Chapter 41: Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are

I felt a chill up my spine the moment those words left his mouth. 43? Was it even possible to have that many? Wait, actually, it was now that I thought about it. If they had also defeated teams already holding multiple sashes, their stash count would have grown rapidly. Still, it was an astounding number—one that made Zara’s team one we couldn’t afford to ignore.

Lunch was served and finished quickly. Shortly after, instructors—likely external vendors, or volunteers— soon briefed us on the next activity: rescue drills. They broke us into smaller groups and guided us through key rescue techniques, such as locating individuals in dense terrain, stabilising injuries, and efficiently transporting victims. We were assigned sections of the forest to search, with dummies representing injured people at various difficulty levels.

I was a little disappointed that there was no combat practice involved in this activity, but it did offer us a brief respite from using our Abilities. Additionally, this activity seemed to provide an introduction to students who might potentially be interested in the Search and Rescue roles in the future. While Search and Rescue primarily focuses on saving lives, field missions often take place in hostile environments, especially in scenarios involving natural disasters or conflicts, so I guess it wasn’t a complete waste of time. Mira, for example, probably found it interesting.

The day dragged on until night fell. After dinner though, we apparently had another activity.

“Hide and Seek,” declared Ms Reina. “Except you guys won’t be the only ones playing. Us teachers and several of your instructors from earlier will be taking part as well. Your mission is to locate and tag us. Each instructor you tag earns your team 50 credits, and each teacher earns your team 100 credits.”

I perked up. If we tagged a teacher and split the reward, each of us would get 20 credits, which would be enough for a meal at a restaurant of good quality. It wasn’t anything impressive, but it was a suitable enough incentive. Besides, it looked to be more of an informal, fun activity. While Ability use was allowed, combat was forbidden.

With five classes in on the action, roughly 200 students were assigned to find the 5 homeroom teachers in addition to 10 instructors. Naturally, I had my sights set on our own teacher, Ms Reina. As I watched her move around in her black gym clothes—seemingly to camouflage with the night— I couldn't shake the urge to tag her. My group seemed to share my sentiments.

“How are we gonna find her though?” Kaede asked.

“Yeah, she’s probably gonna be impossible to find,” concurred Jonah. “Still, I’m really curious to see her in action! I wonder if she’ll use it to escape? Or to simply hide?”

The adults were given 15 minutes to hide themselves. We sat with bated breath by the edge of our campsite, waiting for the timer to go off. The night air was cool and refreshing, contrasted by the flames of the campfire licking the sky.

Soon, it was finally time. We flicked on the flashlights we were given and ventured into the forest. In the distance, I could see more light rays from other students as the other classes headed in the same direction as us.

The forest was relatively large, but with 200 students spread out and searching in groups, it would be hard for anyone to stay hidden. Pretty soon, we heard the first signs of an encounter somewhere behind us.

My group headed in the direction of the noise, eager to snag a lucky tag. Unfortunately, we were too late. Raven had her hand on the shoulder of an instructor, who was just picking himself up from the floor. The remnants of a portal disappeared above him.

“Gotchu,” she said. The instructor dusted himself off and, with a look of satisfaction, handed her what looked like a card. I supposed it was the proof of capture.

“No time to waste,” I said as I turned away, heading deeper into the forest. My friends followed closely behind me, sticking close together. In the dark of the night, having one of us go missing would be incredibly sub-optimal.

Suddenly, I had a thought. “You know, I thought that it would be easier to spot the hiders if we covered the ground since it’ll be hard to spot anyone from the sky, but perhaps we could fly to the far end of the forest and begin scouring the grounds from there?”

“Sounds like a plan! Whenever you’re ready,” Scarlette readily agreed.

“Don’t randomly drop us!” Kaede warned.

At night, there was less energy from the surroundings for me to absorb, but Scarlette rested her hand on my shoulder, flames spilling from beneath her fingers. The energy was just sufficient enough to keep the five of us hovering above the forest canopy as we floated to the other end of the forest.

Stolen novel; please report.

As we arrived, I slowly set us down.

“Wow, that was a fun experience!” Jonah cheered.

“Uh, right…”

I turned to look at Kaede, whose legs were wobbling.

“Not too good with heights?” I asked.

“Don’t tell anyone!” she whispered. The moonlight barely illuminated her facial features, but I could sense she was blushing.

We flicked on our flashlights once again and swept the beams around.

“Should we split up so we can cover more ground?” Scarlette suggested.

I thought for a moment. “I guess it should be fine. It’s not like we’ll be fighting anyone. Kaede’ll be with me, the other three of you still make a well-balanced team if anything happens,” I suggested.

