The sound of a metallic object made me wince.
I opened my eyes with a pounding heart. Previously I closed them, so I could think clearly without interruption. After that I turned my head as quickly as possible in the direction of the noise. Confused I looked around and saw one of my so-called comrades, whom I had gained in the last test.
He sat down next to me and leaned against the large picture window, the same way, as I had done minutes before.
'He doesn't look dangerous.', I thought to myself and recalled recent memories.
I opened my eyes again and looked at him, now more closely. 'His eyes and hair colours are the same brown and he's taller than me. 15 centimetres if I'm correct. He also carries two swords with scabbards on his back.'
The boy seemed to notice my puzzled and thoughtful look, because he said: "Here, for you!"
He points at a can between us.
I looked at the metal can with the label 'BANANA*' on it and thought: 'This can made the previous noise.'
My gaze wandered from the can to the boy.
"You heard right. This is yours now.", he said in a casual voice, which matched his sitting position. Curiously I grabbed the BANANA drink. Before I could opened it, I remembered that I had just received something without saying thank you. 'How rude of me.', I thought, a bit ashamed and with a slight shade of red on my cheeks.
"Thank you.", I answered in a barely audible voice and opened the can with a low hiss.
However, I paused one more time before I could take a sip of the BANANA drink.
"What's your name by the way?" I asked. A slightly sneering smile formed on his lips. He was probably just waiting for me to ask this question.
"Kon*."
"I'm Sora.", I replied while staring forward.
There was a short pause as I took the first sip of the coffee.
"Thanks again.", I thanked him again to make sure he actually heard it.
I sipped my coffee every now and then as I let my eyes wander around in the room.
I looked for the other male part of the team - but so far without success.
While I was looking for the other in our group, I also took a closer look at the remaining Regulars.
I analysed that there must be around 130 people in this room.
'Didn't 70 Regulars manage to find team members?', I asked myself annoyed, but didn't waste another thought on it.
"Do you know where the other one is?"
"You mean Kancho*?", answered Kon with a counterquestion.
I nodded.
'So the boy with the black hair and the dark blue eyes is called Kancho...'
My head moved in the direction of Kon. I looked at him a little bit too hopefully, because Kon seemed to notice the expression on my face. He shook his head in negatively way.
"No, I do not know. However, he was still here before I went to get drinks."
"YOU LITTLE SHIT! YOU ARE DEAD!", suddenly sounded it through the room.
Kon and I looked at the source of the noise at lightning speed.
"BECAUSE OF YOU MY ARM'S LIKE THIS!", the voice argued.
My eyes widen.
They don't widen in shock, no.
They widen, because the boy who was grabbed by the collar by the roaring guy, was Kancho.
Kon reacted immediately and rushed to Kancho's help.
'Idiots', I thought. 'They forbade us to fight! Do they all want to be excluded from the next test?'
With my head shaking I looked at the scenario, which started to unfold at the other end of the room.
"HOW DO YOU PLAN TO REPAY YOUR DEBT?! HUH?!", asked the yeller.
My eyebrows began to twitch.
'Does he have to be this loud? It's somehow his own fault to have been hurt, isn't it ?!', I thought annoyed by the argument between the two of them.
For many my thoughts would seem too harsh, but they are a purely rational fact.
If he would have been stronger or smarter, he wouldn't be hurt by now.
After all, this whole theatre that was being put on us wasn't a game, let alone a pleasure.
"I don't know.", replies Kancho with an icy voice.
He was annoyed, but seemed to be able to keep his cool.
'At least something positive...', I thought. At least until he replied.
"Maybe you should buy a new one and glue it on."
There was a brief silence in the room.
'Is the guy totally stupid?!', shouted my inner being. ,This cannot be true! Do you have a death wish?!'
"WHAT?! YOU...! YOU...! YOU LITTLE SHIT!", yelled the man with the missing arm.
Kon and another tried to settle this dispute, but every attempt was in vain.
The man with the lost arm pulled out his spear and prepared himself to fight.
Kancho, who held a NEEDLE* in one of his hands the whole time, did the same.
I got up, because it was time to act.
'Do they want to fail?'
I started moving as quickly as possible; the finished BANANA can in one of my hands.
At meanwhile, the two opponents held on to their collars.
I realized that if either one attacked, the injury would be devastating.
,No! It can't get this far! I don't want to see people get hurt or even killed anymore!'
