Hearts Disguised
Chapter 18
A Day of Training
Agreeing to Cinder's request left a bad taste in her mouth as that night was a sleepless one. It wasn't like she didn't want to do it; it was just that the way Cinder described it kind of made it seem worse than it actually was. However, she couldn't let that affect her. She did her best to forget about all of that stuff and eventually managed to fall asleep.
When the next day came around, everyone in the house had an early start. They all got ready and quickly got into limo for another drive to Cinder's workplace. They did the same routine as before, except this time, they went Floor 15. When the door slid open, the scenery was already different from the previous one. The entire floor was an open-floor plan. They were large mats everywhere with people all over the place in workout clothes. At this point, Yang was so confused that she couldn't find the words for the situation.
Cinder stepped out of the elevator and walked towards the main meeting area of the floor. The people were standing around chatting noticed Cinder and immediately stood at attention.
"Attention! President on-duty." Cinder smiled and waved her hand. That's when they relaxed.
"Hello everyone, today you will be joined by someone very special. I picked her up from an awful orphanage and now she's moving forward in her career to save this world." At that moment, everyone started to give her a round of applause. "Alright, thank you. Now, I want you guys take things a little slow for her since this floor is a lot different from the other ones. Am I understood?"
"Aye!"
"Good. Neo, can you come here?" Yang turned her head and saw a girl with pink and dark brown hair.
"Yes mistress?"
"This is Yang. I'm putting her under your direction. Teach her well, teach her quickly."
"Of course." She bowed to Cinder and Cinder walked off back to the elevator. "Hello, Yang. You ready to do some training?"
"Training? What exactly does that entitle?"
"We train extensively so that we're well prepared to rid the world of the scum that poison the world we live in."
"But you're like eight. How am I supposed to learn anything from you?" The girl smiled and suddenly jumped at Yang's neck. She wrapped her legs around her and spun her body around until Yang had no control of her body. The girl then leaned backwards which forced Yang's body to fall in that direction. The weight of the girl's body threw Yang on the ground while she managed to return to my feet.
"The name's Neo and I'll be your instructor. I'd advise you not talking down to me like that since I'm the strongest person here. Now, get changed and meet me back here in 2 minutes." The girl walked off in silence as some of the other people gave her high-fives and fist bumps. Yang slowly got back on her feet and grabbed her shoulder.
"Jesus. What the hell is wrong with that girl?" Yang looked around eventually found where she needed to go. She went to the locker room and got changed.
When she returned, Neo was waiting for her with a mean look on her face. The two of them said nothing to each other as the training immediately got started. Unlike Floor 10, Yang had a really hard time with all this type of training. Fighting and combat were cool, but that wasn't really her thing. She never had a reason to be violent and now, she was pretty much being forced to be violent.
Neo was relentless with Yang. She barely gave her anytime to breathe as Neo's method of teaching was learning on-the-go. She taught her all sorts of attacks, defenses, and maneuvers without thinking about well Yang can process that information. Since she moved so fast, it left Yang open to a lot of beat downs. They weren't even easy. Neo treated her as if she was an actual threat that needed to be eliminated. The whole time that was going on, a lot of other people were watching and couldn't help laugh at Yang's progress. She was awful compared to them, and yet, she wanted to continue.
While beating her to death, Neo drilled another thing into her mind. She kept on telling her that if she wasn't strong enough, she would never be strong enough to do anything. Whenever she was knocked to the ground or screamed out in pain, those words would be whispered into her ear. As bad as it sounded, Yang took it seriously because it was true. The reason her parents died was because she wasn't strong enough to save them. The reason Ruby wasn't with her was because she wasn't strong enough to defend her. All of the precious things in her life were gone because she was weak. This is what fueled her to keep fighting through the pain and failure of training.
When the day grew late, Cinder made her way back down to pick up Yang, but things were looking interesting. Yang was still training with Neo without showing any signs of giving up. Without even asking Yang if she wanted to come home, she turned around and headed back to the elevator. Before she entered the elevator, one of her employees came up to her and asked to speak in private.
"What is it now?"
"The rogue agent you asked us to capture is still on the run."
"What do you mean 'on the run?' I thought I made it clear that I wanted that rogue agent back in our hands now."
"We're incredible sorry Ms. Fall, but none of our trainees are shaping up good enough for the job."
"Hm." Cinder put her fingers on her chin and started to think to herself. It took a few seconds for her to realize that there was still a chance. She grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him to face Yang. "Do you see that?"
"I'm not quite sure what I should be seeing Ms. Fall?"
"That girl. She will shape up to be the best we've ever had. Maybe even better than Neo. Until that time, I want you to slow the runaway as much as you can. I got afford someone like that to escape from this company."
"I understand. We'll get right on it." At that moment, he bowed and disappeared from sight. Meanwhile, Cinder arched her back and sighed.
"What are these people even doing down here?" She looked back at Yang with determination. "Yang, I'm counting on you. We need you."
…
It was the middle of the night and Neo was still working Yang like a pig. Yang was still holding strong; at least, strong enough to stand up and push through. Neo didn't mind this at all since most of the people she trained could barely deal with the first few minutes of her training procedure. The longer it went on, the more Yang was able to endure the pain. Unfortunately, this only made Neo step up her training game.
Time was no longer an object even though it felt like it went on forever. It wasn't until Yang finally lost the will to return to her feet when Neo called it a day. She picked Yang up off the ground and carried her to the floor infirmary. There was nothing serious, but all those bruises she acquired were incredibly sensitive so Neo removed Yang's clothes and threw her in an ice bath. Thankfully, Yang was in too much pain to feel the intense cold of that bath. She laid there in silence as Neo organized everything that she used.
"Just stay in there for a few hours and you'll feel better. We'll pick things back up when you're recovered." Neo turned off the lights and left the room.
Being alone let Yang think to herself in peace. However, the only thing that she was thinking about were the words that came out of Neo's mouth. The words "strong" and "weak" echoed throughout her brain. Even just thinking about those words made her feel bad. It was true. She was weak and she needed to get strong. That was the reason why she agreed to do this. She wanted to make this world a better place as well as be a person that other people can depend on. The person she was right now was someone who would easily be brushed to the side and forgotten about. She sighed and closed her eyes.
Ring ring. She suddenly opened her eyes and turned her head to see her phone ringing. She brought her arm out of the water, but that was as far as she could go. The pain was just too much for her to extend it out anymore. She wanted to answer it. She wanted to know who it was, but it was just impossible. She just watched it ring until it finally silenced.
Who was that?
…
"Yang, where are you? I want to talk to you."
End of Chapter 18