4:34 pm July 9th, 2018
Shiro was still new to the organization so he had no important tasks to take care of. This allowed him to spend most of his day as leisurely as he wanted, but despite that, he spent 6 hours training in the combat room.
As he lay on the floor while sweating in exhaustion, Arashi walked into the room.
"Of course, you're being a lazy idiot on the floor.", he said to mock him.
Shiro just laughed at his insult while saying, "If I don't try my best now then how could I possibly catch up?"
Arashi gritted his teeth while throwing a bottle of water towards Shiro, which he easily caught. He unscrewed the bottle cap, letting a waterfall spill into his mouth re-energising him.
He jumped up onto his feet while stretching his back. Arashi positioned himself in the same fighting stance as before, preparing to attack Shiro.
"I want to see it." He said seriously, "I want to see how fast you've improved."
Something was clearly bothering him, which was obvious to Shiro. However, he didn't care as he could now test out his new strength.
A couple of minutes before Arashi entered the training hall.
Arashi sat down again to eat with Enji as they did once before. This time Enji opened up the conversation by stating,
"Shiro may catch up to you sooner than you think. If you're not careful you'll be left behind in the dust."
Suddenly Arashis' interest peaked. "What do you mean by that? Are you saying that I'm weaker than that bumbling idiot?"
"His eyes are the same as the captains'."
As soon as she said that, he got up while slamming his hand onto the table. He grabbed a bottle of water and ran out of the cafeteria while making his way to the training hall hastily.
Shiro took a new fighting stance that was different from yesterday's. Erily it was incredibly similar to Arashis' who was a little spooked by this.
Arashi quickly made the rat hand sign once again while shouting, "Ninpo: After Image Clones!"
His body vibrated intensely before splitting into 2 more clones of himself, creating the illusion of there being 3 Arashis'. Just like before they all rapidly, jumped around Shiro creating another human cage.
When someone fails at Inner Enhancement, the body part that was enhanced will explode. Dead bullet works, by intentionally failing the enhancement just behind the fingertip, allowing it to be repelled at speeds, slightly faster than a bullet. But now Shiros' new technique would allow fail enhancement in a different part of his body.
Both of Shiros' legs suddenly blew up, sending him flying into the air, escaping Arashis' human cage technique. This new move was called Dead propulsion.
As he flew in the air, the force finally weakened causing Shiro to drop to the ground. He quickly regrew his left leg, and just as quickly blew it up sending him further away from the Arashi.
Arashi tried to counter by throwing a multitude of kunai and shurikens at Shiro, and in response, he clasped both his hands together. All of his fingers flew off instantly deflecting the kunais' while approaching the three Arashis'.
This new move was Dead Shotgun.
The Arashis easily escaped while sticking as a group while Shiro too had returned to the earth.
"I figured you were bluffing about not using your trait earlier, but I guess you were really telling the truth. You must have trained quite hard to be able to do this haven't you?", Shiro said as he fired off an entire arm towards one of them.
They dodged it with ease, as the arm limped behind them.
Arashi replied, "So you've figured out the secret to my Ninjutus huh? Not that it's going to change the outcome of this battle."
The three Arashis' all pulled out a Kunai knife while preparing to engage with Shiro in close combat, however, Shiro welcomed the challenge.
He then made the Rat hand sign which scared the Arashis as they held off their assault.
Shiro then called out, "Ninpo: After Image Clones."
Shiros' body suddenly began to vibrate as he closed his eyes, but then nothing happened.
He stood there confused as Arashi looked at him equally perplexed.
"It failed?? You had me scared for a moment. I really thought you were about to do it. You're nothing like the captain after al-"
A heavy blow then suddenly hit the back of his head, causing the other 2 clones to simultaneously disappear. Shiro then ran up to and delivered a powerful blow to the staggered Arashis' gut, sending him high into the sky.
Once he recovered, Arashi shouted, "HOW THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT BASTARD?"
"You're really amazing Arashi. You can move so fast that you create after images that are just as powerful as the real deal, and you can even choose which clone you want to be, can you? I knew that I had no chance of catching up to that speed, so instead I devised a strategy to overcome it. That move that I used just now was my Dead Stalker technique. It can fire off pre-placed psychic power to propel itself one last time. I used it to have it attack you once I let my guard down with that failed attempt, breaking your after images."
Arashi prepared more shurikens' and readied himself to fight Shiro once more, but then someone suddenly started to clap.
A girl with long blonde hair and braids suddenly appeared yet what was the most noticeable thing about her, was the yellow P.E.S armband that she wore. Arashis' mouth dropped to the floor as he said excitedly,
"Aiko-senpai!"
He attempted to jump at her for a hug, but then a luminescent yellow wall quickly blocked him, making him crash into it.
"Im glad to see you too Arashi, but please do try to learn some personal space. Having to do this every time is bothersome."
She then walked over to Shiro, while extending out a warm and welcoming hand.
"So you're the new member? Welcome to the team."
Shiro shook her hand welcoming the kind gesture and that's when the two finally made eye contact. It was as if they were already familiar with each other but couldn't recognise one another for some reason. As they stared into each other's eyes, they both felt hypnotised. Deep in her yellow eyes, Shiro could see a small red glow.
Arashi then shouted, "OIIII HOW DARE YOU HOLD HER HAND FOR SO LONG!!"
Arashis' remarks suddenly snapped Shiro back awake as he quickly bowed and apologized. But Aiko then said, "It was partially my fault too, I'm sorry for that."
Arashi kept nagging at him regardlessly. Eventually walked in on the two arguing.
Sneaking up behind him, she quickly slapped Arahsi once again on the back of his head, getting him to quiet down.
"The two are both enlightened individuals and interaction like this was to be expected."
Shiro then asked, "Enlightened?"
"It's a state in which one gains the ability to use psychic power subconsciously. It doesn't sound like much on the surface, but in reality, it maximises its user's potential. Anyone who has reached enlightenment can do 100 days of training for a normal psychic in only one. The only way to reach that point is for its' user to brush with death hundreds upon thousands of times, and even then it may not be reached."
Shiro started to scratch his chin as he thought, "I probably achieved it back then, when Kyobi killed me. After I returned I did feel a little different."
Enji continued, "Although, everybody that has achieved it was never really right in the head. Aiko here is no exception."
Out of curiosity Shiro then asked, "So how strong are you, Aiko?"
"Im one of the 4 goliaths, specifically the goliath of light, Aiko Uzuki. Im an emission user so I mainly fight from a distance, but I can still hold my own in close quarters."
Shiro then asked her, "Do you wanna fight??"
Enji then slapped him on the back of the head, while saying "Do you wanna die kid?? She's terrible at holding back her power."
Arashi then realized that something was off. "Where is Obi?", he asked.
Aiko just shrugged as if she had no clue. Enji then sighed in exhaustion as she thought, "When he isn't observed that boy is always causing problems. He's probably terrorizing some random employee right now."
She then grabbed onto Arashi and exited the room, "Since you have the best tracking skills among us, you're gonna help me find him."
As he was dragged away, Arashi shouted, "HEY- WAIT! SHIRO, CAPTAIN HELP MEEEEEEEE."
As his cries for help fell on deaf ears, the doors slammed shut dooming him to hours of extra work.
Somewhere in a distant city
"Chaos isn't a force good, nor does it care about evil. It is completely neutral as all things should be. The night of the Nine-tailed fox approaches us and with it a great amount of chaos. Will the world be able to survive this? Tell me what do you think Neikawa?"