The applicants were woken up by the barking voice of Mr. Ittetsu.
"WAKE UP!" he yelled, clanging two metallic objects together.
Hinata scrambled in his bed, frightened by the loud sounds waking him up. Lev below him let out a bellowing wail, exclaiming his dissatisfaction with being woken up so early. The dorms began to stir with action as individual applicants began to rise. Hinata got off the bunk, doing a few stretches on the floor, trying to energize himself. In the distance, Hinata caught sight of Kageyama, who was also doing some exercises to wake himself up.
"Alright boys, please get ready as soon as possible. The next phase of the exam will be held in the research lab. You have 20 minutes." Ittetsu left the room, allowing the boys time to get ready.
Hinata pulled out a bag of dried nuts and began munching. He was doing his best to make sure he was prepared for the next phase.
"Lev, do you want some?" Hinata asked, mouth muffled by the amount of nuts crunching about.
"Oh, uh, sure." Lev said, extending a hand. Hinata poured some of the nuts into his hand. Lev began picking at them, eating them slowly. "Do you think I'll need any planes?" Lev asked.
Hinata shrugged. "The proctor said it was going to be inside the research lab so I don't think we're gonna be fighting." Hinata said, mouth still full of food.
"Ah, good." Lev sighed. "I only have one ream of paper left."
Hinata hurriedly swallowed the remainder of the chewed up nuts. Lev also finished reorganizing his bag. The two began to head out of the dorm to regroup with Yachi. They found her waiting for them just outside the boy's dorm.
"How did you two sleep?" she asked.
"Fine." Hinata lied.
"I slept ok." Lev said, nudging Hinata in the stomach from the side. Hinata let out a slight grunt but didn't elaborate further.
The group followed the line of applicants out to the entry hall and further into the lab, marveling at the variety of atriums and such that they passed by along the way. Eventually, they noticed the crowd trickling into a large room, with a sign above the entrance reading "Main Archive". The room was sleek in design, lined with cots and bookshelves filled with various texts that appeared to be organized by subject. To the far left was a large window that gave a spectacular view of the forest surrounding the lab. Each cot was accompanied by a variety of advanced medical equipment. There were also various potted plants throughout the room, as well as what seemed to be an herb rack on the far right, with various stoves and burners being present as well.
"This is where the second phase is gonna be?" Hinata asked. Nobody answered. Lev was too busy marveling at all the unknown plant specimens that lined the halls, and Yachi was admiring the texts that lined the archive.
"Alright applicants!" boomed the familiar voice of the proctor, Mr. Ittetsu. Hinata flinched slightly at the loud noise, momentarily entering a state of panic before realizing the voice was just the proctor. "In this stage of the exam, we will be gauging your ability to utilize information given to you," he continued. "But before we can begin, we need one volunteer from each team. Before you volunteer, please know that if your team fails this event, it could result in injury or death." he cleared his throat. "Now, volunteers, please come up to the front."
Hinata immediately knew what he had to do.
"I'm going to volunteer." Hinata told Yachi and Lev. The two initially looked like they were going to protest, but then settled. They simply nodded their heads, affirming Hinata's decision. Hinata waded through the crowd, stepping up to the front. He looked around at the other volunteers, to see if there were any he recognized. He noticed the girl that had been with Kageyama had volunteered, and-
Fear.
Hinata began sweating as his eyes widened at the sight of Tsukishima. He tried to swallow down his panic, trying to reassure himself that this wasn't a combat event, and that Tsukishima wouldn't attack him. He turned away.
"Alright," Mr. Ittetsu said. "Volunteers, please each lay down on one of the cots around the room, in a short while a research assistant will come by each of you and inject you with a substance." Ittetsu turned to the other applicants. "The goal of this phase will be to use the materials you have here to determine what substance your teammates have been injected with. You will have 24 hours before the substance will begin to shut down their organs."
Hinata shook as the research assistant came by and stilled his arm. She prepared a syringe, and, in swift precision, injected it into his arm. He winced a bit at the pain, but it was surprisingly less painful than other injections.
"You may now begin." Ittetsu shouted.
Lev and Yachi immediately rushed to Hinata's side. Yachi began monitoring Hinata's state, while Lev began asking questions.
"First of all, did you notice what color the substance was?" Lev asked.
Hinata tried to think and remember.
"It was purple-ish, I think, and it was a liquid. It went in really easily." Hinata said, with a sense of urgency.
Lev checked his arm where he had been injected. The surrounding area was turning a vibrant purple, distinct from bruising. Hinata cleared his throat.
"She got me right in the vein, so I don't think it would bruise. That only happens when they stab too much right?" Hinata said.
Lev observed the mark for a moment, then thought a bit.
