A True Hero

28 - Fright Knight

Nicolette

"Keep running!" I called to the troop behind me. Our footsteps thudded in the empty hallway as we ran through. I set the pace in the front, slowing down as my new group of privates needed to while still pushing them to their limits.

"Yes, Sensei Nicolette!" they panted in unison. I laughed and shook my bangs out of my eyes, thankful the rest of my hair was up in a ponytail. We passed a group of Galaxy Soldiers heading to the lobby and I saluted them. They did the same.

I checked my radio. It was 1800. Nearly time for a break.

Since Arthur had become the leader of the GSA, several changes had been implemented to the army. One of them was finally promoting me from a Senmonka to a Sensei in the Ninja Special Forces and starting a tighter training schedule. We all thought that Galacta Knight was demanding; Arthur was much worse.

We woke up every morning at 0500 sharp and went straight into a morning run. After that, we were served a breakfast full of carbs and proteins. The oatmeal we ate was better than whatever mush Galacta Knight fed us, but the taste was only slightly better. Then we did personal workouts for an hour, then group training until 1300, then had lunch at different times according to the division of the army you belonged to. I and the Ninja Special Forces ate lunch last after the Martial Art Forces and the Galaxy Soldiers. The Martial Arts Forces was a new branch of the army; after consulting Amai and The Sage, Arthur decided that we had enough martial artists to start their own branch. Amai was one of their leaders.

After lunch, we had more training, and then we finished the day with a final run and had dinner. As a Sensei, I was in charge of the Ninja Special Forces workouts. Yamikage helped sometimes, but I hadn't seen him in a while. He had told Arthur and me that since the Ninja Special Forces was largely its own branch of the army that worked separately from the Galaxy Soldiers, it was up to him as a Sensei to decide what he should do with himself. He assigned himself missions and never told me where he went, and I couldn't decide if it was good or bad. It was strange behaviour, for he used to be very involved in the GSA. My intuition repeatedly told me to ask Meta Knight about him, as I could sense Meta was hiding something from me, but I never worked up the courage.

Part of sharing a mental power with Meta was that he and I could enter each other's minds no matter the distance or situation, but the person initiating the bonding had to let the other in. That was what my mother had called it when two people started sharing a mind: bonding. And whenever I brought up Yamikage in a conversation with Meta, he would instantly build a mental barrier that I couldn't get through. I had rules as to how far I would go when using my powers, and one of those rules was that I wouldn't enter someone's mind without their permission. Unless my life was threatened or the situation called for it, I refused to do it against their will. Hence, I wouldn't push Meta to give me information that he wasn't ready to give me.

Still, despite the rigorous new training program, Arthur still allowed for socializing during dinner hours and a brief combat hour for those who enjoyed fighting in the ring. Because of his training, I had reached a whole new level of physical strength. I worked out with my regime every day, even though I wasn't required to do the training with my recruits like I did. However, I wanted to do the workouts with them because it encouraged them to know that they weren't doing them alone. My ninjas were also thankful when I joined them in their runs because I always ran five laps around the Enterprise instead of Arthur's standard seven.

Yamikage never trained like this with us, I thought bitterly. My breath became shorter as we finished the fourth lap around the ship. One more lap and our evening run would be done.

Keep it up, I thought to the recruits. Don't think about what you're doing; if you are struggling, focus on your breathing. I looked behind me to see their responses, but they merely blinked and did as I said. They had gotten used to me talking to them telepathically.