The skills and connections (1)

It’s been three months since Kachi started living inside division 1, or in other words, inside the mock structure of a city at G4.

Half of the students already finished the connection exams, but for some odd reason, Kachi was still on his first friend number. His name, Issac Ted, a 15-year-old F.U student in the gang program. F.U building was faked as Fashion Understandings.

2-floor tall unfinished building, resembling an abandoned site. Easy for gangs to work in. Most rooms had old and dirty stuff stacked, from bats to rods and even stop signs. Alongside a room filled with gym equipment and a boxing arena.

‘’Hey, big brother!’’

Isaac happily greeted Kachi who entered the F.U department, just like the R.A department, other departments also had 2 days off for the same task. Issac had already finished the task on his end by making Kachi one of his connections.

‘’I told you don’t call me that, I’m a year younger than you.’’

Kachi waved in an irritated manner.

‘’But you are 2 inches taller, so it makes you my big brother.’’

Issac insisted on calling him his big brother.

‘’Do as you please, did you bring what I asked?’’

‘’Yes!’’ Issac handed him a small box, ‘’what are you gonna do with a water gun and ball-shaped earrings?’’

‘’I needed these for a friend.’’

‘’Ah okay, hanging out again today?’’ Issac placed his arm around Kachi’s shoulder, ‘’you know you can simply take my number and signature and move to the next connection.’’

‘’That would be fake friendship, I want this to be real.’’

‘’Haha… well at least you aren’t in a rush, seems like no one in your program managed to finish the task, otherwise, you would be in a hurry.’’

‘’Actually, 5 of them are done with it.’’

‘’What? Are you planning to fail?’’

‘’No! What makes you think you are the only one I reached out to?’’

‘’Don’t tell me it's the cat we saved last week.’’

‘’No… maybe… that too, but I’m also meeting a guy in the H.T department.’’

‘’Those guys are hard to crack, so my prayers are with you.’’

Inside the cafeteria…

‘’Eggs and rice again?’’

‘’Won’t do anything else.’’

Kachi awkwardly placed a small notebook on the table, ‘’so… Issac, can I get your number and signature?’’

‘’Bruh! You are weird you know, asking someone’s number isn’t a crime, you hand them your phone and they type it in, it ain’t that hard, at least not something that would take 3 months to ask.’’

‘’I don’t carry a phone!’’

Issac wrote what Kachi asked in the notebook, ‘’how are you even alive then, not to mention, how do you even receiver tasks from your instructor?’’

‘’She sends me mails,’’ Kachi grabbed the notebook and placed it inside his coat pocket.

‘’As in paper mails?’’

‘’Yep.’’

‘’Are you some kind of caveman? If you need the training to familiarize yourself with the modern society I'm here to help my big brother.’’

‘’Haha, nice one.’’

************

Kachi met with another student after leaving F.U, a male student from the H.T department of the hitman program.

H.T although stands for Hitman’s tribe it was faked as Humanity and technological advances.

The departmental building had rooms full of traps, fire ranges, laboratories, and testing grounds. Height: 3 floors.

When the male student saw Kachi approaching for some unknown reason he got ready to attack him with all his might, leaping toward Kachi, he raised his leg, ready to kick the lights out of him.

But Kachi dodged it easily and quickly moved behind the student, hitting him with his elbow. In pain, the student dropped to the ground.

‘’You are getting better, Leo.’’

Kachi complimented him.

‘’All thanks to you, boss.’’ (Leo Rock - 17 - Hitman program)

Kachi crouched down, holding the box Issac gave him, ‘’about the mission you were having difficulties with, I have prepared something that might help you.’’

Leo excitedly sat on his knees like a humble servant would, ‘’wow, really?’’

‘’Your task was to kill someone with a gun, but that was hard because of the metal detectors all around the site, so,’’ Kachi handed him the box, ‘’this will help you with that.’’

‘’I’m going to make him drown with a water gun?’’

Leo was confused after seeing the context of the box.

‘’No, you will wear the earring, which won't be seen as a threat, in the water gun you will add,’’ Kachi paused for a moment, ‘’any inflammable gas you can find, I will add a few non-metal things in it, which will cause fire when the trigger is pulled, now to the earring, you simply have to place it in the hole after taking out the rubber from it, and it should work like a gun in theory if the pressure from fire is high.’’

‘’What if the plastic melts before it could fire?’’

‘’It’s acrylic, not plastic.’’

‘’Thanks, boss, you’ve thought of everything, how can I repay you for this.’’

Kachi, just like how he did with Issac, awkwardly advanced the notebook, ‘’can you write your number and add signature in it, I need that for connection task.’’

‘’This is nothing, I can kill or die for you.’’

‘’That won’t be needed,’’ Kachi smiled.

************

Location: G4, Kachi’s apartment.

Entering the place, the first thing Kachi saw was a picture placed in the frame he had bought from the store when he went shopping with Hera.

The picture wasn’t a camera-produced one, it was a hand-drawn sketch, the quality was bad but it was able to show an image, an image of Kachi and his family sitting together. Kachi, who was the masked person in that picture was sitting in confusion, as his parents were screaming in terror. His siblings were also in the picture, but they had no expression.

