It was only Yuna's second time within the wondrous and technicolor landscape of the Jukai, yet she already felt infinitely calmer than her initial adventure into it. Even the fact everyone would be fighting to save the world from destruction didn't feel so unnerving now that she knew what to do and had the power to fight back. Protecting the world was what a hero did and she was always glad to help anyone she could.

But seeing three Vertex at once was an unexpected surprise.

"Three at once, I'm too popular." Fuu's, who'd gone ahead with Itsuki to get a better view of their enemy, sighing voice came over Togo's phone. "Togo… You had to tempt fate huh."

As was feared, the Vertex had stepped up the attack by sending three at once. The first one was a shrimp looking beast identified on the radar as Cancer. It had a red claw at the end of its tail, which went up toward its bulkier body that was covered in armored plates, red dots resembling eyes on it. Floating around the beast, were several disconnected plates that looked defensive in nature.

Close by Cancer, was a Vertex called Scorpio. The most eye catching and dangerous feature of it was the long tail segmented in numerous large yellow orbs, going back to a thin, deadly stinger. Connected to the tail was likewise a bulkier main body with a metal plate that almost looked like it had a face on it, connected to a large orb below it.

In the distance, far from the other two, lurked the third Vertex, Sagittarius. Unlike the others, it had no obvious weapon or defense, its main body resembling a skull resting atop a narrow cylinder. Bizarrely, it had two mouths, with one more vaguely human like one resting in the correct place for the skull look, but another, much more monstrous and perpetually open mouth was where the forehead would have been normally.

"I had a feeling but didn't think it would actually happen. Sorry, Fuu-senpai. It doesn't look like there's any lurking back to surprise us at least..." The addressed girl answered back with a pensive frown, eyes scanning past the Vertex as if expecting to find a hidden fourth one.

Togo had been quick to transform when everyone caught a glimpse of multiple Vertex. Her uniform was much different from either of the Inubouzaki's. Her hair was long and freely flowing almost to her knees. An inner skintight blue bodysuit covered most of Togo's body, with a few areas left bare, such as her shoulders and feet. On the outer layer of the body suit, was a slim second layer of white with minor blue highlights in places, mainly covering her legs, arms, and waist, save for one distinct spot-on Togo's left breast where some circular looking flower gauge was. However, the most striking feature had to be the normally wheel chair bound girl could walk while transformed, at least, in a manner. Rather than her legs, which hung limply from her elevated position, four tentacles sprouted from a piece at the back of Togo's hair, roughly where her ribbon was normally if their hair wasn't draped over the shoulder, and came down to the floor, suspending Togo off it and acting as replacement limbs.

It was quite a pretty, flattering look for Togo's figure to Yuna.

With respect to herself, Yuna's outfit, now that she'd gotten a moment to get a better look at herself instead of jumping right into battle, had its own distinct colors. Her look was mostly white and pink, with black spats and a coat like lower half that trailed up to an armored chest piece over her midsection with a large red ribbon. Unlike everyone else and their distinct weapons, Yuna had armored tekko gauntlets that worked perfectly with her martial arts skills, similarly pink. Also distinct from the rest, was how her hair changed. Instead of changing only in shade, such as Fuu's, Yuna's hair lengthened past her waist in a thin pony tail done up by the cute pink flower that replaced her hair tie. Her hair's coloring had even changed from its reddish to that of a vibrant pink which well matched her outfit, a nice look Yuna liked quite a bit.

"It'll be fine, Togo-san. We can handle it! We'd see any on the radar if there were." Yuna spoke up with an upbeat grin, trying to reassure her friend. True, they had only fought a single Vertex the previous day, but they had beaten it quite handily and, even if they proved more difficult, Asuna was likely to join up with them soon like last time. Hero she may not have been, they appeared fairly strong and with 5v3, they had almost double the numbers! It was unfortunate she couldn't be tracked on the app, however.

"Ah, that's right!" Togo perked up, briefly pulling away her phone to check the app, but when she did, the girl's brow furrowed in confusion. "Huh? There's another signature on the radar, but it's like us and not the Vertex? Fuu-senpai, it's heading toward you, be careful."

"Eh? I didn't hear anything about more Heroes." Fuu answered with confusion in her words.

Curious, Yuna moved to look at her friend's phone, where she saw exactly what they had said. "Maybe it's Kagurazaka-san?"

