Zen suddenly looked at the two next to him with the eyes of a big brother. He didn't know how old they were, but he saw them as something he would need to take care of. Fudo and Aiko stared at Kaiyo and Miyo with their eyes and mouths wide open. Fudo's face just looked as if he was thinking that one of the two would jump up and say that she was kidding, but Aiko's face became a mix of all kinds of feelings.

"Do...do you mean that for real? Are you actually gonna become our parents?" Fudo said after jumping up from his chair. He slapped both hands as hard on the table as he could and stared at the two women, who both had an identical smug smirk on their faces.

"Well, officially, we would be your parents, but we can't act like that. Our team is full, and we were about to make you make your own team, as I said earlier. All that would change would be that you're officially either Fudo Noguchi or Fudo Kido, and that little Aishi will become your little sister... if that's ok for you two."

"Well... Aiko was always some kind of little sister for me... just...make this up with her, I don't care." He said, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes, but everyone looking at him could easily see that he did care. His eyes were clenched together, and he bit his lip, but weak enough, so it was only slightly visible.

"Can I call you mom then?!" "Yes, we will play parents as much as it goes for us, but we have our own jobs to do, and that's why we trust in you on doing yours alone. As soon as you two need help in anything, we'll assist you, and this is a promise." Kaiyo immediately answered Aiko's question, she didn't hesitate or think even a second, and she didn't lose eye contact with her either.

"Me too!~ I'll play good mom too!~" Aruna yelled as she held Isamu up under his arms and waved him around in the air. "Isamu is not from our orphanage, he doesn't need to be adopted. He can already come with you," Fudo said while glancing over to them.

"I... kind of agreed to it already. She asked me if I was an orphan too, and I said yes, and now I'm adopted... I guess. To be honest, I'd like to have a mother. I don't really care if I just met her, everyone here seems to be weirdly fast at accepting all this, so I went along with it. I mean, we also got threatened to work in a company that we never heard about. This isn't the weirdest thing that has happened in the last... 10 minutes?" Isamu looked down at all of them from his position, still being held up high by Aruna. In comparison to how he was a few minutes ago, visibly calmer.

"Well, you sure are calm about this all... despite being like frozen before. You got used to being touched already?" Miyo smirked, her head resting on arms lying on the table and her eyes nearly closed. "I never had a problem with being touched! You all were just pressing against my back!"

Curious as to what he meant, Aruna let him down again and immediately pulled the jacket that Fudo gave him off his shoulders, revealing a burn mark that nearly covered his entire back. "That... this is from an esper. There's mana in that mark... this should still have your body completely paralyzed... how are you even moving?"

"His combination is somehow so strong that he starts with S. We don't have any information on the lion they fought, but the incoming Infos tell enough that I already have a place to assign them in, but more to that later," Miyo said, her face turned into a somewhat more serious one for no apparent reason.

"I have to tell you something, which is in this all the last lesson I'll tell you before we will set out. As I said, that there are exceptions to the rank limits. I meant both sides. There is Trigram for H rank, there are also espers above triple S. Espers that we call god-type do exist, and they're mostly double S or triple S, but there are ones even stronger than those. The espers that we call; the seven ancient gods."

She opened the book once more and started flipping the paged until she nearly hit the end. The book began to project a hologram above them again, but this time it didn't show a story or anything like it. This time, there were only seven objects projected above them, and they started slowly moving in circles.

"These are the espers. All of them are in their own way rivaling those espers that control our earth... in other words, these are literal gods amongst us humans. This one is Omoikane's library, the one representing me."

Inside all the seven objects was a key that didn't seem to be far from a normal key. A little bigger in size, and a little rectangular talisman was bound to it. No one was paying attention to it, though. Isamu, Fudo, and Aiko all stared at Miyo, who just all so casually revealed that she owns a god.

"For the other ones here... my information is limited. I either know them because they work with me, because I needed to find information on them, or... because I killed them." She didn't even look down to see their reaction and continued to explain with a strong focus. In the order that she listed them, she also pointed to another object. First, she pointed to a golden apple, then she pointed to a large scythe that had skulls all over the handle, and lastly, she pointed to a normal-looking staff that was used for fighting, which had gold covering both ends.

