Chapter Text
Chapter 2:
8 years later
Lifting his knee and grabbing the broader man’s head the shorter teenager had no problem breaking the nose and smile off of the man’s face. Smaller hands quickly used the larger man’s off kilter momentum to push him face down onto the platform mat below. Using the same knee the younger man pushed it into the small of the larger man’s back, digging into the spleen and wrapped strong arms around the brute neck in a chokehold. The larger man attempted to move his arms in order to grab the person on his back but the knee on his back kept his body in place. He felt as though a snake had wrapped around his body refusing to let go until all the air had left his body. His lungs began to burn and could feel dark spots on the outer edges of his vision.
“Sunflower”, a robotic voice said, it’s voice being sourced from unseen speakers around the arena “You are to report to the cafeteria for briefing”.
The broad man could feel air filling his body as arms loosed around his throat and rose off of his body. Looking up he saw the figure exiting the ring. Feeling vindictive the larger man quickly rose and attempted to throw a left punch to the unsuspecting younger man’s head. Lungs once again left the larger man’s body as his vision was turned upside down, unceremoniously being thrown off of the raised boxing ring and onto the outside floor.
Carmel eyes looked coldly at the man on the floor leaving the boxing ring and pressing his foot into the man’s chest, a warning to how he could leave the other man with cracked ribs to tend to on top of a bruised ego and busted nose.
“God, you’re just like her”, the broader man groaned on the floor accepting his defeat.
The younger man did not respond and simply started making his way out of the practice room.
“When you come back we are going to have a rematch, Sunflower”, the man grinned eyes following the younger man out the room.
Sunflower made his way past white walls and long marble floor to large sliver door. Pressing right hand against the door, he counted two heartbeats as a soft beep announced he was able to enter the room. A large table met the young man with a large chair swiveled around. A dark skinned man with an eyepatch and slight grimace met eyes with Sunflower.
“Our very wealthy investor are worried, Sunflower. Do you know why they are worried?” The man asked.
Since he was not asked to respond Sunflower simply looked straight betraying nothing on his face.
“They are worried because people keep disappearing, not just any people—their people! Wealthy children of wealthier men. Wealthier men who puts their money into our business, which makes the higher ups happy, which makes me happy, which in turn…” the man drawled waiting on Sunflower to finish the sentence.
Sunflower stood staring ahead, used to his boss’s preaching moments.
The dark skinned man started at Sunflower who in turn stared emotionlessly back. After a few minutes of silence the older man broke the silence with a large sigh.
“I swear the only person with a personality around here is that overgrown brute you’ve had no problem treating as a punching back”, the older man said folding his arms, smiling as he saw an amused gleam in Sunflower’s eyes.
“Listen, I know I took over a few years ago and reforms are still being made by the higher ups but the organization wants results with the least amount of government influence. This case needs to be descend and I need the best of the best on it. You’re very competent mentor whose been working this case for three years still does not have a main lead and needs back-up. You know what this means…” the dark skinned man said, his eye as hard as steel.
“This has a private organization’s influence or support”, Sunflower finished for his superior.
The dark skin man nodded his head before giving the younger man a nano-chip. Sunflower knowing the details of the mission could be found inside, slipped it into is black unitard.
“Report to the nurse’s office for immediate extraction,” the man said turning his chair back on the younger man. “This is your graduation, congrats Agent Sunflower”.
The young man controlled his heartbeats and he processed the new information. Graduation to an agent meant solo missions and leaving the academy. He was one of two to survive his class and if deemed competent enough, take over his predecessor’s initial and leave the clutches of the academy into a private organization which granted more liberties. It was trading shackles in for a cage but at least in that cage he would have room to fly. Private organizations that hired personal agents had lower fatality percentages which meant he would have more of a chance to live. Most agents rarely left the academy with kept limbs and unbroken minds but Sunflower was determined to fulfill his dream and live. Although his predecessor Agent R, was without a doubt made of cut glass and a heart of ice, her words of surviving to live ran through his mind of every hardship, every trial, every operation that left him feeling even more detached from his body.
Ending the reminisces in his head, Sunflower— now Agent Sunflower gave a prompt r salute of a right armed fist over his left chest before being excused from the room.
Strong sure steps lead the young man to another pair of steel door that he opened with ease. Women in white unitards and pink face masks looked impassively at the young agent entering the room. A young girl stepped forward with her palm upward. Agent Sunflower deposited the nano-chip into her hand and watched as she placed the chip into a black slot under a flat desk. A digital screen popped up, displaying Agent Sunflower’s undercover persona. Cropped brunette hair, tan skin and an overeager grin flashed onto the screen before being changed with fake certificates of participation, school records and family photos.
The agent read through the screen as pictures of rural town flashed by with him smiling into the frame next to other actors. He remembered taking those photos earlier within the year as the backdrop and clothing teased him of a childhood he would never have. Of fabricated memories and lies within the faces of split smiles or sullen looks of average teenage adolescence. A fake family made up of actors within the lens, hugging him, fake shouting at his antics and celebrations in traditional yukutas.
According to the brief, he was a small town kid from Nagano, with an over enthusiastic attitude, poor grades and naïveté. The perfect cover to be unnoticed and underestimated. His level as a baseball player was noticeably behind as to shy attention away from his origins. Agent Sunflower was expected to get better through his time at the school to quell suspicion.
A small hum could be heard from a tanning bed warming up to his right and he watched the woman who uploaded the brief leave the area to grab a tray brought in by another woman in a white unitard and pink face mask. Agent Sunflower awaited order and thought looking at the screen of the boy he was supposed to become, when he was able to live and break his shackles, he would keep his hair long.