Its 6:00 and the artificial sunrise is out slowly brightening the corridors as a crew of medical staff and Dr maria move a trolley with a dead corpse toward an elevator to the basement
Just around 20 feet behind, Leon catches up with them and tags along till Maria Looks to the side and checks her vintage wristwatch, and commands, "we got to run, the cadets will be returning at any moment!"
They start rushing towards the elevator and Leon follows along as they enter the elevator and the door closes. "Phew!" Maria sighs in relief as Leon floats beside her with a frown, still upset about what she said about him.
'I thought she saw me as a friend… tch everyone is out for a stab at me aren't they..' he lamented as he forgot to descend along with the elevator and heard footsteps outside.
'They arrived from the morning 10K I guess, damn I miss that…' she smiles wryly and shakes his head, and sinks down to the basement.
'Okay, where was the forensics department…hmmm near the mortuary if I remember right'...He ponders as he tries to remember the route from his memories of the tour which happened on the first day.
"Aha! There you are!' He remembers and takes a peek at the mortuary and hears a huge splash of water.
They had already shifted the body from the trolley to the forensics dissection table where the staff had started to take various samples out of his corpse such as blood, hair, nail, saliva, etc then sterilized the body to preserve it for the long run. he sees Holographic gloves pop out which the doctors put their hands in and a robotic surgical scalpel comes out of the table and starts to cut open his body.
….
Leon couldn't stomach the fact that he is watching the dissection of his own dead body and rises up to the ground floor which coincidentally was the training grounds where they usually practice their morning training. It is a switch between Martial arts and Military drills.
Today was martial arts and he saw all of them standing in the following teams as Seargent Kim talks them through today's training.
Sergeant Kim, a 5'11 foot tall well-built man wearing an army dog tag over a white sleeveless shirt while his camo shirt wrapped around his hips wearing camo trainers.
"Listen up kids, today will be the basics of grappling, most of you did get your traits recently, and as much as you are excited to use them If you don't have a proper foundation technique in how to move your body, you are bound to forget how to fight when you are in your awakened form, you might as well be feral animals".
He looks at every one of them in the eyes and sees whether they flinch or not as he walks along the line.
"So today, let's see how strong your foundation is, Each of you has been handed a bracelet that temporarily suppresses your traits and you will be returning them after class, I am counting them best believe".he is still looking around and then suddenly stares straight at Leon's direction which startles him and floats up as Seargent walks towards him and continues his explanation.
"Now girls and boys split into groups of two and we are all advocates of Gender equality, the world isn't fair and so is this."He smirks, surprised that some of them were actually excited about this.
"each of you will do 3 bouts with the same opponent, The losers do another 10 K and 100 squats right after with the bracelet on." He smirks as he sees some cadets' faces go pale….including Leon because Seargent was not slowing down his pace till he stops just before where Leon was, making Leon turn behind to see what was he staring at.
…It was Luke.
"Wasnt he supposed to be in discipline training?' Leon gets confused again but continues watching the scene.
"You are late Cadet Agnus, what excuse do you have for me, let's hear it" Sergeant looks up at him due to the height difference, but the glare which he was looking at the cadet made everyone feel the pressure that this man no joke.
"Got no excuses, sir! I Humbly apologize for my shortcomings!" He salutes and then bows down as his back was 90 degrees to his legs.
"Good! Good! Be prepared for the punishment. Everyone will have 3 fights while you will get to have only 2 and one of them will be with me, and after that, you are doing a 10K run regardless, you understand me, CADET!" Kim sentences Luke while the rest of the training hall was dead silent and the room echoes the commands.
"SIR! YES! SIR!" Luke salutes back and receives the bracelet from The sergeant, which he equips and then joins the rest.
"Now split up into groups of 2 by picking your partner and move to your respective spaces".
Kim commanded and they split up into groups Leon looks at the matchup still a bit salty that they were doing training without powers exactly on the day that he died AND for the fact that no one notices that he is missing. 'Hiro would usually come and check up on me in the morning… did the chief silent him about me?' Leon ponders but notices that Luke is going against Hiro in his current training match...
'Leon sighs as he floats while he sits cross-legged and watches the show and talks to himself "thank heavens no one can see or hear me in this state… well I hope I don't develop a fetish from this heh..' he tries to crack a joke as his reality as a ghost starts to set in and the loneliness finally gets to him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile in a different corner of the base which was uncomfortably close to the women's dorm. A man with blonde hair with a few braids on the side, deep green eyes and a scar under his left eye, well-defined pecs, biceps, and his compact fit 8 abs and serratus are clearly seen as he wakes up In the bed alone, and yawns stretching his arms outwards.
His face and neck had multiple lipstick marks and hickeys, which he notices when he gets up naked, goes to the bathroom, and looks at himself in the mirror.
"My~ oh~ my~ don't I look handsome?~" he smirks as he looks at himself in the mirror, washes his face, and removes the mark till his eyes widen and look towards the direction away from the mirror.
"Why is there a soul roaming on the surface?"