WHEN TRAINING TURNS INTO A HUNT
The dark felt wrong. It was not the soft dimming of Vasena's usual simulations, but an absolute blackout that swallowed the edges of the arena and erased even the faint blue indicators on the walls. The silence that followed was not peaceful either. It felt like someone had reached in and pulled a whole layer of sound out of the air.
Aki pressed his back against Ryu's. His fingers trembled as they bunched in the fabric of Ryu's uniform. "Bro… why is it this dark…? This is not part of the module, right?"
Ryu did not answer. He listened. These were not the light, irregular footsteps of Level Two kids positioning themselves. The vibration against the floor was heavier, measured, and too consistent. Adults. Trained ones.
NV spoke so softly it felt like it rose from the inside of Ryu's bones. A tightness formed in Ryu's neck. Purpose?
NV held back for two slow seconds.
Aki sucked in a breath so sharply it became a sound all on its own. "Tell me this is a joke. This is not a special movie screening, right?"
Somewhere ahead, metal clicked. The sound was too clean to be random. It was the sound of a weapon stock folding into position or a stabilizer locking in place. No child carried hardware like that. No training module used it on thirteen year olds.
Kallen whispered so quietly it was almost just breath. "I can feel the pressure. That weight in the air. They are not students. They are not Level Two geniuses."
Ratha edged back until his shoulders touched the wall. His voice shook, but he kept it controlled. "Are we… being hunted?"
Vex gripped the side rail of the spectator barrier so hard his knuckles whitened. "Not we," he said. "Look how they are moving. Every footstep lines up with where Ryu was standing before the lights went out."
Ryu stayed where he was for another beat, recording angles and distances. The six intruders moved like parts of a single wave, not like individuals. Their formation was symmetrical, deliberate, and entirely practiced.
NV continued its analysis.
Aki's eyes were wide, even though there was very little to see. "We have to run. They are adults. Trained ones. We cannot win this. We are just kids."
Ryu reached back and covered Aki's mouth, gentle but firm. "Stay with me."
Aki nodded against his palm, shaking.
The footsteps stopped. Right in front of them.
Five seconds stretched transparent and thin. Then a voice surfaced from the dark. It was low, with a calm weight that came from real operations, not simulations.
"Sector clear. Target is inside the arena."
Vex exhaled shakily. "We are dead."
A small red dot appeared far ahead, hovering in the dark like a mechanical eye. Not a ceiling light. A targeting laser. It slid along the floor, searching.
Ryu moved one step to the left.
A whispered thump cut through the silence. A suppressed round tore through the space where his head had been, hit the metal wall, and left a spider web fracture that glowed faintly under the emergency coating.
Ratha clamped a hand over his own mouth. "That… that was a real bullet."
Vex's voice went thin. "Why are they using live rounds on a thirteen year old…?"
Ryu already knew the answer, and it was not meant for them.
NV confirmed it anyway.
Measured for what?
The six men started moving again. Their steps fanned out, circling, tightening.
"Ventilation?" Ryu thought.
"How long?"
Ryu's eyes adjusted enough to pick out a faint outline above. The others would not see it yet. He felt the stale air being pulled toward that point.
"We go up," he whispered.
He hooked an arm around Aki's waist and signaled Ratha, Kallen, and Vex with a sequence Darian Fox had drilled into him. Two fingers meant move in silence. Three taps on metal meant vertical shift. A small circle traced on his wrist meant no sound, no questions.
They nodded, barely visible shapes moving in the dark.
Before they could climb, one of the intruders spoke again. His voice came from somewhere off to the right, too close. "Ryu. We know you are here. Step out."
Aki bit down on his lip until Ryu heard the skin break. "One." A lazy countdown, almost bored. "If you do not present yourself, we escalate threat level."
NV slid in fast. "Two." The laser swept across the far wall. Kallen's fingers dug into Ryu's sleeve. "Ryu. Please. Say something. Do something."
"Three."
Ryu made his choice.
He crouched, picked up a broken sensor chip the size of a coin, and flicked it toward the opposite corner. It hit the wall with a sharp, clean ping. The laser snapped to the sound. Ryu kicked a loose seat support in another direction. The metal screeched against the floor.
Several silencers coughed at once. Rounds punched into the darkness after the decoy noises. In that split, Ryu moved. He jumped, felt his fingertips bite into the edge of the vent grille, and ignored the cut of metal. He lifted Aki first. Then Ratha. Then Kallen.
Vex jumped last. As Ryu grabbed his wrists, one of the infiltrators surged forward. A calloused hand locked around Vex's forearm and yanked him back.
Aki choked on his own breath. "His arm! Bro, his arm!"
NV snapped through him.
Ryu tightened his grip until his own muscles screamed. Vex cried out as his shoulder nearly dislocated between two opposing forces. A knife flashed in the dark below. The operative's voice was cool. "Leave the boy. We only need one anomaly."
Ryu met the shadow of his eyes through the vent gap. There was no fear in that look. No plea. Just calculation.
