Book 28: The Eden Conference

July 19, 2022 - 6:31am

Eden Campus, Eden City, New Eden

Miguel stood before the maestros he’d spent a week whipping into shape. It wasn’t that their skills were lacking, but their synergy as a team was abysmal. Tamara hadn’t bothered to factor that in when organizing them into groups.

Rigid at attention, they all wore the customized uniforms that Oliver slaved away to make for them. At a glance, there were hardly any visible differences; they were all large, black, hooded windbreakers with the Institute’s three-letter logo embroidered onto a left sleeve. On the right, was a colored stripe that indicated which squad they were with, and two stripes for the leaders of each group. Red for Angelo’s team, blue for Esme’s and yellow for Niko’s.

“The time to prove your worth has come!” He yelled.

“You’ve spent the last seven days doing everything with your squadmates. They are your lifeline, and you are theirs. You are their Instruments, as they are yours. Remember that when you’re out there. The assignments are as follows: Red Team, you’re clearing an approaching horde outside the city. Yellow team, infiltrate and destroy a spreading domain near Memphis, Egypt. Coordinates will be sent to your leader. Blue team…some rogue maestros have taken over an M.I.I. outpost. Remove them. Coordinates will be sent to your leader. Go.”

The kids dispersed, nervous. It was a brisk morning, and for Esme’s team, the vague instructions of their assignment made it a little colder. Regardless, they, like the yellow team, made their way to the campus’s hangar.

“When he said remove them…” Dione began. Her snake, Naga, sat on her shoulders like a scarf, agitated by the inconspicuous quiver full of arrows strapped to her back. Her hands trembled slightly as she held the bag carrying her bow.

“I think he left that up to us for a reason,” Kuro replied. His father’s sheathed sword was holstered against his back while his machete was in a case similar to Dione’s. Concealing weapons was a requirement for every mission outside New Eden.

Israel nodded, now wearing a black mask attached to an undershirt.

“Any chance that mission file contains info about the maestros?” He asked.

“Check your phones,” Esme replied. She held two cases, as she stared straight ahead. This wasn’t her first assignment dealing with maestros, but that was before she had a twelve-year old to look out for. Her and her former team had mastered combos and formations to apprehend opponents without killing so far.

“If I have to choose between saving these kids’ lives and taking a stranger’s…”

The group arrived at the hangar where a labyrinth of doors stood by themselves. Monika, trailing after Otta, Niko, and Anish, waved goodbye as they disappeared into a door frame leading somewhere. Kuro nodded back at the girl apprehensively. Esme finally stopped them in front of their own door, a warped wooden panel that thrummed heavily with atma. ‘Cyprus’, its carving announced.

“At least the views will be nice,” Dione joked.

“Cyprus is a small country, so it only has one outpost. This door will take us there, Nicosia. We should be sent to a secure room that can only be opened from the inside. After that, no guarantees.” Esme said.

“Got it,” the little girl replied. This was no time for jokes, then.

The door, when opened, seemed like nothing special. It was only when they stepped through, that they were sucked into their mission, far, far, away.

~

July 19, 2022 - 7:01am

The Line, New Eden, Bir Tawil

Angelo’s team sat quietly in the cabin of one of Eden City’s underground bullet trains. The vehicle glided through the dark tunnels with barely a sound, mimicking the anxious maestros inside. Clearing hordes outside of the city was a fairly common task, one that maestros balked at when assigned. But it was also a necessary one. Within the barrier that surrounded New Eden, there existed several more barriers, most notably around the City itself, the Garden, and the Family Estates. The barrier guarding the city was strong, but could be made vulnerable if a large enough wave of blooms attempted to cross it.

“I can’t believe I’m on cleanup duty,” Soji groaned. He peered into the tunnels of darkness, resting his head against the window.

“Poor baby,” Penny rolled her eyes, swiping through her phone.

Angelo and Alex said nothing as they steeled themselves for the assignment ahead. The blooms of Eden were of a different caliber, and if there was a horde of them…this would be a lot more than the menial ‘cleanup duty’ that Soji claimed it to be.

Suddenly, the train screeched to a halt.

Soji and Penny stood up, but before they could approach the doors hissing open, Angelo’s raspy voice called out.

“This isn’t our stop!”

Outside the train, another cavernous tunnel snaked into the distance, stinking of abandonment and mystery.

“What’s up with that, then?”

“It leads to the Cain Family Estate. There used to be a shuttle that took people there…when they were alive.”

“It’s been a while since that…why would this train still stop here?”

Angelo shrugged.

“Either they can’t remove it from the system, or nobody gives a shit.”

