#2 Underground complex

When I finally returned home and it was already pretty late.

"I am home..." I muttered, however, my mother still heard me unlocking the door so she came to welcome me.

"Welcome home honey, where were you? I thought your school was supposed to end much earlier today." My mother asked me with a suspicious look but she still had a loving smile on her face.

I wonder how is that possible.

"Ah, mom...regarding the school...I will be quitting by the end of this semester" I said with a poker face.

"What?!!" She shrieked out in surprised but I guess the surprise wasn't really a good one for her.

"Why? Don't tell me that someone is bullying you! You have to tell me in case someone tries to do something to you!" She calmed down a bit and asked for a reason but didn't even let me explain before drawing conclusions.

"*sigh* No...I will tell you before quitting so you can rest easy for now. There will be someone who will also contact you in a few weeks. Just please don't worry...No one is bullying your son and no one would even dare to do so." I said with confidence so she would ease up a bit.

Should I tell her about today's accident?

...Definitely no, there is no benefit in doing so and she would only worry about me more and draw even more conclusions since I just told her that I want to quit the University and if she knew what had happened to me today...she would think that I got trauma and she would immediately insist on moving out of this city...

Still...I kinda exploded back there. *sigh* I just wanted to sleep for today so I guess it's inevitable that I lost my cool for being forced to spend my entire day at the police station.

My mom kept on observing me with a suspicious look.

"*sigh* Alright, it's your decision and your life, I can't direct your life but promise me not to do anything stupid. I don't want to lose you like your father." She said with a worried expression while begging me.

"Don't worry mom..." I said with a light smile.

...*sigh* My mother...she has always been supporting me even though I don't have the best grades at school. As long as I didn't do anything bad, she always let me did whatever I wanted while having my back.

She is probably the only person that's still keeping me tied to this world...Not like I have any suicidal thoughts but I won't lie that sometimes I dreamed about falling asleep and never again wake up. Eternal sleep...that's my goal but since my mother is still here, I won't pursue it, heh.

"Alright, were you able to make some friends at school? What about girls?" She once again started to bombard me with the same questions as always.

"Mom...I have some friends but I don't really talk to girls since we have very little in common. They usually talk about going to parties and getting drunk and then going to the toilet to-" I was explaining with a helpless expression.

"Alright, alright! That's enough! You don't need to go to the details...What about Eve? You were getting along when she visited us the last time. She isn't like those girls you have described and you are also the man who would be serious about the relationship." She quickly stopped me from saying anything more and suggested with a warm smile.

Eve...She is the daughter of my mom's friend and she is a bit similar to me but we differ in aspect that she is trying her best to communicate with others while I don't give a shit. Plus we weren't getting along it's you who was pushing us together. I get that you want to see grandchildren and I wouldn't mind fulfill your dream but I don't want to impregnate a woman I don't even like. It would be unfair for both of us.

"*yawn* Let's talk about that later, alright? I am pretty hungry since the last meal I had was during the lunch break." I said while yawning and stretching my arms to the back.

"Do you want me to make you dinner?" She said with a smile that practically said: "please say yes".

"Please do" I gratefully nodded at her with a smile.

...

After a fulfilling dinner, I went to take a shower and then lie down on my bed since it was pretty late already.

Should I really accept it? It could be a scam and they could try to do something to me...for example experiments. My mother is the only thing that's keeping me from accepting it right away. In case they truly just want to do something to me, at worst I can simply bite my tongue off and kill myself but I don't want to make my mother sad.

But if I will truly continue my life this way, without doing anything, I will sooner or later really get suicidal thoughts. The adrenaline sports are pretty fulfilling but sports themselves already stopped being interesting to me. Maybe this Assassin training might become something fulfilling in my life.

"Arno" already said that he wouldn't tell anything to my mother and neither can I, which is the best for me. Well, he said that I can go there to try it out for a week and still return, however, once I will truly JOIN them, there is no way back.

I guess he emphasized the "join" word for a reason. There must be some special exam and once I will take it, I won't be able to leave them.

...Most likely killing someone, that's the most plausible condition of the exam.

Can I really kill someone? I thought while putting my arm in front of me, looking at my palm.

I am just 19 years old student yet when I speak about killing someone there is not really any disgust or something negative in my mind.

I closed my eyes to collect my thoughts and after a few minutes of thinking, I finally opened my eyes with a new resolve in them.

As long as they are endangering the life of my mother...I can kill anyone!

I violently clenched my hand to make a fist.

