You leaned in closer, the gaping abyss staring at Zon's face.
His face reddened, eyebrows ticking.
You pushed closer.
"Okay, teach! Personal space!" Zon held his hands up, and you stopped. "Just stop with that creepy stare alright?"
You drifted back, crossing your appendages together in triumph. Wew, finally you got through to him. One step closer to being a properly certified teacher!
Zon sat on top of a desk, sighing to the side. He massaged his right hand. You took a curious glance at it. There seemed to be a series of red curved lines running up his hand.
"Where to begin…" He took his time to organize his thoughts. "I guess it would have to be the start of the combat portion of the entrance exam."
"I had just gotten out of the written portion of the exam…."
----
The written exam was tough, Zon thought. He had prepared and studied for it, taking whole weekends off just to make sure that his bases were covered. Long nights of sweats and blood, eyes barely able to focus on what was front of him. The mental pain that he had to endure, from going through those practice tests repeatedly.
And it paid off.
He only had to guess on five questions, the rest came to him. He had saw them on his preparations, worked and reasoned through them as if it was second nature for him.
But now, it was time for the real test to begin.
The combat exam.
He had heard tales of this particular portion of the entrance exam. Some went into excruciating details about the gruesome Monsters the faculty employed and the ways the examinees were taken out, like a big tentacled Monster ripping people apart. Of how the faculty not only aggravate the Monsters, but also how they purposefully turn a blind eye when Monsters were close to deliver a fatal blow on hopeful students. Of course, he knew that those stories were bullshit, made up to scare off weaker candidates from taking the exam.
If the school had allow those sort of actions, then it wouldn't be standing to this day.
Hell, that would attract lawsuits and mudrakers like flies.
Rumors were just rumors, but that didn't stop the rest of his fellow examinees from shaking like tree branches in the middle of a storm.
As he was massaging the cramp in his neck, a mousy, glasses wearing girl accidentally bumped into him. Zon turned his gaze to her.
"Awawawa, I-I'm sorry!" The girl held her hands out, face scrunching up to the side. Her eyes did not dare to meet his. "Please don't hurt me!"
Zon sighed. Not again. Seriously, he was only tired from all those study sessions. Why do people keep doing this to him?
Thinking about it was giving him an even worse headache.
"It's fine." He said, but the girl continued to shake nonetheless. "Look, I'm not going to hurt you." He waved his face in front of her glasses.
The girl did not change her shaking stance. It seems that his words did not get through to her or something. What a pain in the ass.
He laid his hands on her shoulders, and the girl's eyes widened in surprise. Instinctively, she brought her arms to shield her face.
"Awawawa! Please forgive me! I don't know what I did but don't hurt me please." The girl pleaded out loud, bystanders turning their head to this little commotion. "Don't hurt me don't hurt me don't hurt me."
Zon grunted. Oh come on.
He stopped his shakedown of the girl, and leveled himself down to her eye level.
"Okay, knock it off. You can stop that now." His voice softer, he moved his hands away from the girl's shoulder. She peeked from beneath her huddled arms. His palms facing towards the girl to placate her. "Look, it's fine, I'm not going to hurt you, I was in your way when you walked into me, sorry about that."
"Y-You're sorry? But I'm the one that bumped into you!" The girl insisted otherwise, her meek voice gaining strength. "I should be the one that apologizing! Here, I'm sorry!" The mousy girl bowed with all her might.
Zon schooled his face, keeping it neutral to not show his annoyance. Why do people keep insisting making these grand gestures around him. A plain 'sorry' or 'thank you' would have been enough.
Zon nodded, accepting her apology, and walked past her, his hands jammed into his pockets. He threw a glare towards the onlookers, who in turn scattered.
"H-Hey, where do you're going? You can't just leave a lady hanging like that, especially after what you've done to her!" The girl all but shouted.
The onlookers resumed their mummerings and attention.
Zon's eyebrows shot up in alarm. Oh gods, not one of those types.
Quickly, he ran back and grabbed the girl's hand. Bringing her with him to the combat exam's station.
"There, happy?" He asked in a grouchy voice.
The girl elegantly responded with another wave of 'awawawa'.
