While the morning sun shone bright onto the Division 2 complex, inside the lecture room of the main wing, the five seated interns found the lights dimmed slightly as the monitor turned on.

Huashin stood at the lectern in her usual SAIR uniform - graphite colored top and pants with the light blue insignia at the centre showing her instructive agent ranks. Her purple hair dangled along her shoulders as usual, while wearing her iconic purple-golden striped bandana. Her expression was composed, but less strict than hers during the mission. A few strands of hair drifted across her brow as she looked over the class.

“…First,” she said, her voice clear, “Before your little quiz, as an instructor, I owe all of you an apology.”

The class grew still: Tenka and Okuri sat straighter; Jun, arms folded, kept his gaze locked forward; Sukeo put his pencil down and looked forward; Araka quietly put away her notes for the quiz.

“What happened on Monday on the expressway was not part of your curriculum. It was supposed to be a field observation with clear boundaries, but the circumstances escalated faster than what even the SAIR had previously anticipated.”

She tapped her tablet.

A grainy video, recorded by a nearby highway camera, was displayed - showing the moment the freight truck crashed onto the guardrails while being chased by two State Police patrol cars. Then, as the officers approached the driver, the rear container was torn open and the panther leaped onto the road. Its limbs were shaken, but it still rushed toward another officer in the rear. 

“It was fortunate that all of you were further away from the main scene - the officer who stood too close to the panther was heavily injured and narrowly escaped by hiding in a nearby bush,” Huashin said as she paused the footage. 

“So were there any injuries?” Jun raised his hand and asked.

“Unfortunately, other than the officer I mentioned, five more are in critical condition,  ” Huashin said, “two were caused by the flipped vehicles due to collisions related to the chaos, while the remaining three were caused directly by the panther. There were also many ofhers who were injured during the evacuation as the panther’s behaviour became unpredictable.”

The room went silent.

“Instructor Huashin,” Sukeo raised his hand: “how much do we know about the panther? You said before it was a shard-influenced being, but may I ask what exactly does that mean?”

“That’s a good question, and I’m going to talk about it now,” Huashin then switched to the next slide: “From the Research task force here at Division 2, we have clarified that it was not a native animal, nor signs it was being used as a potential bio-weapon. Instead, this was likely the result of illegal hunting activity near a restricted ecological zone in Tao Republic.”

Then, another slide came up: a translucent crystal, barely the size of a coin, gleaming faint blue under lab light.

“This,” Huashin continued, “was what we found inside the creature’s stomach lining.”

Tenka gasped. Okuri and Araka opened their eyes wide. Sukeo adjusted his glasses. 

Then Jun raised his hand: “Is that the ‘shard’ you were referring to?”

Huashin nodded. “Yes, you can call it a ‘shard’, though officially we would prefer to call it a ‘mineral residue with unknown origins’. But here is where things get complicated - there have been several separate cases similar to this happening across the federation, especially in southern states, and while the SAIR is trying to figure out the property of the ‘shard’, little progress has been made.”

“Instructor Huashin, may I ask why there was little progress being made on categorising this mineral?” Sukeo asked, “from what I know, it is quite easy to identify the composition of the crystal given the technology now. And how could it be related to the panther’s aggressive behavior?”

Huashin took a sip of water from her purple water bottle and continued: “Well, the SAIR had tried to investigate from this angle, and the result was still limited - we identified it is the type of crystal belongs to the family of Inemoto, or Enyun Stone (恩雲石), or Torz if you prefer the Endosian term - one known for holding critical minerals like Kromonium. However, beyond that, as for the correlation between the behaviour and the crystal, other than the findings that the crystal being slightly radioactive, most conclusions were still hypothesis driven …”

As the other interns focused on Huashin’s slides, Araka, sitting beside Tenka, was writing down some notes: Unknown origin, Enyun or Torz, shard, inside the lining of the panther, caused madness. Matake suppressor.  Couldn’t be easily killed by typical bullets, sharpened sense on finding prey, Matake, me having Matake, Matake field. Mind control.

