Hope isn’t something you get, it's something you already have. you just haven’t found it yet– Senseless

It was odd, the small yet piercing sting in his arm. At first, Sen wasn’t too sure what to think of it. Or, in better terms, he couldn’t think of anything. His head felt so muddled and distorted as he attempted to form a coherent thought in his brain. Words were popping up, but they simply didn’t want to go together. It was as if his brain were pleading for freedom, trying to escape a jail cell that it was confined in. There was a feeling of peace, though—a break from his constant overthinking.

Even though he was just four years old, there were so many difficult problems he sought to solve. Things that he really never needed to worry about, but yet he was troubled by them. Were they able to pay rent this month? And in case they couldn't, where would they go? Did they have any family or friends who could take them in? What would they eat? What if a monster attacked his parents on their way to work? Could he provide for his sister all alone?

Sen always overthought these scenarios and questions on a day-to-day basis. He wasn’t even sure when it started, but words stayed in his brain the moment he heard them. It wasn’t clear if that was normal, so he often just assumed everyone else could think the same way he did. But how wrong he was…

Yet again, a small prick could be felt on his forearm—this time even more painful than the last. Something was wrong. His brain was screaming in danger, but he simply didn’t have the energy to push back. Only after the third pierce did a small glimmer of consciousness return. And then more abruptly–Sen’s brain flicked on like a computer.

Where am I?

A fair question to ask, given he had no recollection of what happened before blacking out. Usually, he could recall going to bed, but in this case, there was nothing to go off of. His first instinct was to open his eyes, but suddenly… he heard someone breathing above him. He didn’t need to look to know they were staring directly at him, judging by the faint feeling of their breath.

“Alright, last one…” the person spoke, his tone quiet, almost as if he were talking to himself. “Finally… It's time for the real deal. I had to make sure you can handle the final version.”

Sen froze… He knew that voice. The equidistant yet optimistic tone, always filled with a burning passion and eagerness to learn. He heard that voice whenever he did well in school or showed off how talented he was at things most kids his age couldn’t do. He heard that voice every single morning when he woke up and went to sleep. He heard that voice whenever he was being reprimanded for not doing things that his mother told him to. Because that voice… was his father…

“…D-dad?” Sen weakly groaned. Half opening his eyes, his father's face was hidden by the light of a surgical lamp while his squared glasses gave a relating shimmer and blinded the four-year-old boy.

“Shhh, shhh,” Yami shushed him, taking on a calm and collected tenor. “Just stand still for a moment. It will all be over in a second.” He reached for a large syringe with an unusual sparkling blue liquid and released the useless water within with a slight squirt.

Something within Sen screamed with defiance. No, it screamed with fear. The moment Sen locked eyes on the syringe, a fierce juddering that wouldn’t stop came over him. His hands started to shake and soon the rest of his body followed. This was the first time…the first time Sen had felt true fear. Even after being face to face with grueling monsters before, it stood no comparison to the mere sight of the blue liquid in his fathers fingers. While Yami approached closer and closer, Sen could only stare soundlessly, not able to utter a single word. The feeling of terror and the emotions that followed was so overwhelming he wasn’t so sure how to process them. The purest form of fear was in that bottle.

Sen knew.

He felt it with every single fiber in his body. Yet he couldn’t do anything to stop it. Steel cylinders fastened his wrists, ankles, and even neck, forbidding movement. In his moment of panic, Sen could only think– Why was his father doing this? Why was he fastened to a doctor's table with such brutal measures in place? What was his father hiding? Or… who even was his father?

His eyes were wide open in shock, slight blood veins could be seen in his sclera as he whispered to his approaching father– “…Stop.”

The syringe’s needle halted a mere inch from his forearm, and Yami looked at his son with confusion. Sen held his breath, before long moments of quietness arose. He wasn’t sure what to expect from his father's mouth, but it definitely wasn’t the wide, amused grin that was plastered all over his face. Yami almost seemed interested in his rejection, which made it even more terrifying.

