Marcus sat down again. Vincent came and sat beside him. Hugo joined Camille on the sofa, while Gina, Ella and Neil stood beside them. Marcus took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket.

Looking at him with a grin, Vincent commented, “I thought you people didn’t indulge in such frivolous acts of self-harm…”

Marcus giggled and offered him one as well saying, “I thought so too, man. But turns out Master Baylis is alright with it, so who cares, right?”

Vincent took it and put it in between his lips. Marcus lit the index finger on his right hand on fire and with it lit up the two cigarettes. “Dibs on the cute one,” the red-haired Sokidu said as he exhaled smoke.

“Which one?” Vincent reciprocated with a chuckle. “They’re all cute, mate.”

Marcus looked at him and smiled. “You’re cool, bounty hunter,” he said and the two exchanged a fist pump. “Brown hair, tanned skin, white skin-tight onesie, and with the boots… I mean, bruh…”

“Tell me about it.” After a pause, he looked at Marcus and asked, “But seriously? Do you think you have a chance here?”

Leaning back, he replied, “We must never say never…”

The two laughed and smoked as the Seredums searched upstairs. Gina and Ella chatted in whispers while Camille and Hugo talked quietly as well.

“So, what’s the deal with Neil?” Vincent asked squishing the ashes under his feet.

Marcus chuckled. “He’s a toothpick,” he faintly said, but then added, “He’s passionate but aggressively passionate. It gets in his way a lot. The guy’s the best fighter amongst us, after Master Baylis, of course.”

“Hmm… he doesn’t have a brain worth a dime, does he?”

“Yeah… you could say that. So, what’s the deal with you? Been a bounty hunter all your life?”

“All my professional life… yes.”

“How long has that been, man?”

“Suffice to say, it’s been longer than the Eye thinks.”

“What’s your asking price?”

“Anything that fits the mood of the day. It’s more about the job than the price.”

“Oh, so what kind of job do you usually look for?”

“Something challenging. Look at our situation right now. This is the kind of job I’d take any day. I mean, tracking an ambiguous Ki signature is impossible right?”

“Obviously.”

“So, I will have to chase Ki disturbances. Now, the signs here are clearly telling us that there was a struggle here, which means it will be terribly difficult to identify which disturbance was from the Keeper.”

“And the personal effect will help with that?”

“Yup. Regularly worn clothes usually have a residual Ki signature on them that lasts for days. Matching that with the disturbances will probably give me the trace we are looking for.”

“Probably?”

“I’ve never tried this before. I think it should work but, can’t say anything for sure.”

“So, how do you track Keepers in normal conditions like when you steal the scriptures and stuff?”

“Normally, the black markets sell the locations. If I am able to pinpoint an area, for example a city, I sit in a nearby place and sift through Ki disturbances to see where they lead me. It takes anywhere from a few hours to a few days to then locate the target, assuming the initial location information was accurate.”

“So, why not just do that?”

Vincent showed him the rope on his wrists. “Remember this?” he asked. “With this limited amount of Ki charge, I’ll die before getting far. Also, you guys seem to be in a rush.”

“Use someone else’s Ki.”

“If the need arises, I’ll let you know.”

“Sure.”

The Seredums came out at the gallery whispering amongst themselves.

“Found anything?” Vincent asked, looking up.

They looked at each other for a moment before Erina said, “Yes. We will be right down.”

The bounty hunter looked at Hugo who was also looking confused.

“It’s panties, ain’t it?” Marcus muttered with a crooked grin and the room fell into half-choked laughter. Even Hugo looked away to hide a reluctant smirk.

Quickly thereafter, the trio walked down and handed the piece of clothing to Vincent. He looked at it, then at Hugo. “Perfect,” he said.

The Zaatsu gave a nod, and the White Bolt moved to the centre of the room.

“Everyone,” he said. “Move to this corner of the room behind me.”

Everyone moved and the bounty hunter, facing the opposite direction, began charging his Ki.

“Remarkable,” Erina commented, wide eyed. “Laminar flow.”

When Ki would be forcibly charged within a body and it would begin to flow at faster than normal rates, there would be nominal losses. In beings with greater amounts of Ki, these losses would be significant enough to escape the body and become visible, giving them a faint glow all over the body. But with Vincent, the Ki moved with perfect laminar flow - like liquid inside a glass tube, without resistance, loss, or glow.

“His control is flawless,” Eira said as she slowly shook her head. “The efficiency is beyond belief. He isn’t losing one bit of it in the flow!”

The entire room took notice of it. This was no ordinary skill. Only the most skilled Zaatsus and Mystics could ever achieve a successful laminar flow. But at the time, there was no one within the ranks of the Eye with such mastery over Ki Manipulation. It was intimidating but enviable at the same time.

“How do you think he is doing that?” Eila asked, smiling at the stunned Zeta Squad.

When no one responded, Vincent looked at her and said, “Ki cluster training… or drilling, I should say. And the fact that I started training at the age of 9.”

