~Satomi Residence, one year before current events~
His head was pulsing, his blood pressure was already well beyond healthy limits and he was feeling as though the Universe was about to implode into his body at any moment then. He felt the anger almost oozing out from all his orifices, almost like a dam with many cracks in it that was about to burst because of the sheer pressure caused by the weight of the water behind it.
He could only stare at the scene in front of him, barely containing his rage and trying to control himself.
Enju, feeling his murderous feelings towards her, avoided eye contact and was simply looking away, with a huge blush on her face in embarrassment.
Rentarō: "Even with the lights on for the entire night, she still ended up like this?" he thought to himself. He knew she was embarrassed, there was no denying that. The fact that she had her face almost the color of her hair was proof of that. And yet, how could he ignore this and pretend like nothing had happened? Obviously he couldn't.
Enju: "It's just sweat!" was all she could say in defense for herself.
Rentarō: "…..that's not sweat, Enju…." he retorted almost immediately, very annoyed to say the least that she was trying to dismiss this entire awkward situation as just 'you're wrong'. It was clear as day that the huge spot of wetness mixed and tainting the fabric of her covers (as well as the bed underneath) was urine. And not just little amounts of it, the area it contaminated was visibly covering almost half of her small body.
And the worst part was that, since only now did he find this, in the morning, probably hours after the horrific event, the liquids probably got embedded in the innards of the bed as well by then, possibly damaging it beyond repair.
And even if that wasn't the case, the smell would probably stay there for a long time.
Rentarō: "My parents' bed….ruined after just one night….." he wasn't going to take this well. He wanted to be calm and collected about things, especially since this was only Enju's second day living with him, but he was already feeling fed up.
After all, he had sworn to protect his memories of them as much as possible, trying to preserve their belongings to the best of his abilities. To that end, he had been doing his best to keep their room as intact as possible.
And now, despite his best efforts, he was finding himself with the sad situation that, despite weeks of trying to clean and maintain the sanctity of that room all by himself, it only took Enju one night to ruin everything.
Rentarō: "Why….?" was all he could utter, in disappointment.
Enju sighed, realizing that she wasn't going to fool him, regardless of what she said. So she just dropped her acts and accepted that reality.
Enju: "I….had a nightmare last night. It was of a monster…..I've had this nightmare for a long time….." that didn't do her much good.
Rentarō still couldn't accept that, nor could he forgive her. However, he took a deep breath and forced his eyes closed, for a moment, to concentrate on his feelings and try to repress any negative emotions he had.
Rentarō: "Don't yell at her! It's barely morning! Don't ruin your day just because of this….." he rationally tried to convince himself.
Despite his age, he had learned a couple of years ago how to control his emotions and do meditation to properly get a hold of things.
It was those techniques that he had learned that helped him a lot in his life, to the extent of even passing some very rough and stressful tests for his Promoter license.
He knew that, regardless of situation, maintaining calm and rationally assessing the situation and calculating the best possible moves while discarding away any emotions from the background was always vital.
Rentarō: "And yet…..it feels like my heart is about to burst any second now" he persevered though. His concentration allowed himself to deflate a bit, get a grip of himself, cooling down just enough to maintain his regular personality. "Go to the kitchen and prepare for breakfast!" he ordered, forcing the conversation on an entirely different topic to move things along.
The girl nodded, happy to see him not get angry at her (or at least not punishing her) and proceeded towards the specified area.
He remained behind, grabbing and pulling onto the stained sheets, mentally preparing for the day that was about to come.
~Half an hour later, kitchen~
Rentarō: "C'mon! It's cereal! All children love cereal!" he almost begged, incredulous at the amount of pickiness that a single child could display in less than twenty four hours.
Enju stood there, with the bowl of warm milk and crunchy flakes in front of her, almost filled to the brim and with the spoon lying in it, very lonely.
Enju: "I like it….." she tried to defend herself, this time. Still, her partner wasn't having it.
Rentarō: "If you like it then why aren't you eating?" he commented, still unimpressed. "You took just six spoons from it! I counted!" the girl felt a bit creeped out how he had actually payed that much attention to her eating but decided not to comment on it and just try to convince him that her behavior wasn't because of ill will.
Enju: "My teeth hurt…." she cried, lowly, almost as if she didn't even have the proper courage to reveal that to him. He raised his eyebrow in disbelief.
Rentarō: "Your teeth? Which teeth?" he probed, trying to find out how legitimate her claims were.
Enju then pointed at her right cheek, in an area at her lower jaw.
Enju: "It's hurting right there…." she complained. He wasn't happy with that though.
Rentarō: "Even if that's true, just learn to deal with it and eat! I'm not gonna change your meal!" he decided he didn't want to be bothered with this. He had too much crap to worry about and didn't want to waste time listening to her stories, regardless of how true or not they were.
Enju: "But I can't eat this!" she continued, much to his displeasure. "It's crunchy and it breaks…..making my mouth hurt!" after that morning and after having her soil his parents' bed, he just wasn't in the mood of giving her any pity.
Rentarō: "I don't care!" he decided it was about time for him to end that conversation and stop bothering with her incessant cries. "When I was your age, I was thankful just to be alive! Especially after what I had went through! Learn to deal with what life throws at you!" he rose from the table, in anger, gathering his dishes and then heading towards the sink to start washing them. "Eat it or leave it!" he finished, letting her know that he was finally fed up with her actions.
The girl pouted.
Enju: "That's not fair! I'm hungry!" despite his complete lack of sympathy for her, she still didn't seem ready to accept his message.