During my race, I put my hands in a throwing position.
My goal was clearly to see.
'I will throw the can between these two! This should distract them at least for a short moment!' At this moment, my can left my fingertips and rushed towards the idiots.
And that was the moment when - ...
"Thought the announcement said no fighting during the break.", said a calm and deep voice.
Everyone's gazes shot it's direction. Likewise the gaze of the two opponents.
"Do my words sound like a joke to you? Chosen Regulars?", continued the astonishing but menacing voice.
A young and tall, very tall man appeared on the scene.
,Blond. Golden eyes. Two black dots on his face. Large. Amazing voice and presence.', I inevitably had to swallow. His presence was just overwhelming.
'Who is this guy ?!', I thought as my thoughts continued to revolve about the man.
The one-armed man with the spear didn't seem to notice his overwhelming presence, because he replied in an angry voice: "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU!!! YOU LITTLE NERD!!!"
"Stop! He...He's probably...", tried his team member to warn him.
"I'm your test administrator Lero-ro. "
The rising panic in the eyes of the one-armed man could hardly be overseen.
"Te...st...Administrator? Then...a...Ra...Rara...Rank..."
"Yes. The tower's ranker.", the man called Lero-ro completed his sentence.
At that very moment it happened.
The can that I threw and which has received no attention so far rushed past the heads of Kancho and the man.
The eyes of both of them, as well as the Rankers, were startled on me.
I swallowed hard.
'Oh yeah...that's not good at all!', I thought and got really nervous.
When the BANANA can hit the floor and a loud metallic noise could be heard, the attention was no longer on the Ranker or on the two idiots, but on the can. Or rather on me.
It became quiet, very quiet, even the Ranker was quiet.
'How embarrassing!', I thought and quickly corrected my position to a less conspicuous position, one in which I stood straight and put a hand on the back of my head, embarrassed. This hand moved slowly back and forth.
I started laughing excitedly.
"Ha ... Ha ... Ha ...", my slow laugh echoed in the room, which seemed even bigger to me now.
Cold drops of sweat formed on my face. ,Oh my God! How embarrassing! Please don't stare at me like that!'
"I'm really sorry! I just wanted to settle the argument.", I defended myself, waving with my hands.
'Please, please stop staring like that!', I pleaded inwardly.
The Rankers' gaze wandered from me and the rowdies, to us Regulars.
"More of you passed than expected.", he states rationally. The crowd now looking in his direction.
'What is a Ranker anyway? What distinguishes him from us Regulars?', I inevitably ask myself.
Lero-ro's voice fading into the background.
I heard the voice of a boy a little further ahead of me.
"This man is really amazing! He barely said a word and the fight stopped immediately!", he said impressed.
A boy with blue hair replied: "Well, he sure is amazing. Since he's a Ranker and Test Administrator."
"Ranker? Now that you mention it, what's a Ranker?", he asked the blue-haired boy with the bandana and briefcase. Directly behind these two was some sort of dinosaur or crocodile, which ate chocolate bars in incredibly large quantities.
"You don't even know what a Ranker is and you are climbing the tower? You really want to climb this tower?", the blue-haired asked a little scornfully. But his question seemed to be just a rational one though, because he didn't wait for the brown-haired peer's answer and continued instead.
I pricked up my ears, after all, this was an important information that I shouldn't overhear!
"A ranker is a person who has reached the top of the tower. And then the tower gives them a ranking accordingly. That's why they are called Ranker. "
I swallowed.
'One who has already climbed the tower!'
'Lero-ro is for sure really amazing!', I thought as I remembered the past events in which I almost died.
'He survived all of this! And even a lot more! Just...just amazing!'
I was extremely grateful to the blue-haired boy, because of his answer I had the feeling, that at least I wasn't completely haphazard.
'I should thank them later! In addition, the boy with the brown hair is probably feeling like me, he doesn't have a clue! Maybe we can become friends and support each other! And the blue-haired one seems to know a lot about the tower! This can be of use for me! '
Slowly, my attention returned to the Ranker.
He only seemed to have spoken a few relatively unimportant sentences so far, as the tension was still in the air.
"We'll have to do some culling."
'Further selection?', I thought.
"Culling?" I heard a boy ask in front of me.
At this moment Lero-ro raised his hand, which had previously been on his chin and moved it slowly towards his hip.
In meanwhile he smiled a little to himself.
After that everything happened incredibly fast.
