The rain continued its relentless descent, a fitting soundtrack to the storm brewing between them. Mika's blade, still pointed at Kei's throat, did not waver. The furious tremor in her hand, however, intensified, fueled by every insult and now, every perceived threat. Her eyes, burning with an inferno of rage, narrowed even further.
"You think a glorified Association accountant can hurt a Count-rank Hunter?" Mika spat, her voice a low, dangerous growl that cut through the downpour. "You want to prove how effective you are, Overseer? Try me." The challenge hung in the air, heavy with defiance.
Vivian moved swiftly, placing a hand firmly on Mika's arm, her grip tight and steady. Her own gaze, a frigid counterpoint to Mika's fire, locked onto Kei with an icy intensity. "Kei," she said, her voice strained but firm, attempting to inject a sliver of rationality into the explosive situation. "That is a direct threat to a ranked Hunter. This goes beyond 'supervision' and into a disciplinary offense. Are you truly prepared to assault a Hunter you're supposedly assigned to supervise?"
Reina, utterly distraught, gasped. "Mika, no! Please don't!" she sobbed, clutching her own arms, her face streaked with tears that mingled with the rain. Her voice was a small, broken plea. "Don't fight him! Please!" The vibrant sunshine of her personality had been completely eclipsed by fear and despair.
Kei turned, disregarding Mika's pointing blade at him. He walked towards a pile of rubbish, pulling out a rusted piece of industrial metal pipe.
"Do you really want to find out just how incompetent you are? I don't mind showing you."
The sight of Kei calmly retrieving a rusted industrial pipe, turning his back on a drawn blade as if it were a toy, was the ultimate insult. It was a calculated move, stripping Mika of her weapon's gravitas and her rank's authority. The sheer dismissiveness ignited something primal in Mika, an explosive combination of humiliation and righteous fury.
"Fine!" Mika's voice cracked, raw with barely contained rage. Her entire body tensed, coiled like a spring ready to unleash. The rain plastered strands of her hair to her furious face. "You want to play games, Overseer? You want to see how 'incompetent' I am? Come on! Let's see how well your 'tactics' work against a defective weapon!" Her grip tightened on her katana, her knuckles white, ready to draw blood. Every instinct screamed at her to prove him wrong, to make him regret every single word.
Vivian watched, aghast, as Kei approached with the pipe. The logical part of her brain screamed at the absurdity, the sheer insubordination of a newly appointed Overseer challenging a Count-rank Hunter to a physical confrontation with a piece of junk metal. But another, darker part, fueled by her own bruised pride and the sting of Kei's insults, felt a dangerous surge of anger. He wasn't just questioning their skill; he was challenging their very right to exist as they did.
"Kei, this is madness!" Vivian finally burst out, stepping forward, her hand reaching for Mika's arm. "You cannot be serious! This isn't supervision, this is a direct provocation! The Association—"
"No, Viv!" Mika snarled, shrugging off Vivian's hand. "He wants to fight? I'll show him a fight! He thinks we're liabilities? I'll show him what happens when you underestimate a 'defective weapon'!" She took a stance, her katana ready, Aura beginning to pulse faintly around her.
Reina, meanwhile, had sunk to her knees, clutching herself, tears streaming down her face, mixing with the rain. Her small, broken sobs filled the momentary lull. "No! Please! Stop! Don't fight him, Mika! Don't do it! Please, no more fighting!" Her pleas were barely audible, lost in the escalating tension, a desperate cry against the inevitable collision of pride and authority.
"Hunter Vivian. Hunter Reina. Are you going to just be spectators or do you plan to be martyrs for your friend?" Kei spoke, holding up the pipe and pointing it towards them.
Kei's challenge hung in the air, cold and menacing. The word "martyrs" was a cruel barb, designed to shatter their remaining composure and unity.
Mika's furious glare intensified, her body rigid with barely suppressed violence. Her hand, still gripping her katana, flexed, and the weapon vibrated with her simmering Aura. "They're not going to be anything, Kei! You want to talk about defective? You're the one picking a fight with people who put their lives on the line for others, while you stand here with a pipe like some kind of street thug!"
Vivian's face hardened, all traces of doubt and hurt replaced by a grim resolve. Her hazel eyes, previously filled with frustration, now held a dangerous, unyielding fire. She stepped forward, positioning herself slightly ahead of Mika, her posture subtly shifting into a defensive stance. Her bow equipped in her hand, a faint golden glow radiating from its ethereal string.
"We don't abandon our own, Overseer," Vivian stated, her voice a low, steely whisper, utterly devoid of emotion. "We face our threats together. If you intend to attack one of us, you attack all of us."
Reina, still kneeling, looked up, her tear-streaked face contorted in a mixture of fear and dawning defiance. The "martyrs" comment, instead of crushing her further, ignited a spark of fierce protectiveness for her friends. Slowly, shakily, she pushed herself to her feet, wiping a hand across her eyes. Her gauntlets, though not fully clenched, began to shimmer with a faint, uncertain Aura.
"We... we won't let you hurt Mika!" Reina stammered, her voice still trembling, but with a new, fragile resolve. "We fight... together!" Her small figure, usually so full of effervescent joy, now stood as a testament to her loyalty, despite her profound fear.
The silence of the rain-soaked district shattered as Kei took his first step. It wasn't a charge, not an angry lunge, but a deliberate, almost graceful stride. He held the rusted pipe loosely, casually, as if it were a cane rather than a weapon, yet his eyes, those piercing silver orbs, were fixed on them with an unnerving, unblinking intensity. Each measured step was a drumbeat of their impending, forced humiliation.
