Chapter 008! Urban Legends.

Yugo gulped down the third cup of water, stretched and got up and jumped a bit. He stretched out his muscles and did some stretches.

'Why? Just why Yugo? None of this would've happened if you listen to me and stayed inside the damn building!' Oaklie told him off. 'But you had to think you're above everyone else right? You, being a "prodigy", a "genius" or whatever had to go off and get yourself nearly knocked out didn't you? I swear to god mate, cop on!'

Yugo shrugged it off. 'I mean, we all would've been screwed over if I didn't hold her back. Sure Josh can fight, but if she's even able to breeze past me, who says that she couldn't easily overpower y'all? You shouldn't be telling me off, you should be thanking me. This is the easiest stage of the Weeding, after all that trash talk before this thing started it'll be sort of embarrassing if we were the first team to get KO'd, especially since we have not one, but two prodigies on our side. I know for sure that I wouldn't be able to show my face for the next three years, and hey Doug, get me another cup of water would you?'

Douglas took Yugo's cup and walked over to their kettle. 'Yeah I agree with Yugo this time, if she was able to put Yugo in a state, I think we would all be pretty much packing up right now if Yugo wasn't there. So instead of being angry at him, we should thank him for being at the right place at the right time. Oh and Yugo, tea?'

Josh twirled his pencil. 'I know I probably shouldn't add fuel to the fire, but honestly, it was just our luck that she wasn't targeting our base in particular, because with our support pillar gone, we'd all just crumble under the weight of the attack, and as well as Yushita and Doug said, she was able to put him in a state without breaking as much as a sweat, so in theory, she could just flip us all inside out, and grab the flag and stroll back. So not only was Yushita's "heroic" sacrifice useless, it also gave our team a crippling handicap.'

A silence fell, and the four boys looked at each other aggressively. All this time Yamano was sitting in a corner, silently waiting for it to be over.

'Well? Who do you think is right Yamano?' Oaklie's voice barked at her.

Yamano jumped. 'I...I...I don't know! I wasn't even able to keep up with you guys! I got lost halfway through! But from what I learned I'm leaning towards Yugo a bit...'

Oaklie shot her a look.

'Eep! But that doesn't mean he is right! I just think he is, and what does my opinion stand for anyways...'

Yugo had a slight smile creeping up his face. 'See Oaklie, even your girlfriend says that I'm right.'

Yamano shook her head. 'Nonono! I never said that, I just said I think...'

Yugo's grin got larger. 'It's fine, there's no reason to be scared of "mommy" Oaklie, he's just in one of his moods.'

Oaklie sized up to Yugo. 'I swear Yushita, I will wipe that grin off your face.'

Yugo also stood up. 'Yeah, whatcha gonna do? Try to fight me, throw a thing or two at me maybe? I might be exhausted out of my mind but I'm pretty sure I can still beat the shit outta you Rorke.'

Oaklie looked like he was really going to throw a punch, but stepped down after a uncomfortably long pause.

'That's what I thought!' Yugo vaulted over the couch. 'Well Imma go for a walk, a breath of fresh air. Yamano, I'd also advise you to come with me, as well as you Doug.'

Douglas shook his head. 'It's fine, even when we were younger I was always the guy who'd calm the atmosphere, I'll calm Oaklie and Josh down and then I'll maybe bake a cake from the ingredients in the cabinet, Aoki Sakurai, Nii Kita and this other dude is on patrol for today, and Koona Okada, Ine Abe and a few other lads from team Kuramoto are on defence duty. So I think you should be fine, as long as you don't venture too far. And be back before sundown so you don't miss the bus!'

Yugo gave Douglas the thumbs up and hopped out of the window, with Yamano Ai quickly following.

He sort of wandered absent mindedly around the area.

'Hey, Yushita.' Yamano Ai spoke up.

Yugo turned and looked at the girl. 'Yeah Yamano? Need anything?'

'Is Oaklie usually like this?'

Yugo thought about it for a while. 'If I have to be honest here, no, in fact, Oaklie is often more reckless than me. Usually it's Josh and Douglas being overprotective and Oaklie and I doing whatever comes to our mind next. So no, he loves being unpredictable and just an overall nuisance as much as me. To be honest, I was kind of surprised, because this isn't the most reckless thing I've done, before camp started I even faced off against our future principal, and Oaklie didn't even care, so it's not like him to be extra mad at something. But on the other hand, it's also not like Douglas to take my side in an argument, or take part in an argument for the matter.'

'Ah, I see.' Yamano nodded.