A blue ball began to form in his hand and suddenly this blue substance shot in our direction.
I noticed how this substance, which was very similar to water, had to exert a kind of pressure, because those in front of me were all pushed away by this wave.
I, on the other hand, felt nothing, except of a pleasant warm flow of power around me.
"Shinsuu is the source of the tower's power. We are able to breathe thanks to this water. Everyone within the tower uses this water to fight.", explained Lero-ro, the blonde Ranker.
Because of the uncomfortable absence of warmth and Lero-ro's voice I regained my consciousness.
I hadn't moved an inch.
"Any team that can passes through this Shinsuu-Wall without succumbing to the Shinsuu's strength passes. Everyone else fails.", said the blond-haired man.
"Teams? What if one of us can't get through?", asked a Regular indignantly.
But I also got to swallow hard, because Kancho and Kon had both been washed up to the other end of the room.
'This is pure luck! If you have the wrong companions or you are even weak yourself, the whole team fails!'
Still in shock, I watched the scene that unfolded before me.
"You fail.", answers Lero-ro in a clear voice.
"That's messed up!", shouted the complainant.
"What you need most to climb this tower is luck.", said Lero-ro, his hand in the middle of his face.
For a moment I let the ranker's words sink in and realized that he wasn't completely wrong.
'All that had happened to me so far...I wouldn't have survived without that little bit of luck. So he's not entirely wrong...'
"The luck to be born with exceptional brains or brawn. The luck to be blessed with wealth and good friends. You only made it this far, because of your luck.", continued Lero-ro, before he was interrupted by the same brown-haired boy who had previously asked the question about the Ranker.
In shock I took a deep breath in, because he was standing behind the wall, just few meters from Lero-ro.
,How is that possible?! Why wasn't he pushed away by the force called Shinsuu?! Is he really like me?! Did he feel the same as I did before? No pressure but pleasant warmth?!'
"Excuse me. It didn't push me back.", said the boy in a shy voice.
'I knew it!', screamed my inner voice happily. 'I'm not alone!'
Lero-ro turns to the brown-haired man. He seemed very puzzled by the fact that there was someone who wasn't being pushed away by his Shinsuu.
'Does that mean it's not normal to stand still?! Is that a bad thing?! Is something wrong with me?!', I thought, panic slowly raising in the inside.
"I-I'm sorry! I'll go back!", said the boy as he started moving.
"No, you pass.", said the Ranker soberly.
"Huh?!"
"Perhaps it was a mistake, but that would be luck as well."
"WHAT?! THAT'S NOT FAIR !!!", shouted a couple of Regulars next to me.
'Are you completely stupid?! The guy climbed the tower! As an examiner, he wouldn't be definitely so inattentive to not catch one of us! Get yourself together already! It must have been just luck!', I thought offended and looked angry at the two of them, because they underestimated the ranker enormously. At the same time, however, I was a bit surprised. 'Was I just lucky or was my distance to the wall so far away that the wave hadn't pushed me away?'
I let my gaze wander from the wall to Kon and Kancho, who were slowly moving in my direction. The others started also moving to the wall of Shinsuu.
"What do we do now?", I asked the two of them with little hope.
The fact that the brown-haired boy was just lucky and the whole team had to make it through this Shinsuu wall made me despair. Again, the probability of passing the test was stiflingly small.
Kancho looked briefly at me, but immediately turned his gaze back towards the wall. "It is obvious. We examine the wall and try to cross it.", he said, before moving towards the wall to explore it.
Kon put a hand on my shoulder encouragingly.
"Don't worry, we can do it!"
I blinked away the tears that had formed in my eyes and nodded.
"Mhmm ...", I said affirmatively. 'After all, I would never let my teammates down!'
However, I inevitably asked myself whether the god of happiness would support me again or not.
Kon made his way to the wall, better said to Kancho, who was knocking on the wall to test its density.
The two of them seemed to be exchanging ideas and way about getting through the wall.
I told Kon earlier, that I would stay back and over watch the situation from distance.
I scanned the area.
A few meters from Kancho and Kon, stood a boy in a purple-orange tracksuit. He tried, with all of his strength, to push through the Shinsuu. A girl with brown hair, who also complained beforehand, tried it the same way. Lero-ro and the boy seemed to be talking about something. Further, on the right-side was a cute little lizard-like girl, who was looking at the Shinsuu wall. The brown-haired boy's teammates, the boy with the briefcase and the dinosaur, looked at the scenario a little further back, the same as I did.
