Chương 138: Chapter 131: The Illusion of the Edge

The state-of-the-art training arena within Atlas Academy hummed with a quiet, anticipatory energy. Today, the massive, reinforced floor had been stripped of its hard-light obstacles, leaving a vast, open expanse of gleaming titanium specifically designed for unrestricted maneuverability. The heavy doors hissed open, and the students filed into the staging area.

Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Team FNKI, Oscar Pine, Penny Polendina and Ciel Soleil, all carried their weapons, but their postures radiated varying degrees of extreme apprehension.

"I'm telling you, it's impossible," Flynt Coal complained, adjusting his fedora as he walked.

"Every Dust combination, every kinetic strike. We hit him with everything. The man didn't even flinch. His invulnerability is completely beyond our maximum output."

"It's true," Ciel agreed in her rapid monotone, checking the data on her Scroll.

"Our combined offensive capabilities yield a zero percent probability of inflicting physical damage to the target."

"My internal sensors recorded absolute kinetic absorption," Penny added, though her smile remained bright.

"It is mathematically confounding!" Ruby Rose, walking alongside Jaune Arc, let out an awkward, deeply sympathetic chuckle.

"We know exactly how you guys feel," Ruby assured them, nervously rubbing the back of her neck.

"When we first started training with him back at Beacon, we spent days throwing ourselves against a brick wall. It was incredibly depressing."

"But trust us," Jaune grinned confidently, patting the pommel of his sword.

"You will feel the results later. The sheer physical resistance training pays off." Oscar tightened his grip on The Long Memory. He listened to the veteran Huntsmen and Huntresses-in-training, his hazel eyes burning with quiet, steady determination. He might not possess a Semblance yet, but he was absolutely resolved to forge his own path and stand as an equal alongside Ruby and the others. He would not squander this opportunity.

As the students stepped out onto the primary arena floor, they found Saitama already waiting for them in the dead center. He was clad in his bright yellow hero suit, his white cape hanging lazily down his back. He stood with terrible posture, his face a perfectly flat, unblinking oval as he stared blankly at the approaching group. Standing right beside him, holding a small object, was Specialist Winter Schnee. As Team RWBY and Team JNPR drew closer, their eyes suddenly widened in immediate, profound recognition.

They watched as Winter carefully reached up and placed a crudely fashioned, incredibly brittle wooden helmet directly onto Saitama's shiny bald head. The cheap birch wood sat crookedly over his brow, secured with a simple piece of white twine. A collective, massive grin broke across the faces of the Beacon students. They knew exactly what this meant.

"Wait... what is that?" Neon Katt asked, tilting her head as she skated to a halt, completely baffled by the sudden change in wardrobe.

"Why is he wearing a... wooden bucket?"

"Are we switching from durability to fashion evaluation?" Kobalt frowned. Winter stepped back from the anomaly, turning her crisp, authoritative gaze toward the Atlas students and Oscar.

"Today, the parameters of your training have shifted," Winter announced clearly, her voice echoing through the chamber.

"We are no longer measuring durability. Today, we are conducting a speed evaluation." Winter gestured to the cheap wooden structure on Saitama's head.

"Your objective is incredibly simple. You must land a single strike on this brittle wooden helmet. If you manage to leave even a microscopic scratch on the wood, or if you manage to force any part of his body outside the designated arena boundaries, you pass the evaluation." Oscar, Penny, Ciel, and Team FNKI stared at the Specialist in absolute, jaw-dropping shock.

"Wait... a speed evaluation?!" Flynt stammered, entirely horrified.

"But we've heard the reports! Isn't he, like... able to move faster than light?!"

"How are we supposed to hit something we can't even see?!" Ivori panicked, clutching his whip. While the Atlas students descended into sheer terror, Team RWBY and Team JNPR practically vibrated with excitement. They vastly preferred this challenge over the soul-crushing durability tests. It was dynamic, it was strategic, and most importantly, it carried the nostalgic thrill of their very first impossible victory.

"Don't worry, guys! It's completely doable!" Nora cheered, hoisting Magnhild onto her shoulder.

"We passed this exact test back at Beacon!"

