As soon as the guards saw that Tsukuru and Quinn were out of sight, they both exchanged looks.
The left guard brought his watch to his chest, and pressed his fingers to the screen opening a com link.
Back in the military base, within a large break room, Sergeant Shizuka and Sergeant Faye were lounging on a couch, watching a movie on the big, flat-screen TV bolted to the wall.
A strange, black box had cords attaching it to the back of the TV.
This was a device created by the Green Family known as "The Black Box". It was a device that had digital recordings of old media from the early 80's to late 21st century, a way to enjoy media from that era, as all physical copies were long-since either lost or rendered inoperable.
On the screen, Shizuka and Faye were watching what Shizuka had called a "horror flick".
There was a man with a burned face wearing a brown, bowler hat. He also wore a faded, red-and-black shirt and black pants. On his left hand, he wore a leather glove that seemed to have long, metal blades fastened to the four fingertips.
The man was looming over a teenage girl with long, curly brown hair in a pink gown.
He had his arm raised in the air, prepared to swing down, and use the blades on his gloves to slash the girl, similarly to how a tiger or lion would.
Sergeant Faye glanced over at Shizuka, who had an oversized bowl of popcorn in her hands, watching the scene without a care.
It was then that Shizuka's watch began to beep, and the screen lit up.
Shizuka let out an annoyed sigh.
She brought it up to her chest, and placed her fingers on the screen, answering it.
"What?" She asked in an irritated tone.
"Um, Sergeant Shizuka, you asked to be informed if Hikiko Tsukuru left the school grounds?" The voice asked from the other end.
Shizuka raised her eyebrow in confusion.
"And?" She asked. There was a long pause, before the voice continued.
"He's left the school grounds, ma'am." The voice replied. "He also has a Level 1 with black, curly hair with him."
Shizuka's eyes narrowed.
"That boy again." She muttered.
Shizuka glanced over at Faye.
"I'll be back." She replied, getting up.
Faye snatched the popcorn, and began eating it.
"Hellicopter Parent." She muttered. Shizuka's eye twitched in annoyance.
"I'm just going to make sure he gets back in one piece!" Shizuka replied, tipping her cap. "You never know what those piece of shit high-Level students will do when they think no one's watching!"
Faye continued watching the movie as Shizuka left the room.
She walked down the halls, and exited the school through the front entrance.
As she walked past the guards at the gate, they saluted her.
Once she was outside, she stood still, her hands behind her back.
Instantly, Shizuka's body began to lose its coloring, taking on the coloration of rock.
Her body then began to break down, like a rock statue crumbling in the wind.
This was her Soul Weapon.
The Soul Weapons within the Hikiko Bloodline had always been…unique.
It always involved the user's physical body becoming one with their Ability.
Shizuka's and Tsukuru's mother, Hikiko Reiju, known during the Dalki War by her epithet "Queen Machina", was able to literally transform her body into the same nanobots she produced using her Ability using her Soul Weapon.
This not only allowed her to transform her body into an intangible "swarm" of nanomachines, giving her the appearance of a being composed of metallic-silver sand, but it also allowed her to transform her limbs into various forms of high-tech weaponry, making her akin to a living mech.
Shizuka's Soul Weapon was similar.
She could transform her body into living, loose earth.
While this lacked the rigid strength of the Stone Transformation Ability, it provided its own form of benefits.
Like Reiju's, Shizuka's Soul Weapon allowed her to turn her body into an intangible mass, making her virtually immune to any form of attack.
In this form, she was only weak against things such as fire and ice, as flames melted her earth body into glass, and ice froze it together, rendering her immobile.
However, a trade-off was that she could also use her earthen body as "Earth" for her Ability.
The crumbling stone that was once Shizuka's body fell onto the ground as a pile of earth rocks and gravel.
Suddenly, the rocks and gravel began to move, like loose rocks being blown in the wind.
This was a special Earth Skill that only Shizuka had access to, a by-product of her Soul Weapon.
It was called "Earthen Travel".
It both allowed her to move faster, and could be used for stealth.
As the pile of earth and gravel glided across the ground, she soon spotted Tsukuru and Quinn running towards the base's convenience store.
Despite being reduced to a pile of rock and gravel, Shizuka could see everything around her perfectly.
'Strange, I don't recall Tsukuru ever being that athletic.' Shizuka thought, as she tailed them. 'It must be another aspect of that 'System' Tsu-Tsu spoke of.'
When the two reached the convenience store, the trail of rock and gravel snaked around a corner and went behind the building.
Shizuka then reformed herself.
Looking up, she saw the roof of the building.
She stomped her foot on the ground, and activated her Ability.
The ground she was standing on shot up like a spring-loaded, launching platform.
When she reached the top of the roof, she simply walked off of the platform onto the roof.
The stone platform fell back down to the ground, and crumbled apart.
Shizuka re-activated her Soul Weapon's "Earthen Travel" Skill, and snaked over towards the building's skylight before reconstituting herself.
Crouching down, she looked inside.
She saw the black-haired boy and Tsukuru perusing the snack aisle.
