Hide-and-Seek Grandmaster

"I can do the MOBA test," Nia declared. "I just need a few minutes to recharge."

[Recharge?] Yuel raised an eyebrow. [Are you a robot?]

"Are you sure about it?" Kai asked. "You don't have to push yourself. You just went through two difficult duels."

"It's okay. I think."

"You think?"

"Um, I mean," Nia stumbled over her words. "I-I'll do it! But, it'd be nice if I can get a little break to recharge."

"Sure, there's no rush," Kai nodded. "Tell us when you're ready."

"Ok," Nia put down her school bag and fished inside. Meanwhile, Kai approached Yuel.

"Did you blackmail her into it?" Kai asked.

"I didn't do anything," Yuel said. "And, that's actually rude. I'm not some kind of a bully."

"Not sure Nia agrees on that one and I see why. You're not exactly being friendly this exam."

"Why everybody has to be like this..." Yuel sighed. It felt like everybody here was making him out like some kind of villain. All he was trying to do was hold a proper exam that'll test everything they needed to know about Nia's skill.

[I bet Aron went through similar criticism before.] Yuel smiled wryly. Back during StormBlitz's entrance exam, Yuel thought Aron was quite the bully examiner. Aron asked questions nonstop and made many remarks, some of which came off as rude. At the time, it felt Aron was getting a kick out of bullying freshmen.

But, now that Yuel was in the same shoes, he realized that wasn't the case at all. Aron merely tried to gauge Yuel's skill to the best of his ability, the same thing Yuel was trying to do with Nia right now.

Unfortunately, when the examinee was so difficult to judge, it forced the examiner to push harder to gather more useful data. However, doing so made it look like Yuel was pressuring Nia for fun. That wasn't his intention at all.

[Seems like my high-level communication skills strike again.] Yuel sighed. He really had to work on that area but he wasn't sure how.

Being good at communication would be a great plus for a shot-caller. As frustrating as it was to admit, everybody felt more motivated to follow the lead of somebody charismatic. That's why everybody liked Howard as their shot-caller over Yuel.

The only reason people agreed to follow Yuel's calls was that he proved his ability time and again. But, that almost felt like submitting them through force. It shouldn't be like that. Teammates should work more naturally with each other. If only Yuel could better convey his intentions without coming off as an evil criticizing nagger, everybody will be happier.

[Actually, maybe I should start right here and now.] Yuel nodded to himself. This was a good opportunity to operate out of his comfort zone in order to improve the situation. He should clear things up with Nia and explain he was merely trying to test her in different ways to get a better read on her.

[What is she up to anyway?] Yuel approached the curled mass of black hair. Nia was sitting hunched at the corner and making some weird noises.

[Oh, she's eating something.] There was a brown bar of chocolate in her mouth and she was munching on it with tiny but swift bites. She looked like a hamster.

[Pft, heh. No, stop. Put on a serious face. Ahem.] Yuel cleared his throat and straightened his posture. Then, he approached Nia.

Munch. Munch. Munch. Then, a pause. Nia slowly raised her black eyes and eyed him through her messy bangs.

"I-I'm not giving it," Nia curled up further and pressed the bar of chocolate to her chest.

"I didn't come for that," Yuel said. "I just wanted to say that... Well..." Words didn't come. He knew what he had to say but the words got lost somewhere at the back of his head.

"Kukuku!" A suspicious laughed resounded from behind. "Just as my calculations showed! If I follow the trail of the Mystic Eyes, I can find the Vanishing Phantom!" Vincent popped out of nowhere.

"So, that's what you meant by 'recharging'," Vincent took a quick look at Nia's chocolate and jotted something down on his tablet. "Alright, duly noted. The fuel for the Vanishing Drive is chocolate! You got a favorite brand?"

"Anything goes as long as it's good," Nia opened a pocket in her bag and revealed a pile of wrapped chocolates. "These are good."

"Hohoho, that's quite the collection! You always carry that many with you?"

"My mom works at a sweets shop, so..." Nia took a long, hard look at the chocolates inside the bag. She was carrying so but she always ate them by herself. Didn't other kids tend to share their snacks with their friends? Who knew. She never had such friends to share with.

One time, she dumped a huge pile of chocolate on her table in class. She was hoping to share some sweets with others and make friends like that. It was a 200 IQ bribery tactic.

But, that didn't quite work out as she hoped. The chocolates successfully drew everybody's attention and made them remember Nia exists. But, they only came to ask for chocolate and then left as soon as they got it. Nia didn't even get to exchange a single word with them. Her grand chocolate bribery ploy fell through.

But still, sharing snacks was something friends did, right? She got plenty to spare and the people in this club actually talked to her and were mostly nice, with a few exceptions. So, maybe this was the kind of situation where she should share chocolate?