“Sounds good,” Scarlette replied. “If we find anyone, should I send a signal flare to alert the two of you?”

I shook my head. “It’ll just attract the other groups. You can try to catch them yourselves.”

Scarlette straightened up. “Alright. See y’all later then.” Jonah and Mira followed her as they set off.

Kaede and I were left behind in the darkness. I was fine with being left by myself, but I wondered if Kaede would be alright with it. I was just about to ask her out of curiosity when I saw movement as I adjusted my flashlight. Instantly, I activated my Ability. Whoever they were was now rooted to the spot.

“I think I saw something move there,” Kaede whispered. It seemed that she had seen it too.

“Yeah, I’ve already frozen them. Let’s go.”

“Wow, fast.”

The two of us approached cautiously while being careful not to trip on any roots or fallen branches. While combat was disabled for this event, I was worried that some teams may try to get cheeky with others. Therefore, I kept my guard up in case this was someone’s idea of a prank or something. However, as we approached, I could tell it was really an instructor.

I reached out and tapped him on the shoulder before unfreezing him.

"That’s some power you’ve got. Here’s your prize," he said, handing me a card similar to the one Raven had received. I gave it a quick glance—“50” was boldly printed at its centre. I took it and stashed it in my pocket.

“I’ll be taking my leave then. Good luck.” The instructor proceeded to take out what looked like a small remote control and pressed a button on it. Immediately, he disappeared.

“Some teleportation device?” Kaede rubbed her chin.

“I assume so.”

Putting that behind us, we quickly set off once again. Ideally, I would like to tag a teacher.

As we were navigating our way through the forest, the sky suddenly lit up. A giant holographic screen appeared in the distance.

Role

Remaining

Teachers

5/5

Instructors

6/10

Time

44:58

“The heck is that?” I muttered. “Some kind of Ability… or just tech?” Whichever it was, it was useful information.

“Seems like all 5 of the teachers haven’t been caught,” Kaede observed. “They’re all still up for grabs.”

“The instructors are going down fast though.”

“Hopefully Scarlette’s group managed to snag one!” she mused. “Anyway, where should we go next?”

I reached out my hand. “Care for another flight?”

“Umm, well… I mean, if you insist,” Kaede sputtered.

I swallowed down a chuckle. “Don’t worry, we’ll just be floating a meter above the ground. We’ll cover more ground that way.”

“Oh, alright then,” she said, slipping her hand into mine. “You’d like some energy, right?”

I gave a slight nod, trying to stay grounded, though the softness of her hand was hard to ignore. Was it always this—no, focus.

“Let’s skirt the perimeter. I think we’re close to the beach,” I suggested.

I felt her plasma flow into my hand as I levitated the two of us, just a meter above, as promised. The forest appeared to shift beneath us, tree branches swaying slightly in the wind.

We drifted silently for a moment, the distant hum of the ocean faint but growing louder. Every shadow below us felt like a potential target—maybe a teacher, maybe an instructor waiting to be tagged.

“See anything yet?” she asked softly, her grip tightening just slightly.

“Not yet. Hopefully, we have better luck at the beach.”

We glided closer to where the forest gave way to sand, the dense canopy thinning. The salt in the air was stronger now, and the waves ahead crashed softly against the shore.

I halted the levitation as we reached the border of the beach. The open expanse seemed like an unlikely hiding spot—too exposed for anyone trying to avoid detection. Still, the dense patches of vegetation scattered along the edge made for decent cover.

We stuck close to the boundary between forest and sand, scanning every bush, tree, and clump of undergrowth. The quiet was unsettling. There wasn’t a single student other than us in sight, which made me wonder if they’d dismissed this area as well. Maybe they assumed no one would risk hiding here.

It was then that I saw the slightest movement from behind a palm tree.

I put a hand on Kaede’s shoulder, gesturing for her to stop and pointing at the tree. She turned to look in the direction I was pointing at. Without a doubt, it was someone’s hair blowing in the gentle, coastal breeze. It was most likely a female, given the length of the hair.

However, just as I got within activation range of my Ability, the figure behind the tree turned to face us. We couldn’t see her face clearly, but her silhouette was unmistakable. It was the very lady we were searching for.

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Administration Notes:

School: Waning Crescent

Name: Mello Lean

Gender: Male

Year: First-year

Rank: 2-Star

Division: Combat

Ability: Mello possesses the Ability to inflict a debuff on a selected object. This debuff must be manually activated within six hours of its application. Once activated, anyone within close proximity to the object will begin to accumulate fatigue, with the effects intensifying exponentially with distance. The debuff lasts for over an hour.

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