Chapter 9

“Little Edgar’s Parochial”

Denzo glanced at a small rusty sign that barely hung itself on the old metal spikes that made up the fence surrounding them. Just in front, past the rusty gates, lies an old one storey structure sitting quaintly by the overgrowth that surrounds it. The building looks dated and worn, the paint already chipping from its concrete walls and the roof had rusted from decades of neglect but still even from the looks of it Denzo felt it was intentional to make it look that way.

‘Quite nice for a dump isn’t it?’ The Double President said.

‘Yeah…’ He answered as he rubbed his hands on the chipping paint on the wall. ‘Who’d you hire to make it look this way?’

‘Wow…’ She said surprised at his answer. ‘What gave it?’ She replied as Denzo points at a spot near the back of the building. ‘That outdoor unit is tucked in nicely by that plastic bush.’ He answered, referring to the part of the air conditioning unit that expels the hot air from inside. ‘If this was a dump the aircon guys would’ve just slapped it somewhere but… this…’

Yukino’s face slowly bore a pompous smile as she gracefully walked towards the main entrance of the building and gestures him to come hither where she was standing.

‘Well I didn't want our offices to be an actual dump but dumpy looking places are the trend these days so…’ She said as she opens the door and gestures him in.

‘Anyways… Welcome to Little Edgars.

There was a whiff of lavender scent that soothed his nostrils at the moment the door was opened, this in itself had driven away any inhibitions he had in entering as he took his first step inside the old rusticated walls of the parochial. Inside, his eyes were greeted by a soothing warm light, bright enough to illuminate and dim enough to not sting as it illuminated the walls that contained all the photos of the alumni priests who have used the place during its years in servitude to the church which drove him to question its whereabouts.

‘Oh didn’t you guys pass by it during the school tour?’

Denzo squints his eyelids confused.

‘On the first day of school?’

His eyes widened as he realized his absence but he nods in agreement anyways to keep her from probing any further. ‘Yeah it was like, converted a few years ago for modernization and the actual church for prayer use was transferred below the new library building.’ She said as the both of them enter further into the room. Beyond the walls of display that flanked the entrance was a generously sized open hall that had colorful christmas lighting that contrasted the soothing warm cozy lights illuminating the whole interior where a single ceiling fan stood still acting as the chandelier and all the christmas lights converged to wrap around it. On the right were two rooms behind glass doors that he assumed were for the highest positioned council members and on the left was another display wall filled with different colorful trinkets of current and past student council students who have left their memories inside the place. Below these trinkets hung a huge smart TV and all the comfy looking furniture had littered themselves right in front of it as they had no particular arrangement to them which was refreshing from his point of view as it gave a less formal and relax atmosphere in the Student Council's office. Weirdly enough as they passed by the middle area, they found no one to greet with their presence, except for a single lady that stepped out behind the wall of the common room. Denzo was surprised to see that there was more to the building than what he initially thought and the lady herself appeared just as surprised at Denzo’s presence.

‘Tish great timing!’ said Yukino. ‘This is the guy I was talking to you about, could you get him in? I know it’s a bit last minute but… can ya?’ Tisha tugs a bit on her bow tie, unsure what to say, before throwing caution to the wind and gestured him over. ‘Fine fine I’ll get him in for ya Keeno.’ Tisha said as she gestures to Denzo to come hither grabbing him by the arm as she pulls him further back behind the wall at the end of the hall.

Seeing what’s behind the wall he felt underwhelmed upon seeing a couple more boring offices lining up another hallway with the same christmas decor. ‘So… where’s the tournament?’ He sighed as Tisha responds in silence. She kept herself quiet as she continued to walk down the hall towards the door at the far end. Denzo looked puzzled and was starting to get anxious about the whole ordeal, for some reason he felt like there was something wrong as Tisha turns the knob on the door to reveal what seemed to look like a tunnel that went below ground level.

‘Hey jeez…’ He gasped as Yukino gently pushed him up forwards and down the steps of the unknown. The stairs that lead them down was brightly lit but he couldn’t help but feel like he was walking into a trap as he remembers the image of Uncle Thor beaten up on the kitchen floor that awful night, making him think further that this might be connected. He badly wanted to escape his predicament but deep inside he couldn’t just bash his way out this time and hurt a couple of girls in the process, which was something he didn't’ have the stomach to do, and so he thought to let go and let things happen gnawing at the fact that he might meet the perpetrator somewhere down the hatch. As they descended further down to what now seemed to be a storey below from ground level, they finally reached the end of the steps and into a magnanimously sized hall and within it the echoing sound of his favorite game rings true which puts a smile on his face and calmness in his heart, but still he felt weird about their whole setup. Tisha notices the look on his face and thoughtfully yanks out a soda bottle from the freezer by the arcade machines, which she offers to Denzo as he looked around trying to figure things out.

