“Hey, Yu, pass me seconds.”

 

    “Sure…” I handed Damian the pile of cooked rabbit meat on a large leaf that I was holding. He took one.

 

    “Thanks…”

 

    I was almost surprised that he thanked me, but I’m sure he had more on his mind than keeping in-character. So did I.

 

    “Me too.” Maya asked. I nodded and wordlessly pushed the leaf closer to Damian. He took it and passed it to his left, where Maya accepted and took one as well.

 

    “M-May I..?” Sonia watched Maya eat with wide, watery eyes. She was even drooling. She really couldn’t read a room, huh? Maya, who was normally endeared to Sonia’s personality, didn’t react. She moved the leaf over, skipping Michael. Sonia didn’t wait and grabbed three with one hand, causing Michael to lean back in surprise.

 

    Willy giggled and reached a flat hand out to her, which she looked at for a moment with a full mouth before realizing that he wanted it and giving it over. He took two for himself and swallowed one of them in one gulp. Was that him trying to be funny?

 

    “I would like another one, as well!” Hauke asked cheerfully.

 

    “Of course, my friend!” Willy smiled and gave them to him gleefully.

 

    …How the hell did this happen?!

    Apparently, after I went to bed last night, Willy spent a long time talking to our captive and they became good friends… or something…

 

    “Hauke, I promise you, a friend of ours will never go hungry!”

 

    “I do not plan to merely steal all of your resources, Willy. I will provide for all of you to the best of my ability. As will Ingo!”

 

    I would have barfed if I wasn’t so tense. Maya and Damian were in a similar position. Michael, as always, adapted to the situation well, although I figured even he couldn’t completely get over how bafflingly stupid this situation was. I really shouldn’t be letting this get to me, but… How was I supposed to accept a new teammate like that? Especially such a shady one!

 

    “Say, Hauke. Why don’t you tell the others what you told me last night?” Willy asked.

 

    “Ah, good idea.” He looked at us and held his hands out. “You all do not need to worry about introducing yourselves to me. I have been stalking you for weeks.”

 

    Weeks?! Does he mean, like… As soon as the game started?!

 

    “I am less familiar with those of you who joined recently, but I still know things like the schedule of your biological clock.”

 

    Schedule..? Do I want to know what that means..?

 

    “Your measurements, too.”

 

    “Stop talking!” It was too bizarre to keep my reaction internal.

 

    Michael’s pupils became a bit smaller. “But I only bathe at night… How did you..?””

 

    Hauke cleared his throat. “Sorry, that wasn’t the point I was trying to make. I’m only saying, if need be, I should be able to adjust to your fighting styles. Although, I don’t like to fight unless I’ve had at least a week to study my target…”

 

    That’s way too extra… Damian, Maya, Michael and I all stared at him in complete silence.

 

    “Fear not.” Willy spoke up. For once, I was happy to hear his voice. At least, in comparison to that new freak’s. “I know he is genuine. I’ve never been wrong!”

 

    That felt like a remark made to make me and only me uncomfortable.

 

    Maya rose her voice above my scrambled thoughts. “Willy, are you completely sure we can trust this guy? I mean, I understand trusting the other two, but these guys literally tried to kill us.”

 

     I assumed she meant Michael and I when she said “other two.” In spite of the isolating language, I was happy that she spoke up. Strong disapproval from me would only make me look more suspicious. Besides, he wouldn’t trust my opinion as much as his original team’s. He shouldn’t, anyway…

 

    “Everyone is afraid, Maya. Especially this man and his colleague. Are his overly cautious actions not the actions of a frightened man?”

 

    “Hey, it’s a perfectly adequate amount of caution!” Hauke’s annoying voice split my ears.

 

    “Yes, anyway…” Willy ignored him. “Who wouldn’t be afraid in their position? Their lives spared merely on a whim? Or perhaps by luck? Their teammates were not so lucky. They now carry the hopes and dreams of those two brave friends!”

 

    Hauke began to tear up, but it was in such a pathetic, whiny manner that I was almost certain he was playing it up.