"I don't think so. Let's go look. I need a better position to snipe anyway." Without another word, the tentacles on Togo's sides braced themselves and launched the Hero off to a mighty jump.

Quickly, Yuna followed after her best friend with an equally powerful jump, going from root to root and getting within visual range of Fuu in a matter of moments, thanks to their massively enhanced strength. They would need to engage the Vertex soon, but more potential allies was never a bad thing in Yuna's book.

Very soon after setting off, Yuna saw the new presence had already beaten them to Fuu. As if being on the Hero app's radar was not enough of a clue, their appearance confirmed being one. Firstly, there was her brown hair done into short, above short length twintails by red flower hair ties, thin strand of hair going down her forehead. Below that, she had an armored chest plate in the vein of Yuna's, but dark silver colored with a white underside of the bust, a white and red 'tie' going from her neck over it. One shoulder was covered with a slim white shoulder guard so thin it nearly looked part of the fabric, while the other left bare, but both had long gloves that started black near her torso and faded to red more toward her hands, white highlights on them with a guard going over her knuckles and trailing halfway up to her elbow. Compared to the slim look of her top half, the lower was a touch bulkier, possessing a similar 'coat' style that Yuna had, but with a more solid red at her mid-section, before going to solid white with red highlights down to her ankles, which themselves were covered in red and black stockings that went almost nearly her entire legs, save the white guards around her ankles that half resembled parts of shoes.

But who was she if Fuu hadn't heard anything?

"So, is this the rest of your team? Hmph, not surprised you couldn't handle even one fight before I got called in." The new arrival dismissively chided the Heroes with an unimpressed stare the moment Togo and Yuna landed.

"Um, who are you?" Yuna awkwardly asked. The girl was already being rude to everyone, but that wouldn't stop Yuna from trying to at least be polite. Maybe they'd ease up a little if some friendliness was shown?

Again, the girl looked over the group without much regard, before turning her head with a huff. "I can't believe a group like you were chosen by the Shinju-sama and lucky enough to have an idiot leak you magic. Oh, well. I guess you'll have to do for now and I'll need to do extra heavy lifting this fight."

"You still haven't answered who you are." Fuu commented with a weary tone.

Addressed again, this time the rude girl turned back to face the group, placing a confident hand on her hip. "I'll make this brief, since I still need to deal with the Vertex. My name is Miyoshi Karin and I'm an official, real Hero dispatched by the Taisha, with a proper instruction on magic. Try not to weigh me down too much, do what I say, and maybe we can wrap this up before you let the Jukai get damaged again." Punctuating the end of her boast, Karin materialized a thin, katana like sword in each hand, a red jewel at the end of the slim hilts.

"Eh, but we didn't-" Yuna started to correct, only to stop upon remembering the brief incident where Asuna had somehow returned part of the Jukai to normal and a sizeable chunk was blown up by Virgo's missiles.

"You let that girl erase part of the Jukai where the Vertex heavily damaged it." As if reading her mind, Karin pointedly said to Yuna. "Now, enough talking, I'll explain the rest later! Somebody has to take this job seriously if you won't. Let's go going already! Focus on sealing the closest two, then we'll deal with the one in back!" Not even bothering to wait for anyone, Karin rocketed off the root with a mighty jump toward the closest Vertex duo.

Fuu let out a deep sigh, watching Karin leave. "Well, I was going to say start sealing those two anyway. Why didn't the Taisha tell me about this either? Oh, well. We'll figure it out later. Togo! Cover us!" Quickly, Fuu took off after Karin.

"I'll trust you to watch us, Togo-san!" Taking a few steps, Yuna waved cheerily toward her friend before making her own leap into battle. The new person was definitely abrasive, but she was still another Hero and thus a friend to count on. Perhaps they could get to know her better and have a nicer exchange once the battle finished. And with an extra person, especially if Asuna showed up, they would take care of the Vertex quickly for sure, even with them bringing more numbers too!

Landing nearby, Yuna saw the Vertex were already reacting to Karin. Before she even landed, Yuuna felt a large build up of magical energy as fire swirled around Karin's being, condensing into a mass before the Hero that looked more like a solid object than made of fire. Not a moment later, Karin stretched her hand forward and a tornado of flames exploded from it, swirling with the intensity of a raging inferno, yet there was a precise control to the flames, they may have surged and flared in varying directions from the main mass, but it was a brief flicker and never veered off course. The blaze didn't exceed the width of a large bus and continued almost like a drill until it impacted against two plates hastily thrown in front of Cancer to block the shot, physically forcing the defenses back and spraying fire outside the boundaries of it.

