LAPIS :Chapter 20:

"What?!" Kasami gasps, "You want to train too?!"

That was as abrupt as it can get. I sigh as I run my hand through my hair, "Yes Sir, I want to train. It that really that odd?"

Kasami tries his best to compose himself, but it seems he's still in shock from my sudden request. "N-No, I suppose not, it's just that it came out of the blue," Kasami stutters, "Normally, Humans who are associated with the Jeweloid sector don't train with any of the trainers we have."

I raise an eyebrow. "Why not?" I ask, "If you have them, why not use the resource?"

Kasami takes a moment to respond, seeming unable to think straight, "Many . . . Humans, don't feel comfortable working with our trainers."

"Well, I'm fine with it, so set me up, if you will," I ask, "I want to be up to par."

Kasami's eyes widen. "Up to par with who?" Kasami replies.

Now I'm stuck. I don't want to admit the truth that why I've made the decision is connected to Maggie. If I was to say that, I'd look weak. But, I guess there's no other way to go around it. When I realized what had happened, I felt almost sick. The revelation that I, in my current state, am unfit to protect her as I’ve promised, caused my stomach to twist and a powerful sense of worthlessness to overcome me. She looks to me to make sure she’ll be ok, but I can’t do it, and that thought alone is torture. I can’t allow myself to continue to believe that I’m good enough. I need to get stronger, and if that means kissing the ground a few hundred times, than that’s what must be done.

But first, I gotta be honest with not only myself, but Kasami.

"Maggie, Sir," I answer honestly, "Even though she's only been training a week or so, she's already met me in terms of combat, not to mention she has her added Jeweloid strength and abilities to top it off. If I'm gonna fight with Jeweloids like her, I feel I should be able to carry my own weight."

Kasami stares at me in astonishment, taken back by my confession. But, before long, the look of shock melts into a warm smile, and he chuckles, "Did you two spar?"

I look away instead of answering the question, causing Kasami to laugh. "I'll take that as a yes. And from the way you're speaking, she beat you, didn't she?"

This time I nod. Kasami clicks his tongue, then sighs, turning slightly before stopping. I blink in confusion as I watch him think to himself. "What is it?" I ask.

"Nothing, I'm trying to think of a trainer who'd be willing to take you," Kasami answers, "One came to mind, but I'm not sure if it would be the best choice."

"Who?" I ask.

Realizing he’s made a blunder by even mentioning the trainer, he makes short gestures, turning slightly away from me. "No one, he'd never due-" Kasami starts.

"Who, Sir?" I interrupt. Kasami pauses, before he looks back at me for a moment. Holding my gaze, his complex countenance falls as he groans, apparently the sign that he’s giving in. He stands still a few seconds longer, then nods to himself as he gestures to me to follow him.

Today I'm not with Maggie. HERA has come back, and for whatever type of training she's having Maggie do, she didn't want me there to participate, so she was given the go ahead to exclude me for the day. Although Maggie tried to argue that I be allowed to stay, I decided to follow her instructions so that Maggie wouldn't have to be yelled at about defiance. She seemed to half appreciate it, half hate it from what I could assume from her reaction.

So, instead of keeping watch over her, I'm being made to back track a bit, and pick up some of the entrance exhibitions I had missed. A few are simple files that didn't take me more than a few minutes each to finish, but some of the bigger exhibitions, such as the entrance fitness exam, will probably take up a good bit of my afternoon. I don't have to do the medical check, since I had everything taken care of during one of the few times I was in the medical ward since I arrived over a month ago. . . . Shit, it's been over a month?

I find myself backtracking through my memories to prove my thought. Before long, I sigh as the truth is realized. Kasami looks back at me.

"What is it Isugoro?" he asks.

"Oh, nothing, just thinking," I reply, "Nothing important though."

"Ah, I see," he says, before clearing his throat, "So, when is your birthday, Isugoro?"

I blink, surprised by the question.

"Uh, the first of Recens, Sir," I answer.

"So, August 1st," Kasami chuckles, "You're birthday is coming up soon, isn't it?"

"Not for a month or so, Sir," I say.

