Janice was perfectly on time. She stepped in with a polite nod, the faintest curve of a smile, then hesitated at the edge of the dining room like she wasn't quite sure she belonged.

But she sat down when Arianna encouraged her, and together the three of them ate. Or rather, Arianna and Cassis ate while making gentle conversation, and Janice quietly cleared her plate with a kind of hunger that spoke more than words ever could.

This was her first real meal today, Cassis thought, watching her out of the corner of his eye. She was trying to be subtle, but he knew hunger. He recognized the telltale signs. Something was wrong.

But if they pushed her now, she'd retreat.

So, they stuck to light topics, small talk, recent news, something funny from a video they'd seen. Janice relaxed a little, even laughed once. That was good enough for now.

After dinner, they moved into setup mode. His laptop was positioned for streaming, the microphone checked, lighting adjusted. Janice took Arianna's notebook to monitor the chat, carefully logging in and checking connections. She didn't say much, but her focus was sharp. Professional, despite everything.

When the stream went live, Cassis greeted the viewers with a nod and a smile. "Welcome back, everyone. We're glad you could join us for the next lesson. "We've also got our moderator here with us—Janice—who'll be helping manage your questions."

Janice gave the camera a small, stiff wave, clearly uncomfortable in the spotlight.

"Today," Arianna chimed in smoothly, "we'll start with stamina-focused physical exercises, stuff even people under level 5 can do safely, then move into demonstrating a few basic skills. After that, we'll dedicate the second half to meditation training."

Cassis took over again. "Even if you're not sensing your mana yet, meditation builds the foundation. And for those over level 5, this is where your real journey starts."

They began with the exercises. Posture drills, joint warmups, then low-impact moves to begin building stamina capacity. Cassis demonstrated while Arianna talked through the instructions.

Ten minutes in, Janice's voice broke through, reading off a viewer's question. "The first question is for Mr. Walk—Cassis. You've emphasized the balance exercises quite a lot. Why are they so important?"

Cassis smiled at the slight stumble. "Good question," he said, stepping closer to the laptop's mic. "Balance is one of the most important factors in a real fight. Every skill requires specific stances and movements. Being able to switch between those quickly without losing your footing is vital."

He paced a little, illustrating his points. "Falling down in combat is the worst thing that can happen. The terrain is usually uneven. Your stance shifts constantly between offense and defense. Mana saturation and attack frequency matter, sure, but none of that helps if you're on the ground and can't react. So, train balance first. It'll save your life."

More questions came in as the lesson progressed. Cassis and Arianna handled those, answering according to their specialties.

Janice had to nudge them more than once to stay within frame—"You're drifting out again"—which always made them laugh. And the audience joined in, flooding the chat with laughing emojis. It became a bit of a joke, and they leaned into it, exaggerating their returns to the center of the camera view.

The hour flew by.

When it came time to say goodbye, they dragged Janice in front of the camera again. She resisted at first, but Cassis gave her a look and a gentle nudge. She waved with awkward stiffness, cheeks slightly red, then quickly stepped back.

"Thanks for joining us," Arianna said brightly.

The stream ended. Cassis shut the laptop, then turned to Janice and handed her the payment for her work. She clutched it to her chest, eyes lowering. It wasn't gratitude, at least not only. There was a quiet tension there.

She needs this, Cassis thought. Probably more than she's willing to admit.

They needed to figure out what was going on. If her family was struggling, maybe they could help. Cassis wasn't rich by any means, but he and Arianna could help think of solutions. Still, Janice didn't trust them enough yet to share the truth. Not yet.

It was already late. They offered to walk her home, but she refused firmly, saying it wasn't even dark yet and that she'd be fine.

The compromise was simple: she'd text when she got home, and if anything felt off, she'd call them immediately. Arianna extracted that promise and made her repeat it twice.

Half an hour later, Cassis' phone buzzed.

[Janice: got home safely. thanks again for dinner. <3 ]

He stared at the message for a long second, thumb hovering above the screen.

"She's hiding something," he said quietly to Arianna, who'd curled up on the couch beside him.

Arianna nodded. "Yeah. But we'll be patient."

"Yeah," he echoed. "We'll be patient."

But inside, he was already thinking of what to do next.

The next few days passed without incident—but also, without much progress.

Cassis felt the quiet frustration of it keenly. Neither he nor Arianna had ranked up any of their skills, despite the hours they poured into training. Still, their mana saturation had improved, which was one of the most basic but also important improvements. His own had climbed from 41% to 48%, and Arianna's from 71% to 80%. That was significant, even if the system didn't reward it with flashy notifications or new titles.

He could now hold his mana pattern fully in his torso and keep it stable even while moving, albeit slowly. That had taken real effort. Arianna, in contrast, had pushed herself harder again, doing a full overload with her pattern once more. She'd spent the next two days sore all over, but declared it worth it.