The boy, seeing how his statements weren't enough to convince her, simply ignored her after that point. He didn't respond to her comments and just continued to work on cleaning his dishes.
It was then when Enju realized how little he actually cared for her.
Enju: "Hey! I'm talking to you! Hey!" but her calls were met with silence once again, as the boy continued to dismiss her.
Enju: "….." she was now infuriated as well. Her empty stomach was making her especially grumpy, even more so because of the hour. "….fine! I don't need food!" and with that, she stomped loudly on the floor after hopping down from her chair and made her way towards the main room, also starting to ignore him as well.
Rentarō: "Finally, that annoying brat is gone…." he commented internally, feeling a great deal of relief when realizing that he was all by himself again, something which he now saw as a luxury compared to a couple of days ago when he had considered loneliness a curse that was slowly eating away at his sanity. "Now that I'm in this position, I'd much rather die all alone than with her next to me…." despite the vitriol in those thoughts, there was a kernel of sincerity behind them, a kernel that grew from the depths of his dying soul.
~A couple of hours later, Terotero cemetery~
The boy stood motionless, in front of his parents' tombstone. The weather was convenient with the sky clear and with a light breeze to cool him off while standing in the sun.
After finishing with his prayers, the boy gave the tombstone a long lifeless stare, with nothing particularly in his mind while doing it.
After the incident that had transpired that morning with Enju ruining his parents' bed, the boy decided to at least honor their memory as a personal apology by visiting their place of eternal rest.
When he had been younger, he had always avoided to visit that cemetery, mainly to avoid bringing back those painful memories of them. He had always refused to believe that they were dead, never accepting that as the truth despite what everyone around him had told him.
Hell, not even now did he believe such a thing, denying that theory with every fiber of himself. Everyone said he was simply in denial, although he merely considered them to be ignorant of the truth. After all, their bodies had never been found, although everyone just assumed that their corpses simply mutated into Gastrea that had been subsequently dealt with later. Since DNA tests cannot be done on Gastrea because of the amount of mutations that their genetic code had undergone, it is usually impossible to tell with certainty who the bodies of the monsters that had been killed belonged to before the transformation. As such, since the cadavers of his parents had never been found at the site of the Gastrea attack, it was assumed that they had transformed at some point.
Rentarō always dismissed this as mere false assumptions, although always without having any evidence to support his beliefs. There had been times when he even doubted himself and asked himself if the only reason he didn't believe them was because he was too emotionally involved and simply didn't want to accept them. He never managed to convince himself with logical reasoning, always ending the debate with a 'I just know they're still alive somewhere' and silencing the pessimistic voices in his head.
He only recently had started to visit that place and properly follow traditional practices, such as praying and cleaning their tombstone from the always growing and spreading vines. After all, he was their only child and also the only person close to them so he was the only one who would do it.
It wasn't like he had given up on his beliefs of them still being alive somewhere. But, at this moment, this place was the only location that made him feel comfortable thinking about them. Maybe he had gotten used to the tranquility there, maybe he just got used of thinking about them when seeing their names carved in that stone. Who knows?
It just felt right to come there whenever he wanted to feel like he was talking to them, even though it was only monologue in reality.
Rentarō: "I'm sorry….for everything…." he lowly whispered, almost as if ashamed of what he was saying. "I know I don't come here very often. I'm sure you guys miss me, considering I'm the only one cleaning this place up. I've just been…..very busy recently" thankfully he was alone there, probably since it was still early morning and nobody bothered visiting their dead relatives or friends that early on.
Rentarō: "I…..got my license three days ago! Just like I said I would….." he smiled a bit, a very weak smile. In fact, it felt very depressing how little energy he had in himself when revealing that. "I…..I'm finally closer. I'm finally getting closer to becoming a hero…..someone who will avenge all the people that died…..all the Cursed Children and those suffering from the virus…." his voice began to pick up confidence, becoming pronounced and gaining strength. "I….will make this world a better place! I will protect those weak and helpless. I will become one that you will be proud of! I will….make you happy!" it pained him to remember those horrific screams that his parents had yelled back when he had been younger. The nightmarish cries for help that had haunted his nightmares for many years afterwards, reminding him of what hell felt like.
He really wanted his parents to actually be there in front of him to listen to his declarations, to pat his head and call him a good boy, as they so often had done while they were alive.
Rentarō: "NO!" he suddenly yelled inside his head, repelling those thoughts as if they were contaminating his brain. "They're still alive right now! They're not dead!" he tried to shove those reinforcements into his subconscious, trying to override the poisonous ideas that were only destroying his sanity.
Rentarō: "One day….I will make this world a better place, whether you will be there to cheer me on or not. Just watch over me!" and with that, he closed his one-sided dialogue with the faceless stone in front of him.
It really hurt even merely being there. It hurt so much.
He began to walk away, a bit dissatisfied for whatever reason.
Every time he visited that location, he always left with a sour taste in his mouth. Then again, how couldn't it?
That cemetery had specifically been built at the heart of Tokyo to mourn those who were believed to have fallen to the virus and whose bodies mutated. Since the virus inside their fluids was still active and contagious even after the Gastrea had been killed, nobody ever felt OK with simply burying them underground.
Instead, and also because the dead Gastrea could never be identified, they were cremated to ensure that the virions would be destroyed and contain the risk of spread. As such, that place never actually hosted any cadavers in its earth.
The only thing that cemetery had was a huge collection of tombstones with the names of those who were assumed to have become infected and died to the virus.
