After having the native Toukoku noodles – Hinode special, Lion was finally smiling. The ease of holding the bowl with his left hand now put him in a good mood. That, coupled with the finished exams had Lion brimming with confidence on his way to the one and only practical exam left. If he could pull that off, he would be able to visit his son’s grave tomorrow. And while it wasn’t a joyous occasion by any standards, just the chance to see Rebecca was enough motivation.
Halfway there, agent Eagle was waiting for him.

“Um… what’s up? Where’s Bunny?” he asked her, already guessing the answer from her eyes.

“Agent Rabbit is busy. I’ll be his replacement.”

“Busy?”

“Yes. He’s on a mission currently. None of your concerns. His absence shouldn’t affect your performance. Or…?” she crossed her arms.

“No,” Lion fixed his tie and checked the buttons on his suit, “Of course not. Thanks for stepping in.”

“You’re welcome. Now lead the way.”

“Oh…” he didn’t expect that, “Sure. Follow me.”

Lion knew these levels by heart by now, but having Eagle on his heels nearly made him sweat. What a stern and cold woman. He felt completely incompatible with her. That got him thinking… What kind of a man would be compatible with her?

“Nervous?” she asked, two steps behind him.

“No. Yes,” he didn’t manage to hide it, “You see… I’m trying to finish today so that–”

“I know.”

“You know?” he was puzzled.

“Of course. It’s my job to know everything,” she stated matter-of-factly.

They entered the near-empty dome, housing only a few rubber balls and the metal and glass white and black coffin. The place of Lion’s nightmares. No other A.A. had caused him as much headache and vomiting as the art of mater manipulation.
The task of remaining on the ground should have been a matter of will alone and god knows he was willing to get it over with. He came close to touching the floor on several occasions, but for some reason, he would always end up being lifted back into the air.

Lion had already near-given up on the idea that he’ll ever figure out how to accomplish what they asked of him.
But today, he had a different plan. He thought of it after the written tests and during lunch.
Turning away from Eagle, he focused his thoughts.

Agent Eagle waited for some time but then realized what was going on.

“She can’t hear you, you know.”

“Umm… excuse me?” Lion feigned ignorance.

“Top agents like me always wear their protection,” she pointed at her head, “I’m not a pushover when it comes to mind games, but I’m only human. Luckily, I’m no overconfident fool, so I had the latest anti-mind control augments implanted directly into my head.”

Eagle then looked at his left arm.

“Unlike you, I don’t have a prosthetic limb to shove all my augments into. I had to spread them evenly through my body to avoid health issues, like any agent willing to sacrifice some of their personal life in order to thrive on the field.”

Lion still wasn’t sure what Eagle was talking about. He hoped she missed the mark.

“Timma can’t hear you in my vicinity.”

That removed any doubts he had though. Hope as well. But he retorted quickly.

“Timma would not be able to give me anything but information though. So what’s the harm? I mean… am I not here so that you would teach me how to do it?”

“An excellent point, Leonich,” she said, “And so why not ask me instead of her? I’m here for you, after all. Perhaps agent Rabbit failed to explain it properly.”

Eagle turned toward the coffin.

“Lift me up,” she commanded and was in the air the very next moment.

Lion watched.

“You see, Leonich… resisting this power is as simple as saying ‘No!’”

She dropped to the ground into a crouch, then stood up.

“It only works if you really mean it.”

“Hmm…” Lion pulled on his beard.

“Alright, now it’s your turn. Lift him!”

And as soon as she said it, the man was up in the air, hopelessly trying to keep the Hinode special inside. He rotated slowly and waved his arms. Unlike her, no matter what kind of a stern ‘No!’ he thought, it didn’t get him any closer to the ground. She did it with such ease though… But was that training or talent?
The way this woman was carrying herself, he guessed a good amount of both.

Hours have passed and he wasn’t getting any closer to making it happen. It was now only a question of when will Eagle decide it was enough and delay his training further. If that happened, he would be stuck here, unable to see Rebecca, and worst yet, he wouldn’t even be able to let her know why he didn’t show up.

“Hnnngh!” Lion made a grimace as he tensed up, he was giving it his all, but to no avail. He would always only float toward the floor slightly before being pushed back up.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk… No amount of tension will help you. You have to sever the control they have over you. Bite off the leash!”

There was no use. No matter how she phrased it, he wasn’t any closer to understanding how it worked. He relaxed and hung in the air, thinking what he’ll say to Rebecca once he finally gets out of here, who knows when. But wait…

“Agent Eagle…”

“Hmm?” Eagle fixed her glasses and leaned her head.

“What’s the requirement for passing this test? Officially?”

“To touch the floor after being lifted,” she replied.

“In that case…” Lion shot his grappling hook into the floor, pulling himself toward it. He touched the floor and grinned.

Eagle put a finger on her lips.

“Well… you certainly showed ingenuity in a tight spot. But the whole point of this exercise is not to rely on technology…”

“Sure, I agree. And I can totally see this mended later. Heck, I can repeat the training if needed, but for now…” his eyes pleaded.

“…the manual says it’s forbidden to use the anti-field device. But it says nothing of the grappling hooks… yet,” Eagle winked and addressed the coffin, “Alright, put him down.”

Lion’s rest of the body fell to the floor. He picked himself up and squeezed his left fist.

“Yes!”

Eagle waited for Lion to get some of his things before she’d escort him out of the training levels and back to the surface. Some minor paperwork had to be done, but he could be out of the HQ today already. She even offered to give him a ride home.
They settled to have him back in the agency the day after the anniversary though, to finalize his becoming an agent
The elevator that brought him down here was coming.

