“Uh… sir,” Claire asks, looking around us in confusion as we walk the claustrophobic streets beneath the skyway — having just left the Mercurial compound. “Isn’t the GDF building in the other direction?”

  Kayne walks confidently ahead of us, still not in his assault state. “Very astute, Claire,” he says blandly as he continues on his way.

  Claire looks vaguely uncomfortable at his response, rubbing the back of her head awkwardly with her remaining arm. “Well, sir… I suppose what I’m meaning to ask is… um… why?”

  “Didn’t you read the schedule I sent? We’re going to be learning how to move in your assault states,” Kayne responds, and I can practically hear the eye roll in his tone.

  I glance around, trying to orient myself in the city to figure out where he’s taking us. “We’re going to the slums?” I ask, surprised.

  Kayne lets out a heavy breath — as if the effort of answering our questions is just too much. “Yes, Serena. We are going to the slums. The twisting streets, busy traffic, and varied buildings offer a good opportunity to learn to move.”

  “You’re going to have us jumping across buildings like in a parkour video?” Claire asks, her voice suddenly excited.

  “Something like that,” Kayne responds before finally slowing his pace so he can walk beside us. “Moving like a sentinel is the first thing every new sentinel should learn to do. You still walk, run, and jump like you’re a human with human limitations. A human can’t jump between buildings, but a sentinel can. A human can’t outrun a car, punch through a brick wall, or hold their breath for an hour. A sentinel can. You need to learn your new limits.”

  Kayne looks to each of us, meeting our eyes before moving on to the next person. “When you accepted your bond to your familiars, you became something more than human. We are beings of magic now, and we don’t have the same restrictions. In fact, as you get stronger, the idea of restrictions in general becomes laughable.”

  I bite my lip as I consider Kayne’s words. For the first time since he’d started training us, he’s actually sounding eager. I’m not sure how to feel about that when he’s talking about sentinel superiority.

  “Audrey said that you were very rule-oriented. Aren’t they a restriction?” I find myself asking. My mind drifts back to what Akari and I had heard from Karma about the lawsuit. Isn’t my grandfather trying to exploit some quirk of the rules to get me transferred to America? I can’t imagine something like that ever working on Kayne.

  Kayne narrows his eyes, thinking for a moment before he responds. “Yes and no. Rules and laws lay out how we sentinels need to interact with humans. Think of them as a mutual understanding between sentinels. We follow them so our fellows won’t be forced to come and hunt us down. The stronger you get, though, the less rules will apply to you. For example, if you become an A Rank sentinel, the GDF would need to find several other A Rank sentinels to come and force you to follow their rules. That’s a lot of effort and expense, and a potential fight could be catastrophic. As such, they’ll only bother with the effort if you fuck up monumentally.”

  I nod, “But for an E Rank sentinel, it would only take a team of soldiers to deal with one. So, they have to stay closer to the rules?”

  Kayne nods, “Exactly. Right now, you are mere embryos in terms of your power. Karma, Audrey, and I expect that to change rapidly, though. Get to peak A Rank, and there won’t be a person in the world who can force you to do anything. There are a few American sentinels like that and a few Chinese sentinels as well. They do what they want, when they want, and no one is going to force them to do otherwise.”

  “But what if a sentinel were a murderer?” Baylee cuts into the conversation, her eyes hard. “How would the GDF deal with them?”

  “If a sentinel started killing indiscriminately or started using their powers in other inhumane ways, the GDF would likely order them killed. You can’t really imprison most sentinels, and someone like that reaching A Rank would be a disaster. Luckily, most people with those proclivities start to go mad with power around C Rank or B Rank. They think themselves untouchable before the GDF calls in an A Rank to come down on them like the hammer of God,” Kayne explains.

  “So really,” Akari says, speaking up, “What you’re saying is that you have to follow the rules up to a point, and where that point is depends on your strength.”

  Kayne points to Akari, “You’ve got it in one. Really, the idea of humans forcing us to do anything is rather laughable. Yet, right now, we have a good society in which to live. There are restaurants for us to eat at, stores for us to shop at, and workers for us to hire. Those kinds of things go away if all the sentinels start trying to become rulers themselves. It’s better to just let the humans administer themselves and take the benefits where they come. So, when a sentinel thinks themselves a new ruler or starts disrupting the arrangement we have, we go and deal with the problem before it gets too bad.”

  “You make it sound like there’s some council of extremely powerful sentinels that are the ones that really make the decisions,” Baylee says, her tone colored with disbelief.

  To my horror, Kayne just nods. “The A Ranks,” Kayne says simply. “If they wanted to take over the entire world, they could. Instead, they work together to maintain the balance. If a sentinel who doesn’t fit in with that balance is about to become an A Rank, well… that sentinel will mysteriously die in their next incursion zone.”

