Shizuka left her office, and walked down the corridor.
When she reached the front door, she walked out like she owned the place.
And in a way, she did.
She knew that no one would be stupid enough to stop her, and ask her where she was going.
Well, unless they had a death wish.
Shizuka walked past the guards, and right out the gate.
Once the guards were out of sight, Shizuka activated a Skill.
It involved her erupting a pillar of Earth from underneath her feet, sending her rocketing into the air at high speed in a diagonal direction.
It was a high-Level Earth Ability Skill called "Earth Launch", and was seen as one of the fastest ways to travel using the Earth Ability.
In fact, this specific skill was one that Shizuka herself had invented.
As Tsukuru was growing up, Shizuka would periodically drop by the Green Family estate to see how he was doing.
On several of these occasions, Shizuka would just hang out with him in his room, and watch him as he played video games and watch his shows.
On one such occasion, she had seen a low-level enemy in one of the old games from the 2010's, which had concrete powers, generate a concrete slab under its feet, launching itself into the air.
This specific enemy in the game, as Tsukuru would constantly testify to, was the most annoying type of enemy to fight.
Rather than being close range enemies, they were snipers, perching themselves on concrete platforms they would create on the sides of buildings to snipe down the player.
And whenever Tsukuru would line up a shot to take them out, they would launch themselves to another location.
The funniest part, to Shizuka, was that this "launch" could be used offensively.
Whenever the enemy would land in front of Tsukuru's character from the launch, the impact of the launch could produce a shockwave that would knock Tsukuru's character back a far distance, the character falling on its back.
Usually, this resulted in Tsukuru jumping up from his seat, slamming the controller on the floor like a spiked ball, and screaming obscenities while pointing at the screen.
The whole time, Shizuka would be on the ground, dying of laughter.
This eventually resulted in Tsukuru's knee-jerk reaction to always take out these specific enemies with the in-game character's missile attack.
Just from seeing how much trouble Tsukuru was having with the guy, Shizuka had adapted the move into her own personal, original Skill.
Also, the fact that the faction of concrete users were also a militarized faction, making it very easy to compare them to the Earth users of the military, didn't hurt.
Shizuka used the Skill two more times, each time, activating the Skill upon landing, the landing process causing the ground to shake.
Eventually, she landed with a loud thud right behind Quinn and Layla.
The sudden impact made them both jump and spin around in surprise.
Seeing Layla with the group, her eyes narrowed.
"You again…" She muttered.
Tsukuru spun around.
"Shizuka, over here!" He said frantically.
Raising an eyebrow, Shizuka walked over to where Tsukuru was.
It was then that she saw Riley's decapitated body slumped against the wall.
The whole area was soaked in blood, including the tree.
Shizuka let out a sigh.
She looked over at Tsukuru.
"Watch?" She asked.
Tsukuru frantically pointed to the right.
"I sent it flying as far as I could that way." He replied.
To everyone's surprise, Shizuka let out a sigh of relief.
"Good." She replied. "That makes this easier."
She turned to Layla and Quinn.
"Remove the watches from the other two, as well." She ordered, pointing at Riley's friends.
The two exchanged looks, and did as instructed.
Then they handed the watches to Tsukuru.
Like before he used his Video Stasis Skill to send the watches flying.
He sent one flying far to the right, and sent the other flying straight, deeper into the woods.
Tsukuru then turned to Shizuka.
She nodded.
"Step back."
She ordered, kicking the ground with her heel.
Instantly, the ground began to shake.
The ground around the whole area around them parted like the red sea.
It was as if the doors to an underground cellar had been flung open inwards.
Tsukuru, Quinn, and Layla scrambled backwards to not be caught in what could only be described as a sinkhole.
Instantly, gravity took effect, and both Riley's corpse and the tree behind him fell downwards into the pit.
The group all watched in shock.
"Holy shit!" Layla cried in surprise.
This was the first time Quinn or Layla had seen a Level 8 Earth Ability user in action.
Once Riley's body and the tree had fallen to the very bottom, Shizuka raised her leg, and kicked the ground again.
The earth began to rearrange itself, and the hole filled itself, with fresh earth appearing at the very top.
There wasn't an ounce of blood in sight, as Shizuka had buried everything that had indicated that this area even was a murder scene.
Just to make absolutely certain that the truth remained buried, Shizuka even made Riley's unconscious friends tumble into the hole before covering them, burying them alive in god knows how many feet of dirt.
After a long pause, Shizuka then turned to Tsukuru.
"Now…" She replied, eyes narrowed. "Tell me what happened."
Layla then stepped forward.
"Yeah." She yelled, pointing at Tsukuru. "Since when can you summon a Humanoid Beast?!"
Hearing her words, Shizuka quickly put two-and-two together.
'So it was that 'Haunted Knight' of his.' She thought.
A split-second later, faster than anyone could track, Shizuka drew the Emperor-Tier Beast Rapier at her waist, and Layla found Shizuka's sword at her throat.
Layla felt a deep chill run through her, as the sword was pressed so tight against her neck that it was drawing blood.
"Speak a single word of what you saw here, and you can join the damned fools in the hole." She growled, pointing down at the ground with her free hand, signaling to Layla that by "In the hole", she meant "buried alive".
Layla gulped.
Seeing this, Tsukuru's eyes widened.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" He yelled, running over towards Shizuka. "She's been helping us!"
Hearing this, Shizuka's gaze snapped down to Tsukuru.
The two exchanged looks, Tsukuru with a pleading gaze, and Shizuka with the look of someone who would kill anyone to keep secrets buried.
