Fiver was a quiet boy with a nervous tic that caused him to blink rapidly and twitch on occasion. He hung out with no one, preferring to keep to himself. His hair was black and cropped tightly to his head. He was short, but he was strong. He worked out in his spare time on top of the workouts the officers led during training. Eien figured it was some kind of defense to prevent others from picking on him. It definitely kept him out of trouble.

Then Commander Era called for him. He must have been number thirty or thirty-one. Eien remembered him jogging to the complex during the morning sparring session. Fiver came back in the evening, bruises blushing along his torso, blood scabs on his lip, and two black eyes. He still did his exercises, though with more effort.

And even now, in his corner of the bunkhouse, he was doing more push-ups.

“Hey, Fiver, let’s chat,” Eien said, approaching him. Fiver glanced at him from the floor, pushing himself up to his feet. He nodded, taking a towel to wipe sweat from his head.

“What do you want, Sho?” he asked, his voice soft and low. Eien inclined his head towards the door. Fiver followed him outside, taking his towel with him.

After they exited the bunkhouse, Eien started talking to him, taking him to the side.

“So…Axle got called out. How did you manage to get out of it?” Fiver stared at him with round eyes.

“I told her I didn’t want to do it.”

“What?”

“I told her that I was done. She beat me to a pulp, somehow, and then I told her I wasn’t gonna do it again.”

“And…she let you go?”

“She didn’t ask me to come back.”

“You weren’t…punished?”

“Nothing else happened,” Fiver replied, blinking rapidly, “She never asked me to come back. She just called the next guy. I don’t know who.”

Eien paused to think. In a place with very little autonomy, she left him go only because he said something to her? No one else would do anything like that. What was she looking for? What was she testing?

“Any idea what she is looking for?” Eien asked. Fiver shrugged.

“She wants someone to beat up.”

Eien thanked him, handing him a cigarette which Fiver pocketed. He did not smoke, but cigarettes were useful for other things, too.

Inchi was harder to find. He wormed his way in with any group he could, doing favors for people so that they would owe him. He was tough, often pushing others around for fun, but he was not cruel. Eien didn’t really want to talk to him as it was better to avoid owing him a favor. The last favor Eien owed him meant he had to clean out the toilets for a week. It was hell because he also had to deal with the pain of the pull to go to the job they had actually assigned him. Eien wondered why the pain didn’t bother Inchi so much.

Eien found him chatting with a group of boys close to Commander Era’s complex. He felt a chill run down his spine, looking at the entrance where guards stood, where she was. Why was Inchi so close?

The boys were laughing about something Inchi said. Inchi pocketed something from one of them and waved at them as they walked away. Eien kept to the side to avoid attracting their attention, waiting for them to get out of earshot and eyesight.

Inchi was merely humming to himself happily, turning to go the other way.

“Inchi!” Eien called out, “Have a moment?” Inchi stopped and waved at him.

“Haha, Sho! What’s going on? Need some more cigarettes? A dick in your face?”

What an ass.

“Fuck you,” Eien replied, approaching the boy much larger and stronger than he was. Inchi grinned at him and made a vulgar motion.

“How did you get to quit the SQOD’s reign of terror?” Eien asked, preferring to use her sobriquet so close to her complex. Inchi glanced at the guards near the entrance to the complex, and he motioned for Eien to come away from them.

“Let’s walk, Sho,” he said as Eien kept pace with him, straightening up so that the difference in height was not so obvious.

After a moment, he continued, “It was the worst month of my life, no doubt about it it, but I got really strong and learned a lot from her you know.” Eien nodded.

“I remember the first day…” Eien cringed. Inchi was a talker. If he did you a favor, he made sure you knew it.

“I was knocked out cold for two days! But I had to go back. They fixed my leg, and I was ready to go again. Every day, if I wasn’t too out of it, I went back, over and over. How long did I last? Wasn’t I the one who went the longest? Shit, she had a thing for me, too. I bet you anything.”

Again, what an ass.

“Get to the last day, Inchi. I only want to know why she stopped calling you over.”

“Alright. Well, so I went over there the next day, like she always tells me. I get that pull, too, you know. What a pain. Anyway, we spar a bit, and at this point, I’m actually pulling one over on her! She usually wins, and she still won, but there was definite improvement on my end. I had her for a moment, I think. Fuck, it was heavy. But she went too far this time. I was knocked out. Usually, once I got knocked out, she sends me away to the infirmary, but when I woke up, I was still lying on the floor.”

Inchi stopped near some training buildings, with very few people in sight.

“She was standing over me, crouched down, eyes like a doll’s, staring at me. I couldn’t move. Then, she started talking. It was weird, her voice was so flat, like she was giving a command.”

“What did she say?”

“She asked me if I wanted to stay. I said, ‘Stay where?’ She said, ‘Stay here.’ I told her I didn’t want to stay, but if she fucked me, I would.”

Eien stared at him, wondering how to address his bullshit. Oh yeah.

“Bullshit. You’d be dead,” Eien replied, feeling impatient, “Cut to it. I don’t have that much time.”

“Why? You get called out?”

“Naw, naw…not me…”

“You’ll be there soon enough. Only so many more dicks in our year.” Eien shrugged.

“What did you say to her? After she asked you to stay?” He asked, redirecting Inchi to the topic of the conversation.

“I said I would. She got off of me, walked away. She came back with a real weapon; some big ass sword. She said to try to kill her. Like I hadn’t been the whole time anyway. So…I tried.”

Inchi paused a moment, some of his bravado fading with the memory.

“I really tried, but she actually ended up…well…I almost died, Sho. I remember after she took the sword from me, she impaled me. Fucking hurt like hell. She was going to kill me. I remember shouting, ‘I don’t want to stay.’ Over and over again, bleeding out. I was already exhausted from the sparring. I don’t know what she’s looking for, but whatever it is, I don’t think she’s gonna find it among inexperience recruits.” Inchi looked thoughtful for a moment, staring off into the distance.

“Either way, long or short, you’re fucked.”