The group are having a debate together, it had just came to them, they were arguing about sacred artes.
Dante sat cross-legged on the grass, listening intently as Rika gestured wildly with a half-eaten cereal bar.
"I'm telling you, Sacred Artes are insanely rare," Rika said, half-preaching, half-venting. "Like, one in a million. You either get lucky with one or you don't. Most of us? We don't."
"Technically," Nanami cut in, adjusting her glasses, "it's closer to one in fifty thousand, but the academy's only seen, like, ten in the last decade."
"Exactly!" Rika pointed at her like she'd just proven her point. "You don't just run into someone with a Sacred Arte. And if you do, it's probably some prodigy we'd all recognize immediately."
"I think I saw one once," Toni said thoughtfully. "He caught a lightning strike with his bare hands."
"I'd take that Arte," Dante muttered. "I'd take anything. I can barely cast Ice magic without needing a nap."
Kaito was sprawled across the backrest of a bench, half-listening, absently tossing a ball between his fingers. "Huh. I always thought those were more common."
Everyone turned to look at him.
Nanami blinked. "What are?"
"Sacred Artes," Kaito said casually, still watching the orb flicker in his palm. "I've got one. Energy Fission. I got it out the first dungeon i ever went in."
Silence.
Dead silence.
Toni slowly turned to Yukki. "Did he just say—?"
"I think so..." Yukki responds
Dante leaned forward. "I'm sorry. You, you have a Sacred Arte?!"
"Yeah," Kaito said, blinking at them. "Did I not mention that?"
"NO!" Rika shouted. "You didn't mention that!"
Nanami sat up straighter. "Wait, you really have Energy Fission? That's not just energy boosting, it's full spectrum flow manipulation, isn't it?"
"I guess?" Kaito scratched his head. "I mean, I mostly use it to hit harder or move faster. Kind of burns me out after a while though."
Nanami groaned into her hands. "That's because you're brute-forcing it. You could use it to store energy between fights, or slow your own output when you're not in combat. You could literally double your stamina if you weren't wasting it like a space heater."
Kaito blinked. "...Huh."
Rika stood up, arms in the air. "So let me get this straight. You've got a Sacred Arte, and you've been walking around, sparring, and just not mentioning it, at all?"
"I mean," Kaito said, "it's not like I'm great at using it yet."
Yukki stared at him, mouth slightly open. "You. Have. A. Sacred. Arte."
Kaito looked around, confused. "Is this… a big deal?"
Dante made a faint squeaking noise.
Nanami leaned back with a sigh. "You're a walking enigma. You know that?"
Yukki looked up, deadpan. "And we're all going to suffer for it."
Rika flopped back onto the grass, groaning.
Later that day, the conversation about Sacred Artes still hung in the back of Kaito's mind, not because of the group's reaction (which he'd mostly found hilarious), but because of what Nanami had said.
"You could literally double your stamina if you weren't wasting it like a space heater."
So naturally, when he found himself wandering through the southern wing of the academy, half-lost, half-bored, he didn't expect to stumble on something like that.
The door was old, inset into the wall beneath the eastern observation balconies, behind a stack of training mats. A single plaque above it read:
"Combat Evaluation Gauntlet – Authorized Access Only."
Kaito stared at it for a moment, then casually pulled the door open.
WELCOME TO THE GAUNTLET CURRENTLY IN USE
Kaito watched as another student was inside of the training room. He looked closely as he ran through the gauntlet.
CURRENT FIRST-YEAR RECORD: 3:29 MINUTES | 47% COMPLETION
The boy had finished, rather proud of himself he left the room.
Kaito scratched the back of his head. "The walls are talking?"
He stepped up to the starting platform. "Alright. Let's see what this is about."
The system registered his presence with a low chime.
Initiating Challenge…
The gauntlet activated.
Kaito darted forward as mechanical limbs lashed out at him from the side, he ducked, rolled, and flowed right through the first volley. Already, he was moving faster than normal, not because he was pushing harder, but because he wasn't wasting anything. He wasn't burning energy like fuel; he was recycling it, letting Energy Fission regulate his output like a perfectly tuned engine.
Nanami had been right. As usual.
The second wave came faster. Flying drones opened fire with blunt-force pulse shots. Kaito weaved through them, sliding low, flipping over a barrier and disarming a trap mid-motion. Every movement was precise, efficient, clean.
He took down combat dummies with minimal strikes, bypassed barriers by redirecting momentum, and powered through kinetic resistance fields using just enough force to slip through.
He could feel the flow now, not just inside himself, but around the arena. The gauntlet was designed to exhaust its participants. That was the point.
But it wasn't draining him.
3 minutes later.
The arena went quiet.
The final drone sparked and collapsed at his feet.
