Chapter 31 : First Exam Test!

[Boxing ring]

[Saitama, Japan]

It wasn't a giant arena, but a workout place for boxers to train. It had all types of equipment in there, it had no one occupying it, except Marshy and Xenon.

They were in the ring, wrestling and boxing with white wrap around their fists. They weren't going all out or using full strength, because if they did, half of the area would be decimated.

Marshy threw a few quick jabs, with Xenon blocking them and smacking them away with the palm of his hand.

Xenon got down low to try and sweep Marshy with his leg, but Marshy jumped over it and tried to kick Xenon in the head. Xenon grabbed Marshy's foot, saying, "Sloppy."

Xenon turned Marshy's foot downward, and kicked her in the stomach. But at that same moment, Marshy kicked Xenon in the stomach, and they both went staggering backwards.

Xenon said, "Nice. I'll give you that."

Marshy responded, "Yeah."

"You have too much on your mind. I was able to counter most of your attacks, and you kept repeating the same moves over and over."

"I know that."

"Talk then."

Xenon and Marshy began to spar again, and Marshy said, "It's about Duri…and.."

"It's always about Duri."

Xenon threw a punch to Marshy's stomach, but Marshy stopped it, saying, "...And Mifu."

Xenon pushed Marshy back, answering, "Mifu?"

"And…myself."

"You know I don't care, right?"

"Nor do I care about you or your sociopathic feelings, asshole."

"...But I'll listen to ya. I'll give the best advice I can."

"Mm."

Marshy and Xenon proceeded to throw jabs and kicks, evading and blocking each other at the same time.

Marshy said, "I feel like I'm being too hard on myself. And on others. I expect everything to be right all the damn time, knowing nothing is perfect. Not even me. And Duri and Mifu helped me realize that."

"Hoh? Oh really?"

"They are the two people I would die for. I can't imagine life without them."

"What happened between you and Mifu?"

"...He's sick. Saw him coughing up blood, told me it was just a small bug, but I know that's a damn lie. I got mad and screamed at him earlier for not telling me the truth. Then I stormed out of his house, breaking the door on my way out."

"He was only trying to keep you from worrying."

"I know that. That all made me wonder…what else is Mifu hiding from me? Is he lying about my true origins? So many fucking questions are flooded inside of my head, I can't focus."

"At this point, if you try and ask him about these things, he's gonna lie…just to keep you sane."

"I realized that also. I'm being too hard on everyone, not noticing that they mean no harm, that they intended to help me and make sure I'm okay."

"They care about you, that's why. When my family was alive, I kept some things from them to keep them from being anxious and worrisome. I kept things from them to keep them from feeling bad or heavy hearted."

"How did you feel when you did those things?"

"I felt like I was doing a good thing, but it didn't feel good on the inside. Lying made me feel that way. But it was to make sure they were okay."

"Mm. You're a soft bastard aren't ya?"

"Nah. I'm not. What about Duri? What happened with you two after the events from last night?"

"Duri got mad at me. And he left. Then this morning, he wouldn't say a word to me. I felt like I was a bad parent for not taking Duri's side. But it's hard to believe something that sounds so illogical."

"You were clouded by the fact that innocent people got killed. And everyone knows you don't like that. So you instantly joined the side where everyone is Duri's enemy. As for me, I don't give a damn. But I know Duri saved lives. You must not know about Katai, do you?"

"No…what?"

"Katai is from the Harvest realm."

"...What? Really?"

"Yes. You know they have weird shit that goes on with them. And they're strong, I was surprised Duri even won his fight. So they're unpredictable. Possibly having the ability to change someone's senses."

"I…I don't know what to say…thank you.."

"Don't mention it."

"...Thank you…"

"Mm?"

"...Thank you…for making me feel like a dumbass!" Marshy stopped fighting, and she leaned against the ropes, sobbing.

Xenon rolled his eyes, then walked over to her, lighting a cigarette on the way there. 

Xenon leaned beside her on the ropes, offering her a cigarette.

"Cig?"

Marshy looked at Xenon, looked down at the cigarette, grabbed it, smelled it, then threw it elsewhere.

