Akira's POV
The problem has always been there, quiet and persistent, like a hairline crack I learned not to look at directly.
My attack sits high. Speed higher. The mana pool has been A-rank for long enough that I stopped measuring it against other people. But defence, true defence, the kind that turns force aside instead of simply surviving it, has lagged behind everything else by a margin wide enough to matter.
B-rank. Solid enough to keep me alive through the missions the system has thrown at me. Not solid enough to make the impacts stop leaving their echoes in the body afterward. I have known this about myself for years. I have simply never said it out loud.
Kael sees it without being told.
