Jane spent a few hours teaching Kichirou the limited history and customs of Charon, as that was what most of the test would be about.
"You're at a natural disadvantage here compared to the other test takers, since you're probably going to be one of the few people there who didn't experience all of Charon's history firsthand."
Kichirou knew he was an outsider, a foreigner to this way of life people had been accustomed to over the last few years, but only now was he seeing that there were certain things he'd never quite been able to understand. He knew he'd struggled up on the surface trying to survive, but what about the people who lived here, trying not only to survive but also to build a new society?
Jane continued on, speaking of how a race of red-skinned humanoids rounded up most of the people in an area that would soon become Charon, through the efforts of both humanity and the alien ambassadors. There were very few largely important figures that cropped up throughout the years. Many of the world leaders of the old world were still in a position of power in Charon, though they now had to work together with one another to come to decisions. More important were the different policies that were made regarding relations with extraterrestrial entities. Generally, relations with aliens were to be friendly, but suspicious. The people in power didn't quite trust the aliens, but they recognized the abundance of new technology they were given and decided to treat aliens with hospitality should they ever come by.
"So you understand all of that?"
Kichirou had been taking notes on what she'd been saying, but Jane's points and the knowledge he'd gained had been kind of overwhelming him. Kichirou decided to lie.
"Yeah, yeah I got it."
'I can't go through all that again…'
"Good, you go find somewhere to get some lunch before we go over to the facility for your daily combat training."
'The boy needs to get more used to the city, he's too new here to succeed. Even if he can become a student at the Charon Military Academy, what would it matter if he can't live a life anyway.'
Jane wanted Kichirou to go out and get acquainted with his city, in an attempt to give him back a little bit of the life he'd lost separated from the rest of humanity.
Kichirou put on a set of clothes he'd bought on his previous shopping trip, a pair of black sweatpants with a white T-shirt, along with a pair of white sneakers, and headed out of the apartment.
Kichirou, deciding to take the opportunity to try and explore the city, made his way to the closest monorail stop.
'How do you even read this stuff again?'
The map for public transport had bested Kichirou, and he decided to simply ask for directions. Walking up to a rough-looking man, he began his inquiry.
"Hey, how do you get to…"
Kichirou's voice began to trail off as he looked up the name of the area he wanted to get to.
"Elysium! How do you get to Elysium from here?"
The man was quite off-put by Kichirou's lack of knowledge but answered him regardless.
"You don't know how to get there? Where've you been all this time? Well, whatever, take the 203 down to 5th Street and get off there. That'll take you to the general area."
The man spent some time going over what he meant using the map as a guide, which Kichirou, in truth, barely understood.
"Yeah, I got it. Alright, thanks for the help, maybe I'll see you around."
Kichirou walked off while waving to the man, which the man would reciprocate.
'Now that I know how to get there myself, I won't have any issues with this anymore.'
Kichirou walked up the stairs to his departing station and began to wait for the monorail to come through. After it arrived, he and about 8 other passengers boarded the monorail, while there was a sea of people departing.
'People must be going home at this time rather than going out.'
Suddenly a voice came over the PA.
"5th Street station 203 high-speed rail leaving shortly! Please either find a seat or a railing to hold onto!"
Kichirou heard the sound of compressing air and before he knew it, the monorail jetted off towards 5th Street.
Kichirou quickly arrived at 5th Street because of just how fast the monorail was. As he stepped off the train.
"Oof-"
"Sorry!"
"Watch out!"
Kichirou felt the swarming of massive amounts of people getting onto the train all at the same time. Men and women dressed in business suits, kids his age in school uniforms, and a variety of other types of people crowded the train, and Kichirou was barely able to make his way off the train before the doors closed.
"Phew~ That was a close one."
Kichirou began his trek down the stairs that led to 'the boarding areas and onto the street. As the automatic doors to the street opened, Kichirou finally saw up close the lights that illuminated Charon, an underground city, as though the sun were still soaring up above. There were towers so tall, that Kichirou briefly forgot Charon, and by extension Elysium, was underground.
"Wow…"
Kichirou began the search for food, eventually coming across a sort of noodle house. Kichirou walked inside, to be greeted by the sight of very few customers, yet a smell that could only be described as divine.
"What would you like sir?"
Kichirou glanced up at the overhead menu before giving his response.
"Can I get a number 3, the shoyu pork ramen? Extra pork and noodles please."
Kichirou was quite famished, not having eaten since around 7am that morning and it now being 1:30pm, a fact that wouldn't stay hidden for long as Kichirou's stomach growled loudly shortly after he finished his sentence.
"Of course! We'll have that out for you shortly."
The teenage girl working the counter walked back to the cook, passing him a slip containing Kichirou's order.
"You can sit anywhere you want, I'll have that out for you soon!"
The girl's demeanor seemed overly bubbly to Kichirou, though he had no problem with it. Kichirou pondered it as he walked over to a booth and sat down.
"Do you mind if I sit here?"
Kichirou looked up to see a tall boy, around his age, clad in black. His brown hair sat just below his ears. He was of fair skin and green eyes, denoting his heritage as a European.
"Of course, have a seat."
Kichirou gestured for the boy to sit opposite him in the booth. Kichirou wondered why the boy wanted to sit with him, and felt quite uncomfortable. He didn't know what to talk about, but luckily, the boy decided to speak first.
"Sorry, man! I didn't wanna eat alone, and I saw you sitting over here and thought we could both use the company! Usually I'm out to eat with my friends but I was on my way home alone today but I'm still hungry, so I decided to stop by."