Xenon sighed, "...That was my last one."

"Damn you and that cigarette. Bum."

"You're not really mad at me are you?"

"...No. Also…I've been having visions…visions of Duri and Mifu, dying. Dying and I couldn't save them. I've had these before, but it was from a former Host who was a friend of mine. And now she's dead. What if the same thing happens to Duri and Mifu?"

"If it's meant to be, we can't stop it. But what we can do, is do what we can to watch over them."

"...That's the best advice you've ever given me."

"And that's all you're gonna get from me, so be grateful."

"Shut up. And you can get down from there, Sith."

There was someone clinging to the ceiling above them, it was Host Sith.

He said, "Ke..ke..ke..ke..I thought I was gonna witness something."

Sith got down, and he landed feet first in the middle of the ring.

Marshy asked him, "How much did you hear?"

"Everything…ke…ke…kee…ke..how adorable. How touchinggggg."

"...Hmph."

"You seem quite..SAD. I know exactly what we can do."

"...What do you want from me, Sith?"

"Whaaat? Hosts can't hang out with other Hosts?"

Xenon asked, "Hang out?"

Sith was sharpening the long blood-stained blade that was attached to his back of his pants, and he continued, "Yes. Hang out. Marshy is sad…she might destroy the planet…so I've come up with a solution to that."

Xenon and Marshy replied, "What?"

[Shin's eatery and brew]

Xenon, Marshy, and Sith were standing at a circular table, with multiple people around them cheering them on.

"Marshy can definitely hold her stomach!"

"Xenon is about to finish all of his food!"

"Why is Host Sith eating like a deranged animal with rabies?"

Xenon, Marshy, and Sith were having an eating contest, scarfing down plates of food. The workers of the eatery were surrounding them, using a tablet to tally up the number of plates they have eaten.

"How long can they go on for?"

"Seriously? Their HOSTS! They could go on all day-."

Sith yelled, "KE..KE..KE…KE…I'm winning this! You both are trash!"

Xenon answered, "You smell like trash, it's disturbing me from eating more plates."

Marshy said, "You both eat like pigs. Proper etiquette is the best way to go. You should be ashamed of yourself, pigs."

Xenon and Sith replied at the same time, "Heh?!"

(10 minutes later)

[Duri and Marshy's house]

Xenon, Sith, and Marshy were sitting on the living room couch in front of the TV, playing a brutal and bloody fighting game on it, it was a game like Smash Bros; They all were playing against each other, with the controllers being tapped heavily.

Sith was moving around alot with his tongue sticking out, Marshy was sitting upward and slouched forward, with her elbows on her knees. 

Xenon was barely tapping on the controller in a lazy way, but he was still winning.

Sith yelled, "KEE..KEE..KE..KE…I'm winning!"

Marshy answered, "No the hell you're not. You always say that when you compete against us."

Xenon commented, "I'm winning actually."

(13 minutes later)

[An open field]

The three of them were standing side by side in an open field, and Xenon asked Sith, "Uh…why did you drag us out here?"

Sith grinned, "You both always claim your faster than me-."

Marshy and Xenon responded, "We are."

"We're going to test that theory again. Out here in this open field."

Marshy implied, "Do you remember what happened last time all the Hosts raced? We leveled the entire ground into chunks."

"Sigh. Guess that sounds like you're SCARED. Both of you."

"Scared? Of you?"

"Hehe…ke..ke…yes."

"Fine. Don't get mad at me if you die from the destruction."

"Hehe.."

Marshy and Sith were ready to race, but Xenon just stared at them.

Sith asked Xenon, "Seems like you are scared. Hmmm. Big bad scary Xenon scared to loooose."

"That's not it."

"Oooh? Then what is it?"

"Don't feel like it."

"Wuss."

"What did you call me?"

"W-U-S-S. That spells wuss by the way."

Xenon got ready to race too, saying, "Why waste time then? This'll be quick."

Marshy said arrogantly, This is gonna be easy work."

"Yeah right."

Sith counted, "On three. We reach the river, then head back. One…two…three!"

The three of them vanished in light speed, and a second later, they were back in that same position.

