The doors of a caravan swing open on the inside There's an extremely fancy medical table, A short young man with curled up orange hair with red highlights at the end grabs Hotaru from Kurai swiftly and straps him down

  "Kurai are you okay" Kurai stares into space he's lost his mind "This isn't good he's mentally destroyed"

  The man thinks to himself before grabbing Kurai by the shoulders "Kurai, I'm going to put you to sleep this is too much for you to handle right now"

  He guides Kurai onto the seat in the caravan as Katsuo shouts "IS EVERYTHING GOOD LENTON?!" Lenton replies with a loud "Mhm!!"

  He puts his palm on Kurai's head "Beat, natural mystic" he forms a peace sign on his head that makes Kurai slump back into a rest

  "Sleep well Kurai you’ve been through enough"

  At the Leixlip compound, Katsuo wakes up Kurai with a snap "Hey Kurai... We’re home" Kurai darts awake and runs out the door he sprints into the buildings and darts into the medical room where Hotaru is being treated by multiple doctors and Lenton Katsuo tugs Kurai out of the room as tears stream down his face "I'm sorry Hotaru!" He cries shaking

  “Kurai, you need to let Lenton and the others do their job without interruptions, Hotaru will be fine.” Katsuo comforts him as he's being dragged. Kurai in a fit of sadness and anger pushes away from Katsuo

  "Stop treating me like I'm a toddler I'm 16 you're only 2 years older and yet you no everyone here treats me like I'm incapable of anything!" He shouts as he storms to his room, unable to think straight, he just cries in his bed

  “I could’ve done something! If I went with him maybe we could have held off Feiticeira until Shiki arrived If I were stronger I could have fought Feiticeira and gotten him home quicker if i would hav-”

  There’s a knock at his door “Kurai it’s me” Shiki says knocking once more, “I know you’re in there”

  Kurai opens the door “What do you want?” He rubs his tear filled eyes. Shiki sighs patting Kurai on the head

  “Hotaru will be fine KuKu, well I mean Lenton hasn’t confirmed anything yet but hey it’s Hotaru he's got an iron will. Remember when he fought that artist who had that poisonous ability yeah he was done pretty badly wasn't he but he made it through especially with Lenton he's a wizard Kurai you know this! Hotaru will come back even stronger and kick Feiticeira's ass!! Anyway, in the meantime you’re paired up with Katsuo for some training. And maybe just a little surprise.. anyway meet with him in the training yard in 5 minutes I'll be ordering a fresh pie to celebrate.. the surprise not Hotaru.." Shiki awkwardly shuffled off before playfully sticking his tongue out at Kurai

  Kurai slowly trudged to the Training grounds unable to think straight Shiki did help cheer him up but knowing the suffering and the pain Hotaru's in made him shudder He arrived at the door and sighed before opening it

  “Hey Kurai, you finally made it!” Katsuo shouts as he waves. "I hope you're feeling better... I know it's a lot but-" Katsuo starts to comfort Kurai but he's shot down "I know what you're gonna say and don't worry Shikis already told me everything he really does change everything doesn't he?" Kurai lightly smiled

  "I mean just his presence even though he seems so terrifying with that melody presence being tall and the way he's feared he seems scary intimidating but no he's the kindest soul I know and it... Inspires me to be a better artist so.. yeah.. let's train bro"

  Kurai paused gulping "And I'm sorry for getting mad at you earlier.. It's not your fault it was just so much and I promise it won't happen agai"

  "Hey hey shut it, man.." Katsuo laughed "I forgive you and I understand your pain Kurai.. I'm always here for you man.. but yeah let's get stronger so maybe one day we can kick Shikis' ass.. heh watch what I made"

  Katsuo raises his hand and shoots a concentrated beam of water from his palm, a Beat materialises sleek and blue shaped like a fish with a big belly and it absorbs the water beam before re-firing it into another beat creating a zigzag of compressed water until it pierces a Training dummy from behind. Kurai gasps “Wow, that’s awesome!”

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  “And it doesn't even take that much of my water and energy cause it's the beat reutilising it so yeah yeah it is” Katsuo smirks, “Now let's get cooking you've been slacking off recently. So go ahead use your instrument”

  Kurai stares at his feet "Even though I'd never tell them I'm ashamed and embarrassed of my instrument.. i just wish I were like Elreic or Lenton i just want something flashy" he thought to himself but realised

  'I can only get stronger through trial and error so with that you’re on!” Kurai summons and shoots 2-3 spikes and canon balls from his palm They're not very fast and take a lot of his limited energy, Katsuo dances around the attacks “Wow that's not it man He doesn’t even fight back just moving around Kurai’s attacks as if they were in slow motion

  “Well then I'm going all out!! Beat Boulder Bowl! Kurai screams and summons a spherical spiked ball, Katsuo grins and creates 4 beams of water to push it away from him using his beats.

