Trout stood in front of the doors. They had remained closed ever since.
"...Are they supposed to be closed? The bus already stopped." He thought.
Tinmas was standing behind Trout, he glanced between the doors and Trout's back several times.
Each time Tinmas's eyes locked onto Trout, he was ready to speak.
Each time he stopped himself.
Giving out a slight sigh, Tinmas took a step back from Trout. Right at that moment, Trout looked around and locked his sight on Tinmas.
"Hey Tinmas, do you know if there is anything wrong with the doors?" Trout asked, he stepped aside and gestured for Tinmas to come closer.
Tinmas paused for a moment before gathering himself and walked towards the doors. He didn't forget to pay close attention to Trout.
"Maybe we are missing something?" Tinmas asked. Trout shrugged his shoulder.
Scaros at the back of the bus peeked up. He looked at the scene, he had yet to notice that he had stopped avoiding looking at Trout. He turned his head to Liones, she gave him a smile and an encouraging nod.
Scaros stood up and slowly approached the front of the bus while Liones waved at him. The first few steps were hard, the later weren't. He came closer and closer. Before he knew it, Scaros was standing right next to Trout. He looked up at Trout, but got no response.
Trout's attention was focused on the doors and Tinmas who seemed to be inspecting the hinges.
"This is...rather odd...
...acceptable rust... lubrication is fine... it doesn't seem off. Maybe not a technical issue.." Tinmas mumbled.
Scaros walked past Trout, kneeling down next to Tinmas. He tapped on Tinmas's shoulder.
"Do you... need any help? I think I can help." He asked. Tinmas shook his head without looking.
"It's fine kid, I'm used to doing things alone." Tinmas said. Then he told Scaros to lean closer to him.
"Don't go near that man again, you understand?" Tinmas whispered, he glanced at Trout then quickly focused back at the doors. Scaros stay silence, he sat a bit closer to Tinmas.
Trout stood beside the two, his fingers brushed on the doors. Covering the gloves fingers with a faint layer of dust, he rubbed the dust off his glove. He felt a tug behind his mind that he couldn't explain what it was.
His helmet flickered for a moment, it happened so fast Trout hadn't realized it himself, nor anyone else.
"It's not the doors not opening. Something's stopping it." Trout said, the other two looked up at him in confusion while Liones who was watching over Scaros peeked up to look at Trout.
"How can you be so sure?" Tinmas asked.
Trout stared back at him, making him look away.
"...hard to explain." Trout said. He looked down at Tinmas and noticed something strange.
"Is he. . . ...afraid? Since when did he started looking at me with that strange look... What went wrong?" Trout thought.
Tinmas was observing Trout, his arm leaned in front of Scaros while his stance stood to warn.
Trout flicked his fingers.
Tinmas's eyes snapped to the sudden movement, his arm stiffened. Scaros flinched beside him. After a moment, Tinmas realised he had taken a step back.
"I see... I should sit down then." Trout thought, he slowly took a step away from Tinmas, walked towards a nearby seat and sat down.
Tinmas carefully watched the whole process, the vertical line on Trout's helmet was barely emitting any light. It was dim and only the slight hint of gray were visible. Tinmas's eyes dashed at Scaros. The siblings were also looking back at him.
Tinmas gulped, he reached out for Scaros and grabbed him by the arm. Then, he stood up and dragged Scaros back at Liones, who seemed to be frowning from the act.
"Stay together." Tinmas said, he intentionally lowered his voice trying to not be heard by Trout.
Suddenly, the speaker inside the bus started to make distorted noises before a clear voice came out of it.
"Attention tools, ahem... Do you all hear me well?" The mysterious voice echoed inside the bus. The voice of a young man caught the attention of everyone.
"Ahem, I'm your assistant for this mission, you all should gather at the door near the back end of the vehicle. I will open it when I arrive." The voice echoed again.
"OH! So it was locked!" Scaros shouted, he jumped up like a big mystery was solved. Liones pulled him down to the seat. She gave him a light smack to the head.
Tinmas saw it with the corner of his eyes. His mouth curved up, a smile formed without him noticing.
The group gathered to the back of the bus, Tinmas lead Scaros and Liones closer to the door while he stood between them and Trout.
Liones looked back at Trout who was standing at the back of the group, she looked up to his helmet. Trout looked downed at her. The two face a moment of silence before Liones looked away. Trout tilted his head slightly.
