Sunday, Academy Rooftop, Noon...
Shoichi sat alone on the rooftop ledge, legs dangling over the edge, staring out at Lasland stretched below. The town bustled with weekend activity, market stalls, families walking, kids playing in the streets. Peaceful. Safe.
He'd been training every morning for the past two weeks. Running, sparring with Kayuro, practicing control. His body felt different now, lighter, faster, stronger. He'd tested his speed yesterday in an empty field.
Three times the speed of sound. Faster than he'd been against Yuichi.
I'm getting stronger he thought. But is it enough?
His eyes drifted to the mission board listing in his hand, crumpled paper he'd taken without telling anyone.
EXTREME RISK MISSION - NOVICE III
Objective: Rescue 25 civilians from demon hostage situation
Location:bAbandoned settlement, 15km southeast
Threat Level: Low-tier demon (Novice III equivalent)
Recommended: Team of 3+
Reward: 500 silver coins
Team recommended. The words mocked him.
Shoichi folded the paper and tucked it into his pocket.
I need to know if I can do this alone.
The sun hung low on the horizon, painting everything in shades of orange and red. The settlement was a graveyard of collapsed buildings and overgrown paths. At the center stood a broken wooden hut, walls cracked, roof sagging, barely holding together.
Shoichi crouched behind a pile of rubble fifty meters out, scanning the ass.
Twenty-five civilians inside. One demon. Just get in, get them out, done.
He took a breath and moved, silent, fast, sticking to shadows.
He made it ten meters before a voice cut through the air.
"Oh? A student?"
Shoichi froze.
The demon stood atop the hut, arms crossed, grinning down at him. It was humanoid, pale gray skin, black veins crawling across its face, crimson eyes glowing in the fading light. It wore tattered robes, and its presence felt wrong, like reality itself recoiled from it.
"I was expecting academy dogs eventually," the demon said, voice smooth and mocking. "But just one? And a Novice, no less." It tilted its head. "Did they send you to die?"
Shit. So much for stealth.
Shoichi straightened, hands igniting with flames. "Let them go."
The demon laughed. "Or what? You'll burn me?" It gestured lazily toward the hut. "Go ahead. Let's see if you can torch me without incinerating them too."
Shoichi's flames flickered, hesitation creeping in.
He's right. The hut's falling apart. One strong blast and it collapses. Fire spreads fast.
"That's what I thought," the demon said, grinning wider. "So here's how this works"
Shoichi moved.
He blurred forward, closing fifty meters in a heartbeat, fist pulled back.
The demon was faster.
It sidestepped casually, and Shoichi's punch hit empty air. Before he could react, the demon kicked him in the ribs, sending him crashing through a wall.
Shoichi coughed, forcing himself up. Fast. Way faster than me.
The demon landed in front of him, still grinning. " Cute. I'm faster." It cracked its knuckles. "This'll be over quick." (Mach 5)
Inside the hut, civilians huddled together, men, women, children. Bound with chains, terrified, whimpering.
A little girl, maybe seven years old, dark hair, wide frightened eyes, pressed against her mother, crying softly.
Shoichi saw her through a gap in the wall.
And something in his chest twisted.
Tokyo. Five years ago.
A neighbor's kid. Maybe six years old. Always playing in the hallway, bouncing a ball, humming to herself.
Shoichi had walked past her every day. Never said hi. Never smiled. Just... walked past.
One day, she wasn't there anymore. Moved away, probably.
He'd never even learned her name.
I should've said something. Anything.
The little girl in the hut looked at him through the cracks, eyes full of hope and terror.
Not again.
Shoichi stood, wiping blood from his mouth. Flames erupted around his fists, but he pulled them back, keeping the fire low, controlled.
"You're right," Shoichi said quietly. "I can't use fire here."
The demon laughed. "Finally learning"
Shoichi's hand shot forward, and hadows erupted from the ground, wrapping around the demon's legs.
The demon glanced down, unimpressed, and ripped through them like paper. "Shadow magic? Weak."
Okay. Shadows don't work.
Shoichi shifted tactics. Ice formed around his hands, but not just ice. He layered it with rock, creating dense, reinforced barriers that shot forward, encasing the hut in protective walls.
The demon raised an eyebrow. "Interesting."
Then it raised its hand, and blood began to seep from its skin.
"Let me show you my specialty," the demon said, grinning.
Demon Skill: Blood Bending.
The blood coalesced into jagged spears, hovering in the air around the demon. Then it launched them, not at Shoichi, but at the hut.
Shoichi's ice barriers took the hits, cracking but holding.
"Oh, barriers," the demon mocked. "How long can you keep those up?"
It fired again. And again. Each blast hammering the barriers, spiderwebbing cracks across the ice-rock surface.
I can't keep defending forever. I need to attack.
Shoichi's hands crackled with lightnin.
The demon's eyes widened slightly. "Lightning? You're a Warrior's Magic with four elements? What the hell!"
Shoichi blurred forward, Mach 3, and swung.
The demon dodged, but Shoichi kept pressing, lightning arcing from his fists, faster, more aggressive. The demon was still faster, but Shoichi was adapting. His movements sharpened. His speed climbed, Mach 3.5, Mach 4.
