Mochi stood in front of the small altar in her apartment. With her eyes closed and her hands pressed together, she offered a prayer to the small cat statuette with an utterly serious expression.
"Please… give me good luck during the exam."
She finished just as the doorbell rang.
When she opened the door, she found Miyu waiting outside, smiling brightly at her.
"Good morning, Mochi-senpai. Ready to leave?"
"Of course! I woke up early today so I could have everything prepared."
With that, Mochi grabbed a small suitcase by the entrance and left the apartment alongside Miyu, heading toward the station.
Unlike previous occasions, this time they would be traveling by train.
The morning streets were still quiet. The cool dawn air and the distant sounds of the city made everything feel strangely relaxing.
"Are you nervous about the exam?" Miyu asked as they walked.
Mochi thought for a few seconds before answering.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't… but I trained really hard over the past month, and I got good results. Guess what! I can use my weapon's ability now."
Her tail began swaying proudly behind her.
"Seriously!? But just a week ago you told me you still couldn't do it. Did you really manage to master it in only a few days? That's amazing… just as expected of you, Mochi-senpai."
"Well… 'mastered' might be a bit of an exaggeration," she admitted, scratching her cheek. "Out of every three attempts, I only manage to activate it once. But I'm sure that with a little more practice, I'll be able to use it whenever I want."
Mochi lowered her gaze toward her gloved hands.
"Although… it still feels incomplete somehow. Like I'm only scratching the surface of something much bigger."
"That's so cool… I wish my weapon was like that," Miyu said with a hint of admiration. "My ability is much simpler. Though I guess its true potential depends on how I use it."
"By the way, Miyu… do you know what the exam will be about? I tried asking Zeke several times, but he refused to tell me anything. He just laughed and said it was a surprise… Ughh, that grin of his seriously gets on my nerves. I swear he does it just to annoy me!"
Miyu let out a small amused laugh as they continued walking together.
They chatted cheerfully the entire way, and before they realized it, they had already arrived at the station.
Zeke was waiting for them on the platform.
Though he wasn't alone.
Standing beside him was Rei, the organization's medic who had treated Mochi's broken arm weeks earlier.
"Good morning," Rei greeted calmly.
Zeke raised a hand when he saw them approaching.
"Perfect, now we're all here. Rei will be joining us for the trip."
Then, as if announcing something completely insignificant, he added:
"Oh, and we won't be taking the bullet train. We'll be using local trains instead."
"Eh?"
Mochi froze on the spot.
That completely changed the length of the trip.
What would normally take less than a day would now turn into a journey lasting three or even four days.
Zeke smiled in satisfaction when he saw both of their reactions.
"The agency is covering all the expenses, so I decided to take advantage of the situation and turn this into a sort of vacation. We'll be traveling using sightseeing trains that run along local railways and pass through different interesting places around the country. It'll be a comfortable and relaxing trip… that way we'll arrive at the exam well-rested."
"Vacation?!" Mochi repeated, still trying to process it.
"That sounds fun," Miyu commented excitedly.
"Our train is about to depart," Rei said calmly before boarding the carriage.
Miyu immediately followed after her, clearly excited about the trip.
Mochi, however, remained frozen on the platform.
Slowly, she turned her head toward Zeke and gave him a deeply suspicious look.
A look that very clearly said:
"What are you plotting this time?"
"Zeke… you're not hiding something from us, are you?" Mochi asked while staring directly into his eyes.
After all the time they had spent together, she had already learned something important about him:
Zeke rarely lied outright.
But he had the incredibly annoying habit of speaking in half-truths.
He always left out the most important part.
"Noa-chan, the way you distrust me so completely truly wounds me, you know?" he replied, placing a hand over his chest with such exaggerated and obviously fake sadness that it only made Mochi's suspicious stare intensify even further.
Before she could continue interrogating him, a voice over the station speakers announced the train's imminent departure.
"Perfect, that's our cue," Zeke said, immediately taking the opportunity to escape.
He quickly boarded the train before Mochi could press him any further.
"Hey, get back here!"
But it was already too late.
Mochi let out a long, resigned sigh and boarded as well.
At this point, she had already accepted that getting a clear answer out of Zeke was practically impossible.
The four of them sat together inside the carriage.
Miyu sat beside Mochi, while Rei and Zeke sat across from them, Zeke still deliberately avoiding Mochi's accusing gaze.
Completely unaware of the silent battle happening between the two, Miyu asked excitedly:
"Leader! Can you finally tell us about the exam now?"
"I suppose it's time to reveal it," Zeke replied as he settled into his seat. "Our final destination is City H, specifically the outskirts of the city. There's an abandoned danchi there."
Mochi tilted her head slightly.
Zeke continued:
"The complex was built shortly after World War II and has been abandoned since the eighties. It's currently infested with anomalies. Most of them are rank E or lower… but among them, a particularly dangerous anomaly appeared, one at the very peak of rank D and extremely close to evolving into rank C."
Zeke's relaxed tone contrasted heavily with the seriousness of what he was saying.
"The objective of your exam will be to enter that danchi on your own and eliminate that anomaly, along with any other hostile anomalies you encounter along the way."
Mochi frowned.
"This feels kind of strange… why do we have to travel so far just to deal with something like that? There should be plenty of anomalies around our city at that level. Besides, we've already defeated several similar anomalies before. Can't you just pass us already?"
"I wish it were that simple," Zeke replied with a small laugh. "There are several reasons for this. The main one is that those at the top demanded it. And besides, this exam won't only evaluate your combat strength."
He raised one finger as he explained.
"They'll also be observing your tracking and investigative abilities. Your capability to operate independently without relying on constant instructions. Basically… they want to see whether you can truly function as full-fledged agents."
Mochi slowly nodded.
Even so, there was still something bothering her.
"When you say 'those at the top'… do you mean this is an order from Ofelia?"
"No. This comes from much higher up," Zeke answered. "The order came directly from the central headquarters in Kyoto."
Then, suddenly, he clapped his hands lightly as if he had just remembered something important.
"Oh, right. Speaking of Kyoto, I forgot to mention that it'll be our first stop. We'll be spending the night there."
"Kyoto?" Miyu asked in surprise. "But even if you said this was a sightseeing trip… that's still a pretty huge detour."
Zeke smiled.
One of those smiles that made it obvious he had been waiting for that exact question.
"We're going to Kyoto because we need to meet someone," he explained. "Another rookie agent who'll be taking the exam alongside you two."
Mochi and Miyu exchanged curious glances.
"Another rookie?"
"Yep. And not just any rookie," Zeke said while resting his cheek against one hand. "This girl is considered an absolute prodigy… a genius unlike anything the organization has ever seen before."
The atmosphere inside the carriage shifted slightly.
Even Rei, who had remained silent the entire time, subtly lifted her gaze at those words.
And judging by Zeke's expression…
It didn't seem like he was exaggerating in the slightest.