SCENE 1 — POSITION ASSIGNMENT
The Tower finally gave us a day to breathe.
Not rest. Just… less running, fewer things trying to kill us in the middle of a sentence.
After the last test, the Regulars split — some collapsed into their beds, some bragged in the cafeteria, some quietly counted who didn't come back. I spent most of it leaning against a railing, watching Shinsu flow through the distant walls and pretending this place was normal.
It wasn't.
The next "morning," Lero-Ro gathered us in the auditorium.
Stone benches. High ceiling. A floating Lighthouse humming over the stage like a second sun.
"Congratulations on surviving," he said, sounding like he meant it literally. "From here on, you'll start learning your positions."
The Lighthouse over his head brightened and unfolded, panels spinning until five glowing sigils appeared in the air.
Fisherman.
Spear-Bearer.
Scout.
Light-Bearer.
Wave Controller.
Whispers rippled through the crowd.
Rak puffed his chest like a walking boulder with an ego.
Khun watched everything with that sharp, clean stare that never stopped calculating.
Baam… Baam just looked nervous, fingers twisting into his sleeve as the sigils hung above us like judgment.
Names started rolling down a translucent screen beside Lero-Ro, one after another, slotting Regulars into their roles.
Scouts who were too fast for their own good.
Fishermen who grinned a little too wide at the thought of close combat.
Light-Bearers who already looked like sleepless students with too much homework.
I leaned against the back wall, hands in my pockets, half-listening as the list scrolled.
Then my name appeared.
Crow — Wave Controller (Special Compatibility Flagged).
The room shifted.
Not panic.
Not outrage.
Respectful fear.
Eyes slid my way and then slid away again. Nobody argued. Nobody complained that the guy who didn't move under Shinsu pressure had been put in charge of bending it.
No one wanted to be the Regular who walked up to that problem and said, "Excuse me, I think you're in the wrong spot."
Then another line appeared.
Twenty-Fifth Baam — Wave Controller.
The auditorium detonated.
"WHAT?!"
"HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW SHINSU!"
"ARE THEY INSANE?!"
"TWO WAVE CONTROLLERS? TWO?!"
Baam flinched, shrinking in his seat.
Khun's expression shuttered. Rak's grin got bigger — he smelled chaos coming.
Lero-Ro continued like nothing was wrong, but as soon as he dismissed us, Khun hooked Baam by the sleeve, jerked his chin at me, and dragged us both into a side hallway. Rak lumbered after us, grumbling, but he still followed.
Khun shut the door behind us, checked both ends of the corridor, and dropped his voice.
"What I'm about to say," he murmured, "doesn't leave this hallway."
Baam fidgeted. "Khun…?"
Khun's eyes hardened, all the warmth draining out, leaving only that cold blue logic.
"You're Irregulars," he said. "Both of you."
Baam froze.
Rak roared proudly.
I just watched.
Khun pointed at Baam first.
"You. You said you came from a cave. I thought you meant the Outer Tower at first. I was wrong."
He stepped closer, voice turning surgical.
"You didn't mean the Outer Tower. You meant outside the Tower. Completely."
Baam swallowed, then nodded with tiny, guilty movements.
"And you met him, didn't you?" Khun continued. "The mythical white administrator who brings demons into the Tower. The rabbit. Headon."
Baam hesitated. Then nodded again.
Khun swore under his breath. "…So it's true."
Rak scratched his head. "WHO IS RABBIT TURTLE?"
Khun ignored him and turned on me.
"And you," he said quietly, "you're not normal either."
I tilted my head. "I'm aware."
"You didn't react to Shinsu. Not during Lero-Ro's blast. Not during the wall test you never needed. You treat danger like a puzzle, not a threat."
He exhaled slowly, like the conclusion hurt his pride.
"You understand exactly what you are," he said. "That makes you worse."
I smiled faintly.
"If you're guessing I'm worse than him—" I tapped my chest. "You're right."
Baam flinched.
Rak looked delighted.
Khun looked like his headache had just achieved enlightenment.
He opened his mouth to say more—
I stepped forward and tapped Baam's chest with one finger.