“Sara-cha, why are you so focused now?” Tenka whispered from beside. 

Araka didn’t reply immediately. She then wrote several more lines and suddenly stopped.

“Instructor Huashin, I have a question.”

It was from Araka.

“Go ahead, Araka.”

“Why do we use a Matake suppressor to suppress the behaviour of the panther? Or, why does that panther suddenly have Matake after swallowing that ‘shard’?” 

The room went silent again. 

“Matake… suppressor?” Jun turned himself toward Araka, and then turned back, “Instructor Huashin, sorry for being unable to follow, but is it true the SAIR could control Matake?”

“And if I remembered correctly, Matake seemed to be something that needs some kind of training to acquire, and then suddenly a panther could have one just by ingesting some kind of crystal,” Okuri followed. 

“Instructor Huashin, may I ask again what Matake really is?” Sukeo also dropped his question. 

As the cloud of questions and doubts started to loom over the lecture room, Huashin, however, didn’t move. Her posture remained composed, with her tablet put aside. Then, she took another sip of water and continued.

“I understand your confusion when you hear these terms come all at once,” she then glanced at Araka, “and to be fair, Director Kuu Ninfo may agree more on my framing rather than Anawa’s.” Huashin then picked up a stylo and wrote two Shinari characters and their Watanaba scripts on a white page on the screen - 魔力, MaTa Ke. 

“I think all of you should be able to understand what these two Faonzy characters mean separately: ‘Magic’ and ‘Power’ - Magical Force, and originally, Matake was transcribed with these two Faonzy.”

Tenka raised her hand: “Instructor Huashin, does that mean it is some kind of power that someone could use? And it depended on how it was used.  

“Or could it be a force that could exist everywhere?” Sukeo added, “something could be detected?”

“I guess all of you are quite smart - yes, Matake is an umbrella term for a certain kind of force rather than just a specific ability. This is why this term passed along with ancient texts and still be used at least internally in the SAIR - because it fits the characteristics of this cognitive force, which had a centre of clustering that pulled your sensation around. To put it simply, the SAIR could detect and even disperse the field.”

“So how does it relate to the Shard?” Okuri asked, “or the panther that went almost zombie-like?”

“Well, since you’re only teenagers, I hope my way of explaining would make sense to you,” Huashin narrowed her eyes and said: “Think of it as moths who would fly toward anything bright - they didn’t understand where the light came from, but their instinct would make them fly toward them. For the panther’s case, the panther didn’t necessarily understand it had Matake, but its brain was thinking in a way that was influenced by a force that shared a similar pattern with Matake. This means enhanced sensation and movements, and sometimes like this one, which could survive several shots and run around with whatever was left.”

Araka, just finished taking notes of what Huashin said, raised her hand: “Instructor Huashin, so that means the Shard thing might be an alternative source of Matake?”

“Or I would say, a Matake adjacent force,” Huashin said while pulling up another tab, showing a heat map graph marked in purple. “This is a typical Matake field that belongs to a person - someone with Matake. As you can see, it clustered around the head while creating a small circle around the centre; and you have the other one,” Huashin then put another graph, more chaotic, right next to the normal graph: “This one came from a Shard influenced boar we found in Nanyun that shared similar erratic characteristics with the panther. As you can see, it’s very chaotic and scattered everywhere around the body, but it didn’t form an orbit.”

“This means the one influenced by the Shard didn’t have an actual Matake ability, but a cluster of forces that shared similarity while visualized through the device,” Jun commented.

“That’s correct,” Huashin seemed to be impressed by Jun’s answer, “In some way, we can say Matake is a controlled form of this cognitive force, and that’s why the official name of the Matake suppressor is called ‘cognitive field anomaly suppressor’.”

As Huashin’s explanation continued, Tenka became a bit impatient. She whispered toward Araka, who was taking notes: “Sara-cha, can you tell Instructor Huashin to move on to the quiz? I think I’m totally confused.” 

Araka didn’t respond. Tenka then turned back and pulled her phone out again. 