Shizuka raised an eyebrow as she saw the black-haired boy pick up a large amount of ice cream and potato chips.
"Damn." She muttered. "Guess that shit they serve in the canteen isn't very filling."
She then narrowed her eyes, as she saw the two duck down behind an aisle and look at something.
Following their line of sight, she saw Riley and his group of friends.
It was then that something caught Shizuka's eyes.
Hiding behind an aisle a distance away from Tsukuru and the boy was that same brown-haired girl she had seen spying on them at the second-year building.
"Her again." Shizuka muttered.
She watched as the first group of boys exited the store.
It was then that Tsukuru and the black-haired boy walked up to the register.
However, the boy now had a halloween mask on for some reason.
Shizuka reactivated her Soul Weapon and the same Skill.
She snaked back towards the side of the roof. It was then that the rocks and gravel slid off of the corner like rain.
The rocks and gravel then all grouped together, and Shizuka snaked back around to the front.
She followed the brown-haired girl, who was following Tsukuru and the black-haired boy, who in-turn were following a boy in orange hair who had separated from the group.
Shizuka then reconstituted next to the brown-haired girl.
The girl, Layla, snapped her head to the side, as she saw Shizuka appear next to her.
But before Layla could instinctively shriek in surprise, Shizuka swung her hand over, and slapped it over her mouth.
"Shh." Shizuka replied in a low voice that left no room for argument.
Together, the two watched.
They saw Tsukuru throw his Beast Gear dagger at the back of the boy's leg, causing him to fall down, with the black-haired boy, now wearing the mask, running up to him, and performing a sweeping kick, sending the other boy flying.
Tsukuru then walked up to the black-haired boy, and the confrontation started.
As the orange-haired boy charged at them, Tsukuru threw another dagger, which pierced the boy's left thigh, causing him to fall once again.
The boy in the mask then ran up and swung his fist back, aiming to hit him right in the face.
Back with Tsukuru and Quinn, Quinn's punch landed.
But something was wrong.
Instantly, Quinn's face twisted in pain under his mask, and he let out a groan of pain.
He felt as if he had just hit a rock.
"Goddamnit!" Quinn screamed, as he jumped back.
A System message appeared in front of him.
[Your fist is now broken. HP: 7/10]
Looking up, he saw that Riley's face had taken up a rock-like consistency.
He had activated his Ability, returning his fist to normal and hardening his face, at the last moment.
Riley then charged at Quinn, his fist pulled back.
However, Tsukuru ran past Quinn, intercepting Riley.
In his right hand, he had created another copy of that same glathrium knuckle he had used during the strength test.
Quinn fell to his feet, holding his now-broken hand in his other one.
While he was kneeling on the ground, he looked ahead, watching as Tsukuru took on Riley in his stead.
Once Tsukuru was in front of Riley, he threw out his fist with all his strength, driving the glathrium knuckle into his gut.
Riley's face twisted into pain and shock, as the impact sent him back, making him stagger.
In Tsukuru's vision, he saw that Riley's HP bar had fallen by half, leaving only one-fifth of the bar remaining.
He leaped back to where Quinn was standing. Quinn watched as Tsukuru tapped the glathrium knuckle in his hand with his left hand.
Unbeknownst to Quinn, a System message appeared, asking Tsukuru if he wanted to place the glathrium knuckle in the System's Inventory.
Tsukuru thought "yes".
Quinn watched as the glathrium knuckle broke down into pixels, and disappeared.
Tsukuru looked down, and they both watched as Quinn's hand, once again, began to heal.
His HP then returned to normal.
Quinn then felt the hunger within him grow.
A System message appeared in front of him.
[Your hand is now fully healed. HP: 10/10. Your hunger grows even stronger.]
Quinn grit his teeth in annoyance at the message.
Suddenly, he saw bright light to the right of him, and heard the sound of electronic interference.
Looking over, he saw Tsukuru creating another copy of his Beast dagger in his right hand, holding it in a reverse-grip.
Seeing it, Quinn narrowed his eyes.
"Tsukuru." Quinn replied.
Instantly, Tsukuru glanced down at him.
"I don't suppose you have another piece of Beast Gear in that 'Inventory' of yours, do you?" He asked.
Tsukuru glanced at him for a minute, before his gaze drifted down to his newly-healed arm.
He really didn't want to have to worry about Quinn breaking his bones every time he hit Riley, and Quinn's sudden question had given him an idea.
Suddenly, he had an idea.
His mind flashed back to that set of "Basic-Tier Knight Gauntlets" that he got when he created his Haunted Knight yesterday morning, before he and Logan had left for the base, which was currently just collecting dust in his Weapons Tab along-side its matching "Knight Sword".
Tsukuru smiled.
This might just be "killing to birds with one stone", as it were.
"Actually, I just might." Tsukuru replied, seeing a look of hope momentarily flash across Quinn's face.
He kneeled down to the ground and put his hand above the ground, right in front of Quinn.
"Hang on, I got an idea."
Quinn watched, as translucent, light-blue pixels began to appear on the ground below Tsukuru's hovering hand.