The Mentality of Society

Gin created a mental picture while looking at his gauntlets. A small branch grew out of the gauntlets. It wrapped its way around the INS and entering the first chamber before hovering just above the button at the bottom. So far, so good.

Blades, Gin said mentally. The branch continued growing, pressing the button. The mechanism activated and the blade formed itself in an instant. The silver shininess of the blade contrasted heavily with the darkness of the wood his gauntlets were made with. Despite the contrast, it had its own beauty and Gin couldn’t help but admire.

Once more Gin said the word ‘blades’ in his mind and the branch degraded back to its original position, just above the button. The blade seemed to disappear into thin air and having decided that the experiment was a success, Gin grew more branches that wrapped around and entered the INS.

‘Woah. That’s pretty cool.’

‘I’m not sure. It’s putting a large burden on him. I might need to make our appointments daily from now on.’

Gin turned his head. Joan and Wo were looking keenly at what Gin was doing. They weren’t invited as usual but he couldn’t stop them from coming, especially when the colonel, for whatever reason, gave them both a spare key to his room.

‘Why are you two even here?’ Gin asked.

‘When you decided to host a Xernim, I decided to have more frequent appointments,’ Joan responded.

‘Same here, Gigi,’ Wo added.

‘You’re not even his medic!’ Joan exclaimed

‘But I am his very, very, VERY good childhood friend.’

‘Don’t listen to him, Joan. He’s been torturing me ever since I was born,’ Gin said.

‘You can’t really call those things ‘torture’,’ Wo replied.

‘Oh, really? Are you saying that almost letting me drown in a lake and telling my parents that I was ‘learning to swim’ not torture?’

‘Nah. That was an educational experience. You managed to swim in the end so it was worth it.’

‘What about that time when you left me on top of the roof of the town hall for a whole day?’

‘It was to allow you to experience nature in all its beauty. The night sky is a wonderful sight, Gigi.’

‘And the nickname ‘Gigi’ that annoys me to this very day?’

‘Hehe. Gets you every time.’

‘Ugh. Why are you like this? Just leave already.’

‘Oh come on. Don’t be so mad. No need for me to go, right Joan?’ Wo said turning to Joan who just gave him a look of disgust in response.

‘You are a horrible person, Wo. I’m with Gin here. You should leave. I need to do his checkups anyway,’ she said.

‘Not you too,’ Wo whined.

‘Leave!’ Joan and Gin said in unison.

‘Alright. Alright. I’m outta here.’

With Wo closing the door behind him, Joan began preparing for the examination. She got the relevant medicines, pouring a few onto her fingers, absorbing them into the nails ready for injecting. With Gin not having the natural immunity to most diseases that mages did, she made sure that Gin was vaccinated regularly.

‘From the samples I got last time I found out that your protein levels are lower than your average. Are you eating your rations?’ Joan asked, piercing her nails through Gin’s skin and injecting the vaccines.

‘Everything apart from the meat,’ Gin responded.

‘What? Why?’

‘It comes from mages.’

‘So? Those mages shed their skin for everyone to eat. It’s a very good source of protein and other essentials.’

‘I guess I’m the only one who sees a problem with eating human flesh.’

‘It’s what they’re bred to do. Their whole life’s purpose is to feed the rest of us. They don’t even die in the process and are willing to do it as well. Keeping humanity alive is a noble cause so of course there’s no problem with eating mage meat.’

‘But still...’

‘But nothing! I’m making you eat it whether you like it or not, Gin.’

‘Can’t. I gave all my meat rations to Wo.’

‘Then I’ll just have to give you some of my own,’ she said with a mischievous grin. ‘Oh and I’m making sure you can’t escape.’

Gin felt a thin spike lodge into his lower back. His body began to freeze up and refused to move. He felt Joan positioning him onto his chair so that he couldn’t fall and then he heard her footsteps as she left her room. It was a weird sensation.

Gin tried to see if he could move anything or if he completely paralyzed by what Joan had done. He found out that the toes, fingers and head could move relatively easily but the rest of his body didn’t budge. It seemed that he could do nothing until Joan came back and force fed him. The thought made him metaphorically shudder (as his body couldn’t physically).

Suddenly Gin thought of a plan. It was a bit of a stretch but he thought he could make it work. He was paralyzed but his Xernim wasn’t. If he could make it grow around his body and reach for that spike, he could take it out.

Gin took a deep breath and concentrated. He imagined the Xernim creating another branch. It was a success and a branch sprouted out of the Xernim, before wriggling its way around the side of Gin’s body and reaching the back. It found something sticking out of his back and Gin thought of the branch wrapping around it. Just touching that spike in his back gave Gin intense pain.

