We lined up.

Seventeen bodies plus Carmen, who was already drinking from her flask by the weight rack.

Braxton’s eyes swept across us.

Paused on the cat sitting next to me.

"Nakano. Why is there a cat in my gym."

"Emotional support animal."

"This is a combat training facility, not a therapy session."

"She helps me focus."

"She?"

"The cat. Maki."

Maki meowed.

Loudly.

Carmen snorted into her flask.

Braxton pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Fine. Whatever. But if your emotional support cat pisses on my equipment, you’re cleaning it with your tongue."

"Noted."

He moved to the center of the room.

Clapped once.

"Today we’re running scenarios. Three-person teams. Randomized. You’ll be given a tactical situation and sixty seconds to solve it without dying. Whoever fails gets remedial cardio until they puke."

Groans echoed through the gym.

"First team: Kuzmina, Cabana, Nakano."

Wait.

"Cabana?"

The door opened again.

Reyna walked in.

Crimson hair tied back in a high ponytail, green eyes scanning the room like she was sizing up prey.

She wore the Scarlet Phantoms’ colors.

Red and black.

Form-fitting enough that every curve was a weapon.

"Hope I’m not late, Professor."

"Right on time." Braxton grinned. "Joint training. Your Professor Takamura thought it would be educational."

Reyna’s gaze found mine.

Held it.

"Educational. Sure."

The temperature in the room dropped about ten degrees.

Natalia’s frost spread across the floor in thin spirals.

"This should be fun," Akari whispered to Skylar.

Skylar just pulled her hood up and leaned against the wall.

Braxton activated the holographic projector.

A three-dimensional scenario materialized in the center of the gym.

Showed a narrow corridor.

Multiple hostiles.

A ticking timer.

"You have sixty seconds to clear the corridor and reach the extraction point. Go."

The simulation engaged.

The gym disappeared.

Replaced by stone walls, dim lighting, and the smell of mildew.

Enemies materialized ahead.

Basic constructs.

Six of them.

Blocking the path.

I glanced at Natalia on my left.

Then at Reyna on my right.

"Any plans, Stray Dog?"

"Yeah. Don’t die."

"Inspiring."

"I try."

The timer started.

Fifty-nine seconds.

The constructs charged.

Reyna moved first, her hands crackling with electricity as she summoned twin marionettes that intercepted the first two enemies.

Natalia lifted three more with telekinesis, slamming them into the ceiling hard enough to crack stone.

That left one.

Coming straight at me.

I swung.

Spatial Cleave cut through its torso.

The construct collapsed in two pieces.

"Forty-two seconds," Braxton’s voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere.

We pushed forward.

More constructs appeared.

These ones faster.

Smarter.

Reyna’s marionettes boxed them in while Natalia created a killbox with floating debris.

I finished them off one by one, bat crushing skulls and shattering cores.

It was terrifyingly efficient.

"Twenty seconds."

The extraction point appeared ahead.

A glowing door.

But another wave spawned.

Ten constructs this time.

"We’re not making it," Reyna said.

"Watch me."

I charged straight through the middle.

Shade Cloak activated.

Turned me into shadow for one precious second.

Phased through the first three enemies.

Reappeared behind them.

Natalia froze the ground beneath their feet.

Reyna’s lightning fried them where they stood.

We hit the door with two seconds to spare.

The simulation dissolved.

We were back in the gym.

Breathing hard.

Sweating.

But alive.

Braxton nodded once.

"Adequate."

High praise.

"Next team."

Reyna turned to me as the others filed into position.

"You’re faster than you look."

"Thanks?"

"Wasn’t a compliment." She stepped closer. Lowered her voice. "But you held back. I felt it."

"No idea what you’re talking about."

"Liar."

"So I’ve been told."

She smiled.

Sharp and dangerous.

"Three days, Nakano. I’m going to find out exactly what you’re hiding."

"Looking forward to it."

She walked away.

Natalia materialized at my side immediately.

"She’s right. You did hold back."

"Had to. Can’t show everything in a practice run."

"Smart." Her hand found mine. Squeezed. "But dangerous. She’s analyzing you."

"Let her analyze."

"You’re confident."

