OBTICEO

Chapter 25: DIRT

"Are you sure you won't join us?" I will be glad if he does. Caligo annoys me to the core when we are alone together. Gio tagging along with me means I can have some break from all of Caligo's noises. Annoying noises.

"Yes. But I might go to the headquarters earlier to warm up my knuckles" Gio laughed at his own words, he even showed me his knuckles. Well, I can't always depend on Gio, he has to practice and do things on his own too.

"Well, if that's what you want. See you later?" I waved goodbye. Caligo is already waiting inside the car. Its already hour 3, we are planning to come back to our cell at hour 5, rest for 2 and a half hours then go to the headquarters at 30 minutes pass 7.

"Let me guess, he's not coming?" he said when he saw me coming from our cell.

"Shut up!" I shouted as I sat on the passenger seat, of course, Caligo is the one driving. Caligo is not wearing his Kavan guard uniform.

"Why are you so grumpy? The day is still starting but your forehead is already creased. You should start your day with a smile" didn't he notice? He is the one who is making me so grumpy early in the morning. Him and his playful and annoying acts.

"Who would be happy if you are the first thing I saw early in the morning? The day is just starting but you're already annoying the heck out of me. Now tell me why I would not be grumpy? How will I smile if you're the one whose in front of me?"

"You hate me that much?" he even nudged me on my arms with his finger. I shrugged it off and said "Just drive", I even heard him whispering 'so bossy'. Why whisper when I can clearly hear what he was saying. Its either he is stupid or he purposely said it loud enough for me to hear. He intentionally whispered a bit louder so I can hear it.

"At last, we've arrived!" it wasn't even a long ride but it felt like it since I was acting all grumpy at Caligo. He annoyed me all through out the short drive while I try my best not to give a glance to this attention seeker.

We got off of the car and went near the tree. We did not bring any hanging or standing punching bag since according to Caligo, we'll be learning about how to avoid punches. I guess he'll be my sparring partner, it that's what its called.

"Let's not waste any time, we should start warming up" so we did. After a couple of minutes of warming up, we took a small break to breathe.

After both of our breathing stabilized, he called for my attention.

"Stand in front of me" he pointed at the space in front of him. I quietly obliged, Caligo is annoying but work is work. Well, I am still a trainee so, training is training. Caligo is really annoying but he is already an expert on this so I have no choice but to comply.

"This will help you improve your reaction to punches. The first thing you have to remember is to not swat the punches away. Like for example, try punching me" he motioned for me to give him a punch, so I did. He was able to dodge it off but he was startled that I delivered a really strong punch. He did not expect it.

"Slowly! Don't put hate on your punch, we're practicing right now, save that for later!" he hissed. I laughed at his reaction. I'm definitely going to punch him really hard later. I just have to find the right time.

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry. Really sorry"

"Let's do this again. You see, do not swat the punches away from you with your hands. Don't push the punch away from you, don't rotate your body like this and push the punch away. Don't do it" he demonstrated the things I shouldn't do while I slowly give him punches. Caligo is really fit to be a work head. I wonder why he isn't.

"Rotating your body helps deflection but it destroys your posture, it causes your frame to change. Doing it would throw your balance off. As much as possible, you have to stay on your centerline.

Defend your body line as much as you can. When a punch is thrown at you, you have to focus on escaping the attack not blocking. Blocking is not really important, as long as you've escape the attack, that's fine. Do not jump back, you only need to not get hit by the punch. You only need to make the space you need to avoid the punch. Moving a lot will risk your posture, your possible counterattack will be lessened. To do more, you have to move less. You have to save your energy but you have to move a bit to avoid getting vital parts hit. If unavoidable you can even get yourself hit a bit, as long as the impact of the attack would be lessened, you can’t always avoid the punch but at least do your best to lessen the impact and never let your vital parts get hit".

I listened and watched intently as Caligo explained everything.

"All in all, you have to work smarter not harder" he finalizes. Smarter? I hope I would be smart enough for the exam. Smart enough to pass. I don't want to fail on my first exam, no, let me rephrase that, I don't want to fail any of my exam. I want to pass on every single examination.

