Students muttered and whispered as the two made their way down the hall. The beautiful scholar was getting a piggyback ride from the pale loner.  Jenny waved at several people as she passed by, almost tauntingly. A group of girls scoffed at the sight and walked away as they approached. 

Kai smiled at the thought of making them uncomfortable. But as the smile crept across his face, he began to cough violently. Jenny quickly jumped off of him and crouched beside him as he started to buckle.

“I’m sorry, was that too much?” 

“Nah, it’s fine, I … probably did too much *cough* walking on the beach this morning.” He wheezed out.

Jenny held him.

“You dummy…you should have told me.”

“And miss out on ruining the ‘posh clique’s’ day…not a chance.”

Kai moved her hands from him and staggered to his feet. He leaned against the hallway window sill and breathed in the fresh air. She leaned against it as well.

“You know, you didn’t have to do that for my sake. I let them mess with me because I find it entertaining.”

“Yeah, well…Someone’s got to cause some chaos in their little empire,” Kai responded.

“You say that but…” Jenny pointed to below them, where two boys were leaning against the western wall of the school. 

“You’re the same, too. Don’t you let them mess with you just because you can’t be bothered to do anything?” 

The boys below snickered as they huddled together. One of them took out a black patch from his shirt pocket. He held the arm of his friend and stuck the patch onto their wrist. After a few seconds, a strange technological pattern appeared as purple nodes on the patch. The nodes lit up in the shape of an elongated skull. The boy with the patch began to shake violently before falling back onto the wall. After several seconds, he began laughing in a shrill voice. 

“YOOO! The purple one HITS!”

“I know, right?! Copped these V-Meds from TameMart when the cashier’s back was turned. Finding the virus was easy after that!” The other boy responded.

A grin appeared on Kai’s face.

“Well yes, Jenny. Usually I don’t care, but this right here is too good not to!”

From his pocket, he removed what appeared to be two metal bars, the length of his index finger, stuck together. He pulled them apart, and as he did, they revealed a thin glass that rested between. Several holographic icons appeared on the glass screen, and he held the device out the window.

“What are you doing?” Jenny questioned him.

“I just feel like serving lots of justice today.”

He hit a button on the device, and an image of the boys below appeared on the glass screen.

“Kai, you know about the update, right?” 

“What update?”

A loud beeping sound came from the boys below. Both of them reached into their pockets and pulled metal bars of their own that they stretched into their own screens. Red flashes erupted from the devices, and both of them looked upwards. They frowned as they saw Kai’s face.

“HEY! SMITH!” One of them yelled.

Kai slowly backed away from the window and began to close it. Jenny sighed.

“They updated Fass-Beams so that they alert users of persons taking unapproved pictures of them, as well as their location.”

The window slammed shut, and Kai pressed his face against the glass in frustration. As if the world did not bother him enough, the homeroom bell rang loudly, pounding into the ears of everyone nearby.

“Anyways, those fools would be dumb to try something here, so I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Jenny assured him as she walked to their homeroom, waving him goodbye.

“Yeah, yeah.”

He waited until he was sure that she was gone to ease off the window’s glass. Slowly, a thin trail of blood ran out of his nostril onto his lip. He wiped it away with his wrist and snorted.

“I guess I did push myself too hard after all,” he thought, as he turned and walked to his classroom.

What followed was a typical school day filled with the usual courses, mediocre tasting food, and lack of social interaction.Although, it seemed to fly by faster than he was used to.

The day closed out, and he made his way through the corridors with Jenny.

“I’m really loving my marksmanship class. I can hit a target as small as a bead from about five hundred metres out now.”

“I don’t know whether to be impressed or terrified,” Kai said with a weak, concerned smile.

Jenny chuckled, punching him playfully in the shoulder.

Kai pushed open the double doors of the rear entrance of the school to be met with two bony arms that clutched him around his collar. He was immediately slammed into the wall adjacent to the door and was brought closed to boiled lips and rotten teeth, grinning towards him.

“Hey, Smith. You got a death wish or something?” The ugly face started. 