" Was what that?" He thought before he quickly shook it off.
The door opened in a quick motion, stood there was a man in a straight business suit. He adjusted the thick pairs of glasses before checking the time with a small pocket watch.
"Greetings, I will be your assistant for this mission. The assigner requested a meet up, I require your cooperation." He turned around and started walking.
Scaros quickly jumped off the bus and Liones immediately followed him down. Tinmas stepped down from the bus then moved himself closer to the children. Trout left the bus last, the doors closed shut behind him as the engine started to rumble before the bus drove away.
The four followed after the assistant. He never introduced his name, his step was hasty making it difficult for Liones to follow.
"According to the documents you are all first time tools, please make sure that you remain active and professional during the discussion. They can increase your payment if you give them a good performance." The assistant stated. He didn't look back to the group behind him even for a moment.
Trout immediately fasten his steps. He came aside the assistant.
"Is the extra credit shared?" He asked.
"Depends, we pay you in whole and you split it yourself." The assistant replied.
Trout kept walking, the gray light dimmed further. The assistant looked aside for a moment, he shook it off and adjusted his glasses, his eyes focused back to the front.
Tinmas stayed silent and followed while checking on Scaros and Liones. He stopped to pick Liones up, who was breathing heavily from the walking.
"I can't let a child run like that." Tinmas kept walking fast now with Liones on his shoulder. Scaros looked at her with envious eyes.
~Click~
A sound broke the silence of the walk. The assistant took the pocket watch out of his vest and glanced at it.
"It's eleven o'clock, you have ten minutes." He said after putting the pocket watch back, his footsteps became even faster, only Trout could keep up with his pace, while the others started to do short jogs to catch up.
On the walls, flyers and posters of multiple children were showing up more and more often as they went further. Most of them were covered in dust, some were ripped half off.
Moments later, the assistant stopped in front of a house. He knocked on the door gently and waited.
Trout looked around, they were surrounded by old houses, some of which were barely holding together. But the house the assistant knocked on wasn't as bad. The paint looked old enough to show peels yet was a lot better compared to the ones around.
He couldn't see a thing inside the house aside from the light coming out of the doors. Liones was climbing down Tinmas's shoulder, she almost fell down but Tinmas caught her and put her down safely.
The assistant knocked on the door again.
"You have three minutes." He said, putting the pocket watch back in before anyone even noticed he got it out.
Quick footstep could be heard approaching from the inside. A woman opened the doors, she was breathing heavily. Her eyes were still watery while her cheeks remained red.
"Welcome in, please." She breathed. The assistant entered, silently leading the others inside. The woman held the door, she looked at each of the strangers who had just entered her home. Most of her attention was on Scaros and Liones.
After everyone came in, she closed the door behind them.
There was a short corridor leading from the entrance to the inside. On the walls were countless children's drawings. Some were covered with dried water stains.
Scaros stepped on something, he jumped up.
"Ew! Why is it so dirty in here?" He complained. The woman looked at him, the eye bags making her look even more exhausted.
"I'm sorry... I haven't cleaned them in a while..." Her eyes lingered on the drawings on the wall, tears swelled up in her eyes. She bit her lips and blinked the tears back in.
Trout noticed the mother's hand raising towards Scaros, her eyes widened for a moment before darkening again as her other hand caught it, pulling herself back.
Scaros was too focused on the dirty spots on the ground to notice. He mumbled complaints under his breath while trying to clean the filth on his foot by rubbing it elsewhere.
"Get moving." The assistant grunted. He pointed towards the room in front of them. His steps slowed down for a moment, Tinmas who was walking behind bumped into him.
Before Tinmas could apologize, the assistant motioned for silence, then took a step to the right and two to the left before turning back to the woman.
"Ma'am, the corridor does not meet the construction regulations." The assistant said, he took out a pen from his pocket and wrote down the files he was holding before walking forward again.
"I will note the violation in my report. The local authority will issue a penalty within two days." The assistant added. The woman nodded without looking up, her eyes were still looking at Scaros and Liones.
They entered the room at the end of the corridor, the assistant walked up to the man sitting in the center while the woman squeezed herself past the group and sat down behind the man.
He was a slim man, the suit on him looked dirty. His hair was long, so long that his front bangs covered his eyes.
