Chapter 4: Day 2
"Ergh, good morning, recruits. How's it going?" Zac spoke to the recruits while drinking a travel mug full of coffee. The recruits looked at him a little concerned. They all heard that he was the Head of Finance but understood that meant something different in this secret world. The way Franky acted when he introduced him made it seem he was very high on the totem pole. But right now, he really looked out of it.
"Are you ok, sir?" Akiko asked.
"Oh yeah, I'm great. Girlfriend agreed to move in with me. Things went so well that I forgot I had to be here this early, on a Saturday morning." Zac groaned.
"But it's 7pm on Saturday night," a confused Genkei said.
"Not where I was!" Zac shouted, annoyed.
Kenji chuckled. He knew they somehow had the means to move across the planet at incredible speeds. Using something that probably wouldn't be available to the public for maybe a decade at least. It sounded great for many situations, but this was one of the pitfalls, time zones. It looked like Zac was still in the clothing he wore on his date.
The recruits found themselves in another rather large empty gymnasium connected to the track and field area. Kenji counted that there were still 30 recruits left from yesterday. He was a bit shocked that there were so many here. Only 15 made the 8000-meter time limit. Although there was no time limit for the obstacle course. They just needed to finish, and all 15 did, if only barely. Comparatively, he finished everything quite quickly, surprising himself. After everything that happened yesterday, he expected to be dead tired and sore. Instead, he was refreshed.
"Why are there still 30 of us?" A sharp-eyed brown-haired male spoke.
Zac started to laugh while choking on his coffee as he looked over at that recruit. He raised an eyebrow as he walked towards him. He stared into his eyes for an uncomfortable amount of time and then said,
"You're a vicious little bastard, aren't you? I saw you yesterday in that scuffle, Mr. Watabe." Zac patted that individual on the side of the face and walked away. Watabe glared at Zac's back with contempt.
Watabe Ken was indeed vicious and had a very discerning eye. He was the first to grab his gear during the scuffle, but he stood there to knock out individuals in the confusion who he thought could threaten his achievements. Unfortunately, these "Chasers" weren't as heartless as he had hoped. The ones he targeted were still alive and well and were now wary of him.
"You think we're just going to kill off talent because they got unlucky once? That would be wasteful and very short-sighted, Ken." Zac chuckled as he took a sip of his coffee.
"Yesterday was just to set a baseline. It's used to ascertain your physical levels, determination, and… your character." Zac then turned to stare at Watabe. The recruits he had targeted the day before looked at him with glee. They assumed that there was no way they would accept someone like him.
"What are you losers smirking about? His attitude is perfect for a Chaser. I rather like him." Zac said, much to the shock of everyone present. It was Watabe's turn to look at the others with glee.
"His physical prowess is around 2nd or 3rd best overall, after Isuel over there."
"It's Kenji!"
"Shut up, Isuel!" Zac cut off Kenji and smiled.
"On top of that, he has a good eye, he's goal-oriented, and will take down anything he perceives as a threat to that goal. Those are all qualities valued by Chasers. We aren't beacons of justice, here. We are cold calculative killing machines." Zac took another sip of his coffee.
"But isn't it counterproductive to act against your allies?" Ume asked.
"You are correct, little miss! But you guys aren't allies yet. Are you?"
"I suppose not." Ume nodded her head in agreement.
"You are all working to pass the evaluations. Obviously the better you do the more attention you get. If there is someone here that you feel will overshadow you, the natural train of thought needed for a Chaser should be to remove said person. However, we will not tolerate recruits killing each other. Anything outside of that, knock yourselves out, literally." Zac spoke nonchalantly.
"He basically turned this into a free-for-all, and he looks pleased with himself. Bastard." Kenji thought as he stared at Zac. He didn't understand this world, and the more he found out the less he wanted to understand. From his first interactions he was clear that human lives were little more than transactional to these people. It made him a little sick. Zac looked back at him and then smirked,
"You look like you wanna hit me, Isuel. Well, you're in luck. Today, I will be assessing your combat abilities. To your left is a rather large locker room filled with weapons. You have until I finish making more coffee to choose the weapons of your choice. Then you will take turns attacking me. Either on your own or in groups no larger than 4. Your mission is to make me bleed. Your time starts now." Zac said with a smile as he walked out of the room, looking into his empty traveler's mug.
The recruits all walked into the weapon cabinet, giving Watabe a wide berth. It was clear that if groups were going to be formed, they would have to avoid teaming up with him. He scoffed at everyone,
"You clowns would just hold me back anyway." He walked deeper into the spacious room with a contemplative look.
"He's kind of a dick. He'll fit right in." Kenji mumbled to himself as he watched Watabe walk into the storage room, and then glanced over to look at Zac leaving.