Tommy Biltart. A kid so dumb he repeated three times, and they started calling him ‘Tommy Retart’. Typical goon with a thug mentality. Bullying, Drugs, theft, even some accounts of arson. The only reason the school let him stay is that the island’s premier was his uncle. Still, he wouldn’t be complete without his…

“Brittle Boy’s half dead already, Tom. He just don’t know it,” a shorter ginger-haired boy said from next to him. Dillan Brockwood or “Dilly” as they called him. He used to be a decent student a while back, but falling in with Tom has led him to his current critter-like life. He shadows Tom so much you’d swear he was his cape.

“Shweeee, ain’t that true Dilly?” Tom chuckled.

Kai sighed loudly as Tom tightened his grip around his collar.

“Hey guys, I don’t have any money on me. But you’re free to scrounge around on the ground like you usua-”

*SMACK*

Kai thought to himself that it was the first time he had ever been slapped. And it wasn’t by his mom, Mr. Sacclin, or anyone he cared about…but this street rat. So he decided to react appropriately. He slowly turned his head, revealing a bruised cheek and a now swollen lip, and smiled.

“Tom! That’s enough!” Jenny yelled at him.

Tom turned his head and snapped back.

“You stay out of this, scholar!”

Jenny took a step towards him, but Kai’s head immediately whipped around, and his eyes told her to stay out of it.

“Hey Smith, I know we gave you a rough time this past year, but trying to snitch on us about Black Patches? That’s something I can’t let slide.”

“ Aren’t black patches supposed to be quick meds? Are you guys seriously getting high off e-bandaids?” Kai taunted him.

“What do you know?” Tom barked at him, turning his wrist upwards for him to see. The black patch on his wrist pulsed slightly with a lavender, technological skull.

“This is fixed with a D-Virus straight out of some underground brokers in Pixel. You can’t just buy these patches, fool.”

Dilly tapped Tom on his shoulder.

“Um, should we really be telling him that? He didn’t know what they were before.”

Tom paused for several seconds before dropping his head.

“Damnit!” He yelled in anger.

“Ah yes, and I’m the fool.”

“Can it, Smith!” Tom pressed his forearm against Kai’s throat and stared deep into his eyes with his black, lifeless ones.

“I’ll make this easy for you, delete the photos, and I won’t make your bones crumble more than they have already.”

“Tom, just cut it out!” Jenny yelled at him.

Dilly whipped out a pocket knife from his uniform jacket. He flipped it open and pointed it towards Jenny.

“Stay out of this, scholar,” Dilly warned her.

“He’s right, Jenny, get out of here,” Kai told her.

Jenny opened her mouth to contest, but Kai shook his head.

“Please?”

She gritted her teeth as she fought against her better self. Kai understood what she was thinking. ‘How could she be an SHF agent if she can’t even protect her friend? ’ But Kai knew better than anyone that he couldn’t get her involved with these degenerates. It was too dangerous.

Jenny turned away and left through the door quickly, slamming it behind her.

Kai looked back at Tom for a few seconds before sighing.

“Fine.”

He slowly pulled out his Fass-Beam from his pocket, and Tom eased off of him. He opened his files and sorted them to find the picture. Why was it always so predictable? It’s why he’s grown tired of living here. At the end of the day, raw strength, corruption, brutality, mercilessness, prejudice, and bias ruled the land. There was no greater meaning to it all. No life to live. Just survival. But, he’d at least survive on his own terms.

“Done.”

“Lemme see it, brittle boy!” Tom yelled, jerking it from his hands.

The boy's face color faded even further than his already white complexion as he stared down at the two words flashing back at him on the screen.

FILE UPLOADED

“Y-You…You idiot! What did you do?!”

“I’m the idiot, but you can’t even tell what’s happened?” Kai taunted him again. Tom shoved him against the wall, causing his back to slam into it. Kai knew his body well, there would be several bruises later. No matter. He looked back up at the bony boy and smiled once more.

“Hey, look at the bright side man. Every major news outlet and social media platform will be aware of your endeavours! You’re famo-”

Kai didn’t even feel the blow come. He just found himself with blurry vision and streams of blood flowing from his nostrils. He clutched his nose as the pain began to set in and the sensation spread across his face. He stumbled but managed to steady himself as he watched Tom wipe his bloody knuckles off on the side of his jacket. This was fine, he thought. He knew his body well. He just needed to keep an airway open in his nose so he didn’t drown from his own blood. Tom spat over his shoulder onto the cement.

