Chapter 20——Perfect Scores
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FOUR DAYS LATER
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The four-day break had ran its course, forcing students of every course and every background to come back to school. Many, if not all, were still shaken from what happened.
Everyone handled their trauma differently than everyone else. Some handle it perfectly and moving on with their lives while not forgetting, others let their fear control them.
"OMG, it is so scary to come back here after the Reapers came and destroyed our school!!" A bimbo student from the Standard Academics course screeched to her friend, her breasts out and a demeanor that only a frat boy would like.
"Right?!" Another bimbo acknowledged her friend's fear, sharing everything with her friend as well. "I wish we could still have another week off so I could sleep with the quarterback in my Mitsubishi."
Behind them was a familiar orange-haired girl who woke up to the wrong side of the bed, she could easily explode on them and scream at their faces.
However, it would have been wrong for her to do so. She was just trying to be a better person. Shut up, you lousy ass bitches.....Funka thought to herself, putting her wireless headphones she got and listen to a headbanger from the 80's:
Ace of Spades by Motörhead.
At least I won't be able to their moaning with this. She smiled, turning the volume all the way up as Su-Jin walked besides her and other girl flew above her in the air with large, white wings.
One look at the girl with the white wings and it'll all over since Funka had a slight fear about that her. All because of a pencil Funka borrowed and never got back, she would probably try to claw Funka's pink-colored eyes out. Claw them out so bad that Funka Berunji, daughter of the esteemed hero Captain Molotov, would be considered a 'disappointment' to her family.
With a last name like Harmaajärvi, or what means "Grey Lake", you're bound to be the moody girl that everyone hate in the class because they're full of angst. They take it out on other people; they don't know how to express themselves.
Yeah, I don't like her. Everyone in the first year and higher grades have a mutual dislike of her.
Funka had a mental explanation to herself as why she never looked up or in the direction when 'she' was there.
Su-Jin was scared of many things, and a cold-blooded girl with white wings of death above her triumphed all her other phobias. She came to this school to conquer them.
Is this working for her currently?
No; it had not, but ever since her father was murdered in the 2006 incident, her mom had lost a piece of herself and those pieces can never retrieved.
The mother of Su-Jin raised her out of making sure her daughter wouldn't be like her.
Funka, despite her anger at many things, wanted to talk to people she hasn't had any contact with some people in a long time. It felt good to check up on people every once in a while.
And this little, poisonous flower knew as well,
"Hey Susie." Funka called by her nickname she had since they were in preschool with each other.
Despite being older, Su-Jin had much to learn from this school if she wanted to become as strong as her mother.
".....Hello."
"Lemme walk with you, since my friends behind aren't picking up speed."
"Okay....."
"You've been always the nervous type, huh?" She casually asked Su-Jin, taking off headphones and letting rest for another rock-and-roll concert in the future. The questioner was waiting for a response from the girl who smelt like hellebores.
"You know me, Berunji: I-I always been the shy wallflower.." She finally spoke more than a word sorrowfully, her throat was hurting and she'd needed some lozenges—Lemon-flavored, to be exact.
"I heard a rumor," Funka begun to gossip with her since Su-Jin was one to hear what's going on the Surwick. "that the training procedure is easy: It's a Bomb Training Procedure, but without cutting off any wires or any of that. Did you know about the training before I told you about it?"
She nodded in affirmation. Su-Jim was beginning to feel a bit better that someone knew about her special abilities.
"Flowers from the courtyard tell me....things. They hear stuff that I couldn't hear without being there."
"I remember that you can talk to plants in a special way——I envy that. Ever get that feeling you just wanna make someone in a forest piss their pants?"
"Kinda....." The poisonous heir of the Nieswurz family felt happy, her pupiless eyes smiled with glee, they talked even more since it has been a while.
From a distance, her friends weren't too far away from her.
"WHAT?!!" Sanda and Reza yelled in unison at Akina, finding something so shocking about her. "YOU BROKE YOUR BED?!"
Approximately two mornings ago, Akina's bed was shattered to many pieces and people that knew of this were shocked that it could break as illustrated in the photo Marcus took.
As if lightning came to her room and swan dived onto her bed. Everything else and Akina: Peachy.
Not a scratch on her.
"Idon'tknow-owwhathappened-edbut," Akina stammered, even she knew that this was absurd of how it happened. That bed of hers was still in good condition, about brought back in 2016 before being destroyed two days ago. "apparently-ythewholebed-justbroke-easIslept-tthroughthenight..."
