Sin, Jian and Boz all stand in their dorm room. June, Miyra, and Quib are also there. Quib walks past Sin and Boz and directly up to Jian. She pulls back the sleeve on her uniform and shows Jian her decoy device. “Jian,” she says to him, holding out her arm. “I want you to see the real me, how I really am supposed to look. The Quib that you know isn't real, at least the one you've seen.”
She points to a button on the decoy device and continues to speak. “I have learned love in the past few months, Jian, and that's a love for you. You deserve to see the true me, so I'm going to give you the right to see me, the real me, but you have to choose. See the truth, or live with an illusion. All you need to do is press this button.”
Jian can sense passion in Quib's voice. He can tell that this is something that she wants, but is giving him the choice. She could simply deactivate her decoy device by herself, but she wants him to do it, for him to decide. Without even thinking it through, Jian presses the button on Quib's decoy device, and they are both enveloped in white smoke.
While the smoke is enveloping them, Jian and Quib look straight towards each other. Jian sees her animated skin through the smoke and Quib sees him right back. “Jian... this is me....” tears begin dripping out of Quib's eyes, tears of happiness.
“Quib....” Jian says as he leans in closer to Quib. Quib sees his movements and leans closer. Slowly, as the cloud of smoke still holds strong around them, Quib and Jian lean closer, and their lip's lock, their first kiss, both of them, and they hold each other in a passionate caress.
The cloud begins to disperse, as if they were staying there just for the moment. Everyone in the room sees Jian and Quib holding and kissing in a hold of passion. Sin and Boz both have a look of astonishment on their face, Sin because Quib looks like she's hand-drawn, and Boz because quiet, reserved Jian was having the first moment of courage and passion he has seen from him during their entire friendship. Seeing the cloud's disperse, Miyra has a smile on her face because a close friend is having her first kiss. June, seeing one of her friend's having a passionate first kiss, eye's fill with tears and her lip begins to quiver.
June, unable to hold back her excitement, leaps in the air, saying “Yeah!” and runs to Quib and Jian, hugging them from the side. “Oh my God, that was so awesome!” she exclaims. She then motions for Miyra to come over and give them a group hug.
Miyra laughs and walks over to the group, giving them a hug from the remaining angle.
Sin, however, interrupts the moment “Hey, can we cut the mushy crap and maybe get an explanation!?”
June gets out of the pile, walks over to Sin and deactivates her decoy device when she is within a foot of him. Out of the cloud of white smoke, June kicks him in the scrotum.
The kick is strong enough that he slumps down to the ground in utter pain. After which, she turns back to Jian and Quib, with a smile on her face, says “Now aren't you two just sweet?”
A minute passes, and Jian and Quib are sitting on Jian's bed, the both of them comfortably close. Boz and Miyra are sitting on Boz's bed on the other side of the room, the two of them sitting at a reasonable distance. Sin is still laying on the ground in pain, and June is standing in front of the room's shut doorway.
“So, you guys are hand-drawn, do you mind explaining why?” Boz says, crossing his arms.
“You see...” June says, cracking her neck. “Anyone that isn't from your world, or your solar system, honestly, will look that way to your eyes, since your mind can't process the distinction correctly. The further that someone was born from your planet, the more hand-drawn they look.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“So, you're basically all aliens?” Jian says, his arm wrapped around Quib's back.
“Pretty much.” June says, looking down at Sin for a second and then looking back up at Jian. “Almost everyone, I think, in the organization is from a different planet. Well, at least all of the generals are.”
“Well, that's interesting. I thought that you guys were just some kind of advanced military organization!” Boz says, shrugging his shoulders.
“Oh, we are.” Miyra says, crossing her legs. “We have advanced armaments, machinery, and training thanks to the UMA, or the Universal Military Alliance. Our organization, the June's Battlalion was only created a few months ago, on a day in June on Raphael's planet. Raphael Danteo, the leader of our team, is also the leader of the entire organization. It took about a week for the organization to be completely created. During that week, quite a few things happened, like the battle with the demon Ponrentin, and what happened with June's protector, Sherah.”
“June seems to be coming up quite a bit in this conversation, what does she have to do with all of this?” Jian says, looking straight at June.
“Do you want the long or the short version?” June says, patting her pockets.
“Please, tell us everything!” Jian exclaims.
June looks down for a second, thinking to herself about what exactly she should say, and then looks back up. “Although my name is June Twara, I also have another name within the UMA, a codename really. I'm called 'The Key'. Raphael has another one, and that is 'The Guardian'. I'm called that because my blood has the power to shut a gate deep in the universe that countless demon's, that the UMA calls the Demu, are coming from. They have been coming through that gate for... a very long time, and we're just starting to make some leeway into pushing them back. I was living a normal life for most of my childhood until the Demu attacked my planet. My father sacrificed himself to call the UMA in an attempt to save me, my mother and my sister. I was able to escape the Demu by hiding in a hollowed out tree stump for the night, but I have no idea what happened to the remainder of my family. The UMA found me the next morning and brought me aboard one of their ships, where in which they did blood tests on me to find my family, but they instead found out about the power in my blood. Although I have the power to shut the gate to hell, I don't have the power to open it. The UMA thinks that my sister might have the power to open the gate, which gives them further belief that my sister has been captured, not killed.”
“Wait! demons? Demu? What in the hell are you talking about!?” Sin says, now starting to recover from the kick.
“You see, Sin, there are a lot more forces at work in this universe than what you just see on your world. The JB are fighting a war, not just with the Sigil heads, but with the Demu. They all have a part in trying to make everyone's life hell.” Miyra says adjusting herself on the bed.
“And why in the hell should I believe any damned thing that you guys have to say!?” Sin says, walking up to Miyra.
“Whether you believe me or not doesn't matter. If everything goes the way it's supposed to during this mission, you will never have to get involved with the DuskWar. Once the Sigil heads have been dealt with, you all can return back to your everyday lives. But still, you did have questions, so we answered.” Miyra says, looking right back at Sin, her face showing no emotion.
“We've told you most of everything so far. The only thing that we have left out is how religion works, but I think we'll leave that out. Quib! Miyra! Let's go home for the night!” June says, opening the door for everyone.
Miyra gets up from her seat and pushes Sin to the side as she leaves, while Quib says her goodbyes to Jian, their conversation ending with a kiss before she leaves. June gives a bow to the group and then leaves, shutting the door behind her.
Boz looks over at Jian after the JB squad has left and says “Jian, this is a little ridiculous, don't you think?”
Jian sighs and then lays down on his bed with his hands behind his head. He shuts his eyes and says “What I think? I think they've done enough so far for us that we can trust them, hell, they've saved me from Sigil head attacks more times than I would like to admit, but we shouldn't tell anyone about any of this. Not like they would believe us anyway.... Let's just go to sleep and wait for Carie and Lera to come back. I'm tired anyway....”
Sin turns out the room's lights and throws himself onto his bed. Boz lays down on his bed too, his mind worrying over what Lera is doing or going through at the moment.
Jian has a smile on his face as he rests. He had the first kiss of his life today, and it was with the girl he truly loves. A few moments before he falls asleep, he decides that he is going to become a member of the JB when he gets out of high school, just so that he can be with her indefinitely. He would be leaving his friend's behind, but he would still come back to see them when he can. He'd be saving the universe, right at Quib's side. He can imagine no better future than that.