Liun quickly noticed that he was not in the stairwell the moment he walked through the door. He was alone inside a living room that was not his team's

  He looked around the room, it was definitely another team's room as evidenced by a picture of a group of teens.

  He walked to the door, opening it. As he opened the door where a hallway was supposed to be. There was instead another room.

  A boiler room this time.

  He turned back immediately and opened the door he had just come through.

  This time there was a kitchen on the other side. An empty kitchen.

  He didn't step through this time. He locked the door, then opened it again.

  A bathroom this time.

  He tried one last time. And viola. A hallway.

  Liun exhaled slowly through his nose. "This must be a sin ability. But I never imagined that sins could have abilities like this."

  Suddenly, the boy barely dodged a tongue that lashed right past him. He turned around to see what was definitely a sin.

  "Hey, you seen any hotties around here" the teenage sin asked the white haired fighter. He currently had a smug smile on his face. This kid in front of him definitely had the looks to be a lady killer, he could probably wring some info out of this kid.

  Liun, got into a stance, preparing to fight

  Liun shifted his footing, heels light, weight centered. His eyes flicked to the boy’s mouth—too wide, jaw hanging a fraction lower than it should. Veins beneath the skin pulsed dark, sluggish, like oil trying to move through flesh.

  “This area is under junior division jurisdiction,” Liun said evenly. “release your ability and prepare to be slain demon"

  "Wait what? As in Junior sin hunter?" The Sin questioned. It hadn't intended to fight any sin hunters and now it had no other option with all the sin hunters who were probably crawling around the building. Fine, he could make this work, they were just juniors after all, plus this guy didn't seem all too strong, he'd just kill this kid and leave, find some other place.

  Liun didn’t answer.

  The Sin took that as hesitation.

  The boy grinned wider, jaw stretching just a little too far as his tongue slid back between his teeth. “Yeah, figured. Don’t worry, I’ll make it quick.”

  The Sin quickly lashed its tongue snapping like some kinda whip. It split into three halfway through the strike, each one aiming for a different angle, throat, legs, eyes.

  Liun ducked under the first, twisted past the second, and caught the third.

  His hand closed around the slick, muscular length and he yanked.

  Hard.

  The Sin was ripped off his feet, being pulled towards the blue eyed boy who slammed his fist into the sins face, throwing it into the wall with enough force to crack it.

  Liun was surprised, that should've killed it. The boy looked down at his hand, quickly noticing the reason. He had left his weapons back in his room in order to not dirty them.

  While the boy was distracted, the sin quickly tried to attack him again with a roundhouse kick. Tho, it didn't do anything as it's leg swung through air.

  Liun had dodged by stepping back just out of his range to where his leg couldn't hit, but close enough in range to where he could grab his leg, which is what he did.

  Liun twisted the leg like the wheel of a car before dropping his elbow on it, breaking most of the bones in the leg.

  The sin tried to wrench his leg away from the boy, but Liun didn’t let go.

  As the sin tried to attack with its tongue once more, he pivoted, using his own Strength and hurled him down the hallway. The body skidded, bounced, then disappeared through a door that hadn’t been there a second ago.

  Liun followed without hesitation.

  The room on the other side was a laundry room, industrial-sized machines humming loudly, heat rolling off them in waves. The Sin hit the floor hard, coughing, tongue retracting back into his mouth as he scrambled to his feet.

  "Damn it. I knew I should've gone to another place." The teen said before rushing him.

  As he threw a punch, liun was forced to block. as the sin's fist crashed into the arms of the boy who was blocking and sent him crashing into a wall. But other than that he was fine.

  "It seems that in terms of physical strength this one is no stronger than the one faced by Garcia." Liun muttered to himself "clearly it's true strength lies in it's ability and speed." He continued.

  "Did you forget about me?!" The sin yelled as he rushed the boy again, tho this time the boy dodged, letting it slam into the wall behind him

  the Sin’s shoulder slammed into concrete hard enough to crater it. Dust puffed out, drifting lazily through the air.