‘Weird right? A literal underground tournament…’ She finally breaks her silence as Denzo takes the bottle from her hands.

‘Thanks, but why though? You guys got plenty room upstairs.’ He replies as he takes a sip from the soda. ‘It’s the noise, I mean you might think that no one can hear anything from here since we’re at the back of the campus but still, we don’t want to risk it.’ Tisha said ‘ Although I must admit this is a bit over the top, but it was here anyways. You could say that we found some purpose for it.’

‘What is this place anyways?’ Denzo asked as he takes another gulp of soda.

‘It’s an old war bunker that the church had as an escape route. All churches within a five kilometer radius are interconnected with each other. It just so happens that we found one right in our backyard.’

‘Huh…’ He replied, taking note of what the girl had said as he stared at the other kids playing “Maximum attack” in front of them.

‘By the way I think we haven’t been introduced properly. Patricia Martinez. S.C. Secretary.’

Said Tisha as she extends her hand towards Denzo.

‘Denzo Kalma.’ He answered briefly as he reached with a firm single shake. Which kind of left Tisha feeling ignored as she was used to more longer, more intimate handshakes. ‘It’s Tisha if.. you want… to call me that…’ She said as she tugs on her bow, asking herself why she’d say something so awkward in the first place.

‘Anyways…’ She said loudly. ‘It’s just the first round of eliminations, I’ll just put you up as a wildcard participant just in case.’

‘Wildcard? I thought I was in?’

‘Yes… about that.’ Tisha replied a bit perplexed. ‘Keeno never told anything about another one joining. I was actually surprised she was bringing in someone here today.’

‘What?’

‘I mean yea, she mentioned something along the lines of “you” that was hogging up the real estate in Jack and Barry’s but that was it…. I didn’t think that she was actually bringing you in.’

‘So what am I doing here then?’

Tisha froze in a moment of silence before something started beeping as she retrieved her phone from her purse. She looked quite perplexed before stashing it back inside her phone, glancing back at Denzo with a curious look in her eyes.

‘Come with me.’

She walks towards another door across from the arcade machines as she leads him inside another office which resembles more of a storage room rather than an actual office. In it, surprised as he is, was another Maximum Attack machine, its guts opened but running properly.

‘What’s this?’ He asked.

‘Well my boyfriend is currently modifying it for personal use but you can use it to audition.’

‘For what?’

‘The tournament of course….’ She replies as she points towards the driver’s seat. Denzo cautiously abides as he made himself comfy in the seat, taking out his profile card from his wallet. ‘Na-uh nope don’t you use that its against tournament rules…’

‘What? The game was made for tournaments like this! What in the world are you talking about?!’ Replied Denzo furiously.

‘Rules are rules…’ She said sternly.

Denzo rolls his eyes and slaps the start button with utmost spite in his actions from there the instructions did not stop. He was required to choose the slowest car in the game, a generic body yellow taxi cab that barely went past 200 km/h. He was also instructed to go for a specific track, the Shinigami Uphill Route and was told to only play the time attack mode to which he irately agreed. In his mind 50,000 pesos were at stake so he drowned himself with that fact to ease his boiling blood.

‘We need you to beat the time set on this machine which is 2’25.8 seconds using that same car. Think you can do it?’

‘No problem.’

In his mind the wealthy weight of fifty thousand was cheering for him to go on. He feels the bulk of the first ten that snuggly sat in his pockets and the overwhelming greed of possibly acquiring more. And as the countdown went from five to four to three to two, it seemed that time had paused for a brief moment of clarity as he stepped on the gas the moment the number one had appeared. The first few corners were easy enough to manage but the ghost of his opponent's car that set the target time had bothered him greatly. As it was a fully tuned Nissan Skyline GTR.

With 800 horsepower.

Quickly he realizes that he might have been cheated.

He never cared about the timing screens nor the top of the time attack standings but the horsepower was a dead giveaway that he is up against the time of a veteran player as the upgrades required to reach that massive amount of power is only awarded to accomplished players with already a lot of mileage under their belts.

He deduced that he is up against the world record time for the “Shinigami Uphill Route”.

He doesn’t know what kind of scheme they were trying to run him into but suddenly he realized that he must not lose, even if the odds were stacked against him, he felt that he had to make the impossible happen as he feared that he might be charged with double the money he was promised, and he can’t afford that debt. Not with Uncle Thor in the state he was in.

