The exam has begun and everyone one is trying to cross the main gate into the examination starting point.
It was really brutal because of the way the crowd was pushing and trying to pass each other to enter the gate.
Natsu still sat down in his spot and just watched them. He was really hoping it was going to be easy which it was not.
"I'm competing with everyone here right, so why do I think that they're not worth it. I mean they are all acting impulsively and irrationally towards this, even if the gate was going to close I think it would take time looking at the size of it and at how slow it's moving"
Sigh...
"I'm definitely going to loose this with how slow and tired I am" Natsu thought.
Everyone was rushing towards the gate when Natsu noticed the gate stopped and then started moving back down gently with the same speed it used to open.
Natsu stood up and began to walk gently towards it since more than half of the contestants has crossed the gate.
As he was walking he put both hands in his pockets and walked like nothing they did concerned him, immediately he came across the gate it took a few seconds before the gate closed.
Hmmm....
"It looks like I made it right on time, I knew this part won't really be a test" Natsu thought.
"Okay contestants, I'll be the one guiding you through out stage one of the exams" A tall man with brown hair said as he was shown in the background and wore a black suit without a tie and was a little bit muscular but not that intimidating.
As Natsu saw the man he immediately knew that for them to bring someone as muscular and fit as him, the stage one exams weren't going to be easy.
Natsu and the man sighed simultaneously as they both said, "Let's get this over with already"
A boy heard this and noticed the way Natsu acted and how him and the man did and said the same thing simultaneously.
Hmmmm.....
"Who the hell is that?" the boy thought to himself as he decided to approach Natsu.
A boy with a goldish yellow hair who was taller than Natsu came towards him, he wore a green top and black trousers as he then introduced himself, "Hi, I'm Yami" the boy said as he approached Natsu.
Natsu looked at him and saw the boy bring out his hands to shake him as he was introducing himself. Natsu felt suspicious but decided to go with the flow.
"Oh I'm Natsu, it's nice to meet you" Natsu said as he shakes Yami's hand.
The instructor then said, "I'm not going to introduce myself because I don't want to, so let's begin"
"The first thing we are going to do is to try and hang on until we reach our destination, you can use any method to get there that also includes your magic and your materials. And before I forget, please we are doing this according to time so try and keep up" the instructor said as he then began to walk.
Most people didn't really see it as a challenge but later they noticed that the man was increasing his speed which made some people to start running, eventually the instructor moved into a new gear. He was running very fast and people where seriously falling behind including Natsu.
"I knew this exam was going to be intense but this isn't what I was thinking about" Natsu said to himself.
It wasn't just him that was complaining because more than half of the contestants were left behind.
Yami saw the way Natsu was running and thought to himself, "Maybe I overestimated him"
He then went back to Natsu and asked, "Are you okay?"
Natsu wanted to act cool seeing that Yami doesn't know he's an F rank.
"Yeah, I'm okay" he said as he sighed and then sat down.
"What do you think you're doing" Yami asked.
"I'm resting" Natsu replied.
"You know we're dead last right" Yami said.
"Yeah I do" Natsu replied.
"Hey I have an idea, let's rest for thirty minutes and then we do a race to see who's going to arrive first to the finish line" Natsu said as his whole body began to ache him.
Yami was intrigued by the offer and decided to rest with Natsu as he tried to get close to him.
Thirty minutes passed as Natsu stood up, feeling a little bit rejuvenated and asked Yami if he was ready.
Yami became excited and then threw a stone up and said "Once it lands, we would run as fast as we can to the finish line".
As the stone landed Yami vanished, Natsu was really shocked by Yami's speed and then began to run.
Yami saw that Natsu was not using any powers and asked himself, "What does he think his doing at this rate his going to lose, anyways I'm way too behind and I really need to pass this test so I'll forget about him for now and concentrate on myself"
As Natsu was running he started passing everyone who was either tired and stopped running and because of this he started moving slowly, people who has given up and stopped moving, people who have fainted due to too much stress, and then he saw different people using magic to still try and move no matter the cost and so he decided to take advantage of it.
"Hey kid" Natsu said as he approached a boy covered with sand.
"Are you seriously that weak" Natsu told the young boy who was very tired but still trying to use his sand magic to move himself forward.
"What did you just say to me?" The boy asked as he stopped and looked at Natsu with his sand golem.
Natsu went to his front and backed the road they were heading to and said "Hey weakling, I know you're already weak but do you think you can hit me so hard to throw me into the air, no I don't think so, I really believe that I can even stop your punch with one finger without using magic because of how weak you are"
The boy felt offended by this words as Natsu began to provoke him.
"I knew it, you don't even have the strength to punch me for saying all this mean things to you and I'm sure that you are way too weak to even hurt a baby".