 

    “I mean, I guess, but that doesn’t mean we have to be welcoming to an active threat.” Maya crossed her arms and looked away, as if accepting that the argument was over.

 

    “I’d call myself an inactive threat.” Hauke’s reply got no response, due to the total lack of worth it held to anyone present.

 

    After a moment of silence, Damian said, “I’m not convinced. Tell us your teams’ powers!”

 

    I wondered what made him think they even had powers, but in Hauke’s case, it’s probably best to always assume he’s hiding something.

 

    “Ahh, only I have awakened to one. It’s a bit hard to tell you about, though…”

 

    Could you possibly look more suspicious?

 

    Damian stomped his foot. “You expect me to believe that?! How can telling us be difficult unless you’re lying?!”

 

    “Eep!” Hauke shrunk back and covered his face with his hands. “I’m telling the truth..! My power has strange rules that I don’t quite understand yet… One of my deceased allies, I told her about my power and she… Well…”

 

    Damian approached him threateningly. “You think that’s why they got killed by the musclehead? I know you’re superstitious, but that’s just stupid!”

 

    “No, not that. Okay, okay, I’ll try to explain it safely. I saw her potential, and when I told her about it, she lost it.”

 

    As doubtful as I was of him, I had to give it some thought. It was too interesting of a story, even if it was a lie. “So, did our potential go away?” I asked.

 

    “…N-No…” He looked progressively more worried, as if he expected something terrible to happen. 

 

    I stared at him quietly. “Did it this time?”

 

    He shook his head.

 

    “I see…” I exchanged glances with Damian. He didn’t seem convinced either, but he was definitely intrigued, brow raised.

 

    “You’re being too paranoid.” Damian scoffed. “Tell us in more specific words!”

 

    “Well, wait.” I lifted my hand. “If it’s as dire as he says, maybe we should let him be cautious on this.”

 

    Damian stared daggers at me. “You on his side, loser?”

 

    “Hey, no way!” I gulped. The idea that I was agreeing with that loon was scary. Am I that superstitious? Nah, no way. 

 

    Hauke cleared his throat, then fell silent when we both stared at him. “It seems fine, so if it’ll make you trust me… I’ll tell you a little bit more, but only a little! Aside from the fact that I wouldn’t want to hurt you all, it would be disadvantageous of me to weaken a potential bodyguard!”

 

    Could he seriously just stop with the kissing up? Well, I believed the second part of that, at least.

 

    “Yes, so…” Hauke spoke slowly. “Let’s say my brain is a computer… It stores information that I see…”

 

    “Yeah, duh!” Damian yelled.

 

    “Eek! I’m getting to it! My brain does it differently… It’s like I don’t forget it, and I process it super hard without trying to.”

 

    I raised my brow at that. “Did you do that before you got here, or is that related to your power?”

 

    “Um… I did it before, but now it seems my information has become more specific…”

 

    I pondered. Could a power really mutate your brain? That’s scary. Is it possible that our personalities can change? It seems he was always like this, so maybe the mutations correlate to the way we already were.

 

    Ugh, this is making my head hurt… This all started with an alien. Why am I thinking so hard about it? “So you see our potential?” I asked.

 

    “Yes, basically. I cannot see the future potential of Yu or Michael, but I’ve been watching the others long enough to see theirs.”

 

    I guess if he tells us, then we’ll start to act with that expectation in mind. It’s like in movies when you change the future because you told someone what happens, so they no longer did the thing that caused the future to end up that way. A bit complicated, but I got the picture.

 

    “That’s it?” Damian sounded annoyed. “Can’t you explain more?!”

 

    “Th-That’s it! I really can’t say more!”

 

    I thought that if he said any more, we might become aware of the fact that our powers are determined by our habits, which he can observe. But wait, I already came to that conclusion. Did my potential change? Eh, probably not. “Let’s not push it.” I urged, trying to make it sound more like a suggestion so that Damian wouldn’t get mad again.

 

    “What if he only agreed to be here so that he could keep observing us?” Damian sounded frustrated, like he wasn’t sure how to resolve this. I looked around at the others, who had become silent. They didn’t look like they were taking this too seriously, either. Is this just some classic Yu and Damian moment to them? Maya almost looks like she’s about to laugh!

