Sorry sorry sorry sorry, for not updating sooner :(.  For all subscribers, thank you for being patient.  I did my best on this chapter so I hope you like it.

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Junichiro rolled on the other side of his bed.  He rubbed his eyes and checked his phone; he woke up 5 minutes before his alarm was set to go off.  He sighed heavily knowing he had just lost 5 full minutes of wonderful sleep.  He reluctantly crawled out of bed and hopped onto his floor, seeing the mess sprawled around him.  His clothes were flung about and his dresser had a dent in it, not to mention the broken mirror glass on top.  His room had been getting worse all weekend and he didn’t know why or why he found scars on his stomach.  He checked the door and it remained locked with no sign of a break in.  His only assumption was that he had been creating the mess himself somehow while being asleep and that it was possibly somehow connected to the Shades that had managed to infiltrate the area.  For now though, his only priority was getting to the gymnasium for most possibly the toughest training day so far; the training that determined who would make it in a three month training and potentially end up in the squads.  He quickly showered then headed to the gym.    

When he arrived, he checked his phone and realized he was still a little early.  There were only a few trainees scattered around, each in their own group of people.  There was no sign of captains except for 2^nd seat Onew sitting in the corner looking bored.  Junichiro spotted Michiko sitting on the floor by herself near the middle of the gym.  She was surrounded by what seemed to be a plethora of gifts. 
“Hey,” Junichiro said taking a seat beside her.  She was unwrapping a box of chocolates.
“Oh hey,” she sighed.
“What’s all of this?” Junichiro asked.
“Oh, just some gifts the captains gave me for good luck.  Leeteuk gave me a picture of his abs, Donghae gave me a cake he made at his drama, Eunhyuk gave me flowers, Sungmin gave me a bracelet, Kangin gave me a necklace, Yesung gave me a teddy bear, Yunho gave me a ring and Changmin gave me this.”
“Seriously?  That’s insane!”
“Meh, I suppose so.” 
“Is something wrong?”
“Yeah, I had a fight with Sanghyunnie this morning.  That’s why I got here so early, even earlier than half the captains.”
“What are you fighting about?”
“Oh, something about too many guys chasing me.  I can’t help it if they all like me.  Plus, it’s my job.”
“Sorry to hear that.  I’m sure he’ll realize that.”
“Yeah.”

“Michiko!” She heard a guy call behind her.  She turned around and saw Kyuhyun speed walking towards her.  He furiously checked his watch knowing he was late for the mandatory captain’s meeting.  He was carrying something.
“Kyu oppa,” her eyes lit up through the frown on her face. 
“I got this bottle for you.”  He handed over a bottle of aged wine. 
“Ah, how sweet of you.  Thank you for saving me the other night by the way.”
“Oh,” he blushed, “I was just doing my job.”
“Well I appreciate it.  You’re my hero,” she flirtatiously smiled. 
“Well since I’m your hero perhaps you will let me take you to dinner.”
“Um.. I’d love to go!”
“Good.”  He gave her a quick playful kiss on the cheek.  “I’ll see you in a bit.”  He rushed off.

“Maybe that’s why Thunder gets upset,” Junichiro mumbled. 
“Did you hear about what happened to Jaejoong oppa by the way?”  Michiko changed the subject.
“He went missing was the last thing I heard from Seonbae.  I wonder how she’s holding up.”
“Well,” she leaned in closer to whisper, “He was found tied down to a tree in the back woods the night you went out Shade hunting.  Noriko found him and saved him.”
“Wow, is Jaejoong alright?”
Michiko sat back again.  “As far as I know he’s fine.  I’m just happy he got away.”
“Got away?”  A third voice startled the two.  Taiki quickly sat down and joined them.  Michiko pouted, paying attention to her presents.

