Nine.

Quote of the Day: "Love conquers all, even dumbbells." - Six

Salve, amice! Good day to you! It's been a great day for me too! Jesse, today was one of the… days of all time. I need to learn a new language to describe it - I wonder if I should learn Latin like Sensei.

I woke up at 8:09 AM (sorry for being nine minutes late!) and went straight away to Sensei for training, but apparently, he was asleep. So, I came back to my room. I was so excited to train that I forgot to brush.

I was brushing when Six woke up. "Good morning!" I greeted her.

She yawned and said, "Uh, yeah, ohayo-o-o-o-o-o-o."

Although you should already know it by now, Jesse, (since Six and I are anime addicts) "ohayo" means "good morning" or "hello".

She rubbed her eyes and asked me, "Where's my brush?" That's when I realised I had mistaken my roommate's brush for my own.

"Oh, I am so sorry!" I apologised.

"Ah, it's all right." She said as she created a new brush out of thin air. 

I rinsed my mouth, drank some water, and sighed a long sigh.

She asked me, brushing her teeth, "What's it, Kyu? What's the long sigh for?"

If you are confused, Jesse, kyu means 'nine' in Japanese.

I replied, "I wonder when I'll be able to do what you just did… Sigh…"

She rinsed her mouth, rustled my hair, and said, "Don't worry, Nine, you will be the best of us one day. Zero has said so."

"What did he see in ME?" I demanded, "I, who can barely bend a spoon held at a hand's distance?! How am I ever going to master the Dark Field!"

"Listen, Nine, " she patted my shoulders, "Zero is a jerk, but I've never known him to lie. He told us all that you possess near-limitless potential. It's just that you haven't yet realised it."

"I don't even have any idea about how the Dark Field works," I said, with frustration bursting out from my voice, "I have unified Quantum Mechanics and Relativity, I have tried to incorporate String Theory into the mix, I have gone through every possible solution to Einstein's Field Equations! How in the world of the atheist god can you create infinite energy out of literally nothing?! IT JUST DOESN'T MAKE SENSE, ATHEIST-GODDAMNIT -"

Six made a lollipop out of thin air and stuck it in my mouth, saying, "Bro, chill."

Six has always been nice to me. Whenever I am down, she always tries to brighten up my mood - and honestly, I am grateful to her for that.

"Listen, Nine," she said, clasping my hands and rustling my hair like an elder sister, "you are the most brilliant human who has ever existed. You have defeated Stockfish 19 - the most powerful chess bot of all time, you can multiply 69-digit numbers in the blink of an eye, you broke through NASA's firewall at the age of three, you have designed the most powerful supercomputer in existence, you have extraordinary senses of perception, you have composed the most popular songs of this decade - Oh no, I didn't mean -"

"BUT I CAN'T SING!" I burst out, wailing, "I can't DANCE! I can't DRAW! Or PAINT! I can barely sketch… and I can barely calculate the rightmost hundred thousand digits of Graham's Number…"

She tried to console me, "It's alright!!! You will be able to do all that someday! You are just fifteen! You are immortal! You have an infinite amount of time to do all that!"

"But you are just seventeen, and you can sing and dance so well… if it weren't for you, none of my songs would have seen the light of day. That would have been better, honestly…" I sniffed.

"Oh, c'mon! It's alright!" She created a handkerchief to wipe off my tears, and said, "Don't cry! Your adorable face doesn't deserve disdain nor dismay, it deserves dancing daisies and dandelions."

That alliterative apocalypse of apical adoration aroused affection in me and made me smile.

"Alright, now, attaboy," said Six, "It's gonna be a while before that jerk wakes up and trains you, let me train you if you don't mind."

I said gleefully, "Sure!"

She asked me, "So, what's the most massive thing you can pick up from afar?"

I stuttered, "Uh - uh - I-I don't know…"

She made a 100 kg dumbbell and told me, "Lift that."

I exclaimed, "I can't lift that with my hands, how can I lift that with the Dark Field!"

She transfigured it to a 10 kg ball and asked me, "Can you lift that?"

"Let me try…"

I pointed my hand at the ball and concentrated on the thought of lifting it and… it moved an inch or two and rolled for a bit, but it didn't get a millimetre off the ground. Sigh.

"C'mon, it's alright," said Six as she reduced the dumble's mass to a kilogram, "just concentrate on the thing you want to do, forget that anything else exists or matters. Concentrate."

Confused, I asked, "But how do you do that? Like, how do I know if I have concentrated enough?"

