Xiao just stares at me after I asked him the reason for his scar, as if he's running through some flashback in his head. In the end, the corners of his mouth curl a little upwards.

"Construction site accident."

He retrieves his balisong knife that was sticking out on the nearby table's wooden surface and pockets it. It's all bloody because of him using it to draw blood (draw, blood, as in cutting himself and also... y'know, it just sounded pretty funny). He nods to me and leaves.

I check his blood bucket. All empty. I could've sworn it was half-full just a minute ago.

Anyway, I'd call this a successful icebreaking operation considering the circumstances. Hm, I wonder if Casey or Ramya won their sparring match?

>>

Ramya won our sparring match. I check the damage on my face through a cracked mirror on the wall. I see a barely visible cut under my lip, minor bruising just above my right eyebrow and a red hand-shaped mark right where she slapped me on the cheek.

"What's up you two?" I hear Harmony call out. Great, just the person I needed to witness my defeat. "Wait, Casey, don't tell me you lost?"

"No, I didn't. Ramya cheated."

My opponent chortles like an asthmatic pig.

"Mate, if you paid some attention, I never said we couldn't use our powers!"

We were all tied up 1-1 coming into the third round. We agreed that I outstruck her in the first, but Ramya got more top position control in the second due to my lack of grappling experience.

I opened up the third round with an axe kick that she called cute as she used her head movement to dodge it. She kept hammering at the inside of my lead leg—my left, limiting my footwork capabilities. I snuck in some good body hooks that caused her to employ a more conventional low guard, one that was harder to crack. As I tried to break that guard with a body kick, she caught my leg and tripped me onto the ground.

I found myself with Ramya right on top of me; a position I had to fight from in the majority of the second round. She was in full mount with her thighs pushing against the sides of my ribs. I blocked the majority of her shots to my face, but a few managed to sneak past and hurt me. With a burst of energy, I reversed our positions and found myself on top.

I threw a punch aimed at her face, but her hand grabbed my fist with lightning speed. My focus was disrupted for a fraction of a second allowing her to hit me with a voltage-imbued slap.

She managed to get on my back as I was dazed from the attack. Her forearm was around my neck before I could gather my bearings. She whispered into my ear as she was threatening to cut off my air supply with her choke.

"You want more, pretty boy?"

I swallowed my pride and just tapped. Now, here I am.

"Oh come on, Case. You're embarrassing us!" Harmony teases. "What would Kiah think, hm?"

"She'd think you should be more supportive of your friends."

"I think both of you are lamer than the other."

At a closer glance of Ramya's bracelets laying idle on the mat, the beads are all silver cubes with rounded edges. As she puts the bracelets back on, they levitate off her skin.

"These are all magnets, made from metal."

"That's supposed to clear up how they're doing that?"

 She makes the beads orbit her wrists with a spark. "Better hope you paid more attention in Science class. They're floating here because I'm a superconductor."

"...hah?"

Ramya rolls her eyes.

"My body has no electrical resistance and is diamagnetic. That means my body expels magnetic flux fields, pushing these magnets out. Aside from that, my body can also conduct electricity more efficiently than a standard conductor."

Harmony and I nod as if we understood her explanation.

"I've messed with a few people back in my day using my superconductivity. I'd hide behind a bush and pull an old rusty metal sheet on the ground using it. The people that saw that had faces like they'd seen a ghost. Of course, I've also employed the classic electric shock handshake."

"I'm glad we have such heroic and selfless people on our side."

"And I'm glad we have you so I can look good in front of the others."

Harmony blows some air out of her nose. "Sorry Case, unanimous decision victory for Ramya. By the way, you guys seen Makira and Kiah lately? I heard they were training Kiah's telepathy."

Coincidentally, Makira appears from the other side of the building, carrying... an unconscious body?

We rush over.

"Wei, Kiah ni kenapa?" / "Woah, what's going on with Kiah?"

Makira smiles without a hint of worry like a tired caretaker. "She's perfectly fine. She just used a bit too much energy and passed out. I'm carrying her to her room so she can get some rest."

The three of us exhale in relief. Ramya starts to scold her friend, poking her chest with a sharp fingernail.

"Kira, don't go pushing her too much you know? I understand la you don't meet telepaths often, but that doesn't mean you can go around treating her like a lab rat."

"I–" she pauses and looks at Kiah's face, her smile faltering, "I'm sorry, okay? I didn't want to, and I should've known that–"

She realises that we're all watching her. She clears her throat and shakes her head.

"I'll... I'll be on my way. Please excuse me."

We watch her carry Kiah bridal style all the way up the stairs. I turn to Ramya who, for the first time, has a genuine worried look on her face.

"They must have something going on."

>>

Ugh... my head... it's like someone's playing Tetris in there and slotting in all the wrong pieces.

I wake up on a purple bed and I have a purple pillow on my chest. I'm still wearing all my clothes from earlier.

Am I... on Makira's bed?

A figure looks down on me, causing my half-awake self to jolt backwards.