Mika roared. The carefully balanced control snapped. With a guttural cry, she launched herself forward, a blur of crimson tactical gear and furious Aura. Her katana, humming with contained power, arced in a wide, punishing sweep, aimed to disarm, to drive him back, to wipe that infuriatingly calm expression from his face. She wouldn't just show him competence; she would show him the ferocity of a truly "defective weapon."
Vivian, however, moved to intercept. Her bow transformed, appeared fully drawn in her hand. Not aimed at Kei, but rather, a shimmering arrow of pure Aura materialized, then solidified, taking the form of a net. It wasn't meant to kill, but to incapacitate. Her plan was to contain Kei, to buy them time, to prevent this disastrous escalation, to protect Mika from a mistake that could cost them far more than their pride.
Reina, still trembling, cried out as Mika moved. With a desperate surge of loyalty overriding her fear, she pushed forward, her gauntlets flaring with a golden light. Not a direct attack, but a defensive maneuver, a shimmering wall of protective energy, manifesting just in front of Vivian and Mika, a desperate, shimmering barrier between her friends and the advancing Overseer.
The collision was inevitable. Mika's katana met empty air as Kei, with a terrifying economy of motion, sidestepped her furious lunge. He moved like smoke, like water, utterly devoid of wasted energy. The pipe, once casual, became a lightning-fast blur, not aimed at Mika, but slamming directly into Vivian's glowing net. The ethereal construct fractured, shimmering violently before dissolving into sparks.
Before Vivian could react, Kei's free hand snaked out, not with a strike, but a precisely placed chokehold before slamming Vivian to the cold, wet pavement.
The sound of Vivian hitting the rain-slicked concrete was a sickening thud that echoed through the dark alley. The air was knocked out of her lungs in a sharp, strangled gasp. One moment she was the tactical anchor of the team; the next, she was pinned under the weight of a man who moved with a terrifying, ghost-like fluidity.
"Vivian!" Reina's scream was high-pitched and laced with pure terror. The sight of their composed leader—the one who always had the answers—sprawled helplessly on the ground under Kei's cold grip shattered Reina's remaining restraint. She didn't think; she didn't strategize. She lunged forward, her gauntlets erupting in a blinding, chaotic gold light. "Get off of her!"
But it was Mika who arrived first.
Mika didn't just attack; she became a whirlwind of desperate, murderous intent. Her Aura, usually a disciplined flicker along her blade, flared into a jagged, crimson corona. She didn't care about the textbook. She didn't care about the 'C' grade. She saw her sister on the ground, and the fire in her heart turned into an inferno.
"I'll kill you!" Mika roared, her voice cracking. She swung her katana in a vertical arc designed to cleave through the very pipe Kei held, a strike backed by the full, reckless weight of her Count-rank power.
Vivian, pinned beneath him, looked up into Kei's silver eyes. Up close, the lack of emotion was even more chilling. He wasn't even breathing heavily. Her throat felt the crushing pressure of his hand—not enough to snap her neck, but exactly enough to paralyze her. Through the haze of pain and the rain blurring her vision, she realized the terrifying truth: he hadn't just predicted her move. He had baited it.
"Mika, no! Don't be—!" Vivian tried to choke out a warning, but the air wouldn't come.
Mika's blade came down like a guillotine, but as the steel whistled through the air, Kei positioned his pipe to parry and redirect the force of Mika's strike to the ground.
The katana bit deep into the asphalt, sparks showering the dark alley as Mika's full strength was diverted into the unyielding ground. The shock of the impact vibrated up her arms, numbing her fingers and shattering her balance. She was completely overextended, her heart hammering against her ribs—not with adrenaline, but with the sudden, icy realization that she had missed.
Kei didn't give her a second to recover. With Vivian still pinned beneath the pressure of his knee, he pivoted his upper body with predatory grace. The rusted pipe blurred, whistling through the air. It didn't strike Mika's head; instead, the blunt end jabbed with surgical precision into her solar plexus where a gap in the armor of her tactical suit is located.
Mika's breath left her in a silent explosion of agony. Her eyes bugged out, her knees buckled, and she collapsed backward, her katana clattering uselessly away into the darkness.
"One down," Kei murmured, his voice as steady as the falling rain.
Reina was already upon him, her golden gauntlets glowing like twin suns in the gloom. Her punch was fueled by a desperate, tearful rage, but to Kei, it was telegraphed and clumsy. He didn't even move his feet. He simply leaned his head to the side, the wind of her glowing fist whistling past his ear.
Before Reina could pull back for a second strike, Kei reached out and grabbed her by the front of her tactical vest. Using her own forward momentum against her, he yanked her downward while simultaneously rising from his position over Vivian.
In one fluid, brutal motion, he tripped Reina's advancing leg and slammed her side-faced into the puddle right next to the gasping Vivian.
The struggle, which had begun with MUSE's indignant fury, ended in less than twenty seconds.
Kei stood over them, the rusted pipe resting casually against his shoulder. He looked down at the three "Count Rank" Hunters—one gasping for air, one pinned by shock, and one sobbing into the wet concrete. The neon light of a distant billboard reflected in his silver eyes, cold and utterly devoid of pity.
"Emotional. Reactive. Sloppy," Kei stated, the words falling like lead weights. "You fought as individuals, not as a unit. You allowed a single provocation to dismantle your entire tactical formation. If I were a High-Grade Cryptid, you would all be dead before your 'Aura' even had the chance to flicker."
He tossed the rusted pipe aside; it landed with a hollow *thud* near Mika's hand.