SENTINEL 555: WAR ✔

10 BOOT

"Get in," Dev instructed but as Oni wouldn't move, she was forced to stand at his back. "What'd you do to set off Sen? I expected someone to have to sedate him."

Oni stood at her threshold, silent and stupid.

Finally, he muttered, "You said not to go into your room dirty. I'll...I'll bunk someplace else. Even if it's a closet or something."

He was hardly dirty. Only his clothes were.

Considering how many people it took to drag Sen off, Dev conveyed one truth. "You cannot be in arms' reach when he's in a temper like this. I'm honestly fearful for you."

But although he trembled, making his own palpable worry known, he simply looked back at her. He was helpless so she unhooked the matrix and sighed.

"Depending on your score, perhaps we can secure a second uniform. I refuse to alter any performance records in any fashion but...." But when she reached his evaluation results, her breath caught. He ranked highest even without a win. How was that even possible? Everything about that went against logic. "There's some sort of glitch," Dev muttered. She puzzled about whether or not to exploit it. Finally, she picked up her head and met his gaze and concluded, "My version of Lotsu always said take good fortune where you can get it. And this is ours."

And it was not simply good fortune. In a crew of sixty, Oni's score put him third in command to the head cadet. That was no easy ranking. It also allowed him four new uniforms.

Dev procured one, Oni firmly by her side, or in front of her for his own safety. Her reasoning was that should the glitch be discovered, at least a punishment for one extra uniform was manageable.

The one advantage was that Oni, too busy looking around at every turn, anticipating an attack, didn't see her readjusting of the sizes.

He shocked her by turning with his back to her and stripping down right there in the uniform room, which was packed with other cadets. The minute he noticed his proper boot size, she snatched up his rags and threw them out.

When they met up on one another again, the raw fear in his eyes swallowed down any readied protest.

They were back at her room in thirty minutes and this time he didn't hesitate to kick off his shoes and sprint in.

A woosh sound came with the door closing and he pressed his back against the bunkbed and crumbled to the floor.

Dev was on a strict schedule with regards to sleep. When she opened her mouth, it was to voice that fact but the boy didn't seem capable of moving from that spot.

That was why Dev decided to sit down beside him.

She wasn't sure why, but she put a hand on his shoulder to find him trembling.

"Do you think he was bluffing?" Oni asked, eyes still studying the floor.

Sen certainly hadn't been. At this moment, Dev had no idea where her crew was. Hopefully, they'd broken off from the single female collective area and found rooms but she had no idea. Tomorrow, their evaluation would commence and Dev had to be there.

She couldn't leave Oni, not even for a minute, not even in this room which was secure.

Voicing that truth would only worry Oni more so she squeezed his shoulder with a sigh.

Oni still shivered but looked up and around. "You don't have a bunk mate? The briefing said even head cadets did."

They all did, but not Dev.