He pushed through the crowd, with the girl in tow. Murmers followed wherever they went. What a pain.
Coming to a stop, Zon let go of the confused girl's hand. He turned towards her, his shadow looming over her small frame.
"The name's Zon Maddem." He spit to the side.
"Huh?" The doe-eyed girl once again replied with such elegance.
"The least you can do to make it up to me for getting the crowd riled up is giving me your name." He tilted his head towards a couple of gossiping bystanders.
The girl followed his sight, mouthing a small 'oh'.
"Aodinia Yoyorio." Her small voice was inaudible to Zon.
"Say that again, I couldn't quite catch that." He said, bringing his ear lower.
"Aodinia Yoyorio!" The meek girl screamed into his ear, causing him to jump back.
Zon brought his hand to nurse his poor ear. This was a handful, why was he bothering with this again? Oh right, because he wanted the girl to stop making a scene. But it seemed that making scenes was her talent or something.
"No need to shout, you could have just said it normally the first time." Zon said, with a hint of exasperation in his voice.
"S-Sorry." Aodinia stuttered.
"Stop saying that every single second. It's grating on my nerves." Said Zon, as he walked on ahead.
"Sorry!" The girl continued to apologize despite being told not to. "H-Hey, where are you going! Wait for me."
The girl tagged along quietly, her face down to avoid onlookers.
Zon shrugged with his back to her, strolling at a leisure pace to next testing site. His hanger on can come with him or whatever. It wasn't like he cared either way. Just as long she didn't cause any more commotion and he would be fine with it.
But why the hell were people still staring?
Ughhh, what a bunch of idiots. If they had time to gossip, they have to psyche themselves up for the test. Gods.
However, something caught his eye. For a second there, he thought he saw someone smirking at him. He suddenly stopped in his stride, Aodinia bumping into him with an 'ow'.
"My bad. That one was my fault." Zon quickly apologized. "Anyway, we're here now. Go do whatever you want."
"O-Okay…" The glasses wearing girl said, following after Zon like a stray puppy. The young man just clicked his tongue.
"Hey! You guys over there, you all look a little lost." An energetic voice called over from a distance. A young man with short, somewhat spiky black hair followed by a scrawny white-haired boy and a chubby, short boy.
Zon raised an eyebrow at the sudden intrusion.
"Yo, the name's Tycho. Thought my friends and I should come over and say hello. You guys sure look interesting." The smiling young man introduced himself. "A tough guy and a frightened girl tagging along."
"Hello, I'm Zeke, and uhhh, Tycho thought that we should get to know each other." The white haired boy said in a weak voice. Ughh, not another one of those type. He already had to deal with Aodinia.
"And I'm Yu, nice to meet you guys!" The chubby boy said sharply, his posture trembling from trying a little too much.
Zon narrowed his eyes. Something seemed...off. But no, he shouldn't judge someone by their appearance. Even if Tycho came off a little too friendly right off the start.
"I'm Zon, and that's Aodinia." He said, tilting his head towards the mousy, shy girl. "So how did you guys think you did on the written exam?"
Tycho made a face, exaggerating his discomfort, pulling on the collar of his shirt.
"Yeah… Didn't do so hot on it." He chuckled. "But I think I will get the combat exam down. Should be a breeze."
The other boys with him nodded fiercely.
"Yeah, we've got a plan!" The white-haired one, Zeke said.
"Tycho have got this whole test figured out!" Yu proclaimed. "We're going to ace it!"
Aodinia stepped from you back and turned her head curiously.
"W-What are you guys talking about? What did you mean by 'we'? You can't team up for the test." The girl said. "I-If we could, then what would be the point of the test then? If we can't clear the obstacles by ourselves then what's the point of us being adventurers?"
Zon stood silently, eyebrows scrunched up.
"Well, see, I looked through the rules and asked the current students about it, the test proctor is a surprisingly lax man." Tycho began explaining. "While the rules didn't say anything about teaming up, it didn't mention that we couldn't team up either."
