FIRST CHAPTER OF THE NEW RECRUIT II! WOOOO!
It took me a loooong time to write it, but... I'm happy with it. Though, at one point one of my minor OCs gets a little wacko. Oh well...
Anyway, enjoy!
... One more thing. TNR started about a year and a half after the Ring Battles, and this one is starting about 5 or so months after TNR ended. If there's anything that's confusing you... Well, just ask. Otherwise I won't bother writing it down.
~Panther-chan
"Hey, Acer… C'mon. Get up, man. It's almost time for class. You're gonna be late."
"Five more minutes…"
"No. Dude, get the hell up. I swear, I'll dump cold water on you again. I will, man. Get up."
"Nuh hm…"
"That's it. That was your last warning, dude. I'm getting the water now."
That was my roommate. She's a bit emo, but not in a bad way. Her emotions ran pretty deep, the opposite of my own, and she liked black, which contrasted against my favorite color, orange. Still, we got along pretty well, as long as we didn't insult each other's lifestyle. Actually, we both liked a few of the same bands, and sometimes we'd just sit around in the dorm room and listen to music. That was our special bonding time, and the first time was when she was playing Avenged Sevenfold. She turned on her stereo, quietly, and just sat next to it. The tune sounded pretty cool so I asked her to turn it up a bit. Needless to say, she turned it up. A lot.
That was my first exposure to hard rock. She introduced me to Korn, Slipknot, Nightwish, and Disturbed… A lot of the music I listen to now was brought to me by her.
I think only a few people know her real name. Everyone who doesn't calls her Cloak, mainly because that's how she introduced herself.
Literally. "Call me anything but Cloak and you might find yourself dead."
That was even how I found her: on her bed, in the dorm room, reading some comic with her headphones on her head. She looked up, seemed to decide something about me, and put them on her bed, the music still playing.
And she called herself Cloak.
That was over two months ago, and since then we've grown closer. We're almost like sisters… albeit, sisters who barely know each other. Still, it's a good idea to make a friend instead of an enemy out of your roommate, and that's what I tried to do.
She was in her second year in Harvard, majoring in Physiology and Medicine. She says she wants to be a field medic, like in the army or something. She wouldn't say why, but she's a bit of a pacifist and doesn't like to fight so much as support those who do.
As for me, I chose Robotics and Psychology for my two majors. Why? Well, because they'd be useful for my Family.
That probably set you to wondering, right? About what kind of Family would be so important as to choose your lifestyle, simply to be helpful?
Alright. I'll give you some time to think about it.
…
…
Ready? Okay. I'll tell you.
MY Family is that important. MY Family is so important that I'd do anything, just to be helpful. You know why?
Because they're the only Family I've got. That's why.
"Hey. Acer. You up yet?"
"Mm hm."
"Good. Guess I can drink this, then."
I heard her gulp down the water in the glass, and I stood up, stumbling over to the dresser. I grabbed a dark red tee and a pair of jeans, slipped on my socks, put my hair in a ponytail, grabbed my lucky necklace, and shoved my feet into my sneakers.
"Alright. I'm ready."
"I can see that. Here. You got mail today."
"Awesome. Who's it from?"
"Uh… Your big brother again."
I sighed and took the proffered mail, opening the letter to see it was indeed from my "brother".
Twerp!
You better be okay. We haven't heard from ya in a while, and the psycho's getting neurotic again, just like the brat. The big man's a bit morose, believe it or not. The fag misses ya and the creep too. You better fucking call soon or one of us'll get ripped apart.
-Your fucking brother
"Fucking shitty piece of monkey crap…" I huffed, throwing it over my shoulder onto my bed. "Moving on. What've you got first?"
"Math."
"Huh… Looks like I got that one, too. New fucking schedules, right in the middle of the fucking week… argh…"
"I thought you'd be used to it, coming from Italy. Didn't high schools change schedules a lot?"
