SPLAT.
Raizen launched, the harness hissed, and everything that should have been clean turned into a shove in the wrong direction. He hit the reinforced panel shoulder first and left a perfect sweat print of a mistake. The plate on his back rang like a dull bell. Gravity remembered it had a Job. He slid down until he was a heap, half laughing, half out of air.
Somewhere behind the clipboard, Kori sighed.
"That is the fiftieth wall this week," she said. "You're running out of walls, Raizen."
"Good thing I brought a spare spine," he managed.
The training hall absorbed the noise like it had seen worse. Crosshatched drains waited under the floor for accidents. The black plate on Raizen's back thrummed against bone. Two thick cables hooked over his shoulders and down to the actuator bars along his arms. When he breathed, tiny pistons twitched at his triceps like shy animals.
Saffi peeked from behind a crate, grease on her cheek. "Ten out of ten splat. Three out of ten landing."