[This will also be like bribery for the exam.] Nia smirked. This should increase her chances of passing the scary MOBA exam. If everybody learns Nia carries snacks around and shares them, they'll surely want her in the club so they can eat snacks all day long!. It was the perfect bribe.

"Um, you want?" Nia stretched her hand in Vincent's direction. "This is good stuff."

"Hey, thanks," Vincent accepted the bar of chocolate. "Oh! This is indeed high quality! No doubt, it's the chocolate of aristocrats! I shall dub you the Phantom of Chocolates! Nay, the Chocolate Phantom!"

"Hah..." Nia wasn't sure what to make of that. "I got more. So, if others want too..."

"Got it," Vincent turned around and made a hand megaphone around his mouth. "Free chocolates! Free chocolates here! You've never tasted anything like it!"

Not a moment passed and everybody was there.

"Yo, what's up?" Lars came over. "Oh! This thing is sick! Thanks, dude."

"Not bad, not bad," Luke nodded. "Can I try that one too? And, this one also looks great too."

"Thanks," Kai also took one.

There was enough for everybody. In fact, there was way more than enough. There was virtually no end to the chocolates pouring out of Nia's bag.

[Why do I carry so many?] Nia smiled wryly Perhaps, all this time, she has been waiting for an opportunity to share the chocolates with others. Or, maybe she was just lazy and preferred to load her bag to last a week or two.

[OK, I bribed them.] Nia nodded to herself. [Now, they'll let me pass for sure. And, maybe they'll even become my friends. Just in case, I should offer them some more.]

Nia went on another round of giveaways for everybody. Except, there was one boy she refused to give anything to. It was that bully guy. He didn't deserve anything.

The entire time, the bully kept glaring at her as if judging her every move. He must have been trying to submit Nia through the intensity of his gaze. Scary.

"I-I'm not giving you any," Nia puffed her cheeks.

[I see I'm very liked.] Yuel sighed. Somehow, he managed to create the image of a bully even though he was merely trying to hold a proper entrance exam. Why did things always turn out this way?

[No, not this time.] Yuel nodded to himself. This time, he won't let it end here. He'll speak up and try to clear up the situation. Yes, he will... once he figures what to say. Any moment now. Any moment.

"What?" Nia looked at him with suspicious eyes.

"Ah, well," Yuel shifted his eyes away. This was such a pain in the neck. Why did he even have to justify himself? He was trying to do the right thing here, yet everybody treated him like a villain for it. It was so wrong.

Nevertheless, he had to suck it up and go through with it.

"I'm sorry," Yuel almost coughed while pushing these words through his throat. "You seem to think I'm being mean to you but that's not my intention. All I want is to properly test your skills. Pitting you against Lars was a great way to see how you fare against a strong duelist, that's all there is to it. It's just a part of the exam."

"Suspicious," Nia gave him a look. "Are you trying to act nice to get chocolate?"

"No, I just wanted to clear things up. For some reason, people often mistake my intentions and make me out like some terrible person."

[Maybe because you really are.] Nia shifted her eyes away. Well, maybe she was judging him too harshly. After all, she has just met this boy so she didn't know much about him. Maybe he just looked like a mean stalker bully but, in reality, he was a nice person. Maybe.

Besides, Nia only got to apply to the club thanks to Yuel. Back when the club was recruiting members outside, he was the one who noticed Nia in the crowd. At the time, she was curious about joining the club but couldn't muster the courage to step forward.

Then, Yuel called out to her. That spooked the heck outta her, so she ran for her life! But, the guy chased her like a trained professional stalker! She had to use her advanced ninja techniques and hide in the shadow of the crowd to shake him off.

After she successfully erased her presence, the pursuer gave up and left. But, before doing so, he put a flier of the Classmancers club on one of the boards. Nia snatched that thing and filled it in.

Next, she went to hand the registration paper to the club. But, she got nervous about coming in. After all, all these guys were a bunch of strangers.

So, the plan of attack was to sneak into the club, leave the paper on one of the tables, and slip away unnoticed. But, yet again, Yuel spotted her with his hawk eyes! That gave her the spook of her life and she ran for her life again. That guy was like a neo technology security droid! Scary.

While running away, Nia dropped her application form. Yuel must have picked it up and passed it to the others. If he truly were a terrible person, he would have tossed that flier into the trash and that would've killed Nia's chances of getting into the club. Yet, Yuel cared enough to handle the application and the club even called Nia for a test despite her late registration.

So, Yuel wasn't a bully. Probably. At least, it didn't seem he had bad intentions.

"Here," Nia stretched a hand holding a chocolate bar. "Peace?"

"Peace," Yuel accepted the treat. The chocolate was really sweet, even a little too sweet to his taste. But, it was solid. No wonder Nia was addicted enough to carry an entire factory in her bag.

