Night Sixty Three
Age 1991
Meanwhile Back At The Squad Six Recruits Room...
"Ahh much better!" Hero announced stepping outside of the shower room, and back into the dorm room, he shared with the other four recruits! "All clean!" He announced. All five of them were dressed very casually now, in simple street clothes. "Shame I lost my training outfit though... It was in my backpack I forgot so long ago."
"Hero..." Kitsune said slowly giving the boy a deadpanned look. "Your training outfit is just a green tracksuit... It's better that it got left behind where none of us would have to see it. You always looked so dumb training in it with the Master."
"So what now?" Ken asked leaning back on her bed, as she stared up at the ceiling with a small frown. Her hair was still wet from her shower and she held a book talking about her God. As soon as she had cleaned herself up she had been reading that book none stop saying all kinds of prayers to her God.
"Well, I had an idea..." Irene said slowly as everyone turned to look at her. "I was thinking. How about we go out to eat! You know. Build up team bonding, and get to know each other a lot better. I mean it's still been less than a month. Also, we can invite some of the other recruits, and get to share first-time missions!" She announced.
"I don't know..." Hero yawned.
"Please?" Irene asked flashing a smile to Hero.
Hero's face turned red as he looked away. "Well I mean... I guess if you want me to come. You did save me so I owe you..."
"You freaking Tsundere..." Kitsune said smacking Hero over the head. "But... That... Does actually sounds like a lot fun." Kitsune said in surprise as he jumped to his feet. "Let's go give out the invitations Hero!"
"Why do I need to come?" Hero questioned.
"So we can get that prick Max to say yes," Kitsune announced grabbing his wrist and yanking him out of bed. "he won't come unless we say you're gonna be there cause he'll just be super grumpy and say he wants to fight you. plus I want to drive the car around. We can use it going to all the cities and talking to all the recruits!"
"What?"
"Oh just shut up and come on!"
Irene frowned as she tapped her fingers together. "I was kind of hoping Hero and I could go ask people to come-" The door slammed shut as Kitsune dragged Hero away leaving Irene alone as she let out a sigh.
"Ahh don't feel sad. I never get to spend time with Big Brother either." Light said.
"W... What! I don't want to spend time with him." Irene said turning away. Ken let out a snort making Irene frown. "Something funny shorty..."
"I'm not short!" Ken hissed.
"Sure."
Ken stuck her tongue out at the girl. "I just think it's funny that you're being so cliqued and pretending not to like him when you obviously do."
Irene's face flushed for a moment as she gritted her teeth. "You're one to talk always clinging to his arm and asking him to hold, and save you!"
"I do that because he's the best I can get on this squad!" Ken said placing her hands on her hips and glaring back at Irene. "I'm gonna be a human and find someone I can spend the rest of my life with. I know love and I can tell you this. I'm attracted to Hero sure, he's a handsome guy, not an idiot, and pretty strong, and the best I could get between him, Kitsune, and Light, but I am not in love with Hero Law. Maybe we could have a fling but that's all it would ever be. You on the other hand..."
"What are you trying to say."
"I get you're from a village so you aren't as smart as people from the city, like me, but I thought even you could understand what I was getting at-"
"Why you little-"
"I'm not little!" Ken yelled glaring back at Irene. "And I still haven't forgiven you for throwing me around like that during the mission!"
"Why are you being so mean!"
"I prefer devilish." Ken said flatly. "And I'll tell you why. Hero's my friend okay. I do care for him. He's made me laugh, saved me, cried for me, and was the with me when I joined the Enforcers. I might not love him, but I like him. And I don't want someone with as many issues as you, to mess with his head."
"Man I wish I had eyes so I could see this cat fight..." Light muttered.
"Shut up Light!" Both girls yelled.
Light ducked down just in time dodging a ice blade, and a black spike.
Ken let out a sigh as she glared back at Irene. "You just... Better not be mean to Hero... I don't want to see him be hurt anymore..." Ken's mind drifted back to what Labby had told her about that person. Hero Law was a human. To Human for her. She was a weapon who wanted to find love one day, and endless dream, for a weapon couldn't love, but if she had it, then that would mean she was no longer a weapon. To spend the rest of her life with someone was the ultimate goal of a weapon like her, to be with a human. But Hero... He was just to human for her.
Irene looked away from the small girl as shrugged. "Well you don't have to worry about that... Besides he likes you more. When you fell instead of staying with me, he jumped after you even knowing you would just heal and be fine. He picked you."
"Man your slow." Ken sighed.
"What?"
"Hero didn't pick me you idiot..." Ken said rolling her eyes. "He saved me because I was in trouble. Because that's just the kind of idiot he is. Even if I can heal he'd stop me from being hurt. If it had been you, Kitsune, Light, or even a villain like Max, he'd have jumped down, because he's a hero of justice. Rather he knows it or not."
