The briefing room was quieter than usual.
George stood at the front of the table with his arms folded, while Alucard leaned against the wall with his greatsword resting against one shoulder. Ria sat with one leg crossed over the other, quietly scrolling through her tablet.
Shirou occupied the seat closest to the window.
Oliver was nowhere to be seen.
Nathaniel entered last.
He closed the door behind him and placed a thick stack of files onto the table.
George glanced down at them.
"That's a lot of paper."
"Because there's a lot to know."
Nathaniel pulled out the chair opposite him and sat down.
"The Knight Association has finalized the announcement."
Alucard raised an eyebrow.
"Finalized what?"
"The Grand Bout."
That got everyone's attention.
George straightened.
"The squad tournament?"
Nathaniel nodded.
"Ten squads. Six from the Empire, four from friendly regions."
Ria lowered her tablet.
"Ten?"
"Five-person and six-person teams depending on the squad."
George reached for the first file.
"And the format?"
"Several stages. Individual assessment, a large-scale squad event, elimination matches, then a final bout."
Alucard gave a low laugh.
"So they're turning the whole thing into a spectacle."
"They already have."
Nathaniel tapped the table.
"It's being broadcast throughout the Empire and into the allied regions."
George flipped open the file.
The first page contained a list of names.
Then rankings.
Then combat records.
Then known augments.
His expression gradually became more serious.
Nathaniel watched him read.
"I've prepared profiles for five of the participating squads."
Ria looked up.
"Five?"
Nathaniel nodded.
"The five we're already familiar with."
He separated the files into two groups.
Five thick dossiers.
Five nearly empty folders.
"The other five are from the other half of the region."
Alucard pushed away from the wall.
"And we know nothing about them?"
"Almost nothing."
George looked at the blank folders.
"Almost?"
"Names. Public rankings. Basic registration information. Nothing reliable enough to build a combat profile."
Shirou tilted his head.
Nathaniel noticed the movement.
"Exactly."
George looked back toward him.
"So what do we do?"
Nathaniel leaned forward.
"We don't prepare to beat them."
Alucard frowned.
"That's a strange way to prepare for a tournament."
"We prepare to identify them."
Silence.
Nathaniel tapped the first stack.
"These five have documented combat histories. We know their leaders, their known abilities, their preferred formations and, in some cases, their weaknesses."
His finger moved to the blank folders.
"These five are different."
He opened one.
Empty.
"No established combat data."
Another.
"Unknown secondary abilities."
Another.
"Unknown team dynamics."
He closed the folder.
"Which means we can't build a counterstrategy yet."
George nodded slowly.
"Information first."
"Exactly."
A voice came from beneath the table.
"Finally."
Alucard looked down.
A patch of darkness beneath the table rippled.
Oliver's hand emerged from it.
Alucard stared.
"How long have you been there?"
Oliver's head emerged next.
"Long enough."
George sighed.
"Oliver."
Oliver climbed out of the shadow as though it were a doorway and took the empty chair beside Shirou.
Nathaniel looked at him.
"You're going to be busy."
Oliver smiled.
"Was wondering when you'd say it."
Nathaniel pushed one of the blank folders toward him.
"Our unknown squads."
Oliver opened it.
"Recon?"
"Recon."
Oliver nodded.
"How deep?"
"Deep enough to tell us how they fight."
Oliver's expression became more serious.
"Abilities?"
"Everything."
"Equipment?"
"Everything."
"Leadership?"
"Especially that."
Oliver closed the folder.
Nathaniel continued.
"Don't engage unless you have to."
Oliver raised an eyebrow.
"That's disappointing."
"It's deliberate."
Nathaniel leaned back.
"The first person to reveal an ability isn't necessarily the strongest person in the squad."
Oliver understood immediately.
"Bait."
"Possibly."
"Support?"
"Possibly."
"Someone hiding their real ability?"
Nathaniel gave him a faint smile.
"Almost certainly."
George placed the known squad profiles across the table.
"Then we'll start with these."
Nathaniel nodded.
"George, I want formations."
George looked at him.
"Multiple?"
"At least four."
Nathaniel pointed toward the profiles.
"Standard formation. Defensive formation. Anti-heavy formation. Anti-control formation."
George studied the files.
"You're expecting every type of squad."
"I'm expecting us to encounter something we didn't expect."