"Woah, is that what Fuu-senpai meant about magic while transformed?" Yuna wondered aloud to herself as she landed. That spell was on a completely incomparable level to even the best fire techniques Yuna could manage and it was her specialty. She could barely burn up a medium sized tree quickly, and that cast looked like it could effortlessly raze city blocks. Maybe she could try a few spells and see how it went?

Following up on Karin's initiative, Yuna jumped at Scorpio and pulled her fist back, leaping past a dangerous swipe of its tail with the same motion. Infusing her fist with fire Sagitta Magicka arrows, Yuna let out a shout as she felt the force strengthened past what she was used to, slamming her fist into the best and, like with her first battle, blew a hole through it from the force of the impact, a shimmer of fire, though much weaker than Karins, briefly spreading past the initial impact and applying further damage. Without even stopping her momentum, Yuna flew right through and wound and down onto a nearby root.

It was hard to tell for sure how much it helped, considering how easily she injured the first one too, but her attack at least felt stronger. With a quick glance back, Yuna was pleased to find her punch having blown up a significant portion of the monster's lower half, with a few rapidly fading flames on the outer circle that quickly vanished under the Vertex's powerful regeneration.

Before Yuna could follow up, the monster's tail retracted from its earlier attack and, in one fluid motion, swept toward her at an incredible speed for how large it was, moving like a building sized whip.

Making a short hop, Yuna shot back an entire body length of the Vertex, what should have been well out of range from the attack. Yet, mid swing and before she even hit the ground, the segments of the tail elongated in a flash, almost tripling the appendage's reach. Yuna didn't even have time to raise a proper guard at the surprise, an orb larger than a bus smashing into a flash of pink an instant after Yuna braced her body.

Though it didn't touch her body, Yuna still felt the impact's force travel through her. Her whole world was sent spinning as her body sailed through the air like a thrown ball at dizzying speed. Yet, just like the impact had been, it was over in a blink. Yuna came to a crashing halt with a painful slam against another large, solid object and a second flash of the earlier pink hue.

Brushing off the pain, Yuna shot back to her feet. Her body still ached, yet she didn't feel injured in any major capacity and even the soreness she had, while still present, was vanishing rapidly. Was her body simply that tough when transformed? Or was it the fairy defense Fuu had mentioned in her lecture about being a Hero? The brief flash was a fairy, from what she recalled. Oh, well, as long as she wasn't out of the fight it didn't matter!

"Pay attention!" Karin's chiding voice called out in Yuna's direction. With her lecture, the red Hero weaved to the side, skillfully avoiding one of Cancer's defensive plates trying to crush her. Leaping forward, Karin swung a sword aimed for the main body, yet another plate just managed to block the hit, almost physically touching Cancer from how narrowly it stopped the blade.

Before Yuna could respond, the plate Karin struck suddenly rebounded forward at its attacker, but moving with a speed far beyond what the first plate had struck with. So quick it was, Karin met the same fate Yuna had and was catapulted backward into the roots. How'd it get so much faster?

"Karin-chan!" Yuna called out in concern, quickly leaping back toward the fight to defend the other Hero.

Hearing the sound of Togo's bullet flying overhead, Yuna punched at the now fully healed Scorpio's tail with a quick jab, denting the structure and sending it flying off the course of where Karin had gone.

"Don't forget about me!" Fuu's commanding voice preceded a mighty swing of greatsword that effortlessly cleaved Scorpio's tail in half, sending part of it flailing off into the distance from the leftover momentum Yuna's punch had given it.

"Guess the real Hero isn't doing that much better." The biting sarcasm plain in her voice, Fuu said with a slide glance back to Karin. "Anyway! Let's hurry up and seal these Vertex! So, we can move onto the other one!"

With a quick look to make sure Karin was okay, if disgruntled looking, Yuna gave an affirming nod before jumping into position. "On it, Fuu-senpai!"

Preparing for the ritual, Yuna noticed several of Cancer's plates had shifted far away from its body and into the air, where several blue shots of energy, from Togo's weapons, slammed into it. But what was it blocking for? Togo wasn't aiming anywhere near it-

The Vertex in the back!

