43. My first kiss

As I walked out of the gym under dozens, no, maybe hundreds of gazes, I took a deep breath and ate those people’s wasted lifeforce. It calmed me down.

Outside, the sun was shining.

“Armen!”

Arkifa waved at me. Ashooka was with her, as well as…

“Sis?” I snorted as I joined them.

Azritz was wearing a white lab coat. She cried out:

“Armen, is it true that you got first place?!”

“W-Well, yeah…” I was so embarrassed that I turned to Ashooka to greet him first. We bumped our fists twice, below, above, then hooked our little fingers, then made a direct bro fist. That was the dap greeting I had worked so hard to obtain from that nerd. “Ashooka, you’re getting better. We should turn up the difficulty.”

“No, thanks, Armen. It’s already embarrassing enough.”

Suddenly, Azritz grabbed me by the shoulders.

“Armen! Are you really you?”

“Eeh… I think so?”

“How many steps has our lighthouse?”

“One hundred eighty-four.”

“It’s one hundred eighty-five!”

“That’s because, as usual, you’re counting the last step twice.”

“Holy Gods, it’s really you! My lil bro really made it to the first place!”

“Sorry for giving you a shock, sis. Also, sorry, Arkifa. I didn’t know the screens would block if I won.”

“Oh… Well,” Arkifa slightly shook her head, “nobody knew, right?”

So true. Even the jury didn’t know. She hesitated, as if about to ask something, but then she just added:

“Well, I passed the test anyway and placed nine, so everything went well. We’ll see how it’ll go for the practical test. We were told to gather in two hours so… we’d better hurry and eat lunch. By the way, Ashooka brought me a bento. He made it himself!”

“Eeh. Skipping school to eat lunch with your girlfriend? How cute, Ashooka,” I teased him. Oh, but now that I thought about it, it was Wednesday, and we just had Physical Education in the morning, the sole subject Ashooka would gladly skip. I squinted my eyes. “Are you really that good at cooking?”

My classmate readjusted his eyeglasses with a smirk.

“Heh. Arkifa eats everything I cook.”

“That only means she’s a glutton.”

“Ha! You would too if you saw his bento,” Arkifa replied. “Tabbouleh, ramen, sushi, tiramisu, okroshka, polenta, broccoli slaw—”

“Wow, he feeds you even with broccolis?”

“Yeah… Wait, don’t say it as if I’m a pet he has to feed!”

“Argh… Maybe I should have eaten more of your cuisine, Ashooka, instead of those demon-fish brains my sis fed me with.”

“What did you say?!” Azritz threw an arm over my neck, making me bow as I laughed. “It’s because you ate those demon-fishes that you were able to pass this exam, you don’t know anything! Come here and stop bullying your friends!”

As I walked away with my big sis, I waved at Ashooka and Arkifa.

“Enjoy your meal!”

Azritz wanted to take me to her new lab. She kept saying how surprised she was to see me passing a test meant for people who would become elite trainees. We were entering a building quite far from the gymnasium when she said after a silence:

“Well, I must confess, at first, when you told me you were going to that exam, I didn’t think you were serious about it. Now I realize I was wrong. I don’t know if I have to be proud of you, or worried, or ashamed of not believing enough in my little brother.”

I looked at her expression, not knowing what to say. She stopped before a door. You already worried too much about me, sis…

“You…”

Azritz was about to open the door, but when I spoke, she paused and turned to me interrogatively. I couldn’t tell her she shouldn’t be proud of me because the only thing I did was activate a bug. I shook my head.

“Don’t be ashamed, or I should be too. I… also didn’t think I would pass. Honestly. It was just a fluke.”

“Just a fluke you got first place? Don’t be modest, Armen. You worked hard.” Azritz grinned. “So let me brag a bit in front of my colleagues! Hey, guys, my lil bro is a genius!”

I tried to stop her, but it was too late: as she was opening the door, crying out the good news, I saw her team having lunch during their break. They were all impressed. Hira hugged me as if I had graduated from high school; Ashael, that blond leader of theirs, welcomed me into the lab as if he was some sort of godfather; the rest of them congratulated me, remembering me from New Year’s Eve. One of them said: “As to be expected of Azritz’s brother!” The hell. I was moved by their reaction, really, but… I was also starting to think that being successful was a real pain.

All the more so since it wasn’t well-deserved.

* * *

The practical test wouldn’t take place at Nyomin University. I found out about that when I arrived at the meeting point two hours later and saw the three buses parked on the avenue.

The candidates were already getting on. The ones still outside turned their faces to me as I approached. Some of them showed simple curiosity, others were scornful or defiant, but one of them was clearly full of admiration. That last one was from a boy who was holding in his hand a white full-face helmet with a black visor. He left the line he was in and came up to me. He was about fourteen years old, had black bowl-cut hair, and kept staring at me with a cheerful expression. I looked back at him, a bit puzzled.

“Yo. Do you need something from me?”

The boy’s eyes slowly widened, he shook his head, frowned at me with frustration as if he was trying to say something and couldn’t say it, then he clicked his tongue, put his helmet on, and went back to the line.

