After the guy got locked up, I went looking for agent West to see how our day would continue, but if I’m being honest, I couldn’t bring myself to look him in the eyes right now. I was ashamed and embarrassed because it was my fault that he got hurt and that I almost died. Also I didn’t want to give him more reasons to mistreat me because I know I don’t deserve it, but most importantly, I was angry and disappointed with myself, because I couldn’t believe that I made such a stupid mistake for being too overconfident and careless.

I found my partner on the infirmary, where he was getting his wound patched up. I waited for him to get out, and once I saw him I quietly approached him and asked with real concern in my voice:

- How is it?

- I’ve had worse, but the thing is that it could have been prevented if you would’ve been focused

- Come on man, I get it, I made a mistake, I should have paid more attention. Everyone makes mistakes, even you.

- Yes, everyone does, but do you know the difference between us and the rest? A mistake in anyone else’s life is fixable and probably not that important, while in your and my case, a mistake could be fatal, so we don’t make mistakes, or at least try to prevent them with our full capacities, what you didn’t do today.

-…- I didn’t answer, he was right. I was cocky thinking I could let my guard down just because the alley seemed empty

- Now, get lost, we are done for the day

- Don’t we have patrolling to do today?

- No, they told me to take the day off because of this – He looked at his injured arm and then back at me

- Oh… Okay, see you tomorrow then agent West

As usual he didn’t answer, he just turned around and left. I was planning on training with Pat today after work, but with all that happened I just wanted to get home and think

I made my way through the building until I found the locker room. In these past weeks I got a lot better at navigating the HQs, but since today we had deviated from our normal course it took me 15-20 minutes to find the room that I usually found in less than 5

I entered and quickly removed my uniform and sword, and put them inside the locker, taking my backpack out before closing it. Sitting on one of the long benches I usually used to get dressed or wait for my partner to do the same, I took out the handle from inside of my bag and stared at it.

- If I hadn’t found you, would I still be here today? – I started talking, not sure if to myself or the inanimate object on my hand – Maybe I’d be working at the bookstore, reading generic fantasy novels on my free time, and living out of the school kids that needed new books every year; or maybe I would’ve entered an university to study something that I didn’t like but that would’ve assured me a future.

I made a pause before putting to words my last and least likely imaginary scenario

- Who knows? Maybe if I hadn’t stopped that day to pick you up, my mom would still be alive

I instantly brushed away those thoughts since it was pointless to wonder about that now. None of that mattered. This is my life now, my present that I built from every decision I’ve made to this day, from every action I did, from every memory I have, and from every mistake I made. If I was planning on going all the way with this, which I did, I had to be better, to stop overestimating myself just because I had trained longer than the rest of the trainees, I had to accept that I’m going to fuck up but, as agent West had told me, I had to use everything in my power to minimize the possibility for a mistake to happen.

Suddenly, the door of the room opened, letting someone in. I looked up and found my partner with an annoyed look on his face, probably because he didn’t expect me to be here.

Lowering my gaze again and standing up, I picked up my bag with my free hand while talking to the agent:

- Sorry, I was about to leave

He didn’t answer, so I looked up at him again, just in time to see his expression change from one of annoyance to that of surprise and then to that of shock

- Kid, where did you get that? – He asked with a voice so soft I couldn’t believe it was coming from my partner

He was staring at me, or rather, at my right hand holding the handle, with his eyes opened to the point I thought they would jump out of their sockets at any moment

- I told you it’s a memory from mu moth….Ugh! – I said while looking at my token, but wasn’t able to finish my sentence because all of a sudden, a big and strong hand was holding me by the collar of my shirt, lifting me a good 20 centimeters off the ground

I instinctively dropped my backpack and used my now free hand to grab my partners own hand to try and set free from his grasp, but agent West was too strong for me, so his hand wasn’t moving an inch. Seeing that I wasn’t going to win on a battle of pure strength, I did the only thing that crossed my desperate mind, and tried to hit his arm with the handle resting on my right hand.

I swung just as I had done to the criminal with John’s phone, but my partner who apparently was as fast as strong, grabbed my wrist before my attack connected, leaving me completely defenseless and slowly running out of air

- I’m going to ask you one more time kid – He strengthened both his grips on me before continuing – And you better give me an answer this time

- I… found it…*cough*… street… building… years ag… can’t… breath…

It seemed that my message got to him because he didn’t just loosen his grip, but completely let go of me, dropping me to the ground on my knees. Unconsciously I brought my hand to my neck while taking quick but deep breaths.

We stayed there motionless for a full minute that felt more like an hour, until I had the strength to look up at the agent, but he instantly turned away with his head down and said with a firm but somehow forced voice:

- Get out of here

- What? But wh… - Again I couldn’t finish as he interrupted me with a shout that was probably heard in the entire building

- NOW!

I got so scared that I stood up in a single jump, grabbed my bag and ran away from the room, taking a last peek back as I crossed the door. I kept going until the the locker room wasn’t visible anymore and stopped to get some air.

What the actual fuck was that? Why did he attacked me like that? Why was he so interested in the handle? And most importantly, was he…? Nah, I must’ve imagined it, I better get going, I need some sleep.

The next morning when I arrived to the HQs, I wasn’t received by my partner waiting for me as usual, but a room with all the other trainees and their respective tutors, mine being the only one missing.

- Oh Theo, you are finally here – Pats voice came from my left, where she was standing side by side with agent Violet

- Morning Pat, agent Violet

- Is good to see you, Theo – The agent returned my greetings with a sincere smile – How’s your training with John going? I heard that you had some fun yesterday

- She’s right! I heard that you two caught a bad guy who had just robbed a store

- Yeah, we did, although I almost lost my head and agent West did 90% of the work so it’s a bit of an overstatement that we did it, it was basically him.

