Chapter 2: Into the testing grounds

A few minutes later, Rollo looks out of the train's window. They're moving into the outskirts of City Rho. The forest around them has these extremely tall and weird trees leaves like stained glass. The leaves of them dye this place in the current season's colors when the sunlight hits them. Misao turns to him and finally speaks up.

"Veit... that man, you feel the endless bloodlust from him, right?" She has a face of worry saying this to Rollo. She just stone cold in the chill that was felt from that person, It was almost directed at her by that man. "We should be careful around him..."

"Damnit, I bet he's one of those killers who wants a code, we should watch our backs..." Rollo looks at Misao playing with her sleeve. He chooses to ignore it for now but if that bastard tries anything on them... "If he tries anything, I won't make it easy for him."

"Codes... Those are the supernatural powers that keepers get, right? I don't know how to feel about him getting one..." Misao gulps, a power like that in the hands of a guy like that is pretty worrying but a gloved hand is placed on her shoulder. "Rollo?"

"Hey, weirdos who don't control their bloodlust don't get far in the keepers, don't worry, we're gonna be fine." Rollo gives Misao this confident grin. A brave face after learning someone just gave them murder vibes. "Anyway, look at the trees outside, It's a pretty pleasant shade of green this spring."

Misao looks out of the train window and nods. A faint smile forms on her face as she tries to ignore that feeling of bloodlust from that man but one thought haunts her. As a keeper, you must take on a Code. It's strange to think about taking something so life changing as one of them. It blurs your humanity with the absurdity of this world...

After a bit, they finally arrive at the east office. It stands as a major landmark by Rho city and It's more of a futuristic fortress built for large scale battles. Rollo and Misao didn't have time to take in this impressive building appearance. They need to rush in since they're going to be late, they're pushing the time limit at this point.

There's at least over a hundred people standing in this room alone. It's a huge orientation room but seems weirdly dark. Their papers were pretty quickly taken by people wearing blank masks and fancy suits before being let inside. Misao looks around nervous in case Veit appears again.

Veit stares at Rollo and Misao from between the crowd. He steps forward to walk up but a much taller man cuts him off. He looms over the corpse-like man with a ticked off face and his fox ears flick in place? He places two hands into his leather jacket pockets.

"You're the bastard who's leaking all that bloodlust?" This fox man angrily asks Veit who's nearly a foot shorter than him. He pops his neck and fists like he's about to start a fight but pauses. He looks towards the stage before huffs in annoyance. "I'm watching you, if you keep targeting those two, I will smear you across the testing grounds."

"I look forward to it, Fox~" Veit has a wicked grin, he's inviting this person to attack him but knows this fox man can't do much to him. He walks away with his fun set-up for next time. "I barely noticed you watching me on that train, stick with those two and we may have a chance to play."

"Tsk, It's not Fox, you asshole..." He mutters as Veit steps away and turns to the stage. He rolls his shoulders thinking about that freak being here. 'I can't believe he's allowed here and smells like rotting skin.... My name is Jochen, not Fox' He's waiting for the orientation to finally start.

It lights up with a flash as a short girl walks out on stage. She wears a suit mixed with a dress and puts her fists on her hips. It's weird to see pink hair with actual patchwork in it? A taller gentleman wearing a more usual Keeper uniform, a technologically enhanced suit, it's pretty fancy looking too. The shorter keeper pulls a microphone from a patch.

"Welcome to the Keeper test! I'm Ling Yu, a keeper from the first department!" Ling shouts into her mic, the speakers are doing justice to her volume. She clears her throat and holds it towards her fellow keeper. "This is my fellow Keeper in that department, Evan!"

"Hello, I'm Evangelos Samaras, just use Evan." Evan speaks gently and quietly. He waves to the crowd in front of the stage. He's speaking much softer in tone than Ling. "I will be one of the test managers along with Ling."

"Alright, the keeper test has three phases, the first one will be a test on malleability." Ling says pulling the mic from even. Those same masked figures that checked everyone appeared in groups to hand out small tubes with blank labels at a snap of her fingers. A few offer cotton swabs. "It's the quickest phase, all we need is a sample of your body or DNA!"

"You can just give some hair for this, Misao." Rollo whispers to her while putting some of his orange hair into the tube. It's a fairly simple process to check which shows a pretty interesting biological factor. 'Keepers have the only machines to figure this out, I need to know mine before getting a code.'

"Make sure you put your full name and hand them over to the worker dolls." Ling states with a grin. Something is weird about them. Rollo notices there are stitches on their wrists where gloves should end. "After all these samples are gathered, we will do physicals in groups of twenty-fives!"

"Oh uh, you will get the test results for the first phase after the second one." Evan leans down to speak into Ling's mic. His eyes move to someone in the crowd and clear his throat to speak more sternly. "I also recommend keeping your bloodlust to a minimum during these tests."

Veit smiles at Even's little warning with the two eyeing each other. That wick grin speaks loud and clear of this being fun to him. He chuckles to himself as that little callout fades against the next series of announcements. 'Oh this will be so much fun.'

"Ahem, that concludes the test orientation and the first phase! Everyone please wait here for your turn." Ling walks off with Even following suit. It's clear those masked dolls aren't moving and working in place of guards. The room lights up more to reveal the sides had snacks...

Veit slowly disappears into the group around him but eyes peer towards Rollo and Misao. He's glad to know of such interesting people who catch his eye so much. He passes a red haired boy whose been non-stop glaring at the group. A single phrase was spoken to him. "Steal my prey, I will cut you to bits."

The boy's head turns with a slight pop towards Veit as he walks away. An awful grin forms in his face, two bloodthirsty beings just crossed paths and everyone felt some chill? Snacks are an easy distraction from whatever event that was.