Mentors and the Alarm (7)

Date: August 25-29

Place: Kyoto Headquarters

[Yui]

Rei left the room, while we were still sitting, trying to process everything she has said.

"Do you think everything that Rei said was true?" Misaki broke the silence.

Even I want to believe all of it was a lie and think that everything was just a joke to lighten the mood up, but they aren't.

"I don't think she's the kind to joke around about these things," Cedrick commented.

Haru and Kazuma agreed and stood up to help Cedrick clean up the tray and return it. But the moment they opened the door, someone was waiting for them outside.

"I'll handle that," a man who towers the boys and has a well-toned body stole the trays and gave it to his underlings.

[Cedrick]

The man who had a scary build and had his black hair tied in a bun, didn't move an inch and stopped us from having even a single foot out of the room.

"Excuse me, but who and why are you here?" Kazuma asked quite pissed.

He looked in every direction as if someone was watching us from afar, secretly. Then he sighed, came inside the room with us, and locked the door behind him.

Yui and Misaki were staring at him in confusion.

"Pardon me, guarding this room is a personal request from your friend," he smiled which caught all of our attention. None of us knew if he was trying to ease the situation and appear friendlier because he looked more terrifying now.

"You can call me Nelson. I work for Rei's uncle and I've been guarding your room since this morning. Don't fret, I'm on her side," he exclaimed, flashing us with another scary smile.

The rooms aren't usually sound proofed so he might've heard every conversation from the very beginning.

"Don't mind me, just do whatever you were doing," he said sitting on a nearby stool as he crosses his arms and closes his eyes.

[Yui]

Even with another person in the room, my expressions still sat the same. I'm still processing everything that Rei has told us earlier.

Failed experiments lead to death.

Those zombie-like outside are just prototypes of her.

Those were the words she left behind that stuck out. It kept repeating on my mind in a loop.

'Will you think of me as a monster or as your friend?'

Those were what her regretful expression meant for me.

"What are we going to do now?" I heard Haru say, shivering at the thought.

No one answered.

"What do you think Mr. Nelson?" Misaki asked as all our focus shifted to him.

We were just as surprised as Mr. Nelson was when Misaki chose to ask him.

At first, he let out a soft giggle which made us all more confused but afterward, he gave his reply.

"I will speak in the perspective of an outsider," this time, his smile was genuine and nice before returning to his cold glares.

"I can assure you that if words come out what she is, people will definitely panic and worst scenarios will arise like a tsunami. Rei's life isn't a simple puzzle anyone can solve. And she's an extremely dangerous specimen," he explained which made some of us gasp.

"But that doesn't mean she's exempted from danger, just take her parents or friends that was just like her," he continued.

"Parents?" Now that he mentioned it, she didn't gave us any information about what happened to her parents.

"What happened to them?" Haru asked as he looks directly into his eyes.

"Sleeping eternally," Mr. Nelson shrugged like he isn't sure if they died.

"Does she know this?" I asked for confirmation but he only grinned and shrugged like he was toying with us. 

"So, what now?" Misaki asked, looking at the floor, not knowing who's the right person to ask anymore.

Silence spread to this whole room for a few minutes, allowing all of us to have time to think until Cedrick groaned and spoke.

"I'm going to stick by her side and see what happens," Cedrick proclaimed with much determination.

Him saying those words gave me some courage to speak up and tell them how I felt. "Me too," I replied lifting my head seeing their nervous and scared faces.

"Rei and I have been friends for several years now and I can't just leave her after entrusting us with her past," I was cut short.

"I don't like Rei," Kazuma said crossing his arms. "But just like mister said, we can't simply blab about her past to anyone," Kazuma said diverting his gaze to Cedrick as he smirks.

"Besides, Ceddy is in love with her and I want to see how that goes," Kazuma teased as Haru nodded in agreement and looked at Cedrick with a silly grin.

Cedrick blushed and hid his face in his sleeves as he didn't have any time to respond to the teasing when the door flung open, revealing another woman in a lab coat.

"Excuse me for interrupting, but please follow me," she said searching the room until she locks her eyes on Mr. Nelson who was already standing straight.

"All of you," she says again, looking at the five of us.

"Never speak a word of this matter when you're outside," was Mr. Nelson's last advice to us before we left the room and walked the long hallways.

[Cedrick]

She leads us to what looks like a spacious dojo which is full of different types of guns, knives, and practice targets everywhere.

No one is around this room, except for us.

"Please wait for further instructions, I'll be excusing myself now," said the woman and walks through where we came in.

Then a few minutes of walking around this room, checking and looking what piques our interest until someone entered through another entrance beside the door we went into.

It was an elevator that I've never noticed was there before.

A guy who looks like he's in his early 30's, a bulging body with tons of scars and a scary expression. He's wearing a fitted gray shirt with an army cargo pants and boots.

The five of us stood straight behind Mr. Nelson.

"I'll explain everything after you changed into those," the man said pointing at a table full of clothes.

None of us said anything back and put the clothes on right there and then.

It was a simple black fitted shirt, army cargo pants and boots like his, with some knee pads and a belt that had holsters.

