“Whooo!” Kaen ran and gave Ren an encouraging pat on the back. “That was awesome, right in the bullseye,” Since yesterday, they had all trained their abilities after getting their weapons and Kaen had a one-on-one lesson with Kurokawa. The only break they had was dinner and sleep. Ren was practicing shooting with his new bow. He demonstrated one of his techniques called “Aqua Guidance” to Kaen. Ren dipped the nock of the arrow in water from a pouch on his belt. Using his ability, he stretched the water into a thin thread that remained connected to the arrow. When he shot the arrow, he could manipulate its trajectory by controlling the water thread. It was a simple ability that leveraged Ren’s disadvantage of not being able to manipulate a large amount of water at once. Ren said that he made the technique up himself a few years ago when he started with archery. Kaen thought it was the coolest thing ever, but he had also continued training his own ability. He had been a little bit disappointed that morning when they had woken up and there was a note on the front door saying that they’ll be training on their own today. He had been looking forward to fighting with Kurokawa again, but he figured out what to do on his own. He raised his body temperature and then ran laps around the field, attempting to maintain the high temperature for as long as possible. It hadn’t gone so well in the beginning only being able to hold it up for about three minutes or so. However, little by little the time increased and now he could hold it for six minutes. It didn’t seem like much, but he had almost doubled the time in four hours. It was going well. Kaen collapsed onto the ground, having just run another lap. He was panting and his forehead was drenched in sweat but he honestly didn’t feel that tired. He had asked Kurokawa the day before why he felt less tired when using his ability for physical activities. Kurokawa answered that the heat made his recovery time faster and that his muscles got less strained. Kaen was starting to think he had a good ability anyway. He sat up and looked around to see what the others were doing. Ren was continuing with his archery, now trying to shoot two arrows at once, admittedly not going so well. Gin sat in the grass, with a toolbox in front of her, tinkering with her gun. He didn’t question her—she had claimed she was the best mechanic in the underground, after all. Kaen turned his gaze to Kenzo who was hitting a bokken against a tree. His movements were fluid and precise, each strike with extreme force behind it. As much as Kaen didn’t like him he had to admit he was strong. He looked around trying to find Yuukie, she was standing at the edge of the field making some kind of weird motion with her hands, she looked frustrated whatever she was doing wasn’t going very well. Interested Kaen walked over to her. “Hey, whatcha’ doing?” he asked curiously. Yuukie jumped slightly, not expecting him to talk to her. She stammered a bit before explaining, “My ability is wind manipulation, but I’m having problems creating a gust.” Kaen hummed understandingly before asking, “´Have you done it before?” Her expression turned sad, and she said quietly, “Yes. But it was an accident” “Well, what triggered?” She looked away, her voice barely audible. “I was angry.” Kaen laughed softly. “Well, then, just think about what made you angry in the first place.” Yuukie nodded closing her eyes. Her breathing slowed as she concentrated. Kaen watched as her hands started to tremble slightly, the air around them shifting. Slowly, she began to feel a tingling sensation in her fingertips. The air around her hands started to move, forming a small gust of wind. It wasn’t much, but it was progress. Yuukie’s eyes snapped open, and she looked at Kaen with a mixture of surprise and delight. “I did it!” she exclaimed, a huge smile spreading across her face. Overcome with joy, she hugged Kaen tightly.
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Kaen was taken aback but quickly returned the hug, feeling happy for her. “Great job, Yuukie!”
She quickly realized what she had done and stepped away, her cheeks flushed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
Kaen shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. You did amazing.”
Her smile returned, and she nodded. “Thank you, Kaen.” He smiled at Yuukie, happy to see her confidence growing. “You should keep training,” Yuukie nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, I will.” Just then, they heard Kurokawa’s voice in the distance. “Everyone, come over here!” Kaen’s eyes lit up with excitement. Maybe they would get to train together now. He took off running toward Kurokawa, eager to see what was happening. The others followed suit, gathering around the agent. Kurokawa stood with a grave expression, his usual calm demeanor replaced by something far more serious. Kaen felt a know form in his stomach, whatever it was he was going to tell them it clearly wasn’t good. Once everyone had assembled, Kurokawa spoke, his voice steady but filled with an unmistakable urgency. “I have something important to say.”
Everyone exchanged confused glances, wondering what could be so pressing.
“The mission is tomorrow.”