Authors Note: I forgot to mention it before, but the first three chapters were written prior to my publishing this. Just a heads up!


Promotion

"Yo, Nico! Nice fucking work yesterday, we saw that shit on the surveillance tape from the satellites."

Staggering into the office with a half-eaten sandwich in hand and a tired and irritated expression was Nico Emery. Just 19 years old, a year into becoming a Civil Security Officer-in-training, Nico had single-handedly amassed 101 confirmed Gastrea kills. Such a feat was unheard of for an Officer-in-training, it was practically suicide to chase something like that without being a Promoter. Coincidentally, what it took to become a Promoter, at least according to what was left of the National Defense Administration, was either the feat of 100 confirmed Gastrea kills or wallowing around in the business until they thought you were ready. Nico decided on the latter.

"Thanks, Doug… But why do I have to come in so damn early?" Nico asked before he crashed onto the couch. "Especially after last night, and no one else is even in right now!" His words were barely comprehensible because of the half-finished sandwich in his mouth.

Doug, the man who greeted Nico as he walked in, was his supervisor, his boss. A retired promoter, Doug lost his left arm in a fight against a level four Gastrea. Now he simply did paperwork and instructed and advised Nico and other future promoters of the company. Whenever the new year's rookies got to meet him, most were intimidated just from laying eyes on him. At 6'5, with rugged facial hair and bulging muscles, he was naturally an imposing figure. Despite appearances, Doug was considerably lax and casual with his subordinates. After all, he had been in their positions before. More than anything, this job was taxing both physically and emotionally, and most of these trainees were kids straight out of high school, they needed guidance too, not just authority. He understood that better than anyone.

"Because of this." Doug tossed a small envelope over to Nico, "Don't tell me you forgot already?" He grinned and looked at Nico proudly, "Congratulations, rookie. Or should I say Promoter?"

"Damn, I forgot about this after that mess last night," Nico replied. With a sudden burst of energy, he sprung up from the couch and tore open the envelope, "This means better pay and benefits right?" Quickly scanning over the folded paper, Nico was left with a look of curiosity and confusion on his face. "What's this stuff about Initiators and IP rankings?"

"I'm surprised you don't know, it's like you don't care about anything aside from killing Gastrea…" Doug scratched at his head, "Then again, that's not such a bad thing. Anyways, you'll find out eventually about IP rankings, as of right now, they aren't that important, nor are they too reliable. But, an Initiator is going to be your partner. I know you have a preference for working solo, but frankly, you have no say in the matter. You know about the Cursed Children, right?" Doug's voice turned a serious tone.

"You know all I care about is getting my pay," Nico ignored the comment about his loner tendencies, "and you mean the little girls with superpowers? What about… wait, those are the Initiators?"

"Yeah, we managed to pull some strings cause of your prowess in the field, so you get to pick your own instead of having the IISO assign you one like how it's typically done. This is gonna be an incredibly important decision, I absolutely cannot stress this enough, whatever Initiator you choose can determine whether or not you live or die in certain situations. But, don't worry, I wouldn't have let you pick if I thought you were gonna fuck up. Betting on you always makes me a ton of cash anyways." Doug pulled out a large wad of cash from one of the office drawers and winked at Nico. "Anyways, just head over to the outer district whenever you're ready, directions are on the papers. They keep the kids over there."

The irritation that was on Nico's face earlier was back, but this time not from exhaustion. He was unhappy about the idea of having to partner up with an Initiator, with anyone even, and of having to take care of a little kid. Taking care of kids was a pain in the ass to Nico, but frankly anything aside from that required effort, aside from his job, was a pain. "Can't I just leave the kid over there and pick them up whenever I get another job?"

Doug sighed and furrowed his brows. "No. It's imperative that your Initiator is with you or nearby at all times, incase of emergencies there's no time for you to waste to go get them."

Nico wasn't about to give up quietly, he was going to fight this no matter what. "Well, I can just find a foster home or some place to dump 'em nearby right?"

A deep frown came over his supervisor's face, "That idea is so fucking stupid, I can't even disagree with it."

"What do you me-"

"Well, you'll find out eventually. Anyways, if you don't have an Initiator by Thursday morning, I'm firing you. Bring her with you to the office or else I won't believe you." He was glaring at Nico now.

The soon-to-be Promoter twitched. "You won't really fire me, right? You're just messing aroun-" Nico gulped. Doug's cold stare was enough to strike terror into a lion, humans like Nico were no exception. Sighing, he took in a big breath. "Fine, I'll do it."

When Nico got up to leave, Doug gave him a wide smile full of malice. On his desk, he was squeezing his stress toy, and the fluff inside began to ooze out the tears along its seams.

On the way out of the office building Nico started to read over the letter again. "Blah, blah… Due to your accomplishments so far, your IP rank will begin at five thousand and si- Oh!"

With all his attention focused on the letter Nico managed to bump into someone, but before he could say sorry, the person, whoever it was, was already halfway into the building. From the poor lighting and distance, he couldn't make out much about their appearance, so he ignored it and went back to the letter.

Nico headed back to his apartment first, apparently they sent some paperwork to his address that he'd have to get ready before anything else. As it turned out, receiving an Initiator, or choosing one in his case, was a very tedious process. And Nico knew if he didn't get them done right away, he probably wouldn't touch them for at least a week, and then Doug would have his head.

It was a decent and relatively cheap place located on the floor above a local bakery. Nico was a part time worker there when he wasn't hunting Gastrea, and his pay typically went towards his rent. Technically there were only two rooms, the bathroom and the rest of the floor. The kitchen and the living room, where he also slept, were only separated by a waist-high wall and a fence gate. The kitchen was bare aside from a few nonperishable, Nico usually didn't do his grocery shopping in bulk because he was never certain when he'd finish his missions. The living room was similar to the kitchen. Against the wall farthest from the kitchen was Nico's bed, which looked like some beat up mattress anyone could've found at the dump. In the middle of the living room was a large wooden table, upon which were his laptop, books, and various objects. To the right of the room was his closet and outside it two laundry baskets. To the left were a set of large paneled windows, which allowed Nico a decent view of the street below.

In the middle of signing and filling out forms, his cell began to ring. Glad to have something break the monotony, Nico earnestly answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Yo, Nico! Or should I say Mr. Promoter?"

"You start calling me that and I'll rearrange your jawline." There wasn't a hint of playfulness in Nico's voice. "What do you want, Dimitri? You wouldn't call me just to say dumb shit like that."

A chuckle came from across the line. "Oh, why wouldn't I? In fact, I just wanted to congratulate you! I mean it's pretty crazy, you're already a promoter and you've only been a trainee for not even a year! But you know what's even crazier?" He teased out the last sentence, clearly inviting Nico to ask.

"What?" Nico replied in an irritated tone.

"A level five Gastrea appeared in Japan's Tokyo Area the other day." Nico's jaw practically dropped to the floor when he heard Dimitri. "From the silence, I can assume I have your attention right? Anyways, nothing to worry about, they took it out with some railgun or something crazy like that. Although I gotta say, they were lucky to even have something like that on hand. Hmm? Still shocked? Cat got your tongue? Well I guess there's no point in talking to you now if you don't say anything… Bye, bye Nico!"

Nico was frozen still for at least a minute. It was a sudden load of information to take in, and he wasn't sure what to make of it. But he knew very well that just then, even if it had been for merely a second, he had never felt so much fear in his life before. Finally putting down the receiver, Nico sighed. "A level fucking five? Jesus Christ…The stress from just hearing that is gonna give me some damn white hairs."