The night is getting started as everyone heads to the abandoned area they talked about. The land before them is the one they’ll claim as home to hone their abilities. It is hard for wear, the trees scattered across the dirt, the grass overgrown in some places, and a nearby pond more suited to a swamp. The building itself is ragged and broken. Steel beams are jutting from the sides and the concrete crumbles like sand. It’s no professional ring, but it’ll do.

“This is going to be the place where we get all-powerful? It’s kinda, y’know, very bad and sad,” says Keiko.

“You’re right on that. It’s not ideal yet. If we’re to get the maximum benefit, we need to clean it.” Ishimoto inspects the grounds along side Usagi.

“I couldn’t agree more.” Kubo, who took time to go home and get dressed, makes his return to them. He wears a brown upper shirt, which is more nimble and flowing, and his pants are long. He dresses as any average man would, not fitting the title he’s been given.

“Gosh, even how you dress is normal. Can’t you stand out even a little!?” Keiko complains.

“I don’t need to stand out any bit. All that’s important is that I teach you and help you to defeat those monsters, isn’t that right?”

“He’s right. I only have so much knowledge of them, but he is more akin to what they’re truly capable of. He won’t be the one fighting them. We will,” Usagi exclaims. A sense of pride washes over.

“You. Your name is Usagi, correct?” Approaching a nearby log, he pops a squat. “You have something unique about you that I noticed when we were talking earlier.” He pries his mouth open, pointing to his dulled canines. “You some kind of vampire? You have sharp teeth.”

She bares her teeth out more, her canines almost sharp enough to tear through flesh. “No. My canines have been filed down. It was something I had to have done during my initiations.”

Kubo finds this answer off. It isn’t normal for followers of the Remnants to have a tradition such as this. “I understand. Regardless, that’s not what I’m most interested in. What I’m interested in is if it can be used as a weapon with the rest of your body.” Behind the log, he pulls out a bag.

“D-did you already have that back there!?” they all ask in unison.

“Maybe. Or maybe I’m just sneaky, and you all have to up your game on perception.” He manages out a piece of what appears to be a bite suit for training police dogs.

“I… you’re not seriously suggesting what I think you are, are you!? I’ll have you know I’m not a dog or ever will act like one!”

“Easy. I know you’re not one. In fact, you tend to lean more to a firecracker then anything when faced with a challenge.” He approaches a nearby branch, wrapping it around. “Besides, there’s a risk you can pierce right through, leaving me a bleeding mess. So you’ll be biting this tree.”

“She ain’t a damn beaver, neither,” declares Okazaki.

“But is she a dam, beaver?”

“S-shut up, Shoji!” Shoji gives a dumb smile.

“You’re all missing the point. The point is to get better. It doesn’t matter if you look like fools doing it. Everyone looks like a fool before they get better at something.” He tightens it, making sure it’s stable, hitting it for good measure. “Now, will you do this or not, Usagi?” She hesitates. Her pride is on the line, and she doesn’t wish to go through this.

“I don’t want too.” Her heart yearns to keep her dignity intact.

“If you don’t wish too, then by all means, don’t. But always remember. Humility is as great a lesson as it is to win. You might not all win. These Remnants are dangerous people, people that will kill you if they have the chance. I only seek to enhance your arsenal and make sure you all survive. Survive, unlike the last people who went up against them.” He begins to take it off the branch. Usagi feels a sharpness in her belly, a stabbing pain that brings the reality to her head. It’s true, the last Remnants that fought against them were slaughtered, not by a small margin but by a landslide, for Remnants in his ranks lower than six. Her friends will all be fighting alongside her, and the reality of it all is that they can very well die if they’re not prepared.

“Wait…” She halts his progress. “I hate the idea of doing something humiliating like this, but I understand what you’re trying to say. If we don’t give it our all, if we don’t test the limits, we’ll all die.”

“D-die!?” Keiko yelps. “No, we absolutely won’t die!”

“Yeah, you’re right! We’ll train down to the bone no matter what it takes!” Okazaki shouts. Her friends all agree this will be their equal goal. Usagi fills with the urge to move on, humility, and to become better and stronger.

“Right! I don’t care anymore! To ensure our survival and for the survival of the world!” In a lunge, she charges forward. Her teeth are bare, and her heart rate increases from the swift wind launching behind her back. Her speed is a good 40 mph, faster then any normal human, and the strength can be felt from the pondering of her feet. Kubo strikes back quickly before Usagi heaves her body at the tree, her teeth reaching the Kevlar and biting down on it, her fangs seeping through and penetrating the bark.

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“Oh, wow!” Kubo himself is shocked to see her do it. He’s never seen this sort of power displayed from a Remnant so close. The Remnants he’s seen have only been landslide victories and one-sided affairs against the resistance Remnants, mainly in videos. This is different. He can sense the resolve, the passion, and even possibilities in them now. Then the bark snaps, leaving it hanging in Usagi’s mouth.

“Woah! Usagi, now you for real look like a dog playing fetch!”

“Keiko, shush your mouth before I bite you next,” she answers, feisty and annoyed, spitting the bark out.

“That was impressive, Usagi. It appears your teeth are a viable weapon to use, and much more so, it appears you haven’t sustained any damage to your teeth,” Ishimoto notices.

“Yes, and that speed on her. To think this is only a fraction of her power. The uncultivated bare minimum of no training. You kids are something else.” Kubo sees something in them. A pure power that can be harnessed and rival even the Remnants of Mr. Nuke Happy.

