Chiharu walked forward disappearing into her shadow needing to stay out of sight for a while.  Her body ached from the battle and though she made it look easy for them, she struggled to keep up.  The opening attack injured her more than she let on even with the use of her shadows to escape.  It would have been a very different fight had she not been successful with her mind games.

In their minds, she could tell that they knew she was strong and stronger than any of them individually.  All she needed to do was take advantage of that already assumed knowledge and grow the seed into something.  The rest played out as well as she could have hoped as they became less focused and more cautious making mistakes.  Even though they were clearly prepared for her, they had not a lot of experience fighting against other powers, not like she had gained where everything was life or death.

But they were better and more organized than the last group.  If it wasn’t for the head of the Higoshi Clan, she could storm their grounds immediately and end the fighting.  The Higoshi head was stronger than her before Atlantis and he no doubt grew even more powerful.  She needed to get stronger and build her men up to be a force that could crush the clan.

The battle reminded her painfully that she still had a long way to go before she could achieve the goal she sought.  Everything she did, trained, built went towards that singular goal.  Nothing would take her from that path.

Away from the battle and to the gym, she arrived taking time to clean up some before she ended up in the training field.  They all came to a stop seeing her enter.  She never had a set time or even everyday that she came, so her appearance was never something that shocked them.  The state of her was what drew their attention today.

In mere moments, they all dashed over to her side, now becoming accustomed to their high speed movement.  Still lacking compared to a specialist like Saki or even Chiharu’s own personal best, but still respectable achievements.  Chiharu couldn’t really appreciate their growth as they bombarded her with questions.

“What the hell happened to you?”

“Is that blood?”

“Did you get attacked?”

“Was it those cultists again?”

“Nothing like that.  Just ran into some glory seeking idiots out on the street.  It was nothing I couldn’t handle.”

“No street punk bitch is going to be able to stop you!”

“I appreciate your high regard for my skill. Just remember, like me, there's always someone stronger out there.  It was true in the old world and especially so in this one.  Never stop improving.”

Chapter 627 - Shadow Build

Dull cracks and echoes of muscle and skin clashed through the gym open hall.  Quick strikes snapped and then blurred into the next.  A flurry of motion that had a form, control and elegance previously lacking.  It came as a stark contrast to where they began.  Even Chiharu could be pleased by the results.

As the two darted around the open field at the center of the track, wear signs showed themselves from the countless hours of practice and sparring Chiharu did with everyone.  Even some small craters or cracks ran around parts of the floor when too much strength had been used.  It just gave some personality to the fighting surface and something worth learning to deal with in situations where the ideal wasn’t possible.

Chiharu deflected a blow with her knee and then forearm, flipping over their shoulder to throw them.  Rather than falling on their back, they caught themselves and gripped a hold of Chiharu’s wrist.  Twisting around, they came face to face exchanging blocked kick after blocked kick in a flow almost akin to a dance as though they were fighting for the lead.

After a few seconds into the stalemate, they broke off and continued to dart around in a chase.  Small breaks battled strength against strength coming out almost equal now.  Perhaps the age difference finally started to catch up.  It was unclear.

Another thirty minutes of sparring continued until Chiharu called it and Ayano stepped away covered in sweat from nearly an hour long session.  ‘Damn, she doesn’t even look like she’s tired yet I’m fighting for my breath...she really is something else…’

“You've come quite far in this month, Ayano.”

“And yet I still can’t beat you.”

“Give it time, keep it up and that day will come.”

“But hell, you keep telling us that and yet each day we see you were holding back a little more back than we thought.  You’ve always got something to pull out of your ass.”

“Consider it a sign of your progress that you keep forcing me to give more to our matches.  Remember, I’ve been trained to do this, you’re only starting a month ago.  Under normal circumstances, that would be impossible.”

Kenta raised his arms up putting his hands behind his head relaxing a little.  “I guess putting it that way, it sounds like we’re cheating.”

“But the whole country is like this, so that’s not really a cheat, is it?” spoke Nao clearly in a firm volume.

“Eh?  I guess, though only if you use it huh?  Right, Chiharu?”

“Correct.”  It pleased her to see her lessons and lectures taking root in them.  Though still rough around the edges, the strides they made gave her confidence towards the mission.  With this they would have a chance at success.  Though she still remained unaware of the state of the Children, it would just have to be something that she would deal with when it came up.

Chiharu walked over to the bench motioning them to follow her.  “It’s time for the mission briefing.”

Those words immediately perked Kenta up as he popped up next to Chiharu without even a second thought.  The rest were quick to follow him.  “Finally going to explain to us actual details about this?”

“Yes, you’ve proven yourselves ready for it.  I’ll explain things in detail for you.”  Once they gathered around her at the bench, Chiharu began to relay to them the contract that she accepted.  The missing swordsmith and prototype weapons, the investigation that she made so far and her encounters with the Children of God took her a good ten minutes to cover.

