Chapter XVII
The Mad Carnival
The next day, school was suspiciously uneventful for the kids. Everyone was excited to go clue-hunting in the woods.
“It’s strange. I haven’t gotten any messages from Hook to pre-train, before training.” Sun looked at his phone awaiting a message.
“Yeah, now that you mention it. They have been awfully quiet today.” His sister acknowledged his observation.
“Maybe they realized we are a lost cause and cut ties with us.” Said Faul nonchalantly, walking behind everyone else.
“Don’t say that Faul! Hook wouldn’t give up on us just like that!” Sun shut down his negativity.
“They might have been attacked by the Ever Family after yesterday’s events. Be on guard!” Luna warned the others before walking through her portal.
As the children walked forward space curved behind them as they entered the Second Reality. But their mentors were nowhere to be found. Only the sound of muffled music and a lightshow awaited them in the distance.
“What's that?” All the kids instinctively sneaked up to the tree line where the music originated from. When they arrived they could not believe their eyes. Trees covered by colorful lights, tents the size of houses were erected, and the magical song of birds was replaced with loud music and the noise of a crowd.
“This might be a trap of some kind!” Luna braced herself for a fight.
“Hey! You guys finally arrived!” Sledge welcomed the kids jumping out of a tree and jamming a cotton candy into Luna's hand.
“Is this like a big party? Does someone have a birthday?” Ginna looked around for a cake.
“All these smells it’s like they are cooking all our favorite foods.” Niel said with saliva building up in his mouth.
“Wait! You guys don’t know what a carnival is?” Sledge looked at them perplexed.
“Yeah, when the teachers dress up as clowns and make us play silly games.” Marco explained like Sledge was the weird one here.
“And they ask my mom to let them dress up our cat as a ‘lion’.” Ginna continued.
“You guys were really closed off huh?” Sledge looked perplexed at the children who just shrugged. “What you described is a tiny fraction of what a real carnival is. These guys are trying to capitalize on all the free space and the curious crowd this place brings.” Blitz explained as he crunched down on a corndog.
“And you guys let them stay?” Luna passed the cotton candy to Iiwa so she can focus on interrogating.
“It’s not like we can stop them from being here. But don’t worry. They are here for entertainment. And you should be too. We agreed with Hook that we would look around in the forest tomorrow and enjoy the show today!” As Sledge explained she realized that the number of kids significantly decreased since she started talking. “Wait! Where is like the half of you?”
“They all ran towards the smell.” Ren explained, with some pride in his voice.
“What? I swear you guys are either feral animals, or five-year-olds.” Sledge scratched her head puzzled. “Okay so you guys are the responsible ones, so you stay in pairs, don’t do anything silly, and go anywhere where you shouldn’t, while I collect the rest of you!”
The remaining kids looked at each other with a mischievous grin as Sledge mistook their disinterest in food with being responsible. The kids turned around and scattered.
“Hey! This is a good time and place to have our first date, right?” Iiwa grabbed Luna’s hand and pulled her away from the others.
While the girls separated from the others Niel and Taran found Hook who was at the high striker game. He was just about to swing the hammer what Niel shouted. “Oh! Is that Sledge or Hook? I can’t tell!” Niel joked around, but this was just enough distraction to make Hook miss.
“That’s a zero sir!” The man next to the machine took the hammer out of his hand. Hook turned to look at the one who made him lose.
“Niel! My friend! There’s an arm-wrestling contest two tents down don’t you want to partake?”
“That sounds great! Let’s go!” As Niel ran he smacked Taran on his back as an invitation. When the two of them left Hook fell to the ground broken.
“It’s not fair! I would’ve won!” Hook held back manly tears as he watched the boys run away.
“Why didn’t you scold him sir?” The machine operator asked confused.
“The childlike vigor I see in his eyes! Reminds me of my youth!” Hook held his hand to his heart as he reminisced about his past.
“Sir, you might have missed but you look like you still have that vigor!” The stranger comforted Hook.
“Thank you, my friend, I see it in you as well!” The two of them squeezed each other’s shoulders in solidarity.
As Ren walked through the crowd, he spotted Rosa and Ginna standing at the balloon blast game.
“Two turns please!” Rosa asked politely as she placed the money on the table.
The man handed Ginna and Rosa the guns. The first one was Ginna. She was fairly accurate with her shot but unfortunately the balloon didn’t pop before the timer ran out.
“Oh, darn it! I felt like I was close!” Ginna let out a disappointed sigh.
Rosa feeling that something was off with the game put down the gun and started shooting water out of her finger instead. The timer was getting close to zero but the balloon that was almost twice the size of Ginna just wouldn’t pop. That’s when Ren walked up to them and sat down next to Rosa.