The boy became so angry and threw a very powerful punch at Natsu, using all the magical energy left in him.
As Natsu saw the punch coming he hurried and jumped as he faced the direction they were running.
As the punch came, Natsu used his leg to receive the punch which propelled him forward.
Natsu then shouted, "Thanks and sorry for calling you a weakling and offending you!" as he was flying.
The boy immediately realized that he was just used, the boy felt enraged by this and mustered a little strength to start running.
Natsu was flying in the air and opened his jacket so that he can glide though the air, he was then landing on people and using them as propellers by making them either to throw a strong attack to him or making them hit him aside which he used as a method of moving forward.
Yami passed lots of people as he finally saw the instructor and the contestants who were following him.
"I made it!" Yami said as he was happy.
Everyone could hear noises in the background, and heard people shouting with anger and then loud noises again.
Then they saw a boy fly over them landing way past the instructor.
Everyone was shocked by this including Yami.
After a while they finally approached Natsu and saw him sitting down on the ground and resting his back on the wall.
"Damn it, I should have waited for an hour if I knew you all would be this slow" Natsu said as he was trying to create the idea that he's way beyond their league when they arrived.
Sigh....
"I'll rest here for now maybe I'll be able to pass them again before they reach the finish line or should I start running with them. Naaaa...!" Natsu thought.
"I'll rest here, I rather not waste my energy and make it look like I'm weak" Natsu said as he sat down and closed his eyes like he wanted to sleep.
The actual thing that surprised the invigilator was the way he passed them, it was as if he was flying way too fast for his age because the invigilator was trying to consider the contestant's and didn't go all out and yet even maintaining his current speed still took him time to reach Natsu.
Yami then said "What the heck man, how are you that fast, I remember I passed you by far"
Natsu then said "It's because I didn't see it fit to embarrass you with your speed so I decided to go easy for a while before I began to run"
As he was saying this, what was going through his mind was "I really hope they would think I'm not an F rank, and what the hell I'm I saying, if I go on acting like this I'll eventually be figured out"
The instructor then told everyone, "The road is just a straight line, so why don't we all do a race to see who's the fastest" as he was intrigued by Natsu speed.
Everyone then looked at each other and a boy who had horse blood colored hair said "Why not!"
The man looked at Natsu and saw that he was still sitting down without even reacting to what he said and asked him "Are you really that confident in your speed?"
Natsu in his mind was screaming in agony, "Damn it! I'm busted! How will I win these people? I'm I really going to race with them? No I think I've figured it out, I now know what to do!"
Natsu then looked at the man and said "I'll give you all a head start so run as far as you can"
The instructor then said "Okay, what if I'm also competing and giving it my all"
Natsu was shakened by this but still decided to act tough.
"You don't have to worry, I'm sure I'd win"
A boy then said, "You're a little bit cocky and arrogant for your age, do you know who's talking to you, that's an A class hunter, at least"
Natsu knew he sounded cocky but still decided to keep up the act and said, "Did I tell you I didn't know he was an A rank hunter"
One of them felt like dealing with Natsu, then a girl stopped them and said, "He might be an F rank but for Tetsuya not to hold back in his attack against him, it just means that he saw him really capable of taking his punch"
Natsu then looked to see the person who said it and saw the girl he met earlier who had white hair and was talking crap about people.
"Oh it's you, what are you doing here?" Natsu said.
"Isn't it obvious", the girl replied, "I'm here to take the exam dummy?"
Yami was surprised by this and said in shock, "Wait Kazuko, you know this boy!"
"Yeah, we are acquainted but outside that I don't know anything much about him except the fact that his an F rank and that Osamu and Tetsuya are watching him closely"
Everyone was surprised and didn't say anything and then looked at Natsu.
Natsu felt weird and decided to act tough, "Aren't you all going to race?" he said as he then continued, "You know you all are wasting valuable time right"
The instructor smiled and said "Okay, we would start the race but at least try to reach us before the gate closes"
"Okay, I'll remember that" Natsu said.
"Let's head out" the instructor said as he counted downwards from five to one and alerted everyone to start running.
Natsu saw that all of them had disappeared and said "They're really fast"
He was waiting for the other competitors to reach him so that he'll be able to do the same thing but after a while he realized that they wouldn't fall for the same trick twice and then started running towards the finish line.
He ran as fast as he could and when he noticed he was close to the finish line as he saw a bright light, he decided to start walking while trying to control his breathing to make it look like he was walking instead of running the whole time.
As he approached the place he saw that the door had almost closed and he immediately rushed to slid under, but unfortunately for Natsu it wasn't a flat door, instead it was a very thick door that is as long as a hall.
"Damn, is this the end of me?" Natsu said.