“Alright, I’ve got the stuff…” Said Jay as he looked at what he had bought.

On top of the kitchen table were several objects, including a package of balloons, a metal bat and finally the objects that caught the most attention, a jar with a red powder, another jar with a white powder and a large container that said “Devil’s rage” with a red liquid inside.

Seeing these things, Jay couldn’t help but feel a little bad for Colt, but he quickly got rid of that thought as it was necessary.

The reason why he had bought all of these things was because while the pugilists were very resilient, fast and strong, they had a clear weakness when they were low level.

They were too physically sensitive as they had to adapt to their enhanced senses, this was a fact Jay had researched and even tested before.

He still remembered the time he had given some buns filled with hot sauce to James… that day, Jay was able to experience first hand how the blows of a rank (D+) pugilist felt.

“Well, then I better start getting everything ready to use as fast as…possible?”

At that moment, Jay’s gaze fell on the door leading to the backyard…and on a black object that seemed to be watching him from the outside.

But just as Jay noticed it and headed for the backyard, the object quickly escaped, disappearing from his sight.

“…What…?” He said rather confused, considering whether he should put up a door that wasn’t transparent. “Whatever, I have things to do.”

Since he didn’t see it well, Jay wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination or if there really was something there, so he decided to go back inside his house, deciding that he would worry about that later.

***

“Woah, that was close~!” said one girl as she drove the drone away after taking a picture of Jay in his kitchen._.

Normally she didn’t take these risks, but because Jay had taken his package and entered his house quickly, she couldn’t take a proper picture, so, reluctant to let this opportunity pass, she had the drone go into the backyard and take a picture of him.

“Hmm, I wish I could have taken a better picture…but this one isn’t so bad~” she said as she looked at a photo in which Jay was holding the “Devil’s Rage” jar.

“¡Jenny!”

“¡Wah!”

Suddenly, a voice sounded from outside the room where the girl was working, frightening her and causing her to accidentally press the delete button.

“…O-Oh no…” she said as she held her smart watch.

“What did you say?” asked the female voice outside the room again.

“N-no, nothing, what did you want to tell me…?”

“Come to the break room, we ordered some fried chicken.”

“…A-alright, I’ll go in a second…”

Since she had to erase the photos shortly after taking them so that the company would not suspect anything, the only copy she had was in her smart watch…copy she had just erased.

“…Damn.” Said the girl before she let out a sigh and put the drones into automatic mode momentarily to go out to dinner.

***

“The bonus was good…but why did they have to send me to take care of the same area as that idiot…?” Colt said as he strolled through the same neighborhood where he had found Taylor. A clear expression of discomfort was written on his face.

Judging by the fact that there wasn’t a single soul on the streets apart from him, one could tell it was pretty late.

As the boss had decided to give Taylor a few days off, the area he was in charge of had temporarily fallen into Colt’s hands, of course, he wasn’t happy to receive such a task because taking care of district 31 was one of the less important jobs.

The hierarchy in Metal Body was that the more important you were to the organization, the closer you were to district 2, which was where the general base was.

So doing guard duty in the 31st district and in a place so close to the entrance was definitely not a suitable position for him, a rank (D) pugilist.

Of course, this was not a punishment or anything like that, the reason he was here, besides replacing Taylor, was because the boss wanted to avoid a repeat of last night’s situation if he sent someone just as strong as Taylor.

“…Hm?”

Suddenly, a faint smell came to Colt’s nose, making him feel a little tingling.

“…Hot sauce…?” Said Colt trying to find the source of the smell.

Slowly, his sense of smell led him to the road leading to the city, where the smell was stronger.

Colt didn’t head for the area, however; instead, he simply stayed where he was with his guard up.

“!”

At that moment, an object came flying towards him at a considerable speed, but Colt easily dodged it, although he could destroy or catch the object, it seemed safer to simply dodge it.

“…A balloon…?”

He had expected it to be something more dangerous like a stone or something since it obviously was thrown at him, but it simply was a balloon filled with something.

“No, this… is not a simple balloon!” Colt shouted as he walked away from the balloon that emanated a strong smell of hot sauce, causing him to have to hold his nose to avoid tingling.

However, just at that moment many more balloons began to fall from the entrance to the South Zone.

Seeing this, Colt moved further away from the entrance, but even as he moved away, the balloons kept falling near him.

“What the hell?!”

This was the first time something so strange had happened to him, of course, he had been thrown things before, even some esper skills and other blunt objects, but never anything like this!

“Just how many balloons does this guy have?!’ Thought Colt as he saw that the balloons keep falling, making him turn around to see if they were still coming from the entrance, but to his surprise, they were no longer coming from the darkness of the South Zone entrance.

Instead, a hooded man was picking up the balloons on the ground and throwing them as he chased him!

‘…So that was why he didn’t run out of them…’ He thought with a bitter smile, which changed to a confident one soon after, ‘Anyways, now it’s my turn!’

Colt then quickly launched himself into the direction of the hooded man at an incredible speed, coming face to face in just a few seconds.

“I’ve got you!” Colt shouted, throwing a punch against the hooded man, since they were so close, there was no chance he could avoid his blow.

The hooded man, seeing that he couldn’t dodge, barely managed to respond with an equal punch, causing the fists of both to collide.

‘Damn, I feel like I punched a wall!’ Thought Jay after countering Colt’s blow, even though he had his wind glove activated, because he had made “modifications” to inflict more damage on Colt, his defensive capabilities had diminished considerably, making his entire arm hurt, especially his wrist.

In fact, if he hadn’t had the wind glove activated, Jay had no doubt that he would have some broken bones in his right hand.

‘!’

However, Colt wasn’t having a good time either, the fist with which he had hit Jay had a wound on the middle finger, as if something had punctured his finger.

It wasn’t a deep wound, but it did cause Colt some pain.

This was thanks to the “modification” Jay had made to the glove, in exchange for making the air current protecting his hand less dense, he was able to form a small wind spike in his knuckles, you could say that he had exchanged defense for attack.

‘So he’s an esper…’ Colt thought when he saw that Jay had nothing in his right hand but still managed to hurt him

Jay, on the other hand, taking advantage that Colt was still processing what had happened, stepped heavily on one of the balloons nearby, causing it to explode.

The strong smell of hot sauce assailed Colt, but although his nose was really itchy and his eyes a little watery, he decided to ignore it and finish off the hooded man quickly.

He had received some damage before, but thanks to that, he quickly realized the limitations of the hooded man.

Although he was an esper, why didn’t he use his skill to block his blow instead of countering it?

Or why did he only caused him such a small wound, when he could easily have done more damage with his skill?

The answer was easy, he just couldn’t do it!

Seeing Colt approaching, Jay didn’t hesitate for a second to use the Phantom Trace to escape his reach.

Sadly, despite using it, Colt still was able to track his every move.

Finally, after being cornered against a wall, Jay threw one last desperate punch with his left arm aiming for Colt’s face.

However, Colt simply stopped Jay’s wrist just as it was about to reach his face.

“Okay, you’re coming with me, I’m sure the boss will be interested to know why you’re attacking us.” He said, seeing that the hooded man had nowhere else to run.

Right at that moment, Jay’s left fist, which was being held by Colt, opened, revealing what was inside.

“!”

A small sphere of wind with a red dust inside.

The sphere then turned to dust and went straight into Colt’s eyes.