I closed the cupboard after I put in the last plate. "Thanks for the help, guys," I said as I turned around. "No problem. What's for lunch, by the way?" Haerin asked. I walked toward the main living area of the house, and the members followed behind me. "Hmm, I was thinking of surf and turf-steak and lobster." "Wow, I can't wait!" Haerin replied enthusiastically. This made all of us laugh. "Well, if you would excuse me, I want to train a little before lunch," I told the girls. Turning around, I walked toward the circle in the greenhouse. Muscle memory kicked in, and my fingers curled around the hems of my shirt and began lifting. Then I paused. I wasn't alone today. Hmm. I decided to change into more comfortable clothes. I headed into my room and changed into black sweatpants and a black compression shirt.

Hanni's POV

As Y/N walked out of his room and down the stairs, I had a hard time trying not to stare. He usually wore oversized clothes, so I didn't notice before. But he was built like a superhero. He wasn't overly large like a bodybuilder; his physique, in my opinion, was perfectly balanced. The compression shirt he now wore showed off his perfect proportions. "Woah. Dude, you're swole," Danielle told him as he reached the bottom of the stairs. Y/N simply flashed a small smile at the comment. He headed toward a circle outlined by stones in the greenhouse. Within the circle stood a mannequin. It was weird-looking. It looked like it was made of bronze and had mechanical parts. Beside it stood a rack. There were wooden swords of different kinds on the rack. Y/N picked out two of the swords. They both looked identical and were huge-roughly 1.5 meters long if I had to guess. I wondered if it was a wooden version of a greatsword. Y/N then whistled. It was just one note and sounded hollow. The sound echoed throughout the house, and what happened next made my members gasp. What I thought was a mannequin came to life. It suddenly took a step forward, as if reacting to the whistle. It moved so fluidly, just like a human. Y/N tossed one of the swords to it, and the robot caught it easily. The robot then positioned itself in front of Y/N. Then they both just stood opposite each other for about 5 seconds, seeming to size each other up. Then, all of a sudden, they lunged at each other at the exact same time, and my jaw dropped. They both moved so quickly that I was having trouble keeping track of their movements. The blades became brown blurs, and the sound of wood clashing reverberated throughout the house. Their swords clashed so fast and so frequently that at times it sounded like there were multiple clashes per second, sounding like something attached to a spring was smacking into another object after the spring was stretched and released. I couldn't actually confirm it, as tracking their movements to actually see what was going on was basically impossible. I couldn't even tell who was winning. The fight wasn't two-dimensional either. They flipped over each other, slid across the floor, spun around, and were constantly moving back and forth. The swords clashed louder than usual, and they both pulled away for a second, then closed in again, the fight somehow picking up pace. The reports now made sense. I understood why he had a reputation for being dangerous. It really would have been impossible to understand without seeing what I was seeing. Such ferocious combat would have been impossible for any human. To constantly move so quickly that the human eye simply couldn't process the information was ridiculous. I looked around, and my members were just as awestruck as I was. Minji slowly sat down, her eyes glued to the fight.

Y/N POV

I ducked under the blade of the sword and jabbed my own at my sparring partner. The bronze automaton I had named Rusty easily parried it, but in doing so, it left itself open. I dropped low and swept my leg out in an arc. Rusty avoided the leg sweep, but I had it on the defensive now. I let loose and went fully on the offensive, letting out a barrage of attacks on Rusty, all of which it parried or evaded, but I was continuously pushing it back. I kept the pressure up. I had updated Rusty a few weeks back. The update brought it up to perfectly replicate me in a fight. It had my exact skill level and knew my moves. This could only be achieved by magic, of course. The update required me to provide Rusty with a drop of my blood, from which it extracted all the information it needed. Rusty was made in heaven for me when I had beaten most of the angels there, and the ones that could actually go toe-to-toe with me were too busy to train with me regularly. So I got Rusty. With it, I could basically fight with myself. When I had first updated it, I was barely keeping up. Just a little more, and I would have lost. But as time went on, I started improving. I got faster, my movements more precise, less time wasted in between attacks, flowing in and out of defensive and offensive stances more smoothly, and most importantly, I found weaknesses in my current style. By learning how to exploit them, I became better than I was before, eliminating openings my enemies could use against me. Rusty jabbed at me. Flicking my sword up, I parried the jab, causing Rusty's arm to swing wide. I transitioned from swinging my sword vertically to horizontally within the same movement and swung at Rusty's neck. Rusty stepped back to avoid the attack but lost balance and stumbled in the process. It was now or never. I kicked straight into Rusty's knee, causing it to buckle. Rusty dropped to one knee, and I swung down with both hands on the hilt, stopping just as the blade made contact with Rusty's neck. Rusty was smart enough to know when the fight was over. Rusty stood up smoothly, returned its sword to the rack, went back to its original position, and shut down. I glanced at my watch. I had been sparring for two hours. I was drenched in sweat; it was dripping from my chin and hair.

