I was out with Kelan and others when it happened. We were away from the hostel and without any immediate way to come back, we decided to run back, and by the time we had reached there we were drenched in sweat, and gasping for air.
The last time this happened…a classmate of mine died. Please let it not be a repeat of that.
We raced to the rooftop, everyone was there.
"Where were all of you?" Katie asked.
"We were out. Took us some time," I replied as I stood in line.
I saw Ichika giving a side glance to me, I know that look meant something, but that will come later.
"What's the big deal? Everyone's here now," Colin spoke for everyone present there.
The instructor had called us all here. What was going on? We waited for a few minutes but no one appeared.
"Someone's coming," said Alex.
Right after that, we could hear footsteps from behind the door to the stairs and after a couple of seconds, the door opened. But it wasn't someone we had expected.
"What are you guys doing here?" said the person. It was an elderly woman…probably in her 60s or 70s. She was the person who rented this place to us.
"What are you guys doing here?" She asked.
What are you doing here!?
"I'm sorry for startling you. We thought it would be better to spend time with everyone on a holiday so I took it upon myself to call everyone on the roof for some fresh air. I hope we did not cause you any inconvenience," said Ichika, moving close to greet her.
She did not have any intentions to tell the landlady about the existence of the Instructor
"That's nice of you. Neighbors should get along."
"May I ask what brings you here?"
"I was looking for you, Ichika. Someone arrived at the reception and told me to give you this," She handed out an envelope to Ichika which was sealed.
"Have a good time everyone!" the lady said as she went back down.
As soon as the door to the stairs closed, Ichika opened the envelope to reveal a small letter. I peeked to see what was in it.
The Instructor has approved your request. The address is XXXX. It is to be noted that the Instructor is only responsible for only assigning an area. Any further responsibility lies upon the students themselves.
What was this about? A request?
"A couple of days ago, I sent a mail to the specified address requesting an area we could use to train. After all, we cannot just go anywhere to train in Kai right? There needs to be a level of security we need to assure before we start that."
With little information on the methods of surveillance and no knowledge of the so-called 'Kai Identification Mechanism', we cannot secure such a venue for ourselves. The instructor knew this, of course. And thus they approved the request from Ichika.
"That's good. Now we can train without being caught by anyone," said Alex.
"But we need to be careful, the security of the training area from now is upon us," said Katie.
With the matter at hand apparently resolved, everyone began to leave.
But I stayed, and so did Ichika.
"Hi!" She said. I nodded in reply.
"You've been busy, would that be okay?" I pointed to her uniform. She came here from her work.
"It is fine…I have some time to spare at the call center," she said, "it has been a while since we talked like this."
"You're carrying this division at this point. That is understandable."
She has a job, she works all day at the hostel and on top of that, she's a team leader.
"Are you angry with me?" She asked. As I did not meet her gaze, she understood without being told.
"Listen I'm sorry."
"You're not. We made a promise to be in the same team, you didn't pick me," I said.
"The circumstances changed, I had no choice," she said.
"You had that choice, don't lie now."
Her expression went slack, and she gave me a distant, empty stare. She was sad, she didn't like the way this conversation was going.
I slowly walked up to her.
"I need an honest answer from you, Ichika."
As if she made up her mind, her gaze became alert, and the eye contact between us was stronger than before.
"Then tell me. Are you dedicated to completing this assignment?"
"I have been working hard now, aren't I?" I said.
"That is not what I asked."
Silence ensued between us.
She understood my answer without being told.
"Do you not want to get rid of demons in this world?" She asked.
I couldn't contain it any longer.
"You're speaking the same words as the instructor. And no I do not care," I replied, my tone deepened as I gazed coldly at her.
"Why not?"
"I am just not. There isn't anything wrong with that, is there?"
"No, but I won't take someone in who is working without any will."
"And I find it hard to trust someone who is using the instructor's words," I said.
"This has nothing to do with the Instructor, I want to get rid of the demons," she said.
Useless. We're going in circles.
"You must have liked it, right? When he killed hundreds in the screening…in fact why don't you just go ahead and kill those who don't share the same opinion as you," I said that and immediately realized I had gone too far.
Her face contorted, "you're saying that I want to kill you and others?"
"No, I…"
I let my anger get the better of me.
"I thought you were better than that. After everything that we've been through…I thought you'd trust me…"
Her eyes went watery and she turned away to leave.
"No, wait!" I tried to stop her.
"I'm not talking to you," she stormed off.
Damn it.