'Sure sometimes when I do stuff without thinking of the consequences Oaklie might tell me off here and there, but he was never this worked up, and he never tried to pick a fight over some stupid thing I've done. But then Oaklie also really loves Naomi Isshiki, one of my good childhood friends, also a junior high first year, actually no, second year this autumn. And the only time when I've saw him this mad before was when I rejected Naomi because we were like nine and twelve. But apart from that occasion...'

Yugo suddenly stopped and a wide grin broke across his face. 'Unless...no no no… can it actually be...?'

'What?' Yamano asked.

'It's probably nothing.' Yugo mused. 'But there's a chance...'

Just then a head popped out of the pink trees. 'Oh hello Yushita, just the man I needed to see! And Yamano is here as well, great!'

Yugo looked up at the girl who's inside the trees. 'Suzuki Ren! Talk about me being in the right place at the right time! How can I help my fellow teammate?'

Suzuki climbed down from the trees. 'A little birdie told me that there's an urban legend amongst students in camp. Something about a door and how no student who entered it ever came out.'

Yugo nodded. 'Yeah, I've heard of it, what about it?'

'Well, the legends say that only students from Shitoki, or students that are attending Shintawa went missing. And unfortunately, I don't fall into either categories.'

'So you want me to help?'

Suzuki smiled. 'You've read my mind my friend! I urgently need yours, and Yamano's help!'

Yugo got a bit skeptical. 'If you need a student from Shitoki, or a student attending Shintawa, or even both, there's hundreds, no, thousands out there. And you come to me specifically?'

'Ah, I knew you would say that! Unfortunately, not many of them are prodigies that have a chance of surviving, and even less of them would believe me when I told them, so I need someone trustworthy, someone smart to help me out on this mission! The door needs someone they'll find worthy of entering, because of the alleged goddess that mans the door!'

Yugo thought about it for a while. 'I don't really see why not, you up for it Yamano?'

Yamano gulped. 'A bit scared, but sure, I'm up to it.'

Suzuki clapped. 'Great, now we need to find the door! I'm pretty sure any of the elite seats in the schools know where the door is. So now we just need to find one!'

Yugo remembered Itou telling him if he ever needs to go anywhere just shout his name. 'WADASHI!!!'

A tyre screeched in the distance and a golf cart came in sight. 'Hello Yushita! So me meet again!'

Suzuki's jaw dropped. 'It was that easy?'

'Well I have some pretty useful contacts, especially Itou Wadashi here.'

Wadashi nodded. 'I'm like the Tokyo National's personal taxi man, so I figured I wont lose anything if I gave a lift to one or two students every once and again. But where do you want to go?'

Yugo was about to talk when Suzuki chimed in. 'It'll be great if you can bring us to the Door.'

Wadashi nodded. 'That's close enough! I'll be able to!'

The three of them climbed in the golf cart. Wadashi started some taxi driver talk. 'I'm honestly surprised that anyone would want to go to that place, area five is about as much as an ugly piece of work as Hibana. But I'm even more surprised that you would believe that badly written urban legend. I mean, only Shitoki and Shintawa students? A goddess? I've never heard such nonsense in my entire life!'

Yugo leaned forward and dropped his voice. 'Who the hell told you I believed that? I have nothing to do, and want to take a step out of Oaklie's sight. Douglas still thinks I'm in Area 3 and Josh probably thinks I'll finish off all the areas surrounding us on my "stroll". So yeah. I want something to do. Something to do with people apart from the lads would be even better, because I don't want to have Oaklie chasing me around saying "I don't think that's a good idea" while doing it with me, Josh being all motherly to me and Douglas just watching from a distance.'

Itou Wadashi was at loss for words. 'Ah...okay, I see...'

'Nonsense or not, I feel like in this Universe everything can exist, in fact, we could be transferred to an isekai world right this instant, so yeah, a badly written Urban Legend is fitting for a badly written webnovel like this one, right?'

Itou looked surprised. 'Huh, what?'

Yugo waved his hands. 'Ah nothing, nothing. It was a reference to me reading a lot of books, I was just like any other random teenager, ah I hate my life, ah my life is a shitty book, don't look too much into it.'

Wadashi raised an eyebrow. 'Sure...'

They rode in silence for the remainder of the journey.

'You see that forest there? Right up ahead is Area 5, it's a mysterious place that got neglected for nearly three years, and is currently out of bounds to any student, apart from the Elite seats, gamekeepers occasionally stroll around the place, so if you encounter one, tell them that Itou Wadashi gave you permission to check the area, I'm not going in, because the place is pretty eerie even when students roamed it, I never liked the place anyways. So I'll wait outside for you, You guys go in and have fun.'

Yugo nodded and stepped off the golf cart. 'Alright, will do, thanks Itou.'

Wadashi smiled. 'Don't mention it, and remember, run into anyone, just tell them Itou Wadashi sent you here. The Door is pretty easy to find, it's under a massive hill, walk around it, maybe pull it a bit, and then report back to me.'