Cassis had agreed, silently. Pain or not, the method worked. The system might not officially recognise their growth, but they could feel it; they were getting stronger. It was in their mana control, their stamina, the subtle ease with which their mana moved. Progress wasn't always loud.

Still… he worried about Arianna.

The overload training hadn't shown any serious aftereffects beyond muscle soreness, but he remained alert. The way she brushed off her aches reminded him too much of himself from the other timeline, ignoring limits until the body gave out. He wouldn't let her push too far.

Thinking about their training approach, he wondered if they needed something new. Something more… fluid.

His mind drifted to certain martial arts forms—styles with slow, meditative movements that focused on control, breathing, and balance. In the other timeline, he hadn't paid them any mind. He'd thought learning combat skills as fast as possible was more efficient. But now? Maybe feeding the body and mind slowly through mana and motion could offer deeper gains, especially in stamina capacity and mana control.

Stolen story; please report.

Arianna had gone jogging again with her mana pattern in full circuit, focusing on how her mana interacted with her muscles. She'd returned thoughtful and dissatisfied. When he asked what was wrong, she'd struggled to put it into words. Just that the mana didn't flow well, that it moved erratically, gathering randomly instead of supporting movement.

Maybe those martial arts had the right idea after all. Maybe learning how to move mana intentionally during motion was the missing link.

If internet videos weren't enough, maybe they'd have to find an actual teacher.

Cassis had also taken the first steps to deal with his rage. It was always there, just waiting for the opportunity to come out again. He'd spoken with Arianna and Helen. They had agreed that his psychiatrist needed to know everything, provided he signed a mana contract that forbade him from sharing this knowledge.

When Cassis had his first appointment with the man, he had taken a look at him, then signed it immediately. So now he would tell Dr Makimovic about everything that had happened to him twice a month. Cassis had no idea if it would even help any but thinking of the people he loved, he knew he needed to protect them from himself, too.

Meanwhile, Arianna had continued her experiments with Joseph. They'd made no breakthroughs in forming plant mana, but neither of them seemed discouraged. Joseph especially had become dogged in his determination. His mana control was improving steadily, though he still couldn't push it beyond his skin unaided. Cassis couldn't blame him—he was still working on that himself.

The seeds full of mana they had planted had already sprouted into plants that would bear fruit soon. Joseph thought it would already be next week by the rate they were growing. But they had noticed that the normal seeds were behaving like before the first wave, so only some small and fragile sprouts had come out of the earth. And the fast-growing seeds full of mana actually drew plant mana to them. The patch in Joseph's garden that had looked a bit unhealthy before was now starting to dry up. This was a problem. Even if the plants grew fast, it wouldn't be an improvement if other land became infertile because of it.

Cassis cursed himself for not paying more attention to farming in the other timeline. He was sure people had figured out mana farming back then. But he had been focused on his own survival, not the survival of a community. Still, they'd get it right. He knew mana farming was possible because it had existed in the other timeline. It was just a matter of time and patience.

By the weekend, it was time for something different.

They went to his parents' house for lunch. The whole extended family was there—Helen, Liam, Camden, Matteo, Felicia. Liam and Camden had just finished moving into their new place earlier in the week. Naturally, Cassis and Arianna had helped. The move had been long, chaotic, and full of yelling, but in a good way.

Matteo was a little mad at him. Cassis hadn't trained him all week. Between the streaming lessons, mana training, his own appointments and coordination with Arianna, there simply hadn't been time. Still, Cassis promised to make it up to him next weekend.

When Matteo and Felicia, who was still silent, but thankfully willing to communicate in other ways like writing or just signing with her hand, were safely out of earshot, Cassis brought up a plan he'd been sitting on for a few days now.

"I want to take the kids to Belaney National Park."

His mother blinked. "The park? You mean the one we used to go to for camping?"

He nodded. He'd actually researched it online, and from the reports, it was exactly like in the last timeline. "It's wild now. Level 10 monsters or under. I want to see if being in a party with us allows kids like Matteo to gain experience even if they can't fight directly. They still have system protection, so they won't get hurt."

The room went quiet.

Camden, predictably, was the first to object. "That's insane. They're kids."

"They're level five kids," Cassis said gently but firmly. "And soon, that protection's going to fade, at least for Matteo. You know that he will have to fight when the second wave comes."

His mother crossed her arms. "Still. Exposing them to monsters… That's not a decision to make lightly."

"I know." But he thought that maybe seeing monsters die would help Matteo. That was what had helped him in the other timeline when his family had been killed. Seeing those hateful creatures die gave him back a little bit of control. At least that was what it had felt like.

Helen tilted her head, considering him, and made him think she could somehow read his mind. Or maybe Helen also knew a fair bit about loss and how to deal with it. It probably wasn't healthy. But his goal wasn't to have healthy children, but children who were alive. Being healthy mentally would be a bonus. "So, you think it'll help Matteo."

