Raten had to pass through many stairs that were placed in a way that they acted as obstacles before he would arrive at Sector 2.
"What the...?" He came across another challenge. Raten noticed a part of the stairs had been destroyed and the rest was too high to jump on. However, upon closer inspection, he spectated ropes attached to the ceiling which- with enough effort put into it- he could grapple on and use them to get to the third floor.
"Is this some perverted form of exercise?!" His comment warranted stares from passersby which he was already receiving since he was an unfamiliar and unfriendly face. Nevertheless, Raten climbed on the ropes one after the other until he was on the other end. He had to admit, it did work up a sweat.
He progressed, making his way to the large corridor with numerous doors on both ends. He regarded the labelling on the wall.
[Sector 3]
This meant that this had to be the right place as people past by, a few of them taking off their armor before heading into one of the rooms. This indeed was the living area. Although he had ran into a new, embarrassing problem.
"That damn bastard! How the hell am I supposed to find the right..." Raten's low grumbling came to an end when he noticed a piece of paper on one of the doors that wasn't on any of the others.
[Hey, new guy! Your room's right here!]
Letting out an exasperated sigh, he opened the double doors and was greeted by a moderately luxurious living quarters (or at least what he deemed to be luxurious) with three beds on seperate sides of the room as well as wardrobes right next to each room, small desks as well with a curtained window at the east. He also found there to be an inactive lantern at arm's reach at the entrance of the door. The only thing he found displeasing was that there were other people in the room as well.
One was a girl wearing an outfit obviously inspired by a traditional magician while the other was a boy with spikey hair and a silver jumpsuit with a unique fox-head shaped hood. Not to mention, he was smiling like a creep. Damn, doesn't his teeth hurt, Raten thought.
"Hi!" Annie spoke enthusiastically with gaudy hand gestures as if bursting with excitement. Like fireworks. "I'm Annie Noverah, one of your new teammates and your new roommate. I'm, y'know, the dazzling one and obviously the one you come to for fashion advice! Speaking of which, what in the actual dreary hell are you wearing?" She commented after glancing over his newly worn attire. "It looks like if depression and bleakness collaborated to tailor clothing."
"And I'm Aaron," The other butted in, "but just call me Ace. Everyone else does, anyway. Hey! What's your Power type? Let's fight right now!" Throughout his outburst of words, the edge of his lips never went down.
"No," Raten dismissed them, stomping over to where he assumed was his side of the room and slumped in the bed, completely ignoring their existence, deep in thought. 'The Black Spirit. I feel like I should know what that is.' He was thinking hard about it when he felt a shadow cast over his body. He looked up to see Annie with a dejected, child-like expression.
"Hey! We weren't done talking!" Annie pulled Raten by the hand, obviously not taking in the apparent fact that he wasn't in the mood to socialize at the moment. At that moment, he swore, he felt like killing her and replayed the thought dozens of times over. "This is your new living quarters! Aren't you just flaring with excitement?" Annie asked, gesturing dramatically while skipping around the room as if to boost its grandeur.
Ace added, supporting his best friend, "Annie's right! I mean not everyone gets the luxury of being part of the Heart and for free, no less. You didn't go through any trials or the recruitment process." Annie sent a thumbs up his way and he nodded his head, proud of himself for going through that entire statement without asking to fight him.
"You attack me, kidnap me and make me do forced labour under the threat of my life being taken away," Raten retorted, making some of his anger known to them. "How am I supposed to feel?"
"Grateful!" Annie exclaimed ever so dramatically, releasing confetti into the air from out of Heaven knows where. "Because if we didn't plead to Captain Avery for you to join our team, you, my friend, would be dead," She remarked, placing an arm around his soldier while he had his arms crossed.
Raten immediately yanked his shoulder away. "And why would you do that?" He begrudgingly asked, genuinely curious.
"I wanted to see how strong you were. Surely, a Black Spirit Soldier in such strange armor would be worth it. Plus, Annie said you were hot or something like that."
'I see. When I figure out who I really am or how I can get my revenge, she's the first to die.' He planned ahead but then again, these two could be of some use to him. "What the hell is this Black Spirit you all keep talking about?! I don't exactly have the best memory at the moment." Annie and Ace glanced at each other meaningfully before giving their reply, their faces more serious.
"It's what we're all fighting against. The reason this whole place exists," Annie began, giving Raten the exposition he so desperately needed. "About 13 years ago, a group known collectively as the Black Spirit appeared. They're the strongest men, they had strange abilities, special ones that set them aside from the Four Powers. And they are not good people."
"They're a tyrannical aggregation hellbent on destroying the order of this continent. They began to kill thousands of people and destroy several kingdoms. They've taken over at least one-third of the Continent and over the years, they've only expanded in number. For years now, we've been trying to stop them and end them, fighting battles to keep the ones we love safe."
"That's what the Heart's all about," Annie added and her tone lightened up once she mentioned the Heart.
"It's a place where we can fight for our freedom, our loved ones and the people of the kingdoms," Ace took over for Annie and at the last bit, Raten regained something.
A jolted memory.
It was vague, hard to keep steady and from a long time ago.
He remembered a man stretching out his hand to him, offering him the opportunity to join the Black Spirit and at that time of desperation, he took it but that was it. He recalled nothing else.
"Your head seems clouded. You must be thinking hard. Come on, let's spar! That doesn't require complex thinking! At least not too much of it."
"Will you give it a rest? Why do you always get like this when someone new arrives here? Can't you think of any other bonding activity other than fighting?"
"Hmm, not really. You'd be surprised by how much you can learn about them by just fighting them."
"You're unbelievable." Annie sighed in exasperation.
Contrary to what she thought, Raten was actually interested as he had the feeling he was a major fighter type soldier. At that moment, something appeared around his waist. It was a spherical metal container with the symbol of a six crossed star. Raten recalled something else, something extremely important. The source of power he had access to.
Ace turned away from Annie when Raten made a gesture with his hand. "So are we gonna do this or not?" As impossible as it sounded, the exuberant smile on his face grew even wider.
'Gross.'