...

The next day

"Where are we going?" I asked "Arno" when we arrived at the same police station.

"I am going to lead you to where you can train with others but you will have to take this..." He said and handed me piece of cloth.

"Blindfold?" I muttered.

"Sorry about that kiddo but you aren't one of us yet so you have to wear it" He said with a forced smile.

"It's ok, I understand..." I put on the blindfold and let him lead me to the place he wanted to show me.

I was ready to bite my tongue off in any second if he tried to do something to me. I already came here resolved for such an end, I also left the letter in my room but of course, I hid it pretty well just in case this wasn't a scam. I will have time to retrieve it before my mother will find it.

We were suddenly moving down, most likely by the elevator.

I didn't know that there is something under this police station...Jails shouldn't be here...they have only a few cells here for very problematic individuals until they fill the forms for them.

I grew even more vigilant and made sure that I would be able to bite my tongue in time.

"Jeez, calm down we are not going to do something to you..." Arno said.

"What do you mean?" I feigned ignorance.

"I am working in a field where people die every day. Do you think that I wouldn't notice what you are trying to do but I must commend you for your resolve...unfortunately your resolve to die is leaking out of you so I was able to notice it just be standing near you. I didn't even need to observe you." He explained with a patient voice and I can swear that he was happily smiling.

I guess he doesn't want to do anything bad to me...and even if he wanted to, he could have already done something since he knew what I was trying to do.

After a 5 more minutes of walking, we finally stopped. Yes...5 minutes of walking in the underground.

"You can take that shit off now" He said and I took off the blindfold, revealing a big underground complex in front of my eyes.

A lot of people were walking back and forth in particular black clothes that looked more like clothes for ninjas but judging for their appearance, these clothes were much heavier than normal ninja's clothes. These people also had an emblem in shape of a lion with a fully opened mouth as if he was roaring. Not everyone had the same emblem, some people had a white lion, some of them had a green one and many other colors.

"Surprised?" Arno asked me with a big proud smile.

"...Yeah, however, I hope you will also lead me out when we are done here." I said and indirectly told him that I don't remember the way back which should be the truth...

Around 20 steps from the elevator then to the right, around 1 minute of walking and then once again to the right.....

I started to recall everything.

"As I said before, don't worry kiddo. Now that we are here...do you want to try a little sparring?" He asked me with an excited smile.

"Huh? Against who? I must inform you that I have never practiced any martial arts..." I said with a calm expression.

"I know about that, I will be honest with you and tell you that I have sent someone to investigate you. I must say that you are really interesting...much more than I thought yesterday. You have pretty average grades in your school yet you are so intelligent. I guess you just don't have the knowledge, however, when you have the knowledge you know how precisely use it. That's why I also want to try out your strength even though you say that you have never practiced anything." He explained as we were walking through the enormous underground complex.

There are even shops...I guess most of them are living here underground...As for the staff selling the things here...It's probably for rookies like me if I decided to join to earn some money. As for where those things come from...if the government is aware of this organization then it must be funded by them and if they aren't aware of it then it must be some branch of this organization.

...

"Here we are, sparring rings, but don't worry about those weapons, you won't be using them plus they are all dull." He said when he saw me looking at the racks filled with weapons of all kinds.

There must be more than 10 types of daggers which I can understand why but...Why swords too? Chains with the blade at the end...

"Don't let your thoughts get muddled with all those types of weapons... They are here because everyone prefers something different and we don't want to get someone at a disadvantage just because he doesn't have his favorite weapon. If you are also wondering why there are no guns here then it's because this is the area for training in melee fights." He said with a forced smile, he must have thought that I am pretty confused after seeing so many different weapons.

Well, it's pretty evident that this is the area only for melee fights...

I thought and looked around to see many people sparring with different weapons.

One-handed saber, short spear, katana, already mentioned chains, and even those chains had a lot of variants.

If I would say that I am not overwhelmed then I would be lying...

"Take these." He said and handed me gloves.

...I have seen similar gloves in MMA fights.

I took them on and tried to clench my hands a few times to get used to them.

The fingers are free, however, the knuckles are covered not to make too damage for both sides.

"Arno! Is this the newbie you told me about?" The guy around my age approached us with a friendly smile.

"Yep, Silver, that's right, however, he has yet to join us. But be careful who you are calling newbie, you are a greenhorn yourself." Arno answered to the guy named Silver, most likely another code name.

I guess Arno called this guy for the sparring.