"Still, it's something to look forward to, isn't it?" he comments, "How old will you be?"

"Twenty-one," I answer.

Kasami begins to laugh, "Oh boy, don't do anything that I did on my twenty-first birthday, alright?"

"What?" I ask curiously.

"I got as drunk as can be, and acted like an idiot, that's what I did!" he laughs, "Oh, the boys told me I tried to talk a cab driver into taking us up to the volcano so I could play with lava!"

"That sounds dangerous-"

"That sounds stupid” is what you should be saying!"

Despite my best effort to stay composed during Kasami's continuation of the story, I find myself laughing as he continues to tell me some about his younger days, and the girls he chased while drunk. He seems to treasure the memories, considering how vibrant his eyes turn with every detail he tells about the world he knew as home. Though, after a few minutes, his happy nostalgia is cut off abruptly.

"GOLD, what are you laughing at?" a human soldier asks, his brow furrowed, unamused.

"Oh, boy, I was telling Isugoro about-" he starts.

"We're supposed to refer to others by last name, GOLD, unless they are Jeweloids, then it's codename," he interrupts coldly, "Besides, I'm sure he'd better appreciate you telling of actual accounts that matter."

With that, he begins to walk off, leaving Kasami and I shocked. I can feel anger bubbling in me, my hands beginning to shake as I grip them in fists. But, I shake it off quickly, and before I think it through, I whip around, "HEY!"

The soldier turns back sharply, looking annoyed by the anger in my tone, "What now?"

"He's a Major, address him as such if you really believe in going by that system of respect," I say, my tone serious.

My reply seems to be spot on, as the soldier is back in my face before long, staring me down, "You really want to start something?"

"No, I just believe you should think before you try to be a hypocrite," I answer, staring right back without flinching. In comparison to HERA, this guy is a bug in terms of intimidation. He's trying his best to push out his chest, but it's easy to tell that I'm bigger than him, both in width and height. I also see that he's a ranking not only below Kasami, but below me, which gives way to even more possibilities to how I could handle this. He doesn't say anything for a minute, giving me opening to say something else, "He has the title for a reason. Now bring your ego down about ten notches before your ranking takes the dip."

"What can you do?-" he starts.

"I'm a W-4. You're an E-4," I interrupt. The information makes him a bit paler, and immediately, his demeanor changes a bit. Defeated, he bows ever so slightly, then turns and hurries off. I watch him scurry off until he's out of sight, then I sigh and turn to see Kasami looking at me in surprise. I grin a bit, walking back over to him. "You deserve to be respected, Sir," I say simply, "Weren't we on the way to somewhere?"

Still, he stands there in shock for a bit longer, before a warm smile begins to form on his face, and as he usually does, he takes hold of my shoulder, patting me a bit as he starts us back down the hall.

A short time later, Kasami and I have found our way through the maze of the Jeweloid sector to his private office quarters. Unlike the Commander's, Kasami's office is warm and comfortable. The room is about half the size, painted a warm red with gold accents. A similar banner hangs on the wall behind his desk with the Vesperian crest sewn into the fabric. A few shelves line the opposite walls, though nothing is much more amazing than the ceiling. It starts off plain with rich wood paneling creating the base of the rotunda, then after single ring of interesting murals, it opens up to a sky light. The wall on which the banner hangs is a great floor to ceiling window that looks out over the stream that Maggie and I saw during lunch a few days ago, bringing a smile to my face.

"Isugoro."

My attention is pulled from the view to Kasami, who's standing by one of the shelves with a file in hand. He steps away, gesturing to one of the two couches in the middle of the space separated by a wooden coffee table. I sit on one, and he sits on the other, directly opposite of me as he pulls out a few papers from the file. Before long, he sighs, and places one of them in front of me on the table. My eyes widen as I spot the picture in the middle of the sheet.

The man in the image is definitely a Jeweloid, his eyes and hair a shade just a bit darker than Sammy's is, though still bright orange when standing alone. My eyes trace the letters, eventually making out his codename; TOPAZ. He looks to be in his late twenties or early thirties, has a chin strap beard and kinda scruffy hair. His tattoos look like scars, but besides that, he looks pretty clean, considering that he looks kinda menacing.