The doors slid back shut, and the train crept back up to its incredible speed, racing towards whatever awaited the maestros. Anticipation rose with each passing minute, and made a display through tapping feet, cracked knuckles, and thumping hearts. After what seemed like hours, the sun gloriously announced their arrival at their destination, as the train tilted upwards. It slowly climbed up a reinforced platform, housing a station of sorts.

Soji didn’t need to look outside to tell what kinds of creatures were waiting for them on the ground; he could feel the tug of several blooms in the area, all unlike any that he’d encountered before. When he did peek, he saw that they were warped into all sorts of shapes and sizes; some were as familiar as zoo animals, and others were like abstract constructions of the nightmares that lurked in the back of human minds. It was a jarring sight that made even Penny pause, and Angelo hesitate.

The Devil’s Spine loomed over them. A tree whose shade offered no relief, and whose fruits nourished no bellies. Alex was the first to dismount the train, relaxed, as usual. He looked back at his teammates with a smile, then jumped into the sea of blooms below them.

~

July 19, 2022 - 7:38am

Nile River, Memphis, Egypt

Ironically, Niko hated birds. The way they moved, the way they looked, and the way they sounded were all grossly off putting. With dog-sized blooms, cruelly fashioned after mutated Egyptian geese, the oasis of the Nile’s west bank made the girl shudder.

“That bitch…he did this on purpose,” the girl grumbled. She floated above the problem area, scanning for the Rank 3 whose demise would put an end to this putrid assignment.

“It doesn’t help that this stupid barrier’s so low. “

“You did kill him,” Monika’s voice crackled from her earpiece, “Plus, this is kinda fun—”

A couple blooms shot out of some bushes, seeking refuge from the maestros who eagerly hunted them. A small explosion obliterated one, while the second honked in a panic, frantically flapping above the trees to escape.

“Incoming!”

Niko shot the damned thing with her face twisted into disgust.

“Can you guys hurry up!?” She yelled.

“You could get down here and help us look!” Monika yelled back.

“As if.”

Three more blooms ran out at Monika, and were about to meet explosive spheres of atma when three red tentacles violently impaled them, leaving them to wither. Otta, in her odd child-like stature waved, then ran off.

“What a strange girl…”

“Anish, shouldn’t you be better at this?”

“I can only make simple barriers to hide what we’re doing and keep the blooms in,” the boy replied, sounding out of breath, “what you guys are asking for is…a bit much.”

“Well, it’s around here somewhere. I can hear it,” Monika said. The familiar and disturbing sound of emptiness rumbled from an indistinguishable point beneath her feet.

Over the past week, the team had developed a closer but slightly rigid relationship. The Rose girls had witty banter and flung insults at one another until they bordered on serious. Anish, even in his aversion to Niko’s choice of lovers, was a sweet boy and a gentleman, happy to prepare chai whenever it seemed appropriate. And Otta…well, she made charades fun. Because of this, the moment they stepped onto the battlefield, their coordination was comparatively smooth.

“Okay, it’s done,” Anish grunted. He held a massive, silver piece of machinery, reminiscent of a gatling gun with a satellite dish strapped to its muzzle. He’d lost several kilograms of weight, and was now muscular with lots of loose skin hiding beneath his uniform, sweating a silver liquid that trickled along a path to the Instrument in his hand. This was his technique; the transmutation of body fat into a malleable and self-programmable liquid metal. It was neatly packaged with the ability to gain weight easily, but limited by his knowledge of the things he was emulating.

“Ooooh, what’s this?” Monika skipped over to him for a closer look.

“A modified sonic cannon. For birds specifically. But, I reached my limit by making something this big. It’ll be up to you girls after I use this.”

“Typical,” Niko joked, “And here I thought you were making a nuke or something.”

“I don’t like making weapons,” Anish replied quietly.

“I know, I know,” the girl backtracked, “I’m just saying…we’ve got two of you who could blow this whole area to bits, but none of you want to. Bo-ring!” Monika stopped herself from protesting and chuckled. Her cousin’s thawed personality left a warm sensation in her stomach. She almost forgot the faint throbbing from where Cloud Diamond sliced her palm to ribbons.

“Go ahead with your machine,” she vetoed.

Anish nodded, and turned a dial on his creation, pointing it upwards. His atma sang with notes of a frantic sitar. Monika took several steps back as he pulled the trigger. The air shifted noticeably, but the machine made no sound.

Dozens of blooms burst forth from their hiding places, each one shot down, blown up, or impaled. The younger Rose balked at their numbers, but performed, assured by her teammates around her.