***
A few hours later, a pretty large group found themselves sitting around a large wooden table within a restaurant. Although sadly quite a few members simply didn't show up...
There were five from Squad Six, those being Hero, Ken, Kitsune, Irene, and Light. Three from Squad One, Max, Shelly and the weird Shiki. One from Squad Eight, a girl named Alice. Three from Squad Seven, Emma, Sera, and a third girl named Lucy. And finally one from Squad Four a girl named Tsun. It was a large group but still not the entire force Irene wanted. In front of them was their food. Most of them all had simple food. The only ones who were weird were Ken, Shelly, and Kitsune, Ken and Shelly had just ordered Dessert where as Kitsune order weird food that had long names and was likely from one of those lame cartoons he watched.
"Weeb..." Hero said flatly as Kitsune bit into some fish related food.
"I... I was kind of hoping more would show up..." Irene said with a small amount of disappointment.
"Well. They didn't want to be associated with their rivals." Max said casually.
"Rivals?" Hero questioned perking up.
"We have rivals!" Kitsune asked with stars in his eyes. "Oh please tell me my rival has magical eye powers, and a demon inside of him, and is secretly my half brother, from the future, who is actually a good guy!"
"Everyone just ignore him, and he'll go away..." Hero said flatly. "What were you saying about rivals Max?"
"Well... Some Squads don't like each other... Let's leave it at that..." Max said shrugging.
Shiki let out a loud grunt as he nodded next to Max.
"Weird... I didn't know that." Shelly asked taking a bite of some ice cream. Both her and Ken had order dessert before dinner...
"Well, why did all of you show up?" Ken questioned taking a bite of her own sweet food.
"Well, we all had our own reasons..." Emma said shrugging slightly. "I wanted to see Hero!"
"I too wanted to see Hero-" Max began.
"Back off I called dibs on him first!" Emma said shooting the lava guy a stare.
Hero slowly scooted away from everyone at the table. "Would it be a bad time to mention, I already have someone I'm in love with... I really don't feel comfortable with all these perverts hitting on me..." He hissed over to Kitsune.
"What? You're seeing someone?" Kitsune hissed back.
"I mean... Kind of?" Hero said shrugging. "I think I'm in love with her? I haven't decided yet though. I mean there was the girl with silver hair but after meeting Hannah again I remembered more about her and I still don't know where she is but I know I'm not in love with her. So this feeling is new? Love is weird. You're lucky you're ugly and you'll never have to go through with it."
"Wait! So everyone is hitting on you, and you've already been taken? Yes! This means I have a shot at the ladies now!" Kitsune said proudly standing up.
Light reached out patting the foolish boy as he shook his head. "Poor fox..."
Max cleared his throat interrupting the two boys as they turned back to him. "As I said. We all had our own reasoning. Some better than others..."
Shiki let out a loud grunt as he nodded next to Max.
"I just wanted the free food." Shelly said happily looking down at her ice cream only to see a large chunk was missing. She looked back up seeing Ken had stolen it and was currently eating it. "Y... You jerk!" Shelly pouted.
"I... I just wanted to talk to some people..." Alice said shyly. She slowly shrunk down in her chair when everyone turned to look at her. "I'll... I'll shut up now..."
"Great!" Tsun said rolling her eyes. "Way to go guys. You broke the shy girl."
"I'm starting the suspect this was a terrible idea..." Irene said quietly as they all sat there in an awkward silence. "Maybe I should have just asked to go with Hero-"
"So..." Hero said deciding he would be the one to start the conversation. "How was everybody's mission..."
"Not as eventful as yours," Max replied.
Shiki let out a loud grunt as he nodded next to Max.
"How does everyone keep knowing about that!" Ken questioned.
"Word gets around fast."
Shiki let out a small grunt as he nodded next to Max-
"Does he not know how to speak?" Hero questioned as he stared at the man.
"No, he can... He just doesn't see fit to talk to any of you." Max said shrugging.
"What?"
Shiki let out a small grunt as he nodded next to Max.
"Both Shiki and I came to judge the other Enforcers, we may have the unfortunate privilege of fighting alongside. I was also curious... They say we grow in battle, so I wanted to see how far, all of you five have grown, since I heard you went on a C-Class mission... In particular, I wanted to see the depth of Ken's power. She is a Seraphin after all..."
"Ohh... I was kind of wanting that to be kept a secret..." Ken said slowly as she slowly inched away.
"Seraphin?" Shelly frowned. "You told me about that when we fought?"
"You told her before you told us Ken!" Hero said faking shock. "I knew you and Shelly were secretly in love! Everyone knows short tsundere's are only attracted to other short tsundere's!"
"We're not in love!" Both girls yelled hurling their spoon at Hero who ducked under the easy attack.