"I think it might. And even if it doesn't, they need to see what a real fight looks like. They've got to feel it—understand it. Not in theory. In practice."

His mother looked unconvinced, but to Cassis' surprise, she nodded. "Then I'm coming with you."

That got everyone's attention. His father brightened, then got serious, grabbing his stump. "We should make it a family trip, then. We need to become stronger, too. If we go as a group, we can manage it."

Even Camden, grumpy as ever, sighed and muttered, "Fine. But if anything looks off, I'm grabbing the kids and we're leaving." That man really was dedicated to keeping children safe.

Helen smiled. "Sounds like an adventure. Have fun."

His mother laughed. "Oh, You're coming too."

Cassis smiled, deeply, sincerely. Helen was technically family by blood, though none of the others knew it yet. But long before they'd found that out, she'd already been family. Just like all of them.

So, it was decided: next weekend, they'd head out on a family trip to Belaney National Park.

At the end of lunch, while his parents and Helen took Matteo and Felicia aside to tell them about the upcoming trip, Liam and Camden invited Cassis and Arianna to come over to their new place.

It was a modest, neat home, freshly arranged and still bearing the marks of a recent move-in: half-unpacked boxes, furniture shifted around too many times. They settled into the living room.

Camden, never one for small talk, started without preamble.

"The board's finally reached a decision," he said, arms crossed, tone clipped. "Justice for Children will take on the burden of the bracelets. It aligns with one of our founding tenets: empowering children to help themselves and lead a good life. We actually already have a mercenary branch, as our work has always been dangerous. Those mercenaries have done well during the first wave, and some have already reached level 10. We'll probably recruit other wearers from that branch. We will also form a formal guild when possible. For now, it's just me and Liam. Later, it'll include other bracelet holders too."

He pulled up the sleeve of his sweater and showed the experience-sharing bracelet dangling from his wrist. The thin band glinted in the light, simple but unmistakably important.

"We haven't decided who the next holders will be yet," he continued. "Your suggestion of only choosing people level ten and above—it's a good one. We can't rely on miracles like what happened to Liam."

Cassis nodded. "The system already bent the rules once."

"Exactly. I doubt it'll do it again," he agreed grimly. "So, we move forward carefully. The board wants to propose something official, a partnership with Survivors. Your NGO."

Cassis raised an eyebrow but said nothing yet.

"You've built up a lot of reach, a lot of influence," Liam added, his voice softer but steady. "People trust you. The whole thing with the lessons, the streams—word's spreading."

Camden continued. "We're already known for our own engagement on behalf of children. Still, we're hoping to build on that trust in you guy since this is a new world. We need to combine our reputations. Together, we want to encourage people to bring their children to us to be levelled. They'd need to register online beforehand and we'd need to coordinate schedules and have the bracelet in reach of these people. We need to help children all over the world, not just in this vicinity."

"For that," Liam said, "we're planning to organize one security team per bracelet. Each team will travel constantly. They'll move from region to region, following a published schedule. That way, families can know where to meet us."

"But we also know the risk," Camden said. "That kind of visibility makes us a target. We're dealing with a situation where one stolen bracelet could mean real damage. So, we'll have to be extremely cautious. Rotating routes, security drills, encrypted comms—the whole thing."

Cassis leaned forward, hands clasped. "You know that won't stop serious criminals or desperate people."

Camden gave a short nod. "Yeah, we know. We'd hoped you'd make it clear that you would come after those who take a bracelet for themselves. People have seen your strength and we hope it will be a deterrent for most."

Cassis glanced at Arianna. She met his gaze, and he knew she was thinking the same thing, her short communication over their private party chat just confirmation. "Let's do it. We need to make this happen."

There would be risks. Enormous ones. Fighting against other humans was always the worst. They weren't mindless monsters. They were smart and cunning. But they had to try. If they sat back, nothing would change. If they stayed safe and kept everything to themselves, it would all fall apart again. He'd seen what came. He'd lived through the collapse. And he knew, now more than ever, they didn't just need to save their own people—they had to save as many as they could.

Not out of sentimentality. Not because Cassis wanted to be a hero. But because if humanity didn't stand together, it wouldn't stand at all. And this time, he intended to fight for it properly.

"Alright," he said at last. "You've got Survivors' support. We'll draw up the official partnership this week. But you should start looking for bracelet candidates. We can at least counteract the desperation if we have more functioning bracelets."

Arianna added another thought. "And you might want to give priority to special cases. I mean children who have lethal diseases. Being level 5 will keep those diseases from killing them, though not from suffering." She looked thoughtful, probably thinking of her father's suffering again.

Camden nodded, and for a moment, there was a flicker of relief in his expression—small, but real.

"Good," he said. "Then we've got a chance."

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