"Let's go to the BBQ!"
"I know a good shop nearby."
Kouji let out a slight laugh, as Yuusuke was more enthusiastic than he had been for the past few hours.
"What's up, buddy?" he said, with a curious look.
"No, nothing, haha"
"Shit, is there something on my face?"
"No, I told you, it's nothing."
The two laughed for a few more minutes as they walked along the path.
"Here we are." The two went inside, "A seat for two?"
They placed their order and time flew by.
"Damn, this is delicious—Kouji, you've never left your city, have you?"
Yuusuke stuffed his mouth full.
"No, I never had a reason."
"You have to try this."
Kouji took the piece of meat he had put on the grill a few minutes earlier and ate it with his chopsticks.
"Yummy!"
"Yes, right?"
The two of them spent the rest of the evening stuffing themselves, and Yuusuke paid for both of you.
"Shall we go for a drink?"
"I would like to, but I'm still exhausted from earlier."
"That's right, you've never fought before."
"Okay, then we'll do it another time haha"
Yuusuke grinned broadly and the two went back to their rooms.
"See you in the morning."
It was already late, and when Kouji arrived in his room, he sat on the edge of his bed and thought again about his current situation.
The Hunter organization looked nothing like his old school building, the one Kouji was used to. No sticky tape remnants from posters on the wall, no spilled flooring, and no electronics he could fix in his spare time.
The buildings had not failed –presumably to avoid attracting attentionThey were connected by two superimposed corridors. The main building had the design of an old prison: a rectangular building with a courtyard in the middle, while the other building looked like a normal hotel.
–Well, theoretically it is.
From the outside, you hardly notice it, but if you venture inside, you notice it immediately. This building is part of a capability or is protected by one.
–That's right, when we were at the training ground, someone was thrown into the building with full force, without causing any damage.
Since Kouji's arrival here, he has seen some people, some smiling, like Yuusuke, but most don't look very happy.
–Have they lost their smiles?
Will I lose mine soon too?
–Never!
"So this is my new home," he said, getting out of bed and walking to the window. He opened it, sat on the windowsill, and enjoyed the view. If there weren't any buildings in the way, one might have been able to see Mount Fuji, as it lies in the direction of the window, but that wasn't possible for Kouji. Instead, his gaze was fixed on the training ground below, which was perfectly visible from his window.
"Nobody downstairs," he said, as a short but cold gust of air flew through his window.
"I can do a little training, falling asleep is out of the question anyway."
He packed a small backpack, took the katana Yuusuke gave him, and went to the elevator. The elevator was already on this floor; apparently, no one had used it since. He entered the elevator and pressed the button for 0 to go to the ground floor.
–There are also buttons below the number one; do these lead to the lower rooms that Yuusuke mentioned?
DING! The elevator arrived on the ground floor, but Kouji didn't get out of it immediately.
He hesitates for a second, then presses -1.
–I'm sorry, Yuusuke, but I need to know.
After Kouji pressed the button, nothing changed and the doors didn't close either. A small
A light next to the button served as an indicator for an access card. Disappointed and saddened, Kouji tilted his head downwards.
"HAHAHA"
A female voice laughed teasingly from a distance.
"What kind of person are you?" asked the voice.
Kouji stepped out of the elevator, –It's not going down anyway.—and looked towards the reception desk. Where Chikako usually sat at this time, there was now a girl with short, green-dyed hair. She was wearing a modified version of the standard uniform, with a white blouse instead of the usual black one, a black tie, and a light gray sweater over it.
"Are you new here or something?"
Kouji glanced around briefly, but she was speaking very clearly to him.
"Uh—Yeah, I joined two days ago."
"Where is Chikako?"
"Ah, the witch has sentenced me to the night shift, but there's nothing going on today anyway."
–Since I'm already here, I can also ask about my uniform.
"One question: Is it possible to modify a uniform?"
"Do you mean for the fight or the appearance?"
"Both."
"Hahaha."
"Finally, someone with a bit of a sense of fashion."
She leaned slightly forward and supported her head with her hands on her cheek.
"Then go ahead and shoot."
"I would prefer to wear a sweater instead of a shirt."
"Oh!" She smiled slightly, which unsettled Kouji somewhat: "Normally they let things like that slide, but I can't guarantee anything."
