The Weight of Will

The echo of the gunshot faded quickly, but the silence it left behind was even more dangerous. Ken dropped the rabbit he was skinning and brought his hand to the hilt of his knife. His eyes, accustomed to spotting invisible silhouettes among the crystal reflections, scanned the perimeter.

"One... two... three."

Within the prismatic darkness of the forest, three shadows detached themselves from the trees. They wore gray robes and hoods, identical to those who had ambushed Natasha. They emitted no sound; their boots seemed to float over the glass gravel. They didn't speak, didn't breathe heavily. They only emanated a murderous intent.

Ken tensed his muscles. "Who are you?" he asked, though he knew he'd get no answer.

The hooded figure in the center moved. It wasn't a normal step. It was an inhuman spasm, an acceleration that closed the distance in a blink. Ken saw the glint of a short blade aimed at his neck. "Shit!"

He barely managed to lean his head back. He felt the cold of the metal, then a sharp burn on his cheek. A superficial cut. Ken rolled backward to gain distance, but his instincts screamed a warning. They're gone.

The other two hooded figures had vanished from his field of vision. Above. A shadow fell from the crystal branches onto him. Ken threw himself to the side just as the attacker impacted the ground, cracking the surface with a punch that would have shattered a skull. But he had no time to recover. The third attacker materialized from nowhere on his right flank and connected a brutal kick to his ribs.

The impact was devastating. Ken flew several meters, crashing through a crystal bush until he slammed back-first against a quartz trunk. "Gah..." He spat blood, feeling the air leave his lungs. The blow had split his lip and rattled his brain.

The three hooded figures regrouped, walking slowly toward him. Ken wiped the blood from his chin and looked at his enemies. Then, he looked at the straps of his backpack. "Guess I've survived long enough," he murmured.

With a click, he released the safety buckles. He took off the training backpack and let it drop to the ground.

BOOM!

The impact of the 30-kilo backpack on the crystal floor caused a slight tremor and kicked up a cloud of dust. The hooded figures stopped for a second, confused by the weight the boy had been carrying. Ken stood up. He cracked his knuckles and rolled his neck. Without the extra weight, and in the dense gravity of the forest, his body felt light as a feather. He felt good.

"How about we start round two."

Ken disappeared. This time, it was he who closed the distance. He appeared in front of the first hooded figure. Before the assassin could raise his guard, Ken hurled his hunting knife at his face. The hooded figure blocked it, but that was just a distraction. Ken slid beneath the guard and connected a devastating uppercut to the chin with a loud crack.

The hooded figure's head snapped violently backward. The creature let out a sharp, metallic, gurgling shriek. That didn't sound human, Ken thought as he retreated. Not an animal, either. What the hell are these things?

There was no time to analyze it. The other two attacked from the flanks in sync. But to the new Ken, their movements were no longer a blur. He had spent a month hunting invisible deer guided only by air pressure. These guys were noisy in comparison.

Ken closed his eyes for an instant. He felt the air current cut to his left. He felt the vibration in the ground to his right. Wind. Crystal. Blood.

He moved. He dodged the sword from the left with a minimal tilt. He grabbed the wrist of the attacker from the right, using his own momentum to throw him into the other. While the two collided, Ken exhaled and unleashed a flurry of blows.

It was savage. It was brutal. It lacked Tanimoto's elegance or Natasha's technique. It was pure, instinctual violence. The three hooded figures fell to the ground, bones broken, unable to get up.

Ken stood there, breathing lightly, his fists stained with someone else's blood. "Still have a long way to go to catch my instructor..." he murmured, looking at his adrenaline-trembling hands.

A branch snapped at the edge of the camp. Ken's instincts, still in combat mode, reacted on pure reflex. He grabbed a hard crystal apple from his pocket and hurled it with force at the approaching shadow.

"Die!"

The shadow didn't flinch. A hand rose and caught the apple in mid-air with insulting ease. Plaff!

Natasha stepped out of the darkness, holding the fruit near her face. "Thanks for the welcome," she said, and took a bite of the apple. "I was starving."

Ken lowered his guard, feeling his soul return to his body. "Instructor!" he exclaimed, almost collapsing from relief. "Damn it, I thought you were another one of them! I almost took your head off with that apple!"

"Don't give yourself so much credit, brat," Natasha said with her mouth full, chewing calmly.

Ken ran toward her but stopped upon seeing the dried line of blood on her cheek and her slightly disheveled clothes. "Instructor... are you okay? I heard a gunshot. Did those guys attack you too?"

"Just trash," Natasha dismissed, walking toward the bodies of the hooded figures Ken had defeated. "Never seen them before."

"You... ran here?" Ken asked, noticing Natasha's chest rising and falling a bit faster than normal and a fine layer of sweat on her forehead. "You thought I was in danger?"

Natasha tensed. She turned her back to hide her expression. "Don't get any weird ideas. I just wanted to make sure you hadn't died and wasted my time."

The reality was that Natasha had run like never before, her heart in her throat, thinking she'd be too late to save another younger sibling. But she'd rather die than admit it out loud.

She knelt beside one of the bodies and inspected it. Like her own, the mask was fused to the skin. Natasha's mind raced.

She recalled Kyosuke's words the day the recruits arrived, a private conversation in the command office. "There's a traitor in the facilities, Natasha. Someone is leaking our routes. Be careful."

If these assassins had found the entrance to the "Geographic Singularity" that didn't appear on any modern map, it meant the leak came from very high up. Hachioji was no longer safe. And if they had been found here... it meant the main base was probably already under attack, or worse.

Natasha stood up abruptly. Her aura changed. "We're leaving," she ordered.

"What?" Ken blinked. "Now? But it's night outside, the creatures..."

"I said we're leaving!" Natasha shouted, with an urgency that frightened Ken. "You have five minutes to pack everything. If you're late, this time I will leave you behind. And I mean it."

Ken saw the seriousness in her eyes. He understood the training was over. The real war had begun. "Yes, ma'am!" Ken ran to gather his backpack and put out the fire.

Natasha looked toward the cave exit, toward the outside world. She clenched the oxidized insignia in her pocket until the metal dug into her palm.

What neither of them knew was that, outside that temporal bubble, the world they knew was already burning.