And the main issue was that that cemetery was constantly growing with more stones each year, reminding the boy of his inevitable end.
Given his job as a Promoter, he had always considered that the most likely cause of death for him would probably be him being bitten by a monster at some point and turning into one himself, ending with his own stone there, maybe even next to his parents'.
It was a very sober thought, one which he felt was unwelcome but necessary. After all, now he was an official Promoter, so that end was getting nearer and nearer….probably.
Promoter: "Why am I bothering with this? If I'll keep thinking about this, I'll only end up becoming depressed again…." he knew he couldn't afford losing focus. He had to keep on going and maintain his goal simple and achievable. Losing his mind over past events was counterproductive, something which he had learned by himself a long time ago.
As he began to walk into the direction towards his house, he stopped a bit, and remembered a specific event from his past, different from his parents' deaths.
Suddenly, he changed his route and began walking on an entirely different path.
After a long walk, he arrived next to a very small and shallow river flowing to the side of a street. The river felt very relaxing to look at, gently flowing in its general direction, uncaring of the environment around it. However, the memories he had of that body of water were anything but relaxing or pleasant.
Rentarō: "I wonder…..if people still drown their babies in this…." that was a laughably dark and seemingly random thought to have while looking at a river, but it was an honest natural reaction towards a depressing recollection from many years ago.
Many Cursed Children had died in those waters, and probably still do frequently. Depressed mothers that had gone near insane from the consequences of their new borns being infected with the Gastrea virus would come there and drown their offspring in the water, to spare them of the horrible life that awaited them, especially from the stigma that society would look onto them with.
The world was horrible, and it would continue to be that way until this nasty virus would become eradicated.
Rentarō: "If only she knew how lucky she is…." he now directed his thoughts towards his new partner. She was still at home, probably waiting for him.
He knew that he wasn't really allowed to leave her by herself for extended periods of time but he just couldn't stand being near her anymore.
They had barely spent one day together and he was already sick of her presence.
And yet, when looking at that river and remembering those horrific sights, he couldn't help but pity her. Even if she had gotten lucky and escaped such a terrible fate, in the end, she still never lived a normal life.
Enju was clearing not a normal child and it was even debatable if she could become one at that point. He would have to invest a lot of effort into teaching her the basics that she needed to start going to school, if that was even possible.
And after she would start going, he hoped that she would also begin making friends, learn to integrate into society and start living a life of her own, independent of her status as an Initiator or as a Cursed Child. Or at least….that was his initial plan.
Rentarō: "If only it were that easy….." while he saw no flaws in this plan, he was doubtful he could actually pull it off. After all, Enju seemed very resistant to the idea of going to school. She also seemed to have a learning handicap, considering how she didn't even understand the basics of theoretical abstract thinking even, something which she would require in school.
The teenager kept on staring towards the river, asking himself if he was really up to the job of being a good guardian towards her.
Rentarō: "Maybe…..at the end of the day…...maybe she is the unlucky one for getting to live through this horrible reality" he wondered.
~Forty minutes later, Satomi residence~
Rentarō: "What…..the hell?!" he almost yelled out after feeling his heart weaken a bit at the sight in front of him.
Many floor tiles were broken in the living room, with long cracks radiating from deeply damaged epicenters that were randomly scattered across everywhere, almost like a miniature meteor shower had taken place in that room somehow and ended up bombarding the floor very badly.
Rentarō: "What….happened here?!" flabbergasted, he didn't even know where to begin asking his questions. The girl turned away, a bit shocked and scared that he found out, her having somehow expected that he wouldn't notice those disturbances at all.
Enju: "There was this…..black small thingy crawling on the floor. I don't think it was a Gastrea…..but it was fast and scary. You weren't around, so I tried to kill it myself….." he face-palmed.
Rentarō: "That was probably a cockroach. There are a couple of those in this house. They got here because of the food in those boxes" he began explaining, feeling his anger finally starting to rise up in him once again. He couldn't believe it. One cockroach was enough to trigger the girl so hard as to have her literally destroy the flooring in their house. That was truly scary. "Please…..stop using your powers when I'm not around. In fact, from this point on, you're not allowed to use your powers any more while in this building, do you understand?" feeling as if he had reached the limit of his patience with her, he decided to start giving out orders that would forbid her from doing any more rash actions that would only continue to devastate his life.
Rentarō: "This house isn't a playground, nor a testing field for your abilities! I don't know how it was where you lived but over here, you're forbidden from using them until I give you a clear order!" finally trying to take initiative, he began imposing drastic rules. Naturally, this did not come without its repercussions, though.
Enju: "This isn't fair! It wasn't even my fault! That thing just appeared out of nowhere! What was I supposed to do?!" she retorted, very indignant.
Rentarō: "You should have used a shoe or something! It's not normal to just break the floor simply to squash a bug on it!" he continued to hold his stance, not willing to allow her to continue.
Enju: "But….but…..I always used to stomp really hard on the floor back at the facility all the time and nothing bad would happen!" she tried to use as an excuse.
Rentarō: "This house isn't made of reinforced steel, Enju. This isn't like the place where you used to live! Over here, things are way more fragile. If you use all the force behind your leg muscles, you could probably cause half of the house to collapse if you did it in just the wrong spots. That's why you should stop!" this didn't change her attitude though.
Enju: "Well, then you should do a better job cleaning this house then! I don't want to live with those things with me!" seeing how they couldn't reach a compromise, the boy was starting to feel very annoyed.