"I don't think he'll work out that well," Kasami comments out of nowhere. I blink, looking up at him.

"Why?" I ask.

"TOPAZ . . . Marcus, if I may, doesn't look fondly upon Humans," Kasami says.

"Why, he is human-" I start.

"Was, Isugoro, was," Kasami interrupts, "It has been proven that Jeweloids are in fact a different species than Humans, just as the terrestrials and so forth."

"What's different?" I question.

"DNA, certain hormones. Nothing that needs to discussed right now," Kasami answers, before hurrying onward, "Now then, Marcus has put out many great fighters, but his issues with Humans could be an issue."

"Well then, what do you think should happen?" I ask.

"To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure," he comments, "I mean, there's Savannah, but she's not available right now-"

"Savannah?" I interrupt, "Savannah who's in the Detention Sector right now?"

Kasami's eyes widen, "Oh, so you met her down there?"

"Yeah," I laugh, "She got me with a right hook."

"She was a part of that mess? Damn that girl, she always gets involved with the most ridiculous nonsense," Kasami sighs, rubbing his temples, "That's why she and COBALT are down there in the first place."

The mention of Nathan catches me off guard, and my thoughts return to the images he'd shown me as I was leaving. I look down at TOPAZ as my thoughts reassemble themselves, and I recall something. Out of the corner of vision in one of the shots, I see him. He was fighting with us.

That settles it for me. At that moment, I look back up to meet Kasami's bright gold eyes. "When can I meet Marcus?" I ask.

Kasami's eyes widen. "Y-You want to be trained by him?" he stutters.

I nod, replying, "I need to get stronger, even if I have to be beaten to a pulp a few times to get there."

My answer seems to catch Kasami off guard, but it's not long before I see him going through his thoughts, his eyes flashing back and forth as he apparently argues with himself. Finally, after a few moments, he lets out a nervous chuckle and looks back to look at me.

"I have a better idea," he answers. My brow raises as he takes my wrist and leads me out of the room. I'm confused by the sudden turn of events, as well as Kasami's sudden change in actions. Normally he's calm and collected, but right now he seems . . . twitchy. He's mumbling to himself as he navigates us through the halls, before he celebrates a bit with himself as we make our way towards a larger hall. Suddenly, my attention is drawn from Kasami's change in character to a sound of resounding grunts and groans followed by crashing and banging. I stop a bit, catching Kasami by surprise. He turns, looking somewhat normal again.

"Kasami, what is that?" I ask.

"It's TOPAZ and one of his students, who'll tap in three, two-" Kasami says.

"I give! I give!"

My eyes widen in surprise as I hear a man's voice squealing on the other side of the wall, followed by a grunt, and another short crash.

"If you're gonna give, then you're gonna die!"

The yell belongs to who I assume is TOPAZ, or Marcus, whatever he wants to be called. His voice is average with what I assumed it would sound like when I saw his face, slightly lower with a bit of edge in his tone. I look over to Kasami, then sigh, starting forward again. My action causes Kasami to pull me back, his eyes wide.

"What?" I question as I look towards the room.

"You still want to go through with this?" Kasami asks, "He isn't playing around."

I glance over at Kasami, and as I find his gaze, I realize what he’s doing. He doesn’t want me to train with Marcus, it’s etched clearly into his expression as his eyes alone beg me to change my mind. He brought me here not to introduce me, but to show me the dangers of working with him. He’s trying to look out for me.

But I have people I need to look out for too.

With that thought, I make my decision. "Neither am I," I reply, shrugging him off slightly as I continue on to the door. Before I can grab the handle though, it flies open, and a young Jeweloid guy stumbles out, holding a hand to his face as he walks on.

"Don't come back 'til you can handle reality, dumbass!" TOPAZ calls from the other side of the door, sounding irritated. The tone in his voice has my heart racing a bit quicker than normal, but before I can go in head first, Kasami takes hold of my shoulder, taking me by surprise.

