Panacea

Panacea Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I certainly don't own Scarlet Nexus or any of its affliated properties.

"Scarlet Nexus": Speech (Bold for yelling or Boss level creature)

'Scarlet Nexus': Thought

Panacea

Chapter One

"You all have reached the end of your OSF training," said the masked examiners. "This is your final test before joining the OSF - prepare for the virtual SAS connection. This will hurt much more than it did in training, be strong." As the examiners were speaking, ethereal cables were slowly feeding out of a central console; almost predatorily approaching two groups of would be OSF cadets.

'It's morbidly ironic that despite all their expensive training, most of these people won't even be able to handle the pain of an actual SAS connection-our most useful tool is also one of the main things that overwhelm our fresh cadets...'mused a silent observer watching through the many screens found in the two rooms.

He was a man of a lanky yet balanced build, lending him a somewhat reed-like body; tall and unassuming but not flimsy either. The man's clothes were also nondescript as they were standard black OSF gear Yo [Kagero outfit], with a short hooded leather cape being shortened to about shoulder level. Two 50 cm swords were strapped to his upper back, with the larger than normal hilts visibly protruding out of the mass of cloth. His hood was currently lowered, exposing a tanned face and bright red hair growing with no style other than simply having grown down to his neck, tied back with a purple hair tie and comfortably resting on his back.

His blue and yellow sunburst iris pattern eyes roved over the potential cadets, idly noting that most of the failures were the masked recruits. 'Well, at least when you don't have faces to go with the potential casualties of SAS overload you don't think about the deaths that are commonplace around here.' A cold set of eyes fixed themselves on him and their owner spoke with an authoritative voice," Hikaru, keep an eye on the new recruits for me will you? Keep me informed about the progress of the Sumeragi kid as well." Hikaru turned towards the speaker and said, "Oh Major General Karen, didn't expect a man of your caliber to come see the greenhorns get their first taste of the SAS...wasn't Major General Fubuki looking for you to help him with the platoon assignments?"

"Again with the thrice damned formalities- no, he can deal with those trivial matters on his own," grumbled Karen. "Haaa...nothing ever really seems to get your interest these days, ever thought of getting a hobby?" Hikaru said with a slight smirk. "You're one to talk, just keep me posted." Karen said and promptly left the room. "And there he goes...all that power and yet he can't seem to let himself relax and enjoy life, then again I am just as guilty of this as he is," sighed Hikaru as he watched two specific recruits take the SAS connection without too much hassle. "Oh, that's interesting-two psychokinesis users reacting to the cables similarly despite being polar opposites in almost everything else...names are Yuito and Kasane eh?"

It was a fine morning in Suoh with the clouds overhead promising a light shower sometime later in the day. Hikaru left the OSF building and looked over Ryujin ward with a lazy eye. As his gaze panned over to the Sumeragi tomb, he felt a strange energy wave flowing through the sky. "What was that? Felt like an Other invasion for a second there...must be overworking myself. Maybe I should visit the tomb; say what you want about Yakumo being a deity or whatnot but I can't shake the familiar feeling I get when I go there" mused Hikaru.

"Man the visions are getting too hazy recently..." he muttered as he put on a pair of thin colorless contacts and made his way to the tomb. "Oh wow, so even the mighty Yakumo's resting site isn't safe from this mutant menace" he deadpanned as he saw all the Baki merchandise all over the gravesite. "Well, the little guy isn't too bad I guess...can't let Kyoka and Arashi know that though, they tease me enough as it is." As he looked for a bench to sit on, he noticed some of the cadets who shook off the SAS test effects take some Baki key chains and their fortunes as well. "What are the odds that the two weird psionics would come here so soon after Karen told me to keep an eye on anyone remarkable? Must be fate-or at least something like it, that level of dependency never sat well with me" said Hikaru as he watched the funny dynamics of the two duos as they made their way through the tomb, the two psionics he was interested in seemingly never noticing each other.