Emanuel scored a three-pointer, sailing clear over Ken's head. The boy they'd met hours ago, the sole member of the Anime Club, laughed at Ken.

The boy had introduced himself as Tiziano Esposito, though he went by Ano. To Emanuel and Ken's surprise, he was actually in Lily Class of their year, despite his overwhelming physical stature. The three of them- Emanuel, Ken, and Ano- had agreed to meet up at the basketball courts in a nearby park that night to discuss Ano's numerous confrontations with the unusual Feeders. Of course, there's no harm in a quick game or two, right?

"This ain't fair!" Ken shouted as he dropped onto his back. "How come I gotta go against an Orion! I bet you're microdosing Organion in all your shots!"

"I'm just that good baby," Emanuel jeered. "You even got Ano on your team, and I'm still whooping your ass!"

"My man you are NOT good at this," Ano said to Ken, laughing as he caught his breath. "You gotta, like, jump up to block. I don't play basketball and even I know that."

"Shut the fuck up lil bro," Ken snapped back. "We can't all be built like a Greek god."

Ano flexed.

"Fuck you," Ken said as he picked up the ball.

"Aren't you guys supposed to be on the same team?" Emanuel mocked.

"Yeah yeah, keep laughing."

The three of them lined up at the half court line, and Ken bent down and got into a low posture. With a flash of blue light, Ken dashed past Emanuel, leaping up into the air behind him. Ken crossed the ball between his legs, spun in the air, and brought down the ball towards the rim- only for it to be smacked onto the ground in a burst of blue sparks. Emanuel slung himself over the backboard of the hoop, his momentum carrying him too far forward, as Ken dropped back down to the ground.

"Oh we cheating now?" Emanuel laughed from on top of the hoop. "If we're playing with haons we gotta lift the nets up!"

"How the fuck did you do that?" Ken shouted up at him.

"I was faster than you, duh. Stu-pid. I-diot." Emanuel dropped down from the hoop. "Let's raise these fucking nets up and play some real basketball."

The three raised the rims of the nets to double their original height, and took their places once again at the half-court line. Ken could not see him, but Ano had a wicked smile across his face, one that chilled Emanuel to his core. Emanuel handed the ball back to Ken, since it was technically Emanuel's out. Blue light poured out of the three of them; Ken's flickered like the blaze of a fire, Emanuel's crackled around him like sparks of lightning, and Ano's gleamed out in all directions like a bright light. The three locked eyes with each other, Ken noticing the smile on Ano's face for the first time, and then looked back at Emanuel. The three nodded at each other.

"Let's go!" they shouted together.

Ken took an indirect approach this time, dribbling the ball right up to Emanuel before pivoting around him and attempting to get behind him. Emanuel didn't fall for this at all, immediately reaching down and swiping the ball out from under Ken, leaving the boy to nearly fall on his face. Emanuel dashed forward, crossing over to the other side of the court almost immediately. Ken ran after him, but couldn't keep up. Emanuel ran up to the corner of the court, at the three-point line, and immediately pulled back to make the shot. He pulled his wrist back, but the moment he threw the ball- it was gone? A wall of blue light covered Emanuel's vision, tracing a path from the far side of the court to where he stood, and rebounding with near perfect accuracy off of the edge of the court. Emanuel blinked rapidly as he head the sound the backboard of the hoop rattling after a dunk. Emanuel followed the wall of light towards the sound, and found Ano casually dribbling the ball under the hoop, which still rattled from the force of the impact.

"Uh..." Emanuel and Ken looked at each other. "What the fuck was that?" they said in unison.

"What's up?" Ano smirked. "Never seen Organion before?"

"One more time?" Emanuel asked.

"Yeah, sure." Ano mocked, and proceeded to flash to the other side of the court. The gust he'd kicked up still blew through Ken and Emanuel's hair as they heard the other hoop rattle with the force of Ano's dunk. Ken and Emanuel stared at each other, dumbfounded.

"You wanna explain exactly why the fuck you can do that, mister Greek god?" Ken asked.

"Well, it's 'cause I'm Ano Esposito. You know DEAN Esposito? You know HEADMASTER Esposito? Yeah, THAT Esposito."

"Oh, shit," Emanuel said. "Wait, how come you're in Lily then? You're, like, Bellflower tier."

"That's because I don't have A MOD!" Ano shouted as he threw the ball into the ground, letting it rebound so far into the air that the group lost sight of it, and then did the cabbage patch. "Oh yeah baby, oh yeah, you can imagine how my childhood went!"

"Oh word, you have trauma too?" Emanuel asked.

"Yeah," Ano said, continuing to do the cabbage patch. "Everyone's got trauma, my man."

"What?"

"I- Emanuel," Ken stuttered. "Emanuel, be so fucking for real with me right now. Did you not know everyone, or like basically everyone, has trauma?"

The basketball hit Ano in the head, and he stopped doing the cabbage patch.

"I... I mean my parents don't," Emanuel replied.

"My man," Ano said, rubbing his head, "they probably do and just don't talk about it. That's how trauma works."

"Do- do my parents have trauma?"