"Hello, dear. You've finally wok–"

"Ya Allah, Makira, janganla takutkan aku cam tu!" / "God, Makira, don't scare me like that!"

I regain my composure and rub my aching forehead. My head's really been giving me problems these past couple of days.

"What happened to me, Makira? Did I pass out when we were practicing?"

A thick book is in her hands that looks different from the others. Its condition is a lot better and has the word 'DIARY' written on some masking tape.

"Yes. Your inai's faded a lot and it's evening already."

I tuck my leg in and give Makira some space to sit down on the bed. "Why am I in your room as well?"

"I wanted to keep an eye on you, and I didn't wanna snoop inside yours."

How thoughtful. 

"You're too kind."

She Makira-smiles to my compliment. She swipes the bangs off my face and checks my forehead's temperature. My stomach feels all jittery as her cold hands make contact with my skin. Hopefully she doesn't take my blushing the wrong way, since I'm just not used to people touching me like this. 

Perhaps that's just what I like to tell myself. 

I mean, she's not bad. She looks quite good actually. She has a lot of marks and blotches on her cheeks that look beautiful to me. Her eye is a stunning black with no hint of colour, possibly a remnant of her possession at SMK Ketereh. She's swapped out her previous prosthetic with a different one. It's now the curved type that the Paralympics athletes use.

Sometimes, she whips her light brown hair back and I can make out a scar right next to her empty eye socket. 

Maybe she wants to be reminded of her past. Maybe it's a reason for her to keep going.

I've not used my powers on her or anything, but I just know she's gone through a lot. There's always a hint of grief in her steps, a touch of anguish in her words and traces of sorrow in her mannerisms. No one is this kind without feeling like they deserve that kindness back from the world.

"Are you listening, Kiah?"

"What did you say again?"

"Your temperature's good. If you're feeling better, you should follow us downstairs where we can discuss our operation for tonight."

"Operation?"

>>

I follow Makira where she's leading me to a specific room downstairs. I get to see more of the Highland Towers's rundown bottom floor. There's graffiti littering every surface, most of them being unreadable due to the wear and tear. Makira told me how this place used to be where lowlifes hung out.

During the early stages of Makira, Ramya and Xiao staying here, they would scare these folk off the grounds whenever they decided to stick around. One of their tactics was having Xiao paint ominous messages on the walls with his blood. They bolted like rabbits.

We enter a room right next to a pile of dirty needles. Inside are all of our friends; Ramya and Casey are arguing while Harmony's sneakily glancing at Xiao carving something out on the large wooden meeting table with his butterfly knife.

I sit on an empty stool in between Casey and Harmony. They both put a hand on my shoulder.

"What happened to you? You okay?"

"What Makira told you. I got too tired and passed out. I'm fine now. She gave me some air ketum and I feel better."

They both seem to think that's a good enough explanation. Makira sits in front on an old armchair facing all of us. She gestures for us to settle down.

It's a bit chilly inside this room like it's air conditioned. I notice Harmony's blue hands, so I assume she's absorbed some of the heat around to make everyone feel comfier.

"So, first ever meeting. Fingers crossed there will be more in the future. Let's begin, shall we?"

"JAKIS, as you know, are conducting unconstitutional raids across the country. They've extended out from their headquarters in Putrajaya to all directions. They seem to favour spreading their influence into the southern and central states, where religion doesn't have as firm of a grasp as in the north. Sabah and Sarawak should be off-limits for JAKIS per the 20-point agreement upon the formation of Malaysia, which explicitly stated there should be no enforced state religion for North Borneo and that they have autonomous contro–"

Harmony raises a casual hand. "Mind if I say something?"

"Oh, please do."

"Sabah hasn't followed that agreement since 1973. Mustapha Harun, the Chief Minister of Sabah declared Islam as the state religion back then."

"Good point, Harmony. They should be off-limits, but they aren't. They've already arrested a few people they found 'guilty' of black magic. Almost all of them were just practitioners of animism. As far as we know, there are a very few legitimate ahli sihir that have been caught, including your acquaintance Jaxon Amputong whose whereabouts are still unknown."

Makira takes a long sip of water before continuing.

"What I'm trying to say is, there's not much we can do with the numbers we have right now when it comes to spreading influence. JAKIS have thousands of operatives as well as full support from the Royal Malaysia Police and Malaysian Army. We'll just have to hope there are others like us around making the differences needed in their communities. In the meantime, what we can do is strengthen ourselves."

The room goes silent. She has something up her sleeve.

"Training can take too long to improve your powers, so you need a shortcut."

"What type of shortcut?" asks Casey, his finger stuck inside a lock of hair.

"Tonight, we're going to the 99 Door Mansion to exorcise spirits."

__

That concludes Chapter 10! Hopefully you lot enjoyed the interactions my characters had, especially the conclusion of Xiao's flashback sequence and Kiah's feelings for Makira, as well as the rivalry Casey and Ramya have.

Please leave any comments if you want to know things about this story that I've left vague or unexplained. I'm always afraid that you guys can't understand stuff because of my errors.

Anyway, I'll see you all in Chapter 11!