Complicated Webs

When Adrian woke up, he was momentarily stunned to find his house in a bloody mess, before he remembered what happened the previous night.

Taking out disinfectant, Adrian began thoroughly scraping his apartment clean, removing any hints of blood and injury marks on the floor and walls. When he walked into the bathroom, he found that the Gray Ninja was still slumped in his bathtub, sleeping. Adrian checked his pulse and found it steady, the wounds seemed to have gradually healed overnight.

Having cleaned the apartment, Adrian prepared breakfast. He'd have to summarily to be absent from school today, he realized. Then another worry crept up in his mind, that he hadn't thought off yesterday night.

Why had this Ninja guy entered his house, and how? He had been so seriously harmed, clearly his opponent was extremely powerful. Would that opponent target himself now?

As Adrian was frowning while eating his breakfast, he found the Gray Ninja guy suddenly appear in his room in a breeze. Surprised, he raised both his hands up as if to say the injuries were not his fault.

"Thank you for treating my injury." The voice of a young man reverberated from behind the mask.

"No matter, no matter." Adrian said without losing his guard. "You can rest assured that I didn't peek behind your mask to find your identity!" He declared immediately afterward.

The room was quiet for a moment, before which the Gray Ninja nodded. "Thank you for your help."

Adrian gulped in a few breaths of air and tried to calm himself but soon enough the questions bothering him tumbled out one after the other. "How did you enter my apartment? WHY did you enter my apartment? Do I know you?"

The room was silent for a while, before Gray Ninja pointed at the window. "I entered via the window. It was left open. As for why... it's a bit of a long story."

---

In school, Cody challenged three more strengthening type ability users one after the other, defeating them with horrifying power.

Cran frowned as he analyzed the video of the battles in the student council room. "This guy's power... improved so dramatically? What's going on?"

Trix, who wasn't busy day dreaming for once and was drinking some tea shrugged. "His ability seems to have had a dramatic improvement, he could probably even be graded above 4.5 on the power scale right now, given what he's demonstrated."

"Something seems wrong with him though. Did you see the rage he demonstrated in the last match? He almost felt like he was out of control." Cran said as he kept rewinding and looking at a moment in the video where Cody had a crazed glint in his eye and an evil grin on his face.

Lear was standing by the window looking towards the Arena in the distance. "Cody's erratic behavior is worrying. He heavily injured all the three opponents today before they could admit defeat. Students seem to be a bit frightened of Cody's power."

"Could just be he lost a few screws when he was defeated by Dino earlier." Janice yawned. "The blue haired brat's vibrations feel different to me though. His vibrations feel like that of a machine that's about to explode from overloading its system."

At that moment, everyone's smartphones rang with an alert. They looked at the alert with surprise.

"A fourth match in a single day?" Cran frowned. "Is he trying to hospitalize every student in the third grade?"

"Wait, it seems like he has challenged Dino." Lear said. "Let's go take a look."

---

"You... stalked me yesterday night?" Adrian asked in horror.

Gray Ninja shrugged. "I saw you spying on someone I was trying to follow."

"Who exactly is that woman?" Adrian asked as his heart had a sinking feeling. He realized that trying to spy in such a manner as his was extremely crude.

"The less you know, the better. I came to your house to warn you to stay away from this mess, the webs are way more intricate and nefarious than you can imagine. I didn't expect my injuries to be so bad." Gray Ninja said with a frown that was hidden behind his mask. "That I would fall unconscious in your apartment."

"How certain are you that you weren't followed? What if they target me?" Adrian asked worriedly.

"It's not that easy to follow me." Gray Ninja shook his head, before he changed the topic. "The blue haired boy you were tailing, who is he?"

Adrian stayed silent for a moment, hesitating about whether he should reveal the answer, but eventually gave in. "His name is Cody Eggars, son of a food industry business scion. A strengthening type user who is my classmate."

"Strengthening type again." Gray Ninja frowned and murmured. "Did this Cody do anything suspicious recently?"

Adrian shook his head. "Nothing in particular, except he was severely injured in battle during a school challenge, and he just returned yesterday. His strength had dramatically increased, and I felt his emotions were very unstable."

When Gray Ninja heard that, his eyes turned into squints. "I want you to observe this blue haired boy, and let me know if he shows any further abnormalities in his ability. Note down my contact number."

Adrian's face serious. "Is the change in his ability related to the woman?"

---

In the arena, Dino and Cody stood opposite each other. The fatty referee looked at Cody with some wariness. "Cody, you need to control yourself. We do not appreciate the excessive violence you've committed in the three battles today." He warned Cody.

Cody snarled. The craziness once again appearing within his eyes. "Fatty, I didn't break any rules. Stop lecturing me and begin the battle!"

"What's wrong with Cody, he actually dared to call the referee fatty?"

"He seems on edge."

"Look at Dino, even he looks uncomfortable."

The referee quieted down, but eventually didn't respond. After ensuring that the two were ready, he blew his whistle to ensure that the match began.