"I'm a principal for a school of syneji artists," he chuckled. "What did you expect?"

Zenatori walked forward and approached the car. He noticed that the interior lights were already on and the engine was already running.
"It seems he already planned this," he thought.

"Oh yeah," Hayoku said. "Take a seat in the back, Zenatori."

But when he pulled the door open and took a seat, someone else was already in the front seat. She was a brown-haired girl with a single ponytail, whose sea-like eyes stood out the most. Who he saw was Naoko Akari.

She used the rearview mirror and glanced at Zenatori. She briefly replicated his surprise.

"Hmph, I didn't expect to see you here," she said sternly. "What exactly is going on, principal?"

"Surprise!" Hayoku exclaimed. 

He buckled his seatbelt and turned the A/C to let cold air fill the car.
"I'll explain once we're on the road for a bit."

"If you don't mind me asking," she said. "Why not just say it now? It would be better not to be ill-informed."

"Hm," he muttered. He adjusted the rearview mirror to subtly admire his face before putting it back into position. 

"Since Zenatori's new, I took it upon myself to help you gain some experience. As you know, all the cities in Japan are covered in very thick layers of isotonic force by the founding artists to keep automorphs out of the cities. You at least should know that. It's basic knowledge, honestly. 

It's uncommon, but some automorphs are strong enough to endure the barrier and make it to the cities. But for centuries, the enclosed city barriers have only been growing stronger. There has been a certain weak spot in the barrier for some time, and automorphs have been able to enter through it. I want you and Akari to strengthen the barrier and kill the automorphs around it." 

"Why can't anyone else do it?" he said.

"Weak spots show up when other stronger syneji artists strengthen spots on the barrier and forget to strengthen the other spots. Usually, people come and check for weaknesses, but no one seems to have found it yet. I've recently found the weakness, but I haven't told anyone. I wanted you to use it as training."

"Why did I have to come?" Akari said.

"I felt most comfortable bringing you. Katashi is a bit of a loose screw."

Zenatori rubbed his chin and thought to himself.
"All of this sounds pretty interesting. Very interesting."

The three of them finally arrived at the location. The area was vacant, and the houses around were empty. The still air was almost eerie, and the silence was deafening. 

Hayoku briefly walked around the premises and scouted the area.
"This is pretty spooky," Hayoku said nervously. "You guys got it from here, right? If anything bad happens, just call me, and I'll get here as soon as I can."

"What?!" Akari said. "You're just gonna leave that fast?"

"I don't really have a reason to stay. Unlike you, Akari, I can trust people. You'd be strong enough to put down anything that comes out." 

Akari made a face of displeasure, but couldn't bring herself to disagree with Hayoku. He walked back to his car, and as he opened the door, he said one final thing. 

"If anything is unexpectedly strong, notify me." 

The engine roared, and Hayoku drove off.

Akari let out a deep sigh.
"How reckless," she said. "Well, it's unlikely there's any strong automorphs because the syneji artists that checked the area didn't feel the need to notify anyone. Regardless, keep your guard up."

"Uhm, what exactly do I do if one comes at me?"

Akari palmed her face and sighed.
"Modern manifest: relative manifestation."

In an instant, a small orb formed itself above the ground, and its greyish properties resonated.
"I'm giving you my relative manifestation," she explained.

"Relative manifestation?"

Akari retracted her hand and signaled Zenatori to follow her. 

"I'm simplifying it, but a relative manifestation just allows you to either increase the physical attributes of yourself or someone else. In terms of syneji artistry, it's quite an easy technique to learn."

Zenatori felt his body and looked around himself. His veins became visible, and his muscles tightened; he was no longer helpless.
"So when do I learn it?" he said.

Akari shook her head.
"It's still hard to do for some average guy such as yourself. You're mending isotonic force with your isotonic energy to increase your raw physical output. It will physically weaken you in the long term, but that's a light burden in this situation." 

She turned to the building. 

"For now, we should focus on stomping out the automorphs around the area. Once we kill them, we'll likely be able to find the source of the weak spot in the barrier."

"Huh, how?"

"Most automorphs contain isotonic force, but they are much worse at using it than humans, sloppy even. All we need to do is find one with isotonic force, and I'll use my venerated sights of divinity to pick up its trace."

"If automorphs are this easy to kill, why hasn't humanity killed them off already?"

"Every time an automorph dies, there's a chance that it adapts to whatever killed it. That's why the founding artists developed these massive barriers of isotonic force. We should ignore them rather than try to drive them extinct. It's also extremely hard to permanently kill an automorph. It's something only seasoned syneji artists can do."  

Akari walked toward a building, and Zenatori followed. She opened the front door and said to Zenatori.
"I'll check this one; you go to the other one. Just try not to die."

Akari let off a small smile and walked into her building. Zenatori turned back and looked around the setting. Right behind him was a grand facility that likely housed the source of the weakened barrier. As he entered through the door, he observed the surroundings and noticed that this was a factory.

Everything seemed too new; it was likely recently evacuated. Although the conveyor belts were broken off their positions, everything else was left mostly untouched.

Zenatori noticed another room inside the already huge main room. He walked to the following door, creaked the door open, and saw a long, shallow hallway. As he walked through the doorframe, he felt the presence of something above him.

A strong swipe flew through the air, and he narrowly evaded it. The sudden ambush caused him to slide back. 

"There's no way I would've dodged that without Akari's manifestation," he thought.

The beast jumped from its post, which it rested above the doorframe. It was noticeably smaller than Zenatori, but looked abysmal. It was white with a hint of red and had extremely slender arms. Its small head and its overlapping stretched skin made this being horrifying to look at.

From that ambush alone, Zenatori concluded that the automorph had a sliver of intelligence.

"What is this thing..? I've seen this in a nightmare." 

The automorph reached out its right arm and pointed at Zenatori. 

"W-weak... Human, " it said, as its claw-like hand shook.

"This thing can talk? Not only that, it thinks I'm weak?"

Zenatori felt a wave of determination, cracked his knuckles, and readied his position.
"Heh, I'll show you weak. Come at me, you beast!"