Wednesday morning...
The third day was intense from the jump. No drills, no warmup. Just sparring.
Yumi's aura flared as they stood across from each other, blades drawn. The moment they moved, the clash echoed like thunder.
She was faster now. Way faster.
Each time he thought he had an opening, she'd already vanished and appeared somewhere else. Her strikes were clean, efficient and terrifying.
But Yuseke didn't fold. He pushed himself, Essence burning bright along his limbs, his blade hissing red in the sun.
They clashed again... blow for blow, his body moving instinctively.
To him, it felt like war.
To Yumi, it was exercise.
By the time they stopped, he dropped to one knee, exhausted and sweat raining off him.
Yumi offered a hand and helped him up, smiling. "You're not bad."
He smirked, panting. "So… you were going all out today, right?"
Kokoro, standing nearby, shook his head. "She used maybe 30%."
Yuseke blinked. "...What?"
"Yeah. You'd definitely know if she used more."
Yuseke stared at Yumi, who just gave a wink and strolled off.
He dropped flat on his back, hand over his heart. "I thought we had something. She broke my heart, bro."
Kokoro snorted at Yuseke's broken-heart line but before either could say more, footsteps approached from behind.
It was Sakura.
She stopped just short of them, arms crossed, her usual scowl firmly in place. "Taichiro's requesting an audience."
Yuseke raised an eyebrow. "Whoa. Sounds serious. Do I gotta bow or salute or something?"
"Just shut up and move." she said, already walking off.
Yuseke glanced at Kokoro. "You think she talks in her sleep like that?"
Kokoro only shook his head, motioning for him to follow.
They walked across the courtyard to the building where Taichiro usually spent his time. It looked more like a war room than an office maps, scattered dossiers and glowing screens. Taichiro stood near one, arms behind his back, his presence like stone.
Kenji was already there. Sakura and Yumi joined him without a word. Yuseke slid in beside Kenji, who gave him a sideways glance and a subtle grunt.
Taichiro turned.
"We've finally traced the arms dealer we've been monitoring the past two weeks." he said, voice calm but with a weight behind it. "He's meeting with a buyer tonight. Location: warehouse district, far east end of the city."
Yuseke blinked. "Wait, hold on. You guys take out arms dealers? What are you, vigilante cops or something?"
"We're not cops, dumbass." Sakura rolled her eyes. "But we're also not just after Saints, we go at anyone who uses power to harm the weak. The Outcasts don't pick sides, we remove rot wherever it festers."
Yuseke felt a strange warmth settle in his chest at that. For once it wasn't Essence, it was something simpler. Almost like… pride.
He smiled, eyes flicking to Sakura. "Wow. Miss grumpy's got a heart? I'm touched."
She glared. Then, under her breath, just loud enough for only Yumi to hear: "Freak."
Taichiro didn't react to the back-and-forth. "Kenji, Sakura, Yuseke. This mission is yours."
Kenji's face twisted. "We don't need the rookie. Me and Sakura can handle this solo. Why include this… half-hatched Essence squirt?"
Yuseke shot him a sideways look. "At least I don't look like I chew bricks for breakfast."
Sakura sighed hard enough to blow her bangs. "Why am I stuck with these two man-children?"
Kenji looked genuinely offended. "Man-child?!"
Yuseke raised a hand. "Guess I'm not the only one who sees you as a meathead."
The tension in the room was cracking like thunder... until Taichiro raised his voice.
"Enough!"
The word echoed loud and very head turned. He walked toward them slow. And when he stopped, his eyes moved between the three of them... hard, unblinking.
"This isn't a playground. It's not a classroom, either. This is war in slow motion. One mistake, one slip and wrong people die. You want to bicker like kids?" His tone dropped a note. "You three better not mess this up."
The room chilled.
"Because if you do… I'll personally kill whoever comes back."
Silence.
Even Kenji went still, fists tightening at his sides. Sakura's smirk vanished. Yuseke's eyes widened out of fear.
"Understood?" he asked.
All three nodded.
"Good. Leave by nightfall. Full recon, if it escalates, handle it. No one must know who you are or where you're from. This is an official Outcast mission."
They turned to leave. Yuseke hung back for a moment still feeling the gravity of Taichiro's words settling in his bones.
The warehouse district stretched wide and abandoned in the dying orange of dusk. Rusted cranes loomed like skeletal sentinels and old train tracks split the ground with weeds growing between them. Sakura crouched silently on a rooftop nearly two and half a kilometers away, her sniper cradled beneath her. Unlike her signature gun Rage this was a minimum damage weapon. Its barrel gleamed with faint blue Essence, humming as her technique settled in.
Yuseke squinted through the darkness toward the perch. "She's, like… ridiculously far. Can she even hit anything from there?"