A spark of golden heat pulsed at my fingertip—
—and sank straight into Baam's body.
He gasped as warmth spread through his ribs and vanished.
Khun grabbed his shoulders. "BAAM! Are you—did he—?!"
Baam blinked rapidly. "…I'm okay. I feel… stronger?"
Khun stared at me like I'd just tried to dismantle the Tower with a prank.
"What did you just do?" he demanded.
I lowered my hand.
"That wasn't an attack."
Baam frowned. "Then… what was it?"
"Proof," I said.
Khun's eyes snapped sharp again. Not a gift. Not comfort. A hypothesis.
"You knew he'd absorb it," he whispered.
"Yes."
Baam looked between us. "Absorb…?"
"You didn't resist his fire," Khun said, voice thin. "You didn't deflect it. You ate it."
Baam's eyes went wide.
Rak howled with glee. "THE LITTLE PREY EATS FIRE!"
Khun stared at Baam like he'd just realized the boy was a black hole wearing human skin.
He didn't say it. He didn't have to.
Baam wasn't the weak one in the room.
He was the one built to consume monsters.
I leaned back against the wall again, letting the moment settle.
"I don't give power to monsters," I said simply.
Khun met my eyes, understanding the warning and the promise layered underneath.
He shut his mouth and nodded once.
Baam's origins were now a secret shared by three monsters.
SCENE 2 — THE BLACK MARCH PROBLEM
Silence stretched between us, thick with things nobody wanted to say out loud.
Rak muttered about hunting. Baam held a hand to his chest, still feeling the lingering warmth. Khun probably calculated seventeen different paths to disaster, all branching off this hallway.
I cut through it.
"Next question," I said.
Baam straightened instinctively. "Um… yes?"
I met his eyes.
"Where's Black March?"
He went pale. Instantly.
Khun groaned. "Oh no. Not this. Anything but this."
I frowned. "…Again?"
Khun pinched the bridge of his nose. "Baam, tell him."
Baam's voice shrank. "I… don't have her anymore."
"'Her,'" I repeated. "Good start. Where did she go?"
Baam stared at the floor, like the stone might open up and save him.
"I… made a bet."
Khun threw his hands up. "He made a bet during a test with a Princess candidate!"
Rak cackled. "BET TURTLE!"
I blinked slowly. "…Explain. Carefully."
Khun pointed accusingly at Baam.
"Anak Zahard," he said. "The angry green one. She jumped into the Crown Game with Green April, kicked him in the face, and then said—"
He switched to a mocking falsetto:
"If I win, you give me Black March and I'll tell you about that girl you're looking for."
Baam winced hard.
"…That's it?" I asked.
"YES, THAT'S IT!" Khun exploded. "She didn't even pretend to have real intel! She didn't know Rachel's name, appearance, floor—nothing! She just said 'I know something.' And Baam?"
He jabbed a thumb at him.
"Baam said: 'Okay.'"
Baam hid his face. "I wanted to find Rachel," he whispered. "It was my only chance."
I exhaled through my nose.
"So you traded an ignition weapon for information she almost definitely didn't have."
Baam nodded miserably.
Khun muttered, "He got scammed."
I shrugged.
"Where I come from, that's normal."
Baam glanced up, confused. "Normal?"
"You're desperate. Someone offers what you want. You pay too high a price. It happens." I pushed off the wall and rolled my shoulders. "What matters is what happens next."
Khun raised an eyebrow. "And what happens next?"
I turned toward the training wing.
"She took something," I said. "Now it's my turn to take from her."
SCENE 3 — TRAINING ROOM: ANAK, ENDORSI, AND A VISITOR
Training Area C buzzed like a hornet nest.
Anak Zahard whipped Green April through the air in wide, vicious arcs, sparring with Endorsi. Shinsu cracked like invisible whips. High heels flashed. Trainees had formed a loose circle at what they considered a safe distance — which, judging by their faces, still wasn't far enough.
I stepped into the doorway and let my presence bleed just enough that people noticed.
"Black March," I said. "Where is it?"
