Jin stood on the cusp of a segmented bridge with the horrified look of a cornered sheep, his wide eyes glued to the barrel of Walter's revolver.
"No, wait!" Jin covered his face but the ear-piercing shot made him flinch and trip over the railing behind him.
Jin fell off screaming and flailing to grab anything but before he could fall further, a muscular hand quickly shot down and grabbed his leg.
Jin gasped and tried to flail his hands upwards, hoping to grab the bridge somehow, yet he didn't have to do anything since the man above easily pulled him up and gently righted Jin on his feet without any effort.
"Are you okay, brother?" said a large-framed man with a wide friendly grin that radiated warmth, the exact opposite of Walter's eyes that haunted Jin. Not only that but his deep voice, that would normally be intimidating, made his rich presence comforting.
The dark-skinned man wore a crimson suit with a spiraling pattern on it and had his long flowy hair somehow half tied up in a bun yet still left mostly loose. A chain hung around his neck with the small placard of Four of Hearts.
Jin couldn't mutter a word and just shook while looking at the man with dread in his eyes.
"Little man, you run too fast. You must be the new recruit Dealer talked about, eh? What are you doing running around like this?"
"He's going to kill me… I need to escape, I don't care if they hunt me down later, I can't stay here!" Jin shouted then quickly looked around for Walter.
But his eyes landed on a gloved woman in a white suit with silver braided hair instead, her skin was pale enough to rival the shimmering fabric she wore in terms of brightness.
"Fortune! You came back from your missions and didn't tell me, you rude man," the woman laughed casually and patted the man on the back.
"Ohoho, Tres! Good timing. Dealer scouted for some members to let me test N10's training effectiveness. We also have Second's chosen and Ace's chosen with us!" the man beamed happily.
"Second's chosen? He actually chose a trainee?" the woman tilted her head with a look of confusion.
Jin ignored them and looked across the bridge, at a few armed men in combat suits summoning a portal while directing others in it.
'That's my way out!'
With a twisted smile, Jin ran towards it but Fortune's large meaty hands easily picked him up by the scruff of his shirt and suspended him in the air.
"This one came out from the dorm. I don't recognize him but he is now one of my own, but he is too afraid and throwing himself in danger. I don't know how to fix him, Tres," the man's grin broke to a soft frown.
"Fix him? Ahh… Lower him, I'll do it," Tres walked closer to Jin, grabbing his face and smiling at him.
"Newcomer, you sound like a little cat among monsters. It's fine to be afraid, but your decisions have to still make sense. Running around all over the place won't fix your problems."
"But he's going to kill me!" Jin reached up to try and pry the hand away.
"And? You don't die, do you?" Tres' smile grew more sinister.
"Bu-" Jin tried but couldn't explain how horrible the pain was since she shoved her fingers inside his mouth to shut him up.
"Shh… Don't talk. Just listen… You're now a soldier, a useful asset that we won't throw away unless you're worthless. Bear the pain, grow a thicker skin and learn from your training. If you don't like the pain, then train better to avoid it, don't run away."
Tres' smile grew calmer as she slowly pulled Jin's tongue out and stared at it.
"But even if you're trained to be an elite fighter, it all goes to waste once you mentally break… So let me give you a small tip…"
Tres played with Jin's tongue, twirling her fingers around it, squeezing it and pulling it out whenever Jin tried to return it in his mouth.
"Find somewhere quiet and sit there with your eyes closed, take a deep breath, fill your lungs to the brim then let it all out. Do it until you think of nothing."
Tres stepped back, wiping her hand against Jin's shirt with a pleased smile.
"Calm down, reassess your situation after that and keep your head cool. If you want to run away after that, I'll be happy to turn you to a spirit… Now, let's go Fortune. I want to catch up with my favorite."
Tres turned around and walked away while beckoning the man to follow.
Fortune nodded then looked at Jin.
"I'm Fortune, your new boss. But I think Second handles your training? I hear he is very strict, so please make use of Tres' tips. Calm down and become strong enough to avoid pain!" the man laughed and released Jin before running to Tres enthusiastically, his entire frame wobbling from side to side with every step as if he was a cartoon character.
Jin stared at them, his mouth twitching.