Sith said, "I got back here first. Therefore, I win. I'm faster than you two."

Marshy answered, "Hell no! I got here first! Tell him, Xenon!"

Xenon sighed, "What? I'm the one who got here first."

"You little.."

"Well, at least we didn't decimate the ground this time."

"I guess."

Immediately, the ground they raced on exploded, with chunks of ground blocks and dirt blasting everywhere. It ended a few seconds later, and no one was hurt, not even animals.

Xenon said, "Well..um.."

Sith said, "Damnnn.."

Marshy smirked, then started chuckling silently. Then she laughed out loud with a wide smile.

Sith and Xenon looked at each other, then looked back at Marshy.

Xenon chuckled, but stopped himself immediately.

Marshy kept laughing, but then she had a sudden vision of Duri and Mifu, bloody and on the ground, dead. 

Marshy stopped laughing immediately.

"There it is…again.."

Sith whispered, "Damn. Almost."

[Exam train]

[Cafeteria]

Yes. There was a cafeteria in the train. It's only possible since the Titans created the train. The cafeteria wasn't as big as the schools cafeteria, but it was a good size to fit 100 people in it. The floors were carpet, and the walls were light brown.

There were tables everywhere, with people occupying them and eating and talking.

Seven was in there sitting with Nine and some other popular girls.

There was lines of boys coming up to their table every second, asking:

"Seven, date me?!"

"Nine, I'm in love with you!"

"Seven, I'll watch your back during the exams and I'll make sure both of us pass!"

Seven was scratching her arm, and she said, "Ew no. Goodbye."

Nine said to the boys, "Y'all do this every day. Get away. Bye bye."

 Kazuma and Ren-Ren kept being asked, "What was it like being inside Host Marshy's house?!"

Kazuma replied, "She had a whole bunch of cool stuff in there! Ooo, ooo! There was this one this one weapon where if you touch it, you'll explode!"

Ren-Ren added, "That's not all. She has other powerful weapons and artifacts in there, I might just take them for my villain collection for when I become one…hehe..hehe."

Jiyu was eating with a group of boys and girls, and they were laughing and joking around.

Jiyu was wearing a hoodie, but everytime she touched the middle of it, she went invisible.

The students around her said, "Cool!"

Jiyu laughed with a nervous smile.

Host Kedarah was in the middle of all the students, throwing wrapped pink biscuits at everyone. But she was twirling around like a ballerina and smiling, saying, "Hereeee! Take this! Hehe! I made these with lovee! It took me HOURS to make these! These will fill your little human tummies up in no time! Gasp! Where's Duri??? Durriiiii!"

Students were saying:

"Kedarah is a little too happy today."

"Dude, that's everyday."

"So estactic and joyful every second we all see her. What makes her like this?"

"I don't know but it's entertaining."

Seven looked around, and she didn't see Duri anywhere in the room.

Nine noticed, and asked Seven, "You good, Seven? What's the matter?"

Seven was still scratching her arm, and she responded, "I'm uh, fine. I'm going to go to my room real quick. I'll be back. Save my seat. If anyone takes it, fuck them up."

Nine gave up a thumbs up with a grin, "Yooookai!"

Seven got up from the table, and she began to walk out of the cafeteria.

She was still scratching her arm, thinking, 'Not here…not here…not here. Gotta get to the room…and re-up..'

She was walking down the train aisle, headed to her room. She approached the door, and she walked straight in, dropping her phone by the door on accident.

Down the other end of the aisle, here came Duri.

He had his hands in his pockets, and he thought to himself, 'Tsk. I don't need that loser breakfast food. I perform better on an empty stomach anyway. It doesn't bother me at all.'

Duri's stomach growled, and he shook his head.

"I don't need it. I don't need it. I don't need it."

Duri saw Seven's phone on the floor, and he said, "This is..Seven's phone…I oughtta break the hell out of it for her blocking me."

Duri was thinking about snapping it in half, but he chose not to. 

'I'll just give it back to her. Screw it.'

Duri waited a few seconds, then he knocked on Seven's door three times. The first two knocks were okay, but the third knock opened the door forcefully.

'Oh shit!'

