Kenji stood abruptly, kicking his fold-out metal chair back. The clatter was the only loud, inefficient noise he'd made all day, and it served to break the tension in the crowded closet.
"Kaito is not an enemy. He is an asset," Kenji stated, his voice devoid of his usual lazy drawl. "But he is dangerously close to the one classified piece of information that cannot surface."
________________________________________
The Race Against Time
Kenji activated his internal comms, bypassing Elara's channel. He knew he had minutes before Kaito's Chronal Tracing Jujutsu—his power to look backward in time—could reconstruct the suppressed history of the Dark Magic protocols.
"Ren, Sora. New mission priority. Forget the Vault Audit. We have to intercept Grandmaster Kaito."
Ren, ever the analytical mind, instantly accessed the IAB internal surveillance feed on his pad. "He's in the deepest Archive level, three sectors away from the main power core. He's accessing the oldest, physical files—the ones that pre-date digital records. If his Chronal Tracing is focused, he can read every handwritten note from fifty years ago in real-time."
"His Chronal Tracing isn't a power you fight with force," Sora warned, her hands already sparking with latent Kinetic Mana. "You can't just shatter his concentration. If you hit him, the energy feedback could cause a temporal ripple across the Archives. It'll be impossible to clean up."
"Exactly," Kenji confirmed, grabbing his Anchor Blade, Kage. "He's the most delicate of the Special Grades. We can't break him, but we have to stop him."
Kenji looked at his two monitors, their contradictory powers now essential to this new, fragile mission.
• "Sora," Kenji commanded. "You use your Kinetic Mana Augmentation and Concussion Webs to seal off the Archive level entrance. If anyone—including Elara's security detail—tries to get in, you use non-lethal force to stop them. No collateral damage. Use your webs to contain and crush anything that moves."
• "Ren," Kenji continued. "You're coming with me. Your Snap Cast Mastery is the key. Kaito's Chronal Tracing is a continuous, low-volume Mana flow. If we cut the flow, we risk the temporal ripple. You need to use your most precise, surgical Snap Cast Neutralization to introduce a Mana-Dampening Field right next to him. Don't attack him; suppress his power by making his environment hostile to Jujutsu."
________________________________________
Confrontation at the Core
Ren and Kenji moved with terrifying efficiency, Kenji using his Mana Efficiency to execute a blur of silent motion, Ren matching his pace by deploying micro-bursts of Snap Cast Displacement.
They found Kaito exactly where Ren predicted: in a cold, dusty subterranean chamber, surrounded by ancient, brittle file boxes. Kaito, a thin man in a pristine IAB trench coat, stood before a massive, lead-sealed chest marked CLASSIFIED: PROJECT ANCHOR. His eyes were closed, and his continuous, faint Chronal Tracing Mana signature pulsed rhythmically, already reaching back into the past.
Ren immediately went to work, deploying a near-invisible net of Mana-Dampening Fields around the chamber. The effect was immediate: the air felt heavy and sluggish, resisting the free flow of Mana.
Kaito opened his eyes—which were momentarily glazed with the dust of past records—and smiled, recognizing the trap.
"Grandmaster Kenji," Kaito said, his voice calm, yet tinged with the weary knowledge of ages. "I knew you would come. The moment I witnessed your 'Temporal-Pressure Wave,' I started tracing its history. Your lie was too perfect to be true."
"You're violating every protocol, Kaito," Kenji warned, drawing Kage. He wasn't going to fight, but the threat had to be real.
"I am securing the IAB's future," Kaito countered, his voice rising in intensity. "Akira and Haruka were not the true threat. You are, Kenji. Your power, that Dark Magic, was classified as the single most dangerous, reality-warping force ever contained by this Bureau."
Kaito pointed to the chest. "This file contains the Original Suppression Protocol—the technique used to bind and stabilize your power when you were first inducted. I'm confirming whether or not the technique you used at the Auction House was an uncontained eruption of the Dark Magic."
Kenji took a slow, calculated step forward. "That knowledge changes nothing."
"It changes everything," Kaito whispered, his Chronal Tracing spiking in one last, desperate effort. "Because if you used the Dark Magic, Kenji, it means the Original Suppression Protocol is failing. And if that fails, you won't just destroy a district; you will shatter the magical laws of the entire sector."
Kenji lunged, not to attack, but to slam his Anchor Blade against the open archive chest, shattering the lock and sealing the information again. The collision of Mana Efficiency against the raw force of Kaito's tracing filled the chamber with a blinding, temporal energy. The truth was almost out.