  Liun didn’t give him time to recover.

  He stepped in, driving his knee into the Sin’s ribs. There was a wet crack, followed by a choked gasp as the air left the teen’s lungs all at once. Liun pivoted with the motion, elbow following, smashing into the side of the Sin’s head and snapping it sideways.

  The Sin stumbled, but didn’t fall. He glared at the white haired boy who's composure hadn't broken a single time the entire fight.

  The Sin snarled, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. His grin was gone now, replaced with irritation.

  “Tch- annoying asshole.”

  He staggered back two steps, then threw himself sideways through a door that hadn’t existed a moment before.

  Liun didn’t hesitate. He followed behind, very quickly.

  He burst through into a storage room, stacked floor to ceiling with crates stamped with old HAS inventory numbers. The Sin was already sprinting, vaulting over a crate and diving through another door at the far end.

  Liun vaulted after him.

  Office.

  Desks, overturned chairs, papers fluttering into the air, liun hadn't recognized that there were this many unique places in the building.

  Then the sin threw a printer at him, which he dodged as it crashed through a cubicle destroying it and everything in it.

  the Sin slammed through yet another door.

  Liun followed, calm, unhurried, footsteps quick.

  Locker room.

  Steam filled the air. The Sin skidded across wet tile.

  Liun tried to take advantage of this, attacking while it was struggling to move, but the sin dodged just slightly out of the way allowing the boys fist to hammer into the ground, cracking the tile

  The sin cursed, and kicked open a door that led to a-

  Gymnasium.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  As liun moved through the doors a large amount of basket balls were thrown his way.

  The boy dodged every single ball heading his way, each one being thrown with enough force that the boy absolutely did not want to get hit by any of them

  At noticing how it's assault didn't work, The Sin bolted across the court, shoes screeching, leaping through a door behind the bleachers.

  Liun followed.

  Break room.

  A microwave buzzed as a worker heated up his cup of hot ramen.

  There actually were quite a few workers here, tho most of them were priming to leave anytime now.

  None of them were prepared for the sin boy to be launched through the microwave, destroying it and the instant ramen inside.

  The sin boy sat up as liun cracked his knuckles after the hit, it was clear that hurt his hands.

  The room was currently freaking out as the few remaining people there started running away from the fight.

  Liun jumped high in the air in order to land a powerful flying kick into the sin.

  Unfortunately for the Chinese fighter tho, he had not been paying attention to the environment, he'd stopped doing that at the gymnasium.

  Had he been paying attention to the environment he'd have noticed the door behind the sin that he'd just kicked it through.

  The boy ran and leaped in order to get to the sin before the door closed.

  Hallway.

  The same hallway they'd fought in before. Or maybe a different one? All these halls seemed to blend together.

  The sin expelled a black ichor from its mouth as well as regular human blood. It was after all that punishment it's body was finally being truly affected.

  Tho liun doubted that would mean much as without his weapons he could never do enough meaningful damage to kill this thing thanks to his regeneration.

  However that didn't mean he couldn't hold it until someone with an actual weapon came along, or maybe he could find a way to kill it during the fight, either way he doubted he was gonna be able to kill it now.

  The sin had finally stopped vomiting blood, he was NOT ready to fight in this condition. It needed to find another way out, and fast.

  Conveniently, it would get that chance when a door opened next to the two boys.

  Rissa walked through the door not yet noticing what was going on in front of her m.

  The Sin didn’t even hesitate.

  The moment Rissa stepped out, confusion still written across her face, his hand snapped out and grabbed her by the collar causing the door to close and leaving ganju separated from her.

  “Hey, what the-”

  He threw her.

  Rissa barely had time to gasp before her body slammed into Liun’s chest. The impact knocked the air from both of them, boots skidding uselessly against the floor as momentum carried them backward.

  They crashed through the door behind Liun.

