𝐈 𝐂𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐲 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝

𝐎

Sparring was a new talent of Ryujin's. She had always been able to hold herself in a fight, but she thought she would suffer in sparring since there was a stick and rules involved. But she's whipped through nearly every ranger.

Of course, there was the team of rangers that were total assholes, you would think given the history of the people on Ryujin's team, they would be the assholes. But no. This team was arrogant, full of kids who have gotten everything they wanted through completely wicked methods.

It was against their team leader, Aisha, when Ryujin was completely owned. Outperformed in combat IQ, height, weight, and muscle. Aisha was not nice about her victories either. Every other match would end with a handshake, Aisha only scoffed and turned to walk back to her squad.

Ryujin wasn't scared of her, she may be all that, but she severely lacks the humble attitude needed to be a pilot. She won't make it far.

The purple haired one laid on the mats, embarrassed from her loss. She sat up and eyed her mentor who nodded at her to tell her she did well and shouldn't be ashamed of one single fail. Then the next person she saw surprised her, with the other three following behind her, Winter walked up to Ryujin and held her hand out to help her up from the floor.

"Losses mean nothing when wins are the events that get all the glory." Winter spoke. Yeji smiled at the interaction.

"Those are my girls." She mumbled to herself proudly.

Ryujin took Winter's hand and let the other help her up.

"You did great, Ranger." Winter added, patting Ryujin on the back as she grabbed her stick and prepared to spar whoever was next.

"Thank you, Ranger." Ryujin added before her team left the mat. She smiled to herself, a new feeling entering her system. The feeling of belonging.

Mentor Hwang was right, they really do have my back. She thought to herself.

At the end of the workday, while everyone was preparing for bed and before Ryujin was preparing for Midnight Training, the girls all began talking to one another. They opened up about their own stories, Winter implied that it was only because Mentor Hwang told them they'd have to do it in order to pass onto the next rank.

"I guess as the leader, I'll go first." Winter spoke up as everyone faced each other sitting on their own twin sized beds that were neatly made. "I was born into this program. While my mom was on missions, saving the world, other officials were keeping me from peeing on the walls. At first, I loved growing up here. I didn't have to deal with snobby kids at school or boring subjects. I was safer here from the Kaiju than anywhere else in the world and had a mother who spent every second of her free time with me.

But as I grew up, I realized that life here isn't as fun as I thought. As I got older, I was starting to be held up all these expectations. Everyone kind of just decided that I'd be a pilot and then a Marshal like my mom for me. It was around the age of 14, I had to start training, but I wasn't in the program yet. And then years later I enter the program and get to jump all the way up to rank 5. I was proud of myself until I realized that people would never see my achievements as 'Winter's Achievements'. It's always the 'Marshal's daughter accomplishes this', or the 'Marshal's daughter makes a mess of this, how embarrassing!' It's more so the second option.

And today I just realized that to my mom, I'll always be less than zero. Every time she looks at me, I can sense her critiquing something about me. It felt like I lost my mother when I realized this, it turned me bitter and I lost all respect for any of my peers who did have parents, or just in general. I wanted to act the opposite to how my mother wanted me to just for some individuality. And even now, I'm still figuring out who I am and if I even want to stay in the program."