Tang Ao the Captain of the Squadron that detained Shin and the other students was inside his office frowning. After listening to Shin’s testimony as well as those that were there with him, Tang Ao really could not help but frown. Who could have thought that the rumored assassin would meddle in some random kid’s business? 

As a Squadron Captain of the Elite Dragon Brigade, he knew the truth about the urban legend, Fade. The assassin was someone that came out of nowhere and despite their best efforts, they couldn’t find a single clue about him. 

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That person who calls himself Fade was an incredible assassin. Each target he killed were people who surround themselves with goons and were hidden in secret locations, but despite that, he has never failed to kill his targets and it was usually done with one fatal strike.

What was more interesting was despite his targets hiring plenty of guards not one of those guards has died, the worst they received were some cuts and bruises. It was even said that he got past the genius martial artist Leila who was as skilled as a Sergeant in the Elite Dragon Brigade. 

Tang Ao had watched the video where Fade was first sighted. The official statement given to the public was that the video was fake, but those in the loop like Tang Ao knew the truth. Tang Ao had watched that video numerous times and still found it amazing. 

The assassin Fade defeated the armed men with extreme efficiency, there was no wasted movement from attacking to evading and he only needed one strike each to incapacitate his opponents.

In the eyes of Tang Ao and the majority of the Elite Dragon Brigade, Fade was the perfect assassin. Everything about him was an enigma, no one knows where he’s from, no one knows his real name, or if he was even a martial artist or not. Even though his movements were beyond anything a normal human could do, but there were no reports of any inner energy being detected in those areas Fade had done his assassinations, well except the one where he fought Leila.

Still, even then Leila who had been interrogated after had said that she had not felt even an inkling of mana coming from Fade. There were also the techniques he used in the video which were something even the general populace could do. Even now no one even knows how he was able to kill his targets as he leaves no evidence.

‘Still, why would someone like that save a random child?… What’s the point?…’ 

Tang Ao looked at the file that was on his desk that had a picture of Michael. The boy was nothing remarkable. The parents were normal, and his aptitude as a martial artist was the bare minimum.

Even though the student called Michael had scored nicely for his form and technique as both were rated as near perfection, unfortunately, he had little inner energy which was the very foundation to grow as a martial artist. Even if someone were to train their body to the very limit of what was possible, they still would not be able to defeat a person using inner energy. 

If Michael had even just the average amount of inner energy he would’ve been considered a genius because of his skills, but unfortunately, his inner energy was practically non-existent. 

Though martial artists train their bodies to be able to control their inner energy, training one’s body was only second to enhancing one’s inner energy. 

‘Hmm, there must be something I’m missing… I guess the only way to figure out more is if I talk to this student named Michael. I was already informed that he had arrived at his house. Should I go now?… Never mind, I’ll just do it tomorrow.’

…

At the same time as Tang Ao was reading Michael’s file, Matsuri was at home looking at the screen of her laptop. She heard some interesting news that the local squadron of the Elite Dragon Brigade had detained some kids from Sekiko Academy who were fighting, but that was not the interesting part. The interesting part was that these kids met with the infamous Fade, and one of them was taken or supposedly saved by him as reported by the students. 

Matsuri who had been chasing after Fade’s shadow for a few months now was frowning as she tapped her finger on the desk. It had been weeks since any sighting of Fade, and now he once again appeared but not to kill but instead save a bullied student?

‘Why would Fade rescue a bullied student from Sekiko Academy?…’

On the wall of her apartment Matsuri had a lot of pictures from different crime scenes pinned to the wall, and in the middle was the picture of the mask-wearing Fade. Each picture was connected to Fade as they were all the targets he had killed. She sighed as she continued to stare at the pictures on the wall. 

‘No matter how many times I look at it, there’s nothing there that could help. All the victims of his assassination had only two things in common, for one they’re all criminals, second, they are all near Leim City where Fade first appeared.’

Matsuri gritted her teeth as she couldn’t even catch a glimpse of Fade if he didn’t want to show himself. She then placed Michael’s picture on the wall with a pin. 

‘There must be some kind of connection to all of this, and this kid is the key to gaining some sort of clue. I better talk to him tomorrow…’

For a brief moment, the face of the new Police Commissioner flashed through Matsuri’s mind. She suddenly thought that the new Commish might bite her head off if she spoke to the student without any authorization, but after thinking about it for a second she shook her head. 

‘Well, if it gets me even a tiny bit closer to catching Fade, then getting scolded for a bit isn’t really such a big deal.’