Chapter Title: Thank You
BANG
"Hm?" said the boy as he was startled awake by the door being hurled open.
"Looks like you survived the night." said the gruff voice that had tortured him the day before, but unlike before where it echoed all throughout the room, it sounded like it came from just one direction.
Opening his eyes to see what his torturer looked like, he quickly shut them due to the light blinding him, but after taking a few moments to adjust, he was able to take a good look at the man.
Seeing the short old man with an almost comical haircut, the boy almost let out a chuckle but decided against it. He also noticed that there was a boy in a top hat next to the old man who was looking at him with a particularly nasty look.
'Is that Rob Lucci? Seems like I also got sent into the past. Can't say I mind though since the world was a lot more chaotic in the last chapter I read what with it all coming to a climax.' thought the boy.
"Water." said the old man.
Hearing him, Lucci walked toward the bound boy and poured the bucket of water all over him.
"I meant to let him drink it."
"Oh." said Lucci with no remorse.
"Go." said the old man in a tone that Lucci did not dare defy, causing him to quickly leave the room.
"Did you remember anything after your sleep?" asked the old man while intently watching the boy.
"No." responded the boy.
"Shame." he said, still continuing to watch him like a hawk, "But so life goes. Every day there is tragedy occurring all around the seas. Some people live, some people die. It is only those who live after almost dying that are worth something.
Fortunately for you, you have the opportunity to be one of those people, but whether you make something of yourself will remain to be seen."
The boy felt a familiar gust of wind and tensed up but instead of the pain he was expecting, the rope he was bound with, fell to the floor.
With the ropes cut, the boy wanted to stand up and get away from the extremely uncomfortable rickety chair, but unfortunately, his body did not comply. Instead, he briefly stood up before stumbling back onto the chair feeling dizzy. But after a few moments, the dizziness subsided and he stood up again, only to be hit with hunger pangs.
Turning to look at the old man to see what the next step was, he was met with pain.
"Ahh!" yelled the boy as he fell to his knees while clutching his right eye.
Unlike the wounds he had received the previous day which were meant for torture and not for maiming him, his new one felt deeper and would most likely leave a scar.
"Make no mistake. I may be giving you the opportunity to make yourself useful, but I hold your life in my hands. I could kill you and no one would blink. Your life belongs to me." he said, walking up to the kneeling boy, stepping on his head, and pushing it to the ground.
"Since you do not know your name, you will be called Trevor Belmont from here on out. You will be molded into a killing machine that obeys orders. You will be put through a crucible of hell and you will thank me." he said, "Is that understood?"
"Y-yes." said the boy, gritting his teeth from the pain and anger.
"I'm sorry?" said the old man, putting more strength into his foot.
"T-thank you."
"Good. Follow me." he said, taking his foot off the boy before starting to walk away as if nothing had happened.
The boy, now called Trevor, stood up shaking and swaying as he got to his feet, thanks to his incapacitated right eye messing up his balance and his weakened constitution from malnutrition, before starting to follow the old man.
'God damn old man. I don't think he got my eye but still.' he thought as he unsteadily walked behind the old man while gently using his fingers to get a feel of how deep the wound was.
'Once I'm strong enough, if I'm even here by then, I swear I'm going to kill that old man. I'm a good person and don't particularly wish harm upon anyone, but even Buddha loses his patience. Though that's easier said than done considering I've never even punched someone much less killed someone.
Still, Cipher Pol is full of bad people who commit atrocities on orders from the evil Celestial Dragons so I'd be doing the world a favor by getting rid of them. Whatever, I'll think about this some other time. No use in thinking about it now considering I'm probably the weakest one here.
Also, him giving me the name Trevor Belmont must be a hell of a coincidence or a little plot correction/assistance from the little big guy upstairs. Either way, it works out for me.' he thought before deciding to leave his ruminations for another time and focusing on following the old man.
Immediately stepping out of the jail cell/room he had been tortured in, they entered a simple stone hallway lit up by lightbulbs that led to a staircase. The staircase and the damp, earthy smell present in the hallway led Trevor to believe that they were in a basement/cellar of sorts. And going up the staircase and out into the outside confirmed his suspicions.