“What are you feeling right now?” he asked.

“Huh?”

“What are you feeling at this moment…” Yami repeated, his voice going flat. “The emotions, I sense you going through a lot of them, aren’t you?”

Sen’s throat felt parched as he struggled to come up with a response. He wasn’t sure how to respond to such a daunting question, especially in his current situation. And just like that, his mind went blank… his smart brain was overwhelmed by emotions– emotions that would soon be locked away.

“I–I… want to go home,” Sen’s voice broke.

He tasted something salty and wet, running down his cheek and dripping in his trembling mouth. Sen’s face reflected off Yami’s squared glasses, revealing the expression of a child who’d been betrayed. The expression of a child who wanted their parent's embrace. The expression… of a crying child. However, Sen’s display of emotions only seemed to sour his father's mood, not in a sympathetic way either.

“Crying? What use does that have?” Yami settled his syringe down and reached toward his face, picking up a falling teardrop with his finger. “You don’t need any emotions, my son. They are useless. After all, you must become the perfect vessel.” Yami voice steadily started to rise the more time went on. “You have to, don’t you see? The world is counting on me– the world is counting on you!”

A tear dripped down Sen’s cheek once again. “I want… to go home.”

“Why cant you understand? Listen, you’re such a smart kid. You’re more than just a perfect vessel; you're a genius, a prodigy! So why can't you understand how important this is? We’ve been over this! You must save humanity, Sen! DO YOU HEAR ME?!”

“… from, from what?” his voice was barely a whisper compared to his father's scream. No reply came, and instead was the sound of his father picking up his syringe from the metal table beside him.

“No…” he whispered. “G-Get away from me!” Sen begged, his wrist bruising when he struggled to escape and his neck feeling choked by the steel cylinder’s clasp. But it was all useless.

“Listen to me, my son…” Yami said, “You must become a monster to protect us all.”

“Dad, please, I–”

“A monster who humbles the greedy. A monster who rules them all! Hahahaha!” Yami cackled, not an ounce of sanity audible in his mad voice. “You must fix humanities mistakes!”

…

“I want to go home…”

Then Sen felt it, like the world's weight had been transferred to the tip of a needle and pierced in his forearm. Instantly, Sen started to scream… he screamed so loud that his ears became deaf, and his vocal cords collapsed from strain. An action so defining and irreversible that it changed the fabric of time itself.

The face of a wild monster appeared in his mind. A white and furry monstrosity covering every inch of his imagination with bloodshot eyes and fangs that were ready to devour his mind. A deep and low growl so vile it entered and broke Sen’s brain altogether, taking shelter in the cracked fragments of his consciousness. Sen cried and cried, but nobody came to his aid…. Except for his own self.

#

Sen felt a small prick on his forearm as he studied how a nurse in her mid-thirties injected him with some sort of vaccine. He understood how many people feared needles; it seemed to be one of the more common fears amongst people his age, but he didn’t mind. However, Sen couldn’t help but feel a small shiver run down his spine the moment the nurse injected the fluid into his arm.

Hmm… that’s weird, he thought to himself. He didn’t feel scared, yet his body reacted on its own. Almost like muscle memory. Whatever the case was, the unsettling feeling soon vanished when the rather attractive lady pulled out the syringe and searched through her bag for a band-aid. She was wearing typical medical scrub clothing, yet even with the most bland attire, her figure and brunette hair made all the male contestants around Sen gawk at her. I really dislike being cramped in here, Sen couldn’t help but sigh at his predicament.

Sen was riding in a luxurious train with the contestants who had passed the first challenge. It was probably one of the single longest things he had seen in his life, roughly around ten thousand feet if he could put a number on it. Though the contestants weren’t confined to single-file seats that went on forever, the train was separated into different sections or single trains linked to others. The train he was riding was a B7, holding roughly fifty contestants. That number seemed to be the average capacity for all the linked trains that were riding to the same unknown destination.

