Recognition
The place was a quiet, warm, cozy place. Even its lobby was tranquil, and there was a bonfire sound repeating ever so smoothly as Phesx waited, sitting with his legs spread and his body bent forth. The middle-aged receptionist didn't even look at him, although this was his first time coming, and it was just a tryout. She was polite not to stare.
“Phesx Caolia?” The receptionist announced. Phesx stood up and walked to her. The lady was attentive and noticed him. There were a few others around. She addressed him, “In a minute or two, you can have your session with miss Mona. She will attend you soon. Would you like a snack? We have frozen pizza, pastries, and a few types of candy.”
“Umm, pizza is fine,” Phesx decided after thinking for a moment with his eyes upturned. The lady moved and tapped her hands across the drawn keyboard on the desk before a young boy with uniform carried a hot pizza from a door behind the lady.
“Here it is, sir,” the young boy delivered the pizza before leaving. Phesx tilted his head to the right, analyzing the pizza. It smelled just like that one place which he partially owns… though who knew if that was still the case.
“Thanks,” Phesx expressed before eating his snack at the counter. The lady didn’t seem bothered, gently continuing her work at her pace. A few minutes later, the door to the therapist’s office opened, and a young schoolgirl walked out with colorful yet mismatching socks and a big smile plastered on her face.
“Go on,” the lady hurried him. Phesx ate the last bits from his slice and left the disposable plate, hurrying into the office.
Once inside, he took his jacket off and placed it on his lap as he sat before a desk. The chair on the other side of the desk was turned the other way. A few seconds later, the person sitting there grabbed a few documents and swung them in the air before turning around.
There she was, miss Mona. She had dull orange, long and thick curly hair, creamy bronze skin, and deep dark brown eyes. She had glasses as she looked at Phesx, who looked back at her. Phesx, as always, didn’t expect any connection, or understanding between both.
“You always place something on your lap? You must have lost the need to have someone beside you. How sorry I am. Would you like to have a taller chair next time?” She suddenly voiced.
“…” Phesx didn’t expect that, much less his startlement. The miss looked at him, with her face position changing angles before pushing him. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk right away. I see you have many things to consider, which correlates to many things I will be attending as you come here, if you decide to return. We have time.”
“A… chair with taller armrest would be okay… closer backrest to the edge, too, but with a cushion, mn.” Phesx thought for a moment before speaking, tilting his head to the right at the end of his words.
Mona smiled and blew from her nostrils before presenting herself, not extending her hand and just staring at Phesx with her hands resting on the edge of her desk’s side. “I’m Morena, your therapist. Call me by my name or my abbreviation, okay?”
“Mn-” Phesx nodded, about to politely say his, when she cut him off. With narrowed eyes, she said along a thin smile, “You don’t have to say what you don’t want to. Is there a way you’d like me to call you?”
“Mmm…” Phesx hung his head backwards, staring at the ceiling. He rotated left and right on the chair before saying, then, he lowered his gaze to Mona, “Fox.”
“Very well,” Morena nodded before writing something in one of the documents on her desk. Phesx saw this and thought for a moment before asking, “Who was that young girl? Was she a special agent, too?”
“I don’t think I should tell you that. You don’t like others asking about you, and others telling them, do you?” Mona smiled and said, facing downwards. Phesx scratched a nonexistent itch to the left of his nose, “She just didn’t seem like one.”
“Then she’s doing her job well, haha.” Mona looked at him and chuckled. She seemed elegant and graceful. After writing something else, she looked at Phesx and added, “She is a White Blood, WB?”
“Oh,” Phesx nodded in understanding. He struck while the iron was hot and asked, “What blood would I belong to?”
“…” Mona seemed to think of a few things before blinking, adopting a casual expression. “Well, are you good for combat? Direct, first response, and prolonged?”
“Yes,” Phesx nodded. Mona puckered her lower lip, continuing, “How about espionage and counter-espionage?”
“Also yes,” Phesx lowered his chin in agreement without blinking. Mona tilted her head to the left, “And what about assassinations and counter assassinations?”
“Mhm!” Phesx shortly nodded a few times. Mona blinked, seemingly at a loss for words. She suddenly smiled with a chuckle, “Well then, Fox. You’re perfect for anything. Which do you like more?”
“Killing, so, Red?” Phesx tiled his head and expressed. Mona shrugged her shoulders, cocking her head to the right before smiling, showing teeth. “All those are good, but nothing’s stopping you from achieving more, no?”