'Probably the two of them are trying to figure something out, just like me.'
I turned my head from the two of them towards the Shinsuu wall.
The lizard girl had started moving.
'Don't say you just want to walk right through the Shinsuu, girl?!', I asked myself, a bit amazed.
However, contrary to my expectations, the lizard crossed the obstacle without any further problems.
'Unbelievable!', I thought, while admiring the little one.
Still perplexed, I noticed how a boy, wrapped in a blanket and with a pillow, moved also in the direction of the Wall.
My eyes widened in amazement when he crossed the Shinsuu too, without further problems. After he got through, he laid down on the floor behind and said he would sleep there.
'He's got some nerves of steel!', I thought not only in amazement, but also in admiration of him and his nerves.
When a third person, a boy with a blue and red sword on his hip, crossed the wall too, I stormed towards my teammates.
I rushed to Kon, Kancho, and the Wall at a full-speed.
When I was about to take my place at their side, I tripped over a small object.
'That...that can't be true!!!' I shouted inwardly as my gaze slid to the object.
The reason why I stumbled was my own BANANA can, which I had thrown before.
I closed my eyes, because I was afraid of the coming impact.
Since I ran before I tripped, I would probably fly through the air, after that I would have a crash landing for sure.
The crash came faster than expected and wasn't nearly as painful as I thought.
I slowly straightened up and examined my palms and knees.
In fact, I hadn't suffered a single injury.
I exhaled in relief.
'Blessing in disguise!'
"Are you all right?", asked the boy with the bandaged object and held his hand out to me.
I nodded and took his hand.
"Yes, I'm fine!", I said happily and pulled myself up, thanks to his hand.
'How embarrassing!', I thought to myself as blush rose to my face.
Suddenly it struck me.
With wide eyes I looked behind me and I realized that I must have fallen through the Shinsuu.
Kon and Kancho looked at me amazed. They probably wondered how I managed to get over the wall more or less without an obstacle.
My gaze was now back at the brown-haired boy in front of me.
"Thank you very much!", I said and bowed thanks, as usual in Japan.
The boy in front of me seemed a little overwhelmed by that, because he waved with his hands excitedly.
"I ... I didn't do anything! Please stand up! "
Said and done.
I sat up and noticed the strange looks from the sleeping guy, who had been woken up by my little incident, the swordsman and the administrator, Lero-ro.
'Oh god! How embarrassing! Isn't it common here to bow as a thank you?!', I thought embarrassed.
Fortunately I couldn't blush because one of the regulars complained loudly about Lero-ro's test.
Since I was overwhelmed with almost everything at this point, I didn't even hear the Regular and his complain. All I remembered is that Lero-ro emerged from the Wall he created and stepped to the Regular. Then he created a sphere with his Shinsuu, which only included him and the Regular. The Shinsuu was probably somewhat stronger than the wall's, because it seemed to crush the complaining Regular with no problem or resistance. His aura had changed within seconds from a calm and mysterious to a dangerous and mysterious one.
Inevitably I had to swallow.
As the regular crouched on the floor, the Ranker withdrew his Shinsuu and went back behind the created Shinsuu wall.
The atmosphere around the Ranker became calm and trusting again.
'This man is not only strong, he is also dangerous!', I thought respectfully.
"Come on, let's sit down!", said my helper and pulled me to a platform on which he and the Ranker had sat previously.
"By the way, my name is Twenty-Fifth Baam!", he said in a very friendly sounding voice as he had been pulling me over to the stage and the ranker.
"I'm - ..."
Before I could reply, I felt dizzy and my field of vision blurred.
I felt Baam turning around in concern.
However, it turned black around me so quickly, that I only noticed how I fell into the arms of the cute boy, while Kon and Kancho worriedly called out my name.
'Maybe I'm just too hungry...', I thought before the darkness engulfed me completely.
The god of darkness seemed to like me as much as the goddess of luck...!
---------------------------
---------------------------
The Characters (Kon, Kancho) are part of the original Webtoon and Anime!
---------------------------
Did you like this chapter?
Leave a VOTE and COMMENT here!
---------------------------
!!! If you read this story please consider that I'm not a native speaker. So be prepared for possible grammatical error and wrong usage of language !!!
---------------------------
Opinion and criticism?
Questions?
Ideas for the next part of this story?
Wishes?
Other