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"Hello, twelve..."
It was the day twelve-year-old Tommee received her very first Supporter uniform!
She slipped it on with trembling excitement and stared at herself in the mirror, completely awestruck.
It fit perfectly!
For a moment, she thought she might actually cry.
‘it looks amazing…’
Unable to stop smiling, she gave herself a little twirl, watching the fabric spin around her before she rushed over and threw her arms around Semiu in a tight hug, too overwhelmed with happiness to find the right words.
"Hello, thirteen."
It was the day Enjin received his very first mission as a Cleaner.
At just thirteen years old, he stood face-to-face with a trash beast for the first time. His heart hammered against his ribs, but he refused to look away. Instead, he locked eyes with the creature, gripping his weapon just a little tighter.
‘This was it.’
No more watching from the sidelines, for him.
"Hello, love..."
It was Eishia's very first day treating a patient at Cleaner Headquarters. To her surprise, that patient turned out to be Corvus.
The moment he walked into the infirmary, her heart nearly stopped. For a split second, she was certain she'd already done something terribly wrong.
Instead, Corvus calmly held out his hand.
He had...
…A paper cut?
Eishia blinked in confusion.
Surely, he just wanted a bandage?
When she reached for one, Corvus shook his head.
"No. I want to see your ability firsthand."
Eishia swallowed nervously.
A paper cut?
That was what he wanted her to heal? Her hands trembled ever so slightly as she looked from the tiny cut back to Corvus.
"Changes, oh!"
It was Follo's first day as a Support Cleaner.
It felt... strange.
Not long ago, he'd been the kid collecting photo cards, chasing signatures, and idolizing the very people he now stood beside.
He'd admired them since he was barely old enough to understand what a Cleaner even was.
Now they were his coworkers.
Follo scratched the back of his neck, still trying to wrap his head around it.
The biggest surprise, though, wasn't working alongside his childhood heroes.
It was the children.
They looked at him with the same wide-eyed excitement he used to have whenever a Cleaner came to town. They shouted his name, pointed when they thought he wasn't looking, and clutched his photo cards with stars in their eyes.
For a moment, Follo just stood there, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
Things really hadn't changed..
"Down below..."
Tamsy stared down from the great sphere, his gaze drifting far down to the endless abyss below.
The Pit.
He sat quietly beside an unnamed man, who cradled an infant wrapped snugly in a beautifully stitched blanket.
For a small moment, a thought crossed Tamsy's mind.
‘I could just push him..’
It wasn't anger or even hatred.
Just boredom..
He imagined the man tumbling into the darkness below, disappearing into the abyss as if he'd never existed. His hand almost twitched. Then...
He noticed the baby.
Soft white hair faded into gray at the tips, framing a tiny face with impossibly large red, doe-like eyes.
The infant blinked up at him in complete innocence.
Tamsy hummed to himself, the corners of his lips curling into a faint smile as his attention shifted entirely away from the man.
"...Well."
He leaned in ever so slightly, studying it with quiet amusement instead.
"Up above...!"
Tommee tilted her head toward the sky, watching warm orange hues stretch across the horizon.
Gris had told her to wait outside while he stepped into the bar for "just a minute." She didn't mind. The fresh air felt nice.
Instead of watching the streets, her eyes wandered upward, searching for something she'd only ever heard about in stories.
The Sphere.
For a long moment, she simply stared.
It was real.
Far larger than she'd ever imagined.
A quiet smile spread across her face as the light reflected in her eyes. She'd grown up hearing countless tales about the great structure hanging above the world, but no story had ever done it justice.
"...So that's the Sphere."
She couldn't look away. Even knowing Gris would be back soon, she found herself completely captivated, wondering what life was like all the way up there.
"Time to doubt..."
The moment Amo spotted the group of Cleaners approaching, she let out a quiet scoff. Her eyes rolled as she leaned back, looking them over one by one. It was almost amusing. A crooked smirk tugged at the corner of her lips. She couldn't help but snicker under her breath.
They had no idea what was waiting for them.
Watching them walk closer, Amo folded her arms, the smile on her face widening just a little.
“To break out!”
Rudo moved fast, already getting into action. His first real huge mission. The Doll Festival. His big break… at least that’s what Tamsy had called it.
Rudo figured it was just hype. A way to pump him up before sending him in.
Annoyingly, it was working.
He could feel the embarrassment creeping in even as his energy spiked. Still, he kept stretching like Zanka had told him to before the festival. Simple stuff, it was a warmup!
