-FLASHBACK BEGIN-
"She's 8, are you fucking kidding me, I can't touch her yet."
A man in a black suit, cigar in his mouth and a handsome face said.
"Look, just wait two more years okay, the age of consent is 10 so just wait."
Another man, wearing a striped suit, is fat and has no hair, he said.
A girl sits in a bedroom, wearing a large white gown and nothing else, she sits while curled into a ball, listening to the two talk to each other.
The handsome man walks into the bedroom, straightening his tie.
"I'm not going to use that body of yours just yet but once you're 10, I'm bringing you right back into this room.
The girl just looks at the man, still curled up.
-FLASHBACK ENDS-
Swam and Saiko keep walking around the dark city, having walked around for the entire day until they encounter some street thugs trying to rob a young man. They both stand there for a bit.
"Should we help him or?"
Saikyo asks.
"I don't want to feel guilty later, so yeah we should."
She replies.
Saikyo retracts his crutch and runs towards the guys, he prepares to punch one guy, really clenching his fist. He jumps just high enough and delivers an extremely powerful punch, breaking the man's ribs and sending him to the side. He lands on his feet and stares at his hands.
"Wow, since when am I that strong?"
He thinks to himself, surprised at what just happened. The other guy attempts to punch Saikyo but reddish pink rope strings appear around the man and wrap him up.
"You should really focus if you're gonna charge in like that."
Saikyo looks at Swan to see that strings are coming from her arm as if her own body is the string itself. The other man attempts to break free but Swan makes the string thicker and steps on the man and pulls, causing the rope to tighten.
The last man runs away in fear, sweating, the guy Saikyo hit also gets up and runs away as well. Swan releases the third man and he runs as well, with guys around his face and arms being visible.
"You're quite strong for someone so short."
Swan says mockingly.
"I'm 5 '1, I'm literally one 1 centimeter shorter than you."
He says angrily, trying to come back from the mocking.
"Exactly, I'm 5 '2 so that means you're short."
She says, continuing to belittle him.
"Whatever."
He says, giving up on the pointless arguing.
"But I'm serious, how are you so strong, you look a bit frail and your skin is pale, nothing about you indicates physical strength."
She says, squeezing his arms.
"I just kinda increased my strength by clenching my fist & flexing my muscles, I guess.
He replied casually.
Swan stands there for a while before asking a question.
"Are you…a Prodigy type?"
She asks with a serious face and Saikyo becomes shocked by this question.
"A Prodigy type, what's that?"
He asked.
"I guess it makes sense that you wouldn't know, Prodigy types are rarely spoken about and extremely rare for people to be born into."
Swam rambles to herself this information while Saikyo moves his head closer to hear what she is saying.
"You said you were clenching your fist and flexing your muscles right, then try doing it again."
She asks, wanting to solve this mystery herself.
"Um, sure but what am I supposed to hit, you?"
He says jokingly.
"I should be able to tank a hit using my strings so yes, hit me."
She says with determination, her palm starts to unravel into the same reddish-pink rope string and she makes a thick net the size of her torso.
"Strike where the net is, I should be able to take the hit."
Saikyo becomes weirded out by the sudden developments, going from talking about his strength to having to hit his own friend, he feels like everything is going so fast for no apparent reason.
"I know this is sudden but it's just a quick test."
She says, reassuring him.
"I mean, I would also like to know how I got strong suddenly and why I couldn't hurt the guy that attacked Bal if I am this strong, maybe it's because of this prodigy type she is talking about, only one way to find out"
He thinks to himself while clenching his and flexing his muscles.
"Alright then, don't get hurt please."
He says.
In his mind, he realizes that he feels much stronger in his entire body but mainly his right arm.
"PUNCH!"
He yells while delivering a punch but unlike before when punching the other guy, his hand actually glows a white aura and the punch is much more destructive, a large crater in the wall appears from Swan hitting the wall.
"ARE YOU OKAY, I'M SO SORRY!"
He goes to Swan to check up on her and sees that her net can withstand the blow.
"Yep, that pretty much confirms it, you're a Prodigy Type."
She says while dusting herself off while standing up, Saikyo helping her up as well.
"You still never told me what a Prodigy type was."
He asks, still wondering what she means by that.
"Oh right, a Prodigy type is someone who-"
But before she can finish her sentence, 2 knives are thrown at the two but Swan uses the net she still has to grab the two knives.
"Who are you?"
Swan says calmly.
"2 innocent kids, you should have stayed with your parents."
A woman with white shoulder-long hair, wearing a white buttoned shirt with a red vest on top of it, a brown thin jacket, a black knee lower dress, black socks, and black heels, carrying multiple knives, exits out of the darkness.
Saikyo gets into a poor fighting stance, prepared to fight.