He was right, the rules didn't say anything about it. The only thing that discouraged examinees from teaming up was point distributions. According to the pamphlet given to the examinees when they walked into the initial testing sites, it listed out how points were earned and how much the examinees needed to complete the test. So, if people were teaming up with one another, they would have to work distributing all those points to each individual person. However, that would create a situation where everyone would be teaming up, and that obviously would mean that there would be less points going around overall. The only way to get a guaranteed passing grade was to be the fastest team around. Which was an already farfetched plan….
"Exactly what are you thinking about, Zon." Tycho gave him a wink. Zon in turn felt the need to punch someone. "I'm putting together together a group of individuals whose abilities are compatible with each other. And that's why I'm extending my invitation to you guys."
"What do you mean by that? Where did you even learn that?" Zon asked, suspicions seeping in. Something really was off.
"Uh...That would be me." Zeke stepped in. "My eyes can see a lot of things. Like what special abilities everyone possess and the details surrounding them. But that's the extent of them, I can't really do much with them besides that… Ehehehe…"
Zon raised an eyebrow.
"Hey man, it's not like adventurers go off by themselves, they usually group themselves into a party of four to five people. Besides, with eyes like those, you are guaranteed to be in a party in the future." Zon stated offhandedly. "These school exams are pretty much the weird ones. I guess they want to see individual abilities and then focus on cultivating on teamwork afterwards."
"T-Thanks, man. I mean it…" Zeke twirled his thumbs, eyes looking at the ground. "It's just like Tycho said, my eyes can be of use to you guys."
Zon quirked an eyebrow at the aforementioned person. Who in turn replied with a weary smile.
"Yeah, I've been telling him that for a while, Zeke has just got to believe in himself more." Tycho answered.
Yu nodded his head vigorously.
"Yeah, his eyes are the key to our plan, we are looking for people with abilities that complement ours nicely." The chubby boy began. "But we had several issues trying to get people into teaming up with us. They think that we are going to hold them back."
Tycho nodded his head sagely.
"Yup, we were kinda bump out when those guys keep rejecting us or in some case already had plans with some of their friends." Tycho said.
"What makes you think me or her are going to join hand with you guys?" Zon asked. Their plan sounded reasonable, but he needed a little more than that to collude with them.
Aodinia, on the other hand, was seriously considering that. She scrunched her face in thoughts, weighing the pros and cons of this decision.
The two other boys with Tycho were shuffling nervously, muttering 'please' in small, feeble voices.
"Well, I really don't have an incentive for you to join us beside the already mentioned guaranteed grade." Tycho bit into his thumb, eyes looking into the cloud for inspiration. But then suddenly he snapped his finger. "Actually, wait, there's one thing though. See, before coming here I had some talks with a couple of friends in the school."
Zon piqued his eyebrow in curiosity.
Tycho smirked, carefully observing Zon's reaction.
"Heh, those guys have loose lips, so I was able to convince them to part with several important information pertaining to the Monster distribution for the test area." Tycho continued. "Of course, I don't have any of those written down, so you have to go by my words for this."
"I-I will do it! I will join you guys." Aodinia suddenly spoke up. Tycho continued to smile, and Zon continued to scowl. She gave Zon a beseeching look, hands offered. He kept his face stone cold.
"Welcome aboard, little lady. Glad to have you on the team." Tycho gave her a firm handshake, bringing the meek girl to his side. But as Zon was about to say something, the sudden loud yelling of the test proctor got their attention.
Right as the hopeful examinees take their place to listen the instruction being given, Tycho gave Zon one last word before making off with his little group.
"Offer is still open, but you have to hurry before the test begins." Words passed on, nestling deep into his ear canal, processing the information in them. Zon was really tempted.
The test proctor gave out his instructions. It seemed that due to the influx of more examinees this year and on account of the normal combat exam grader being absent for the day, they had to change how they will grade the exam for this portion. The proctor introduced everyone to the Combatscantron-bot. It was supposed to take the place of the usual grader, and it had an accuracy of 99.999%, so it was definitely certified to assess the results for this exam.
All the while, Tycho didn't look fazed at all, but rather with barely contained excitement.
After the recitation, the examinees were let out to the testing site, the ever-smiling Tycho approached Zon.
"So, what is your decision?" He asked.
"Yeah, I will take you up on that." Zon said, a ferocious smile tugging his lips. The red marks on his hand glew with dim light. "Where do we start?"
