"Yes, you did," Koco said, hugging him back. "But even now, you probably still wouldn't be able to beat the Reaper. You need to get stronger—and faster."
"How can I do that?" Ren asked.
"All you can do now is gain experience," Koco explained. "Fight increasingly difficult foes and come out on top. Never give up, Ren—even when your body does." He said it with a confident smile.
"Wow, I didn't know you could be so inspirational," Ren said with a small laugh. "I guess even people like you can be smart."
Then his expression hardened. "Thanks, Koco. I will beat him."
"Well, I'll leave you to talk with Carmen—and probably Zee," Koco said warmly. "You three make a good team. I want to believe you can defeat the White Reaper."
He patted Ren on the shoulder and turned toward the window of the apartment. Opening it, Koco jumped out, landing cleanly and quietly before walking off toward the Academy as if it were nothing.
Ren stood for a moment, then headed out to the living room, where Carmen and Zee were sitting at the table eating cereal.
"We all need to get stronger," Ren said suddenly. "Especially you, Zee. I know you don't like fighting, but your PAACC is too strong not to use. Combined with Carmen's, you two make an incredible team."
"Yeah, we know," Zee replied flatly.
"What do you think we've been doing for the past month while you were healing?" Carmen added.
"And for your information, Ren, I can fight now," Zee continued. "I still hesitate a little—but not much."
"Have you had a real fight outside of training?" Ren cut in.
"Well… no, but—"
"Then that's what we're going to do," Ren interrupted. "We're taking missions. Hard ones. For the next few days, we're going to use those missions to make ourselves strong enough to one-versus-three the White Reaper."
"But it's Carmen's birthday next weekend," Zee blurted out.
"Yeah," Carmen added quickly.
"I know," Ren said, smiling. "And we'll take that day off. No missions—just celebrating."
"YYYYAAAAA!" Carmen and Zee cheered in unison.
"Well, finish up," Ren said. "I'm going to get ready. Then we'll grab some missions from the Academy Center."
Ren left the room and put on his bounty hunter gear—completely unnecessary, but he thought it looked cool, so he wore it every day anyway. He stuffed extra rings into his pockets, pulled on his boots, and waited in the living room for Carmen and Zee to finish getting ready.
Once they regrouped, they headed to the Academy by bus—a very crowded bus. After a suffocating ride, they arrived and entered the Academy Center, picking up 82 contracts to complete over the next seven days.
The first day was slow. They completed only 13 bounties.
The second day was much better—53 bounties, bringing their total to 66.
The next three days were incredibly slow. They completed only 10 more, bringing the total to 76.
With two days left, they needed just 7 more bounties.
One day passed—only 2 completed.
The final day arrived.
If they didn't push hard, they'd miss Carmen's birthday.
So they pushed harder than ever.
They completed the last bounty at exactly 12:00 a.m.
"Happy birthday," Ren said, holding a child trafficker by the hair, blood running from his nose.
"Happy birthday, Carmen," Zee laughed. "You're eleven now—only one year younger than me."
"Thanks, guys," Carmen said with a yawn. "Can we hurry and turn him in and go home? I'm exhausted."
"We sure can," Ren replied.
After checking the thug in, they headed home and picked up a cake for Carmen. As they approached their apartment building, Ren noticed the lights were on.
"Zee," Ren said, slightly irritated, "did you seriously forget to turn the lights off?"
No response.
Ren looked to his right.
Zee was gone.
His heart jumped. He turned left
Carmen was gone too.