▌│█║▌║▌║Chapter 33║▌║▌║█│▌

Shocked at Jack’s decision, I looked over to him and asked, “What makes you want to stay here with us?”

He side eyed me, and told me, “Because even though I don’t like you, I’m not an idiot either. I realize that charging straight in to fight him will lead to all of us getting failing grades. Don’t read too much into my decision. I’m only doing what’s best for me.”

I scrunched my face up, and nodded my head in understanding. “I get it. Well thanks anyway for staying, we can use your power.”

I don’t really care why Jack stayed here. We can really use his power in alleyways and in buildings. I don’t care if Jack likes me either. It kind of puts me at ease that he doesn’t, and he is level headed enough to see the stupidity in charging straight in to fight Mr. Grey head on. Our class’s two groups then split up into the teams outside of the locker room. When we got into our group, I told them, “Thanks guys for staying with me. I know that it was probably a hard decision based on me being a sagaru, but thank you.”

Via told me in an annoyed voice, “No thank you. I would rather be with my grandparents if it meant I wouldn’t have to be with that prick. Now stop with the heart to heart and get to a plan or at least describe Mr. Grey’s powers.”

I nodded in agreement. We don’t have time to talk for long, so we need to make the most of this time. I looked around the group, and explained, “Mr. Grey is a really powerful assassin class protector. His power I think is lightning based. He can enhance his strength with it, and shoot it out. He can also increase his speed as fast as, if not faster, than Via. I think our best option is to stay in a shaded area, and a place that isn’t enclosed. If we are ever trapped then it’ll be an automatic game over. I’m thinking we should go to the park over on the east side of the urban arena. It’s shaded, open, and it gives us some cover with the trees. It also has some water to use for Zen and Thomas. If worse comes to worse we can head into the alleyways of the buildings next to it and use Itsuki’s air barriers to at least annoy him. What do you guys think?”

“Sounds good to me.” Via said.

“This is the plans you can come up with? Where have you been all my life?!” Thomas exclaimed, and he was then quickly hit by Jack.

Jack asked, “How are we supposed to retreat into the buildings around the park if Mr. Grey is as fast as you said he is?”

“How many people can you carry with you when you use your shadow power again?”

“Two people, if they are small.”

I looked at him, and told him, “We’ll probably have to rely on you to carry two people, and we need to come up with a distraction and an obstacle for the rest of us to get out of there. I think we may need to have Zen create an ice wall helped along with Itsuki’s air walls.”

Jack looked down in thought, as I thought more about our positions in the park. I looked at Itsuki, and she looked worried. I went over and asked her, “How do you feel about this plan?”

“I-it’s fine I guess.”

“You sure? If you don’t feel like doing anything, or have an issue with anything you can tell me. I don’t think I know it all, and I want everyone’s opinion.”

She lifted her head up, for what seemed like the first time today, and looked at me with her timid eyes as she said, “I don’t know if I’ll be able to put up all those barriers for you and be useful. From what you described, Mr. Grey is unstoppable, and we are just delaying the inevitable.”

I looked at her hands, and they were visibly shaking. The poor girl is scared shitless. I can’t really blame her that much either. I put a comforting smile on though, and put my hand on her shoulder and told her, “It’s going to be fine. Even if he manages to get us with all of the measures we are going to have, I’m sure he won’t harm us bad, if at all. You won’t have anything to worry about. Besides I’ll try my best to get everyone here to pass, and as long as you try your best, that’s all I ask for.”

She looked back down, but this time she had a slight smile on her face as she did. Her hands also stopped shaking for the moment, and seemed a little more confident in her movements. Zen moved beside me and asked me, “Since when were you able to comfort people like that?”

I smiled and said, “Since I started to talk to people for the first time in a while, and pick up on social ques.”

Her normally melancholic face brightened up a bit, and she went to comfort Itsuki some more. Thomas was discussing something with Jack (probably the hit that jack gave him), and Via was staring at the other group off by herself. I walked over to her and elbowed her arm like she does me as I asked, “Feeling a bit nervous now? It should be me that stresses about stuff like this where powers are in use.”

“I’m not nervous.” She protested. “I’m just trying to get myself focused for the ‘Pop Quiz’. You really think we can win?”

“Well it isn’t about whether we can win or not, we just have to survive for ten minutes and then, I assume, it’s over. Don’t worry I’ll try to get you your first A on a pop quiz haha.”

Via, offended, told me, “I’ve gotten as before on pop quizzes. It’s just hard for me to. I won’t need a lot of your help today to. You can rely on me today. I will do good today.”

I looked at her in wonder. She really does seem determined. Her eyes focused, and her body language stiff and on alert. I wonder why she is so much on edge. I know it’s training and she wants to do good and get an A, but she seems even more determined than a person normally would. Just then a bell rang throughout the arena. The quiz has begun, or should I say hunt?

▌│█║▌║▌║To be Continued║▌║▌║█│▌