The academy gym echoed faintly with the clank of metal and distant footfalls. Most students were out on break or prepping for midterm sparring drills, but Kael preferred this—no crowd, no noise. Just pressure. Steel. Breath.
He finished wrapping his hands and stepped up to the rack beside David, who was wiping down a bench after dropping 200 kilos like it was nothing.
"You sure about this, man?" David asked, grinning. "Didn't think you even liked the gym."
Kael didn't answer. He loaded the bar — 180 kilos — and slid under it without hesitation.
No spot. No Desyre. Just focus.
One rep. Two. Three. Eight.
Smooth. Quiet. Controlled.
David leaned back on the bench beside him, letting out a short breath.
"Okay. What the hell," he said. "You've got the frame of a ghost but lift like a damn tank."
Kael wiped the sweat off his forehead. "A body doesn't need to be big to be built."
David shook his head, still catching up. "You're like... deceptively dense. That's freaky, man."
A voice from the side broke in.
"I said the same thing the first time I saw him train."
Charlotte stepped through the doorway, dressed in a fitted hoodie and dark joggers, her bag slung lazily over one shoulder.
"I thought you were one of those quiet types who only lifted books and attitude," she said. "Didn't picture you and dumbbells ever meeting."
Kael set the towel over his neck. "They're not that different. Both keep you from breaking if you use them right."
Charlotte blinked, then smirked. "Okay, philosopher."
Footsteps behind them. Levi walked in with a towel around his neck, sipping water like he'd been there the whole time.
"You guys are late to the party," Levi said, grinning. "Kael's been like this forever."
Charlotte raised an eyebrow. "Wait, seriously?"
Levi tossed his bottle onto a nearby bench. "Back in our hometown, we used to call him Tondo's Shadow."
David laughed. "No you didn't."
"Okay, I called him that." Levi shrugged. "Still counts."
He leaned against the weight rack.
"There was a time when Kael and I used to track gang movements through our neighborhood.
He paused, then grinned at Kael.
"But he... turned it into something else."
David tilted his head. "Define something else."
Levi looked back at them. "I gave him names. Faces. Hangout spots. Rooftop meetups. Alley shifts. Whatever I could dig up. Kael would follow up. Alone. Every night."
Charlotte blinked. "Wait—you're saying he hunted them?"
"One at a time," Levi said, nodding. "Plain white mask. No Desyre. Just... fists, homemade weapons, and purewill."
David looked at Kael, stunned. "That's real?"
Kael didn't answer. Just wrapped his wrists tighter and added another plate.
Levi's voice softened slightly, just enough to feel it.
"He didn't do it for revenge. Or glory. He just... couldn't ignore it. Tondo back then was falling apart. And Kael couldn't sit still."
Charlotte looked at him again, more carefully this time.
"You never told us that."
Kael finally glanced sideways. "You never asked."
He sat down on the bench again. Reset. Lifted.
The bar rose like it weighed nothing.
Levi watched him for a second, then added quietly, more to himself than anyone else:
"I only helped for a while. Gave him info, pointed him toward the worst ones. Then I moved to Laguna with my uncle. Had to. After that, I just… heard things. From people back home. Online.
Said most of the gangsters were gone. The rest either laid low… or left the city."
David turned. "You just left him to clean up the whole place?"
Levi shrugged, but his voice had less humor now.
"I thought he'd stop once I was gone."
He glanced at Kael, who didn't look back.
Charlotte didn't say anything. Neither did David.
Kael re-racked the bar and sat forward, arms resting on his knees.
"I didn't need a reason to finish it," he said softly. "It just felt wrong to leave it undone."
No one argued with that.
No one needed to