1 Paper 1

"I'm often painted out as the bad guy , and the artistic part of me wants to hand out the brush."

By Criss Jami.

I never believe the concept of effort, after all that's relative in itself. The only thing that ever mattered to me were the absolute results.I,Shimada Akio is a person who longes only for success and This is my story of fulfilling my dream.

Ten years ago, after the government realising the need for excellence and the lack of role models in this country, a high school was set up on a tiny island off the coast of East Kanto,Batsugun Academy. The hardest and the best teaching institution known to man-kind.

PRESENT TIME

SHIMADA AKIO POV

"He signed up too?"

"What was he even thinking?"

The whispers never leave you,do they? Especially when you are a middle school kid in his final year and has just applied for the world's most elite institution and yes, if you are an orphan and living in an orphanage.

Yes, I had a bad childhood but , none of that right now. A month ago, The Batsugun Academy opened up it's registration portals but this time,Instead of directly selecting the students , they decided to take a preliminary test.

The whole nation was dumbstruck. Suddenly, There was a sharp hike in the education industry like no one's ever seen before . It felt like Willy Wonka had just released the golden tickets but now in a book for a change. Parents went crazy to buy their kid the latest version of every book of,every author of,every subject that could potentially come in the test.

To make matters worse,the Headmaster released a circular on national TV which said that the test would be so difficult that no student could possibly pass it through merit.

Students freaked out after hearing this.

The Most efficient Event management board in the whole of Japan got to work . The whole country was divided into blocks based on the average merit of the students residing. Government institutions were taken and transformed into huge and super advanced examination centres ,within a month.

A day before the exam, every applicant received a message on the examination details.The

Message said that the examination was five hours long. Three hours were allocated for the examination whereas the remaining 2 hours were allotted for "special requirements".

I reached my venue 2 minutes before the time allotted.Pretty early.

The staff escorted every student into the hall doing all the paperwork on the way.

There was a strange counter placed on top of the entrance indicating the total number of students present in the hall. The current number said 89/103 . Soon the number said 103 and the whispering grew.

The head-invigilator of the venue had just arrived.

Akira Sasaki , the most feared professor even at the academy. He stood up on the stage rotating the mic like a pen in his hand.

"Greetings, students. Welcome to the preliminary test for removing the not-required from the 100 humans standing before me and selecting 5 students who are talented enough to march victoriously into the second phase of our selection process."

I saw shivers going down the spines of the "not-required".

"Let me guide you through the examination guidelines.When you received a message yesterday, It indicated a two hour time given to something called "special requirements"."

"The paper is set so hard that even accomplished masterminds of this world were unable to even pass on any section of it,let alone the whole paper. That is why, the actual objective of this examination is not to just pass the paper but rather to cheat the whole examination and pass."

The Professor laughed at the baffled expressions on the students' faces.

"For the next 120 minutes, you all will be left here and will be allowed to create groups that you think could favour you chances during the cheating. You can obviously not make a group if you want but the maximum members are limited to four."

"After that,you will tell the staff, your group members name and ID allocated. After which that staff would mumble something into your ear. It would potentially be an answer to a question.After this you wouldn't be allowed any kind of communication with anybody until the examination starts."

"You will then move to your respective rooms allotted to you while you exit the hall. Your whole group will sit in the same room."

"Then you will be allowed to take your exam which would be a digital examination on a Tablet"

"I must also inform you that any cheating except, with that of your group member, will lead to your paper getting immediately cancelled on spot.Also, though I don't think that I need to tell you this but not following any instruction would lead to the same outcome."

He took a 10 second pause and saw us with eyes which hid only malice, and began-

"Ah, yes. There is just a tiny catch."

"You are not allowed to cheat more than 5 times and that too for not more than 30 seconds while avoiding verbal contact"

"The top 5 students with the highest marks above the minimum required will pass and move on to the next stage."

"Thank you.That would be all from my side.Best of luck to everybody."

Finally things have started for real.

FLASHFORWARD TO END OF EXAM

The attendant knocked on the door of Akira sasaki.

AKIRA SASAKI POV

Come in!

"Sorry to disturb you sir, but the examination has ended and the students are being sent to the dispersal site as we speak."

"Also the results have arrived."

Oh, thanking you for informing me.

I demanded he brief me on the details. I hardly hoped that any of these dimwits would even score a zero on the test.

To my surprise,

5 students had actually achieved marks above the required level.

I enquired on the details of each student, in ascending order of marks achieved.

However , the attendant stopped midway on the last name.

"Sir, I think there has been some kind of mistake….."

"It says here that this student passed without cheating,he was also not given a correct answer by any staff."

HOW COULD THAT BE POSSIBLE?!

I snatched the record sheet from him and read the name on that list.

Shimada Akio, It said.