Akari, Baylee, Claire, and I all sit side by side on the couch of Baylee’s apartment within the GDF, staring at our phones with a mix of horror and amazement. The email detailing the training schedule Audrey and Kayne had put together is truly something.

Calan had performed the last bit of healing required to fix up my stomach last night, and since I was deemed healthy the morning after, my father and I were kicked from the hospital room to make space for other injured sentinels. Dad, having acted distant since he heard about the lawsuit, had bid me farewell to go and spend time preparing documents at home. This had left Akari and I alone at the GDF Headquarters, and, knowing we had training today, we had come to check out Baylee’s new abode with Claire, who was sick of being stuck in her own hospital room.

To put it simply, Baylee’s new place is the single nicest home I’ve ever seen an individual have. With amazing views of the city, soft couches, a full kitchen, and several bedrooms, her apartment is far larger than the one I share with my father. The only issue with it is the lack of personality. Everything here is still a stock standard match for every other apartment available to sentinels, something I know bothers Baylee as she’d stated that the place had a distinct lack of pink that would need to be fixed.

I still hadn’t had a chance to talk to Baylee about her family kicking her out, although she honestly doesn’t seem to want to talk about it. The only thing she’d said was that it was expected, and she had been preparing to move out ever since she’d accepted her bond. Definitely odd, but she seems okay for the moment.

Less okay is the contents of the email we’d all received after hanging out on the couch for a while.

Dear Serena,

The following is a direct transcription of your new training schedule.

Hey, Team Picnic, it’s time to stop moping and get back to work. Boy Wonder and I have put together this training schedule for you. We spent at least thirty minutes planning it, so you better appreciate it.

Stardust Angel <3

Monday - Wednesday:

* Training Plan:

* Attend your regular school classes mixed with classes hosted by the Sanctum Collective.

* Perform your daily guided strength and mobility training.

* No using sentinel powers during these days to reset your Mana Toxicity back to normal levels.

* Goals:

* Sanctum Collective classes will better teach you about your magic and how to use it. This will allow you to be more knowledgeable and better perform your role on the team.

* School classes will make you less of an idiot.

* Strength training because you are all pathetically weak. Remember, your assault state can only enhance what’s already there. If what’s already there is your pudgy ass self, it can’t do much, can it?

Thursday:

* Training Plan:

* Combined team training.

* Goals:

* Learn strategies to best utilize your team and the GDF soldiers under your control in different incursion zone environments. Basically, you need to work as a team rather than five teams of one.

Friday

* Training Plan:

* It’s incursion zone day! Every Friday, you will get a guided tour of another wonderful incursion zone.

* Goals:

* The best way to learn is on-the-job training! Once a week we will be guiding you into a new incursion zone. Your goal here is to enhance your abilities, grow in rank, and try not to die. As your team becomes less incompetent, you will be helping with more and more incursion zones.

Saturday:

* Training Plan:

* Rest day!

* Go over your gains with either Kayne or Audrey to make sure you know what to improve upon next week and how to better use your abilities.

* Goals:

* You probably got yourself hurt on Friday, so you are going to need to rest a little bit today.

* Having a one-on-one with Kayne or Audrey will allow you to know what you need to work on. We aren’t here to make you feel better either, so you had better spend this day resting and thinking up ways to improve.

Sunday:

* Training Plan:

* Go to the shops and stock up on supplies for next week.

* Team strength and mobility training. (While in assault states.)

* Team strategy session.

* Goals:

* Staying stocked up is the best way to come out of the next incursion zone alive. You all have your inventory now, let’s fill it up.

* It’s important to know what you are actually capable of as well as what your teammates are capable of. It’s time to stop moving like humans and start moving like sentinels.

* Do you know what your teammates’ powers are? What they do? What synergies you have with them? If the answer is no to any of those questions, then you aren’t strategizing right. Figure yourselves out!

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

I look at the email with a raised eyebrow wondering how much of it was Kayne and how much of it was Audrey. The descriptions were quite obviously written by Audrey, but Kayne must have had a hand in the design of the schedule.

“It’s certainly… colorful,” Baylee comments from beside me. She runs her fingers along the sparkling pink edges of her phone case nervously and fidgets in her spot on the couch.

It’s Claire who jumps to the heart of what we’re all thinking, “They’ve got a lot of nerve asking us to go into an incursion zone every week,” she says, her voice trembling just a little. I can see why; her right arm is still just… gone. She might have been healed more, but she’s hardly at one hundred percent.

“You heard what the general said; they want us to be the best. We can’t do that as E Rank sentinels,” I say, although my heart isn’t in the words.

I may be dedicated to the protection of Shinara, but I’m still terrified to go back into an incursion zone.

