[The world was barely recovered from life-changing chaos, in desperate need of leadership. Rifts tore open space itself, letting horrible and powerful monsters from another dimension pour out onto the unsuspecting people nearby. There was no stopping them. At first.]

[After several major countries across the world had found their military was no match for the onslaught of monsters, people began to awaken strange elemental and psychic powers. Espers.]

[A dangerous subspecies of human, and their counterparts the Guides.]

[Espers were at continual risk of losing control of their powers, despite being such a huge asset in pushing back the monsters, and thus preventative measures were established by the prestigious Organization Cerberus through–]

Click.

A finger hovered over the mouse,the video had come to an abrupt stop. 

Kyrian Averin, a noticeable figure from any distance due to his incredible height, but also his nearly pure white hair drew helpless gazes towards him wherever he went.

Sitting in a dark office after business hours, he had purposely sought out solitude tonight.

Stoic, he gazed at the woman frozen on the computer screen, long fingers tapping out a rhythm on the surface of the cluttered desktop.

Cerberus propaganda.

Though not necessarily a bad thing, the fact still irritated him deeply. 

"Politics."

The word was spat with a tone of disgust, and Kyrian wearily rubbed his forehead with a deep sigh, sweeping white hair haphazardly out of place. Huff.

If not for the surprise morning visit from a Cerberus mutt, a term commonly used to refer to employees of the long-established research and rift-defense organization, he would have no need to be watching such things on his lunch break.

'We sincerely ask for your consideration of the matter, Mr. Averin. We would not dare to approach such a busy and esteemed Guide as yourself if not for the dire situation we are in.'

'Dire?'

'Yes. You see, our top Esper has a very unique wavelength, and finds it incredibly difficult to match with a Guide for any proper Guiding. As a result, he is constantly in danger of losing control of his powers.'

'And you believe that I could match with him?'

The Cerberus employee hid his lower face with a cough, but Kyrian briefly saw the twitch of a smile. 

'Of course! Tales of your incredible prowess as a Guide has reached far and wide, Mr. Averin. You should be proud of your achievements.’'

'...'

'Think it over, yes? It would be… a very beneficial joint operation between our organizations.'

Reliving the interaction in his mind, Kyrian couldn't deny it wasn't an impressive opportunity. His supervisor, Seok Hov, had adamantly encouraged him to accept.

'You need to dip your toe into Guide politics someday, Kyrian! Better late than never!'

Grumbling under his breath as the word politics floated to the forefront of his mind again, he sharply rapped his knuckles on his desk. Why the world couldn't focus on simply combating the Rift-monsters and the Other Side without playing childish politics was beyond his comprehension. 

The world needed focus, not arrogant individuals hiding behind others parading as something they were not, while forcing others to live in ways that they themselves would balk at. 

Espers, for instance, despite being incredibly powerful were treated poorly in comparison to all that they contributed to humanity's survival. The influential saw them as threats to their control, and painted them as villains unable to satisfy a need for power.

Hiding behind their strength as protection from monsters, the wealthy also kept them in check to maintain balance and order.

The discrimination had dwindled compared to the past, but the politics between organizations still were deadlocked in a terrible game of tug-of-war over how to treat Espers.

He didn't intend on getting involved in any politics. It was just a simple opportunity to collaborate between organizations for a struggling Esper.

"Sorry, Seok," he muttered. "I don't know if I can do this."

He closed the tab with the Cerberus training video, and instead pulled up the search bar. Eiden.

As a Guide, he of course had heard of this infamous Esper in passing. Unfortunately, the topic had never caught his interest and he had been content to keep it that way.

Narrowed eyes stared emotionless at the content scrolling past on the search results. There were numerous articles, 'Class-SS Rift defeated by Cerberus Hounds!', 'Cerberus Hounds conquered Black Rift', 'Cerberus Special Ops called to Rift explosion'. 

His finger hovered above the computer mouse, unable to scroll past a headline. 'S-Class Eiden | Esper Highlights'. Before he could stop himself, he had clicked the article.

We are not accepting this proposition, I just want to see who he is.

The article was useless nonsense, sharing next to no helpful information about the Esper of Cerberus, but did include a candid photo of him getting into a black sedan.

Feeling rather ridiculous and baffled at his sudden curiosity, Kyrian leaned towards the screen, squinting, trying to get a good view of the man.

The appearance of a typical elemental ability Esper, tall, lean... angry.

Espers characteristically were prone to having extreme or volatile anger issues, solely due to the constant pain they suffered when in need of Guiding. It wore on a person's spirit, and broke their minds. Kyrian had seen it firsthand when an Esper rampaged after losing their mind to the blinding pain.

Everything about this Esper’s posture as he was climbing into the backseat of the sedan screamed Leave me alone! His scarred hand was held out to the camera, as though futilely trying to block the camera's view, not promoting a sense that the individual was pleased to be photographed.

His Cerberus uniform hung on his frame like it had been issued two sizes too big, the collar upturned to hide the lower half of his face, his messy blonde hair hiding the upper half. A dangerous glare could still be seen behind the tousled hair.

"Charming," Kyrian muttered under his breath, his lips curling upwards at the corners. "Looks like he probably bites."

After a moment longer of studying the photo, he shook himself from his stupor and clicked off the page as if wanting to hide the evidence of his search. 

Just doing due diligence. I had to verify how troublesome this will end up being.

Though assuring himself that his reasoning was sound, he couldn't shake the feeling that this would end up being a greater ordeal than even he believed it would be.