Umbral knows what's waiting for him as he approaches the older boy strewn like a ragdoll across the wrought-iron bench.
Backup tutors Umbral a couple of times a week, testing him on various subjects and accounting for the gaps in his knowledge - a borderline unfair advantage for anyone serious about the succession. After all, B is the best.
Well, almost; he's the best to Umbral, anyway!
As a mentor, Backup is demanding in his standards, exacting in his methods, and unforgiving of mistakes. Umbral knows weaker sorts couldn't handle it, but B told him that he is special, and if he's willing to do whatever it takes to win he can be the best, too.
B realizes Wammy's House is producing 'Backups' in perpetuity, that this batch of younger children will eventually become the replacements that he and A are for L. He can't leave them to their own devices. If he doesn't seize control of his future successor, they will become cancerous, growing and plotting in the dark halls of this place, waiting for their chance to kill him.
Backup is grooming Umbral to become that future successor.
Umbral trusts B like a big brother, and looks up to him like an idol. So when he tells him to meet him at the crack of dawn and run laps around the orphanage until his lungs explode, he does.
Backup always says that A's weak constitution will eventually fail him, and to avoid that same fate, Umbral must push past every limit and never rest.
Every part of him is burning, each time his feet hit the ground his muscles protest in screeching agony and his legs threaten to become liquid and dissolve. Umbral doesn't have any idea how he completes the lap, but that's when his body finally gives out underneath him and he collapses into a mouthful of grass and dirt.
Umbral gasps for air like a goldfish plucked out of its bowl and loses that same air in a coughing fit seconds later; his eyelashes bat away sweat and tears to focus on the sight of Backup glancing away from the stopwatch nestled between the open pages of a book to regard him with disgust.
"What are you doing? Get up. You have another lap left."
It takes a few more moments of panting before Umbral can wail out a response.
"You can't?" B stands and saunters over to his underclassman's hunched form. Umbral finds it difficult sometimes to tell whether B is surprised or angry. Before things get worse, they sound about the same. "Or you won't...?"
"Oh, well... if you can't, then that's even worse," B grins emptily. "That means this is the best you can do, and this is pathetic!"
B kicks Umbral directly in the stomach, and stands back to watch as he cries out and writhes in pain.
"Do you think it's enough to do well on exams? If you're weak in any area the other kids will eat you alive. All of them are just waiting for you to fuck up so they can stab you in the back. You have to be able to go farther and work harder and suffer more than all of them so that they can't defeat you. Do you understand what I'm telling you? This is nothing!"
Umbral would respond if he could, but he can do nothing but cry and try his hardest not to vomit.
B watches him, unmoving. A statue of apathy and disdain.
"I think I was wrong about you. You're a waste of my time. As if I don't have better things to do than watch you fail."
After a few more moments of basking remorselessly in Umbral's punishment, B lets out a bored sigh, retrieves Childhood Trauma & Conditioning from the bench and decides to return to his room.
Umbral sees Backup walk away, and overcome with panic, shouts after him.
Umbral ends his run doubled over, hands on his knees and wheezing for breath. Everything still hurts but he's standing, the world is spinning but he won't fall. He trained for weeks. He's faster and he's stronger than he used to be. He made sure of it.
Through his blond curtain he sees B's shadow come over him like a dark cloud, but Umbral doesn't look away. This time, there's a bright smile on Backup's face, warm as a summer afternoon. Relief and elation wash over him and it gives him the strength to stand up straight.
"You beat your record. Well done, Umbral. I knew you could do it,"
B reaches out and rests his hand on Umbral's head, raking through his hair with a few affectionate strokes.
With red face and faraway eyes, Umbral cannot and does not hide how good it feels to finally be rewarded.