"At least allow me to introduce you. Stay here until I give the gesture to come in, alright?" Kasami instructs.

I nod.

"Who's out there?!" TOPAZ yells.

"Calm down Marcus, it's me," Kasami calls calmly, walking away from where I am and into the room where TOPAZ stands.

"Kasami, long time no see," Marcus says, chuckling a bit, "I thought you didn't like coming here 'cause you weren't a fan of my teaching methods."

"I'm not, but your results are great," Kasami says with a smile. Marcus laughs.

"Of course, always after results, aren't they? Those snakes wearing the badges," Marcus replies.

"They're not all snakes, Marcus-" Kasami starts.

"To me, yeah they are," Marcus interrupts with a curt tone, "To think I used to be considered one of them is baffling."

"I really wish you'd stop speaking of Humans in such a way," Kasami says.

"After what they did to me?" Marcus comments, "It'll take a miracle sent from God Almighty himself that'll change my mind on the subject."

"Well, I'm nod God, but, I think I have at least found something that could give you a new perspective," Kasami says.

Marcus falls quiet for moment, apparently stumped by Kasami's words, "What are you talking about old man?"

"Isugoro."

With a quick gesture, Kasami calls me forward. Trying my best to muster up as much courage as I can, I walk into the room where Kasami and Marcus stand. Marcus' folded arms fall to his sides at the sight of me, and he begins to scoff to himself. "You've gotta be joking ol'man-" he chuckles.

"This is Isugoro Jintez," Kasami says as I come to stand next to him, taking hold of my shoulder, "He has inquired about getting training, and requested you."

Marcus' eyes widen, before he takes a good look at me for the first time, and I do the same. This guy is freaking huge. He's at least two times my bulk and about four or five inches taller than me. I feel what an ant must a lot of the time. "You asked for me?" he asks.

"Yes," I reply, "Is that odd?"

He chuckles a bit, "Normally Human soldiers run the other way when I come into the mix. What makes you think you can simply walk in here and become my student-"

"He's working currently with an expected Class Zero," Kasami interjects, "He wants to have the credentials so he may become her partner when she is introduced."

That's not what I meant. Crap, that's not what I meant. I mean, yes, I want to be able to help Maggie if she needs me, but I didn't mean to make it sound like I wanted to become her partner. I want to be able to fight at her level. That's it.

"Are you serious?" Marcus laughs, "This kid can't be a partner to a Class Zero! Class Zeroes only hang out around two groups; the officials and the other class zeroes plus their partners. He wouldn't make it in-"

"She seems set on making him her partner, Marcus," Kasami comments.

Marcus doesn't say anything for a moment, before asking a simple question of me, "How old is this incoming Class Zero?"

"Seventeen," I answer honestly.

His eyes open wide in shock, "Seventeen?! God damn she's young! No wonder she wants a kid like you!"

"I suppose, but-" I start.

"Is she cute?" Marcus interrupts, taking me by surprise.

"What?" I question.

He groans, "Is she hot or what?"

"She's a pretty girl, Marcus-" Kasami begins.

"Pretty doesn't tell me anything!" Marcus groans again, "C'mon, someone show me an image!"

After a moment of silence, Kasami sighs, putting his other hand on Marcus' arm. Almost instantly, Marcus' eyes light up in excitement. "Ooooooh, holy shit!" Marcus laughs, "She's damn gorgeous!"

"Wait, I'm confused-" I start.

"Marcus, if you couldn't tell, isn't a Jeweloid with the Ability of Mind. He possesses the Ability of Body, so, in order to see images, he has to be fed them," Kasami explains.

"Oh. . . ." I trail.

"So, she's set on you?" Marcus asks.

"Um, she's never really said anything-" I start.

Marcus lets out what sounds like a rumbling cackle as he responds, "Great, she's still up for grabs!"

I blink, "Wait, what?"

"Unlike normal Jeweloids, Class Zeroes can choose other Jeweloids to be their partners," Kasami says, "It gives them better protection."

All of a sudden, I feel even more strain on my place. Now, I'm between a rock and a hard place, stuck between Maggie and my own freedom-

"You . . . you are probably the most realistic guy I've met in this place. . . . And still, this Hell . . . it's already begun to brainwash you."

