"Oh. The sixth ranker. I wondered if I'd ever meet you. Makes sense that you're chief this young," Yuki played with fire more as the group walked back toward home.
The sun had just set, but they decided it would be fine to head home, rather than stay the night. The forest was more ominous now that there wasn't much light. Shu felt as if anything could be lurking in the woods now, yet was more comforted. He enjoyed the dark. The sun hurt his eyes. The darkness was like a cool breeze. Not too hot or cold. He was able to properly think when it was like this. The glaring sun couldn't distract him from his thoughts. And then there was the fire Yuki held. It was a soft, warm glow, leaving room for the darkness around it, rather than overpowering it. And the flames danced in the palm of her hand. He never got bored watching fire. No two movements were ever the same. It was alive and unpredictable. These were the reasons Shu loved fire.
He wished he could make fire without the hassle of building one and constantly feeding it to keep it alive. He enjoyed it, but it would be nice to just will the fire into existence.
But he instead was able to control water. Water was cold. Water was wet. Water could suffocate you if you weren't careful. He didn't like water. And worst of all, he needed water to use it. He couldn't just create water. If there was no water nearby, he was powerless. And he could only use as much water as there was. He couldn't make a wall out of it if he only had a bottle's worth. Water was just so inconvenient.
Shu's mind went back to the trail when he heard a rustling sound come from the bushes followed by his group yelling.
There was a figure rushing at Yuki. Shu attempted to raise a wall of water to block it, but there was no water nearby. He would have to rely on his weapons and skills alone. He threw himself in the way of the figure and slashed at it with his sword. He cut through the figure easily. Almost too easily. He focused on the figure for the first time and saw thar it looked like a bunch of mismatched body parts were put together and being used as a puppet. The place he had slashed through wasn't attached. That's why it had so little resistance. This was just like what Ryu had told him about his encounter in the hall.
"Everyone stay back!" Shu called out to the group. "I'll try to handle this! Kiyo-"
Before Shu was finished speaking, Kiyoshi had molded his metal walking stick into a one-handed sword and was attacking the puppet.
Metal manipulation, Shu thought.
He slashed again and again, seemingly trying to see if it was cut enough it would stop.
Shu noticed that it's movements were getting more rough every cut, like if it was becoming harder to control. Eventually, blood no longer came out when it was cut, and that's when it stopped.
"It looks like if the body has no blood left, it can't be controlled. He must use something in the blood to puppeteer them," Kiyoshi half muttered to himself. He looked exhausted from cutting so much, having difficulties catching his breath.
"Then we know how to counter it. If we can come up with a more efficient way to get rid of the blood, we have a way to hold our own. We should hurry. We're almost to the village. I can see the wall," Shu started running, making sure the others followed.
The squad burst into Lady Aiko's office.
"Ma'am, we have a problem. The Puppet Master attacked us right before we got back to the village. We didn't actually see him, but we were attacked by one of his puppets," Kiyoshi said with urgency.
"Is everyone okay? Did anyone get injured?" Aiko's eyes were filled with worry as her eyes darted around the crew, looking for any injuries.
"Nobody was hurt. It almost got me, but Shu blocked it and started fighting it. Then Kiyoshi found a way to immobilize them. Of all of the blood is drained from the body, then it can't be controlled anymore. It's a possibility that he uses something within the blood," Yuki looked kind of pale.
Shu remembered how she had slight hemophobia.
"I see. We can use this information to our advantage. On a related note, we weren't able to match the puppetmaster's mana signature with anyone from the village," Aiko said with a worried expression.
Along with the basic elemental awakenings, there are also those who can manipulate or deal with raw mana. It is a more rare form of awakening and has proven to be useful for identification and can be used to temporarily disable one's awakening. So far it had been found that you need to make physical contact with a person to interfere with their mana.
Despite not being the best for combat because there are no offensive abilities, mana awakenings are highly valued. There are rumors of a few people being able to use pure mana as a weapon and tool, but there is no proof. However, if it did end up happening, that person would probably end up as a king.
"And it doesn't match with any other mana signatures that have entered the village. It only appears in that hallway," Aiko looked lost.
"It appeared on the puppet from earlier, too. But when I did a quick scan, there was no matches other than the path the Puppet was brought on. He didn't appear to be nearby at all," Kiyoshi looked regretful.
Both metal and mana, huh? He really is something, Shu was impressed.
"I see… Thank you, Kiyoshi. And thank you for protecting teams 99 and 3."
"Just doing my duty, Lady Aiko."
Shu had trouble falling asleep that night. It wasn't that he was worried about his own safety, but rather his mother, father, and sister's. What if they were put in danger because he and Yuki dug too deep?