The trip to the Saikou prefecture was oddly serene. Yugo insisted we ride in first class courtesy of that gold card of his, but I insisted we ride in the economy class. The first-class suites were these black and gold rooms that reminded me a bit too much of my room in the Fallen Star Cult, and the last thing I needed was to be in a bad mood when I met my new teammates. Other than that, it’d been a nice, quiet trip. I had a window seat that gave me a perfect view of the Saikyojin countryside; Rolling hills, rice farms, fauna and docile Myths playing in the open fields, and a beautiful sunset made sure that almost every time you looked out the window you’d see something postcard-worthy.

When we got off the train at a station in the middle of an empty field, Yugo and I had to walk for about fifteen minutes until we finally made our way to our destination. The “Seekers HQ” wasn’t a utilitarian brick building as I’d somewhat envisioned, but instead, a traditional Saikyojin house like Yugo said it’d be. The wooden house had two curved navy blue roofs, sliding wooden doors, and a staircase into the house that sat on a gravel pathway with faux trees and rocks placed throughout.

To the right of the house was a tall girl with brown skin, dark brown hair, and the standard black and gold Galerose uniform. She was engaged in combat with a green serpentine creature the size of a fully grown man. I knew who she and the serpent both were only because Yugo wouldn’t stop talking about them on the way here. Still, I scanned them both.

NAME: SOMNIA GALEROSE

APPROXIMATE LEVEL: 57

CLASS: UNBOUND

SHIFTER: N/A

NAME: LOCH NESS MONSTER

APPROXIMATE LEVEL: 53

CLASSIFICATION: COMBAT

I recognized the Loch Ness Monster as the Myth Contracted to the boy in the house. Yugo assumed he’d be in the middle of cooking something by the time we got to the house. Judging by the smell of baked goods in the air, he’d been right.

“Alright, kids!” Yugo clapped. “Time to meet the new guy!”

Both Somnia and the Loch Ness Monster stopped their training to approach us. Somnia adjusted her cap with her left hand as she extended her right. “My name is Somnia Galerose. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Thank you,” I said, accepting her hand. “My name is Rui Payne. Averyl wanted me to tell you that she said hi.”

She hadn’t said that, but Yugo said it would be a good way to get Somnia to lighten up to me. Yugo had evidently been right again if her brighter eyes were any indication.

“Ah! You know her?”

“Yeah. I used to work as a Bounty Hunter in Miyafokuu. She was the one I’d turn my bounties in to.”

“I bet she misses you a ton,” Somnia smiled wistfully. “She always used to complain about hating that job,” She chuckled, her smile turning a mix of creepy and wholesome just like most Galeroses did. “You might be the only person outside the family that’s had a positive experience with–”

Hiss!

The green, serpentine creature shot at me like a spring, unhinging its jaw wide enough to potentially bite my head off. Yugo had warned me that she’d try this, and he’d told me the proper way to react to this greeting…

I flinched.

This Myth, the Loch Ness Monster, had a complex about not being seen as scary. Registering my “fear”, the Myth radiated pride in a way that I could somehow feel before circling me like I was a snake charmer.

”Hey, Lochness! Come on, knock it off!” A voice called from inside the house.

A young man came down the wooden steps dressed in white, stereotypical chef’s attire. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, and more muscle than I’d expect from someone like him. Compared to the intensity I got from Somnia and the subdued severity that oozed from Yugo, though, the newcomer was comparatively… innocent-looking. Looks were deceptive, though, so I decided to keep that to myself. I scanned him out of curiosity.

NAME: ARCHIE FINCH

APPROXIMATE LEVEL: 53

CLASS: A

SHIFTER: UNLIKELY

The Loch Ness Monster, or just Lochness, slithered to the young man’s side as he approached us with a wide smile on his face. “So you’re Rui Payne, are you? Yugo texted us and said you were on the way, but he didn’t say anything about you beyond that.” He extended a hand. “My name’s Archie Finch of the Burnchester Bakers!” He said as if waiting for a reaction.

None came. I knew of the Burnchester Bakers through Fallen Star, but I didn’t have any experience with them personally. Apparently, they were one of the wealthiest families in the Burnchester Region.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I ended up saying, accepting his hand.

Archie snatched my hand up in a firm handshake. Afterward, he narrowed his eyes at me and leaned in close. “So let’s see… What did Yugo see in you?” Somnia seemed to echo that sentiment if the curious look on her face was anything to go by. Archie grumbled to himself, cutting off Yugo’s attempts to intervene and answer that very question with a hand. After a few moments, Archie finally came to me with his conclusion.

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“I have a better idea! Did Yugo teach you how to do a Wraith Strike? If he did, show us that!”

What the hell is a Wraith Strike?

I turned to Yugo, who shrugged and looked at me like he’d never heard those words in his life. Archie and Somnia, and Lochness for that matter, each stood with bated breath waiting for my answer. All the while, I started to consider my upbringing. There was much about life in the Fallen Star Cult that I had unlearned in my life. Some things, though, were unflinching. Specifically, my pride and my ego. I knew to keep them both in check, but under the right circumstances, they’d find their way from in my mind to out of my mouth. Mrs. Perrow had stressed to me the importance of first impressions, so I knew that I needed to be careful with how I reacted here. If I told them I couldn’t do a Wraith Strike and they looked down on me, there was no telling how I’d react to it. With that, I gave the answer I felt was right.

“Of course I know how to do a Wraith Strike,” I lied.

