Chapter 8:

Discovery lines

Blue in the sky


 A door knock awoke me from a deep sleep, when I opened my eyes it was early morning and a strident female voice filled the environment, the repetition of the action of knocking on the door and calling me probably woke me up and along to my raising, my anger at the act was around my being, so much so that opening the door with all the aggression meant by the previous act.

— Good morning recruit, I hope you rested well, after all the bed here is warmer, besides the general would never leave a guest feeling alone, well, let's have breakfast soon because we're going to have a busy day today.— Quickly we go to the dining room, we eat a full meal, during the meal the woman with golden hair and eyes presented with a similar animus to Lau, but being a little more energetic in relation to my sister’s careless manner— My name is Berna Helvetica, Lieutenant Colonel Berna Helvetica, even though I have a high rank I never actually went to a battlefield, but I've known your sister since our academy days, Lau has always been friendly with us, something admirable for our prodigy, although since graduation event.— When she said this, she tried to look away from me and we stayed quiet until we finished the meal, soon after that Berna took me to an empty room, as the equipment for the practical exam, at least three of them, since: —Let's see if you will be compatible with one of them—  Lieutenant Colonel was holding a shield and quickly attacked me, by reflection, I used my arm as a shield and by a glare of light it turned into a blade that absorbed the force of the impact and returned as if she were hit on a wall. —Interesting, did you change the shape of the arm by your own will or by sheer reflex?—She questioned me when she switched weapons and came back to attack, I tried to answer, but her wave of attacks practically stole my breath, my right arm changed shape every time she switched weapons, whether she was carrying the Saber, Bow or Shield, all type of attack was repelled by my arm, however, it attacked me repetitively, causing my arm to warm up, she only ceased when she heard a frying pan sound coming from my arm.

— Hey you lied, with this skill you could defeat an entire horde by yourself—Exhausted, on the floor, I exclaimed that sentence and at the same moment, I heard someone falling to the ground when I looked in the direction of the sound and saw the lieutenant colonel soaked in sweat, also lying, breathing through the mouth like me— I used more than 2500 methods of using field tools and you defended yourself against all of them if you could counterattack I would be in trouble.

—I see you had a lot of fun, you even lost the perception of time— The general added to the resentment as unusual clothes for him, wearing a white polo shirt and shorts, but his disdainful look was still on his face, I tried to look away at the only window that was in the room and I could see that the sun was quite high, demonstrating that it was lunchtime.— Ok, ok let's get some rest, breathe a little and go to lunch, after all, nobody is made of iron— She said that while the general was helping her get up, I quickly went to the shower and when the water passed through my body, I could see if my arm had any fullness and impressed me how robust and yet I can feel soft sensations like water, as the water falled, I thought how I can overcome this challenge, but I could hear the conversation of Lieutenant Colonel Berna Helvetica with General Hostviner, by the proximity of the bathroom to the kitchen.

—So, what do you think of this one?— He apparently spoke with an agitated tone to her

—This one, what?—She seemed acutely attuned to the general’s tone of voice, as someone who displeased her boss and tried to repair her mistake.

—I’m talking about the kid, you think he can become one?

—With today’s exam and the tests presented, there’s no way to determine if he can become, after all , he looks like this in the early stages, even though his arm didn’t explode, are you sure he presented that symptom before Bloodnight?

— Of course, his sister said that he lost his arm because of a truck accident and 18 months later that thing appeared in his body.—The general raised his voice when he spoke of the accident

— The Lord is sure of this, for the boom of this affair among the soldiers just after the Bloody Night and many did not last even a month—The tone Berna spoke seemed to pass on disbelief with her superior's speech.

—I don’t know, the only thing I know is that the truck that hit the day was in the booty operation, but everyone who was in that operation didn’t present any picture that looked like the kid, so I want to know if he can become a Holdfighter or not even reach the end of the process.—Desperation took over the tone of the general's voice, who apparently sensed that I was on the spot, during the conversation, I had finished my bath and changed clothes with the utmost discretion, to listen attentively to the discussion of both and entered the kitchen at the very moment where the general rightly questioned my credulity and seeing me both kept quiet, the Lieutenant Colonel took advantage of the vacancy of the toilet and ran away from the place leaving me and the general face to face.