Jaws dropped and eyes fell wide open as the youngsters stared at him in utter disbelief. According to the traditions followed at the academies of Ayn, a person was not allowed to train or be trained in the art of Ki manipulation until the age of 15, at which point basic training would commence. More advanced training would begin a year after that. This was because tampering with Ki clusters at a young age in most cases would result in terrible physical impairments. It could even result in complete body paralysis because Ki, running out of control, would form stagnant clusters at different spots in the growing body.

“No one can manage that at such a young age,” Hugo commented downplaying the bounty hunter's claim. “Even the greatest teachers of Ki manipulation in history agree with that.”

Looking back ahead, the White Bolt smiled and calmly said, “Just because it is difficult for the tutor does not mean it is not useful for those being taught…”

“It’s flowing quite rapidly now,” Eila commented. “And there’s still zero losses. Beautiful… isn’t it?”

Erina and Eira nodded in agreement. “I would love to see him do a one hundred percent charge,” the former added.

The Zeta Squad was annoyed, understandably. Hugo, looking at the Seredums, said, “Isn’t he the bad-guy you all were hating on?”

“Bad-guy or not, Master Zaatsu,” Erina said. “You have to admit he is a very talented manipulator of Ki.”

Suddenly, Vincent’s figure began to fade. Gina said, “Master Baylis? Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

“Relax,” replied Hugo as the bounty hunter kept fading. A dark silhouette of his figure began to take his place as he remained completely motionless.

Zeta Squad’s captain looked at his team and said, “That, ladies and gents, is the Dark Ki trying to latch itself onto the light Ki within his body. If it were to succeed, he would die very quickly and very painfully, but he is keeping it at bay at a very nominal distance away from his skin.”

“That’s why he is standing motionless?” Camille asked.

“Yes.”

Standing in the middle of the room, Vincent appeared like a silhouette, pitch black. On lookers were having a hard time focusing on anything close to him or behind him. The visuals were being distorted and bent.

The squad, mesmerized by the view, then heard a voice, “GRIERNUM-HOSTIFANA-XALUM-OCANA-RASALHOGUE…”

It was Vincent, casting a tracking spell forged by Rasalhague himself. Very soon, a complex web of both moving and stagnant Ki started to reveal itself, eventually becoming bright like traces of current. One by one, then, many of them began to disappear.

“What’s happening?” Marcus asked, looking around. Everyone in the room was well versed in the art of Ki manipulation and was observing Vincent’s magic as well.

Hugo responded by saying, “He’s trying to match the residual Ki signature from the cloth with these Ki trails.”

For almost the next ninety seconds, tracks of Ki kept disappearing one after the other until only half a dozen remained. Each became bright for a few seconds before three of them vanished. A few moments later, another one vanished and Vincent began charging his Ki down.

“Two traces?” Erina asked as the panting bounty hunter sat down on one knee resting his head on a forearm resting on the other. He did not reply, and the last two tracks disappeared as well.

Eira rushed to Vincent’s aid. She put a hand on his shoulder and asked, “Are you alright? You’re burning up!”

“Water,” he replied in a near whisper. Gina brought him a bottle. He gulped it down and proceeded to lie on the ground. “Remind me never to do that again,” he said with a chuckle. He was breathing heavily and sweating profusely. “With 40 percent charge you can only do so much.”

“Where did they go?” Hugo asked, standing at his shoulder.

Vincent extended an arm. Grabbing it, Hugo pulled him up and smiled. “Nice,” he said.

“It’s faint,” the bounty hunter said nodding. “But it will last for quite a few hours.”

“So, what now?” Camille asked. “The tracks have disappeared.”

Vincent put his hand out and said, “Give me a clap.”

“Excuse me?”

“Would you rather if I said, ‘touch me’?”

“Yup, he’s cool!” Marcus said, nodding with a grin on his face, moved ahead, and gave Vincent a strong clap. Upon contact, a link between the Sokidu and the trail was forged making it easily visible to him, just as it was done with Hugo earlier. Everyone else quickly followed.

“Alright Vincent,” said Hugo. “What’s with the two trails?”

“I have been hunting for a while now,” he replied, wiping sweat off his forehead. “I know a freaky Ki residue when I see one.”

“What freaky Ki?”

“Several remnants of the Xoitique Diamond were here.”

“Are you sure?” Hugo stood arms akimbo, wide-eyed and surprised.

“Positive. Those things leave a peculiar trail and track. I have handled many of them and the biggest problem in taking them from one place to another is the covering of the tracks. Dark Ki or not, they can be picked up and tracked.”

“Like the other one visible here?”

“Hmm, that faint spiral trail is the Keeper’s. But look at the other one… floating like a liquid in mid-air. That’s the remnant’s.”

“I can sense a mix within that,” Erina said. “What does that mean?”

“More than one remnant was here… more than one.”

Hugo exhaled slowly, taking in the web of vanished trails. “This complicates things,” he said. “We will have to split up.”

“We must go after our Lord,” Erina quickly said.

“Of course. And my team will accompany you. While I will follow the remnants’ track with Vincent.”

The team was shocked to hear that, but orders were orders. Hence, the Zeta Squad, accompanied by the Seredums, was off on the hunt for the Keeper, Suraiya Badawi.