"Heh… I should get used to dying? But I don't want to… I just want to curl up and…"
Jin sat down and took a shaky breath while closing his eyes.
'No… Calm down…'
Jin took a deep inhale, his chest inflating as wide as it went.
After a short pause, Jin exhaled it all out.
'Calm down… Ease your nerves… Breathe slower…'
Jin's breathing rhythm was deep, like a pendulum swinging from a long thread. Every soul-seeking breath eased his quivering body and raging thoughts bit by bit.
Jin kept at it for a couple of minutes or even longer, he wasn't sure how much time passed, he only focused on his breath and killing his thoughts, his vision obscured by his unfaltering eyelids.
Slowly, his irrational thoughts were quelled by the silence he enforced on himself.
When Jin opened his eyes again he almost winced from the light's touch.
'Right… I can't die. That madman shooting me is all part of training so I could… dodge bullets? Crazy… How can I avoid bullets? I never even played dodgeball in my entire life! Wait… maybe that's it. They said they had a recreational facility somewhere?'
Jin nodded to himself and stood up while looking around the islands until his eyes landed on a fenced sizable piece of land with neon lights and a colorful array of lightbulbs draped on the chain link walls.
'There.'
***
Jin walked away from the wobbling segmented bridge, and under an archway showing off "Pleasure Paradise" in a bright rosy glow with a crimson heart next to it.
The island had a large marble fountain in the center with a large open space surrounded by a plethora of buildings of all shapes, sizes and types and a modest crowd of people in the same clothes as him.
Jin scratched his head while looking around.
"Dodgeball… Dodgeball… Wait…" Jin's eyes landed on a small green field with several open booths of see-through glass panels separating several lanes.
People standing in the lanes held a baseball bat and swung at balls that flew towards them from automated pitchers, cubic machines with launcher pipes that shot ivory leather spheres.
"Oh… A batting center… I remember going to some of these for a work trip… This could work."
Jin's eyes shifted to an unoccupied lane and he instantly walked to it, but then a man grabbed his shoulder.
"Where do you think you're going without paying? You stupid recruits, I swear…" the umber-haired man scoffed while his partner walked closer with a bored look.
They had a beret with a crimson heart on it and an orange vest jacket.
"Huh? Paying?" Jin cocked an eyebrow.
"You lot are pushing my buttons, always with the same stupid story! I've explained this a thousand times! Can't any of you read the plaque near the entrance of the island!?" the man's face reddened with rage.
"You go on missions, you do the work, you get paid in tracked credits, you use those to have fun and other benefits! Without 'em you're basically a beggar, so scram!"
Jin glared at the men but stepped back.
"What's with that look!? You want to go!?"
"Hey, John… I just realized who this person is…" his partner spoke, his eyes growing tense.
"Huh? You know this idiot?"
"No, I just saw him before. He's the Second's trainee… He was shot for hours and hours…"
The angry man's face quickly broke down in fearful sweats as he looked back at Jin with terror in his eyes.
"I thought… that the Second refused trainees…" the man gulped and stepped back.
"S-Sorry for being rude, my job's just tough so I wasn't thinking straight… Y-You don't need to pay, think of it as my apology," the man laughed and hurriedly returned to his post.
Jin gulped then grimaced.
'The Second… This bastard is that terrifying? The man's entire demeanor changed so quickly…' Jin thought to himself while walking to the free lane.
"Did you hear that? They said that guy's the Second's trainee…"
"What? No way… Didn't he flay his last trainee and say he's not interested during the promotion exams? That was horrible…"
People began whispering around him and even the ones who were busy batting without a care in the world stopped to look at Jin.
Jin stood on a painted square box and looked at a device with buttons and a digital interface.
'That's a lot more buttons than I'm used to… But it looks similar enough to what I saw before.'
Jin quickly poked and prodded the buttons to adjust the speed, position and angle.
'This is even more complicated, so I think I can fine tune it to-'
Thwack! A ball hit the side of Jin's face with moderate speed, throwing him off his balance.
"Ah… That button starts it."
Jin grimaced and stood up straight, his eyes turning towards the pitcher. Despite that he could still see the people staring at him intensely in his peripherals, they were drinking his every motion, yet not even one person dared to laugh at his mistake.
'The air is so tense, it's making me uncomfortable…'
Jin scowled and slammed the button with his fist while focusing on the barrel of the machine.
