Author's note: from this chapter forward, the rest of the "A glimpse into the past" series will be from Rentarō's point of view, for the most part. Enjoy!
freakishdust1: thank you, that was exactly the angle I was trying to go for with Enju. I'm glad you noticed that!
A glimpse into the past, part 3: this part of this fanfiction details events that had happened before the time series covered by the anime. Basically, this is a prequel, happening before the anime and before the non-"A glimpse into the past" chapters of this fanfiction as well.
~Tokyo, Initiator training facility nr. 4, one year before current events~
The day was finally here. After long and painstaking training sessions, after a lot of studying and exams to prove his efforts and after many many scoldings from his childhood friend, Kisara Tendō, the boy was finally about to achieve his long sought goal of becoming a true Promoter.
It has been a long and unpleasant journey, to say the least, but, nevertheless, he managed to overcome all the obstacles in his way and persevere to the end. And he couldn't be any happier than that, at all.
Or so he thought anyway…..since now he was realizing how depressing reality still was despite his achievement.
Rentarō: "This place….is not as cool as I imagined it would be" he noted mentally while scanning his surroundings visually to see if he could spot anything worthwhile.
The hallway he was being led through was very bland, just the regular pathway through a military building that everyone expects when visiting such a facility: metallic walls, floor and ceiling, nonexistent decorations, surveillance cameras every thirty meters hanging from the upper edge of the walls pointing downwards to record anyone passing by under them and the occasional locked doors that separated different segments of the hallways there and which were sealed with electric locks that were controlled by keypads next to them.
Rentarō: "This is so cliche" and not only was everything unimaginative, it was also incredibly depressing for whatever reason. Maybe it was because of the bland metallic gray that was everywhere, maybe it was the artificial lighting that had some effect on him and his brain that was causing him to feel very drained of energy. Whatever the case, he's been feeling very anxious and uncomfortable since the moment he had walked through the entrance. Something about that place was bringing his mood down, more than counteracting against the happiness he had sported before arriving there generated by his very recent acquisition of his Promoter license from the IISO.
The guard that was guiding him through that hallway, being just as bored as him, decided to break the monotony and awkwardness between them a bit, since their journey was only halfway through. And there was nothing else the two of them could do but talk while walking.
Soldier: "You're new at this job, Satomi-san?" the older man initiated a seemingly unattractive conversation with him. Rentarō didn't know how to feel about that question. Did he do or say something stupid along the way which gave away his inexperience?
Rentarō: "Yes. This is my first time visiting such a location. Why?" he asked for feedback to see if that question had indeed been caused by some error he had done. The soldier chuckled, amused at how foolish the boy was for not realizing it.
Soldier: "It was a sarcastic question. I didn't really expect you to answer with anything else" that was an odd remark to receive. By the look on Rentarō's face, it was clear that he didn't get the hint, so the soldier continued. "This year is the year when the IISO formally announced the start of the distribution of Initiators to properly assigned Promoters around the world. Since the oldest generation of Initiators just barely became old enough to be considered actually effective in combat, you guys are also the first generation of Promoters to receive the honor of being paired. I assume you should have known this by now, seeing how you passed the written exams for your license" of course he knew that already, he just wasn't prepared for that kind of trick question to be directed at him then.
The boy scolded himself for not realizing this but didn't answer him at all. He just remained silent and didn't continue that thread of conversation so that the soldier would drop it.
Soldier: "I'm still not totally convinced that this is going to work, to be entirely honest but hey, I guess that even this is a better solution than that New Human Creation Plan that some sick people came up with some time ago. If nothing else, at least the ones suffering now aren't humans, just specimens" Rentarō frowned at that comment, for two reasons: one, the fact that this New Human Creation Plan was what actually had saved his life in the past, but also that this person, who clearly had a job in that building and had a lot of contact with the children there, was referring to them coldly as mere 'specimens'. Alas, he again chose to remain silent and allow his partner in conversation to continue by himself.
Soldier: "Well, either way, I just hope I'm wrong and everything will turn out well. Just be careful out there, kid! I don't mean to judge your abilities, I'm sure you're very talented and well trained. I'm just saying that, given your age, you probably didn't get to see yet the darker side of a battlefield. And I do hope that you never will get that chance" this man really wasn't helping in lifting the boy's morale, especially given how that lifeless environment was literally sucking all the life out of him.
Rentarō: "Thanks….I'm sure I'll handle everything properly though" seeing how letting that man lead the discussion wasn't improving things at all, the boy decided to redirect their talk into a different topic in the hopes that maybe things will become less dreadful. "Anyways….about my Initiator….how exactly is she? I heard she's a Model Rabbit?" he approached.
