There were men in suits everywhere. This island had all sorts of people from all over the world. I thought I was used to seeing people from different places, but this was a totally different experience.

Normally at the academy, people mostly spoke in English but in here, language was all over the place. I myself knew four languages, and yet, I felt so out of place right now.

There were other types of people here too. Men in tights, some in lab coats while others with Holo armor. Though the numbers were smaller, women were here too and doing very much the same stuff as men, just walking around, being busy.

The age range was adult and up. Teenagers were pretty rare.

"I thought this was some sort of a clubhouse," I mumbled and looked around. The exterior was sparkly clean and there were all sorts of fancy stuff in here like hovercrafts, Large Holo screens, flying skateboards, and so on.

"It is but things changed over the last couple of years and the International Lightsaber Federation changed policies and made these houses into full-fledge research centers."

"That's cool and all but we should hurry up." This didn't look like just a research center, no, this was much more than that.

"Right."

He walked ahead and I followed. I didn't know my way, so I just followed him around like a toddler.

We got occasional stares from the people around us but nothing too weird. Normally I got way more stares anyway. But today, Jonathan was the one getting the stares.

The elevator was probably the only thing old in this whole building.

Johnathan and I went in, he pressed the button for the 67th floor.

"This might take a while." Johnathan wasn't optimistic.

A second later the elevator started going up.

I was fine with an old and slow elevator. And if that was all, waiting a little longer wasn't a problem.

But regretfully it wasn't all.

We stopped three times while climbing to the tenth floor.

"Wouldn't the stairs be faster?"

"You want to climb over fifty floors?"

"Good point." I sighed. Just climbing four floors every day was like hell and now over fifty? Maybe spending an hour in the elevator wasn't that much of a bad of a deal.

It didn't seem like that much of a great deal either though.

We were interrupted over and over again and by the time we reached the fiftieth floor, the elevator was totally full with seventeen people, ourselves excluded.

It'd already been over twenty minutes.

And yet, there were more people coming in. It was like a hot sauna in here. And everyone was touching everyone. A middle-aged lady was taking full advantage, by grabbing my bottom every three minutes or so. Of course. She made sure to avert all sorts of eye contact and just pretended like nothing was amiss.

Fifty-first floor was my limit. "I think I'll take the stairs." I didn't care if I had to climb on foot.

I got out after a lot of struggle. I looked back and the lady frowned.

What was she, a predator?

With a sigh, Johnathan followed me out. "I think you might be right. I'd heard that two of the elevators were down and it was crowdy today, but I might have underestimated the crisis."

Finally, I could breathe. And be a bit more at ease.

But another problem stood right in front of us. The stairs. Well, at least I had my privacy, kind of.

Since I was the one who wanted this, I couldn't complain right now either.

So with another sigh, we kept on climbing.

So far this day was nothing but sighs as well.

Just the thought was enough to make me want to sigh some more.

***

Every step was grueling.

I huffed and puffed.

Life was hard.

"Stop acting like a baby, it's only been ten floors. We've got seven more to go."

John had superhuman stamina.

But I on the other hand probably had less than average: being asleep till midday didn't help. And since I was the one who wanted to take the stairs, I couldn't complain anymore.

That definitely didn't stop me from acting frail though.

On the 61st floor, however, something happened.

'A bunny girl!' I saw a girl with white fluffy bunny ears. My attention was on max.

For a second I thought it was my long-lost crush.

But when I actually saw the face, I was utterly disappointed. Not the same person.

"What are you doing, let's go. Weren't you the one-"

"Yeah, yeah." That was enough memory searching. "I'm coming."

I had to get my shit together. So without a doubt, I turned my head and rushed through the steps.

But I still stole a glance at her, from my peripherals. She looked pretty close to my crush if nothing else: not the same person though. But then again I hadn't seen my crush in six years, so I wasn't so sure.

In that split second, our eyes met and she went on her way as if I wasn't even worth a second glance. Though it saddened me, I wasn't here to watch girls anyway.

'Alright!'

With that thought in mind, the steps were all behind me. I ran through the first three floors and almost lied down on the fourth.

Still, two more floors to go, but I was already floored: literally.

"That's what you get for running." John chuckled as he took all his time coming up.

I panted and even now I didn't have a comeback. He was right after all.

There were people everywhere. But it wasn't crowded and there was no sense of chaos. It was a lot calmer than the bottom floors. Guess I should have seen this coming.

So, after catching my breath we kept on climbing.

'Maybe it would have been better if we'd just stuck to the elevator.'

***

By the time we reached the 67th floor, it was already 6 pm. Time really flew fast. We probably spent over an hour climbing this damn building.

And not to mention it was too damn tiring. I couldn't even properly stand up anymore.

Johnathan on the other hand looked at me with pity. I guess he might have overestimated me. "That's our stop. Room 6769."

I picked myself up. This was awfully tiring. And maybe mom was right, I should have rested some more. But after all, this, complaining right now, wasn't an option.

"Right, let's go."

I still breathed heavily.

Tomorrow the prelims would start and I was already this spent. Even if I went back now and rested, it still wouldn't have been enough.

And not to mention I didn't actually have a saber. Getting one like this was good and all, but I got the impression this would take a bit too long.

I didn't like where this was going.

Johnathan gave me a smirk. "The scientist in that room is a bit of a…Ahem." He cleared his throat. "You'll see soon enough. Just try to be calm."

Well, his choice of words certainly wasn't helping to keep me calm.

But after coming this far, I wasn't going to back down just because the scientist inside could have been a weirdo.

I most certainly wasn't.

I entered the room after a solid knock on the door. It was a steel door, so I might have hurt myself in the process. It looked like plastic but it wasn't: I learned it the hard way.

But when I did went in my face kind of warped.

'Oh shit.'

It just had to be her.

My thought took a one-eighty turn. I wanted to run away, yesterday.

"I was wondering when you'd show up." She threw a floating kiss at me: the woman was in a lab coat. Brown frilly hair, freckles here and there, and definitely an inch shorter than me.

She was also the same middle-aged lady from the elevator.

"We-We're leaving!" I turned around in rapid motion, but both of my hands were grabbed by something very powerful: I was being pulled in.

I turned back in horror and found myself entangled in tentacles, her tentacles. They were almost like a squid's.

Johnathan chuckled. "Well, let's calm down a little first."

I really wanted to punch this dude. 'How the hell am I supposed to stay calm!'

I still tried to be calm about this, but the tentacles were surely being a bit too risky: touching a lot of places.

"Would you mind letting me go, or do you want to get burned?" I tried to smile but my throbbing veins were definitely not helping.

The woman squirmed. "Oh, you're already burning me up pretty badly." Her tone indicated a lot of things I did not want to think about.

Did she think it was funny? Normally I didn't like using radiation nonchalantly when others were present, but honestly, maybe burning all these morons wouldn't hurt that much. And with that being said, I released a good amount of beta particles.

It wasn't that deadly, but they'd be sure to feel the pain of burning. At least on the surface of their skin. Especially this squid girl.

"Alright, alright! Geez!" She let me go, smoking a little from her tentacles.

I stopped the particles.

"You really can't take a joke, huh?" John chuckled. He looked redder than usual.

"Oh, if I couldn't take a joke, both of you would be dead already." I laughed out loud.

They just looked at me with a bit of fear. I guess my humor wasn't that funny.