CH13 (243), Academy Mission

This breakthrough meant that I could now use (minor) external aura manipulation, and I felt as if some barrier that previously prevented me from releasing my aura outside my body had vanished, or rather opened up, allowing me to now do so, even if it was in a limited capacity.

I began trying out the exercises we had gone over with Mr. Koetsuji during our "External Aura Manipulation" sessions. The first one was covering the outside of my skin in a layer of aura.

This had two major effects. First, it would increase my defense in the coated area, and the second effect was that it would prevent foreign substances and energies from coming into contact with the coated area. Well, at least it would serve as the first line of defense, but like every defense, it could be broken through if the offense was above its tolerance level.

So, I had to train two, or rather three aspects of this coating method. Training-target number one was increasing the (surface) area I could coat in haki, sorry I meant aura.

Number two was increasing the density of the coating increasing its tenacity/defensive capabilities, and number three was increasing the thickness of the coating.

Besides coating myself for defensive purposes I could also coat weapons with my aura to increase their offensive abilities, as well as their hardness. There was obviously more I could do, like creating small aura constructs such as knuckle dusters or gauntlets.

However, I was going to focus on the coating first before working on other aspects of the external aura manipulation. Unfortunately, major external aura manipulations such as the Aura Sphere were still out of my reach, but maybe that was for the best.

I would have probably neglected the coating for the Aura Sphere if that had been possible. I was like a kid with a new toy, so I kept coating my hands whenever I had nothing to do. On the first day, I managed to coat all my fingers of one hand, and on the second day, I managed to coat my complete hand.

On the third day, I tried coating both hands simultaneously, but I didn't manage to do it. I managed to increase the covered area to half of my forearm, but I couldn't cover both hands at once, despite theoretically being able to cover a large enough (surface) area.

My control was not good enough to utilize two separate aura streams to coat both hands, so I had to cheat a bit. I used my second thought stream, which I had thanks to my abilities as a psychic, to control the second aura stream allowing me to coat both hands as well.

While this effectively allowed me to achieve my goal, it was only possible because I was a dual cultivator, I meant dual-energy user. Actually, scratch that it would not have been possible even if I was a dual-energy user if one of those energies had not been psionic energy.

Speaking of my psionic energy I had yet to reach Tier 2 First-Class as a psychic even though a few days had passed since I broke through as an aura user. Still, that was to be expected since I was using my aura abilities more due to obvious reasons, *cough* aura academy *cough*.

I was guessing that I would advance as a psychic within the next few months since I strived to keep up my psychic training every day. By the time the fourth term began and the academy resumed, I could either fully coat a single-arm, or both of my forearms at the same time.

When I told the news to Mr. Burns due to him being my homeroom teacher, and weapons instructor, as well as Mr. Koetsuji due to him being my "External Aura Manipulation" instructor, both gave me heartfelt congratulations.

I could see that they were honestly happy for me, and by the end of the day, I was led to Mr. Cameron's office by Mr. Burns. Mr. Cameron himself congratulated me on my achievement and he told me that the Academy awarded me 250 academy points for my achievement.

This brought my academy point total to 1169. Honestly, 500 of those were due to my publication, and 250 I received just now. The leftover 419 academy points were ones I received for my exam results and the competitions I either won or placed second.

I was not that far off from being able to redeem the chance to get a Togepi. I needed 1800 academy points for the opportunity to go to the Togepi/Togekiss haven. The opportunity to go to the Riolu/Lucario haven was worth 2500 points so that one was still a bit off.

Seeing that I had now reached Tier 2 First-Class, and because he had an idea of the strength of my Pokemon, Mr. Cameron offered me a mission to earn some Academy points if I wanted to. I first asked to hear the details of the mission before coming to a decision.

Apparently, the academy had received intel that a rogue aura user had created a small criminal group that was involved in kidnapping, smuggling, extortion, and the occasional murder.

They knew that the rogue himself was barely a Tier 2 aura user, while also being at the top of the Senior class as a trainer. His two lieutenants were strong Senior-class trainers as well, while his other subordinates were either weak senior-class trainers or junior-class trainers. They had discovered about 20 underlings but there might have been more.

"Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to apprehend the leader and the lieutenants. That is the minimum requirement for the successful completion of the mission and accomplishing that will net you 200 points.

For each subordinate you manage to apprehend on top of that you'll receive 3 extra points. On top of that rescuing victims or confiscating and handing over any smuggled wares will reward you with extra points depending on the situation.

While we would prefer it if you managed to take the criminals alive, if it comes down to it, it is acceptable for casualties to appear on the criminals' side if it means ensuring your own well-being." Mr. Cameron announced the mission parameters.