After several moments, the ground split open at the emergence of a massive bloom, a cross between the Egyptian geese they’d been cleaving through, and a crocodile. Monika and Otta were thrown back by the dragon-like beast whose gaping maw sought out Anish. It was Niko’s bright white wings that delivered the boy from a fatal SNAP and tossed him haphazardly at the river’s bank.

“Sick!” Monika laughed.

~

July 19, 2022 - 7:26am

Outer Eden City, New Eden, Bir Tawil

As Alex plummeted towards a sea of sand, dust, and sin, he shaped his atma into his technique, and expanded a massive square barrier. The atma, illuminated by a soft green glow, divided a square kilometer of space into sixty-four, creating a chess board of sorts.

He hit the ground with a dark green atma cloak threaded over his uniform. A crown made of the same atma glimmered wickedly. Within the ten meter space he landed in, a dozen warped blooms rushed at him. He materialized a scepter and slammed it against the square, instantly banishing the creatures.

King’s Gambit.

Alex looked up at his teammates, and waved for them to follow. Penny jumped for a Rook’s position, Angelo the Knight’s, and Soji the Pawn in front of Penny. This was a formation they’d practiced repeatedly, but that didn’t stop Soji from hesitating at the sheer number of blooms on the board. Even confined to their squares, and faithful rules of Alex’s technique, the horde pressed against the barriers holding them in place.

The game began.

Soji jumped forward, two spaces ahead into a square full of blooms, fists ignited. Even reinforced by atma, their claws tore through his uniform as he swung at them. They were like wild animals, biting and clawing at each other for dominance. Finally, as he crushed the creatures into pulp, Soji faced the last one, a spindly bloom with crooked horns in place of where its eyes should’ve been.

“Soji,” The mouthless creature said.

The boy halted.

“What?”

“What?” Penny replied on his earpiece, “Hurry up and finish that thing.”

“Did someone say something?”

“What are you talking about?” Angelo hissed, “Stop wasting time. This technique has a time limit.”

Soji shook his head and approached the bloom.

“Jowo pa mi…”

It sounded familiar. The voice, the language. He felt the bloom’s presence tug at him, and continued his approach with confusion. What is this?

The creature didn’t resist when he placed both hands on its horns and ran heat through them as he pulled them out of its head.

“Finally,” Penny groaned. A square of blooms moved forward, using their turn immediately and without deliberation.

“My turn,” Angelo moved before Penny could.

“Asshole!” She hated this technique, as it rendered her unable to use her own, forcing her to obey its rules.

“I should have gone for the Queen.”

Angelo cleared his own square quickly. A grain of sand among the desert. The process of waiting, then diving into enclosed areas of blooms grew tiresome very quickly. Several minutes passed before the walls of Alex’s technique dissipated, signaling that their relaxed bloom subjugation was coming to an end. Now it was time for the real work.

~

July 19, 2022 - 7:49am

Nile River, Memphis, Egypt

The Rose girls buzzed around the large, pseudo-dragon bloom, with Niko holding back vomit from spewing all over the place. Anish expanded the barrier’s size, protected by Otta, who flung rocks and whatever else she could find at the creature.

Monika used her explosive atma to blast herself through the air, and launched at the bloom’s underbelly, large axe in hand.

“Niko!”

A pair of wings slowed her trajectory as she used both hands to throw her weapon at the bloom. The power of the explosion lodged it into the creature’s hide, but didn’t do much.

“Tsk, this thing is tough,” she said, “Any ideas?”

“One,” Niko replied, “but you guys are not gonna like it.”

“Whatever it is, make it quick,” Anish yelled, “holding a barrier of this size is a lot.”

“You’re complaining, but you refused to bring an anchor to maintain the barrier for us, showoff.”

“Those ones are rudimentary!”

“Shut up, both of you,” Niko interrupted, shooting at the bloom and zipping away from its jaws.

“The plan is simple…you know what you gotta do when something is too tough on the outside…”

The team paused for a moment.

“No way,” Monika rejected her realization, “I’m not doing that.”

“How self-important. I’m talking about Otta. Your growth depends on how much pressure you put on your body, right?”

Otta nodded.

“Then Anish, I need you to make something,” Niko smirked.

“I told you I’m at my limit! I couldn’t make anything bigger than a finger!”

“That’s perfect! I need a shell casing. Make it around Otta if you can! Monika, keep that thing occupied!”