"Glad that you see things my way." Tycho said, with a pleasant smile on his face. "Now, let's go catch up with the others, and we'll talk on the way."
Zon nodded, following along. Might as well take Tycho up on his offer, there was no better chance than this. It was a great chance to get as high a score he could, for a better shot in being accepted and maybe obtain a scholarship. That would certainly lightened his burden.
As soon as Zon's rough, black hair was spotted, Aodinia waved her arms energetically to get his attention. Her eyes brightened up, seeing that Zon was joining them.
"Hey! Over here guys, the test is about to start!" Her voice carried loud and clear, despite the numerous chatterings between the others.
And that was how this little group was able to obtain the required points in the fastest time for this year's exam. With Zeke's eyes and Tycho's intel, the group was able to pin-point the highest scoring Monsters and carefully distributed the scores from their various kills. With Zon's strength and surprisingly Yu's lightning fast bombardment ability, they were able to take down the tougher Monsters with relative ease. The two took to the roles of bruiser and heavy damage dealer, respectively. Aodinia's magic was able to provide support and allow the two to fight without holding anything back. And even Tycho was able to distinguish himself with his knife-play.
Overall, the combat exam went extraordinary well for them.
The makeshift team, unfortunately, had to break up, since the exam was over. The five were sure that they had earn enough points to cover any failings they may have made on the written exam. Well, the four of them anyway; in Zon's case, he was sure that he going to definitely pass the entrance exam. After all, he only had to guess on five questions on it, and with the huge amount of points accumulated from slaying Monsters, there was no way he was not getting in.
With a carefree smile, Zon parted from the group with a wave as he strode into the school building.
Tycho's calculating gaze bored into Zon's retreating back.
--
Weeks later.
The result came in the mail, and Zon was excited to see his score. He had done the math countless time between then and now, and he was definitely sure that he passed the exam with flying color.
He had just got up, only dressed in his night cloth when he retrieved the mail. He quickly brought it over to his cramped living room.
He was surprised when the score didn't add up. In fact, the scores were much, much lower than expected.
It didn't add up at all. He mentally ran through the numbers and Monster slain, again and again, to make sure that nothing was wrong with his calculation.
However, none of the math added up, and the score in his hand refused to change.
All that could be heard from the small house was the enraged scream of a very angry man.
-----
"And that's why I want to wrangle that lizard's neck." Zon said, anger boiling up. "I'm sure that the bastard had something to do with it. There was no way the other guys with him could pull this off. I doubt Aodinia would do it either. It had to be him."
You nodded along. That was indeed one long story, but it certainly put things into perspective. It seemed that those two boys had some history together.
"Are you sure that it was him though?" You asked. "Accusing another student of cheating is quite serious."
"Yeah, I know, that's why I didn't go to anybody, especially when I have no proof to back up my claim." Zon slammed a fist on a desk, the red marks on his hand glew in intensity. "If I know how he had done it, I wouldn't be in this situation!"
You brought the manipulator on your appendage onto his back, humming a calm tune with your modified vocal cord.
"What are you doing, teach?" Zon asked incredulously.
"Shhh. I am initiating the placating protocol, to bring down the emotional high you're feeling." You supplied him with a straightforward answer.
"Heh, you're a bit weird, you know? But that's fine I guess." Zon breathed a sigh of relief. A look of melancholy graced his rough feature. "Thanks, teach, for hearing me out. It was great to get this off my chest. Even if the problem can't be solved, at least I have someone that know my story."
"It will be fine, I will find a way to solve this issue." You nodded sagely. Clearly, this is the first case for you to tackle as a teacher. And you had to do well to get your students to respect you!
The troubled boy nodded, he took his lunch bag and waved you goodbye, mouthing a small 'thanks' under his breath.
Hmmmm. Now what to do. You were advised by Assistant Headmaster Amet to send students to Mr. Eagle when cases like this popped up, but you did not. So what now? Minutes ticked by as you digested the information given by your student and the true face of Tycho. You certainly had information, but they weren't the full picture, so to speak. You certain had to speak to the smiling boy to get more pieces of the picture.
However, you were interrupted by the sound of a door opening.