I was pulled from my thoughts by applause and cheering. I had forgotten that I had an audience. The members of NewJeans were cheering me on excitedly. "Dude, you were like some anime character. I couldn't even see what you were doing," Danielle excitedly told him. "Can I hold the sword?" Hyein asked, bouncing on her heels. "Sure," I said, swapping to a reverse grip and holding out the remaining hilt to her. Hyein jogged over to where I was and grabbed the hilt. As I let go, the tip of the sword smacked against the floor. Hyein, now holding the hilt with both hands, had trouble moving the sword around. She couldn't keep the tip of the sword from dropping to the ground. "It's so heavy," she said, sounding a little exhausted. "Only the outer layer is wood. It's metal inside, so it has the same weight as a real great sword. You can try the wooden katana on the rack. Its weight should be more manageable." "Oh, really?" Hyein passed the sword back to me and went over to the rack to pick out a sword. The other members had moved closer by now. I noticed Minji eyeing my sword. I offered it to her now. "The rest of you can try too," I said. I got an excited response. Minji took the sword from me and attempted to swing it. Danielle and Haerin joined Hyein at the rack. I quickly moved out of the way before I was smacked. "Please be careful. Don't give one another a concussion," I called out. They simply nodded, too busy having fun. I walked over to stand beside Hanni. She wasn't playing with the rest. "Don't you want to try?" I asked her. She laughed and replied, "After what I just saw, anything I did with the sword would look goofy." She pointed to her members. "Just like that." She then laughed a full and heartwarming laugh, clutching at her stomach. I smiled at her. "Well, I should go shower and get started on lunch. Keep an eye on them for me, would you?" I asked her. "Sure," Hanni replied, still giggling. As I turned around, her small hand caught my wrist. I turned around to look at her. Hanni's cheeks had turned red, and she had trouble looking me in the eyes. "Hey, you were kind of cool just now," she said. She then let go of my wrist. My heart slammed against my ribs. People had praised me before, but I had never felt this happy about it. "Th-Thanks," I stuttered out. Huh, I've never stuttered before. I then quickly turned around and headed to my room.

I was drying my hair with a towel when I heard a soft knock on my door. "Come in," I called out. I turned around, my back to the door, and grabbed my shirt off my bed, putting it on as the door opened. I didn't think whoever it was would have minded seeing my bare back for a moment, but I heard a soft gasp. I turned to see Hanni with a concerned look on her face. "What's wrong?" I asked her as I closed the distance between us, my protective instincts flaring up. Hanni closed the door behind her as I reached her, then turned back to me. "What was that scar?" she asked. I felt relieved it was nothing to be worried about. "You mean this?" I asked as I pulled my collar to the side, revealing a scar on my shoulder. "No, the one on your back," Hanni replied. "Why do you have so many scars?" she added. I chuckled and moved towards the center of the room, beckoning her to follow. It was weird that we were standing right at the door. "I only have one; it wraps around my body," I told her. She looked confused now. "How does a scar wrap around your body?" I couldn't blame her for having difficulty understanding; the other angels did as well. It would have been more confusing for a human, as no human would have survived an injury like I did for a scar like that to appear. "It's easier to understand if you see it whole. Do you want to?" She seemed to think about it for a moment. "Is it a sensitive thing to you?" she asked, her voice quieter and softer. "No." "Okay, then." I slowly pulled my shirt over my head and laid it back on my bed. I then slowly turned a full circle. A scar ran from halfway through my stomach, up my chest, over my shoulders, and down to three-quarters of my back. "I was nearly cut in half once," I explained to her. She just seemed sad, her eyes tearing up a little. "The sword made contact here," I continued, tapping on my shoulder. "And ran all the way down till here," I said, lightly tapping where the scar ended on my stomach. She took a step closer and lightly placed her hand on my chest, where the scar was. "I can heal my scars if I want to, but I keep this to remind me I'm not invulnerable." Hanni raised her head now and looked deep into my eyes. My heart reacted strongly to that. She looked back at my chest. She could feel my heartbeat; her hand was still on my chest. She looked back up into my eyes. She moved her other hand to lightly rest on my stomach. The look in her eyes changed. Just then, we heard a knock on the door. Hanni quickly pulled away and turned to face the door. "Come in," I called just as quickly. She whipped her head back to look at me, probably wondering why I would let someone in when I was topless. But I already had my shirt on. I simply willed it back onto me. Minji stuck her head through the door. "Some guy's at the gate. He says he has your groceries." "Ah, yes. I got someone to help me get groceries for lunch. I'll be right down," I told her. Minji nodded and left, leaving the door open for me. I walked past Hanni and opened the door wider, holding it open for her. She began walking toward the door and flashed me a small, shy smile. I smiled back and winked. This would be our little secret. Her smile grew larger in response to mine and was almost too dazzling to look at.