"Get out of the way!" Karin yelled before she rocketed sideways.

Shifting her gaze, Yuna's eyes widened at seeing an entire volley worth of spears that appeared to be made from solid light, dozens to even hundreds raining down toward the group with each nearly a person's height.

Yuna tried to scramble sideways, but her reactions were too slow to avoid the whole swarm, several of the projectiles bouncing harmlessly off another pink flash that came with her cow like fairy, Gyuki, appearing.

Before Yuna could even catch her breath, something large and heavy slammed into her like a freight train from above, embedding her body into the ground below. The impact came a second and third time, yet it ceased before a fourth one came.

"Hey, Yuki-chan! Sorry I took so long!"

Given just enough peace to recover, Yuna's eyes blinked open at the familiar voice. Just as she expected, Yuna saw Asuna standing in front of her, sword raised defensively, with yet another part of Scorpio's severed tail off to one side.

"Thanks, Kagurazaka-san!" Yuna leaped to her feet with a smile, now things would be even easier for sure.

"Come on, I'll cut through the shields and make an opening for you so it can't keep blocking Togo-chan!" Looking back with a confident grin, Asuna jumped forward with full expectations Yuna would follow her.

"On it!" And follow her Yuna did. Trailing a second behind Asuna, Yuna watched as the girl soared straight toward Cancer and her sword diced through two shields like they weren't even there. Though her jump lacked the momentum to carry Asuna far enough to hit Cancer itself, the perfect straight line was there for Yuna

"Hero Punch!" Pulling back her fist, Yuna let out a cry as she slammed it right into Cancer's face, restrained just enough to send the massive monster flying through the air like a ragdoll, instead of blowing through it like before, and have it crumble in a heap across multiple roots.

"Yuna-san!"

With Itsuki's warning, Yuna saw something rapidly approaching her in the corner of their vision and turned just in time to see a plate, meters from hitting her. Yuna only had enough time to process it was there and none to guard, but the impact didn't come.

Massive ropes of green energy enveloped the shield like binds, stopping it cold just before it would've struck Yuna, allowing her to safely land on the ground.

With a grunt, Itsuki pulled as hard as she could on the plate and, with the Vertex it belonged to disoriented, slammed it like a weapon Scorpio in the same instant another blaze of magic from Karin impacted it, knocking the enormous beast down.

"Nice hit, Itsuki!" Fuu gave an affectionate cheer toward her sibling, jumping on one side of the Vertex.

"Hey, I hit it too!" Karin protested, likewise jumping near the down monsters. "Just hurry up and seal the Vertex already!"

"Uh, girls. We got more attacks coming above." Asuna interjected flatly with a skyward gaze.

Yuna glanced up, initially confused at seeing nothing, but moments later the threat Asuna mentioned showed up in her vision.

Ten, and then nine after one exploded to one of Togo's bullets, pillars of light were coming straight toward the group, still made of pure energy like the past arrows, yet they were far bigger in size, being larger than a medium school bus. Yet, something was odd. They were far more spread out in a roughly circular pattern, but their trajectory looked entirely off. Even without moving, Yuna knew it would land close to her, but definitely not on her.

Her friends came to a similar realization, not making an attempt to dodge as every pillar landed several meters away at the closest.

"Huh? Maybe Togo-san threw off the aim?" Yuna briefly wondered aloud.

"Get away from those, there's something dangerous!" Karin barked before she defensively leaped back.

Yuna's brow furrowed in confusion until she sensed a rapidly building energy coming from each of the spikes planted around the battlefield. The one closest to Yuna started glowly brightly, but just as the light reached a blinding point, Asuna swiped her sword across the pillar, cleaning bisecting it before it vanished from existence.

Not a second later, a series of explosions erupted around everyone, causing the ground to rumble like a violent earthquake, fire and smoke thrown about the area in a dangerous mix that obscured sight and washed protectively over the recovering Vertex.

The shockwaves of the blasts had been so violent, Yuna's body vibrated from the force coming off to her sides. Those pillars of light had exploded, the Vertex must have not been aiming for them in the first place and counted on the Heroes not dodging. Asuna had taken care of the closest one, leaving her and Yuna shaken but unharmed at worst, but what about her less fortunate friends?

"Yuki-chan, you alright?" Asuna asked, giving her a quick and concerned look.