“Oh, hey Taiki,” Junichiro greeted. 
“Got away?” Taiki responded.
“Oh just Jae-“ Junichiro noticed Michiko signaling him to keep quiet.  “Jaebeom got away from 2PM.  I think it worked out well for his career.”   
“Yeah, his solo stuff isn’t too bad.”  Taiki maintained a suspicion but kept his thoughts to himself.  “You ready for today?”
“I guess as much as I can be.  Do you know what we do?”
“I heard we’re supposed to fight mock Shades.  The captains should be announcing the order soon.”
“Well, I guess we’ll just wait.” 

They casually talked until the captains entered the gymnasium through a back door.   They formed a straight line in front of the twenty trainees left.   

“Today, we’re going to prepare you on the wonderful world of Shade hunting,” announced Yunho, standing in middle with Changmin. 

“Each of you will fight several illusions that resemble Shades.  Real Shades are too unpredictable so this is a controlled environment,” Changmin explained.  The Super Junior captains passed out swords to the trainees.  They were sharp, heavy, and capable doing fatal damage. Junichiro happily held this sword in hand, feeling he already had a firm grasp on how to use it after that first week.

Once the swords were handed out, Yunho spoke again.  “We’ll have everyone fight four rounds of Shades. You will be in five groups of four.  Depending on how each recruit does, it’ll determine if you move on to the next set. The captains will be observing the entire time so do your best.”

He read a list of names for the first wave of Shades. Junichiro heard his name called so he stepped up to in front of the captains.  As soon as the other three in his group joined him, the entourage of captains led them out of the gymnasium and to an open grassy area outside.  It was a bright and sunny day out, a seemingly odd setting to be fighting Shades, Junichiro thought.  He observed the space as the captains headed towards a large table.  The captains sat in the following order: Leeteuk, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Sungmin, Ryeowook, Yunho, Changmin, Siwon, Kangin, Shindong, Yesung and Kyuhyun.  The four trainees stood there looking completely clueless as the captains took their seats. 

“Stand in the center,” Yunho instructed to the trainees.  They did as he told them.  “Brace yourselves.”  Yunho pulled on a pair of sunglasses and stretched out his arms.  “You put the barrier up?” He asked Ryeowook.  
“A one-kilometer diameter with a 200-meter thickness just like you asked.” 

“Good.”  He faced the trainees.  “You might want to keep your heads down.”  His hands still in the air he drew a circle in midair which was traced in flames.  He brought his palm back a bit, closing his hand to form a fist.  After muttering a spell under his breath, he launched his hand open right through the ring of fire.

*BURST!*

The open blue sky above them was doused in flames!  Junichiro flashed his eyes around to see the entire area was completely blockaded by a screaming fire burning all around.  The heavily lit area was now dark only with the glow of flames, but was still enough to see the captains who seemed to not have any reaction.  “The wall of fire is to keep any mock Shades from escaping.  If one of you loses track the Shade will hit the wall and immediately burn to shreds.  I wouldn’t recommend getting close to the walls either,” Yunho explained.  “If anyone happens to catch on fire, Siwon will put it out.  Ryeowook will attend to any injuries.  If you feel like you can’t handle the Shades, just make an ‘X’ with your arms and we’ll stop your battle.  Understand?”  The trainees nodded.  “Okay, Changmin will start the first round.”

Changmin slipped on a pair of gloves and stood up.  He pulled knives from his belt and twiddled them around with his fingers.  He clasped them all in his hands at once and a white light glowed from his grasp.  “Don’t move,” he said.  Faster than a blink of an eye, he launched his blades to the four areas surrounding where the trainees were standing; they landed perfectly in the ground with the handle sticking up.  “Okay, now you can move.  Everyone go about about five steps behind a knife.  One knife each.  When the Shade is gone bring your blade back to me.” Everyone ran to the position and took their stance.  “Shades will appear in 3….2….”

*WHOOSH!*

The monsters burst from the blades!