The demon snarled, blood whipping around it like a hurricane. "You're annoying!"
It fired a massive blood blast, not at Shoichi, but at the ground near the hut.
The explosion rocked the foundation. The hut shook, walls cracking further.
The civilians screamed.
Shoichi's heart hammered. I can't let it collapse. I can't.
Then he remembered something.
Blood is a liquid.
A memory surfaced, high school science class, barely paying attention, the teacher droning on about conductivity.
Liquids conduct electricity.
Shoichi had to try it.
The demon fired another blood blast. Shoichi met it with lightning.
The electricity surged through the blood, conducting back toward the demon, and the demon convulsed, muscles seizing as voltage tore through its body.
"WHAT?!"
Shoichi closed the distance, Mach 4 now, and drove his lightning-coated fist into the demon's chest.
The impact sent the demon rocketing backward, crashing through walls, trees, debris, tumbling hundreds of meters before slamming to a stop.
Shoichi stood there, panting, fists still crackling.
Got you.
The demon rose slowly, blood dripping from its mouth. Its crimson eyes burned with fury.
"You... you brat..."
It raised both hands, and its entire body began to glow crimson.
Full Power: Blood Core.
The demon's blood, all of it, began to condense into a single point above its head. A sphere of writhing, pulsing energy, growing larger, hotter, angrier.
"I'll kill you," the demon hissed. "I'll kill everything in a kilometer radius. The civilians, the town, all of it."
Shoichi's eyes widened. That's... that's a suicide attack.
The sphere grew to the size of a car. Then a large building.
"DIE!"
The demon hurled it.
Shoichi had maybe two seconds.
Ice won't stop that. Fire won't stop that. Lightning won't
He planted his feet and raised both hands.
Ice. Rock. Steel.
A dome erupted around them, **200 meters wide**, layered with ice, reinforced with stone, coated in steel. Walls ten meters thick, rising from the ground, encasing both Shoichi and the incoming Blood Core in a massive barrier.
The Blood Core hit the dome.
And detonated.
The explosion was apocalyptic.
Inside the dome, the ground cratered, hundreds of meters down, stone vaporizing, magma bubbling up from below. The shockwave tore through the air, a wall of force and heat and destruction.
The dome cracked, massive fissures spreading across its surface, chunks breaking off and disintegrating.
But it held.
Barely.
The shockwave reached the edge of the dome and stopped, unable to break through completely.
Outside, the blast dissipated after a few meters, leaving scorch marks but nothing more.
Inside, Shoichi collapsed to his knees, coughing blood.
His toes were fractured, bones cracked from the impact. Cuts covered his torso and arms, blood seeping through his hoodie. But he was alive.
The demon lay ten meters away, body shriveled, skin gray and lifeless. Using its Blood Core had drained everything. It was dead.
Shoichi forced himself to stand, limping, every step agony.
And then he felt it.
Something awakening inside him.
A pull. A connection. Like a door had opened in his mind, and something new had stepped through.
He flexed his fingers.
Blood, his blood, seeping from his cuts, began to move.
It lifted into the air, swirling around his hand, responding to his will like an extension of his body.
Shoichi stared, eyes wide. "What..."
He moved his hand, and the blood danced, spiraling, coiling, forming shapes. He could feel it. Control it.
Blood Manipulation.
He looked at the demon's corpse, realization dawning.
I... I copied its skill.
He clenched his fist, and the blood snapped back into his body, wounds sealing slightly.
"Thank you," Shoichi said quietly to the dead demon. "For the gift."
He turned and limped back toward the hut.
7 PM, Lasland Clinic...
Shoichi carried the last of the civilians through the clinic doors, an elderly man, too weak to walk. The clinic was packed now, all 25 rescued hostages receiving treatment.
The little girl from earlier ran up to him, bandaged but smiling. "Thank you, mister! You saved us!"
Shoichi knelt down, wincing at the pain in his ribs, and smiled. "You're welcome."
She hugged him, tight, genuine, and something in Shoichi's chest loosened.
I said something this time.
The clinic head approached, a stern-looking woman with healing magic glowing around her hands. "The treatment will cost 10,000 silver coins total for all of them."
Shoichi reached into his pouch and pulled out every coin he had. Exactly 11,300 silver.
"Here."
She blinked. "This is... all of it?"
"Yeah." Shoichi stood, adjusting his torn hoodie. "I've got a home. Family. Food. They need it more than I do."
The woman studied him for a moment, then nodded. "You're a good kid."
Shoichi walked out into the night, broke but satisfied.
Next Morning, Mission Board...
Shoichi stood in front of the academy mission board, scanning for something low-risk. His body was still sore, toes still aching, but he needed to move. Needed to test his new ability.
Blood Manipulation.
He'd practiced in his room last night, controlling droplets, forming shapes, feeling the pull of iron in the liquid. It was strange, but exhilarating.
Gotta keep it secret, he thought. At least for now.
He pulled a mission slip from the board, Novice II: Forest Patrol, and pocketed it.
Time to see what he could do.