Michael yawned and tried to blink himself awake. He stood in the gymnasium, but Michael only had the faintest idea of how he'd gotten there. If he thought really hard he could just- Michael's head bobbed. He knew he shouldn't sleep but it just sounded so nice. A few moments of shut eye couldn't hurt.

Barely a moment later, someone nudged him gently, interrupting pleasant dreams. He glared at the culprit but then softened his gaze and patted his face upon seeing Lieutenant Strong.

"Come on, wake up. Don't fail out just to snooze a bit." His bunkmate said.

Michael took a deep breath, held it and opened his eyes as wide as they could go. He felt the edges of alertness tugging at his brain. He repeated this process until finally, someone could count him among the living.

He turned to look at Lieutenant Strong who said. "We'll be partners for this morning's physical fitness test."

Michael nodded at the lieutenant, taking in the room as he did so. His classmates had arranged themselves in a half-moon around a sailor with a whistle. Having just taken in the crowd, the doors to the gymnasium thudded shut and the sailor clapped their hands. Push ups, pull ups, sit ups, sprints, and a closing run. That's what they'd be tested on every day. Once a week they'd have swimming requirements to meet as well.

Despite his enhanced body- by virtue of his truth- Michael performed worse than he would have liked. He exceeded the minimums but it had been a near thing in pull ups and sprints. To graduate the program, he'd need to double his pulls ups and shave a bit off of his shuttle time. These weren't even standards for enhanced individuals- just normal human beings. With a shake of his head, Michael acknowledged the work he'd need to do in the coming weeks.

After all that, Michael was well and truly awake. He chatted with Strong as they walked back to the showers and naturally the events of the previous night came up.

"Geez, I can see how that could turn bloody." Strong said, throwing a towel over his shoulder. "Our bodies are a well oiled machine after all, quadrupling the load on any component should be done only with careful consideration."

Michael nodded. It made sense, muscles were normally the place to start because strengthening your muscles led to other physiological changes as well. In particular, bone density and strength increased gradually in response to heavier loads. Furthermore, bone was already quite strong and generally didn't need to change much to accommodate regular strength training. The fact that the bone did break just highlighted how dangerous mana could be if he wasn't careful.

They parted ways briefly while they took care of the essentials before meeting up again to grab some breakfast together. As they walked to the galley, they continued their discussion on mana for a bit, but gradually turned to other topics. Turned out that Strong had graduated from Westpoint a little over a year ago, doing well in his class, which also made him a couple of years older than Michael. A few stories later and their meal had almost finished when Alice's posse joined them.

Michael shared a look pseudo-panic with the LT, who gave a sly smile glancing at his tray. Michael looked down and noticed the distinct absence of food. Meanwhile, Michael's own tray remained a quarter full. The LT's smile broadened and he politely dismissed himself from the table. Michael gave his fleeing friend a betrayed look as Strong left him to the wolves. With a chuckle, he dismissed the hyperbole and only briefly contemplated wolfing down the rest of his meal. He also had too much food remaining to do so covertly- his gluttony having sealed his fate.

Meanwhile, the moment Jenna took her seat, she spoke up. "Last night was gnarly."

Michael grimaced while he shoved a massive spoonful of eggs into his mouth.

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Even as she spooned some food into her mouth, she spoke. "The way the blood spurted onto Alice." She shook her head. "Sick, dude."

Ah crap. She had reminded Alice of that tidbit.

"How'd you do that by the way? I looked at Maria's arm for like an hour after and I couldn't see a thing." She finished her bite of food, continuing in a faux dreamy tone. "Other than her silky smooth flaw-"

She was interrupted by a playful jab of an elbow and cut her statement off. She gave the group a sly smile, earning herself a few chuckles. Fortunately, this led the girls to a different topic and some light hearted bantering.

He had just finished the remainder of his food and started to get up when he was stopped by a- "Whoa, whoa, whoa mister. We're all curious, how'd you do it?"

Michael froze. "What do you mean? Do what?"

Jenna spoke up. "You know, the arm thing?"

Alice cleared her throat. "I have a good sense for mana in general," She gestured around her, "but I can't make heads or tails of it once it's inside somebody else's body."

Michael cocked his head. "Huh, I hadn't realized." He pondered for a moment. "You know, I usually can't make out ambient mana all that well."

About half the group nodded at this, while the other half gave him a confused look.

He looked at the ceiling for a moment before continuing, "Here, let's see if I can explain it."

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Alice

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Alice watched as Michael closed his eyes. She paid close attention to him with her enhanced senses and noticed a thin sheet of mana pour off of his body, purposeless at first. She continued watching the mana even as it started to converge on her forehead. She felt a cool sensation on her face for the briefest of moments before the power dispersed. It had felt like nothing, something she doubted she'd have noticed if she hadn't been paying close attention, with the awareness she had developed.

Even now, she could feel the force the mana in the room was exerting on her. The relatively calm mana of the floors and walls visible only as a whisper. Meanwhile, the mana in the air vibrated joyfully, constantly being excited by the breathing and movement of the people in the galley. From what she'd seen so far of mana, the best word to describe it was- chaotic? It took on whatever nature it pleased in the moment. She'd seen mana that was perfectly still yet also other mana that was completely unstable.

It was odd. Silently, she reached out to a few of the particles in the table. She was on the cusp of something, a crucial realization just a few thoughts away-

At that moment Michael spoke up. "Basically, I use the mana within me to hone in on how people are using mana."

Well no duh, she thought with a flash of irritation. She'd suspected as much when the cloud of mana had converged on her forehead. She was pretty sure that was where her mana sense was housed.

Jenna spoke up. "I mean yeah, that's kind of obvious, but how did you do that?"

"Oh. Hmm. I'm not sure."

Alice felt the mana in her companions shift, revealing their dissatisfaction with that answer.

Deciding to help out she spoke up, "I might be able to help with that. I was watching you with my mana sense as you did your thing." She then explained what she'd seen, which started the gears turing in her companions' heads.

"So it's like a directed scan?" Maria, the MMA fighter asked. "What kind of image do you see?"

The mention of an image caused a thought to flash through Alice's mind. Wasn't it pretty rude to use a kind of observation power on someone without asking?

"A fairly detailed model of the target, but stripped-"

Alice felt herself panic in response to his words. A stripped down model of the target?

"-down to the components the mana is being used with. In your case, you use cords of mana in conjunction with your muscle, so I could see your skeleton and muscular system."

Alice felt her eyes narrow, that was definitely not something he should be using without permission.

Michael shrugged. "Though I can't be sure it was actually your skeleton and not some stock model my brain threw in."

Well, that made it a bit better at least, but Alice could feel how tense Maria was. "You probably shouldn't be using that without asking though, Michael." Alice said.

Michael's eyes went wide. "Oh shoot! You're right!" He looked at Maria and herself, "I"m sorry. I shouldn't have used that power without checking if it was cool by you guys." He grimaced. "Kind of a big invasion of privacy."

"Just don't do it again and we're cool." Maria said while her posture relaxed.

Michael nodded at Maria before turning to Alice.

Alice just rolled her eyes, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Everyone's a bit trigger happy with their super powers these days."

That got a decent chuckle out of her friends, and they soon resumed their conversations. Rather than leave the table as Michael had been about to before they had asked him about his power, Michael stayed for the rest of breakfast.