Black
What did I get from becoming a Ranger?
Super strength. Unbelievable speed. Enough durability to go toe to toe with a Core Beast and survive. An out of this world healing factor. A truck load of data stuffed into my head that I can barely understand.
And all it cost me was any chance of a life outside the team. I mean, sure, I was hardly socialist of the year when I joined, but there were people I spoke to. I could have made friends. But then all this came along and they just fell away.
Nodoka... I wonder, what would that have been like? You seemed like a nice girl. You really helped me after my grandfather died. But then I became a Ranger, and even you got tired of my shortcomings and lame excuses. I don't blame you for moving on in the slightest. I was a lousy friend.
I guess it's not all that bad. Everyone on the team is close, and they're really great people. I don't think we'd really have gotten together if not for this stupid power. We're all pretty different. Kaede and Ku Fei are martial arts jocks, Makie's into gymnastics and sports, an Asuna's... Asuna. I don't see how a bookworm like me would really fit in with that crowd. But I do, and somehow it all works.
The final bell rings, and everyone begins to pack up. For once none of us have to stay behind today. No Baka Ranger study group tonight. Instead we'll probably go out and do karaoke or something. The others can pick, I always bring a book. We'll spend the day going around, having fun, enjoying ourselves.
And then the sun will set and the power will find us. After that it's back to the Core hunt. I don't know why they only come out at night. I suspect it has something to do with the reason the power only shows up then to, but I've never found a solid link. They never tell us enough to find one.
I'm not sure how long we've been doing this, fighting Cores, I've completely lost track. I know it must have started soon after I came to this school, and not to long after my grandfather passed away. I can't really pin it down any more than that though, it all blurs together. Must have been over two years ago though.
Wow, two years of doing this. And no end in sight. Will I be fighting these things for the rest of my life? Why us, anyway? Dammit, there's so many questions I don't know the answer to. It's not for lack of trying, I've asked, I've demanded, I've yelled until my face turned blue, but They don't give any answers. We don't even know Their name. Really all I know is that they showed up one night, tuned us into the power, then set us out to destroy Cores.
It wasn't easy at first. We had no idea what we were doing, we had to learn as we went. Eventually we learned how our new powers worked, and just how powerful we had become, and then things became somewhat easier. Unfortunately we still haven't been able to solve the sleep problem. Last night was a good night, there was only the one Beast about, even if it was a big one. Normally we have at least one each to deal with, and sometimes even more. As you can imagine, staying up all night chasing Cores around the town can really cut into your beauty sleep.
It gets worse though. The only one who can actually locate a Cores weak spot is me. They all have one, an area of varying size somewhere on their body. The thing is, it doesn't look any different from the rest of them. Makie's complained a few times about how it isn't like a computer game, where the boss's weak point is big and flashy. So to find them, you really have to know what to look for. Hence why my weapon, rather than a giant sword or a set of wrist blades, is a huge Core Beast database stuffed into my head. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but now I can look at a Core and know pretty much everything about it instantly. I still have to work out exactly where the weak point is, but I've gotten pretty good at that. And unlike the others, my weapon has it's uses while the sun is up, too.
I buy myself a juice carton while the others debate where we're going today. Sounds like there's some new show in town at the moment that Asuna's in favour of. Makie's going on about some fight contest she's heard about. Hmm, must be short on money if she wants us to go place a few bets. The sun's not going to go down for a while, we can do both. Judging by how loud their voices are getting, neither of them realise this. Eventually Kaede has to step in.
“Now now, calm down. Why don't we let our wise and powerful leader decide?”
Great Kaede. Thank you very much. Now I'm on the spot. I will get you back for this, don't you forget it.
“Yue! Come on, pick mine, you know it'll be fun!” There's Makie. Oh, please don't do the watery eyes, that's just not fair!
I look over helplessly at Asuna. She shrugs and gives me a half smile. She knows which way I'm going to choose, and why. I'm pretty certain she'd do the same thing if she were in my shoes.
“Alright, alright. We'll go see the contest first, but we're going to see Asuna's show afterwards, ok?” Makie gives me a thumbs up and drags me back over to the group, in a hurry to set off. Luckily I managed to grab my 'Turtle soup' juice in time.
“You'll tell us which fighters to bet on, right? Right?” She's going at her normal fast paced babble speed already. Guess she really did get enough sleep last night. The rest of us are happy to be caught up in her enthusiasm, and it's not long before we're all talking about one thing and another. I think I may have forgotten to bring my book along again. I'm glad I don't think I'll need it.
(Posted Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:49)
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