"Nah. I got home schooled. My parents were a bit paranoid."
"Hm."
Her quiet voice faded to silence as she dug around in her pile, looking for her books. I did the same, coming up for air after a few moments with my Math books in tow. "I wonder when I'll see my brother. I'm supposed to call them, but I want to see them too."
"Must be nice, having a big family."
"Sometimes it's fucking annoying, but other times it's nice. It's like having a safety net to catch you if you fall."
"Huh…"
"You'd like them, probably. They're a cool group, unless they're arguing."
We both stood at the same time, her visible eye closing. The corners of her lips lifted in a soft smile, and she sighed wistfully.
"Must be nice…"
"C'mon, Punk-pants. Let's go to class."
"…Right."
When we got to class, there were only a few people there. The teacher wasn't even there yet.
"You got me up early again!" I complained loudly, making the few students surrounding us snicker quietly.
"So? You're always complaining about being late. Thought I'd help out a bit."
I heaved a sigh, letting my head fall back onto the headrest. I could hear the slight tones of apology in her voice again. Every time I did, I wondered what had happened to her to make her so…
Needy.
No, that's a bad word for it. Uh, helpless? No…
Ah. Miserable. Lonely? Yeah, that's a good one.
She was always alone when I saw her, everyone else acting as though she weren't even there. I had actually made it my personal mission to get her to open up more, and to seem more approachable. The dark clothes, make-up, and hair didn't help her image much. Her hair itself was a deterrent to the more cheerful people: it was dyed jet black and the bangs swept over her right eye, and those bangs were streaked with three slightly curved vertical red bars. It was almost like a pictorial Stop sign.
"Class! Quiet down. We have a new student, just transferred in from Oxford. This is Jacqueline. Please, try to be at least a bit normal. And don't freak her out!"
The Professor looked around hopefully, trying to spot an empty seat. His eyes came to rest on me, then shifted to Cloak and a depressed cloud seemed to radiate from him in waves. "Well… I suppose you can sit right over there for now. Go on."
"Yes, sir."
She came to our row, excusing herself a few times when her dark green skirt brushed against someone's papers. Her sweater was navy, and as she came closer, I realized how familiar she looked.
"Here… give this to her."
I handed a small note, torn out of my notebook, to Cloak, and gestured towards the new girl. She nodded and handed it over.
Hey, I'm Acer. That's Cloak.
There was an arrow pointing to the dark girl between us. The blonde girl nodded and wrote, then handed it to Cloak again.
Cool. I'm Jacqueline Maud. Nice to meet you?
Maud? Jacki?
Holyshitmotherfucker! Jacki? (I'm your friend. From Japan, remember? But I changed my name to Acer Superbi. Call me that, I'll explain later)
When the note reached her, she looked over at me, eyes wide and twinkling. Then she gave me a brilliant smile, so radiant I think the people a few rows down looked up at her, confused. I nodded, and she stuffed the note in her pocket to hide it.
Damn, this class is too long.
"Ohmygod! It's really you!"
"Yeah! It's really me!"
"I never thought I'd see you again! Why'd you change your name?"
I sighed, knowing I'd have to get it over with sometimes. "Alright, alright. C'mon to the dorm. Cloak, do you mind if she comes?"
"No."
When we reached my dorm room, Cloak immediately sat down on her bed and grabbed her sketchpad to draw. I sat Jacki down on my bed, my back and ribs still aching from the hug she gave me earlier. She had gotten a lot stronger over the past year or so.
"I'm waiting."
"Uh, well… the thing is… I ran away from the Yoshime family, and now I'm a Superbi, from Italy. It was… just too much to handle, and… I didn't have any other options." I let my shoulders slump and tried to appear miserable. I could tell Cloak wasn't buying it because she gave me the evil eye, but I gave her a look from the corner of my eye and she stayed quiet. For now.
"Oh… I'm sorry. I knew you were under pressure, but to run away…? Does your brother know, or…?"