“That was a bad move, Smith,” he said quietly. He spoke in a hushed voice, but his body was trembling as he tried to contain his anger.

“Dilly! Cut him up!”

“Tsk! Am I actually going to have to fight?” Kai thought as he steadied himself.

“You took it too far…” a voice said behind them.

The two boys turned to see Jenny, who had somehow appeared behind them.

“Strpzz, I really don’t like to hurt girls, scholar…but you brought this on yourself! Get her Dill.”

Dilly nodded and ran towards Jenny with his knife extended. The blade gleamed as he tilted his wrist, ready to stab.

“No! This is really bad! This can’t happen!” Kai thought to himself, panicked. He reached out his hand and tried to speak, but he coughed instead. He never wanted Jenny in this. This was way too dangerous. He was worried…worried that the boys might die.

Dill thrust his knife at Jenny, who grabbed his wrist and twisted his arm. She sank her nails into his wrist until it drew blood, and he yelped in pain, dropping the knife. She balled her fist and struck him in the throat, bending his windpipe and forcing him to fall to his knees. The boy gripped his throat as he started to wheeze. He looked up at her and immediately became silent as he felt a trickling fear creep up on his back. As his eyes met hers, he felt like he was lost in a torrent of rage. There was not a hint of mercy in her eyes as she looked down at him like he was some rodent who had the misfortune of crossing her path.

“Shut up. Not another sound from you.”

Dilly nodded as he whimpered on the ground. No one understood just how terrifying the training of SHF agents is. Beyond meeting the insanely high intelligence quota, each level of progression in their program requires a different form of combat mastery. There’s Hand-To-Hand Combat, Melee Weapon Combat, Mental Domination, Marksmanship, Tactics Construction, and Spirit Rending. Six grueling stages. Every step brought the trainees closer and closer to being perfect soldiers. The fact that Jenny was a rising star in their program meant that she was lethal. Extremely…lethal.

She looked up in time to glimpse Tom, who had closed the distance and was throwing a punch at her. Embarrassing. The attack was sluggish and had no decent force behind it. She could see it coming from a mile away. Tom might be bony, but he was still slightly bigger than her; there wasn’t a need to risk fighting him in a slugfest. She reduced her profile, stuck out her foot to trip him, and preemptively grabbed his arm to then roll his weight over her back and slam him to the ground. Tom winced as his ears rang from his head hitting the cement so forcefully. As the tears finally left his eyes, his vision cleared enough to see Jenny stooping over him with her same, unforgiving eyes.

“W-Wait…” he begged.

Jenny lifted him closer to her by his collar.

“You laid your hands on Kai. More than that, you threaten to ‘cut him up’ because of your carelessness. So it’s my turn to ask …” 

She pulled back her fist. “...Do you have a death wish?”

“I-”

WHAM!

WHAM!

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

She punched him over and over again, but the boy had been knocked out from the first blow. One of his teeth came loose in her knuckle, but she didn’t stop until she felt a hand rest gently on her shoulder. She looked up, and her eyes relaxed as she saw Kai standing above her, still covering his nose as blood seeped through his fingers.

“Come on, Jenny, let’s go home.”

She looked down at the boy she had clutched in her hands. His eyes were rolled back into his skull, and his face was somehow more horrendous than it already was now with all the blood and displaced teeth. She exhaled and dropped him next to his snivelling friend, who was still holding his throat.

“Okay Kai … let’s go.”

They made their way over the fence but came upon Kai’s bicycle, which had its tires flattened by the two boys. He glanced across and noticed Tom’s Cy-Bike parked by the fence, another one of the undeserved luxuries provided by his family. Jenny glanced at Kai knowingly.

The two tore around the mountain dirt path, burning their way along the road on Tom’s bike. Kai frowned as he zipped along, and Jenny hugged him tightly to hold on.

“Are you mad at me?” Jenny shouted over the rushing wind.

He remained quiet for several seconds before answering.

“I’m not…mad. I just don’t enjoy seeing people get hurt. You know that…” Kai answered. Jenny bowed her head, her forehead resting on his back in shame.

“If you can’t hold back those impulses, I don’t know if we can stay as close as we are…” 

Jenny’s anxiety made her tighten her arms around Kai, as if holding him now would make sure he’d stay. She closed her eyes slowly.

“Okay…” she whispered.