Once Colt's impromptu meeting came to an end, he went searching for Yuri, only getting himself lost in the labyrinth known as the Foundation Building. She ended up telling him to head back home alone through text, so he did.

As he made his way towards the courtyard of Dakota's apartment complex, someone's arms locked around him from behind, nearly driving the wind from his lungs. They held quite the sturdy form, finding a way to be comforting at the same time. On the cusps of giving in to his survival instincts to struggle and try to break free, his panic ceased once this individual spoke.

"Hey Colt!" Hisa let him go and stepped in front of him, "Where were you?"

"Y-You scared the shit out of me..." He rubbed his aching back, "I just went for a walk."

"Oh. Okay!"

As he straightened his posture, Hemiko ran over to them.

"Hi Colt! Do you want to train with us?"

"Train?"

"We're training," said Hisa as she rubbed Hemiko's head, "Hemiko's pretty fast! Especially in the forest!"

Colt nodded, "That makes sense. She lived in the wild her whole life-" As he glanced between the two of them, a subtle sense of dread came over him, "Wait-What kind of training is this? There's no combat, right?"

"You bet it is!" cheered Hisa.

"You're a monster! Hemiko can't fight you!"

"Not me, silly!" Hisa retrieved a green eyeball from her pocket. The damned thing still had a few nerves linked to it. "I taught Hemiko how to kill weak core beasts."

"Oh...I guess that works out then."

Hemiko held both of his hands and smiled, "I've been getting stronger, Colt!"

"I'm proud of you. It's one thing to say that you want to get stronger, but actually going in and putting forth the effort is completely different."

Thinking back on Hemiko's determination during the ordeal with Hokkaido, it was safe to say that the fire was still burning in her eyes was still bright. With Hisa as a mentor, she was destined to be an excellent fighter.

Still, the fact that someone like Hisa was able to teach someone something was nothing short of a miracle. Perhaps Hemiko just had that ability to understand her.

"You haven't been slacking off on training, right?" asked Hisa as she poked him in the chest, "We still have our duel coming up!"

"Duel? Hisa, I don't want to fight-"

Sidelining his protest, Hisa rushed over and hopped on Jax's back as he made his way over. "Hey!"

Groaning as he closed his book, Jax shut the gate behind himself as he entered. "Great, you're all outside."

"Ooh! Let's all train together!" said Hisa.

"No. I'm trying to read and do nothing else..." Jax let her down and flopped down on a bench.

Colt scratched the back of his head and laughed, "Well...I do need to train. I have an exam coming up."

"Exam?" asked Jax, "Are you trying to get a CCU ID? This is the time of year when the exams start."

Hisa leaned onto Colt's shoulder, "Exam? You mean like, a test? That's boring Colt!"

"Tests do suck, but it's more than just a written test. There's also a combat portion."

Excitement burned within her eyes, "Really?"

"Yes, you moron." muttered Jax, "I told you that last year."

"How am I supposed to remember something from that long ago?"

"Hey kids!" Dakota stepped out into courtyard, joining Jax on the bench, "I heard you guys talking about the CCU ID exams. Are you planning on taking them together?"

Jax shook his head no, "Only Colt was."

"I'm taking it too!" interjected Hisa, "If there's fighting, I'm in!"

"I-I'll go too!" added Hemiko.

"Come on, Jax..." Dakota rocked him back and forth, goading him on as if she were trying to goad him into some stupid dare. "All of your friends will be there."

"This isn't some field trip." muttered Jax beneath his breath.

"Jax! Quit being boring!" teased Hisa as she stuck her tongue out at him.

"You know," Dakota pulled a stick of jerky from her pocket and bit into it. Why did she walk around with a random stick of jerky in her pocket, Colt had no clue. Then again, her entire presence up until now had been crafted from shit he couldn't begin to comprehend. "Every two years, members of the CCU are required to retake the exams to measure growth. You'll lose your ID if you don't."

He growled in frustration.

Colt knocked his fists together, attempting to hype Jax up. "You might as well come with us now. It'll be the Dream Team's next quest!"

"Yeah!" cheered Hisa and Hemiko in unison.

Jax struggled to hide his smile as he leaned back, "I guess I'll go if it'll shut you all up."

Colt fell to his knees as Hisa slugged him straight in the gut. He knew a hit from her would've leveled him even if he were in his best condition, so being caught off guard was a death sentence. "Wh-Why?"

She continued to shadow box, ignoring his cries of agony. "Let's start training guys!"

Lifting his head, Colt struggled to catch his breath. "By the way, Jax, I have something I want to ask you and Dakota."

Dakota, intrigued, leaned forward. "Go ahead."

"What is a core driver?"

"Ooh, someone's been doing some research." She leaned back on the bench and crossed her legs, "Do you remember when I mentioned that there was something more to core powers besides critical bursts? Core drivers serve as the next level. In a nutshell, core drivers are like an ultimate attack for a character in a video game. Nah, I'd say a final gambit."

"So...it should be saved for last?"

"Definitely. When all else fails, you use your core driver. You gather up all of your core energy, and sacrifice something, letting you push your core power to a new level. How did you even find out about core drivers?"

Shit...I can't mention Hokkaido and the village to her.

He chuckled, "Uh...I ran into someone in a forest. He didn't get to use it for some reason though..."

"Well, he probably ran out of core energy." She crossed her legs and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, "Since you experienced the sensations of a critical burst before I taught you, it was easier for me to coach you on it, but you have zero experience with core drivers...Shit."

"Can you show me yours? If you have one..."

"Of course not! You have to sacrifice something in order to do it. It's like a contract, you offer up something important, and you gain new power."

"Let me guess, the greater the sacrifice, the greater the change?"

She nodded her head, "And whatever you give up, you obviously can't get it back. Core drivers are nothing to fuck around with."

"Man...I'm intrigued now!"

Besides Colt, Jax was the only one listening along to the explanation. Hisa nodded out somewhere towards the beginning, opting to sleep on the ground, so Hemiko laid down next to her.

Dakota tossed her empty jerky packet into a garbage bin, rising from her seat. "I guess we'll just have to find someone with a core driver. It'll be hard to even do that. There's a deep understanding of core energy manipulation needed to do it. So, if you see someone who can land critical bursts with ease, they can most likely do a core driver."

He glanced down at his own hands, "So, I can do it?"

"Yeah." She chuckled, "You're really cut out for this stuff. Are you sure you've never heard of the Seishin Realm before?"

"I never even imagined that there was an alternate realm in this world. I guess I can pin my fighting skills onto my time in school. I had to do a lot of fighting growing up."

"I see...Well there's no point in explaining how it works until I have an example to show you with. It mainly involves compressing your energy into a single point and-"

Jax interjected, "You're about to explain it anyways."

"Shut up, Jax!" whined Colt, desperate to know more on the subject.

Dakota covered her mouth, "Look, until then, we can focus on some other points of importance. This'll make using a core driver even easier."

Colt's vigor was restored, "Good point!"

Jax rose from the bench and stretched, "We need to focus on the written exam portion too."

"What a buzzkill..." muttered Colt.

"Shut up you idiot. What's the point in all of this training for combat if you bomb the first portion of the exams?"

"Fine! I'll study!"