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“Alright, if you are ready, P-01, then let us begin.”
“Yes, sir,” the child chirped, staring at the observation window with large, eager eyes and vibrating with a buzzing, excitable energy that was, frankly, a little disconcerting considering the child’s reason for being there.
“Good. Releasing the first opponent,” the doctor’s voice, slightly distorted from microphone’s feedback, sounded out from the speakers attached to either end of the large room.
P-01 braced himself, his fingers twitching as he felt his magic pooling around them in a faint orange glow that he would swear had been a lighter color before. A moment later, he felt a tingling sensation around his eye sockets and knew that they were now illuminated by the same glow as he kept them trained on the sliding door ahead of him that rose up to reveal…
…A Moldsmal…
One could almost see the child deflate as his magic fizzled out and he cocked his head to the side, eyebrow ridge raised. The small creature slithered idly forward, seemingly unaware of anything that was going on around it and emitting a wet burbling sound as it went. P-01 frowned, ever disgusted by the slimy trail the creatures always left behind them, and took a few steps back to avoid it.
“Is something wrong, P-01?” the doctor’s voice asked from over the speakers, jolting P-01’s attention back to the task in hand.
“Um, no, sir,” he called out, clearing his throat with a nervous cough, “It’s just that, uhh… I thought you said we’d be moving onto something more… challenging?”
“I did, and it only makes sense to warm up first, does it not?”
“I… I guess…”
“Then continue, P-01.”
The child sighed, re-summoning his magic whilst moving further back from the Moldsmal with a disgusted groan as it slowly crept closer to him. With a wave of his hand, a row of sharp, pointed bones materialized above P-01, sharpened edges pointed directly towards the pitiful creature before him. A miniscule flick of the wrist was all it took to send the bones hurtling at the monster, reducing it to nothing but a dust pile before the attack was even over.
Beaming with pride, P-01 turned back to face the observation window, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, hands behind his back, waiting for confirmation.
“Good. You may take one.”
There it was.
P-01 nodded once, bounding over to a bowl placed on a stand in front of the observation window. From the bowl, he took one piece of monster candy, unwrapped it and put it in his mouth, all too aware that every move he made was under the scrutiny of the doctor’s gaze. He didn’t really like being this close to the window, the feeling of exposure always threatened to outweigh the brief pleasure the candy brought him.
Still, he always chose the candy…
Once he’d finished eating, the child returned to his position, secretly glad to put some distance between himself and the window, eyes trained forward.
“Releasing the next opponent.”
P-01 supressed a huff when the door revealed another Moldsmal, its soul still blue from the magic the doctor must have used to drag it into position, but he charged his magic again anyway, this time impaling the creature and turning it to dust without even moving from where he stood.
“Very good, you may take another.”
“Thank you, sir.”
In these situations, even without witnessing the destruction the child was causing, one could easily be forgiven for forgetting that P-01 was only a child of eleven years, his entire demeanor was just downright unsettling. Throughout the entire process, he acted with a sort of casual detachment, as though the task was the most mundane thing imaginable. There was no malice, no sadistic pleasure derived from it, although he certainly enjoyed burning off the excess energy that he wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to do. The child’s eagerness stemmed from his overwhelming desire to prove what a good little soldier he was, to gain the attention no-one else would offer him. It was certainly something that could be used to one’s advantage. The creatures he was destroyed were merely things he’d been ordered to turn to dust, it was simply him following a set of instructions that he’d completed so many times by now that no instruction was really necessary.
Not to say he wasn’t curious when something new was offered.
P-01 watched, enthralled as the little Final Froggit hopped out into the open once the door lifted, its body tensed as it glanced around at its surroundings. Once its eyes landed on the two piles of dust settled on the ground, it let out a horrified croak and its body began to tremble. P-01, meanwhile, had lowered himself into a squat and began to slowly edge closer to the creature on all fours, reaching out and poking it with one extended finger before quickly snatching said finger back, as though afraid it might sting him. Such was the way the child seemed to approach all new situations, curious apprehension seemed appropriate enough anyway, and he was certainly curious about this strange, unknown creature.
The Froggit let out another high-pitched croak and backed away from its pursuer, though that didn’t seem to deter P-01 who just crawled after it, stretching his arm out to prod it again. Backed into a corner, the Froggit pressed itself close to the ground and released a series of bullet attacks from its mouth, hitting P-01 head-on.
P-01 yelped, springing backwards with a growl as a fraction of his HP was drained. Standing up to his full height and rattling his bones in warning, the young skeleton began to summon his magic. The look of genuine confusion on the child’s face spokes volumes; that the opponent might strike against him had never so much as entered his mind. Well, most of his previous enemies had been Moldsmals and Moldbygs, which barely seemed to possess any form of awareness of their surroundings at the best of times, but it wasn’t as though he had never faced anything else. Why he would continue to make such mistakes was a frustrating mystery to the doctor, must he be struck by every enemy before the lesson sank in?
