December 12, 2023.

6:00 AM

As the next day arrived, the first thing R did after waking up was to visit Ley in his room and observe him.

And despite the black mask covering his face, his eyes—filled with immense concern and compassion—were too obvious.

"Will he be alright?" Attara, who had just arrived with Proxima and Tract, concerningly asked.

"Post-awakening triggers are required to process their reabsorbed mist for how long it takes, so he will be fine, perfect, and even better, especially after his powers manifested," R replied, assuring her.

"That is correct," Proxima confirmed with confidence and certainty.

R turned to Proxima, looking for confirmation. "I take it you're done with your task?"

"Yes, sire," she respectfully answered.

"We're originally friends, you know?" R reminded her. "You don't have to call me that."

"Yes, but you're the boss, and we are in a hierarchy, so shut up," she replied arrogantly.

"Still a bureaucratic snob, huh..." R turned around and whispered, hoping his snide comment wasn't heard.

"You're lucky you're the boss, or I would have smacked the shit out of you," Proxima responded, having heard the insult.

R disregarded Proxima's threat and gazed at Tract after noticing his presence. "The agents are called, correct?"

"You guessed it, boss. They're in the conference room, waiting for you," Tract confidently confirms.

Accompanied by his three trusted companions, R trailed the organization's hallways—black, advanced, smooth, and refined—and arrived at the conference room.

The conference room's floor reflected everything as if it were a mirror with its glistening black tiles. Its pillar maintained the high dignity and authority that the organization placed in its smooth black walls. While the lights built into the high ceiling of the room brightened the black structural design of the area.

But all of it belonged to one person who could relay and command information to hundreds of agents at once: R.

Five low-ranking agents stood in the center of the room, their bodies reflected on the floor and the screen as they faced the room's huge black screen in front of them.

The sound of R's footsteps and the authority he carried echoed upon his arrival at the conference room.

R saw the five agents and noticed the proper presentation of themselves as they uncomfortably presented themselves to the highest-ranking agents in the organization.

Their anxious behavior was to be expected; after all, low-ranking agents could never see themselves meeting agents of extreme importance like the four.

"Ease up, everyone," R announced, trying to loosen their obviously tense and uncomfortable postures.

But even with his encouragement as the highest rank, they simply couldn't follow through out of Proxima's presence.

You've certainly drilled the hierarchy into them, Proxima. R internalizes.

The five agents locked their eyes on the R's three trusted agents, who stood beside him.

Proxima, Tract, and Attara. The three held the second-highest ranks and were named Cerberus, the three-headed monster.

The three each bore a title that highlighted their specialties and the department that they oversaw and managed.

The First Head, Proxima. Head of Intelligence. Overseer of Information and Technological Advancement.

The Second Head, Tract. Head of Combat. Commander of Training and Offense-Defense Trigger Counter.

The Third Head, Attara. Head of Civil Affairs. Director of Integration and Stability.

Their eyes remained locked onto the three, attempting to confirm the circulating rumors going around the organization about them.

As they ended their quick, short observation, they were able to observe as much about the three as possible.

Proxima is a middle-aged, black-haired white woman with an average height and sexy athletic figure.

Tract is a middle-aged, black-haired white man with a tall, buff figure.

And Attara is a middle-aged, black-haired brown woman with a short and petite figure.

After seeing them upfront, it finally made sense why no agents could ever create a rumor about what the high-ranking agents looked like.

Because of every encounter that any agents had with the high-ranking agents, the high-ranks always wore their black masks.

No one had ever seen R except the Cerberus, so it made sense no one had ever made a rumor about his appearance.

So after turning their attention to R, they focused on remembering every detail of his character: a tall and athletic middle-aged, black-haired, white man.

As he noticed the five agents' behavior, R immediately began to present the purpose of the five agents' summons.

PROJECT BLACK CALAMITY

The black screen that R covered with his body changed into a white screen with the mission's name presented on it, temporarily blinding the five agents with its sudden flicker.

"Project Black Calamity is the name of your new mission," R declared. "This mission includes the simulation of a foster home that houses a trigger, creating an enriched family environment."

In an instant, a squeak echoed throughout the entire conference room, capturing everybody's attention.

The person who made the sound was the awkward young female agent standing in the very middle of the five agents.

"Questions?" R turned to the young female agents, waiting for a response.

R knew the names of the agents standing in front of him, beginning from left to right.

Agent C-208515 or Agent Theodore. A forty-one-year-old male engineering professor.

Agent C-919121 or Agent Isla. A thirty-nine-year-old female child and young worker.

Agent C-918919 or Agent Iris. A nineteen-year-old female research specialist.

Agent C-112524 or Agent Alex. An eighteen-year-old male cafe barista.

Agent C-6512924 or Agent Felix. A sixteen-year-old male student.

Iris, the young female agent, turned to her sides, figuring out which person the boss was talking to, whether it was the old-looking agents on her right or the young-looking agents on her left.

She looked at them repeatedly and waited for them to speak up, only to look back to the boss and finally realize that she was the one he was asking the question to.

"Oh... Me–me–me?" she stuttered.

"Yes, you. Agent Iris," R confirmed.

"I—I s—see," Iris responded, her anxiety doubled.

Before she became unpresentable, realizing her anxious behavior, she closed her eyes, caught her breath, and regulated her racing heart, a method she uses to calm herself.

In the minute of silence that followed after her method, her eyes became filled with darkness, and so, the world around her waited.

