The pub was full and you could hear the noise of forks and spoons clashing with plates.

Many of the clients in there were foreigners who had come to the city for affairs concerning the Heavens Arena and now were talking for different reasons about the main fights of the day.

A group of men in particular were chatting about Kurako's Retaliation Match or rather the attempted one since there was no retaliation in the end.

Sure, that was a pity: seeing that arrogant little brat being trashed would have been epic. And poor Ajil! She was a real babe. If only one of them could spend a night with her... However, what was a real mystery was how she lost at the end. After all, she had had the upper hand for all the battle, then she simply jumped back and slipped. And after that she lost. Was that for the boy's ability? Sure, they knew that some of the fighters in the arena had strange powers. Still, they had watched the scene over and over, but couldn't see anything strange.

"Perhaps they made a pact before fighting" one of the man was saying "The brat must have paid her. It's the only explanation".

"Let me disagree". The group looked at the creature who had spoken. Yes, because calling that thing a man was actually difficult. He was very tall and was wearing a brown long raincoat and a hat of the same colour. For some reason his shirt's collar was covering the inferior part of his face while a pair of sunglasses covered his eyes. He was sitting alone eating a soup and a piece of cake at the same time. There didn't seem to be joints in his infinite arms. Long story short, he was the word 'suspicious' itself.

The men looked at each others uncertain.

The strange person finished his soup and the leftovers of the cake and then continued: "That boy won the battle with his strength alone. About that I am certain"

"Really? And how?" the man who was talking before asked sarcastically. He had a white beard and clear eyes even if one was ill and he could barely keep it open.

"With his ability, of course"

The man stayed silent for a moment before trying to speak again, but the other anticipated him: "If you are gonna say that you weren't able to see it the reason it's rather simple. That boy made his ability invisible"

"You can do that?" another member of the group, a younger one asked with little eyes full of curiosity. His comrade gave him an irritated look, but he didn't seem to care. He kept staring at the stranger with his face which was round and a little piggy.

"Yes, you can. All the abilities are made of the same...substance... and if you learn to control this substance really well you can make it invisible" the stranger explained.

"Really? So all those strange things we saw were all made of the same thing? But they were so different!" the young man said in disbelief. His cheeks going up and down with every word.

"That was because different people can do different things with it" the other said looking to the group through the dark lenses.

"So, what did that brat do with his own substance?" the piggy boy asked stretching to the stranger.

"Well, I'd prefer if we called it aura since this is its name. However, what that boy did was simply to change the attributes of his aura. He made it both slippery and like something that makes your eyes burn or itchy"

The young man looked disappointed. His eyebrows joined together in a perplexed gaze. "Only that?"

"Only that"

"I don't think that was enough to beat Ajil-sama" the young man said pompously.

"Yes, just shut up if you don't know anything" the man with the ill eye said.

"It depends on how you use that power. However, you are right. I should also mention that the boy was able to control this substance in the three states of matter"

The piggy boy thought it over and then asked in the same pompous tone: "Mind to explain?"

"Sure" the man said while taking his chair to the group's table. The ill eye-man seemed disgusted from his presence. "First the boy, I think his name was Karma, changed his aura in a slippery substance and covered his body with it. That's why Ajil's whip kept losing its grip. Then when Ajil was over him he changed it into an itching gas which made Ajil jump back. However, while they were fighting he had already put the slippery substance in liquid form around Ajil's feet, so she fell. The last touch was to make his aura slippery again and to put it inside Ajil's armour- the stranger stopped and drank some beer from Ill Eye's glass -Seriously he touched Ajil's perfect body and literally made her naked"

After saying so, the stranger stood up, stretched his strange arms and said goodbye to the group who was speechless after his little talk and surprised by its abrupt interruption. Before they could reply he was gone. He was incredibly fast despite his mass.

Ill Eye grunted commenting how some people were those days, butting their noses in without being asked.

They passed the rest of their dinner chatting of many things, but did not go back to the fight. They did not know why, but that stranger had left them with a strange feeling and they only wanted to forget him fast and to go back to their little world.

At the moment of paying Ill Eye took the receipt, but after he looked at it he gulped and protested bitterly: "We did not eat all these things!"

The young waitress looked at him calmly and replied that that friend of them, the tall one had said they would have paid his part.

Ill Eye's face became as white as his beard. He didn't even know from where to start. From the fact they did not know him? Or from saying that they only saw him eat a soup and a cake and not all those fancy foods. However, when did he tell her they would have paid for him?

When asked the girl answered bored it was before he left the pub. She saw him going out after speaking with her. She had also seen him at their table, so she didn't have any suspects about his friendship with them.

The group ended up paying the full price. Nobody dared to say they were sure to have seen the man going directly from their table to the door.


Karma's nen:

He is a transmuter and his ability doesn't have a name since he was too lazy to give it one.

He changes his aura into a substance which is both spicy/make you itchy and slippery. This substance can exist in all the three states of the matter.

In particular

Solid state: the substance can't leave Karma's hands. He uses it as an armour to make it harder for his enemies to catch him.

Liquid state: Karma can maintain it in a range of a couple of meters. He uses it to make his opponents slipper and like in the case of Ajil to make them lose grip on their weapon. He can also use it for torture.

Gas State: Karma can maintain it in a range of 5 meters. He uses it like a gas bomb to make his opponents lose concentration.