Convict Unit: Black Parade

A middle-aged woman, clad in full hiking attire, sauntered nonchalantly toward the building’s entrance.

The gang members standing guard, one stifling a lazy yawn, raised their hands to block her approach.

“Hey, lady! Stop right there!”

But the woman—Punch Queen—just chuckled lightly and cozied right up to them. “Now, now, boys. I just wanted to ask you something.”

“I said, get out of here!”

“This bitch doesn’t know who she’s messing with. You got a death wish? Fuck off!”

“Just answer one thing for me, hm? I’m not very good with directions…”

As the thugs tried to shove her away, Punch Queen asked with a deceptively sweet smile, “Say… you wouldn’t happen to know where I can find Brain, would you?”

“…?”

The stunned thugs froze for a second before frantically reaching for the weapons inside their jackets.

“What is this crazy—”

“Shit, she’s a cop—”

But neither of them finished their sentences.

Punch Queen was already on them, fists aimed squarely at their chests. She struck from a finger’s length away—one inch.

No windup. No warning. Just impact.

The blows, known as the Inch Punch, hit like a cannon at point-blank range.

A terrifying pair of cracks echoed out, a sound no mere fists should ever make. The two brutes spat blood as they flew backward, slammed against the wall, and bounced off it before collapsing in a heap.

Punch Queen tossed her permed hair free of her hiking hat and muttered cheerfully, “I’m telling you, nothing feels better than landing a good One-Inch Punch.”

She glanced back and beckoned. “What are you doing? Come on!”

Watching from the alley’s entrance, Jae-hee could only stare, his jaw hanging open.

Punch Queen beamed, her face a mask of benevolence, and chuckled. “Let’s get this place tidied up, shall we!”

***

Five minutes earlier.

Punch Queen had laid out the plan of attack in front of the building.

“I was thinking we’d form up based on the ‘range’ of our abilities, sound good?”

Her assessment of the team’s combat ranges was as follows:

Point-blank: Punch Queen

Close-range: Ghost, Boy, Robbin’ Hood

Long-range: Cowboy

Needless to say, with a revolver, true long-range sniping was out of the question for Cowboy. But his reach was still significantly longer than anyone else’s.

“We’ll deploy tactically according to our ranges!”

She issued her orders without hesitation, as if she’d thought it all out beforehand.

“Cowboy, you secure the adjacent building and provide support fire. Prioritize anyone with a gun. I’m also putting you on lookout.”

“Roger.”

“Robbin’ Hood, you wait at the back of the building. The blueprints show a rear exit. Any rats trying to flee will head that way. Mangle anything that comes out.”

“Very well.”

“Boy, you watch the front entrance. Think you can handle that?”

“Yessir!”

“Ghost and I will breach. We’ll crush the small fry and capture Brain alive.”

With the plan set, Punch Queen took the lead. “All right, let’s wrap this up quick. If we’re done before sunset, dinner’s on me!”

“Yahoo!” Jae-hee Han jumped for joy.

“Ah, and Ghost?”

Just as she was about to head for the building, Punch Queen glanced back and gave Ghost a knowing look.

“Unless something goes wrong, you can just hang back and relax.”

“…”

“Having you at the front would be a bit overkill, don’t you agree?”

Ghost replied flatly from within her mane of disheveled white hair. “That doesn’t matter. I’ll step in if I’m needed.”

“Haha, sounds good. I’m counting on you, Commander’s little insurance policy~”

And with that, Punch Queen had trotted toward the two guards at the entrance.

The operation had begun.

***

Back in the present.

As the other prisoners warily approached, Punch Queen crouched down to check on her handiwork.

“Darn. I meant to go a little easier… I had some questions to ask. But you two went and pulled a weapon on me, and I just saw red.”

The two thugs, struck by her Inch Punch, couldn’t answer, managing only to cough up more blood.

“Pulling a weapon on a lady gets you a one-way ticket across the River Styx, boys. Lesson learned, right?”

Muttering to herself, Punch Queen rifled through their jackets. “Not Awakened, just regular guys, huh?”

They weren’t Awakened, but the weapons they’d been reaching for were far from ordinary. Both of them had homemade firearms tucked away.

Even though private weapon ownership had become more common since the Gates appeared, firearms were still strictly controlled in South Korea. This wasn't something every low-level gangster should have been carrying.

Punch Queen lifted one of the guns with her thumb and forefinger and tilted her head.

“Hmm. I’d understand a knife, but I don’t think these are standard tools for chicken distribution, do you?”

She dropped the gun to the ground, then looked back and jutted her chin.

“Must be some damn tasty chicken they’re selling. Let’s go find out!”

Jae-hee nodded hesitantly. Ghost’s sharp eyes scanned the surroundings.

With a clank, Punch Queen opened the door and stepped inside. The gang members lounging in the lobby all turned to look.

“The hell? Who are you people?”

“Cops?”

“Don’t look like cops.”

“What the hell were the guards outside—”

The speaker’s eyes widened as he spotted his two colleagues sprawled outside the door.

“…!”

