Kenji wasn't in his office. He was on the roof of the IAB tower, twenty-five stories above his desk, sitting cross-legged on the ledge. He hadn't bothered with the elevator; he simply used a precise application of his Mana Efficiency to climb the exterior wall in seconds, a nearly silent, controlled ascent only a few Enforcers were even aware he could perform.
He wasn't sleeping, either. His eyes were open, fixed on the distant, chaotic energy signature emanating from the Old Financial District—a signature that had just shifted from "volatile" to "catastrophic."
Monitoring the Inefficiency
His IAB earpiece crackled. It was Commander Elara, her voice tight with panic.
"Grandmaster, the energy spike is off the charts! Ren and Sora are engaged. The target, the Blade of Volcanic Flare, is being overcharged. We're detecting mass elemental failure in the surrounding infrastructure. The fire Jujutsu will engulf the area in minutes!"
Kenji, still utterly calm, took a slow, deep breath, tasting the Mana-thick air. "The spike isn't the blade, Commander. It's Haruka and Zilla working together. Zilla is creating the pressure; Haruka is using the sheer volume of that force to amplify the blade's output. It's a massive, sloppy power output designed for one thing: distraction."
"We can't get close! Finn's Sensory Nullification is blocking all magical surveillance, and Glitch's Kinetic Negation shield is turning all direct assaults inert!" Elara pleaded. "You have to deploy, Kenji! The Special Grade mandate requires intervention!"
Kenji sighed—the sound of profound annoyance at the universe's refusal to be boring. "Deploying would take me ten minutes to navigate the ground chaos, Commander. That's ten minutes too late."
He didn't need the tactical map; he could read the magical battlefield through the sheer volume of contradictory Mana signatures. He saw Ren's bursts of Snap Cast Neutralization flickering against the steady, heavy beat of Glitch's shield. He saw Sora's massive, chaotic Concussion Webs being rendered useless the moment they hit the negation field.
Glitch. That was the key.
"Glitch is the one making a direct physical assault impossible," Kenji murmured. "He's Akira's ultimate defense against me. He nullifies Mana-fueled kinetic force. My physical precision is useless against that. They know my style."
The Forbidden Calculus
A low, cold resolve replaced Kenji's lazy exterior. He knew the consequence of the next few minutes. He could try to bypass Glitch with extreme Mana efficiency, a high-risk gamble that would likely result in a slow, agonizing defeat—and the entire district burning.
Or, he could break the rule.
He slowly reached up and took the familiar, smooth hilt of his Anchor Blade, Kage, out from the subspace dimension created by his Dimensional Sheath technique. The blade itself wasn't special, but the Mana that coated it was pure, terrifying darkness.
"Commander," Kenji said, his voice dropping, the lazy drawl replaced by a flat, cold tone that carried absolute authority. "Notify all civilian and Enforcer personnel. I am initiating a Total Area Containment Protocol over the Financial District. Clear the airspace. No incoming or outgoing traffic, magical or physical, is permitted."
Elara stammered, "Kenji, what are you—"
"I am overriding your authority," Kenji cut in, the first real expression of his Special Grade power. "This situation requires a solution that is outside the IAB's current combat paradigm. Inform the other Special Grades—Rina and Kaito—that a Code Omega is potentially inbound."
A Code Omega was the highest designation: an event that required the use of prohibited magic or force and risked mass exposure of the magical world. It was the name Kenji had given his own ultimate power.
Shadow Blink
He couldn't waste ten minutes climbing down. He couldn't waste five minutes running.
Kenji channeled his true, forbidden power: the Dark Magic. The pure, black Mana that fueled his techniques wasn't about enhancement or efficiency; it was about manipulating the fabric of space and reality.
A shadow, not his own, detached itself from the soles of his sandals, swirling up his body. It absorbed the light, the heat, and the Mana around him. The Dark Mana felt corruptive, cold, and utterly potent—a terrifying sensation he always suppressed.
In the micro-second it took for the shadow to consume him, Kenji targeted the deepest pocket of darkness beneath the Auction House—the Mana Conduit itself.
With a silent, instantaneous distortion of reality, Kenji initiated the Shadow Blink. He vanished from the IAB roof, not through acceleration, but through a surgical, precise tear in space.
He reappeared deep within the flooded, debris-choked trenches of the Auction House basement, directly at the defunct Mana Conduit. He was now right beneath the main battle, ready to deploy the Dark Magic that would break Glitch's shield, neutralize the Blade of Volcanic Flare, and—in the process—ruin his life forever.
His lazy day was long dead. Now, the Grandmaster had to fight the war he'd been trying to avoid for years.