A crowd wearing black gathered around in a desolate looking graveyard. They were motionless, painting a picture of complete stillness was it not for the rain. 

[i]Ah, even the heavens seemed to be drowning in sorrow.[/i]

Hitoshi looked at the sky buffeted with grey clouds and lamented. All the sorrow had already been drained out from him, and he felt so empty inside, as though life itself had been snuffed out of him. He avoided looking at [i]her[/i] grave, knowing fully well that it was empty. He had been forced to shoot Midori that day, and since she was already half-Gastraea, her body wasn't able to survive the damage.

"I'm sorry... For being unable to even give you a proper burial," Hitoshi murmured.

The various Promoters (without their Initiators) who had come for the funeral were mostly strangers - the company that Hitoshi used to work with was so huge that he couldn't have known every single one of them who worked there. It was ridiculous. This funeral only had one singular person who actually cared about the deceased in question. [i] If not for the chairman's orders, these people wouldn't have even been here. [/i]

Of course this was not true: there were a bunch of Promoters present who honestly felt for Hitoshi; their relationships with their Initiators were as close as his. However, Hitoshi seemed to refuse to see this fact, thirsting for some time alone with Midori. When he asked politely for the mourners to leave, to his surprise, all of them offered their consolations and acceded to his demand. Watching their backs grow smaller in the distance, Hitoshi felt that he could finally let his tears flow. He knelt in front of the grave in apology for what seemed like an eternity...
---
Hitoshi woke up from his afternoon nap, startled. He gained his bearings, alert and ready for combat, and when he confirmed that there was no visible threat, calmed down. He noticed that his pillow was wet, and the dream that he had had swept through his mind once more. He sighed heavily, then got up and threw on his favorite long sleeved shirt (he was sleeping topless). Grabbing his gear, he left the room.

Walking along the streets, he noticed children escorted by their teacher on their way home. He thought to himself, [i]'It's peaceful, seemingly, but it is a mere illusion after all. Who knows when a Gastraea will pop up and chew your head off? Why must children live in fear like this day after day? It's wrong.'[/i] Hitoshi felt indignant. He wanted to do his part to defend the Tokyo that he loved from danger, but governmental law forced him to be unable to work without a company. Furthermore, most Civil Security Companies these days enforce the rule of a Promoter-Initiator pair, even though it wasn't exactly set in stone. Hitoshi refused to work for these companies, which he called 'Money grubbers who are willing to endanger the lives of children'.

Annoyed at the general lack of flexibility throughout Civil Security Companies, he walked and walked without a destination, just wanting to blow off steam. After a while, he walked past a building that had loads of PMCs guarding it. "Nomura Security, huh," Hitoshi read the sign outside the building. "Isn't this that organization that has loads of money, but negligible achievements? Well, they must be loaded indeed, judging by the number of patrols and guards they have. This is interesting. I think I'd like to see the way this organization works."

He spotted a man with glasses walking alongside a skipping young girl, and knew immediately that they were a Promoter-Initiator pair. They turned and entered the building.

Hitoshi walked up to the entrance of the building as well, but was stopped by a guard. "Halt," the guard commanded. "Who are you and what is your purpose of visit?" Hitoshi deduced from the amount of openings that the guard exhibited that he wasn't a combatant, just a meat shield. But even so, he had a baton, so he had better not provoke him too much.

"Ah, I'm a Promoter that your president hired recently," Hitoshi threw out a blatant lie, knowing full well that he would be exposed. He didn't even know the name of the president after all. He showed the guard his varanium sword and shield, however. "Oh, is that so? It's true that we've been ordered to expect new blood. So you're the new Promoter, eh?" the guard laughed merrily. Hitoshi smiled awkwardly, astounded by this turn of events. He prepared to turn and enter the building when...

"Oi, you! What kind of security was that? You didn't even check his identification!" a supervisor came up and yelled at the guard. The guard scuffled away, intimidated. The supervisor then turned to Hitoshi and asked, "Say, where is your letter of acceptance? Or your identification?" Hitoshi replied simply, "I have none. It was just a joke, and now I'll be on my way." The supervisor whipped out a stun gun and ordered Hitoshi not to move, but he did anyway. Hitoshi provoked the supervisor into stunning him, and hoped that when he woke up, he would be brought to the president of the company, if things went according to plan.