Rentarō: "Well, you don't get to decide that! This is how things are over here! I'm not going to start cleaning just because you don't want to learn how to behave and control your powers! In society, learning when to control yourself is essential to live a peaceful life!" despite his best efforts, she just wasn't having it.
Enju: "NO! This is horrible! You can't force me not to use my powers! That's just unfair!" she felt like she had one of her basic rights being stripped away from her. She felt like he was personally attacking her, trying to weaken her just so that he could impose his authority there, much like the guards she knew had used to do. She didn't like that.
Rentarō: "Well, I make the rules! If you don't like it then you can just go-…." but he was interrupted by a sudden and unexpected vibration from his pocket.
Surprised, the young man pulled his cellphone from inside, brought the screen to his face and noticed a notification had gone off….specifically a reminder that he had set up a week prior.
Rentarō: "Oh…." and then he made a disgruntled face. "Out of all the bad timings that could take place, why did this one had to happen today?" he felt the need to just pretend that he hadn't noticed it and put the phone away and forget about it.
Enju: "What?" the girl simply asked, noticing the demoralized look on his face.
Rentarō: "I appointed a training session for us last week at the Civil Training Center. The session should start in about one hour from now" he felt such little interest in what he was saying that he could barely even find the energy to convey this message.
Enju: "What….for?" she asked, in disbelief. "I can already fight very well!" obviously she didn't get it.
Rentarō: "The training isn't specifically for you, Enju. It's for both of us, to see how well we do teamwork" he revealed, feeling like he was at the end of his energy already. "Even the best Promoter paired with the best Initiator are useless on the battlefield if they cannot cooperate properly with each other. That's why these training sessions are mandatory for all Civil Security agency staff. We….need to go!" even with the comical lack of enthusiasm on his face, the boy still had the sense of duty to ignore their previous heated conversation and try his best to maintain a sense of professional attitude to control the girl.
Enju stood there, still cheesed off, wondering if she should listen to him or not.
At the end of the day, she didn't like doing these things but, seeing how incredibly pissed he was about this whole ordeal as well, she understood that it wasn't really something that he enjoyed either. It was simply something that they had to do, whether they liked it or not.
~One hour later, Civil Training Center nr. 2 ~
Instructor: "Hello and welcome to the Civil Training Center nr. 2. My name is Yui Otonashi and I will be your instructor today!" a grown middle aged woman began speaking to a large group of people, mostly consisting of young nine to ten year olds accompanied by men and women of varying ages. "I know that the majority of you have arrived here for the very first time to train together with your partner and, probably, you don't really know or understand the purpose of this training. Let me explain:" she began to present professionally while all the others would simply watch and listen to her, very curious and with their interests piqued.
Instructor: "The purposes of these training sessions are the following: to calculate your IP rank and assess your prowess on the battlefield, as well as to give you access to a controlled and well equipped medium where you can get to know your partners and understand their fighting styles before you actually begin combat with real Gastrea. To that end, you will be invited to join combat in simulations against automated robots that you will have to destroy, in order to pass these tests. During this, we will be observing your cooperation with your assigned partner and measure the level of coordination that you two will exhibit together. The more robots you incapacitate or assist in incapacitating, as well as the more you complement each other during the fights, the better our assessments of your team will be, and the lower the IP rank we will give you. Any questions?" she asked everyone in that room, after finishing to explain what she had to.
All the Promoter-Initiator pairs looked at each other, all very concerned and worried about this entire thing. After all, none of them had ever participated in anything like this and so they felt unprepared for it.
Random Promoter: "Yes, uhm, I have a question!" one slowly emerged from the crowd and walked forward towards their instructor. "How realistic are these simulations supposed to be? You said that we will be fighting robots, not real Gastrea, right? That doesn't sound all that impressive, nor really an accurate representation of what we will be facing in the future!" she spoke out, with a bit of ridicule in her voice.
Yui: "It's illegal to use Gastrea in anything other than research experiments. We use a substitute that replicates a Gastrea's enormous size and strength, though, so you will have a fairly decent challenge in front of you. Moreover, you will be allowed to use any weapons of your choosing, regardless of how lethal, so you will get to grow more experience in handling them. Finally, the purposes of these simulations are, as I said, not achieving realism but on calculating your prowess in fights as well as allowing you to get to know your partners while doing combat with them. If realism is your concern, then I suggest you don't get your hopes up too high" she clarified, before focusing her eyes away from her, letting everyone know that she was open to other questions as well.
Another Promoter: "And about that, you mean we can use our personal weapons in this? If we use Varanium equipment during this, isn't there a chance we might accidentally harm an Initiator?" another man brought up another good point.
Yui: "Well, that is true. Reckless behavior from your part can bring harm to your Initiators during this training. But let me remind you that bullets, made out of Varanium or not, are also deadly to humans. Basically, there is a risk for everyone involved, whether Promoter or Initiator, but that is intentional: while the robots you will be tasked with destroying have builtin mechanisms that will make them stop as soon as they calculate that their actions are likely to kill any of you, you still need to get a feel for the dangers of fighting. More often than not, you will be sent on missions that will require you to cooperate with one another, not just a Promoter with his or her Initiator, but different pairs working together as well. During those times, you should already have the skills and foresight necessary to avoid friendly fire among yourselves. Think of this as an introduction to that" that was yet another thing that left a bad taste in their mouths, but they all decided to swallow their tongues and simply roll with those answers since they really had no choice in the matter.
Enju: "Do we really have to do this?" came a rather jarring and surprising question from one Initiator finally. Rentaro's face immediately turned red.
Rentarō: "Don't embarrass me!" he tried to whisper in her ears but she ignored him.