Yugo nodded and walked into the forest, followed by Suzuki Ren and Yamano Ai, 'Oi Suzuki, I'm guessing you know where this place is, right?'

'Yes, yes, yes. My brother told me the whereabouts, the size of the hill and the trees around it, I cannot be mistaken.' Suzuki said. 'But on the other hand, I'm not sure if it would open for us...we would have made a trip for nothing.'

Yugo cupped his head with his hands, 'The earlier we get back, the faster we'd get to taste Douglas's cake, I've heard from a certain someone that his cakes are beyond delicious.'

They walked on for a while, stepping over the thick roots, small streams and overgrown plants along the way.

Suzuki suddenly stopped, Yugo bumped into her. 'Jesus, give me some sort of damn warning beforehand.'

Suzuki was trembling with excitement, without a word she ran towards an old, marble door under a moderately sized hill.

'Oi! Wait up!' Yugo shouted at her.

'Here! Here! Here it is! The Door of Shintawa! It really exists!' Suzuki was jumping up and down now, the ribbon around her eyes slipping a bit.

'Re…re...remember what Itou said, wal...wal...walk around it an...and go back to him.' Yamano stuttered.

'Hey Yamano, it's just a marble door. Nothing special. Come on, pull it a bit with me!' Yugo put a hand on Suzuki's shoulder. 'Wait here Suzuki.' and walked up to the door. 'Oi Yamano, are ye coming or not?' Yamano also ran up.

Yugo racked his brains. 'Now what do I do in this situation?' he thought. Before side kicking the door.

It swung open. 'Aha! I'm a genius, literally! Come on guys. I feel like this is the beginning of a pretty darn good adventure!'

'I brought a flashlight.' Suzuki piped up.

'Wonderful!'

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Yugo led the way down a stone staircase. 'This reminds me of when I played Dungeons and Dragons with Josh, Oaklie, Douglas and Naomi. Stone staircase with weird statues and torches, pretty Advanced DnD like if you ask me really.'

'Shouldn't we report back to Itou first?' Yamano asked.

Now that they're down here, Yamano sounded less scared than when they first arrived.

'Nah, I don't want Itou telling us that it's not a good idea when we actually got the door open, besides, we're already more than fifty feet under in nearly pitch black, with one or two torches in between. If you want to go back up and tell Itou you can, but we're not waiting for you, so good luck finding your way back to us.'

Yamano gulped. 'Never mind then.'

They continued downwards for quite some time before Yugo extended an arm. 'Halt!'

'Pass me a rock, or pebble would you, Yamano?'

Yamano Ai looked around the floor for a pebble, before finding a moderately sized one and handing it to Yugo.

He threw it in front of him, the pebble fell through the rock staircase. 'Gotcha.' Yugo put a hand on the wall next to him before quickly taking it off. 'Some mythological being is working it's magic here.'

Suzuki's voice came from behind them. 'Correct. Don't. Touch. Anything. Unless I say so. May I lead now Yugo? You might be a prodigy but I have links with the spirits, I know more about otherworldly magic than anyone.'

'Go ahead.' Yugo handed the flashlight to Suzuki.

Suzuki gingerly threw the flashlight to the wall to her right, it fell down into her hands, she then threw it on the wall to her left, it stuck. Suzuki smiled. 'Follow me, and make sure not to have a toe out of line.' She lifted her foot and put it on the wall, then awkwardly put her second foot on. Suzuki Ren was now standing sideways.

Yugo followed, flawlessly jumping, turning sideways and landing on his two feet, with his hands in his pockets.

It was now Yamano's turn, she took a deep breath and lifted her foot, she placed it on the wall.

The world did a three-sixty and Yamano felt as if her brain was being flipped around in her skull, her left leg, the one that was still on the staircase, suddenly hurt and her right leg was off balance, she lost her footing and fell forwards into the fake staircase and into the void. Yugo grabbed her arm and pulled her back. 'Gotcha!'

The world flipped back to normal, and she was now lying on the wall, or floor. 'Th...th...thanks Yu...Yugo.'

'Don't mention it!'

The staircase they were standing on a moment ago disappeared, and a black and navy space took it's place. Yamano's eyes widened.

'woah.'

'Haha! Cool right?' Yugo effortlessly hung off the platform. 'It looks as if there's no end to this void.'

'Jesus Yushita, be careful. If you fall to your, well, I don't know, can you even fall to your death here? Who would lead us forward?' Suzuki said.

Yugo did a backflip back unto the platform. 'Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's move on.'

The three teenagers continued forward, the rectangular platform seemed to have no end. Something brushed off Yugo's shin. 'Shit.'