Soldier: "Yes….specimen 328 is a Model Rabbit. Her abilities are mainly focused on jumping and kicking with her legs. She has incredible strength in them and should be able to bend even cars with a single kick" he began explaining mechanically almost. "I know you probably don't like that since Model Rabbits are among the most boring models when it comes to their powers. Still, they are practical on the battlefield, especially in direct close quarters combat. They have high stamina and can last long during physical fights, as well as enough energy to flee and even give you a ride on their backs too when you decide it's wisest to run away. Tests revealed that these models can carry a human triple their own weight and still reach around twenty kilometers per hour when running with him on their backs" that felt impressive, given how those Initiators were so much younger than him but, despite that, were also able to run at such high speeds.
Rentarō: "That sounds pretty nice but I'm not planning on running away from battles…." he tried to defend his dignity after being a bit humiliated by the previous trap question that he had failed to notice earlier.
Soldier: "No offense, Satomi-san, but a soldier who doesn't know when to retreat is little more than target practice for the enemy" and yet he still felt like he was being put down by this older man. Rentarō wasn't particularly happy about this.
Rentarō: "What was my Initiator's age again? Ten?" he again tried to change the subject to something a bit less humiliating.
Soldier: "Nine, although she'll turn ten in less than two months. Her birthday is on the 14th of April" the older male revealed, before turning his head towards Rentarō and noticing the boy's disinterested look on his face. "Uh, you might want to write that down so you won't forget it" that recommendation felt a bit pointless for the teenager.
Rentarō: "What's the point? Even if I'll forget her birthday I'm sure she's gonna remind me about it and nag me on and on until I buy her a gift. I might as well not bother to remember it" while Rentarō was a man who had pretty honest feelings and a good heart deep down, he was not a very romantic person, to say the least.
Seeing how he had grown up in the same household with his childhood friend, Kisara, he had suspected that all girls always anticipated their birthdays just so that they could be spoiled with attention and gifts, so to him, it only felt natural to assume the same thing for all young females.
The older man looked a bit concerned, though, realizing how clueless this boy truly was.
Soldier: "Satomi-san, I'm telling you this because you should be the one keeping track of her birthday….not just for yourself but to also remind your Initiator about it if you deem that important" that was a confusing line. "She obviously won't remember it by herself" the boy was perplexed by that.
Rentarō: "She….doesn't even know her own birthday?!" he was puzzled, obviously.
Soldier: "No….she doesn't. After all, she spent almost all of her life locked up in here. And nobody in this facility's management ever invested anything in organizing birthday parties for the specimens here. So, for most of them, their own birthdays are no more special than any other day of the year!" he clarified before finally stopping in front of a huge door at the end of the hallway, signaling their arrival at their destination.
Satomi simply stared at the door, not really sure what to say now. The day had finally come for him to meet his partner. The time had arrived for him to see the person whom he was going to entrust his life to.
The older man began typing at the keyboard really quickly to unlock the door. He entered all the necessary passwords and finally the automatic doors began to slide open slowly revealing the silhouette of a young girl.
Soldier: "Satomi Rentarō-san, I present to you your own Initiator: Enju Aihara!" he introduced with a less than grandiose intonation in his voice. The doors opened to reveal a redheaded child, of an ordinary stature for her age, bright red eyes and wearing a light blue dress, staring menacingly at the both of them, almost like on the verge of attacking them.
Her eyes were so focused and filled with anger that the boy gulped audibly when looking at her, as they were the very first thing that drew his attention.
To say that his first impression of her was a strong one would be an understatement. He literally felt a primordial fear exploding in him even when merely looking at her, the type one would feel when encountering a wild beast in the middle of a jungle. He hadn't felt that way since he had encountered that monster that had attacked him back when he was young, the same monster that shared the same disease that that specimen in front of him then had.
Rentarō: "That's…..my Initiator?" he was at a loss for words. He had always assumed that Initiators were much like regular orphan girls, waiting for an adoptive parent to take them to their new home. But that reality had quickly been smashed when actually encountering Enju for the first time.
Soldier: "Yes, Satomi-san. Are you ready to take her in?" what was even the point of asking that question, now that he had come that far? Clearly he couldn't back down at that point, especially after everything that he had accomplished. He had to fight, no matter what. Surely, a grown man like him wouldn't be intimidated by a nine year old girl, right?
The boy, drawing courage from within, approached the specimen in question, slowly walking towards her. Enju clearly tensed almost all of her muscles when sensing his motioning towards her, taking a step back and establishing a fighting posture, as if to signal him that she was ready to fight back if he had any ill intentions towards her.
The boy didn't stop, though, and began extending his arm in a show of cordiality, almost as if to indicate his desire for a hand shake. The girl, not understanding it though, took his kind request as an attempt at subduing her, since many of the guards there had used to grab her by the head to force her into submission in the past and the boy's own attempt looked eerily similar to that.
Trying to respond with aggression, she immediately hit his incoming hand with her fist, forcefully enough to deflect it and also send him a warning.
No words came from her, only a cold glare.
Rentarō: "What the….?" he was evidently perturbed by that, unsure on how to proceed.