“Is the Butler not the leading role?” Phesx asked, curious. Since Mona seemed to know a lot, then he would dry her out. Mona shook her head a little, “All I know is that it is a rank, not Grade nor Captain, above it and not at the same time. Especial. Although ‘Butlers’ have been the leading spirit of PSD for generations. Meant to be.”
“Would you like to talk about that? That night in Sargonde?” Mona suddenly interrupted their conversation with something else. Phesx looked straight at her and fell silent. Mona caught onto something, as she asked, “Is there a reason you wouldn’t want to? Something that happened… or someone? Which means everything of why you would rather not?”
“…” Phesx Caolia looked at the therapist with some apprehension. He didn’t dislike being here, nor her. He could work with this. Phesx blinked one last time before deciding, filling his lungs before saying, “Yes, one. But she will be the only person I will speak about.”
“In all of our talks, or just for this Sargonde night’s session?” Mona asked, lowering her face sternly. Phesx nonchalantly nodded. Mona grimaced, pouting the let corner of her mouth, “Are you sure? Wouldn’t you want to talk of others, too? You can honor them, or give yourself time to recognize them. Not because you’re talking about them to me, or someone, but because they formed a step you already stepped on and can’t experience it again.”
“No.” Phesx became pensive, but he still responded with a refusal. Mona closed her eyes and nodded a few times, a little. She sat up and leaned, passing him a paper and pen before saying, “Before we get to our first talk, how about you tell me or write all the rules and things you’d like implemented? I’ll keep them in check for our every session.”
“…” Phesx was going to reject, when he randomly took the pen and wrote a sentence before he could notice. Stopping right after, Phesx blinked in thought before giving up, he continued writing.
In front, Mona sighed in relief. Not out of fear and feeling safe and sound after half-taming the beast, but because she could do the job probably no other would dare to take. Since Mona managed to convince him, then she had the responsibility of… maybe an entire ‘special agent’ generation.
. . .
2 months went by.
Phesx Caolia’s daily routine was the same every week, daily, and sections from the 24 hours in every day. He went to train from the morning to the late afternoon. At first, during the first month, the training only advanced to basic killing moves, firearm practice and watching senior agents demonstrating fighting skills and responses.
But afterwards, during the 2nd and 3rd month since he began training, Phesx and the other recruits began sparring with each other. Phesx was said to be a great combatant, able to surpass the encircling of hundreds of lagj agents.
However, just one day since the sparring began, only taking a small fraction of the training, Phesx was regarded as a weak agent. Instead, they believed Phesx could indeed best hundreds of people, but only if they were ‘untrained’ guards, like those in the Sargonde lavish building.
Whenever Phesx was sparring, be it during mass-activities, he was easily brought down. Phesx would just receive a blow and fall on his bum or back. Be it a shy future agent, or someone trying to beat the shit out of him for fame, they all succeeded.
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Of course, Phesx was always down quickly, and if anyone showed they had no restraint, they might be declined entry into the Grades for another 3 months. Thus, Phesx Caolia always fell too fast and helplessly, not allowing for a follow-up to hit him harder.
At first, despite the knowledge of his ‘traitorous’ acts of killing so many innocent people, at least when it came to the guards, the others didn’t bat an eye towards it. It was cynical, perhaps, but there was also a level of understanding between agents and future agents.
When Phesx began to be beaten, it changed. It then became a source of humiliation and disdain, where anyone who beat him, even those who were neutral towards him, poured salt on daily like the worst insult. Phesx saving the vice president was as if it never happened.
It was but human behavior. Phesx couldn’t be genuinely bothered.
The sparring only became longer and hectic as the weeks passed by. At first, it was only a small section of the training, but then, it became nearly all day long. At first, the recruits fought cautiously, trying to show off here and there and listening to everything their instructors told them.
As time passed, the instructions became harsh reverberating, which the recruits addressed and struggled to improve. Similarly, the recruits sparred with more confidence, didn’t bother about flashy moves, and were respectful to one another.
Even Phesx was no longer mocked during training. At least not as openly as before. Nevertheless, Phesx was beaten down with more ease and less reservation. He started to get annoyed by their strikes.
But that wouldn’t be all. If the PSD really only let Phesx play around little chicks, they wouldn’t have become a hoog secret organization, when they have supposedly placed much importance on him.
