In front of my building, silence had returned, but the tension remained palpable. Okiku stared at me, her hands clenched tightly around her suitcases.

  "Sir... about what I did. About my strength. I beg of you... keep it a secret."

  I looked at her. As a policeman, I knew these kinds of secrets always ended up exploding. But seeing her distress, I couldn't hand her over to a system desperately looking for a scapegoat to sacrifice.

  "All right," I whispered. "I won't say a word."

  Her eyes lit up with an almost excessive hope. She stepped closer, seizing my hands before I could pull back.

  "You... you saw something in me, didn't you? Like the other day...? My parents say my power comes from an ancestor... a pact with a mystical being. Please, help me awaken it properly!"

  I stood there, my hands trapped in hers, my brain hitting a total system error. A clan? A pact with a mystical being? It was too much information, way too fast. In my world as a cop, we handled hit-and-runs and neighborhood disputes, not contracts with ancestral spirits. I felt like she was speaking a foreign language for which I didn't even have the alphabet.

  I felt a drop of sweat slide down my back. Me, a powerless cop, playing mentor? If I accepted, I was saying goodbye to my peace and quiet. If I refused, she might cause a catastrophe out of ignorance.

  "No, that's impossible," I began, turning away.

  But seeing the light die in her eyes that depressive void I had encountered too often in victims my protective instinct took over.

  "Wait..." I sighed. "We'll try. But I'm not promising anything."

  "See you tomorrow then!" she chirped with a radiant smile before disappearing into the suburban alleys.

  I stayed rooted to the spot, alone in front of my entrance.

  "What do you mean, 'see you tomorrow'?"

  OKIKU'S POINT OF VIEW

  A few streets away, I arrived in front of a warm house with a towering cherry tree. I rang the bell. The door opened to Aiko, my childhood friend.

  "OKIKU! You're finally here! Come in, quick!"

  The welcome was brief but intense. Aiko was in a hurry.

  "I'm leaving you the keys. I have a friend getting out of the hospital her house was destroyed, she's going to stay here too. I'm off to go get her!"

  She ran off. I went up to my new room. The evening light filtered through the white curtains. It was peaceful. Too peaceful. I thought back to Kenji. He looked so ordinary, yet he gave off something different.

  DOCTOR TANASHI'S POINT OF VIEW

  On the upper floor of the hospital, Doctor Tanashi watched the parking lot from his window. He saw a woman, Aiko, helping the rescued schoolgirl into a car with her dog, Alex.

  He looked down at his tablet. As a doctor, he had access to the biometric data collected by the hospital's terminals.

  "Interesting," he murmured.

  While signing the discharge papers for her niece, Aiko had placed her hand on the biometric sensor. The device had recorded an abnormal signal: neural hyper-conductivity. Her electrical impulses were far too fast, as if her body were a high-voltage battery.

  Tanashi smiled. His suspicions were confirmed. The aunt of the little survivor was no ordinary civilian. He pulled out his notebook and jotted down Aiko's address right below Kenji Tanaka's.

  "The savior, the survivor, and now this woman with the surging electrical signal... They're all clustering in the same spot. It's almost too easy."

  He stowed his tablet and turned away from the window. His shadow stretched disproportionately across the white linoleum as he headed toward the lab. He only had to wait for the fruit to be ripe for the harvest.

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  KENJI TANAKA'S POINT OF VIEW

  The next morning.

  Driiiiinnng.

  The sound pierced my skull like a power drill. I was in the middle of a hard-earned day off. I dragged myself to the door, shuffling in my slippers, wearing my neon-green dinosaur pajamas. It's ridiculous, I know, but it's the only thing that helps me forget I'm a cop.

  I pried my crusty eyes open. An elegant woman, in a light coat with impeccable white hair, stood there, radiant.

  "Good morning!" she beamed.

  I closed the door without a word. Click. She blocked the frame with the tip of her boot.

  "It's me, Okiku!"

  "I see that. But today is my day off. Come back in three years."

  "Really? Then that's even better we have all day!"

  She forced her way in. Her gaze swept over my messy apartment before landing, incredulous, on my dinosaur hood with its felt spikes. An awkward silence settled in. She bit her lip, her face turning crimson as she struggled against a fit of laughter.

  I slumped onto the living room floor, choosing to ignore my own stylistic downfall.

  "How did you find my address?"