It also appeared that P-01 had become too used to routine, as he attempted to simply repeat his previous method of throwing a row of bones at the Froggit, only to stumble in shock when the little monster hopped out of the way at the last second. Recovering fast, P-01 ducked to the left to evade an onslaught of bullets from the Froggit and rushed forward, summoning several bones to erupt from the ground where the Froggit stood. Croaking in pain, the Froggit managed to jump out of the way before the bone was able to impale it completely, though not without a fair dip in its HP. This time when the Froggit fired its attacks, he was completely prepared, summoning a wall of bones to shield himself and throwing forth another bone attack from behind the Froggit that it barely managed to avoid.
Growling in frustration, P-01 began throwing out wild, haphazard attacks in all directions in a desperate bid to rid himself of his persistent opponent. However, with so many attacks exploding into dust upon making contact with the walls and ground, it became impossible to tell if any made contact with the intended target.
“P-01!” the doctor’s firm tone ground the child to an abrupt halt, hand still poised to summon more attacks, “Perhaps you should try putting some actual thought into your battle strategy instead of wasting your energy with these senseless attacks!”
Shaking and panting with exertion, P-01’s shoulders slumped as though the weight of the words were pressing down on them. The awful feeling building in his chest was only intensified by the fearful croaking that told him the Froggit was still not dusted, just adding insult to injury. He lowered his head and squeezed his eyes shut with a quiet “I’m sorry” that there was no way the doctor could hear.
“Now concentrate and try again.”
P-01 wasn’t sure if he could, it suddenly seemed so difficult to focus. He’d been doing so well for so long and he’d ruined it, ruined it because he was so stupid, he couldn’t even follow instructions right. The doctor must be so angry with him, he must hate him, he’d spent all this time trying to make P-01 better, stronger, and he repaid him by making such a stupid mistake…
Well, he wouldn’t allow himself to mess up again.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, P-01 glared at his enemy, wracking his brains for the best means of taking it out. It was fast, faster than any opponents he’d faced so far, if he wanted to get a hit, he’d need to stop it from moving around so much-
Realization hit him like a ton of bricks and P-01 felt his face burn in shame. It was obvious, so obvious what he should have done. With a flick of the wrist, the Froggit’s soul turned blue and it let out a strangled croak under the sudden weight. P-01 paused, swallowing the lump in his throat, waiting to see if he would receive any sort of reprimand. When he didn’t, he pulled the soul closer to him, setting up several sharpened bones in the air behind him, and sent them flying at the panicked little creature. A deafening cacophony of crashes and bones scraping against concrete followed, sending clouds of dust and rubble into the air. Amongst the noise was a brief horrible shriek that stopped almost as soon as it started.
P-01 held his breath, fighting the jittering sensation running through his frame. “Please be gone, please be gone, don’t be there, please, please..!” To his immense relief, when the rubble and dust settled, there was no monster stood shaking before him, instead it was replaced by another pile of dust.
The young skeleton released his breath, staring down at the monster’s remains. Was he supposed to feel happy now? He’d managed to figure it out, but… but for some reason, he felt as though something in his chest was weighing him down that he couldn't shake off, like his own soul had been turned blue. It wasn’t a nice feeling, it meant he had messed up and if he messed up then… well, he didn’t really deserve to be rewarded, did he?
“It seems your LOVE has now risen to LV. 4.”
“Huh?” P-01 raised his head, confusion written all over his face, “It has?”
“Yes, I suppose, despite your little setback just now,” P-01 cringed at the words, ducking his head back in again as though they’d physically hurt him, “you are making improvements.”
“I am? O-Oh! Uhh, thank you, sir…”
“Yes, well done, P-01.”
The effect of the praise was instantaneous and the corners of the child’s mouth tugged upwards despite himself. Nervously playing with his fingers, P-01 opened his mouth to speak, only to close it a moment later with a click before trying again, “Um… Doctor? What does that mean exactly? Why is it a good thing?”
“Because it means that you are becoming stronger.”
“Oh! Uhh, that’s good!”
“It is. It means that you are progressing well.”
“Oh.”
“You may now take another piece, P-01.”
“Wha-? But I- I mean, I didn’t… R-Really, sir?” P-01 eyes widened, disbelieving of what he was hearing. Why on earth would he be rewarded for such a stupid mistake? Surely he had misunderstood the doctor’s words. He only got a piece of candy when he turned the monster to dust and, whilst he had eventually done just that, it was clearly not to the doctor’s standards, so why..?
“Despite your performance, you achieving another Level cannot be ignored, nor will it be. However, be sure not to make the same careless mistakes in the future, understood?”