The team sprang into action. By herself, Otta could squeeze down to the size of a tennis ball, resulting in a transformation roughly the size of an elephant. Normally, that’d be enough, but this bloom, somehow an amalgam of a bird and a crocodile, could easily swallow an elephant. Anish strained to let his liquid metal drip onto the octopus girl, shaping it into the size of bullet that Niko specified. It was hard to focus over the chorus of gunshots and explosions, but after a minute, he successfully managed to squeeze Otta into the bullet. He felt his barrier flicker in response to the strain on his atma.

“It’s done!” He said.

Barely a moment later, Niko swooped by him to pick up the shining silver bullet. With expert speed, she unclipped her weapon’s magazine, inserted the bullet, and put it back in the gun. She flew above the bloom chasing after Monika and took aim. She used her wings to pluck her cousin out of the way, and shot at the dragon’s mouth.

“This bullet will be too heavy to shoot normally, I’ll have to put my wings on them. Monika’s almost out of atma so I can’t put her down…In that case…”

As the bullet disappeared into the pit of the bloom’s stomach, Niko fell, unsupported by her wings. Using her middle finger, she tugged a cord peeking out of the sleeve of her uniform. Oliver’s creation transformed into a wingsuit, allowing the girl to glide out of the way, sending her crashing into the river, as she gently set Monika on the ground.

The Nile was cold and dark, even with rays of sunlight filtering through it. The quiet, however, was inviting with a coolness only water could bring. There was no duty, no nagging, and no way for her to disappoint down here. She felt her technique release on both of her targets, but hesitated to pull herself back up. Her rifle slipped from her hand, and swam alone to the bottom of the river.

Her wingsuit-uniform blend was light, but caught too much water for her to swim up effortlessly. As she let bubbles of air escape her, she slowly threaded her wings around her. Before she could ascend, Monika dove feet first into the water and wrapped her arms around her cousin. A powerful burst of atma ejected them out of the river and onto wet mud where Anish and Otta were waiting.

“Did you forget how to swim?” the younger girl teased.

Niko hesitated to answer.

“It’s done?”

“It was so gross! Otta’s fists were HUGE, and they just came out of the bloom, and tore it open and it was kinda cool to watch, but then all the gunk flew everywhere, and it was about to get in my hair and then…” Monika rambled excitedly. Anish collapsed, worn out from maintaining a barrier of that size. Niko just smiled. It was short, and intense, but the mission was over.

~

July 19, 2022 - 7:59am

Outer Eden City, New Eden, Bir Tawil

Angelo, Penny, and Soji watched in horror as blooms, with their appendages, strange in shape and sizable in number, impaled Alex. They’d reduced the horde to a few dozen, but that came at the cost of vigor, and now, blood.

Penny broke the paralysis curse first, and sank into her shadow. A moment later, she pulled Alex into his own shadow, leaving Angelo and Soji alone. They were both haggard, sweaty, and fighting to keep themselves up. They drifted towards one another, guarding each other’s backs as the blooms closed in on them.

Maneki: Tails!

Angelo held his breath for the split second it took his wraith’s coin to reach his hand. If he guessed correctly for the fifth time in a row, his attacks would mete out the damage his invulnerability had soaked up. However, the heavens were sold out of blessings, and carved the silhouette of a cat’s head onto the coin.

Instead of wielding the absorbed damage, Angelo was subjected to it, all at once. His legs buckled immediately and he convulsed on the floor in pain. Soji’s bandages wrapped around him and pulled him closer. The remaining horde pounced.

Bandages caught one midair, and christened it with burning heat as it was spun around as a ball-and-chain, incinerating its peers while it burst. Soji let out a guttural yell as he assaulted the blooms head-on. The fighting style Miguel taught him was nowhere to be seen. He instead bounced around like a wild animal, cornered and wounded. With the shadow of the tree looming over him, he could feel black smoke fighting to leak from his skin, fingers darkening, and canines sharpening further. It took conscious effort to not bite into his assailants.

“Thankfully, it’s a lot hotter out here, so I’m not running out of energy as fast. Absorbing heat from my surroundings means I don’t have to do much to increase my body temperature. The problem is…”

Soji kept hearing his name. With each bloom he felled, the same voice would call out from the ‘mouth’ of another one. It was driving him absolutely insane. What did that woman do to me?

“Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!” Waves of heat singed those closest to him.

While Soji raged against the black devils of the Spine, Anglo’s pain finally ceased, and he was granted relief from his penance. He picked up his staff, awed by how much the kid did by himself. To say they’d bonded over the last week would’ve been more than an exaggeration, perhaps bordering on misinformation. However, after he woke up in his bed, head pounding from a hangover, Angelo realized he no longer felt intense hatred when he looked at the boy. And now, as Soji fought to protect him, he felt impassioned to join the fight.