 

    Sonia shot up and pulled Hauke closer to us by his wrists, causing Damian and I to recoil back in unison. “I know! He just has to prove himself, like Yu and Michael did, right?”

 

    Damian spat, “You think they proved themselves already? You’re no better than Willy.”

 

    “It’s better than if they don’t, yes?” Willy interjected by thrusting his hand with a raised index finger between us. “Does anybody have suggestions for how Hauke may gain your trust?”

 

    Everyone looked to Damian, knowing he would be the hardest to please, for his response. It took him a moment to notice, and when he did he looked embarrassed. “What, me?! Ugh, I guess, um… Go gather intel on other teams. When we’ve confirmed it’s correct, we might start to trust you a bit. Until then, stay as far away from us as possible!”

 

    “You don’t have to stay away from me.” Willy added.

 

    “Shut up! Not helping!!”

  

 

    

 

    And so, Hauke did just that. Well, I assumed he did. Damian was the one following him around, so I didn’t see what they were doing. Ingo was told to sit still, so that the two of them wouldn’t have any chances to scheme. No point in testing him this early if his captain is already suspicious, I guess. I didn’t feel the need to impose on Damian’s means. His standards are probably a fine thing to go by, for now. 

 

    Then again, he hasn’t found me out yet. Maybe I shouldn’t trust his judgment so much. Or am I good at lying? Nah, I could never be as cutthroat as Michael was when dealing with these intruders last night. That was really impressive. They would’ve caught my lie in an instant.

 

    I felt conflicted about whether I should follow Rubi’s or Michael’s methods. For once, I started to think of Michael as a captain when I imagined the kind of disagreements they would have. Although, I struggled to imagine him getting into any arguments. Now that I’m thinking about it, Willy didn’t argue with Michael about his underhanded ways, either. Maybe he was too happy that Michael would put himself out there like that for us. Willy’s beliefs are, from what I’ve seen, definitely captain-level, but he seems more willing to compromise than Rubi. Was my assumption about how captains act wrong? Maybe I shouldn’t base it all off Rubi.

 

    Argh! Whatever. I don’t really know what a captain is like anyway. I’ve only gotten to know three of them. I guess I wanted to know that there were people like Rubi out there, that I wasn’t best friends with a one-of-a-kind marvel. That would be way too much pressure…

 

    I was curious about Willy, though. Why would he do something as assertive as taking his team’s knife from them, but then let Michael settle the situation the way he did? Does lying not conflict with Willy’s worldview? That would be stupid. Besides, even if we don’t have the knife for combat, Michael still stabbed that guy with his nails. What’s the difference? Ugh, I hate that guy. It would be dumb to put myself out there by confronting him on it, though. I wonder if Damian and Maya are thinking about that… If the three of us come to him with that, then I won’t stick out at all.

 

    Maya appeared from outside of my field of view and waved at me, to which I looked up with a bit of surprise. 

 

    “Hey, wanna train?” She asked. I stood up quietly and went to the usual spot with her. I wondered how I should bring it up, if I was going to at all. Maya had gotten notably friendlier to me, compared to Damian. Maybe she would be easier to talk to about it. They have their own misgivings about their captain.

 

    Although she didn’t use the same fighting style as Damian, the tricks he taught me translated into fighting her pretty well. The two of them rely on using their weight. Maya’s fighting style was basically regular brawling, with some of Damian’s style mixed in. 

 

   I dodged her wide swings back by swaying, keeping my arms low in case she went for a tackle. 

 

    “You shouldn’t make such wide movements.” I commented while lifting one of my arms up to try and hit her face. She had taken a particularly wide swing and I was aiming for a counter hit, but she stepped forward at the same time as she missed. I stepped back to keep the distance between us the same, but my back hit a tree. Had she really pushed me so far with that aggressive assault? I froze for a second, and she went to wrap her arms around the arm I had raised. She succeeded and I fell onto the hard ground, yelping as she fell with her weight on my elbow and shoulder.

