The Bet

"Let's see… My order would be, Talo, Clara, Toga, Wen, Diaga, Krill, and Binzo," Nuna said.

Ryuma gave her a puzzled look. His list was a little different than hers. "That's strange. I would have gone with "Talo, Wen, Diaga, Toga, Clara, Binzo, and Krill,"

Although she could be a bit ditsy at times, she was by no means a stupid girl. What made her produce the list that she did?

"Really? Then should we wait and see which one of us is more accurate than the others?" Nuna said.

Ryuma smirked. "You're on,"

Ryuma had to wonder, what gave her the confidence she had. Did she know something he didn't? No matter how he looked at it, he ranked everybody according to their strengths and weaknesses. Surely, he wasn't wrong.

"Don't forget about the promise if I win," She reminded him.

"Of course I won't. I don't break promises," Ryuma assured.

And so, the two waited. Nine minutes and forty-eight seconds in, Talo came running through the gate, huffing, and puffing. He rested his hands on his knees.

They looked at each other and smiled. Both knew what this one was going to be, and the confirmation between them solidified it.

Their reasoning… there was no way in hell he was going to leave Ryuma alone with his sister longer than necessary.

An embarrassing reason on Nuna's end, but both knew Talo by now. Not to mention, that the two were similar, and it wasn't that out of the ordinary for him to have kept up pace. Talo had skills of his own.

"Hey Ryuma! What was that look you two were sharing?" He demanded.

"It's nothing Talo, we're busy," Nuna said.

That's right. This next person was going to decide which of their predictions was more accurate. Ten minutes and four seconds in, Clara came jogging right on through. Unlike Talo however she didn't seem the least bit winded.

"Can't believe the nerve of them. To have me running out here like this," Clara complained.

Ryuma's eyes widened. She got it right! He looked over at her and she smiled and flashed the V sign over at him.

"That's one for Ryuma, two for Nuna! My list is currently winning!" Nuna teased.

"It's not over. Diaga could still end up coming in third," He'd have to mentally apologize to Toga for hoping he'd lose to Diaga, but he wanted to win this bet.

"Ok, I'll bite. What are the two lovebirds up to?" Clara asked.

"I don't know but judging from the context clues, it seems they might have placed a bet on which order we'd come in," Talo said. "For some reason, that pisses me off,"

"And here I was thinking of just pacing myself to barely scrape by. Lucky for her, I really didn't want to be out there with the rest of them any longer," She casually put her hands in her pockets.

"You do realize that if Toga is the next one, my list already kills yours regardless of what comes after right?" Nuna said.

"Fine, we'll see who the third one is, then you'll see that I'm not out of this yet," Ryuma said as Toga came jogging through the gate, clocking in at ten minutes and twenty-six seconds.

"Ahh man that was nice! Love a good workout!" Toga said.

Ryuma gave him the look of disappointment etched on his face.

"What's gotten into you?" Toga asked.

"Why couldn't you have come further down the list? It doesn't make sense how someone so bad at control, managed to conceal himself at the pace you were going,"

Nuna smiled and hugged on to Ryuma's arm. "Remember, a bet's a bet. You must do whatever I request of you,"

Toga looked puzzled for a moment. The light bulb in his head finally clicked. "What the hell Ryuma. Did you bet against me!?"

Ryuma ignored him. "This guy's been shit when it came to control. How did you know he was going to place third?"

Nuna chuckled. "Oh it's so simple. What's the point of fearing losing control when Toga never shows signs of fatigue?"

Ryuma stopped, it then dawned on him that he never took the meatheads physique into consideration. He could have run at full power if he'd wanted, and still wouldn't be bothered trying to hold control over his soul force.

"Well it looks like you win already. Go on, name whatever it is you want," Ryuma conceded. He stared directly at her. Hopefully, it wasn't going to be something humiliating, but this was Nuna he was talking about.

Nuna only stared back. She was stiff as plywood, and her face turned crimson red. "Not now… not with so many people here,"

"Ryuma! What are you putting my sister through?" Talo complained.

"Whoa there sis con. If anything, it's what she's going to put me through!" Ryuma said.

"What did you just call me!? I'll have you know; I will not be taking this from number twenty-four!" Talo said.

"Talo!" Nuna gave him a death glare. One that at least, did its job and got him to back off.

"Tchh… whatever," Talo said.

Wen appeared at ten minutes and fifty-two seconds, followed by Diaga who showed up at eleven minutes and four seconds.

"Ok… I get it now," Clearly this girl's list was insanely accurate. Nuna pays attention to those around her. No matter how he looked at it, that was impressive.

It was beginning to reach the fifteen-minute mark. Those who didn't make it in time were given zeroes for the test, while those who made it past the ten-minute mark were docked based off how long it took afterwards. Some of the students were penalized for not having held up their control the whole way through the gates.

"OK guys! We're about to reach the third and final test of the exams. This test will be the test of combat. It is a test in where you face off against your peers. You'll be evaluated based off that alone. Taking that into account, I'd say choose wisely. This may make or break your ability to join,"

Ryuma thought it through. Sure, most people would react to it by choosing whoever they know they could beat.

{Makes sense. It feels like they're evaluating more than just your physical attributes.}

They're letting the students themselves choose who they were going to pair up with. This could be a test of discernment. Are they aware of who they're challenging? On the flipside, their choices could end up backfiring against them.

If any decided to face a student whose soul-force and skill is far lower than they're own, then it doesn't allow them to be properly evaluated. No… if they wanted full marks, the best thing to do was challenge somebody above them. That way their evaluation when they're in a test against somebody who can push back, would force more of their skills out than against somebody they could easily drop.

"Well that's ok. You ready to do this Toga?" Ryuma asked. He looked at the spot Toga was normally at, only to find that Toga was nowhere in the vicinity.

Instead, he was already in Diaga's face, staring the man down. "You were talking all that mess earlier. I couldn't help but wanting to fight you first,"

"It seems, even in our own faction, there's still fools," Diaga responded.

{Toga, and Diaga?}

That was a bummer, there goes his chance at a partner that could hold his own. He looked around and noticed that most people avoided him. Not only did they not want to lose, but they also didn't want to lose to somebody who had such a weak soul force.

Ryuma scratched his head. Wasn't this bad?