Chapter 4 - Chapter 4 - The Night Job

"We're here. Ryuu, are you ready?"

"Probably? I hope so."

"And you've memorised the scenarios and plans?"

"Yeah... all eight of them."

"You know that there are ten, right?"

"Um, yeah, I meant ten."

Akihiko raised an eyebrow and rolled his eyes. This was how Ryuusei typically was, anyway, and all of was already used to him being the lax idiot he was. Ryuusei could only laugh a little in slight embarrassment. Just then, the van came to a stop.

"Take it seriously, alright? From his profile, this guy seems like bad news. Good luck out there, Ryuu."

Akihiko expectantly held out a closed fist towards Ryuusei. Seeing this, Ryuusei responded by bumping his own fist onto Akihiko's. This was their good luck ritual before missions.

"Gotcha, see you on the flipside, Hiko. I'm off."

Ryuusei slid the van doors open and walked out into the darkness of the night. It was nearly pitch-black if not for a few lampposts lighting the front of the warehouse. This place being creepy was an understatement, it made a haunted house seem like a five-year-old's playground. Some of the lights in the lampposts flickered on and off sporadically. Ryuusei was used to these kinds of scenes, though, it came with the many years of experience on the job. He felt chills down his spine with every step he took closer to the warehouse backdoor with some apprehension.

Obviously, Ryuusei couldn't just waltz in via the front door. So he had to use the backdoor, despite it being located down an extremely dark and creepy alleyway. As he walked towards the back door and his hand closed in on the door handle, a sound entered his left ear.

"Ryuu? Be careful of what's beyond that door, I'd be willing to bet that Kirisaki's expecting someone from to come for him. I wouldn't really be surprised, since he's been involved heavily with affairs."

As soon as the first few words were heard, Ryuusei let out a soft 'Eep!' and his back immediately straightened in a combination of shock, anxiety, nervousness and fear. Thankfully, it seemed that Akihiko didn't hear it over the loud sound of his own voice. Ryuusei had gotten used to the creepiness of the night, but that didn't mean that Ryuusei wasn't still crept out by it, he simply got used to the constant feeling of anxiety and fear for his own life. Not that he'd actually tell anyone that. Perhaps Akihiko knew, especially since he was Ryuusei's partner in Special Operations, but being the good-natured boy he was, he wouldn't tell anyone.

As Ryuusei turned the door handle, he activated his Holder Gene to stay aware of his surroundings. He formed a mental map of the warehouse using while he slowly crept into the warehouse. The door he had entered led to a locker room for the workers. All the lights were off and the lockers surrounded him, making the room a collection of narrow and dark walkways.

It was completely silent. Ryuusei couldn't even hear any breathing sounds with his enhanced hearing. Was Kirisaki even inside the warehouse? Ryuusei ventured further into the warehouse, getting out of the locker room and going into the huge storage area. Large shipping crates were stacked on top of each other and were laid neatly in rows, the space between each stack of shipping crates was so narrow that both of Ryuusei's shoulders touched a shipping crate by simply standing in place.

Cautiously, Ryuusei crept around, walking down the line and scanning through his surroundings. Everything seemed in place. Nothing truly stuck out as an obvious hint. Could he be hiding in one of the shipping containers? It was certainly possible to use an emptied shipping container as a temporary base. Ryuusei hoped that wasn't the case, it would be quite loud if he had to open the shipping containers and search them, it might alert Kirisaki and let him escape preemptively. That would be bad.

「Kaaaaaaang!」

Ryuusei heard a loud sound reverberate from above. The warehouse had a second floor, which simply consisted of metal catwalks with railings. Ryuusei had a gut feeling that the sound originated from the catwalk in the far right corner of the warehouse. The way the sound echoed within the storage area definitely confirmed his guess too.

Creeping closer and closer to the source of the sound, Ryuusei's guard was at an all-time high—he was ready for some kind of ambush.

「Fuuush! Fuuush!」

Ryuusei's head snapped towards the direction the sounds came from, which was a short distance away from where he stood. Wait, those sounds seemed similar to sounds cloth would make when rubbed against other cloth. Kirisaki had to be running off! Those were the sounds of his pant legs rubbing against each other!

Ryuusei broke into a sprint and leapt up as high as he could, barely making it over the railing of the catwalk. Luckily, Ryuusei was trained well to use his Holder Gene to enhance all his physical capabilities as well, which included his muscle power. This allowed him to jump far higher than a regular human being could.

「Clack! Clack! Clack!」

The sound of shoes tapping against metal could be heard in front of Ryuusei, and he chased.

"Hiko, contact with target. Probably. Currently in pursuit."

"Roger that, I'm watching using your feed now."