In terms of comfortability and quality, Sen didn’t have the right to complain. Three soft and padded pairs of seats were arranged in a face-to-face configuration, while a wooden table lay in the middle—perfect for talking to your teammates while drinking or chowing down on snacks. The layout seemed to go on for the rest of the B7 train, so he guessed the configuration would be similar to the others.

Sen also noted that each table could fit six people, the same amount that was required to enter the first challenge. Of course, it could be coincidental, but he couldn’t help but feel impressed by the academy's forecasting. Before he had time to analyze his surroundings properly, a band-aid was placed on his forearm, making him shift his attention to the eye-catching lady.

“Alrighty, you’re all set!” she cheerfully beamed at him.

“Thank you,” Sen curtly said. However, before the lady could move on to the next team, Baru, who sat opposite from him with the rest of his team, suddenly asked.

“Why do we have to take a vaccine before continuing the next challenge, anyway? Not that I’m complaining or anything.” A hint of perviness in his smirk. Sen knew the answer but decided to let the nurse reply for him.

“The place we’re headed for is far different than the cities you’re used to,” she began, “and I don’t just mean in terms of scenery or population; I mean other viruses and germs that are harmful to us.”

Baru’s cogs were slowly moving in his brain, but alas, he still couldn’t figure out the reason alone.

“Huh?” he blinked. Left of Sen, Hana sighed, her legs crossed on the soft cushion and her lips twisting with irritation from Baru’s inability to think.

“What she means is—since most people have gotten used to living in cities, our body naturally grew weak to common germs that are present in nature,” Hana clarified.

“Wait, so people are weak to plants? HA!”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, and no. The main problem is the germs other monsters carry. Scientists say that if all monsters were to vanish, it would take a few years before humans could safely live in the danger zones without fear of sickness.”

“And this vaccine prevents that from happening,” the nurse added brightly. Although that was common knowledge, Baru didn’t seem too convinced for some odd reason.

“I’ve never gotten sick when I lived outside of the city.”

They blinked at him with bewilderment, feeling the thundering wobble of the train grinding on the railing as sights of skyscrapers zipped past them with staggering speed. Baru’s words piqued Sen’s interest. He was never really interested in knowing his past, but it was hard to ignore how impressive Baru’s strength was in the first challenge.

He stood his own against a Gold Rank Knight while being just a rookie. That alone made him believe that Baru had a little more than just talent. The nurse hesitantly dipped her head and moved on to the next team, which sat right behind them. Sen couldn’t really blame her; she wasn’t getting paid enough to listen to kids gossiping about nonsense. Yet he could tell the nurse seemed bothered by Baru’s statement, maybe even sympathetic. After all, not many lived outside of cities and were alive to share their experiences.

Baru blinked. “What? Why are you guys staring at me like that?”

Kaiyo, who was to Sen’s right, was the first to break the odd silence. “N-nothing, it's just…” she struggled with how to compose her sentence.

“Surprising,” Hyo finished Kaiyo’s words, gazing out the window and taking in the beauty of the tall skyscrapers—ones that seemed sturdy and expensive—and also ones that common folk had no right to step foot in. Chatter from the other contestants' conversations seemed to fill in the gaps of silence, yet it wasn’t any more comforting.

“Why so quiet all of a sudden?” Baru wondered, drinking a glass of ice-cold water that rested on the table. Sen thought for a moment if he should give him the obvious answer to that, but it seemed Hana was already on it. This time, however, she had a softer expression than usual, most likely from realizing that Baru had lived outside the city. Even Hana could recognize when to soften her hot temper.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Well, not many people live outside the city, that’s why,” she finally managed to say. “And when people do manage to escape, they usually endure a lot of trauma from the struggles in the danger zones.” Judging by her tone, Hana was trying to be sympathetic, but Baru didn’t seem to care too much.

“Oh, well, I don’t know how other places are, but where I lived, monsters rarely attacked our small town.”

