Then

"Line up!" barks the commissioner, his mouth snapping like an animatronic. "C'mon, now! Line up!" The hero program enrollees, referred to as the novices, get in their line order with their backs exactly two inches from the wall, stiff and straight. Keigo passes Touya solemnly, giving the no longer red-headed boy an awkward glance; Touya forces himself to keep Keigo's face out of sight, though he does steal a glance at those magnificent red wings. He wonders how big they'll be by the time he graduates and gets out of this damn institution. He wonders how high Keigo will fly, how big his smile will be when he gets to run his fingers through the clouds.

It's those thoughts that remind Touya this is for the better.

"So far your training has been individually focused," the commissioner says to the group, "but starting now, we'll be changing that. Half of you, group one, will be stationed on a dot located around the large circle upstairs in the training room. The other half of you, group two, will choose an opponent from group one. You'll have two minutes to fight each other before group two rotates. The goal is to knock your opponent unconscious."

The novices shift awkwardly. None of them want to fight each other– Especially Keigo. The thought of hurting someone else, someone similar to him, makes him sick. He doesn't want to be anything like his dad, who beat on him just to increase his own strength. It's cruel, and Keigo wants no part.

"If you successfully manage to knock out more than two opponents," the commissioner continues, "you'll be granted a free day where you can exit the grounds and venture into the city. With your tracker activated, of course. And if for some reason you don't manage to knock anyone out or you refuse to give your all..." The commissioner smiles widely, evilly, with pure malice in his eyes. "You'll be spending the next three days in the basement."

The novices straighten their backs even more, their game faces on. They all know what the basement means: it's the place they send the weaklings to "toughen them up." To beat them down until they're ready to be built back up again. Everyone is sent to the basement at least once (Keigo when he was brand new at six years old) but after one's fourth or fifth trip, they stop coming back. When you're that weak, you don't survive the beatings.

There's an exception to that, of course. Touya is ordered to the basement at least twice a week, yet he still returns. Of course, every time, his eyes are duller, his already burned body covered in bruises and cuts, and his mind a little darker than before, but he still makes it out and that's what matters.

The commissioner calls out group one, which includes Touya, and as he makes his way to the cavernous upstairs training room with the rest of his novices, he can feel Keigo's eyes on him. He knows Keigo has a positive reputation with the commissioners, and he knows that it angers the other novices as they're fueled with jealousy; he knows this combination is going to make their peers fight Keigo much harder than they fight anyone else. The thought alone doesn't really bother him– well, it wouldn't if he knew Keigo would fight back.

But alas, Keigo isn't a fighter. Never was, and probably won't ever be. It was the winged boy's biggest weakness– and his greatest strength.