CHAPTER 3

An excited, but nervous Hayagashi bounced on the back seat whilst counting the buildings they've passed upon leaving their house. It was a game the family would play on long, boring trips and vacations, that would keep them entertained for the venture, or at least distract Hayagashi from pestering his parents.

"Seven, Eight, Nine, T-" He paused, confused at where to group the building under construction.

"Ten." Benji said. "It counts." He smiled.

"Is the exam hard?" An itching question that Hayagashi wished to ask since the trip begun, as Benji's smile subsided.

"Well." He paused. "From all the training you've done, not really." He replied.

"So, I'm gonna pass!" Hayagashi exclaimed, as Benji hid a frown from the mirror. "Dad?" Hayagashi called, eager for his father's approval of his claim.

"Yeah." Benji looked through the car window, avoiding the mirror's judgmental stare that would reflect it onto Hayagashi's eyes. Despite his son not having a Reikatsu, he still had the superhuman ability to read a person's emotions, and surprisingly for his age, able to react to these emotions in the most adult manner. Example, his mother had witnessed him dropping plates as he was washing the dishes. Miya gritted her teeth in rage, but managed to display a forgiving expression that she thought would comfort Hayagashi. Hayagashi knew what was brewing inside her, spoiled by the dimming of her bright eyes to a blank expression, transforming into another person, a new malevolent person. He was quick to act by spreading his arms as wide as he could muster and engulfing her in his reaffirming innocence.

"We're near approaching." The escort announced, as Hayagashi retracted his investigative attention away from his father and pulsed his face onto the window screen. Watching as the pink lily trees glimmered against the light of the sun, with their children fluttering with the wind or falling gracefully onto the collaged concrete floor. The building shot and pierced the far heavens, the roof caressing the clouds like a spear through the flesh of the sinners. His mouth flew open in awe as the car was welcomed by a large steel gate that spread itself to allow entrance for the escort and father-son duo.

"Oh no." Benji's head rested on his palms, as waves of children exited their respective cars, smiling, laughing, shivering and trembling for the Monster Hunter exam. Tall, short, skinny, plump, rich, poor were given the similar privilege above the Chief contractors of the exam.

"There are so many!" Hayagashi yelled, his excitement too much to contain, as he popped out the car window, breaking it in the process. Reacted not did the escort, as he turned to face Benji. He raised his eyebrows, released a hand from the steering wheel, and rubbed his index, middle and thumb fingers together.

"How much will it be?" Benji sighed, pinching his eyes in frustration. Hayagashi then scurried out the broken window, avoiding the broken glass that was scrambled all over the floor of the car and raced for the arriving children.

"Oi wait!" Benji called, as Hayagashi's sprint was given the halting whistle. Benji then smirked and gave a thumbs up. "Good luck!"

"Yeah." Hayagashi smiled back, as the whistle to his race blew once more, signaling him to continue. Benji thumb slowly returned into his palm as his smirk dropped to a concerned frown.

"Good lu-" He was interrupted by a limousine storming into the compound unannounced. The supposed calm escort swore at the driver of the decorated vehicle, his curses flushed out by the dark tint of the vehicle windows. From it, emerged a boy who looked the same age as Hayagashi, with pearly snow-white hair, skin resembling the tint of his pale hair and piercing blue eyes that gave visions of clear ocean waves. His bizarre appearance stood out from the rest of the children and parents on the compound, as if the sunlight would not strike light and life onto his otherwise lifeless body. The impending noise and chatter that introduced Hayagashi had subsided and was swept away by the blowing wind that followed. Shocked by the reactions surrounding him, Hayagashi had decided to follow the source of them, only for an arm to pull him back into the plethora of kids.

"Don't go any further." The owner of the arm warned, as Hayagashi heeded the warning.

"Who's that?" Hayagashi asked, though he said in a faint tone, his voice was heard across the wide spanning cluster of children.

"You don't know who that is?" A spiky haired boy marched out the cluster.

Hayagashi shrugged. "Nope." He said, to the boy's bewilderment.

"Nope, NOPE?!" The boy pelted Hayagashi's forehead. "He's the son of the richest bloodline in the country, if not, the world!" He exclaimed.

"You didn't have to scream it in my ear." Hayagashi complained.

"He's also son to one of the strongest Monster Hunters in the country." He continued, sparking an interest from Hayagashi.

"Strongest you say." A smile grew on Hayagashi. "You know his name?" He excitedly asked.

"Sure." The boy said. "But I can't say it.

"Why?"

"What if he hears us?" A cold sweat dripped from the boy's pale face.

"What's the worst that he can do?"

"A teacher here was challenged by his mom to a battle, and-" His mouth began quivering.

"And?" Hayagashi pressed.