— What were you talking about?— I wanted to know about the purpose of that dialogue of the two, but apparently, he tried to leave the place on an exit to the living room, but I held him with my right arm, to the insured I could feel that even though he was a muscular man, he seemed to be a malnourished child, upon realizing my strength, he was amazed, nearly lost his balance, but quickly tried to restore his morale by responding:

— Well, as you know, we are discussing whether or not you can enter the Academy, after all, I don't trust your arm so much and as a principal, I need to ensure that none of my students get hurt by my fault, so I called Lt. Col. Berna had to examine the condition of your arm, but she won't be the only one who...—As he spoke, his tone of voice returned to calm, yet his creation of excuses seemed to distract him as I watched him attentively he seems to try to clean the arm where I touched.

— But did you say you would keep the promise made to my sister?— But when I quoted the contradiction, he began to despair as he tried to get away from me.

— Well, well, yes, I’m a man who honors your promises, but I was wondering if you could suffer for something that...— I hit the sink table with my right arm with all my strength, almost breaking the porcelain of the piece, to hinder his speech.

— One thing, only one thing is what I’ve been assigned these days, regardless of the tone of voice, regardless of the person, they all look at me like I’m a fragile piece of porcelain, I don’t like being treated like someone unable to achieve my desires, I barely remembered my life before the accident, the only thing that reminded me of what happened was a crying child and siren sounds around the place, but since I saw my sister for the first time, I was sure, sure I would be like her, so it doesn’t matter how many tests you pass, because I’ll beat them all!— When I exclaimed this to the general, the lieutenant colonel came out of the bathroom and faced with the threatened facet of the general, he tried to think of some lie, but upon reflecting on my statement, he decided to reveal everything, but the lieutenant colonel ran over his speech and said first.

Operation Blue Rose, an operation that consisted of rebuilding wounded soldiers in operations against Ghosts for the corporation, but to say more about it I ask two things, first: you must not tell anyone what I will tell you, or else we will end all your affliction about being an agent of our forces, for you will visit your sister sooner.— Lt. Col. Berna changed her aura from cheerful and welcoming to a more terrifying and sinister tone, not in keeping with her more laid-back clothes, something that scared us; I nodded my head giving her permission to continue to pass her conditions.

— The second condition is simple, from the moment you hear this you will be part of this operation.

— My sister knew this one— I questioned both and each quickly responded to me with a nod of acceptance.— That's right then, I accept to be part of this project.—

— Okay, you must remember the format of a Ghost, right?

— Yes, they are quadruped creatures, with a huge jaw that occupies much of their head, which by the way the head is more aligned horizontally with their body, they act focused only on hunting, they seem emissaries of death because of their black blue coloring of their body, they love the despair and everything of more brutal and ...— With every characteristic given by me, my bad memories of the Bloodynight came to my mind, all the brutality that lives up to the name of this occurrence, every line made me want to hide, lieutenant colonel realized this and acted maternally to hug me, by feeling the warmth of her body, I remembered the hug of the girl who was with me, a girl with a sweet and pleasant voice befitting her hair color, but when I try to remember her, her shape was filled with an isotopic white, making my recognition impossible.

— Well, you got it right, this is their standard format and we’ve commonly managed to defeat with our HF Armor, this is the ultimate weapon created since the founding of the Order to counter-attack the Ghosts, but our success rate in direct confrontations against this type of Ghost is 15%.

—This type?— When I asked, I looked directly at the General, he practically replicated my watchful gaze, but with a more chilled and terrifying air of a hungry hunter watching his prey

— Yeah, types, you must remember the other types during the attack the day before yesterday, right?— Lt. Col. Berna spoke like a teacher was questioning a student, I nodded affirmatively, so she continued teaching about this case, picking up some papers with pictures in her bag to illustrate her points.

— This quadruped is called the Stray Dogs, because they act in packs, attacking like hungry dogs their victims for fun, so they leave remains of the victims' bodies, these flying beings are the Birds of Prey, as the name means, are bird-shaped Ghosts, They usually launch the Stray Dogs and another type through the skies, but when they’re acting alone, they attack that this on the ground with shallow flights.

— And this one, looks like an HF Armor— I questioned her showing the last image she gave me.

— This one is the most recent, we discovered the day before yesterday while we suffered that attack, so we don’t have a specific name.

—So why don't we call it Monkey Swinging, since it's similar to HF Armor, only more agile in combat.

— What did you think when imagining that name?— Hostviner was impressed with my idea, as a suppressed parent to hear about a fictional world of his offspring. — Well, it fits perfectly, after all, they managed to defeat our forces with great ease, although we were lucky not to be annihilated by them.— Lieutenant colonel accepted the name when she remembered what happened that night

— Okay, wouldn't that be public knowledge?—When I questioned this to the two of them, the general stood up with a gun I didn’t see when he picked it up, stood on my back pointing the gun to my head then started talking—You must have heard a voice when you turned into a Monkey Swinging and defeated Stray Dog, or not?—When alien information came out of the General’s mouth caused me confusion, so I tried to look at him, but I was unable to because of the gun pointed at me, so I tried to remember what happened, until I remembered the occurrence of the coliseum, of my sister’s departure and the battle against Stray Dog, with that information I could reason and come to the conclusion

—So are they human?—That wasn't possible, humans attacking and killing other humans, I thought this only occurs in the history books talking about our old house, not here in Zaurus.