"I'm fine! Is everyone else okay?" Yuna called to the rapidly clearing haze.

"Not… Too bad! Let's hurry up and try to seal the Vertex before they recover!" Fuu's voice ordered with a quick grunt.

"Ah, right!" Yuna refocused herself on the task at hand. Most of the smoke had cleared, but even without her sight, she could still sense the Vertex. One of them was already mobile, Scorpio, if she was sensing right, and had already shifted away to where sealing it with Cancer wouldn't be doable. But Cancer, having taken worse hits, was still recovering.

"Go ahead and take care of the shrimp looking one, I'll get the other one!" Asuna confidently stated.

Yuna tilted her head with pursed lips. "Eh, but isn't the shrimp the mov-"

"That's a scorpion! Get the red one!" Asuna quickly corrected, before leaping through the smoke just as rapidly.

Was it really a scorpion? Well, it did have the name for it, maybe Yuna had to rethink the Vertex. Whatever, she wasn't a bug expert and didn't matter what it was, the monster had to get sealed!

Making her own leap, Yuna took a position beside the half-risen Cancer Vertex, waiting for Fuu and Itsuki to join her for the sealing ritual. When they got one down, the rest would fall easily.

Karin couldn't believe the group she had to work with. She was grateful to finally get to join in with how the Taisha would've held her back to double and triple check everything normally, but of course it had to be because they couldn't even handle one fight without screwing up. At least they weren't completely dead weight with 3 Vertex around. The other 'Heroes' focusing on sealing one left Karin more room to deal with Scorpio. However, she still had to keep her eye on the ticking time bomb that was Asuna, the Taisha didn't trust her at all so neither did Karin.

"Hey! Didn't catch your name! He seems to be going after me a lot so I'll keep the Vertex distracted!" The problem girl in question called out, jumping onto one of the nearby rocky platforms mixed among the Jukai's roots, with Scorpio's lightning quick tail following suit.

Well, she could work with that. If it was busy dealing with Asuna, the others had Cancer pinned, then Togo kept Sagittarius at bay, it'd be the perfect chance to ready a larger spell and cripple Scorpio in one shot. Karin could have likely sealed it on her own, but the Vertex had more tricks here than the Taisha knew about, best to ensure they were weakened in the event of any new surprises.

Pulling her hand back, Karin started gathering energy, quickly turning it into a spark of flame surrounding her palm. "Bunbu ryoudou, zunou meiseki, et quadringenti spiritus ignis, coeuntes-" With every word the spark rapidly grew in intensity until it neared a blaze centered around Karin's palm, appearing wild from the very nature of fire, flames waving around her, yet controlled in they never strayed far from her palm, she would not let the Jukai get damaged like the other group had. Even while she prepared, she kept a close eye on Asuna to ensure no further mistakes would happen.

For her part, Asuna kept her sword defensively raised, ready to respond at a moment's notice. Yet, Scorpio seemed to know even grazing her blade would erase all it touched, its tail raised and twitching cautiously with the stinger pointed at Asuna.

After only a second of the standoff, Scorpio's tail lunged forward only to rapidly retreat, a feint which Asuna didn't take. But despite its trap not being taken, Scorpio's weapon dove downward at the rock formation, but something was wrong. Instead of the stinger, it swung the tail like a club, and instead of even trying to hit Asuna, the main body was completely off target, with the stinger not even touching the other girl.

Scorpio's real target became clear as the tail smashed into the thin ground, pulverizing the entire rock formation Asuna stood on. In one fluid motion and before Asuna had time to react, the tail extended and swiped left, smashing into the remaining chunks like a hammer to further break them up. But between the pieces, Asuna's small form flew like a rocket, slamming into a nearby root with an impact so forceful it hurt Karin to even watch.

Asuna had just taken a direct, powerful hit from the Vertex. Without the shielding Heroes had.

Karin's eyes went wide at the sight. Without the fairy shields, even a Hero would be battered and bruised after that. Karin could sense Asuna was alive, but she had no idea exactly how strong Asuna was, she could've been dying after that hit for all she knew! No, no, Karin had to go make sure she didn't suffer life threatening injuries

Throwing a look behind her, the Hero noticed the other three had summoned the Vertex soul already. "Hey, deal with that quickly! I have to check on Kagurazaka-san!" Not giving the other three time to respond, Karin delayed her spell, opting instead to throw a barrage of exploding swords at Scorpio before it could continue. While the blasts obscured her moment and forced it to regenerate, Karin took off in Asuna's direction. A concern for the Taisha and risk to the Jukai she was, that didn't mean Asuna deserved to die.