Soldier: "Don't bother, Satomi-san! She won't understand any acts of kindness from your part" the man then intervened and smashed his fist against her head, making her fall onto the ground down. "This, right here, isn't a child, as you innocently seem to believe. And your role to society isn't that of a babysitter or a surrogate parent" the girl whimpered while on the floor, as she tried to get back up before being hit again by the man, throwing her off balance and onto the ground a second time. "No…..your job right now, is that of a handler, and from this point on, your duty will be to tame this animal right here!"
~One hour afterwards~
Rentarō Satomi and Enju Aihara were walking together on a sidewalk, approaching Tokyo's suburbia at a very slow walking pace. The girl was not at all conspicuously dressed, as she was wearing her usual perfectly clean light blue dress almost like a human sized doll, with a lifeless look in her eyes to match that state. All the anger she had had pent up in her had dissipated once she received that beating from the soldier and now she was docile, for the most part anyway.
She still avoided direct eye contact with her Promoter and, despite trying to be calm and obedient, still emanated an aura of hatred around herself which made the boy feel uncomfortable. Moreover, she was quiet, not even bothering to initiate any conversation with him at all, even though this was the very first time when the two met each other. Clearly she had no interest in getting to know him, which was obviously a problem for their relationship.
Rentarō was pulling on and walking to the side of his bike. Normally, to avoid any weird looks from the people passing by who would notice the unusual girl next to him, he would have allowed her to sit on the back of his bike while he would ride it, so that they would move way faster and reach their destination quicker, minimizing the time strangers had to notice them. At least, that had been his plan up until he actually presented Enju with that idea.
The girl nonchalantly revealed that she had never ridden a bike in her life and, even though she was merely meant to be a passenger, wouldn't know how to balance herself on it in such a way as to maintain an equilibrium and not make the bike fall on its side. Since she didn't know how to maintain a proper center of mass, Rentarō wisely decided to abandon that idea and instead of riding the bike, the two should leisurely just walk at their own pace while dragging the bike along.
However, this also implied that the two would have to spend more time on their trip to his house, as their speed was now obviously slower, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing since Rentarō hoped that this would allow them to get to know each other a bit better, although this was quickly also brought down when he noticed how silent the child was consistently.
Rentarō: "How do you even start a conversation with a girl her age?" he pondered, halfway through their trip after realizing that the awkwardness between them was too heavy to bear. Having not been a prepubescent girl in his life, the teenager had no idea how to approach her in a way that would solicit her attention, especially given how little success he had had in the past with engaging women of his age as well.
Rentarō: "So….uh" he paused, trying to think up of a proper way to start a casual conversation. The girl didn't respond at all to his attempt. "Your name is Enju, right? Enju Aihara? That's a really cool name!" he tried to think up what he would have liked to hear when he had been her age.
The girl was not impressed though and simply ignored his comment, not even providing him with a common 'thanks' in return. That displeased him.
Rentarō: "How do you spell that in kanji? Is it similar to how you spell 'pearl'?" he added naively, trying to test the girl's knowledge of Japanese characters.
Enju, a bit puzzled by his question, looked up at him in a way that clearly suggested that she had no idea what he was even talking about.
Enju: "Kan…..ji?" she asked sheepishly, confusion boldly written on her face.
Rentarō froze a bit, realizing that she probably had never even heard of kanji before. Given her age, it was easy to assume that she should have, at the very least, received an entry level of exposure to that alphabet by that point in her life. The fact that she had never even heard of it was a bit worrying.
Rentarō: "Uh, never mind. Do you know how to spell it in hiragana, then?" this one should have been obvious. Hiragana is way easier than kanji and most children, even younger than her, master it with ease. Even foreigners having their first introduction to Japanese usually get the gist of hiragana in short periods of time.
Enju: "Hiragana?" despite his expectations, she merely repeated his word back to his face again, with even more uncertainty on her. This was becoming very troubling for her partner.
Rentarō: "You….didn't learn how to spell at all back there?" at that query, she at least knew how to answer.
Enju: "No" clear and concise, although not at all what he wanted to hear.
Rentarō: "What….the hell?!" it was a mistake for him to assume that she had received the same level of education as he had gotten back when he had been nine. Clearly the girl wasn't even capable of reading, much less spelling words. "And here I thought I could enroll her in a primary school..." to sneak a Cursed Child into the educational system was against the law, mainly because those 'specimens' were merely seen as weapons of using against Gastrea, and not as actual children that had a right to be educated. Consequently, nobody in the world would invest the money and other resources in even attempting it, Japan even going as far as outright banning them from entering the said system.
Even so, Rentarō had been planning on giving her the chance of becoming a pupil as any other kids of her age, in the hopes of allowing her to have a decent future. But now when he saw that she was incapable of even reading, he realized that this would be far more difficult than he had expected.