Kaito stood at the center of the training floor, only lightly winded, sweat glistening on his forehead but not gasping for breath. The floor runes dimmed, and the system chimed again:
COMPLETION: 100%
TIME: 2:04 MINUTES
NEW FIRST-YEAR RECORD SET.
Kaito blinked. "Huh. That was kinda fun."
Unbeknownst to him, a girl had been watching from the upper observation platform. Slouched low in the shadows, oversized camera hanging from her neck, she clicked a final photo as the timer screen faded.
A crooked grin spreading across her face.
"Well, well," she whispered to herself. "That definitely wasn't a listed student."
She spun her camera around to her lap, quickly typing notes into her pad.
Subject: Unregistered student shatters training gauntlet record. Arte suspected. Possibly Sacred. Unknown affiliation. Cute, reckless, dangerous, definitely a story.
She stood up with a little hop and stretched. "Intruder with god-tier reflexes? Yeah, you're gonna make front page, mystery boy."
Her badge, pinned crookedly to her bag, read:
Miko – Journalism Club, Lead Gossip Columnist.
And judging by the look in her eye, she had found her next scoop.
Dante wandered around the halls all alone.
Dante shoved open the heavy door to the training room, muttering, "Where the heck did Kaito go now?"
He stepped inside, and froze.
The air crackled.
A blur zipped past him with a deafening CRACK-BOOM, followed by the acrid scent of ozone. His hair puffed slightly from static. Wide-eyed, Dante turned toward the source.
There she was.
A girl, maybe his age, maybe older, stood in the center of the room, bolts of lightning arcing around her like dancing snakes. She vanished again in a flash, reappearing across the room to deliver a roundhouse kick to a training dummy that exploded with a loud pop. It smoldered as she landed gracefully, unfazed.
Dante blinked. "What the—"
Another flash. She was closer now, breathing lightly, sweat stuck to her forehead, her eyes burning electric blue. She hadn't noticed him yet. He leaned slightly behind a punching bag, eyes wide with admiration, mouth just slightly open like someone watching a fireworks show in slow motion.
This girl is fast. Like, lightning fast.
He couldn't even see her legs move.
Crack!
A lightning bolt singed the wall just feet from his head. He flinched, not because it was too close, but because she was now staring directly at him.
Her expression shifted. Surprise. Then suspicion. Then... murder.
"Are you seriously watching me train right now?" she snapped, hands sparking again.
Dante jumped, waving his arms defensively. "No! I mean yes! I mean, wait, it's not what it looks like!"
"Oh really?" She took a step forward, lightning crackling up her arms. "Because it looks like you were creeping behind that bag like a lost perv."
"I was looking for my friend!" he blurted. "Kaito! Weird hair? Likes fighting?"
She stared. Unimpressed.
"You expect me to believe you accidentally walked in, then stayed to watch like you bought front row seats?"
"I didn't even mean to stay that long! You were just, fast. Really fast. Like... anime-opening fast."
That made her pause.
"You think I'm... anime-opening fast?"
He nodded, still hands-up. "Like... top-tier hero stuff. I mean, that kick? You straight up deleted that dummy from existence."
She squinted, then smirked just barely. "...Hmph. You're lucky I like compliments."
Lightning sparked off her fingers one last time before she turned back toward the training pads.
"Oh," she added over her shoulder, "tell your friend if I find him watching me too, I won't be so forgiving."
Dante exhaled and muttered, "Forgiving? I thought I was about to get roasted like a marshmallow…"
Then, under his breath as he backed toward the door, "...still totally worth it." He backed out of the training room leaving her.
Suddenly from behind him, an all too familiar voice rang out. "There's no way in hell."
Dante turned around and was lest then pleased to see the face of his old friend. Dennis stood before him.
"I thought this was supposed to be school of greats, how'd a nobody like you get in here?" He asks him.
Dante's words froze in his throat. He didn't even know how to respond to him. "Uhm it was..."
"Oh it must've been through the non magical branch, this school gives opportunity to everyone." He says rolling his eyes.
He steps up towards Dante and without warning he slaps Dante, the force making Dante stumble back a bit. "Someone as weak as you shouldn't be standing in the same place as me." Dennis says.
The slap catching the attention of nearby students.
Dante holds his face shocked by the hit, but more then anything he's annoyed. For years Dennis had tormented him, he was stronger now, he could defend himself.
But before a fight could break out.
WHAM!
Kaito had flew in from nowhere stomping onto Dennis face knocking him out instantly. "Who do you think you are!" He shouts at him. "How dare you hit Dante!"
The students all looked shocked by this. Kaito had unknowingly knocked out one of the top ten first years in the academy.
Yukki runs in shocked. "Dennis!?" He runs over grabbing Kaito and Dante speed walking off.