Night has fallen, everyone was up and preparing to execute the plan.

Katsuo was about to transfer CE to the hand mirror he borrowed from one of those mean girls when he felt that people with high CE were approaching and settling down around their location.

He was startled for a moment before he understood that their plan had probably failed before it even began and that happened probably because Shikamaru's sosia, with his ability, found out where they stayed.

'Does he really have future sight? Or just detected us through a powerful detection ability?'

From just this situation, Katsuo couldn't be sure so he started trying to deduce a plan that will confirm what type of ability bootleg Shikamaru had, while at the same time guarantee everyone's safety.

After a minute he came up with something.

"They found our location and as we speak, we are being surrounded and their numbers are gradually increasing."

The mood became heavy and you could see the hope drain from Masao's eyes.

It was bothered Katsuo, but he continued speaking.

"We will change our plans a bit, everything will stay the same except the teams. Toge, you will be with me and Masao, you will be with Panda and Maki. The danger that the decoy team, which is now the "real" team, will be, depends on what type of ability our white-eyed opponent has, but don't worry. Just trust me and you will be safe."

Maki didn't seem too happy with something that he said.

"As I said a while ago, Katsuo, we trust you so you should trust us too."

"Shake!"

"That's right, Katsuo~, don't treat us as dead weight."

"Sorry, you are right, I don't know why but I subconsciously think that I need to protect you."

Katsuo knew that it wasn't really subconscious.

He saw himself as the most powerful of them so he felt that it was his responsibility to guarantee their safety.

He concluded it was the result of his pride and ideals of protecting the weak coming together, something that he will have to address eventually, after all, he didn't want his friends to see him as an asshole that thought that they were weak.

Masao didn't say anything and was still slumping.

Katsuo put a hand on Masao's shoulder and gave him his cursed knife.

"Don't worry, setbacks happen, you just have to face them head-on, no need to be too scared or too brave, just be the amount necessary to be aware of danger and act when the time comes. By the way, I'm only lending you the knife."

Masao remained silent but his eyes regained their previous shine and smiled at Katsuo.

Seeing everyone become confident, Katsuo relaxed.

In fact, Katsuo didn't tell them that if the enemy had a future sight ability, the one in most danger would be him because he would leave Toge in the building to preserve the plan and rush to fight the enemy sorcerers to prevent them from following the now "real" team.

He wasn't sure if he could do it while under the Binding Vow, but he wasn't afraid exactly because of that.

If he couldn't do it, he will just break it.

They finished the preparations and went to their positions.

Maki, Panda, and Masao, who was masked like before, started running.

Masao was being half-dragged by Maki since his physical prowess was too weak.

Katsuo readied himself to break his Vow and rescue them if needed.

He carefully sensed and, after a few minutes, discovered that only five sorcerers went after them, while the majority remained.

'It seems my theory was right, that Shikamaru has some type of future seeing innate technique. Well, it's time to put my acting skills to action.'

Katsuo, looking vigilant, walked out and, as if he didn't see anything wrong, continued walking.

After a few more steps, his eyes widened like a deer facing headlights, and started retreating, as if he sensed something.

It certainly wasn't Oscar deserving acting but it successfully fooled the sorcerers around who jumped out of their hiding spots and surrounded Katsuo.

A burly and bald guy came forward and

"Give us the mirror and nobody will get hurt."

"Villains, you will never get it!"

'Damn, I bet that our actions looked just like a low-budget movie with a poorly written script.'

Some of the surrounding sorcerers seemed to think the same and stifled their laughs or cringed hard at what just happened in front of them, but most of them didn't care and a good portion of them started moving towards the abandoned building where Katsuo and his group were previously hiding.

Katsuo employed all his speed and, while leaving some potholes behind, appeared in their path.

"I said you will never get it, if you want it, you will have to pass through me."

Said Katsuo, still immersed in the acting.

The enemy sorcerers, seeing such display, turned serious and started preparing for combat, unsheathing their weapons, talismans, or just making some hand seal.

"Kid you asked for it, attack."

Said the bald sorcerer.

Ranged CE attacks started flying towards him, followed by the close combat sorcerers, who enhanced their bodies with CE.

Katsuo evaded the ranged ones before kicking towards one of the sword-wielding goons, but before he could hit, he was intercepted by other attacks, which caused him to give up and retreat.

'It seems that they are not against sacrificing their own to land a blow on me.'

Thought Katsuo while evading.

This process repeated itself various times and the enemy's intensity and morale were gradually increasing and he was beginning to struggle against some of their combined attacks even with his superhuman physique.

Even some innate techniques which he didn't know when they were activated and seemed to have debuff effects were affecting his body, and even though the effect was minimal and was soon washed away by the positive energy flowing inside him, it still affected his performance in the middle of combat.

Katsuo was beginning to lose ground and even though he tried to convince himself earlier, he really didn't want to break his Vow and possibly waste one year of training, so he began to think deeply about his situation.

'What am I doing? I know that I can do more but it feels like I'm stuck and not behaving like myself.'

He looked at his enemies swarming him.

'I was the one who said to Masao to face his setbacks head-on, but here I am, just dodging and being careful. What am I afraid of? Innate techniques? Physical wounds? Their numbers? My teammates' safety? It seems I'm forgetting my training and martial ideal. It all that doesn't matter. I just have to toughen up and push forward!'

"No retreat!!"

Katsuo shouted and released himself of all the "shackles" he unknowingly put on himself after a year of restraining his emotions and started running towards the numerous opponents.

His opponents started a new round of attacks, two swift swords, and one rope approached him.

The ones who launched these attacks were readying themselves for Katsuo's evasion but he, unexpectedly, just went forward and collided with them, one sword impaled his shoulder, and the other slashed his abdomen but his opponents flew backward with broken limbs.

At the same time, he strongly tugged the rope that had entangled his arm with a crisp sound and headbutted its wielder that came flying to him to the dream world.

For a moment the battlefield stopped. They all stared at Katsuo's figure with various emotions and started putting even more effort into the fighting.

Seeing dozens of attacks coming his way, Katsuo pushed his [Reverse Curse Technique] to its limits, not caring about CE consumption, and flooded his body with positive energy.

His regenerative power pushed the sword out of his shoulder and all his wounds swiftly healed.

Katsuo ripped his tattered baggy jacket and, while showing his ripped upper body, took an offensive Karate stance.

Katsuo had never felt so alive and awake before.