Enju: "Why do we need this? After all, I've received plenty of extensive training at my facility before meeting Rentarō! If I know that I can fight then why does it matter if he can't do it?" at that, many of the other Promoters began chuckling in the background, amused by the lack of confidence that she had in her own Promoter.
The teenage boy could only want for the ground to open up and swallow him, in those embarrassing moments.
Yui: "(sigh) That's because success is only achievable via teamwork in almost everything you will be doing! Taking out Gastrea, despite what many of you believe, isn't just the job of Initiators. Their Promoters are there to give out orders to control the situation as well as call the shots when making any vital and critical decisions. At the end of the day, Initiators are believed to be the muscle for defeating the Gastrea, while their Promoters are the brain that coordinates them. Brains without muscles can't feed themselves and muscles without brains just lie there until they atrophy. In the same veins that brains and muscles need to cooperate and work together in order to keep themselves alive, Promoters and Initiators need to collaborate for the greater good of the team. And this training, which is mandatory, by the way, and must take place monthly for everyone with a license, is there to make you learn to do just that!" the redheaded small child pouted immaturely in response to that.
Seeing how she subsided, though, was a good sign since it meant that she would stop embarrassing him.
Shōgen: "You know, it's quite sad when you couldn't even impress a ten year old girl. When she's the one that gets worried about you, then maybe you're not suited for the battlefield there, kid!" came a loud and obnoxious comment from one of the Promoters in the group towards Rentarō. He cursed under his breath at the uninvited opinion that crashed into him.
Rentarō: "Of course somebody just had to crack a joke at that" he thought to himself, realizing how short lived his moment of relief had been before someone decided to make fun of him. He just decided to ignore that. He was going to scold Enju as soon as they were gonna arrive back home.
Yui: "Anyways….let's continue! You will all be split into groups of three Promoter-Initiator pairs. Each group will be assigned a training room and will encounter its own enemies. That's to avoid crowding and chaos. Moreover, you will have to find ways of killing your assigned enemy. Remember: they are all robots and are programmed to stop attacking when they sense that you are defenseless. If you think things are getting too heated and dangerous, stop attacking or defending and trust that it will cease to attack you. It's better to just give up prematurely than go full on and risk losing your life….or endangering someone else's!" she tried to emphasize calmly before pressing a button on a remote control in her right hand. This triggered the huge LED screen behind her to light up and display a huge table with the names of all the people there and their assigned group as well as the room numbers for those groups.
Rentarō: "Well, at least I'm not in the same team as that annoying guy…." he sighed in relief when making that remark to himself.
He then looked at Enju who was next to him and gave her a cold glare.
Rentarō: "What the hell was that all about?!" he questioned her, enraged.
Enju: "Nothing…." she deflected while looking away, clearly showing that she was not in the mood of having a dispute with him. That only made him clench his teeth all the more.
Rentarō: "I'm really starting to feel like this won't work" he was already feeling defeated as they both began to walk towards their training room.
After making their way to it, they entered the room, along with their group mates and then closed the door behind them. The door immediately activated its lock to prevent them from escaping.
All the people there began to wait patiently, trying to see how all of this will go down. To some extent, nobody felt really confident about what was about to happen, except for Enju who was just very bored and imagined that what she was about to encounter would be very similar to her previous training sessions.
Overconfident, she just stood there, awaiting the arrival of their enemies just so that she could defeat them quickly and get back home afterwards. She really felt uncomfortable having to spend too much time with Rentarō, especially since their relationship was becoming more and more strained with each dialogue.
Finally, after minutes of grueling waiting, alarm sounds began to fire across the room, signaling the beginning of the training.
Rentarō: "Get ready!" he ordered her.
Enju: "I already was! Just don't get in my way!" that felt like a very rude thing to say.
The boy was about to say something mean to her in response but didn't get to do it as a giant creature suddenly jumped between them, forcing the entire group apart as they all tried to jump away from it.
Rentarō: "Crap!" the boy immediately pulled the safety on his gun and began aiming for the creature. He then pulled the trigger and sent a Black Bullet flying towards the robot. The impact was powerful and it penetrated the skin of it. However, since there was no flesh to actually damage with the toxic ammunition, as it passed only through metal and hydraulic pumps, the beast did not stop and simply re-positioned before lunging at the boy that had attacked it. "Oh GREAT!" he realized how unfair it was now that he was fighting basically an enemy that was immune to his strongest asset: his Varanium bullets. Since those only worked on creatures harboring the Gastrea virus, a robot would simply ignore them passing through its body as if nothing had happened.
Rentarō: "I guess guns just aren't effective against robots then?" he wondered, trying to get out of the way of the charging mechanical menace.
Thankfully, the incoming high speed creature got intercepted very quickly by Enju's powerful kick, which immediately decapitated it, allowing a lot of oil and mechanical parts to splatter all over the room, making the rest of its body that remained intact fall onto the ground, broken.
Rentarō: "Wow…." the boy remained impressed at that athletic performance, having not expected to see his partner dispose of their enemy that easily with just one single kick.
Enju landed gracefully onto the ground, before giving him a cold stare.
Enju: "You're slow! Why do I have to worry about you getting eaten?!" again, an unwelcome comment from her arrived.
The boy felt both thankful but also pissed at that, seeing how full of herself she was.
Rentarō: "Listen here: just because I-..." he tried to retort but, once again, that quickly died out when a screech was heard, this time from the ceiling. Everyone in their group looked upwards, only to identify another enemy just above their heads, with its legs somehow glued to the ceiling above.
