Demo leans back in his chair, shock on his face at the sudden question posed by his new teacher. Demo was caught by surprise but remained calm as he didn’t feel a threat coming from Li-On.
“I’m Demo.”
Li-On doesn’t avert his gaze from Demo, the tension increases with each moment that passes. Li-On quickly recognizes that Demo isn’t fazed by the sudden question and would be pressure. So he decides to ramp it up a bit and release just a bit of bloodlust. A radiance that only primal beasts ready to devour their prey could release filled with the air. The aura of bloodlust released engulfed Demo, and Li-On expected Demo to jump back and take a fighting stance.
Demo’s head leans forward, a grin that can only be described as evil covers his face and the corners of his eyes start going red with a red glow. Li-On stopped as he recognized that this reaction wasn’t what he expected and could be dangerous to those around them. Li-On then bursts out laughing.
“Hahahahahahahahahahah.”
Demo raises his head sensing the bloodlust has passed and looks at the old man laughing with a look of confusion. Li-On looks at Demo with a big smile on his face and his arms crossed.
“You would have really tried to fight me. Hahahahahahahah”
Demo is still confused as to what exactly happened. But before he could ask, Li-On clapped his hands and looks at Demo with excitement on his face.
“You are ready. Let’s go see if you can join the gym.”
Demo and Li-On walk downstairs to where all the other gym members are. They all bow to greet the master. Li-On walks to the one member who greeted Demo in the beginning.
“Eight, I want you to start Demo on the Entrance Course XX.”
Eight nods his head with a look of surprise and confusion.
“Yes, Master.”
Li-On turns around and places his hand on Demo’s shoulder as he says his words.
“Make it till the end.”
Eight waits for Li-On to walk away from Demo before he starts explaining what’s going to happen. Li-On leaves the main gym room and closes the door behind him as he makes his way back up to his private room.
“Since the master wants you to start the Entrance Course XX, you can use Higher Reasoning. Seems whatever planet you came from used a different term for it. But whatever. You will have 6 trails, each one will last a day. If you fail any of them, you fail all of them. You understand?
Demo doesn’t really know what is happening, but he doesn’t really feel like he can say no at this point so he just says.
“Yes.”
Eight looks at him with a look that shows no interest or trust in Demo’s success. Eight then walks towards the front desk and grabs a list. He hands Demo the list. On the list are 24 items going from 1 to 24, each item has a picture next to it of what it should look like. The items are as follows.
- Glass Cube
- Wooden Pyramid
- Plastic Sphere
- Steel cylinder
- Gold Disc
- Diamond knife
- A Paladins shield
- A Wizards staff
- Berserks Knuckles
- A kings cape
- A flute
Before Demo can make it through the rest of the list, Eight places his hand on the list to stop him from reading it completely.
“You have 24 hours to finish this list. Start with 1 and work your way down. When you finish creating a piece, bring it to me or any other member of the gym and have them check the quality. Once they checked it, you go to the next one. Get it?”
Demo looks at Eight with a calm look as if he hasn’t heard anything difficult so far.
“Yeah, I get it.”
Eight looks at Demo with a slight look of distrust as he thinks to himself that there is no way that Demo will pass this trail. He then goes to a display case that has a big black sphere in it. He grabs the sphere and walks back to a corner of the gym that is a bit further away from the other members. He puts the sphere down and calls Demo over.
“This is your material. Good luck.”
He walks past Demo without meeting his gaze and goes back to the rest of the members. One member walks up to Eight with his eyes wide open.
“Did Master Li-On really give me XX?”
Eight looks at the member and nods.
“Master either hates him or expects a lot from him.”
Demo takes a deep breath and smiles at the challenge in front of him. He goes into the corner looks at the picture of glass cube then looks at the big black sphere in front of him. His face smiles with a grin of complete confidence as he places his hand on the sphere and begins to visualize breaking it down. And where Demo is in the dark of his own mind, Ten is about to arrive at his mother place of residence.
He turns the last corner and there it is a big building in the shape of a 6. On the front of the building, there is a big sign reading PI Mental Institute, as he reads the sign a look of sadness covers his face. Ten holding the flowers walks into the building and up to the front desk.
“I’m here to see my mother. Ms. 2ndPowerX.”
The lady at the front desk looks surprised as this is the first time for her that Ten has come to visit her. Ten is also a bit surprised that the lady looks surprised as if she knows exactly who he is talking about to give that kind of reaction.
“Do you know her?”
The front desk lady corrects herself in posture and gives Ten the signup sheet to sign in.
“Yeah, Mr. 2ndPowerX visits her daily.”
Ten looks confused as that shouldn’t be possible but as he looks down on the signup sheet he sees the first name of the man in question. The name on the sheet is 21 2ndPowerX, her brother. Ten signs the sheet and puts the pen down but doesn’t hand it in immediately.
Ten looks up from the sheet at the front desk lady slightly baffled with a look that shows it.
“He visits her every day?”
The front takes the sheet back and answers.
“Every day around the same time.”
“Thank you.”
Ten looks down the hallway to where the visitors’ room is. He hasn’t been here in many years but nothing has changed. His hands feel clammy, it feels like there is something stuck in his throat. He can feel his heart beating like crazy. But he decided to do this so he walked towards the visitor’s door. As he stands in front of the door ready to see his mother. This feeling of opening a door with a bad feeling in his stomach brings him back to a memory he had suppressed.
He can remember going home one day after school with his mother who came to pick him up. Before going home, his mother took him to a toy store because Ten got a really good grade in Math and Logical Reasoning. The toy he had been wanting for a while now was one of those push-a-button make noise kind of toys. He forgot what superhero the toy was based on, but he remembers how happy he was every time he heard that toy speak. Every few seconds he would push the button hoping for a new line to come out of the toy. His mother delighted at her son’s happiness and let him push the button as many times as he wanted.
The two of them got off the elevator and walked down the corridor to their door. Something suddenly made Ten feel very uncomfortable. It was as if something told him that something bad was about to happen. He looked at his mother to see if she felt it too, but she seemed ok. She used her key to open the door. The whole apartment was dark except for one desk lamp and a computer where his father was working. Ten’s mother looked startled and slightly frightened as she didn’t expect the home to be all dark and this was something new. Ten didn’t know what to do either, but with his young mind, he thought that pushing the button would make things better somehow. The moment he pushed that button and the sound came out of that toy his father looked back at the two of them with rage in his eyes as he spoken in a low tone filled with subdued rage.
“Can you two please, keep it down? I need to finish this and I need silence.”
His mother could sense that his father was dealing with a lot of stress from his new job, so she wanted to know if she could help.
“Honey, you ok?”
This question was the opposite of the silence the father requested and it was enough to make his father let go of the rage he was trying to keep down.
“I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP! I’M UNDER A LOT OF STRESS! I NEED TO FINISH THIS BY TONIGHT SO JUST LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE!”
His mother felt the rage sent by the father come over her and she froze. Ten didn’t know what to do but he knew not to push that button again. The two of them stood by the door while the father worked in the dark.
Ten can still hear the ticks of his father’s finger hitting the keyboard. The ticking at times still haunts him.
Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick.
Chapter 8 Fin
