The collapsed corridor didn't make the evening news. It made a federal structural assessment.
Agent Daniel Reyes—an eleven-year veteran chasing anomalous events—crouched near the wreckage, examining a snapped steel beam.
"No explosives residue," the engineer reported, tracing the fracture with a digital stylus. "No tooling marks. Whatever snapped this beam delivered force exceeding a industrial hydraulic press."
"A person did this," Reyes said.
"I didn't say that."
"You didn't have to."
Reyes stood up, dusting off his knees.
For six weeks, every incident pointed to the same target: someone strong enough to shatter steel, fast enough to slip through federal nets, and dedicated to defending this specific neighborhood.
"Blue-Eyed Vigilante," Reyes murmured. "You're not just surviving out here. You're hunting."
He turned to his assistant. "Pull every report of structural anomalies and unknown combat residue within a half-mile radius. I want a heat map on my desk tomorrow morning."
From a rooftop two blocks away, Adrian watched the DODC team work.
I can't keep winning fights by demolishing infrastructure, he thought. Collateral damage leaves a trail.
Raw stats and improvised demolition worked in a panic, but it wasn't sustainable. Every collapsed ceiling was another clue for guys like Reyes.
"So what's the plan?" Sophia asked later that night, staring at the corkboard. "You just decide to magically get better at fighting?"
"I need a space to drill technique without bringing down a building," Adrian said.
Sophia tossed a fresh index card onto the table. "There's an old warehouse two blocks past the checkpoint. Condemned before the invasion, totally abandoned. If you break something inside, nobody will care."
Adrian blinked. "How do you know about that?"
"I listen when people talk, Hayes. Try it sometime instead of staring at spirits until they explode."
The warehouse was a gutted shell of rusted metal and cracked concrete. Perfect.
For five straight nights, Adrian trained until his muscles burned.
He refined his reinforcement timing from a clunky toggle into a fluid rhythm. He practiced Todo's footwork until inherited memory turned into genuine muscle instinct. He directed cursed energy into his palms, heels, and fingertips.
On the fifth night, he tested himself against a heavy piece of rebar swinging from a pulley setup.
As the steel swung toward his head, Adrian stepped in. He caught it clean with a reinforced palm, deflecting its momentum harmlessly into the air.
[ SKILL PROGRESS: CURSED ENERGY MANIPULATION REACHED LV. 2 ]
[ EFFECT: REINFORCEMENT EFFICIENCY INCREASED ]
[ NEW TECHNIQUE UNLOCKED: CURSED ENERGY DEFLECTION (BASIC) ]
No body horror. No forced system integration. Just pure, earned skill.
Adrian sat down on the dusty concrete, catching his breath with a grin.
Grade 3 stats. Grade 2 growing pains. But for the first time, I'm actually catching up.
Three miles away, Agent Reyes examined a freshly printed heat map. Bright red clusters sat directly over the hazard zone's western edge.
"You're not reckless," Reyes whispered, tracing his finger over the map until it landed on an abandoned warehouse near the center. "You're learning. Which means you're preparing for something big."
He closed the file and smiled faintly.
"I can wait."