"So we're teaming up, right?" Akiko asked Kenji, with Genkei and Ume trailing behind her.
"Do we even need to?" Genkei asked incredulously.
"Have you ever seen a Chaser in action?" Ume asked Genkei, who responded negatively.
"If everyone in this room went at that man, if even one of us made it out alive, it would be a miracle," Ume said with a grim expression. "She's right," Kenji said with a frown as he
remembered what he saw Devin do. It would be a slaughter if Zac was even a tenth of what Devin was.
"Well, at least all those hours in Kendo Club won't be wasted." Akiko smiled as she grabbed a Katana, a Wakizashi, and a Tanto blade. She strapped the three blades on her waist. Genkei looked over at her and smirked as he grabbed a pair of tactical hard-knuckle gloves.
"I was nationally ranked in Taekwondo in High School. I've been doing MMA as a hobby while in University," Genkei said proudly as he smashed his fists together.
Everyone then looked over at Ume, staring blankly at the weapons in front of her. She looked back at everyone else and shrugged her shoulders,
"I'm a Bioengineering Major. I was president of both the Robotics and Science Clubs in High School." She informed the group.
Genkei stared at her inquisitively. On the other hand Ume, turned her contemplative gaze back toward the weapons.
"There's no way she's just a science nerd. She could keep up with me through the 8000-meter run and the obstacle course." Genkei thought to himself.
Akiko and Genkei then looked at Kenji but didn't bother to ask him anything. Every time they brought up the topic he was adamant about not being involved in anything physical. Even though he not only finished 1st in everything so far but broke records each time.
Kenji ignored the group for the most part, as he spent most of his time staring at the weapons in front of him. He'd never touched any kind of melee weapon before he had no idea how to even go about this. Everything had come to him rather easily to this point, so he thought that if he just stared at the weapons long enough something would jump out at him, like some anime. After combing through everything, nothing of the sort happened, and he chuckled to himself.
"Guess this is real life afterall. " Kenji jokes to himself.
Afterall no weapon would leap into his hand like it had a mind of its own. He had no no choice but to thoroughly think things through.
"Make him bleed, huh?" Kenji thought and then grabbed a military-grade bulletproof shield. His group gave him a strange look. Ume looked at the shield and nodded her head,
"Interesting, then I'll take this," Ume said as she grabbed a bow and a quiver of arrows.
"Tsk!." Watabe scoffed at the 4 of them as he walked past. He had two daggers in his hand. Akiko looked at his back as he walked away and then turned back to the group,
"That guy gives me the creeps," Akiko said as the four walked out of the weapon closet.
"Really? He just seems like a dick who's about to get his ass kicked." Kenji said with a frown.
"Times up, my Tiny Tots," Zac shouted as the recruits filed out of the closet. Zac looked at the weapons everyone had gathered from themselves and raised an eyebrow at Kenji.
"Interesting. So who's going first?" Zac asked with an excited look on his face. No one seemed to move. No one wanted to be the litmus test. Everyone knew the more information they had to work with, the easier time they would have to accomplish their goal. Watabe scoffed at no one moving and then said,
"I'll go, you cowards."
"Oh, that's a surprise. I'd thought you'd go last for sure." Zac commented.
"You said our 'mission' is to make you bleed. Missions are accomplished through the cooperation of multiple divisions and collaboration with multiple teams. This is not an individual task. I've noticed from the start that you guys are cautious with your words. You say exactly what you need, to give instruction without explicitly giving the game away." Watabe said as he pointed his dagger at Zac, who began to laugh.
"Clever little shit. You stomped all over my game before I got to play. Well, I'll just have to find my fun elsewhere." Zac sighed.
Zac tried to antagonize the recruits against each other before handing out the mission of this evaluation. They would not leave until he bled. Watabe knew once they failed and this exercise's purpose was revealed, everyone would blame him for his actions the previous day for forming a divide among recruits.
Now he understood he could not get rid of the competition as intended. Instead he'd just have to stand out as much as possible. This would also lessen the pressure from the other recruits who felt they couldn't trust him. He was sure more group activities were to come. So even if they didn't trust him, they could trust his competence and willingness to succeed.
As Zac went to take a sip of his coffee, Watabe launched one of his daggers toward Zac, who gently turned his body to the side to dodge.
"Would you look at that?" Zac thought as he saw a thin wire attached to the dagger.
Watabe pulled on the wire, and Zac crouched as the dagger flew back over his head from behind. As he crouched he saw Watabe crouched in front of him with his dagger stabbing toward Zac's chest. Using his free hand, Zac grabbed and twisted Watabe's twist, flipping him onto the ground, never letting go of his wrist. Zac quickly put him into an armbar lock, holding him down with one hand, while taking a sip of coffee with the other.