Other children of her age would already be in fourth grade and would have a fairly decent grasp on spelling, especially in hiragana. Since he obviously couldn't enroll a nine year old in first grade to get her to start with the basics, he would have to personally teach her all the concepts she should have known by her age just so that she could survive in school despite her academic handicaps. And that was something he obviously didn't want to do.
Rentarō: "OK, let's try something else then. Uh, how about math? Do you know how addition works?" again, a fairly simple subject that you would expect someone as old as her to be able to handle easily.
Enju: "No….I don't know what that is" again, he remained disappointed.
Rentarō: "Do you know how to count to ten?" he was lowering the bar further and further just to see how little she knew.
Enju: "Uh….no" so she probably didn't even know how old she will become at her next birthday.
Rentarō: "Do you even know what numbers are?" he was already losing all hope now.
The girl just shook her head at this point, showing how bored she was because of this conversation.
Rentarō: "Did you….learn anything back at that facility? Didn't they teach you anything at all?!" after having all of his expectations in her brutally smashed, he was now on the verge of simply screaming in despair. What did this child do all her life?
Enju: "We were thought how to fight Gastrea!" she replied, surprising him a bit.
Rentarō: "Huh….you mean they thought you martial arts?" obviously he had no idea what she was even talking about.
Enju: "Martial….arts?" and clearly she also had no idea what he was talking about either. There was an eerie lack of common ground in their communication and neither could easily grasp what the other was trying to say.
Enju: "No….they thought me how to use my powers. Like how to jump really high! And how to kick and repel!" so basically they had trained her in how to properly utilize her abilities as a Model Rabbit. At least they did that for him. "After all, my purpose is to fight Gastrea! That's all!" she repeated what she had been told countless times in the past by the people who had supervised her.
While them training her in how to be a combatant was a noble act, basically instilling a well defined sense of purpose inside of her, it also highlighted her limitations, since now all she saw in herself was a 'weapon to defeat Gastrea'. That was what she saw in herself and that was obviously dehumanizing in its own right, since it devalued her existence into that of a mere single-purpose tool. And she had been trained to not have any issues with that mentality, which was all the more depressing.
Rentarō: "I…..see" he was lost. He couldn't think of anything to say back to her. This was beyond what he could handle with any degree of confidence. Talking to this girl was like talking to an animal, the difference between their divergent understandings of the world was too great to allow for comfortable communication between them. And improper communication was obviously a very bad thing if they wanted to establish a relationship….particularly a relationship in which their lives would depend on each other, as that was what was expected of a Promoter-Initiator pairing. "This is gonna be incredibly hard" he was not prepared for this. Despite having learned a lot to gain his Promoter license, he had not been taught at all on how to handle his own Initiator, so now he was at a loss.
Rentarō: "Do you….uh…..have a favorite color then?" his attempts at getting to know her have now just boiled down to 'ask whatever crap she could feasibly understand and hope for the best'.
Enju: "Color….?" again, she displayed the same amount of cluelessness as before.
Rentarō: "I GIVE UP!"
~Half an hour later~
They finally arrived. After an excruciatingly long and anxiety-inducing trip to their destination, they finally concluded their walk at Enju's new and Rentarō's old home.
The boy locked his bicycle at its usual spot under a rain-protected roof and then he went on to use his keys to unlock the front door of the house.
Rentarō: "Dammit, I still didn't get used to this feeling" he thought to himself as all the memories of his childhood flooded his conscience the moment he had swung the door open. He felt just as much a stranger to that house as Enju was, given the many years he had been absent from it. "Make yourself at home!" he invited the child.
She didn't know how to respond to that, given that this experience was entirely new to her. She simply stood still at the porch, looking worried, not even having the confidence to take a single step inside. After all, this was all foreign territory to her.
Seeing her lack of action, he continued.
Rentarō: "Aren't you going to come in?" he inquired, puzzled. The girl, bracing herself, took a deep breath before proceeding inside, as she had been instructed by her now officially assigned Promoter.
Enju: "I'm….home!" she comically exclaimed with such a great lack of energy and life in her declaration that it only came across as awkward and dishonest. The boy decided to ignore that.
They both removed their shoes at the entrance, before advancing further inside the building. It was then when Enju noticed it: the house was in a complete mess. Cardboard boxes were scattered around randomly across the majority of the rooms, some open and others not, with various items hanging out thoughtlessly from the ones that had been unsealed. Even more so, there were many boxes of food items from various cooking providers that had been ordered at some point in the past, hanging on the floor, many of them still having crumbs and pieces of edible material left over in them.
On the furniture there was so much dust and, in some places, almost uncountable amounts of cobwebs littering the majority of sharp corners inside the rooms.
It was like she had stepped in an abandoned building and, having come from a mostly sterile and ridiculously hygienically bleached environment, she was appalled by this sight. Never in her entire life had she ever seen such amounts of disorder and proofs of reckless unhealthy practices.
She could only stare with her mouth agape.
