I was sick yesterday, so sorry for not updating sooner, but I'll do my best to make up for it. I'll give you a glimpse of what's going on with L and the Task Force, which I was going to save for later. That'll be in the next chapter, though.
Onwards!
Shika:
We were inside an empty classroom in Wammy's House that I had asked Roger to borrow for the time being. By 'we' I meant Near, Mello, Matt, and myself. I left Blake in his little cell –even though he deserved worse- after ordering him to stay put.
"Based on multiple sources, you three are the top ranking kids on Wammy's property. To save time, as I am now in a hurry, I will only be picking out of you instead of every child on campus. I'm not known for my patience, if you couldn't tell, so that's enough with introductions. On your desk before you is a quiz to assess not just the core learning classes, but problem-solving, estimation and assuming, psychological understanding, personality results, and basic understanding skills. Are there any questions before we start?"
Mello's hand shot up.
"Yes?"
"How long do we have?"
"As long as you need, but time elapsed does affect how I view your scores."
He nodded, his face a perfect picture of determination. I glanced at the other two to see if they had anything to add. Near twirled his hair, and Matt was playing with his pencil. Taking their silence as a 'go' to continue, I let out a small noise to get the red-head's attention again.
"Alright. Your time starts now."
Mello and Matt bent over their tests, the erasers on the ends of their pencils moving as they wrote furiously. The pale boy, however, simply flipped through the pages, reading the words to every question before moving on to the next. He had to have been solving them in his head. I wanted to tell him he had to write his work down, but I would have ruined his concentration.
Someone slammed a thick packet on my teacher's desk. I looked up, slightly startled out of my thoughts. Mello stood there, a triumphant grin on his face.
"I'm done," he declared, smirking at Near.
"Okay. You can go to lunch. Roger's making your favorites, but you'll have to eat alone. No one is to be told about this, alright?"
"Yeah!" he agreed, sauntering out.
A few minutes later, and Matt raised his hand.
"I'm done."
"Bring it here, then you can go, too."
He complied, setting it haphazardly. I marked the time and watched him exit. In surprise, I looked at Near. He was who I thought would finish first, not last. Once he was sure Matt was far enough away, he stood. Placing his quiz on the desk, he also went to leave, but I stopped him when his fingers brushed the knob.
"Uh, Near?"
"You are wondering why I prolonged handing in my assignment."
"..Yeah, I was."
"I did so to avoid unnecessary conflict with Mello."
The youngest of the three left, not giving me time to respond. He must still feel like I had insulted his role model. With how he acted, you'd think he wasn't treating me any differently from the others, as he was always portrayed as practically robotic, but the slight cold in his words and tense posture he had told me he barely tolerated my presence.
Yet he had such a mature way of handling others' emotional responses that result from his actions. He was smart in more ways than one.
I let them finish lunch before dragging them outside behind the mansion. The only things I put out were cones to judge distance for the running section, while Roger graded test scores.
"Listen up," I said, grabbing the coach's whistle that hung around my neck. "We're here to judge physical stamina. What I'm looking for is someone with roughly equal parts smart and durability. The Kira case isn't to be taken lightly. You never know when you have to defend yourself."
"Miss?" Matt asked. "Does this have to do with the women who went missing?"
"Exactly. On my mark, I want you to do twenty push-ups. Ready?"
Mello eagerly dropped to all fours, staring up at me for my signal.
"Set?"
The red-head squatted similar to a frog about to hop.
"And.. Go!"
The two bent their arms, lowering their body until they almost touched the grass, then pushed up again. The blonde did his best to stay ahead of the gamer. Near was standing in place, not exercising.
"Aren't you going to participate?"
"Exertion of the physical body will infringe upon my deductive reasoning, and will tire out the synapses so they would not transfer information as efficiently compared to no labor."
".. Right."
The second phase continued on as Mello strived to stay above Matt performance-wise. Near never did attempt to try anything, and instead stood quietly, watching the other boys with a blank face.
I had them do twenty sit-ups, jumping jacks, curl-ups, and line dashes, checked their vitals, felt the ridge of their spines to look for abnormalities, and made sure they had flexibility in their arms. After recording their progress, I blew into the plastic whistle.
"You're good to go. I have to look at your over-all scores with Roger, and will tell you individually who'll be going with me. In the meantime, I ask you to stay around your rooms so I can find you easier."