TF Chapter 17 Small Talk And Plans

"Where do you suppose the instructors went to, Danny boy?"

This was my attempt at small talk as we sat there, just a few cm away from each other. I had volunteered to be on the first watch, with Danny on my right and Bora on my left.

"Nat senior, that designation, Danny boy...it sounds as if you are disrespecting me."

"You are most definitely younger than me. And, I didn't choose such an address to put you down." I explained myself.

"I know. But every time you utter it, I feel as if my value is lowered in your eyes, not to mention how other people view me."

When he spoke like that, I understood right away. I might be comfortable with addressing him like that, but what about him? I must have been lowering his value in front of others without me even realising it!

"Danny, I am sincerely sorry for not considering your feelings when I chose that name." I apologised. The reason was mostly because I knew how such a thing would make your entire life difficult.

During my school days, there was a certain boy who was given a nickname. It was awful and disrespectful causing much trouble for him until he transferred away. I witnessed all that, yet had forgotten it. I should be vigilant. My arrogance can't become my downfall! Danny was mild tempered, but what if he had been the type to hold a grudge?

"Its okay. As long as you don't add 'boy' to the end of my name anymore, I would appreciate it."

Bora had been quietly listening to our conversation without adding anything. It looked like she didn't have any interest.

"By the way Danny b..., no, Danny. Where did you get your boxing skills from?" I decided to ask because I wanted to at least gauge how useful he would be in the coming fight. I didn't know much about boxing, but I might be able to determine how powerful he was from his words. It would help me understand my chances of survival.

"Boxing...someone I really treasured taught me the art. Too bad he's no longer in this world."

His words caused me to pause, unable to continue, because of that reveal. I didn't know how to console him, nor how to connect with that feeling and emotion because I had never felt them.

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"Its okay, I have already come to terms with it. I know you want to determine how useful I will be in protecting your life, so I will reassure you..." His voice became colder towards the end causing the birth of guilty feelings within me, yet I had to know, so I pushed the uncomfortableness down into the pit of my stomach.

"...I believe I can at least fight in par with Bora."

"How can you tell?" I asked. I was curious because Bora had never demonstrated her skills, so, why had he compared himself to her?

"Experts have a certain intuitive feeling towards one another." Bora spoke for the first time, her voice dripping with a disdain which I was pretty sure was being directed towards myself.

"Its one of the reasons I chose to follow him when he suggested that I join his team."

Its embarrassing how I am the weakest of our trio, but what could I do? We all had our own areas of expertise, didn't we? Celeste had already said that with my visions, I was guaranteed to become a forger. There was no need to become envious of these two!

"Besides, you shouldn't really judge just our skills. The generation of the nano suit and its capabilities will have to be taken into consideration too"

Nano suits...I had forgotten about this. It was very crucial as someone with an advanced version would be able to kill me within just a few hits.

"Mine is a normal one, 3rd generation. It doesn't have any additional features or software modifications." I gave the basic rundown so that they would take that into consideration in case of an attack.

"3rd generation...that's too old. Am at the fifth generation. My nanites have been programmed to be able to enhance the power of my boxing moves. It triples my normal strength when I enter combat." Danny spoke with a bit of pride.

My 3rd generation had been made about, 30 years ago, yet the fifth generation was just 2 years old. I had really wanted to buy it, but my savings had to account for the body modifications needed to survive on this continent as a normal human. Everything had become expensive with the advancement of technology. If it wasn't because of the raised standard of living, everyone would be wallowing in poverty.

If someone gave you a million empire credits, they wouldn't even last you a week! Perhaps it was good thing that I was away from civilisation.

"Mine is also fifth generation with the ability to enhance my agility by threefold. The nanites are also more dense than in normal nano suits, providing twice the defence."

"Wow!" I exclaimed at Bora's suit. It looks like she had splurged even more than Danny! That purple suit was definitely top of the line! I doubt there's any suit that can top that.

The moment the exclamation left my lips, her face turned away, causing me to wonder why.

"Anyway, I think that Ross guy has the same generation of nano suit as you guys, and I doubt he's the only one. Not to mention that we must also watch out for those with modified 4the generation suits." I let that go, deciding to speak my fears.

"Protecting you is going to be a very hard task. Even with our advanced suits, it will still take us a few hits to down someone clad in a 3rd Gen suit. If many people attack at the same time, we might not hold out." Bora spoke.

"I know. I am also sure that that Ross guy is most definitely going to attack with his goons. He will blame us for his grandfather's sacking from the council." I was starting to get a mild headache at all this, yet, I didn't move my eyes away from the door and the window. I still had many hours before I could relinquish my watch duty.