Ryuusei kept chasing the sounds until he eventually made it out the front door of the warehouse, where the sounds stopped. Upon reaching the outside of the warehouse, Ryuusei saw a fully darkened figure of a man in front of him, seemingly wrapped in shadows. His facial features couldn't even be seen in the ever-flickering streetlights or the gentle moonlight. The figure turned around to face Ryuusei and Ryuusei stopped dead in his tracks. They were both around five metres apart and they were currently having something akin to a stare-down, both sides scanning the other for any apparent weaknesses to exploit, gauging their opponent's stance.

Then, just as Ryuusei's exhalation and blink coincided, Kirisaki made his move. He kicked off the ground and a black aura seemed to flare out from his body. When Ryuusei's eyes were open again, Kirisaki was already within striking distance. Unfazed, Ryuusei tilted his head to the left as a fist sailed past his right cheek. Ryuusei's right arm shot up to grab Kirisaki's wrist, looking to perform a quick over-the-shoulder Judo throw, only to feel a burning pain shoot through his palm. He jerked his burned hand away and backpedaled immediately to put some distance between them.

Momentarily eyeing his slightly burnt palm, Ryuusei was deep in thought for a split second. That hurt! Was it that aura around him? How'd he make that aura, anyway? Was the aura one of Kirisaki's abilities? Or could it be from his Helix Core? Either way, physical contact was definitely out of the question.

Helix Cores were Cores unsatisfied with their Holders, preferring to become a Helix instead. They were power-hungry and viewed their Holders as a limitation, something that held them back from becoming powerful.

Unless Kirisaki himself had some kind of special equipment, it seemed that Kirisaki and his Helix Core were still bonded in some way, but why? Shouldn't a Helix Core be unsatisfied with its Holder and cut all ties? Ryuusei was puzzled, but it didn't matter at that point, finding a way to land hits onto Kirisaki was the main issue at hand.

「Grrrrrrrr... 」

A low-pitched growl resonated in the cold night air. Seemingly originating from Kirisaki, it slowly became louder and louder, until it became a roar.

「Graaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!」

Ryuusei's eyes narrowed. Had the Helix Core been summoned in some form? Ryuusei was on his guard now. Reasoning that giving Kirisaki any more time to prepare was definitely bad, Ryuusei decided to strike first and go on the offensive. Concentrating his power onto his legs, Ryuusei pushed off into a quick dash, closing the distance between Kirisaki and himself.

'Come, .'

With that, a black-coloured 'X' appeared over his left wrist. Unsheathing from his bracelet, Ryuusei quickly slashed at Kirisaki's waist, aiming to limit his range of motion by opening a wound. As Ryuusei slashed horizontally at Kirisaki, the mercenary didn't even flinch nor dodge. bounced off as soon as it made contact with the black aura, and it bounced off at the speed Ryuusei swung it, causing him to stagger backwards from the unexpected resistance. It was as if the aura had parried Ryuusei's slash, it was unbelievable.

What would he do now? It seemed that all of Ryuusei's physical attacks were blocked off completely.

Ryuusei aimed the tip of at Kirisaki and willed it to shoot. Two thin bolts of red energy shot out of , one from each of its barrels. Both bolts were repelled sideways, one to each side of Kirisaki's body. Even his ranged attacks were useless. Ryuusei looked around and observed his surroundings—there had to be something in the environment he could use. Maybe instead of damaging him, Ryuusei could trap him somehow and wait for a retrieval team.

Those bolts of energy were actually projectiles consisting of Ryuusei's mana. Mana existed in all humans, not just Holders. However, normal humans usually didn't need to use their mana, and thus weren't taught its uses. Moreoever, mana usage could be dangerous without supervision or in the wrong hands. With that in mind, maybe he could wait for Kirisaki to run out of mana. The defensive aura had to be fueled by something, and it was more than likely Kirisaki's mana.

With a preliminary plan in mind, now Ryuusei had to find some way to stall for time. He wouldn't last if he simply kept trying to dodge, he was at a disadvantage just being on the defensive.

Ryuusei's mana was wild and extremely hard to keep under control ever since he was young. This made spellcasting extremely hard for him until became the medium for his spells. It channeled Ryuusei's mana and controlled its flow for him, how did it, Ryuusei never knew, but it worked as a conduit for spellcasting.

Channeling a large amount of his mana into , Ryuusei swung the blade and shot out a flying crescent slash. Red energy ripped through the cold night air toward the aura-clad mercenary. Kirisaki crossed his forearms in a blocking stance, absorbing the impact of the mana-infused attack, however, he seemed to stagger backwards from the sheer force of Ryuusei's technique.

This slight movement didn't escape Ryuusei's observations. His spell was somewhat effective in impeding Kirisaki's advancements. The issue, though, was that did not come cheaply, and Ryuusei had to pour around a tenth of his mana reserves into to cast the spell. It was somewhat effective, but highly wasteful of his mana.

