Entrance Examination (part 1)

During their rest week, Rando went in once more for a check up with Masugi. She told him his ribs were nearly fully healed but he should take it easy for a couple of more days. She also commended him for keeping his word by not aggravating his injuries further.

He kept all these in mind as he awaited the start of the entrance examination for the Horizon Academy, which was roughly 3 days away.

He lay on his bed, staring at the poster of a famous boxer he stuck on the wall of his room. He could hear his parents downstairs. When they visited him in the hospital, he was scolded by his mum for being reckless and not letting the police handle it but was commended by his dad for his bravery. It sounded like they were dancing, but all he could think of was the examination.

To distract his mind, he called Yashiro. After a few rings, Yashiro picked up.

"What's up Rando?"

"Not much, just nervous about the examination. Needed a distraction.

"I'm nervous too, but I'm currently drowning myself in video games"

Rando laughed, "I thought as much. I'll join you later on. You heard from Rani?"

"I spoke to her earlier, she's doing some revision."

"Yeah that sounds like her. Anyway, I'll leave you to your games, I'll talk to you later "

"yeah, see you"

After the phone call, Rando decided to take a nap because he knew overthinking wouldn't help him.

[Everyone is coping in their own way I guess], he thought.

*

Yashiro, Rani and Rando were all up early, their emotions, feelings of excitement and also fear. 2 days before, they received emails and text messages that included details of where they had to be on the day and the time they had to be there by.

Everyone who was interested in taking the entrance examination had to sign up via text or email so the institution knew how many students to expect.

Yashiro was dressed and sitting on his bed, looking over the text again when his mum walked in.

"Today is the big day huh?"

Yashiro smiled, "morning mum"

"Good morning sweetheart. How are you feeling?"

"I'm nervous but I'm very excited"

His mother, Kirinaha Katsui put her hand on her sons head.

"I'm very proud of you Yashiro, do your best. There's breakfast downstairs, I'll see you when I get back from work ."

"have a nice day"

"you too, son" she said as she walked out of the room.

He sighed and decided to check on his friends. They decided to meet up in front of Rani's house.

After saying goodbye to her parents, she joined the boys who were waiting outside. They exchanged greetings and began walking towards a bus stop.

"Why is the meeting point so damn far?" Rani asked

Yashiro responded, "I think the further we are from the cities, the more freedom we have with our powers. Less risk of structures getting damaged"

"Well, its a good thing they're providing several coaches going to the location. Luckily for us, the nearest one is a few minutes away"

it was 7:25 am and the coach was estimated to get there at 7:30.

The coach came right on time and as they boarded, they went to the to top deck and straight to back. The coach was quite big, it could fit 40 students, 20 at the top and 20 at the bottom. The bottom was already half full. It was going to be a 2 hour drive so they decided to take a nap.

When they woke up, the coach had already come to a stop and students were filing out of the coach, so they joined.

Yashiro looked around, he was slightly surprised. There appeared to be more than 200 students lined up outside a building and more from 2 coaches including his, were joining.

When all students had lined up, a middle aged man, dressed in a neat black suit and wearing sunglasses walked out of the building. As he spoke, his voice came out of multiple speakers.

"Could I have everyone's attention please?" The authority his voice commanded forced all attention on him.

"My name is Hirowa Tatsumi. I'll be your examinations officer for today. The examination consists of three parts, the first of which is written. The other two parts will be made known to those who make it to those respective stages.

The written exam will be 2 hours long, questions consisting of general knowledge, mathematics, and science. It is not a race so you will not get extra marks or any form of commendation for turning in your exam early, so it's advisable to take your time. The exam has a pass percentage of 80%"

The students looked at each other in disbelief but no one uttered a word. Hirowa continued, "the exams are done on individual digital pads so you will know if you passed or not with 2 minutes." He paused immediately before continuing, "Any questions?"

There was no response for a few seconds until someone raised their hand and spoke up from the crowd of students in a loud and clear voice.

"You said only those who make it to the further stages get to know about what those stages would be about. So isn't it unfair that those who aren't as academically gifted wouldn't get a chance to prove themselves?"