Rentarō: "Something wrong?" he innocently asked, without having even so much as an idea of why she was so shocked. Obviously he didn't exactly understand her, since he had not grown up in the same conditions as her. Moreover, having just very recently moved into his own house to live in by himself, he was not as willing to do any actual domestic chores and cleaning now that he was free to do as he pleased for the first time in his life. And, as a teenage boy, not having to clean up after himself was equivalent to not cleaning up ever.
Enju just contorted her face reflexively, in pure disgust. She didn't know what to say.
Enju: "Why….is there so much stuff all over the place?" was all she could muster out of her mouth in response to that sight.
Rentarō: "Ah…..don't worry about that! I moved in last month and still didn't get to organize all my stuff yet. Just ignore the boxes for now!" obviously he didn't even register the other pieces of concern, like the mountain of Chinese food boxes next to the sofa in front of the TV. "Anyways, I'm assuming you're hungry from all that walking. Wanna eat?" he felt like eating was now the only common ground for bonding with his Initiator. So, obviously, he wanted to raise this opportunity.
Enju: "But….it's not evening yet! Are we allowed to eat this early?" seeing how she was used to eating at scheduled hours only, in inflexible plannings, she was surprised to see this opportunity offered to her out of the blue.
Rentarō: "Yeah well….that won't be an issue from now on. As long as both of us are hungry, we can eat at any time!" he clarified, making the girl finally smile in happiness.
Enju: "Great! Where is the cafeteria?" in a way, Rentarō did see this coming from a mile away. At least he predicted that the girl would be used to her former lifestyle so it didn't surprise him to see her still think like she was still living in that training facility.
Rentarō: "There is no cafeteria. There's a kitchen that you can use if you want to make something for yourself. However, I'm gonna guess you don't know how to cook?" to that, he got another head shaking in response. "Thought so….In which case we can order food to be delivered to our house. Do you have a favorite food you like?" he tried to be as kind with her as possible, just so he could establish a form of trust from her that would allow him to build upon later. Buying her her favorite food would be a good starting point…..or so he naively thought.
Enju: "Uh….favorite food?" that was another odd concept for her. All her life she had eaten whatever was thrown at her in the cafeteria, with the chefs solely deciding what to cook each day on her behalf. It wasn't like she had ever been presented with a choice before. "Uhhhh…." she pondered. "I don't know….the soft stuff, I guess?" she remembered what was in fact mashed peas with light tomato sauce, an infrequent delicacy back at the facility.
However, obviously Rentarō wouldn't know what she meant by 'soft stuff'.
Rentarō: "I…..uhmm….I don't know what that is" seeing how this conversation would probably take a good couple of hours for him to decipher what she was trying to describe, he thought it would be best to simply show her his own alternative. "Forget it! How about pizza? Do you like mozzarella?" he immediately realized how pointless it was for him to ask that, almost as soon as he finished saying that question.
The girl just shrugged, again making him wonder how many times he could see that gesture from her before it would start getting on his nerves. He conceded and just went with a 'whatever, mozzarella it is then!'.
The lack of communication between them was disheartening to him.
~One hour later~
After painstakingly teaching the girl how to use the remote control to use the TV, a task that was very heavily made more difficult given her lack of reading skills and understanding of the symbols on the buttons, their order finally arrived and the pizza delivery boy was at their doorstep.
Rentarō, as usual, payed him the necessary money, brought the huge pizza into the room and opened the box in preparation for their upcoming meal.
The boy was very pleased with what he was seeing, having bought his favorite type: quattro formaggi. Even though he was not really a fan of Italian food, he did personally enjoy pizza a lot more when the type was authentic to its native Italian origin than when it was cooked under the Japanese derivatives that were also popular among his peers. Either way, he was delighted.
He grabbed a slice with his hand and began munching down on the food. Enju simply stared at him, amazed at this alien dish that she had never encountered before.
It looked both delicious and disgusting at the same time to her.
Because of the molten cheeses on it, it emanated a strong odor, one that she was not used to feeling. Cheese usually emanates a pleasant smell for those who are accustomed to it, but to whomever was not, it created a foul sensation.
She timidly grabbed one of the pre-sliced portions, and immediately felt her intestines move in disgust at the sight of her fingers getting sticky because of the molten cheese.
Enju: "Ewww" she thought, trying to repress any obvious physical gestures that would give away the dread she was feeling at that moment. She wanted to be polite and not look picky from the very first meal they had together.
So she ignored it for now and brought the slice to her mouth. She bit down on the warm slice, trying to make it look like she was enjoying it. That didn't last for long though.
The gorgonzola especially gave a very strong aroma, one which her tongue was not used to. All those intense cheese flavors coupled with the stickiness of the toppings and the intense sensation of taste that had assaulted her nerves were too much for her brain to handle.
Rentarō: "Are you OK? Why are you making that fa-…..Oh no….NO! NOT ON THE CARP-…." but it was too late.