My mind goes still at the sudden reminder. Sammy's words from our first conversation float lucidly over all my other thoughts, bringing back the feeling of guilt I had felt previously as I had been sitting there in front of her . . . Like I did when Maggie got excited when she saw the sky again. I'm not saying I don't have reservations about starting down this path, considering that it leads to a position I wasn't originally intending to own. But, oddly enough, it may be my only option if I intend to keep my mind clear. I'm not Cent, I can't stick to my own instincts. My instincts run on emotion, not reasoning. If I'm to protect her, I must take this road. It's my only choice.

"So when can you start training me?" I ask Marcus outright. Kasami's jaw drops, and Marcus seems to be taken by surprise. It seems that after he started blabbering about trying to take the seat of partner, he thought I'd back down. But, he quickly shakes off the shock, leaning over a bit to look me directly in the eyes.

"You're sure you want to go with me?" Marcus questions.

I chuckle a bit, "I had to work five days straight with HERA."

As soon as I mention her name, both Kasami and Marcus cringe a bit. Marcus looks away for a moment, then back at me, "You've got the guts, that's for the sure. But, do you have the stamina or endurance to take my courses? I'll beat the living shit out of you-"

"I made a promise to protect her," I interrupt, catching both of them off guard, "I'll stay as long as you ensure I can carry out that promise-"

"Within the rights that say that he must leave for the minimum of three hours so that he may continue on with his role of guard over the prospected Class Zero," Kasami adds.

Marcus looks from Kasami back to me, then laughs, "Alright, I'll do it."

Kasami and I have a similar reaction of shock, our eyes widening. "R-Really?" Kasami stutter, "You're willing to do it?"

"Of course, a challenge is always appreciated in my book," Marcus says with a sly grin.

The way he says that makes me uneasy, as the look on his face looks eerily familiar to HERA's. Unfortunately, Kasami doesn't seem to notice the resemblance between the two, and shows a lukewarm smile. "Well then, I will make the arrangements," Kasami states, "Isugoro will start with you sometime next week."

"Great, I can't wait," Marcus chuckles. With that, Kasami starts to exit, and since I accompanied him, I begin to do the same. Without warning though, I'm stopped, and pulled back into the room, setting me on guard. The next thing I see is Marcus' eyes burning, staring me down as he holds me tight in his grip. He chuckles as he sees the wariness in my eyes, seemingly amused by my cautiousness. "Aww, what's wrong? Afraid I'll bite?" he questions.

I don't respond very quickly, but I answer calmly, "Not exactly. It's more that I'm questioning whether or not you truly wish to train me, or just beat me to a pulp."

Marcus' eyebrows rise, "You're a smart kid. Seems you've been hanging around some Ability of Mind Jeweloids, 'cause they like beat it into your head to stay aware of everything."

Now that he mentions it, it's true. Every Jeweloid I've come in contact with up to this point, except for Kasami, has been an Ability of Mind. That includes Sammy, Nathan, Savannah, and even Maggie. So, in speaking, I don't know anything about Ability of Body from prior experience.

Great.

Noticing that I've begun to think, Marcus grabs my attention back with a hard head-butt. The jolt causes me to stumble back as he releases his grip of me, but before I can fall, he retakes his hold by grabbing my collar and pulling me back into his face. His teeth are gritted, but his lips still form an excited smile, "I'm gonna take you to Hell and back, boy. We'll see how long you and your body can hold out before you're wailing. . . ."

His face suddenly drops into a serious countenance, accompanied by one of the most intimidating glares I've ever seen. It's now that I'm beginning to feel my heart starting to race double what it had been as an overwhelming feeling of regret starts to churn in my stomach. Against my will, my composure is breaking. My eyes start to dart in other directions, trying to escape his gaze, but the action only seems to make his eyes that much more difficult to lose. Once he catches both my eyes again, he whispers simply, "You asked to learn from one of Gelus' chained dogs. I'll make sure to make you a prime example of what happens when an over-confident Human gets too close to one of their wild animals."