Bloody, Brawling Business CH11

 

“I’m glad you and Newton have found common ground,” said Yara.

  “Yeah, something’s seemed to click after his visit with Davilios. He definitely knows more than I’ve told him,” Tiro said. “And more than he’s telling me.” Tiro raised his voice. “Keep going Ghom! There’s no way that is your limit! To your limit Ghom! To your limit!”

  Yara and Tiro watched over Newton and Ghom, making sure they completed Tiro’s fitness program to the T.

  “I just hope Ghom learns a thing or two from Newton,” said Yara.

 “Hmm,” Tiro agreed. “He needs to care less about what everyone else thinks and take what he wants.”

  Newton was almost finished. He was out of breath, on his last set of pushups, watching Siv outpace Ghom who was five exercises behind, still running. It made him chuckle, ruining his breathing pattern and focus, and making the last stretch of his exercise hell to endure. 

  He finished and looked up at Tiro who gave him an approving nod. Tiro had told them that an increase of physical activity was likely to catalyse the discovery of their blood traits. Ghom, who refused the possibility of having received one, followed along with reluctance while Newton, who was determined to catch the skeleton thief, obeyed Tiro willingly.

  “If I’m going to have you around for the investigation, you’ll need to be able to keep yourself safe, that means being able to defend yourself, being able to sense danger, and obeying all of my orders.” That’s what Tiro had told Newt.

  Yara rested her head on Tiro’s shoulder while she watched Ghom struggle.

  “I’ll take him home,” said Tiro as Newton approached. He shouted out to the field, “Keep him working Siv!”

  Yara retracted her head and glared at him.

  “Sorry,” He apologised before kissing her forehead. He departed with Newton who took a last glance behind him at the field as they walked off. 

  Ghom started to slow down and Siv went behind him and started pushing into him. “Mooooovvvveee,” she said, straining. When that didn't work, she started punching into his back.

  “Cut it out,” said Ghom, but she retaliated with a song, mocking him.

  ‘Go Siv’, Newton cheered her on inside his head. A slight feeling of amusement fought its way inside him. It shocked him and it hurt to pull it out, but he did.

Newton followed Tiro back to Ghom’s place while Yara stayed back to watch over her siblings. To Newton’s relief, it was cool when they entered the house. Tiro made his way into the kitchen and Newton followed, entering the dark stone room after him. 

  Tiro grabbed a long stick off the wall and used it to push open a hatch in the roof, after which light flooded the room. At the center was a firepit, above which was a black skull, similar to the one at the bgrega stand though it was smaller.

  “What’s the matter?” Tiro asked as he began to light the fire pit. 

  “I just want to know how the investigation is going,” said Newton.

  “Not very good,” said Tiro. “I’ve been interviewing all the potential suspects I could, but I’ve gotten nowhere. Most of them I still haven't ruled out as possibilities and there’s so many of them that it will probably take me months to get through them all.”

  “I can help,” said Newton.

  “Thanks, but you can’t. How are you supposed to analyse and judge people in a context that you’re still new to?”

  “Why don’t you get others to help?”

  “I have many people helping me out, but in the end it’s still my one brain trying to make decisions based on the information those people are gathering.”

  Tiro lit the fire and stood. “Go get some rest,” he said. “We’ll go and meet your first trainer this afternoon.

  Tiro had organised self defence lessons for Newton and Ghom under multiple different trainers because, as he said, “You will face threats in many different forms, coming for you from different angles. I want you to be prepared for anything.” His idea was that they’d learn from multiple skill sets and gain a wider array of useful defensive options.

  Newton went to the living room where there’d been a bed laid out for him on the floor. He lay down until Tiro brought bowls of soup out from the kitchen and sat down at the coffee table on which he’d placed them.

  Newton sat up and instantly started eating. 

  “Anybody with authority to enter the storage houses would have had access to the bones,” Tiro said before he started to eat as well. “That’s why there are so many possible candidates.”

  “Why would the bones be kept in storage rooms and not its own room that nobody can access?" Newton asked.

  “The authority system has its limitations.”

  Newton allowed himself to be satisfied with the simple answer. He finished his soup in silence, allowing Tiro to think about the case.

The sun was setting when Newton had found himself back in Davilios’ room. He’d just woken up before they’d entered and didn’t seem to be in the mood to talk. He just reached out his hand and waited.

  Tiro pushed Newton to go first. A painful heat passed through every part of his body as soon as he touched Davilios and less than a moment later, he was in a bright room with his hand still touching a similar man.

  The man looked like Davilios with tidy, clean hair and modern clothes. He was in what linked to be a kitchen and dining area, sitting at a table with his dinner in front of him. With a smile, he greeted Newton by his name and Newton greeted David back.

David’s arm shot to the side and Tiro appeared next to Newton, touching the tip of David's hand. Dave frowned. “Oh,” he said. His arm jerked again, directing itself to the open space next to Tiro and in it Ghom appeared.

  Ghom’s eyes darted around the room and he started to hyperventilate. He turned around, taking in every corner of the place. 

