The Three Musketeers

Min-Su was jumping from building to building, roof to roof while carrying the unconscious Akira on his back. The combination of [Curing] + Akira being rocked a lot contributed to him waking up faster, as he saw the two jumping across the Gehenna city.

Since it was night, and lighting was poor in this city, no one could the see the duo jumping above them.

"Min-Su? What.. happened..."

Of course, regeneration healed physical damage, but the pain from former injuries still existed. Having his brain shook like that gave him a severe headache which disorientated him. Min-Su tried to say something, but once again the long neck of his coat muffled his voice.

"Mffmfm!"

Speaking of coat... Akira could feel something incredibly warm burning the front side of his body. Just like after their big fight outside the orphanage, Min-Su was emitting intense amounts of boiling white steam once again. Even more than before! Enough so that being this close was starting to suffocate Akira in it.

"Hot! Hot!! Put me down!"

The two then parked on one of the many roofs they were jumping on, allowing the two to catch their breathes as well as recall everything that happened.

And with that, a slow and steady anger began to build up in Akira once more. Unsurprisingly, he had lost the confrontation which only infuriated him all the more, but his rationality won this time as he calmed back down.

"Hm... we should get back to the meeting spot very quickly, and get away from this area. I don't know why Ryujin hasn't come for us yet, but I don't want to give him more time to catch up."

"Mhm!"

"But I can't help but think that we are forgetting something..."

Akira looked at Min-Su for a moment, before realising.

"We forgot Melon!"

**

Although Melon's loss was unfortunate, the duo couldn't risk going back to get him. Plus, he was only human so he was guaranteed to slow down the two in their escape. Although the loss of the guide was sad, the two had learnt enough that they could operate efficiently in the city without him.

'Melon... you will be remembered.. if we ever meet again in the afterlife, I hope it will be as equals...'

Since they knew the geography of the city so well now, the duo was able to reach the original meeting spot in just a couple of minutes. It just so happened to be on the roof of a pub in the entertainment district which was closed during the day, but very active in the night.

Disturbingly, the corpse of the forgotten resident was still rotting behind there, now with a group of insects and fly's taking their bites at it.

"Shinomiya isn't here yet? I guess we'll have to wait then."

**

The two sat down across from each other and just stared into space blankly, not sure of what to do. This was the first time they had been alone together, so they still hadn't gotten to know each other properly, nor know what each other even liked. And it was even more awkward because Min-Su couldn't even talk!

"Your Ideal is ice isn't it? That's very useful. There aren't many Borrowers who can use Ice, so your types are quite rare."

Min-Su just nodded.

"Say, you can take the jacket off right? It's blocking your mouth so it's making it hard to talk to you."

Min-Su just nodded, but then abruptly started to shake his head.

'What does that even mean???'

For a brief moment Akira considered going over there and unzipping it for him, but then he quickly changed his mind. He didn't want to get on his bad side this quickly.

"Say.. Shinomiya is taking her time.. she didn't get caught did she?"

Min-Su thought about it for a bit, and then shook his head as if to say,

'She's too sneaky for that. She's fine, I'm sure of it.'

Akira then remembered a conversation he had with Xander last week. The two were training at their usual place, and of course, Akira was laying down on the floor exhausted, beaten and covered in dust.

"Can't we at least slow down with the training? I think im starting to burn out!"

"If you can't work at this level, then you won't be any good in Gehenna."

"If I?? Can any of the others fight like this too?"

Xander started to ponder this for a second, but then he quickly answered.

"Well apart from Soyuz of course, they all can. If I were to compare how strong you were to everyone else in the group, you'd be above only her."

In other words, amongst all of Blacklights fighters, Akira was currently the weakest. Well that made sense since he was just an ordinary human only a couple days ago.

"Wait, wait, wait.. what's the hierarchy?"

"Well, if it's in terms of combat ability, it would be Soyuz, you, Min-Su, Eva, Shinomiya and then me. But if we are going off sheer Aether, then it would be you, Soyuz, Shinomiya, Min-Su, me, and then Eva at the top."

'Right.. I guess that makes sense since im new.. wait a minute.. Eva?? That little girl has higher output than Xander???'

In a battle between between Borrowers, lots of factors determined who would win. Of course, those with higher Aether output and capacity would be more powerful, but combat ability, the thing which ultimately decides who would win depended on not just this. Experience, arsenal of techniques, compatibility with the opponent, all of these could go into ones combat ability, and decide the victor.

Although Eva had the highest capacity and output in the group, she had zero experience in a real fight so she would lose to more experienced fighters like Xander or Shinomiya.

"Yeah yeah, Eva is better than me at Aether. But she has no clue how to use all that destructive power, so she'd lose. However she is only 14, experience can be gained with time, and she as well as Shinomiya have plenty of time left. All of them including Min-Su will surpass me sooner or later.. you on the other hand... I have no clue."

"Eh??!"

Akira quickly stopped day dreaming and snapped back to reality. Now remembering Shinomiya was the second strongest amongst them, he was sure she would be fine no matter who she fought.. unless she encountered Ryujin of course.

Shinomiya being a strong Borrower was no secret before he even joined Blacklight, but he wasn't expecting this. Now he was utterly sure that she was fine. In fact, she should be here in a minute or so.

The door to the roof started to bang, making Akira flinch. The person on the other side was strong and he could tell thanks to [Instinct]. The gap between them was quite big too, but not as big compared to Xander or terrifyingly large like Ryujin.

He quickly got up and summoned the right talon prepared to fight, and so did Min-Su.

The door quickly barged open, and from the darkness an unfamiliar figure emerged. They were wearing white military uniform, and had a helmet with the unison logo embedded to the side. They were also armed with a white assault rifle powered by Aether.

The second they emerged, the two fighters pranced at them.

Akira thrusted his right talon forwards, but the guardsmen shattered it with the butt of their rifle.

'Huh??'

Immediately after, Min-Su fired a wave of ice at the enemy, but he or she dodged it and jumped onto the roof of another building.

Just before the two could continue in the attack, the voice shouted at them with a feminine tone,

"What the hell are you two doing you idiots?"

She took off her helmet allowing her flowing red hair to fall down, and peeled off a strange clay mold from her face which had masked her enchanting beauty. It was in fact Shinomiya in a disguise. It seems that Shinomiya was safe after all.

She jumped back down to the roof where Akira and Min-Su were sweating harshly. They just attacked their leader after all.

She struck a mean look at the two boys, before simply pouting.

"Anyhow, what did you three learn about this place?"

However, before they could even start sharing any information, all three of their stomachs rumbled loudly.

"...Lets find something to eat first?"