"Erik! Erik come here!" I yelled as I saw him standing in front of his burning house.
He sure is strong, not even letting out a single tear. Actually, it seems more like he's lifeless... Never mind that. I pull him away from the hazard then started running in the opposite direction as fast as I could while holding Erik's hand.
*Cough. I think I inhaled too much smoke. My frail body can't withstand this. I tripped over a stone and fell down. Erik let go of my hand. He helped me up.
"Why... Why are you helping me Jeremy? Mom and dad is dead. There's no need for me to stay like this. I want to join mom and dad...".
I hugged Erik tightly.
"Don't say things like that! You have to live on for both of their sakes!"
"But who will take care of me... I only have mom and dad..."
"You have me! We can make it, the both of us! We will make it!" I cried out.
"Jeremy... Jeremey!!" Erik hugged me tightly while wailing his lungs out. We just sat there together like that.
~
I stood straight up while taking a deep gasp of air. Hahh. Its been a while since I last had that dream. I should just get on with the day. I take a look at Erik. He's still sleeping. No surprise there. I set out on my usual morning jog. The air is as chilly as ever. I usually try to enjoy my morning jogs.
One of only the few times where I have all my thought's for myself. No need to think about training, Marie, Erik, you name it. Imagine if Erik woke up early just to jog with me. I might actually go crazy by then. Hah... Life is just.. tiring.
"Hey!! Where you off to? Wait for me!"
Is that.. Erik? Oh god. Please don't tell me it is. I stop and look back to see Erik running up to me then patting my shoulder. My peaceful time... I feel my heart breaking at this very moment.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were asleep?"
"Yeah, I was. Only to wake up seeing your bed empty. I figured to would be on your morning run so I decided to join you! I did say that I need to do more endurance training".
No!! Just my luck...
"Oh yeah, I found this neat feature on our eyePhones. Apparently you can set alarm and its super annoying and it just vibrates your whole brain until you wake up and turn it off. So.. I'll be joining you on your morning runs more often from now on!".
Heh. Hahah. HaHHAhaHAh...
_____
Huahh... I wake up yawning. I look at the time. It's 5:30am. I peek at Jeremy's bed only to see it empty. He must be out running. Maybe I'll look for him and join him while I'm at it. I did say that I wanted to do endurance training as well.
And.. maybe I'll do my daily exercises while I'm at it. I went out and jogged for a while before I spotted a silhouette in the distance. I came closer, seeing that it was Jeremy. I yelled at him and quickly caught up.
~
We kept jogging for quite some time. For some reason, Jeremy seemed all gloomy. He seemed as if he had a thundercloud hanging around his head. And he kept mumbling something about his peaceful time.
Is he going crazy? Or did I never notice till now? I do seem to attract tons of weirdos. We continue jogging with me teasing Jeremy and him giving me the worst reactions ever. I mean, at least pretend that you're annoyed. My brain rolls its eyes.
After we were done with jogging I decided to do some more exercises. We still had time before breakfast anyway. As I was finishing up doing my push-ups, Jeremy who was sitting on his bed suddenly asked "Hey, you remember those times? Back in 5th Avenue?"
"Yeah, why?"
"No, it's nothing. It's just that I had a dream last night"
"I thought you stopped having those dreams?"
"Yeah, I did, but it was just a bit sudden, that's all. It's probably just nothing"
"Yeah...".
What's up with him? Suddenly reminiscing about this. I thought he would've just moved on from those things that happened years ago.
"Hey, want to get some breakfast?"
"Yeah, sure, why not" Jeremy agrees.
He looks a bit out of it. Maybe I'll ask his girlfriend to cheer him up.
We reached the mess hall together and took a seat and ate in silence. Marie arrived not soon after and sat down with us.
"Hello! Good morning! You two seem okay. Jeremy told me what happened yesterday".
Jeremy simply smiled at her.
"Well, real men don't hold grudges. We usually settle it in person"
"So how did you settle it?"
"By sleeping it over"
"Umm, what? I don't understand"
"You don't really have to. That's just how he usually is" Jeremy replied with a laugh.
That's better. I quickly finished up and left them alone together. I whispered to Marie "Your boyfriend's feeling down. Cheer him up for me please" before I left.
She blushed brighter than my toe every time I hit it against my bed. Honestly, they should just admit it at this point.
~
Classes were like any other day. Boring. Man, can't we learn some cool things anytime soon? Morning classes are all theory and what-not while evening classes are just sparring practice. Well, at least for other people. I am special after all.
I mean, when are we going to learn all the cool practical classes? Like throwing knives, shooting guns, sneaking up on people and press triangle to do a silent takedown? I headed to lunch by myself and ate. Man, this is boring. I hope the old dude has something cool to do later. I know they want us to be disciplined, but honestly, living on this repetitive schedule is chipping away at my insanity. We don't even have weekends off. Hahh... I let out a deep sigh.