With a soft whirr it blasted the ball at him, slamming it against his face and breaking his nose while the ball flew upwards into a glass ceiling.
"Agh!" Jin fell down backwards then covered his nose while cursing under his breath.
'Too fast… But good enough… I can see it, I just need to predict it…'
Jin quickly stood up and pressed the button once more, shooting himself in the face again, then again, and again. His face quickly growing bruised and bloodied but he kept at it.
"What is he doing…?"
"He's not holding a bat… Did he just come here to hit himself with baseball balls?"
"What a pain freak… Is he really the Second's trainee?"
"Maybe he's just the Second's stress relief, I heard he's undying… Sickening combo…"
The whispers grew louder and numerous but Jin ignored it all, giving his all and even beyond that just to dodge the small ball. His bloodshot eyes focused on the dark barrel of the machine while his ears listened attentively to its sounds.
Whirr… chp… tick.
Fwoosh!
Jin's ears twitched and he quickly ducked preemptively, able to dodge the ball in time.
'That's it!' Jin grinned widely, his blood-covered face giving him a mad appearance.
'I don't need to dodge the gunshot! I need to move away before the bullets even leave the barrel! Trying to dodge a bullet is too insane, this makes more sense!'
Jin stood up and started laughing, proud of his achievement, but then a ball smashed his teeth and lodged itself in his mouth, the impact throwing his body onto the ground.
"Hahaha! These remote controls are the best!" a man with the sides of his hair shaved and a cigar in his mouth laughed at Jin.
He was wearing a glaring orange suit with tiger stripes and was adorned in a large amount of jewelry. Nestled within his collection of glimmering chains was a small placard showing Seven of Hearts.
"What's with this tense atmosphere, everyone!? This paradise is a place for fun! The Second's stooge shouldn't ruin your moods! Ignore him!"
The man walked closer to Jin who was struggling to get the ball out of his mouth.
"I don't care how you use my buildings for your pleasure, even if you're some masochistic psycho, but don't go ruining the party. If you're trying to learn how to dodge bullets, then you should set the speed to match."
The man pressed buttons on his remote device multiple times then pressed the big red button in the middle, sending a powerful blur of ivory that snapped Jin's neck back and splattered his head into pieces. Effectively turning the once gentle fun mechanical pitcher into a destructive cannon rivaling rail-guns.
The man laughed at the mess in front of him.
A momentary glimpse of darkness was all that Jin got before his eyes shot open to Walter's heartless gaze and his silver revolver's hollow barrel.
'He's going to-!' Jin tensed up but quickly relaxed his shoulder as his wide eyes softened.
'No, it's fine… I don't die… It's fine if he shoots me…' Jin quickly took a deep breath, his eyes fortifying his face with a sharper and more composed look.
Walter raised his eyebrows, a faint look of surprise barely seen on his face.
Jin stood up and inhaled deeply again.
"I'm ready for training," Jin said with determined eyes, ready to use his short-lived experience with baseball practice against Walter.
Walter lowered the gun and stood there staring at Jin for a few silent seconds.
"Very well."
With that, he whipped his gun up in a blur.
Jin instantly moved to the side to avoid the bullet… but it never came.
Walter swiftly countered and readjusted his aim, but Jin was quicker and moved out of the way.
A pointless action since Walter didn't shoot again.
'What is he doing!? Why isn't he shooting!? I would've avoided those bullets for sure!' Jin gritted his teeth.
"You stopped looking for the bullets, now you're looking at my barrel. You think you improved, but you're still green."
Walter moved the gun to his hip and fanned the hammer to rapidly shoot out a burst of three bullets into Jin's chest.
Jin cried out and fell down, gripping his bleeding, agonized body.
"Maybe death is too kind for you, maybe the pain needs to linger. You don't seem motivated enough to learn."
Those were the last words Walter spoke that day, after that point only his gun communicated with Jin with its resounding shots, and Jin replied back with his tortured screams and pained grunts.
Time was something incredibly hard to track in their world, so when Jin thought he was there for all eternity turning to the human version of swiss cheese, there was nothing to prove him wrong.
After what felt like years, even if it wasn't, the dull footsteps of Walter walking away broke him out of his pain-induced daze, releasing him from the hazy mental prison.