In come the troublemaker himself, Tycho, with a small smile and a pleasant jaunt to his gait.
"Hello, Miss Belingula. Sorry to take your time, but I heard that you want to talk to me." The boy said, with a tinge of bitterness seeping into his voice.
Strange, you didn't mention anything of the sort. Well, not yet anyway.
"How did you mean?" You asked.
"Well, it's only the first day of school, I don't think you would know everyone quite that well yet." He said offhandedly, brushing aside your question.
Everyone?
"What did you mean by that? I do not doubt the students' integrity. I believe in their ability to not go behind mine or their fellow classmate's back." You stated, the others had reassured you that while students will do dumb things, you shouldn't judge them too harshly about it. They're young and stupid, as the Headmaster King would always say.
"But do you though? I mean, someone went out of their way to tell me that you called for me. So someone has to be snooping around." He said, face turning towards the broken windows. "Just because you're the homeroom teacher doesn't automatically make you know of everyone's plight."
"What?!" You raised your voice. What was he saying? He was your student, why was he acting this way.
"Jeez, calm down, Miss Belingula." The boy held his hands placatingly. "All I'm saying is that you probably don't know what is going on with everyone. Nothing is as it seems, you know."
"I see what you mean. Of course, it's only the first day of class after all." You stated, nodding your head sagely.
"Yup, first day of class and all." Tycho sighed. "But for real though, for some reasons I'm getting quite the smacking around here. Like, just because I was about to get into a fight with Zon, now everyone is hounding me for the reason why he is so pissed off."
"Really? You don't know?" You asked.
"Ughh. Not you too, Miss Belingula." He palmed his face, eyes hidden. "People here talk too much. It's a pain in the ass, really. Just because of that little incident, now I'm being treated like a pariah."
"Oh, I'm so sorry." You said. He must have a poor day if he already was the target of several rumors.
"It's fine, Miss Belingula." He held a hand up, waving down your concern. "I'm just… tired, you know? Because people keep judging me by my supposedly 'shady' appearance, and how 'slimey' I sound like. Despite those people not even knowing me at all. Such a pain…"
"Oh you poor baby." You laid an appendage on his back, initiating another round of the placating protocol. "If you need anyone to talk to, I will always be here for you."
"Heh, thanks Miss Belingula. That's pretty nice of you to offer." He said, with a nice smile on his face. The boy sure did like to smile. "I think I will take it."
"So, the thing with Zon. What is going on with that." You asked, suddenly shifting the flow of the conversation.
"Yeah, about that. I have no idea. Guy gets mad at the slightest hint of provocation. When we teamed up together during the entrance exam, he would always charge on ahead without thinking." He shrugged. "I really don't know what grinds his gears, nor what he meant when he say that I know what I did."
"Really?" You asked.
"Yup, don't know a thing at all. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it was someone else in this class." Tycho replied. "I don't know what would they gain from causing artificial drama, but I am quite sure that the true culprit has to be in somewhere nearby. They would have to be in the class, so that they can pick the fruits of their labor."
Ah, that's right, someone told Tycho that you called him in, despite not saying anything about it. As you loathe to admit, the possibility of someone else being the mastermind and using Tycho as a scapegoat wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility.
"Well, Miss Belingula, it was nice talking to you, but lunch is about to be over, so see you tomorrow and have a good day." Tycho said, waving you a goodbye. You waved him back with your manipulator.
Hmmmm… Certainly this was getting messier than you had initially thought.
You still have some classes left to teach, so you only had the end of the school day to actually start thinking about this conundrum. On how to handle it properly….
[] Initiate your own investigation! You have decided to push Zon open, so it was only right that you see this issue through its conclusion with your own manipulators. Yu, Zeke, and Aodinia were with Tycho and Zon, so they certainly would have something to tell.
[] Find the entrance exam's test proctor and ask him about the Combatscantron-bot. Find out if it's really 99.999% accurate as your some of fellow colleagues claimed. And find out what really happened that day. The faster you solve this case, the faster you can address the issues of the other students, like the eyepatched girl or that lover's quarrel.
----
AN: Jesus fucking Christ, just realized that I clogged a fucking flashback scene with romcom bullshit
