Training

"Listen, Rin," Aiden spoke while handing to the girl a piece of paper. "You have approximately one week."

The paper contained information about a certain building. To be more precise, it showed the characteristics, details and architecture of Ark's main headquarter inside Myriad city.

"Whereupon we will raid this place." He continued pointing intently at the piece of paper.

"..." Rin stayed silent for a second. "Have you gone insane?" She asked in a flat tone, neither surprised nor shocked.

As a reminder for all, Ark is a global organization that was created for Elite. To say nothing of the influence it has around the world, all of its facility are generally only composed of Elite. To even fathom of attacking such a fearsome association would be the pinnacle of foolishness.

"Yeah I knew you'd say that," Aiden responded, not disheartened. "But, we actually have a fair chance of succeeding."

This time he placed a black device on the table they were using. After he touched it a little, a 3D image of the map of the entire city with, in addition, a total of ten shining red dot scattered around inside appeared above it.

"This is?" Rin questioned, a little awed by the technology.

"You're not without knowing of the method Ark use to deal with the Rift, right?" The man said, looking at the younger girl.

Rin nodded. "They use a device called 'oracle' to predict where it would appear and dispatch an appropriate number of Elite to that position."

"That's right." Aiden acquiesce. "This is one such device."

"...I see." A look of understanding was now on Rin's face.

Aiden guessed that Rin probably already guessed what he will say next. Nevertheless, he continued speaking. Sometimes he finds it a pain to explain things, yet other times he also feels like he need to do it.

"These red dots on the map are where the Rift will appear in exactly six day's time." He spoke. "I'm not really a fan of history, but I'm sure that it's not everyday we see dozen 'gate of monsters' appearing at the same time like this."

Ark's duty is to protect the citizen from the monsters, as such, if a large number of threat were to appear, they need to deploy all the Elite necessary to eliminate them. And that, even if it means leaving their headquarter unguarded.

"An opportunity like this is unlikely to come again," Aiden said, concluding his short explanation. "We'll strike them when their guard are at the lowest. That's why, Rin, you have less than a week to accommodate to your new power."

◇

Two days have now passed since Rin was 'upgraded'. She was currently sitting on the edge of a roof of an unknown building. It was already night, so she didn't spot that many people. She silently gazed at the night scenery, enjoying the gentle breeze that was caressing her skin.

"Five days from now." She muttered, counting the number of day before the raid. "That's actually the first day of the new year." A bitter smile appeared on her face. Doing her first criminal work on the beginning of the year was something she wouldn't be proud of, that's for sure.

However, this was the path she had chosen. In exchange from the power she had obtained, she needed to join 'unchained'. That was the deal between her and Aiden. Regretting her decision now would be stupid.

"Okay," Rin stood up from her place and stretched a little. "Time to continue." She said, before leaping to another rooftop with all her force. From there, she continued, hooping from rooftop to rooftop without stopping.

This was a sort of training for her, to see how far she could go with one jump and also to gauge her leg force. The reason she was doing this was because, like Aiden said, she needed to accommodate to her new power. Of course, the ideal for this would be to continue doing mock battle, but after the first one, Edward refused to spar with her anymore. She also didn't want to ask the other four members as she didn't really know them.

Left with no other option, Rin decided to try various things in order to create her own training regimen. Though, even with that said, she only had less than five days, so she opted for a rasher solution. And that is, to simply exert her body to the maximum.

However, that method did have some inconvenient. For example, she needed to pay attention to her surrounding constantly, so that no one saw her using her inhuman strength. Otherwise, her identity as a criminal might be discovered and compromised. If that were to happen, the number of problem she would need to face would be immeasurable. To prevent that, she wore a hoodie and even wore the faceless mask Aiden gave her. It being nighttime was also another precaution she had taken.

After running and jumping around from rooftop to rooftop like a ninja, Rin finally landed on the place she had deemed perfect for her training. It was a little outside of the city thus making it less likely for anyone to be around.

Not wanting to waste any of her already limited time, Rin took a deep breath and prepared herself. Her current objective is to have a more advanced control on her increased physical ability. And to do so, she first need to have an exact grasp on how much strength she can output.

Her aim being a big boulder a little away from her, she clenched her fist, exhaling the air she had inhaled. An instant later, she leaped toward her target and punched it with all her strength, shattering the rock to pieces. The ensuing cloud of dust was also as easily blown away with just one swing of her arm.

Rin didn't feel that much resistance from the object, obliging her to find a more solid object to redo her test. Not thinking very far, she choose the ground for her second punch.

No one was around to see her, but if there was one, they would surely be bewildered or even frightened by how much strength she possessed. She looked literally like a demon that was unleashing its wrath on the land.

◇

4 hours later, Rin finally got back to her house, completely covered in dust, dirt and sweat. She felt gross so she immediately took a bath.

It was already around midnight when she got out of it, a towel placed on her neck. She was sitting on her canopy, while thinking of nothing. Even with all the workout she had done, she still didn't feel like eating anything. Though, she was indeed hungry. Right now, she just didn't feel like doing anything.

'I might just sleep like this.' She thought, her eyelid becoming heavier.

Suddenly, however, her phone began to ring. Annoyed a little, she took the phone harshly, only to see none other than her friend, Celia Kail, calling her. Calming down a little, she received it.

"It's the middle of the night, Celia," She said, still annoyed. "What do you want?"

"..." On the other hand, no one answered her.

"Celia?" Rin repeated.

"...I hate mean people." Her friend finally responded.

Hearing that, Rin sighed with a resigned smile.

"Fine." She spoke. "Did you perhaps felt lonely?"

"Yeah." Celia stated, the image of her pouting appearing on Rin's mind.

"I see. So, how was it? The island, I mean."

From then on, Rin and Celia talked with each other, not for a long time, yet not for a short one either. It was Celia that mostly talked about how Ark island was from what she saw.

Originally, it was because of Fate Silver's report about her that Celia was invited to the famous Island. That's why, it was only him that accompanied her there. The purpose of this trip was for the scientific of Ark to study and comprehend how exactly Celia's power manifested.

However, it seemed that beside that, she was allowed to do whatever she wanted.

"Or so they said, but during these past two days, they bombarded me with test upon test without giving me rest." Celia complained over the phone.

"Well," Rin responded lightly, heading to her bed. "Good luck."

A little while after that, Rin hung up the phone.

'She has it tough too, huh' She thought before sleeping.

◇

The next three days that followed, Rin's day was divided into two parts. The morning, from 7 to 18 o'clock she would focus on the various part time job she had aquired. Her living expanses were fully covered by her families but it didn't change the fact that she didn't like it.

Honestly speaking, she wouldn't be surprised if she was disowned right here and now. Her family hated her and it's not like she could do anything to change that fact. That's why she's doing everything to amass as much as money as possible.

The school being closed helped her greatly in that regards. Though, from a normal person's viewpoint, she was overworking herself.

The other half of her day, from 18 to 20 o'clock she would wholeheartedly focus on her training. She was after all, preparing to fight against Elite. If she were to get captured, there woul be no guarantie the bunch of criminal form 'unchained' would save her.

And just like that, Aiden's time limit was over. New year began in earnest and so was Rin's first ever criminal act.