Hmm, what’s this? Sen noticed a small discrepancy in his sentence. The words themselves posed no other meaning, but the way he paused between words seemed almost—

“How come?” Hono asked suddenly, pushing her short black bob-cut hair out of her scarlet eyes. Almost immediately, Baru froze mid-drink. A crack of an ice cube could be heard from his mouth as he chopped down. His expression turned dark… really dark; he practically looked like a different person, but that miserable gaze quickly melted away into a comedic smile.

“Must have been luck!” he chuckled.

It didn’t seem that anyone had noticed that change in demeanor, but Sen wasn't inclined to call Baru out on it or anything. After all, it wasn’t his business to pry into someone else's personal life, and he certainly didn’t wish for anyone to do that to him. Albeit, it was still intriguing nonetheless.

I don’t see why he would want to lie about not having any monster attacks. It doesn’t seem like a very beneficial lie. There's definitely something more to it.

“I see,” Hyo mused, almost reluctant to go further into the topic than it already was. But of course, Hono ruined that plan almost instantly.

“What was it like?” she asked him. This time, Baru seemed to get ahold of himself far more easily and answered the question imperturbably.

“It was really peaceful…” he said, his finger circling the rim of the glass cup. “The air there is fresh, so much so you can smell the rain.”

“The rain?” Sen caught himself murmuring out. How could someone smell the rain?

Baru nodded sentimentally. “Yep… you’d be surprised how many things you can smell when they’re not tainted by the city's pollution. Flowers even bloom on trees and bushes, unlike the mass-produced ones that are grown in facilities. Every day when I woke up, I would open my window to breathe in the fresh air. It really was something else.”

“Lucky…” Hana breathed from the descriptions. “I wish I could breathe that fresh air… without fearing that monsters would eat me whole.” She sighed. “Sen, wouldn’t you want to?” Hana asked, nudging him.

…

“Sen?”

Sen's eyes were wide and lost in thought, staring at the crowded seats and tables that were lined in front of him. With tapering eyes, Hana waved her hands to catch his attention, but yet again, he conjured no response.

The smell of rain… he wondered, his nostrils twitching almost instinctively. Why does that feel so familiar?

“HELLO!” Hana raised her voice, “Earth to Sen?”

Suddenly being yanked back to reality, he stared brusquely at his sister. Sen wasn’t sure why the topic of the rain’s smell absorbed him so much. Perhaps he was curious about how it smelled, but he rarely zoned out like that, so it was still quite odd.

“Sorry, I was just thinking of something.” Giving his head a quick shake to clear his brain, he wasn’t interested in Baru’s subject anymore and observed the contestants that sat at their respective tables. They didn’t seem too nervous like they did in the first challenge, or maybe that had to do with the individuals Sen was looking at. The remaining contestants showed their worth and capabilities and were more confident in their power, so their demeanor was a sure reflection of that.

Furthermore, most seemed to have the standard six teammates like Sen’s, but surprisingly, quite a few had less than that. He guessed it was more or less the same reason why Ayame had gone rogue with her brother. In reality, the whole team system could be easily avoided, they just need to register as a team. Everything after that was fair game. It’s still odd, though. The first challenge didn’t really require a team, yet they still wanted us to.

Was it in preparation for the second challenge? Whatever it is, it seems to be taking place outside of the city, given how everyone on the train was forced into receiving a vaccine. But would they really take us to the danger zones? From my knowledge, the government doesn’t seem inclined to take back territory with a mass population of monsters to make it safer for us. And to be honest, I’m not sure why they don’t try. Monsters are constantly overpopulating the danger zones, and although the government says they’re trying their best, the sheer contrast of resources being used in military artillery for wars greatly outweighs the resources being used to exterminate monsters. In short, that’s why the general danger zones continue to grow more dangerous without the government putting any measures into place. I always found it odd…

Sen was thrown into a flurry of questions. One led to another and created a domino effect of unanswered problems. Whatever the reason the government had, it didn’t help Sen in his attempt to prepare for the following challenge. All he could conclude was that it would be dangerous… very dangerous.

