Part 10
//What is a name? A signifier of who you are? Something deeper and more profound? Does the name of a man tell you who or, more importantly, what he is? If I claim a new name does that old named part of me whither and die? Can I really become someone else by changing something that is the very essence that is me?//
Jeremy
takes me across the campus pointing out all the areas he finds important: locker
rooms, cafeteria, and of course the mobile suit simulation arena.
He explains in great detail about how the simulator actually felt like
being in a real cockpit.
“So
you’ve flown before?” I question him.
“Well
no, but my brother is one of the best pilots around.
He let me sit in one once, didn’t get to fly it though.
Maybe someday you’ll get to meet him.
He’ll be graduating soon, top of his class.”
“Yeah,
maybe.”
We
pass by countless classrooms, void of all occupants they feel like gateways to a
new dimension. We come across the
school’s shop. The clerk gives me
the once over before coming over to offer assistance.
I can tell by the look on her face that she’s concerned that I might
steal something.
“Can
I help you with something?”
“My
buddy here is a new student. He’ll
be needing books, uniform, the works.”
“I
see, we might as well get started now before this task takes us beyond closing
time.”
The
clerk, Hope was her name, seemed to transform within a matter of minutes.
Now she is a kind and extremely helpful person, as opposed to someone who
looked about ready to pull out the nearest weapon if you so much as looked at
her merchandise wrong. The name
Hope seems to fit her well. She is
the type of person who can instill a sense of well being into someone,
regardless of who they are.
We are
just about to leave, my new supplies in hand, when a semi-familiar face passes
by the front entrance. It’s no
one who I can name, but the face is eerily similar to…
“Yo,
new kid! Are you just gonna stand
there or are we gonna go back to the room?” Jeremy says with his hands on his
hips, an impatient look in his eyes.
“Uh,
yeah. We should go.” I
can’t place the face, but I know I had seen that man before.
“Have
you come up with a name yet? This
new kid stuff is getting old quick.” Jeremy pries as we walk through the empty
corridor.
“I
haven’t had a name in six years.”
“Wow,
what about before then?”
“I’d
rather not remember.”
“There
you go again.”
“There
are just some things that should remain in the past.”
“Gotcha,
so what about a new name? Want it
to strike fear into the hearts of your enemies like…. Maximum Power?”
"The
only thing that name would strike would be the enemy laughing me down.”
“Well
you have to choose something, what did they call you during these last six
years?”
“Nothing
much, and definitely not something to conjure up any semblance of fear at it’s
utterance.” Six years of
forgetting about the six years I spent as Milliardo Peacecraft.
“Six, my life revolves around that number.”
“I
hate to break it to you, but six isn’t a good name.”
“Zechs.”
“All
that is is another word for six.”
“It’s
better then six isn’t it?”
“Well
yeah, I guess it has some potential. Zechs
the killing machine, it has a nice ring to it.”
“Only
to your deaf ears.”
“What’s
that suppose to mean?”~~
Jeremy was a good friend, but a lousy student. I’m surprised he lasted long at the academy. I’m tired now. My fight against remembering my past is a loosing battle. So many memories that I’ve tried so hard to put behind me, bubbling out of the recesses of my brain.