He hadn’t expected anything serious to happen here. It was a doll festival, for crying out loud.
But somehow, things always went wrong anyway.
He exhaled through his nose, rolling his shoulders back. Part of him wanted to complain about how overly cautious he was, always acting like trouble was waiting around every corner.
Still, he swallowed it down.
Zanka was his "superior", after all. And even if it got on his nerves, Rudo didn’t feel like picking that fight right now.
“Goodbye twelve!”
“Goodbye thirteen!”
“Hello love…”
"Gris Rubio... Gris Rubio... Oh my God, Gris Rubio?!"
Fourteen-year-old Follo could barely get the name out without repeating it.
Team Support had come to his town, and standing among them was the one Cleaner he'd only ever seen in magazines and on collector cards.
Gris Rubio!?
He was in his mid-twenties, and somehow even more handsome in person.
Looking at him made Follo feel... weird.
Before he knew it, he'd ducked behind Alan, using him as a shield while Alan confidently stepped forward to ask for an autograph.
Meanwhile, Follo's face burned bright red.
He peeked around Alan's shoulder for only a second before hiding again, completely flustered by his brand-new celebrity crush. He couldn't even bring himself to say hello.
...Oh!
Down below
Up above…!
"Playing doctor with Eishia."
Corvus sipped his tea as he patiently waited for Eishia to work her magic on the tiny cut across his finger.
The wound itself wasn't important. He simply wanted to know what her healing ability actually felt like so he could better prepare new Cleaners for it if they ever needed her.
He expected it to not hurt. Especially with such a small injury.
Eishia carefully reached for his hand, trying her best to steady her nerves before using her ability.
The instant her healing activated, a sharp jolt shot through Corvus like a bolt of electricity.
His hand twitched. Without saying a word, he calmly set his teacup down before he accidentally spilled it.
Across from him, Eishia immediately realized what had happened. She'd been so nervous that she'd used far more power than the tiny wound had needed.
“La la la!"
Rudo had planned what he thought was the perfect birthday surprise for Enjin. Team Akuta had even baked him a cake.
Well...
"Baked" was a generous word.
It was made with some... rather questionable ingredients.
Fortunately, Eishia was on the team. If everyone came down with severe stomach cramps… or, more realistically, food poisoning! She could just heal them afterward.
Problem solved!
After a great deal of convincing, they even managed to get Zanka to wear one of the little party hats.
The group quietly gathered outside Enjin's door, cake in hand. Rudo carefully counted them in with his fingers.
Three… Two… One...
"Surprise!!"
The door burst open as the entire team rushed into Enjin's room.
Then…
Silence.
"..."
Zanka was the first to shriek. His face had gone bright red as he immediately clamped both hands over Rudo's eyes. Rudo yelped in confusion, dropping the birthday cake onto the floor with a splat. Riyo's eyes widened ever so slightly, her usually unreadable expression finally cracking.
Nobody had expected...
...this.
The room fell into stunned, horrified silence as everyone collectively questioned why they hadn't knocked first.
“ ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ were doing it.”
“Goodbye twelve!”
“Goodbye thirteen!”
“Hello love!”
August, around nine years old, was busy tearing through the house the moment he got back from hip-hop class. The place was already a mess, and somehow he'd managed to make it even worse.
The doorbell rang.
He bolted for the door and threw it open, immediately lighting up at the sight of his grandmother, who looked much younger than she did in the present day.
"Gran'ma!"
He was already trying to climb all over her when his mother smacked him lightly across the back of the head.
"Why do I pay for all those lessons?!" she scolded.
August huffed, rubbing the sore spot and sticking his tongue out at her.
"Dance for Gran'ma!"
His face immediately flushed with embarrassment. His mother folded her arms, completely unfazed.
"Dance for Gran'ma!"
August let out the most dramatic sigh he could manage, knowing full well she wasn't going to let him escape it.
Follo was only around ten at the time, but he never missed a chance to watch the younger Cleaners in action. Becoming a Cleaner had been his dream for as long as he could remember. Whenever they came through town, he and Alan would race over to watch them fight, then chase after them afterward, hoping to collect a signature or two.
Most of the time, though, they had no luck.
The Cleaners were all in their early twenties, more interested in showing off, joking around, and flirting with women than paying attention to a couple of kids.
"My God, that girl is really sexy!"
Follo pointed excitedly at one of the newest Cleaners. The man had long blond hair streaked with blue highlights, and his soft, feminine features were so delicate that Follo had mistaken him for a girl at first.