"Yeah! We totally scratched the helmet!" Yang grinned proudly, popping her knuckles. Flynt, Neon, and Oscar stared at the Vale students in absolute, bewildered awe. The fact that these teenagers had actually managed to outmaneuver an entity capable of moving at lightspeed was completely staggering. Team RWBY and Team JNPR immediately offered highly awkward, strained laughs in response to the silent compliments. In reality, the entire triumph was a profound illusion.

The only reason the Beacon students had "passed" was because Saitama had intentionally held back, deliberately tilting his head to allow Ruby's scythe to clip the wood simply because he felt bad for them. The students, however, were still completely, blissfully oblivious to this fact.

"Sorry we're late." A smooth, charismatic voice echoed from the heavy blast doors. The students turned to see the five elite members of the Ace Operatives: Clover Ebi, Marrow Amin, Vine Zeki, Elm Ederne, and Harriet Bree. They are striding confidently into the staging area.

"You are precisely on time, Operatives," Winter noted approvingly.

"Wait, the Ace-Ops are joining the training?!" Nora gasped in surprise.

"That's right, kids," Clover smiled warmly, adjusting his lapel.

"General Ironwood briefed us this morning. While our 'guest' is here in Atlas, the General wants to utilize him as a kinetic milestone to measure the development of our elite squads as well." The joint-training was also a highly calculated, classified maneuver by Ironwood and Winter.

Having been informed by Glynda Goodwitch that Saitama had previously faked his loss to give the students hope, an act they deeply respected, the Atlesian commanders intentionally added the adult operatives to the roster to ensure Saitama would not hold back out of pity for the children. Oscar and Jaune exchanged slightly nervous glances.

"Uh... I think seeing Saitama as a stepping stone is kinda... a bit too far," Oscar laughs in awkward. Using a man capable of shattering reality as a "milestone" for standard Huntsmen felt a bit terrifying, even with Team RWBY and Team JNPR's previous "success."

"Don't worry, kids," Elm boomed, slamming her fists together with an eager grin.

"We know he's completely out of our league, but it's still the best way to push our limits!" As the Ace-Ops moved onto the arena floor, Winter walked toward the elevated observation deck. She passed Neopolitan, who was already sitting comfortably on a crate of supplies. The illusionist wore a highly entertained, wicked smirk, her legs crossed elegantly as she prepared to watch the 'Huntsmen' flail helplessly against the anomaly. Team RWBY, Team JNPR, and Team FNKI vibrated with newfound excitement.

"We get to train directly alongside the Ace-Ops?! This is gonna be fun!" Ruby said with starry eyes.

"Yeah, it's a massive honor!" Weiss added.

"Oh, we're flattered," Vine gives a warm smile to the students. Clover stepped up to the center of the arena, offering Saitama a playful, charismatic wink.

"Go easy on us today, big guy." Saitama, staring at the seasoned Huntsman from beneath the brittle wooden visor, let out a massive, highly comical sigh.

"Yeah, right" Saitama grumbled, his shoulders slumping. He clearly knows that they put the adults in here specifically so he wouldn't reduce his speed. Winter arrived at the observation console, her fingers flying across the holographic tracking interface.

"Do not hold back. Give this everything you have." The entire roster of combatants tightened their grips. Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Team FNKI, Oscar, Penny, Ciel, and the Ace Operatives fell into their respective combat stances. Twenty highly trained, heavily armed individuals locked their eyes entirely onto the bored, yellow-clad hero. Saitama casually raised a red-gloved hand, lazily scratching the back of his neck.

"Begin," Winter commanded. The arena exploded into a violent, coordinated hurricane of motion. All twenty combatants dashed forward simultaneously. Ruby led the vanguard, bursting into a hyper-accelerated storm of rose petals, swinging Crescent Rose in a massive horizontal arc aimed directly at the wooden helmet. Harriet Bree utilized her own speed Semblance, blurring into a streak of lightning to flank from the right, her robotic exoskeleton primed for a concussive strike. Saitama stood perfectly still.

He didn't bend his knees. He didn't raise his guard. At the exact microsecond the lethal scythe blade and the electrified fist were about to connect with the birch wood, Saitama simply wasn't there. With a soft, imperceptible whoosh, he vanished in a flash, instantly reappearing ten feet to the left, standing casually with his hands in his pockets. Ruby and Harriet's attacks collided violently with empty air, the sheer momentum nearly throwing them off balance.

