▌│█║▌║▌║Chapter 32║▌║▌║█│▌

When we got to the urban training center, there was a person standing there waiting for us. He wore cacky cargo shorts, a grey t-shirt, fingerless gloves, and glasses. His hair was messy and a brown-red color. Mr. Grey walked up to him and shook his hand. He turned around to us and said in a bored voice, “This here is Mr. Wey. He is a professional protector of this country, and he is here to help out with the pop quiz today. He helped me many times during missions, so he is very reliable, no need to worry. I’m sure you’re all wondering what you are doing for the pop quiz, and it is basically what your first day of training was. After your training was done and the terrorist attack happened, I realized a couple of things. One, a lot of you have a hard time working together as a team. Two, most of you fold under the pressure of moments, and that is deadly in a protector’s line of work. Three, a lot of you don’t pay attention to your surroundings, so you get into unfavorable situations. This pop quiz is going to push those weaknesses, and get you to either adapt or fail this quiz. The grade you get is determined by how long you last. Lasting over ten minutes gets you an A. There will be beep every minute heard throughout the arena, so you can keep up with your time.”

People started to look around in confusion. Wayne finally popped the question that was on everyone’s minds, “So, will we all be trying to survive against Mr. Wey for ten minutes?”

Mr. Wey kind of chuckled at this, and Mr. Grey let a slight smile creep onto his face. He looked at us with his one uncovered eye and told us, “Oh no, you won’t be going up against him. See Mr. Wey’s power allows him to create portals from one position to another. He will be up in the control center, and get anybody that gets knocked out or clearly captured throughout the quiz. The person you will be fighting is me.”

A murmur spread throughout our class. Everyone always wondered what Mr. Grey’s power was. Since his missions was never reported on the news, no one really knew much about him. The class was kind of excited to finally see their teacher in action. I, however, already knew what his power was, and knew just how ridiculously powerful he was. I looked down in despair. Our only hope of getting the time, is hiding and hoping he doesn’t find us for ten minutes. Zen must have noticed my expression, and went over and asked me, “He’s powerful, isn’t he?”

“You have no idea.” I answered. “We’ll be lucky to get past five minutes, much less ten.”

Via then elbowed me in the side, making me reach for it. She told me, “What’s with this negative attitude now? Weren’t you the one that was trying to cheer me up before? Don’t be getting all down now. Since we are all on a team together, I think we have a good shot to get to ten minutes.”

Thomas piped up, “Yeah, you should relax. This’ll be a piece of cake. I doubt he’ll be able to run as fast as Via anyway, so at least we know she’ll pass.”

“Who asked for your opinion dumbass?!” Via said as she knocked him over the head.

I just simply shook my head. None of them have any idea what’s going to hit them. If all of those terrorists couldn’t even get a hit on him, what hope do we have? We have to run, make distractions, and make it as tough as possible for him to get us. I could hear Harry, Lee, Wayne, and the others up in front of us talking about how this should be easy, and I just shook my head. Mr. Grey eventually spoke up with a smile, cutting off the classes conversations, saying, “That’s enough with the conversations. Enter through the door and get your uniforms in the separate locker rooms. Wait outside the locker room doors in the arena until Mr. Wey tells you to begin. I’ll be heading on the other side of the arena. Good luck, many of you will fail.”

We walked in through the doors and into the locker room. Putting on my uniform was more a chore than it probably should have been due to the fact Harry didn’t want to change next to me, but his locker was next to mine. I eventually just took my uniform off to a corner of the room and just changed there. I don’t have the mental focus to care about this petty stuff today. I put my uniform on and went outside. We had to wait for the girls for a bit, and Harry let them have it once they got out about how they shouldn’t take so long to change. After that, Harry told us, “Okay when the time starts, we need to all head over to Mr. Grey and take him down with numbers. He can’t be that powerful if he has never even made the news for being a protector, and we will be able to overpower him with numbers.”

“No, you won’t.” I muttered.

Harry turned to Lee and said, “I’m sorry did you hear something? I think it was probably just the wind, though right?”

“I think so.” Lee agreed.

I put my head down as I thought and tried to come up with some resolve. I have to say something. If I don’t say anything, they will all get destroyed in less than a minute. I looked back up and protested again saying, “I said, ‘No, you won’t.’ You won’t come close to stopping him. Do you even have a plan on how you should attack him? You don’t even know his powers. I know his powers, and how powerful he is from the terrorist attack. He’ll beat all of us without even breaking a sweat. Our best chance to survive ten minutes, is to run, hide, and make it as difficult as possible for him to get to us.”

Harry answered snarkily, “Spoken like a true sagaru. You want us to run and hide? You are just afraid. You probably are even overexaggerating his power from what you saw. Stay here and cower if you want. We are going to take the fight to him.”

My face was burning with anger, and my fists were clenched tightly. He’s going to ignore all information on our opponent, and neglect advice given from a person who witnessed them in battle, just because I’m a sagaru? Of course, he is. I just grounded my teeth, and kept my feet planted in the ground. I will not move from my position and go on a suicide mission. Everyone was staring at me again. It felt like it was back in the hallway at the beginning of school. Except these stares felt more like knives piercing through me. It feels like it did when people first learned I was a sagaru. All of a sudden Via spoke up saying, “If he is staying here then so am I. You are being ignorant Harry, and I had enough of your arrogance and stupidity yesterday. I actually want to get an A today.”

“Fine then. You aren’t powerful anyway. You two would just hinder us. Anyone who wants to stay and be with this failure can, but if you want to pass follow me.”

In the end Thomas stayed and Itsuki stayed. Harry’s side, and even Harry, got a little hesitant in leaving when Zen stayed, but still left anyway. The last person who stayed with us was kind of a surprise, it was Jack. I wonder why he decided to stay here?

▌│█║▌║▌║To be Continued║▌║▌║█│▌