Devotio

Chapter 16

The morning Echizen woke up to was- not the worst he'd ever had but there have been better ones. The fact was it would've been better if he actually went to sleep at an appropriate time. When he returned inside the previous night, it was later than he had expected; no one had actually gone to the roof to talk to him about anything and in all honesty he half expected someone to get him because he had no sense of time.

The group at breakfast specifically with the Hyoutei group to further familiarize themselves with each other seeing as they'll be working together for at least the next week. Echizen found it rather simple to tune Atobe out completely, not that he was doing anything particularly annoying but just the fact that he talked in third person was enough.

When breakfast was finished, they were split into two groups; those with the M-Gene- Echizen, Ryoga, Oishi, Kikumaru, Momo, Kaidou, Atobe, Choutarou, and Oshitari- Group A and those without- Tezuka, Fuji, Kawamura, Inui, Kabaji, Jirou, Gakuto, Shishido, and Hiroshi- Group B. The non-gene group was led outside to the training grounds by Masa, the one Kawamura had mentioned as being the head training official while the other was taken into a building that seemed awfully familiar to the previous ones that the Seigaku group had more or less destroyed.

"Shouldn't we be outside since we're the ones that basically level a building?" Choutarou pointed out.

"That's the exact reason you're in a building, so you can work on keeping your power level in check if you're in a battle that's inside and you need to keep your presence a secret." The woman that spoke didn't look like a fighter. She looked more like a doctor or scientist.

"Won't our positions already be given away if we're in a fight?"

"Theoretically speaking; think of it as you're sneaking and you need to take someone out quickly and efficiently without use of weapons. Normally a large blast or jolt did the job right? Since we're attacking the main HQ, there's going to be more security and that means more chances to get caught so stealth is our best option."

"I understand where you're going with this, miss-" Oishi started.

"Natomi."

"Natomi-san, but I have the M-Gene for healing. Doesn't that counteract what we're setting out to do?"

"You need to think outside the box Oishi-kun. While you may not be able to actually injure someone with your power, you do have the ability to render them useless. You don't just heal injuries but you make people feel at ease."

"Sorry I'm not really following."

Natomi placed her hand on her chin. "How to explain this- you're aware of what happens when you eat chocolate right? Endorphins are released from the brain and gives one the sense of being happy and also masks pain receptors. You roughly do the same thing. You're power triggers not only Endorphins but also Dopamine, Oxytocin, and Serotonin for the most part plus several other minor chemicals. If you practice enough, you should be able to more or less give someone the sense of being high for a short while."

Oishi nodded and threw a glance at Echizen. "Would you like me to take a look at your arm?"

"I'm not being your guinea pig." Echizen waved him off.

"As for the rest of you, Momoshiro-kun and Kaidou-kun probably have the most experience with this type of training, yes?" The two of them nodded. "You two don't exactly have the same kind of gene as the others though... Atobe-kun has harmony, Ryoga-kun has ice, Choutarou-kun has light-" She heaved a heavy sigh. "Why did I say I would take over this training?"

"Natomi-san, what's your power?" Kikumaru asked.

"Oh I wasn't born with a gene. I'm our field research analyst and trainer for people who do have it."