"Don't let him settle!" Clover commanded, his weapon extending into its whip form. He lashed out, attempting to snare the hero's ankles, while Vine stretched his Aura arms to form a massive, sweeping net designed to corral Saitama against the arena boundary. Saitama merely hopped. It was a lazy, unbothered little skip. He cleared Clover's whip by an inch and casually stepped directly through a gap in Vine's Aura net before the operative could close it.

"Gotcha!" Yang roared, launching herself off a glyph provided by Weiss. She rained down a blinding flurry of golden, explosive punches. Elm Ederne joined her, bringing her massive hammer down with earth-shattering force. Saitama began to bob and weave. His movements were a bizarre, fluid elasticity that completely broke the laws of motion.

He tilted his head left to dodge Yang's hook, swayed backward to avoid Elm's hammer, and took a tiny half-step right to casually side-step a massive, sweeping thrust from Pyrrha's javelin. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Cover the airspace!" Marrow barked, throwing his boomerang to intercept Saitama's retreat, while Flynt Coal unleashed a massive, localized sonic blast to destabilize the hero's footing. Saitama just ducked under the boomerang and walked directly through the sonic wave, his cape fluttering lazily behind him. He stepped around a rapid flurry of strikes from Ren, and effortlessly leaned away from a volley of explosive Dust rounds fired by Ciel.

"Initiating aerial denial!" Penny announced cheerfully. She took to the sky, her floating swords detaching to form a rapid-fire laser grid raining down from above. Kobalt surged forward beneath the laser cover, unleashing heavy, hard-light kinetic blasts meant to crush Saitama's evasive space, while Ivori cracked his whip, the barbed tip snapping with supersonic speed. Saitama treated the lasers, the kinetic blasts, and the whip like a mild drizzle.

He casually side-stepped a laser, ducked under Kobalt's heavy blast, and let Ivori's whip wrap entirely around empty air. It wasn't a fight. It was a masterclass in absolute futility. The teenagers and the elite operatives threw themselves into the meat grinder of his speed. They executed flawless, highly complex combinations. Blake and Neon darted through his blind spots, creating overlapping webs of ribbons and nunchaku strikes. Kobalt and Ivori coordinated brutal, kinetic traps.

Oscar swung The Long Memory with desperate precision. Even Jaune Arc, whose physical speed had been significantly enhanced through Saitama's torturous training regime, was entirely, hopelessly outmatched. Jaune charged with a heavy, explosive shield bash, only to find himself crashing into empty air as Saitama casually stepped behind him, tapping the blonde knight lightly on the shoulder. Every single weapon, every bullet, every laser, and every Semblance failed to yield a whisper of contact.

The wooden helmet remained absolutely pristine. After ten agonizing minutes of non-stop, maximum-output exertion, the combatants simply could not continue. One by one, the students and the Ace-Ops dropped their weapons, collapsing to the titanium floor or leaning heavily against their knees, gasping desperately for air. Saitama stood in the exact center of the arena. He wasn't panting. He didn't have a single drop of sweat on him.

His yellow suit was spotless, and the brittle wooden helmet sat perfectly straight on his bald head, without a single microscopic scratch. He covered his mouth with his red glove, letting out a massive, highly comical yawn. Oscar, Ciel, Team FNKI, and the Ace Operatives stared at the anomaly from the floor, a mixture of profound awe and utter, soul-crushing bewilderment washing over them.

"This... this is completely absurd," Marrow wheezed, his tail drooping entirely.

"He didn't even use his hands." Team RWBY and Team JNPR let out synchronized, heavy sighs of resignation. They knew exactly how this felt. They had harbored a tiny, desperate hope that they might somehow replicate their previous "success," but seeing his impossible speed in full force again confirmed how entirely out of their league they truly were. However, fueled by their previous training, they were fiercely eager to try again.

Penny, whose cooling fans were whining loudly as she dealt with her systemic exhaustion, beamed brightly.

"That was incredibly fun! We must recalibrate our approach!" Clover picked himself up off the floor, offering a tired, impressed laugh.