Noticing how they have all found it, it then lunged down towards one of the other Promoters there.
This robot had the shape of a giant bat Gastrea, a particularly nasty encounter. The bat slammed one of its feet down to stomp on the unlucky Promoter to incapacitate him. He quickly rolled out of the way of the incoming foot, rose on both his legs and began running away. His Initiator quickly jumped on the enemy to distract it and allow her partner to build some distance and increase his safety.
She was a Model Monkey, which gave her great agility, speed, as well as incredible strength in her arms and legs. She grabbed the top of the bat's left wing, climbing up and then lunging from there at its head to assault it. She grabbed her hands around the metallic ears on the head and tried to twist it, to dislocate the head from its position and make the thing malfunction.
Her hopes were quickly proven to be futile, though, as the robot suddenly rotated its head with a mechanical motor to a strange angle that put its mouth right in front of her comparatively minuscule body.
Initiator: "That's...not fair! Real Gastrea can't do that!" she complained, not having the time to run away and realizing how screwed she was.
The robot then moved its head towards her abdomen and punctured it with its huge metal fangs. Thankfully, it intentionally omitted to strike her liver or any vital parts. The girl screamed in agony, trying to get away. Her Promoter, from a distance, aimed at the enemy and launched a guided rocket at it with his rocket launcher.
The creature moved its left wing to block the rocket, but the impact left a powerful shock wave spread through its body and made the girl fall out of its mouth and onto the ground below, holding onto her stomach and bleeding in pain.
Rentarō, seeing her in danger, aimed at the robot and began firing his own bullets to distract this creature from its now defenseless prey. Still, the bullets only went through the carcass, the holes they were creating not seemingly doing anything to stop the menace. It really felt like Varanium bullets were an inefficient means to stop those robots.
Rentarō: "DAMMIT! IF THAT THING WAS REAL, MY BULLETS WOULD HAVE KILLED IT BY NOW!" the most frustrating part for him was the fact that the bat wasn't even registering his attack on it as a real threat, since it actively ignored him and began lowering its head towards the fallen Initiator right under it.
Enju: "Don't bother!" his Initiator suddenly yelled from a distance at him, with a lot of disappointment in her eyes. "Your gun is useless here, can't you see that?! Just go hide somewhere and let us handle it! You're only in the way!" that felt very hurtful.
To have his own Initiator be fed up with him was probably the last thing he wanted to hear in that stressful battle. He was really trying his best but yet he couldn't do anything useful. And the fact that Enju was so disparaging towards him wasn't really helping either.
Rentarō: "I'M DOING THE BEST I CAN!" he yelled back, with more anger in him then than before.
The previous Promoter then launched another, this time bigger rocket at the enemy before it could grab among its teeth his Initiator again. The creature noticed this and rose its wing again to protect itself but this time the extra size of the explosive payed off and managed to make it lose its balance, forcing it to the side to regain its equilibrium.
Since more distance was now between it and the girl lying on the ground, the second Initiator ran up to the victim, grabbed her and ran off with her on her back while the bat was trying to re-balance itself with its huge weight and size.
Seeing how it was now momentarily unfocused, Enju decided to run towards it and take advantage of this, only to hear Rentaro's voice.
Rentarō: "DON'T GO NEAR IT!" he warned her very quickly, reading into her intended plan. "That guy over there is launching Varanium shrapnel filled barrel bombs at it! If you get hit with that shrapnel, you'll likely die!" the expression on his face was dead serious, implying that he was not willing to argue with her on that and that she was clearly forbidden from disobeying that order. It was a face that Enju had never seen before from him.
The girl stopped, losing her momentum because of his clear and very imposing expression. She just stood there, having lost her initial energy to attack the creature.
Enju: "Then what am I supposed to do?!" she yelled at her now direct commandant, only to receive dead silence in return. To be honest, Rentarō wasn't really sure of what she should do either and, as such, he couldn't give her an answer.
The girl just stood there, feeling very discontented because of that order, now not knowing what to do.
The bat, seeing its chance, began emitting a very loud high pitched noise, even higher than the previous screech that it had emitted to warn them. The extremely loud volume of that was enough to incapacitate everyone there, because they were all forced to place their hands over their ears instinctively. If they didn't they could have ended up with hearing loss.
Then, seeing them stand down and defenseless, the bat quickly jumped at the Promoter with the rocket launcher to try to disable him since he was the most dangerous threat to it right then.
The boy quickly tried to respond and lift up his launcher to fire at it in retaliation but he found himself not have enough time as he was face to face with his enemy now.
He tried to leave his weapon on the ground and make a sprint for it but he was slammed with the left wing of the creature and sent flying a couple of meters away.
But just before the bat could then continue to assault him, the third Promoter finally decided to gather the courage to intervene and jumped at the enemy, wrapping a long chain made out of Varanium along its left wing and began pulling on it, forcing the creature to focus on him. Despite his mostly cowardly approach to the battle, he had a big and imposing figure, with sufficient muscles to even force the mechanical robot into submission by way of his chains.
The bat tried to struggle out, but couldn't really fight properly with one of its wings being pulled on with such force.
Promoter: "It's down! Try to kill it!" he urged, struggling to keep the thing under control, although only barely.
The bat wouldn't stop, trying to get its body free once again. The chains were already starting to visibly deform, a sign that they were very quickly running out of time. Varanium was not a metal known for its durability or high resistance, so when a lot of pressure was applied to it, it usually breaks much quicker than other materials.