  "Whilst more impressive that'd only catch someone asleep.." Katsuo says laughing slightly Kurai frowns “You didn’t need to be so mean” A chibi Kurai pouts out of nowhere Shiki coughs behind them he masked his presence so when he coughed it scared them Kurai even yelped!

  “Ahem, guys we have a new member, recently awakened"

  A short girl steps out from behind him waving and smiling

  "Hey losers" she grinned Her short red hair with yellow highlights near the end contrasts with her sharp almost shark like teeth and her violent eyes

  As she walks to them Shiki announces

  “This here is Nozomi Yamaguchi She's recently awakened her melody and well since she's a new awakener who doesn't know bout us and my pizzas here now how bout you guys about explain everything to her hmm? Yeah? Okay! Byeee!!" Shiki giggles before running away

  "What is wrong with that guy.." Nozomi questions "Last I remember I was singing some corny song over the radio and I woke up to him examining my wrist like a creep"

  Katsuo and Kurai sigh and slump over “You'll get used to him.. eventually.. he's way too energetic all the time"

  "Okay so you two yeah explain to me what's going on here what the hell is a melody and why is that man so fast"

  The gang sat down on the grass outside Katsuo took charge of explaining

  "Well okay, we are Artists Me, you, him, and the man who brought you here we're all artists my name is Katsuo and his is Kurai we work for this company.. well no it's not a company it's more like a charity? Anyway, it's called Leixlip you're in the compound right now. We artists go around stopping awakeners from causing havoc and sometimes quarrel with other artists who use their powers for evil"

  Nozomi strokes her chin confused at the information overload Kurai adds

  “You don’t even know what an awakener is? Okay well uhh you're one! Every human has a musical energy called melody and a few humans can tap into that energy and create instruments

  "Like a guitar..?" Nozomi chimes in

  "No your instrument is what you channel your melody into.. think like a superpower! like Katsuo can create and manipulate water that’s his instrument but his is really simple unlike Hotaru..” Kurai pauses for a moment staring at his feet "Hotaru... Hotaru’s instrument was the ability to control fireflies into loads of different shapes or weapons.."

  Katsuo continues noticing the shift in Kurai's tone “Awakeners as you can imagine are people who ‘awaken’ their melody and can’t control it, we have to subdue and possibly recruit them like yourself, or just teach them to control themselves. Usually when someone awakens we recruit them to work here as if the world knew about melody it'd be a disaster.. its a potent energy source that could cause wars between countries so we make sure any awakeners stay on the compound but don't worry they're paid tons and get time to see family!"

  Nozomi vocalises her curiosity “Is that it sheesh you make it sound complicated!”

  “Well, there’s a lot more.." Kurai replied There's these things called beats they come in all shapes and sizes some are physical music notes that can be cool monsters that fly around and help you or imbued into your instrument to create a weapon or sometimes just an extent of your instrument!"

  "There’s also Divine Symphonies which is a special move but they're very rare and powerful! Shiki apparently has one but he's never told us or shown us same with his instrument either Every time we ask he just dodges the question!"

  Nozomi blinks processing the information. “Cool.. Cool so now where's my divine symphony.. and when do I get to kick ass and become the strongest!!"

  Kurai and Katsuo look at her curiously "Hmm well you want to become the strongest..?? You gotta develop a lot and you're gonna need to maximise your instrument.. well actually what is your instrument do you know?" Katsuo inquires "Hmph well I'm basically Barry.." her eyes sparkle and she giggles "Barry Allen!! The fastest man alive!!"

  A visibly younger Nozomi sits on her floor bobbing her head back and forth hands in her lap her room filled up with posters and merch of the Flash she sits awe struck glued to the TV screen as Barry zooms by She stands up and runs around giddy "One day I'm gonna be the fastest too Barry! I won't stop believing!"

  "Yeah and so I can like go really fast Is that my instrument maybe Heh I don't know but I bet I could beat you two dorks in a fight" Nozomi smugly grins as Kurai puts his fist in his palm "I'd like to see you try"