‘One. Two. Three,’ he said to himself and started pulling the spike out. It hurt and Gin had to clench his teeth to bear the pain. Eventually the spike came out and with a single thought, the branch degraded; rotten bits of what remained fell to the floor.

A few stretches later, Gin was able to move freely once more. He inspected the spike which turned out to be one of Joan’s nails. Was she able to use her nails like that or did come up with it just to subdue me? Gin wondered. If it was the latter, she was more persistent in trying to do her job that he thought, much to Gin’s annoyance.

Before Joan came back, Gin thought that he should go see Alder. They weren’t meant to see each other for another hour but Gin wasn’t going to stay in his room and be forced to be a cannibal. Since when did it become morally acceptable to eat meat of your own species? If Joan didn’t find it strange, the others wouldn’t either and might try to make him eat it too, so Gin decided to keep that question to himself for the time being.

Along the way, Gin saw a group of people being guided by Emsee, the woman who guided him to Alder when he regained consciousness. The squadron was getting busier ever since their first battle was announced. It was refreshing to see the hustle and bustle within the corridors, compared to the emptiness of before. It reminded Gin of the market places in his (now ruined) village.

It also came to Gin’s surprise when he found out Emsee was actually the colonel’s second in command. Whenever Gin saw her, she was always guiding someone and so Gin just concluded that she was a messenger of some sort. The conclusion was further backed up by her appearance, which showed no evidence of being either an elemental type or the physique of a bestial type. It turned out she was a utility familiar type and her strength comes from her familiar: a giant Lupim that was taller than Gin even on all fours.

When Gin arrived at the usual training room, he found Alder speaking with a man with red hair. He also had rough dark skin and a beefy build. Despite his build, he also seemed agile. Gin guessed that the man is a fire elemental and as he got closer he felt a strong but gentle aura about him.

‘Ah! Brat, we were just talking about you,’ Alder exclaimed.

‘About what?’ Gin asked.

‘You’re a bit early but we were discussing about the role you will take.’

‘I’m Brim. Nice to meet you,’ said the man extending a hand.

‘Likewise. My name is Gin,’ he replied, shaking Brim’s hand. ‘So what’s this about my role?’

‘I was going to explain to you when we were meant to meet up but I’ll tell you now. Essentially, I am going to retire?’

‘You can retire?’

‘Yes. The MBP has contacted me so that I can be used and to pass on my genetics to the next generation. I’ve rejected them in the past but I’ve now grown old. My two-hundredth birthday is next month.’

‘Two-hundredth?!’

‘Yes. Is something wrong with that age?’

Yes for a manush whose average lifespan is expected to be ninety, Gin thought.

‘No, you just look younger than that,’ Gin lied.

‘Haha. Thanks for the compliment brat. But as I am about to retire, I will need someone to take over the battalion.’

‘And so you brought Brim over to be the next battalion leader?’

‘No. That duty will be placed on you.’

‘Thought so.’

‘Not surprised, brat?’

‘It was kind of obvious when you took me out of training sessions and only allowed me to observe. You also said you had a ‘surprise’ for me the next time we meet which is now and, along with the changes going on in the squadron due to the upcoming battle, it all made sense.’

‘You really need to work on that arrogant tone of yours, brat.’

‘But was I right?’

Brim burst out in laughter. He was close friends with Alder and he had never seen him get so annoyed in his life. It was obvious the pair in front of him had mutual respect for one another, but it wasn’t quite the master-disciple relationship one would have hoped for. This alternative wasn’t that bad though, Brim thought.

‘You might be wondering why I’m here,’ Brim said, calming down a bit.

‘You’re taking over my training that I normally have with Alder?’ Gin replied.

‘Damn. He’s good.’

‘Don’t encourage the brat,’ Alder ordered. ‘But yes. I wanted him to train you which is why he transferred to Squadron W. He’s a fire elemental that specialises in flame boxing which is very similar to blade boxing. The only difference is that you do piercing damage while he does delayed damage.’

‘I don’t quite follow,’ Gin said.

‘It’s best if I show you,’ Alder responded.

Alder walked up to the nearest tree. He stood there and looked like he was concentrating. Branches began to form around Alder’s arm. They twisted and turned, meeting at a point. It looked exactly the same as Gin’s blades in both shape and sharpness. The only difference was Gin’s blades were metallic while Alder’s was made from the Xernim.

He then took up a stance, left foot forwards while the right was at a forty-five degree angle. His hands were in front of his face, left in front of the right, guarding the head in the process. Alder indicated Gin do the same and, having brought out his own blades, Gin walked up to a different tree and copied the stance.

