Umeus Salvador.

“Aren't you a bit pissed, Hima?” Jennifer asked the princess as they made their way out of bedroom after successfully eliminating their target.

“Pissed? Pfftt, nope!” she spoke, her voice laced with an obvious dose of pride. Her long blonde hair bounced about the back of her sapphire blue outfit. Her golden eyes were still alight with their amiable golden glow. Himawari inclined her head to the side and asked out of curiosity, “Hmm, now that I think of it. . .why would I be upset?”

Jennifer's forehead gained a comically large bead of sweat and she sighed helplessly, “Well. . .you do pride yourself on uhm, never missing a shot, right?”

“Precisely!” replied the princess with much glee. They were now passing Dwayne's open bedroom door.

“And I've never seen you miss one before, but back there,” Jennifer began, a reluctance to her tone, “You missed two shots. So, I ask again. . . aren't you a bit shaken up?”

Himawari stopped dead in her tracks. She wore an intense expression on her friendly face. Silence. “I missed?”

“Y—yeah?” Jennifer was no longer sure what to make of the situation. She decided to consolidate her friend with some advice about failure, “You know, it isn't al—”

“—OHH!” Himawari shouted, excessively loud for someone who just took a life. She then closed the distance between Jennifer and herself with one big step. Their faces were inches apart. Jennifer's bewildered brown eyes saw her shocked expression mirrored in two molten pools of gold.

“You mean those first two shots I fired at our target?” Himawari's lashes were neatly kempt, her eye brows symmetrically trimmed and her skin clear as day. Jennifer envied her sometimes. That was okay, right? To wish you had something your friend saw no value in? It wasn't like she hated the princess. In fact, Jennifer thought there was nobody capable of hating their benevolent Sunflower Princess. She was way too friendly to hate. Himawari blinked several times, awaiting an answer.

Jennifer wore her strained smile and nodded at the other. She dreaded what would come after, but she was a warrior. No challenge was above her. “Y—yeah, those two. . .” she trailed off whiter than when she started.

Himawari then beamed brighter than the sun itself, her eyes sparkling and cheeks rosy.

“Silly Jen, like I said. . .I absolutely don't miss!” she then raised her finger, placed a hand on her hip and began explaining the shots with much more pride on her face.

“So you see, the first arrow was a disruption shot meant to unnerve the target by making them aware that, A, they are being attacked by someone they could not see, B, the knowledge of A caused them to choreograph their movements and senses to cater for their unseen assailant,” there it was again — the pride, “C, the blast upset a bit of dust that would unevenly divide his attention to where he was going and the incoming arrows.”

“The second arrow was to assure the target that their assailant is, after all, not much of a threat due to predictability. So allowing them to easily dodge it puts their guard slightly down as they enter a mental state called ‘The Zone’. Once in this state of mind, the target will subconsciously prepare to dodge the next arrow,”

Jennifer nodded along, connecting the dots as Himawari gave her explanation.

“If you paid attention to the trajectories of each arrow, the first was roughly at the height of the target's torso and the second at chest height. A competent observer would be able to predict the next strike would be a headshot due to the increasing height of each arrow. Our target complied, and thus, in ‘The Zone’ the target's body prepared to duck, but, what our little friend didn't know, was that this was a chain attack of four, not three. The last is always the headshot. So, the third arrow struck low, at the legs of our target to create an opening for the next arrow,”

“Then, as you can guess, the fourth arrow sealed the deal!” Himawari finally stated to Jennifer's surprise. “Headshot! Deathshot!”

Woah, that. . .that is truly something. I mean, I've always known her to be a great marksman, but this is just, wow. All I expected her to say was that missing was part of her plan or something a little less convoluted. Jennifer's confusion must have been sitting brazenly on her brow. Her eyes were blank, white circles and her mouth hung open.

Himawari was oblivious to her friend's confusion and simply completed a ballerina twirl, then winked an eye at her, “Sometimes, the target has to be missed in order to strike it in the long run.”

She then continued down the stairs with one last piece of advice, “It's all a matter of how much you want to hit a mark that makes it possible.”

When she left, Jennifer stood frozen for a few seconds; processing this newfound information then, ultimately followed suite.

Police vehicles arrived to a very questionable scene: a boy no older than fifteen next to the punctured body of one about seventeen. The young boy seemed a bit jumpy — something that would work against him.

“Hang on a sec,” said a chubby policeman as he dismounted his vehicle, the poor thing rising a great deal with all that additional weight off its back. “Ain't this that youngin who went missing in that school explosion. Dane Manure or something?”

“Dwayne Daniels, Phil” said another voice as it's owner dismounted his vehicle. He was holding a piece of A4 sized paper that appeared to have been folded and unfolded several times due to the creases on the material.

The paper had Dwayne's details. . .wait, no, Dwayne's homo sapien details. He was now an Agno and looked convincingly different from a few days ago.

“The boy's hair and eye colour don't match though,” said the lean partner of Phil, “Nor does his facial shape look anything like the one in the picture.

“But, this report is similar to the one at that school,” Phil said, his two chins battling it out. “The caller said, officers,I don't know what's happening but please come over. There are explosions following a guy carrying an unconscious kid on his back!”

Dwayne's school, Mortain High's surveillance security guard had reported serving similar. Officers, I don't know what's going on but these two students just assulted a teacher then caused an explosion as a coverup for their getaway.

“Why don't we just ask the kid? He seems law abiding,” said Phil's partner.

“Just this once,” said Phil while gently caressing the handcuffs hanging from his belt. “Oi, you, kid, c'mere!”

