Secrets

In a rather slower suburb of Tokyo, Red came by in his Audi. Heading into a rather cheap looking bar, an Izakaya, Red asked for a beer.

"Which beer do you want?" Asked the bartender.

"The one which foams." Red said as he put down a 5000 yen note. Seeing that the bartender raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. He went back and brought a glass of orange juice. Red took a big swig of the orange juice and said with a smile. "Good! Exactly as I asked."

The bartender nodded. "The restroom is behind the wall there." He pointed towards a door with a restroom sign. Red nodded, got up and headed past that door. As he groomed himself in front of the mirror, a bearded man entered the restroom common area. He left a tissue paper on the platform and left. Red picked up the tissue paper. It had a number written on it. Smiling, he made his way out of the bar and then drove home.

The bearded man went back to the kitchen area of the bar and into his office. "Contact has been established." He reported via secure chat. Soon he got the reply. "Contact will assume command." The man nodded and closed the line.

---

Red went back home and accessed a secure terminal on his encrypted phone, calling the number he had received at the bar. When the line connected, he spoke. "I am Agent Code. My key is XXXX, I will assume control of the network now." He soon received a reply. "Acknowledged."

Soon he received some files through the secure line which he began browsing. It was intelligence data about locations that the Japanese government considered potential relic sites, Department of Ability Management training plans, inside intelligence of the Japanese government, student details as well as information about all known organizations and underground operators as well as black and grey markets. The information was wider than most people in even the Japanese intelligence would themselves know.

Then he looked at a particular intelligence report. Several of the students who are part of the ability users in various High Schools had been recruited by underground forces. One group in particular - a group called Mosaic had not recruited many students, but all of whom that they did were already grade 3 and above. It also appears that this particular group was making some concerning moves and even had agents in the country's intelligence service. as well as ties with certain noble families and politicians.

---

In school Erica was informed that her training classes will be held with other students of Grade 3 or higher. It was called the ace class and the students were told that they had the most potential, but that they would also thus become targets to be challenged, because if they slip up and others exceed them, they would be demoted and others would replace them in the Ace class. As the premier group they were offered the best tutors and also each student got 1 magic stone a month. But the class would also get shuffled every month when anyone could challenge another student to a duel.

Everyone was given a training manual to train their abilities, but Erica did not use it. The locket within her was automatically unlocking her sealed abilities gradually and she couldn't train until her abilities were totally unlocked. She was shocked that despite her baseline abilities being sealed she was already a grade 3, which made her wonder what grade she would be when unlocked.

In class Rika suddenly asked Erica a question. "Erica, how come you got bodyguards assigned to you?" She had noticed that the past few days Erica was constantly monitored over by two men in black suits and shades. They look intense and domineering, but kept their distance from her.

"It's my brother. He said he was worried about my safety with the current climate and asked one of his clients who owns a private security service to send bodyguards to watch over me. Honestly, it is incredibly irritating. I have no privacy of my own. I have just learned to ignore them." She grumbled.

Rika laughed. "Your brother is so over protective of you. Is he a sis-con?"

"He better not be, or I'll beat it out of him." Erica said brandishing her fist.

"How was training in the ace class?" Rika asked.

"We just have a combat instructor who is very strict and a lot of the students are very haughty." Erica said, shaking her head.

---

In the training class. The combat instructor Junji Ito looked on in utmost seriousness. He was a bulky man with immense strength.

"Run! You all have to run 10 laps of the school grounds. You've only got 10 kgs attacked to each leg. Stop acting like little kids and run as fast as possible!"

A lot of people were struggling. Usually lifting 20 kgs would not be an issue for most of them, however the weights were attached at their feet which made it hard for them to maintain balance and run. The famous grade 4 delinquent boy Hikaru was having the easiest time as he comfortably led the lead. He was followed not far behind by the girl in the bob cut, Yui, as well as Erica. Hikaru and Yui were from noble families and had done such training before so they weren't too stressed, but the instructor Ito was surprised by Erica's performance.

Looking at her records he was surprised. "She is a transfer student with Ice Element Abilities. Grade 3. Yet she has quiet decent physical training. Very good."

After the students had finished running, they had to do 100 push ups, frog jumps and various other exercises. After struggling with all these and finally getting tired to an almost death like state, the instructor made an announcement. "You are acting like a bunch of kids! You are part of the military now! Just basic training is tiring you out? It is time for combat training. We will be training in punching routines. Each of you have a training doll in front of you. I want you to keep punching your heart out, but the punches must be precise! You stop only when I tell you to!"

---

10 days had passed by in this manner. Within a small manor a group of individuals had gathered. They seemed to be of myriad backgrounds, but they were all metahumans. This was a meeting of the group that Red had received intel on - Mosaic.

"We haven't managed to recruit as many students as we could have." One of the people grumbled. "Are you sure it wasn't a mistake to focus on quality vs quantity? These kids can't really be used for much beyond cannon fodder."

A woman who seemed to be holding authority shook her head. "You seem to have the wrong idea. Using them as cannon fodder is the last thing we want to do. What we want is a force in the future, for now most of these students have also joined some official organizations and some have even pledged to join DAM. These kids will be our eyes and ears. What we are targeting is the new generation being nurtured by the government, our recruits will be able to assassinate those who pose a threat. For now we need to work on training these kids, they are like piglets right now."

"It seems like the Intelligence Bureau has learned about our existence through some source. Who is spying within us?" Another hooded figure asked.

"Do not worry. The spiritual contract has not shown any signs of betrayal by anyone among us. It is not hard to find information through third party sources. They probably had an augmented intelligence metahuman analyze anomalous patterns or used some bizarre ability like precognition or a spirit medium. Do not worry, with our precautions they couldn't possibly know much, besides there are several underground organizations sprouting." The woman explained before she continued.

"Our spies in the bureau have confirmed that they just know about an organization called Mosaic and that it is trying to recruit students of high potential. What is more interesting is that a spy is reporting that a potential relic is showing signs of opening. It seems that the signs as predicted by the Dragon Veins seems accurate, the relics will first open in Japan."