Day 2
The Test!
He's A Lot Stronger Than He Looks
The CIB has a ranking system like every other established institute. Like how military rankings work or how school teachers are ranked based on their merit. Newbies like me are ranked at the bottom, as Rank I. Slightly more experienced officers are placed on Rank II. The highest rank a rookie can reach is Rank III. From there, said officers are ranked by danger rating. As such they're ranked as; D, C, B, A, S, X and finally Z, with Z class being the highest obviously.
Needless to say, as a new comer I was ranked as the lowest of the low ,Rank I. And because Evan isn't registered as an individual officer but as my familiar, his rank is directly below mine. Which means that if I was ranked as Rank I, he was ranked as Rank 0.5. I wasn't worried though. His rank was low because his rank reflected that of his superior (me). It didn't take his own individual strength into account, and that was a mistake that many, many, people would come to realise.
It's been three minutes since we were called to the initiation test by the big scary senior officer (who's name turned out to be Adolf). We were on the tenth floor. It was a training ground of sorts with an open floor plan and a fighting ring in it's centre. In that ring there was Evan and Adolf.
Outside the ring there was me and my fellow rookies, standing at attention ready to watch the test that was about to take place. I tried examining their faces to gleam some idea of what the test may entail. I mean if the fighting ring was any indication then it was obviously be a combat test.
"….." the first guy's face was glum.
"...." The second guy's face was wet with sweat.
The third face was no better. None of their faces were better. Each of them looked more horrified than the last guy.
Oh no. My thoughts immediately drifter to the worst possible outcome.
Adolf started rolling his sleeves as he broke into an explanation of how the CIB is divided.
"The CIB has three divisions. There's the Receive division, which is the division responsible for distributing cases to agents based on their ranks. I assume I don't have to explain how ranks work, correct?"
"""NO SIR!!"" the cadets shouted in unison.
Adolf nodded to himself as he continued his explanation. "Good. Then there's the Investigation division. That one is pretty self explanatory. Accusing a celestial of a crime is a great offence. It will not be taken lightly. We don't want agents going out there to bring in people who haven't committed any crimes which is why only the brightest are assigned there. Understand?"
"""YES SIR!!""" I yelled alongside the cadets.
"Then finally there's the Retrieve division," he continued. "Once a celestial has been convicted of a crime it's the agent's job to bring them in to be sentenced. Needless to say, even human convicts put up a fight. So what happens if a celestial refuses to be brought in? They fight back, and with them having super human strength as well as other powers I don't need to explain how that can get ugly really fast."
As Adolf spoke he turned his eyes to me. "Cadet Stark."
"Yes sir!" I yelped.
"How does a weak human like you fight a celestial?"
"Uhm...I've never actually fought…a celestial before."
"But you've survived a battle between two of them haven't you?"
Without having to ask further I knew he was talking about the fight from ten years ago. About the fight that destroyed my home and took my grandmother's life.
"Yes." I answered meekly.
"And how did you happen to survive that battle?"
"I was saved by my familiar."
"Your Guardian Devil, you mean."
"Yes sir."
Suddenly I became the centre of everyone's attention. The other cadets looked at me with gaping mouths. Some even went as far as wiping the sweat from their brows. I wasn't surprised though. After all, Guardian Devils are rare. Extremely rare. Demons usually never go out of their way to protect another person, much less a human.
Not unless they got something out of it. As for Evan, the thing he got from protecting me was a place to sleep rent free, three square meals a day and a lot of stolen panties. I may or may not have mentioned this before, but Evan is a complete pervert. He loves perversion with a passion.
"Don't worry," Adolf said, cutting my monologue. "Getting your hands on a Guardian Devil isn't the only way to fight a celestial. As you'll soon see."
He'd finished rolling up his sleeves revealing golden, armour like tattoos on his forearms.
"These are called Angel's Armourment. When a human reaches a certain level of agility and strength, they're able to put on parts of an angel's armour and use it for combat. Now pay attention. Hey smart ass!"
Adolf called to Evan who was-
"Munch..."
Stuffing himself with a face full of sandwich the entire time.
Wait, is that my sandwich!?
"Evan!" I snapped.
"What? He was taking forever."
"That doesn't mean you need to start stuffing your face. Didn't you eat when we left!?"
"Actually, no! You were too busy snoring to make breakfast!"
"I don't snore!"
"Do too."
"Do not!"
"Do too and you know it." He swallowed a mouthful of sandwich and started blowing raspberries at me.
At that point I wanted to jump into the ring and give him his just deserts. But the gazes of everyone in the room stopped me from going any further. The aura that was radiating from Adolf made me sink to the floor.
"Before I was just gonna beat you," Adolf growled. "But now, I'm gonna kill you!"
In a burst of lightning fast speed he burst from his position and lunged at Evan. The tattoos on his forearm took shape, turning into golden gauntlets that were the definition of intimidating. He swung his fist at Evan, the shock from the impact shook the entire floor.
A huge puff of dust spread throughout the room causing everyone in it to cough violently. A temporary blindness hit my eyes so it was difficult to see, but I was sure of what I was looking at. Evan was gripping Adolf's fist tightly in his hand.
"Hey uh….. random question. Are you allowed to use that much force against a cadet?"
The shock on Adolf's face was palpable.
"Cause I'm pretty sure it's illegal somehow." Evan said with a bright smile.