"Huh?"
"Your younger brother. Ai." Cloak spoke up, knowing my… issues.
"Oh. Ai. No, no one at all knows."
Shit. I'm forgetting again. Ummm… thanks, Cloak.
I gave her another look, a grateful one, and she winked. At least, I think she did.
"Are you happy?"
"Huh?"
I blinked, confused again. Why did it matter if I was happy?
"Are you happy? With your new life?"
Oh, you mean with the Varia? "Well, yeah."
"Good. That's all that matters. Actually, the last I heard about Yoshime Corporation, they were training him to be the next leader."
"Huh. That's good then. At least they're moving on."
"Yeah… But enough about that! Tell me about your new family. Superbi, you said…?"
"Yeah. My older brother is a little crazy sometimes, and he swears a lot. Actually, a few of them do. My little brother can be psychotic at times, but he's really smart. And the youngest one is only a baby, but he's a genius too…"
Let the reminiscing begin.
Lunch was normal fare: I grabbed spaghetti, Cloak chose her customary chicken Caesar, and Jacki surprised me by ordering a Sloppy Joe. All my memories of her diet included her eating gourmet foods and being very neat. She enjoyed her meal very much, though, so I couldn't really say anything.
After explaining in more depth why I did what I did, she simply smiled and made sure I was truly happy with my new Family, then left it at that. Cloak seemed to be accepting her presence, but I think she was becoming more insecure.
"Hey, Jacki. You busy tonight?"
"Yeah. My roomie Audrey volunteered to show me around."
"Good. Me and Cloak already had something scheduled, and I didn't wanna leave you hanging, but…"
"That's fine. If you're busy, you're busy."
"You never change, eh?"
"Hm."
She smiled lightly and kept eating, wiping her face every now and then to get rid of the meat sauce from the Sloppy Joe. My roommate sent me a grateful smile, lasting only a short second, and I returned it with a quirky grin. This girl had a lot of insecurities, always fearing being replaced and left in the dark. I don't know for sure, but I think she depended on me more than she let on not to be left alone again.
When we were finished lunch we all headed out front to people watch. It was one of my favorite pass-times, and it had worn off me onto Cloak. Jacki joined us, but I really think she got bored after a while. I ended up lending her my iPod, and she took it gratefully.
The rest of Monday's classes went by pretty quickly. Nothing big happened, except we were assigned a new prompt in Creative Writing, but other than that nothing was new. Well, except for the fact that my childhood friend was here and knew who I was before I was practically kidnapped. She didn't know that part, though, and hopefully she never will.
I dialed the phone number I had memorized months ago and the loudest person on Earth answered.
"ABOUT FUCKING TIME SHITTY TWERP!"
"Squalo! Calm yourself!"
"Hrgh… Voi! What took ya so long?"
"My old friend just transferred here."
"Well, whatever. The psycho wants to fucking talk to you."
Nothing was heard from the other side for a short moment, then I heard my "little brother".
"Ushishishi… how is the Merchant today?"
"I'm fine, Prince. How's everyone on your end?"
"We are all fine! Well, the King seems sad, and Levi is desperate to help. Mammon is Mammon is greedy, and Lussuria is…"
"Special." I finished.
"Ushishishi…"
After Belphegor came Lussuria, who gushed over my description of what he called "a darling little girl in desperate need of an understanding friend". Mammon must've used illusion to steal the phone, and told me that I was paying for this call because it was long distance, then requested that I send him the bill for my tuition. He had agreed to pay for it as long as I paid him back every penny plus five percent interest as soon as I had the money. He almost added another five percent, but everyone else argued and it ended up being a dispute to end the poor base, which was flattened in less than two hours.
"Acer."
"Levi."