He drove his heel into the side of the duct wall with all the force he could muster. The impact shifted their combined center of gravity by just enough. Vex's body slid further into the vent; the infiltrator's grip slipped.
The knife cut empty air where Ryu's arm had been. Ryu slammed the grille back into place and twisted the manual lock until it clicked.
Below, a dry curse broke the calm façade.
"Target has moved to upper levels. Initiate pursuit protocols." Aki curled in on himself in the narrow space, shivering. "You are insane. You are completely insane. I almost watched his arm come off."
Ryu checked Vex's shoulder in the cramped dark. The joint was angry and swollen, but not broken. Vex's breath shook as he nodded once in thanks.
Ratha's voice came out in a strained whisper. "What was that? Why would grown operatives hunt us inside a training arena?"
"They are not hunting us," Kallen said quietly. His eyes had adjusted enough to read the fear in the others' faces and the absence of it in Ryu's. "They are hunting him."
Ryu crawled forward, leading them deeper into the vents. NV mapped the space ahead in crisp lines.
Ryu kept moving. "We go to F 3."
Behind him, Kallen could not hold back anymore. "Ryu. When did you figure out they were not part of Vasena?"
Ryu did not look back. "When they used my name like it was an operation code."
FOOTPRINTS, ANOMALIES, AND THE QUESTION OF VOICE
The ventilation shaft was colder than the arena, chilled by recycled air and insulated metal. Every knee movement sent a hollow echo down the line. Every exhale puffed white in the narrow beam of Ryu's wrist light. Beneath them, distant doors slammed and boots pounded, turning the building itself into a drum.
Aki crawled on his elbows, muttering half formed prayers. "I am not built for this. I am a normal person. I like indoor classes and breathing. Why is my life turning into a survival drill?"
"We are all kids," Vex said from behind him, voice tight. "But they are hunting us like field assets who broke protocol."
"No," Ratha replied. "They are hunting Ryu like an asset. The rest of us are collateral."
Kallen's gaze stayed fixed on the narrow space between Ryu's shoulders. "Why?"
Ryu stayed quiet. NV did not.
Aki let out a miserable laugh that broke into a sob. "You do not say. Everyone from Level One to Level Two and now armed strangers from who knows where are obsessed with him. Can someone please tell me what he is supposed to be?"
NV corrected gently.
"For what?" Aki demanded, voice catching.
Ryu spoke softly. "Because I was born different." Aki paused, then shook his head stubbornly. "You are still human. I know that much. You are quiet, weird, and terrifying, but not a monster."
NV pressed on.
Ryu stopped crawling. The others almost bumped into him. What about it?
Ryu's fingers tightened on the duct ribs. Then where?
NV's pause this time felt heavy.
Aki slapped a hand over his own mouth, eyes filling the dark. "No. No, no. Do not tell me he has some sci fi implant. Do not tell me my roommate is secretly half machine."
NV clarified.
Kallen's throat worked once as he swallowed. "So he is not just a genius. He is… something else entirely."
Vex stared at Ryu as though finally seeing the edge of a puzzle that had been haunting him. "An anomaly," he whispered. "In the literal sense."
Ryu closed his eyes for a moment in the dark. So the first time something spoke to me inside the Echo Mind…
NV said.
"Inside my head," Ryu thought. A dull vibration rolled through the ducts as a door below crashed open. Voices shouted orders they could not quite make out.
"They are gaining on us," Ratha hissed. "We have to move."
Vex put a hand on Ryu's shoulder. "You can ask who you are later. Right now we have to make sure you are alive enough to ask."
Ryu opened his eyes. The fear was still there, a cold knot in his chest. But it had not frozen him. It had sharpened him.
"F 3 first," he said. "Then we go for security. Not to hide. To force the system to answer."
Aki wheezed out a laugh that was almost hysterical. "We are not asking for protection. We are going to knock on the front door and demand explanations. We are definitely insane."
"Insane is running toward danger without a plan," Vex answered. "He has a plan. That makes it worse."
Ryu started moving again. The duct echoed with their combined breathing and the steady, silent presence of NV, tracing routes two steps ahead.
A HUNT INSIDE VASENA'S IRON GUTS
The vent opened above a narrow maintenance bridge that cut across one of Vasena's internal shafts. The air was warmer here, humming with the output of hidden machines. Red alert lights pulsed at long intervals, painting the metal in waves of blood color.
Ryu dropped down first, landing in a crouch. He scanned the walkway, then signaled the others. Aki slipped down next, still shaking. Ratha and Kallen followed, then Vex last, one arm held stiff against his torso.
NV threw a countdown into Ryu's awareness.
"Ninety seconds?" Aki nearly shouted before he remembered to keep his voice down. "That is like three breaths in Vasena time."
"We can make it," Ratha said, grabbing his wrist. "Complaining uses oxygen."
Vex pointed down the length of the bridge. A solid door marked F 3 waited at the far end, next to a sealed security panel. "There. Module control."