To Karin's relief, she could see Asuna hobbling to her feet, unsteady, but nothing that looked fatal. "Hey! Don't go down that easily on me!" Karin called out as she landed beside Asuna.

The orange haired girl shook her head briefly but looking up toward Karin, flashing a pained grin before she managed to stand. "I'm alright, not the worst thing that's hit me. Vertex sure pack a strong punch though, going to feel that for a while." Asuna continued with a slight wince at trying to move her arm for emphasis.

Karin sighed. That was good, Asuna was battered, but alive, if probably worse than she was letting on. Just one strike seemed to hurt her a lot though, despite her ability to delete the Vertex and Jukai. So physical attacks worked then? The Taisha would want to know that.

"But never mind that! We gotta deal with the other ones! Guess I need to step it up a bit or I'll get really hurt."

Before Karin could scold her, Asuna formed two spheres of energy in her hands, one felt like the typical energy in magic, but the other was different, something distinct from that or the Shinju's power, and slammed them together. In an instant, a vibrant aura flared around Asuna's entire being before vanishing quick as it'd come. In its place, there was a sense of strength and power coming from Asuna, significantly stronger than her presence had been moments ago. It still wasn't of the same caliber a Hero gave off, but it wasn't a world apart anymore. The Taisha would be less pleased about that.

"Alright! Let's hurry up, they already dealt with the red Vertex!" Asuna, without giving Karin a second, rocketed off with enough force to blow off a gust of wind and rock the ground directly under her.

"Hey! Don't run off like that!" Karin scolded, spinning around to follow right after them, and indeed seeing Cancer's body was starting to crumble as dust. Okay, Asuna was mostly fine now, but now she had some new trick up her sleeve and Karin wasn't going to trust that after what happened the last time.

With a slight head start on her, Asuna reached Scorpio first, slicing a segment of Scorpio's tail off that tried to hit her, before continuing her arc and severing the weapon almost at the base of the monster. With her movements noticeable quicker than before, Asuna dashed beneath the Vertex in the same second she hit the ground, and cleaved the entire monster vertically in half with one impressive jump straight up.

"That's two down!" Asuna confidently shouted as she landed back on the ground, an almost unnoticeable buckle in one leg that was quickly brushed off.

"I said don't run off like that, you idiot!" Karin scolded again as she finally touched down and rushed over to Asuna with a glare.

Asuna smiled over at Karin with another amused and undeterred grin. "Thanks for worrying about me, but really I'm fine!"

"I-I wasn't worried about you!" Karin quickly shot back. Worried? Oh, she had worries relating to Asuna, but they weren't for her well being. Any extra worry was purely because of the Taisha's instructions. Ensuring she wasn't dead was the bare minimum for any decent person! "Having to keep an eye on you just makes it harder to fight!"

"I'll see you guys at the last Vertex!" Yuna's growing distant voice cut into Karin and Asuna's exchange.

"Oh, yeah. Let's wrap this up then!" Asuna answered under the sound of blue bullets zooming overhead.

And once again, Karin was left as Asuna raced to join the rest of the group, to the Hero's frustration. Did everyone have to be so frustratingly casual about this?

With an annoyed groan, Karin shot off as well, skillfully leaping from root to root in rapid succession to maximize her speed and quickly make up for the head start everyone else had, quickly getting close to everyone else and overtaking Asuna

Sticking to the upper areas of the roots, Karin quickly found their target. The sniper of the team had certainly kept it busy, there were signs of varying injury spread across the monster, mostly holes in different stages of regeneration. Thanks to the ranged harassment, its interference within the melee battle had been limited with it likewise possessing only ranged attacks and no real way to defend itself. The Vertex would be easy prey.

The beast opened its mouth to attack the advancing party, yet several more blue bullets zoomed past Karin and slammed into the Vertex's mouth as large explosions, cutting off the majority of its attacks before it could even begin them.

With the slight head start from everyone else, the first three of her teammates reached the Vertex first and began the sealing ritual. The large rune circle signifying the magic appeared beneath the Vertex and with it, rainbow lines similar to the Jukai's colors traced across its body. Dozens of meters up and out its still regenerating mouth, appeared an up side down pyramid shape roughly the size of a small car. Not a second later, the Vertex's soul moved to the right, a blue bullet missing it centimeters.