"Eh," Six, after thinking for a second, chuckled and said, "Concentrate as if you are in love with the dumble - you will know."

I grimaced, "Seriously, Six? -_-"

Unfortunately, I am unaware of any animal having amorous affinities towards in-animate objects. And since we are animals, after all, I doubt if I would be able to do that either. Still, tongue in cheek, I tried concentrating as if I were in love with the dumbbell. And lo and behold! - It levitated languidly, lavishing on my love.

"See?" said Six, chuckling, "Love conquers all, even dumbbells."

I couldn't stop laughing after hearing that. 

It's ten o'clock. After I stopped rolling on the floor, laughing (quite literally, mind you), I wondered aloud, 

"When's Sensei gonna wake up?"

"Knowing that jerk, not before eleven-thirty, " said Six.

I asked her, "Why do you hate him so much? He's not that bad."

Six, taken aback a bit, said, "What, you don't know about that?"

"Uh," I stuttered, "About what, exactly? I mean, yeah, he slaughtered every Nazi and Fascist - that was too brutal, but at least, he prevented another Great War."

"No, not that," said she.

I said, "Oh, so you are talking about when he vapourised every weapon in existence, took over the world, and declared May 2nd as 'World Leonardo da Vinci Mourning Day'? I mean, yeah, that was a bit too much."

"Not that either," said she.

I asked, "Then, what is it?"

She replied, "You don't know about that? Well, it's better that way. You are too young to learn about horrible stuff like that."

"Nani!? You are just two years older than me! C'mon, tell me!" I demanded, poking at her shoulders, "Is it because he knows everything that happened since the beginning of time and is too lazy to share it? Is it because he granted civil rights to AI? Is it because he is a narcissistic, nihilistic anarchist? Is it because he smells so bad? Or is it-?"

"Oh shut up, will you?" said Six, clearly frustrated by my cacophony, "You don't know about what he did to One?"

"One?" I asked, surprised, "What did he do with the creator of One Punch Man?"

"Not that one," facepalmed Six, "The other One."

I asked, "Which one?"

She said, clearly irritated, "Agent One, baka. How on Earth do you have 234 IQ?"

I scratched my hair and replied, "Oh, you mean the First Agent of Fun? I have never seen her really, so I forgot she exists. But I know she and Zero had a son, Agent Two - the most powerful among all the Agents, after Zero."

Six said, "You won't wanna know what he did to her…"

"What?" said I, "he cheated her or something? I mean, Salai is not the type for a permanent relationship, you know."

"NEVER."

Six suddenly burst into a fit of rage, her crimson hair levitated - surrounded by scarlet hues. The ambience of the room changed into that of raging fire, full of hatred, despair and agony. I felt like I was going to burn alive.

She screamed, "NEVER. SAY. HIS. NAME. IN. FRONT. OF-"

I couldn't hear anymore, it felt like my eardrums burst. My head was filled with so much noise that it felt like I was gyrating in a washing machine (yes, I know how that feels, Jesse, I have been in a washing machine before). All the things in the room were on fire as they moved like Brownian motion through the air. I was about to die.

I thought this was my end, so I said my supposed last words: "I love Physics!"

But, Jesse, I am writing this because I am alive, so that's not the end. When my eyes closed, there was darkness everywhere - without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Then the Spirit of Kindness moved upon the face of the abyss, and Two said, Let there be light: and there was light.

I had fainted for about ten minutes. When I came to, I found myself on my bed. I felt tears flowing freely down my face and the bawling Six holding me tightly.

"I am SO SORRY, Nine! I am so-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o sorry-y-y-y-y-y-y. Gomen-ne, Kyu-kun-n-n-n-n-n," wailed Six, with her arms wrapped tightly around me, "believe me, I didn't want to hurt you. I just couldn't control my anger… I guess that's what you get for being the Agent of Fury… I am SO SORRY!"

I opened my eyes and shook my head to process exactly what was happening. Then I saw Six and Two - and realised that I almost died again due to another one of Six's fits of fury. Strangely enough, I felt light and happy inside as if kindness itself had revived my soul.

I said, unsarcastically, "So - I am alive, I guess?"

Six wiped away her tears and asked me, "Daijobu desu ka, Kyu-kun?"

Jesse, she asked me if I was okay or not. You should have understood it, Jesse, this isn't Planck Mechanics!

"Stop crying, Six, daijobu desu," I replied, "and yeah, thank you, Two!"