~One hour later~
Rentarō: "You could have warned me about this, you know!" he complained, disgruntled, clearly still very angry at what had happened in that room, to his partner on the phone.
Kisara: "(sigh) I honestly thought it was obvious! The girl most likely never ate any pizza all her life until today! Evidently, you shouldn't feed her a food that's so intense until her taste buds get used to the stuff we usually eat. From what I heard, back at the facility, Cursed Children are usually fed vegetable and fruit based dishes, with some eggs and animal meat on occasion. They aren't used to pizza or heavily processed foods!" she tried to explain everything as calmly as possible, to also allow the boy to defuse, especially given the huge quantities of anger still escaping from his voice.
Rentarō: "Then what am I supposed to feed her? Chinese food, maybe?" he asked, still annoyed a lot.
Kisara: "No, how about you make her some home cooked rice? Start out simple!" however, that suggestion wasn't as well received as she had hoped.
Rentarō: "You….have to be kidding me! I never cooked anything all my life! I don't know how to make rice!" he tried to deflect that seemingly unreasonable suggestion. "How am I supposed to do that?!" his pleas were not helping him at all though.
Kisara: "Well, then I guess this would be a good time to start learning" she dismissed mercilessly. The boy was not happy, to say the least.
Rentarō: "I….can't! Can you at least please come over here and teach me how to do it?" that was the last thing he could do to ease his burden, since he really didn't feel like he was capable of something as seemingly complex as cooking.
Kisara: "Rentarō, you're a grown man! Take some responsibility for your decisions! It was you who decided to become a Promoter in the first place! Now deal with it and learn how to handle your own Initiator by yourself!" again, his attempts were proven futile. It was like he was trying to find the exit in a maze that had none.
Rentarō: "Well, need I remind you that it was you who suggested that I should become a Promoter? After all, right now, I'm the only employee in your company so I don't think I-…."
Kisara: "I'm hanging up now" and with that she did just as she said and ended the phone call.
Rentarō was left with the phone in his hand, silent and standing still in pure defeat. He wanted to curse but he realized that such a thing would be tasteless considering how Enju was standing right in front of him with a needy look in her eyes.
Enju: "I'm hungry!" she demanded, as if that was going to magically make food she likes pop out of thin air instantly.
Rentarō: "(glaring menacingly at her) I hate you…." it was then when he finally realized that, despite what he had been told earlier that day, he was still a surrogate parent, or at least the equivalent of an older sibling. And, frankly speaking, he didn't want a younger sister. He needed a weapon in his life, not a liability.
~Two hours later~
Rentarō: "I'm done!" after many continued and fruitless attempts at it, he finally exclaimed exhausted. It was far too much work, even though he had tried so much to teach that child anything. "I can't do this….I don't remember learning basic algebra being this difficult…." Enju still stared at her textbook, with a lot of venom and hate in her eyes because of the incessant attempts Rentarō was making into forcing her to learn math.
Rentarō had been doing his best to allow the girl to get a grasp on the very basics of what she needed to learn. It was becoming increasingly clear, though, that her lack of even the most fundamental academic building blocks that she needed in order to properly parse any of this new information was far too great and not making things easier on either of them.
Enju: "I don't get it….why do I need to know all of this?! I just want to fight!" she growled hostilely at him, almost like an animal threatening an unwelcome human visitor on its territory.
Rentarō: "Because…..you need to go to school! I won't be able to convince anyone at any place to accept you there unless you understand this simple stuff first! If you're not going to give it any effort then it's all meaningless!" he didn't know what to use as a way to convince her to do what he wanted her to do.
Enju: "Why do I need to go to school, though? I'm an Initiator! I already have a job! I don't need to know any of this to be able to fight Gastrea, do I?" that was true, to some extent. Yes, she didn't need to go to school and yes, all of the things she would learn there wouldn't benefit them on the battlefield. That most certainly was accurate. The problem was that Rentarō had other plans in store for her as well.
Rentarō: "That's because maybe Gastrea won't be around forever! Maybe they will all be killed at some point and then there won't be any more need for Promoters or for Initiators. What, then, will you be doing to justify your existence to society?" he tried to conjure up the most convincing excuse he could think up to make her stop complaining and focus more on what he had planned her to do. Her retort, though, stunned him:
Enju: "Why does it matter? I'll die before that will happen anyway!" she provided him with a more logical argument than he had expected. In that second, after parsing that piece of information, he froze for a bit and stared at her, straight in the eye, seeing nothing more than pure frankness and calm, despite the dark grim message that that sentence carried.
Rentarō: "…..how…..do you know about that?" he had never expected for her to be so knowledgeable with respect to her own circumstances. He had always thought before that it would be his job to convey such things to her when she would become emotionally ready to accept them.