"Eh, this one moves now?" Yuna muttered in a tone that made Karin want to sigh. Of course the Vertex weren't going to sit there and let the same thing work! But, Karin was more prepared than these second rate Heroes.

"Hmph, not a problem for me, watch!" With her proud declaration, Karin shot her hand forward and unleashed her earlier delayed spell. From her palm formed a ball of flame, of which 401 blazing Sagitta Magicka arrows erupted and surged forth with deadly intent at the Vertex like heat seeking missiles.

As expected, the soul deftly dodged, but it only grew Karin's smirk. One step ahead, she had recalled the arrows back toward her before the soul had even moved, causing them to arc backwards and the minimize the time curving back, putting the soul directly in their path the second it stopped. The Vertex may have been quick, but Karin was qui-

A blue ball pierced through the core and out the other side.

Right before Karin's attack vaporized the already dead core in a display of needless overkill.

She had just had her kill stolen.

"Good shot, Togo-san, thanks for all the cover!" Boundless enthusiasm in her words, Yuna cheerily said while waving back in the direction the attack had come from.

"Nice job lining her up like that!" Asuna's grating voice praised, alongside an affectionate pat on Karin's shoulder.

With a huff, Karin shrugged off Asuna's gesture and stepped away. She was trying to act friendly, but the heat of battle had simmered, the Taisha's wariness of her still stood strong.

Before Asuna could comment, curious look on her face, the ground started rumbling within the Jukai to signal the end of forestization, bright lights beginning to wash over the land.

"Hey! Both of you!" Fuu's voice came over the rumbling as she leaped in front of Karin and Asuna. "Not gonna disappear like Kagurazaka-san did are you? I wanted to ask you about earlier."

Oh, that was right. Asuna vanished last time! That couldn't happen again, The Taisha didn't want somebody like her running around unchecked.

With a firm grip, Karin grasped Asuna's wrist. "No, I'm staying right here and so is she. Not letting that happen again. The Taisha want to talk with her." The Hero put an edge to her words, keeping it forceful, but not too hostile.

Asuna picked up on the intentions, a hint of caution coming over her. "I don't think that's gonna work like you think it is. Ended up in the mountains out in the middle of nowhere last time."

"How did you end up there when we got teleported to the school?" Fuu, voice thoroughly perplexed and face scrunched up, asked.

"Wait, it's teleporting?"

As the hint of realization crossed Asuna's expression, the world was drowned in light.

When everyone was returned to their school's roof, Fuu had expected a few possibilities.

But, while seeing Karin left standing there with her outstretched hand holding air and a very not present Asuna, had been one of them, her exasperated reaction hadn't been.

"Huh!? What the- But I was holding onto her!" Karin stammered furiously, head darting around the rooftop in vain to find where the orange haired girl had vanished.

Compared to everyone else in their school uniform, Karin was dressed in casual clothes, an open orange windbreaker with two deep teal pockets at the front, over a long sleeved plain grey shirt and form fitting black leggings. The lack of a uniform was odd, but perhaps it had something to do with her status as a 'trained' hero?

"So she really did disappear again…" Fuu murmured with a sigh. Asuna with such an enigma, Fuu had really been hoping to get the chance to ask her what the hell was her deal, but at least Karin had stuck around. Her presence confused Fuu almost as much and she appeared to have some more info from the Taisha.

"Karin-chan!" Yuna rushed up with an eager smile to greet the newest Hero, grabbing their hands with her own. "That was amazing! I haven't seen anyone else use magic like! Where'd you learn how to do that?"

Karin recoiled a hair back, caught off guard by the sudden and unexpected approach. "Huh? O-Of course it was amazing! The Taisha taught me how to properly use it for combat instead of whatever simple stuff you learned!"

"You'll have to teach me how to do that sometime! I'm best with fire too!" Not put off in the slightest, Yuna continued, leaning closer.

"W-Wait a minute!? Who said anything about getting involved with any of you!?" Karin bit back, leaning back far enough she had to take a step to escape from Yuna's invasion of her personal space.

"Aren't we teammates now?"

"She can do that later, Yuna. I wanted to ask her about what she's doing here." Fuu interjected in a light hearted manner. Yuna's enthusiasm was always good for the mood, but so much had been going on that Fuu needed some answers.