"It's my duty, Nine," said he, "You would've been cooked to death - I had to calm Six down. Just look around the room."

I looked around - The red marble floor had turned into lime and ash, the wooden furniture had vapourised, and all the plastic had melted and formed little puddles of molten inorganic carbon compounds which almost resembled volcanic lava flow.

I, concerned, said, "Uh - how am I alive exactly? This bed and I should have vapourised."

Two frankly replied, "I don't know about you, but I made this bed after I calmed down Six and healed your burns."

Six said, "This is the eighth time you barely scraped by being killed by me because I couldn't control myself…" She looked down at the floor and started rebuilding the room. The ash and lime reverted to red marble, the wooden furniture appeared from thin air, and all the plastic appliances reformed into their proper shapes. After she was done, she laid down on her bed, took a pillow, wrapped herself around a blanket and started weeping silently.

She whispered audibly, "It's all because of that goddamn Zero, the bane of our existence… He keeps me and Nine together 'coz 'haha, Six and Nine - sixty-nine - funny number'... Only if I could do something about it… Only if any of us could reach his level of infinite power…" and kept cursing Zero.

Two was about to go and console her, but I held his shoulder and shook my head. I whispered to him, "Let her be, she will heal in a bit."

After two minutes (exactly), Six rose and shone like a glowing star and asked me, "Wanna continue our training?"

"Yeah," I said, "but first, I want to know what Agent I am."

Two said, "That's something you got to know by yourself."

I replied, "But how?"

Six said, "It's the emotion that you are naturally inclined to. Like, Two is kind. Zero shows no emotions. Four is gloomy and Five is gleeful. I am angry. Eight is disappointed. What are you? What do you like to do?"

I stuttered, "I - uh - I-I guess, I like to know stuff? Maybe?"

Two replied, "Curiosity is not exactly an emotion, it's a tendency. Anything else?"

I said, still visibly confused, "I-I-I don't know… Maybe, frustration…?"

Six said, "No, Seven is Frustration, she's annoyed all the time. Two Agents of the Dark cannot have the same power of the emotional spectrum."

I surrendered, "I don't know then… I have to mull this over for a while. Sigh."

Two tried to cheer me up, "Come one, Nine, don't give up! Let me try and help you."

Six said sceptically, "How exactly?"

Two said, "Let me think… Let's try listing all the emotions of all the Dark Field Agents."

I was cheered up again, saying, "Great idea! Let's see, Zero represents a lack of emotions, Two is kind, Three is bored, Four is sad, and Five is happy, Six is angry; Seven is frustrated, Eight is disappointed. Whom did I miss? Uh…"

Six said, "You missed One."

I asked, "What is One?"

Two replied, "My mother is hateful."

I said, "Oh… So, which emotion is left?"

We all said "Hmm…" in symphony. Gloom, glee, anger, irritation, boredom, kindness, disappointment, hatred… Hmm… Wait a minute, hatred… OH!

We all said together, once again in symphony, "LOVE!"

Two said, "Only love is left! Nine, do you love?"

Six jumped in, "Remember when you couldn't lift the dumbbells but when I told you to love it, you lifted it easily? You must be Love!"

I said, "I guess? I love doing everything, so maybe I am Love."

Six said, "Alright, let's test it. What do you love the most?"

I replied, "Music? Knowledge? I don't know exact-"

She interrupted, "Think of an object! What thing do you love the most?"

I said, "Do you count? Oh wait no, I didn't mean to flirt or anything-"

She said, unfazed, "I know, I know. Think of a thing! A thing! Anything!"

I thought for a while and said, "A telescope? Maybe?"

She said, "Then try to create a telescope! A very basic one, for starters."

I said, visibly stunned, "Are you crazy? I can't even-"

Six interrupted me, "Shut up and love your telescope and make another one!"

I said, "Okay…"

I tried to remember Galileo, my first-ever telescope… I remember it vividly, Zero made it for me when I was two. It was little but it was extremely powerful. I remember every part of it - I had taken him apart and gone through every mechanism and each lens. I had seen Charon, Ceres, Pluto, Io, and even some comets with him…

I was lost in memories when suddenly I saw Galileo lying in my hands. I have created matter!

"Yay!!!" We all shouted in unison.

It was 12:07 PM when I had finished writing till this point. Jesse, I just saw Eight teleport in front of his room, so I asked him to check if Zero's awake. I will go and train now. See you later, Jesse!

Next Chapter: Uh, This Is Weird…