His favorite person

The door slammed open. Captain Bushi stomped into the room and authoritatively stood in front of his son.

“Can you explain to me what happened out there?” Captain Bushida demanded, crossing his arms. “I thought we were going to do what’s necessary!”

Emil sat on a bench, resting his head on his hands. He tried to move as little as possible to avoid the wave of pain his wounds felt resulting from the combat.

“I did,” Emil replied, raising his head to meet his father’s frustrated glare. “We left him unconscious on the ground yesterday night. You have the footage.”

“Well…it clearly wasn’t enough!” Captain Bushida called out as he inspected Emil’s bruised face.

“I’m sorry…” Emil replied lowering his head.

“Look at me when I talk to you!” Captain Bushida grabbed his son by the neck and shoved him against the nearest wall.

“Then, I’ll guess that you’ll be happy to notify the Kazuhara that we are running a week short on edibles now!” Scolded the captain in the lonely dressing room of the Kazuhara’s workshop.

“It’s not my fault that our porridge production yields are the worst on the whole Grid,” Emil replied.

The rage in Captain Bushida’s eyes overflowed as he raised his fist.

“No, Dad, please don’t!” Emil pleaded.

The first impact threw his aching body to the ground. From this point, Emil knew the drill. His father kept kicking him in the abdomen, snorting his rage out, stomping on the ribs every now and then as he worded incomprehensible things. Emil knew that the quieter he was, the sooner this ended, he limited himself to protecting his head with his hands.

“Look what you just made me do!” Captain Bushida said as he panted heavily. He fixed his uniform in the mirror and headed to the door. “We leave in an hour.”

Emil was alone in the darkness of the room again, letting the coldness of the floor embrace his throbbing wounds as the cheers of the people filtered in the room from the roof above.

…

“Bushida! Are you alright?” said a voice, bringing Emil out of his sleep. “Ana, come, I found him.”

“Where are you Elle?” another voice shouted from the distance.

“In the boys’ changing room, hurry!” the first voice urged.

Emil opened his eyes to find the Lambert twins crouching before him.

“We couldn’t find you!” Elle said.

“Are you alright?” Ana asked.

“I must have fainted,” Emil lied as he stood up.

“Do you need help?” Elle worriedly said, looking at Emil’s weak stance.

“The boat leaves in fifteen minutes!” Ana added as both twins offered their hands to help Emil walk.

“Leave me alone,” Emil replied, wondering why they were so willing to help him after the terrible way he had treated them. He shouted at them for not doing good enough in the first event. Was he the reason they lost the contest? He ruined the twins' outstanding performance in the second event by losing in the final. He had scolded them all the combat for no good reason. Could someone else at the Kazuhara have defeated this year’s adamant opponents? Emil shut his thoughts away and said, “You better leave, I’ll make it on time.”

…

Emil decided to take a private platform to the Kazuhara, he loved its privacy as he wasn’t in the mood to be nice to strangers and it was the only way to make it to the Kazuhara on time. He was grateful to have taken the time to cover up the bruises on his face when he arrived at the access bridge to the Kazuhara, where a group of reporters and fans waited.

“Emil! Tell us how you are feeling!” One reporter requested.

“You did amazing!” One fan shouted.

“Sign my forehead!” Another solicited.

“Emil,” Romina Tatcher called, jumping at the end of the group. She always made easy questions, so he decided to approach her to give her his answer of the day.

“Hello,” Emil said.

“Thank you for giving us this interview, Emil. I’ll be brief because I know that you should be tired. Just two questions,” Romina continued. “First, I want to congratulate you for your outstanding second place. We know that it isn’t what you wanted but your fan club wanted to tell you that you were amazing.”

“Thank you,” Oliver replied, faking a friendly smile.

“Second. Are you considering going back to your musical career after this defeat?” Romina asked.

“No,” Emil coldly answered and walked into the Kazuhara as the people behind kept requesting him to answer more questions.

The Kazuhara didn’t bring the peace Emil needed.

“Congratulations, kid!” The registration employee said as he scanned Emil.

“I appreciate it,” Emil replied.

Emil sprinted to the nearest passageway.

“Congratulations Bushida. I bet your father is the proudest!” A couple told him.

Emil mocked in his thoughts. If they knew. He just couldn’t stop finding funny that every crew member he found in the way, told him that his father would be the proudest. He tried his best to sound glad as he thanked every compliment.

Emil knew there would be a lot of people on the main square and he tried to avoid it but it was the only way home. As soon as he set foot on the main square a spotlight moved in his direction.

“Oh! There he is! The crew member of the month! Emil Bushida!” An announcer called him to go up on stage while the spotlight blinded him.

He met the Lambert twins up the stage.

“So, those pipes gave you a headache right?” The announcer joked.

“Sure they did!” Ana replied.

“We cannot wait to implement all we learned,” Elle excitedly continued talking about robotics.

“And you Emil,” The announcer said. “You gave us goosebumps with your performances at the combat ring…”

“I’m sorry, Ken,” Emil said with the last drops of his politeness tank. “But I’m going to excuse myself.”

“Oh sure! You must be exhausted, how inconsiderate of me,” The announcer apologies. “Ladies and gentlemen, Emil Bushida!”

The public applauded as he got down the stage.

“Great job!”

“Well done!”

“You’re awesome!” Many members complimented him as he passed by.

Emil left the busy square to find a peaceful way to the Captain’s cabin, he didn’t worry about encountering his father since he was on duty.

Emil opened the door to find the loneliness of a spacious open-concept cabin. He ignored the breathtaking view of the endless ocean and walked to the kitchen where he opened the sink cabinet. Emil squeezed inside the cabinet, closed the doors, pressed a button and the floor of the cabinet started descending.

After a couple of minutes, the platform stopped, and Emil descended to a tiny cabin, surrounded by the sound of the Picorium engines.

“Home,” Emil thanked.

Emil inquisitively analyzed the room, he had been away for five days so he got to work.

“First, some fresh air!” He said opening a thirty-centimeter metal door that let the sea breeze into the cabin.

Emil ironed the floor, the walls, the ceiling, and the bedsheets. Then he emptied the urine bag, put in a new bag of nutrients, and checked the breather.

“I’m sorry for being out for so long Mom,” Emil said as he brushed the hair of the unreactive woman lying on a bed in the center of the cabin. “Let me tell you everything!”

Emil started to excitedly narrate in great detail every single deed of his in the last five days. He re-enacted the scenes and even added sound effects but the woman remained still, just her chest moved by the breather’s action.

“And he smashed Kotomine in the most unique way I’ve ever seen!” Emil laughed, rubbing his aching neck. He ashamedly looked back at his mother. “Unfortunately that means we lost.”

Emil sat down next to her mother and held her hand. She squeezed his hand back and Emil finally allowed his tears to flow.

…

“You have a new message,” Announced Emil’s GoMindfull, waking him up.

“Mom, Mom!” Emil excitedly urged, shaking his mother. “You won’t believe this!”

The moonlight flooded the room.

The message read, “Congratulations! You’ve been accepted into the Academy of Handlers.”