"You should really leave or I'll call the police."
Swan says, attempting to intimidate her.
"Honey, if you do, I'll just kill you before they can save you, simple."
Still walking towards them, she prepares to launch an attack, so Swam gets in front of Saikyo and creates a bigger net to catch all the knives that are thrown at them, she unravels the net to see the woman just behind it preparing to strike but Saikyo attacks her from below, giving her a nasty uppercut to the chin.
The woman flies back and lands on her back.
"Not bad, but not enough."
She says disappearing from sight, Swan unravels herself some more, from her arms and her legs and the strings start bouncing off the walls, creating a trap of multiple strings surrounding the two.
"The hell are we supposed to do? I can see her but I can hear her movements."
Saikyo says.
"This alleyway while not that small is still very limiting so she most definitely cannot move around too much."
He thinks to himself while looking around, staying back-to-back with Swan.
"You're going to have to hit her with a punch, I'll try to trap her or at least limit her movement enough."
Knives fall from the sky as they realize that above them, they were wide open, they both move from the spot, now separated, the woman appears behind Swan, preparing to slit her throat but Saikyo uses his new strength increasing ability to push himself towards Swan, then uses his Acceledecelrator to move faster, he then charging's up a punch, his hand once again glowing with bright white.
"PUNCH!"
He delivers a powerful punch to her face, this time hitting her into the empty streets.
"Finally, now we can have more room."
He rushes to where she is, now with more room, he moves around much more and attempts to do another punch, but the woman dodges just in time, leaving a crater in the ground, he looks up to see her falling towards him, ready to stab him, but she is then wrapped in string and thrown to a food cart nearby.
"STOMP!"
Saikyo yells while now in the air, his foot glowing with aura, he stomps down on the woman, destroying the cart entirely and leaving a crater. The woman grabs his leg and throws him into a building through the glass, he looks around to see nobody inside.
Swan rushes at her, now with a giant hammer made of string, she sees the hammer is brought down on her and she tries resisting it and successfully she does, throwing Swan to the side.
"Stupid kids."
Swan gets up from the landing, still ready to fight.
The woman looks at Swan for a while before something clicks.
"Wait, aren't you the girl the owner of Ballet Tower favors, I almost killed you."
The woman says. Swan looks at her in disdain.
"How the hell do you know that?"
Swan asks.
"If you want to know, come to Ballet Tower in 2 days, the Ball party."
The woman says, smiling.
"YOU DAMN, urgh, fine, I'll be there, bitch."
She says with hatred."
"I'm sure he would LOVE to see you."
The woman escapes into the darkness, Saikyo finally leaves the building, ready to continue fighting but he sees that the woman is gone.
"What happened, did you scare her off?"
He asks, oblivious to the conversation that just transpired.
"I know this is gonna be a lot to ask, but will you help me with something personal, I know we just met but-."
But before she can finish, he cuts her off.
"Sure, I can help, that's what friends are for right."
He says.
"This could be a good opportunity to learn more and see how those of high status are in this world."
Swan smiles.
"Thank you."
Happy that her friend is willing to help her with something that doesn't involve him.
A few hours later, they both are sitting in a restaurant, eating some food.
"So, you were told to go to Ballet Tower in 2 days to find the woman who attacked us."
His voice muffled from eating the burger.
"Pretty Much, and I'll need your help since only couples can enter the Ball."
She says, eating cake.
"What's a couple?"
He asked.
"Huh? How do you not know?"
She stares at him for a good while he chomps down on the burger he is eating.
"It's when two people are together obviously, like a relationship."
"Wait, so we have to be in a relationship?"
He questions.
"No, not really, we'll just pretend that we are so we can get in."
She says, eating the cherry on the cake.
"But you will need to wear a suit since the place is official."
She says, finishing the cake.
"Okay, if that's what it takes to beat up this bad woman."
He says finishing his fries.
"We should go to sleep and tomorrow we can look for some clothes and do some planning.
He says.
"Okay"
She says, getting out of the seat.
They both walk out of the restaurant and walk to a hotel. They both enter the double bedroom and take off their clothes, leaving only Saikyo's undershirt and shorts while Swan changes in the bathroom, wearing a white gown.
"By the way, you never told me, why do you want to take the adventure exam?"
Swam ask, getting into her bed.
"Simple, I want to explore this world and find out all its secrets, nothing more, nothing less."
He says.
Saikyo snuggles into his bed while Swan stares at him for a bit.
"How is he so carefree and innocent? Something like that is rare in this world, if he becomes an adventurer, will he still retain that innocence...it's a friend's job to have their friend's best interest, right? So, then I should just go along with it and support him, yeah."
She thinks to herself, snuggling in her bed now and going to sleep.