“May I?” He signaled to Rosa that he’ll put his hand on hers. I hope she won’t get the wrong idea. I just want to help! What if she says no?
“Of course.” Rosa smiled. Ren wasn’t sure. Maybe the colorful lights played a trick on his vision, but it looked like she was blushing. Ren didn’t have time to think about that. He put his hand on Rosa's and where the tip of their fingers met, he froze the water. It went up the stream into the balloon and the expanding ice water finally broke the balloon.
“Congrats! But you get no reward! Abilities are forbidden!” The man behind the desk said, taking away the guns.
“Couldn’t you tell us that before we used them?” Rosa complained to the stranger, but he just shrugged.
Ren leaned closer to the man to whisper something. “Listen I might not be intimidating like some of my friends, but I am a pretty good talker. Now you either give us a prize or I’ll tell everyone your game is rigged. Then there’ll be no more customers to fool today.”
The man in front of the balloons sighed deeply. “Pick one.”
“Two girls, two plushies.” Ren quickly said.
“I want the pink pug!” Rosa said, and the man gave her the plushy.
“I want that big hippo!” Ginna pointed at the hippo which was the biggest plushy among the prizes.
“You have to pop five to get the big prizes.” The game master answered annoyed.
“Hey Ren! What are you guys playing?” Marco noticed the three of them.
“Don’t come here Marco. It’s…” Before Ren could send his friend away the man jammed the hippo plushy into Ginna's lap.
“Just go! You are ruining business!” The man sent them away.
“Why shouldn’t I go there?” Marco asked as he was still approaching.
“It’s just too hard for you. I don’t want you to lose your money?” Ren shrugged luring his friend to the game.
“Too hard? Are you making fun of me Ren?”
“I wouldn’t dare to. But you can try it if you want!”
“You bet your ass! I am going for that grand prize!”
Ren and the two girls left the balloon blast.
“I feel kind of bad for Marco…” Rosa sighed.
“After how much convincing he needed to give Terry some of his food, I have a hard time feeling bad for him. But give him a call in fifteen minutes.” Ren answered with a coy smile.
As this was happening Ken Faul and Terry were on their way to a loud crowd of people.
“Stop following me!” Ken shouted at the other two.
“I’m not following you! I’m going where the mob is. This seems like the most interesting place.” Faul murmured.
“I am following you! This is the safest bet with so many strangers around! Terry panted both from the stress and the speedwalking he had to do to keep up with the other two.
“Why are you going there anyway? Shouldn’t you be at the arm-wrestling competition with the other meatheads?” Faul asked with a not-so subtle insult.
“There is an arm-wrestling competition?" Ken raised his eyebrows, but he quickly shook the idea off. "That doesn’t matter right now! I’m looking for Luna. She was with me then disappeared. She doesn’t do that.” By the time Ken explained Faul was already in the middle of the crowd, quickly making his way forward. “Hey, listen to my explanation if you ask something!” Ken screamed and followed him.
“I listened…” Terry went after Ken.
As they all arrived in the front row, they finally understood what the crowd gathered for. A young man about ten years older than them was strung up on a spinning wheel and people from the crowd were throwing anything from tomatoes to glass bottles at him. The most peculiar thing about this was his calm demeanor, amongst the flying shards of glass, and that he was completely fine. With no glass shards on him and no tomato spots on his clothes.
“What the…” Ken looked at the situation puzzled. “Is everyone this bad a throwing here?”
Faul just observed silently.
Suddenly from a puff of smoke obscured the boy and out of it came a tall man with curly black hair going down to his shoulders. The man with a pencil thin mustache and pale white skin took off his purple top hat and caught the last couple of tomatoes and bottles with it. He dusted off his velvety purple coat which had gold buttons and gold seams and slowly moved his gaze across the crowd, observing the faces one by one and for a second stopping at the kids.
“Ladies and gents! And the younger ones especially! Keep your eyes on the child in front of you! This might look magical, but I can assure you… It is! My name is Dibdin! I am the owner of this circus. This is the newest in our enterprise of entertainers. Simon!” As the man was introducing his companion, he took daggers out of his pocket and threw them at the unbothered kid. “He is our lucky charm! So lucky I’m fact That no matter the object…” The showman threw a knife at the boy which barely misses his cheek. “The one who throws…” The next one landed between his fingers. “Or the force…” The last one went under his armpit through the board and into a haystack behind him. “He is unharmed!”
The crowd erupted and cheered for the experience. The cheering was stopped by the skeptical shouting of Faul.