Yugo grabbed the two girls by the waists and pulled them backwards. At the same time, the void swallowed up the path in front of them, Yugo knew a tripwire must've triggered it. But he has no idea of where the tripwire was located, hell, he can't even hear the telltale ping of the wire snapping off, or see the light glinting off the string when he shone the flashlight in the direction of the wire.

'It's a magical wire, invisible and you practically can't feel it, unless you pay attention. Lemme lead.' Suzuki took off her ribbon and revealed her eyes, Yugo immediately realised that her eyes weren't natural, everyone's eyes were white but no one's pupils were pink. 'Follow me, and by follow me, I mean follow my exact movements, unless you want to spend the rest of your life jacking off in absolute darkness.'

'I barely get to lead for five minutes and you're leading again? That's unfair!' Yugo complained, but still handed the flashlight to Suzuki.

Suzuki studied the seemingly void in front of them, she focused her eyes on a specific spot. 'Here.' Slowly walking forward, she put a foot on the invisible walkway. It seemed solid. She put her second foot on.

'Suzuki! You're floating!' Yamano said curiously.

Suzuki smiled slightly. 'It would seem like I'm floating for a normal person. Come on, follow up!'

Yamano took a step behind Suzuki, her foot found solid ground, followed by Yugo, who walked onto the walkway without double guessing himself.

Suzuki carried on. 'Walk three steps forward, then take a sharp right. Walk forward for another sixteen steps, then rest yourself on your left, there should be a solid foundation there for you to lean on...'

'And what if there isn't?' Yugo asked.

'Then I hope you fall in.'

Yugo winced. 'Harsh, unnecessarily harsh.'

'This bit is tricky, So catch up to me.'

Yamano and Yugo hurried up to Suzuki.

'Alright, follow my exact. footsteps. '

Suzuki carefully made her way around the massive curve, followed by Yamano and Yugo. 'I'm trusting your distance awareness for this one, about two metres in front of me, there is a drop, I cannot see where the drop leads to, and the flashlight doesn't pierce enough darkness to see the bottom. I will throw our flashlight down, if it continues to fall, that means there must be another way around, if it reaches the bottom, I will jump off, alright?'

'Can I push you off?' Yugo piped up.

'Another word and I'm throwing you down there instead of the flashlight.'

Yugo made a zipping motion with his mouth and threw away the key.

Suzuki dropped the flashlight and heard a faint clunk. 'Damn, the drop seems pretty big.'

'I'll jump down.' Yugo volunteered. 'I'm a guy, I have stronger kneecaps. Well, I should have stronger kneecaps anyways. My ankles won't vaporize when they hit the platform.'

Suzuki started. 'But...'

'Unless of course you want to jump down there into the unknown and maybe break your legs in the process, be my guest.'

Suzuki swallowed down whatever she wanted to say next.

'Good.'

Yugo took a deep breath and pencil dived down, as soon as he felt his foot touch the ground he rolled up into a ball and tumbled to absorb most of the impact. 'My guts are gonna feel that later.'

Yugo Found the flashlight, put the batteries in and tried to switch it on. It won't switch on. 'Cheap piece of crap!' He broke the handle off and pocketed it, then threw the rest of the flashlight as far as he can.

Yugo shouted up to Suzuki and Yamano. 'All good! Jump and I'll catch you.'

Suzuki appeared first. Yugo caught her and placed her behind him. She dusted her skirt. 'Thanks.'

Yamano became visible moments after. Yugo also caught her, Yamano's face was visibly red. 'Th...th...thanks.'

'We're currently on a four by six metre platform, there's an arch further down the platform, but there is mist so I can't see clearly.' Suzuki walked towards the arch. 'Approach with caution.'

Yugo smirked. 'Says the one who's charging at it at full speed.'

Something flew through the air and hit Yugo in the forehead.

'Ouch.'

'I'll throw a fridge the next time Yushita.' Suzuki said. 'Mark my words.'

Yugo ran ahead of Suzuki.

'Hey! I said app-'

'Yeah, yeah. What can they do to me though? I'll stick my hand through and feel around. Point to me where the mist is Suzuki.'

'Straight ahead. Literally, two more steps and you're inside.'

Yugo stopped and went on all fours. He then stuck his left hand through the mist. 'Solid ground ahead!' Before prancing inside.

Suzuki sighed and followed.

Yugo's disembodied voice spoke out. 'Hey girls, might wanna step inside the mist and take a look for yourself.'

Yamano walked forwards, and then got enveloped by the mist.

Suzuki stepped inside and re-emerged beside Yugo and Yamano, both of whos eyes were opened wide.

She looked forward, and her eyes nearly popped out of her sockets too.