Both girls stopped mid-movement.
Endorsi's eyes narrowed. "Excuse you?"
Anak scowled. "We're training. Get lost."
I walked forward like I owned the floor.
"I'm not here for you," I said.
I nodded once at Green April.
"You took Black March from Baam."
Anak smirked, chin tilting up.
"He lost. I won. That's all."
"That's fine," I said.
She blinked. "What?"
"I'm not mad at how you took it," I continued. "Where I'm from, taking something is normal. Smart, even."
I stopped a few paces away — close enough to be rude, not close enough to be suicidal in their eyes.
"But where I'm from, once you take something…"
Heat rose gently off my skin. The air shimmered.
"…it becomes my turn to take from you."
Anak snorted. "You think you can?"
Endorsi's gaze sharpened. She'd already fought me once. She watched the gaps between my steps, not the steps themselves.
"I'm not thinking," I said. "I'm here."
Anak's grip tightened on Green April, knuckles pale. At her hip, the second sheath — Black March — hung like a stolen promise.
"Full length," she snarled, lifting Green April. "Let's see you try."
The emerald blade snapped forward, stretching like a whip toward my throat—
—and then it stopped.
Not because I dodged. I didn't move.
Green April simply refused.
The ignition weapon trembled in Anak's hands and recoiled, shivering away from my neck like it had hit an invisible wall.
"MOVE!" Anak yelled. "WHY WON'T YOU MOVE?!"
Green April shook again, answering her with pure refusal.
Endorsi's eyes widened. "…Oh," she breathed. "It's scared."
Anak turned on her. "Shut up! It's my weapon!"
I studied the blade, not the girl.
"Your weapon knows something you don't," I said.
Anak glared at me. "I'm a Princess candidate. I decide—"
"You're a half-princess," I cut in, voice still even. "With one ignition weapon you barely control and another you tricked away from a boy who trusted you."
Her cheeks flushed — anger, shame, something tangled between the two.
"You don't understand anything about me," she hissed.
"Correct," I said. "I don't care."
She froze at the bluntness.
I stepped just a little closer. Green April twitched like it wanted to hide behind my shoulder. Black March's sheath gave a tiny, almost eager vibration against her hip.
"You took Black March. That's fine. Where I'm from, that's fair."
Heat pulsed once, a small, contained sun inside my chest.
"But where I'm from…"
I tilted my head.
"…I get to take from you with a bigger fist."
Endorsi sucked in a breath.
"That's not Tower logic," she murmured. "It's… savage."
She scowled at me.
"It's barbaric."
I smiled at her without warmth.
"Barbaric works," I said. "Barbaric wins."
Anak lifted Green April again, shaking with rage. "I'll show you whose fist is bigger—!"
She lunged.
I stepped in, ignoring Green April entirely. My hand dropped straight to her hip, fingers closing around the hilt of Black March.
The sword throbbed once under my touch—
—and a Shinsu blade appeared at my throat.
—————
"Enough."
The instructor Ranker's presence slammed into the training room like a dropped fortress.
Shinsu pressure crashed down, heavy and suffocating. Trainees collapsed to their knees. The floor cracked under the weight of his intent.
His blade of compressed Shinsu hovered so close to my neck I could feel the heat of friction along my skin. My hand was still wrapped around Black March's hilt at Anak's hip.
"You don't interrupt Princess sparring," he said coldly. "You don't threaten Zahard's heir. And you do not lay your hands on a Princess's weapon."
The Shinsu blade hummed, eager to slice. One twitch and my head would leave my shoulders.
I didn't blink.
"I'm leaving," I said.
"No," he replied. "You're not."
The pressure doubled.
Anak stumbled. Endorsi's breath hitched. Some Regulars just blacked out on the spot.
I exhaled slowly.
Then I let my aura bleed out for real.
Heat rolled off my skin. The temperature spiked. The air warped.
Conqueror's Haki spread invisibly across the room—
—and bodies dropped.
Not dead. Just unconscious. Overwhelmed.
The Ranker's eyes widened. "You—"
I smiled. Just a little.
"You're strong."