He summoned his wraith, earning a minute of invulnerability as he charged at approaching blooms with a helicopter spin. His Burning Man lived up to its name, disintegrating his attackers with deep blue flames of atma dancing along its head. A smaller one wove through the crowd and managed to clamp down on his arm mid attack. Refusing to let go of his staff, Angelo brought the burdened hand close to his face to lower his mask, and with atma soaked teeth, bit into the creature’s skull.

“These things taste as bad as they smell,” he grimaced at the sour taste. It was like biting down on a snail that had just crawled through blood and shit, with great emphasis on the earthy tones. He spat out bits of bloom, and shook the carcass off his arm to stab his staff into its core.

Another bloom pounced from his behind but was stopped short, captured by black rope. Soji drew the creature in, and with a smoldering palm around its humanoid head, made a mess of its innards. Their eyes met, brimming with an exhaustive understanding. The boys stood before the last dozen blooms, holding themselves up with a mix of determination and fear.

Suddenly, Penny popped out of Soji’s shadow, stained by Alex’s blood. She had a wicked grin on her face as she dashed at the blooms with her twin bǐ shǒu, yellow-handled daggers with straight, bronze-colored blades. She tossed one at a bloom’s core, and as it disintegrated, appeared from the shadow her weapon cast against its flesh.

She pushed its body back, balancing on it while she assaulted the thing’s cohorts. She shredded through the blooms in less than a minute, accurately attacking their cores, swimming in and out of the darkness that was second nature to her. There was elegance in her movements, like she was the one who taught fish to swim and vipers to strike. Her fangs were lethal, and left no survivors when she finally turned to the boys with a thumbs up.

“What was taking you so long, huh?” Penny sheathed her weapons.

“Is Alex…?” Angelo managed to say, awed by her battle prowess. She’d been fighting just as long as they had, but still had plenty of atma to spare, and hardly seemed troubled by traveling such a long distance so quickly.

“He should be fine, maybe. I dropped him off at the City’s hospital.”

Angelo sighed in relief. Eden City’s hospital had done quite well for them in the past, and for much worse. As long as he didn’t bleed out, his friend would be okay.

“That’s good,” Soji said, “Any chance you’re taking us back to campus?”

“Nope! I’m all out,” the girl shrugged. So much for having atma to spare. Soji hung his head, following Angelo to the elevated train station.

~

July 19, 2022 - 6:59am

Maestro Outpost, Nicosia, Cyprus

“Whoever you maestros are, it doesn’t have to end badly for you!” A stranger’s soft voice begged.

The moment the kids had stepped through the door, they were ejected into the room they expected. What they didn’t expect was that the offending maestros were waiting outside the room, indeterminable in number. And for the past few minutes, had been going back and forth in a negotiation of sorts.

“It’s just me!” Esme lied, “I just want to understand what it is you want.”

“Stop lying to me!” the woman screamed, “I know protocol! Teams are four or five. And if you were strong enough to come on your own, you’d have come out by now!”

“That’s a bit presumptuous, no?”

“Don’t play games with me!” Something slammed against the reinforced steel door separating them.

“Alright, alright,” Esme conceded, “There are four of us, this is our first assignment.” She looked back at Israel, and pointed at him, pointed at her hand, then at the ceiling just above her. The boy nodded in understanding, and began weaving strings of atma into his wraiths.

There was hushed whispering before the woman replied nervously.

“First mission? What is your objective?”

Esme paused. Kuro crept towards her.

“I think they want to know if we’re here to kill them,” he whispered.

“We’re here to resolve this. It doesn’t have to be messy.”

“I don’t believe you! You people covered up our children’s deaths. You’re not just going to let us go. We are prepared to protect ourselves!”

Esme frowned.

“What is she talking about?” She mouthed at Kuro. The boy shrugged. Even Dione threw her hands up in confusion.

“I don’t understand, ma’am.”

“A month ago. My daughter went on a field trip to one of your facilities. Your CEO claimed it was a chemical accident. He threw money at us, and refused us our children’s bodies for burial.”

Kuro’s eyes widened. It couldn’t be…

“I’m sorry that happened, ma’am. So what’s the aim here?”

“We want to bury our children. We want the world to know the truth of what happened to our children. To my Farrah.”

“Mrs. Durrani!” Kuro yelled. There was no doubt about it; these people were the parents of his deceased classmates.

“These guys aren’t maestros…” Esme observed. She came to the same realization as Kuro, and recalled that no other student in that incident besides Angelo’s brother came from a maestro family.

“So how did they know that we were? How did they take over this outpost if they’re non-maestros?” Dione asked in a whisper.