- Well but you were there and you saw him in action, how was it? – Pat was really excited about yesterday’s case, and I felt bad that I didn’t have much to tell her

- It was pretty cool and I actually got to learn something. By the way, have you seen him? Agent West I mean

- No we didn’t, we actually thought he’d be with you – Violet declared shaking her head

- Right now he probably wants to be as far as he can from me

- Did something happen?

- Yeah, a couple of things, we had some… Issues, but I actually was planning on apologizing today and fix everything between us.

 Out of nowhere, Eduardo Ramos, chief of this branch of the White Police, entered to the room looking at everyone, and when our eyes met, he stopped and said with an agitated tone:

- Trainee Theo! I see you are already here, so we can start now

- What about agent West? Isn’t he coming?

He didn’t answer my question as he was already calling everyone to gather around him so he wouldn’t have to raise his voice too much

- Thank you for gathering here without anticipation, this won’t take too long so please listen carefully. Agent West, who was until today Mr. Wagner’s tutor, won’t be able to do his job for some time. He’s got some personal issues to solve so I told him that he could take as much time as needed. So, from now on, Theo Wagner will be working with all of you here, one week at a time until agent West is good to get back to work. Since today is Saturday and you only have half your usual work time, we’ll give him the day off, but starting from this Monday, he’ll be working with agent Neumann and trainee Wolf, agent Meyer and trainee Wood, agent Grant and trainee Volkov, and agent Armstrong and trainee Allen, respectively.

- What!? – I seemed to be the only one shocked because everyone else was calmly listening – What happened to him? When is he coming back?

- I can’t tell you that, he asked for privacy and said that he will come back when he can.

- Can I at least contact him so we can talk?

- He also asked for privacy in that sense, he doesn’t want to be bothered. Any other questions?

Agent Meyer, Mercedes Wood’s tutor, raised his hand and followed by a nod from Eduardo, he asked:

- Why don’t you assign him a substitute tutor while agent West is absent? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind having him with us, but why alter everyone’s routines so much when there’s a simpler solution?

- We thought about it, but I suggested that this would be a good way for the trainees to interact with each other and get to know each other better for future collaborations.

- Makes sense – Emil said and stepped back, signaling that he had no further questions

- Well, if there are no more questions I guess we can put an end to this little meeting. Thank you all for your time, you can go back to your normal activities, and you Mr. Theo are free for the day and will later receive and email with your new schedule for the next week so you can adapt beforehand.

- Okay I guess. Thank you President.

He nodded and rushed out of the room.

I looked around and realized that everyone was looking at me, which made me really uncomfortable. I tried to say something but didn’t know what I should say. I felt that they were expecting an explanation or a reason for my tutor’s sudden situation, but I had no idea what to tell them, apart from the fact that we had an argument, but I also didn’t want to get him in trouble giving to much detail about that either.

Luckily for me, my guardian angel a.k.a. agent Violet saved me by talking first:

- I’m looking forward to working together trainee Wagner

Even if she sounded really professional and formal, I saw on her face that she was actually excited about it when she came close to shake my hand.

Following her example, every other tutor mimicked her gesture, adding an observation of their own

- Same for me, I want to see what West’s trainee is capable of – agent Connor added with an intrigued voice

- You are too little for my taste, but we can change that with some good training – said agent Neumann while squeezing my hand with hers, which was almost double the size and 10 times stronger.

- I hope you are ready for some exciting patrolling – Emil Meyer laughed before adding – And after you train with us, you’ll never want to go back with John – he finished shaking my hand with one hand and pointing his trainee, Mercedes Wood, with the other.

Every trainee did the same as their tutors. Frank Wolf and Mercedes Wood came first and tried to shake my hand at the same time, and when they noticed the other’s hand beside theirs, they locked onto each other’s eyes with murderous intent.

I shook both their hands since she was left handed and he was right handed, so they calmed down a bit, but the tension was still palpable on the air.

Then, I saw Yuri Volkov was close to me so I turned to him and extended my hand to go for a handshake, but he slapped it away and said “Just don’t get in my way”

- As lovely as the first time we met… - I said to myself while rubbing my hand and turning to face the last trainee and my occasional training partner

- What? You are not going to say anything? You are breaking my heart

- I was leaving the best for last, of course

- I see your ego is still bigger than agent Neumann’s biceps

- You call it ego, I call it confidence

- Let’s see if you can transmit some of that when working together

- I just hope you don’t infect me with that sarcasm of yours

- Oh sweetie, it’s already done

- You wish – she laughed and then extended her hand - Let’s see who gets to become an agent first

- Challenge accepted - I said, shaking her hand with a confident smile – but I don’t want any excuses when I win Miss Allen

- Same goes for you, Mr. Wagner

With that, the meeting was over and everyone returned to their work, and I went to the training room to at least make up for the time I’d lost yesterday and I’d lose today, but I couldn’t focus since I was still worried and intrigued about what could be happening with agent West so I just headed home early to think. Was it about our argument from yesterday or was it just a coincidence? Why did he get so upset when he saw the handle?

All of this questions were stuck on my mind for the entire weekend, but I decided to put them away for now and focus on my new schedule and training with my new partners. I had to take this chance to learn everything I could from them, because if my assumptions were correct, at least 2 or 3 of them had different styles and used different weapons, so I’ll be able to see them in action and maybe, just maybe learn to use said weapons, at least at a basic level.

So yeah, the next couple of weeks are going to be interesting.