(The Candidate Building)
Hoshizaki and Tsukiko walked faster to keep up with the three individuals in front. Hoshizaki's voice called out before they could make a turn.
"Hey wait, hold up!" Hoshizaki said as he and Tsukiko skipped toward them, stopping just feet away. The three stopped and turned to look at them in worried confusion.
Hoshizaki continued, "You came out of the cafeteria almost the same time Zanka did. Not to mention, you're heading in the same direction."
The three took defensive steps backward as Hoshizaki pressed on. "We just want to know—do you know Zanka by any means?"
The leader of the party stood in front, her hand waving dismissively as she talked. "No, it's not like we know him, but he is our teammate. He is in my team for the exam; that's our only connection with him. We normally don't say this because people who have beef with him might come after us instead, knowing they can't beat him."
Another member spoke up quickly, "Yeah, please. Whatever he did, we apologize on his behalf. Just let us go."
Tsukiko looked confused. "Oh no, you got us wrong. We aren't here for revenge or payback."
The three looked relieved. "Really? So why did you stop us?" the leader asked.
Hoshizaki spoke, "We just want to know where our team members are. In the cafeteria, the loud guy said something about Zanka beating up 'Mr. Prodigy.' We asked around and figured out that Zen is widely known by that name, and he's in our group. We just wanna know where he is."
The leader understood. "Oh, so you're Zen's teammates. Yeah, Zanka did beat him up badly. But Mr Raizen and Aiko immediately rushed him to go get help. Unfortunately, I don't know where they are, but I do know that Zen is getting help by now, probably."
Tsukiko frowned at the news. "We already have a recovering member, and that scarred jerk adds a new one to the list. Where is he anyway? I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind."
She started walking forward, but the three members of Zanka's party waved at her dismissively, trying to stop her.
"Don't even think about it," the third guy warned. "He's already in enough trouble for what he did in the cafeteria. Trying to scold or talk to him now would be a death wish."
Hoshizaki dragged Tsukiko back. "You should listen to them."
"But—" Tsukiko tried to protest, but Hoshizaki spoke over her. "You saw how strong that guy is. Just let it go."
Tsukiko remained quiet with a frown. Hoshizaki turned his attention back to the three. "Thank you guys. We'll be leaving now."
"You're his teammate. You're the leader. Why not talk to him?" Tsukiko asked as they were about to leave.
The leader spoke, "We don't talk to Zanka. No one in the team does. Same with leading him. We just keep our distance and avoid him. In return, he fights our battles for us and we win. The second phase of the exam would have been deadly for us, but Zanka took that robot monster by himself and won... saving all of us."
Hoshizaki and Tsukiko looked shocked. "He defeated that thing alone?" Hoshizaki said in disbelief.
"I'm sorry, but we really have to get going now," the leader said as the three prepared to move. "But we hope Zen makes it out alive."
The three left, and Hoshizaki placed a comforting hand on Tsukiko's shoulder. "Come on, let's go."
Tsukiko looked at the floor for a split second before following Hoshizaki away.
(Inside Jiro's Golden Sanctuary)
Jiro's effortless smile didn't falter as his gaze drifted from Aiko to the supervisor standing silently beside her. The man had been staring at Jiro for a while in stunned silence. Only then did Jiro's expression shift into one of genuine confusion. The supervisor tensed as Jiro locked eyes with him, trying to find the words to speak, but nothing came out.
"Yooo dude... did you look like this from birth?" Jiro asked suddenly.
The supervisor instinctively touched his own face. "What? What's wrong with the way I look?"
Jiro stepped forward, placing a comforting, heavy arm on the man's shoulder. "I understand, man. It's the stress. Nonetheless, no guy is meant to look so, umm... Extremely Rare." Jiro searched for a way to describe the man's unfortunate features without hurting his feelings.
The supervisor's brow furrowed. "Wow. Did you just call me 'Extremely Rare'?"
Jiro continued, looking as though he were fighting back a tear of pure pity. "You might not be everyone's type, but there is something out there that would love you, I know it. Don't give up. I'm rooting for you, man."
(This guy is weird,) the supervisor thought, staring at the ceiling in disbelief.
"Jiro, stop messing around and help Zen already!" Aiko snapped, breaking the tension.
Jiro chuckled and walked over to a designer chair near the couch where Zen lay. He sat down, leaning back as he stared at Aiko. "Relax, babe. My babies"—he gestured to the humming drones—"have already stopped the external bleeding. The data on his condition is being streamed to me right now."
Jiro looked down at his custom gold tablet, swiping through the skeletal and muscular scans of Zen's body. "Okay... some of the bruises and open wounds were starting to get infected, but nothing too dangerous. His body has no permanent scars or marks yet; that's good. His muscles are hanging by a literal thread, but I can reattach those, no problem. Now, here's the issue: his bones are a total mess. Fractures, cracks, splinters... what the hell happened to him? And don't tell me he fell."
Jiro slicked his wet hair back, his playful vibe momentarily replaced by professional curiosity. Aiko sighed softly, looking down at Zen.
"No... he got into a fight with some guy named Zanka," she said.
Jiro froze, his eyes widening. "Someone was actually stupid enough to pick a fight with Zanka? Okay, everything makes sense now. And here I thought the exams did this to him."
He turned his attention back to the unconscious Zen, his thoughts racing. (Taking this much damage and survived with those broken bones... I'm impressed this kid isn't dead. And yet, when I first saw him, he was actually standing. Zen Kurogane.)
"Can you heal him?" Aiko asked, her voice tight with worry. "How long will it take? The exam continues the day after tomorrow, so we really don't have much time."
Jiro looked up at her and smirked. "He'll be ready in the next few minutes or so."
"Wait, really?" the supervisor asked, shocked.
Jiro tapped a few commands on his tablet. "Yeah. The way I heal my patients—mostly the Elites—is different from other doctors. I rely on my Orvex."
A drone flew close to him as he began to explain. "I made—or better said, invented—a syrup that can literally do anything. Heal wounds, knit bones, kill pain, repair muscle, cure sickness... anything. But it doesn't just do all of that at once on its own."
He lifted a finger to emphasize his point. "My Orvex reserve isn't the biggest among the Elites, but I have the most concentrated, dense Orvex in the building, aside from Ayumu."
The supervisor looked confused. "How does that help? I always thought bigger was better when it came to Orvex."
"Having a big Orvex pool is good, sure," Jiro explained, "but having a high density is great. You can give it specific commands and control the range and effect with precision. It's like this: if you have a massive Orvex but it isn't dense, you just shoot a big blast that kills everything in its path, including your target. But if you learn how to condense it, you can hit at point-blank range and channel all that power into one specific result. That's how my syrup works."
Aiko nodded as the logic clicked. "Okay, so without a dense command, the syrup is just a useless liquid enhanced with Orvex?"
"Exactly," Jiro smiled. "I condense my Orvex to let the syrup know its specific operation, improving its efficiency with the mass of my energy. The density is for the 'programming'."
Though it couldn't be seen by the naked eye, Jiro's Orvex began to condense at the very tip of his index finger. With a sharp tap, he hit a button on his tablet. His Orvex surged through the link to the drone, and from the drone into the syrup inside the mechanical syringe.
The drone hovered over Zen, lowered the needle, and injected the programmed syrup directly into his bloodstream.