By: Inuki **Ookami**

 

28

"Before we go through the technique of piloting a battle-robot with a sword I want you to try using a sword yourself. That is why we have brought special, very old style swords. These days we naturally think of sword as those giant blades that battle robots carry and fight with, but originally they were much smaller, and hand-held. This was a long time ago of course, long before the first robots were even conceived of." the line of boys stood infront of the young instructor. Mitsuhiro didn't even look interested. The instructor pulled out the blades. The students took them, and were very careful. None could really use them. Yet Kaleb and Mitsuhiro had amazing skills. They fought with their blades so quickly everything was just a silver blur. The blades flashed against each other. Mitsuhiro jumped over a low slash from Kaleb. As Mitsuhiro landed he did a spin, his shirt whipping back and forth through the air. His blade sung like a nightengale as it flew towards the other boy. Kaleb bent his body backwards, and then did a back-flip. Slowly the other pilots fought, each trying to make themselves look good, but none were skilled, and all deeply feared the sharp blades against their skin. Yet this was not the case between the two training pilot roomates. They fought and fought until they were beyond tired. Finally Kaleb was about to give up, and call it over, when Mitsuhiro amazingly flipped right over Kaleb's head, and without even turning his own head, raised the sword, and slashed behind him. Kaleb's sleeve of his shirt scissored open like a piece of paper. As if it were a miracle he was completely unharmed. Could it be that Mitsuhiro had such perfect aim that he could cut the boy's shirt, and not his skin? There was no answer to that, but by now the other boys had given up fooling with their own swords, as most had grown frustrated with the devices. Instead they gathered around the two boys and their whirling blades. Kaleb was angered, he spun around, and slashed at Mitsuhiro, who also turned around and raised his sword to block it. Kaleb kept attacking, softly though, he wasn't a very ferocious person. Mitsuhiro seemed to easily block each attempt. All of a sudden Kaleb had the upper-hand when he somehow knocked Mitsuhiro's blade to the ground, in a flicker he had his own blade to the other boy's neck. Mitsuhiro breathed heavily. One inch further and that blade would have punctured his throat. Kaleb slowly withdrew, and suddenly everything froze. Everyone in the room stood frozen as a single feather floated down from out of nowhere. It sparkled as it landed, and vanished like all the others before it. Suddenly Kaleb was whisked away. Only this time he was in complete darkness. He felt around the room, only to find that there was nothing of use there. It didn't seem to be a room, because no matter which direction he walked he found he could never feel any wall, nothing. He tried jumping, but could find no roof. All he could feel was the ground below him. He should have felt free, and open, but instead he felt small, and cramped. Still everything was dark.

He blinked, and slowly opened his eyes. Mitsuhiro and his instructor stood over him.
"Huh? What happened?" he asked in a weak, soft voice. Mitsuhiro gave him a blank look.
"Don't you remember? You turned away, then dropped your sword and fainted or something. You just collapsed. You okay?" he asked, as Kaleb slowly stood up.
"Yeah, I'm fine now." he mumbled, standing up. The feather. What had happened? What was going on? It was driving him insane. Suddenly he turned and fled from the room, no longer able to handle the room. He raced out of the building, and all the way back to his room where he lay on his bed.