Enju: "They told us that since we were old enough to speak….that one day we will turn into monsters that will endanger everyone else. That we are humanity's enemy, our bodies hosting, in a dormant state, the main reason why you all hide between the Monoliths! Isn't that why everybody hates us?" he had been wrong apparently, she was way more than informed on the reality of her own situation. The fact that they had been this direct with children, was almost laughably cruel, from his perspective. And to think that she was so calm and collected when talking about her own future death, almost like it was a mundane topic to discuss, was frightening to him.
Rentarō: "I…..yeah. That's true. But, it doesn't necessarily have to be that way! You don't know when that day will come! It could be tomorrow but it could also be thirty years from n-…."
Enju: "They told us that it's very likely for the virus to take over our bodies in the next couple of years! And that we shouldn't expect to live longer than that!" yes, that was awfully tragic. The boy was left speechless at that. He hadn't been informed of the same thing although he wouldn't be surprised if it was true either.
Still, what could he say in response to that? If the girl had no hope for her own future and had also been raised with those preconceived ideas breeding inside of her, what then could he say to throw them out and make her find hope in herself?
Rentarō: "I don't care! Just do it!" he finally gave up seeing how logic just wouldn't make her admit defeat and listen to him. When nothing else works, the only solution to attempt is to force her, anyways.
Enju: "What? I just told you I don't need to learn!" she was surprised by his sudden shift in tone.
Rentarō: "Yes, you do!" he retorted very concisely, with a comical lack of further explanations, something which baffled her.
Enju: "Why?" this continued on for a bit.
Rentarō: "Because I say so!" was all he could come up with.
The girl stood never, never in her life having heard that anti-logic reasoning before. She didn't even feel mad, she just stood there, amazed.
Enju: "I…..don't want to!" seeing how they departed from arguing using valid arguments, everything then devolved into mere noise now. They just talked to each other about how they felt about the situation, dropping any attempt at convincing the other about anything since that was clearly unproductive.
Rentarō: "You don't have to want it. You don't have to like it, either!" he was not gonna budge. If she was going to expect to be treated as a younger sibling, then she also had to behave as one and become obedient to him. That, however, was not going to work out as well as he had hoped it would.
Enju: "I'm not going to do it!" and with that she simply pouted, folded her arms in front of her chest in a defiant manner and simply stood there, adopting a stoic position. The boy frowned at this clear violation of his authority.
Rentarō: "You're going to do what I tell you to! I'm your Promoter!" he started to become angry at her, feeling very dissatisfied with her rebellious act.
Enju: "No!" he lost her obedience. Gaining it back, now, was going to be hard.
He felt a migraine building up inside him. He wanted to yell at her, or maybe even find a better way of making her listen to him. But what could that be?
Educating children usually took one of two approaches: either encouraging obedience from them by rewarding it or discouraging disobedience by punishing it. Both of them were well known to child psychologists and both were considered effective in doing what they were supposed to do, especially when combined.
However, he didn't know her very well, nor did he know what she usually enjoyed doing or receiving as gifts. This meant that rewarding her was not yet possible until he got to know her better. Unless he was going to offer her food as a reward, which was the only thing he reliably knew she wanted, he had no other cards to play.
On the other hand, punishing her would be way easier. Simply making her go to her bed and stay inside her room would probably make her reconsider her actions and decisions.
Rentarō: "But….then again…..she's been locked up in that place all her life. Would grounding her really work if she's already used to being held in one place against her will?" he soon realized that this was also quite unlikely to function. Which left him with no good options now that he thought about it.
What should he do? He didn't know. He just wished he had an easy out. He couldn't argue with her logically since she was right, chances were she was going to die very soon because of the virus infecting her, so forcing her to go through the trouble of learning all the elementary school stuff would be pointless.
But….if she would ever get the chance of acquiring a normal human life at any point then her lack of a formal education would surely destroy her any possible chance of a decent existence. And that was something he didn't want her to go through.
And yet he couldn't force her to listen to him apparently either. Right now, he was lost.
Rentarō: "Whatever. I've got better things to do than bother with you!" seeing how things weren't working out for him, he just abandoned the thought. It wasn't like he was going to win at any point now so he decided to just drop it. "I'm tired! Let's go to your new room so that I can show you where you'll sleep from now on!" exasperated, he tried to convince her of that. He needed to go to bed, feeling very tired already.
The girl didn't fight him this time. She simply nodded her head and allowed herself to be led by him to a new room in that building.
Rentarō guided her to a large chamber, with a huge double bed in the middle of the room. The bed was impressive, larger than anywhere she had ever slept in before.
She stared at it in amazement, almost scared at its size. She had never seen anything like it before.
Enju: "Is that…..?" she didn't even have the words to finish that sentence.
Rentarō: "(sigh) Yes, that's where you'll sleep from now on! And this will be your room!" he hated to exclaim that. To a large extent, that was because this bed that he had offered to her, had used to be his parents' bed. That bed was where they had slept in all those years when he was younger and now, he had to give it to her just because he had nothing else to offer her.