  “Nnn… aaahhhhnnn… WOOOOAAHAAHA.” He opened his mouth, the floodgates of which strange sounds burst forth from. “English,” he said. “Sounds so weird, and I can’t get it out of my head.”

  “Keep your excitement to yourself, and stop wasting time,” said Newton. “We have things to do.”

  “That was uncalled for,” Tiro said. “It’s Ghom’s first time on earth. Give him a break, besides, I won’t take you on for the investigation with that lack of control, so all this training might end up being nearly useless.”

  “Sorry,” Newton said to Tiro.

  Tiro sighed. “All being said, we do need to get you guys started.

  “Is David our trainer?” Newton asked.

  “No,” David answered for Tiro. “Julien is in the gym.”

The building they were in was massive, Tiro led them down bright halls, pushing along Ghom who was captivated by the ceiling lights. They headed down a lift. Ghom seemed to be captivated by its walls and was about to ask a question but stopped when he saw Newton looking cross at him. Tiro seemed to know the place pretty well as it was not too long until they found themselves in the gym. 

  It was a large space with equipment all spread out. Strange machines lined the wall at the far end, away from any weights and there was an open space with an assortment of neatly placed kettle bells and a lane of fake grass marked along the sides with measurements. 

  Julien was sitting on a bench with a laptop on his knees, typing on it. 

  “Don’t touch,” he said, now looking up at Ghom who was reaching for a metal bar.

  Ghom retracted his hand. He seemed captivated by the mundane object. 

  “So that’s Ghom, which makes you Newton,” he said looking at Newton.

  Newton nodded. 

  “Cool,” said Julien. “Let's get started. We’re going to test your baseline physicals in order to pinpoint your individual weaknesses.”

  Julien first took them to test their Aerobic fitness. He strapped on some monitors and a mask which was hooked up to a machine and got them running on a treadmill.

  Ghom watched Newton go first. He was in shock when the track of the treadmill started moving and was completely frozen after he caught a glimpse of the machine’s monitor, the moving graph on which drew him in like a hypnotist. 

   After their cardio examination, they tested their strength and endurance with the weights and their body weight.

  “It’s so cold,” said Ghom. “And it looks almost like water. I can see myself on its surface.”

  “That’s steel,” said Julien, now allowing Ghom to touch the weights. “It’s made of metal.”

  “Do they not have steel in Bame?” Newton asked.

  “I’m sure you would’ve noticed the absence of metal in Bame over your stay. Didn’t you?” said Julien.

  “It didn’t cross my mind,” Newton said.

  “Bame doesn’t have large deposits of what are here on Earth, common metals such as Iron, copper, or silver. While the element exists as traces in bame’s life and crust, it is so scarce in concentration that many people go their whole life without seeing even a little bit.”

  “That’s why society over there looks underdeveloped.” Tiro said entering the room. “Humanity there is just as old as humanity here, but we don’t have access to the same resources.”

Julien gave them a rundown of their results after their examination. Surprisingly, Ghom was stronger than Newton, though he struggled with endurance and his aerobic fitness which was where Newton excelled.

  Everyone ate dinner together in the staffroom. Ghom had been easily accustomed to using metal utensils. As soon as the food came out, he stopped gawking at his fork and started eating. It was messy. 

  Newton looked between everyone. David, who was separated from Tiro by Julien who sat between them, was concentrated on his plate while Tiro and Julen talked about their daily life. It was a boring conversation, mostly because Newton didn’t understand most of it, though something caught his attention. 

  “The experiments on David aren’t working out,” Julien had said.

  “What experiments?” Newton asked.

  “We’ve been trying to transport iron from here to Bame,” said Julien.

  Newton glanced over to David who was looming over his plate and playing with his food. Their eyes met when David glanced back. Newton retracted his own gaze and paid his attention back to Julien.

  “But I thought non-organic things couldn’t be transported,” he said.

  “Non organic matter cant be transported because it needs Blood to be manipulated by Dave’s ability. My thought was that I could find a way to imbue Iron with Dave’s Blood, or even my own which would theoretically allow Dave to transport it.”

  “I’m sick of hearing about this,” David said, standing up. “I’m going back to my room. Newton, would you like to come?”

  Newton was surprised by the offer. “Sure,” he said.

David’s room was warm, both in temperature and aesthetic. David pulled out a chair from under his desk and laid on his bed. He asked Newton how he was doing.

  “Good,” Newton replied, as he sat. “Just fine.” He moved some book over so he could rest his arm on the desk.

  “Basic answer,” David commented. “I won't hold you to it. I doubt you even know how to describe how you’re feeling right now.”

  “It doesn’t make sense to me. I didn’t think after… that I’d be able to feel any good ever again, but I’ve been starting to experience moments of happiness again, and I don’t know what to do except to reject them.”

  “Why is that?”

  “I don’t know… Every time I’d felt happy was when I was around her, and now she’s not around and I have no clue whether this feeling is the same thing, whether it’s real, or whether it even matters.”

  “Would you like to hear about the night your sister infiltrated Bame?”

  “Yes,” Newton said right away. “The whole story."