And indeed, a week after the 2nd month, Phesx began to be called by the 1st or 2nd Grade instructors teaching everyone, after every class. He came out of the factory at night because of this, but Mona didn’t have a problem to receive him so late, so there was no problem for Phesx.
If only, he was called to a small compartment in the training area, bringing attention to himself. In those smaller training sessions, Phesx would spar against his status seniors.
The first time, he planned to be just as useless as with the recruits, but the senior, a 1st Grade agent, recommended him to go all out. Phesx had no reason to refuse, and the agent hinted at not telling anyone about his progress ‘in here’.
It was clear that PSD didn’t want to just know Phesx was being cooperative. They also needed to know how he was doing, and what he was capable of. More than anything, if the bloodbath-maker everyone heard about was still there.
As a result, Phesx hesitated no more and went all-out in his first sparring. It was nothing difficult, just sparring. But it brought Phesx’s secret world understanding to a new level, one which he needed but didn’t realize before. The natural difference between lagj and hoog.
A 2nd grade agent was easily on par with any Instructor in Riverlye, while a 1st Grade was well above even those the likes of Mel and Bael. Naturally, Phesx has surpassed the latter some time ago, and after resuming training and learning a few new things even in this novice training, he was even a bit more skilled than before.
That was without using his arm or savage breath that Emer taught him. Phesx wouldn’t utilize his strongest trump cards, especially his ‘ultra’ nails or fangs. These were known by the doctor, and thus, the Piya Sanctum District, but there was nothing that could be done about it.
Regardless, Phesx only used his melee expertise and ruthlessness to himself and his sparring partners, drawing the line of where his style and determination remained.
No one from the recruits knew about Phesx’s combat prowess after going into those personal sparring sessions. However, the more time was spent like this, the more the instructors felt awkward seeing the recruits so full of themselves when striking Phesx down. Most of the instructing agents couldn’t even definitely beat Phesx, after all…
Phesx incorporated strangely well into the recruits’ batch without the recruits knowing, only the instructing seniors were in the known, and the superiors, perhaps.
… On this day. Year 1,025, 2nd month, 4th week’s 2nd day. Phesx was now 18 years old. He could do many things he wasn’t supposed to before, or others with him. He was a good person now, and only now.
Currently, it was still early afternoon, and the instructing seniors let everyone relax for the rest of the day. To them, it was a slap on the wrist, as the confirmation or ‘delaying’ of their entry to the District would be revealed in less than a week. Their 3 months of training was pretty much complete.
However, to Phesx, it was boring. He had no knowns in the District, not even Mena or the doctor, to spend time with. Even if there were chances to make some, which Phesx hadn’t, he would have most likely not given it any effort. After Riverlye, he just couldn’t get to care about anyone nor anything.
While he was still going to therapy and was acquiescent, a good comrade recruit, the other recruits had followed the seniors’ instructions to own a business. It wasn’t easy, and they couldn’t help each other, but there was nothing stopping them from accomplishing it.
In one way, it seemed unnecessary, but after a small group achieved it, and showed their ‘rise’ in training efficiency, the rest followed. Animals were but of all shapes and colors, and humans were no different.
Nevertheless, in this ‘free’ day, Phesx was bored. Deadly bored. He only had about 1,000 credits left, with the cheap apartment much lower than his ‘deluxe’ apartment atop a pizzeria’s rooftop, of a few hundred credits per week. Now, he only had a little over those 1,000 credits.
The recruits were required to have an ‘alibi’ of ‘finding themselves’ to enter the Piya Sanctum District recruitment program. Something like traveling to Dawn’s temples or losing themselves in a jungle or ruins of the ancient Lýlaco Empire’s periods.
They had to give up on their lives for some time, disappear from the radar. But once the recruitment training regimen started, they could basically ‘go back’ to existing in the real world. Phesx was different, if only ‘a little’. No one would bother with him, and his kin were no longer of importance, not even to make a call or be investigated.
Furthermore, not even Phesx had any idea why he was so important like this, but he couldn’t care, at least for now.
Regardless, PSD’s special agents couldn’t be nonexistent people. In the end, they should own a business and represent themselves in the real world, having a life of their own, while serving the district, and as a result, their country.
It might not be much worth mentioning, but as all hoogs accustomed so that everyone in their ranks were Lys, by blood, documented nationalization, or proven loyalty. Unlike the lagjs, which were the ‘mercenary’ lower version of a hoog. Or at least that’s what Phesx has understood after a few months in its HQ.
