~𝒜𝓃 𝒜𝒹𝑒𝓅𝓉𝓊𝓈' 𝐿𝒶𝓈𝓉 𝒲𝒾𝓈𝒽~ (𝒵𝒽𝑜𝓃𝑔𝒸𝒽𝒾)

Chapter 12:Realizations, Transformations, the Meaning of Home Pt 1

Ajax woke up to a glare of sun, shining down on his face.

His head was pounding, hurting from the afterglow of his prior shenanigans the day before no doubt. It felt as if a thousand needles had entered themselves into his head at the very same time, stinging the same spot, until he grew nauseous.

He blinked his tired eyes open and attempted to stand up, only for every muscle in his body to ache and protest against the single movement. He groaned and leaned back down, cursing his life choices.

Great.

He had made an utter fool of himself, yet again in front of his Shizun, Morax. And to top that off, he had managed to overexert himself to the point where he could not even get out of bed.

Now, while Ajax had been under Fatui military training where he was taught self-defense, and how to fight with a weapon. However, during his time in the military, unfortunately for many of the people who had joined it, in dull hopes of bringing enough income to their families or because they wanted the glory and prestige that came along with it. Their higher ranked soldiers that were in charge of teaching the new trainees, were not the exactly the...best...at teaching their classes, and mostly just threw the new soldiers into a fighting pit, telling them that they would hone their fighting abilities that way.

Of course, even at just 14 years old, Ajax knew for a fact, that it was not a good tactic, especially since their was so many trainees hoping to be as good as their fellow upperclassmen, especially not when their higher ranked soldiers were in fact trained personally (most of them at least), by a Fatui Harbinger.

And, while he had been trained to fight that way by Skirk in the beginning. Even she grew to see how erroneous and beastly her ways had been, and quickly began to train with him hands-on. Which entitled many days and nights where she would simply insult him enough for him to get agitated enough that he would willingly attack her, during her bizarre training lessons.

Childe had always thought that she might have felt guilty for having nearly killed him the first day they met; having rebuilt and fortified every bone in his body after breaking them time and time again, after having punctured every single organ in his body, after having spilled half of his blood, and having nearly ripped his stomach wide open with her blades. He thought that her sparring lessons might have been a way for her to repent for her cruel actions, in her own sick way. She wanted to be beaten half to death by Childe, in order to get even with him; though she never admitted to it.

Skirk was a strange master, but, as strange as she was, she was also fair. If Ajax were to get cut by one of her blades, she would allow him to cut him in the very same place as well. And if his arm would get injured, and he would only be allowed to use one arm for the entire fight, she would as well.

She was noble in that way, even as beastly and vile as she might have been.

Unlike the higher ups in the military. Which were nothing but corrupt and vile in their own right. They only did whatever was in their best interest; whether that was worldly desires like sex, drugs, and alcohol, or earning money by trading those same worldly pleasures to some of the other higher ups.

In fact, Tartaglia had seen first-hand just how many higher ups or Harbingers would pick up their favorites from the bunch, and carefully groom them to become weapons or personal servants of their choosing; promising riches, fame, and power....all of which were white lies.

And how the same higher ups that he was told were there to guide him would personally hand their juniors out like a prize to be won to the sick seniors.