"Do you yield?" Zac asked.
"Why should I?" Watabe asked calmly. His free hand wiggled with the wire holding the thrown dagger retracted, bringing the dagger into his free hand, he then went to stab Zac's leg. Zac kicked the hand holding the dagger away, disengaged the armbar, and flipped off the ground. He looked down at Watabe with a smirk,
"I thought so. That's my weapon; what the hell is it doing back there? The Twins must be really pissed with me." Zac chuckled as he looked back at the weapon storage closet.
That wasn't the only thing that concerned him; this Watabe could use them decently well. Nothing in his files said he had any experience with such weapons. Zac smirked as he looked at Watabe and over at Kenji and the other recruits.
"Not bad," Zac mumbled to himself.
"Ahhhh!" Watabe shouted as he charged towards Zac, slashing at him with those daggers. Every strike was aimed at vitals. Zac had a carefree smile on his face as he dodged. Suddenly he kicked Watabe's gut, and sent him tumbling across the ground. Watabe quickly gathered himself and made a pulling motion with both his hands. He had purposely dropped his daggers on Zac's side when he was kicked. Those daggers leaped off the ground, aiming for Zac's neck and legs. Zac instinctively leaned back to avoid the dagger coming for his head.
"He got him!" One of the recruits shouted when they saw those blades fly towards Zac; he wouldn't be able to dodge both. However much to that recruit's dismay, there was no blood, only the sound of metal clashing.
"The coffee mug?!" Ume said with a look of shock as she saw that the tin traveler's cup blocked the other dagger.
"Dammit." Watabe cursed as he charged forward, retracting the daggers to his hand. He attacked again, incorporating kicks into his assault this time as well. Zac continued passively evading and blocking Watabe's attacks, while casually drinking his coffee.
"Fight back!" Watabe shouted. He found it impossible to make ground when Zac was only playing defense. There was no opening he could find to make up ground.
"As you wish," Zac spoke as he sidestepped Watabe's stabbing motion and slid in close to his body. In a series of rapid motions, Zac's right elbow bashed into Watabe's solar plex, he then raised his fist to send a backhand to watabe's nose. That right hand grabbed Watabe's arm, still extended in its stabbing motion. He used his right foot to kick Watabe's leg off the ground and break his balance. In one fluid motion, that same foot crashed into Watabe's sternum.
"Argh!" Watabe groaned as he was jettisoned across the room once again. He struggled to get up, dropping to his knees as he looked up at Zac sipping on his coffee again. The man hadn't broken a sweat.
"Fighting against Chasers is impossible! How are we supposed to make that bleed." One of the recruits said, dispirited.
"Heh, well, you're wrong about two things," Zac said as he turned to the other recruits.
"The most important being, I'm not really a Chaser, I don't have a Program," Zac said, much to the shock of everyone in the room. Even Kenji looked at him with surprise and a little annoyed. He bitched at him for wanting to live an everyday life not two days ago, yet he wasn't even a Chaser, which meant he could live a normal life.
"Hypocrite!" Kenji mumbled to himself.
"Second, you can fight against someone with a Program just fine. I do it all the time." Zac said with a smile.
Everyone went silent as they stared at him. Since Zac joined The Renegades, he has been used to set an example for particularly rowdy or cocky recruits more than a couple of times. Especially those with access to rare and powerful Programs. They all needed to understand that they couldn't entirely rely on the power Programs provided.
"I'm just a soft, delicate, vulnerable human, like the rest of you. So make me bleed." Zac's voice got noticeably darker.
"Soft and vulnerable, my ass." Kenji mumbled, Zac was anything but.
However, As Kenji observed that fight, he felt more at ease. Many around him couldn't pick up on most of what was happening, but he could see it all. Not only could he see it, he understood it and was starting to feel more excited than anything. In the depth of his mind there was one thought roaming,
"They're not as impressive as I thought. It can be better." He instinctively began to correct the flaws in the movement he saw, even though he had no point of reference for such things. Kenji flinched at his own train of thought and looked down into his palm.
"What's wrong with me?"
Kenji mumbled as Watabe slunk back into the group of recruits. Even if he wanted to go again, he was in no condition to do so at that moment. He'd need a moment to gather himself. Even though they knew that Zac didn't have a Program, it didn't make him any less imposing. In fact, some of them became even more cautious. If he could fight those monsters while being a normal human, he must have a variety of tricks and skills up his sleeve. They were all aware that the records Kenji had broken the previous day belonged to him. They could only imagine how far he had pushed the limits of the human body since then.
"Next!" Zac called out, causing the recruits to shiver.