Alder sent out a jab with his left arm, piercing the tree, before returning to his stance in one swift motion. The result was a visible clean hollow cut within the tree. Some sap oozed out of the cut which Gin thought was Alder’s metaphor of blood coming out of an enemy. Gin was excited and mimicked the jab, only to have blade get stuck in the tree.

‘The motion needs to be cleaner, brat. Otherwise it gets stuck like that, leaving you defenceless,’ Alder instructed. ‘Do it again.’

Gin slowly slid the blade out and jabbed again in another spot. Once again, his blade got stuck before completing the jab. Alder showed no expression and asked for Gin to repeat once more until he managed to do it clean enough to consistently avoid getting it stuck.

Alder then showed Gin a ‘cross’ which he remarked was just a jab with the right hand instead. Gin copied the technique regardless, and began perfecting it. This process of learning and practising continued for the next hour until Gin had learnt a myriad of moves that he could do cleanly.

‘You’re pretty much learnt the basics, brat. Combine the moves I taught you today with your dodging, which should now be second nature to you, and you will be able to blade box at a high level. For now, take a break. I need to talk to Maria so I’ll be back in a bit.’

Gin slumped down against the tree he was jabbing, slicing, cutting, upper-cutting and other moves. It was more holes than tree at this point and it was a miracle that it was still standing strong. He took a handful of water from the marsh below and drank it. It tasted earthy but he didn’t mind after that session.

Brim walked up to Gin, tapping on his shoulder. He had watched intently the whole time but was so quiet, Gin didn’t realise he was there. Gin was tired too but Brim’s face showed doubt. With a sigh of fatigue, he indicated for Brim to sit down who did just that.

‘You need something?’ Gin asked.

‘Why do you do this?’ Brim replied

‘Do what?’

‘All of this training.’

‘Is there something wrong with my training?’

‘No one does it. This is the first time I’ve seen a squadron where everyone trains.’

Gin was perplexed. The world was in war, right? Surely the mages would want to improve themselves to increase their battle proficiency, Gin thought. So why was this weird to Brim?

‘If the other squadrons don’t train, what do you do?’

‘Eat, sleep, play and wait for orders to go to war.’

‘We train to improve our abilities.’

‘You can do that?!’

‘What do you mean? Of course we can. Did you think that’s impossible?’

‘That’s what we were taught. The adult body can’t develop anymore and only deteriorates afterwards. We are all trained and developed during puberty. Those who couldn’t keep up died in the process and those who could were ranked. What’s the point of training more if your body can’t develop further?’

‘I see why you think the way you do,’ Gin said. From what he understood, mages were and probably still are conditioned to believe they couldn’t improve once they hit adulthood.

‘However, it’s not true what they say in the MBP,’ Gin continued, ‘because you can improve yourself even as an adult. Yeah, sure you don’t have that growth or energy you did when you’re younger but you can get valuable experience. They reside in your unconsciousness and help you when you need it. But you need to make those experiences happen in order to use them. Sometimes what we’re taught by society could be wrong.’

‘I don’t believe you,’ Brim said immediately.

‘I didn’t expect you to. You’ve spent eighty years, in the MBP, being told otherwise. I think it’s best if we spar.’

‘Spar?’

‘Just pretend I’m an enemy.’

‘I’m not sure why we have to.’

‘That’s the whole point. I want to expel your doubts.’

Brim reluctantly agreed and they both distanced themselves by ten metres. Gin activated his blades while Brim coated his arms with a greasy fluid he excreted that made them shine under the light of the torches. With a flick of his fingers, his arms went into a yellow-orange blaze. Both sides were now ready.

Brim made the first move, charging at Gin before sending a low punch, aimed at Gin’s stomach. Gin sidestepped the punch and sent a jab of his own but Brim pushed the arm so that it missed. Gin quickly got back into his stance and looked for an opening.

Brim hurled a flurry at punches at frightening speed. There was no time to think. Gin had to use his instinct to dodge everything to perfection. But every time Gin tried a counter, Brim was equal to it and deflected it away. Brim’s skills weren’t in doubt. He would be a good replacement for Alder.

Gin’s face and body began to hurt. He didn’t know why as he had been dodging every attack with relative ease. Then it dawned on Gin what Alder meant by Brim having delayed damage. The flames burnt Gin ever so slowly even if the punches don’t hit. In the long run, the burns he would receive will do more damage than the punches themselves. Gin had to end this quickly or he would lose if he dragged it out.

Gin sent a right hook in a desperate attempt but it was too telegraphed. Brim deflected the attack and used it as an opening, smashing Gin in the ribs, sending him to the ground. He looked unconscious with his back on the ground. That’s that. It cemented Brim’s thoughts that there was no need to train. The sparring was fun though. Did he go overboard?