  "Someone let me into the building, and I just looked for 'Tanaka' on the mailboxes," she replied, sitting down with perfect posture across from me.

  I cracked one eye open, my police instinct finally overriding my exhaustion.

  What the hell is she doing at my place this early? We said "help with her powers," not "start commando training at dawn."

  "STOP."

  I raised my hand, my brain still clouded with sleep.

  "Alright, I get it... I think. Someone let you in, you saw my name, you came up. We'll talk about this when I can actually see straight."

  I rubbed my face.

  "I'm going to change. Just sit tight for a minute."

  She nodded.

  I turned on my heel toward the bathroom. Behind me, I heard a small, muffled sound like someone holding back a fit of laughter. I didn't need to turn around to know that the green tail of my dinosaur pajamas was swaying left to right with every step. Dignity could wait.

  The sound of the shower echoed through the small apartment. I was left alone in the living room. My gaze drifted to the sideboard next to the television. Several photo frames were lined up there.

  Driven by curiosity, I stepped closer. In the first photo, I recognized Kenji. He was younger, smaller... He was grinning from ear to ear. Then, my eyes slid to another frame: an old man surrounded by flowers, wearing a flawless police uniform. He had the same eyes as Kenji. Exactly the same.

  "His grandfather...?" I whispered.

  I wondered if he had chosen this path because of him.

  Click.

  "HIIIII!"

  I jumped back toward my chair, heart pounding, as Kenji stepped out of the bathroom. A towel draped around his neck, he had traded his pajamas for a simple t-shirt and sweatpants. It was a definite improvement, even if he still looked exhausted.

  "Aaaah... that's better," he sighed. "Right, why are you so stiff? Make yourself at home."

  He sat down across from me. A heavy silence settled in. Thirty seconds. A minute. Why was this silence so awkward? I stared at him; he stared at me. I felt like I was falling into a trap of pure discomfort.

  "Um... what are you here for, exactly?" he finally asked.

  "You told me you'd help me with my powers... I was waiting for you to tell me what to do."

  Kenji's gaze suddenly became very serious.

  "Listen, Okiku. Power is nothing without discipline. If I'm going to help you, we're going to do things my way. We're going to test your basics."

  Test 1: Law and Procedure. Kenji pulled out an old police academy manual and a blank sheet of paper. "We start with the hardest part. Field reporting and the Civil Code. You have thirty minutes to summarize the rules of self-defense for me." Ten minutes later, she handed me the paper. My eyes went wide. It was perfect. She had recited the articles like a lesson learned since childhood. My police ego just took its first stab.

  Test 2: Static Endurance. "Very well, theory is one thing. Let's see the physical side. We start with the wall sit. I can hold it for five minute that's my unit's record." We got into position. After three minutes, my thighs felt like they were on fire. At five minutes, my entire body was shaking. At seven minutes, I collapsed to the floor, breathless. Okiku, however, hadn't moved a millimeter. She watched me with curiosity, without a single drop of sweat on her brow.

  Test 3: Agility and Reflexes. "We finish... with... the dodge test," I wheezed, struggling to stand. "I try to touch your shoulder, you have to avoid me." I launched a series of moves, the ones I'd learned in self-defense. Every time, she moved with supernatural grace, as if she were reading my thoughts. I ended up tripping over my own rug, sprawling out full length.

  KENJI TANAKA'S POINT OF VIEW

  I stayed lying on the floor, staring at a crack in the ceiling. My heart hammered against my ribs like a prisoner in a cage. Every muscle in my body burned. I was a trained police officer, for God's sake, and I had just been humiliated in my own living room by a kid who didn't even have a speck of dust on her clothes.

  Beside me, Okiku leaned over. Her face was perfectly rested, her eyes brimming with almost unbearable expectation.

  "Is that all, Mr. Kenji? Shall we continue?"

  "Break time..." I muttered, my voice broken. "The break is part of the recovery protocol... Shut up and sit down."

  She obeyed instantly, but her energy seemed to make the very air vibrate around her. I closed my eyes.

  For now, my only goal was to find a way to get her to leave without her accidentally destroying my building with her giant fox tails. But deep down, a small voice began to whisper. If the current system was incapable of managing people like her, then maybe something else had to be imagined... a different structure. Stricter. More human.

  I brushed the idea away with a mental flick.

  Nonsense. I just want my quiet life and my couch back.

  "Tomorrow," I resumed, trying to catch my breath. "We'll see what's next... tomorrow."