"Those are Origin, the esper that was given by the divine being itself, the death god's scythe, the weapon Thanatos, the god of death himself used, and The monkey king's staff, not much to say here. The owner was just level 5 as he fought me, I was able to kill him quickly, but if it would've been a little stronger, then that staff would've been my end."

"That staff... is that Nyoibo? The weapon that Sun Wukong used?" Aiko asked as she took her sight off Miyo and instead carefully inspected the staff flying above her. Miyo closed the book, silently nodding without letting go of her serious expression. Her usual smile was gone, and the unfocused eyes that didn't even keep eye contact while she was talking to someone were locked on to the three.

"I need you to know... this is a work in which you will need to kill every now and then. Mercy can't always be shown. Everyone in the seven deadly sins has a body count in the three digits, and I know that it was a Yami, but you three already killed someone, so I ask you, will you be ok working alone already?"

"I already killed someone to protect myself, and I will do it again!" Aiko shot out as soon as Miyo stopped talking. Furthermore, the blue glowing eyes that appeared in their fight before started to glow again. At the same moment, the orb above her started to shake and even make a noise that sounded like a yawn. Two little lights appeared and disappeared in front of it multiple times as if the orb was blinking until they stopped disappearing.

This time, the only calm ones were Fudo, Aiko, and Isamu. The other four were all staring at Trigram like the three were gazing at Miyo before. "Did Trigram just... move?" "Are that eyes?!" Zen and Aruna were unsettled. Aruna at least tried to keep her cool, but Zen started to flip out completely. He reached his hand out for him, but as soon as the lights turned over in Zen's direction, they turned into what seemed to be a frown, and the little orb flew against his head at high speed.

"I heard Trigram is one of the few living espers... but I thought he was just...silent... Miyo, could it be that... he was asleep, the entire time?" Kaiyo quickly stood up from her chair, the surprise on her face couldn't be overlooked, but Miyo looked even more shocked, as she didn't understand a thing of what was happening.

"This... can't be... he still raised the stats! If the red mode was... his sleep mode... then it should've been completely impossible for him to do anything. Even raising the stats as little as he did should've been something impossible! Aiko, can you open your stats for us?"

"I... don't know how." Aiko could only stare at the esper that was ramming Zen's head over and over again. "Ah, I'm sorry." Miyo held her arm pointed at the floor. The look in her eyes was still unsettled as she continued to glance over to Trigram multiple times. "The easiest way for you should be reaching for your esper and concentrating on it as if you would want to channel energy into it."

After she finished her instructions, a little half-see-through board appeared before her hand. She grabbed the board right out of the air and put it on display on the table. The board only had a few words and numbers on it. Under those were some that explained themselves, like strength, speed, endurance, or intelligence, but there also were some that weren't quite clear.

Also following her instructions, Aiko reached for Trigram. Quickly realizing what she was about to do, the blue orb came back from bashing Zen's head in and stopped moving right before her hand. After the orb slightly touched her hand, a board like the one that Miyo summoned appeared before her. Other than Miyo's, her board was more like a hologram, and like Trigram, hovered before her.

"All of them... are at two. Is that correct?" She also tried grabbing the board, but her hand only passed through it. "The... only one that should even have a number should be the strength stat. Trigram is one of the espers that concentrate on raising stats and don't give any special abilities, but even as that he was weaker than all. The only stat affected by Trigram was strength, and even worse, his level cap is only 30... but now raising all the stats?"

"Could you explain what those are...? I understand speed and strength and all those, but what does mana mean?" Fudo asked while looking around the two boards. "Mana is the only stat that's empty on both of yours."

"Mana means magical energy. Depending on the esper, this stat will grow more than any other, or just not at all. For example, the only ones with a mana stat from us are Raidon and Aruna. Miyo's esper is an ancient god, and that's why her stats are so high in every part, but Omoikane focuses on intelligence. If you'd look at the intelligence stat, you'd see that there's an infinity sign instead of a number." Kaiyo held up the board and pointed directly at the stat she was talking about, like a teacher that lost their cool with explaining.

