"Colt!"

"Colt!"

His eyes shot open as Hisa and Hemiko called out to him.

"Are you okay?" asked Hemiko as she stood over him.

He sat up, groaning as nausea curdled within. "Wh-Where are we?"

"In an alley." muttered Hisa, "I can't believe you tried to bail on us, rival!"

"I wasn't running, I was just tired of waiting, and fell asleep here." He grabbed his bags and pulled himself out of the dirt, "I couldn't leave you guys alone out here, I even bought my costume."

"Oh goodie! Let's get home and get changed! We can have our promo battle now that you're all rested up!"

"Hard pass."

She pouted and left the alley, "I guess you're a bit tired after all. I want you at your best!"

As Colt tried to follow her, Hemiko reached out to grab his hand.

"C-Colt, are you sure you're okay?" she asked.

"Y-Yeah," he threw on the best fake smile he could manage, "I've never felt better."

"But there's blood on your clothes, and it looks like you've been crying."

He sighed, "This is fake blood for my costume. There's this thing we like to call cosplaying out here, and some costumes need blood. Fake blood does the job, since it's kind of wrong to use real blood."

Her eyes gleamed with excitement, "Ooh. Do they use that stuff in those horror movies Hisa showed me the other day?"

"Yup."

With Hemiko being entranced with the idea of cosplaying, Colt used that as a talking point until they got home.

Did I try to kill myself earlier?

Wh-Why would I do that?

No, I was just too scared of breaking down in front of her. Thankfully she left me alone...

Despite having the weight of all of his tasks being thrown his way, there was a positive side of the coin he was dealt. With so much work, he had no room to mope over anything. Before discovering the Seishin Realm, he would've quit and moved on to the next thing. That old Colt died back in the courtyard of his university. The sense of frantic panic he'd usually get from so many tasks in the past had morphed into the anxious bundle of nerves a kid would become on Christmas day, surrounded by toys, spoiled for choice.

-

By the time he made it back to his room, he went to organize his thoughts on his laptop.

First, he had to pass the CCU ID Exams, not only to use his S.S.Suzy pass, but also to capture Hiroaki.

Mac's situation was next, but he had no idea how he'd even change things. That entire day could be defined by impulsivity. While he had no regrets, it'd be wise to leave that on the backburner for now. He had a month to work on it after all.

And then there was Fuchsia. Her mere existence incurred disgust.

Why does she want to work with me so bad?

As much as he hated it, there was no way he could tell anyone about his meeting with Mitsuba. Perhaps leading Fuchsia on for a bit would bring him more information. The classic act of keeping your enemies close.

"Colt!" Calling out from the courtyard, Dakota tossed a pebble at his window. "Come down here for a second! Let's do some training!"

Dakota is asking to train me?

Hell must be freezing over...

Changing out of his ruined clothes, he rushed out into the courtyard.

-

"Glad to see you here," Dakota snapped her fingers, "I was thinking on ways to help you improve without the core driver, but nothing came to mind. Your growth has been nothing short of phenomenal. You have great core energy manipulation, you understand how your core power works, and you're a pro at landing critical bursts. I don't really blame you for hitting a wall so fast."

He sighed, "Tell me about it."

"However, we can sharpen the tools you already have. What's the point in gathering tons of new weapons that you have to learn, when you can master the ones you already have?"

"I-I've been doing that already..."

"Ooh..." She held her chin and glanced around the courtyard, "I got it! I need to see you fight someone! I'll evaluate your performance, and we can go from there!"

She's totally winging this...

"What's the highest core beast rank you can handle?" she asked.

I beat up that B-Rank cicada beast on my first mission with Yuri. After everything I've been through-

"Uh, I'd say an A-Ranker."

"Daring, I like it." She retrieved a small green bottle from her pocket, "Let's head to an open space."

"Won't that call a weak core beast?" asked Colt, "The one Jax used when we first trained called a bunch of C-Rankers."

"Eh, Yuri brought a ton of these back from the core foundation with her. The green mist is imbued with the essence of other core beasts, and there are different scents with different levels of strength. This'll call a big boy."

They reached an open space, and Dakota smashed the bottle into the dirt, releasing a cloud of green smoke into the atmosphere.

"Now we wait-"

A large core beast crashed down between Colt and Dakota, leaving a crater in the ground beneath it.

Why do these big bastards always come in like this?

The beast was some sort of bipedal monster with an abnormally large head. That's it, a large head with arms and legs. Its eyes were hollow, with blood running out from the vacant sockets. It's large mouth was clammed shut, only flashing pearly white teeth.

"Damn, these things can get ugly!" teased Colt as he gathered core energy into his fists and took a defensive stance.

Dakota chuckled, "They ain't known for look-"

The beast's arm exploded into a mist of steam and blood as it tried punching Dakota.

"Fight him, not me." muttered Dakota.

Damn...What did she do?

Before the beast could turn his way, Colt charged in and sent it hurling into a tree with an explosive kick.

Using everything I've learned up until now, I'll destroy it!

Leaving no chances, he smashed the beast's skull into the pavement, killing it.

Dakota clapped her hands, "You've certainly grown!"

"Thanks, but that was easy-"

"Look at your stomach."

The fierce pain of the gash tearing through his midsection brought him to his knees. "D-Did you hit me?"

"No, the beast did it. Before you even kicked it, it landed a good one on you." She flicked his forehead, "Which leads me to my main critique of your fighting style. What do you think is your greatest weakness?"

"Do I even have one? I only took one hit, and I can just heal myself whenever I get hurt." he healed the wound in his stomach, "And I'll never run out of core energy, since I can count on critical bursts to recharge. I'm actually pretty broken."

"Nuh-uh, that's what I was talking about." She crossed her arms, "You don't realize it yet, but your core power is your main weakness."