Duri didn't mean to do it, but as soon as the door opened wide, he saw something that actually shocked him.

Seven was standing in the middle of the floor, taking a metal arm off her right shoulder, which had nothing there. She had her sweatshirt off, but she had on a grey tank top.

Duri and Seven stared at each other, both of them didn't know what to say.

Seven said, "...D…Dur..Duri..".

Duri replied, "Who..whoa.."

Seven snatched her phone away from Duri, and continued, "Oh look, it's the mc that kills people. Yeah that'll get some readers attention."

"...What?"

"You're looking at the real me right now. No one but my parents know I have a metal arm for a right arm. Haha, guess what? Now you know why I always wear longsleeve things. Go ahead and make fun of me. Or you know what? Try and kill me for having a robot arm."

Duri didn't know what to say. He was utterly shocked and speechless. 

He replied, "Sorry. That arms cool by the way.."

Duri closed the door behind him, and left. 

Seven stood there, looking at the metal arm she was holding.

'He said my arm…looked cool.'

Seven said, "Duri…don't you tell anyone what the hell you saw."

Duri was already walking down the aisle, looking for the ladder to go up to the train roof.

'Seven has a metal arm…? Her best friend Nine didn't even know about it? Shit…'

Duri walked past Tek's room, and Tek was sitting on floating chains, reading a small black book.

[Hanako's room on the train]

Hanako was in the dark. With a Katana sword laying out in front of her. She was in a prayer position, and she said, "Watch over me. Allow my katana to annihilate whoever attacks. Trap their souls within the blade…and extinguish the evil around me. Watashi no kono ken wa watashi no shurui no saigodesu."

[Watashi no kono ken wa watashi no shurui no saigodesu MEANING: "For this sword of mine is the last of my kind."]

Hanako stood up, and her ear twitched. She dashed to the door of her room, and she had her katana on guard.

She had it pointed at Host CHAOS' face.

Hanako said, "Chaos?"

Chaos smiled, "Um, good to see you too. Can you put the deadly blade down, thank youuu."

Hanako put the sword away, apologizing, "My apologies, Chaos. But I've warned you to not wander while I'm meditating."

"You did? Hm. I don't remember."

"You almost got your life taken from you."

"Would've been an honor if it was from you, am I right?"

"Why have you summoned yourself to me?"

"It's about the first activity of the exam."

"What about it?"

"You chose it?"

"No. Kedarah and Tetsuya did. You were not aware?"

"I wasn't, no. Do you know what it is?"

"I understand as much as you do, Host Chaos. But all I know is that it will be on this train."

On the top of the train, Duri was laying down flat on his back. He was looking up at the clouds, and he let the wind brush up against him. The train was out in an empty orangish area, and the sun was steaming hot.

Duri was pointing at the clouds, saying, "That cloud looks like a knife. That cloud looks like brains. And that cloud looks like-."

Interrupting him, was Host Tetsuya.

Tetsuya was holding a plate of food, along with Kedarah's pink biscuit. The plate of food was bacon, eggs, pancakes, and toast.

Duri asked, "Hm?"

Tetsuya sat the plate down beside Duri, and said, "Eat."

"I don't need that food. You nerds probably poisoned it. With your SPIT."

"Yeah no. My spit is like acid. It would destroy the food and the plate. You can't do these exams on an empty stomach."

"I've fought plenty of times without food."

"What happened after?"

"...I took huge dumps."

"Exactly. I understand what you're going through and dealing with. As a Host, we all faced society hating us at one point."

Duri sat up, "Oh really?"

"Yes. I killed a giant demon mythic monster dog thing and a lot of people hated me for it. So lame."

"Haha! That's kind of funny. Tell me more."

"Don't have any more."

"Lame as hell."

"What I'm trying to say is, don't let it ruin your confidence. And don't let what's going on mess up your attitude."

"My attitudes already messed up, dude."

"We all know that. Trust me. But don't let it make you think you're too good for anything. You need to eat."

"You're saying it like I HAVE to eat it now."

"You do."

"Why?"

Tetsuya chuckled, then vanished.

Duri said, "Oi!...Oi! Long haired nerd! Where'd ya go?"