“You all can truly be the saviors of the world.” Another item out of his bag, he goes over to a nearby tree. A paintbrush starts to draw out a target. “Now, your name is Okazaki, right? I want you to try and hit that target from where you are.” He holds himself a good 60-70 feet away from the target, not too close, not too far.

“Oh yeah? I can hella hit that, don’t you worry!” Conjuring a knife, he yields it to his hand. He uses one eye, his tongue sticking out, and he concentrates. He’s never been one to try and be calculated about things. Things like that are better left to Ishimoto.

“Take this!” The knife goes swishing through the air, careening to the tree. It misses the bullseye, sticking to the upper part instead. “Damn it!”

“As expected. You all are nowhere near your full potential yet. This is a good thing.” Kubo tries to grab the knife, but his strength isn’t enough. “Yeah, I can’t get that out even if I wanted.” It was all amazing to him, even if he didn’t show it. He’s never had firsthand experience with Remnants' abilities; the sheer strength needed to pull that out would require a herd of gorillas, but to them, it is all so easy.

“Can you try and grab the knife?” he asks Keiko. She is reluctant but gives in, approaching the knife. She looks at him, bothered, but yanks on the knife, and it comes out, albeit with a short struggle.

“Seems your friends can also use your knives. That’ll be helpful in a pitch,” he says.

“I mean, yeah, it is a knife. Why wouldn’t we be able to grab it?” Keiko snickers.

“Now. I want all of you to gather around. I’ll show you what makes you special as Remnants.”

Once everyone is gathered around, he points to their charms. “Take a look into one another’s eyes. You’ll notice something that wasn’t there before.” Everyone peers into each other’s eyes. For the most everything seems normal until a faint glow begins to light in their respective eye colors. The embedded power swells in them, a connection like a line tied around their bodies yearns in a spiritual realm. It’s as if their worries, hardships, accomplishments, and goals are calling out for them all at once.

“You can all feel it, can’t you? Those threads that bind you all to the void? The void is a mysterious thing. Nobody understands it fully, but what was found to be a certainty is the bonds it creates. It’s a bond we normal humans aren’t able to comprehend, but to you all, it’s a pull, a spiritual pressure that you can accept or deny. That fire in your eyes is not just for show. It’s the strength you all possess. Brighter the ember, the more power you possess.”

“Like Mr. Nuke Happy.” Usagi grits her teeth, remembering his TV appearances.

“Though his face is always clouded in darkness, his eyes are always luminescent. It’s as if the sun itself resigned behind his iris.”

“Yes. His eyes are a true testament to what he is capable of doing. He is a foe that no normal human can hope of conquering, but that won’t stop them from trying.”

“Like my father.”

Takei clenches at her chest. Her father, ever since her mother died, has thrown himself into helping his employer to take down the Remnants. Humans, while weaker in every way than Remnants, constantly try to find new means to win. Tactics, weapons, and any possible outcome where they can come out on top. Mr. Nuke Happy to most, though, is considered a lost cause. Only foolish people seek to bring him down. “My father hopes to help find a way to kill him.”

Her father, in a drunken stupor, would ramble his thoughts. “I will kill him! That bastard won’t hurt anyone anymore one day, and he damn well won’t destroy the world. Understand me, Takei!?” Her body rests on the sofa. She raises herself to help her father make it to the couch, his feet tripping over the carpet. It causes her to lift him up more times then he himself used to when she was a child. She always wonders if it is normal to live this way.

“That is a fool's errand. It won’t stop people from trying, though. I never believed for a second that humans could stop them. They are slaughtered lambs for his machine. That’s why I truly believe the only hope of the world is you all.”

The man stands in the middle of them now, his eyes darting at all of them as if sizing them up for a boxing match. “That’s why I’ll teach you everything I know, with everything I got. I may be a normal everyday person, but I will be your teacher.” He taps the side near his eye and smiles. “So another important thing about your eyes. You felt that connection, yes? It’s not just the void connected, too. The accepting or rejecting I mentioned earlier is the call of one another.”

“The call of one another?” Ishimoto is intrigued, raising an eyebrow.

“Remember me mentioning how you’re all connected even to Mr. Nuke Happy in some small way? That can be strengthened as well. The call of one another is a Remnant spiritual tie to one another. This means if accepted and honed, you can make an unbreakable bond.”

“What do you mean? Like, we’re connected like electrical wires or something?” Shoji pretends to mimic an electrical line—quite well at that.

“You can be a wiggly thing at times, can’t you?” Keiko laughs.

“That is one way of looking at it. Imagine you’re all utility units. Some of you have more wires attaching to other utility units, thus giving more power. Others, you have fewer or a complete lack of wires, making the power shared weaker or inexistent. Whether you like it or not, as Remnants, you are all connected, cut from the same cloth even if your wires are non-existent.”

“I see.” Usagi holds her charm in her hand. The bunny starts to glow. While dim and not full of vitality, she feels the same thing everyone else does. “All of us are exchanging part of our powers. The charge we can feel around us is an extension of the gifts given to us. If we hone it, we will be able to defeat them all as a team and exploit the power of our bonds.” Her voice raises. An uproar begins to engulf the friends.

“Yeah! With the power of friendship! Like one of those old animes!”

Kubo smirks, leaning himself against a nearby tree. He can sense the goal in them all. It grows

and bellows inside their souls now. The goal is to win the earth back from the people who seek to destroy it. The thought doesn’t escape him, though. Failure is a possibility as much as success, and it will linger on his mind. He knows it will.