The illusion dispelled itself when the practitioner took his final breath. Umeus, Dwayne and Sophie's conscious returned to their bodies and allowed them to wake up. Umeus was first to go after Dwayne then Sophie. He opened his chestnut eyes immediately, their gaze still stone-cold as the anger of insubordination seeped in small waves from him pores. He got up with his fists clenched when he heard footsteps approach. His body language portrayed how readily he was to attack, but then he saw who was approaching.

“Just me Yumi!” shouted an enthusiastic Himawari as she skipped the remaining stairs with an unnecessary front flip maneuver, squealing in puerile glee after sticking the landing, “Ta da!”

It was then that Jennifer made her way down the stairs, head held high with the intimidating poise of a soldier. She gave Umeus a small curtsey to acknowledge his presence as a superior and took to Sophie who only stirred from the illusion at that moment.

“Pressuming you're the one responsible for dispatching Issei, I'd like to express my gratitude,” Umeus said softly and dipped his head, barely showing any acknowledgement to Jennifer's presence, “Oyuda, Purinsesu.”

Thank you, Princess.

“Are you alright ma'am?” Jennifer asked, only for Sophie to fall back into a dreamless slumber. Tenderly, Jennifer felt Sophie's forehead for any signs of fever. Her forehead was blazing hot. Hot enough for Jennifer to remove her hand in surprise. Poor thing, she's probably having one infernal headache right now.

“Oow shucks, Yumi,” Himawari said with a scarlet flush to her face, “No need to thank me.” she chided with a single hand over her mouth to show she was flattered while chiding him with the ‘shoo’ gesture using the other.

“Her forehead is alarmingly hot,” Jennifer began in a formal tone of voice that made her sound bored and looked to the boy clad in red, “She may be experiencing a level two Kaimatic attack, three at best. What actions do you wish to take on this matter?”

“We're leaving,” he replied curtly, and when their faces contoured with shock, he impatiently added, “Now.”

“What did you say your name was?” Phil asked, pretending to have forgotten the pseudonym that Dwayne had given the first time.

“Uh, I've already to—” he began, but was cut short.

“—Hurry up, we don't have all day!” raved the other officer who had ‘Razor’ printed on the left pocket of his uniform.”

Dwayne cursed under his breath and then sighed, then gave them the same name for the sixth time, “Damien White.”

It was a pseudonym combining a favourite anime character's name as well as his mo—. . .no, Sophie's last name. The thought of her brought a wave of emotions he was not ready to deal with at that moment in time. Right then, the two police officers were fixed on arresting him for something he honestly had nothing to do with but was somehow involved in.

“Looks like we're going to have to take you for a bit of thorough questioning back at the station,” said Phil, disappointed that Dwayne didn't just hand himself in. This was the only lead they had on this case and were not about to let it go.

“Of course you have the right to an attorney, if you don't have one,” Razor began, the sound of metal jingling became audible as he reached for the handcuffs at his waist, “The station will happily provide you with one.”

The sound of a heavy collision resonated within the area and was succeeded by the sound of something metallic hitting the ground and finally, the sounds of protesting. Behind an approaching Umeus Salvador was a golem wrought from stone, its eyes coloured in a neutral yellow. The golem held two squirming figures that Dwayne recognised as Jennifer and. . .another blonde girl. How exciting.

“Hey,” he said weakly. All he thought of now was the power he had inside of him but could not use. My powers are probably greater than his. they have to be, right? since I'm some kind of prophecy child and all. Yeah, that would make sense.

Umeus gave Dwayne a nod of acknowledgement and then stared down the police officers who seemed dazed as they wore bemused expressions on their faces.

“I'm giving you two minutes to enter your vehicles and leave us in peace,” he was serious and made it known by lowering the pitch of his voice, “Dwayne, get your important belongings from the house. We're leaving.”

With that, Dwayne did not hesitate and darted off towards the gate. . .well, what was left of the front entrance to the Daniels Household. The entire gate was bent inward from the centre and lay haphazardly in the middle of the street. Umeus Salvador, you're a beast. Dwayne thought as he entered the house. All he needed was the book Apathy had given him and a jacket in case the weather changed.

The first shot came from Phil, then from Razor. When they retrieved their guns from their holsters was uncertain, but they now had their revolvers out and trained on Dwayne.

Swish! Swish! Swish! Umeus seemed to barely move but was now back at his previous position, holding something in his clenched fist.

“How disdainful of you,” he said flatly, his voice now cool as marble as he unclenhed his fist. The bullets fell to the asphalt with a few clangs but not once did Umeus take his eyes off of the two officers, “My offer still stands. I do not wish to incapacitate you in the remaining minute or so. Again, I say, lea—I warned you.”

Swish! This time, Umeus did not wait for a shot as he saw Razor's finger caress the trigger. He was now infront of the thirty-year-old man who looked confused as he watch Umeus's entire hand cover his face and force him down into the asphalt. The impact left a crater behind the officer's head and he just lay there unconscious.

Phil was now trembling, his fingers were shaking and his palms sweaty. He fired at will but to no avail, Umeus was infront of him one second then the other, he was nowhere in Phil's field of vision,

“W–who are you?” the fear in him pitched his voice high. Phil felt himself get lifted off of the ground, a feeling a man of his size has never experienced before. What the hell?!

Umeus's vice grip around Phil's many necks was intense and the brute strength he displayed was immaculate: lifting Phil off his feet with just one arm. He squeezed hard and Phil writhed about with his face turning blue. After mere seconds, his pupils constricted and flipped over, leaving his eyes blank.

With much ease, Umeus tossed him aside and then crouched to whisper into his ear, “I am the first and last man to lift your feet off the ground with one hand,”

“I am, Umeus Salvador.”