It was 6:00 am, and the sun still hid behind the horizon in its long slumber. At the school track, Navier hobbled through lap after lap.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Joan shouted at him from across the track. She leisurely sat on the overgrown grass, eating the breakfast she had gotten from the sausage stand across the street. "Keep on going! Stop dragging your feet!"
Navier wheezed in response. His legs seemed to have an extra ten pounds of lactic acid weighing them down, and he could hardly lift his legs. He hadn't expected Rem's training to be this brutal.
He had lost track of how many laps he had ran at this point, and when he reached the spot where Joan was seated, he collapsed in a fit of wheezes and gasps.
"I've run so much, already," Navier wheezed, his glasses slipping down his sweaty nose.
Baffled, Joan scoffed, "What are you talking about? You haven't even run a mile yet. One more lap."
Exhausted, Navier shakily made his way to his feet and stumbled through another lap.
As he ran, Joan asked PK, "So what's my next mission?"
Ideally, she would like some extra cash to pad her pockets.
"I don't have one for you right now," PK shook its head.
"Hah? Don't you have one? What do you mean you don't have one?" Joan shoved the last bit of Youtiao into her mouth. "Ah, you're so useless."
"Who are you calling useless? All you've been doing is eating, eating, and eating. Your stomach is a bottomless pit. It's a miracle you're not obese," PK harrumphed.
Joan's jaw dropped at his rude remarks. The rodent sure had a harsh tongue.
"Close your mouth. You look like a pig. And you even eat like a pig," PK spat.
Joan swatted its mouse-like form, but her hand passed right through it. Frowning, she turned back to watch the struggling Navier, who's incompetence made her feel a little better about herself.
***
"Rem, have you heard of Mortal Strike? Wow, it looks like such a fun game!" Navier babbled as he walked with Joan to school. "I think you'd be good at it. What do you think? Want to play? I heard some arcades have some modules."
Joan wanted to slam her head into a brick wall. The guy really never shut up, did he? Her first impression of him was that he was a quiet, shy bookworm. Who knew he'd be such a loudmouth?
She hummed at each break in his rambling, feigning interest. Truthfully, she couldn't care less about Mortal Strike. It was a virtual combat game that was popular for a few years, but fell off after a more popular game, Mortal Sniper, came onto the market.
As they walked to school, a large handful of students wearing the M High School uniform gave them curious glances. Was that Navier? Since when had he gotten a friend?
Hushed whispers circulated friend groups. Navier was ostracized at M High School for a good reason. Anyone who associated with him would, without a doubt, be targeted by the Grimm Bros. Any reasonably intelligent person would stay away from the walking magnet that attracted trouble.
As the duo neared M High School, Navier suddenly stopped in his tracks. Joan, whose mind was fantasizing about money, didn't notice his absence until she had nearly reached the door.
She turned in a circle, wondering where her loyal dog had gone and denated whether his absence was a good or bad thing. She spotted him a few step backs.
Navier fidgeted where he stood, glancing at the door and then back at his shoes that remained glued to the ground.
Joan followed his worrisome gaze to the door. In front of it stood the Grimm Bros, whom she learned were Viktor, Pablo, and Turner from Navier.
They weren't biological brothers, but they shared the same last name. Viktor was the gruffest of the bunch. His black uniform hugged his dense muscles, but he was remarkably short compared to the other two. He came to be just a few inches shorter than Joan, who was by no means a giant.
Turner was the most feminine of the three. He looked like he was plucked off of a billboard with his dewy skin, full lips, and doe eyes. Joan couldn't help but wonder how anyone could be scared of such a guy.
Finally, there was Pablo. His looks were average, and nothing particularly stood out about him. Joan figured he was part of the Grimm Bros just so that they could have three people that had the same last name.
The three boys looked expectantly at Joan, and she was curious as to what they were up to. She walked back to Navier, pulled his sleeve, and confronted the Grimm Bros.
"What do you want? Want me to rip out your eyebrow piercing this time?"
Viktor visibly flinched and glanced at his two friends. "3… 2… 1…"
At his countdown, the three suddenly dropped to their knees and slammed their heads on the concrete pavement.
"Yah, what are they doing? Are they all courting the new girl?" a passing boy whispered to his friend. "She's not even pretty, haha!"
Joan clenched her fist.
"Master Rem! Please accept us as your disciples!"
"Huh? No." Without waiting for a response, she strode into the building and sped-walk to class, ignoring the calls of "Master! Master!" that chased her.
"Master, wait!" Turner called.
Ah, please just leave me alone, Joan thought to herself. She wanted to avoid any and all unnecessary trouble. Her sole goal was to get Navier to Tsinghua, wait until he made his first superhuman, and then eliminate him.
***
The Grimm Bros relentless pestering didn't cease even during the school hours. In between every class was a ten-minute break, and the three boys utilized this time to the fullest, following Joan around like Navier 2.0's.
"Master!" Pablo rushed up to her. His dewy skin reflected the fluorescent lights into Joan's eyes, and she cringed away in response.
"Ah, period pains. Sorry, I need to go to the bathroom." Joan stood up, the metal legs of her chair screeching against the floor. At a near sprint, she rushed to the bathroom and slammed the stall door behind her.
"Rem!" Pablo called.
Oh my God. What was this psycho?
"Do you need a new pad? Tampon? I can get it for you!" he shrieked into the girl's bathroom.
Joan's cheeks flushed in embarrassment. She desperately wanted to shriek. Was this their way of taking revenge on her?
The tormenting continued even into her precious lunch break. Exasperated, Joan sprinted out as far as she could and found herself at the back of the school building.
She slid down the wall, experiencing a rare sense of peace. Happily, she pulled out the congee she had bought from the Youtiao stand and slipped the warm liquid down her throat.
Ah, peace. At last.
But her peace was short-lived when three boys interrupted her lunch. Joan had no clue as to who they were and decided to ignore them.
"Oh? Who's this? Yah, Mad Dog, ain't she a little cutie?" Jackal snickered.
Mad Dog scoffed, "Cute? Man, your taste in chicks is trash."
Joan's congee sourly slipped down her throat. What was it with people calling her ugly today?
Jackal strode up to Joan and squatted down in front of her. His clammy palms caressed her cheek, and he leaned his face into hers. "What's your name?"
Joan frowned. She tipped her styrofoam bowl of congee forward, spilling its contents onto the boy's black uniform. The congealed fluid dribbled down the front of his jacket like melting snow.
"Fuck! What the hell?" Jackal cursed, slapping the bowl out of her hands. The bowl landed to her far right.
Joan's eyes darkened. First, the Grimm Bros and now this bastard. She still had so much congee left! She was nowhere near done with her lunch!
Jackal gripped Joan's chin, squeezing her cheeks, making her lips part. "Bitch!" he cursed and spat into her parted lips.
Upon feeling the foreign liquid enter her mouth, she raised her hand and slapped his cheek. The nerve of this guy!
Her hit threw Jackal off his feet, and he fell over from his squatting position. Groaning, he held his red cheek in his hand and spat out a clot of blood. When she slapped him, he had bit his cheek on accident.
"Don't touch me," she seethed, standing up and walking off.
Jackal stared at her retreating form with interest. Did that girl not know who they were? Well, she won't be clueless for long, Jackal thought to himself.