. Alright, he decided. Two should be safe.
Just as he was about to move, a low voice cut through the air.
"Two is the right call," Shuren said flatly from behind her desk.
Assad froze, his head snapping toward her. "Wait—how did you—?"
He stared for a heartbeat, caught between confusion and disbelief, but Shuren's expression gave nothing away, just a quiet, knowing smirk.
With a slow exhale, he turned back to Mya and pressed two pills into her trembling hand. "Here," he said gently. "Take them. You'll be alright."
Mya hesitated, her fingers shaking, but she nodded and swallowed the pills dry. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the air seemed to pulse, a faint shimmer rippling over her skin.
The fins along her arms flickered, turning translucent before fading completely. Her tail began to recede, scales dissolving into pale skin until her legs returned, trembling beneath her.
Assad watched in awe as the transformation completed — the glow fading, leaving just a girl sitting weakly on the couch, breathing hard but human again.
Shuren stepped closer, her heels echoing softly on the floor. She leaned down just enough to study Mya, her cold eyes reflecting the girl's tear-streaked face.
"Good," Shuren said finally, straightening up. "That's one problem solved."