“From the looks of things,” Akari says, “we need to get down to the hub. The other email says that Kayne is waiting for us there.”

We all grumble at this but start to stand. Haruto is probably already there waiting for us. Despite being the only one who hadn’t spent the night at the GDF, he’s definitely the most diligent of us all. Unless he’s being outdone by me and Akari’s combined worrying, of course, in which case we’d arrive hours before him.

Before we head for the door, I turn to Claire. “Are you sure you’re alright for today? I’m in no way as good at healing as Calan is, but I can try to have another look at your arm.”

Claire grimaces but shakes her head. “No, I’m alright. Thank you, though. The whole phantom limb thing is a bloody nightmare, but I’m not in pain.”

I nod, wincing in sympathy, “Well, you let me know if that ever changes, okay?”

Claire grins and pats me on the shoulder with her left hand, “Thanks, Little Blue!”

Scene Break [https://i.imgur.com/LLJwEOR.png]

“You’re late,” Kayne rumbles, looking over us all with midnight eyes that seem to burn with dark fire.

Team Picnic had assembled near the fountain beside the inscriptions shop in the central plaza of the hub. Sentinels in civilian garb, much like us, move around the hub with quick efficiency. Some even flash in and out of their assault states so they can move between the various shops of the hub at greater speed. Apparently, Sunday being restocking day is universal, and the hub resembles a kicked beehive of activity.

“We apologize for that, sir,” Baylee says. As always, she steps up to take the lead for our team in social situations.

Behind Baylee, Claire mutters, “It would have helped if we hadn’t been sent the email to be here only twenty minutes beforehand…”

Kayne’s dark eyes snap to Claire, and the large man clenches his jaw. Claire shifts nervously under his gaze, but eventually, Kayne just heaves out a breath.

“At this point, I think it would kill Audrey to do something properly. Fine, you are forgiven this time. Make being late a habit, though, and you will live to regret it,” he says, his deep voice rumbling like an earthquake.

“We understand, sir,” Baylee responds quickly, her hands nervously fixing rumples in her skirt. There’s nothing to fix, of course. After a night of rest and a morning to prepare herself, Baylee once more looks immaculate.

“Good,” Kayne says. “Now, all of you go and pick up what you need for your next incursion zone from the shops around here. Don’t make any massive purchases, though; you’ll want to save the majority of your credits for when we go and visit the Mercurials.”

I frown, Mercurials? What is he talking about? From the look on the other’s faces, they are just as confused. All except for Akari, who suddenly looks very nervous.

“Um… sir,” Akari starts, “the Mercurials are black market weapon dealers. What are we doing with them?”

Kayne looks annoyed at being asked to explain himself, “Ratchet and the other shop owners in the hub do all they can to keep us supplied with the most vital pieces of equipment that we need to do our jobs. They can only do so much, though, so more exotic and specialized equipment falls by the wayside to make way for designs that will be useful to many different sentinels.”

“So, we go to these Mercurials to get the good stuff?” Claire asks, her eyes locked on Kayne.

Kayne nods, “Yes. There are certain rules that GDF Inscribers have to follow. Rules that the Mercurials actively disregard.”

Haruto frowns from where he’d been standing stoically, “What kind of rules?” he asks.

Kayne sighs, “Let’s just say that the things they sell can and often do count as weapons of mass destruction. I don’t like dealing with them any more than you should, but the tools they provide us are necessary to keep us going. So go buy whatever you need from the hub and meet back here in thirty minutes.”

At that, the others start drifting towards Ratchet’s Inscriptions Shop, but I linger behind, squirming as Kayne watches me with his dark eyes.

“Is something wrong, Sentinel?” Kayne asks, sounding even more annoyed than before.

I flinch at his words, and his face immediately softens… just a little. “I-I… well, I lost my bow in the incursion zone. I’m not sure if it was ever recovered.”

Kayne gives me a sympathetic look and waves his hand. A plume of black and violet flame flairs on the ground to my side to reveal my bow… or rather, what’s left of it.

The dark hickory wood had been snapped into two separate pieces at the grip, and deep cracks run along the limbs. Silvery inscriptions spark weakly with leaking mana, and the string is just gone. In short, the bow is beyond saving.

“The report said it was crushed under a falling piece of rubble from your fight. You’ll need a new one,” Kayne says.

“Oh…” I say, looking at the bow as my mind flashes back to the fight with the mind flayer. My hands start to tremble, but I clench them into fists to stop the shaking.

“Go with your team,” Kayne orders, “we’ll find you a new weapon when we visit the Mercurials.”

I swallow, then nod, “Yes, sir.”