Meanwhile, Jae-hee’s gaze fell on a corner of the lobby, and he froze. The other unit members followed his line of sight.

Huddled there were emaciated children, their hollow eyes staring blankly back at them. They were all tied together with rope and chains.

“Commander,” Ghost murmured into her comms. “This crew… you said they were into kidnapping and human trafficking, too.”

The body cam feed wasn’t transmitting in real time due to the distance, but Hae-eun inferred the situation from the audio alone.

«Mhm. Why, you got victims on-site?»

“Lots.”

«There’s been a rash of child disappearances in Chuncheon lately. Guess we know who’s responsible.»

Punch Queen scratched at her hiking hat.

“Hey, now… I may be a convict, but you guys have crossed a line. You know what? I think I’m going to enjoy beating you boys to death.”

“What the fuck did you say? This is our place of business, you son of a—”

A massive thug rolled up his sleeves, flashing his tattoos as he stomped forward.

Ghost lashed out, her sheathed sword striking him in the solar plexus with a dull thwack.

The man let out a faint whoosh of air and flew backward.

As the hulking gangster toppled over like a bowling pin, the remaining thugs shot to their feet in alarm.

“Pardon us,” Punch Queen said with a lilting laugh, “we just came to see if we could get a good deal on some chicken?”

She chattered away nonchalantly as she strode toward them. “How much for a bird?”

“You crazy b—?!”

“It’s an attack! Alert the other floo—!”

“Do these fuckers even know where thi—”

Whatever the three of them were shouting was cut short.

With three quick thuds, Punch Queen’s flurry of punches shattered their jaws in succession.

She closed the distance with one long step to strike the first man, then pivoted with short, sharp steps to drive her fist into the chins of the second and third.

Though the punches landed with a slight delay, the three bodies hit the floor with a simultaneous crash.

“Well? Auntie’s asking you a question,” Punch Queen snapped at the remaining thugs. “How much for the damn chicken?”

“Shit, she’s an Awakened!”

“A Hunter?!”

“Fuck, grab your pieces!”

“Get ’em, now!”

The moment the remaining gangsters began to pull guns from their jackets, a single shot rang out from outside the building—yet it carried a strange, overlapping echo.

Six of the gangsters who had just drawn their weapons were thrown back, their skulls pierced by bullets.

«This is Cowboy.»

Having secured a firing angle on the second floor of the adjacent building, Cowboy calmly ejected the spent casings from his revolver and reloaded.

He spoke into his comms. «I’m in position. Keep moving.»

“Okay~!”

A door on the far side of the lobby burst open and more thugs, armed with various weapons, poured out screaming.

Again, the overlapping shot rang out, and another six men collapsed, blood pouring from their heads.

«Heh, guess I’ve still got it.»

Cowboy hummed as he reloaded his revolver once more.

The surviving thugs were baffled, unable to comprehend the magic that was felling six men with every gunshot.

But it wasn’t magic. He had just fired six shots in the blink of an eye.

One hand held the trigger, the other snapped the hammer back and forth, unleashing a rapid burst.

It was the peak of single-action revolver skill.

A feat that bordered on art.

«Fanning!»

Another six bullets were fired in near-unison.

Though fired almost simultaneously, the bullets flew in different directions. The exquisitely angled shots found their targets, piercing each gangster’s head with lethal precision.

«Yee-haw! Racking up a high score today!»

Cowboy the B-Rank Awakened’s ability was Bull’s Eye. A common power among shooter-types, it granted the user superhuman accuracy.

It wasn’t particularly valued in Gate battles, since most monsters were resistant to ordinary bullets.

But against human opponents… it was a different story.

The thugs on the first floor were felled like wheat in a field.

Those who drew guns were dispatched by Cowboy’s uncanny marksmanship, while those who brandished other weapons were crushed by Punch Queen in a single blow.

And in the middle of this pandemonium, Jae-hee scurried about, carefully moving the kidnapped victims out of the building to safety.

Ghost snorted, watching him grunt and struggle to cut the ropes binding the victims. “Working hard, are we?”

“W-well… these kids haven’t done anything wrong. And my job is to guard the front door anyway, so… I’m just multitasking…”

“We’re a unit of convicts,” Ghost said coldly, her eyes scanning the room. “Not the police, not the army. We have no reason to be playing the hero.”

“Even so…” Jae-hee mumbled, his voice small, “something similar happened to me when I was a kid…”

Ghost’s brow furrowed in silence.

Just then, more thugs rushed in from the side, brandishing knives.

They reached for the kidnapped children, intending to take them hostage.

Ghost swung her scabbard in a lazy arc that shattered their jaws with a crack.

“...Do whatever you want.”

She followed up with a kick to the throat of the next thug rushing in.

Folding her leg back into a ready stance, Ghost slung her sheathed sword over her shoulder.

“You only get one life. No point in worrying what others think. Live how you want.”

“Okay!” Jae-hee beamed, then turned back to diligently rescuing the remaining children.

After felling another approaching gangster with a single, sharp blow to the top of the head with her scabbard, Ghost muttered to herself in irritation.

“I’m not here to play hero or rescue hostages… Now where the hell is Brain?”