"Alright, kids. Brute force isn't going to cut it. We need a strategy. You Beacon students have dealt with this before. Talk to us. How do we pin him down?" The twenty combatants huddled tightly together in the center of the arena, casting wary glances at the bored hero.

"We can't rely on speed," Ruby explained rapidly, drawing a tactical diagram in the dust on the floor.

"We have to restrict his options. Last time, we divided the arena into sectors and attacked in overlapping waves to force him toward the boundary line."

"If we can combine Vine's Aura extensions with Weiss's glyphs," Pyrrha suggested analytically, "we can create a solid, impenetrable wall on one side."

"I can lay down an aerial grid," Penny offered.

"Ensuring he cannot jump over the barricade!"

"And if Marrow uses his 'Stay' command right as Flynt disorients him with a sonic blast, we might force a microsecond of hesitation," Blake added, her tactical mind whirring.

"I'll use my speed to match his retreat," Harriet grinned.

"Ruby and I will herd him right into the kill zone." Ren nodded.

"Just enough time for Elm and Nora to completely shatter the floor beneath him and push him out of bounds."

"We trap him in the corner, and force him out of the ring!" Nora cheered, slamming her fist into her palm.

"Hitting two birds with one stone. I love it," Elm grinned, slapping her fists together. The Ace-Ops finalized the intricate, multi-layered strategy, ensuring every Semblance and weapon was perfectly synced for maximum area denial. The huddle broke. The twenty Huntsmen and Huntresses turned back to face Saitama, their eyes burning with renewed, intense determination.

"Alright," Clover called out, readying his weapon.

"Execute!" The Vanguard and the operatives charged once more. But this time, it wasn't a chaotic brawl. It was a flawless, terrifyingly precise net. Vine threw his Aura arms outward, linking directly with Weiss's massive ice glyphs to create a towering, solid barricade that completely blocked Saitama's left flank. Above them, Penny detached her swords, weaving a thick, inescapable cage of green lasers that capped the ceiling of their makeshift trap.

From the front, Ciel, Flynt, and Kobalt laid down a continuous, overlapping barrage. Ciel fired suppressing rounds, Flynt blasted deafening sonic waves, and Kobalt unleashed hard-light kinetic pressure, creating an advancing wall of force that gave Saitama no choice but to step backward.

"Keep pushing him!" Ruby yelled, bursting into rose petals alongside Harriet's lightning-fast sprint. The two speedsters flanked his right, herding him aggressively toward the back corner of the arena. Blake, Neon, and Ivori laid down the ground-traps. Blake cast shadow-clones to block his immediate pivots, Neon skated rapid circles to lay down a perimeter of light-dust tripwires, and Ivori whipped his weapon across the floor to ensnare the ground itself.

Saitama, maintaining his comical, deadpan expression, casually shuffled backward, stepping lightly over the tripwires and slipping between the shadow-clones. Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren moved in absolute sync, forming a dense physical wall on the right flank. Jaune raised his Aura-amplified shield, Pyrrha used her polarity to manipulate the metallic debris into a funnel, and Ren fired precise Aura strikes to cut off any lateral escape.

"Marrow!" Clover shouted, his whip cracking to guide Saitama into the final pocket. Marrow Amin slid forward, pointing aggressively at the hero.

"STAY!" The localized temporal command washed over Saitama. It didn't freeze him entirely, but the sheer, bizarre magical interference caused his casual backward shuffle to lag for an infinitesimal fraction of a second. Oscar capitalized on the moment, vaulting over Jaune's shield and swinging The Long Memory with pinpoint precision to disrupt Saitama's footing.

"We got him!" Elm roared, launching into the air alongside Nora. The strategy had worked perfectly. Saitama was standing exactly in the far corner of the arena. The impenetrable wall of Aura and ice blocked his escape to the left, Penny's lasers blocked the sky, and twenty heavily armed Huntsmen were currently diving directly at him from the front and right. He had absolutely zero space left to dodge. The only possible way to avoid the incoming onslaught was to step backward, completely out of the arena bounds.

Winter Schnee, watching from the observation deck, widened her pale blue eyes in absolute shock. Even Neopolitan sat up straight on her crate, her heterochromic eyes widening in genuine, profound surprise as she watched the trap close.