 

    “Oww! You got it, you got it!” I tapped the ground a few times and she let up.

 

    “You must be getting comfortable if you think you can give me advice.” She smirked and wiped some dirt off of her arm.

 

    “Hm.” I ignored her and stood up, wincing in pain. Seeing that she was taking a break for water, I followed her with my hands in my pocket, awkwardly trying to start the conversation that had been in my mind.

 

   “So, do you and Damian… Do you agree with Will?” It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to ask, but it’s what came out.

 

    She seemed surprised to be asked such a thing, but it didn’t last long. “Makes sense you’d ask that. We are hard on him, aren’t we?”

 

    “A bit. With good reason, I’d say.”

 

    “Don’t assume you know what he’s like, ‘kay?” She looked serious, but not angry. “I get that it’s easy to do with him, but we’ve known him for a long time.”

 

    It sounded like deflection to me, but that didn’t matter much. “Sorry.”

 

   “It’s fine.” She paused to drink for a second. “Just don’t be surprised if Damian gets mad at you for bringing that up.”

 

    Why would he get so defensive if the answer was obvious? “Got it. I’m just having a hard time understanding why he doesn’t have a problem with us training to fight like this…” I struggled to drop the subject, for some reason.

 

    “Ugh…” Maya sighed. “It’s a compromise between friends, alright? We haven’t come to an agreement yet.”

 

    Were they really avoiding confrontation about it this late into the game? It must have been a couple of weeks at this point. I suppose I can understand where they’re coming from. Rubi and I got into it about whether or not we should kill people. No violence at all, though? Not even Rubi is absurd enough to make such rules. Are there more captains that impose guidelines like this? I hope not.

 

    Neither of us spoke for a bit. Maya started meditating at the other end of the square area. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked that. It’s not my business to begin with…

  

 

    

 

    Damian and Hauke returned without much fanfare. It appeared to have gone well. Nobody looked injured, either by another team or each other. So that was good.

 

    I was doing some of the balancing practice that Rubi showed me before I left. I was starting to get the hang of standing on one leg for a long period of time. I would still fall over after about 20 seconds, though. Not to mention, fighting like this is a whole different story. Damian and Hauke’s return brought me out of it, so I decided to take a trip to Michael’s corner within the tent.

 

    “Hey, can you get me something for my back? The old injuries started hurting earlier when I fell over.”

 

    “Of course.” He started shifting through his very organized collection and then took a leaf, crushed it into paste with his palm and motioned for me to come over. I sighed. I was annoyed that it decided to hurt again now instead of back at the camp. I didn’t really want to show my bare back to people I’m not friends with. Either way, I turned my back and lifted my shirt the bare minimum required to expose the wound. One of my arms remained wrapped around myself protectively, even though I knew it was hardly hiding anything. 

 

    “This thing really is nasty.” He chimed in while rubbing the paste in.

 

    “Who says that to someone in this position..?!” My face was a little red. I huffed.

 

    “I meant your injury.” Obviously, dumbass! “Haha, making you laugh reduced the sting though, didn’t it?”

 

    I raised a brow at him only to realize that he was right. I didn’t feel the medicine at all. That is, until he pointed it out and I winced. “Asshole…”

 

    “Sorry, sorry. I knew it would be best to let you remain in that state for a bit longer, lest you realize the pain. It felt rude, though. I realized it might have come across as teasing. I didn’t want you to hate me, so I selfishly decided to break the illusion. Forgive me.”

 

    “Whatever.” Making such a complicated situation out of nothing. What an annoying guy he could be. It barely hurt, too. “Even I can handle this much.”

 

    “Ah, and I accidentally insulted your strength, too… Today is not my day.” It was hard to tell how much he was joking. He didn’t look away from his plants when he spoke.

 

    “So, I can lower my shirt, right? It’s not gonna rub the medicine away or anything?”

 

    “What? Oh, no. It’s already drying up.”

 

    I tugged my shirt down quickly and left the tent in much the same fashion. Damian, Hauke and Willy were standing in the center of the camp, presumably to talk about his “initiation.”