We took a break from all of these training, I grabbed this chance to talk to Caligo. I still feel out of place since I don't know anything about the team. I have to start knowing them so I would feel like I belong. I sometimes feel like they gather secretly to talk behind my back.

"Caligo?" I called his attention as I sat down on the grass beside him.

"Hmm?" he answered without looking at me.

"Your name is pretty long. Can I call you Cal from now on?" I can't just jump into the actual question, I need a smooth conversation starter. I think my question is a great example.

"I did not expect that. Well it sounded good, for a moment I even thought that it sounded so sexy, maybe because it came from a good tasting lips. But yeah sure, no problem. Call me whatever you want" of course he's Caligo. He would say the most disgusting and annoying thing, that's just who he is.

"Jeez! You are always annoying and disgusting. Be serious at times. It won't kill you, I promise!" he then, laughed.

"I am serious. And I also know that it was not the only question you have. Stop beating around the bush. Ask away!" he saw right through me. I almost laughed, I felt like I was caught red-handed while stealing.

"Your good. So do we also train to learn how people think?" he just shrugged. I hope we will. I want to learn how to see through people's minds too. I want to learn how to read their action and guess what they were thinking.

"Cal, do you want to become a work head? Not just an assistant but the actual work head" I finally asked what I am most curious about today. Cal is disgusting and all but I admit that I think he will be a really great work head. He would make a good teacher, trainer, and work head. I'm even sure that he will do better than Soren. Much, much better. After all, if its not because if him I wouldn’t have seven days to learn how to fight, he was the one who explained Soren about my situation.

"Nope!" he smiled still not looking at me, he was just staring at the air.

"Why?" I asked as I dart my gaze onto his face. He's handsome alright but he is still annoying.

"Too much work. And they get their hands really dirty. Pitch black dirty" I unconsciously looked at his hand and then to mine then back at his face.

"Means that they are doing some illegal business, right?" I'm not stupid, I know what he meant by that. My father was strict but I was not sheltered. I still know about these things.

"Yep. Why? Do you think they don't?" sarcasm filled his words. He's thinking so poorly of me. He thinks I'm stupid not to think about the dark side of life.

"Well, I actually thought about that but I'm still giving them the benefit of the doubt" everyone needs someone who would believe in them, it will make them realize what's wrong so they could finally do what's right. Some people who do bad things was left with no choice but to do bad things.

"So you don't want to be involved in their illegal transactions, that's why you wouldn't want to become a work head? Don't you want to be a work head, a work head that has clean hands" if he refuses to be a Kavan Work Head because they get their hands dirty, then he can just change the dirty system? If he knows it is dirty then it is a good sign.

"No one has clean hands. Some people just wipe off or cover the dirt in their hands. There may be no trace in their hand but their history of cruelty is there. My hands are already dirty but it will get dirtier if I become the work head" No one? Even me? Maybe, I do bad things too, it maybe just a small deed but ut was still bad. I guess everyone who dies has dirty hands. Others may look clean, but sometimes, the cleanest hands hide the most dangerous past.

"You just have to be strong enough to go against the dirty system" how would the dirty system stop if no one would be strong enough to go against it. One just has to have the courage to do it.

"Doing that sounds right but it's hard to actually do it. Its hard to do the wrong things but its even harder to do the right thing. Especially when we are left with no choice but to do the wrong things" in the end, it all depends on what are your choices and your final decision is but I can't help but agree that there really are circumstances that you will be left with no choice, no choice at all. Just like what I kept saying these days.

After a couple of minutes, Caligo decided to finally break the silence.

"Wooh! Break time's over. How about you try to defend this time. Do you want me to take it easy on you?" Gio asked exactly the same thing. They always think that I can not do more than average. They always think so poorly of me.

"If you are an enemy, would you take it easy on me? No, right? So shut up and give it all you've got!" enemies won't ask if I would want them to take it easy on me. That's just ridiculous. Enemies won't care.

"Feisty! I like it!" he smiled as I hissed "Well, I hate you!"

"Hahahaha, you can do counterattacks. Practice is better that way" after saying that, we both prepared our self and started punching and leaning here and there.

The practice was going well, I avoided Caligo's punches and try to manage a counter-attack until Caligo caught my arm and pushed me to the three. This again!