Zteel

The very next day, Jora set out to meet with Noriko as planned, who was located at a major police precinct complex.

On the road, he felt a sinking sensation in his stomach; he was anxious. His mind was barraged with thoughts of how he had broken many unspoken rules along the lines of inciting retaliation against not just authority, but Noriko herself.

He tried to reason his thoughts, considering that he hadn't actively instigated a resistance, but rather raised questions.

As it had been that Noriko did a lot of good things for the District of Lunanova, there were almost just as many ethically questionable practices.

She nurtured a political climate that discouraged speaking against her leadership, and if anyone dared to go public with concerns regarding the District's governmental rules and regulations, they would be punished harshly.

Jora began to ask himself all sorts of questions. What would Noriko do to him if she were to discover his mentoring of Nyota, Sage and Kilo? And more importantly, why was he mentoring them? Could it be that she had already known?

He didn't want to think much about it. He brought his attention back to his reason for meeting with her: to gain permission to initiate an exhibition sparring match between squadrons.

He wanted the cadets to have fun. More importantly, he wanted his mentees to showcase their skills that they had worked persistently to develop.

He arrived at the station and cleared through heavy security to reach the front desk.

"I'm here to speak with Director Noriko."

"Name?" The woman at the front began to shuffle through papers.

"Jora Newman."

"Okay Mr. Newman," She handed him a small electrical tablet that resembled a portable GPS device. "Please write your name here with the date and time and she will meet with you shortly."

He filled in the information then took a seat in the lobby.

Shortly after, the woman came from the front desk with a clipboard clutched in her hands.

She called his name. "Mr. Newman?"

He stood up.

"Director Noriko would like to speak with you now."

The woman guided Jora through a long corridor. At the end of it stood two large automatic-opening doors, those of the likes of an elevator.

She scanned her ID and input a code into the doors' panel, prompting them to open.

The ill-lit room was quite expansive. The only sources of light came from the countless computers that lay in front of the several rows of seated people in uniform, working on and operating them.

Noriko stood atop the elevated platform in front of her seat, her arms crossed, the glare of the theater-sized screen at the front of the room in her round-framed glasses.

Jora couldn't see her face, though, from where he was standing, as she had her back turned toward him.

She was a fairly tall woman and wore a black trench coat themed both blue and red, similar to the uniforms of her EPSA and RSAA subordinates. Her coat rested on her shoulders, her arms removed from its sleeves and crossed.

Her advisor Elwin stood beside her at ease with his arms rested, one hand grasping the opposite wrist.

"Director Noriko, Mr. Newman is here to see you."

She turned around and smiled. "Ah, yes, Jora. Great to see you!" With the press of a standing button, a second seat was erected from the ground of the platform. "Come, have a seat."

He walked up the flight of stairs, passed the rows of workers up to the platform where Noriko and Elwin stood and took a seat.

Jora began panicking inside again, but he managed to calm himself down, hoping Noriko hadn't noticed.

"Thank you for seeing me." He almost stumbled on his words.

"Of course," she grabbed her swivel chair and a cup of tea and sat across from him perpendicularly with her legs crossed, both of them facing the big screen.

"It is to my understanding that the development of the current batch of cadets is nearing completion."

"Yes, that is correct." Jora waited until the timing seemed most appropriate to ask the question.

Noriko sipped from her cup, exhaled, looked at him, and raised an eyebrow. "Is everything okay, Newman? You seem on edge."

Jora quickly cleared his throat. "Yes, Director. I wanted to ask for your permission to arrange an exhibition sparring match between this year's top-performing squadrons." 

She had an expression of intrigue on her face. "Go on."

"I figure it would be quite the show. Our best cadets will showcase their tactical abilities and wit for all of Lunanova's top leaders and merchants to see. You, of course, being one of them."

"I see..." She stood up and faced toward the large screen. "I'll allow it. It sounds like a grand idea."

Jora expressed his gratitude. "Thank you, Director!" He quickly stood up.

"We could even televise it, but I'll leave that decision up to you. This year's cadet crop proves to be promising with the progress I'm seeing— The three in the top squadron, what were their names, again?

I believe they were Idalia, Tatius, and…" She struggled to remember their names.

"Enki, I believe."

"Ah yes, Enki! That young man's pretty strong, isn't he?"

"Yes ma'am."

Jora paused and took a deep breath. "Once again, thank you for seeing me." Then he continued down the steps to the door.

"Oh, and one more thing, Jora." Enthusiastically, she finally turned around and looked at him from the top of the steps. "I do truly look forward to seeing the event." Her expression quickly turned from a grin to a glare.

"Especially those three boys of yours."

Jora felt his soul jump from his body for a split second.

His back still turned to Noriko and his front toward the doors, he ended the conversation with a simple, "Thank you, Director."

--

"AHHH I CAN'T STAND THE RAIN!"

Nyota, Sage and Kilo stopped at a café earlier in the morning. Once they left, they walked to the main hall for their classes in the rainy weather.

Because of Jora's scheduled meeting with Noriko, Nyota and the brothers' squadron would have an interim instructor as his replacement for the day.

Kilo was frustrated. The entire morning, he constantly mentioned his distaste of the weather.

Nyota was deep in thought, pondering about his dreams and identity. For the first time in what felt like forever, he was optimistic about how his future would turn out.

But, as encouraged, he was more concerned about whatever Jora had planned for their squadron on campus.

Meanwhile, Sage rested his hands in his pockets and pulled one out. He then reached over to Kilo and smacked the back of his head.

"We get it, you don't like getting wet. You don't have to keep mentioning it."

Kilo tried to hit him back, but Sage effortlessly knocked his hand away.

"I CAN'T STAND YOU EITHER!"

"That's fine, but we need to think about what's most important right now. Whatever Jora has in store for us is sure to involve refining our skills, especially if we hope to be better than the Big Three."

"Yeah, right, all you care about is seeing your little girlfriend again." Kilo gestured with a satirical, mocking tone.

"No, he's right." Nyota added. "We've got to get stronger, so let's come up with an agenda for today."

Kilo jammed his hands in his pockets. "Fine."

Sage adjusted his glasses then looked at Nyota. "Any progress since the other night?"

Nyota shook his head. "Nothing yet. It's not every night that I enter the dream realm, but it isn't too hard for me to believe that Nora's been truthful about trying to help me restore everything."

"Well, you know the deal. Keep us posted, I'm always going to be checking in, you know that."

Kilo passionately interjected. "After we're finished with those three, I've got my sights on finding answers to questions nobody knows the answers to."

"Yeah," Nyota agreed. "So do I. I haven't forgotten. The very second I'm reminded of this past of mine, it's over. Until then, I'll work so nobody can call themselves stronger than me."

"Don't get too ahead of yourself, now." Sage laughed. "We might be allies, but as far as I'm concerned, you're my rival as well."

"Trust me, I haven't forgotten."