“Excited to know which floor your office will be?” Eagle asked.

“If I’m honest… I’ll just be grateful to get any office.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk…” she shook her head, “Such lack of ambition. You should always aim at the top.”

“Speaking of which… who is at the top? I know agent Turtle is on the 96^th, you are on the 97^th, followed by Bunny on 98^th… then Anaconda on the 99^th floor…”

“It’s exactly 24 hours too early for me to tell you. That information is only accessible to agents. And you will become one officially tomorrow. Funny… you’ll be off on your first day of work.”

“Heh…” he chuckled.

The elevator arrived, but instead of stepping in, the duo had to step back for the man inside to come out.

“Agent Anaconda,” Eagle greeted.

“Agent Eagle,” he nodded, then turned to Lion, “And Mr. Harris Leonich. Going somewhere?”

“Mr. Leonich had–” Eagle started but stopped immediately after Anaconda spared her a look.

“Our examinee had passed all but one test, yes,” he stepped toward Lion and sized him from the bottom up, “He even got an upgrade. An excellent performance – well beyond what I thought you capable, I’ll admit…”

He grabbed Lion’s left hand and pulled it up, examining it carefully.

“… but even though cheating in combat is a ‘skill’ and highly encouraged…” he lowered Lion’s arm back, “It’s still against the rules when it comes to tests. Wouldn’t you agree?” he asked Eagle.

“Quite. But as Lion’s examiner, I made sure it was all by the book,” Eagle stated.

“Lion?” the pale, long-haired man asked in his raspy voice, “We have no agent that goes by that codename,” he pulled the digital device out of his pocket, “Well yet, anyway… I’m most certain that Mr. Leonich will prove to be quite an asset in the future, but for now…” he handed the device to Eagle, “You’ll have to keep training him.”

Anaconda stepped backward into the elevator and pressed a button. He didn’t have a problem enduring Lion’s gaze the whole time before the elevator door closed. Lion could swear he noticed a grin escaping Anaconda’s twisted face.

Eagle was reading the holo-text from the device.

“The rules… backlog…” she kept typing and swiping at the hologram with her other hand, “edits… edits… ok…”

“What are you doing?” Lion asked her.

“A moment. Alright… the last edit to the rules was… ‘Forbidden usage of augments’ … made… Fuck!”

She swore and Lion flinched.

“Excuse my outburst. It would seem Anaconda updated the requirements and rules of testing… one minute before you fired the grappling hook.”

“He was one step ahead…” Lion looked to the floor.

“I’m truly sorry… There’s nothing I can do in this situation. Not with my authorities. I can’t go against him if he’s not wrong in the eyes of the system.”

Lion put his right hand on her shoulder, which made her want to react but she remained collected.

“Eagle… I’m grateful you’d even consider it.” 

* * *

Janneth and Rebecca were standing in front of a small stone tablet from which a purple hologram was emitted, showing an image of a boy and a year. They shared a single umbrella.
The mother was sobbing quietly.
Rebecca was just staring into space, frowning. She was looking through the hologram and into the wet dark-green grass behind it.

Sometimes, she’d look around.

There were some other people in the graveyard, putting flowers, praying or lighting candles.
Janneth and Rebecca were already done with that.

“Honey… it’s time to go.”

Hearing that, Rebecca looked around once more, her eyes searching for him.

“Just a little while longer, Mom… please?”

“Alright…”

But after some time, Janneth handed the umbrella to her daughter.

“I’ll wait for you in the car, honey…this is… too difficult for me. You take your time, ok?”

“Ok, Mom,” she accepted the umbrella, “I won’t be long. I promise.”

Another half an hour had passed.

“I hate you…” Rebecca whispered. She didn’t mean her little brother. She meant her father who didn’t show up. The emotions were swelling in her and she was ready to let them out.

“Hey…” she heard a familiar voice and turned around.

Lion was standing behind her. He had no umbrella and she immediately offered her own, first smiling from ear to ear, then putting on a forced frown.

“You’re late!”

“I’m sorry,” he replied, refusing the umbrella, “You keep it. I’m wet already.”

He then looked around.

“Where’s your mother?”

“Does it matter? It’s not like you two wanna see each other?”

A pretty bratty response, but Lion didn’t want to think like that today. He took a step toward the grave instead.

“I see you’ve already done everything. Good. I’m glad to know you’d be here if I wasn’t around,” Lion said.

“What do you mean? Of course, we would,” Rebecca snapped, “And why wouldn’t you be?”

“Oh… I got a new job. Just speculating, you know.”

“You quit being a policeman?” her eyes lit up.

“You could say that,” he scratched his nape.

“They gave you a new arm!” she noticed immediately.

The fact she did... didn’t bring him any joy. It meant her focus was on his arm more than it should be normal. He looked at the scar on her otherwise perfect face.

“They sure did…” he put his hands into his pockets, “Let’s pray.”

Rebecca nodded and turned back to the grave. She closed her eyes and prayed deeply.
After some time she opened them and looked around.

“Dad?”

But he was nowhere to be seen. Had he left while she was deep into the prayer?

* * *

Lion opened his eyes. He was in a beautiful Toukoku garden, inside a wooden temple. In front of him was a small girl.
She removed her hand from his forehead.

“Thank you, Timma.”

“You’re welcome, mon ami.”

“And you, Eagle, for bringing me here.”

“It’s good to have a future colleague in dept, you know what I mean?”

Lion bowed slightly to the silver-haired girl and followed agent Eagle out of the chamber with pace.