It felt very wrong allowing her to desecrate that space considering how he still didn't get over the death of his parents. Seeing her sleep in their bed felt very wrong to him but he had no other alternative at his disposal now.
Rentarō: "But whatever you do, don't damage it in any way!" that was all he could say to make himself feel at least a bit better about things. Even if he knew she probably wasn't really going to care about his warning, he couldn't help but be frank about it. The then followed with "Also, since this will be your room, feel free to use this space however you like!" he clarified, trying to be as formal as possible with her.
The girl looked around, a bit confused.
Having lived almost the entirety of her life in closed quarters with three other girls was something that she had internalized as the normal way that things go.
To be allowed to have a private space of her own was new and exciting to her.
Enju: "Does this mean that I can eat in here?" she asked a bit optimistically, although the boy shook his head in denial.
Rentarō: "No, we'll only be eating in the kitchen. Last time I tried that in my own room, I got bread crumbs and food stains on my bed. So take it from me when I say that it's best if you don't do that!" that was a nice and lenient way of saying 'no'.
The girl pouted childishly although she didn't complain any further and then proceeded to climb into her bed. She looked around for a set of headphones to put on and see if she could listen to another audio story, although this time she found no such thing.
Enju: "I can't listen to stories either?" she questioned, a bit worried. She had relied on those stories, for some time, to fall asleep while listening to them.
Rentarō: "Stories? What stories? You're nine years old! You still expect to be read bed time stories at your age?" again, he was being awfully cold with her, something which she didn't really enjoy. He wasn't really treating her very nicely, obviously.
The girl let out a sigh, simply accepting the fact that her formal life was gone now and she will be forced to live a different on from that day forward.
As she settled under her bed sheets and tried to make herself as comfortable as possible, the boy began approaching her slowly. He stopped right next to her bed, with a very awkward look on his face, him looking in a blank spot away from her, almost as if he was embarrassed by what he was about to say:
Rentarō: "Look, Enju..." he began, with a bit of unease in his voice. He struggled to find the best words to say to properly convey the message he wanted to transmit, without sounding too cheesy or emotional. "I know that this is going to be difficult for you. I know you probably don't like me and, honestly, I don't like you that much either" he admitted, still a bit skeptical about this idea of his of opening up to her although he tried to maintain his posture and go forward with his more or less improvised speech to her.
Rentarō: "But…..at the very end of the day, like it or not, we're in this thing together! I'm new to this whole Promoter-Initiator thingy and, truthfully, I don't really know how well we'll do in combat" the girl kept on looking at him, not necessarily glaring, nor pouting. She was just quietly listening to him, giving away almost no emotions.
Rentarō: "But I want to be able to do the best I can in protecting humanity! And, to do that, I need your help! I need you to cooperate with me and assist me as much as you can!" he felt a bit weird when confessing such stuff to her, especially since he was at that point in his life where revealing his feelings to other people wasn't really easy.
Rentarō: "I don't know if this will work out. But I believe we should at least give it our all and try to see how good we are at playing along and seeing how far we can manage together! What do you say?" he offered a forced and contorted smile to cheer her up, hoping that that would be a good enough gesture to win her over.
He was mistaken though.
Enju: "Yeah, sure…." was all she responded with. It wasn't a sarcastic remark, or at least it didn't feel like one. However, it didn't feel honest either.
It felt like a very half-assed reply, the type you would say just to get rid of someone who was nagging you with stuff that you didn't really care about. She clearly was tired and wanted to sleep and, given how awkward and annoying his speech was, she didn't get as invested in what he had said. After all, how could you be expected to simply accept all of these life-changing facts by merely hearing a speech? Obviously you couldn't.
The boy, realizing this, sighed and concluded that maybe it wasn't really the right time yet for them to be talking about such things.
He then extended his arm towards the lamp sitting on the night stand next to her bed and grabbed the switch, ready to flip it. He did just that and the light in the room quickly went away, a signal from him to her that it was time to go to sleep.
Enju: "WAIT!" the girl suddenly shouted, with a lot of fear evident from her hurried and panicked tone of voice.
The boy, almost immediately and instinctively, undid his previous action and switched the light back on.
Rentarō: "What?!" he asked, with some annoyance in his voice.
Enju: "Can….you keep the light on, please? I'm…..scared of the dark" she confessed timidly, almost in a begging tone. The past experience she had had almost three years before was still burned into her subconscious and she was still almost traumatically scared of purely dark areas, to the extent where she just couldn't sleep in them.
Rentarō: "(sigh) Yeah, that's fine!" he exclaimed exasperated. He hated the idea of increasing his electricity bill for no apparent reason, especially since it felt ridiculous how his own Initiator would be scared of the dark considering how she was also expected to fight giant monsters along with him.
If she couldn't even sleep in a dark room by herself, what expectations could he have for her on the battlefield?