Akina tried her best to explain, yet it fell short; as no one could really make sense of she what said whenever she was avoid confrontation. "But none of it makes sense how your bed break like that from what your brother showed us...." Reza analyzed her situation, Ryoji was walking alongside Marcus and Taig.
Taig agreed with Reza. "Yeah, looked like lightning hit your bed or something similar to lightning. Best part of it: Doesn't even look like you're harmed or anything like that."
"So, you have super-strength?! Awesome!" Marveled Sanda, struggling to walk the stairs because of how his tendons were hurting him.
Before Akina became more overwhelmed, a good friend stepped to help her. "Isuse Maria, guys. Enough is enough."Ryoji stopped them before he placed his hand on Akina's shoulder to reassure, a technique to calm down his allies before they went to war back then. It worked then and now it seems to have a positive effect on his friend Akina. "She broke her bed. So what? It happens to everyone, anyway." Ryoji brushed it off Akina breaking her bed while his help made Reza lose his mind a bit.
That's weird.....How in the hell did you even break it? With a jackhammer? Man, we're all just crazy little freaks in the freak show.....Takeo thought before he watched out for oncoming people walking in every direction.
"That reminds me, Ryo," Marcus forgot the question. "did you do your school exams here? The practical and the written one. With the swimming part?"
"Yes, I did. I scored perfect on both exams, and I did all of this at 7:30." Ryoji said nonchalantly, visually unimpressed from his accomplishment.
Scored a perfect on both of those exams and not even having a blast that you manage to beat a twelve-year record, you are a trip. If I got a flawless victory——I would be dancing for days on end. Marcus thought amusingly as he continued to walk with his friends.
———Classroom of C-2———
———9:00———
The classroom had been restored and started, with new desks for everyone and new chairs waiting once again for them, new materials.
New windows that had no smear on them and more fortified now, as the entire building was covered in a powerful magic spell.
All of the students were waiting for the teachers to begin, playing on their mobile devices while Ryoji was sitting high in his stool; he was staring at the five desks that were empty. Pellicular....I remember this room had everyone here when we had moved up the ranks. There was that Burmese-American girl, the child who wanted to be a Knight, that African-American with the bushy mustache even though he was about my age, and the Taiwanese-Jamaican girl who showed promise when it came to her prowess.Where are they at? Ryoji pondered before catching Funka staring at him, and they stared at each other. Is she asserting her dominance towards me? People from the N.U.S.N. are very quirky... They both stared at another, one not letting them get dominated by their stare.
You must've cheated on the damn test......And can our teachers hurry up before this staring contest gets even weirder? Funka thought impatiently, everything that Ayari told her came true in her eyes.
Her wish came through as their teachers walked in, wearing decent attires as opposed to their usual gear. They were having a tough day from the look of it.
"Good Morning." Sora said to his students.
"Good Morning!!!" The class spoke back at him.
"Despite everything that has happened over the few days, Today will be a half day."
"Hold on a sec," Kadoku was bamboozled, being told that it was a half day rather than an ordinary day at Surwick. "You're telling me that I could have skip today? That I didn't have to come on a day like this?"
"You could've. Why didn't you?" Sora asked back. His anger from earlier did not abate, it was laying in dormancy when he asked.
"Just tryin' to be a role model for everyone else." Kadoku made an excuse, sitting in his chairs with his mechanical legs in the air.
"Tomorrow," Brandon, their second teacher, began to speak, he was in higher spirits. "Tomorrow, though———You all are be doing your first training procedure and be donning your hero uniforms for the first time. Not to mention: Chief Apex and New Glory will be conducting it tomorrow."
The entire class whooped in glee except Ryoji as he preferred the lesser-known or overlooked heroes like Girasol or Trench Fighter, or even Banjax.
Chief Apex and New Glory.....Two of the physically strongest heroes right now——Both as strong as the other and none of them have weaknesses to exploit. Excellent capture rates, minimal collateral damage. An amazing list of rogues in each side.
They are truly legends for their time.
And for these children——These two conducting the training lesson was the holy grail.
Unluckily, someone had to ruin the class's whooping and sheer excitement, her name was Sasha Arkhangel.
"Um....Sir? Where's some of the other students? Where's Aung, Tobias, Catira, Muhammad? Where are they?" She asked with a purr in the end.
It was a touchy subject that this current time for Sora, who blew up earlier in the Teacher's Lounge because of it.