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“You said no matter the person, but you were the only one throwing actual knives at him from that distance.”
“Oh! We have a critique in the audience! We’ll if you want to try it for yourself come next to me and I’ll give you the knives.” The man invited Faul with a pressured grin.
“I’m good. But my friend here has a lot of pent-up frustration. I’m sure he would love to throw things at someone.” Faul pointed at Ken.
“OH YEAH! This sounds great!” Ken jumped over the fence separating them from the attraction.
“A brave soul indeed! Come boy tell us your name!”
“I’m Ken Leonnas and I am here to wreck stuff and find my friend. And I don’t see her here!”
“A spirit of a champion! Please go easy on my companion. Here are the knives.” The man tried to hand the knives to Ken but he just slapped the man’s hand away.
“I have my knife!” Ken swung back his head and let out an air cut. “Hyper Headbutt!”
This idiot! Faul’s face went completely white as his classmate’s action was not what he expected. But what caught his attention was the target’s calmness.
As the attack was approaching the boy’s face twitched for a second but not of fear. He smiled, impressed by the effort.
Suddenly the spinning wheel buckled and fell off the plank of wood it was on, and it rolled out of the way of the attack.
“OUR LUCKY BOY DOES IT AGAIN!” The man screamed as the crowd went even more wild.
“This is insane…” Faul was stunned by what he witnessed.
“This is bullshit! It’s because the wheel fell!” Ken complained to Dibdin.
“That is luck! But how about a deal sweetener! Two tickets to the show tomorrow!”
“Twelve!” Ken crossed his arms trying to bargain with the man.
“TWELVE?” Dibdin repeated, offended by the sextupling of the tickets.
“That’s all my classmates except the one I dislike. He’ll be so bummed out!” Ken chuckled devilishly.
“I think you overestimate your bargaining power young man!”
“It was worth a try. Two it is!” Ken and the man shook hands, while Faul just approached Simon who was being cut loose by staff.
“That was impressive congrats!” Faul tried to shake his hand, but the boy pulled back in silence. They locked eyes for a second and this was the first time Faul saw him nervous. The kid quickly put the mask of calmness back and shook Faul’s hand who smirked arrogantly before walking back to his friends. What he didn’t notice was the displeased look Dibdin and Simon shared.
“Now I have to find Luna… at least I have something to give her!”
“Are you sure you are not in love with her?”
“The only reason I don’t kick your ass for asking that is because you let me release some pent-up frustration!”
“How lucky for me.”
The boys left the crowd as Dibdin whispered something to Simon behind them. Meanwhile Luna was being dragged towards a tent by Iiwa.
“Do you even know where we are going?”
“Of course not! But this big tent has no lights on so I’m guessing it’s good for some alone time!” Iiwa answered squeezing her hand ever so tightly.
“You are wild!” Luna chuckled and let herself be dragged.
As they reached the tent a tall girl in a bright purple spandex suit stopped them. She whipped out a dance ribbon and pointed it at Iiwa's nose.
“Tent’s closed. Get out of here.” The girl ordered the two of them. Luna quickly grabbed the ribbons end and pulled the girl close.
“I’d watch where I point that stick! It might end up in your ass if you point it at the wrong person.” Luna growled as a vein was popping out her forehead.
“It’s okay, we can go elsewhere.” Iiwa tried to calm down Luna, but her gaze stuck to the antagonistic young woman.
“Wait a minute! You threatened me and you think I’ll just let it slide?” The girl waved her ribbon around in the air. “Because… okay…go in…” Suddenly her movements slowed, her pupils dilated, and her tone changed to docile.
“Calm.” Sun stepped out from behind the girl. “I can keep her like this for five minutes. You guys go in.” He smiled at his sister.
“Sun. I can explain!” Luna’s face went red as she looked at Iiwa then back at her brother.
“What is there to explain? Four minutes forty.” He nodded to Iiwa who pulled Luna in.
As they entered the dark tent, hay crunched under their feet. They walked a bit inwards away from the thin sides of the tent.
“Can you make some light? Dark is romantic right until the point you can’t see the other person.” Iiwa asked Luna who just held her index finger and thumb and sparks started bouncing between them. “Nice!” Iiwa complimented her. She slowly averted her gaze from her eyes to her lips, and back at her eyes. She let out a cheeky smile and leaned in for a kiss. As the two of them were nearing each other and they closed their eyes a row of sharp teeth appeared in between them from the dark. The last second Luna pulled Iiwa away from the beast as they fell on the hay. Claws reached out towards them, but they could not get closer.
“Children… spry, soft meat, like chicken or frog. “ The beast growled with oozing saliva muffling its voice.