  “But… I thought there weren’t any A Ranks in Japan?” Baylee asks, her voice tinged with horror now.

  “There aren’t,” Kayne says with a shrug. “There is an A Rank sentinel who is more or less in charge of us, though, at least until Audrey or I break through to A Rank. She’s an American who calls herself Nightsong. She’s extremely powerful but mostly quite hands-off. She leaves sentinel management in Japan mostly to Audrey, me, and a few others. She’ll only get involved if there’s a problem.”

  Once again, Kayne looks around at us and meets all of our eyes. “The reason I’m telling you all this is so that you don’t become that problem. I have little doubt that the A Ranks know what Karma is planning with your little team. They are the reason you should follow the rules; the last thing you want is for Nightsong to come knocking on your door. She rarely acts directly, but when she does… stars help whoever she’s after.”

  It takes us almost an hour of walking before we arrive in the slums. The afternoon light streams down pleasantly, warming my skin now that it isn’t being blocked by the massive buildings. The people of the slums give us a very wide birth. No one wants to get in the way of the team of sentinels.

  By now, even Kayne had shifted into his assault state. His clothes having changed away from casual wear to a regal black and violet outfit reminiscent of a suit from a high fantasy story. It has a high collar stylized with designs of flickering black flames and looks sleek enough to allow for easy movement.

  Upon arriving at the slums, Kayne had looked around for a moment before locating a two-story building — a plain concrete box of a structure that acts as a small residential housing unit. We stand in the alley facing the back of this building, with Kayne looking contemplative and the rest of us just confused.

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  Kayne nods to himself before turning towards us. “In an incursion zone, you will see a massive variety of environments. Urban cityscapes, icy tundra, thick jungle, and many more. The first step to being able to effectively fight in such an environment is being able to move effectively.”

  “On most Sundays, we will not go to the Mercurials but will just restock from the hub. This will allow us time to travel to a variety of different environments around Japan to practice moving in those places as a team. Some of you will be able to move more effectively in different environments than the others; this lesson is about learning how to cover each other’s weaknesses and compound each other’s strengths,” Kayne continues before gesturing up at the building.

  “Let’s say, for whatever reason, your entire team needs to get up onto this building’s roof. It’s preferred if you can get to the top under entirely your own power, but any means necessary is acceptable,” Kayne finishes before bending his knees.

  “You can start now,” he comments before, with a casual leap, he jumps to the top of the building.

  My eyes go wide at the display. Kayne had jumped to the top of a two-story building with the ease of someone hopping up a small step. How would it feel to have that kind of power?

  Baylee, who had also been watching Kayne’s jump with amazement, turns to the group. “Anyone have any ideas?”

  “Sure do!” Claire exclaims, eyeing the top of the building with manic intensity.

  “I meant for the team-” Baylee starts before being cut off by the power gathering around Claire.

  A field of flickering red lightning springs into existence around my teammate. The lightning plays in violent crimson streaks across the armor of Claire’s assault state and grows more intense by the second. Once the lightning is bright and violent enough that the rest of us are taking a step back, Claire bends her knees like Kayne had and leaps.

  With a shout of manic glee, Claire shoots up into the air, overshooting the edge of the building and crashing down somewhere out of sight. At least she'd made it up...

  The rest of us exchange glances, “Did any of you know she could do that?” Haruto asks with amazement.

  “It’s probably related to a new ability,” Baylee muses, “I’m willing to bet that everyone has a few. I’m excited for the strategy session we’re supposed to have after this. Does anyone else have an ability to get them up under their own power?”

  I bite my lip, tilting my head as I consider. “Let me try,” I murmur, extending my hand forward.

  In a rush, a line of blue-white mist gusts out from my palm. It’s not as tightly controlled as it might have been if Celeste were with me and not out watching the Reavers while they shop, but I do a decent job of getting a good amount of mist to crawl up the side of the building until it crests the upper edge.

  Once the connection feels solid enough, I smile at Baylee and step through my mist, arriving at the top of the building as easily as taking a step forward. I have a sudden sense of vertigo at the perspective shift of being on the ground looking up to being on the building looking down, but it passes quickly. Then, I grin and wave down at the other three who look up and me with a mixture of awe and annoyance.

  Turning around, I see Kayne sitting by himself on the other side of the roof, his legs dangling as he gazes out over the slums. Claire is a lot closer by, pushing herself to her feet with her remaining arm and grinning at me happily.

  “You got up too, Little Blue!” Claire exclaims before giggling at her rhyme. “Great job!”

  I smile softly, “I just hope the others have something up their sleeves as well.”

  Together, Claire and I walk to the edge of the roof just in time to see Haruto stepping onto a flickering green shield. He jumps up and down a few times to make sure it’s sturdy before lifting his hand. The shield begins to lift him into the air, easily raising him up to the top of the building like his own personal elevator before he lightly steps off and onto the building.