An hour later the door creaked open as Mitsuhiro stepped in.
"You okay?" he asked. He walked over to Kaleb's bed, and sat down on the side of it, facing Kaleb.
"No." Kaleb admitted sadly. He looked at the bed. Mitsuhiro stared him in the eyes.
"What's wrong. What happened back there?" Mitsuhiro asked. Kaleb didn't want to answer. He knew he had to eventually. You have to face your fears.
"What's the meaning of life Mitsuhiro?" asked Kaleb, in a very weak voice.
"To fight Kaleb. You know that. As long as you and I are pilots we have to fight for what we believe in." said Mitsuhiro, moving a hand through his jet black hair.
"Well, what if this is all a dream? What if it's not real? What if everyone is faking it. Like the general. What if he's pretending to be mean. Maybe he's really against I.P.M. too. Wouldn't destroying him be horrible then?" asked Kaleb.
"This can't be a dream. In dreams and fake worlds people don't question their existance, or if it is a real world or not. It'd be pretty hard to get everyone in the world to fake anything. The general, what if he is really an alien monster? What if I'm acting too? What if I'm pretending to be stupider and weaker than I really am?" asked Mitsuhiro in reply.
"Are you?" challenged Kaleb, who was now looking closely at Mitsuhiro, getting more and more worried. It seemed like his entire world was crumbling to pieces beneath his very own feet and there was nothing he can do about it.
"I can't tell you." said Mitsuhiro secretively.
"That means you are, otherwise you would have said no! Wait. Does that mean that you knew that the general was trying to trick us into hating each other all along? And you could have gotten better marks if you tried harder?" questions the now extremely puzzled and weak American.
"Well, I did know he was trying to make us hate each other, but I had to make him think I was stupider than I am, that way I will be able to get away with a ton more things than I usually would. By the way, how did you know about me wanting to destroyt his company?" Kaleb shrugged and replied.
"Well, it was a lucky guess, the way you've been acting, I started trying to figure out things. Like the stuff that we bought in that store, and why we went to the jail. Where will you go when you have blown this place up?" Kaleb inquired.
"To outer-space, of course. Where else?" chuckled Mitsuhiro.
"So you aren't as hair-brained as I thought you were? You were acting all along? You mean to say you're an intellectual, not some ditzy kid?" wondered Kaleb out loud.
"Well I'm not as stupid as I've been pretending to be, but I am still hair-brained and ditzy." chuckled Mitsuhiro. Kaleb gave a sigh, and looked annoyed.
"Well, are you going to help me, you know, with the bomb?" asked Mitsuhiro. Kaleb only shook his head slowly.
"I think that your gel has finally leaked into your brain! You darn well know that I can't. I don't want to be responsible for the deaths of so many lives."
"It'll be more than you think. I'm talking about the atomic bomb to end all atomic bombs. This atomic bomb will end all of Earth forever."
"What, are you crazy? You want to blow everyone up? I don't want to die! Besides, how do you exactly expect to keep the human race alive? You think you'll find aliens? What are you? Nuts?" muttered a shocked Kaleb.
"I already have it all worked out. The human race doesn't deserve to live. If you choose to come with me we'll be the two last living human survivors from Earth." said Mitsuhiro, completely serious.
"You're insane Mitsuhiro. Someone's going to find this, then they'll lock both of us up forever until they decide to let us out so they can pull us out and kill us." muttered an extremely worried Kaleb. He scratched his head slightly, and then blinked at Mitsuhiro. Suddenly there was a sharp rapping at their window. They were no longer as high up as before, so now it was easier for someone to get up to them. Plus they now had a balcony.
"Oh no! It's those girls again!" said Mitsuhiro. Kaleb looked like he was about to rip his hair from out of his head, and Mitsuhiro was out of crazy schemes for once in his life.
"Just think of this the way I do. We both want to get to outer-space. To do so we have to leap over small hurdles, and deal with bigger things, like getting tired. For us those small hurdles are like dealing with a lousy instructor, or these girls. The bigger things for us would be gaining power in this company, or graduating from the Learning Institute." said Mitsuhiro.
"Wait! It's not that simple! There's more to it than just that!" cried Kaleb over the screams and jeers of the girls outside. Suddenly the window smashed to pieces, and girls flooded in. The two boys ran to the window and began to push them out, but the girls began to grab their clothing and try and take it, or them outside! Kaleb, thinking quickly grabbed a chair to block them. The girls pulld it out of the window, consuming it, like a massive monster! The two boys shoved a desk infront of the hole in the wall that was once a window. The girls could no longer get in. They soon gave up.
"Well, looks like we won't be able to get out of here through the window anymore."

