The door creaked open, and two corpses walked in. Or at least that’s how it looked.
Raizen stumbled inside first, hair stuck to his forehead with sweat. His bandages were smudged and frayed, one sleeve torn off.
Hikari followed close, pale and stiff. They didn’t speak.
"Holy tals!" Obi whistled. "Did you two get run over by a cart? No, wait - by two carts? Going in opposite directions?"
Raizen groaned, collapsing into a chair. His cheek rested on the table with a dull thud.
"Now now, Obi..."
"Oh, don’t say my na like it’s a curse! You should be thanking for gracing you with my presence."
Obi sat cross-legged on the floor, with a lump of half-finished tal in his lap.
Hikari let out a faint exhale, the closest thing to laughter she had managed all day. Takeshi didn’t even look up from his bench.
"It’s basically a one-ti use, Obi... The handle will break"
Obi clutched his chest like he’d been shot.
"Whaaat? Old man, this thing is revolutionary!"
"Not revolutionary... Yet. More like a prototype"
"Obi... Please get out, before I throw sothing at you"Raizen groaned louder.
Obi bead. "See? Even a walking corpse loves it! Anyway, I didn’t co here just to show off my genius.
"Hm?"
"I need your review, Takeshi. The underworks won’t take my word for brilliance unless the scary old assassin says sothing."
"Scrap tal, barely holding together, three out of ten for the effort" Takeshi said flatly.
"You wound ! Fine. Be that way. But when you’re begging for one of my world-famous inventions don’t co crying!"
"Keep dreaming"
"Well, I’ll surely co with sothing that’ll leave your jaw on the ground! I’ll take my leave now."
With that, he tucked the lump of tal under his arm, shot Takeshi one last dramatic look, and ran out the door, humming so weird tune.
Silence finally returned. Raizen finally learned back on the mattress, and from there he didn’t move anymore. Neither touched the suspicious stew waiting on the table.
Sleep caught them both instead - Raizen’s head buried in the mattress, Hikari curled sowhere very near.
Takeshi stayed awake. He moved quietly, pinning new scraps of paper and sketches to the great map on his wall.
Red string stretched tighter, connecting dots into patterns only he seed to understand. His jaw tightened as he pressed another pin into place.
A new lead.
When Hikari stirred awake hours later, she found him gone. Raizen wasn’t in bed either.
She blinked, rubbing her eyes.
Raizen was on the floor, doing pushups - or what you could barely call pushups
"Ninety-seven... ninety-eight..."
Hikari blinked awake, watching quietly. "You’ll break yourself."
"I’ll break even more.. If I don’t try..." Raizen panted.
His face twisted with effort, but his eyes burned with sothing else. Sothing harsher than his usual smile.
"If I can’t even do this... I’ll never be strong enough."
She sat quietly, watching him, unsure why her chest felt so tight.
On the table, pinned under a knife, a small note that read:
Kori’s waiting. I have things to manage.
Takeshi’s handwriting, simple ssage, nothing more.
✦ ✦ ✦
The Rust Room was the sa when they got there. The sa white lights burned bright over the Balance Grid, the tile floor shifting and grinding in restless patterns.
Mina was at the controls again, sliding toggles and calling out readings.
Kori stretched in the middle of the chamber, silver bob catching the light. "Morning, sunshines!" she said.
Then she threw a closer looks, eyes sharper.
"Or... Uh... Whatever counts as sunshine. You look like you fought a mattress and lost!" Kori chuckled. "Perfect. That ans yesterday worked."
Raizen forced a grin. "At least we’re alive. Barely"
"Barely’s enough, I can work with that." Kori smirked. "Co on, balance ti."
"Again...?"
She snapped her fingers at Mina. "Set it low-speed, low drop. Let’s see if they can stand on two legs."
Today’s trial was simpler in design, crueler in execution. A wide chamber with a floor of tiles and platforms, each one no bigger than a step.
They shifted constantly - sliding sideways, dropping out, rising up again with sudden movents.
A wrong step ant a long fall into a padded pit below.
"The Balance Grid" Kori announced. "Looks easy, breaks people faster than a hamr. Don’t think, adapt. You fall, you fail."
Raizen and Hikari exchanged a glance, then stepped onto the tiles. The ground shifted instantly, nearly dropping them both.
The floor jolted again, and Raizen dropped into the padded pit with a grunt. He groaned, climbing back up, and Kori’s laugh rang out like bells.
"Perfect landing! Beautiful start!"
They trained until sweat slicked their skin and their legs trembled with every step. Mina’s calm voice cut through between rounds. "Boy’s reaction ti improving. Girl’s readings... Unusual... Again"
During a short break, Raizen collapsed on his back, chest heaving. "Who designed this? Masochists?"
Kori chuckled. "Close. The Phalanx. Back when I was with them, this was warm-up."
Raizen wiped his face. "Phalanx?"
Kori raised a brow. "Never heard of them?"
He shook his head.
"They were... Let’s say, the ones who fought when no one else could. Seven of us. Best of the best. Nyxes died where us Phalanx were."
"But...?"
"There’s no but. Nothing lasts forever. They’re now legends, whispers in taverns. Most are gone."
Raizen’s grin ca back, crooked but real. "Then I’ll just have to be better than them."
Kori looked at him dead in the eye. No amusent this ti. "Kid, I like your insanity."
Then she whispered into his ear "If you want at least to get close... Let show you what it takes."
She flicked her fingers at Mina.
"Grid: hardest pattern. Max shuffle. Let’s give them a show."
"Co on, Kori, you know the max setting jams the motors sotis..." Mina sighed, as she was hesitantly pushing buttons and turning knobs until they looked like they were going to pop off.
The tiles snapped into violent motion, impossible to predict, yet Kori stepped onto them casually. Her body flowed with the shifting ground, each movent confident, playful even. She strolled across like the floor was steady earth, with unshakable balance. Despite the tiles moving so fast, they beca a blur, as far as Raizen could see.
His eyes widened. Not just at her skill - but at her right eye. For a mont, when her hair swung, it was visible.
It wasn’t human.
A snowflake pattern shimred across the bright blue iris. Cold, beautiful, terrifying.
Kori kept moving, tiles still blurring beneath her. She caught him staring, grin turning sharp.
"What’s wrong, kid? Never seen real skill before?"
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