"NOW!" Jaune yelled. The Ace Operatives, Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Team FNKI, Oscar, Penny and Ciel, all unleashed their ultimate, most devastating strikes simultaneously, aiming directly at the cornered hero. KRA-BOOOM...! The corner of the training arena entirely exploded. A blinding, cataclysmic shockwave of kinetic energy, Dust, and hard-light shattered the titanium floorboards. The sheer concussive force of their combined assault violently blew all twenty combatants backward.

The students and the Ace-Ops were thrown through the air like ragdolls, crashing heavily onto the floor completely outside the designated training ring. They lay scattered across the staging area, groaning and panting in total, absolute exhaustion. Penny simply lay there, her green lights flickering as her systems engaged emergency cooldown protocols.

"Did... did we get him?" Oscar wheezed, struggling to push himself up onto his elbows.

"He had nowhere to go," Harriet panted, a triumphant grin touching her lips.

"He had to have stepped out." Slowly, the massive cloud of smoke and debris hovering over the corner of the arena began to clear. The students and the operatives stared into the haze, their breath hitching. Saitama was still standing inside the arena. He was standing exactly half an inch away from the boundary line. His yellow suit was completely untouched. And resting perfectly atop his bald head, the brittle wooden helmet remained entirely pristine, lacking even a single, microscopic scratch.

The loud, grating buzzer echoed through the facility, signaling the end of the training session.

"Time is up," Winter's voice rang out, laced with undeniable disbelief. Saitama reached up and took the wooden helmet off his head. He looked down at the twenty exhausted, utterly bewildered Huntsmen sprawled across the floor outside the ring. He raised his eyebrows slightly, though his face remained comically deadpan.

"That strategy was pretty cool," Saitama commented mildly. Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Team FNKI, Oscar, Penny, Ciel, and the Ace Operatives stared at him in sheer, unadulterated shock. Their jaws hung open.

"How?!" Yang shrieked, slamming her fist against the floor.

"You were completely cornered! We didn't give you a single inch of space to dodge! And you didn't step out!" Winter Schnee walked briskly down the stairs from the observation deck, her data-pad clutched tightly in her hand. Her composure was entirely shattered.

"I... I can confirm," Winter stammered, looking at the anomaly as if he had just broken the fundamental laws of reality.

"For a fraction of a second on the high-speed cameras, I saw... two Saitamas at the exact same time." The students gasped.

"One was standing in the corner, in front of your assault," Winter explained, tracing the path in the air.

"And the other was standing entirely behind your formation, manifesting exactly as you charged forward." Saitama scratched his cheek, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Oh, yeah," Saitama explained casually.

"I actually moved right when you guys started dashing toward me. I found an opening between the hammer lady and the boomerang guy, and just slipped through behind you." He gestured lazily to the corner of the arena.

"But I realized I had a few Lien coins in my pocket, and I got worried they might have fallen out when I dodged. So I just ran back to my original spot really quickly to check the floor before you guys hit it." The silence in the training room was absolute.

"You did it many times," Ciel whispered, her eyes wide with horrified realization.

"Yeah, I checked a few times," Saitama shrugged.

"So I was just kind of... hopping back and forth really fast." The eyes of every single student and the five Ace Operatives widened in pure, unadulterated shock. Oscar, Ruby, and Jaune slowly turned their heads, looking up at the supply crates. Neo was sitting perfectly still, staring at Saitama. Slowly, she gave the students a single, solemn nod, confirming that she, too, had witnessed the impossible phenomena. All the students and the Ace Operatives finally realized the terrifying truth.

Saitama hadn't cloned himself. He was simply moving back and forth between the corner of the arena and the center of the room at such an impossible, incomprehensible speed that he was effectively occupying two physical spaces at the exact same time. The "cornered" Saitama they had unleashed their ultimate attacks upon was nothing more than an afterimage. Team FNKI, Marrow, Vine, Elm, and Harriet all let out synchronized, heavy sighs of absolute defeat, dropping their heads back onto the floor.

It was completely impossible to process power on that scale. Clover, however, simply threw his head back and laughed loudly.

