{Raven}
Unlike usually, I was on time today when the first applicants joined the gym hall. Yesterday night, me and Jane had come up with a training plan for our trainees and as usual Vince helped us more than we actually did ourselves.
"You sure you want them to train together?" Jane asked me when we saw the tiny girl Katheryne and Ed, the one that looked like a man in his midlife crisis approaching us from the entrance.
"My trainees are quiet skilled, you know. Katheryne's gifted strength is focused on her legs, smililar to mine and Eddie has an eagle-like eye sight... he was a sniper in the army before." She told me and for a second I was impressed by how a person looking like him actually had some battles behind him. But my ego wouldn't let me lose to Jane's candidates.
"Rune is better." I simply stated and crossed my arms while silently thinking that this probably wasn't true. His gifted ability was quiet useless despite him being rather good in close combat. Secretly, I hoped Jane's juniors would beat him up a little after what happened yesterday.
"Oho, I never heard you say that." Jane seemed seriously impressed making me want to glare at her but the others had just arrived and behind them also Rune. Today he was dressed completely black making him look even more pale. His hair was tied back as usual and hidden by a black cap. He smiled that grin of his that managed to look completely genuine when he greeted us.
"Good morning, are we training together?" He wanted to know and I walked over to him and put my arm around his shoulder a little harshly. It made him flinch and I was satisfied with the fear he must feel because he thought I was going to get revenge for yesterday.
"Yes. We'll begin to show you different moves and techniques that fit each of you best. Training together is more efficient." Jane did a thumbs up sign and the others nodded.
"But first, we'll start with physical training. Gifted power or not, you should be in good shape to win a fight." I grinned and already heard the exhaustion and pain that these three would feel. Rune looked like he couldn't even run two rounds without collapsing.
"I'm a little out of shape so I hope you can bear with me." Ed excused himself awkwardly but Jane assured him that it was fine. As a sniper you probably didn't need to run much ...
"Well then... follow my lead, we'll run rounds until I say it's enough." I patted Rune's shoulder and got ready to the start line. Yeah, I'd make them sweat to their bones so they'd realize how real training looked like.
"Aaaaand go!" I began running in a rather slow tempo but already noticed Ed having difficulties to keep up... this was gonna be funny.
However, my expectations left me hanging big time.
After half an hour Katheryne gave up heavily breathing and sweating all over but Rune was still right next to me, calmly running along my side. It was weird how he didn't even look exhausted and I decided to speed up and go almost sprinting... and yet he kept up just fine.
It was after another 10 minutes of running at top speed when he finally stopped and let himself drop to the floor. I myself was barely able to go any further but nobody noticed yet.
"Oi, I didn't say you could stop, did I?" I slightly kicked his foot while the guy was still on the floor.
"If you want me to keep running you'll need to carry me." he answerd between heavy breaths and for a second the scenario played in my head. I unconsciously scanned his face that was reddish and sweating from exhaustion. Some hair strands were loose or sticking to his forehead and his red lips were slightly parted.
"It was a joke, I don't wanna be touched by a sweating person." He suddenly added when I realized that I had been staring for too long. God damn, why did he have to look so feminine though? It was irritating.
"Ehem, yeah whatever. Get ready to join the others." I cleared my voice and quickly turned around to leave him be. All this running had made me lose focus.
The next 2 hours Jane took over and began teaching the basics of the Inoue close combat strategy to the three while occasionally correcting them. I was only watching for the most part of it but didn't hold back on commenting if they did something wrong.
While they were still busy and all the other teams left the gym hall I decided to put some music on and chose one of my playlist. The first song on it was just released yesterday but I really liked it although it was a cover. The singer was really talented and I didn't say that about many people.
"Do you like that song?" I heard Rune walking over to me when I was finished connecting my phone to the box. They were having a short break to drink some water at the moment.
"Why would I tell you?" I answered harshly but it only made the shorty grin arrogantly.
"So you do. Isn't it just a cover though? The original sounds better to me." He wondered and turned on his heel to go back when Katheryne called his name. Quickly, I followed him.
"You have no taste, pretty boy. This cover is far better than the original and the singer is more talented than you could ever be." I snapped at him because he hit a nerve there. I was secretly a fan of Dandelion's music so offending it hurt my ego. Apart from martial arts, music was one of the few other things that I was passionate about.
"Wait, is this by Dandelion?" Katheryne excidedly shrieked and I nodded at her making her freak out even more.
"I love his music so much! Seriously, I am waiting until the day he'll make an original song again like half a year ago! It was so good!"
"See? She does have taste." I proudly remarked and noticed the girl smiling and getting shy again. Rune on the other hand shrugged and took a sip of his water.
"Do you know him? He could be a total asshole in real life." Rune commented slowly and gave me the side eye but before I could say anything Kate was faster.
"No, someone who sings such beautiful songs can't be a bad person." She sounded totally determined making me chuckle slightly. Of course that wasn't totally true but I wanted to agree with her.
{Rune}
After training in the morning we went to have lunch all 5 together giving me the opportunity to talk to Katheryne and Ed a bit more and not be harassed by Raven as much. We decided to call the girl Kate. They were indeed very nice people and for once it wasn't quiet when eating.
Also, the fact that they liked Dandelion gave me a new wave of energy even after this hard training. It had felt especially funny when Raven defended Dandelion in front of me.
What I didn't like was the shooting training we had to attend after that. Ed didn't need much assistance and easily hit every target in the spot leaving everyone impressed for sure. Kate did also know how to shoot even if she never really did it but for me it was more difficult since I never in my life had a real shooting weapon in my hand.
"What are you doing?" Raven asked in confusion when he handed me a small gun and I just held it.
"I... never did this."
