Day 264, 08:00.

  Seohwa went to Rhino first thing in the morning and asked, “I want to train my poison element.”

  Rhino felt a sense of deja vu as he sighed, “You know, as much as I love your enthusiasm, I can’t always comply with your requests… but let me hear you out at least.”

  Hawk, who had recovered, came in and asked, intrigued, “What’s this?”

  Rhino huffed, “Make sure you don’t slack off today. You had a good amount of time to rest.”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Hawk rolled his eyes.

  “You never learn. You know, I won’t always be there to clean up your mess.”

  “No way! You’ll be there with me for life!” Hawk gasped, shocked he would say something like that. “Are you feeling ill? This isn’t like you.”

  Rhino rolled his eyes at his sudden fake care for his health before glancing back to Seohwa, “So?”

  Seohwa straightened her back, “I want to train my poison by absorbing poison… I want to know how much I can take, what its limits are and such. It’s a good ability for instant emergency treatment if someone got poisoned.”

  After she said that, the two mentors suddenly grew quiet. She felt an odd tension between them as Hawk seemed agitated, “Y-you can do that?”

  “…Yes.” Seohwa nodded.

  Hawk muttered frustrated, “Why didn’t you say anything sooner?!”

  “Calm down, Hawk. I know why but she is a cadet. We don’t know if there are side effects to the ability.” Rhino held him back as he glanced back to Seohwa, “Have you used this ability before?”

  Seohwa nodded, “Just once. It was when Jisoo, umm, 8-21, and I were escaping Sector B and she got hit by a paralysis poison. I absorbed it from her. I didn’t feel anything in particular afterwards.”

  Hawk breathed in, “I’ll take you to the Ward.”

  Rhino flinched, “No! She isn’t authorised to go there yet.”

  “I don’t care! It’ll help her practise so it’s better if she takes a look at the patients that were poisoned! I’ll get Ox’s permission!” Hawk quickly flew out.

  Seohwa wondered why Hawk seemed agitated as she asked, “Why did he seem affected by what I said?”

  Rhino sighed, “Let’s just say, many of our colleagues were poisoned by something that doesn’t have an antidote.”

  “I thought you two knew I had the poison element?”

  “We did. But there wasn’t a description on what your poison ability could do. We thought since you didn’t use it during training, it was releasing poison onto targets or something like that.” Rhino explained. “It’s the reason we ask newly arrived cadets to spar first so we can have a clear understanding of their ability.”

  “…I see… if my ability can help, then, I’ll gladly do it.” Seohwa assured him.

  Rhino chuckled proudly, patting her head, “You’re still a kid, it’s ok to act like one.”

  ***

  08:21

  Hawk barged into Ox’s office, “OX! I need permission to have cadet 8-33 enter the Ward!”

  Ox was signing a large amount of documents before looking up. He pinched the bridge in between his eyes and sighed, “How many times do I have to say to knock and call me General?”

  Hawk slammed his desk, toppling over the piles of documents, “That’s not important! I need permission to have 8-33 enter the Ward, now! Right this instant!”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Stop right there.” Ox raised his palm to stop him, “First off, you can’t just barge into my office, make a mess of my documents and ask me something so ridiculous as to have a cadet enter the Ward without any justification.”

  “Justification?” Hawk stood up straight, “I’ll give you one. She can absorb poison.”

  “…What?” Ox realised the implication of what he said, “Are you certain of this?”

  “Yes, she said so herself.”

  Ox hummed, frustrated. “Are there any limits to it?”

  “That’s why I want to bring her to the Ward to train that ability and have her understand it better.”

  Ox leaned back, conflicted. He knows many men that were in the Ward were poisoned due to the mission a few years back. And he knows Hawk has some personal gain to this. Ox sighed, “Are you sure it’s for training? And not to cure Goldie?”

  Hawk flinched, “Goldie is an awakener as well. She used everything she had to protect the rest of us back then. It’s only right that we try.” Hawk kneeled, desperate, “Please, General. I beg of you.”

  Ox sighed, “Fine, you win. But, I have 2 conditions.”

  “…”

  “First, this is training for 8-33. That’s your first priority. Start with the ones that have lightly been poisoned before going to the deeply affected ones… Goldie has to wait.” Ox warned.

  “…I…” Hawk clenched his fists, “I understand.”

  Ox nodded, “Good. Secondly, if there are signs or any symptoms that 8-33 gets sick or falls ill using this ability, stop immediately.”

  “…Yes, sir.” Hawk bowed 90 degrees and whispered sincerely, “Thank you, General.”

  Ox scoffed, “Seriously, you only call me General when you need something.” Ox wrote the approval form with his signature and gave it to Hawk, “Go. Your cadets are waiting for you.”

  ***

  Same day, 09:00

  Hawk came to the cadet hall and told Rhino what happened. Rhino rubbed his temples, “Someday, I swear Ox will kick you out.”