"Eh? Oh, sorry about that!" Easily switching gears, Yuna stepped away from Karin, who watched her with an exasperated, slightly blushing face, and moved over toward Togo and Itsuki.

"So, you said you were going to talk more after we beat the Vertex?" Fuu began, dropping her tone slightly.

Taking a moment to collect herself and banish the blush on her face, Karin sighed before looking Fuu in the eye, arms crossed. "I can't talk as much as I wanted to since Kagurazaka-san disappeared like that again and the Taisha will need to know, so I'll make this quick, this concerns all of you."

Feeling the atmosphere growing heavier, Itsuki, Togo, and Yuna drew closer to the conversation.

"After what happened yesterday in the Jukai, the Taisha didn't want anymore screw ups and expedited readying me for combat. Against all odds and despite how carefree you're all about this, the Vertex were dealt with well, but Kagurazaka-san somehow vanished again, so listen up! She might act friendly, but the Taisha have said to be careful around her, she's dangerous. If anyone sees her, you tell Fuu so she can contact the Taisha immediately." Karin lectured, the intensity in her eyes making it almost come off as a glare.

"Dangerous?" Togo said to herself, brows furrowed.

"B-But she's been helping us fight the Vertex…" Itsuki spoke up shyly.

"She completely deleted a portion of the Jukai by accident, somehow. If you don't think that's dangerous, than you're even more hopeless than I thought." Karin sharply answered with a dismissive huff. "We're lucky that happened somewhere remote and not in the middle of a town. That defeats the whole purpose of the Jukai! Even if she's not intentionally doing something like the Vertex, the Taisha have to talk with her."

Karin's cold answer was met with brief silence as the group processed her words. For Fuu, this wasn't entirely new info, the Taisha had told her some of this before hand, but they hadn't given much further instruction than to inform them if Asuna appeared. They had stated further instructions would follow once they assessed the situation. Maybe it was only how no-nonsense a demeanor Karin had about being a Hero, but the way she delivered it made the situation come across more dire than the Taisha initially made it sound.

"Now, I have to get going, the Taisha'll have to tell you more if you need it. I have to tell them what happened and get someone to pick me up." Karin, with a sharp turn, headed over toward the edge of the roof.

"Huh? Wait, where you going?" Yuna asked with a tilted head.

Putting a foot onto the roof's edge, clear intent to jump, Karin glanced back at Yuna like she was stupid. "School's still in session here and it's faster getting down this way. Nobody'll see me with class in session."

And then, Karin jumped.

Right off the 4 story tall building.

"EH!?" The entire club, aside from Togo, collectively called out, with everyone except her rushing over to the side on reflex at seeing an untransformed person jump off a building.

Looking over the edge, Fuu saw the very relieving sight of Karin being perfectly fine on the ground floor, looking up at the club and thoroughly unamused. With a dismissive shake of her head, the girl took off toward the street, playing with her phone.

"I guess it's not that surprising, all things considered…" Fuu flatly spoke up with an equally dry chuckle. Magic made her tougher for sure, but without transforming she wasn't feeling like testing her luck like that. Then again there was everything Asuna had done too. It was gonna take some getting used to seeing everything it could do with how limited what the Taisha gave her had been.

More and more questions kept rising for her to direct toward the Taisha. Fuu was going to be in for another long discussion with them after school.

But wherever had Asuna gone this time?

With an exaggerated heave and hiss, Asuna dragged herself out of a lake, completely soaked to the bone by water and all clothes thoroughly wet.

"This is even WORSE than last time!"

She hoped Chachamaru had a drying function.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

For Karin's activation key, and by proxy everyone else from YuYuYu as it appears, decided to do something a little different. In trying to keep with the magic system for Negima in how most mages used any language but English in the translated text, and they used several different languages, I decided going with the romanization for what would be said in Japanese kept a similar spirit while helping mark more clearly when a spell is begun. Because, while they may learn it for spells with how Negi wrote them, there's unlikely to be many languages of much regular use past English and Japanese in YuYuYu Shikoku, so felt sensible for the YuYuYu cast's to be in Japanese. Everyone is speaking Japanese inuniverse of course, but I hope I got across what I'm trying to convey for this stylistic choice. Karin's is also not nonsense and does actually translate to something, try and guess what.