“Y-Yes, sir, thank you, sir!” P-01 beamed, his usual smile plastered to his face as he ran back to the stand and chose another piece of candy. He’d been forgiven! Even when he messed up, the doctor wasn’t mad at him, had even let him have another piece! He didn’t deserve another piece, didn’t really understand why he was being given one. All he knew was that he was now LV. 4 and that was apparently a good thing.
“We will continue with this tomorrow, P-01, wait there.”
“Yes, sir.”
Doctor Gaster turned his attention to writing up the performance notes for the session in the old, dying language of Hands whilst the child waited, hands folded neatly in front of himself. It was quite impressive really, P-01 had been made to follow orders and honestly, the kid was good at it. He did not need to know anything but his current instructions. His knowledge was carefully controlled and monitored, after all, there was no need for him to gain too much lest he begin asking questions that could compromise the overall plan. P-01 was a very accepting creature and incredibly naive; if any questions did arise, he was usually satisfied with whatever carefully guarded answer Doctor Gaster gave him. He did not seem to think to question things, lacked a critical mind. If only the same applied to a certain younger experiment. Even at such a young age, S-01 demonstrated a precociousness that could very well prove to be problematic in the future, particularly if it brought certain things to P-01’s attention. That would have to be dealt with eventually.
But, until then,
“Turn the monster to dust for a piece of candy.”
(“Do monsters like being dust?”)
Of course, the child had been trained to only consider the present, with only the vaguest, most nondescript idea of the future that he was being molded for. His mental image of the world only extended as far as the lab, littered with only the most basic information of a world outside of the one he knew, and then an even larger one outside of that. With such information came the noncommittal promise that that world would be opened up to him “When you are ready”, “One day”, “Eventually”, “Not yet”. If talk of “the future” did arise, it only stretched as far as far as the immediate future, the foreseeable future. He simply didn’t need to know about what would happen beyond the current week, and honestly Doctor Gaster himself found it far more manageable to simply plan for the next month or so and take each day as it came.
Not the best method maybe, but well, plans always changed in the end anyway…
“Doctor Gaster, sir?” The little, hesitant voice piped up and the doctor turned his attention back to the child stood before the window wringing his hands, who seemed to have suddenly become interested in the floor as that was where his eyes remained fixed.
“What is it, P-01?”
“Well, erm, I was wondering if perhaps… umm,” P-01 furrowed his eyebrow ridges, his attention solely focused on getting his words out. Taking a moment to recollect himself, the child finally looked up, eyes now fixed on the doctor, “May I please take another piece back with me… for… for my brother?”
Problematic indeed…
The thing that was most bothersome? - The doctor knew that, if given the candy, the child fully intended to give it to the younger child he insisted on referring to as his brother. There was no doubt in his mind; P-01 would not lie in order to gain more candy for himself like one would expect him to do even if circumstances were different and he had been raised as an ordinary monster child. Not that P-01 would be capable of such an act of dishonesty anyway, the child wore his heart on his sleeve, so to speak, and couldn’t seem to grasp the idea that someone might be trying to deceive him. It wouldn’t be difficult to detect any attempted manipulation from him.
Doctor Gaster sighed, making a deal of taking off his glasses and cleaning the lenses on his lab coat while P-01 waited, patient as ever, but with an increasing amount of doubt creeping into his features the longer the silence dragged on.
Finally, the doctor replaced his glasses, staring steadfast at the child, “S-01 has not done anything to deserve a reward, has he?”
“Huh? Well, uhh-“
“S-01 was not part of this training session, he did not contribute to your count in any way, did he?”
“Well… n-no, he didn’t, but-“
“You should know by now how this works, P-01, you will receive a reward when you correctly follow orders.”
“Yes, but..! I, uhh, it’s just… you never seem to give Brother these sort of training sessions, s-so I just thought maybe…”
“P-01, you should not worry about what S-01 gets. Think of it this way; you enjoy being rewarded, don’t you?” P-01 nodded. “If you had to share those rewards with S-01, you would then receive less, which is less beneficial to you. Understand?”
“I…” P-01 stared back down at his feet, voice uncharacteristically quiet, “I guess so…”
“Very good, perhaps your comprehension is improving after all,” the doctor mused, standing up from his seat and beginning to organize the now completed notes on his table. Once he had collected them all, he moved from the little room out into the arena where he observed the child still stood staring at the ground with his fists now balled at his sides.
“Come along, P-01,” he commanded, sweeping from the room without so much as a backwards glance at the child. Not that he needed to anyway; P-01 followed, dutiful as always, exactly three steps behind,
Only, this time with an extra piece of candy concealed in his still balled-up fist.
“There is more than enough to share between two people,” the little experiment thought to himself, picking up his pace as he struggled to keep up with his creator, “Besides, if Brother doesn’t deserve to have one, then I don’t either…”