"Does that mean she literally knows everything?" Isamu slowly walked up to the table and stared at the board. "In some terms, yes, but her knowledge excludes a lot of things, meaning hunting for people is hard enough for us. Your questions were lying on mana, though... Miyo already said this was the last lesson, but we have to continue a little. Mana makes you able to cast spells, easy ones like fireballs or ones that are bound to the esper... can you show us what we mean, Aruna?"

"Gladly! Isamu, wouldn't you like it if your back would get all healed up again?" "I think so...?" Immediately she grabbed Isamu by his shoulders and pulled him closer to her. She stretched her arms out to the sides, the palms of her hands facing up and her legs close together.

"But go low, ok? Just heal his back up, and don't jump-start his entire nervous system again." "Don't worry!~" Aruna's arms began to glow. A dark pink light started to envelop her arms and even dyed the sleeves of her hoodie.

The glow promptly moved up her neck, dying everything on her neck in pink, except for a little stripe in the center. As it reached her face, the light split into three stripes on each cheek that moved from her cheeks up to her eyes, making the eyes glow in the instant that the striped hit the eyes.

"Wait... what did she mean with jump-star-" Obviously worried, Isamu wanted to stop before something would happen to him, but before he could do anything, Aruna already pressed her hands against his back. His eyes began to glow similar to Aruna's, just that in his case, his entire upper body began to be enveloped in the glow.

The moment both of them stopped to glow, Isamu's back was clean. No wound, not even a mark was left on it. "My back... feels so light." Isamu looked over his back, trying to see anything of the burn wound, but was unable to see anything.

"Of course. The paralysis still affected you, just not enough that it actually kept you from moving. The paralysis effect is gone, and that wound as well! You can thank me later.~ Also~, you can have this. Take it as a welcoming present, and because you need more than that jacket you wore earlier." Aruna said while slowly taking off her hoodie.

"Aruna, contain your lust for children to when we're finished here... also, ain't that your child now?" Zen glanced over to the two, as did everyone else. No one wanted to say anything, but they all thought the same thing that Zen just said.

"I wanna give him my fucking hoodie! The hell did you thought I would do after I even said this is because he can't wear the damn jacket alone?!" She yelled at him while throwing her hoodie onto Isamu.

He didn't question the deed. He just immediately put on the hoodie, while Aruna, now in a blue and white undershirt, had her hand beginning to glow again. Only this time, she concentrated the glow on her fingers and shot it towards Zen, who already waited for it, with his esper in his hands. Before the bullet of light could hit Zen, Kaiyo held her sword between the two and blocked the bullet herself. Yet, the two suddenly got really silent as they felt the aura that Kaiyo gave off again.

"So... now you saw what mana does. That was one of Kaiyo's more special spells, but normally they're like that. Healing is something you can do easily. It just consumes a lot of mana, and you can't heal someone immediately. You need to have a calm environment... you can't just heal cuts while you're still fighting someone." Miyo said. Her smile was gradually returning, and the serious look on her face was disappearing.

"This should be... all, I think. We explained espers, introduced ourselves, told you the stories of espers, and showed you how stats work... yeah, that's good. Then onto the plan! Kane, can you bring me the map and the updates of our targets?" She yelled into the air.

Shortly after, the old man appeared next to them, with a map in his hand, that he quickly opened up and held in front of himself. "Before you tell us the updates, let me show you where you need to go!"

"I already made my plans for all of you. Fufu and Aishi, you two will start building your own team! Our company will give you a house if you show results and have a team of at least six members, so I have decided that you will take our job and recruit these two people."

Miyo pointed onto the map. Once, she pointed to the town they were in at the moment, and a hologram with the name came out of the map. "We're here, in Rikunohe, and you need to go to these two cities. First, I want you to find the esper user in Namono, the city that is mostly known for its red-light district, and then, Tamatsuri, a smaller city that is known for being the habitat of a gangster group calling themselves Gendai Oni."

"You want to send us into a red-light district and a gangster city? Are you serious?!" Fudo was getting uneasy again, which was obvious considering Miyo's demand. "I need you to be able to do this, even when you're just starting, this is something that's testing your skills."