  Meanwhile

  Ganju walked Through the door just a second too late. As she went through the doorway a gun was pointed to her head.

  Malik had been on the other side, when he walked through the rooftop door he had expected a stairwell and to head back to sleep. Never did he expect he'd be stuck wandering an endless maze of rooms. He had no clue what was going on, so of course when he heard the door opening his instinct took over.

  The gun was already up before his brain caught up.

  The barrel stopped inches from Ganju’s forehead.

  Both of them froze.

  Malik sighed in relief, it was just the weird girl from the roof. What was her name? Gaja? Gaia? Gajeel? Eh it didn't matter.

  As soon as he withdrew his guns he noticed a strange look in her eye, like she was in some kind of trance.

  Maybe it was cause he had his gun to her head.

  Malik lowered his guns fully.

  “Relax,” he muttered. “I’m not shooting you.”

  Ganju didn’t relax. She shook. It was almost like some kinda PTSD

  "Hm?" The boy questioned, before noticing her grip on her sword growing tighter.

  He stepped back just slightly, barely dodging out of the way of a sword strike.

  Ganju’s blade whispered through the air where Malik’s throat had been a heartbeat earlier.

  Malik stumbled back on instinct alone, boots scraping against the floor as the edge passed so close he felt the cold of it against his skin. His back hit the wall, breath sharp in his chest.

  “Hey-!” he snapped, more startled than angry. “What the hell is your problem?!”

  Ganju didn’t answer. She just rushed him.

  Meanwhile, liun and rissa had fallen into an apartment. Except unlike all the other times they'd moved through the rooms of the apartment complex, something was noticeably different this time

  The impact knocked the breath from Liun’s lungs.

  For a split second, his proprioception was all out of wack, and it was nauseating. His sense of direction failed him entirely. And then pain bloomed across his shoulder and ribs as he and Rissa slammed sideways into what should have been the floor.

  Except it wasn’t the floor.

  They hit the wall.

  Liun rolled instinctively, twisting mid-fall, mid-fall?and barely managed to shift his weight so Rissa didn’t take the full impact, he could tell that unlike him, she wasn't wearing her exosuit, which was designed for taking hits. They skidded along the vertical surface, friction burning through fabric, before collapsing in a heap against what was now the lower wall.

  For a moment, neither of them moved.

  The door they’d fallen through slammed shut above them.

  Above.

  Liun forced his breathing steady and pushed himself upright, boots scraping uselessly against the surface that insisted on being a wall despite behaving like ground. He glanced up.

  The door sat ten feet overhead, flush with the ceiling, handle dangling uselessly in the air.

  The boy hmphhed, yet again, he had found himself being surprised by the abilities of this sin, this was something totally new.

  "Okay, ow. Would you please explain to me what the fuck is going on right now?" The redhead Asked as she seemed to finish processing everything that just happened. She was now the most confused she'd been in... Years? Months? It'd been a while since she was this confused.

  "Please Refrain from using such words" Liun said as he was already scanning the room. “ And to answer, it seems to me that the Sin altered the orientation of the space. ”

  Rissa blinked, then snorted weakly. “repeat that in normal person terms.”

  "He rotated the room" liun simplified for her, tho she seemed like she was more than intelligent enough to understand what he said the first time, why did she ask him to dumb it down?

  "Alright then. How do we get out of here?"

  "I was hoping you would tell me?" The snow haired boy said.

  "Why?"

  "You are my senior by four years, as your junior it is only natural that I look to you for guidance." Liun said.

  Rissa let off an exhausted sigh. Liun had intrigued her from the very first moment she saw him, he seemed like there was a lot more behind him than the other two. But now she wad both intrigued and annoyed at his personality.

  "We need to get over there." Rissa gestured towards the door, which was now above them. "So we need to find something that can get us up there. Search... Something."

  Liun glanced around. the room was small, with just the essentials. Bed, nightstand, desk, chair. and window.

  From the wall they were standing on they could only access the nightstand, the bed drawers and the dresser. This was gonna take a while.