Sen stood up. All the sitting was making his legs ache, so he wanted to stretch them out for a bit.

Hyo noticed him leaving and broke away from his chat. “Where are you going, Sen?”

“There seems to be a small food counter on each train for water and snacks, I was just going to check it out.”

Hyo raised his brow as if not believing Sen’s reasoning. And he was completely right. Always sticking to a balanced and healthy diet, Sen was never a snack type of guy; he was leaving for another reason. I have to remind myself that Hyo is one of the more intelligent people in this group. Sen couldn’t do the same excuses as he did with the rest of them. However, Hyo didn’t question him and simply gave a curt nod, which Sen couldn’t help but admire.

Walking between two rows of seats and tables, a few individuals gave him a wary look before continuing their conversation. He didn’t take it personally, after all, everyone on the train except their teammates was an enemy. And to be frank, Sen would even argue that fact.

The real enemy always hides as a friend. It was a dramatic saying, but it was undoubtedly true in many cases. With that in mind, at the end of the tables of seated contestants, Sen was faced with an automatic door. Sensing his body, it opened up, revealing another small room on the train.

A middle-aged man with auburn hair and blue eyes greeted him in a simple room with a round bar counter and stools. Wearing a white dress shirt, he dried cups from behind the counter with a rather bright attitude, which Sen wasn’t sure why. It was obvious he was the server, not much of a bartender as Gyro was, unfortunately. However, besides the worker, Sen wasn’t alone.

A familiar, long, blue-haired girl sat on the stool. Drinking a glass of orange juice with a straw, she chowed down on a bag of unhealthy chips. Mid-bite, she saw him approaching and gave a scornful look from the corner of her eye. She wasn’t expecting him… but he was expecting her.

“You know,” Sen began, sitting on the stool beside her. “Those chips are very unhealthy.”

Ayame gave a sigh before drinking the orange juice. “It’s unfortunate that we landed on the same train. Out of a few thousand people, somehow, I’m assigned to the same one? Ridiculous.” It appeared she still had her usual smug attitude. “And by the way, this is the first time I’ve had any junk food in years.”

“I don’t believe that,” Sen replied bluntly and looked at the attendant. “Could I have some black tea, please?” Giving him a nod, the worker snatched a tea packet and dropped it in a small mug with hot water. Sen let it seep momentarily, watching the water slowly turn red and then to a darker scarlet.

“What do you mean by you don’t believe that?” she said with a mouthful of chips. Taking a sip from his tea, he gave her a moment to retract that obvious false statement. But it appeared Ayame was quite confident. It was too bad Sen was a bit smarter than that.

“The flavor of the chips you’re having,” Sen pointed at the bag, “Wasabi Orange is a very niche and uncommon flavor. The odds are if this were your first time, you would go for the more popular and appetizing ones, like spicy or cheesy garlic. You seemed to enjoy that flavor almost as if you had eaten it or have grown accustomed to its unique taste.” He gauged her reaction to that info.

She just stared at him blankly….

“I hate you.”

Sen shrugged, “Sorry, but when there's a lie, I can’t help but call it out.”

“A lie, huh?” Ayame gave him an almost victorious grin, which Sen wasn’t expecting. What’s she up to? Sen wondered, judging her expression. He explored the possible scenarios or reasons for that smug look and realized the most likely cause.

“You say you can't help but call out lies,” Ayame belittled, “so does that mean you’ll call out yourself?”

The air grew awkwardly silent—even the eavesdropping attendant attempted to keep himself busy by washing perfectly clean dishes. But yet, Sen couldn’t help but find Ayame’s open call-out entertaining. He decided to play dumb for a little. “Oh? A lie, you say. Please tell me what you mean.”

Ayame didn’t appreciate his response. “Don’t act dumb with me.”

Legs crossed, Sen’s arm leaned on the table with his head relaxing on his palm indifferently. “Hardly, I think it's reasonable to ask what I’m lying about. After all, there are quite a lot.”