"If I accept the mission, do you have any information on their current location or do I have to track them down by myself? Also, is there any time limit that I have to adhere to?" I asked for more details.

"Yes, you'll receive a folder that will contain files on the leader, the lieutenants, the identified underlings, their operation area as well as their last known location," Mr. Cameron returned and I had to nod since that reduced the workload considerably.

"You'll be given two weeks to complete the mission, if you do not manage to finish it within that timeframe, we'll take over since we are unwilling to let them be on free foot for more than that," he added, answering the timeframe question.

This was obviously a mission that had been vetted for students or junior Aura Guardians. There was no way it just coincidentally turned up the moment I advanced. Still, it seemed within my capacity, and the points were decent enough.

"Alright, I'll do it," I said with a nod. "Could I please have the folder with the mission details?" I requested so that I could read up on my target as soon as I could.

"Sure," was what Mr. Cameron said before pulling out a folder from one of the drawers. He handed over the folder along with a permission slip that exempted me from class for the next two weeks. I left the office after thanking him and found myself an empty room to sit down and read the files inside the folder.

The leader was called Smog. Honestly, did he really need a criminal nickname? Well, actually, considering that his name was noted as Dick in the file, I could understand where was coming from.

Moving on, he was 54 years old but looked 24. He was 182 cm tall, and pretty generic in looks, but I still made sure to memorize his face in case he managed to escape. That way I would have an easier time recognizing/capturing him.

Four of Dick's Pokemon had been identified and listed, but a warning had been added that Dick probably carried 6 (or more) Pokemon with him. The identified Pokemon were a (high) silver-stage Hitmonlee, a (high) silver-stage Shiftry, a (high) silver-stage Pangoro, and a (high) silver-stage Skuntank, which was probably how he got his criminal title.

Dick's lieutenants were called Tom and Harry. I made sure to memorize their looks as well since these two along with Dick were the ones I definitely needed to take down if I wanted to successfully complete my mission.

5 of Tom's Pokemon had been identified, while it was only 4 Pokemon for Harry. I was to assume that they actually had 6 to 8 Pokemon on hand just like Dick.

Tom had a (high) silver stage Sandslash, a (high) silver stage Toxicroak, a (mid) silver-stage Raticate, a (mid) silver stage Fearow, and a (mid) silver stage Mightyena.

Tom was the one handling the blackmail and kidnapping of their little criminal organization. He apparently liked to use poison in his plans, and he was not above using the situation for his own pleasure. Other low-level criminals called him Toxic Tom.

Harry on the other hand had a (high) silver-stage Primeape, a (high) silver-stage Scrafty, a (mid) silver-stage Arbok, and a (mid) silver-stage Beedrill. Harry seemed to be the executioner of their group and he seemed to have a penchant for having his Beedrill finish off his victims.

Apparently, he was called Harry the Impaler by other low-level criminals due to that sick habit of his. There are no less than 7 confirmed murders linked to him, but the true number was definitely higher than that.

Honestly, I was unsure whom I disliked more after reading their files since forced s** was just as bad as murder, sometimes it was even worse. However, I knew one thing, I wouldn't let them escape no matter what happened. I'd rather risk them dying on me than letting them pull off an escape.

I was unsure if that was done on purpose by the academy, but their crimes were surprisingly detailed, so all I felt was disgust when thinking about Tom, Dick, and Harry. I could actually understand it if they did it on purpose since it motivated me to go after them in full force.

It was one thing to know that such stuff happened out there, but a completely different matter to be directly confronted by it. Anyway, I memorized the face of the identified underlings to avoid missing one, and honestly besides two all of them had various degrees of serious crimes on their hands.

The other two only drove the group's vehicles but seemed to avoid any serious offenses.

Smog's band of criminals appeared to be based around Stylus City, a Tier 2 Minor/Small City 200 km from Rota. Their criminal activities seemed to happen in a radius of 3 to 400 hundred kilometers of that city, but the bulk of their influence was definitely around Stylus City.

After checking all files I placed the folder inside my bag. No way was I going to burn it as it happened in some spy movies. I then went home and told my parents that I had accepted a mission from the academy and that I was going to be busy with that for the next one to two weeks.

They wished me the best and mom cautioned me to be careful, but other than that they were pretty relaxed about the whole thing. I was not sure if it was because I told them that my targets were weaker than me or because they trusted the academy to keep me safe in an emergency, but I didn't care since it was better than them causing a spectacle.

I spent the rest of the week scouting Stylus City and the area around it and keeping an eye on all targets. I was studying their behavior/patterns to determine the best opportunity to act. I wanted to get them all at once, the fewer managed to slip away the better, so I had to be careful in my planning.

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