"The guy was like hypnotized, he wouldn't eat, sleep, nothing, he was alive on the outside, but-" He paused. "Frozen on the inside."

"Wow." Hayagashi thought, someone that powerful must've given birth to a monster of equal caliber. He aimed at befriending the infamous son of this heart, and maybe, he could aid him in unleashing his Reikatsu.

"I need to know his name."

"I can't say it here." He firmed his words.

"Please." Hayagashi looked at the boy with beckoning eyes.

"Why do you want it so bad." The boy protested.

"Uhh, private reasons." He replied. "If you tell me, I promise to keep him off your back."

The boy sighed and nodded. "Promise?"

"Yup." Hayagashi nodded back.

"His name-." He paused for a gulp. "Is Kazuhiko Takeda." He uttered, as Kazuhiko glared at the pair. The boy instinctively ducked behind Hayagashi and began shivering in fear, praying to whatever god that was listening to his pleads. Kazuhiko then dragged himself towards Hayagashi, first peeking behind his back to observe the pathetic, scared boy, then locking eyes with him.

"You called?" He asked, his voice shocked Hayagashi, as every person he had ever talked to had a reverberating tone that made his ears flutter, transferring the sound waves into his brain to compound a response. Yet, in terms of Kazuhiko, the tone-he lacked. Hayagashi's brain relied on the only two senses he had left to make an impression, sight and touch.

"My name's Hayagashi." He smiled, extending his arm towards Kazuhiko for a handshake. Instead the pale boy watched Hayagashi's smile of optimism fall into an awkward frown.

"Can we be friends?" Hayagashi said, his arm refusing to retract and insisting to receive a deserved shake.

"No." Kazuhiko coldly replied, as Hayagashi's hair stood on end. The emotionless stare he gave him as he turned down his request made his blood boil.

"I'm not here to make friends." Kazuhiko replied, as he walked past the pair. "I'm here to become a Monster Hunter." He continued, disappearing into the crowd of children. Hayagashi's arm still remained stretched, attempting to shake hands with a shadow willing to accept it.

"Hayagashi?" The boy called, as he emerged from Hayagashi's behind. "It's your name, right?"

"Yeah." He retrieved his arm. "What's his problem?" He tilted his head.

"His problem?" The boy shook his head. "What's your problem!"

"I just thought we could be friends."

"Do you shake hands with the devil?" The boy asked, as Hayagashi raised his eyebrow in confusion.

"Uhh, what?"

"What I meant was, you don't go around making friends with people you just met." He explained. "It makes you a target."

"Target for what?"

The boy sighed in frustration, exhausted by the bombardment of questions he was asked.

"Forget I said anything." He said. "But-" He looked away and stretched his arm towards Hayagashi. "If it'll make you feel better, I'll be your friend I guess." He said, as Hayagashi eyes beamed with excitement.

"YOU WILL??!!" Hayagashi yelled, catching the attention of the surrounding kids.

"Oi." The boy pulled his head down and whispered in his ear. "Don't make a fuss about it." He said.

"Alright." Hayagashi whispered back, as the two met hands and sealed their friendship.

"Oh yeah, I didn't catch your name."

"It's Ren, call me Ren." The boy said with a smile. After what was few hours of arrivals and departures, nonsensical chatter on whose Reikatsu was better than the other's and bantering the few who brought toys and stuffed animals with them, a shout was heard from the top of the building. The shout was thrown by a tall-muscular, dark-toned man with hair that resembled a mop stick. The man dropped to the ground, crushing it below him with a wave of dust dispersing and posed in a flashy manner, yet the children failed to display a supporting crowd.

"Did you have to make an entrance like that?" Roshi emerged from behind the man, as the children began shouting and chanting his name, clearly the more popular of the two.

"Shit." He thought, gritting his teeth. "Fans."

"It's Raijin." A woman followed close after Roshi, as the shouts subsided and replaced by mutters and whispers. "Entrances are his thing."

"UNCLE ROSHI!" Hayagashi roared amongst the silent crowd, as Roshi's head dropped into his hand. The children pelted Hayagashi with looks of curiosity, astonishment and disgust. Realizing his mistake, Hayagashi took haste and sank deep into the cluster to evade the stares.

"Idiot!" Roshi thought, as the two beside him smiled in mockery. Raijin then faced the children and let out a satisfied breath, joyed at the seeing a great magnitude of children ready to take the next step in their young lives. He could sense the promise radiating from the kids' Reiki aura, waiting to unleash the potential in them. All but one child hadn't possessed the aura expected by him, not that the child had weak presence compared to his compatriots, the lack of was what confused him.

"Hello everyone." The woman greeted the kids, but was ignored and rewarded with on-going mutters from the children.

"Oi!" Roshi yelled, as silence spread across the crowd. "Listen up." He ordered, as the kids faced the three.