Dumbfounded, she attempted to search for the right words against his deadpanned responses. Sipping on his black tea, he patiently anticipated and never broke eye contact with her. The number one rule of confidence was always to look in the person's eyes. That way, they would doubt if they were true or not.

Sen knew exactly what she meant and what she knew. He was simply trying to play a small game.

“You… you don’t…”

“I don’t what?” he asked.

Faced with his confidence, Ayame began doubting her assumption. Sen questioned if she would even say it at this point; that was the power of confidence, it didn’t take quite a lot. However, much to his surprise, Ayame opened her mouth again—“You don’t have a Sense, do you?”

Sen was shocked, not from the question, but more or less the fact she was brave enough to call him out on such a thing, publicly at that. At this point, the attendant was sweating bullets, and Sen knew it wasn’t from the heat, either. Quite interesting. He got out of his resting position and turned his body to face her.

“What are the odds that I am?”

Ayame blinked with confusion. “I don’t get what you mean?”

“Senseless people are very rare, aren’t they? Barely zero point zero one percent exists of the genetic mutation. So, what are the chances I’m part of the point one percentile? There are roughly three billion people as of twenty-eighty-eight, meaning there would be roughly three hundred thousand senseless people worldwide. Now, that would seem like a large number, but if you compare it with how many do have Sense’s, it’s practically a drop of water in the ocean.” Sen explained, almost smiling, but not at the same time. “Now tell me, what are the odds that you encountered a Senseless person in an academy that practically requires them for success? And if that’s true, what would be my motive in doing so? What would I gain out of risking my safety even though it’s a sure fact I’d fail?”

…

Sen took the peace as a response. That was his best move, not denying her claim or accepting it, simply giving her the facts that would eventually make her doubt herself. He had to admit that the sheer odds of meeting a senseless person in an entrance exam for a prestigious academy were so small that he might be the first one to do it. Maybe the first one that ever will. So he couldn’t blame Ayame for doubting her conclusion, even though it was actually spot on. If Sen were to meet another senseless person, he would struggle to accept it.

“I just have a gut feeling,” Ayame finally admitted, continuing to eat her chips and orange juice.

…

“That’s it?” Sen narrowed his eye. She gave the most impractical and faltering of all the responses she could have given. Didn’t she realize how bad that looked?

“I have no evidence. I can't do anything about it, so I just figured I’d at least ask,” she shrugged. “What's the worst thing that can happen? I’m wrong?”

He blinked, wordless, not being able to understand such logic. But yet, he couldn’t help but chuckle at it.

Ayame glared with arrogance. “You find it funny?”

He dismissed that thought with a wave of his hand. “No, no, I’m actually quite surprised. That was the only answer I wasn’t expecting.”

“Wow, I’m honored.” She deadpanned. “If I’m that wrong, you could at least tell me.”

With a shrug, Sen rested his head against his hand once again, his eyes facing hers. “Sometimes, probabilities don’t matter,” he implied. That alone was an answer, and Sen was hoping that she would catch on. Thankfully, it appeared she understood, and without trying to press on the topic more than she already had, Ayame gave him a snort.

“You’re an odd guy.”

He shrugged. “I get that a lot.”

“Why though?” Ayame asked out of context.

“Why I’m an odd guy? Well, I guess I was born like tha—”

“No, not that!” Ayame sighed, “I meant, why join if…” her voice trailed off, suggesting at what she meant. It was funny that she now, out of all times, was being thoughtful with what to say. Maybe Ayame truly wasn't confident in her theory before, but now that it was confirmed, she was oddly respectful to him. Which was very out of character.

Before Sen replied, he had to remind himself to keep it as vague as possible in front of others—like the attendant who was still washing clean plates to eavesdrop. But at this point, he wasn’t worried at all. Even if someone were to confirm he was Senseless, it wouldn’t be too much of a big deal now that Asashi had let him continue the exam. The only downside of someone overhearing him was that he would be looked down upon, and in some cases, that would actually be a good thing. It meant people underestimated him, not considering his cognitive abilities but just the absence of a simple power that others should have.

