The Ranch

Central Market (4)

"Haha, have you ever seen Jax work a day in his life?" Instructor Kane mocks.

Jules nods,"You're right, it's be scarier if he start working."

Tih silently listens to the two men with old man hair. His eyes move between Instructor Kane's purely white hair, and Jules gray hair with white strands.

Feeling Tih's stare, the instructor realizes he forgot about Tih. "Hey old man, can you do me a favor and give me this grappling gun? It's not like it'll sell anyways."

"Aren't I already doing you a favor by giving you discounts every time you come here."

Instructor Kane shamelessly laughs at Jules words," Fine, Fine, no discount this time. In exchange, give me this."

Jules stares at the instructor before giving in. He grumbles," Take it."

Instructor Kane then turns to Tih and hands him the palm-sized gun. His shameless behavior continues," You welcome newbie. As thanks, spar with me sometime, okay?"

Tih doesn't like fighting but he was taught not to take things for free, so he nodded his head in agreement.

"Haha. I look forward to it!" The instructor playfully pushes down Tih's cap, covering his eyes.

Tih readjusts his hat before taking his leave. Walking outside, Tih realizes how much time has passed. With only a couple of minutes until their meet-up time, he'll be late at this rate. Not wanting to worry Private Scott once again, Tih decides to run to the meet-up spot. He puts away the free grappling hook before disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Tih reappears at the entrance of the Central Market. He apathetically walk over to the group and stands next to Kai silently. When Kai turns his head, he's met with a suprise. He jumps up like a spooked cat. "Woah, hey, when did you get there? You're really too quiet. You're not a ghost are you?!"

Kai apprehensively stretches out his hand and pinches the baby fat on Tih's cheek. "Nope! Not a ghost. That's good."

Private Scott speaks up at this point," Looks like everyone is here, let's head back to the housing district." He leads the group to jog back to housing district A, heading west and crossing a bridge along the way.

They head into Instructor Jax's office to once again see the man himself sleeping on the couch. Hes awakened by a slap to the face by Private Scott. While the majority of the group tries to catch their breath, Private Scott begins,"The tour is now over and tomorrow you'll be own your own. Although you have basically unlimited freedom, don't think you can do whatever you want. We always get a couple people that don't accomplish anything and become lazy. Do you know what happened to them?" He looks toward the children. They shake their heads in confusion.

"They die. Either by hunger from not being able to afford food, because they didn't get a job, or they die during the tests from lack of ability." Major Jax answers in a lazy tone, like his words were insignificant.

The faces of the children turn dark from his nonchalance. One of the children had a bad memory and embarrassingly raises his hand,"Um, what are the tests again?"

Private Scott patiently answers,"Every month or so, you will be put under a mental and physical test to see how much you've improved and grown while living on the island. You might be made aware of the test beforehand and given certain instructions, or it might happen suddenly without warning, to test your adaptability. Your grades on these aren't that important practically, it's mostly for the higher ups, but we use it as sort of a ranking of how strong soldiers are. That's another reason why combat professions are so popular."

Major Jax interjects,"Ah, you've probably already heard this a few times, but I'll reiterate. Fighting professions are more popular for their brute force. They believe themselves to be the best, though if you told that to the other professions they'd laugh in your face. Hmm, basically everyone has their own pride in their work. Though this doesn't lessen the superiority the fighting student have toward others, a little too arrogant if I do say so myself."

"Look who's talking? A major that doesn't do any work." Private Scott glares at Major Jax. Major Jax put his hands up in surrender, but remains slouched in the couch.

Private Scott ignores him," If you ever need help or advice in the future come look for me. It was nice meeting all of you and Good luck!" He salutes. A clean smile appears upon his plain face before he walks out of the building.