The girls stood up and with Luna in front they walked up to the noise. They saw the bars of a cage they didn’t notice before. The beast launched at the cage again frightening the girls enough to run out of the tent.
Sun was still standing there with his hand on the girl focusing on subduing her and counting the time left. Luna and Iiwa zoomed past him and dropped to the ground as they reached safety.
“What happened Luna?” As Sun asked nervously, he lost concentration and the girl slowly snapped out of the hypnosis. But by the time she realized what happened the kids ran away. Not far from there the three of them found a hiding spot where they could catch their breath.
“What’s going on Luna?” Sun asked panting.
“Some sort of beast in the tent. Almost tore us to pieces.”
“Oh yeah that does sound like a mood killer.”
“What are you guys doing here?” A familiar voice interrogated the three kids. As they looked up, they barely recognized their trainer, Blitz who had all sorts of plushies, colorful scarfs, and funny decoration on him.
“What happened to you Blitz? Did a unicorn vomit on you?” The kids laughed at the flamboyant attire of their tutor.
“I don’t like carnivals because I’m too good at games. I cannot stop winning! And all the money I have on me should be going elsewhere!”
“Yeah you seem like you’re suffering from success…”
“And what are you hiding from kids?” Watch stepped out from behind the colorful Blitz. He was dressed like always apart from a pair of star-shaped sunglasses on him. The kids howled laughing as they noticed him.
“Somehow you are even funnier than Blitz!” Iiwa wiped off a tear after she finished laughing.
“I need this! All these flashing lights make my head hurt!” Watch upset from the mockery snapped at the kids. “Now tell me what happened!”
“We went in a closed off tent and a monster attacked us! We got out of there unharmed luckily.” They explained to their trainers.
“Okay.” Watch said unphased.
“What do you mean okay?”
“Yeah, Watch that’s kind of cruel.” Blitz agreed with them.
“You guys went where you shouldn’t have and almost got yourself hurt. Be glad you are all safe and stop causing trouble!” Watch scolded the three of them. Suddenly a small group of people ran past them.
“Hey where are we going?” One of the people asked from the group.
“A kid just attacked the knife throwing act with an air cut. They say he almost killed someone.” Watch and the kids heard part of the conversation and immediately put together who it was.
“I hate you kids…” Watch sighed and started running where the crowd was headed.
“I should probably go as well. I can kind of think like him… or a less bloodthirsty version of him.” Luna said as she turned to Iiwa. “I’m sorry our date turned into this.”
“It’s okay, it’s not like I’m jealous of all the attention you give him.” Iiwa answered with a flirtatious smile.
“It’ll be quick I promise!” Luna ran into the crowd as she let go of her hand. Iiwa looked until she could no longer see her. That’s when she noticed Sun and Blitz eating popcorn looking at her.
“What?”
“Hey you kids!” They looked at the voice to see the girl in the purple spandex looking at them furiously. She took quick steps to reach the children, but they ran away. As she tried to catch them Blitz stood in front of her.
“I’m sorry, could you hold these! I’ll be right back” Blitz stuffed all his winnings in the hands of the girl and ran after the kids. The girl just stood there dumbfounded.
As they ran, they bumped into Vhiz who was walking around with a girl they had never seen before.
“Vhiz! Who are you with?”
“Hey! I’m Rollette! Nice to meet more of Vhiz’s friends!” The short chubby girl waved hello to Vhiz's classmates.
“She works for the circus! Isn’t that great?” Vhis said excitedly.
“Really?” This statement peaked the interest of the children.
“Yeah, I’m the camera girl!” She said proudly with a slight blush on her cheeks.
“Why does a circus need a camera girl?” Blitz looked at her confused. She was flustered by the question but quickly composed herself.
“We are active on every social media platform. We stream every show. I make sure that Mister Dibdin's vision gets to the public exactly as he intended."
“Dibdin?" Blitz looked at her recognizing the name. "Show Master Dibdin? I heard of his insane acts before! He is a legend!"
"Thank you! He is a very hard worker!"
"But that means, this the Mad Carnival!"
"Mad Carnival?" Sun turned to Blitz curiously.
"Overhuman mercenaries who turned their life around and opened a circus!"
"Mister Dibdin saved us from the slums and helped us shine brightly in the spotlight. He is a great man!" Rollette explained with an honest admiration in here eyes.
"This Dibdin does sound like a decent dude. Could you give us a tour?” Iiwa requested with a friendly smile.
“Actually, we are doing that right now! Do you wanna come?” Rollette happily invited them.
“I don’t know… I thought we could be alone…” Vhiz pulled her aside a bit.