As he had thought the ghost car had pulled away by about 200 meters in front of him and counting as his car struggled to pull itself uphill, he was for the record, up against an 800 horsepower car versus his taxi’s 250 in game horsepower. The winding straights and tight corners pass by with Denzo slowly losing hope, his mind turned into damage limitation driving as he drove as fast and as clean as he can to keep the minimal loss of distance between him and his opponent thinking that he might be charged with extra interest for every meter he lost. Strange enough as he reached the mountain’s peak he noticed the distance between them slowly closing meter by meter. Another two corners went by and he was already closer by another 50 meters and by the time he had cleared a succession of hairpins near the peak of the mountain run he could already see the taillights of his opponent close in front of him.

‘Turns out you can’t use all of your 800 in tight corners huh?’ He thought as all of his senses awoken in adrenaline knowing now that he had a fighting chance. Both cars had passed the next technical section in the course with Denzo slowly inching the car’s bumper near the taillights of his rival. His only problem was not getting a slight chance to offset his car's limitations as at the moment the both of them are performing equally. It also didn’t help that the course was unfamiliar to him as a consequence for not being a preferred course. So it was kind of a blessing that the final part of the course was a downhill section that led to the finish where “hopefully” his power disadvantage would be nullified..

After the final blind left he was greeted with the swooping right turn that immediately led to the steep crest downhill that started the final section of the course. The road was a flowing river of lefts and rights that helped him gain and eventually overtake his opponent. All is well until he was greeted by a long straight road which allowed his opponent to gain on him at an alarming pace as the both of them head for the final corner with Denzo trailing behind by a full car length.

The last corner was a roundabout at the end of the mountain pass that turned the cars back to the same piece of road in the opposite direction where the finish line lies. Denzo and his rival entered the roundabout with the same speed but the opponents car’s lack of grip forced it to slam on the brakes as it slid wide towards the outside guardrail allowing Denzo to catch up. At this point their cars were now sliding towards the inner radius of the road as they set up their car’s trajectories for the switchback onto the main course. Denzo remembers that all of the roads were programmed closely to their real life counterparts for this edition of the game and some of the “arcade walls” were removed to allow slight corner cutting as he turned his car in earlier than usual to capitalize on this new feature. Luckily it seemed that at the time when the world record run was accomplished the walls were still in place as the ghost used the conventional line out of the roundabout. This little difference in exit had given Denzo a huge boost of momentum as they exit into the main road with Denzo a full car length ahead of the GTR, beating the world record by half a second. He breathed a loud sigh of relief and as he collected himself in his seat, his hands shaking from the adrenaline that coursed through his body.

-Click-click-

Tisha went over to snap a picture of him and the results.

‘Don’t worry just a little evidence that you did it.’

‘Who you sending it to?’ he said as he stared at her typing furiously on her phone.

‘Oh nobody just focus on that win. I mean you did it right?! And I think that’s fucking amazing!’ She excitedly exclaimed.

‘Win?’ He said ‘I thought it was an audition for the tournament?’

‘Yea, I mean you won the game you dummy. I mean… ugh… we’ll call you when the things are set up and stuff alright?’ Tisha said with an air of reassurance as she giddily pulled Denzo out of the room and back up the stairs to Little Edgars.

‘Keeno’s waiting by the common room, for the meantime I’ll message you if a slot comes up.’ She said once again with an upbeat tone as she closed the door in front of him leaving Denzo quite confused with his win and his hurried exit from the premises. At that point he thought the only choice he had was to follow instructions as he made his way back to the common room, dazed and confused.

‘Hey hey!’ Keeno said with a smile as she spotted Denzo appear from behind the wall. Denzo’s eyes widened when he saw the girl holding the rest of his prize money in her hand as she fans herself with the thick paper. ‘Here you earned it.’ She says as she hands the money over to Denzo’s hands. ‘But I didn’t win any tournaments yet?’ He asked, confused.

‘I know, I said that but it’s yours take it or leave it.’ Keeno said with a smile.

Denzo felt a bit hesitant but thought better of it and snatched the money from Keeno’s hand. She stands up after Denzo retrieves the cash and picks up her bag from one of the sofa’s. ‘It was nice meeting you Denzo’ She said with a sincere smile. ‘I’m gonna go now. It’s 4:30 classes are over but you can stay here as you please.’ She said as she zips up her bag and slings it over her shoulder.

‘There’s drinks in the fridge and liquor on the cabinets above. There’s also food there if you’re hungry. You’re free to use the microwave as you please, heck everything’s on the house just… clean up after okay?’ Her last words before she turned around and left, leaving Denzo alone, confused and hungry.

‘Might as well…’ Denzo told himself as he got up and went straight for the fridge.