CHAPTER 9

After a grueling day of jogging, running and getting chased by the paper cut-out monsters, the three teachers decided to halt the exam and initiate a bonus exam.

"Bonus?" The crowd of panting children echoed.

"Yes." Roshi replied. "A bonus test."

"Does it mean we failed?" A girl from the crowd asked.

"Yes, and no." Isamu continued. "When the first exam is too tough for the students, there is an option for an easier, bonus test."

"Is it gonna be harder than this one?" Ren continued the trend of back to back questions.

"It's impossible to fail, unless-"

"Unless, what?"

"Unless any unforeseen events happen."

"What kind of events?" Hayagashi raised his hand.

"Let's just hope we don't see them." Raijin sighed. "For now, get some rest." He stepped away from the children. "You'll need it."

Fed and rested, the kids returned to the plain area where the first exam occurred, only to find a huge gymnasium as a replacement. Upon, entering, they saw the three teachers sat on the benches by a court, with the person next to them being Kazuhiko.

"He passed!" Struck with shock, Hayagashi's eyes widened. Now he was becoming a problem, not only was he rude and self-centered, but he had the statistics to back his attitude. It annoyed Hayagashi, made his blood boil to the last drop.

"Why him?!" He cursed. "Why's it gotta be him!" He clenched his fists to the near point of drawing blood, before Ren kept his arm around him.

"You good?"

"Yeah." Hayagashi's grip released. "Just stressed, is all." He lied.

Raijin stood from the bench and introduced the kids to the court.

"When was this built?"

"What do you mean?"

"It wasn't here yesterday!" Ren debated. And now it just-HERE!."

"It doesn't concern you." Roshi interrupted. "But this exam does."

"Are we playing a game?" Hayagashi introduced himself into the conversation.

"Exactly." Raijin replied. "Since everyone failed the last exam, apart from Kazuhiko."

"We didn't fail." Hayagashi's eyebrows bent downwards. "You didn't give us enough time."

"A whole day was enough."

"We could've gone for longer." Hayagashi argued, in a stare-off with Raijin.

"Don't tell me this kid's got attitude too." Raijin thought. "I'm already dealing with one that can't fail, it'll be hell if this one's too." He faced away from Hayagashi, forfeiting the battle of glares as he walked back to the benches.

"What was that all about?" Isamu asked Raijin.

"Kids have no manners these days." He crossed his arms. "We're lucky Rina isn't as gutsy as them."

"She is gutsy." Isamu corrected. "But, its justifiable."

"Yeah." He faced Kazuhiko, sitting at the far-end of the long bench. "Maybe him too." He thought.

Roshi then divided the kids into two teams and sent them to the opposite halves of the court. Being on the same team, Ren and Hayagashi high fived each other and celebrated their pairing, before Hayagashi noticed the unfairness of the selection.

"Wait!" Hayagashi yelled. "They've got more members!" He pointed at the twins on the other team.

"Yeah." He nodded. "So, who's gonna sit on the bench?" He approached the team, and with little hesitation, they all pointed at one of the twins, like a vote that was settled telepathically.

He smiled. "I didn't wanna play anyway."

His brother smiled as well, the curves of their smiles being freakishly similar. "I can do this without him." The brother walked and sat on the bench, as Roshi walked out the court and presented the teams with three wooden balls.

"Dodgeball?" Ren guessed.

"Almost." Roshi walked behind the bench and pulled out a cannon.

"Aah." Hayagashi exclaimed. "Cannonball."

"Not even close." Roshi filled the firing hole with the ball and lit the fuse, with the echoing sound of the blast, the ball was shot across the court and dented the wall.

"Actually. Cannon-ball isn't far off." The children's eyes and mouths widened, thinking that they were to shoot those balls at themselves, with that kind of terrifying power and speed.

"Though, you won't be using these cannons." Roshi explained. "When I shoot the ball, a member of either time will have the chance to either catch it, or to direct it at a member of the opposing team, hitting them as a result." Awes and oohs resonated from the crowd.

"The team to lose the most members loses. No leaving the court, unless hit. No stealing balls from opposition's half and no using your Reikatsu." Upon the sounding of the last statement, the oohs had turned to bitter moans of resentment. The kids were all eager to try out their abilities and show-off, yet, had not come to the true premise of the exam. The exam was devised to test one's eligibility, in terms of quick and critical thinking and tactical awareness, not whether or not they could summon wind with a wave of their palms or speak with animals. Hayagashi was relieved with the news, knowing his Reikatsu was yet to exist, he would've made himself a laughing stock amongst the other children. All the training he had done was worthwhile though, he had imagined an exam of this kind, and he was excited for it.

"Read." Roshi lit his fingers and placed them at the fuse. "START!!" The kids sprinted forward as the ball was shot, Hayagashi was the leader of the race, attacking the ball with a kick that sent it flying towards one of his opponents.

"Strike one." Roshi announced.

"Uhh. That's baseball." Isamu commented, agitating Roshi.

"It's a made-up game." Roshi protested. "We can make up the rules as we go." He added. "Psshh, baseball, what a joke."

"Woah." Raijin jumped off the bench upon witnessing Hayagashi's strike.

"He's not bad." Isamu stated. "He's quick, and pretty strong too."

"Not bad." He smiled.

