Zteel

As the last instruction bell of the day ended, cadets left the classroom in droves. Per usual, Jora stacked and organized documents on his desk.

Not too unexpectedly, he looked up to see Sage, Nyota and Kilo gathered around his desk, looking them up and down with a blank expression.

"What do you all want now?"

The three of them looked at each other and back deviously. Eventually, Sage began.

"We've got a bit of a bold proposal."

Jora stood upright, crossing his arms. "Uh-huh…"

Nyota continued. "The tournament is right around the corner, and as you know, we've been doing a lot of training," he paused.

Jora nodded sarcastically as to gesture Nyota to complete his thought.

Nyota clapped his hands together and pointed them at Jora. "But, we have yet to spar with you."

Jora snickered. "It's about time! All you had to do was ask, let's go." He finished his organization before heading for the classroom door.

Nyota, Sage and Kilo were surprised.

"Wait, now?" Kilo asked.

He paused and looked back. "You've sparred every day after hours and even come here on weekends. Did you not plan on doing the same thing today?"

"I mean yeah, but," Sage scratched his head. "You weren't busy?"

"Well, do you want to train or not? It's like you said, the tournament is right around the corner, there's no time to waste." He continued to head outside for the sparring courts.

The three shrugged amongst themselves and followed.

As they arrived outside, Jora stepped onto one of the courts, removing his coat before rolling his sleeves up and stretching his arms and shoulders.

He faced Nyota and the brothers. "Well? Come on!"

Nyota, Sage and Kilo gave each other one last look before doing as he commanded.

"One at a time or all together?" He asked as he assumed a fighting stance.

"Straight to business, I like it," Nyota grinned as he and the brothers assumed their positions. "All of us at once, how about it?"

"Say no more," Jora gave one final crack of his neck before rushing at him.

He threw an initial combo of punches at Nyota, but Nyota blocked and dodged each one individually.

With each separate attack, he countered with a punch or kick of his own, but Jora blocked them all with ease.

He was effortlessly going toe-to-toe with Nyota, almost as though he was toying with him. This was until Sage and Kilo leaped into the blend.

Both high in the air on either of Jora's sides, they landed in an attempt to strike him from above.

Despite the clever tactic, Jora blocked both attacks simultaneously and clenched onto the clothing of Kilo and thrust him into Sage and Nyota.

Kilo quickly regained his balance, and now all three of the cadets were bombarding Jora at once. Despite this, they struggled to land any effective attacks.

As a matter of fact, Jora fended them off well.

The cadets leaped away from him, creating space to reevaluate their tactics.

"Nothing's working right now," Nyota noted.

"So?" Kilo responded. "I say we keep going at him, 'til something sticks."

Sage shook his head. "No, that's not gonna work, especially against a guy like him. He knows our abilities, our tendencies, we need an actual strategy."

Because Jora hadn't stood too far away, he listened in to their conversation. Without response, he briefly bowed and shook his head with a chuckle.

"You got any suggestions, then?" Kilo retorted.

"I don't right now. But barraging him with unsynchronized attacks won't suffice."

"Yeah, alright," Kilo mumbled underneath his breath sarcastically before taking matters into his own hands.

Immediately, he rushed for Jora, cocking an open palm back.

"Why… Why doesn't he listen?" Sage rubbed his face in frustration.

"Come on," Nyota spoke, electricity flashing in the palm of his hand. "Can't have him attacking by himself." He quickly ran after Kilo.

Sage followed close behind, a ball of blue fire in each of his palms.

"You should probably listen to your brother." Jora, expecting yet another attack from Kilo, stood in place, unfazed.

"Blind fury won't work, not against any opponent you might face in the tournament or real life, and especially not me."

As Kilo closed in on him, Jora vanished and appeared behind him.

"That's just great, another quick opponent," Kilo thought to himself.

However, he had expected it, having witnessed quite a few battles that had taught him one thing.

If you could no longer see your opponent ahead of you, you should turn around.

So he did just that. As his eyes met Jora, he could see he prepared a winding strike, so he decided to give Jora a taste of his own.

"Futile," Jora swung his fist.

Pretending as though he would provide a direct counter, Kilo quickly slipped behind Jora and kindled flames in the palm of his hand.

Jora was caught off guard, but remained unfazed. "Impressive," he turned around and braced for impact, arms crossed in front of him.

"How's that, huh? Red Flames MO: Ruptured Chamber!"

Cocking back once more, then outstretching his hand, Kilo delivered the blow, launching Jora backward.