  Hawk chuckled, “No way… he loves me too much.”

  Rhino rolled his eyes, “Are you going now?”

  Hawk nodded. Rhino patted his shoulder, “Congrats, buddy.” Rhino then glanced at Seohwa and yelled, “Cadet 8-33! Head with Hawk to the Ward.”

  “…Yes sir!” Seohwa saluted as she retracted the whipsword.

  Seohwa followed Hawk to the Ward. On the way, Seohwa curiously asked, “…I heard a lot of people were poisoned?”

  “…Yeah, many agents were a few years back. It was only thanks to a brave minority, that the men poisoned were in the 50s out of the 200 that went to the mission.”

  Seohwa then asked, “What poison is it?”

  “…That’s the thing. It was a different kind of poison that has no cure and slowly drains the energy of the victim.” Hawk shrugged. “It was during this incident where I began to question if this was worth sacrificing our lives for… those were our brothers and sisters, after all.” He clenched his fists and his jaw tightened.

  Seohwa quietly followed after him as Hawk realised he was being too serious and laughed, “Hahaha. Don’t worry about it. What matters is that you’ll be training to absorb the poison and at the same time, help them. But remember, take a break if you can’t handle it, ok?”

  “Yes…” Seohwa smiled at how he worried for her, “…sir.”

  !!!

  Hawk chuckled, “That’s a first…” He sheepishly rubbed his neck but didn’t feel bad being called it.

  When they arrived at the Ward, they washed their hands before entering. Hawk gave her a mask to wear since they’ll be in contact with patients.

  The doctor in charge came forward, “Oh? Hawk? Visiting Goldie again?”

  Hawk shook his head as he pointed at Seohwa, “Not today, Herb. This little one will be practising her ability to absorb poison. I got Ox’s permission.”

  Herb adjusted his glasses and incredulously examined Seohwa, “I see, but, I didn’t hear anything about this?”

  Hawk gave the approval form to him. Herb read through it and glanced back at Seohwa, almost in disbelief, “If your ability can work on these patients… we could finally help them. My team and I have failed these patients having found no cure for many years.” Herb looked down as he smiled gently at Seohwa, “Come, quick. I’ll lead you personally. I know which ones are the lightest to the deepest contaminated.”

  Seohwa felt her stomach sink at the many rooms full of people all pale and unconscious in bed. With each room she passed, she could count about 10 people each and there were five rooms of them.

  When Herb led them in, Seohwa actually saw the injured men much closer. She saw how some limbs were missing and felt her breath shaking. Hawk held her shoulders as she looked up and saw his reassuring nod, “It’s ok if you can’t heal them. All you have to do is try.”

  Herb didn’t say anything further as he gripped his clipboard, praying.

  Seohwa stepped forward as she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She lightly touched the hand of a patient, who was very thin, almost corpse-like, as she used her poison ability to detect where the poison was. When she found it, she let go and raised her hands to hover around the parts she found the poison was in and began to move it to the centre of the patient’s stomach. When every bit of poison was centred around the stomach, she touched the patient’s stomach and the veins of her arm turned purple as she began to slowly absorb the poison.

  “Ugh.” Seohwa winced since the poison was much thicker than she thought. When she fully absorbed the poison, she removed her hand as she panted. She closed her eyes as she slowly controlled the poison to go still inside her.

  As she focused on settling the poison in her ability, Herb examined the patient she absorbed the poison from. Herb’s eyes widened when he saw the patient’s colour was returning, “It worked! He’s recovering… All he needs is time to recover his nutrients… and he should be waking up in a few days.”

  Hawk, who watched this scene of events unfold, clenched his fists as he bit his lips. His once grey eyes were now full of hope.

  Not long now, love…

  However, as much as he wanted to bring 8-33 to Goldie, he had to be patient. He stepped forward and patted Seohwa’s head, “Well done, how are you feeling?”

  Seohwa breathed in and replied, “I’m feeling ok. But maybe because I haven’t practised much, it’s taking too much energy… I think I can handle only 4 more before I hit my limit.”

  Hawk noticed how she turned pale and nodded in acknowledgment, “Ok… as a mentor, I should probably end this session today. But…” He knelt before her and held her hands trembling, “…But as a man, as Hawk… I dare ask you to help as many people as you can today, even if it’s four left today… These people have families waiting for them for… many years. I ask you to do your best to save them, even if it takes days or weeks… please…” Hawk’s voice trembled and for the first time, Seohwa saw her silly mentor remove his mask and reveal his vulnerability.

  Seohwa stood straight as she nodded, “I’ll do my best… so you don’t have to kneel like this… sir.”

  Hawk sniffled as he stood up to chuckle, “This seriousness doesn’t suit me, does it?”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Seohwa smiled, “I just prefer the silly mentor I know.”

  Hawk smiled, not the fake mask he wore over the years, but one that was genuine and pure as he patted her head, “Thank you.”