"Sign here, my responsibility will be over from now on." The assistant said. He handed the sheet to the man.
The man picked up the files, his eyes squinted.
"Construction regulation violation? There must be a misunderstanding." He said. The assistant held the pen out for him.
"Your entrance corridor is not meeting the required width. You will be able to make an appeal after the notice was sent to you." The assistant replied. The man took the pen, he signed the form.
"Thank you for trusting us." The assistant said, he folded the sheet of paper and put it back into his pocket.
After that, he turned towards the exit. He stopped by Tinmas and handed him a card.
"Here is my contact. Do dial if required." He said and repeated to same to Trout. He walked past Scaros and Liones without giving them any card.
Before leaving out of the door, the assistant paused for a moment. He clicked his tongue.
"I hate this." He muttered under his breath.
After another brief pause, the assistant turned around facing everyone.
"Husky corporation. Contact us a request and tools will be handed to you." He slightly bowed towards them. After that he quickly turned around and left.
Trout looked around the room. Scaros and Liones already found their seats in the corners of the room. There was a man in a suit with combed hair sitting on the left side of the room, he stood up from his chair and walked up to Trout.
"Thank you for coming, you have no idea how long they took to approve this request." The man said. His eyes has a hint of red while his hair looks finely combed.
"What is your grade?" He handed his hand out asking for a hand shake.
"Nine." Trout replied. Scaros and Tinmas both instantly looked at him. Tinmas's eyes were widened while Scaros's mouth was wide opened. Liones was napping while leaning her back against the wall.
"...Nine?" The man frowned as he took his hand back, his eyes darted towards the slim man.
"You called me over for this?" He grunted. The slim man did not reply but the woman behind him looked at Trout. Her face told of the same disappointment as the man with the combed hair.
"I'm a grade seven." Tinmas said, he stepped forward to the man with the combed hair. Handing out his his.
"...fine, at least you're better than the other one." The man replied, he shook the hand and quickly withdrawn it back.
"They took more than a month just to send what? One usable tool and some replacements?" His eyes darted on Scaros and Liones. They were told to sit quietly by Tinmas and hold off from speaking.
"They are our companions." Tinmas said, he gave the children a thumbs up before continuing talking.
"And they're as qualified as I am."
The statement got a dry laugh out of the man, he tiredly sat back down.
"I see how it is, this kind." He laughed.
"That's enough. Why don't we get to the point." The slim man addressed. He stroked his bangs backwards revealing a blank eyes, the spots under his eyes were black, some gray hair could be spotted on the front of his hair.
~~~~~~~~
A ringtone invaded the space. The combed haired man quickly took out a small device out of his pocket and tapped on it before putting it close to his ear.
"I signed the day off, stop calling me." He grunted, his fingers tightened around the device.
.
.
.
.
"WHAT?! No sir, you misunderstood." The man lowered his voice, his foot tap in the ground.
"Yes sir...I get it." The man said, he put the device back. His breathing became short and ragged. His hand griped tightly into a fist, he walked out of the room and towards the exist.
His fingernail cut deep into his hand leaving a trail of blood drops down on the floor. He stood still at the doors catching his breath.
"Fuck! They can't keep doing this!" He shouted, his fist punched on his chest. He turned around before leaving.
"Please, get their bodies back." He begged in a low voice. He bowed down before taking his leave with haste.
.
.
.
.
.
"How convenient." The slim man whistled, he turned his head to the side, looking at the woman.
"Honey, can you leave me with these gentleman please? It's best for you to go upstairs." The man smiled. The woman nodded, her gaze never left Scaros and Liones. She stood up and walked up to them.
"H-hey. . . . do you want to. . . . .come with me. . . . For a moment?" She asked, her eyes became teary. Scaros immediately agreed to it and walked up to her, dragging Liones with him. They walked to the vertical stair in the back of the room and went up.
"Now, let's get to business. I know your kind is into this." The slim man said, he brushed his hair backwards with his hand. A crooked smile spread across the lifeless face.
Tinmas frowned, his eyes were still looking at the doors where the other man left. His eyes went blank for a swift moment before looking at the slim man. Meanwhile, Trout's attention was on the surrounding, it was impossible to tell where he was staring at through the headwear.
The slim man crossed his legs. His smile widened as his mouth opened.
"I have an offer for you two."