New Beginning

The new school year began. Yuel and Lars were about to begin from scratch in their new school, Skyline Junior High. Unfortunately, they didn't make it into the same class. This was probably a result of their last-moment transfer.

"You're new here?" Some students showed interest in the unfamiliar alien. They all seemed to know each other from the previous year., so Yuel stuck like a sore thumb.

"Yeah, I just transferred," Yuel answered without adding much. He wasn't interested in sharing his story with people he just met. They asked a few more questions, but he answered as briefly and as concisely as he could to kill any further questions. Before long, everybody lost interest and went on with their businesses.

The first day started with homeroom, followed by an opening ceremony. The homeroom teacher informed that clubs will start reciting members next week, so there was no way to apply to the Classmancers club yet.

"Dude, wanna check out the club?" Lars suggested.

"I wonder if anybody is going be there today," Yuel said. "But, at least we can learn where the clubroom is."

"Okay, let's go explore!"

They walked around the school and asked teachers and students, but...

"Classmancers? What's that?"

"Do we really have a club like that?"

It was useless. The question only surprised people and made them respond with questions of their own.

"Dude," Lars made a face. "You sure this school even got a club?"

"Yes," Yuel frowned. "At least, it's supposed to."

They went over every floor of the school building, but they couldn't find anything that even remotely resembled the Classmancers clubroom. None of the people they met along the way was helpful either. It's possible the club was behind one of the closed rooms they ran into, but all these rooms had proper labels and none of them sounded related to Classmancers.

There's no way the school decided to disband the club on a whim, right? Even the school secretary wasn't sure where this specific club was located. Just how unknown could this club possibly be?

Then again, a club with just nine members was bound to be relatively unknown. At the very least, the secretary confirmed that the club still existed on the list of this year's clubs. That's a relief.

But, where was this clubroom located? Yuel and Lars searched pretty much the entire school, yet they couldn't find anything. So, it seemed unlikely they'll find anything today... or, so they thought.

"Why hello there," A boy popped up in front of them out of nowhere. He was holding a tablet and a digital pen as he spoke to them. "A little bird told me you're looking for the Mancers club."

"Whoa!" Lars jumped. "How did ya know, dude?"

"There's nothing I don't know," The boy smiled confidently as he tapped on his tablet. "I'm an ESP. My special power is to absorb all the information that's floating around in the world! I call it: Information Blackhole!"

"Oh!" Lars nodded in excitement for some reason. "That's sick, dude!"

[More like, sick in the head.] Yuel shook his head. What did "Information Blackhole" even suppose to mean? Did this guy claim he sucked all information into himself like a black hole? In that case, the information should be gone forever and never return. [Wait, why am I even seriously thinking about this?]

"You just heard us talking to the secretary," Yuel retorted. "Pretty sure I saw you waiting in line for her."

"Yes, that's exactly right," The weirdo admitted the truth. "It was the power of my Information Blackhole!"

"... excuse me?"

"My Information Blackhole sucked you into my general space so I could overhear your conversation!"

"Of course it did," Yuel narrowed his eyes. [Okay, this guy has a few loose screws...]

"Oh, right," The boy stretched out his hand. "The name's Vincent. But, you can call me by my superhero name: Information Blackhole!"

"Yo, Blackhole," Lars played along with this insanity and shook the weirdo's hand as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "I'm Lars, but you can call me-"

"Gunz," Vincent smiled confidently. "Right?"

"Huh....?" Yuel zoned out for a moment. What? Did this stranger just identify Lars by his IGN? No, surely Yuel misheard it somehow, right?

"Whoa, dude!" Lars jumped like an excited puppy. "How did ya know!? Am I famous or something!?"

"Kukuku," Vincent cackled. "Don't underestimate the power of my Information Blackhole! I told you, I know everything there is to know. I also know your pal over here is Chessmaster."

"A real ESP, yo!" Lars was going along with this nonsense, but Yuel didn't bite. Being called by their nicknames was a big surprise, but there had to be a way to explain it. There was no "Information Blackhole" or any such nonsense.

[This oddball sure knows his Mancers.] Yuel tried to piece together all the information he had on Vincent so far.

That oddball definitely knew a little about Classmancers, that much was easy to deduce based on the conversation so far. When Vincent greeted them, he said they were searching for the "Mancers" club. That's right, he didn't say "Classmancers"; just "Mancers". That was the most common nickname for the game because "Classmancers" was quite a mouthful.