Somnia’s eyes widened with surprise, and Archie looked at me like an eager child. Yugo smiled and stepped in front of me.

“In that case, do it on me! I’ll be your test dummy.”

Yugo ushered everyone to step back, leaving the two of us to our demonstration. He placed his hands behind his back and closed his eyes. “Whenever you’re ready!”

“You… sure? You don’t want to guard?” I asked. Honestly, I was just trying to buy time. The technique was called “Wraith Strike”. Surely it was just a punch or something? I sank into a battle position, doing my best to look confident.

“Positive!” He opened his eyes a bit, giving him a cocky look. “I’ll be fine.”

I balked at that internally, but I did my best to push my annoyance down. Perhaps he was trying to provoke me so that I could actually pull off this Wraith Strike? I pulled my right hand back and punched Yugo straight in the stomach as hard as I physically could. Just like when I’d attempted to slash at him with my sword, it was like I’d punched a wall.

Archie and Yugo both gave me awkward looks but said nothing. Lochness seemed to shrink behind Archie a bit, refusing to meet my gaze.

“Alright, ready when you are!” Yugo cheered.

“Tch.”

I punched him again.

More awkward glances.

I cast [REINFORCE] and punched him a third time, hitting Yugo hard enough that he stepped back a bit. My pride swelled, and it took effort for me not to rub that fact in his face…

…It was a good thing I didn’t.

“Woah!” Yugo remarked, clutching his stomach with a hand. “I think that last attack was about half as strong as a really weak Wraith Strike…” He looked up at me. “That’s actually really impressive. Seriously! I’m glad I picked you up.”

I punched him in the face. No aura, no [REINFORCE], just a good old-fashioned haymaker. It did nothing, but it felt good. So good that I did it again, and again, and again. I wasn’t sure how many times I punched him, or how many times I cursed him, but I’d given up on first impressions by this point so I stopped caring.

“Ow! Hey! It was just a joke!” Yugo cried. “Oh yeah, it was banter! That’s what they say in Burnchester, right? It was just banter, mate!”

Lochness let out her version of a cheer, which sounded like a high-pitched set of hisses. Somnia laughed along, saying she’d been caught in a similar version of the prank. Archie, meanwhile, gave me an apologetic look when I’d finally relented.

“I’m sorry, man. I wasn’t sure if Yugo taught you or not. I didn’t mean to set you up like that.”

I separated myself from Yugo and turned to Archie, wiping sweat from my brow with a forearm. “Don’t worry about it. And no, he didn’t teach me.”

“That’s because,” Yugo crooned. “I invented it myself!”

I gave him an incredulous look. He ignored it and continued.

“It’s an adaptation of one of my master’s techniques! Any Rogue Contractor can use it. It’s one of those techniques that comes with a Contract! That and Self-Destruct, but… uh… I don’t think you wanna use that one.”

“Tell me how to do it, then.”

Yugo’s face darkened. “That’s the problem. The only way you unlock the technique is by negotiating with your Rogue and asking it to channel more of its aura through your body while also asking it to perpetually cycle opposing aura for as long as your Contract is active. In your case, you’d need to ask Fallen Star to perpetually cycle Myth Aura while feeding you with more Curse aura than it does right now.”

That got everyone’s attention. Somnia, Archie, and Lochness each looked at me as if in a new light. Somnia was the first to speak.

“You’re a Curse User, huh?” Somnia mused. “No wonder Yugo wanted you on the team.”

“My System told me that,” Archie admitted. “But it’s rude to scan people you don’t know so I didn’t bring it up. Sorry. I suck at first impressions, huh?”

“I am a Curse User, yes,” I said to Somnia. I turned to Archie. “And you can’t be worse than me,” Finally, I turned to Yugo, whose pensive expression hadn’t changed. “I’m fine with that. Let’s do it. Fallen Star knows how to cycle Myth Aura already, but neither of us can wield it like Myth Users can. I hope that’s okay?”

“It…is…” Yugo droned. “Y’know, I’ll be honest: I was prepared to spend the day convincing you to agree to it.”

“There’s no need. As much as I hate Fallen Star, I hate the Fallen Star Cult more. I don’t want to be their monster anymore, and getting this Wraith Strike is a good way to distance myself from them. Plus, if it’s as strong as you claim it is then I’d be dumb not to add it to my repertoire.”

Both Archie and Somnia gave me looks of combined sympathy and curiosity. Yugo, meanwhile, gave me a confident smile as he began to prep for our meeting with Fallen Star. It needed to happen in my Mindspace, the very place I’d caged and chained Fallen Star so many years ago. With the help of his Myth named “The Historian”, Yugo said he’d be able to venture into my Mindspace and negotiate with Fallen Star on my behalf. I didn’t think it was necessary as I could feel Fallen Star’s willingness to accept this plan, but I decided to let him in anyway. If we were going to be a team, they needed to know who and what Fallen Star was. Following that logic, I decided to invite Archie and Somnia to join as well.

Yugo and I agreed that now was the ideal time to negotiate with Fallen Star, so he walked me through an exercise to make it easier for us to travel into my Mindspace. I sat cross-legged on the grass in front of the house, breathing deeply and slowly. All three of my new teammates placed hands on my back, and I shut out all the noise around me.

The only thing that existed was myself and my Mindspace. The only sounds I could hear were… the droning ambiance of the decrepit atrium… and the water droplets splashing against the shallow-pooled floors. The only… two people… that… existed were… me and… Fallen… Star…