“Here we go!” Junichiro shouted as each of the recruits rushed forward at their targets. Each battle was one-on-one.  His first Shade seemed to be smaller than the first one he witnessed with Noriko.  “It’s now or never!” he thought to himself. The Shade made the first move; it was extremely aggressive. Junichiro had to dodge a few strikes first before he could try landing a few of his own attacks.  The Shade switched to the defensive when Junichiro began his assault, managing to block each one of his attacks. He brought his sword back and then swung again but the Shade evaded it. In that moment, Junichiro found himself open and the Shade managed to land a kick to the back of his right shoulder. He almost lost his balance but manage to stay standing as he turned around to face his opponent once more.  The Shade began attacking him again and was relentless. Junichiro started blocking again with his sword but he couldn’t find any opportunity to fight back this time.  “But it’s so weak,” he thought.  He decided to back up a bit and leave himself open.  The Shade swung his claw and scratched Junichiro’s stomach.  It hurt a bit but the pain wasn’t unbearable.  With a Shade this low level, he found his chance to counter attack.  The Shade riled up again charging its claw to Junichiro, but he stopped it with his hand.  “Finally, I have a grip.”  He plunged his sword right through the middle of the Shade and it dissolved.  “Yes!”  Junichiro could hear other battles being fought around him.  He checked and realized his battle was the first done.  He ripped the blade out of the ground and ran it over the Changmin then took a seat. 

After a while, two of the recruits had surrendered in their battles and the other one had lasted a long time.  The first group was done.  Yunho snapped his fingers and the flames slowly disappeared to reveal the blue sky again.  Kyuhyun led the four back down to the gymnasium then called for the next group.  Onew met Kyuhyun at the door with the next group.  Junichiro headed towards a wall to sit down against and catch a breath.  Taiki went running over to join him.
“How did it go?”
“Oh, that was easy.  Only first round though.”
“Well I figured you wouldn’t have a problem.  I’m not too worried either.  I’m in the last group.”
“I guess that means a lot of waiting.  Well if I forget to say it later, good luck.”
“Thanks Juni.”

***

“Noona, wake up,” Suho poked Noriko’s eyelids.  “You have a visitor.”  She swatted at him until he stopped then rubbed her eyes and sat up. 
“How are you doing?” The visitor sweetly asked.  It was A-Plus.  Noriko noticed the alarm clock beside her read 11 AM.  She rubbed her head. 
“I’ve been feeling fine but apparently sleeping way too much.”  She sighed.  “I’m sorry for the mess I caused you the other night.  I just couldn’t control myself.”
“Oh, it’s not much of a problem.”  Suho brought A-Plus a seat to sit down.  She thanked him.
“So, what brings you here?”  Noriko asked.
“Well, to check on you of course.  I knocked you out pretty hard.” 
“So that’s what the bruises are from… that makes sense now.  Don’t worry, I can’t feel much pain when I’m that way anyways.  Plus now I have some cool battle wounds,” she lightly chuckled.  A-Plus smiled. 
“I actually came here for another reason.  I got some good news.  We found where the barrier was broken around our base.  The hole is pretty gigantic but we should be able to fix it within a few days.  That should drastically cut down the amount of Shade attacks.  We’re hoping once the barrier is regenerated nothing should be out of the ordinary anymore.”
“That’s great news!” Suho excitedly joined the conversation.  “Then noona can go back to training and I won’t need to worry about her getting hurt anymore.”
“Is there anything we can do to help?” Noriko asked.
“It’d be great if you two could help kill any stray Shades when we patch the wall up.  We’ll probably need to do things in shifts.”
“That sounds perfect actually.  Let us know when you start and we’ll be there.”
“Okay, I’ll go let papa Rain know you’re willing to help.” 
“Sounds good.”  Noriko’s stomach rumbled.  “Wow, I could really use some breakfast.  I feel like I haven’t eaten in days.”
“Well probably because your demon is still wearing you out,” Suho commented.
“Either way the three of us should go to breakfast, if that’s alright with you.”  A-Plus nodded. 
“I know somewhere good we can go,” A-Plus added.
“Okay, let me just get changed then we can head out.”