Kichirou eased up a bit, letting out a sigh before giving his reply.
"This is actually my first time here, I've lived in the outskirts of the city for a bit, so I don't come around here much."
Kichirou decided not to let the boy know that he was actually from outside of Charon, and spun it to sound like he was simply from a faraway part of the city.
"Alright, alright, that's cool man. Maybe I can show you around sometime! What's your name by the way? I'm Gray."
"Kichirou."
Gray extended his hand for a handshake, which Kichirou would give him.
"One shoyu pork ramen and one house style beef udon."
the girl from the counter came out carrying their respective meals, placing them on the table before starting to head back to the front counter.
"Enjoy your meal, you two!"
Gray shouted back.
"We will!"
Kichirou began to wonder.
'Am I the only one who isn't happy-go-lucky around here?'
Kichirou sighed before giving in.
"Yeah, we will!"
Eating their meal while talking to each other, the boys found out they actually had a lot in common. The conversation quickly turned from awkward lines to a continuous and intense back and forth, filled with laughter on both parts, though it was mostly Gray telling joke, Kichirou laughing at them, and Gray laughing at his own jokes.
"Well I've gotta go now, I'll see you around. Oh, this is my UMemo ID, if you ever wanna contact me."
Gray passed Kichirou a slip with the word "RayGrayXx" written on it. Kichirou couldn't help but chuckle to himself when he read it, but realized he didn't know something pretty important.
"UMemo?"
Gray turned back around to face Kichirou.
"You haven't heard of UMemo before? Guess you really have been living pretty out there."
Gray opened up what appeared to be 2 black sticks stuck together, until Gray pulled them apart and revealed a holographic display between them that acted as a cellular device. Gray then swiftly moved to his UMemo app.
"UMemo is pretty much the new messaging app ever since humanity first fell. Now that the heavy hitters from back then aren't around, a relatively small group in UMemo rose to power, since they're the only ones who ended up surviving the cratering without too many casualties."
After explaining UMemo to him, Gray left Kichirou alone in the noodle house. Kichirou quickly finished his noodles, paid his bill, and started on his way back to the apartment. By the time he'd made it there it was 3pm, which Jane would reveal to be time for his daily combat training. After a short car ride, they arrived back at that same facility.
"I took the liberty of arranging an account for you while you were out earlier, here you go."
Just then, Jane tossed over a keycard with Kichirou's name on it, followed by a bunch of numbers and letters Kichirou assumed were a serial number.
"Also, I spoke to Jack about last time. He'll be using some more… orthodox, methods from now on."
Kichirou inwardly thanked whatever god had taken mercy on him, and stepped into the elevator. After arriving on the designated floor, Kichirou found Commander Ramirez standing calmly in the middle of the field.
"Today, we'll be seeing just how good you can fight already! We need a good benchmark if we're gonna get anything done, don't wanna teach you stuff you already know, do I? Get into a stance, and we'll get right into it, this is the only thing we'll be doing today, so make sure you give it your all!"
Kichirou entered a stance, and slowly approached Ramirez, who shot a look over at Jane.
"Already on edge are we? Looks like yesterdays lesson worked wonders didn't it!"
Jane sighed off to the side before taking a seat on the nearby bench.
Kichirou launched a kick at Ramirez, who easily caught it with one hand.
"That's all you got, kid?"
Ramirez used his other hand to punch Kichirou, sending him stumbling back a few feet. He ran back at Ramirez, throwing a flurry of punches, however, Ramirez would either block or parry all of them with little to no effort.
"Sigh this is gonna take a while isn't it?"
After letting Kichirou know how bored he was, Ramirez finally decided to land another hit.
"Gah-!"
Kichirou was hunched over from the pain of the blow.
'I can't win, not as I am now, at least. Wait a minute…"
Kichirou decided it was time to take a gamble, and gathered the energy in his fingertip before drawing the symbol.
"Heugh-"
Kichirou took a deep breath, staving off the yearn to turn it off, and took one last charge at Ramirez.
"There's something different in your eyes now kid, is it those powers of yours? Determination? Or maybe it's a mix of both?" Kichirou threw a flurry of blows at Ramirez, to no avail.
"Maybe it's nothing at all. It's time I ended this."
With that, Ramirez caught Kichirou's fist, and started to throw an uppercut right at Kichirou's face
"Haaaahh…"
Kichirou took a deep breath, and at that moment, Kichirou felt as if he felt everything in the world. Each strand of hair on his body, his feet against the ground, and the cutting of the air as Ramirez's fist flew through it.
'I see it!'
Kichirou, mere moments before the fist could hit him, ducked out of the way, flinging his body over to the left. As his body spun in the air, Kichirou twisted his hips, and landed a kick to Ramirez's neck!
"Ngh-!"
Kichirou managed to catch Ramirez wince in pain before landing on the ground. Ramirez quickly offered a hand to help him off the ground.
"Looks like you really did have something up your sleeve at the end there!"
Kichirou quickly dispelled the symbol's effect, which had greatly heightened the pain from falling on the ground. Despite his pain however, having landed a blow on Ramirez made Kichirou feel accomplished, as if he'd been the one to win the fight.
"Whatever it is, I expect you to bring it every day from now on! Well, that's all for today, I'll see you right back here tomorrrow?"
Jane suddenly chimed in.
"Tomorrow."
Jane and Kichirou quickly went on their way, and after arriving at the apartment, Kichirou quickly ate dinner before pulling out his couch-bed.
"Goodnight."
Jane reciprocated the gesture as she walked into her bedroom.
"Goodnight."
And Kichirou quickly drifted off to sleep.