While Yuel was enjoying the chocolate, Nia stared at him the entire time. Her little black eyes peered through her long spaghetti bangs. It was as if she was analyzing an otherworldly creature.

"I got something on me?"

"Hm? No. I thought it's curious that aliens like chocolate too."

"Aliens? What aliens?"

"Then, are you a droid? A terminator sent to enslave mankind!? Scary."

"Excuse me?" Yuel made a face. "I thought we made peace and you understood I'm not trying to pull anything."

"Hm?" Nia tilted her head. "How's that related?"

"You tell me. What's all this about aliens and droids?"

"You gotta be one of those."

"I'm not, though."

"Don't lie."

"I'm not lying..."

"Impossible," Nia puffed her cheeks. "Then, what manner of creature are you?"

"I believe I belong to the Homosapien species."

"An esper, then."

[How's that the conclusion!?] Yuel nearly chocked on the chocolate.

"Most people can't find me even when I'm on standby," Nia explained. "But, you can track me even when I hide. Gotta be some supernatural power."

[What's more "supernatural" is your ability to hide all the time.] Yuel rolled his eyes. Just like Nia was surprised about being found by Yuel, he was astonished by the very opposite: how came nobody but him could ever find Nia?

[Not to sound like Vincent, but this really makes her seem like a phantom.] Yuel shook his head. It was as if Nia could turn into thin air in front of their very eyes. Was this girl some sort of esper? [Heh, now who is being silly? There has to be a logical explanation for this.]

From what Yuel could tell, Nia had a habit of placing herself at the edge of people's field of view. Even now, while she was just taking a break to stuff herself with chocolate, she chose to sit at the corner of the room. Why? No idea. But, that's what she was doing.

Being tucked away at the corner like this made her relatively difficult to spot. And, that's how Nia generally "vanished" in his experience. She often positioned herself in some obscure location that would be easily overlooked unless somebody was actively searching for her there. And, even then, it might take them a while to spot her there. She was most likely a Grandmaster in hide-and-seek.

But then, why this trick didn't work on Yuel? Perhaps his observation skills were slightly better than the others'.

[Thinking of it, everybody used to complain when I was 'it' in hide-and-seek.] Yuel smiled wryly.

Whenever he was 'it' and began his hunt, he started by carefully scanning his surroundings. Often times, he could spot at least five kids hiding nearby before he even took a single step.

"John behind the statue. Alex under the table there. Jack pretending to be a middle schooler in that pack over there."

"Man, what the..."

"This guy sees everything, I swear."

The boys came out of their hideouts one by one and admitted defeat. Though, it was often followed by a fair share of ranting.

Yuel never understood what was the problem with his way of doing things. As "it", his job was to quickly and efficiently expose the hiding spots of others. It only made sense to start the game by carefully analyzing his surroundings and calling out everybody he saw.

In a way, that's how he often found Nia as well. Back when he spotted her in the crowd, it was when he desperately searched for candidates all over the place. And, it was the same story when he spotted Nia in the hallway. He was just hoping for more people to apply so he found that someone. That's all there was to it.

"You must be good at hide-and-seek," Yuel concluded.

"Wha!?" Nia jumped. "How did you know?"

"Well, I'm an esper so I can read your mind."

"Scary," Nia shivered. She didn't actually believe that nonsense, right? ... right?

"I'm good at hiding" Nia admitted. "Normally, you need an entire army to search the area to find me. That's how good I am."

"Impressive."

"Yeah. When we played hide-and-seek, I sometimes even stayed hidden all the way into the night. They never found me. And, once I came out, nobody was even there anymore. They must have rage quit."

[It sounds more like they completely forgot about you and left...] Yuel had no idea what to say about this story. At the very least, it confirmed his suspicion: Nia was a natural pro at hiding. That's all there was to this "Vanishing Phantom" mystery.

"The same way you're good in the 'hide' part of hide-and-seek, I'm good in the 'seek' part" Yuel explained. "That's how I can find you faster than the others. It's simple as that."

"That's it? Really?" Nia stared at him in suspicion. "I think you're still hiding something."

"You're the one doing the hiding here." Yuel sighed. Apparently, there was no convincing this girl. For the world to make sense, Yuel had to be some sort of, esper, alien or robot. Oh well.

What's interesting about this whole thing was how Nia's Grandmaster hide-and-seek skills seemed to extend to Classmancers in a way. By taking advantage of the stealth mechanic, she vanished from the enemy's sight and snuck up to them when they least expected it. The stealth empowered her natural hiding skills for double the effect.

So far, she has caught Vincent and Lars off-guard by playing this way. But, will her playstyle prove effective against other plays in the MOBA mode? They were about to find out in the upcoming test match.