Jora dropped his arms and chuckled. "Disappearing and reappearing again. Well, it is the oldest trick in the book, isn't it? Jokes on me for—"

As he raised his head, Sage and Nyota swiftly and simultaneously closed in on him from perpendicular angles.

"Genesis Beacon!"

"Thunderbolt Drive!"

The two met, causing a large explosion. When the debris cleared, Jora appeared unfazed on the opposite side of the court, unscathed.

"I can't tell if that was planned or not," he joked. "But it's better than what you did before."

The three cadets sighed before rushing him once again, but to no avail.

During their barrage of attacks, Jora continued to stifle them repeatedly, knocking each of them back, this time accompanied with passive dialogue.

He delivered a firm punch into Sage's abdomen. "Uh-uh."

He delivered an elbow into Kilo's side. "Not quite."

Finally, he delivered a kick into Nyota's chest as well.

"What a shame," he said as he stepped back. Nyota, Sage and Kilo recoiled in shock, covering their bruises.

"Damn, we can't touch him." Nyota thought to himself. "How are we supposed to beat that?

And the brothers," he paused to look at them, who were just as disgruntled and annoyed as he was. "How can I get them on the same page?"

"Kilo, please, listen to me," Sage started. "Because I'm only gonna say this once. You can't blindly attack him without some sort of plan."

Kilo retorted back. "But you didn't have one, now did you? We're the ones with the MO, all he can do is see into the future!"

"Future sight, that's right!" Nyota remembered. "He knows what we're going to do before we even know ourselves. How could I have forgotten?"

As the two brothers continued to chip at one another, Nyota returned his gaze to Jora, disappointment written on his face.

"Unbelievable," Jora shook his head, speaking to himself. "All this training, and yet one obvious problem remains." Despite Nyota listening in, the brothers' continued to argue.

Regardless, he continued, his intent gaze directed at Nyota.

"The three of you might be prepared to battle your cadet peers, and you might have even gone abroad to defeat actual criminals.

But still, you continue to overlook what's most practical: your own chemistry. And I'm going to be honest, I don't know if you'll truly be able to win the tournament.

And if you can't do that, you're going to have to reconsider if your goals are even possible."

Distressed, Nyota pondered. He pondered on Nora's requirement of him to get stronger and be able to fend for himself before she would explain to him the puzzle that was his own mind.

He thought about Noriko and the ethics—or the lack thereof—behind Lunanova's laws over the land.

Most importantly to him, however, was that he would do anything to figure out who he was as a person, and he refused to let the first major obstacle for this be team chemistry. 

What could he have done? How could he resolve the dispute between his allies and figure out how to defeat Jora, or at the very least, land an effective attack?

He thought for a while. Then finally, he thought of something to say.

"Hey," he called to the brothers. Unable to hear him, they continued to argue.

"Hey!" He called again, finally grasping their attention. "Can you two shut the hell up?!"

Sage and Kilo quieted immediately. Nyota continued on.

"I bet you didn't even hear a single word Jora just said! Always constantly bickering, you two are rarely ever on the same page about anything, let alone during battle.

It's like you two forget you're family. I may not know how you two grew up with one another.

But, at least for the moment, get your shit together."

Nyota held two fingers together and tapped them against his temple.

"Come on and lock in."

Both Sage and Kilo looked at one another, then away.

"How do we keep ending up here, Kilo?" Sage asked. "I don't like it."

"You think I do?" Kilo chuckled. "All I know is our honorary brother needs us, so let's put the differences aside."

They both turned to Nyota. "Your call."

Nyota smirked, then turned back to Jora. "Can you spare us a moment?"

Jora laughed and held his hand up to his chin for a while. "Sure, it's unorthodox, but I'll grant it this one time.

Just know it'll likely never actually happen in any further battles. I'll grant you two."

Nyota huddled with Sage and Kilo, their arms resting on each other's shoulders.

"Alright, listen up," he started. "There's one thing we failed to remember, I almost feel like an idiot for forgetting. Kilo mentioned it earlier."

"I did?"

Nyota nodded. "He knows our next moves."

"But there's a time limit, isn't there?" Kilo asked.

"He mentioned a couple hours," Sage responded. "But that's too long."

"Unless it's a maximum average. I'm willing to bet we won't have to wait that long," Nyota added.

Sage clicked his tongue. "This is all we have, isn't it? Just a guess?"

Nyota nodded. "So our best bet as I see it now is to wait it out, keep this battle going on for as long as we can, whether we do this all in one fight or a series of rounds.