—Nearly—The general appeased my affliction by lowering his weapon and returning to his seat— We do not know their origin, but I think they have always existed and attacked us since our arrival, but since the event of graduation I could see my most important point being confirmed: They’re an intelligent life form, the Stray Dogs act like animals because they’re drones commanded by the Birds of Prey, when Stray Dogs' horde was defeated, they began to attack, but I was able to take down one of them while he attacked us, but you could imagine the number of casualties we had to get the data, basically all the data on them was collected in this attack and that’s all we knew until the incident the day before yesterday.— Hostviner's tone of voice changed when he showed a wound from that attack on his chest, from someone reporting what happened to someone who was mourning when talking about what happened the day before yesterday.

—So you didn't know anything about Monkeys Swinging — When I exclaimed again they both looked ashamed of their impotence, but Lt. Col. Berna quickly regained the morale of the conversation. —Well, your friend told us what happened to you, by the way, that boy was solicitous, so I’d like to know what you felt when you turned— I thought they put a lot of pressure on him, but when she smiled when she finished speaking, I quickly associated Junjoumaru’s speech at the hospital.

—A beautiful smile captures even the saddest person— When I noticed that thought came out of my mouth, I was ashamed, the lieutenant colonel was also ashamed and the general was the only one who fell for the laugh. —Well, we are calling you to be part of the operation, your cooperation will be of paramount importance— Regaining seriousness, Hostviner held out his hand waiting for my statement while Lt. Col. Berna complimented him

— Your cooperation will be vital to saving lives, both in the future and now.— A hopeful look came from her look, looking at me like I was a messiah to all the problems in the world, so I was trying to remember the reason for that look, that's when I remembered her speech when presenting the project, which generated more confusion in me.

—What do you mean, save lives?—Immediately Berna would answer me, but the General quickly stole her speech—You must remember that the Lieutenant Colonel spoke of restoring our force, right?— I nodded positively— You weren’t the only one who suffered a Stray Dog attack, many people also had contact with them and survived, but with sequels.

—Sequelae such as difficulty in moving, dementia, madness, lycanthropy, constant vomiting and suicidal desires, there are multiple symptoms, but with an equal reason: they had contact with some fluid of the Stray Dogs on the skin.— The lieutenant colonel extended the general’s point, but something bothered me.

— But I was alone? — The vacancy of the answer terrified me, apparently I was found only by those soldiers.

— Are you the only one who’s lasted longer than our longest volunteer, you haven’t hallucinated or acted weird lately?— Hostviner acted differently from the last few minutes, he still had his hunter look, but he was curious about my last days.

— The only weird thing I feel is having weird dreams, is it normal to dream about a girl?— When I said this both of you, who were paying close attention to my speech, automatically laughed as I had told a joke.

— Didn’t you dream more abstractly, like a dark blue sky, or did you feel something during a dream?— Lt. Col. Berna asked trying to make up for the time lost by my dialogue, but when I nodded, she gave up, although when I remembered those dreams, her cell phone woke up, alerting us that our revealing conversation took a long time, a time where she was available— Well we'll continue tomorrow, I'm already working overtime—When we thought we talked for a few minutes, we had actually taken a few hours, the daylight had dissipated and the evening was coming, we did not have dinner together because she was engaged soon after what would be our theoretical lesson, the general took her out, while I waited for him in the kitchen.

—Relax, she's coming early tomorrow morning, do you want something to eat for now?— That was the general’s line as soon as he dispatched the lieutenant colonel, he took his cell phone.

— Mr. Hostviner, I, I, sorry for not being useful.

— Any and all questions on the subject, ask tomorrow, it will be better to have more people who can answer you, for now, we will eat and sleep— After her departure, the general returned to acting harshly, but because of the mental weariness that conversation presented us, he ordered two cheese pizzas, after eating a few slices, tiredness made me so without saying good night to him, he didn't even complain, he didn't seem to want to talk to me anymore, I went to my room and when he saw my bed, diving into it was my last act of the day.

Looking from the ceiling of the room I could see more clearly the star decoration, between the constellations I saw the horse of Morpheus approaching, throwing his magic powder to pull me to the kingdom of Hypnos.