Duri looked down at the steaming food, and he took a good smell of it. It smelled good, but Duri turned his head away from it.

"No! I won't fold. Fuck that."

Duri kept looking at the food, then kept looking away. He was struggling hard, trying not to take the bait.

Duri instantly dashed to the plate, and began devouring the food on it, finishing in under 10 seconds.

Duri stood up on the train, saying, "I can't believe I folded…I really folded…what the hell is wrong with me?!"

As he stood there wiping the crumbs off of him, he heard Tetsuya's voice loudly. Everyone on the train heard it too.

All the students looked alarmed, becoming silent and looking upwards.

Tetsuya said, "All exam takers. The train is now stopping. Report to the top of the train. You have 60 seconds."

In the cafeteria, Kedarah was saying happily, "Come onnnn! This is definitely gonna be fun! Hehe!"

The students were saying to each other:

"A meeting?"

"Kinda seems like it."

"Are we starting our first exam activity?"

"Why does the train have to stop?"

Tek, who was still sitting on his floating chains, said, "Hm?"

He closed his book, and headed to the top.

(45 seconds later)

All the students/exam takers were standing on top of the train roof. Silent.

Host Tetsuya, Host Chaos, Host Kedarah, and Host Hanako was flaoting in front of everyone.

Duri was looking up at them, burping because of the food he ate.

Kedarah saw Duri and waved, asking, "Hiii Duriii! How was the biscuits I made?! Did you love them?!"

Duri gave a thumbs up, rolling his eyes at the same time.

Kedarah clapped, "Yay!"

Tetsuya cleared his throat, and said to everyone, "I'm gonna make this short and sweet. The first exam activity is starting now. There are 45 super tough trains bigger than this one headed this way, and if you all don't work together to stop them, they're going to ram against this train all once."

The students complained, and Tetsuya continued, "You all will need to use your powers and strategic minds to stop the trains, while also avoiding a real criminal from the void prison."

"A real criminal?!"

"From the void prison?! That's big!"

Hanako and Chaos looked at Tetsuya and Kedarah.

Chaos said, "Umm..say that again? Isn't that reckless?"

Kedarah answered Chaos, "Haha! No, silly Chaos. They won't lose to him."

Hanako asked, "To who?"

Tetsuya said to the students, "Good luck to you all! You have 10 minutes to stop the trains, and defeat the prisoner and his creations!"

The Hosts vanished, then they reappeared on a cloud up high, watching over everything.

Hanako asked Tetsuya, "Does this prisoner know he's in an exam?"

Tetsuya answered, "No. He believes he was broken out."

Chaos commented, "This is kinda reckless.."

"Our exams were worse than this. Those kids won't lose."

Down on the train, Duri was thinking, 'They hit us with that fast! An activity already?! Everyone looks nervous, they're all complaining, I wanna complain too, but I'd be fitting right in with them. That's not what I wanna do. 10 minutes? That's fine, that's fine. There's a lot of us here, so we can stop the trains and beat the villains ass in no time.'

Coming up from the ground, was over twenty 70 foot black centipedes with hundreds of legs, a screeching scream, and a super tough body.

The ground broke simultaneously, and many of them were popping out, rushing to the train.

There was one man, riding on top of one of the centipedes. His name was Odyn. He had peach skin, full white eyes, tattoos all over his body, whitish blonde and black wavy hair, and brown horns on his head.

He laughed, "Haha…haha..FINALLY I'M FREE! I don't know who the hell broke me out, but it's about damn time! I will continue my campaign of showing the world how special my centipedes are! They will recognize their true form and dominance! They will worship them! Haha! Oooo, food is waiting for them down below. So many young power users. That'll supply my creations with larger growth! I want them to be big enough for the world to see and worship! Not me, but them! Kill em's creations!"

Duri, Seven, Kazuma, Nine, Ren-Ren, Tek, Jiyu, and the other students started getting ready for a fight, with their powers brewing up around them.

The 45 trains in the distance were coming at them, at a very fast pace.

Duri said, "Let's go."

He was the first one to leap 60 feet in the air off the train as everyone looked at him.