𝐈 𝐂𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐲 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝

𝐬𝐚𝐦

As tough as Zalless wanted to play all of this. When she was alone, preparing for midnight training duty, she wanted to cry. She felt homesick, not from family, but from her friends and the comfort of her home. Here, she's constantly fighting for herself and now she's in that awkward stage of not knowing how to behave. She was brutally humbled, but it's embarrassing to suddenly behave after that. But is it more embarrassing to continue to act the same way that got her humbled in the first place?

She craved sleep, the day was long. Every second of the day was controlled. Watching the other rangers sleep, she envied them. She wanted to slap Winter silly and make her go to Midnight Duty with her, after all she's the one that started the rumble.

But she went alone down to the south gym, getting there at 0000 hrs sharp. She saw the only other life in the room, Mentor Hwang herself, standing in front of the mirror with sharp posture in her uniform as per usual.

"A good start, Ranger Shin. Let's start with stretching and warmups. You have a long night ahead of you." Yeji announced, turning around and leading Ryujin to the mats to stretch and warm up.

Ryujin repeated the same stretching routine that she learned in physical combat training earlier, her body was already sore from that alone.

"I want to apologize for earlier." Mentor Hwang spoke up, "I don't usually give new rangers such a hard time on their first day and it wasn't my intention to embarrass you in front of your team."

Ryujin was amused by her apology but didn't make any kind of annoying comment about it. She appreciated the apology. "I accept your apology. Besides, you had Jaeger sickness anyway." the purple haired one shrugged.

"How do you know about Jaeger sickness already?"

"I have always been interested in this program and the world of Kaiju and Jaegers. I did a research project on it back in middle school. And learned about the state of mind a pilot gets into after a mission depending on its outcome. Glory-trip is when a mission is a complete success, no one was hurt, no lives were lost, and the pilots' heads grow about two times bigger along with their egos. Jaeger sickness can vary in intensity, depending on how bad the mission was. Yes, you succeeded in saving the Philippines, which you told us, but you didn't tell us about the fact that your partner lost their life, and you barely made it out with yours. The Jaeger sickness you had was that you wanted to grieve your partner but couldn't because you're also a mentor. So, you were extra emotional and sensitive yesterday, causing you to act unusual. Right?"

Yeji hid how impressed she was to learn that Ryujin knew so much about this program out of her own curiosity for it.

"Precisely. Whether a pilot is lost in battle is classified until Marshal Kim announces it herself, so how do you know already?"

"I overheard Winter talking about it, her mother must have told her. So, you got a call at the end of our training about your Jaeger, which Jaeger is yours? Lemme guess... Crimson Typhoon? You seem like someone who could handle a three-armed beast like her. But you lost your partner, yet Crimson Typhoon is a three-man ring... then Gypsy? Gypsy is not the most impressive but she's the most well-known and she goes on the most missions. Since your Marshal Kim's upper hand, I would say Gypsy fits you most."

"Crimson Typhoon is nice, but it is a Jaeger much too old for me. And Gypsy is just boring to me. I pilot a Mark 7."

"A Mark 7? Those are the most advanced Jaegers to exist yet, how many even are there?"

Yeji smirked proudly, "Just one. Saber Athena."

Ryujin swooned that the woman piloted her favorite Jaeger. The hot one.