Alucard grinned.
"That sounds more fun."
"It won't be."
Nathaniel looked toward him.
"You'll be the most obvious threat on the field."
Alucard's grin widened.
"Good."
"That's exactly what I want."
Alucard's expression changed slightly.
Nathaniel continued.
"You're going to attract attention."
"And the rest?"
"George controls the formation. Ria identifies anything she recognizes. Shirou controls movement and terrain."
Nathaniel glanced toward Oliver.
"Oliver sees what we can't."
Finally, his eyes settled on himself.
"And I analyze what everyone else misses."
George looked around the table.
Six people.
Six roles.
For the first time, the tournament didn't sound like a collection of fights.
It sounded like a battlefield.
Ria folded her arms.
"And you?"
Nathaniel raised an eyebrow.
"Me?"
"What's your role when we actually start fighting?"
Nathaniel paused.
"Kinetic Muscle."
Alucard laughed.
"That's it?"
"For the tournament."
George narrowed his eyes.
"You have other abilities."
Nathaniel's expression remained calm.
"I know."
George waited.
Nathaniel didn't elaborate.
Ria gave him a suspicious look.
Alucard simply laughed again.
Oliver leaned back in his chair.
"He's hiding something."
"Obviously," George said.
Nathaniel ignored them.
"The point is that I'm not going to show everything I have."
He tapped the five known profiles.
"If our opponents know what I can do, they'll prepare for it."
His finger moved toward the five blank folders.
"And if they don't?"
George understood.
"We control what they learn."
"Exactly."
Shirou quietly tapped the table.
Everyone looked at him.
He pointed toward the tournament schedule.
Nathaniel read the question.
"When do we start?"
Nathaniel stood.
"Now."
George smiled.
"Training?"
Nathaniel shook his head.
"Observation."
He picked up the blank folders.
"We already know how to fight."
He handed them to Oliver.
"Now we're going to learn how to watch."
Oliver disappeared into his shadow.
The folders vanished with him.
Alucard pushed himself away from the wall and grabbed his greatsword.
"So when do we start beating people?"
George looked at him.
"After Nathaniel stops us from getting killed."
Nathaniel opened the door.
"No."
He glanced back at the squad.
"Before that."
Then he walked out.
One by one, the others followed.
The tournament hadn't even begun.
Squad 4 was already preparing for war.
Nathaniel waited until the others had left the briefing room before George stopped him.
"Come with me."
Nathaniel followed.
The two walked through the corridor toward the administrative wing of the facility, where the familiar mechanical hum of the Knight Association's systems became louder.
They stopped outside a reinforced office.
George knocked once.
"Come in."
The voice belonged to Erementaru Hayate.
Nathaniel entered first.
Erementaru was already waiting behind his desk.
Even at rest, the man's cybernetics were impossible to ignore.
Sections of his face and neck had been reinforced with polished mechanical plating, the seams following the natural structure of his jaw and cheekbones. Fine metallic components disappeared beneath his collar and continued down into the rest of his body. His shoulders carried compact mechanical housings beneath his uniform, and faint servo movements could be heard whenever he shifted.
His visor covered his eyes entirely.
A dark, angular plate stretched across his face, broken only by several narrow slits.
Then the lights behind them blinked.
Once.
Twice.
A pale orange glow shone through the slits.
"George."
The mechanical components around Erementaru's jaw shifted with a quiet clicking sound as he smiled.
"And Nathaniel."
George sat down.
Nathaniel remained standing.
Erementaru leaned back.
"So."
The lights behind his visor blinked again.
"You're here to talk about the tournament."
George nodded.
"Yes."
Erementaru's mechanical fingers tapped against the desk.
The metallic fingertips produced a rhythmic tik... tik... tik against the surface.
"I've been waiting for this."
Nathaniel raised an eyebrow.
"You sound excited."
"Excited?"
The lights behind his visor suddenly brightened.
"Of course I'm excited."
His shoulders shifted as several internal mechanisms engaged with a soft mechanical whir.
"My squad has spent months being treated like the troublesome group nobody quite knows what to do with."
George gave him a sideways look.
"That's because we are."
Erementaru's head tilted.
"Exactly."
A mechanical click came from his neck.
"And now they're putting us on a stage."
His visor lights pulsed.
"Ten squads."
Another pulse.
"Thousands of spectators."
