— lincoln high school portland, oregon, september 2022

He looked around the roof with a condescending expression. There were those who smelled of cigarettes, those who smelled of alcohol, and some who obviously had both. He wondered if they had been hiding up here all day.

Some of them seemed to be in his grade, they all looked a bit like him. Short, scrawny, timid, braces, glasses, freckles... Losers came in all shapes and sizes after all.

"See those girls over there?" At the words of Hayden Chace himself, sitting like a king in the midst of them, everyone looked in the same place.

A group of three girls, dressed in surprisingly light attire, stood off to the side, just observing. One of them, the one in the middle, shrugged her shoulders and put the cell phone she was holding in her pocket.

What were the others supposed to say? They said nothing in response to his exclamation, merely waiting for him to make a point.

"So these girls told me they would go out with us," he told them proudly, "but only if I showed them what I could do. They were curious, y'know? About the powers of an Awakened. You can understand that, right?"

Again, no one said anything.

"So," he continued, rising from his throne of stacked old pallets with a jacket on top, "I thought I could show them. There's just one catch: I don't get any training equipment or sparring partners because I can't officially learn until after high school."

"What does that have to do with us?" The boy who asked wore thick glasses, and despite the mild weather, sweat rolled down his forehead as he looked anxiously at the older students.

"Y'know, I thought I could use y'all for the time being."

"Awakeners aren't allowed to use their powers on normal people," another said, "don't think you can do that without getting into trouble."

"Who would report me? Y'all will?"

The question seemed idiotic. There were more than a handful of witnesses, and not all of them were friends of his. But when he said it, you could feel the fear around them, emanating from almost everyone who came here the same way Isaac did. Even from Hayden's supposed friends.

It was a sight to behold and Isaac could only laugh inwardly as he watched.

Without further ado, Hayden walked towards the one he had spoken to first. He sped up on his way, charging right at him to land a kick to his side.

All of this happened quickly. So fast, in fact, that Isaac could barely follow it with his human eyes. All he heard was the thud of feet on the concrete floor and a loud 'clank'.

He must have redirected himself, using a pipe protruding from the wall to get a foothold when he turned. The pipe in question, sticking out of the wall next to the exit, was slightly dented.

The next thing they saw was the boy with the thick glasses caving in on one side and basically flying straight across the roof. If it weren't for the thin safety fence of wire stretched around the ledge, he might have simply fallen off the four-story building.

This time no one said anything because they really couldn't. It looked like he might have died from the impact, so one of Hayden's cronies had to go check on him.

"I didn't actually kick him that hard. I mean, yeah, I pretty much sent him flying, but I mean, I usually kick him about ten times in one place. So this one kick made up for ten. He should be fine, right?"

The girls seemed a little pale after watching that "show" that had been put on just for them. Only the one in front, who had reacted to Hayden earlier, suddenly cracked a crooked smile at him.

"Well, I thought you were just fucking around when you said there were scouts looking for you," she said.

Hearing that, the Awakened acted hurt. "What? You don't believe me? But my sponsor is [The Love], so even the big Guilds want me. This ain't no joke. I just have to wait a few more months until I graduate."

Isaac, on the other hand, was still focused on the boy who was kicked. He slowly walked over to him until he was mere steps away. He was still squirming on the ground and seemed to be shaking a little.

Even though it appeared that he really got by, he didn't want to go through the same thing himself.

Shaking his head in defeat, he admitted to himself that he was done with this game and turned on his heels to head for the door that led back inside. Only a hand that appeared on his shoulder stopped him.

Looking back at who held him back, he expected to see Hayden or the guy he had sent to get him earlier.

What he did not expect was one of those three female students. One of the two who hadn't really made themselves known yet grabbed him and led him back.

"You want to leave already? That's so sad," she said in a way that made the sophomore want to run even faster.

"You're right, I thought you were so cute. How about us?" the other one joked on cue.

Narrowing his eyes until they were almost slits, Isaac looked at the two girls, a redhead and a black-haired one, as they came uncomfortably close for no reason.

"You see, I also brought you here because I thought I could help you get a girlfriend. One girl is enough for me, but you're such a loner. Don't you care what others think of you?"

'As a matter of fact, no,' Isaac thought to himself.

