I PICKED UP A CHILD IN A DUMPSTER

Night arrived the way it always did... of course, dumbass— gradual, the cooking fires going from practical to atmospheric, the watchtower lights coming on one by one, the sound of the place shifting from daytime bustle to something quieter and more careful.

Mio jolted upright from where she’d been leaning against my arm, eyes flying open. "AH— I forgot!! My parents are going to be so mad at me—"

She scrambled to her feet, looked at both of us, and then abandoned the panic temporarily to throw both arms around us in a hug that lasted exactly 3seconds before she was already pulling back and running.

"Tomorrow again!! See ya, Strange Ahjussi and Jisoo Noona!!"

I watched her go, weaving between the crowd of people with an efficient navigation of someone who’d memorized every shortcut in this courtyard... or crowd people? I don’t know.

"...Strange Ahjussi," I said. "Didn’t I already tell her my name?"

Jisoo looked at me with an expression of genuine happiness. "Heh. I’m her favorite. That’s just it. HEHE."

I frowned. Not because I was jealous. I just frowned because I felt like it.... I SWEAR.

I sigh and just leaned back against the bench and looked up.

The stars were doing what they’d been doing this whole trial— filling the sky past the point of what felt reasonable, pressing down close, the two moons sitting across the middle of it like it had always been this obvious and the city lights had just been rude.

"What time is it?"

"8:01."

"Oh—" I turned. "Jisoo? Jisoo, Jisoo?"

"Nope." She was already wrapping an arm around my waist, leaning into my side. "Still your cute morning Jisoo."

She looked up. "Tell me if my other self bullies you, alright? I’m gonna K—" She stopped.

Something shifted in her face, and the arm around my waist tightened in a way that was no longer comfortable.

"Ay. Hon." Her voice dropped. "Are you being stupid, or are you naturally stupid?"

"What—"

"Why," she said, through her teeth, grip tightening further, "did you tell my other self about the split."

"I thought it woul—"

Crack.

"HUH!? HUH!?"

What happened next is... something I don’t think I should describe in detail... alright, I once again got beat up.

I sat on the ground afterward while she settled back onto the bench with her arms crossed, looking composed and entirely without regret.

"Don’t do anything stupid again," she said. "Understand?"

"Yes, ma’am."

She slapped my face. Flat. "Don’t call me that."

"Yes—"

She slapped me again and something in my head went quiet... something snapped! I... I should fight back! ಠ⁠益⁠ಠ... and I looked up at her and she looked back and I looked down.

"Sorry," I said.

She was quiet for a second. Then she said, much more normally: "Stand up."

I stood.

"Carry me. Rooftop."

I ran her up through the abandoned building beside the camp, floor by floor, and emerged onto the rooftop where we’d left our bags.

I set her down and she walked immediately to the concrete barrier, looked out at the wall of jungle pressing dark against the city’s northern edge, and said nothing for a long moment.

Then: "It’s tomorrow."

"What is?"

"The raid."

I came to stand beside her. "What are you talking about?"

She exhaled through her nose. "I get all my other self’s memories when we switch REMEMBER!!? sigh, Earlier, while you two were doing your little observation thing—" she gestured vaguely, "—she noticed them. The fungus-head variants. The exploding fat ones... I forgot the name. Anyways, they’re building up past the treeline. She’s been tracking the pattern."

"Why didn’t she say anything?"

Jisoo looked at me sideways. "Because she didn’t want to stress you. She was going to handle the prep quietly and let you sleep."

"She was going to—" I stopped. "Handle it. Quietly."

"Yes."

"By herself."

"She’s done harder things by herself."

"Oh yea, those butterfly and deer looking bullshit mutation is coming too." She said.

"Fuck. ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ"

She then stared at me. "Oh yea, you bitch..."

Yep... I know that now, I sat down on the ground in front of her, knees up, looking at her.

She looked down at me with the moonlight sitting behind her shoulder and her hair doing whatever it wanted in the night air. Something about the angle made the whole thing feel serious and beautiful in a way that... this feels so weird.

"The fuck are you doing?" She asked.

"Waiting for my punishment...? ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ."

She stepped down off the barrier and kicked me in the chest, and I went back first onto the rooftop concrete with a sound I wasn’t proud of.

She then walked slowly toward me and sat on my waist and grabbed my collar. "Stop joking around," she said. "Be serious right now."

"I know, I know," I took a deep breath. "And get off, dude, this position feels inappropriate."

"I know." She stood up. "Virgin."

ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ... isn’t she too?

"Come on. I know where the higher up in here is."

I just nodded at that.

I carried her back down, and she directed me through the camp to a large tent near the center— lit from inside, warm light pushing through the canvas, the sound of people talking cutting off the moment we pushed through the entrance.

A dozen faces turned toward us. Maps on the table. Someone in the middle of drawing patrol routes. The kind of organized tension that meant a meeting had been running for a while and hadn’t gotten anywhere satisfying yet.

Jisoo didn’t pause.

She walked straight to the woman at the head of the table— long dark hair, a scar cutting through one cheek and the corner of one eye, the kind of face that had earned its beauty even though she’s scarred— and leaned in close and spoke quietly for about 40 seconds.

The woman listened. Didn’t interrupt. Didn’t look skeptical. Then she nodded and straightened and looked at the room. "Everyone out."

They went.

The three of us stood in the emptied tent. The woman held out her hand. "Kiara."

Jisoo shook it.

And then Jisoo started moving— walking the perimeter of the tent like she owned the map, pointing at things, speaking in a clipped, efficient way of someone who had seen how every possible version of this scenario would end in her head and knew exactly which decisions made the difference.

"Move those trucks— east wall, angle them out, you want the blast radius going away from the residential building."

She pointed. "Reinforce northwest, that’s your weak corner, fresh claw marks on the outer sheet— whatever hit it before knows it’s soft there and it’ll try again."

She moved on without waiting for confirmation. "Don’t stack the ammunition near the supply building, if one..." she stopped. Then looked at me. "I remember the name."

"If BLOOM gets close and we’ll lose everything at once!!" She shouted.

A pause. "Children in Building Tomorrow once it gets dark. Not the main residential, the secondary one— further from the northwest corner."

Kiara had been taking notes the whole time, calm, writing fast.

When Jisoo stopped, the surrounding was quiet for a moment.

Kiara looked up from the notes. "How did you know about the raid tomorrow?"

Jisoo didn’t answer. Not dismissively— just let the silence sit there without filling it.

Kiara nodded, like that was a reasonable response, and went back to the map.

I stood near the tent entrance and watched Jisoo work, and thought about... I forgot she’s actually a girl who has regressed almost 5,000x.

She’s terrifying. Watching her correct someone’s patrol route without breaking stride.