“Who is that?” The woman demanded.

“It’s me, Kuro!”

“Kuro? Your mother said you changed schools, what are you doing h— you’re one of them…” Mrs. Durrani’s tone shifted.

“Aunty, how did you find out about this place? About all of this?”

“A woman approached us a few days ago. She showed us pictures…proof. Then she gave us these Instruments. Her and her organization brought us here. They’re like us, fighting against the Institute’s crimes.”

The maestros all looked at each other, silently deliberating on what they heard. Something wasn’t right.

“That doesn’t… Mrs. Durrani, what did this woman look like? What was her name?”

“Ah, it was Daisy. Daisy from Pantheo—” Serrated steel cut through the woman’s neck, cutting short their ill-timed reunion. The THUNK of flesh and bone hitting tile was met with panic from the other parents. Their screams of confusion were melodiously complemented by splattering blood, and silenced by singing steel.

Kuro stepped back, alarmed. Behind him, Israel's hand-shaped wraiths crawled along the ceiling, while Esme, Dione, and her Naga readied themselves.

Behind the door, Lucia sighed.

“Whose name are you saying so casually? Stupid old woman…”

“Who are you? What did you do?”

“Oh? Is that Kuro? It was a one in three chance that you got assigned this mission. After all the effort I put in, I’m hurt you don’t remember me.”

“I don’t know what you mean…”

“That doesn’t matter. You have something I want. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.”

“What do you want?” Kuro’s voice wavered.

“The sword.” The chokuto strapped against his back suddenly felt cool to the touch. There was no other blade she could’ve been talking about.

“It was my dad’s. I can’t give it to you.”

“That confirms it,” she thought.

“Can you even use it?” Lucia taunted.

The resounding silence was answer enough.

“Yet another reason to give me my sword,” she said.

“Your sword?”

“Well, I’m the eldest,” her tone sharpened.

“What are you talking about?” Israel’s wraiths unraveled to slither through the gap in the door.

“It’s my father’s sword too, baby bro. And unfortunately for you, I’m tired of waiting.”

The boy froze.

“You’re so quiet now. I guess it runs in the family. Going silent before you die, that is,” Lucia laughed.

“What did you do?” Kuro’s words jellied.

“Don’t cry about it, it was forever ago. I’m surprised Tamara didn’t tell you. She was there when I cut the fucker down.”

Without thinking, Kuro ripped the sealed door open to come face to face with Lucia. She hadn’t bothered with her mask this time, and was wearing her armored bodysuit, left hand gripping a bone-handled sword. Its serrated crimson blade looked like it had been shattered, then glued back together with thick wads of pulsing pink flesh. Her brown and black hair was tied back in a bun, its texture as twisted as the smile on her face.

Before either of them could move, Israel’s wraiths wrapped around the girl, tightening and pulling her backwards, further into the room her and her victims occupied. Her ominous blade clattered to the floor and sought refuge among the deceased. Kuro gagged at the sight and smell of the brutal mauling the girl executed alone. He heard Dione vomit behind him.

“Kuro, what the hell is wrong with you? You just put everyone here in danger!” Esme pulled him aside angrily.

“I’m sorry, I…” He was confused. He’d started to forget the world he came from, the depth of the horrors he and his classmates endured that day. But with his alleged sister now before him, it became apparent that the ghosts of the past ran as fast as he did.

“Watch Dione. We’ve got this perra captured. The mission is over.” Esme and Israel cautiously approached the bound Lucia whose expression hardly changed.

“I see you’re choosing the hard way,” she said.

“Wait!” Kuro yelled, finally remembering that he had, indeed, met this woman before. Lucia’s handwoven atma exploded into a barrier, dividing the two rooms. Instead of a typical sheet of atma, it took the form of raging wind, like a hurricane compressed to the thickness of paper. It would have been easier to see through a wall, than for one to see what was happening on the other side of the barrier.

“Kuro…what do we do?” Dione’s voice was a far cry from her typical sarcasm-flavored confidence.

“I don’t know…depending on the conditions of the barrier, it might be impossible to take down from the outside. And I remember this woman now…this wind is her technique,” he replied.

“So she’s good enough to combine a barrier with her technique. An Environmental type…”

The boy nodded.

“When she showed up before…she could touch Tamara…”

“In other words…”

“We’re in trouble.”

SHLINK!

The sound of steel slapping together caused both kids to turn. Dione drew an arrow, Naga, on her shoulder, ready to strike. Kuro unsheathed his machete.

However, all they were met with was Lucia’s crimson sword, laying on the floor, except it no longer had pulsating bits of flesh running along its shaft.