"I mean probably," Ken replied, "I've never met them."

Emanuel stared ahead at the two of them, mouth agape, then looked down at his shoes, then up to the night sky, then back at the two of them. Ano and Ken looked at each other awkwardly. Ano walked over to his bag to grab a sweat rag, and wiped the sweat off his face. Ken got his drink out of his bag, and offered some to Emanuel. He didn't move.

"So, Ano," Ken said as he sat down on the bench next to Ano. The two continued to look at Emanuel, who stood in the corner of the court and stared blankly into the wall. "I get you're family's like a big deal and all, but, like, how the FUCK do you move so fast? Like that was some next-level shit."

"Ah, well, that's just practice," Ano replied as if that made perfect sense.

"I- sure, let's say that tracks, now exactly how much practice are we talking?"

"Oh, you know, six hours a day."

"Yeah yeah six hours a day just a quarter of the day."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"I mean it's two hours of muscle training, two hours of Organion training, and then two hours of combat practice, so it all works out pretty good, you know?"

"Oh yeah just two hours of combat practice a day, can I ask what against?"

"Oh my dad just puts all the assignments that nobody's touched in a month on me, and I just clear them out if they're still active."

"I see. That makes perfect sense." Ken stared at the boy, wide-eyed as if he'd seen a gruesome murder. Ano didn't seem to notice.

"Yeah, I used to train more as a kid. Like, ten hours a day."

"What the fuck? My brother in Christ, what were you training for?"

"Don't laugh, okay?" Ano said as he looked away from Ken. "I watched anime ever since I was a kid... and I was always training to be my GOAT from my favorite show."

"And that is?"

"Jake Allister."

"I- you know he's a real guy, right? Like bro was a real dude that did all that."

"Yeah, and that's why I figured if he could do it, I could do it."

"Wasn't Jake kinda carried by his Mod?"

"Yeah, but that was only after he got enough power to use it- he started out just as weak as anyone else. So if he could do it, I can do it- Mod or no."

Ano smiled absentmindedly into the sky. Ken looked at the boy, who seemed so unaccustomed to smiling, yet seemed so happy in this moment. It felt... oddly inspiring.

"And what rank are you, if you don't mind?"

"I'm a three-star."

Ken nearly fell off the bench. "I see. Three stars. The highest rank a person without a Mod can reach without special approval directly from the Orion Family's Special Cases Bureau, which hasn't given that distinction out in nearly ten years. How old are you again?"

"How the fuck do you know all that?"

"My uncle doesn't have a Mod. He's a Slayer. He's the guy from ten years ago. Like, he's THAT guy. He brags about it a lot"

"Oh damn, that's actually pretty rad. I'm fifteen to answer your last question."

"I'm gonna throw up."

"Yo, shit my man, you go to hard during the game?"

"No, no, nothing like that. Just... outclassed."

"I don't know man," Ano smiled softly, "your control was pretty damn impressive. I'm all about raw output over any technical details, so seeing your Organion have such a defined shape was really cool, actually. You and him over there, too."

"Thanks... I guess..."

"No, like, seriously. I could never. That's pro-grade control, like my dad's Organion is as defined as yours. How'd you do it?"

"I fight Feeders a lot. Not two hours a day a lot, just... I get a lot of assignments."

"I can see why, you're probably in high demand!"

"Nah, I actually... I seek them out, to be honest."

"How come?"

"I'm... look, I'm gonna level with you, I'm... I'm broke as shit. I need to keep doing assignments to pay for me and my sister's stay here. It's super pricy, so I'm out on assignments like three days a week."

"Wait, is that last part for real?" Emanuel asked, seeming to snap out of his stupor, though he continued to face the wall.

"Yeah. Don't tell Isabella, okay?"

"Girl, I know Solomon, like, personally. I could probably get you on a welfare program or some shit."

Ken blinked repeatedly, stunned. "What the fuck is 'welfare program?'" he asked at last, his accent slipping in as he tried to pronounce words he'd never heard before.

"There is no fucking way..." Ano laughed as his head fell into his hands.

"Since you're going out on all these assignments," Ken began as Emanuel had finally snapped from his trance- though he paused to text his parents before they reconvened- and the two of them stood around Ano. "I assume that's how you found these hybrid Feeders, right?"

"That's right. I see them every now and then, but they're pretty rare. I never thought about them too much, I just figured it was a weird-ass animal that made them."

"Girl be for real," Emanuel said. "But seriously, what kinds of Feeders have you seen?"

"I saw one that was a ball with a dog's head, a goat's head, and a sheep's head, and it rolled around like that."

"Gross." Ken said. "Continue."

"There was a scorpion that had a badger's head, and there was a spider that had dog paws and a dog mouth, and then there was a snake with bird wings."

"And not one of those raised a red flag to you?" Emanuel asked.

"I mean kinda, I was all like 'that's weird, never seen that before,' but I've seen so many weird Feeders that I just thought they were the weird weird ones. It was weird, but not that weird, y'know?"

"I saw an iguana with bird wings," Ken said. "That's what started this whole thing, because I thought it was a dragon."

"A dragon?" Ano mocked. "Like, you thought dragons were real?"

