The next couple of weeks went by pretty normal. My days started at 6 a.m. with a quick shower to wake me up and physical training to improve my resistance and stamina so I could get used to my routine faster. Then, I ate some breakfast at 8.30 and then left for the HQs to get there at 9 in the morning for a little stretch and swordplay before my shift with agent John at 10.

Since I was just a trainee, our work only consisted of patrolling different neighborhoods just to prevent any bad guys to lurk around or, in case something is happening like a robbery or something like that, stop the perpetrator and take them to the HQs.

Lastly, after work, I usually went to the training room where Pat was almost every day too, and we trained together, sometimes sparring, sometimes each of one with a practice dummy and sometimes we practiced without weapons since Violet told her that sometimes she wouldn’t be able to use her sword and she would need to know some hand on hand combat. I had learn a bit myself but since I had focused mainly on sword training, this sessions where really usefull for me.

Today tho… Today was different

- Today’s your lucky day kid, we just got a complaint about a robbery in progress not too far from here and since we are the only ones around we got assigned the task to go and see what we can do.

- Fuck yes! I was tired of walk around without a purpose for hours and hours

- The purpose of those walks are so that this kind of things don’t happen

- Well… You are right, sorry

- Come on, let’s go

The only thing that hadn’t improved since the first day was my relationship with agent West. He still treated me like a burden and didn’t teach me nothing at all, not even a single thing, and we didn’t even talk about anything because any time I tried to open my mouth he would shut me up and get cranky.

Since we were already on our uniforms, we just marked our departure so they knew we weren’t available and rushed in the direction they gave us.

After a couple of minutes, I noticed that we were going towards my neighborhood and got a little worried, but then we took a couple of turns and, even if we were close, we weren’t going in the exact direction to my house so I calmed down.

- I think I know this neighborhood, it’s somewhat close to my house – I said trying to initiate some kind of conversation with my teacher and companion

- One, I don’t care. Two, I don’t like it. Three, shut up.

- Geez, what’s your problem?

- What did you just say?

- Nothing, just talking to myself

- Whatever kid

I didn’t know it was possible but it seemed that he was even crankier and more annoying than ever. Was that me or…?

- We are here

My thoughts were cut by John’s voice, and when I lifted my gaze which I had unconsciously kept down while thinking I saw a crowd of 5 maybe 6 people standing and talking in front of a convenience store.

The first thing that caught my attention was that that the glass door of the store had been shattered and only some edges remained on the door frame.

- Don’t go too far kid, let me talk to the owner to get some info

- Roger that

As John approached the crowd, I kept looking around the scene. The door was closed so I had to enter through the hole on the glass, being careful not to cut myself. Once inside I noticed that there was a stand on the floor, surrounded by tens of cans which I assumed where on the stand before someone, probably the thief, threw them to the floor.

I kept walking around the store, waiting for my partner to finish gathering the necessary information when I stumbled across a newspaper that was right in front of the counter. It had been some time since I read one, so out of curiosity I picked it up and inspected the first headline I saw:

“Crime rate goes up with every day that passes by. People starts to doubt White Police’s effectiveness and the rumors of corruption keep spreading”

It wasn’t a novelty that after the war a lot of people opposed the creation of the WP, and that feeling kept mutating and changing until it took the form of this big distrust that a lot of people felt towards the organization. I didn’t blame them because, as the news said, the crime rate has been growing for some years now and the WP hasn’t been able to catch up to it. Of course, they didn’t know how difficult it was to actually become an agent and how dangerous the job could be.

- Hey kid, come here, the boy that was on shift when the robbery happened said that the guy escaped in this direction and that he was injured

Agent west was right outside the store when he first pointed to the right, where the suspect had escaped, and then he pointed to the glass on the lower left side of the door, where I saw some red stains, probably blood, that matched with the injury story the worked had tell his boss.

I got out and carefully followed my partners gaze, directed to the floor in the direction he had pointed out, where I found a trail of blood drops every couple of meters.

- So, we just have to follow the blood and hunt him down

- Basically, yes.

- Okay, let’s go then

- Easy there. The employee also said that he had a weapon, something short that I assume is a kitchen knife or a machete at max, so if we find him, you stay back and I’ll handle him.

- What? Why am I here then if I’m not going to help you?

- Trust me, if it where my choice you wouldn’t be here at all, but you have to so at least don’t get in my way.

- How am I gonna learn anything if you don…

- Learn by watching – he interrupted me as he turned around and started jogging following the trail

- Whatever

I gave up protesting because I knew it would be pointless and just followed my partner.

We snaked through some narrow streets taking lefts and rights from time to time, until we stopped at an alley that was completely dark, thanks to the extremely cloudy day and the huge buildings surrounding it, wich probably meant that this alley only received some sunlight at noon and right now was barely 10.30; but most importantly, here was the end of the blood trail.

John stepped forward, taking his phone out of his pocket and activating the lantern function so we could at least see anything right in front of us.

- Put your back against mine kid, that way no one can sneak behind us.