Suddenly Gin hurled some mud at Brim. Brim’s reflexes made him deflect the mud and try get back into his stance but it was too late. Gin already had a blade at Brim’s throat. Brim raised his arms above his head. It was Gin’s victory.

‘That was a disgusting move you played!’ Brim exclaimed.

‘I don’t have honour. I got into this squadron by hiding in a shell for a few minutes. Using a distraction is nothing for me. Victory is what counts,’ Gin replied, lowering his blade.

‘I still don’t get your point from earlier, though. Why did we need to spar?’

‘During that fight, I realised that you always deflect attacks rather than dodge. So I feigned injury by letting you punch me. Then I sent some mud from the floor and as you deflect it, it gave me an opening.’

‘You figured that out just through training?’

‘Not quite. Through training, I have learnt how to block, how to attack and how to dodge. But coming up with a tactic to beat you was done during the fight itself. But thanks to that spar, I’ve learnt another way mages could fight, with its strengths and weaknesses. I now also have another tactic up my sleev-, er, gauntlets now, even if it does seem cowardly.’

Gin saw Brim’s puzzled look. Brim didn’t say anything as he processed what was said. In the end, Gin decided to rephrase what he said.

‘Look. The point is that if I never took the steps and never took any action, I would never have learnt how to deal with potential problems until it is too late. What if I face another flame boxer on the battlefield? Now, because of our spar, I have found out that style of fighting’s strength and weaknesses so I’m better prepared for next time. Understand now?’

‘I think I do. Thanks for making me understand. I need to improve myself so that I won’t lose again. To be honest, you’re very profound, Gin. It’s very different from what I’ve heard of you.’

‘Let me guess. I’ve been depicted as an arrogant, impatient brat by Alder, right?’

Brim burst out in laughter. It was an infectious laugh and Gin joined in too. They had a mutual understanding and both were looking forward to working with one another. But their moment was cut short by a shout from across the room

‘Gin!’

‘Who’s that?’ Brim whispered to Gin.

‘Just a crazy stalker of mine,’ he replied.

‘I go through all this trouble preparing your food and when I came back to your room, you’re not even there!’

‘See? She’s even going to my room without permission.’

‘I heard that!’ Joan said as she walked towards them.

Joan was carrying a box that had some steam coming out of it. Inside was some meat covered by some seasonings and fruit. The brownness of the roasted meat combined with the juice, dripping from the sliced fruits, made Gin salivate but the thought of that meat coming from flesh of mages also made him want to vomit. Despite the fact his body was telling him to eat, Gin decided to follow his mind and morality.

‘Ah! Sorry Joan. I have to go. No time to eat!’

‘Gin!’

Gin made a dash for the exit. If he stayed, Joan would have made him eat it. He turned around waving goodbye at Brim and Joan. Brim waved back and Joan just gave an unimpressed expression. Doesn’t matter, Gin thought. No way was he going to be forced to be a cannibal.

That thought was cut short when he bumped into something. It was Alder who looked equally unimpressed as he blocked the exit. Next to him was the colonel and behind both was Wo Pim, who was grinning at Gin.

‘Sorry Alder. Can you let me through?’ Gin asked.

‘We heard that you don’t eat your meat rations, child,’ the colonel said.

‘I have my reasons.’

‘Your warped morality isn’t a good enough reason, brat. Your health comes first,’ Alder said as he grabbed Gin by the arm and pinned him to the ground.

‘Wo! Help me out here!’ Gin shouted in desperation.

Wo didn’t say anything. He didn’t do anything. He just stood there, grinning his face off, enjoying the spectacle. Of course he wouldn’t help when he could enjoy Gin suffer!

‘Brim! Help me open his mouth.’

Joan explained the situation to Brim. He thought about it for a moment before agreeing to help. Joan already had prepared the cutlery, as if she knew this was how things were going to turn out and without mercy, the pair made their way to force feed Gin.

‘No! Don’t do this, Brim. I thought we’ve established a beautiful friendship!’

‘You are severely lacking in protein, Gin. If you’re not allergic and it’s just a problem of morality, then it should be fine,’ Brim said. ‘After all, you told me today that sometimes what we’re taught by society could be wrong. Maybe this is one of things that you were misguided about.’

Him being wrong? It’s true that the mages do it voluntarily and they are treated well. It was also true that the mages who provide the meat were bred for this exact purpose. They don’t even need to be slaughtered. But eating mage meat was still wrong, right? Cannibalism was still wrong, right? It didn’t matter in the end, though.

As Gin was force fed what Joan had prepared, one thought came to mind: mage meat tastes like veal.