Kenji, crouched beside him behind a stack of rusted crates, snorted. "You're still in the dust, huh? Well , let me school you then. That's not just any sniper, of course only in her hands... it's channelled with her technique that multiplies every factor: range, velocity, firepower of ever weapon she wields. For instance normal snipers, got maybe 800 meters max. She then triples that without breaking a sweat."
Yuseke did a mental calculation. "So, she's nearly two-and-a-half kilometres away?"
Kenji nodded. "Roughly. And she's not even using her main gun. What you're seeing now? That's her being 'subtle'."
Yuseke gave a low whistle. "Man, I really don't want to end up on her bad side."
"You're already there." Kenji muttered.
Yuseke rolled his eyes, adjusting his comms unit. "Damn, So... uh what do we do?"
Sakura's voice crackled in their ears. "Start by keeping your damn mouths shut."
Yuseke jolted, looking up like she could see him from miles away. "Right. Sorry, ma'am."
The buyer arrived first. A sleek, well-dressed man in a long beige coat, flanked by two guards who looked like off-duty mercenaries. His fingers tapped against a steel briefcase, impatient and unimpressed.
Ten minutes later, the dealer strolled in.
He didn't look like much. A black hoodie under a tattered brown coat, sleeves rolled to the elbows. His face was smooth, unreadable, eyes narrowed just enough to make you unsure if he was relaxed or bored.
Yuseke whispered, "That's the guy? Doesn't look like much."
Kenji nodded once. "Eyes up. If Sakura has the shot, we're just here to clean up and extract any tech."
"Copy." Sakura said.
A pause.
Then the soft hiss of Essence pulsed through Yuseke's earpiece. A hum, that sniper was charged now.
BOOM.
The shot cracked across the city like a thunderclap. Not the gunfire just the impact. From the distance, the bullet tore through the air faster than sound, cutting a crimson streak through the dusk.
But something happened.
At the last possible second, the dealer twitched, not a panicked dodge. Just a calculated, exact side-step... two inches to the left.
The buyer's skull exploded behind him.
Blood sprayed over the crates and his guards screamed. The dealer didn't even flinch. He turned his head and stared straight into the distance toward Sakura's location.
Sakura's breath caught.
"I missed..." she muttered.
Kenji froze. "What?"
"I missed." she said, eyes wide. "That was a clean shot but he moved... before the bullet got there."
Kenji's eyes narrowed. "How long was the bullet suppose to take before it hit?"
"Three seconds, maybe two point eight." she replied. "That's... not enough time for even a Class-A to react."
Yuseke whispered, "You're saying he dodged something he couldn't see coming?"
"Yeah." Kenji muttered. "He probably sharpened his Essence awareness , which enabled him to detect even the slightest disturbance Essence around him."
Yuseke stared through the gaps in the fence. The dealer hadn't run, he'd simply bent down, opened the case and inspected the buyer's briefcase like it was another day at work.
He didn't even look shaken. If anything, he looked irritated.
Yuseke's stomach turned. "Why didn't Taichiro tell us we were dealing with a Class-S?"
"Because he didn't know." Kenji said darkly. "And neither did we."
He adjusted his gloves, Essence crackling up his arms like arcs of blue lightning.
Yuseke tightened his grip on his sword. His red Essence still flickered faintly not enough. Not nearly enough.
Kenji didn't move for a few seconds. Then, he glanced sideways at Yuseke. "We don't stand a chance against someone like that."
"No shit."
"But we're going anyway."
"Because of Taichiro?"
Kenji's jaw tightened. "Because of everyone else. That dealer gets away with whatever weapon he was selling... who knows where it ends up."
Yuseke swallowed. "Alright... just tell me what to do."
Kenji smiled without humor. "Stay close. If I die, you run."
"I'm not leaving you."
"You say that now." Kenji muttered.
They stepped through the side entrance of the warehouse. The stench of blood hit instantly. The buyer's guards had vanished. The body lay in a pool of gore, face erased.
The dealer turned to them slowly, calm as ever. "You're persistent." he said. "Didn't learn from the last guy?"
Kenji ignored and raised a hand toward his earpiece. "Sakura, keep eyes on him. If you get another window, take it."
"Copy." she said.
The dealer smiled faintly.
Kenji motioned for Yuseke to flank left. The younger boy obeyed, boots light against the concrete.
"Let me guess," the dealer said, not looking at Yuseke. "First real mission?"
Yuseke froze.
"I can smell it, the fear." He gave a slow grin. "You're going to make a beautiful corpse."
Kenji activated his Essence again, blue threads flowing up his arms and across his chest. His eyes hardened.
"You talk too much."
The dealer rolled his shoulders, a small ripple of gold Essence trailing along his skin.
Kenji took one slow breath. Then he muttered, "Yuseke. It's time." He then rushed forward, the air cracked with Essence. Blue light surged down his arms and lit his fists like they were dipped in electric fire. His body blurred with speed, dashing across the floor in a zigzag trail. His right fist cocked back...