Enju, seeing how they were running out of time, decided to ignore her Promoter's previous order and sprinted towards the target, trying to see if she could land a kick on its center of mass before the beast would break loose. If she could land that single kick, she was sure she could break its body into many pieces.
Rentarō: "WAIT! I TOLD YOU TO STAY HERE!" the boy immediately began running after her, although he was no match for her speeds. The girl didn't seem to care much for orders, though, and didn't even slow down, accelerating at a dazzling rate to get her attack in just before the creature would set itself loose from the bind. After all, that was their greatest chance at victory against it.
As soon as she got within close range to the creature, though, she saw the error of her ways: the other Promoter who handled a rocket launcher had already got himself back up and already was ready to fire a new rocket at it. Both her and him were rushing to get a shot in and before he could catch glimpse of her, he already aimed and pulled the trigger, launching the shrapnel filled projectile at its target.
The rocket landed dead square in the face of the enemy, sending a bunch of ricocheted Varanium fragments. By the time Enju could stop and try to reverse her direction, a bunch of the projectiles spread and one particularly unlucky one landed in her right shoulder blade.
Enju: "ARGGHHH" she screamed, feeling the burning sensation that her body felt when the accursed metal suddenly began reacting with the virus residing inside of her.
The immediate pain exploded throughout her entire body, letting her know of the true power that this substance had over Cursed Children. She had never felt actual Varanium on her skin before…..until that day. The insane amounts of pain that spread from her shoulder blade radiated to her head and face almost, feeling like she had been hit by a bomb that had gone off right next to her.
She collapsed onto the ground, limping, as her body reacted violently with the projectile, almost simulating an allergic reaction, a wide burning red patch starting to grow on her skin from the impact point outwards, starting to cover her body and forming red lumps of flesh on the surface.
Rentarō: "ENJU!" the boy was horrified at the site, losing all of his rationality and starting to panic as he ran towards her.
Immediately, the creature recovered, to some extent, re-initializing itself to focus on the battle. It jarringly swung its captured wing in a wide arc, forcing the Promoter holding it with the chains off the ground. Since he had expected it to stay down, he wasn't holding himself onto anything anymore, which allowed it to propel him with his own chains into the air, effectively then allowing it to unravel the chains and set itself free.
Seeing how one rocket still wasn't enough, the Promoter who had launched the previous missile put his gun down, cursing that he couldn't use it anymore since now Enju was there fallen on the ground, being the new victim this time.
The robot noticed this and then redirected its eyes towards the girl on the ground. It lowered its mouth and approached her, almost like trying to squeeze her in its mouth and run away with her. Which is what it ended up doing.
By the time Rentarō had gotten there, the girl was flailing her limbs weakly, trying to get herself out of its mouth. This time around it didn't puncture any of her organs, but it kept her there almost like it was a real bat trying to fly away with a mouse in its mouth.
Rentarō: "GODDAMMIT!" seeing how it suddenly opened both of its wings, almost in a motion that suggested that it was ready to fly off, the boy couldn't afford postponing it any longer.
He did a high jump towards the creature, using his mechanical leg to launch him more than normal muscles could ever do.
He then slammed his mechanized arm into its head, making it immediately crack and break under the immediate force. The mouth opened up because of him damaging the internal pumps that caused a loss in pressure in the hydraulic system that controls the mouth.
Enju fell onto the ground. When she looked back up, she saw Rentarō trying to wrestle with the wings that the creature was trying to engulf his body with. At the end, seeing how it was ready to stomp down on Enju this time, he quickly climbed down at the last second and forced his arm to grab its foot before it landed and pushed it sideways, making the bat's body fall down. With the artificial skin almost tore off from his mechanical limbs, Enju stared in pure fright at the sight of the teenage boy now having his non-human parts exposed, with a look of rage on him.
Rentarō: "WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT NOT GOING NEAR IT?!"
~Satomi Residence, one hour later~
Enju: "I'M SORRY, OK?!" the girl cried out in an apology, feeling very angry after the amount of scolding that she had received from the boy. Rentarō wouldn't have any of it, though, since he wasn't even remotely done with her.
Rentarō: "It's a bit too late for 'sorry', Enju! You almost lost your life! I specifically told you to avoid getting near it, and yet you ignored my order!" he continued with his attitude, not letting go of the subject at all. "Now…..half of your body is red, almost like you have hives right now. And you're still lucky! You could have ended up in much worse of a condition!"
Enju: "(frowning) Well, it's that guy's fault for launching his rocket without looking! I mean, I did everything I co-…." but she stopped on her tracks when looking at his icy glare at her.
Rentarō: "That's enough….go to your room!" his dead-serious look on his face was suggestive enough. He wasn't feeling like continuing this conversation at all. He was fed up, irritated, and ready to literally enter a hardcore screaming match with her if she was going to persist with this.
Enju: "But I-…." suddenly a loud ring tone began to play from Rentaro's pocket, ending this discussion and prompting the boy to move his hand in his pocket.
Rentarō: "I said go to your room, Enju!" was his final decisive order to her.
Feeling almost threatened this time, the girl swallowed her pride and decided to listen to him, retreating down the hallway.
After seeing her disappear from his sight, the boy finally accepted the call and brought the phone to his ear.
Rentarō: "Hello?" he asked, trying to pretend that he didn't know what the call was going to be about, despite having seen who the caller was and imagining about what was about to go down.
Kisara: "Do you want me to fire you?" came the sudden and very blunt and direct first phrase from his phone's speaker. Needless to say that it was pretty straight to the point.
