Weeks passed with no indication of any action from Kawasaki. We lived our lives on alert, looking for any sign that he was making a move. We hardly did anything without our group. Since the meeting, we added the Hiasaka siblings to our numbers. Besides the uneasy and sometimes almost hostile air between Natsu and Denki, it was a decent mesh. Nina still didn't feel comfortable around me, but she was quickly accepted by Chika and Kaori.

  We would usually go as far as possible away from school together. Everyone had also joined various clubs, so we were usually done around the same time each day. Nina and I had our meetings with the student council as well as various activities as representatives. Natsu and Denki had joined the martial arts club. Hiro went back to the library committee. Rito had joined the gaming club. Chika and Kaori joined the art club. Even on days that one person didn't have something going on, we waited for everyone before leaving the school.

  One day, almost two months into the school year, we walked home as a group. Everyone was as lively as normal. Denki and Natsu had become something of rivals since they had joined their club, so they were arguing over styles and scenarios of who would win. Hiro and Rito were talking about last night's new episode of their favorite seasonal anime and what the future could hold. The girls were huddled in the middle hovering over Chika's phone as she went through new menu items for autumn. I walked behind everyone, my eyes darted around constantly.

  No cop car rolled by among the stream of cars to our right. By this time, I had gathered general routes and times of police in the area. That was my first sign. There also weren't nearly as many people out as there should have been for the time we were walking. The second came when there was construction that hadn't been there the morning before forcing a detour. The final sign fell on my nose as the first drop of an afternoon shower. It was more of a superstition at that point, but my gut told me that something was about to happen.

  As we walked down the detour, two dark cars came into sight, a group of men stood between them. Denki and Natsu noticed them too and looked back at me. We slowed down, and I looked behind us to see two more cars pull out from the side streets. Another group of men got out as the cars stopped. Like cattle herded into a corral, we were trapped. One man, larger than all the rest, walked out from the crowd and spoke.

  "Ishigami Kazuma," he started. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you and your little crew."

  "Kawasaki Shu, I presume?" I knew the answer, but I wanted him to tell me himself.

  "In the flesh," he responded, his voice akin to sandpaper.

  He wasn't lying. Although younger than when I had last been face to face with him, his ogre-like features were unmistakable. His jacket was well tailored to his body, but even with that, if he moved, it would likely struggle or rip trying to cover his massive body. It already did a poor job of covering his bulging muscles. His men were dressed in a similar manner, but their suits didn't have the trouble that his own did.

  "I have to say, Ishigami, I'm a little disappointed in you. I offered you a fair prize in exchange for the two newest members of your group, but you still made the wrong choice. It's understandable, though. You're still too young to have good foresight, it seems."

  "I refuse to be in a crime boss's debt, and I refuse to kill anyone," I said defiantly.

  "I see," his voice became more hostile. "Unfortunate indeed. Gentlemen, would you show these children the error of their ways?"

  The groups of men brandished their weapons. Knives, chains, brass knuckles, and a couple of pistols all came out of the pockets of their suits. The girls hunkered down in the middle of our group, and the boys made a ring around them. Hiro, Rito, and I faced Kawasaki and his group while Denki and Natsu faced the other group. For a brief moment, we all stood perfectly still as the sun fell to our side. Droplets became more rapid, and the rain picked up.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The next thing I heard was the sound of clacking as two pistols fell to the ground at Natsu's feet. He had used his power to steal them right out of the henchmen's hands and was getting ready to go for another round. Denki took off and left a small indent in the concrete. I heard a hard hit and the sound of a body slamming into one of the cars before its alarm went off. The two henchmen in front of me raised their pistols taking aim at me, but when they pulled the triggers, nothing happened. I dropped their magazines and chambered rounds at my feet and smiled.

  More sounds of metal hitting the ground resonated behind me as Natsu disarmed the knives from a couple more henchmen. Moments later, there were more sounds of bodies slamming into cars and walls. Three henchmen charged me and were met with broken wrists and dislocated shoulders as their knives also dropped to the ground at my feet. It was somewhat comforting how well the three of us could work together.

  Another stood up from behind the car aiming an automatic rifle at us. Rito surprised us all when he threw a rock at him. At first, it looked like it missed, but after bouncing off of a wall, into the face of another who then served as a human shield when he opened fire, Rito's true power became clear to me — he was astronomically lucky. I switched my attention to the heavily armed henchman, and time stood still. I moved over to him and completely disassembled his rifle as he held it. I then took the butt stock of the rifle and bashed his nose several times. When time resumed, his face quickly became bloodied as his rifle fell apart.

  Loud thuds continued to ring out behind me as Denki and Natsu used what they had learned in their club along with their abilities to devastate those remaining on their side. Three rushed at my side together while another came out from behind the wall. He stretched out his hand, and the ground broke apart and gathered around his body. I was too focussed on the meta and lost sight of the three; they were right on top of me in an instant. Before I could react, Hiro cried out, and the three in front of me were slammed to the ground by his power.

  The Geo, a meta that could control and mold the earth, walked up and flipped the car in front of him. Nina, who had been holding back previously, rushed through and pulled Denki and Natsu from its path. The two of them were exhausted from the fight, but I still had Rito and Hiro who released his ability. I couldn’t count on Nina’s ability much past what she had shown since she already showed signs of exhaustion. The three in front of us were unconscious, and only the meta and Kawasaki remained.

  "Enough of this!" Kawasaki called out. "Bring her out!"

  Behind us, two more henchmen walked out of a side street nearly dragging a girl behind them. Her head was covered, but I could clearly see her Toriyama High uniform. My eyes grew wide and I started shaking.

  "Sis!"

  One of them pointed a pistol to her head while the other waved a knife at me as if telling me no. I was reaching my own limit. Even though my power now came from a sort of muscle, it was still very possible to overuse it and hit failure. It was like that day that Eclipse had turned on me: I was trapped and out of options.

  "I told you that you'd regret making the wrong choice, Ishigami." Kawasaki spat his malicious words at me. "Now you've brought your cute sister into something she has no business being a part of. But, since I'm a kind man, I'll give you one more chance: kill them both, and we can forget about what happened here today."

  I'm out of options...

  I picked up one of the pistols and walked over to Natsu.

  "What the hell are you doing, Kazuma?!" Rito yelled.

  The geo launched at him and knocked him out with a blow to the stomach that threw him into Hiro who collapsed under both of their weight. The geo stood over the girls as I came to stand over Natsu. He sat with his back against a wall, his hands between his legs, his head hung low. He looked up at me with the same defeated eyes that I imagine I had that day so long ago. The water from the sky trickled down his face as his eyes met mine and looked away. I raised the pistol, pointed it at his head, and tilted my own.

  At that moment, I felt something all too familiar. The weight of the pistol in my hand, the rain almost beating down on my shoulders and back, the lack of any muscle contraction in my face... It was like I had completely reverted to Number 9.

  "So much for not killing anyone," Kawasaki said in a snide voice.

  A strong gust of wind blew behind me, and Natsu pulled a pistol and a knife from the portal between his legs with a confident smile on his face. I looked back over to the two holding Yui captive to see them both on the ground writhing in pain. With that, I dropped the magazine and threw down the one in my hand and helped Natsu to his feet. Denki stood up and shook himself off. Hiro and Rito slowly got up as well. It got very close to going off the rails, but our plan had worked.

  "I told you, Kawasaki," I said both confident and cold as our eyes met. "I won't be in debt to a crime boss. Now, where were we?"