"I was really scared to think they were real, yes. I did NOT want to fight dragons. And I was a little pissed thinking that people had kept dragons a secret from me, because that's just kinda fucked up."

"Dragons aside," Emanuel said.

"Dragon deez-" Ken interrupted.

"DRAGONS ASIDE," Emanuel said louder, "we're worried this could be the start of something big. Have you talked to your dad about any of this?"

"I told him I saw some weird Feeders, but never the exact details."

"You should probably tell him," Emanuel said. "Ken's trying to get him and some other dean to believe his story, so if you bring up all these past sightings he might believe Ken some more."

"Do you really think that'll work?" Ano asked. "I mean, it seems really convenient for me to suddenly bring up that I've been slaying these weird hybrid Feeders for a while now the moment Ken brings it up, and the moment I meet the two of you."

"Then what do you suggest?" Emanuel asked.

"I think the three of us- and you said the rest of your class was in on this too, right? We all just keep going on assignments, and we take pictures of these hybrid Feeders whenever they pop up. If we keep getting photos of these guys, they'll have no choice but to believe us then, right?"

"I mean yeah, but what do we do now?" Ken asked.

"I dunno, go about our days. Research them in our off time? Not gonna lie, this kinda feels like something for adults to handle."

"If adults could handle this," Emanuel said, "I think they would've. I think there's something to it if not one adult has seen a hybrid so far."

"What do you mean?" Ano asked.

"What Maria said really got me thinking- why are these things showing up just now? Ano, when did you see your first hybrid?"

"Like, six months ago maybe? I dunno, it's been a while."

"Six months?" Emanuel looked down, puzzled. "Damn, these things really are recent. If that's the case, I still gotta ask- why the hell has no one started talking about it? Ano, another question- how many assignments do you do in a day?"

"Like, one or two, usually."

"So in six months, you did... about three hundred assignments?"

"Uh... that sounds about right, actually."

"How the fuck did you do that?" Ken stared, dumbfounded.

"Six times thirty times two, three hundred sixty, that would be the max, so I just lowballed under that." Emanuel looked proud of himself.

"What the- since when can you do math?"

"Since kindergarten? When the hell did you learn math?"

"I mean, like, fast math. Good math."

"Oh. Like early middle school."

"...Damn. I should pay more attention in class."

"So what were you saying?" Ano asked, as the math had clearly gone over his head.

"If you've gone on three hundred assignments, and only seen six hybrid Feeders, that means that about one in fifty assignments has a hybrid Feeder."

"My man you are too good at this," Ano said with wide eyes.

"And if that's the case," Emanuel ignored Ano, but smiled inside at the praise, "then think about how many assignments all the Slayers in the world go through. There's no way this would be as small of a deal as it is."

"So what do you think it is?" Ken asked, sitting down next to Ano.

"I'm not Maria, so I'm not sure- one thing I think, is that whatever this is is definitely local."

"Local?"

"Yeah- if these new Feeders were popping up everywhere, it would be some crazy apocalypse scenario. Ano, where are your assignments, usually?"

"I literally haven't left Roma in years," Ano replied, closing his eyes and thinking deeply to make sure he was right. "I think last time I left the city it was... when I was a kid? And we went on a trip to France."

"So all of these hybrid Feeders have been in Roma, then? That means that either I'm right, or people everywhere are being real quiet about hybrid Feeders. Which do we think is more likely?"

"If these Feeders are a local problem, then what?"

"I... don't know. But I'll tell Maria, she might be able to piece something important together from this all. Thanks for all your help, Ano."

"No problem." Ano smiled "Our club meets every Tuesday and Thursday, by the way. Three o'clock after school."

"Oh shit," Ken and Emanuel said together. "That's right," Emanuel said.

"Yeah, you better believe it. We won't be meeting all week because of club rush, though." Ano let another diabolical grin fall onto his face. "Here, let me get your guys' numbers so I can remind you."

"What do you even do in Anime Club?" Ken asked as he an Emanuel took out their phones.

"We just watch anime in one of the classrooms after school. Like that's literally it."

"Word?" Emanuel said. "That sounds good, actually. I've only watched Dragon Ball though."

"Well then," Ano said as he stood up, clapping Emanuel on the shoulder, "Let us introduce you to a whole new world, my man. And if we have a real Japanese man, we might finally be recognized as a club, instead of just a bunch of weebs that hang out after school."

"Are you not a bunch of weebs hanging out after school?" Ken asked as he also stood up.

"Not anymore," Ano said with a smile, staring into the sky as a tear fell down his face. "Not anymore..."

"Hey Shinzo?" Emanuel asked his roommate as he lay in bed, staring at the ceiling absentmindedly.

"What?" Shinzo said angrily, as he was half asleep by this point, and really didn't want to have a conversation.

"Do you have trauma?"

"No way, I'm fucking awesome."

"I knew they were lying," Emanuel smiled as he rolled over and fell asleep.

"Wha-" Shinzo rolled over to look at him, his mouth agape in disbelief, then rolled back onto his back. "It's not worth it," he said to himself as he fell asleep.