Hearing the words of the man, Quinn let out a sigh.
"Yep." He replied, as he pushed the plate away from him, to his side. He pushed it closer to Vorden.
Seeing this, Vorden's arm lashed out, and snatchedthe plate.
Quinn then turned to Tsukuru.
"Looks as though I can't even eat human food anymore." He replied.
Tsukuru's eyes narrowed.
"That's gonna raise some eyebrows at school." He muttered. He then glanced over at Vorden.
Vorden had finished the first plate of lasagna, and was now working on the second plate.
"So, what's the plan?" He asked, causing Vorden to look up at him. "Are we staying here? Or are we heading out?"
Vorden looked at Tsukuru for a moment, who was no longer eating, as he thought. Seeing as how Tsukuru was here, there was no longer any worry of either of them starving. However, he then glanced over at Quinn. He still remembered the fight with the Bloodsucker. He didn't want Quinn to get hungry again.
Tsukuru saw where Vorden was looking and turned to Quinn, as well.
Seeing the two boys staring at him, Quinn let out a nervous laugh.
"Don't worry, I'm fine, guys." He replied.
Tsukuru stared at Quinn for a moment longer and then glanced over at Vorden.
"If memory serves right, Quinn only needs to drink blood once every two days." He replied. "I mean, unless he gets injured."
Tsukuru then glanced back to Quinn.
"If worst comes to worst, we can take turns giving him our blood."
***
Back outside the training center, the Retrieval Team made their way towards it. As they walked, Hayley had a question on her mind. A question that had come to her after watching Faye and Leo cut down the third group of Rattaclaws.
"You know, I've always wondered." She replied. "Which of you two is stronger?"
Hayley's question caused the two sergeants in front to freeze. Del meanwhile, glanced at Hayley. He wondered if she even was aware of how personal that question was.
"What the hell are you doing?!" He hissed in a hushed whisper. "You can't ask something like that!"
Although that being said, even he was interested. Hell, everyone on the base was, and these types of questions popped up all the time. Both Faye and Leo had the same rank, both being Sergeants. Usually a single base only had eight sergeants, divided among the two Generals, so both soldiers and teachers often discussed who they thought was the strongest among the ranks.
Although Military Base 2 was a somewhat special case. It didn't have eight sergeants, it had nine. And while Shizuka was also a Sergeant, she was a…different story. While she was a Sergeant, she had also been previously stationed on Military Base 1, the military's main stronghold. Everybody knew that even their lowest-ranked soldiers were powerhouses in their own right.
While everyone knew Hikiko Shizuka as a sadistic psychopath who was a master at inflicting pain, she was also known as being an "immortal soldier". She always returned from her mission with not even a scratch on her. In fact, there were rumors that the only time her blood had ever been seen was during blood tests on the base.
Of course, this "rivalry" wasn't exclusive to just the Sergeants. People also wondered who was the strongest among the two Generals, and the Head-General. Although, people seemed to be more confident in their answers for this group.
"It's alright." Faye replied, causing the two to turn to her. "I can easily answer that question. It's Sergeant Leo. Without a doubt." Sergeant Faye turned her head to the left, then to the right. It was as if she were worried about being overheard. Despite them currently being on a Red Portal Planet. "I don't know if you know this, but we had to practically beg him to join our ranks after the war." She continued. "Back then, he was only a private. But he made so many accomplishments that it was unbelievable. In the end, he had only one condition to join the army: 'I would like to become a school teacher'."
While Hayley's and Del's eyes widened at this information, Shizuka was unfazed. She had heard this story before. Multiple times, in fact. Shizuka had joined the military when she had turned sixteen. And despite her joining the military a year before the Peace Treaty, people were always talking about this story. Even to this day. Everyone found his "condition" to be unbelievable.
The whole time, Leo didn't say anything. It wasn't very surprising. Leo really didn't speak much as it was. Unless the safety and well-being of the students are taken into account. As his words from the various meetings that had taken place in the last two weeks could account for.
Del looked ahead at Leo. He was still wondering how it was possible. Sure, Leo's Ability was a handy one. And he was definitely a High-Level Ability User. But just because an Ability used a high amount of Mutant Cells didn't make it strong. Meanwhile, Sergeant Faye had the Ability of Super Speed. If the two of them were to fight, there was no way Del could see Sergeant Faye losing. In the end, he figured that Faye must have just said that to be nice to her senior. She was quite young, after all.
"There's more to a fight than just one's Ability." Shizuka replied, causing Del to look up at her.
Del gulped. It seemed that Sergeant Shizuka was able to tell what he was thinking.
"Battle instincts…battle IQ…and the ability to predict your opponent's movements." Shizuka continued. "These things can make or break a fighter."
Sergeant Leo glanced back at her.
"It's almost surprising hearing such a statement coming from you of all people." He replied. He still remembered that time he had tried to attack Shizuka after that one meeting. She hadn't even moved. In fact, she had acted as if paying attention to her surroundings was…beneath her concern. In simplistic terms, she fought as if she were unafraid of death. As if she were immortal. And after what had happened in that brief reaction, Leo had realized that was exactly what she believed. Because…she truly was.
Shizuka glanced up at him with narrowed eyes.
"I can afford to be careless in a fight." She replied. "To act rashly and impulsively. But not everyone can benefit from the advantagesof having the Hikiko Bloodline."
Finally, when the group reached the entrance to the training center, they all stopped dead in their tracks. They were all speechless at what they saw. Eventually, Del spoke up.
"Well…I think we can all guess who this was caused by…" He muttered. "And the first two don't count."
***
Back in the training center, Vorden and Quinn were talking about their old lives before arriving at the base. From his retelling, both Vorden and Tsukuru could tell that Quinn's life had been horrible. He explained how he had been raised with no parents, and how he had been bullied since even elementary school. He went on to explain how the bullying became drastically worse after the Peace Treaty was signed, and the "Ability Level" System had been implemented.
'Maybe Guy was on to something…' Tsukuru thought.
The "Guy" Tsukuru was referring to was "Guy Crimson", a Demon Lord from an old anime Tsukuru used to watch. Guy would regularly declare war on the Human Race. Not out of genuine malice, but merely to keep them busy. Guy worried that if humans were left with nothing to unite them to fight against, they would turn against one another. Eating themselves alive like a school of carnivorous, cannibalistic PIRANHAS.
It seemed as if Humans always needed something to fight against. And if they couldn't find anything outside, they would turn inward. Of course, Tsukuru always knew this. Humans have been fighting about just about everything for as long as they have existed. Race…gender…sexual orientation…religion…social standing….likes…dislikes…physical appearance…hair color…it seemed they could find just about anything. It genuinely seemed like Humans only really cared about fighting and would find just about any excuse.
Peculiarly, both Quinn and Tsukuru noticed that whenever Quinn would ask Vorden about his school life, Vorden would just give a simple answer. He would then ask Quinn a question. The first few times, they didn't really think there was anything strange about it. However, Quinn soon started asking questions that were harder to avoid. But, just like before, Vorden would just ignore the question. In the end, Quinn decided that it wasn't worth pressing the issue. If Vorden had something he didn't want to talk about, then it wasn't Quinn's place to pry.