Ryu moved at a controlled run. "Kallen. Panel."
Kallen skidded to a stop beside the access pad. The screen was dark, locked down by the override that had cut the arena lights. His hands hovered for a heartbeat over the smooth surface, then moved with the reluctant confidence of someone who had learned these tricks from a man with too many secrets.
NV ticked down.
"I am not Level Two," Kallen muttered, opening the side panel and exposing the internal lines. "But Nex taught me enough to make low level doors nervous."
He bridged two contacts, tapped a rhythm into the emergency override, and forced a temporary power spike through the sensor. The panel flickered from dead black to an amber warning, then slid to green.
"I got it," he breathed.
The door unlocked.
They stepped through.
They had taken only two steps inside when NV screamed in Ryu's mind.
Ryu bent automatically. A knife flashed down from the top of the doorframe and sliced through the air where his throat had been. It hit the far wall with a solid thunk and buried itself in the metal.
Aki's voice jumped an octave. "That was your neck. That was your neck."
One of the infiltrators dropped from his perch above the doorway, landing with the fluid impact of someone who had done this in combat zones many times before. He straightened slowly, eyes flat and unreadable.
"Anomaly," he said. "Stop running."
He moved.
No warning. No feints. Just a direct rush aimed at Ryu with full intent.
Kallen cried out and slipped to the floor. Ratha dragged him back, interposing his own body without thinking. Aki stumbled backward until his shoulders hit a console. Vex tried to angle himself between the operative and the others, but his injured arm threw off his balance.
Ryu stepped forward.
Aki's panic snapped. "What are you doing? You cannot fight him in close range!"
Ryu's answer was calm enough to be terrifying. "Buying time."
The man's first strike came in low and fast. Ryu shifted his weight a fraction, letting the blow pass close enough to feel the air move, but not close enough to connect. The second attack angled high. Ryu dipped under it. His arms shook with the effort of moving precisely instead of instinctively.
The next kick was harder, aimed to shatter his center. Ryu met it with his knee, using Magnus Vale's drills to bleed off as much force as he could. Pain shot up his leg. The room shuddered with the impact.
Aki squeezed his eyes shut. "Please do not die. Please do not die. Please do not die."
The infiltrator adjusted his stance. He had expected Ryu to fold. He had not expected resistance this efficient.
NV threaded a cold line through Ryu's thoughts.
Ryu let his guard dip for a heartbeat, baiting a committing strike. The operative took it. His torso turned, feeding power into his arm.
In that sliver, Ryu stepped into the rotation instead of away from it. His foot slid into the blind angle, shifting the man's center of gravity. The punch lost its arc. Balance slipped, just slightly, but enough.
Ryu drove his fingers into a nerve cluster at the side of the neck, precisely where Elara had shown him on anatomical models. The infiltrator stumbled. The follow up cut never landed.
Ryu struck the wrist, knocking the knife loose, then slammed his heel into the back of the man's knee. Something tore with a sharp, ugly sound. The operative dropped, one leg collapsing.
Aki choked out a disbelieving laugh that sounded more like a sob. "You… you actually took him down. You fought a grown killer and you are still breathing."
Ryu stepped back, chest heaving. His left hand trembled, the muscles flooded with lactic acid and residual shock.
Ratha grabbed his shoulder. "Are you hurt?"
"Only muscle strain," Ryu said. His voice was thin but steady.
Vex stared at the fallen operative like he was trying to wake up from a hallucination. "You just disabled a trained infiltrator. That is not something students do."
Kallen sank to his knees, shaking. "We are not even supposed to see people like this, let alone fight them. How can you move like that against someone built for field work?"
Ryu met his eyes for a moment. "Patterns."
NV cut in sharply.
Aki's breathing spiked again. "Then we go. We really go. No more heroic last stands."
Ratha pointed to the far side of the room, where another door waited beside a secured terminal. "That leads deeper into the security sector. Maybe to surveillance and logs."
Vex helped Kallen up, his face set with grim resolve. "If we can reach security, we can prove this is not a module. Someone will have to answer for it."
They ran.
Just before the door closed behind them, the fallen infiltrator stirred. His eyes cracked open, and for a second, all the cold professionalism was gone. There was something almost like recognition there.
"You really are… an anomaly," he rasped.
Then the door sealed.
Ryu leaned against the wall for half a second, letting his pulse slow. His legs quivered. He did not let them buckle.
NV's tone shifted, carrying a tremor Ryu had never heard before.
What about it?
Ryu's throat went dry. Where?
NV replied.
Ryu closed his eyes.
Darkness. Machinery. Footsteps in the distance.
And now, another presence rising from a place no system could map.
His life in Vasena had already shifted the day he walked into the evaluation hall.
Now, with infiltrators in the walls and an ancient voice whispering from inside his own mind, it tilted again.
This was no longer just about surviving modules.
This was about surviving the role everyone else had written for him
before he ever knew it existed.