"They've—" Sora uttered one word before he couldn't muster to tell the truth to these children. He couldn't bring up to lie to them.
His partner could. "I get that many people liked Ms. Meng, and the faculty still hold her in high regards, but she decided to call it quits because New Glory crossed out her name, and everyone else were scared of coming back here." Brandon explained the half-truth, infuriating the werecat girl even more.
It all did not make any sense to her. "So, you're telling me that New Glory, the N0.1 Hero of America, crossed out Catira Meng, who was a promising student that scored almost perfect on the two exams, skilled in arts of fighting, is a Heart-Bond, and the rest of the others left because they were scared to do their part? Viraki."
And everyone but Akina and his immediate friends looked at Ryoji.
Five people in exchange for Ryoji Kazama.
That is what it looked in the eyes of the envious and wrathful, as some of these people tried their absolute best to get into the school.
No one likes a Mary Sue.
I wanna kick his ass even more, now.
Get ready to walk outta that door or else..Wish I can help but I'm too scrawny for that.
Sacre Bleu! You managed to get 90% of the people here to hate. Congratulations.
I know this hate you're going through.
So, he's also my competition since we're both Heart-Bonds....
Dude! Not fair. Tobias and I had a great friendship!
Mr. Perfect, Mr. Perfect——Can't be exactly perfect if no one likes in this class.....
Now——Ryoji had no right in being enrolled in the Class of the Salamanders.
More gossiping arose as the teachers left, there was only three minutes until they would go to their first period.
He was beginning to regret that he should not have scored so perfectly, he was attracting unnecessary attention. Jebi ga...That fight with Fukuazan was bad, but this top of the iceberg with everyone hating me. Ryoji ruminated as everyone looking at him in even more anger.
———Earlier———
———Teacher's Lounge———
———8:30———
A list of the students from the Class of the Salamanders, all in the hand of Sora Minami, who was beginning to skim through to see if everyone on the list:
1. Catira Meng
2. Akina Willoby
3. Takeo Fukuazan
4. Funka Berunji
5. Marcus Duncannon
6. Jordyn Himasaki
7. Sera Bishop
8. Taig Thomas
9. Beri Alliyma Sosa
10. Su-Jin Nieswurz
11. Cade Kikaishin
12. Kadoku Haritoka
13. Armando Ayala
14. Helene Beaumont
15. Kemp Kingsley
16. Sasha Arkhangel
17. Tsurugi Tetsumaki
18. Hrishti Khatun
19. Dakarai Theron
20. Sanda Machipaku
21. Masaru Nagata
22. Shun Yamaguchi
23. Cecilia Harmaajärvi
24. Regis Luxulric
25. Haruto Kuromiya
26. Muhammad Steel
27. Aung Sandar-Lemaire
28. Tobias Hochsommer
29. Ryoji Dragomir Kazama
Alright. Sora prepared himself on going over the names. Let's see who's out and who's in.
Okay.... Aung and Tobias shouldn't be on here in the first place since they both failed at their exams.
Aung's powers revolved around involuntarily develop a power or magic spell to defeat anyone in battle, only up to six at a time. She failed the physical by a large margin. Akina failed as well, but did impressive on the written exam.
Tobias, on the other hand, was incredibly skilled by the language of the blade. He said he taught by the Knights of Steinhaus Sanctuary, he has the moxie to be a hero.
Didn't save him from failing the written exam so horribly. He only answered one question.
Muhammad is a victim from Chronological Neural Displacement Disorder; meaning that he is either in the 1960's or 2018, and he is a severe flight risk.
Haruto Kuromiya.......No comment.
Hold on.....Who crossed out Catira Meng? Sora asked himself as he turned around the clipboard to see a little note.
It said:
Surwick does not need a future hero that smelled like a pile of shit, so I gave her a check of twenty-four thousand dollars to provide for her grandparents and her future. It was the right thing to do—Trust me on this.
Ace T. Almasy
Catira Meng was one point from having a perfect on the written exam and crushed the physical exam as well. She is a Heart-Bond, a damn Heart-Bond who can use her abilities so damn good.
Smells like a pile of shit? Smells like a pile of shit?!
Are you bullshitting me?! His blood boiled with fury, Sora was still grieving and this man would getting on his nerves.
"Did Ace do this?"
"Yeah," Mikael Kresh, a burly man of mixed Comanche and Irish descent, who in his mid-60's.
He was still tall and his jaw was still square as it was forty years ago, His overly curly had always been gray peppered in with charcoal. He always wore a checkered button up shirt.