The four agents that stood near her wanted to intervene, seeing Iris' behavior towards the high-ranking agents.

But seeing the four high-ranking agents standing in front of them unbothered by her behavior, they remained frozen in their positions.

"Done?" R gently asked, seeing Iris finally open her eyes.

"Uhm. Yes," Iris answered confidently.

"And I deeply apologize for the behavior I presented earlier; I assure you that it will not happen again," Iris said respectfully.

"It's alright. Your fellow agents needed the silence," R assured her. "So, do you have a question?"

"I do, sir, but first, I would like to apologize in advance in case my question of doubt offends you," Iris replied. "But my question lies in the reason the organization is allowing a trigger to exist and even housing it."

"This trigger will be a first of his kind, a first to have multiple powers," R declared abruptly, answering Iris' question.

Not even their fear and respect for the high-ranking agents that stood in front of them could stop them from expressing a surprised look.

"Control yourselves," Proxima yelled irritatingly.

Their fear for Proxima turned their shocked expressions back to their uncomfortable postures when they first stood in front of the superiors.

"Do any of you remember the term shattering?" Proxima asked the five, interjecting herself into the conversation.

"I do," Iris responded, raising her hand in the process. "Triggers have an extra organ inside their hearts called the orb, which has two layers: the processor and the container. The organ converts trauma and negative emotions into black mist and contains it. When the orb is overfilled, it breaks, causing the trigger to awaken—causing the mist to leak outside of their body. After the absorption of the leaked mist, the body acts as the pseudo-container for the mist in replacement for the orb. The conversion remains, so even though the body can store ten times what the orb can, it still explodes from repeated overfilling. The explosion releases an outburst of black mist, resulting in massive deaths for everyone within five hundred meters. This explosion is called the shattering."

"Excellent," Proxima praised her, allowing Iris to feel a sense of pride as she received a compliment from the one person she truly worshipped, allowing her to relax her posture, even for just a little bit.

"The organization has uncovered only a fraction of data about the first trigger to possess multiple powers," Proxima claimed. "That said, we have determined that the individual has a power that leads into multiple powers: a powerful passive power called Enhanced Physiology."

"And upon experimentation, the organization has uncovered that this power gave the trigger near-invincibility and instantaneous regeneration," Proxima added. "His near-invincibility also has a passive effect that revealed his perfect resistance to mist absorption, rendering the current version of the Mist Siphoner Glove useless."

"So, what does that mean?" Agent Alex casually blurted, causing the four agents standing beside him to give him a side glance of disbelief.

Tract knew that Proxima would be too annoyed to answer the young agent's question, so he took it upon himself to answer.

"The organization usually eliminates triggers before they have accumulated enough mist to shatter, but with the powers interfering with our job, we might be looking at a shattering event capable of killing the entire planet," Tract said casually.

"Uhm. So. Why does such a project exist?" The other young male agent—Agent Felix—asked promptly, stealing Agent Iris' chance to ask the question.

"The project entails the simulation of a foster family around the trigger, which should prevent him from accumulating enough mist that can kill the entire human race," R answered. "As of now, the trigger is in the process of manifesting its power, which traditionally occurs for one to three days for powerful triggers. However, due to the trigger's uniqueness, the organization expects this trigger's process to take two years."

"Two years? Shouldn't that be enough time for the organization to eliminate the trigger instead of the project?" Agent Alex casually expressed his confusion.

"Not necessarily," Agent Iris interjects, answering with full confidence. "When a trigger dies during their process of manifestation, a second form of shattering called 'forced shattering' occurs; this is when the body of the trigger dies and can no longer contain the mist, causing it to be released. But the current situation is rare, as documented cases reveal that the mist must be absorbed first before the elimination of the trigger, though the trigger's powers interfere with two of those things: the absorption and the elimination.

"Impressive," Proxima compliments her. "But don't ever interrupt like that again."

"Must be nice getting praised by the head of intelligence," R blurted. "That said, you are correct. However, the two-year process is only an estimation; it may be done earlier than that."

"And each of you must be wondering why you were called upon and chosen for this important project," Tract announced abruptly, quickly capturing everyone's attention. "Each of you possesses a common trait—and that is your effective interaction and communication with normal society on a daily basis."

As the five agents notice the sudden flicker of the screen in front of them, they notice the change of presented text.

From what looked like the name of the project to now the picture of their faces and their information presented alongside it.

Agent Number: C-208515

Age: 41

Sex: Male

Civilian Cover: Theodore Tremblay

Occupation: Engineering Professor

Agent Number: C-919121

Age: 39

Sex: Female

Civilian Cover: Isla Dubois

Occupation: Child and Youth Worker

Agent Number: C-918919

Age: 19

Sex: Female

Civilian Cover: Iris Laurent

Occupation: Research Specialist

Agent Number: C-112524

Age: 18

Sex: Male

Civilian Cover: Alex Fournier

Occupation: Cafe Barista

Agent Number: C-6512924

Age: 16

Sex: Male

Civilian Cover: Felix Renaud

Occupation: Student

"All of you will abandon your previously fake names and inhabit a single surname, Smith," Tract declares, notifying them.

As Tract informed the group, the screen changed once again, now revealing the trigger's information.

Name: Ley Rych

Age: 16 years old

Nationality: Filipino

Powers: Enhanced Physiology:
Near-Invincibility & Instantaneous Regeneration

(...)

Cause of Awakening: Death of Family