"Enjin's out!"
Follo stuck out his tongue toward the twenty-year-old Cleaner, who was lazily picking his nose from across the street.
"Tamsy Caine's in!"
Follo grinned and bumped fists with Alan before proudly holding up the new photo card of the latest Cleaner. Without a second thought, he tossed his old Enjin card aside, completely won over by the newest addition to the team.
Soon, a much younger Jabber came into view, no older than twelve, his locs still cropped short. He looked up at the twenty-something Cthoni, then down at the assignment spread across the table in front of him. His face fell for a brief moment before a sly smile slowly crept across it.
Maybe...
Just maybe...
If he played the cute puppy card, Cthoni would let him skip out and take him to the doll festival instead.
Unfortunately for him, she saw right through it.
Without even looking up, she tapped the paper with a finger.
"You cannot go to the movies until you finish your homework."
Jabber let out the most exaggerated groan imaginable, his shoulders slumping dramatically as he flopped over the table, already searching for another way to get out of it.
Corvus smiled, though thirteen-year-old Enjin could tell he was thoroughly annoyed beneath the expression.
"Stop pickin' your nose,"
he said, the corners of his lips twitching upward ever so slightly as he watched the boy casually wipe the evidence onto the furniture belonging to Cleaner Headquarters.
Enjin didn't seem the least bit ashamed. He glanced at the smear, then back at Corvus, as if he couldn't quite understand what the problem was. Corvus simply sighed, already wondering how someone could be so effortlessly disgusting.
Semiu had caught fourteen-year-old Riyo quietly digging through her wardrobe.
She wasn't upset.
If anything, the look on Riyo's face made her smile. There was the faintest flicker of surprise, followed by the tiniest hint of a blush. It was almost adorable. Ever since the Cleaners had rescued her from being executed by the Hell Guards, Riyo had been nearly impossible to read. She had been brought back to Cleaner Headquarters, but she was still learning how to live a semi-normal life.
"Oh, darling, you're not old enough to wear a bra,"
Semiu said gently, carefully taking the undergarment from Riyo's hands. She gave the girl's head a soft pat.
"You've got nothing to hold it up yet."
Semiu winced inwardly at her own wording, unable to think of a more graceful way to explain it. Riyo simply stared back at her, expression nearly blank once again, as she silently processed what she'd just been told.
Fifteen-year-old Zanka had already tried the bathroom door several times, but it refused to budge.
He and seventeen-year-old Follo had only come in to wash their hands, but before Zanka realized what was happening, Follo had locked the door because he needed to use the bathroom.
Zanka, of course, wasn't about to stand there and watch.
Thinking the door was simply stuck, he kept jiggling the handle and trying to open it over and over. It wasn't until he heard the unmistakable sound of liquid splashing behind him that he froze.
His face turned bright red. "..." He stared at the door in horrified silence.
"Locked in the bathroom with Follo..."
It was, without question, one of the longest twenty minutes of Zanka's life.
Sixteen-year-old Tommee had somehow gotten her hands on one of Semiu's rather... questionable magazines.
At first, she'd only been curious. The women inside looked so glamorous, posing confidently on every page. But the longer she stared, the more she noticed they all had one thing she didn't.
A larger chest.
By the end of the day, Tommee had gone from curious to painfully self-conscious. She spent hours searching for every ridiculous trick she could think of, hoping there was some secret method she'd somehow missed.
None of them worked.
Standing in front of the mirror, she glanced down at herself before looking back at the women on the magazine page.
“Tits! ….When am I gonna grow tits?”
She let out a defeated groan, flopping dramatically onto her bed with the magazine still in hand, convinced the universe was taking far too long.
Seventeen-year-old Fu sat alone atop a pile of trash in the freezing cold, hugging his knees to his chest.
The team had left him behind.. Again. At least... that's what he believed.
Sniffling quietly, he curled up against the surprisingly warm pile of refuse, burying his face as tears and snot soaked into his sleeve. He kept telling himself they'd come back.
They had to.
Clutched tightly against his chest was Hii in his doll form, the only comfort he had.
For a while, there was only silence. Then Hii's deep voice echoed through his mind.
"...If Zanka Nijiku could become a Cleaner..."
Fu looked down at the doll, his grip tightening. Hii let out a long, weary sigh before finishing his thought.
"...Then you can become a Cleaner too."
Fu blinked.
It wasn't exactly the comforting speech he'd expected, but hearing those words from Hii was enough to make him cling to the doll a little tighter, holding onto that tiny bit of hope.