“So that’s what you meant when you said it could change the balance of power.  An anti-power weapon…”  Ayano pondered the information, finding it even more disturbing than she created in her mind.  Trying to picture a weapon like that to combat powers would be troubling.  ‘I sort of thought she was just blowing smoke up our asses about it being such a big threat to test our resolve or something, but this...this really could change things if it pans out.’

She looked around at everyone else trying to get a gauge of their reactions.  Did it change their minds about what they were getting themselves into with this cult?  The weapon probably was incomplete still if the power balance had not changed.

“So it’s just going to be a rescue mission then?  Save this woman and steal back the goods, no fighting if we can help it?”

“That’s the plan.  I’d prefer they knew nothing about us.  We will be going in stealth and disguised, if we get spotted it’ll be harder for us to be identified.”

“And the actual plan is?”

Pulling out a physical map of the city, Chiharu placed it on the ground and pointed out the district that she found the Children.  “This is their location, HQ or just a branch site, I’m not sure, but it’s the lead we have.  Their sensor types only reach out to about a kilometer, which they rely on for detecting intruders.  There are almost none in the way of patrols, but they have a quick response.”

“How the hell are you expecting us to get around someone like that?  Nao can’t cancel out other sensor types.”

“We won’t need to do that.  I’ve been able to confirm that my power can evade their detection.”

“But there’s a catch.”

“Correct, well spotted Ayano.  While I used that aspect of my power, I’m unable to peer into the real world.  So I’m not able to use it to scout.”

“But you’re still able to use it to traverse the real world?”

“I’m able to transport to any location, so long as I know of its existence.”

“The hell?  Seriously, you can just go anywhere?  Like without having been there before?”

“Correct.  I just have to know where it is and that’s enough.”

“I see, so you plan to take us all into the building and we scout inside.”

Nao nodded as she realized the other part of the plan before the others.  “Because we’ll be inside where there are already lots of people, it’ll be hard for their sensor types to pick us out.”

“Right.  And that’ll buy us the time needed to search out the building.  It’s a large building, it’s going to be a lot of ground to search and likely only have one chance at this.  And with your power, we can avoid detection.”

“Hence why you need me.  And Ayano has the ability to alter fate, so we can avoid death.  Yuichi’s power would be a counter to a lot of powers we might find and Kenta has a strong offense in a fight.”

“Everyone’s got a role to play.”  Though it wasn’t as though she hand picked them.  They were an accident that she saw as useful.  And they already had a good group dynamic, so it worked out for her.  It wasn't the perfect team, she saw some very obvious holes, but that was where she hoped to be able to make up for it.

“So when’s the big day?”

“Two days from now.  We’ll be going in at night when most of them should be asleep.  This is a stealth mission before anything, remember that.  Get your rest and be prepared.” With the concluding words, Chiharu departed their company to return home.  Her travels became more cautious since the attack, not certain when they would strike again.

Into the late evening hours, Ayano and everyone settled down after their constant training.  Chiharu continued to impress upon them the danger of the mission, even with something she finally described as a rescue mission.  The goal was not to be seen.  But with a variety of powers inside that building, there was anyone’s guess if such a goal was achievable.  So she pressed them all to train the same amount regardless of the day.

Seeing that they still had so far to go with Chiharu, she felt that pressure even more.  ‘I’m not sure, but I think she’s improving as well.  It’s hard to tell since we’ve never seen her peak as far as we know.  But her powers seem to be responding to her faster and with greater strength.  And this new evolution, it’s like she told us at the beginning.  Our powers aren’t static.  Not sure why I thought catching up to her would be easy…’

Everyone sat around in the room that had become their shared bedroom.  It looked a little more organized with the junk that used to clutter the sides moved away.  Kenta bent a few of the metal beams and plates to create chairs for themselves.  Some stolen weird mascot figures from the gym shop decorated corners near the cot rolls giving a little life to the place.

“Ya think we’re making her stronger?”

The sudden, if not timely, question came up just after Ayano finished her internal chatter.  “I’ve been wondering the same thing.  It does sort of seem like she is using us.  But we’re using her, it is what this weird sort of arrangement is about, right?”

“Yeah, but how are we supposed to get our revenge if she’s always out of reach?”

‘So he hadn’t forgotten?  It’s the first he brought it up in a while.  Yuki’s memory is becoming more distant with each day...so focused on training I don’t have time for other thoughts anymore...was the whole point?  It’s not like she wants to die, but she knows making us stronger is a risk to her.’  It was a complicated matter as it turned out, more than she thought it would be.  Though looking at everyone, they all seemed to feel similarly.

Chiharu had to pay.

“This is a dangerous mission.  Think the time is right?”

“Dunno, maybe.  If we don’t run into anyone, it's not really going to happen.”

“Unless we make sure a fight happens,” suggested Nao.  They all looked at her with surprise that she even said such a thing.  But the idea had merit in everyone’s eyes.  “We just have to stay out of trouble.”