As we were changing, there she walked her way here through the door looking like someone we couldn't recognize.

Her hair braided to her right and she was wearing the same clothes as us.

But I can't help but notice that she was avoiding looking at any of us, just standing in front of us, dead silent.

"Rei," I whispered when she's fidgeting her fingers, almost getting wounded if Yui hadn't stepped up and stopped her.

"Stop that, you're hurting yourself" Yui said, giving a sympathetic smile at her.

Rei finally looked at us one by one, seeking our eyes like it holds the truth of our feelings. She smiled and nodded after she noticed that all of us were smiling back at her. Then her tensed body loosened up and she went back to her normal self.

"You look like a rose with poisoned thorns," Misaki blurted out and giggles a little when she saw Rei's confused face.

"Everybody, gather around," a much taller and more masculine body had appeared behind Rei, resting his hands on her shoulders and smiled.

He had a huge scar on his right cheek, a freshly shaved head but not his mustache. He seems like he was growing it out. 

"The young lady right here has requested for all of you to have proper knowledge about the basics technics of defending yourself in the current situation you are in," he had a rough and raspy voice.

"But first, let me introduce myself. I'm Takuto, that's the nickname they gave me. And I believe you already know about Nelson," he said as he looks at Nelson who was smiling and waving his hands in a cutely manner.

Then Takuto looked at the other soldier who ordered us to change into these clothes.

"You can call me Revine. Nice to meet you," he said bluntly and averted his gaze to anyone but Rei. He looks at her with such rage in his eyes.

He had a tiny build and is a few inches short when you compared him to the other two who had huge builds. He also looks much younger and his specs were staring at me through his fitted shirt.

"From now on, us three will be your mentors. We' will be teaching each and one of you how to be someone who can fight for yourselves and protect others while we're away from the frontlines," Takuto says with much control and power in his voice.

"Everyone in his place, survivor or not must serve a purpose in exchange for your safety in staying at this makeshift haven. But no one is as privileged as you five," Takuto said, taking a quick glance at Rei.

As we can all feel how she was getting so much attention from Mr. Nelson who was sympathetically staring at her, while Mr. Revine wanted to stab her with those glares.

~skip~

From there, our days in this hell started.

We learned a lot of things in a short amount of time. We spent almost our every free hour on training and studying with our three mentors.

They thought us how to properly hold, aim and shoot any kind of gun, the technique of knives, and other weapons.

Also, the new technologies that they created for the 0-007 that they now unofficially call; the unOrdinary.

They invented traps, cages, and even a way to appear in one place faster than any vehicle.

There are also devices to communicate with each other even if we're miles away, the little chips that contains trackers and multiple dialects which they installed in the back of our necks so they can track us whenever they want and for us to easily communicate with anyone.

[Yui]

We lived every day with the same schedule. Wake up early, take a shower, eat breakfast, train, eat lunch, lessons about the technologies and the places on the map, have dinner, and finally sleep.

As the days go by, more people have survived and departed this haven, old or young, they train them and make them work.

The morning they called for another meeting, started the real battle for our lives.

They held a huge meeting to decide the future of our safe haven. Because the population was increasing, while our resources decreased rapidly.

The higher-ups made a new system where everyone must register to be able to.

Choose a division.

Form a party.

Go to missions.

The explanation lasted until the afternoon about why we must participate in this proposal. Many people agreed and disagreed but their thoughts aren't even considered because the proposal was absolute.

They handed us forms to fill in and submit after we finished filling them up.

It contains explanations of everything we need to know.

When we went and got lunch, there we talked about it and decided what divisions we should go to.

Rei, Cedrick, and Kazuma chose the Assault Division, I and Haru went to the Custodian Division, while Misaki to the Support Division.

We did our first missions the very next day and let me tell you that it didn't go very well, for every one of us.

We got different missions according to what division we chose. For me, it wasn't special.

We just assisted the Assault Division to get ready and carry the supplies they bring back to the facility such as food supplies, medicines, and a lot more.

After we finished our first mission and ate dinner at the same table, no one didn't want to share their experiences.

Everyone had it rough, I can tell just by looking at their gloomy and tired faces when they returned earlier.

If you're wondering what it was for me, it was because I kept messing up and getting scolded by others. I hate that feeling.

It went just like that for a couple of days.

The Custodian and Support Divisions have it easier than the Assault Division because they always have casualties in their group and for that, they decided to award people who came back safe and sound with badges and promotions.

And eventually, they formed a pyramid for seeing who's on the top and who's on the bottom.

Rei, Cedrick, and Kazuma have been getting their ranks up these past few days.

With Rei's experience in the battlefields and fighting, the higher-ups decided to appoint her some children to form a little party and participate in more dangerous missions.

But we all saw it as them, bullying Rei mentally.

I've always wanted to see how she moves on the battlefield but I'm afraid that won't be possible because I'm always stuck on missions that doesn't allow me to step outside the base.

It went like that for a couple of days until the morning that I heard Rei shouting and having a difficulty breathing as she slept.

She recently begun having nightmares every night.

Then an alarm that woke everyone up, rang.