The warmth from the sun, the slightly salty air from the sea, the smell of dirt and trees, the sound of insects, and the faint crashing of waves made Trevor bask in the beauty of nature. In fact, it was such a wonderful feeling to him, it made him forget he was on an island with the sole purpose of creating assassins for an evil regime for just a moment.
But the group of barefoot kids lined up in formation and standing in utter silence quickly reminded him of that fact.
Trevor took a look at the kids and noticed that lined up at the very front were Rob Lucci and four of his future fellow assassins of CP9.
'Kaku and Kalifa are missing. Guess they joined later than those five.' he thought.
While Trevor was eyeing them, they were doing the same thing except their gazes were a mix of curiosity at his presence and ridicule at the state he was in.
"Listen up!" shouted Makarov causing the kids to instantly stand at attention with their eyes looking forward.
"This is our newest recruit, Trevor Belmont." he said with his hawk-like gaze as he looked for any mistakes, "Make sure to make him feel welcome."
Yet even with those words of kindness, Trevor doubted they were anything but.
'I swear if I get beat up as some sort of initiation or whatever, I will kill that old man.' he thought as he noticed that some of the kids at the back smirked for a few moments before their faces returned to blank expressions.
"Start your laps." said Makarov.
Hearing his words, the kids started their daily run around the island.
"What are you waiting for?" asked Makarov looking at the boy.
"I can barely stand." said Trevor who thought he might receive some medical treatment before having to join the training.
Unfortunately for him, the only thing he received was a quick punch to the stomach that brought him down to his knees and left him breathless.
"You have five seconds to start running." said Makarov, looking down at the kid as if he were looking at dirt.
"5."
Rapidly taking in air to fill his lungs back up with oxygen, Trevor gritted his teeth from the pain and anger, clutching at the dirt hard enough to draw blood from his fingernails.
"4."
Trevor's plan for his growth and future was thrown into the farthest recesses of his mind which had been filled with the thought of trying to fight back even if it meant dying.
"3."
But his rational mind and willpower quickly overcame his rising anger.
"2."
Not wanting to give him the satisfaction of humiliating him any longer, Trevor quickly rose to his feet.
"1."
Trevor looked at Makarov one last time before turning around and starting to run in the same direction the rest of the group went.
"Interesting." said Makarov with a smirk as he disappeared from his spot.
~
Though it was but a few moments where Trevor was the only one not running, it was long enough for the group to leave him far behind. Even the worst ones in the group were already far enough ahead that they were barely visible to him.
But in spite of his weak untrained body and his less-than-ideal current state, he was not going to give up. Not after having cleared the first hurdle.
So he started to run, or more like stumble, along the path that had been carved on the ground from all the constant running.
After a few stumbles that ended up with him on the ground with some scrapes, he was able to get used to the feeling of weakness and started to get a steady pace going. Of course, instead of running, he was more like jogging, but it was truly miraculous he was able to move at all.
Unfortunately for him, as he was getting into the groove of things, he was pushed from behind and knocked down, halting all the progress he had made.
"Watch it, dumbass. Hahaha!" said Jabra as he ran past while the rest of the future CP9 trailed right behind.
"Sorry." said Fukuro as he passed, unzipping just a portion of his mouth to speak.
'They've already made one lap around the island? No wonder they're able to join the elite CP9 in the future.' thought Trevor as he stood back up and continued his jog.
The first lap was brutal thanks to him not knowing what to expect along the route, but he went through the forest with roots covering the floor causing him to stumble, the poison ivy-esque patches of grass causing him to itch all over, the swamps that ended up with him covered in bug bites, the blistering hot sand beach, the pointy rocks that skewered his feet, and more, he ran through them all.
Not to mention being passed by all the other kids and being pushed down or "accidentally" bumped into pretty much every time they lapped him. Yet he did not say anything to them, he just made a mental note of who it was as he continued his run.
The next two laps after the first were a little easier thanks to him knowing what to expect, but after the third lap, it started to get harder and harder. The state of his body was beginning to catch up to him and his body wanted to give up.
But with his stubbornness, refusal to give up, and more importantly his not wanting to give anyone the satisfaction of making fun of him for not finishing the laps, he continued to run the laps.
~
In the open space in front of the tower, the future agents were standing at attention, sweating from the blistering sun. They had been doing so practically the entire day, forced to wait for the last person to finish their laps.
Makarov, on the other hand, was sitting under an umbrella, reading a book without a care in the world.
