"God, I wish I knew."

"Okay. Then, may I hug you?"

"Yeah. Please."

She very carefully and very gently hugs him, then just as gently and carefully arranges so that he is on her lap and she is wrapped around him like some kind of shield from the horrible world.

"I can also pet you if you would find that soothing," she adds, when he is so arranged.

He laugh-sobs and nods. "I would."

Okay. Then he's going to be very gently and very carefully petted. Pet pet pet.

"Please let me know if there's anything else you want, okay?" Pet pet pet.

"I want whoever did this to die screaming."

"...sorry, that was gruesome."

"I don't mind. I kind of want them to die screaming, too," she agrees, sounding very matter-of-fact.

"How dare they. How... how dare they." How dare he. Woo-young should have teleported him into a volcano five years ago.

"It is the coldest, cruelest and most unfair possible way to treat someone who has devoted her life to saving others. It is inexcusable and unconscionable and - yes. Die screaming. I suppose it's not 'kind of want,' now that I think about it."

"If I knew who it was I'd—I don't know. Out of all people my powers are amongst the most straightforward to use to—deal with someone—leaving little evidence behind..."

Nod.

"I would provide you with an alibi," she agrees, also very nonchalant about this.

"Well if anyone would collude with me it'd be my partner so I'm not sure that'd count for much but probably it'd count for any, yeah." Also, he's suddenly feeling so fond of her right now.

"The alibi would preferably not literally be me saying you didn't do it, it'd be something more clever like calling in favors to have someone agree that you were too far away to have possibly managed to reach anyone involved. .... Please give me at least a week's notice if you're going to commit murder."

"I'll try but if I find an opportunity I might take it anyway. ...not that I possibly could, I have no idea who did it." Even if he does have a very good idea who ordered it done. "But if I did."

Nod.

"I expect a lot of very powerful espers are all going to be very interested in investigating the situation. So." Pet pet pet.

"How's that even going to work? The dungeon's closed. Whoever did this has very heavy-duty illusion powers." Is he being very pessimistic right now? Yes. But he feels like he has a right to.

"Yes. But I also think that even if the person's not caught, there's going to be more protections in place around portals." Maybe the media would even stop getting to take pictures of espers the minute they walk out of a dungeon. "No one ever wants this to happen again."

"How many times must it have happened, already? How many people that we lost to dungeons like might have been killed by someone?" His brain goes immediately to Tae-hwan but that thought is obviously ludicrous. Tae-hwan had never made a single enemy in his entire life and they have a full account of what went wrong. His brain still goes there anyway.

"I don't know. And neither does anyone else. And that's why I think something will change."

"But that's horrible too, isn't it? We're constantly stretched thin, we have too few hands as-is, and we're going to have to spend even more resources now that we don't actually have, to deal with this. I hate them so, so much. I've never hated anyone as much as I hate them right now."

Nod.

"It's also horrible, yeah. But it could conceivably come from - non esper resources or persuade more espers to go into dungeons if they, for example, also don't have to deal with cameras coming out of them." Hug hug hug. "But I'm sorry. I don't have a solid reassurance." Except the alibi thing. That one's very real and very solid. Innocent people will die because of this fiasco, because Kim Hye-jin is no longer functioning as an S-rank combat esper, and they got lucky.

"I know. I'm not really looking for one. But offering to help me hide the body was a pretty good one."

"Don't be silly. You don't need help hiding a body, you're a teleporter. You're fine without my help. You need someone to confirm there was no possible way you could have managed it."

Her tone is playful.