At two in the afternoon, the core members of Zeta Squad gathered again. This time, the mission was lunch.
Camille, Ella, and Gina had searched the academy for Hugo. Neil and Marcus had checked the hostels. Their captain, however, was nowhere to be found. So, half an hour later, they gave up and returned to their usual table in the north corner of the cafeteria.
It had become something of a ritual.
After missions, scoldings, injuries, and victories they probably should not have survived, they always found their way back to that table.
Neil, Ella, Marcus, Camille, and Gina had not all known one another equally long, but Zeta Squad had made them familiar in the way only danger could.
Neil, Ella, and Marcus were all twenty-three. Camille was two years younger, Gina four years older. Their ranks did not follow age. Neil had already earned the title of Zaatsu through discipline and skill, while Marcus, despite remaining a Sokidu, possessed raw strength that surpassed many Zaatsus.
They bickered like siblings, covered for each other like lifelong friends, and fought well enough together to become one of the Eye's most reliable young squads.
Marcus and Neil were the squad's powerhouses, Ella its Mystic, Camille its Spotter, and Gina the steady hand Hugo trusted when plans began to bend.
Most of them had trained under Hugo at some point.
That, more than anything, explained why they worked.
The trays hit the table with a clatter – a mix of cafeteria staples and questionable choices. As always, Marcus had gone all in.
"Come on Neil!" he exclaimed, looking at Neil's plate beside his. "Chicken broth?! We just bagged the White Bolt! Celebrate for once, man!"
Capable of housing nearly a thousand Martial Artists at a time, this multi-story cafeteria consisted of a large kitchen at its centre and rows of chairs and tables placed all around on each floor.
As the others giggled, Neil replied, "True. But if it didn't change you, why should it change me?"
Marcus chuckled, shook his head, and said, "Ha! Toothpick!"
Everyone laughed and continued eating till Gina brought up the subject of the White Bolt. "Who do you guys think he really is, huh?" she asked. "I mean really, really."
"He is a scumbag!" Neil quickly replied. "A bounty hunter and a low-life!"
Ella chimed in too. "Crazy as it sounds," she said, "I heard that he is a part of a Cult."
"Yeah, I've heard that one too, man," Marcus said as he spun a spoon over his head. "They say he even led one of them once."
Camille shook her head. "Seems unlikely, don't you think?" she asked.
"Why?"
"He looks too young for that plus we all know how those Cultists are…"
"Agreeing with Cami on this one," Neil said with a nod. "People in Cults, especially their senior members, never move without assistance… and he's no senior."
"So…" Everyone stared at her as Camille took a pause then said, "Let's just analyse the situation, you guys…"
Marcus and Ella laughed, Gina smiled and shook her head, and Neil just looked down and began eating again. It was a running gag. Ever since she had joined the squad, Hugo would always tease her in a discussion. Since it was a Spotter's job to be good at analysing situations, he would always stop right in the middle of a discussion and say, 'Let's just let Cami analyse the situation.'
"Where is Master Baylis when you need him?" Marcus asked laughing.
"Ok, ok, but seriously." Camille leaned ahead. "Look, he is said to be a bounty hunter who nobody wants to employ because he is more than likely to just run away with the money and never get the job done, right? But if you look at him, he is so freakishly strong that he can go toe-to-toe with a Zaatsu, even kill one! Then why would he do something so childish like running away with someone's money? Doesn't make any sense. And why does he carry only a katana? I'm telling you… there is something awfully suspicious about that guy."
"And then there's the Dark Arts Scriptures that he stole," Gina added.
"Hmm, that too." Camille shook her head.
"No one could have employed him for that job. No one even knows where they are." She grabbed a napkin and added, "And bounty hunters these days don't go around on such lengthy search missions anyway."
"Yeah. With us on their tail, why would they?"
Marcus raised his hand and said, "Yo! What about that sword?"
"What about it?" Camille asked.
"Yeah… so… he broke Gina's like it was made of plastic. And we are supposed to have the best ones in the world. Nobody, no outfit got blades like ours."
Camille tried to respond, but before she could, Ella interrupted. "Mm nope, that wasn't his sword," she said flicking her finger in negation. "It was what he did with it…"
Everyone smiled and looked at Marcus who said, "As much as I want to… but please, explain further."
After a chuckle, the Mystic explained saying, "He was using a technique which I believe is called Instant Charge."
Camille asked, "What's that?"
"Instantaneous Charge," Neil corrected her. "Hugo uses it all the time. Instead of keeping Ki thrust at max all over your body, many Martial Artists with limited Ki or with much of their reserve exhausted tend to use sudden thrusts in parts of the body to strengthen their attacks."
"Oh, that," Marcus said gulping his food down quickly. "Knocks your senses to Jupiter and back! The guy's Ki feels almost stagnant, like a normal human, and then suddenly he puts a charge on his knuckles and literally sends you to the damned place, man!"
"Exactly." Neil looked at Ella across the table. He pointed at her and said, "But to use that on a weapon is a whole other deal. He was juggling the sword in the bout he had with Marcus and Hugo. If he had continuous hold on the weapon, I might have believed it. Even Marcus puts Ki into his staff all the time. And like I said, Hugo does all this as well. And he does it better than anyone you'd know."
"Hmm, I would agree under normal circumstances." Ella placed her fork down. "I don't think you recall, but many Persian Mystics of the 15th century almost exclusively used that same technique when going into a hand-to-hand battle or one that involved weapons. Master Ehsan Hashem, in his book Spells for a Different Time talked of it in detail."
"Look, while holding a weapon, according to Mystic traditions, one can find a Ki connection. We are all masters here; we have learned that much Ki manipulation. But try doing something like that with even a nunchaku. Just going from one hand to the other makes it nearly impossible to pull off. And he was even letting go of his sword!"
"It is possible, Neil…"
"May well be, but I'm pretty sure a scum like him wouldn't be able to pull it off."
"It could have been charmed," Camille commented.
"Nope," Gina quickly replied. "We brought it back and did a full check-up on it. No spells or carvings on that sword whatsoever. A plain katana blade."
"Then what other explanation could we have, Neil?"
"He must have stolen a technique or two from a wizard somewhere." Saying that, Neil looked down and began eating again. The others looked at each other and smiled. It was usually at this point that arguing would stop being effective with the younger Zaatsu of the Zeta Squad. Past it, only Hugo could argue or discipline. However, after almost a minute of silence, Camille did something which the squad avoided altogether. She taunted.