The story behind that image was unclear, and the artist was unknown, however, the title was visible, ‘happy family.’

Tired from walking all day, he dropped onto his sofa without taking off his mask or shoes, and within no time Kachi was fast asleep.

************

Location: G4, the training ground.

Thursday, May 21st, 2015.

3 PM

‘’How many times do I have to tell you,’’ a female wearing a green mask yelled at Kachi in front of the whole class, ‘’buy a colored mask, black is not allowed to wear.’’

‘’It’s dark gray mam,’’ Kachi replied while being humble.

‘’Don’t you understand the meaning of colored?’’

‘’Back and gray are also colors.’’

‘’Ugh…’’ the female walked near him and smacked his head, ‘’if it was real R.A you would have to pay 1 million dollars just for that simple mistake.’’

‘’Once?’’

‘’Every month.’’

‘’I kinda like black, so I’m willing to pay.’’

‘’You can’t even do missions properly here, what hope do you have in real missions?’’

‘’I will find a way,’’ Kachi humbly argued.

‘’Let’s see what have you learned so far, then we will talk about this,’’ the female looked at other students, ‘’you know what, I don’t give a crap, there are people better than you who need my attention.’’

************

‘’Assessment, skill: PIN DROP, Hera and Luca you are first,’’ the female stood inside a glass chamber, speaking through a mic she let the student know what they were about to do.

Below the chamber was a series of different shaped mazes, from houses with no roofs, to alleyways, and streets with doors resembling bank lockers.

Hera and Luca entered the house structure, trying their best not to make any sounds, however, Luca coughed without thinking of what skill they were being tested on. This caused an alarm to go off in that maze, causing both Hera and Luca to fail.

‘’Seriously?’’ (Hera)

‘’Whoops, my bad, hehe.’’ (Luca)

PIN DROP: robber’s special skill, as the name suggests, it's a skill used to work silently, without making the slightest of sounds.

‘’Assessment, skill: NULL, Nora and Dylan you are next, rob house number 73 and don’t leave any clues.’’

They failed as well, Dylan got scared and grabbed anything he could while dropping half of the things, resulting in leaving his fingerprints behind, Nora, on the other hand, left her DNA, after throwing a half-eaten burger in the trash can.

NULL: the skill of not leaving any clues after a robbery.

‘’What are you guys doing? It’s the third month since we started training, and none of you have passed 3 times in a row in all skill tests,’’ the female lowered her voice for the next few words, ‘’other than Kachi.’’

‘’Assessment, skill: Magician, Paisley, and Divya you are next, enter street number 4, and there will be police waiting for you.’’

Surprisingly, they passed, even with Paisley’s curious and zoned-out nature. The success was mostly because of Divya’s drones distracting the policemen.

Magician: backup plans, ability to think of alternative ways on the spot, creation of illusions, deceptions, quick movement, the art of swiping, and many more.

‘’Few of you are getting better, few are still worse, I expect better results tomorrow, keep practicing until the training period is over.’’

************

Inside a fast food restaurant, everyone was eating one thing or the other, their faces tired and energy depleted.

‘’Man… this sucks, every day it’s more and more, when will it stop?’’

Luca was tired of his daily routine, doing missions at night and training during the day, they had little to no time to enjoy themselves.

‘’Lol.’’

Ethan nodded agreeing with Luca.

‘’If it was that easy, half the world would have become robbers,’’

Divya stated while fixing one of her drones.

‘’Pathetic, just leave, you cry, baby.’’ (Dylan)

‘’Oh mon dieu, bonjour, at least he doesn’t shits his pants while robbing.’’ (Carson)

‘’Pathetic, at least my dad didn’t leave for a district 13 woman, giving me a french complex and a longing for him to look at me as a french.’’ (Dylan)

‘’I dare you to say that again,’’ Carson yelled, not using his french words.

‘’Did you guys also get the cheese mission?’’ Hera seeing the atmosphere heating up, tried to change the subject before something bad could happen which worked, as both Dylan and Carson looked at her with attention.

Paisley and Nora weren’t entering that talk, as one of them was busy eating and the other was lost in a different world.

‘’I got a soap mission.’’ (Kachi)

‘’Coffee here.’’ (Luca)

‘’Lol.’’ (Ethan)

‘’Oh mon dieu, bonjour, rings from a jewelry shop.’’ (Carson)

‘’Pathetic, I got to steal underwear.’’ (Dylan)

‘’I didn’t get a robbery mission, instead, it's one of those paying things, gotta buy a silver necklace.’’ (Divya)

‘’Anyone else thinks that these missions are too ridiculous?’’ (Hera)

‘’No, I mean they want to see us obey R.A rules through them, so it kinda serves the purpose.’’ (Divya)

‘’The pay is great so I don’t mind.’’ (Kachi)

‘’Lol.’’

‘’Not in the slightest, better than doing magic shows at old age homes.’’ (Luca)

‘’Oh mon dieu, bonjour, I feel great about them.’’ (Carson)

‘’Pathetic, they seem fine.’’ (Dylan)

‘’I wonder, if there is more to it than just following the rules, cuz’ these missions are child’s play.’’ (Hera)