Therefore, Vincent definitely had a certain degree of familiarity with the game. Still, how could he possibly know the names Chessmaster and Gunz? It'd make some sense if Yuel and Lars were famous first-string players, but they haven't debuted in any real matches yet. The only time they played in front of a crowd was during the scrimmage with the Leopards... oh, that's it!

"You watched our scrimmage, didn't you?" Yuel interrogated.

"Heh, such lightning speed deduction," Vincent nodded with an odd sense of admiration. "As expected from a guy with the Mystic Eyes of Weakness Perception!"

"The mystic eyes of what, now?" Yuel narrowed his eyes.

"You figured out all the weak spots in my act and stuck me down. Thus, it's the Mystic Eyes of Weakness Perception!"

"Sure..." Yuel had no idea how to even begin replying to this nonsense. Vincent's evaluation was sorta correct but also entirely off the mark at the same time. It was bizarre.

"Cool!" Lars was the only one entertained by this silly show for some reason. "Then, you also know what powers I got?"

"Of course," Vincent nodded without hesitation. "You got a bunch of spicy stuff, but my favorite is definitely the Gungnir Sniper. With its power, you don't drop a single shot!"

"Yep, ya got that right, dude," The two goofs high-fived each other. "I call it 200% Accuracy, tho."

"Hey, I like it," Vincent nodded in approval. "You got the knack for this naming thing. Maybe if you invest in this craft, you'll be worthy of becoming the Arbiter of Talents, just like yours truly."

"Not sure what that means but it sounds dope as heck!"

[No, it does not.] Yuel sighed. He'll definitely lose all his brain cells if he keeps listening to this conversation. "So, you went to watch the StormBlitz vs. Leopards scrimmage last year, right?"

"Nope," Vincent denied. "I didn't go anywhere. Instead, my Information Blackhole pulled the entirety of ProCenter toward me so I could see everything that unfolded there!"

"In other words, you went to watch the matches."

"Yep."

[He dropped the act so fast!] Yuel couldn't keep up with this oddball. "So, you checked out the matches of both strings and that's when you learned the names Chessmaster and Gunz."

"You got me, Sherlock. These cursed Mystic Eyes of Weakness Perception, they don't miss a single thing."

"So," Yuel continued. "I take it you were spying on matches for the regionals?

"Yep, I was an undercover agent. You can call me Agent Blackhole 007."

[More like, Agent Ham 11.] Yuel retorted in his mind.

At least, everything made much more sense now. Vincent spied on the StormBlitz vs. Leopards scrimmage last year, so that's how he recognized Yuel and Lars as Chessmaster and Gunz.

[That's some impressive memory.] Yuel thought. [But, in the end, it's a rather underwhelming explanation. So much for his 'Information Blackhole'.]

"Now, you fess up," Vincent pointed at them. "You came here to spy on our team, didn't you?"

"Nah, dude," Lars answered. "We're new students here."

"You transferred to this school? Why?"

"Reasons," Yuel shot the topic down before Vincent got a chance to blow things out of proportion.

"I see, I see," Vicnet swept the digital pen across his tablet. "So, the news article would be something like this: 'The two promising young stars of StormBlitz, Gunz, and Chessmaster, abandon their former team in search of new adventures. You won't believe what happens next!' Sounds good to me."

"Sounds like a cheap clickbait article," Yuel shrugged.

"Yep, haha," Vincent smiled wryly. "Nobody would read that stuff anyway." He shrugged and erased everything he just wrote. "Anyway, you've been looking for the clubroom, right?"

"Indeed," Yuel have completely forgotten all about it by now. This Vincent fellow was the way too distracting. "We searched everywhere but couldn't find the Mancers clubroom."

"Kuku," Vincent smirked. "Of course you couldn't. Our team's fortress is hidden in another realm, unreachable by common humans!"

"So, it's in some obscure location?"

"Eh, you can say that," Vincent twisted his lips.

[Okay, I successfully shut down his nonsense again.] Little by little, Yuel was figuring how this clown ticked. In short, Vincent was the type to dramatize things for no reason. So, all one had to do was act unimpressed by Vincent's shenanigans and that'd kill down the clown's motivation to act. Alas, a certain goof didn't get the memo...