"Am I actually allowed to design my room the way I would like it to be?"
"As long as you don't tear down any walls, it's safe."
Her grin widened, "or do you need soundproof walls for all the girls you're going to bring with you?"
Kouji blushed slightly, "No, not for that."
"Just kidding, the walls are soundproofed anyway, so you can let loose."
"I'm not like that!"
"Hahaha," she laughed again, Kouji was somewhat irritated by her teasing, "You're funny, what's your name?"
After she asked, he relaxed again.
"I am Kouji."
"Kouji too," she moved her eyes over him once, almost as if scanning him, and added, "Have fun training."
Kouji glanced briefly at himself.
–Is it really that noticeable?
"Thanks."
He turned around and walked towards the training grounds. The girl leaned back again and stretched out her legs.
"(Yawn) Can this shift finally end?"
Kouji was already too far away to hear it.
Arriving at the training grounds, he puts down his backpack. He had overheard a conversation between an instructor and a student earlier that afternoon.
– 'Understand your ability like your mother tongue, test your limits,' he said.
–But how exactly am I supposed to do that?
„AHHH!"
–I'll start with something simple.
He grasped the katana and gripped it firmly. As if it were merging with him, he felt the entire structure of the katana in his hand. Meanwhile, Ryo, carrying documents, walked past a window outside the training ground and looked to his right, through the window, down at Kouji.
–For the table leg in the cafeteria, I simply imagined I would encase it in metal.
Kouji exerted himself again, and his effort bore fruit. The katana's handle was encased in steel.
–Great, it worked—but what exactly does that do for me?
While Kouji criticizes his creation, Ryo's eyes are almost wide open.
Kouji hadn't noticed it because he was too focused, and it would have remained invisible to most people. But Ryo had excellent perception of auras and saw it clearly.
"At this distance," he mumbled to himself, standing for another second to analyze Kouji.
But Ryo's gaze was almost piercing Kouji's neck. He turned around, feeling like he was being watched, but nobody was there, and when Kouji turned back, his katana was bent.
„WAS?!"
"Why is it bent now?!"
–Has someone invisibly crept up on my sword? What an idiot—No, wait…—If you were to bend a katana with brute force like that, would it break, or is this place haunted???
Kouji tried to bend the katana back with brute force, but he couldn't, so he got some help from a nearby tree and the katana broke.
–Shit! How do I explain this to Yuusuke and Ryo—wait…
Kouji placed the two pieces close together, took some superglue from his pocket, and opened it.
"Would it distort the result?"
He put the superglue aside again and placed his hands on the broken blade. As he gathered some aura in his palm, the image flashed through his mind once more, this time including the break. He saw the fracture like a 3D model on a computer.
He gathers a little more aura, and a thin layer of steel forms between the two pieces—no. The two pieces were fused together.
"I did it! —Is that how welding works?"
Kouji was not yet aware of this fact, and so he continued to perform simple swings for another hour.with the katanathrough, before he made his way back to his room.
As he walked past the reception desk, the girl was still sitting there and waved to him; he waved slightly back and went to his room.
He threw the backpack into the corner andtheHe placed the katana on the table.
"HA—Finally back in the room"
He threw himself onto his bed and stared at the ceiling; the window was still open, and a breeze was blowing through the room. Kouji pulled the covers up over himself. Through the open window, Kouji could hear someone else coming home directly below him. It was probably Yuusuke returning, from wherever he had gone.
Kouji closed his eyes and fell asleep a short time later.
A dream.
He stood in the middle of a white, seemingly endless corridor. Suddenly, faceless creatures rushed towards him. He was armed with a sword. The blade was pure and unblemished. He vanquished the creatures and continued on. After several more creatures, his blade was completely covered in ink, and the creatures now resembled humans, while the corridor appeared increasingly ruined.
No more creatures appeared, but as he followed the corridor as before, he bumped into a glass wall. In the glass, he saw his own reflection, but it was inverted. His normally yellow eyes appeared blue, while his brown hair looked almost white. The mirror image ran toward him, and when it stood directly in front of the glass, it pushed its hand through, grabbed one of the resulting shards, and slashed Kouji's throat.