I got surprised by the command, but in a good way, because I hadn’t think of that which meant that I was actually learning something. I nodded and did as he said, gluing my back to his. It was a bit awkward since he was at least one head taller than me, which meant that my head was against his shoulder blades, and my lower back rested against his butt.

We slowly started walking through the pitch black street, one step at a time, while agent West cleared every corner he saw with his lantern. There were some big trash containers distributed against the walls, so we had to check every single one, but found nothing. We were almost at the end of the alley when John finally looked through the las container, and when he declared that it was also empty, I separated my back from his and expressed my frustration:

- Maybe he patched up his wound here to make it seem he entered this alley?

- What are you doing ki… GET DOWN!

I instinctively ducked at my partners command. Looking up I saw a silhouette emerging from behind of where I was standing just a second ago, followed by a metal chirp, a groan from my partner and a heavy breath interleaved with some kind of whimpers.

John dropped his phone which I quickly picked up to see what was going on. That's when I realized that I had almost died.

Illuminated by the phone light, I could perfectly see the scene unfolding right in front of me, or rather above me. The silhouette was that of a really skinny boy who couldn’t be more than 25 years old, with really old and dirty clothes, holding a big but a bit rusty machete-like knife on his hand. The blade looked a bit dulled but if you swung it with enough force you could probably make some big damage to someone. The blade was stuck pressing down against something long and thick… An arm… John’s arm.

He had seen the guy coming from behind, told me to get out of the way and tried to stop the blade that, missing his original target a.k.a me, was now directed to John; but it seemed that since he had to get me out of the way first, he wasn’t able to fully evade the swing and just tried to stop it with his forearm.

It seemed that he had successfully shielded himself, and was now using his other hand to grab the guy by the neck. He kept pressing and pressing until the boy couldn’t stand it, at which point he dropped his weapon and used both hands to grab the agent’s hand, using all of his forces to free himself from his grasp.

They were in a complete stalemate, so I figured I had to do something to turn the balance in our favor. I started thinking and a sudden thought crossed my mind: if this was the guy we were looking for, and the employee of the store hadn’t seen wrong, then somewhere over here I should find…

I moved the light through the alleged criminal’s body until I found what I was looking for. Right above his ankle there was a pretty ugly and deep cut, consequence of trying to escape as fast as he could from the crime scene. Blood had been leaking from the wound because his old white socks where of an orange-like color, a mix of blood, filth and the white from the socks. It seemed painful enough that the most subtle contact would probably be enough to make him lose concentration and balance. So, I strengthened my grip on my partner’s phone, apologizing in my head for what I was about to do, and hit the guy right in the center of the wound with full strength.

As I had suspected, the guy instantly bent from the pain, nearly dropping to the ground if it wasn’t for John’s hand around his neck holding him in place.

I hit him a couple more times just to make sure he couldn’t resist my partner, who took his chance and instantly turned him around, threw him to the ground and subjected him, taking out his handcuffs and putting them around the guy’s hands.

Once defeated, the guy stopped trying and just went with it when John picked him up and made him stand up.

- Why the fuck did you turn around!? – I couldn’t see his face but I knew from his tone that he was angry, very angry.

- What? I… I just thought…

- You are not here to think, you are here to learn to not make those mistakes. You are lucky that this guy was in bad shape already and his blade was shit, because if it would’ve been a guy with a minimum skill, your head would be rolling on the floor covered in trash.

- I guess... I guess you are right… I’m sorry

- I don’t want nor need your apologies, apologies are useless. Just try to not fuck up again on the way back.

- 'kay

I wanted to protest because he was treating me like I was useless, a burden, and incompetent, but right now, I totally was, so I kept my mouth shut and followed him out of the alley.

Once we came out, two things caught my attention. The first one was that John’s arm had blood stains, but he hadn’t come close to the criminal’s wound, and that's when I realized that the machete, even being dull and rusty, had somehow penetrated his arm’s protection and cut him. It wasn’t bad, but it probably had been painful to withstand the blade pushing against it as he had done.

The second thing tho, wasn’t something about my partner, but about the criminal, more accurately, his face. He wasn’t scared nor in pain, but his expression was that of relief, almost happy, as if getting caught was something good. I felt curious about it and almost wanted to ask the guy why he was smiling like that, but didn’t had time because my partner spoke first:

- You are coming with us boy, you are going to be fine after a couple of stitches, but if do we don’t get that treated it could get very bad very fast.

- I don’t care, at least it’s over

- What is over? – John asked while patching up his own wound with a bandage I didn’t know he had

- Fear, pain, everything.

- I don’t get you, but you not only robbed the store, you also attacked two agents from the WP, so you are getting locked away some time.

The boy didn’t answer so my partner just grabbed him by one arm and we started walking back to the HQs.

We made a quick stop at the store just to make sure that we had the right guy, and once we confirmed it with the employee, we finished our journey at the HQs, where they took him away to imprison him.

I took a final glance at the guy while they were taking him, when suddenly he looked back at me and I could swear I saw him smile, followed by two simple words: 'Thank you'