"Sounds cool!" Lars exclaimed. "So, it's like a secret base?"

"Yeah, exactly!" Vincent grinned anew. "It's so well-hidden, even the school got no idea where it is! Anybody who wanna spy on our team gonna have a hard time!"

[As if anybody is going to spy on such a weak team.] Yuel retorted mentally. Then again, with Yuel and Lars here, Stratus will definitely become one of the strongest teams in the region. Therefore, avoiding spies was a nice benefit.

[No, wait!] Yuel shook his head. [I just fell for his nonsense again. Vincent is just hamming up the fact the clubroom is located in some obscure, possibly rundown, location.]

"We don't let outsiders into the club, though", Vincent lifted his chin.

"Oh, snap!" Lars exclaimed. "C'mon, dude! Don't be like that. Let us iiiiiiiiiin!"

"We're planning to join anyway," Yuel added. "After you show us to the clubroom, will stop being 'outsiders'."

"Hoho," Vincent smiled mischievously. "You gonna join our pro team?"

[More like, your Bronze tier team.] Yuel rolled his eyes. "Of course we plan to join. We're aiming for the nationals this year."

"That's the spirit!" Vincent gave a thumbs up. "Alrighty, you're both cool, so I'll do you a super special favor and show you the clubroom. C'mon, I'll let you feast your eyes on our super secret fortress!"

"Woohoo, super base!" Lars ran ahead of the pack." Let's go!"

[I just hope it's a functional environment...] Yuel sighed deeply as he dragged himself after the two excited goofs.

Where could that clubroom be, anyway? Yuel and Lars have already searched every reasonable location, so it had to be somewhere really unexpected. Either that or the clubroom simply didn't have a proper label on the door; that'd be anticlimactic.

"Down here," Vincent led them down the stairs... to the underground level.

"Wait," Yuel frowned. "It's in the basement?"

"Yep. Told you, it's a secret base!"

"Yo, my dude" Lars stopped. "That sounds cool as heck!"

"Right? Right?"

[These two at it again...] Yuel facepalmed. But, admittedly, this was peculiar. Considering how many different classrooms Yuel and Lars found on the upper floors of the building, it felt like the Classmancers club got shafted hard. It's like school shoved it into the basement to hide it from plain sight.

Then again, it wasn't that surprising. It was a tiny club that was allowed only nine members, so that was proof enough the school didn't particularly like the club. Even StormBlitz always had to prove itself in order to avoid getting criticized by the school.

After going down the stairs, the group found themselves in a narrow hallway. As expected, this was the place where all sorts of things were thrown to hide them out of plain sight. There were torn posters scattered around, probably taken down from somewhere to be reused later. There was also a big metallic closet with cleaning tools peeking out from it.

No matter how Vincent tried to excuse this with his "secret fortress" nonsense, this definitely didn't look like an environment where club activities should be held. It was more like an all-purpose armory for staff members.

At the end of the narrow corridor stood a big metal door. It looked like a bunker.

[Weird. I didn't see any other rooms along the way.] Yuel looked around again to confirm. Did this hallway have alternative routes? If not, where was the clubroom? [I mean, it's surely not... right?]

"Here we are," Vincent presented the metal door like it was their destination. No, that couldn't be...

"This room?" Yuel asked.

"Yep, this is our super secret base. I call it, the Den of Undiscovered Potential!"

"It's just a shelter room or such."

"Nope, it's the Den of Undiscovered Potential!"

"By calling it 'undiscovered', you practically admit it's tucked away from civilization"

"That's why it's a super secret base!" Vincent persisted with his nonsense. "We secretly train here to take over the world!"

[I'd like to start from just taking over the regionals, thank you.]

"C'mon, let's see what's inside!" Lars pressed onward while the other two were bickering over nonsense. He pulled the big rusty door. It opened with a heavy sound. "Hey, it's open!"

"Yep," Vincent walked in first. "Cap must be here already."

[This is sure going to be interesting...] Yuel dragged himself into the room after Lars. So far, nothing seemed promising about this club. The first club member they met was a total weirdo and the clubroom was located in this godforsaken basement.

Nevertheless, this was a new beginning for Yuel and Lars. They'll have to make work with the hand they were dealt with.

After taking a deep breath to mentally prepare himself, Yuel entered the basement clubroom...