Chapter 3: A Reaper's Job
I stand up and look at myself. Nothing has really changed except my clothes. The King’s clothes design ray had me wear a rugged black cloak with a hood that had holes in it. I had to admit, I felt pretty cool looking the Grim Reaper, but I was a Reaper after all. I also had a skull mask at my feet that the King gestured me to put on. Suddenly, my head became a skull!
“These masks will hide your identities when doing field work. You will follow Akio and Giovanna there and learn how to fight as a Reaper. You two take him to the training room. He needs to learn how to fight the Black Dawn, also can you take the other two newcomers with you?” The King said.
“This is just perfect,” I thought. The more I work with Alice, the more migraines I get. As we walked along the hallways, the decorations got less and less regal and more and more war-like. There were old scythes, staves, spear, swords, guns, and any weapon you can name decorating the walls.
As we entered the training room, the first things I noticed were all the training dummies, large punching bag-like structures with a skull on top. “So do we attack this thing?” I asked. “Are you going to give us scythes here?”
“Obviously not, retard. Do you think we just hand out deadly weapons to reaper noobs?” Said the female Reaper. She took off her mask and I saw that she had hazel eyes and medium length brown hair that covered part of her face, luckily, she didn’t look too much like Laura.
Alex patted my back, “Don’t mind her. Her name is Giovanna Russo, just to let you know in advance; also she usually acts like this. She’s the type that is actually nice on the-“ He then got hit on the top of his head with the shaft of Giovanna’s scythe.
“Hey Akio, you deal with this guy, Haven, right?” Giovanna asked.
“Hayden,” I corrected.
“Whatever,” she said after hitting me on the head. “I’ll take care of those other two, Alice and Aaron,” Alex was going to correct but decided it wasn’t the smartest move.
“So you’re Akio, huh? Nice to meet you,” I held out my hand attempting to shake his.
He looked really embarrassed and quickly shook my hand. “Um… Nice to meet you, I’m Akio Hamaka…” He said really quietly. This guy seemed like the really silent type, and the guys who assigned him and Giovanna together must’ve been trying to get a kick out of it. He had a small black fohawk that goes down to the top of his ears, and his face didn’t have as many scars as Giovanna.
“So what now? How do I get the scythe to fight with?” I asked.
“”Well… You need to shape it yourself. Here’s an instruction manual,” Akio gave me a piece of paper that said:
Step 1: Thrust you hands forward and shape your hands as if they are wielding a staff
Step 2: Concentrate all of your energy into a shaft form, approximately your height.
Step 3: After creating your shaft, concentrate a thin, but strong curved blade at the top.
Step 4: Ask your trainer if it is the correct shape. IF not, repeat this easy process!
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It sounded easier said than done. What was concentrating energy anyways? How do you actually concentrate energy in the first place? I follow step 1 and placed my arms and hands in the correct position and then tried to picture a staff and star at the empty space as hard as I could, but nothing happened. “How do you do this concentrating stuff?” I asked Akio.
He just awkwardly smiled and said, “Y-you have to use your feelings to do it,” I had no idea what he was talking about, and that’s about as cliche as cliche gets. I then realized what he meant. I closed my eyes and pictured my hands again. I then remembered my memories with Laura. Sure, it made me want to bludgeon my head, but I knew that this would work.