Furthermore, the Piya Sanctum District should have enormous bases everywhere in Lýmoca. Maybe not as large as the Plastics Recycler Factory, but definitely as large as Riverlye’s HQ, or more. As for the factory…
Indeed, it was a factory. Many plastics were recycled, even stored and prepared for selling. This wasn’t the Butler’s property, but the District’s. The goods would be stored downstairs, in the several underground garages that were perhaps even larger than Riverlye’s HQ just by the encompassing range underneath, let alone that these weren’t separated in long corridors only.
Phesx only visited it a few times with Mena, coming to help her move and organize supplies to receive some bion components for himself for free. Unfortunately, he couldn’t work them without adequate equipment, which was too costly for the penniless Phesx Caolia.
During his nights, he went to his therapist, whom he spoke and let Mona speak to him of the things he didn’t want to be told but needed. She also made him face some realities, like his psychopathy no longer being instinctively masked, and letting it flourish.
Unlike that one therapist, Mona wasn’t excited to talk about his murderous achievements, only to make him see through it all in ways he refuses to out of disdain and annoyance. In a pace he considered understandable, and with someone to frown upon when he felt it was too much.
In this case, Morena was quite brave. She wasn’t a member of PSD, but a worker that is assimilated with them. She’s but a government friendly worker who got in between PSD and Lýmoca, a rather convenient yet comical record that allowed her to have these many opportunities.
And now, Phesx sat in a quiet coffee shop in front of Mona’s building. It was closed for now, but it was all Phesx watched to spend the rest of the sunlight time. He might look desperate, but he was just bored to untold degrees.
Just as the late afternoon was finishing, and Phesx could have his session in an hour or two, he felt a strange occurrence. Turning his head to the entrance, drinking from a straw, Phesx watched a young woman walk into the shop.
Goldish-pale, white skin. Gray, light blue eyes. She was tall, and her golden blonde hair was a short mushroom style down to just above her shoulders. Exotic, feminine, and slightly seductive.
When she stepped in, her eyes turned to Phesx, barely moving her head. Yet, she suddenly stopped, closing the door slowly while facing him. Phesx looked at her, he stared at her, and he glanced at her. His lips inadvertently left the straw, letting some saliva trace his lips to it.
At some point, with both looking at each other for quite a few seconds, wearing nothing but serious, thoughtful, and besotted emotions in the face from Phesx’s part. Indifference, chilling coldness, and understanding from the gracious blonde beauty’s part. She nodded up at him. Phesx blinked, suddenly breathing in as his surrounding world resumed to ordinary before nodding at her.
Then, the young woman walked into the coffee shop, making her order at the counter before sitting on the other side of the coffee shop, where a few walls obstructed Phesx’s sight. Phesx Caolia was smitten, indeed. But so what?
When Phesx was leaving, as he noticed the barista at the counter where the beautiful young woman ordered give him a nasty glance, a waiter brought him the bill. Easily noticing 15 extra credits in the cost, Phesx peacefully left the coffee shop, throwing the garbage in the trash can outside.
He didn’t notice, but the young woman from before had just peeked out of a wall she walked past earlier, flinging her beautiful golden blonde hair in the air as she cutely hung her head sideways. She watched Phesx remain impassive and tilted her already hanging head to the left, pensive and indifferent.
Phesx walked to Mona’s building, whom he missed entering when the blonde came into the shop, distracting him. As he did, the building’s lights turned on one by one. He behaved politely and retraced her steps to make time and not show up as soon as she arrived to work, and for a few other reasons.
After lapping twice around the street, Phesx returned to the building entrance, looking sideways before going in. He also checked the coffee shop. The specimen he was smitten by was no longer present, which seemed just fitting for someone like him.
Going up, he saw the middle-aged receptionist flirted up by a grandpa, getting all blushed and laughing. Phesx looked at them with cute, fully open eyes before she ushered him to go in, already expected by miss Mona.
Phesx walked into the office and saw Mona preparing herself some tea. He habitually brought a couple of cups from the stand at the extreme of the room before sitting in his comfy chair with tall armrests.
“Phew,” Mona sat across the desk with a teapot, exhaling as she filled the cups before directly blasting Phesx with grand news. “Drink up, Fox. You’re becoming an official agent tomorrow. You’ll have a hard task ahead of you. Are you ready to have every little one of your buttons pushed?”
“…!!”
…