"I gotta hand it to you, big guy! That is one hell of a way to flex your speed on us!"

"I wasn't flexing!" Saitama complained, a comical sweatdrop forming on his head.

"I genuinely thought I lost my lunch money!" Penny, recovering slightly, vibrated with excitement, while Ciel marched right up to the anomaly, her analytical mind entirely overloaded.

"Mr. Saitama! The physics required to generate a sustained afterimage with zero atmospheric displacement defies all known models!" Ciel fired off rapidly.

"What is your specific acceleration technique? Do you utilize microscopic Aura bursts to negate friction?!"

"Tell us your secrets!" Penny beamed. Saitama violently recoiled, deeply annoyed by the sudden interrogation from the two "Genos variants."

"There are no techniques! I just ran fast!" Saitama groaned as he is shoving the wooden helmet directly into Winter's hands. Despite the crushing defeat, Oscar, Team RWBY, and Team JNPR picked themselves up off the floor, their eyes shining with fierce, unbroken determination. They were incredibly eager for the next training session, absolutely desperate to finally land a legitimate scratch on the wooden helmet. Saitama looked at the exhausted, smiling teenagers. He offered a simple, mundane nod of encouragement.

"Good job today, kids. Don't worry, you'll get faster eventually."

The five Ace-Ops, Team FNKI, Ciel, and Penny gathered their weapons, expressing their deep, genuine thanks for the humbling training session.

"Teams RWBY and JNPR were right, that was actually fun!" Neon smiled in satisfaction.

"Thanks for the training, Saitama!" Flynt said to the hero.

"Yeah, see ya," Saitama offered a lazy wave as the Atlesian Huntsmen and Huntresses exited the training room. As the crowd dispersed, Neo hopped down from her crate. She strutted gracefully over to Saitama, holding his Atlesian Scroll out toward him. She tapped the screen, pointing at a glowing notification icon with a highly amused smirk. Saitama grabbed the device, squinting at the screen. He let out a massive, highly comical sigh of pure annoyance.

"This again..." Saitama grumbled. Pyrrha, wiping sweat from her brow, walked over.

"What is it, Saitama?" Saitama shoved the Scroll toward the students and Winter.

"Ever since that annoying interview with the politician lady two days ago, this thing hasn't stopped buzzing. I keep getting these weird messages from random people and media companies. They keep inviting me to sponsorships, talk shows, and business meetings." The broadcast with Robyn Hill had been an absolute, monumental success. His unintentionally wise, profoundly neutral speech had deeply moved the citizens of Mantle, the elites of Atlas, and even the military hierarchy.

He was currently the most universally beloved figure in the Kingdom.

"I already told everyone I don't care about being a celebrity. It's just getting more annoying," Saitama groaned, rubbing his temples. Saitama then reached into the deep pocket of his yellow suit.

"And it's not just the phone. Someone hand-delivered this fancy thing directly to the penthouse yesterday while I was trying to watch TV." Saitama complained lazily, pulling out a thick, heavy envelope.

"They want me to go to some kind of party. Is this like that one in the city below, where that crazy scorpion guy destroyed my beef?" Ren leaned forward, his magenta eyes scanning the heavy, luxurious paper.

"Who is the sender?" Saitama held the envelope up to the arena lights. He comically narrowed his dotted eyes, struggling immensely to read the highly stylized, looping aristocratic cursive stamped across the front in shining, gold-embossed lettering.

"It's, uh..." Saitama mumbled, squinting harder, his face scrunching up in confusion.

"What kind of name is this? Jack... cookies... quiz... Sneeze?" Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Oscar, and Winter stared at him, completely baffled by his profound inability to read a name. Weiss stepped up beside Saitama, peering closely at the gold-embossed invitation. The color instantly drained from her face. Her pale blue eyes widened to their absolute limits, her aristocratic composure completely shattering.

"What is it?" Winter asked, her tone shifting immediately to sharp, professional concern.

"It's a... a VIP invitation to a high-society gala event in two days," Weiss whispered, her voice trembling slightly as she stared at the cursive script.

"A celebration for the Council election's victory..." Weiss slowly turned her head, looking up at her older sister with a deeply worried, fearful expression.

"It's from father."