Well… since Heroes were said to be a bunch of weirdos, that boy had a high likelihood to become one someday, right?

An employee assigned me to the bus with the letter C, which was the farthest one. As I headed towards it, I wondered if Arkifa had been assigned to the same bus. If not, would that mean we would be separated for the test?

The girl in a wetsuit with green dreadlocks was getting on my bus. Andrea, was it? I was going to get on as well when someone took hold of my hoodie. I turned.

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“Ashooka?”

He had run to me, and he was gasping for breath, his long black hair a bit disheveled. It was rare for him to run, since he suffered from severe asthma. I worried.

“Hey, Ashooka, breathe normally. What’s up? What’s the matter?”

He started wheezing, struggling for breath. Crap. He took out his asthma inhaler from his pocket, but he dropped it. I stopped it with my telekinesis before it touched the ground, grabbed it, and put it in his mouth, pressing the actuator. Ashooka took the device from me, and as his breathing began to calm down, he muttered:

“Sorry, I ran too fast.”

“Yeah… Don’t scare me like that. You could have just called out my name.”

Though Ashooka wouldn’t have dared yell in a place full of people. Sometimes, he was a bit shy like Ray. Both of them were smart, after all. Maybe it was related? Or maybe not.

“Arkifa,” he explained, “she’s on a different bus. I have a bad feeling about this.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Well… But we may be heading to the same place, so don’t worry, man, I’ll look after her for you.”

“… Thanks. But I still have a bad feeling about this test. They’re probably going to take you guys out of Farskyer City. I was told you won’t come back until the day after tomorrow. Well, it’s a test to form an elite group of Heroes, after all. I know Arkifa is dead set on becoming an Explorer, and I don’t want to become a hindrance, but if it’s too risky…”

He was truly worried. That showed how much he cared for her. I put a hand on my chest.

“Don’t you believe in me? I said I’ll protect Arkifa. She will be all right. So take care of yourself too, and she will come back to you safely. Though I can’t promise she won’t fall for me again during the test.”

Ashooka had blushed a bit, but then he rolled his eyes on hearing my last sentence.

“There’s no way that could ever happen. Also… it’s not like I’m too much worried. She said she’s strong, and I believe her—”

“Oi, oi, your whining is boring me to death,” a voice suddenly said behind us. “Stop blocking the way, the blond superstar.”

Crimson hair, a green uniform, a smug face… It was the guy who had shamelessly touched Arkifa. Unaware, Ashooka stepped back, saying:

“Sorry, I was just talking to him. Armen, good luck.”

I smiled.

“Thanks! Take care!”

Aboard, I was given a badge by Gilda the Bloody Cook. The bus was almost full. If there were three buses for one hundred twenty people, that meant there were… forty people in each, I divided. There were two empty seats over the middle, one to the left, beside the green dreadlocked Andrea, one to the right, beside the silver-haired lucky girl. So, Nina had passed the first test. According to Cynsea the Hypnotist, they wouldn’t have let anyone pass only because I asked for it, so I guess Nina Clover wasn’t that bad of a student. I smiled.

“Hey, Nina, may I sit here?”

“No.”

My smile staled.

“Eeeh, why not?”

“You lied to me. You said your name was Armenilda, but it’s Armen, ain’t it? So I’m not sure what to think about you anymore.”

Ah, that…

“I’m sorry about that. I was just kidding, because Leonardo was being cold to me. I wasn’t making fun of you. I swear.”

Nina stared at me as if she was some kind of Goddess of Justice. I felt guilty.

“Let me—”

“Oi,” the crimson-haired guy grumbled behind me, cutting me off. “You’re always in the way, superstar.”

I ignored him.

“Let me introduce myself again, Nina Clover. I’m Armen Moon. Can I…?”

In a swift movement, the dreadlocked girl stood up, crossed the narrow hallway, and sat down beside Nina.

“Just sit down, you two!” Andrea snapped. “And stop harassing the girl.”

That was a huge blow. I was harassing Nina? I rolled my eyes.

“Okay… but please don’t put me in the same bag as that pervert behind me.”

I was going to sit down, but the crimson guy grabbed me from behind.

“Wait a moment! I want to sit by the window.”

I was losing my patience. Under the other candidates’ gazes, I turned and gave him a dark smile.

“Too bad, I want to sit by the window too.”

“Oho?” the crimson guy smirked. “Then we’ll have to fight it out. How about that, let’s squat one hundred times, the fastest one wins.”

Was he serious? That guy didn’t mind doing embarrassing things in front of everyone, huh. I burst out laughing.

“Fine with me!”

“On three. One, two, three!”

We began squatting. The bus was soon filled with joyful comments, encouragements, and whispered mockeries, but the crimson guy was still grinning fiercely as we kept going. I had done forty-six squats when the bus suddenly moved backwards. We lost our balance at the same time, I fell on the floor, and he fell on me. Worst, his mouth touched mine. We pulled away from each other, disgusted.

“You two, cut it out and sit down already, we’re going to set off!” Gilda the Bloody Cook snarled from the front of the vehicle.

