4:45 pm July 8th, 2018
The room that Shiro resided in was white with no windows, unlike the hospital that he lived in once before. As he slowly woke up from the hospital bed, he grabbed his forehead in pain. He wasn't quite sure what happened, but he knew that he was no longer in Heiwa City. As he looked around the empty room he noticed a cabinet with a set of clothes lying on top of it. Next to it was a red armband with P.E.S printed onto it.
He quickly grabbed and changed into the clothes while stuffing the armband in his back pocket. Once he did, he hastily left the room to find help.
The corridor that he walked into was long and empty, however, there were multiple doors lined up against it. He tried to use his psychic sense, to find any people but somehow it was being interfered with.
Taking a random guess he opened one of the many doors and was met with the exact same room that he was in before. But this time he found an unconscious Weatherman in the bed with 2 people surrounding him.
One of them was the familiar red-headed woman who caught him earlier. She wore a loose red and white kimono as well as an even larger black coat behind her. On her side, she brandished a single black hilted katana in a darker red sheath. She was even taller than Shiro at around 6ft 1 and even with all her clothing you could see some of her hard-trained muscles.
Next to him was an oddly dressed boy, similar to Shiro in height. He wore a white ninja gi, that had a blue scarf that reached down the floor. In contrast, he had short black hair and eyes with a small black mole on his forehead.
They both had red P.E.S armbands on their right arms.
The second the ninja saw him, he jumped towards Shiro, while the red-haired woman shouted at him, "DON'T DO IT, ARASHI!"
He tried to grab Shiro by the neck, however, Shiro surprisingly dodged and delivered a strong blow to his face, which didn't even faze him. Ash Shiro struggled to push him back, but Arashi just kept persisting while muttering under his breath,
"Because of you, sensei-weatherman is in this state!"
As soon as he said that a weak groan shouted, "OI OI, SHUT UP YOU FOOL!"
Weatherman picked up the lamp that was next to him and threw it at the back of Arashis head. He had enhanced it with psychic power so it knocked him out instantly. The adult woman walked up to the unconscious body before picking it up and carrying it on her shoulders. As she left she said, "So you're the new hire huh? Your reinforcement is quite good. I'll leave both of you to catch up."
As she left, she slammed the door behind her, leaving Shiro and Weatherman alone in the room. Shiro walked over, to the side of his bed before taking a seat. He then asked,
"Do you mind explaining, why you never told me what happened to her?"
"So you're not even gonna ask how I'm doing first?"
Shiros' expression turned deathly serious as he shouted, "DON'T GIVE ME THAT CRAP. WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME SOONER??"
Weatherman sighed heavily before drinking a glass of water. "I didn't want to tell you because if I did, you wouldn't have recovered. Her death would have clouded you and blinded you with hatred. I would have told you when you were ready, but it seems like my efforts were in vain."
"I guess I can't blame you then because you were right. The only thing I desire now is the death of psychics like him. People who abuse their power like that have no right to live.", Shiro said with a very dark tone. "Anyway, how did you get an injury like that?"
Shiro then pointed to the layers of bandages that were stacked on top of Weathermans', chest. He replied,
"An enhancer did this to me. He somehow snuck behind me and I couldn't sense his psychic power. For some reason though, he avoided destroying my heart and left me to bleed on the ground. That guy still broke my ribcage so I'll be out of commission for a while."
Shiro felt slightly concerned. When he said that he couldn't sense his psychic power, he remembered Adam for some odd reason. He dismissed it as just a coincidence and thought nothing of it.
"So where are we?", Shiro asked.
"This is the S.N.A.Ds' largest base of operations called Aether. The whole place is interconnected through warps in space that are caused by the director's psychic trait. You can access most of the rooms by thinking about it and then opening one of those doors. Each room however needs a certain level of access to enter. Our armbands act as a sort of ID that can be used to access those rooms. As a member of P.E.S., you can access most of the base."