"Argh! I'm tired of waiting! He's probably dead!" angrily whispered Jabra, while trying not to move a muscle for fear of drawing Makarov's attention.
"Quiet." said Makarov, briefly glancing at Jabra before going back to his reading.
THUD...THUD...THUD
Hearing slow and heavy footsteps coming from the running trail, everyone turned their head to look.
A boy covered in fresh and old cuts, rashes, sunburn, bug bites, mud, dirt, sweat, and blood, slowly made his way to the square.
"Oh?" said Makarov before putting his book down and walking up to the boy, but instead of stopping, the boy just continued to walk.
That's when Makarov noticed that the boy's eyes were glazed over, and he realized something. So he decided to lightly push him to test his theory.
THUD
Like a sack of potatoes, he fell over.
Makarov crouched down and put his fingers near his nose and felt that Trevor was still breathing.
"Seems like this kid has promise." muttered Makarov offhandedly.
To the five who had managed to hear him, however, it might as well have been like a bomb had gone off.
In the entire month that they had spent training with Makarov, they had never heard him praise anyone. Not even Rob Lucci, who had taken the training in stride and shown tremendous progress had been given so much as a compliment.
Now comes this boy who took longer than anyone else had ever taken to finish the laps and who got praised by Makarov. This didn't sit well with any of them but it particularly didn't sit well with one of them.
"How does he have promise?! He took forever to finish the laps!" yelled Jabra at Makarov, causing a look of bafflement to appear on the people behind them.
"Hm?" said Makarov, looking at Jabra before disappearing from his spot and reappearing with his fist deep in Jabra's stomach causing him to spill the contents of his stomach.
"Continue your training." said Makarov as he picked up Trevor and disappeared without acknowledging Jabra.
"Fuck!" said Jabra as he stood up and wiped some vomit from his mouth.
"You shouldn't have said anything." said Blueno.
"Screw all of you! We all thought the same thing, I just said it!" he retorted.
"He was unconscious." said Lucci.
"No shit, we all saw him fall." said Jabra.
"I meant he was unconscious from the moment he entered the clearing." he said while rolling his eyes.
"That's impossible, yoyoi." said Kumadori while the other three also had skeptical looks on their faces.
"That's why Makarov was so impressed. His sheer willpower was forcing his body to continue the laps." said Lucci as he stared at the spot where Trevor fell.
"If that's true then..." said Blueno while looking at Lucci.
"Mm. The real question is when he fell unconscious."
"It can't have been that long...right?" asked Fukurou with an uncertain tone as they all fell silent for a few moments.
"We have work to do." said Lucci, clenching his fist.
~
In a room full of medical supplies with every inch of it covered in dust clearly from not having been used for ages, Trevor lay sleeping on the bed while bandaged up like a mummy.
As a result of his extensive injuries, it would be natural to assume he would not be able to have a restful sleep but the drool and steady breathing showed otherwise. But his restful sleeping would not be allowed to go on much longer.
Makarov appeared next to the bed and looked at Trevor for a few moments before kicking the bed, startling him awake.
"W-what the?" said Trevor, frantically looking around to see what had jolted him from his sleep before laying eyes on the answer.
"Have a nice rest, sleeping beauty?" asked Makarov.
"I was." he said as he tried to stand up only to be stopped by pain originating from every inch of his body.
"You've been asleep for two days." he said with a smirk from seeing him wince at the pain.
"Two days?" said Trevor, bewildered.
"You should've been dead. You're lucky you're even alive. And you're even luckier that I let you sleep for two days."
"Why did you?" asked Trevor since from the very short time he had known him, Makarov did not seem like the type to be nice at all.
"Because I see the potential in you to be made into the best killing machine." said Makarov with a smile bigger than anything Trevor had seen on him before.
'That tracks.' thought Trevor.
"Oh." said Trevor, not knowing what to say.
"But before that can happen you have to be reborn, so you have 5 seconds to stand up and start your laps or some muscle pains will be the least of your worries." he said, his face dropping the smile and reverting back to his cold emotionless face.
'Fuck me.' thought Trevor as he quickly stood up while gritting his teeth from the pain.
"Out the door to your left. And you better be awake at the end of the laps." said Makarov as Trevor followed his directions before ending up outside in the square from the day before where he promptly started to run.
'It's going to be a long few years.'