Escaping One Cage To Enter Another

Martha, Mark and Nora all unlocked their eyes as wide as humanly possible after hearing Kim's shocking words. 

They thought they might have heard something wrong but deep down they all knew they didn't. 

Eventually, Mark couldn't take it anymore as he slammed the table with his full force like it was his moral enemy or something. 

*crack

Kim's eyes narrowed down to small notches as he glanced at that crack on the table with a bit of pain in his eye, only he knew how expensive that table was, even for someone like him, after all, its quality was already demonstrated after it took the full force of a superhuman like Mark with only a small simple crack. 

"What's the meaning of this, Father!!? Isn't joining the SHSF supposed to be the end goal, the reward for all we've gone through!?? I get that you love Kai and prefer him over the rest of us but this is just unfair! You can't just give it to him like that while we have to spend years of our lives in the Academy…" 

Unable to accept his father's decision and the unjust treatment caused by his favoritism, Mark stood up for himself despite his fear and the dread he felt facing his father. 

His furious outburst was punctuated with small spurts of saliva which got sprayed everywhere making both Nora and her mother stare at Mark with a disgusted, annoyed look on their face. 

But Mark was not finished with his outburst and as he was about to continue, Kim finally raised his hand, indicating him to stop talking… Which he did because this was where all his fake courage could go. 

"I never said Kai will join The SHSF, what I said was he will join the military…" 

Mark's eyes unfurled in disbelief as he questioned stuttering… 

"Y… You mean…" 

"Kai will be joining the army as a normal human and won't tell a single person that he is not, I will send someone to make sure of that and keep an eye on him, his objective of going there is to prove us wrong and show us how useful his ability is by becoming a leading commander of an SHSF troop as a normal human… Again, he isn't allowed to tell a soul that he is a superhuman…" 

"Kai will have to climb all those ranks from the very bottom of the army, he won't have any of his prerogatives as a Kobalt and will go under the name of Kai Griffin…"

"Are there any objections or questions…?" 

Kim's eyes swept over his three kids alongside their mother waiting to see their responses to his decision, but they all remained quiet even Mark himself who was just barking in anger like a dog didn't have a single word to say because he knew the difficulty of what was just put on Kai's back… 

And of course, this made him happy, he was finally gonna see him suffer as he should, or so his thoughts were…

"If I may ask… Who's going to be keeping their eyes on me? After all, I'm a shy boy hmhm…" 

Everyone on the table turned their heads towards Kai with strange looks on their faces as they all thought of the exact same thing… 

'Did he just try to make a joke…? '

Though it was the worst joke any of them has probably ever heard, especially with that weird laugh -if it can even be called a laugh- Kai made at the end, it was something unusual that made them all look at him strangely. 

Kai's pathetic attempt at making a joke Somehow made both Nora and Martha leave a small giggle while Martha raised a question to her son… 

"What's with the sudden change of personality honey… ?" 

Kai looked at his mom confused before giving an honest answer… 

"I read a book that said the best, fastest way to a person's heart is through making them laugh… And their stomach is another way of course… " 

"I still haven't decided who'll be escorting you, but it'll probably be someone you can feel safe with…" 

Kim truthfully replied to his son's question before going back to his meal just like the rest of his family did as they finished their dinner in quietness after that. 

….

Driving on the highway at an insane speed was some type of military vehicle that held about 50 men and women inside of it all of which looked very young and youthful with some of them still having their pure, innocent eyes that are yet to have seen the true colors of this world. 

Though these naive, pure kids were more numbered, there were still some others that had their serious mature faces and looked much older than they actually are. 

Except for one, of course… One of the youngsters with a serious look on his face looked younger than he truly was. 

"Ahh… It has been so long since I last saw the outside world, I almost forgot what it was like… I'm so excited to see the progress the world has made in the past 8 years…." 

"Hey, Kai! Aren't you excited to be finally free as well?!!"

Exhaling the fresh air coming from the lone window in the truck they were in, Ellen enthusiastically turned over to Kai's side asking him about his feelings. 

"What is there to be excited about?!? All we did was jump from one cage to another… We are yet to be free… No, we'll never be free until we're stronger than that old man… In every possible way…"

With a final glance at the blurry road, Kai took a deep breath before letting out a long sigh as he mumbled… 

"We have to be stronger in every imaginable way…"