 

    “So, Damian, do you trust our new friend a bit more now?” Willy spoke as chipper as ever.

 

    “That wasn’t enough to prove it. I’m gonna be keeping my eye on him. And on the other three! Ugh, even saying that, there’s really three others…”

 

    I wasn't in much position to agree with him, given my status as a newcomer, but the two new guys really did bother me. I looked around to see where the other one had gone. Ingo, I think. He was cooking some meat while Sonya watched closely and Maya watched notably less closely.

 

    “I’ve had to cook for Hauke since the others died, so I’m pretty good at this. Your captain’s cooking is great, too.”

 

    Sonya giggled. “I know, right? Ahh, I can’t wait to taste test! I’ll tell you who’s better!”

 

    Maya snorted. “So, only you get to decide that?” She smiled, not giving them her full attention still, but enough to make jabs and observations.

 

    “You guys’ll eat anything!” Sonya crossed her arms over her chest defiantly. “I mean, me too, but at least I can tell when food is high quality and when it isn’t.”

 

    Does having a sharp tongue for flavor even matter if you’ll eat everything? I chose not to engage with them.

 

    Willy continued, “Well, if you’d like, why not take Yu on our afternoon expedition? If you’re fine with doing it twice in a row.”

 

    “Of course I am.” He scoffed at the idea. “I’ll go, after I wash myself.”

 

    “No reason to be so eager! Have dinner first.” Willy implored. Damian was frustrated, but didn’t argue. Being around Hauke for so long must have put him on edge. He’ll probably keep an extra close eye on me today.

 

    Whenever I thought about bringing up my misgivings with Willy to Damian, I remembered that it would certainly be a less friendly version of the conversation with Maya. I sighed. I noticed Michael had left his corner for a break. I didn’t want to disturb him, but it was nagging at me. I approached him.

 

    “Hey, Michael. If you feel the same, why don’t we confront Will at dinner tonight about his whole ‘non-violence’ thing? It’s been bugging me since the Hauke situation.”

 

    He didn’t react much. “Sure. I take it the others didn’t agree with you?”

 

    “Eh, Maya didn’t. I know how Damian would react.”

 

    “Indeed. If we intend to remain a team, then a captain whom we can’t agree with is going to be a problem. This confrontation was going to happen eventually.”

 

    “I’m glad you agree. I mean, Will didn’t even know what he was doing in that last fight. He looked like he wanted to argue with us, but even he knew that wasn’t the time. I want to think he’s been pondering what to do about it since then, but he was so cheerful that I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if he wiped it from his brain. Ignoring serious matters seems core to his thought process…”

 

    “Someone’s a critic.” Michael giggled.

 

    Shit, I assumed he felt the same!

 

    “I feel the same.” He continued.

 

    Right…

 

    Michael started to walk away, back to the lab. That was an awkward point to leave the conversation on, but I couldn’t think of any info I left out, so that was that.

 

    Willy was patting Hauke on the back, who seemed tired as well. “They always treat the new guy rough, my friend. It means they’re warming up to you.”

 

    “Does not!” Damian reappeared, wiping sweat from his forehead with his shirt. I really wasn’t looking forward to walking with him when he’s so clearly frustrated.

 

    “You sure you want to…?” I started to speak, but he cut me off. “Yes! Move.”

 

    I went along with it, choosing not to upset him further. His muscles really were developed, though. Seeing him like that made me glad that he wasn’t seriously trying to kill me during training. He probably could.

 

    “Keep your eyes to yourself.” He scowled without looking at me.

 

    “What?!” I was caught off guard. Was he trying to joke? “Uh… Don’t flatter yourself.” My retort fell pretty flat. He didn’t reply. We were both silent for a couple of minutes, until we were away from the camp.

 

    I made sure to keep my eyes active and moving, even though it was boring. While doing so, I decided to start a conversation. “So, what impression did Hauke give you today?”

 

    “Just more of the same annoying ass kissing.”

 

    “Did you learn- Oh, look.” I pointed to a baby rabbit running across the ground. Damian stared at me, ignoring the target of my fascination.

 

    “You want to eat a baby?”