We flinched under the Independent Hero’s remonstrance. Clicking his tongue, the crimson guy went to sit down by the window. That jerk. I wiped my mouth off with the back of my hand, then sat beside him reluctantly. The bus soon moved off, and I took a look at the windows, only to realize that what I had thought to be a black drape was, in fact, an opaque window. We couldn’t see a thing through it. What exactly were we fighting for then? I snorted with laughter.

“I never thought a guy would steal my first kiss. It felt awful. You’d better pay for it.”

His arms folded, the crimson guy looked daggers at me.

“You will pay for it, stupid superstar. Not that I’d count that as a kiss, but it was my first, too.”

“No way. I thought you were a pervert.”

“Tch. The girls I know are all vipers like this one.”

He was looking at Andrea. The girl with the green dreadlocks had put on her headphones, so he probably thought she wouldn’t hear him, but she still turned her reptilian eyes to him. He averted his, uneasy.

“You know her?” I whispered.

“… Yeah. We’re both from the Champion Institute.”

I widened my eyes. The Champion Institute? Wasn’t that the place made for people who had dangerous powers they couldn’t control? I was growing curious about that place. I held out my hand.

“I’m Armen.”

The crimson guy frowned.

“Noah.”

He didn’t shake my hand, but he at least introduced himself. I smiled.

“Nice to meet you, Noah.”

“Tsk. You’re a rich kid, aren’t you, stupid superstar? Don’t talk to me.”

My smile broadened.

“Okay, pervert.”

The bus took about two hours to arrived at its destination. Once out of the city, there were many turns in the road, and I knew it would have made me dizzy had I been alive.

As it stopped, Gilda the Bloody Cook stood in the hallway and called us out to put down any electronic device on our seats, cellphones included. When we got off, there was no sign of the other buses, only a vast jungle on the left side of the road, and a small red house on the right side. When the forty of us gathered, Gilda the Bloody Cook announced:

“You will take the practical test in this Nyomin reserve. The rules are simple. There are red, blue, and yellow-colored ribbons scattered in this jungle. Gather one of each and bring them to me, at this red base. You can’t bring just one ribbon: the ribbons must be three and of different colors. The faster you are, the better your rank. Bringing more sets of ribbons won’t get you extra points, so just come back when you have one. Don’t forget it’s an individual test. Also…”

She scanned our faces like a hawk.

“Fighting or stealing are not forbidden, but you’re still in a test: don’t overdo it. Your goal is to gather a red ribbon, a blue one, and a yellow one and come back here. One last thing: the badges I gave you on the bus are devices for the test. You are not to remove them until the test ends. In an emergency, you can press the middle button to ask for help, but then you’ll be out of the competition. That’s all. The test will begin in ten minutes. Any questions?”

Noah raised a nonchalant hand.

“What do you mean by ‘don’t overdo it’? Can I, for example, knock someone out?”

Gilda frowned behind her eyeglasses.

“When I say ‘don’t overdo it’, it means that you can’t cause any severe injury that will handicap a person for life. Of course, you can knock someone out. Let me remind you that all of you came here because you want to take part in that experimental training for young talents. The main job of common Heroes is to bring peace to mankind and protect it against violence, so it’s only natural that admitted candidates must be prepared to fend for themselves. Any other questions?”

“I heard there were wild animals in this Nyomin reserve,” a tall blond girl said. “Is that true?”

“It is.”

From Gilda’s concise answer, I guessed she didn’t want to give more precisions.

“But ma’am, won’t we be freezing to death if we have to spend the night in the jungle?” another candidate asked worriedly.

“No. The ground here is warm: there is a Nyomin Crystal’s root under this forest.”

That aroused whispering comments. A question came from behind:

“Why are you called the Bloody Cook?”

We all turned to see who asked that. It was a bald and skinny teenager in a tunic. Gilda’s lips stretched.

“Kaireagle is your friend.”

Kaireagle was a widely known search engine. Actually, I had already searched for the answer during lunch break. It was said that Gilda had been an independent Crime Hunter for many years; her power allowed her to control her blood temperature, and she apparently used to ‘cook’ the criminals she had caught with boiling blood. She was a scary A-rank Hero.

Next to me, Andrea raised a hand.

“Will the candidates on the other two buses be in this jungle as well?”

Gilda was checking her phone.

“You will know it soon,” she replied. “Come with me, all of you.”

We followed her until we reached the border of the forest. It looked dark, humid, and full of life… Gilda said:

“It’s time. Oh, if you leave the forest without the three colored ribbons, you will be disqualified. The test will end tomorrow afternoon. Now you can enter.”

There was a silence of hesitation, then:

“What are you waiting for?!” Gilda grunted. “The test has begun! Go!”

As if her voice had triggered a spring, most of the candidates broke into a run and entered the forest. Before doing the same, Noah threw at me a challenging:

“This time I’ll end this before you, stupid superstar.”

I was kind of honored that he didn’t doubt a second I would pass the test.

I stepped forward. Soon, I began struggling among plants and roots. Red ribbons, blue ribbons, yellow ribbons, huh. I scanned the high canopies. There was no telling where they had put those ribbons. On the ground? On high branches?

Now that I thought about it, I had never done a treasure hunt. The feeling of adventure made me grin.