***

Two more of the groups had gone up and fought their first rounds of Shades.  Many of the trainees came back looking rather defeated by their battles.  The fourth group was currently up and the mood was draining.  Most trainees were fast asleep on the floor while others were pacing around and having conversations.  Taiki was busy in the corner practicing sword techniques while Michiko was outside on the phone.  Junichiro wasn’t tired enough to sleep and didn’t feel like introducing himself to other trainees so he headed towards Onew who appeared to be bored out of his mind. 
“You must be really bored, hyung,” Junichiro stated sitting next to him.
“Oh you have no idea.  I just want to go home.”
“Why are you here anyways?  I don’t see any other 2^nd seats around.”
“Since I’m next in line for captain I have to help keep everyone organized.  The other 2^nd seats are welcome to help too but F(X) is out of town, Jonghyun and Key went out to a movie, Minho is filming a drama and Taemin is hung over and grumpy.  So I’m stuck here to fend for myself.”
“That must be a pain.  Is it like that all week?”
“Yep.  I’m hoping someone will join me at some point but no one wants to sit here and do this job.”
“Yeah I’m sure.”

“Next group please,” Kyuhyun called from the door.  Onew stood and announced the names of the final trainees.  The group included Taiki and Michiko along with two others.  They followed him to the door and Kyuhyun up to the field to be in front of the council of captains.  As they headed through the door, Taiki shot Michiko a nasty look.  She rolled her eyes.  As they reached the field the eyes of Michiko’s many admirers all smiled in her direction.  Their mouths practically dropped open simultaneously in awe of her.  This time, Kyuhyun walked Michiko to the middle himself, grabbing her hand and leading her there with the rest of the group following.
“Be wonderful, my angel,” he whispered in her ear giving her a quick peck on the cheek.  Kyuhyun returned to the table and received a smack in the head by Yesung and a glare. 
“She’s not yours,” he teased viciously. 
“She’s more mine than yours,” his sharp tongue shot back.  They started kicking eachother under the table. 

Yunho snapped himself from his daze and announced his usual then engulfed the area in flames.  Michiko jumped at the sudden blaze and Leeteuk ran over to calm her.  He gave her a big hug and pet her forehead.  “Don’t worry, you’ll be safe.”  The other trainees were confused but just shrugged their shoulders while Taiki, annoyed, sat on the ground. 
“Get back here!”  Shindong shouted.  Leeteuk grinned and walked backwards over to the table, keeping his eyes smiling at Michiko.  Changmin then proceeded to launch his knives at the four areas.  He instructed them to each go to place but pointed out the front one especially for Michiko.  Taiki stood across the way and stared down his self-declared rival.  Changmin winked in Michiko’s direction and gave her a thumbs up as if he rigged her illusion.  With a quick countdown, the Shades appeared and the battles began.   

*WHOOSH!*

“Let’s see, what should I do.”  Taiki analyzed his screeching Shade not even flinching at its swing.  He easily blocked it trying to study its approach. The Shade seemed to be pretty quick.  He tried to launch an attack but the Shade’s defense was strong.  The match was very back and forth without much attack until Taiki took a minute to think.“When someone is on the offensive, the other is usually on the defensive. If either side switches, the outcome is pretty much the same. However, if the person on the defensive can disrupt the one on the offensive, then they can force an opening,” he thought.  If he wanted to win, he had to counter. 
“Alright! Let’s see if I can get this just right,” he thought out loud.  He watched the Shade’s attack pattern.  “Left, right, left, right, and…” He waited for it and he saw the Shade’s left claw coming.  He skipped back.  “I got it now.”  He waited for the pattern to start back up. 
“Now!” he shouted. He swung back against the left arm of the Shade and its arm was forced backward, causing it to lose balance for a few seconds. Taiki brought his sword back and swung a clean horizontal hit just underneath the Shade’s chest. The Shade let out a shriek as it swung about wildly until it disappeared.  “Too easy.” 