"Testing our skills, my ass! I have no esper, and Aishi's got the one you call the weakest esper of all! What's there to test?! Also, you said this is only Aishi's and my task, so what's with Isamu?!" He raised his tone. His voice got louder and louder, but this time neither Kaiyo nor anyone else stepped in, as they all knew that this reaction was more than reasonable.

"Let me explain this all. Espers like Isamu's can change their rank depending on the situation they were created in. So depending on their enemy and the strengths of the host themselves, the rank either rises or falls, and Isamu is strong enough to have his esper be S from the start. Because of that, and what he already presented to us, I have decided to assign him to a team already."

"For you two, Aishi has somehow woken up Trigram, which no one was able to do before, and you... you have a vast amount of elysium in your body. Whatever it is that happened to you, the elysium in your body should be enough to forge an esper, but somehow nothing is happening. Instead, your skin hardens. You're a mystery in itself, and that's why I want you two to grow by working alone."

Fudo slowly calmed down. He didn't exactly understand what she was talking about, but he understood that his skin has something to do with the material espers are made of. "So... I'm an esper myself, or what?"

"Nope, not at all. Every living thing has elysium in its body, that's why you can forge an esper if you kill enough humans or animals, but that's all a human or animal can do with elysium. You somehow use it to subconsciously harden your own skin, and that's why I want to learn more about you by having you get stronger. For that, you need a team, and then you'll get missions from the company itself and a house to live in, so a win-win."

"And what do I do?" Isamu asked with his hand raised slightly while his other hand rested in the pocket of Aruna's hoodie, which looked a little oversized on him. "You might be the missing piece we searched for. In the company, we have a team we call demons. Five assassins who are so hard to control that we only let them leave when the situation is dire. They killed every leader we assigned them in less than a month. Every single leader."

"Are... are you seriously sending me in there?! When they already killed every leader, then what is a new member even gonna do?!" "You'll be their new leader, not just a member. I put my trust in you, Isamu."

"Mistress, would you still like to hear the updates on the targets you asked me to search for?" Kane still held up the map in front of him, his expression didn't change, and his voice was as monotone as ever. Before answering, Miyo looked around the lot, waiting for anyone to bring up their objections again, but all three of them were silent now. Fudo was still sunken in thought about the situation, and Isamu looking like he was preparing for however the guys he was about to meet would be.

"Yes, please tell us, Kane" "So, the esper user in Namano is called Rei Ichihara. We do not have a description of them, but we know their esper. A Hero-type A rank called the brain of the mad monk. For the esper user in Tamatsuri, we only know their name and that they are part of the infamous Gaiden Oni, and they're called Minami Kamiyama."

"There we got it! Then here's the plan from now on: Kaiyo and I will take Aishi and Fufu to the orphanage, get everything ready and send them on their way starting in Namano. As far as I know, the trains from here should lead there. Zen, you go grab one of Shamon's purses and bring them here, so they'll have enough money to fit their needs, and then you help Aruna escort Isamu to the lion cage, understood?"

"Understood!" Kaiyo, Zen, and Aruna all said loudly at the same time while the other three kept their silence. "You three understood too, right?" Miyo asked with a big smile as she ran over to the other side of the table. "Yeah, you're literally sending us all into death after forcing us to work for you." Aiko answered immediately.

"Should we give you one of Eijiro's guns too?" Zen asked as he already stood up and walked towards the door behind them. "Yeah, that would be convenient! Let's give them a bag with something from all of us. You can pack it, Zen." Miyo snickered as she answered before Zen left, leaving the door open.

"And we'll go too! Zen's gonna find us when he's finished. Byebye!" Miyo grabbed Aiko's hand and ran toward the staircase that led to the gateway they came from. "Fudo wait, your jacket!" As Fudo and Kaiyo were about to follow the two that already ran towards the exit, Isamu yelled out to Fudo and waved his jacket in the air.

"You can keep it! I have two more at home anyway." He said as he glanced over his shoulder and to Isamu. With a smile, he turned around and was about to leave until Isamu called out to him again. "Then I want you to have this!" As Fudo looked over to him again, he already saw something flying towards him.

As he watched the shiny little thing, he immediately realized what was coming and caught it carefully. His expression changed as he opened his hand and looked at what he just caught. The calm smile turned into pure disbelief before he looked back at Isamu. "Your... ring?"