  ---Meanwhile---

  Ganju closed the distance in three steps.

  Malik barely had time to raise his left gun before her blade slammed into it, steel shrieking as sparks burst between them. The force numbed his fingers instantly, the gun skidding across the floor and Sliding under the bed behind him, they were currently in a bedroom, who's,? He didn't know. All he knew right now was that this girl was crazy.

  “Shit!”

  He twisted, firing with his right. The shot cracked through the air where Ganju’s head had been a heartbeat earlier. She dipped under it, momentum carrying her forward, shoulder driving into his chest.

  They hit the wall hard.

  The impact rattled Malik’s teeth. He grunted, elbow snapping down on instinct, but Ganju was already moving way too fast for that to work. Her knee came up into his stomach, knocking the air from his lungs in a sharp, humiliating burst.

  Malik stumbled back, coughing, boots scraping.

  “Hey- HEY!” he barked, panic creeping into his voice now. “I said I’m not-”

  She didn’t let him finish.

  Ganju’s sword flicked up, then down, a brutal diagonal slash aimed for his collarbone. Malik barely got his arm up in time, the flat of the blade smashing into his forearm guard with bone-jarring force.

  Pain flared white-hot.

  Malik hissed and rolled with it, twisting his body sideways so the next strike carved sparks from the wall instead of his ribs. He drew another gun mid-motion, firing blind.

  The bullet tore through the air.

  Ganju swung her body to the side, the round grazing her shoulder instead of punching through her chest. She didn’t even flinch. Blood darkened the fabric of her blouse, but her expression didn’t change.

  That annoyed him.

  She pressed in again, sword a blur. Malik backpedaled hard. Now he was firing in a predictable but purposeful pattern.

  Let off two shots,

  Pause,

  Reposition

  Then do it again.

  Though she was absolutely not going to lose to this pattern as she dodged bullets, on some occasions even cutting some in half.

  It wasn’t working.

  "Damnit" The boy cursed under his breath. This girl was currently trying to kill him, yet he wasn't fighting to kill in return, just by the merit of that alone he was bound to lose this.

  The girl rushed him again, but this time he blocked the sword with one of his guns.

  He shot a bullet, not at her but at the ground, and the recoil from that shot, sent a vibration into the sword, that caused it to get broken in half.

  Now with this edge over her, he used it to pistol whip her across the face, stunning her for a second.

  Then he took aim at her leg, ready to shoot it to screw up her ability to fight him.

  But before he could, the leg moved fast.

  Too fast.

  It slammed into his chin with a decent amount of force, making his jaw feel like it was broken.

  Malik’s vision burst white.

  His teeth clacked together with a sound he felt more than heard, and his head snapped back hard enough that the back of his skull cracked against the wall. For a moment, the world tilted sideways, ringing like a bell struck too hard.

  He staggered, boots tangling with each other, gun slipping from his fingers and clattering uselessly across the floor.

  “F-" the word died in his throat. Sure it wasn't enough to incapacitate, but it was more than enough to hurt.

  He looked over at her, it looked like the girl had come to her senses after getting her weapon destroyed.

  "What the fuck!" He yelled.

  Ganju blinked rapidly, the haze in her eyes clearing like fog burned off by sudden sunlight. Her sword,now just a jagged half, clattered to the floor from numb fingers. She stared at the broken hilt, then at Malik, who was still leaning against the wall cradling his jaw like it might fall off if he let go.

  She glared at him but turned around, away. Not explaining any of what just happened.

  "Damn psycho bitch."

  It was clear he wasn't exactly enthused by what just happened. Especially the complete lack of explanation.

  Meanwhile

  Rissa and liun weren't exactly having the best luck. Neither in finding anything or their proprioception adapting

  Liun tested his footing again, deliberately shifting his weight. The surface still felt wrong—not slippery, not uneven, just… insistent. His inner ear stubbornly refused to agree with his eyes.

  Rissa noticed.