Michiko meanwhile had a rather interesting battle of her own.  The Shade illusion that popped up from her blade was….pink.  It had ‘I love you, love Changmin’ written in Hangul.  The Shade was surprisingly fearsome for its bright color, crying out sounds that could break the sound barrier.  The majority of the captain’s table broke out into cheers, rooting her on in her battle.  She was a bit clumsy with the sword and struggled to get a hang of it.  “This feels so awkward,” she thought, taking a swing at the Shade and barely scratching it.  The Shade launched an attack and marked her shoulder with a cut; she was dripping blood.  “Ouch!” She called out, the captains ready to run to her aid.  She waved them off and dropped the sword to the ground.  She was going to win this her way.  She jumped a few steps back and formed her hands together.  She kept her eyes on the pink bouncing Shade and steadied her fingers in the direction of her target.  It growled at backed itself up to charge right at her.  Her eyes were glowing with intensity as it screeched in the air!

“RAWWRR!!!!”   

*KAZZZOOOOOMMM!!!!*

Her red blaze projectile attack fired from her fingers!  She shredded the Shade’s mask into bits and it turned straight to ash!  Her projectile shot so far through the Shade it hit the fiery boundary and sizzled out.  The captains, all except for Shindong, Siwon and Ryeowook, jumped to their feet and applauded.”
“We knew you could do it!” Sungmin cheered.  Michiko bent down to pick up her knife but Changmin ran and got it. 
“You shouldn’t need to work any harder.” He whipped an arm around her shoulder and walked her over to the table until the other two battles were finished.  With Changmin claiming her, tensions rose at the table. 
“Yo, get your arm off of her!” Eunhyuk shouted, standing and walking over to Changmin. 
“Why should I?”
“Yeah, don’t you touch her!” Kangin joined in.
“Hey!  I’m her hero!” Kyuhyun added, forming a fist with his hand. 
“All of you must be joking,” Yunho shot out.  “I’m the head of this whole thing.  I deserve her.”  Michiko stepped back as the men had a brawl over her.  She sighed and sat down in the corner watching her men battle.  Shindong, Siwon and Ryeowook kept trying to break up the fights but they just kept getting worse.

“HEY! We surrender!” The trainees still battling shouted.  They were heavily struggling.  Much to their dismay the entire captain council was in utter chaos.  Taiki ran over quickly stabbing the Shades and helping them out, then collected the knives and slammed them on the table, halting everyone. 
“We’re done!” He yelled.  The fights broke off with everyone feeling rather ashamed. 
“Okay let’s… let’s call it a done deal for today,” Yunho announced.  He removed the barrier and walked the four down to the gym with the other captains.  “Everyone,” he called.  “We’re going to do the next round tomorrow.  We’ll rank everyone then let you know tomorrow when everyone is battling.  I’ll see you then.”  The training ended for the day.  There was a collective moan around the room of trainees that had spent all day there doing nothing after their battles; including Junichiro.  He quickly caught Taiki walking to gather his things.
“Hey, since we’re out early you up for some video games?” He asked.
“Actually, I have something important I need to check.  I might be by later.”  He quickly headed off.
“I wonder what for,” he thought.  Michiko walked up to him.
“Well, I guess I can go try to make up with Sanghyunnie.  Are you busy?  I need help hiding the presents.”
“No, I’m free now.  I can keep them in my room if you’d like.”
“That sounds fine.  Let’s go before I cause another fight.”
“A fight?”
“Yeah, I’ll explain on the way.”

The training day was done. 

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Things are getting crazier!  I hope you also noticed that Yunho and Changmin's powers were inspired by "Keep Your Head Down." :D