 

    “N-Not what I meant. Let’s follow where it came from and see if we find a nest.” I picked up a twig and drew a circle in the dirt to mark where we saw it, in case we have to backtrack.

 

    “Sure… What were you saying?” 

 

    I got embarrassed that I so easily forgot my train of thought. “Oh, uh. I, uh… Oh, yeah. I was asking if you learned anything new. About Hauke, like did he tell you anything important?”

 

    “No.” Damian’s reply was blunt. “He told me about his teammates, but not in any detail that would help us track or identify their killer.”

 

    “I see… Did you internalize any of it?”

 

    “No.” Equally blunt. I was almost beginning to wonder what the team thought about how little I had told them about my team, but knowing that it wouldn’t have even been remembered eased my mind… and slightly annoyed me.

 

    We followed the rabbit for a while, with no luck. When we followed the opposite direction, where it was headed, we did in fact find a nest of rabbits. Damian calmly swiped up the two grown ones. He had me hold one while he held the other out and dislocated its neck. I would have preferred not to see that, but whatever. I gave him the second one and he did the same. We ignored the children and went home.

  

 

    

 

    Everybody gathered and the meal was prepared. I glanced at Michael, who met my gaze. He initiated conversation as we planned. “So, Wilhelm. As our captain, can you elaborate more on your philosophy? Specifically, how you expect us to fend off threats without violence.”

 

    My awkward glancing noticed that Maya was looking at me with an annoyed glare. She must have assumed I asked him to bring it up for me. What a wimp I looked like. “Um, yeah, I was w-wondering, too.” I had already planned to join in, but I felt a push from that.

 

    “Oh, I cannot blame you for this.” Willy was deflated. “You especially, Mikey, are justified in asking me. I admit that I was unsure of your methods, but in the end, we all became friends. Your trickery put an end to our fighting. Nobody in the situation, including myself, knew what to do to settle things. I wish I could have been of help like you…” Willy’s lip started to quiver, like it was only just dawning on him how he had failed to uphold his ideology and had to rely on another captain to do it for him.

 

    “Thank you, Mikey! With all my heart! I will never fail as a captain ever again!” Willy suddenly yelled and dropped to his knees, bowing his head on all fours. Nobody knew how to respond, especially not Michael.

 

    Before anyone could come up with a reply to that, we heard a loud thud as a knife was suddenly stabbed into a tree as if it had been thrown. I shot up and looked around, only for Maya to speak first. “Th-… The knife just flew out of my hand!” She inhaled and exhaled to calm her breathing. 

 

    Michael and I both looked at each other first. He was watching for me, making me self-conscious of my reaction. I coughed and sat down to hopefully get him to stop staring. Maya went to go pull it out of the tree, but as she hovered her open palm over the hilt, it pushed further in.

 

    “Maya, do you think…?” Willy’s eyes, no longer facing the dirt, were wide and glistening with intrigue.

 

    My suspicion became reality. My eyes widened in fear. My heart sank into my stomach. My ears started to ring. My peripheral vision became too blurry to make anything out of it. After long enough, my eyesight wasn’t focused on anything at all, merely empty space. I had forgotten. This team was large. They would soon start awakening powers. They’re acquiring teammates at an alarming rate. A team of numerous powered people who are going to hate me when they realize why I’m here.

 

    Why I’m here. 

 

    Why am I here? To make friends? There’s no way to apologize now, after all this time. They’d kill me. They’d kill my friends. That, or they’d subjugate us, stop us from winning, make us complacent, get us killed by another team.

 

    Why was I so interested in trying to figure out this team’s internal politics? Why did I care what Willy thought? Why did I try to change his mind? If he stays weak-willed, then it’ll be easier to beat him. Kill him, if need be. All I’ve been doing here is making it harder to justify killing these people to myself.

 

    I felt dizzy. I lowered my head, trying not to look suspicious. I couldn’t seem scared. I closed my eyes. Took a deep breath. Let it out. My eyes opened, slowly, to the world in front of me. A new world, where the fake home I had fabricated no longer remained. A world filled only with enemies.