"I’m terrified. There’s a difference."

She laughed.

Quiet and genuine.

"Good. Fear keeps you alive."

Training continued for two more hours.

Scenario after scenario.

Different team compositions.

Different objectives.

By the time Braxton called it, everyone was exhausted.

Even Jaime, who had been his usual boisterous self all afternoon, had fallen completely silent. No flexing. No posing. No shouted declarations of his own fighting spirit. He just stood there, unnaturally still, his green eyes locked on me with something that looked disturbingly close to sympathy.

That’s how you knew the situation was genuinely fucked. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Dismissed," Braxton barked, his gravelly voice echoing through the gym. "Go stuff your faces. Get some sleep. Tomorrow morning, we’re running the Crucible at 0600 sharp, and I expect all of you conscious enough to stand."

Celeste, who had been listening quietly from her position near the wall, tilted her head in that achingly innocent way of hers. "The Crucible? I don’t think I’ve seen that on any of the facility maps we reviewed..."

Braxton’s grin was absolutely savage.

"It’s the open-air colosseum sitting right on top of the volcanic crater. Prime real estate. Best view on campus. Also happens to be where your boyfriend over there"—he jerked his thumb directly at me—"is going to throw down with La Sirena herself in front of every single student, instructor, and administrator this gods-forsaken Academy has to offer."

Celeste’s pale face immediately flushed a delicate shade of pink that crept from her cheeks down to her neck. "He’s not my—"

"Sure, princess." Braxton waved her off with a dismissive hand. "Tell yourself whatever bedtime story helps you drift off to dreamland."

Celeste opened her mouth, then closed it again, clearly caught between indignation and the terror of contradicting an S-Rank Hunter to his face. She settled for crossing her arms and looking away, which only made the blush worse.

I didn’t even get a chance to process that particular social grenade.

Reyna, unsurprisingly, was already gone.

The moment Braxton had said the word "dismissed," she’d vanished like smoke. No dramatic exit. No parting shot. One second she’d been standing near the equipment racks, the next she was just... gone. Professional. Efficient. A predator returning to her den to prepare for the kill.

It was, in its own way, more unsettling than if she’d stayed to gloat.

I made it halfway across the training floor, heading toward the main stairwell that would take me back up to ground level, when I felt a hand clamp down on my forearm with surprising strength.

"A word, kiddo."

I turned.

Carmen.

Her single green eye was locked on mine with the kind of unnerving, predatory focus I usually associated with people who were about to either kiss you or stab you. Given her track record, it was genuinely fifty-fifty.

"Now?" I asked, glancing toward the exit where the rest of Class 1-E was filtering out in exhausted clumps.

"Right now."

There was no room for negotiation in her tone.

She didn’t wait for my agreement, just started pulling me toward the far corner of the gym, away from the main flow of foot traffic and into the shadow of the stacked sparring equipment. The moment we were out of earshot, she released my arm and turned to face me fully, her expression deadly serious.

"You understand that you can’t beat her, right? Not in a straight fight."

I blinked.

"Wow. Thanks for the overwhelming vote of confidence, Carmen. Really feeling the support."

"I’m being serious, Satori." Her voice was low and sharp, cutting through my sarcasm like a knife through silk. "Reyna Cabana has been training for this since she was five years old. Professional coaches. Private facilities that cost more per month than most Hunters make in a year. And her Aspect is a direct counter to close-range brawlers like you. She can control the battlefield from a distance and fry you before you ever get within arm’s reach."

"So what are you suggesting, exactly?"

Carmen’s lips curled into something that was too sharp, too knowing, to be called a smile.

"Simple. Don’t fight her."

I stared at her.

"I can’t exactly back out now. I already agreed in front of half the Academy’s staff."

"Then don’t fight fair," she clarified, her voice dropping even lower. "Cheat."

I actually had to pause for a second to make sure I’d heard her correctly.

"Excuse me?"

Carmen’s smile was dangerous.

"You’ve got a bag filled with tricks, use them. Because if you try to play fair against someone like Reyna Cabana, you’re going to end up in the medical bay."

"Or the morgue."

"Or the morgue."

She released my arm.

Took a long drink from her flask.

"Three days, kid. Make them count."