Boom!
He swung with all his weight, Essence roaring. But the dealer just... tilted his head. Kenji's fist passed harmlessly through empty air.
Another punch. Miss.
A left hook. Miss again.
Uppercut... nothing but air.
Yuseke watched, wide-eyed, as Kenji became a whirlwind of strikes, each one fast enough to break steel, each one dodged like a game of shadows. The dealer moved just enough each time... half-steps, ducking his chin, twisting his shoulder.
"Damn!" Kenji growled through clenched teeth.
Still, he kept attacking like a storm of fists.
"Keep moving… make him react. That's all I can do." Kenji thought. "He's not attacking just dodging. Maybe that's all he's good at. That's how he escaped Sakura's bullet."
He went faster.
Faster.
Until...
The dealer stopped moving. He let one jab pass by his cheek, then calmly raised his knee. And drove it into Kenji's gut like a sledgehammer.
CRACK.
Kenji's entire body folded over the strike, the force releasing a shockwave that shattered a nearby crate. His back arched, spittle and blood exploding from his mouth and for a second just a blink... his pupils rolled up into the whites of his eyes. A black shadow coiled up the edge of his vision like the pull of unconsciousness trying to drag him under.
He stumbled back, fell to a knee, coughing up more blood.
Right then Sakura fired .
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
Four sniper shots.
All dead on.
All dodged.
Each time, the dealer moved the moment before they landed... his body always two steps ahead as if watching the fight play out in a different timeline and simply following the winning script.
Sakura cursed from her rooftop perch. "No way. No way."
Yuseke clenched his fists, trembling. This was not the kind of enemy they were supposed to face. This was something else.
Still, a thought flickered in his head. Yumi's lessons about Essence.
"If it flows through the body, enhancing everything... reflexes, strength and speed..." Yuseke whispered. "What if i concentrate all of the Essence in my legs? I might be able to match his speed."
His body glowed red with Essence but instead of letting it flow evenly like Taichiro taught, he forced all of it... every drop down, compressing it into his legs.
Heat surged through his thighs, his calves, his feet. His tendons tightened like steel cables. His vision swam from the pressure, but his feet blurred.
BOOM.
Yuseke launched forward, the air exploding beneath him as he dashed toward the dealer in a blink. The warehouse walls blurred past. For a moment, just a moment he was fast enough.
But...
CRACK!
A blur.
The dealer twisted mid-air and backhanded Yuseke across the face with surgical precision, sending him spiraling through a wooden crate.
Yuseke hit the wall behind it, his body flopping to the ground like a broken puppet.
Blood spilled from his mouth. His vision doubled. He tried to stand but his legs... those legs he'd overloaded spasmed uncontrollably.
The dealer approached, steps slow and almost... respectful.
"I'll admit." he said, "That was clever. Compressing Essence to a single muscle group, turning it into raw speed? Not bad."
Kenji growled, struggling to his feet. "Stay... away from him."
His Essence erupted again brighter, wild. Muscles expanded. His aura twisted and grew beastlike.
"BEAST MODE: ALPHA."
His teeth sharpened. Eyes glowed blue. Claws of Essence erupted from his knuckles.
He launched himself forward with a roar. The two clashed, Kenji swinging with reckless power, each strike detonating the air around them like thunderclaps. He landed one punch.. then another and for a moment, it looked like it was working.
But then
The dealer stepped inside his guard. Blocked a claw. Spun behind him and landed a spinning elbow to the neck that dropped Kenji again.
BAM!
The Alpha form faltered. His Essence flickered and died. Kenji collapsed to the floor unconscious, blood seeping from his temple.
Yuseke screamed. "KENJI!"
But the dealer turned, unfazed and walked calmly toward the fallen rookie. Yuseke tried to stand again but his legs failed him. He couldn't even move.
The dealer stopped in front of him. He looked down with cold interest, then… smiled.
"You kid, really impressed me today." he said.
Yuseke blinked.
The man crouched. "That wasn't just bold... it was suicidal. And you could've torn every muscle, burned yourself from the inside."
Yuseke coughed hard, blood spilling between his fingers.
The dealer's voice lowered. "But still... you did and didn't die, so you're really something else. And for a second there, I thought you might land a hit."
He paused.
"Anyway kid, I counted twenty-four openings. And I let them go out of curiosity."
Yuseke's chest heaved.
The dealer stood up, cracking his neck. "This one..." he pointed a thumb at Kenji, unconscious in a heap "was strong but predictable. You? You're unrefined, dangerous but careless."
He turned his back.
"I'm letting you live again, keep count and get stronger. Cause next time I won't be so generous."
With that, the dealer vanished into the shadows of the warehouse, footsteps fading into the night. Yuseke didn't move, he stared at the warehouse as vision was blurring.