It was a day later when the boys were training again. They were fighting with man-sized swords again, from medievil times. Mitsuhiro had slashed Kaleb's sword out of his hands, knocking it away. It was all done in a matter of seconds, the blades moved so quickly they were a brilliant shimmering blur of light.
"How do you do it?" breathed Kaleb to a smug Mitsuhiro, who stood leaning against his sword, which sat straight down, the tip on the ground.
"It's simple. You just always have to remember that true swordsmanship isn't from skill, or technique. It's from the heart." Mitsuhiro said as Kaleb bent down and picked up his sword which lay fallen upon the training ground. Most of the other pilots gave confused looks at the swords, as they still weren't very good at using them. Most held the blades tightly with both hands, shaking and quivering. Then they would tap the ends together lightly. It was a rather ridiculous site, all these muscled people standing around like children. Only Mitsuhiro and Kaleb were really fighting. It almost looked like neither cared if they were to die, that or they were so confident in the other's skills that they knew they would not be harmed. The two boys slashed at each other, both missing, and then each with the same intention to slam the other's sword out of the way with their own, ended up having the two swords collide, forming an X with the two swords.
"Mastering sword and self are one!" proclaimed Mitsuhiro, as he drew his sword up, sending Kaleb swinging wildly in a circle. Kaleb stopped himself, and then with all his strength reversed the spin, so that he slashed at Mitsuhiro. Once more Mitsuhiro raised his sword, the two vibrated against each other, the metal shining and glittering, the swords meeting in the center. Suddenly there was a loud knocking. Their instructor, who stood entranced, as if by a spell, watched the two boys battle. It was as if he had completely forgotten everything else.
"Sir! Someone's at the door!" called one of the boy pilots. Their instructor snapped his head towards the boy, breaking out of the trance.
"I know that boy! Don't bother me!" he shouted angrily. The boy stepped back slightly, then turned back to his partner, and they began to resume attempting to move their blades around slowly in the air. The instructor turned to the two blue double doors, with light blue handles, and pulled them open, There stood a boy.
"Who are you?" questioned the instructor, who wore his white uniform, and white hat.
"Excuse me sir, but I'm from a nearby Learning Institute. I'm looking for two pilots that recently graduated from my school." the brown haired boy said quietly. The instructor lead him in.
"They're Mitsuhiro Sugimori and Kaleb Brentwood, I was told that they were in here." the end of the boy's sentence was even quieter, as he saw all the pilots attempting to use the swords, and then his eyes moved towards the two boys who were now fighting once more. They were practically blurs of light, and their swords were even faster.
"Mr. Sugimori, Mr. Brentwood. You have a visitor." their instructor shouted. The two boys stopped fighting.
"Hnnh. We aren't in jail, he doesn't have to treat us like we are." smirked Mitsuhiro in a whisper. The blue eyed American and the dark haired prankster headed toward the other, much younger boy. The boy beckoned for them to follow him out.
"There will be a funeral held for the dead students from our Learning Institute, I trust you saw the incident on the news? Anyhow, I was given special permission as one of the pilots a year younger than the class that was killed to ask if you two would make speeches on this event? I know you probably didn't know the students too well, but you two did graduate with the highest marks in piloting, so I was wondering if you would mind writing up an inspirational speech on moving forward. You know, to get the students thinking about their futures, rather than the deaths, which happened in the past." said the young student.
"Hnnh. The past must be remembered, or we would make the same mistakes over and over, time and time again. Besides, isn't it a little early to try and get these students to bring themselves past this horror? It's so fresh. It would seem like a mistake to try and make a speech about moving on, in the middle of a rememberance ceremony for the dead." scoffed a rather angered, but calm, as always, Mitsuhiro.
"Well, would you at least come to talk to the two survivors? The one in the hospital has alot of visitors, but the other one is still in deep shock, most people are afraid to talk to him. Others are just busy thinking about their own losses." sighed the boy.
"I don't think we should interfere, this isn't our busin-" Mitsuhiro was cut short by Kaleb, who spoke up for the first time.
"We'd be honored." on the last word he said it a bit deeper, glaring slightly at Mitsuhiro. It was their duty to do this, no matter how lazy or afraid Mitsuhiro was.
"Thanks. I'll contact you with some information in two days over the phone. Bye!" he said, rushing off.

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