"Anytime now."

It had been almost half an hour since N’varu said those words, but nothing had happened yet. Apart from the usual altered and disappearing presence.

At this point, they were deep in the Yalami forest and far south of the Yalami forest academy and even further away from any civilization. This was good.

Deep in the woods, it was dark, but neither of the three needed light to move. Sagiri could see and use his senses. N’varu’s eyes had turned white the moment they made first contact. His movements had become more calculated and light. Yoka was a captain of the Shadow Corp, and it was easy to say he was made for darkness.

Suddenly, however, it was as if the darkness seemed to get heavier. Even the cracks of light from the moon suddenly disappeared. A misty darkness started covering the place. The misty darkness made it hard to perceive any presence, and if the presence was altered before now. His right eye, even so, was not affected, but the scents and hearing, and ability to perceive were being affected slightly.

"Petty tricks!" Sagiri groaned.

The three stopped and moved close together. Their backs were closely parked together. They needed to watch each other’s backs now more than ever.

"Silence," N’varu said.

Suddenly, however, like the wind from different directions, millions of small needles started flying in.

"Incoming!" Yoka announced. All three had seen the needles, and they started moving. It was as if the needles were raining from all directions at the same time. Sagiri could not see who was throwing them. They really were good at camouflage.

"Boring," Sagiri said. The archive moved out, surrounding all three. The shower did not even touch the archive before Sagiri raised his right hand and stopped the shower. What was with everyone wanting to shower him?

First with arrows and now with needles. He did not hold the needles this time. He swiped his hand. The needles changed trajectory and flew back in the direction they had come from.

There was no sound of them hitting someone, however. Just the small taps of them hitting the tree trunks.

Silence prevailed once more, and just like that, their presence was gone once again.

"They are gone," Sagiri said.

"How long are they going to play these games?" Yoka sighed.

"The first rule of an assassin is to break the mind of their opponent. especially if they might be stronger. A strong opponent with a weak mind or a broken mind might even be killed by a child." N’varu said.

He was right. These assassins were taking their time. They were not rushing. Perhaps the first attack was meant to test his defence. They were trying to see their opponents’ strength.

"How to fight an evasive, careful, patient, and lethal opponent," Sagiri said. The three were now circling in the misty darkness that had not faded. In fact, it had grown so much that it looked like they were standing in an abyss of darkness.

"Beat them at their own game," Yoka said.

"Very well, Captain. I almost thought you could jump in carelessly to avenge your men carelessly," N’varu said.

"Silence," Sagiri said. They were so good at camouflage that his right eye could not quite catch them. He just saw the mist change shape now and then, as if it carried something, then it calmed.

The mist thinned the world, turned distance unreliable, and bent outlines until nothing held a clean shape. Sagiri stepped into it, and the space around him felt occupied, but nothing was clearly seen.

Something shifted ahead.

Not a body. Just a distortion like heat over stone, then it settled into the suggestion of a figure. Before it could be fixed in place, it wasn’t there anymore.

Another presence brushed past his right. Close. Too close for his liking.

"They are in the mist. And close," Sagiri said in a whisper.

There was no sound of approach. Only the sudden awareness that something had crossed through his space and continued without pause. The mist barely reacted, folding and settling again.

The ground began to lose certainty. What had been open space moments ago felt narrower now. Angles shifted. Lines changed. A step in any direction felt... occupied.

Just how many were they?

Sagiri had a feeling there were not many, but they were using the mist to make their presence seem heavy. A shape formed beside Yoka. Half there, half swallowed by the haze. It didn’t advance. It didn’t attack. It simply stilled long enough for Sagiri to feel its presence around them before dissolving back into the mist.

Another appeared further out. Or the same one. There was no way to tell. They didn’t move in ways that could be followed. They didn’t commit to being seen long enough to count, to track, to understand. Each presence was brief, controlled, and placed exactly where it needed to be to increase confusion on sight before vanishing again.

A figure crossed directly in front of Sagiri. For a fraction of a second, it was clear. Shoulders squared, fist low, a faint metallic edge running along the forearm. Then just as fast, it broke apart.

Now the space beside him felt closed. The mist stayed still. But within it, everything kept shifting. Every appearance and absence hid where it had come from and where it had gone. The battlefield rearranged constantly, until nothing remained neutral. It was as if they were carrying out some strange whirlpool, like the shadow corp. It also felt like hypnosis, as if the more Sagiri saw, the more he was missing them.

His eyes would be the death of him.

"I am going to wear the seals. Touch my shoulder if you want to pass a message," Sagiri said. His hands reached into his pockets, and he snapped the seal to his ears. Just like always, it felt like he had been submerged in deep waters.

It was peaceful just as he remembered it.

Next, he closed both his eyes. Now that he couldn’t see or hear, it felt like he was submerged in a deep sea.

The forest felt like a big ocean, and he was standing at the bottom. He could feel the ripples now even clearer. The waves and everything that moved within the waters.

"Found you!"

A cruel simile drew itself on Sagiri’s lips. His lips curled back over his teeth in triumph as the waters began to ripple. Nothing could hide from him in the deep waters. The ripples did not lie. Mist is, after all, also part of water.

"There are twelve!" Sagiri said.