  “Yeah, don’t fight it,” she muttered, rubbing her temples. “That sick feeling? Gets worse if you try to pretend gravity’s normal.”

  “…You’ve experienced something similar?” Liun asked, tipping on his toes to open the bedside drawer to search.

  "Nah, I've met someone with a similar ability." Rissa said.

  Liun paused at that.

  “…Met,” he echoed quietly, fingers closing around the edge of the drawer. He pulled it open with care, as if to make sure nothing fell out of reach

  Inside: folded clothes, a charger, a cracked datapad. The only thing that could be useful were the clothes, should they tie them together to make a rope, but he didn't think there were enough clothes to reach.

  Rissa has finished searching through the nightstand, there was nothing of use. “Yeah, do you know who kiyohime juryoku is?"

  "I've heard the name before, she is the director of the HAS no?" He said

  "Yeah. She's an angel gear. Her ability let's her manipulate gravity so I have been in a similar situation."

  After she explained that, there was a silence for a couple minutes.

  suddenly, liun heard the flap of wings. It was then that he noticed a crow on his shoulder.

  "Huh, a crow?" He didn’t flinch but he was surprised.

  Slowly, deliberately, he turned his head just enough to bring the bird into his peripheral vision.

  Rissa noticed a minute later.

  Rissa's gaze flicked to the crow on his shoulder, raising an eyebrow. "Looks like you've made a friend," she commented.

  Liun studied the crow. It perched calmly on his shoulder, its head tilted slightly as if observing them.

  He reached up, slowly, to brush a finger over the crow's feathers, expecting it to fly away.

  Instead, the bird leaned into his touch.

  "If that crow got in here, then that means..." The two looked up at the window that the thing had come in through.

  They already looked at it, but they assumed the thing was locked and since all the windows were bullet proof glass, then there was no way they could break through.

  But seeing that the crow got in, then the window had to be unlocked now somehow.

  They checked to make sure, and sure enough, the entire right side of the windows frame had been ripped out, the crow must've done this to get in.

  Liun pushed the glass out, and it moved, meaning that they had found their way out.

  ---Meanwhile---

  On the outside of the building, the conductors had finally made their way back from the meeting.

  However none of them could get in. It was like the door was locked from the inside, but that couldn't be right, cause they had the keys and it still wasn't budging.

  Aoi was one of the conductors that had come back. He was a lot more calm than the rest of the conductors.

  This was most likely an attack from some kinda sin, and because of that, he had full faith in his division's ability to handle it.

  As he looked up that was when he noticed something odd that no one else seemed to. Two teens had climbed out of a window and were currently climbing from window to window. One of them was a white haired boy that he didn't recognize, and a red haired girl that he definitely did recognize.

  "That definitely doesn't look safe" konchuu said as he walked up to the man with blue streaked hair "should I go do something?" The boy asked his division conductor.

  "Nah, I'll deal with it myself, I need to stretch my muscles anyway." The man said his black and blue hair blowing as he looked up at the two teens.

  Liun and rissa had managed to climb to a window that looked into a hallway.

  "Finally," rissa said, they had been making sure to search for a hallway, because if they went into a room they would have just been walking through a labyrinth.

  Also, this was one of the only open windows.

  The crow was still on liuns shoulder as he and rissa crawled through.

  Rissa let out a sigh of relief thinking they were safe..

  Until a body flew right past liun into the end of the hallway.

  "What the-"

  The two teenagers were suddenly frozen in place,

  Badump, badump, badump.

  Their heartbeat quickened like a drum as something appeared behind them.

  Liun sweat as he turned around to look behind him, it was that same sin from before, except this time, it was much bigger and much less human looking.

  And definitely way faster.

  It was no longer a phase 1. It had advanced to phase 2.

  Suddenly, the sin slammed it's fist into the boys side, breaking his ribs like a couple flimsy sticks and sending him flying into the wall.

  What had happened in the tie they were out of the fight?

  To be continued.