His killing intent spiked, Shinsu roaring higher, slamming against my presence like a tidal wave against a burning cliff.
"You want to DIE, boy?!"
"No," I answered honestly. "I want you to try."
For the first time since entering the Tower, my blood sang.
Not like with Baam.
Not like with nervous Regulars.
This was different.
This one could hit back.
He roared and the Shinsu blade pressed harder, drawing a thin line of pressure against my skin. Black March vibrated under my fingers like it wanted to leap free—
—when three more Rankers appeared, Lighthouses blazing around them.
"STAND DOWN!"
"CUT IT OUT, BOTH OF YOU!"
"END YOUR AURAS. NOW."
Pressure stacked in the room.
My heat. Their Shinsu. The stone groaned, dust raining from the ceiling.
Anak couldn't move. Endorsi couldn't breathe.
We were one heartbeat from war—
"Enough."
Lero-Ro's Lighthouse slammed down between us, a wall of pale light that cut the tension like an order from the Tower itself.
Everything froze.
Shinsu locked.
Heat died.
I let go of Black March, hand lifting away. I pulled my Haki back like a tide withdrawing from shore.
Lero-Ro glared at all of us like we were the worst part of his day.
"You," he snapped at the Rankers, "withdraw your killing intent. Now."
They obeyed, reluctantly.
Then he turned to me.
"And you," he said, quieter but somehow sharper, "are worse at hiding what you are than I expected."
I shrugged.
"I wanted that fight."
"That," Lero-Ro said dryly, "is exactly the problem."
Tank-class Regulars in reinforced gear moved in around me, forming a loose semicircle.
"You're restricted from the training wing," one of them said. "Escort duty — move."
I didn't argue.
I just walked.
They flanked me like I might explode at any second.
None of them got within arm's reach.
——————-
From Anak and Endorsi's side, it looked worse.
Four tankers. One Ranker. All surrounding a single Regular who walked with his hands in his pockets.
Not cuffed.
Not bound.
Not afraid.
Just bored.
The tankers kept at least a full body's length between him and them, like he was some wild beast that might bite if crowded.
Endorsi stared. "…Is he stupid?" she muttered.
Anak scowled. "He ignored us. He turned his back on me."
Endorsi rubbed her cheek, remembering. "He beat me with pure martial arts."
Anak blinked. "What?"
"No Shinsu," Endorsi said bitterly. "No weapons. No tricks. Just bare hands."
She saw it again in her mind — the clean redirections, the way a single tap broke her center of gravity, how he moved her like she was a practice dummy and didn't even look proud of it.
"He embarrassed me without meaning to," she admitted. "And then he tried to rip a Princess's weapon off my teammate's hip in front of a Ranker."
She clicked her tongue.
"It's barbaric," she said. "He doesn't move like a Regular. He moves like something that doesn't care about the rules."
Anak swallowed, fingers tightening around Green April's hilt.
"When he looked at me," she whispered, "I couldn't move."
Endorsi turned. "You froze?"
Anak's voice cracked. "You didn't feel it? When he focused? I couldn't decide anything. I couldn't choose to attack or retreat. My body just… stopped."
Endorsi's eyes narrowed.
"That wasn't fear," she said. "That was instinct."
"Like prey," Anak muttered, "seeing a predator."
The escort group turned a corner with him at the center. The Ranker kept his Lighthouse hovering overhead, ready to cut him down.
Endorsi watched them go.
"He didn't see us as threats," she said quietly.
Anak glared. "What did he see, then?"
"Annoyances," Endorsi answered.
She looked down at her hands.
"And when he looked at the Ranker…?"
Anak remembered that flash in his eyes — the way his aura had brightened, not darkened.
"…He looked excited," she whispered.
Endorsi nodded once.
"That's why I'm not laughing."
Green April pulsed weakly in Anak's grip, as if remembering heat and refusing to extend again.
"That boy," Endorsi said softly, gaze on the empty doorway where he'd vanished, "is not climbing the Tower."
Anak frowned. "What is he doing then?"
Endorsi's eyes darkened.
"He's going to tear through it."