In an effort to buy more time, Ryuusei's left hand drew his pistol. Taking quick aim whilst Kirisaki was still recovering from the knockback of , Ryuusei aimed down the iron sights and pulled the trigger on the nameless pistol, intending to shoot at Kirisaki's unguarded stomach.

「Bang! 」

As the pistol fired, Kirisaki suddenly lurched forward, clutching his stomach. Had it actually worked? Did the aura's absorption have some kind of limit or recovery time? Regardless of the reason, this was a chance that Ryuusei had to capitalise on.

Shifting his aim to different parts of the mercenary's body, Ryuusei shot again. And again. And again. Ah heck, one more for good measure.

「Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! 」

Kirisaki was pushed back as he started clutching all the places Ryuusei's bullets hit, unable to block due to the many impacts on different areas. Staggering backwards, he fell to the ground with a thump, face-down.

Nicely done, if Ryuusei said so himself. He even had one bullet to spare in the pistol, so that'd be less to replace. He talked into his earpiece,

"Hiko, seems I'm done here. He's unconscious. I think."

"Could you check? I'll call for armoured transport and the retrieval team to bring him to base in the meantime."

Ryuusei walked over to Kirisaki and knelt down, taking his pulse.

A black light shot up out of Kirisaki's fallen body, knocking Ryuusei onto his butt. This light turned into black particles and they started to gather at a single point.

Not good. Whatever this was, Ryuusei could tell this wasn't good. It was just a gut feeling, but many of Ryuusei's instructors had told him he had a good gut, and to trust it. There wasn't time for any doubts, he had to create some distance!

「Graaaaaaaaa!!!!」

A roar exploded from what was now a black silhouette and it started to take a more distinct shape. That shape was one of a large cat—a tiger or lion, maybe?

Again, not good.

"Uhhh, Hiko? Hold off on the armoured transport for a bit, something... pretty troublesome just popped up."

"Hmm? Woah, what's that?!"

Obviously, Akihiko decided to check out 'Ryuusei Vision' and saw that... thing. Was it the Helix Core? Probably. The Helix Core pounced at him at an amazing speed, ripping him out of his thoughts.

Ryuusei just barely twirled his body and moved out of the way.

'That was too close!'

The black-haired Holder scrambled onto his feet and held in a defensive posture. He had to find a way to hit it with again, but it would be more cautious this time, knowing that the spell could potentially cause it damage. Afterwards, Ryuusei would use his pistol again to suppress the Helix Core's movements.

Slight issue, however. He only had a bullet left. Just great. Moreover, he couldn't just reload, since he usually never brought spare clips for the pistol. Ryuusei saw no point in that, especially since he never used it anyway. What a dumb rookie mistake to make.

Whatever, he'd have to make do somehow. At worst, he'd stall it out and call for ammunition delivery. Not a bad plan, really. But not much of a plan, either, though.

The Helix Core pounced again, but this time, Ryuusei aimed the tip of directly at the Helix Core's jaws.

「Fuuuuuu...」

A sound akin to that of wind blowing resounded when made physical contact with the Helix Core. A great force seemed to be pushing back on , strong enough to potentially dislocate Ryuusei's shoulder. He could barely hold on to as he resisted, pushing back at this mysterious force.

After the clash, the Helix Core staggered backwards, being pushed back by Ryuusei's force. Though, it only moved back a step, so Ryuusei hadn't overpowered it by much. The moment was brief, but Ryuusei seized this chance to whip the pistol up to chest level, pausing for less than half a second to aim, before pulling the trigger.

The Helix Core fell to the ground with a loud thud, void of movement. Soon, it dissolved into , leaving the agent and the target alone in the dimly lit night.

"So, Ryuu. Mind telling me what just happened? I'm kinda confused right now."

"Welcome to the club, man. My best guess is that the Helix Core originally had a barrier aura type of power when it was still a regular Core, and it powered up somehow by going Helix?"

"Makes sense, I guess? How, though? I'd assumed that becoming a Helix Core was about cutting all bonds with its Holder, doesn't seem like there's any form of power boost involved..."

"Unless..."

"Unless?"

"It went out absorbing Remnants by itself to grow stronger, and came back to Kirisaki afterwards."

A momentary silence. Akihiko probably took a pause to think through Ryuusei's opinion.

"I see. This is much more dangerous than I thought, then. Carry Kirisaki onto the van, I'm at the entrance. We're heading back."

"Roger."

Ryuusei hoisted Kirisaki's unconscious body up unto his shoulder and walked over to the van, deep in thought about this uniquely new situation that Kirisaki presented. What was his goal? would have to get to the bottom of this.