"You what? Oh sure, you're not allowed to carry weapons in Germany..." Raven closed his eyes and took a deep breath for a second before taking a second gun and showing me slowly how the gun was built, how to reload and how to shoot. We didn't use real ammunitions but the impact and sound from shooting would be almost the same. To be honest, I was a little scared to do this. Guns weren't my specialty... with sis and grandma we had focused a lot more on knives because they were more effective combined with speed most of the time.
"Did you memorize that?" He looked down at me with a raised eye brow and I slowly nodded.
"How do I position myself?" I proceeded to ask not wanting to cause any accident when Raven was fast to grab both of my shoulders and turn them slightly, then doing the same with my waist.
"Like this. Now hold your gun how I showed you and aim for the circle." He demanded and I quickly ignored the weird feeling in my stomach that I just felt. I was supposed to be focusing so I tried my best to aim and shoot.
The bullet neither hit the middle nor any part of the circle and soon I heard Raven bursting into a loud laugh next to me.
"God damn, even a five year old could've hit that!" He held his stomach from laughing and I felt rage boiling up inside of me. I wasn't easy to upset but I hated failing and being laughed at for that the most. Wasn't he supposed to be teaching me? This was ridiculous.
"How will you kill someone like this, huh?!" Raven questioned in amusement but somehow that sentence left me in a state of shock in that moment. Why did he sound so relaxed when talking about killing someone? It was horrible. Even if I was forced to shoot I'd only do it if there was no other option so how could he take this lightly? Of course... him and Jane were part of Inoue group's 'warriors'. Pictures of the corpses in the old factory replayed in my head and I was painfully reminded that Raven was a killer... just like the people that killed my parents. Did they also simply take their deaths so lightly just because they were a threat to them?
"Wow, calm down. It's reasonable that you're not as good as the others." Raven then held his hands up in defense when I noticed I was pointing my gun at him.
In shock I dropped it and let my eyes trail over my hands in horror. What had I just done?! My body was still trembling with rage but it turned into some sort of panic soon. How could someone even lose control like that?!
"I- I didn't mean to..." I stuttered and took a step back instinctively. If he hadn't said anything, would I have tried to shoot?!
"These bullets can't hurt me so badly that I'll die. I have strong muscles, remember? So don't freak out, blondie." Raven told me, not even worrying in the slightest and I did believe what he said. Yet, I felt extremely guilty to have even pointed that gun at him.
"I'll be right back." I mumbled and ran out of the room and to the next window I found on this floor. In a hurry I opened it and let a breeze of humid and cold air cool me down. It was cloudy and grey outside but this kind of weather had always been relaxing to me.
Why did I even freak out so much? In this society killing people wasn't treated the same as were I came from and getting my personal feelings involved did not help anyone.
"Hey Rune?" I turned around to see Jane walking through the hallway and stopping by my side.
"I witnessed what happened just now and just wanted to ask if you're alright..." she spoke calmly and different from her usual energetic self. It was soothing in a way and her dark brown eyes held peace.
"I am fine, no worries." I assured her and closed my eyes one more time to let the wind blow my hair back.
"I might be wrong but if what Rave said about killing people upset you then let me tell you that he never carelessly killed anyone. We do have high respect for every human being and only kill if we have to." She spoke in a serious voice and I didn't know what to answer so I stayed quiet. Someone grasping what I felt was very unusual so I never had the chance to be prepared for that.
"I know it's only been three days but Rave must be quiet troublesome... he always is." She sighed and I replied with a weak laugh.
"Yeah, I don't know if I'll survive this."
Jane's expression got a little sad when she continued to talk and that didn't go unnoticed by me.
"But I think he doesn't hate you even if he acts the way he does. You know... Raven's childhood wasn't easy being constantly pressured to be the best. His brother didn't let him have any friends and me and Vince are the only ones he ever had..."
I tried to not empathize as much as I could because this wasn't the reason I was here. Emotionally binding myself to the group that killed my family felt like a wrong thing to do... but Raven wasn't involved in that so maybe it was was still okay. I ended up failing anyway when I felt my eyes getting watery. People with traumatic childhoods had always been the most hurt but also the strongest people out there...
"I understand..." I answered and Jane thanked me for that.
"Who knows? You might even become friends" Her lips curled up into a smile before she grabbed my hand and dragged me back to the shooting room with no choice but to cooperate.
Friends, huh? When thinking about it I somehow wanted to be Raven's friend from the beginning but he didn't make it an easy thing to do so that wish was sometimes turned into the opposite.
{Raven}
When Rune came back inside together with Jane he looked completely fine with no sign of any discomfort like before. To be honest I thought he was joking when he pointed that gun at me but his reaction had shown that this wasn't the case.
"Come over here, we'll try it again." I let go of the thought and called Rune over to hand him the weapon again. Our hands touched for a second and I noticed how cold the other's were.
"Do I need to learn how to shoot?" He asked and turned the weapon in his hand before reloading it like I told him to.
"Of course you do, a weapon could be the only thing that helps you out in a dangerous situation. But why? Scared to shoot someone?" I joked positioning myself in front of him so he could aim at me. But that guy didn't even look up from the gun in his hands but coldly answered.
"Yeah I guess I really don't like the thought of taking someone's life..." he quietly answered and finally looked up at me with serious eyes. What he said somehow felt strangely relatable. I also disliked the action of killing and everytime it happened it made me mentally sick so I understood him a little. But we couldn't run away from it. This society forced us to take others lives sometimes.
"That's the reason you need to learn how to aim. So you won't end up killing someone." I stepped to the side and subconsciously patted his shoulder. I really didn't recall how it happened but it just did. Was it because there was something smart that blondie said for the first time? It probably was. And again I noticed him slightly tensing when I did that.