Realizing this Shiro then pulled out the armband that he shoved in his back pocket. He then declared, "I have nothing left in Heiwa City. Eiko is dead so I no longer have any attachments to that place. Eiko would have wanted me to seek out my memories, but I won't do that until I have wiped out those pigs."
"Good on you, I guess? If you're hungry, just show the people in the cafeteria your armband and they'll give you food for free."
Shiro nodded, as he wore it. He then left the room, saying his goodbyes to Weatherman. The second he opened the door, he was greeted with the same corridor that he once walked into as he closed the door behind him.
Once he opened that same door again, he was met with a large room filled with people carrying lunch trays. They all wore green or white outfits, but similarly, they all lacked the armband that he wore.
He walked over to a square hole etched into a wall which had a sign labelled 'food' over it. He looked inside if anyone was there but he could only see pitch darkness. That was when he heard an old voice say, "Down here, lad."
When he looked down, he saw a short old man wearing a chef's outfit that hid his balding head.
He then demanded from Shiro, "Are you ordering, or not? You're wasting me and my other customer's time!"
Shiro began to panic as he wasn't sure what to say. He then asked, "So what's on the menu?"
The line behind him bursted out laughing, while the old man followed suit.
"MENU??", the old man said while choking on his own laughter. "MY NAME IS HANZO OF ONE THOUSAND DISHES! I CAN COOK ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING TO PERFECTION! YOU SEEM TO BE NEW HERE KID, SO I'LL COOK YOU SOMETHING YOU'VE NEVER TASTED BEFORE."
Hanzo then disappeared into the darkness, as a single flame could be seen from the outside. While he worked you could hear the sounds, of things being chopped and diced followed by the sounds of food being fried.
After 1 minute passed, he returned from the darkness this time holding a tray that had chopsticks and a bowl filled with rich flavoured broth, with golden noodles and a selection of meats or vegetables, topped with a boiled egg.
Shiro then said bluntly, "This is just a bowl of ramen..."
Suddenly Hanzo's head turned bright red as he was fuming with rage. He began to throw kitchen utensils at Shiro forcing him away. As he did this he shouted,
"SINCE YOUR PALATE IS SO GOOD, THEN GO EAT SOMEWHERE ELSE!"
Luckily though, Shiro managed to take the Ramen with him before he got kicked out. He looked around for a place to sit, but he saw that most of the seats were taken, or put him in awkward positions. That's when he noticed the two others that were with Weatherman.
As he approached them Arashis' face turned bitter while the red-haired woman was much more welcoming but still quite tough. When he sat down Arashi asked him, "What are you doing here?"
The second he said that the woman slapped him on the back of the head while telling him, "Have some respect for the newcomer."
Arashi cleared his breath while coughing as he tried again, "So who are you meant to be?"
The woman slapped again once more, causing him to shout in pain as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Im sorry about him. He's just a little upset after what happened with Weather. My name is Enji Miyamoto, and he's Arashi Fujibayashi, as you can see we both work in the psychic execution squad, the same as you and Weather although I think you're still a little too green to join us."
Shiro then asked confusingly, "No codenames?"
Her face then turned blank, while Arashi started to giggle. Upon hearing that, Enji immediately smacked him in the back of the head, once more. She then explained, "The Codenames are an excuse that Weather made so that he didn't have to tell us his name. He might give you one now, but don't worry it really won't make much of a difference."
Shiro then started to munch on his food with the other three. Surprisingly the ramen definitely tasted a lot better than the pre-made stuff that he ate with Weatherman. As they dined, Enji asked,
"So, Shiro. Would you say that you're strong?"
Shiro's eyes suddenly light up. After he finished training with Weatherman he felt that he had grown a lot stronger compared to when he first started out. And then after his fight, he felt that his psychic power control and storage had increased significantly.
"I think you and Arashi, here should spar for a bit."
Burning determination suddenly sparked in Arashis' eyes as he looked at Shiro. He then shouted,
"IM GONNA BEAT YOUR ASS."
Enji quickly slapped him on the back of his head once again, sending him flying off his chair.