Huashin noticed the movement and then checked the clock on the screen: “Anyway, the thing I mentioned earlier will not be tested in the upcoming quiz, and you will learn about it later during the internship. I guess we can move on to the quiz. After the quiz, take a 20 minute break and we will be back on the roles of Division 2 within the SAIR Central.”

As the quiz papers were handed to the interns, Araka’s mind was still focused on what Huashin talked about Matake: a force that was familiar enough for the SAIR to detect and contain, but also something that still lacks a clear categorization and origin. Where does my own Matake ability fit in this spectrum: a force known and controlled, but with mysterious origin? Or a force that was naturally volatile but happened to be controlled because it was not matured?

——

After the short break, Huashin continued her lecture - she mentioned anything special other than talking about the roles of Division 2. 

“…The Division 2 Complex, or officially SAIR Central Bakju Complex, is primarily a training ground for new SAIR agents, hence you would see so many Instructive Agents around the complex…”

“…Since Bakju is the capital of Chuubo State, Division 2 also handles coordination between the SAIR Central branches south of Zenju, which has a different branch on its own…”

“…Typically, we also handle weapon certification, though the only lab available is in Division 1 in Zenju …”

“…Natural anomalies and natural disasters monitoring are a key part of Division 2, due to our proximity to Nanyun range and the strategic location just south of the Capital Region…”

For Araka, who had checked all the materials during the confinement period, it was straightforward. However, as Huashin started to talk about weapons, Okuri raised his hand.

“Instructor Huashin,” he said, “since we’re expected to assist other SAIR agents, are we allowed to get our hands on actual equipment?”

A few heads turned.

Okuri continued: “Since you said that the panther incident wasn’t the only isolated one, I guess we must be prepared for future encounters, especially for something as aggressive as that panther. Even if we may not master them, at least we could defend ourselves and sometimes even help others.”

Huashin looked at him for a moment, and then nodded.

“You’re right,” she said. 

That surprised a few in the room.

“Originally, I was going to wait until next week to introduce that module,” she said, “but in light of recent events, Director Ninfo had decided to push that forward. More importantly, all of you will be expected to assist our missions as we are also having some kind of shortage of personnel.”  

Sukeo raised his hand: “Instructor Huashin, may I ask what had caused that?”

“Because there has been a surge of anomalies that we believe are related to the misuse of Matake or something similar. The State Police couldn’t handle them easily without our assistance, in some way, it was some kind of instability we haven’t seen for almost 30 years.”

“So how could there be a surge of Matake misuse, if there were so few who actually have Matake?” Jun asked.

“That is the part that was concerning,” Huashin said, “Matake training was supposed to be conducted via a few certified agencies, also known as Networked Shrines (統合宮廟) licensed and inspected by the SAIR. However, there had been multiple accounts in Bakju as well as many cities across the federation, that several individuals, including criminals, had acquired cognition manipulation ability without proper training. In fact, three days before, one of such individuals was involved in a robbery happened in Zenju.”

Huashin’s word landed on Araka with weight: so there are also other people who could use Matake, and even those who use it for wrong purposes. She started to think if bringing her in this early was a decisive move to counter this looming crisis.

“Instructor Huashin, I have never heard about it in the news,” Tenka said.

“That’s because we have to keep it contained - we don’t want people to panic or believe someone around them were hidden Matake users who could suddenly manipulate others' minds. Still, we also have no idea whether these people are actually using Matake - or other adjacent abilities.”

The room felt heavier than ever. Then, Araka raised her hand.

“So Instructor Huashin, what would a shrine trained Matake user look like? And since you said I have some foundation for Matake uses, can I also help?”

Huashin didn’t immediately respond. Then, she let out a deep breath. 

“Guess what? Let me just reintroduce myself as you now have a rough idea of what Matake is about,” Huashin said, “By now, you might be curious about why I know so much about this Matake thing. And let me put it clear-“

“I am an SAIR sanctioned, Shrine certified Matake spell sorcerer (特科院特許宮廟魔法術士) .”