Together just by duty

When the team arrived at the main base, Kaminari was waiting for them along with the navigator, Kaminari was mad.

—Come with me.

All the team went to Kaminari’s office along with the navigator and when they entered, Kaminari was rubbing his forehead with his finger.

—You all get it now, right? Only took one Amalgamator to show you that, next time it would be someone’s life that it almost happened, I was watching the operation, I don’t know what kind of thing crossed your mind to think that you had the essential to go back when the situation already went bad.

—I’m sorry, Boss-

—Save the apologies, everyone, you should know that this is not a game, and nothing here should be taken it lightly, we are not adventurers, slayers or whatever you think you are, we are a collector squad, if something is left behind let more qualified team go for it, if one area seems to easy then be grateful for that, if you were send to one area is because we believed in your intellect and your capacity to take care of the situation.

Everyone had their heads down, the navigator was leaning on the wall holding his face with his hand.

—You failed to help them, you were encouraging and that never had to happen, you are the one that calls the shots here, and yet you let them go for that. Don’t let false courage blind you for taking the team safe, they were already safe and you let them go too…

The navigator only closed his eyes and looked down, Kaminari went to his desk and sat down.

—You are now punished with two days of service duty, what is last today and tomorrow, the day after tomorrow you would be assigned a new floor to explored, and I hope you have thought about all that happened… guessing by your looks I guess you are already thinking about it… and for you, navigator, you will be having a class about commanding again, you will be one week out of navigator’s duty, that’s all for all of you. Dismiss.

A soft “yes” has said by everyone, the team went to backrooms to leave the suits and when they come back to the main lobby, they were assigning with task in their devices, the task was simple, help in the kitchen, help at cleaning and give maintenance to weapons.

The team took different paths, nobody talked to each other, and so it passes two days, the team didn’t speak with each other if it wasn’t for help or said something related to the work they were doing that day.

Yasu was on his bedroom listen to music while the watch already sent info, explore the 1501st floor, Yasu and the others went to the backrooms and take the armor and weapons, they took the elevator and went to the nearest point at the bottom, and with not more surprises for the team, the last floor was already increased.

They were welcomed once again by Shinru, they went into the mine cars and they took a few steps when they reached the location, Ryu, Yasu, Marin and Sakura were the only ones moving while Nazu, Midori and Amano were hesitant.

—Is something wrong? —Ryu said.

—Are you sure you want to keep being a leader? —Amano said.

—Yes, I know my lack of knowledge led us to something awful but I will improve my leadership skills.

Midori shook his head left to right and looked at Ryu.

—You are not ready to be our leader, nobody is, I knew that I should have been taking care of missions alone.

—I agree —Amano said —. Don’t you all agree?

—Do you seriously want to take this out now? —Sakura said while frowning.

—When should it be then? —Amano said.

—UP! IDIOT! We are doing our jobs right now. From the moment you opened your mouth, I knew something was wrong with you but I didn’t know you were this stupid.

—Ah, you finally said it, I was tired of your passive-aggressive tone.

—What did you say?!

Sakura started walking towards Amano but it was stopped by Yasu who was looking at his watch.

—Quit your hands, you collector of junk.

—I can't, we must not fight, we can resolve this once we come back, as adults.

Yasu looked at Amano and he clicked his tongue, the ambience was tense and it would still be, until they went back to the main lobby, the mission for today was a simple tracking, and it was the only mission assigned to the team right now.

Everyone went ahead with different orders, while Yasu, Ryu, Sakura and Marin were in the same position, Nazu was behind while Amano and Midori were ahead. There was no risk on this floor but it wasn’t to take lightly. We put the trackers on the walls, and the team finished when they reached the final place of the 1501st floor.

The 1501st floor was a cross floor, having north, south, west and east, the team was in charge of only taking care of tracking the west part. Once they were done, they went to the main lobby, but Kaminari was already waiting for them.

—Anything that you do, go to the training room, leave the suits and weapons in the backrooms.

With only that said, Kaminari went to his office again and the team looked at each other. In a matter of minutes, all of them were in the training room where the past navigator send them to practice positions.

A white room, with nothing but generated banks to sit on.

—Alright, so what do you propose? —Ryu said.

—I want you to leave your charge as leader —Amano said.

—And how would be the next leader? You?

—No, I don't want anyone to take the role of leader, it is impractical, we have coordination but I don’t want to get along with you guys.

—The kid is right, I’m not taking the blame for someone else, that is not my fault —Midori said.

—I’m sorry but that’s not possible, and besides, the team needs one.

—And it shouldn’t be you, Ryu —Nazu said —. You did a great job until now but it’s time to leave the rol to someone else, and that someone is me.

—Hold up, Nazu, I’m not taking orders from you either, didn’t you hear what I just said?

—Weren’t you on our side?

—You two aren’t even on the same side, I recommend that both of you shut your mouths and listen to the ones that have more experience than you.

—Seems that you have a lot of confidence, Miss Nazu, but you haven’t done that much for the team, you might be strong but are you really sure you are the one capable of taking the lead? —Marin said.

—More than you, that's for sure.

—Why are you even trying to go there? I don’t want to be the leader, but that attitude sure is annoying, and I’m never following you.

While the others were talking Midori punched in the face at Ryu, everyone stood up and the two of them started fighting, Nazu took Ryu by the arms along with Marin and Amano took Midori.

—This is dumb, what was the idea of bringing us together even? The chief didn’t even know if this was going to work… all of this is getting to my head… I’m leaving… —Sakura said.

She was about to leave but was stopped by Yasu, he took her arm and she saw him in the face.

—Let go.

—No, we need to solve this with everyone.

—Huh? And you sure are the solution? Because I haven’t seen you speak a word in the entire conversation of this, you’re just as annoying as the others, and I’m sure you don’t even care about this team as long as you keep collecting all that trash of yours.

A silence was going through the room, Yasu didn’t speak and then proceeded to talk.

—That’s right, I don’t care about any of you, at least not deeply, I only care about myself, but if we want to continue living, if we want to do what we want, we must start coopering as a team, we don’t need go get along, and we don’t need to have time together as long as we do what we must do, and that’s working.

Sakura bit his lip and slapped Yasu in the face, he only saw her by the side eye and she left.

—Isn’t that right? In this world, sometimes we are going to need to work with people that aren’t of our liking, fighting will resolve nothing, and wasting our time trying to get along with have the same effect, so let’s stop pretending that we can get along an only focus on doing our jobs, because that’s why they pay us, if that’s so hard to understand, then you shouldn’t have applied for this kind of job.

Yasu left the room as the others watched him in silence, that day was another day of loneliness for each member.