"Well-" She paused, collecting herself after witnessing Roshi's control over the children. She cleared her throat, then continued with her speech.

"As the Monster Hunter Academy of Kanagata Town, we proudly welcome you all to our association and will assure that you are well accommodated, fed and taken care of whilst proceeding with your exams."

"We will not put you in any purposeful danger or situation you feel uncomfortable in, this exam was your choice to take, and it will be your choice to retract at any moment." Roshi followed up.

"It is not for the faint of heart either, you will be challenged for your both your physical and intellectual attributes in an intense fashion, if you believe that you are incapable of the challenges, we advise you to leave."

"Our challenges are mostly safe, and calculated to not cause any harm you no matter the case, meaning if you were to die here, that would be your own doing." Roshi finished, as the mutters returned with children quaking on their feet.

"This is your 24-hour window, we are aware of the difficulty for children to make quick decisions, thus, we are giving you all a full day to make your choice." The woman said.

Raijin clapped, startling the children and attracting attention to him. "That's all said and done, by Roshi and Isamu." He said, as he made way for the children to the entrance of the academy. "Make yourselves at home." He signaled them to enter, as the kids approached the academy, mouth gaped as they entered it. It looked nothing as it was from the outside, the sheer size of the rooms was geometrically impossible to understand. They were surprised to see an accurate number of beds for such a large crowd of children.

"This, will be where you stay for the exam." Isamu announced.

"Or until you leave." Roshi added. The kids wasted little time and dashed for the best beds that had a view of the garden and forest behind the school, charging and pushing to watch the lily trees flutter in the morning as they wake. Hayagashi was caught in this frenzy, sandwiched between two plump twins who were fighting for the same bed.

"I wanna sleep here." The first twin whined, as the other pulled the bed sheets closer to himself.

"I touched the sheets first." He protested. "Finders keepers." He stuck his tongue out, as his counterpart pounced on him. Hayagashi, free from the smothering breathed in relief as Ren waved at him from the middle of the room.

"Hayagashi!" Ren called, as Hayagashi trotted to him.

"I got you a bed next to me." He said.

"Thanks a lot!" Hayagashi bowed, as they jumped and bounced on the beds in sync.

"The pillows." Hayagashi picked up the pillows and began fluffing them. "They're so soft." He said.

"Yeah." Ren replied. "It's weird how soft they are, kinda creepy." He laid on the supposed 'creepy' pillow.

"Everything is kinda creepy to you." Hayagashi said.

"Not true." Ren debated. "I'm just….cautious y'know."

"A little too cautious." Hayagashi added. He set his pillow down and watched Kazuhiko spinning around like a lost fawn, looking for a vacant bed. Hayagashi then searched, eyes pin-balling left and right, as he spotted a bed right next to him and Ren.

"Oi!!" Hayagashi called, alarming Ren as he darted up from his bed. Kazuhiko faced him and watched as Hayagashi pointed at the bed the next to him. "There's a bed h-." Hayagashi was interrupted by Ren clamping down on his mouth with his hands.

"What are you doing?!" Ren whispered, letting go of Hayagashi's mouth.

"He was searching for a bed." Hayagashi said. "I thought I could help." He defended himself.

"There are like 100 beds here." Ren argued. "No way he can miss one."

"You're just scared of him." Hayagashi smirked.

"I'm not scared." Ren crossed his arms. "I'm cautious."

"Isn't it the same thing?"

"No, you dol-." Ren was interrupted by Kazuhiko setting his luggage down by the bed, halting the boys' exchange of words.

"Oh." He faced Hayagashi. "Thanks for the bed." He thanked him in an emotionless tone.

"Sure." Hayagashi smiled. "That's what friends do, right?"

"I'm not your friend." Kazuhiko denied. "You just did me a favor, nothing else." He dropped onto his bed, as Hayagashi frowned.

"But, friends do favors." Hayagashi debated.

"A doctor does favors of saving peoples lives on a daily. Does it mean his patients are friends with him?" Kazuhiko asked, making Hayagashi bite his tongue. "If so, explain why." He continued, before turning to the other side of the bed.

"He's gonna be hard to reach." His eyebrows dropped and tightened. "But I've faced this challenged before." He said. Kazuhiko remined Hayagashi of his father, in terms of their shared stubbornness in receiving and returning affection. An example would be the training shifts that his father gave him, they were intense and would drain Hayagashi's energy after returning from school. His father would engage him to struggle, calling him weak and a disappointment if he couldn't finish the set of 100 sit-ups. Despite the aggression he displayed, Hayagashi could see micro-expressions from a concerned from to a light raise of his eyebrow as he collapsed to the ground. For Kazuhiko, the expressions were missing or pose hard to find, but he promised himself that he would unearth them from Kazuhiko.