I say we give him thirty minutes, and if his Modus is still active…

Nothing else we can do but try our best."

"Alright, times up!" Jora called. "Show me what you've got."

The three spread out on their side of the sparring court and nodded to one another, signaling that they were prepared to fight again.

Without a word, Kilo attacked first.

"What?" Jora chuckled. "I thought you had a plan."

Kilo summoned balls of flames within the palms of his hands. He pulled them back to charge his attack.

"Let's do this one more time! Ruptured Chamber!"

"Once again, your attacks are futile, and as a matter of fact, I think it's time to teach a lesson."

"The time is now, Nyota," Sage whispered.

Nyota nodded his head. "Right on, let's go."

Swiftly, the two followed behind Kilo as a means to, at the very least, surprise Jora.

Meanwhile, Kilo joined and outstretched his arms together, ignoring Jora's comments.

This time, Jora decided to counter Kilo's attack head on. With no Modus to physically defend him, he met Kilo's palm of combustion with a fist, successfully stifling his attack.

"What?" Kilo thought to himself. "Impossible! With what power?!"

BOOM!!

A large explosion was caused by the impact.

Before it could clear, Jora leaped away from the smoke, but was met immediately with yet another combined attack from Sage and Nyota.

"Blazing Carousel!"

"Thunderbolt Drive!"

Expecting their attack once again, he raised and crossed his arms in front of him as a means of defense.

BOOM!!

Once again, he managed to withstand their attacks.

"These kids," he started as he looked behind him, retreating away to create space.

"They know I know their next moves, and yet they continue to attack brazenly. I'm doing fine now, but it's getting annoying.

Forgetting wanting to. If this keeps up, I'm not sure how much longer I can willingly withstand this."

Finally returning his gaze ahead of him, Kilo appeared almost unexpectedly, yet another attack already prepared to deliver.

"Right where I want you!" He yelled with a devious smile on his face.

Kilo outstretched a single palm directly into Jora's body just barely after he could deflect.

The fire blast connected with him, causing yet another smoggy explosion.

As the smoke cleared, the three cadets gathered and watched as a knocked Jora coughed and stood to his feet.

He thought to himself. "Well, at least they haven't figured it out, right?"

He looked up to Nyota, Sage and Kilo, who held smug and triumphant expressions.

"What are you just standing there for? I'm not done yet."

"We're on to you," Nyota stuffed a hand into his pocket. "I'm sure I know how your Modus works now."

"Oh yeah?" Jora snickered, wiping his face. "Enlighten me."

"Well as you figured, we realized you were able to foresee our initial attacks, considering how we first came into contact with you then, allowing you to know everything that followed even before we could.

I won't lie, our only plan was to continue to attack brazenly to wear you down, in hopes of tiring you out and defeating you.

But the more attacks you were confronted with, the less prepared you were to counter each one."

"And?"

"Oh…" Sage exclaimed, nodding. "The more damage he took, or even more likely, the more distracted he was…"

"The shorter his foresight was." Kilo completed his brother's thought. "Nice going, Nyota."

"That's not all. The reason as to why your MO hasn't reset is likely because it somehow has a timer for when it can be used again.

Or, because your precognition can't reach further than it already does simply by coming into contact with someone again, at least while you're distressed."

It must be one of two of those reasons, or both."

"So, what?" Jora denied. "I could've just been tired. That doesn't necessarily reveal anything about my ability."

"Sure," Nyota granted. "Even so, you are a Lieutenant, so I'm willing to bet that's what's happened."

Jora laughed. "You're smart kids, I'm not sure whether I've said this before or not, but I've picked my mentees wisely."

"You may have mentioned that before," Nyota answered back jokingly, scratching his head.

"Yeah, well… I'm not quite done yet. I may not have an MO ideally suited for combat, but you better not hold back!" Jora quickly assumed a fighting stance and darted at the cadets.

"One at a time, this time," Nyota commanded. Sage and Kilo nodded in agreement.

Per usual, Kilo attacked first. Using his Ruptured Chamber attack, he collided with Jora, who barely grazed him.

"I'm still there…" Jora muttered as he endured the assault.

Shortly after, Sage delivered his patented Blazing Carousel attack, stunning him.

"Still here…"

Finally, Nyota blitzed Jora for the final move of the battle. His attack had been pending for as long as Jora was challenged by the brothers.

He formed a ball of lightning in each hand, combined them together and outstretched his arms toward Jora.

"I'm still here!"

"BLUE LIGHTNING MO: ROARING FLASH!"

Jora countered Nyota's attack head on.

BOOM!!