Chapter 2: Not so bright

A little bit more. A little bit more.

"Ta-chan, wake up"

A frivolous voice of a certain teaser rang together with the opening sound of my room door.

A little bit more. I crawled, snuggled into my warm and cosy blanket. No matter what, I could not get use to the cold air in the early morning.

"If you don't wake up soon, the boss might come here to wake you up with his zanbato,"

A chemical reaction immediately occurred inside me when that teaser whispered into my ear.

I am awake, perfectly awake, and absolutely awake.

"Good morning, Ta chan. And I thought you would never wake up"

In front of me, a Caucasian beauty grinned widely. Her golden hair fluttered as she started to open windows, letting sunlight entered my room.

"As if there would be anyone able to sleep after hearing something like that"

I retorted, shutting my eyes for a moment as they weren't used to bright light.

"But you did, right?"

Without open my eyes, I could tell that the other party was obviously grinning.

"Please, never remind me of that tragedy again"

I begged as frightening shudders ran down my spine, reminding me of that certain incident.

What a pain… why was I assigned to this place?

Hello everyone, Shirogane Takeru is my name. Probably 21 year olds. I'm a lieutenant of the NA Brigade and also a test pilot for the next generation PT. How did it come to this? How did someone who couldn't wake up by himself in the morning able to make my place as a test pilot? It's a story for another day.

"Good morning onee sama"

I couldn't believe that I would live a day, addressing someone in this manner. But sadly, this was undoubtedly the reality. The girl who stood in front of me forced on me to addressing her in this manner.

"Good boy, Ta chan," Patted my head, the older girl cackled.

Jeez, she always treated me like a child, even though I was always the one with higher score in any simulation. Besides, she was only a little bit older than me, in paper. It should be her who address me as onii sama.

Excellen Browning is this teaser's name. In my entire life, I have never seen anyone as playful, frivolous and flirtatious as her. Though, in our unit, her character was extremely welcoming, for a good reason…

"Oh by the way, if you don't hurry up, not only you will face the boss' wraith but also master Rishu's anger"

"Crap, I have totally forgotten about his kenjutsu lesson. Bullet, wake up, you…"

I panicked, looking for the my room mate who also a fellow test pilot and student. Though, I couldn't find his figure anywhere.

"Did you forget that he was sent out last week, escorting Doctor Marion's children?"

"I forgot…"

I sourly admitted. This four men bedroom has been eerily cold and quiet ever since that guy was sent to run Doctor Marion's errand.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Put more energy into it"

A short built old man growled, striking his walking cane at my legs.

"Sir"

I answered, tearfully endured the pain. Look can be deceiving, nobody would believe that the old man who built was so small and weak actually a sword master. Worse, even someone who had military training such as myself hold no candle against him in a CQC.

Currently, I am learning kenjutsu from this sword master. Under his guidance, I have become quite stronger compare to when I first arrived at this Base. Now I think about it, time passed really fast. It's been four months since I was assigned to this base.

"What are you doing, daydreaming like that?"

I saw stars, many stars in fact. The old man hit me on the head with his freaking heavy walking cane. It's hurt like hell.

Shouldn't Bullet be here and suffer this treatment as well like a true friend. If I knew it, I should have volunteered myself for that escorting mission.

"Cleanse your mind of unnecessary thought"

The walking cane struck once again. I saw stars spinning around me once more time. This old man is freaking fast, he kept hitting my head every time I was distracted. Is he master Yoda or something?

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Move quicker, you are too slow"

The Instructor from hell, the boss, my direct superior and the one that I dubbed as 'if he laughed he died man' was screaming at me over the intercom, demanding me to redo the whole training course once again.

"Sir yes sir"

Major Sanger Zonvolt is a large built man of 2 meter tall with well developed muscle. Then, combining with his ashen grey hair and his stoic demeanour, nobody dare to get on the wrong side of Sanger. By the way, I was the only one who crossed his wrong side and still alive to tell the tale.

Among our unit, he was extremely strict, dealing with me as compare to big sis Excellen and Bullet. It was all thanks to Major Kai Kitamura's letter of recommendation.

"Watching him, I wonder which one of us was the Aggressor here."

Did Major Kai intend to kill me, writing something like that? Thanks to that, my first admission test to this team was held with combat round and real weapons instead of the training equipment. I nearly had a heart attack back then when I blasted three drones off in a row instead of gave them a new paintjob like i supposed to

"Why he was so strict when dealing with me?"

I once asked such question, of course when Major Sanger was totally out of earshot and eyeshot.

"Because he loves you more than anyone of us. Can't you see the love in the air?"

Excellen onee sama answered. I couldn't believe that I was stupid enough to ask her that question. Though, that character of her was extremely welcoming in our squad. Major Sanger was too strict that it made everything stressful for me.

Sanger was a man who could not joke while Excellen was a woman who could not act serious for a second. As how this unit was able to function before I transferred here, it was a mystery.

"It means that he has a lot of expectation for you, isn't it?"

Bullet was the only one who gave me a sensible answer.

Yes, I thought so, too. The problem is that Major Sanger's expectation for me was a little bit too muchhhhhhhhhhh. He even designed a special training course for me with Doctor Marion and old man Rishu.

"You have a lot room for improvement. With the right training, you can even be better."

He did say something like that on the first day I arrived this base if I wasn't wrong. And then something 'pearl before swine', I couldn't remember anymore. Before I knew it, I had already become old man Rishu's student.

XXXXXXXXXX

"What do you think you were doing with my PT?"

A woman who reminded me of my mad scientist sensei was scowling at me. On her hands was a tablet, showing status of my PT.

"I have no excuse Madam"

Other than this answer, anything else would have raised my death flag. I have lost count of how many times she struck me with the edge of her tablet when I tried to explain or come up with some excuse.

"Could you not treat this PT like some piece of cheap toy? The thruster and the balance module were totally fried. And you only improve your time by 4 seconds? Are you a retard?"

"I have no excuse Madam"

Like an auto answer machine, I replied. While I really wanted to retort to this woman regarding how crazy her demand was, I swallowed my anger and parroted the one and single answer that prevent her from killing my head off with her tablet.

This female scientist is a mech developer and the lead developer of our ATX project. For some reason, she never satisfied with any of my performance so far.

If I acted accordingly her order and demand…

"Are you a retard? How could you treat this PT this roughly like some piece of cheap toy?"

If I was to refrain myself, thinking of my PT's wellbeing…

"Are you a retard? What's your given objective? What kind of test pilot you are if you could not even use your PT to its best potential"

I have totally no fucking idea what did she want from me. By the way, if it was the later case, for every question came out of her mouth, Doctor Marion would allow me to become one with the universe through the aide of her tablet. Therefore, I preferred to destroy her PT, pushing it beyond its limit than protecting its well being.

In our unit, Major Sanger was the only one who was spared from such tirade of her after the simulation. It was probably because he was so perfect with his control that Doctor Marion has nothing to complain or perhaps even this female mad scientist didn't have the nerve to cross the Major's bad side.

Even so, I was always received the harshest tirade from her every time without fail. It made me wondered if I was an enemy of her ancestor or something similar.

At this rate, a TV show "Everybody hates Takeru" might be aired on some random channel.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"There is going to be another transfer to our unit tomorrow."

Major Sanger informed the shocking news.

"Ohhhhh"

Clapping her hand excitedly, Excellen onee sama cooed.

On the other hand, I didn't know how to react to this shocking news. Physical tortures from 5 am to 2pm and then mental torture from 2.30pm to 3.00pm, somehow I was able to survive these perpetuance torturing days.

Please someone, anyone. Save me from this torturing life.