The Best of Friends

Earth, October 23, 2020

Today is my first day since joining the ISP. I barely woke up right after Katsumi threw me off my bed. It's currently 4:30 am and I'm still out of it.

I was put in a room with Katsumi, Takeo, Lloyd, and Bane. I guess they put us together as we're the only kids under the organization. I guess that goes to show how talented the four of them are to be scouted at such a young age.

The room is pretty fancy and has double bunk beds. Yes, double bunk beds for 5 people. Due to my unexpected recruitment they didn't have a bed for me. Thankfully, Takeo let me stay on his bed while he slept on the floor as a way to thank me for yesterday. Honestly, he's such a good guy.

Anyways, Katsumi woke me up early so we can get breakfast and then head out to the training facility to start figuring out how I'm going to be trained. The whole thing has me pumped up. I'm just so excited, like what if I become some sort of badass like the protagonists in the anime I watched.

Right now everyone in the facility is awake except for a select few like Bane. Thinking about it, Bane hasn't really bothered to interact with any of us yet. Lloyd hasn't either. If we're going to be roommates, we might as well get along.

I decided to go talk with Lloyd who is currently unpacking his things. Right as I was about to go talk to him, he turned towards me with a scary glare in his eyes.

"What the hell do you want?"

"Huh?"

"If you have nothing to say then don't bother me."

Lloyd just goes back to unpacking after causing his little show that seems to have woken up Bane who is grinning like a madman.

"What an arrogant bastard, guess someone needs to put you in your place."

"What the fuck did you say to me?"

"You heard me, or are you fucking deaf?"

"I'll show you!"

Bane just woke up, but instantly got into a fight with Lloyd. Lloyd pulls out a practice sabre and lunges at Bane who easily evades the attack despite the fact he just woke up. He then grabs Lloyd from the back of his shirt and punches him in the stomach continuously.

Lloyd eventually falls to the ground and Bane now decides to start punching him in his face.

"Not so tough now are we? I thought you said you were going to show me, guess you were all talk–"

Katsumi intervenes and launches a kick aimed towards Bane's face. Bane stops punching Lloyd and guards against Katsumi's kick.

"Why are you getting in my way, or do you want me to fight you too? I don't mind, in fact, I would be glad to see if you're actually as strong as you appear."

"Don't fool yourself, I just need you to stop messing around. I don't have time to be stuck cleaning the mess you are making in our room."

"Tsk, how boring, but fine."

Bane gets off of Lloyd while just shrugging his shoulders. On the other hand, Lloyd is coughing up blood all beat up on the floor. I go to help him get up, but he just slaps my hand away.

"I'm fine, I don't need your help. I'm perfectly capable of getting up on my own, and definitely don't need your false sympathy."

Despite his rude behavior, I still wanted to help him out. Yeah, he might've been rude, but I really didn't have any grudge with the guy.

Lloyd managed to get up and took a look at Bane who was still grinning. Lloyd just looked away and went back to doing his own thing. Bane was about to say something until Takeo who has been quiet the whole time glares at him.

With that matter being settled, everyone just goes back to doing their own things. For me, that means going with Takeo and Katsumi to the training facility.

While on our way there, I notice Anabelle walking around from a distance. She happens to notice me and starts heading in my direction. Takeo notices this and pushes me forward while bearing a goofy grin on his face and giving me a thumbs up. I sigh and just start heading towards Anabelle.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Pfft, is that really the first thing you ask after seeing me first thing in the morning?"

"Well, I don't think we really know each other that well, yet."

"Yet, so that implies you want to get to know me better, right?"

"Maybe…"

I don't know how to handle Anabelle. I just met her yesterday and I've been feeling weird since. I seem to have trouble talking with her, and honestly, I rather not. I just feel like I'm so pathetic. I don't know why, but I just don't want to show her that side of me.

"Oh."

Anabelle looks dejected at my response. I start feeling guilty about my response. Anabelle looks at me and tries changing the topic.

"Sooooo, I heard you were going to train today, or something like that. If you don't mind, can I go with you?"

"Sure."

This time I tried sounding more casual in order to not hurt her feelings again. Katsumi and Takeo noticed that we were having problems communicating over here and decided to intervene.

"How about we all start heading to the training facility right now?"

"Let's do that then, right Nathaniel?"

"Yeah."

***

Anabelle went to the side and just sat down while Takeo and Katsumi looked for some gear. I just stood there dumbfounded lost in my thoughts.

I was worrying about what happened with Anabelle and just couldn't let it go. Even if that wasn't in my mind, I wouldn't know what to do here anyways.

Takeo and Katsumi set up a table and place all different kinds of weapons on top. I noticed so many weapons I haven't heard of before. It ranged from guns to swords and much more.

The two told me to try and test them out and see what feels right to me.

I tried some larger guns like the AR-15, but it just felt uncomfortable. I tried smaller but fast guns like the Uzi, but I couldn't handle the recoil. I tried some different pistols, but I still couldn't handle the recoil. Katsumi seemed to worry about what to do with the fact I couldn't really handle any guns. On the other hand, I noticed Takeo was excited for some reason.

"Why don't we instead train him how to use a katana?"

"Are you an idiot? If he can't even handle the recoil of any gun, then how would he be able to handle the weight of a blade."

Katsumi and Takeo just started fighting on how to train me, while I was embarrassed Anabelle saw me in such a pathetic state. I looked at her earlier and saw her quickly turn to the side and start whistling, acting like she didn't see anything.

"You two idiots won't get anything done by just bitching to each other."

Bane just came into the training facility with Lloyd right behind him.

In response to Bane's comment, both Takeo and Katsumi responded in unison, "What the fuck did you say to us?"

Bane just started laughing and ignored the duo.

"Hey, Nathaniel, how would you like to train under me and Lloyd?"

"Huh, I guess."

"Yes or no?"

"Yeah."

"Pfft!"

Bane just seemed to be pretty chill right now. He just can't stop laughing it seems.

"Bane, what the hell are you playing at? He is supposed to be my responsibility, not yours."

"Stop being such a party pooper Ka-tsu-mi."

Bane just started bursting in laughter once more. Katsumi got pissed as hell and started running towards Bane who started to run away.

In the midst of all this, Lloyd came up to me.

"I'm sorry."

"O… k?"

"I just felt like you didn't belong here and started to treat you badly. That was wrong of me, and I really mean it when I say I'm sorry."

I realized he was being genuine and also, I really wasn't mad at him in the first place, so I forgave him.

"It's fine, I didn't take any offense to your actions earlier. So it's fine, I forgive you."

"Oh, okay. If it's fine with you, let's be friends."

"Yeah, that's cool."

***

After a while, things calmed down and Bane and Katsumi came to an agreement. The four of them, Katsumi, Takeo, Bane, and Lloyd would take turns training me. We all went together to eat at the cafeteria and talked. Anabelle left after a while and the rest of us just talked things out in our room.

From then on, we would still have our occasional fights, but we still always made up in the end. I think it was safe to say, the five of us became friends, the best of friends.

***