“That’s not right…”

As though answering his thoughts, Kuro and Dione watched in horror as the blade spewed masses of flesh and blood, unfolded itself from a length of steel, and writhed into a new form.

“Heeheeheehee.”

The sword-creature laughed as it made the rapid transformation from metallic flesh mound to steel-covered canine. An arrow clinked against its armored flank, lighting sparks before it clattered harmlessly against the tile.

“Is that a hyena?”

Kuro backed up to stand between Dione and the beast.

“I have no idea…”

The hyena approached them with its trademark laugh, stinking of blood. Suddenly, it slowed as cracks began to appear in the ground.

Atlas Alchemy: 1000

Dione’s technique stopped the creature in its tracks, forming cracks against tile.

“Each shot affects it with my technique for six seconds! Quick, think of something!”

Panicked, Kuro looked around the room for ideas. What could he do?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the barrier, Lucia ran wild with glee, battling against Esme and Israel. She signed for the wind to follow her movements, granting her a speed and power that overwhelmed the two maestros. Israel called up two wraiths and used them as platforms to hop into the air, raising his leg up for an axe kick.

Lucia sidestepped, dodging that attack and Esme’s Wild Jade simultaneously. The emerald blade crashed against the barrier’s wall. The force of the wind deflected it, causing it to be embedded into the floor. Aided by her technique, Esme slid around her target, wrapping its chain around Lucia’s waist.

Before it could fully entrap her, the Pantheon member raised her hands up, signing to create wind bullets, and firing them at Esme. Israel’s hand-wraiths blocked the projectiles then rushed at her and clasped her hands, preventing her from signing.

Spinning the other side of her chained knives, Esme swung at Lucia’s arms. The emerald hummed through the air before it met Israel’s metal string as the woman used her assailant’s technique to protect herself. The chain’s grip loosened for a moment, allowing her to hop away from her attackers.

“Come, Hyena.”

Back on the other side of the veil, Kuro hammered down on the sword-turned-animal with his machete. Even with his Rend, the creature would not cease. Attempting to erase it just reflected sparks of atma back at him.

“Kuro…I’m almost out.”

“Make it lighter,” he replied, suddenly illuminated with a risky idea. Dione drew her bow and loosed the arrow. No longer burdened by her technique, its ears perked up, and Kuro readied himself to kick it at the raging wind barrier. However, Hyena turned back and trotted to the other side of the barrier.

Confused, the kids approached the barrier. Kuro poked at it with an arrow, resulting in its immediate shredding.

“So she can choose what goes in…”

“More importantly, Israel and Esme,” Dione said. Her little body still trembled with fear as her knuckles tightened around her bow.

Kuro paused for a moment, lost in thought. In his frantic wandering, he recalled what Oliver said about being a weapon or a tool.

“Hold on, I’m going to try something.”

Israel grunted in pain as the Hyena’s steel jaws closed down on his shoulder.

“Where did this thing come from?” He thought. The boy was tempted to remove his mask. As skilled as he was, that other part of him was ruthless, and willing to win at any cost. This woman kept up easily against Esme and himself. If he went down here, it’d be over. His wraiths gathered around the creature’s jaws, trying to pry them open.

Esme and Lucia fought each other with a matched ferocity, but the wind-bending maestro’s seniority bought her an edge that slowly overwhelmed her opponent. Both were unarmed, and both used their techniques to bolster their movement. Lucia kicked Esme back with a grin.

“You’re pretty good…it’s a shame you’re going to waste away on behalf of that damned organization,” she said.

“I serve to hunt down those like you,” Esme spat.

“Oh? What happened to the noble cause of hunting blooms?”

“Sinners are worse than the sin,” she approached Lucia, brandishing a knife. The woman laughed, greatly amused by the girl’s tenacity. When Hyena finished devouring the boy, it’d all be for naught, anyway.

Suddenly, she felt a disturbance in her barrier. Behind Esme, a sparking black machete disrupted the rivers of wind that made up the veil, forcefully tearing it open. Atma clashed against atma until the barrier finally gave in, dissipating at the uninvited opening. Lucia’s shock stuck her in place, and rightfully so. Barriers with conditions were nigh indestructible. One would have to destroy the source of the barrier— maestro or anchor— to bring it down. And with the number of conditions she made her barriers with, even Tamara would’ve had to use the full extent of her technique to bypass it.

“Tsk, you are anomalies, after all. The rules don’t apply to you,” she frowned.

“Pews!” Dione’s voice dropped Esme to the ground, revealing too late to Lucia, an arrow racing at her face. It sank into her eye, eliciting a pained roar. It took everything she had to not rip out the foreign object.