He answered in his deep voice. "Ace did that, But then again: we are speaking about a man-child."
New Glory.
The closest person in this world with the powers of Superman in this world.
Also known as the Wonderful Face of America is the N0.1 Hero of the U.S.A. He as fascinating as rose gold wonder bread cometh to America.
Prince Akeem if he never learned humility.
His ego has no limit. A spoiled-child.
"Did the Principal consent to this?"
"You know him, Sora. Before Lino received the news, Ms. Meng had already left the premises, guilt-ridden of how she brought shame to her family." Mikael Kresh explained, he had grown used to all the eccentricity of this school. He understood Sora in that he was dealing with his cousin's death, he left him by himself.
What the hell am I doing in this school if my little cousin got killed and we're going by this day like nothing happened? No memorial, no minute of silence, Lino hasn't even said anything about the incident, nothing about the Raven who was founded killed in that Walmart rip-off.
It was as if he just sweep it under the rug and call it a day.
I think I'd just give him my resignation letter when it gets too much for me.
No—I should've gave my resignation to Lino as soon as I saw Haruto.....just laying there... Sora thought before getting up and rushing to the bathroom.
———Much Earlier———
———Surwick Swimming Center———
———7:30 a.m.———
Cold yet enjoyable to be in the swimming pool of Surwick, Ryoji was enjoying to be in the water.
"Thank you for participating in this in this exam in such short notice." Mikael Kresh thanked the boy for letting him test sooner than later.
"Of course, sir. It's only makes sense for the transfer student to be tested as well." Ryoji accepted it as he was wearing many clothes underneath the water.
"No need for the formalities, what I need you to do
is swim ten laps across under a certain time. Can you do that?" He asked, in his strong hands was a pocket stopwatch.
"No, problem!" Ryoji concurred, hiding beneath his pain through a smile as he readied himself. And his feet plopped through the water as he begun a butterfly stroke in the clear waters.
The waters aren't exactly my forte.....That belonged to the Tidemasters, and I'm certain they could do about four-hundred laps before they got tired.
"Ahhh-Don't worry about it too much. Think of it as flying, Ryoji!"
I flew before. Much easier than swimming.
"Why?"
Drowning is worse than falling head first on the ground.
He could dive before he could swim, but every stroke he took and the speed he exhibited....impressed the teacher who is fastidious with every detail.
His speed is impressive...Even with all those clothes on——he's almost on par with Michael Phelps...How did Raven River keep you a secret?
———8:37———
———Teacher's Lounge———
"Wait, You're finished with him already?" Brandon questioned his older colleague, they were both eating their breaksfasts together.
"Yeah-He scored perfect twice times already. I reckon the term 'third time's a charm' would be relatively effective in this case for Mr. Kazama, no need to test him if he did legitimately."
"What happens when we make him redo the exam?"
"Just did: Exactly the same. First time since 2006 without the use of cheating. I saw this kid finish an hour long exam in just twenty three minutes. I suggest we keep him here since General America," it was his little jab at New Glory. "hold this Boy in high regards, but we should keep him tethered to us for now. This boy's special."
"Maybe he's just that good."
"Too good.....Even the adults in our school couldn't finish the practical in twenty five minutes, you finished a minute shy to an hour, Brandon." Mikael Kresh stated, leaving the lounge as he had classes to attend to. "Perfect Scores.....Huh." Brandon kept to himself, surprised that he almost failed his exam back then.
———Surwick Cafeteria———
———12:20 p.m.———
The lunch just started for the last time for the group, along with Su-Jin, ate their respective lunches, each thinking about the big day.
Never in her life did Funka feel this much jealousy before, towards this "mercenary student". Hellbent on defeating him, she decided to not train tonight in order to beat the Heart-Bond.
She needed her sleep.
Takeo felt determination in having an impact on the N0.1 Hero of the United States.
Tomorrow is the bomb training. Better get ready for this: I'm officially in a school where everyone wants to take me down since I broke a twelve-year old record.....
Tomorrow is the bomb training. I have to give it all of I want to stay in Surwick. I can't be the girl that needs rescuing all the time....
A thought, though different in terms, shared the same concern by Ryoji and Akina.
One thing was certain——They needed to prepare for their training procedure tomorrow.
Ryoji had the feeling that is a bomb training will not be easy as it sounds.
Akina, on the other hand, let it slip on by as she was still fixated on how her bed was annihilated.
And how she woke up, unscathed and refreshed.
———Track 20 Ended———