The Thunder-type and myself weren't on friendly terms. More like neutral. He knew the boss saw some kind of need to keep me in the Varia, and he acknowledged my usefulness, but that didn't mean he liked me. I think he might've been jealous in the trust Xanxus placed in me, but the one time he locked me in the cellar Xanxus went insane and blew everything up trying to find me because he couldn't understand a single word of what the Chinese representative of the Triads was saying. I was the only Varia member who knew that particular language and Xanxus got more than a bit irritated at me for "disappearing", and ended up throwing an empty scotch bottle at me. It hit my head and gave me a minor concussion, but Levi got shot a few times for "making me disappear", so it was fine.
That's how you measured how irritated he was with you. If the bottle was empty he was either a little irritated at you, or was just pissed off in general and needed to throw something. If the bottle was half-full you fucked up and he was angry. If it was full, he wanted to kill you. If you would survive depended on the type of scotch.
"Hey. Brat."
"Ah! Xanxus! How are you?"
"… Eh?"
"I asked how you're doing. Since, ya know, you're my Family? And my Boss?"
"Che. I'm fucking fine. It's your pathetic ass you should be concerned about."
Even if he'd never outright admit it, I knew he worried about me when I didn't call every week like I was supposed to. I rarely did, but that's because I was constantly on MSN and more often than not, Belphegor or Mammon was on. Technically, that meant I was keeping in touch like I promised. They still wanted me to call, though, so I did.
"Well, I'm doing pretty good. New prompt in Writing, my roomie's cool, uh… my old friend Jacki just transferred here."
"Is it a problem?"
He sounded oddly eager. I guess he hasn't gotten many assignments lately.
"No. She's cool with it all. I think she barely recognizes me anyway."
"Che."
The conversation ended when Squalo shouted at Belphegor for doing something stupid and the line cut off. My theory is that they're all bored out of their skulls and wanted to do something to pass the time.
"That was your family?" Cloak inquired curiously.
"Yep. They're a little crazy, and Belphegor is clinically insane. But they're my Family, ya know?" I shrugged, smiling widely. My day had just been made.
Cloak just sighed and went back to her drawing, turning her iPod back on. I ignored her in favor of my prompt for Writing, and deciding what to write, I set to it, the keys on my laptop clicking away as I wrote down everything currently on the front of my mind, experience lending me the speed necessary to type the words before I forgot them.
SKYVOV "Bratty Scum"
TIGERSTRIPES50 "Hey! What's up?"
SKYVOV "Need you to translate a document."
TIGERSTRIPES50 "Send it over, then."
SKYVOV "Hm."
You have received a new e-mail from SKYVOV.
I clicked the little pop-up and it opened up a document written in Mandarin. I sighed heavily. "Man… these guys are fucking stupid sometimes…"
"What is it?" Cloak looked up to glance at me, interested.
"Oh… My boss needs me to translate a document into Italian for him."
"From what language?"
"Mandarin. I find myself wondering why he doesn't just order one of his men to learn it… I know Levi would do it if he asked."
"Levi?"
"My cousin. He's living with my brothers right now in Italy, and he needed a job so I got my boss to hire him for a while. He comes in handy."
"What's his job?"
"He's the bossman's main bodyguard. He's extremely loyal and can get pretty fucking vicious."
"Sounds interesting."
"It is… unless he hears you insult the boss. Then he gets mad."
"Hm."
Sensing that she didn't want to talk anymore, I looked back down at the screen and got to work on turning the Mandarin into Italian.
There we go! The first chapter of The New Recruit II: Waking Up. I was going to make this the "first", and The New Recruit a kind of prequel, but then I decided, "Screw that, I wanna make this a sequel!"
And so I did. Hope all you New Recruit fans enjoyed the first chapter of the second part of what will soon be a trilogy! The third part is already in the making, so if there's anything you need clarified, tell me now! I don't like to change what I've already written and re-written.
~Panther-chan.
P.S: I'm going to the Montreal Otakuthon as Panther-chan! So much awesomeness... Especially since the Panther is my Inner Author. Woot!