Rentarō: "Who the hell starts their phone conversations like that?!" he almost had a heart attack at the sudden aggressiveness that he had been assaulted with.
Kisara: "Your boss, that's who!" came the sarcastic reply from the other end. "What the hell happened back there at the Training Center?! I'm doing the best I can to advertise our company to the public and make a good image for ourselves, and now you ruin everything by doing stupid things during your first training with Enju. Are you trying to sabotage our jobs, Rentarō?!" it was very impressive how she had caught word of his and Enju's embarrassing lack of cooperation so early, after only one hour since it ended.
Rentarō: "It wasn't my fault! She didn't listen to my order! I did everything I could to save her, afterwards!" he tried his best to defend himself in these circumstances.
Kisara: "Rentarō, it's pretty pathetic when you have to blame the ten year old for your failures as a team leader, you know…." obviously she wasn't going to take his side no matter what he was about to say.
Rentarō: "Technically, she's still nine…."
Kisara: "THAT'S EVEN WORSE!" she rebutted him, leaving no room for the boy to offer any counterargument in his defense.
Rentarō: "(sighes deeply) Look, I'm sorry! I just….don't feel like I can take much of this anymore. Things are moving way too fast and…..I don't feel like I'm a good match for Enju!" he began to explain sorrowfully to the phone, dropping any sign of attempt at self defense and suddenly turning the conversation in an entirely new direction. That caught Kisara off guard.
Kisara: "What….do you mean?" she asked.
Rentarō: "I assume you saw my IP ranking that they assigned to me and Enju at the end, right?" he inquired all of a sudden.
Kisara: "Yes….it was 198287" the girl recounted the very poor results that she had received as their employer. To say that she had been disappointed would be an understatement. "Apparently you and Enju are literally the worst team in Japan!" she restated the information she had collected, much to her disappointment.
Rentarō: "Exactly! And that's because me and her really don't get along very well. She's mad at me all the time and barely even listens, not just there but at home too. I just….don't think that she likes me enough to listen to my orders!" he tried to justify the very low scores that they had been assigned.
Kisara: "For Pete's sake, Rentarō….she's a nine year old girl! It doesn't take much to impress one! You remember how easily impressionable I was at that age, don't you? It was only seven years ago. Back then, I was so easy to fool I even dated you! That just goes to show how trivial it is!" the boy felt very ticked off suddenly.
Rentarō: "What's that supposed to mean….?" he felt a vein suddenly pop from his skull at that comment. "And….those weren't dates! We were just fooling around back then…...look just, don't change the subject, please! I'm already tired…." he let out exasperated already. "I…..don't think Enju is the right partner for me. Regardless of how easy you claim it is she just won't listen to me! I just think that she hates me! And no matter what, I don't think I can change that. Can you do something about this?" he suddenly broke the silence between them.
Kisara: "Do….what?" she actually understood what he wanted to say, but she simply pretended not to understand it just because of disbelief.
Rentarō: "I…..want a new Initiator!" he revealed, confirming her worst suspicions. The blood froze in her veins.
Kisara: "Rentarō…..you know that's not an easy thing to ask for! There are a lot of requirements stipulated by the IISO with respect to Promoter-Initiator disbandment. And, currently, you meet none of them!" she informed him of what he already knew though. "They are pretty strict about these things! You can't just change your Initiator like you change clothes! That's only done in extreme circumstances!" he really didn't need her to explain things that he had already learned for his license.
Rentarō: "I know….I'm just asking for another way! There's very little I can do about this! I can't continue with her as my par-….." but he stopped dead in his tracks immediately when he heard a floor tile squeak, a sign that pressure was applied to it in just the wrong spots.
The wooden flooring were dead giveaways in that house because they would produce loud noises almost constantly when someone walks around.
Rentarō's blood froze in his veins when he realized what that implied.
Kisara: "Hello? Rentarō? What's going on t-…." but he quickly ended the call, cutting her off while turning his head ever so slowly to his right. There, at the doorway to that room, stood Enju, filled with hurt in her eyes.
Rentarō: "(gulping) Since when have you been standing there?" he asked, not sure how to deal with this new unfortunate predicament.
Enju: "(glaring) Since a couple of minutes ago. I didn't feel like going to my room…." she responded very lowly, pouting a lot. It was evident that she had overheard his conversation with Kisara because of her now fully angered state. "You…..want me to send me back to that facility, don't you? You don't want me here anymore, do you?!" she began to speak in a very harsh aggravated tone of voice. She looked dead in his eyes, looking for honesty in them.
Rentarō: "(sighes) Yes…..I do" seeing how she wanted honesty, that was what he was planning on giving her. "I…..don't think we can continue like this, Enju. You didn't listen to me at all today, putting both of us in danger's way. Hell, you don't listen to anything I say while we're at home here either!" he tried to defend his position to her.
The girl lowered her head, almost as if ashamed of those accusations. She somewhat understoo his point of view. She wanted to scream how unfair it was for him to do that to her but, at this point, she knew it would only do her more harm than good.
Rentarō: "I….can't continue on like this! I don't want to keep on-…." but he was interrupted by her.
Enju: "No…..I'm not going back there!" she suddenly declared. Without any other forewarning, she dashed towards the exit of their house. The boy's face immediately turned white when realizing what she wanted to do.
Rentarō: "Wait….Enju! Don-…." but it was too late. With her speed, she ran outside and began disappearing into the distance. Rentarō dashed outside trying to run after her, only to remember, yet again, how little a chance he had to catch up to someone with her abilities. "Goddammit! Wait for me!"