“Hyena!” The creature stopped gnawing on Israel and darted at her, folding back into its weapon form.

“Kuro! When I catch you, Kuro…you’re so fucked!” She screamed. Without having to maintain her barrier, she could probably still take the four of them. Israel’s left arm was a mess, Esme barely had atma, and Kuro was inexperienced. It was only when she saw the massive white snake on Dione’s shoulders that she paused to rethink attacking.

“That snake…damn it.”

With a howl, and a burst of windy atma, she disappeared at the utterance of a single word. The room was finally quiet.

“I’m sorry. This is my fault,” Kuro whispered.

“We’ll deal with that later,” Esme replied, “Right now, let’s go home.”

~

July 19, 2022 - 10:05am

E.C. Campus, Eden City, New Eden

Monika’s team had been the first one back, but were joined by Soji’s team shortly. Angelo didn’t bother going back to the residence building, and made a beeline straight for the city’s hospital. Niko disappeared into her room while Soji and Monika now annoyed Penny by aggressively freestyling at her; practice for Kuro’s return. Unexpectedly, the girl’s phone buzzed with a text from Kuro.

Can you meet me at the Central Archives? Alone, please?

Monika’s heart fluttered as she happily skipped away.

“Where are you going?” Soji stopped mid verse as Penny sought refuge in her shadow.

“Mind your business, monkey!” She replied in a singsong voice.

Twenty minutes later, she was in front of the Central Archives’ marble stairs. Her excitement was abated the moment she saw Kuro’s face. The metallic tang of blood, and his reddened eyes made it clear this was not the meeting she thought it was. She embraced him.

“What happened?” She asked, her body pressed against his rigid frame.

He cried as he told her everything. The part about Tamara’s apparent knowledge about his father was especially hard. The one person he was supposed to look up to in this maestro world couldn’t be trusted. With a major pillar of his support system now proven to be unstable, he felt a sense of disorientation that widened his persistent feeling of emptiness.

“I’m so sorry, Kuro. That’s terrible…” She knew the confusion that came with a family member actively trying to kill you, but couldn’t fathom that member boasting about killing her father. It didn’t help that the revelation came after a gruesome reminder of the awful day that put them here.

She also felt a newfound uncertainty about Tamara. It was bad enough that she’d lied about not knowing Isio, but the crime was made worse by the fact that she knew he was dead, and that she’d filled Kuro with false hope. Now, they had to confirm Lucia’s words.

Monika took the boy’s hand and led him up the stairs, and into the library. It was difficult to ignore the sticky sound of his boots leaving bloody footprints behind.

“I’d like to see a file,” she said.

“So would everybody else, dear, please be specific.” The clerk didn’t bother looking up from her book.

“I’m looking for everything pertaining to Isio Adesanya,” Kuro said. The clerk’s eyes shot up, then darted between the two kids.

“I can’t give you that, I’m afraid.”

“Why not?” Kuro protested.

“It’s locked. Elder-level clearance,” she replied.

“But you didn’t check!”

“I don’t need to check, I’m the one that locked it.”

“On whose authority?” Monika demanded.

“Excuse me?”

“You may be in charge here, but you don’t have the power to lock files as you please. Who told you to lock the file?”

“And who are you, young lady? I imagine one of these new generation maestros who thinks they can do whatever they want.”

“I’m Monika Rose. Daughter of Fumiko Rose, and heir to the Rose Clan,” she stated with a great air of authority. She absolutely detested having to do such a thing, but for Kuro? At a time like this? She might’ve even called her grandmother if that had a chance of yielding any fruits.

The clerk looked her up and down before her shrewd expression finally melted into concession.

“The file was locked on authority of Tamara Cain,” she sighed.

“And when was this?”

“A week ago exactly.”

Darkness clouded Kuro’s eyes. He couldn’t even find satisfaction in being right about Tamara’s untrustworthiness. It was just one thing after the other, and this just confirmed the inkling he had about her; they were weapons for some wicked machination of hers. In hindsight, it seemed so obvious.

“Can we even back out at this point?”

“What can you give me about a maestro called Lucia?”

“Do you think there’s only one Lucia on this planet?”

“What about files that contain the names Lucia and Daisy,” he replied. The woman clicked away at her keyboard.

“Only one file is accessible to you. Shall I bring it out for you?”

Kuro nodded. Monika’s warm, coarse hands still lingered in his, fingers loosely interlocked. Her touch kept him grounded.

“Monika, can I ask you one more favor?”

“Anything.”

“Don’t tell Soji about this.”