"You should know you have a target painted on all of your backs..." Max said giving a smirk as he stood up. "Not only are you guys on Squad Six considered to be one of the worst Squads, but you also went on an C-Class mission, far too soon, you have a Noble, from the family of Nine, a blind kid, and street thug, a villager, and of course now a Seraphin, and whatever the hell Hero is. Your Squad is quite the interesting one, to say the least..." Max said letting out a sigh. "I just hope you guys can put up a decent match. You still have about eleven months to train after all?" The kid shrugged as he waved his hand. "No matter. Let's go Shiki... Oh and Hero I look forward to our next match."
"I'd fight you now but my right arm is still jacked up. I can't even transform it!" Hero laughed. "I guess shattering the Equation inside of it and fixing it was a bad idea."
"I'd have expected nothing less from an idiot like you. For unlike you I am a Genius!" Max announced.
"Wow..." Tsun said slowly. "That guys and asshole."
"You have no idea..." Shelly sighed. "I have to share a common room with him and that Shiki guy who only grunts... It sucks..." Shelly said stabbing her food into Ken's bowl and stealing the short girls food.
"Hey!"
"Revenge!"
"What's a Seraphin?" Emma asked turning away from Shelly and Ken who had broken out into a fight on who could get the last bite.
"A man-made weapon..." Alice said quietly. "Most, are battle-hungry-mad-warriors... They say it takes a few years but all Seraphin's slowly snap, and will only care about battle, in order to grow..."
"Hmm. Scary." Hero said shrinking down slightly. "I'm even more scared of Ken now."
"Oh! I'm sorry!" Alice said as she too shrunk down.
"Wait. What did he mean about having eleven months?" Ken asked curiously losing the battle as Shelly stuffed the spoon in her mouth?
"Oh, you haven't heard?" Tsun said giving a smirk. "Well... At the end of the year, there is always a tournament held. It's pretty important and will allow us to rank up through the Enforcers... During this time we also get to fight a lot of our other comrades..."
"That sounds cool," Kitsune said smirking slightly. "And it's in eleven months..."
"I can't wait that long!" Emma announced shooting up. "Hero! I have been training like crazy! Fight me!" She announced.
"No. Also what? We never fought before?"
"Curses!" Emma slowly set back down. "I've been foiled... I wanted to see your new power at work. I've never seen an Equation break and reform. I assume you could only do it because you ate the Wolfs-Bane... Still though. I have been training like Crazy and wanted to fight you to see how I stack up..."
Sera reached out patting the girl lightly on the head. "Emma is telling the truth. Our Captain... Captain Sif. She is crazy... She wakes us up every morning at 5 A.M and throws us in life dangering situations in order to train us for battle... I don't know how Emma, and Lucy are able to keep up with it at all..."
"I'm not sure myself..." Lucy stated. "But have noticed, that I have grown in power. I estimate that I might have become ten, maybe even eleven times stronger than when I joined... And I too wish to have a rematch with you, Kitsune."
"What? We never fought."
"Incorrect. I was one of the people you knocked out, after your battle with the man over there." She said gesturing to Irene.
"I'm a girl!" Irene said offended.
"My apologies."
"You don't sound sorry."
"That is correct."
"Oh... Yeah sorry, I don't remember that..." Kitsune said awkwardly.
"It is to be expected... I was taken out in one attack from you after all."
"Now I feel bad."
"Good."
"Well, " Tsun said slowly standing up. "I've seen all that I wanted to." She said turning away. "I don't know how that Max kid is so good at judging others' power level... He figured out your depth in minutes, but it took me this long to figure it out..." She grumbled to herself.
"Wait you're leaving to!" Irene questioned.
"Indeed..." Tsun gave a small wave as she walked off.
"Wow... People hate us." Ken said frowning. "Are you guys gonna leave?" She questioned looking at the last few recruits from the other squads.
"I... I don't have any plans to." Alice said slowly. "I just wanted to meet new people..." She said ducking down.
"And I want free food!" Emma announced.
"I just want to see what commonly restaurant food taste like," Sera said giving a small smile.
"you're gonna hate it," Kitsune replied giving her a small head tilt.
"I want more dessert." Shelly said.
"Me to." Ken said. "I want what Shelly had. That was good."
"Stop steaking my sweets!"
"No."
Hero looked around the table staring at all the recruits at he let out a small laugh.
"Well, guys." Hero said holding his drink up. "To us growing! Let's all become stronger than Max so we can kick his butt!"
"Yeah!"
Loud cheering echoed out as Hero slowly set back down. For a moment he looked down at his right arm remember that worm entering his flesh as his mind hurt and ached. 'I'll keep crawling forward like that worm... I still have so much to do... I'll crawl until I become a Dragon... And the Beast of Hunger... I'll kill it.'
Until then though.
He gave a smile as he looked at all his friends.
Until then he would enjoy life...