“Just trying to find someone,” Sen replied truthfully, yet that answer alone possibly made the least amount of sense out of the whole conversation.

She paused mid-sip on her orange juice, almost choking. It was clear that wasn’t the answer she was expecting. “That’s it? All this for that?”

“It would be a lie if I said there was any other reason. I'm just trying to find information on someone I used to know.”

“Who the hell is this someone that would warrant all the trouble, though?”

Sen grew distant for a moment. There was a tiny spark in his heart, a small fragment that was reverberating against his soul. It was very dull, but it was there. Sen couldn’t help but find it oddly reassuring, although it was a painful feeling, almost like an ache in his chest. He wasn’t sure what it was, but perhaps it was sadness. He had never really felt that, so he couldn’t say for sure, but the feeling was similar to the description of that emotion. It was always difficult to distinguish his feelings; it felt like he should know them, but they never wanted to know him. He remembered a time when it was different, though… but those memories never materialized.

“Who knows,” Sen said.

“You can’t be serious.”

“Who knows.” He wasn’t inclined to reveal everything to her. It was a personal thing.

“Stop that!” She snapped, then, with an exhalation, continued eating. “Whatever, I’m surprised you even told me so many things to begin with. Why?”

It was quite simple. When he entered the room, he had one objective in mind: to gain her trust.

“No reason, I just came here to get some tea to begin with,” he lied.

Her light eyebrows furrowed, trying to digest Sen’s reasoning. Her heart-shaped pastel face judged him, and then a strand of her long hair fell in front of her as she quickly put it off to the side. “Huh? But what would you—”

Sipping the last of the black tea, he cut her off by leaving the stool and making his way out the door. Already sensing his body, the automatic doors opened, revealing the familiar layout of seats and people. But before he did, he paused midway, twisting his head to catch a peek of Ayame, who still glared at him with wide eyes. Ayame and Genkai are strong. They’ll be good allies.

With that, the automatic door closed behind him as he returned to his table. Most of his team looked to be sleeping oddly enough. Baru was leaning against the table, his mouth drooling and his hands crossed like a pillow, while Hono rested behind, lying between him and the seat's backrest with her feet on Hyo’s lap. Hyo, on the other hand, sat straight and hands crossed. A very formal sleeping position, which almost reflected his personality. Meanwhile, Kaiyo was simply leaning on Hana's shoulder who was awake, staring through the train's oval window.

“That was quick,” Sen looked at his teammates.

Hana stroked Kaiyo’s sleeping head. “Turns out they’re pretty tired from the first challenge.”

“I can't blame them.” He sat in his empty seat next to Kaiyo. “The second challenge is going to be even harder if I were to guess.”

“Yeah, no shit, of course, it's going to be harder,” she rolled her eyes humorously. “I don’t think I’ll be able to go through four more of these challenges… I don’t think anyone could.”

“The worst thing that can happen is you fail, it’s not so bad.”

“Gee, thanks for the pep talk, big bro.”

“Just being realistic,” Sen supposed, staring through the window. But that’s when he saw something. Something that he’s never seen before. He had to rub his eyes just to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.

Hana yawned. “I’m gonna go take a nap—”

“Hana…” Sen breathed, “Do you see what I’m seeing?” He pointed at the outside. His sister looked at him skeptically and then followed where he was pointing.

She froze. But it wasn’t just her, dozens of people let out small gasps of surprise as they gazed through their windows.

“There’s no way…” a contestant murmured in shock.

“They’re taking us here?”

“Are they mad?!”

The sheer commotion from the train woke the rest of Sen’s team as they stretched and groaned.

“What’s going on… geezus. Quiet down, fellas.” Baru yawned. Sen pointed through the window, which Baru and the others looked at… only to have the same reaction. “Oh, we’re so fucked…”

It was the outside world… the danger zone.