“What is it with you kids and trying to make out the second someone fancies you?” Blitz looked at them perplexed.
“Well if Vhiz is against the idea of us coming with you. Could you at least tell us what’s in that tent?” Iiwa pointed at the tent they ran away from.
“That?! Nothing! It’s just full of hay…” Rollette awerted her gaze from Iiwa's.
“Just hay? A tent full of hay?”
“It won’t get wet in there!”
“Really? How thoughtful!” Iiwa smiled. “Anyway, we’ll leave you to your… whatever. Let’s go guys.” Iiwa called the boys away.
“Why didn’t you pry more? It’s not like she was composed at all.”
“The fact that she lied is enough for me. Something feels off with this place...”
Luna was walking away from the crowd of people with Watch behind him.
“Seems like we are late. Ken’s nowhere to be found.” She said tired from all the running. “Can’t you look for him with your power?” She asked Watch.
“Not in this lightshow. Too many stimulants.”
“So you are useless right now. You can go then.” Luna turned her gaze away from him coldly.
“Useless!?” He repeated with dumbfounded anger.
“I can find him alone. I know him more than anyone else.” She left Watch there without saying anything else.
“Rude children, all of them!” Watch groaned turning around.
She walked around for a while when the she felt the presence of a stranger nearby. She turned her gaze to the ominus feeling and noticed a man in a dark poncho sitting in front of the sharpshooting booth. In the booth there were six rows of plushies with thin sticks holding them straight. The lower rows had one stick in them while the top ones with bigger prizes had three.
“Hey there miss! Feeling lucky?” The man behind the desk said, inviting her closer.
“No need to be lucky, my eyes never betray me.” Luna announced confidently. Her gaze was quickly occupied by the man in the poncho standing next to her. She took one glance at the stranger’s face and couldn’t take her eyes off him.
“Never seen anyone with the same skin color as you before?” The man asked confidently. He did not look at the girl, he just stared at the plushies.
“N-no. Not outsied of my family.” Luna answered hesitantly.
“No wonder. Your village was closed off for over fifty years.”
“Who are you?” Fifty years? She repeated it in her head terrified by the man.
“You guys are playing or just chatting? Because you are in the way.” Said the game owner annoyed by the two of them.
The man took out some coins and slid them to the owner. “Two rifles, three rounds each.”
As he requested, the owner pulled out two rifles and gave them six pellets.
“Every time you hit a target you can ask a question. Same goes for me.” The man explained then held out his hand. Luna hesitantly shook it. She took the firearm, which was surprisingly light, loaded in the first pellet, steadied her arm, and took aim at a three stick elephant plushy. She squeezed the trigger until the rifle released the first pellet. Miss.
She slammed the gun down, frustrated at herself.
“Don’t worry, these guns are usually altered so they don’t shoot straight. There is no shame in missing the first time.” The man held the rifle in one hand and shot at a one stick plushy. It missed as well, but he looked carefully at the trajectory.
Luna reloaded and aimed. This time she calculated with the few millimeters the rifle cheated her and hit a three stick plushy knocking out one of the pillars. “Nice, but you have two pellets and there’s three sticks holding that up.”
“It doesn’t matter. I chose that as my target, and I’ll get it. Now answer my question.”
“Oh who am I? My name is Benu. This birdie on my shoulder is Rusty.” He patted the head of the little bird before grabbing the rifle.
“Wait! I asked who you are, not what your name is!”
“I was afraid you wouldn’t find that good enough. I am an officer of the law, or something like that.” Benu wasted no time and shot a one stick plushy down. It was a grey cat plushy. “Now! Which one of your parents is the same complexion as us?” Asked the man confidently leaning on the table.
“My mother.” Luna answered sharply before hitting the same plushy. Last chance to ask this guy a question. I should find out if he’s on the same side as that Mantis guy is… Just have to find the right words. “Have you ever killed someone, and regret it?” Luna asked looking the man in the eyes. He was taken off guard by her question, not just as an unexpected one, but by the weight it carried from a child.
“Yes. Sometimes you must do things that you later regret. A gust of wind might take you down a road where you feel lost. The most important thing is when you are done regretting your choices, you must promise to be better. For yourself, for the people you lost.” The man shot the last stick Luna needed for her plushy before walking away.
“Won’t you ask your last question?”
“What else would I want to know from a kid. Enjoy the carnival and stop snooping around where you shouldn’t.” Benu said as he disappeared among the crowd.
He saw us? He’s been observing us the whole time? She thought to herself as a cold breeze blew under her coat. She grabbed the plushy and left the booth in a hurry.