"YEEES!!" Ren squealed, tightly wrapping his arms around Hayagashi. "I knew you were good for something."

"What do you m-"

"NEXT ROUND!" Roshi interjected, shooting the ball once more which connected with Hayagashi's hands, he pulsed it towards another opponent, and sent them limping out the court.

"Strike tw-"

"Again, Roshi." Isamu chuckled.

"I know." Roshi sighed.

"If he keeps this up, his team will win by a land slide." Raijin preached. And so he did, with each ball shot, Hayagashi was early to react and send it buzzing towards his opponents, dwindling down the numbers one by one till the burly twin was the only one left standing, with the same smile that he maintained for every round.

"Something's wrong." Hayagashi stepped back.

"We're winning, the only thing that's wrong is that creepy fat kid."

"Exactly." Hayagashi whispered. "He's hiding something."

"What's the point of hiding it now, we've won." Ren patted Hayagashi's shoulder. "You should lighten up." He returned to his position, as Roshi prepared the final shot.

"I should lighten up." Hayagashi repeated Ren's words, his feet aching to spike for the ball, before the twin asked for a time out.

"What!?" Ren snapped. "No!" He objected.

"It's not against the rules." Roshi defended the time out.

"Considering you didn't make any rules." Isamu teased.

"Have you had enough?" Roshi glared.

The twin then excused himself off the court for his brother.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Ren appeared behind Hayagashi's shoulder.

"I don't know." Hayagashi exhaled. "But it doesn't matter, we won."

"That's the spirit." He raised his arm for a high five. Hayagashi went on with the gesture before he heard whistling wind coming from the twins.

"What the-" He discovered the twins' secret, and why they waited for the other kids to get disqualified before revealing it. They lifted up their shirts, to reveal an air hole and pump on each of them respectively. One of them then played with the hole and released the air from his brother, deflating him in the process.

"Are we seeing this?" Ren trembled, as the whistling ended, and the body of the twin had transformed to that of a gold wearing super-athlete.

"All done." He said, walking back onto the court. All eyes were darted upon the twin, wide and in shock upon his transition, and questioning whether it would change the direction of the game.

"No." Hayagashi returned his focus, aiding Ren with a slap on the face. "We're winning this, focus!" He sharply nodded.

"Right." Ren dismissed the slap, promising to return it later.

"Uhh." Roshi paused, his lit finger inches away from the fuse. "Start?" He shot the ball.

Everyone expected Hayagashi to finish the game off, with a hop, a skip, and a strike of the ball. But the trend had ended when the twin had caught the ball before Hayagashi accelerated.

"Oops." The twin smirked, gripping hard on the ball. "I ended your streaking." Hayagashi's team prepared themselves to evade the ball.

"Time for mine." The twin arched his back, the muscles on his fore and triceps contracting, and his foot planted past the flooring and into the ground below. In a split second, the ball had left the boy's hand and landed on one of Hayagashi's teammates. It nearly took her head off, managing only cave her face in, with all the bones shattered and protruding out her face.

"Strike." The boy celebrated, to the other's dismay.

"What the hell!" Isamu ranted. "He just killed her!" She got off the bench, to be stopped by Raijin.

"We need to end this, now!"

"I say, we let it go." He disagreed.

She sighed. "So you wanna clean up dead kids?!"

"The parents knew what was coming when they signed their kids for this." Raijin confirmed. "Let them blame the kid who did it, or themselves, our job is to pass or fail them."

Isamu's head dropped. "You're not wrong." She returned to the bench. "But I wish it hadn't come to this." Raijin's face contorted.

Hayagashi's team was on full pause, watching as the hit girl gurgled and choked on her blood and teeth. Their legs shook and feet glued to the floor.

The twin winded his arm. "Aww, that wasn't even my hardest throw."

"He-,he-" Hayagashi stuttered, the pool of red blinding his vison. After watching what was 10 nights worth of horror and thriller films, he believed that his sensitivity to gore and guts gushing out onto the screen, but the sight shot his morning meal out his stomach and into his throat, on the verge of rushing out his mouth with a gag. He fell to his knees, closing his mouth shut while saliva dripped through them.

"She's dead. She's dead and your laughing!" His pupils dilated. "WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING!!" He snarled.

The twin smiled. "I didn't mean to do that." He thought, hiding his dread under a mask of glee. It was true, he hadn't meant to kill the girl, only to cripple into disqualification. He was too deep into the deed anyways, besides, it was her fault for being so weak.

"You, you-" Words refused to sputter out of Hayagashi's mouth, his face pink with anger and fist clenched to the point of exposing knuckle bones.

"Hayagashi." Ren called, as his friend's anger subsided. Ren was Hayagashi's emotional fulcrum, without him, only he knows what he would've done to the twin.

"It's alright." He held his shoulder. "We can still win this." He turned to his teammates. "Right, gu-" He was interrupted by them scurrying off the court and onto the bench, after witnessing what had happened to the girl, they weren't about to lose their lives before they started it. And then there were two, Hayagashi and Ren, staring down at the twin who was ready for their next move.

"We outnumber him." Hayagashi thought. "But he's like a whole army out there." He scanned through dozens of moves he could pursue, yet they all led to his death.

"We can't beat him." Hayagashi mumbled.

"We can!" Ren exclaimed, as the defeated Hayagashi's mood spiked. "Cuz I have a plan." Ren announced.