Hirowa adjusted his glasses with his middle finger before responding, "The Academy prides itself in picking and nurturing only the best of the best. In simpler terms, we want all rounders. Our job is to make top grade students even better. Now that may sound unfair to you but this is what the Academy is all about. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes sir"

"Any more questions?"

He was met with silence.

"Now then, let the examination begin" As he said this, he opened up the doors of the building, revealing a rather spacious room with desks and digital pads. He stood by the door as the students filed in. In a matter of minutes, the room was filled and the doors shut again.

Hirowa spoke one more time, "it's now 9:50am now, as I mentioned before you have exactly 2 hours for this exam. The pads automatically end the exam after two hours. Your time starts now"

*

For majority of the students there, those two minutes they had to wait after their exams felt like an eternity.

Yashiro tapped his leg as he waited for his results. His eyes, fixated on the screen in front of him. To his relief, a green light emerged from the screen with the message, "congratulations, you achieved 83% in this test, you have passed".

He breathed a huge sigh of relief and immediately went to search for his friends.

Rani achieved a score of 91% and Rando, a score of 84%.

They celebrated with each other quietly as they had made it to stage 2 of the entrance examination.

As they turned their heads to look around the room, they noticed a bunch of students crying, their screens were red and others were trying to console them.

One in particular stood out, he was raising his voice and walking towards Hirowa, "I got more than 79 percent! Why am I not allowed to progress? Why?"

"Young man, I would advise you to calm down. 79 percent is not 80 is it?"

He was shocked beyond imagination. He couldn't say anything else. He simply walked out of the building towards the coaches.

Hirowa spoke shortly after, "Now then, all those who sadly didn't pass, please kindly return to the coaches in an orderly fashion."

After all the students who failed had left the hall, Hirowa spoke again.

"From the information collected from the pads, there are 70 of you left. Congratulations, you have all made it to the second stage. Now follow me, and take your pads with you.

He opened a different door and walked out, revealing an area Covered by a dense forest. He waited for all the students to come out then he turned and began walking, talking as he did so

"The second stage is quite simple. If you take a look at the map on your pads, there's a blue marker indicating where we are right now and a red one indicating where you all need to be within the next 3 hours. Those of you who do not make it in time, fail. Good luck."

After he gave the instructions, he walked towards the back of the building, got in a motorbike and rode off.

The students began complaining as they looked at the hurdle in front of them. Rando, Yashiro and Rani all looked at each other and then at the map.

They realised this was going to be tedious as the distance was roughly 25km.

Rando spoke up, "at a decent walking pace, you can walk 20km in roughly 3 hours, but this terrain looks challenging, and no one knows what to expect."

Yashiro nodded in agreement,"you're right, we should do a light jog, and pace ourselves. We should be fine."

Rani agreed and while most of the other students were still complaining they took off and began the run. Although there were already a few students in front of them.

The first part of the hurdle involved chest high bushes covered in thorns, a muddy patch covered with bits of wood, and trees that were so big that sunlight barely made it through.

Getting through it was tougher than the trio thought, but they continued pushing forward, Rando clearing a path in front of them by covering his arms in steel and moving the thorns out of the way.

After about 35 minutes of this, they finally made it out. They all stood still as they saw what the second part was.

A huge river, that didn't seem to end.

"Oh so now we're swimming?" Yashiro said, sarcastically. Rani laughed, "Well, we're running out of time so, shall we?"

Rando and Yashiro both sighed and reluctantly got in the water.

It went smoothly by their standards and they swam for about 50 minutes with little breaks in between before finally leaving the river. They were all shivering at this point. In front of them was yet another forest, less dense than the one they went first went through

"oh wow, I'm exhausted" Rani said, shivering and breathing heavily as she said so.

"is it just me? or did the river get colder the more we swam?" Yashiro asked

"yeah it definitely got colder, I don't know how that's possible though" Rando said, "I'm going to rest for a bit, I don't know what to expect anymore, and the map says we have still got about 15km to go, and just over 2 hours to do so."

Yashiro did a quick calculation in his head, muttering as he did so.

They looked at him as he relayed what he was thinking. After that, they realised they were a bit behind. They agreed they would only rest for 20 minutes before continuing.

After 5 minutes of resting, they heard snarls coming from behind them. They turned back quickly and saw what appeared to be wolves running at them.