I shoot him a glance. Where exactly was he headed with all these questions? In the end I suppress my rising suspicion and think back to my fight to the Majin. As I remember it’s actions, how it had literally broken the body of the person it was possessing a deep feeling of revulsion rises up within me. I stop my imagination just as my stomach starts to roil. “It made me feel sick. I pitied him. To be honest, it’s kind of unfair. He did nothing wrong; he was possessed, yet to defeat the thing possessing him we had to beat him up while he was also being tortured by it. It’s a bit sickening.”

Kane nods with an understanding expression. “You’re right. It isn’t fair, but there’s no other way.”

“Why? Couldn’t we have just banished it while it was still in him?”

Kane counters. “Isn’t that what you did in the end? The problem isn’t that, the problem is that in scenarios like that, especially when the Fasuru is on par with - or stronger than you, you have no choice but to fight. If you don’t, they’re just going to beat you up. Also, do you think that they’re just going to watch while you try to banish them? No they won’t, and so we have no choice. In that sort of fight it’s beat or be beaten. Here we are.”

We are in front of a small featureless building. Kane pushes open the door to reveal a bare room. He walks in and we file in after him. The girl who had spoken to me earlier snaps her fingers and a bunch of little benches rise from the ground.

Kane settles down on one of the benches and motions for us to do the same. Once again, I take the lead and the rest of my team follow.

“Alright,” Kane begins, “now before you start firing questions, let me first explain what our job is. As Monitors, we are to monitor you guys, obviously. The Pre-protector stage is kind of like a steppingstone to Protector, and you guys should know the most important things Protectors do. Missions. Our goal… job is to slowly show you guys the ropes, how to tackle missions, things to note, all that kind of stuff, while at the same time keeping a close watch on your team. As for what exactly we’re watching your team for, just know this, without our approval, you aren’t going to leave the Pre-protector level. Now, that’s the basic gist. Any questions?”

“How exactly are you going to show us the ropes?” Amelia asks quickly.

Noah begins to answer. “Well, my brother said that they’ll take-”

“Noah,” Kane interrupts, “I’m the one answering the questions here.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

Kane turns to Amelia. “To answer your question, we’ll begin with taking you out on a few missions. Your goal would be to watch how we operate. After we feel you have a grasp on things, we’ll begin letting you take over the missions little by little until you can handle things on your own. At that point you’ll have learnt all you need.”

Han goes next. “How long exactly do we need before we can handle things by ourselves?”

“On average, about a year. But most teams usually need around seven months.”

“How hard are the missions going to be?” Bella asks.

“Not very hard. You are Pre-protectors after all, and most of you are quite weak. No offense. Any other questions?” No one answers and he nods. “Good, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to the main point.”

At this point his expression hardens. “So far,” he begins, “you guys have been coddled by the Order. It’s for your own good, but starting now, that coddling is going to begin to reduce. The world is not as pleasant as you think, and I know you think you know that, but truly you don’t. You don’t understand. And as you start going on these missions, you’ll begin to understand what I mean. Do you remember our creed?”

“We live to protect.” Apart from me, the rest of my team answer in unison. Kane nods.

“That creed wasn’t chosen lightly. The world can be a really dark place sometimes, as you’ll soon come to see, and it’s our job to help reduce the darkness. ‘We live to protect.’ But, like I’ve said before, you won’t really understand until we start. I know right now you might be wondering, why exactly am I warning you against this? It’s simple. To prepare you for what’s to come. It’s rare, very rare, but sometimes mistakes are made when missions are handed out and we come across things that are truly terrible. You need to begin preparing now for the worst.”

He goes silent for a few seconds, seemingly lost in thought. Then Bella asks. “It can’t be that bad, right?”

Kane’s blonde teammate snorts. “Wait until you see a human farm, then you’ll know how bad things can get.”

The other boy on Kane’s team adds. “You don’t even need to go that far. Remember the skinner, yeah, all they need is a Fasuru like that to become scarred for life.”

Kane stares straight at her. “It can get really bad. I mean, you may not have noticed but apart from the fact that other professions are necessary, there’s a reason there are so few Rangers after the Protector stage. Most people saw shit and decided they wanted none of it. To be honest, I expect most of you to do the same, except maybe Ian.”

“Why only Ian?” Amelia asks. “I have what it takes too.”

“Maybe, but Ian’s the only one who has had a taste of what we regularly face, and he doesn’t seem too affected.”

“If I had a Fasuru helping me I could have done the same.” Amelia counters.

“Really?” Kane doesn’t seem too convinced. He then proceeds to describe in gruesome detail the last part of my fight with the Majin, the part where the Majin had decided to break every single bone in that man’s body before continuing to fight. By the time he is done Amelia has gone a little pale. He then asks. “In such a fight, how sure are you that you’ll have the stomach to keep on fighting and not do something silly like throw up on the spot.”

“I would still have been able to fight.” Amelia doesn’t seem ready to give up, yet her voice has gotten a little weaker.

“We’ll see about that. But even then, the hardest times are not when we face a dangerous foe, but when we are presented with a choice. To kill or be killed. Again, it’s rare, and most of the time we generally prefer to avoid killing, but there’s always that possibility. If you are in a situation where you have to kill someone, will you be able to do what is necessary?” He stops and looks at us. “And if you think you can, then I have a small challenge for you. Stab me in the heart.”