After lunch I went back to my room. I could see lots of people running about doing their daily exercises. Must suck for them huh, not doing it early in the morning. I felt really proud of myself for following Jeremy.
Now that I'm here, I just went in and laid down on my bed. Well, though life is pretty repetitive here at least it's not that boring. I mean, there were quite a few fun things happening from time to time. Thinking back, I can't believe I actually got this far. From a nobody in the slums to someone training to be an assassin for one of the best organizations there is. The best, in fact.
_
"Is that right? Will you really take care of me?"
"Yeah, that's right. My parents will also help to raise you".
I cried out of joy. I was really happy for what Jeremy said. He gave me hope when I was hopeless. Jeremy took me by the hand and led me to his house. Thankfully they stopped the attack. Apparently this was a warning for us to pay the rent. It must be hard, working everyday for hours on end, just to pay off half for rent.
Jeremy's family lived deeper in the slums, further away from the city. They were safe as they only attacked the houses near the city.
~
We lived happily for a while. While it was harder for them to raise two children, we managed. Me and Jeremy helped out with his parents' business.
His mom was a tailor while his dad was a farmer. We helped out a lot with the small farm they had. Although frail, Jeremy helped way harder than he should. His resilience was apparently favored by god because he never got sick once. I felt grateful for all the care I was given. I also worked really hard to not be a burden any further.
_
"Erik, wake up! Geez".
I must've dozed off.
"C'mon, it's time for evening practice already. Let's go!".
We still had about 15 minutes left. I told Jeremy to go on first since I had something else to do. Jeremy was curious but he left, worried that he might be late. I went out soon after only to find Ayaka waiting for me.
"Let's go. Master waiting"
"Yeah, yeah. Why do you talk like that by the way?"
"What you mean?" she asks genuinely clueless.
"I mean, you can speak proper English? Why bother talking like that? Not like I'm saying it's wrong or anything"
"Oh. Me talk like this because men dumb. Men no understand even simple instruction and is really cocky" she says with a straight face.
Yep. I was right. Definitely crazy.
We head on over to the dojo. Once we arrived, Ayaka went to activate the mechanism. Blah, blah, wall opened up, went inside, enter dojo, all the usual. What wasn't usual was that the old dude had a guest. It was the old man who gave me the ring.
"That's surprising. Didn't think I'd see you here, old man"
"Greetings to second master" Ayaka says with a respectful pose.
Second master? Does that mean I'm going to be learning from another crazy old man? God, please save my soul.
"Hoho, you look confused. Don't worry. I'll have old Akihiko here whip you into shape before you'll be learning by my hands"
"Who the hell's Akihiko?".
The old men looked at each other for a full second before laughing their butts off.
"Hohohoho! This child doesn't even know the name of his master!"
"Hahaha! Don't laugh too soon! He might not even know your name!".
They both suddenly look at me with solemn faces. There's not even a hint of their laughing faces before.
"So, do you know my name?"
"Yeah, do you know his name?"
"..."
"Answer!" they both yelled in unison.
I take everything I said back. These old men are very scary.
"Umm, I don't know"
"Hahaha! He doesn't know you, he doesn't know you!" my master said in a mockingly sing-song way.
The old dude makes an unimpressed face.
"Well, I never really told him. Besides, he's just a boy from the slums. How is he supposed to know someone like me?"
"Nah, you're just cranky. It would make sense for him to not know mine since I tend to keep my identity a secret. I just didn't feel like it you know?".
The old men just kept on bickering. I was getting tired of it so I just said "Well, what is your name, old man?"
"Hoho, well if you insist, it's Mandel. And never forget that"
"Okay, fine".
He leaves with a satisfied face.
"So, master Akihiko, what are we doing today?".
He tells Ayaka to her own practices today while guiding me to yesterday's training room.
"Remember this guy? You did good yesterday. Not too bad if I say so myself. I honestly expected you to get completely and utterly destroyed".
Ughh. Just how low are his expectations of me?
"Well, yesterday was just for me to gauge your physical capabilities. So, I came to the conclusion that you reflexes are pretty good. Quite a bit better than the average human being"
"Well, I am pretty awesome after all" I say smugly.
"-although your body is complete and utter shit. You could barely withstand an attack with sacrificing your legs. Not to mention that you barely even made a dent on the mech. And don't even let me get started on-"
"Okay, that's it. So, what should I do to fix that?" I cut him off.
"Well, I had lots more to say and that was pretty rude but I'll let go of it this once. Follow me" he says as he leads me trough some doors in the observation room.
We entered a dimly lit cave. He handed me a torch. How primitive.
"This used to be an abandoned mine. It was found when the institute was built. So it might be a few centuries old"
"So what is it now?"
"Still and abandoned mine. Though, it will also serve as your training place"
"What?! What do you expect me to do here? Punch some rocks?"
"More or less, yes".
Well f*ck me.