"Welcome back from your trek to the Mainland, Commander!" A man raises his voice to compete with some of the rushing gales and steps forward to present himself ahead of the group.
"Officer Jae! Just the one I wanted to see once I returned. I would like to present to you the only person I found worthy to bring back with me." The man turns to look at a confused Rin still holding a salute. "You may stand down Rin. This man before you is Officer Jae, a skilled scout within the Hunters and one of the better fighters that we have. My directive for you Officer Jae," He begins to walk over to Jae's side, "is for you to show Rin the ropes of the base. She's fresh out of camp, but with a mind as sharp as her blade and I want her to learn from some of the best that the Hunters have to offer."
"Fresh out of camp?" Jae looked in disgusted confusion between the Commander and Rin with a burning distaste at the girl oozing from his being. His attitude changed rapidly once he went back to talking to the Commander. "Surely sir! No better place for a young and fresh Hunter to learn the ropes than here!" He nervously laughs to hide his discomfort.
"Be sure to listen to him Rin, as he's one of the lead Officers at this base of operations and handles the scouts and defense coordination." Phels gave Jae a pat on the shoulder as he spoke. "Make sure to show her to her quarters Jae. I give a rough estimate of thirty minutes until the next squall of storms."
“Aye, Commander!” He gives a cheerful salute to Commander Phels that prompted the higher ranking man to begin walking away further into the base. Jae waits patiently for the man to walk out of sight behind a building before turning towards Rin with an ugly scowl. “Name. Rank. Purpose of being here.”
“R-Rin Kazashi!” The sudden abrasiveness of the guy threw Rin off as she struggled to answer. “Recruit! U-uh… my purpose is to help out with the defense efforts!”
“A recruit!” He sighed loudly in front of Rin and the sound of a few people snickering nearby could be heard. He jabs a finger into her shoulder as he raises his voice a little. “You’re going to listen to me, you little green whelp. Follow me and if I find you lagging behind in any fashion I’m going to leave you out here to drown in the next cycle of squalls.”
He gives no warning as he turns around, wind gusting around him to increase his walking speed. Rin felt embarrassed and shocked at this reaction, quickly channeling some air aura to give a bit of a boost to her step just to keep up. The further she walked with him the more she felt unwelcome here. Eyes were constantly watching and the inaudible whispers passing from person to person when they went by set a deep doubt within herself. Thunder began to rumble in the distance, something that everyone else other than Rin seemed to ignore. Jae leads her into a building far off away from the Gate, bringing her into walkways to get out of the rain. Inside several other Hunters still on a working shift moved out of their way while murmuring. After passing by several facilities of the base, they eventually came to a wide building that stood several stories tall. Here is when Jae turns to Rin with a glare.
“Living Quarters. Get acquainted with how you got here because I'm not showing you a second time. Report to me after the storm for drills and scout training. By then I’ll have found out where you’ll be working within the base here. Got it?” His voice was poisonous and sharp against the growing gales of wind.
“A-aye Sir!” She wavers but salutes nonetheless.
Jae huffs when he shoves past Rin. “Bringing a greenhorn into an elite base what a fuckin joke.” The man mumbles to himself angrily as he slams open a set of doors into another facility down the way.
Rin was left alone under the walkway with just the steadily growing wind to keep her company. Her earlier excitement of the place had been crushed quickly and she’d half a mind to simply turn back towards the train station she had first been dropped off at. Her heart lumps at her throat when she thinks of her parent’s reaction to that… and her hand clutches at the necklace she wore. With a deep intake of breath, she turns back to the living quarters and walks through a sturdy pair of doors. Despite the metallic look of the outside to fight against the constant storms, the inside was rather polished for being the living quarters of a military base. The floors were a waxed marble that shined even in the dim light and in the center of the main lobby was the insignia of the Hunters. The walls were solid in color with the occasional wooden beam jutting out for added support. Rin pulls her bag tighter to herself when she looks around until she sees something of a directory, wishing Jae had at least shown her which room was supposed to be hers. In a spark of inspiration, she digs through her bag to look for the paperwork of the orders she arrived with. Shuffling through it she found what she was looking for and a sigh of relief escapes her. There, along with an introductory note, were her orders to be sent to this base. There at the bottom of the page, next to the Commanders signature, was the room number she had been assigned to ahead of time. Rin quickly stashes the papers into her bag once more and hurries to find the room that was given to her.
"D Wing… second floor… room number twenty-two."
Rin mumbles to herself as she climbs the stairs to the next floor. The hallway was dull, mostly dark reddish greys to match the floor, which was lit from the occasional strike of lightning outside the distant window. She raises a hand to allow the aura of her being to pass through and set a low fire to her hand for light. Now able to read the small bronze plaques on each door, she could find the exact room a bit down the hallway and enter it with the key she had been given.
The room inside was neat and tidy with a small cot shoved in the corner and placed near a window was an empty desk. There wasn’t much space to personalize it or make it feel more homely but Rin still tries her best by placing various items from her bag onto the desk. There was a tinge of hope that there would be some books available to read or obtain, but given the circumstances of the constant storm, she doubted it. At this thought, she made a mental note to ask about the procedure of proper carrying on documents between buildings and laid down on her bed in a huff. Another flash of lightning awakened her senses as the thunder followed in a slow rumbling crawl. She released the aura from her hand to snuff the small flame out and let the darkness of the room embrace her with the consistent pattering sound of the outside rain. Exhaustion trickled into her body slowly as she laid there in the cot, which she was too tired to even properly remove her uniform. It was a long trip to get here and the lack of sleep, as well as first day nerves, have finally taken its toll on her and before Rin could stop herself the lids of her eyes slowly closed to finally allow sleep to take its hold over her.
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