Jack of All Trade

Chapter 19: Preparations

A few weeks have passed since Lawrence got discharged from the hospital and started living with Sauren. Since they didn't want Lawrence's parents to figure out what was happening to them, they made up a lie about Lawrence trying to fix his final requirement. Since the final requirement needed a lot of testing, Lawrence trusted Sauren to let him be the 'test subject' of his work.

Well, you can argue that this was a half-lie since Lawrence did work on his final requirement with Sauren. There were some hiccups like the A.I changing its answers from time to time or the A.I just giving out hate crime sentences directed at Sauren. Sauren didn't take those words as jokes and nearly deleted an important piece of code from the program.

As days grow nearer to the end of their journey, they know that they must train harder and harder for their final battle with their final selves. On a bright sunny day, Lawrence and Sauren came back to the training grounds in Lamanta's entertainment building. They swing the doors open to see Unice, dancing by herself, on the corner. George and Lamanta bickering with each other by the side. Yda kickboxes the dummy, Basil reading off near the door, and Tarren looking at them at the end of the room.

Tarren waves them and runs towards them. "Lawrence, Sauren! How are you guys?"

"I have been doing good! There are barely any scars and I think I can work now!" Lawrence tells Tarren. Tarren smiles at Lawrence and looks at Sauren. Sauren looks at the distance, dazed. Lawrence gives Sauren a tiny nudge and he jumps a bit. Lawrence points his lips to Tarren and Sauren notices Tarren staring at him for an answer.

"Oh, uhhh. I'm also doing fine, yeah." Sauren stutters while answering Tarren. Tarren looks at Sauren, concerned but doesn't press forward.

"Okay! We're just doing our own thing but since you're here Lawrence, we can start by setting up your interface since a lot has changed." Tarren tells Lawrence. Lawrence nods and follows Tarren. Sauren, on the other hand, goes up to Yda and asks her to help him in training. Yda tells Sauren to change and he

For the rest of the day, the entire team was talking and catching up with each other on how they were and if Lawrence is getting better. By the end of the day, everyone is preparing to leave and one by one, they begin to leave the training area. Sauren and Lawrence decided to stay for a bit.

Sauren continues on fighting the dummy and punching it left and right. Lawrence fixes the different windows on his interface but then notices Sauren's rising heart rate. He focuses on Sauren's window to analyze what he is thinking and what he is doing to himself.

On his window, points of pain are differently focused on his hands and his feet. His heart rate is going higher and higher and his thoughts are going haywire but one word comes out, "Promise."

Lawrence quickly runs to Sauren to stop him. He grabs Sauren's hand to see his hand getting redder. He looks at Sauren to see tears rolling down his eyes. Lawrence quickly wipes his tears with his hand. "Why? It's fine. You don't need to push yourself."

"No, it's not!" Sauren shouts at Lawrence. "It's because of me that you got into this situation. It's because of me that you almost got killed. It's because of me-" Lawrence cuts Sauren mid-sentence

"It's fine! You don't need to push yourself to death because of me. I know you love me so much but do not forget you have your own life. Don't revolve it around me, okay? I can handle battles myself." Lawrence tells Sauren. "The promise you told me in high school is still there, yes but I beg you to please not throw away your own life for mine, okay?"

Lawrence cups Saurens face with his hands. Sauren sniffles before wiping his tears and nodding with Lawrence. "Okay."

"Don't be sad, okay? I'm still a beast in the field and the odds will be even higher with the cards Baron gave us." Lawrence pushes Sauren to the nearby bench and lets him sit down. With Sauren sitting down on the bench, Lawrence goes to the first aid kit and gets the bandages to wrap Sauren's hand. Lawrence sits down and begins to wrap his hand.