A moment later, Shizuka grit her teeth.
She withdrew her blade and resheathed it. Layla instinctively brought her hand up to her neck where the sword had been, rubbing it.
Looking at her hand, she saw spots of blood.
Seeing this, Tsukuru let out a sigh of relief.
He ran over to Layla.
Using his Ability, he created a thick band-aid, still wrapped in its white, paper casing.
Tsukuru handed it to Layla, as it would be faster for her to apply it herself, then for her to kneel down so Tsukuru could apply it, due to their height differences.
Layla ripped the packaging off, and put the band-aid on, horizontally across the middle of her neck.
Tsukuru then looked from Layla to Quinn.
"We should get back." Tsukuru replied. "It's getting late."
The four of them headed back towards the school gate.
By the time they arrived, it was already nine, meaning that they had an hour until curfew.
They separated into three groups, with Quinn and Tsukuru heading to their dorm, Layla to hers, and Shizuka to her office.
However, before heading to the dorms, Tsukuru and Quinn took a detour to the roof.
Tsukuru was leaning against the door, arms crossed, while Quinn was looking at the test tubes in his hand that contained the blood of Riley and his two two friends.
First, he used the Inspect Skill on Riley's blood.
[Blood of Riley Blake. Blood Type B+]
Smiling, Quinn then tried to use the Inspect Skill on the tubes containing the blood of Riley's two friends.
Just as he thought, looking at it with the Inspect Skill gave him nothing but question marks.
The thought of using the Inspect Skill on them during the fight hadn't crossed his mind, and it was now impossible, given that the two boys were now quite literally "buried ten feet under".
Tsukuru watched as Quinn drank each test tube one-by-one.
Three System messages appeared in front of Quinn.
[B+ Blood Type has been consumed. 1 Agility Point has been added.]
[A- Blood Type has been consumed. 1 Strength Point has been added.]
[AB+ Blood Type has been consumed. 1 Stamina Point has been added.]
Looking at the messages, Quinn noticed a pattern.
A-type blood had given him a Strength point.
It also seemed that he received a Strength point regardless of whether it was positive or negative blood, as Layla had A+ blood, and one of Riley's friends had A- blood.
B-type blood had given him an Agility Point, as shown from when he just consumed Riley's blood.
AB-type blood seemed to give him a Stamina point, shown from when he had just consumed the blood of one of Riley's friends.
And finally, it seemed that O-type blood appeared to give him a free stat point.
After absorbing the blood from the tube, Quinn felt stronger than ever.
He brought up his System screen, and looked at it.
[Name Quinn Talen
Race Halfling
Level 2
XP 140/200
Title —
___________________
HP 15/15
___________________
Strength 12
Stamina 11
Agility 13
[Stat Points: 0] ]
Seeing Quinn's Stats made Tsukuru's eye twitch in annoyance.
He brought up his own Status Screen.
[Name Hikiko Tsukuru
Race Human
Level 2
XP 140/200
Title —
Ability Video
Ability Level 2
______________________
HP 15/15
MC 40/40
______________________
Strength 11
Stamina 11
Agility 12
[Stat Points: 0] ]
Seeing the two side-by-side, Tsukuru saw that their roles had reversed.
Just yesterday, Tsukuru had the higher stats.
But now, thanks to the blood of himself, Layla, Riley, and Riley's two friends, Quinn now had higher Strength and Agility Stats than Tsukuru.
Eventually, Tsukuru let out an annoyed sigh, as he let his frustrations go.
There were clear differences in their two Systems.
Tsukuru not being able to gain extra Stat Points appeared to be a trade off for Quinn not having all the bells-and-whistles that Tsukuru's System had.
A devious smirk crept across his face.
'Just remember that YOU don't have your Stats halved in sunlight.' Tsukuru told himself. 'It'll make you feel better.'
Meanwhile, back with Quinn, he was thinking about how his body had now surpassed the capabilities of regular human limitations, though he was still compared weak to someone with an Ability.
Luckily for Quinn, it seemed that everyone he had fought up to this point weren't good fighters.
If Quinn tried to fight a Level 2 like Layla, or even Tsukuru, he'd most likely lose.
What Quinn needed most of all right now were more Skills.
Currently, all he had was Blood Swipe.
But it was only good at long-range, and it drained his HP with every use.
Plus, he had to keep it secret.
As far as the school was aware, he didn't have an Ability, so if he was seen using Blood Swipe in public, a Skill that, as far as Quinn knew, was completely unknown to the rest of the world, it would raise too many questions.
As Quinn was thinking, he was broken from his musings by Tsukuru's voice.
"Quinn." He replied.
Quinn turned to him.
"Starting tomorrow, we should start fighting separately."
Quinn saw that Tsukuru was looking at him with a hardened look.
"That mask isn't going to do you any good if you're always seen fighting with me."
Quinn thought about it, and nodded.
"Also, don't wear those gauntlets in public." Tsukuru added, before walking ahead. "They're just as much of a dead give-away."
Quinn thought for a minute.
Tsukuru was right.
Even though, up to this point, everyone who had seen him using the gauntlets were…unable to talk about it…that didn't mean he wouldn't have to be careful.
But it was a heavy loss.
The gauntlets gave him an amazing +4 to his strength, giving him an impressive Strength Stat of 16 while wearing them.
Quinn let out a deep sigh.
"Let's head back to the dorm." He muttered.
Tsukuru nodded, and opened the door.
He walked with Quinn down the stairs, walking behind him, hands in his pockets.