  He doesn’t say a word, but his eyes seem to twinkle with excitement behind the visor of his assault state’s helmet.

  The three of us look down with amusement at Baylee and Akari, who are still standing on the street. Baylee turns to Akari, and faintly, I hear her ask, “You didn’t get a movement ability either?”

  Instead of responding, Akari squares her shoulders and approaches the edge of the building. For a moment, she bows her head as if in prayer. However, when she looks up again, her eyes blaze with violet light. Wisps of violet energy drift away from the edges of her eyes as if she were weeping violet flames into the air.

  Backing away from the building a step, Akari runs and jumps. She doesn’t make it nearly as high as Kayne or Claire had, but she does make it high enough to grab the window seal of the closest window. From there, she swings herself upward to stand on the tiny edge as if it were a flat plain. The next minute is nothing short of incredible as I watch Akari, with great determination and skill, ascend the building like she’d been doing so for her entire life.

  We watch in amazement as Akari pulls herself up over the lip of the building, her eyes dimming back to normal before she gives me a nod. Her expression seems to hold a challenge — as if to say, “See, I can keep up with you, too.”

  I simply reach over and give her shoulder a squeeze.

  Baylee stands alone on the street below, looking up at us with a dry expression. “I hate you all!” she calls up at us.

  Eventually, we managed to get Baylee up onto the building as well. Admittedly, Haruto had to go down and get her, but we all made it to the top. When we do, we approach Kayne with expressions of nervous tension, unsure if we’d passed his test.

  Despite not having watched for any of it, Kayne turns around and nods to us before climbing to his feet. “Well done. The majority of your team managed to get to the top of the building under their own power.”

  Kayne reaches an arm up into the air and stretches for a moment. “It was a good start, but you need to realize that if there had been a volcora up here raining attacks down on you, it wouldn’t have been nearly so easy. You need to get to the point where you all understand what each other’s limits are. Haruto, imagine if you left Baylee down on the street by herself and she got ambushed because you didn’t know that she didn’t have her own way up. Akari, imagine if your team was in the midst of a fight on top of this building without your help because you took so long climbing up.”

  “It’s important to know your own limits and to be able to accomplish something like this under your own power. For the next part of our training, though, we will work on efficiency. We want to optimize two things here, mana and speed. Is it better to have Haruto just lift you all up, or would it be better for some of you to move under your own power and just have him move the others,” Kayne continues.

  “Now, here is your next challenge; you all need to get back down onto that street in under a minute. Time starts now.”

  For the rest of the day, Kayne works out our ability to traverse different parts of the slums as a team. Can we get to the top of a building? Can we get back down? What members of our team can accomplish which tasks? How can we make things more efficient?

  I have to admit, despite his gruffness, Kayne is actually a good teacher. He explains how Haruto being away from Baylee would greatly hurt her ability to traverse most difficult terrain types and make her vulnerable. He explains that it is always best for us all to leave and arrive at the exact same time so that no team member is caught out. Kayne goes over all that with great detail and care, constantly challenging us with new tasks before going over what we did well and what we did poorly.

  Honestly… it’s refreshing. I might have a general distaste for how Kayne treats normal people, but so far, he’s essentially been the only one to actually bother training me. Every time I complete a task — occasionally even being forced not to use my mists — I find myself looking to Kayne for approval in much the same way I look to Mr. Yamamoto. It’s a bond I haven’t really developed yet with Audrey despite having spent more time with her.

  I find myself very glad that Kayne has been introduced to our team’s training. I had come to like Audrey… kind of, and I feel as if she actually deeply cares. Yet, the organization and calm leadership Kayne offers is enticing. I can absolutely see him as a leader, whereas Audrey feels more like a single, chaotic individual. Like the difference between Claire being in charge and Baylee. This exact thing is likely a big problem with having sentinel leadership be determined by rank. Just because Audrey is high rank… well, it doesn’t mean she should be in charge.

  Eventually, something changes in our training. We start to work together fluidly without needing to talk about it first. Some obstacles we can all traverse, even Baylee using the base strength of a sentinel, and others we all turn to Haruto for help. However, we get faster and more effective as we get into the flow of the challenges. Every time we think we have things figured out, Kayne once again challenges us with what is and isn’t possible.

  For the first time since I’d started using my assault state, I actually find myself having fun. Traversing the slums and taking on greater and greater challenges feels like how things should be. I can only imagine how things might have been if Audrey had taken us out here instead of into that incursion zone.

  Of course, that’s when reality decides to crash back in.

  [Serena, I believe I’ve found a Reavers base,] Celeste says, contacting me for the first time in hours. [Also, we have a big problem.]