Completely stunned by this moronic turn of events, he blinked blankly at the group and then closed his eyes for a second.

"Do we seriously need to see this through?" Something inside him began to light up, though Hayden just continued to eye him.

He didn't know why, but some things were just inexcusable to him. Having to deal with this right now was one of them. It might have been the same flame lit that cost him his last life.

In the end, he could lay low, but he would never be low. Finally, he let out a deep sigh.

"I'm just not going to stay here. Take your girls and be done with it." His calm gray eyes locked with Hayden's dark brown ones.

The Awakened noticed that something had changed, but couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

"What? Can't get it up? Is that it?" the girl with the black hair said, trying to egg him on and play her part.

With that, the redhead chimed in: "Even so, if you leave now, you will regret it."

These obnoxious people were so upsetting to him that he genuinely wanted to do things he would regret later. It wouldn't make sense for him to want to stay here after what he had seen. Their logic was flawed from the start.

On that note, even if this one kick had been enough to impress them, Isaac couldn't imagine that Hayden Chace had gathered at least five people and brought them here just to give himself a better choice of who to send flying.

And he was right. "Well, I thought we could spar a little while we're at it. Maybe you can impress one of the girls, too. How about it?" He was just bored.

Isaac closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm out of here. And I think you should get this guy an ambulance, by the way."

"If you think we should help him, why don't you help him yourself?"

"Because it's not my responsibility."

"Wow, that's pretty cold, you know?" Hayden smirked, he found his behavior quite amusing.

Of course, he was sure that Isaac was acting calm to put up a front, but he thought it was cute to watch.

By now, almost everyone on the roof was busy doing different things. The girls were busy trying to get on the good side of the Awakened, while some of the other students were either frozen in fear or trying to help their fallen classmate.

But Hayden Chace focused solely on Isaac, as he was the only one trying to blatantly walk out on him. "Is this really how you're going to behave? I'm the one who's going to be saving your ass from monsters in the future, y'know? Don't you want to show me some respect?"

"You're not the only Hunter around," the blond boy stated the obvious. This back and forth was getting tedious.

"Watch your words, Loser." It was a threatening tone that didn't sit well with the black-haired one.

At a loss with this asinine conversational partner, Isaac whipped around to finally face him properly. "You know what? Let's make a bet. If I win, you will leave us all alone forever."

The surprise and concern on the faces of those who were included in that "us" was clear to see. Their eyes lit up at what those words would mean to them.

At the same time, most of the onlookers were strangely taken aback by how calmly and easily the younger student spoke to the man who had been ordering them around all day.

To them, the scene in front of them was nothing short of ridiculous, and if someone had told them about it an hour ago, they would have declared them insane.

To this day, Isaac had never really been on the radar of these delinquents. They were dimly aware of his existence, but never really interacted with him.

He might have been one of those they usually targeted, but it was that kind of unusual air about him that made them ignore him this long. He just didn't seem like much fun to them.

At that very moment, Hayden seriously wondered how he had ever come to that faulty conclusion.

He arched an eyebrow, slightly irritated but also intrigued. "Okay, what bet? And what do I get if I win?"

The young brute hadn't seen this turn of events coming, but he didn't particularly worry about it either.

"I'm not very muscular, you know that. And you're an Awakened, so anything physical would be unfair."

"Sure. At least you know." Another grin crept across his dark-toned lips.

"How about this: I can tell you where and when In-Sung Choi is going to land in Portland. You'd want to know, wouldn't you? Being a future 'world famous' Hunter and all."

He seemed even more intrigued. "If you can get me to meet him, you win."

"I never said that I could help you 'meet' him. You have to do that part yourself." This was getting annoying. He wasn't his babysitter, what could he do if Hayden screwed up on his own? "I can't guarantee something that's out of my control. What if it's in a place you can't get to?"

"Well, that's your problem. In that case, you lose." It was that simple in his eyes.

Isaac gritted his teeth, already tired of this game his own hubris had gotten him into. "Fine. I'll tell you tomorrow - after school, right here. I'll arrange for you to meet him. After that, leave us alone."

A mischievous grin crept across the other's face.

"Obviously. It's a debt of honor, after all."