Jin slowly patted his chest to inspect it, while it was covered in blood and his shirt was riddled with holes the wounds themselves were gone, completely healed.
'Huh… I can't die… Training is over… I need to go sleep… I'm exhausted.'
Jin limped slowly to the dorm, his mind roiling like a storm without any direction.
'Trying to avoid the bullet didn't work, trying to predict the shots failed… What does he want me to do?'
Jin sighed and opened the door to the dorm.
The dark-haired woman they called Raven sat on the lower bunk bed on Jin's right, smoking a cigarette while reading some sort of comic.
Her eyes quickly drifted to Jin.
"Hm? You're that newcomer, huh? I'm-"
Jin walked inside like a possessed zombie, moving past her and throwing his body on the bed carelessly. He didn't even bother lying down properly so his legs were touching the ground.
"Oh…"
***
Despite his state, he didn't dream of anything and spent his sleeping hours in a blank darkness until his eyes opened to what he assumed to be the next day.
'Aah… I passed out instantly.'
Jin sat up and looked at a shirtless blond man putting his arms through his shirt while talking happily, revealing his lithe and well-toned body to the world.
The dark haired woman smiled as brightly while she pulled her shirt down. Jin had sat up at the right time to see a glimpse of her stomach but that was enough to flush his face in excited embarrassment, even though he tried to play it cool.
But then his eyes shifted to the two bald men conversing in the corner with fierce expressions, only dressed in their underwear and letting their toned bodies welcome the world.
The bulkier man was built like a wall and his muscles created a mesmerizing outline to show his dedication to his strength.
Jin's face darkened.
'Why are they changing here? Should I try to talk to them? Knowing more people leads to more headaches… But networking can be useful… What to do…'
The blond man's eyes suddenly turned towards Jin.
"Hey, he woke up."
"Oh, he did… Are you okay?" Raven smiled at Jin.
Everyone's eyes shifted to him almost instantly, drawn by curiosity.
Jin took a slow and deep breath then smiled back.
"I am… not. Who would be? Not with what I go through in training…"
Raven shook her head.
"That rough? Hmm... Why don't you come train with Fortune then? From what I heard, Dealer gave him specific permission to train us, so I think Second can't interfere if you come with us," Raven crossed her arms while looking at him.
'Fortune is that friendly guy I met near the bridge… Training under him might be a nice change of pace. I think I'll change and go with them.'
***
Jin stood on an open field, similar to where he woke up when Walter "trained" him for the first time. There were several of these areas designed for practice on one of the islands that seemed to have nothing but empty hexagons separated by fence walls.
Further away from him and to his sides the others stood with anxious looks.
In front of them stood soldiers with guns in hand carefully looking at them while Fortune sat on the side with a clipboard and a pencil.
'They said it's the same rules… He's going to shoot whenever he wants, I need to dodge… But when? Not when the bullet fires and not when the barrel moves… So when?'
One of the soldiers quickly shot the blond man, hitting him square in the chest.
"Ough! I wasn't ready…" the blond man gripped his body in pain.
Jin instinctively moved his eyes towards the blond man but then a loud bang made his ears twitch. The sound instantly awakened a primal fear within Jin, an instinct that Walter easily forced out of him when they trained.
His body jolted and his head ducked down.
After a sharp woosh there was nothing, no pain, no reset.
Jin felt surprised but another gunshot made him quickly jump away and snap his head to the shooter. He had avoided the second shot.
'Huh? I'm doing it?'
Jin carefully looked at the gun. The very second the man fired, Jin's head moved on instinct, barely avoiding the rubber round whizzing past.
"I'm doing it!" Jin shouted then laughed until cold steel harshly poked the back of his head.
Jin's smile instantly broke to a scowl. He didn't have to turn around, he knew it was Walter.
"Why are you here? The rubber bullets they use aren't as fast as mine, you're wasting everyone's time by being here," Walter's graceful and rich voice carried disappointment in its tone.
Jin sighed and turned around, grabbing the barrel and pressing it against his own forehead.
"Right, let's start the one-sided lessons, old man," Jin was annoyed and let his emotions get the better of him. Every time he wanted to celebrate a little, someone would show up to ruin it, it irked him deeply.
Walter's eyes grew even colder.