Another.
"Every knight, noble house, commander and official watching."
The glow shining through the visor slits became almost theatrical.
"And my team of misfits gets to show them what we've been building."
Nathaniel folded his arms.
"You're expecting us to win?"
Erementaru's head snapped toward him.
"I expect you to make a mess."
Nathaniel blinked.
George actually laughed.
Erementaru leaned forward.
"A glorious one."
The cybernetics around his mouth shifted as his grin widened.
"I don't need Squad 4 to look respectable."
His mechanical fingers spread across the desk.
"I want them wondering what the hell happened."
Nathaniel couldn't help but smile.
"That's a dangerous amount of enthusiasm."
"I've earned it."
Erementaru stood.
The movement produced a sequence of quiet mechanical clicks from his knees and hips before his weight settled.
His visor lights blinked rapidly.
"I've watched every one of you develop."
He looked at George.
"The squad leader who keeps everyone moving even when the situation is collapsing."
George's expression became slightly more serious.
Then Erementaru turned toward Alucard's empty seat.
"The walking bloodbath."
Nathaniel snorted.
"Accurate."
"Then our gravity specialist."
His gaze shifted toward Shirou's chair.
"The noble."
Ria's empty chair.
"The shadow."
Oliver's empty chair.
"And you."
His visor settled on Nathaniel.
For a moment, the room became quieter.
"The strange one."
Nathaniel stared at him.
"That's reassuring."
Erementaru's cybernetics gave another faint mechanical whir.
"I mean that as a compliment."
Nathaniel shrugged.
"I'll take it."
George leaned forward.
"What do you actually expect from us?"
Erementaru's excitement softened.
"Adaptation."
He walked around the desk.
"You don't have the luxury of being Squad One or Squad Two."
Nathaniel's expression remained neutral.
"You don't have their resources, their reputation or their raw consistency."
He stopped beside George.
"So don't try to imitate them."
George nodded.
Erementaru's visor lights flashed.
"Make the tournament uncomfortable."
Nathaniel looked toward him.
"Uncomfortable?"
"For everyone."
A grin returned.
"Let the other squads walk into the arena thinking they understand the opposition."
His fingers flexed.
"Then make them reconsider."
Nathaniel exchanged a glance with George.
There was something almost infectious about Erementaru's enthusiasm.
He wasn't expecting perfection.
He wanted them to disrupt expectations.
And that suited Squad 4 perfectly.
When Nathaniel and George returned to the briefing room, the others were already gathered.
Oliver sat sideways in his chair.
Shirou was quietly adjusting one of the fittings around her arm.
Ria was reading through the tournament documentation.
Alucard was sharpening his greatsword.
George entered first.
Nathaniel followed.
Alucard looked up.
"So?"
George leaned against the table.
"Erementaru is excited."
Oliver raised an eyebrow.
"That's dangerous."
"Very."
Nathaniel placed the tournament files back onto the table.
"He wants us to make the tournament uncomfortable."
Alucard smiled.
"Now that's something I can get behind."
Ria looked up from her tablet.
"What does that actually mean?"
George looked around the room.
"It means we're not going into this trying to prove we're the strongest."
Nathaniel nodded.
"We're going to make people question what they thought they knew about us."
Oliver leaned back.
"Now you're speaking my language."
A small patch of darkness spread beneath his chair.
Shirou glanced down at it.
Oliver noticed.
"What?"
Shirou pointed toward the shadow.
Oliver looked down.
"Oh."
He smiled.
"That's new."
The shadow slowly crept back beneath his chair.
Nathaniel watched him for a moment before turning toward the others.
"Then we start tomorrow."
Alucard rested the greatsword across his shoulder.
"Tomorrow?"
Nathaniel nodded.
"Tomorrow."
George looked at the team.
"Until then, get some rest."
Alucard stood.
"Rest?"
Nathaniel walked toward the door.
"You're going to need it."
Alucard grinned.
"Now you're making it sound fun."
Nathaniel opened the door.
Behind him, the others began gathering their equipment.
Six people.
One squad.
Five known opponents.
Five unknown ones.
And somewhere in the administrative wing, Erementaru Hayate was probably still imagining the spectacle.
His visor lights continued blinking behind their narrow slits.
The tournament had not even started.
He was already looking forward to watching Squad 4 tear it apart.