Testing

"This definitely confirms it, Serpentine has gotten their hands on another Immune." A man spoke in English as he surveyed the damage in the parking lot of Kotono's Central Hospital.

"This will clearly be a problem." The voice on the other end of the line stated, "Serpentine has far too much of a lead on this. Immunes...who knows what they could mean for the world."

"How should we proceed?" The man began,

"We negotiate." The voice stated, "Try and wiggle our way into the project. If Serpentine refuses, we have other options."

The man nodded as the voice on the other end of the line hung up, causing him to sigh. The whole situation seemed pulled straight out of a B-movie.

Supposedly, these Immunes were people who had contracted powers through exposure to a virus simply designated "I.K", leaving aside the fact that the man had never even heard of I.K before...

'Superpowers? Really?' He deadpanned internally, the whole thing sounded like a bunch of bullshit to him, but corporations would peddle anything nowadays, and it wasn't his job to ask questions.

"Still...corporate negotiation isn't really my thing." He muttered to himself, shoving the phone back in his pocket, as he said that, a devilish grin spread across his face.

"Although, it certainly would make things pretty fun if Serpentine didn't cooperate..." He chuckled to himself, relishing the thought.

'After all, you work for that company...don't you Hoshida?'

⸻

Despite Sekai's concerns, Hina's tests turned out to be oriented around fairly basic things. Blood tests, physicals, et cetera.

Despite the length of these tests, they gave Sekai time to recover from his exhausting training session in the morning.

However, the respite soon came to an end, as Hina took them into another room, seating Sekai down, she tapped a pen against a clipboard as she walked around.

"Alright. So I have realized that we need to train your abilities more if we wish to get any more data." Hina noted,

'You don't say...!' Sekai had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes.

"Although, there is no way we can truly train you. I'm sure you've guessed, but we have very little data on Immunes in general, particularly with Ruiko being our only current example." Hina stated,

"So I want you to keep in mind that we are both learning here, I'll try pushing you in the right direction when I can, but it will be up to you and your instinct to figure things out."

Sekai nodded, and Hina clapped her hands as she tucked the clipboard in her armpit. "Perfect!" She sat down with him,

"Now...I want you to try manifesting your ability." Hina stated,

"How?" Sekai questioned,

"I don't know." She shrugged, "You did it before, just try replicating that."

'Just try replicating it...who does she think she is?' Sekai thought to himself in annoyance but still tried it.

'Maybe I am just overthinking it...they usually just activate their powers in anime without a second thought...stuff about 'clearing your mind' and 'going with the flow...' With that, he closed his eyes extended a hand forward, and almost immediately he heard the sound of rapid freezing, and when he opened it, a small section of his palm was coated in white material.

"I...did it?" He said in amazement,

"It would seem so!" Hina said eagerly, "Try making more!"

Sekai nodded, and as soon as he thought about it, the white patch on his palm expanded, transforming his hand into a metallic claw.

Hina suddenly clutched the hand, and despite the material coating it, he could still feel her hands on his, causing him to slightly blush.

Regardless, Hina didn't notice his embarrassment as she studied his crystalized hand.

"Fascinating...parts around the joints are looser and softer to allow for flexibility to be maintained..." She murmured to herself.

"Alright, now. Hit the table." Hina ordered,

"I'm sorry - what?"

"Punch the table. As hard as you can." Hina reaffirmed, and Sekai cocked his head curiously.

"...Why? Doesn't this cost money?" He stated questioningly,

"It's fine~" Hina waved him off, "Just smash it!"

Sekai tentatively nodded, lifting his arm, he brought it down on the table.

When he hit it, the table shook slightly, and bent a little bit under the pressure, but was otherwise fine.

"Come on! Hit it with everything you have!" Hina goaded, and Sekai groaned before aiming a full force punch down at the table.

This time, his fist went straight through the table, completely smashing through it.

'Huh...? That has to be several centimeters of solid wood...there's no way I could do that normally...!' Sekai thought to himself, glancing down at his crystalized hand.

"Hmm..." Hina placed a hand on her chin, "Hey Sekai, do you feel any pain?"

"Huh...no, why?" Sekai responded,

"I see." Hina nodded, "Extend your hand again?"

This time, Sekai didn't hesitate as he did so, and Hina analyzed it again.

"The material doesn't add that much weight...so then why...?" Hina once again got lost in her own thoughts as she picked up her notepad and began writing notes.

The duo stood awkwardly next to the smashed table until they both heard the ringing of a smartphone.

"Did you bring a phone in here?" Hina questioned,

Sekai shook his head and pointed, "It's yours." Gesturing towards the light in her coat pocket.

"Oh." Hina said simply, pulling it out and non-chalantly answering: "Hello?"

Sekai tried leaning in to hear, but he couldn't get anything from the other end, and could only hear what Hina was saying.

"...They're really trying this again?" Silence, the other person was speaking at that time, and then: "No, no. I'll be right there."

She hung up the call and sighed before turning to Sekai: "Sorry, looks like we will have to cut our testing short."

"What happened?"

"Nothing you need to worry about." Hina began walking towards the door, "I'll get Hoshida to take you back home."

At that, Sekai could simply nod.

⸻

Before Sekai left however, he managed to find the time to see Ruiko again before he left.

"You're going home?" She asked,

"Yeah. Hina ended early," Sekai replied,

Ruiko nodded, "I'm glad you came, even though we didn't get to spend much time together...it was nice seeing you again."

Sekai smiled, "I'll come again, not like I have much of a choice anyway."

Ruiko chuckled a little at Sekai's dry humor, and the laugh wound up spreading to Sekai as well.

Unknown to them, Hoshida was listening to their conversation from around a corner.

'Kids...' He thought to himself, smiling slightly.

Regardless, he rounded the corner.

"The vans are here." He placed a hand on Sekai's shoulder, "Time to go."

Sekai nodded, "See you later, Ruiko-san!"

Ruiko waved him bye as the two men left.

⸻

"...Handler, I see a van." Someone said, watching the warehouse-like building through the lens of an anti-material rifle that was almost as tall as them.

"Is it on the move yet?" The voice responded through their earpiece,

"Not yet." They replied curtly, "I see a boy..."

"What about him?" The one known as the Handler questioned,

"He doesn't look like he works for Serpentine, and they're protecting him."

"Hm...our inside guy said that their new lab rat didn't live on one of their facilities..." The Handler muttered, before making his decision:

"Alright, get inside the van. We're going to tail them."

"Yes, Handler."