"Ok, so it's a venom, not a poison." He finally said. He went to go searching amongst the books that lined the archive. "Yachi, stay here and monitor his condition, and let me know if something changes. Hinata, tell Yachi immediately if you start feeling something new."
Lev darted to the bookshelves, desperately scanning for a section on venom. He considered what he knew already: purple-ish venom that caused bruising on the site of contamination. He already had a variety of suspects but he wanted to be completely sure before he started trying remedies and anti-venom. He knew from what Hinata had said about it injecting easily that it wasn't plant or fungi based, since those tended to be far too viscous for injection. It was probably animal-based or synthetic. It causes organ failure, he thought.
Kageyama and Kanji were digging through books to find any good information that could help solve the task at hand. Tsutomi was performing breathing exercises to reduce her blood flow to slow the rate at which the venom spread. They had already deduced it was a venom from the fact it was injected, but they had no idea where to start. For starters, whether or not it was even a venom made in the homelands. For all they knew, the venom was from an animal indigenous to the Farlands. Kageyama decided.
"Kanji, you keep looking here, I'm going to go look at the books on native animals to the forest." Kageyama said with authority. Kanji nodded and continued scanning the books.
Kageyama went to the section full of texts and encyclopedias on the flora and fauna of Ishigimi Forest. He began his search.
Tsukishima's group were the first to pass. It was simple really. Tsukishima had volunteered for a reason. The surrounding groups let out various expressions of horror as Yamaguchi swiftly amputated the arm that had been injected. Blood sprayed from Tsukishima's stump as his freshly severed arm fell to the floor. Other applicants stood by, silent, as the amputated arm began to rapidly putrefy, leaving behind a bloody sludge on the floor and a disgusting odor. Ittetsu had come by to examine what had caused such a commotion.
"Well that's certainly an interesting solution to the problem." he marvelled.
Tsukishima managed to suppress the pain, as he always did, and triggered his ability. Gradually, stretching bone and muscle sprouted from the bleeding stump that had been created by the amputation. Within a few minutes, Tsukishima had grown a new, albeit grotesquely mangled, fully functioning arm. A research assistant came by and drew some blood from the arm. She mixed the blood with some sort of liquid in a separate vial, and she watched as the blood turned green. She had a look of incredulity on her face as she signalled a thumbs up to the group. Tsukishima's blood was free of the toxin.
"In all my years of proctoring the exam, I have never seen an applicant pass this phase without even identifying what the substance was!" Ittetsu said, in awe. Come with me, boys, you two have passed this phase.
Lev had spent a good hour reading through texts, though he had failed to think of any possible candidates for the identity of the substance. Yachi suddenly called to him from beside Hinata. Lev rushed over to him.
"What's wrong?" Lev asked, concerned.
"Hinata said he's begun seeing things… things that aren't exactly there." Yachi said.
Lev got down by Hinata's side.
"What do you see?" Lev asked.
"It's not that I see anything specific," Hinata said, voice sounding slightly dazed. "It's that I have this feeling, this hunch." he continued. "I get the feeling… like that cat from back in the forest."
"What do you mean?" Lev asked, not understanding what he was getting at.
"Just trust me… look for the cat." Hinata said, voice cracking. The venom was already starting to affect Hinata's senses.
Suddenly, everything made sense to Lev. OF COURSE, he thought, mentally slapping himself. The reason he hadn't found or thought of any matching toxins is because the venom was from a Farlands animal. Specifically, he was now thinking, that large cat they had encountered in the woods. He scrambled to the section on native animals, frantically trying to find the section on feline creatures.
Kageyama had found the book he was looking for. It had an entry for an animal called a "Lesser Cobra Panther" that was native to Ishigimi Forest. It produced a purple venom from its fangs, known for its slow acting nature. One of its trademark symptoms was causing victims' senses to dull, often giving the illusion that there were more panthers surrounding them than were actually there. The difficult part was going to be preparing the antidote. Thankfully, there was one, although Kageyama doubted the exam's creators would make a phase with no solution. He scanned the text to see if the antidote was given anywhere. He was interrupted by the searing feeling of a glare. He looked up from his knelt position to see a silver-haired giant glaring at him. It was one of Hinata's teammates, Kageyama remembered.
"Are you done with that?" the boy asked, aggressively.
"No." Kageyama lied.
"You're lying." the boy said, venom on his tongue.
Shit, Kageyama thought.
"Why should I give it to you?" Kageyama said, sounding incredibly stupid now.
"I don't know." the boy said, still glaring at Kageyama. "It's the cat, isn't it."
Kageyama's eyes widened.
"How did you know th-" Kageyama was cut off.
"Why should I tell you?" the boy said, with a slight laugh.
Kageyama was silent.
"I'm judging by your look that the antidote isn't in there." the boy continued. Kageyama was still silent. "I'll tell you what, if you help me find the book with the antidote, I'll make an extra one for you."
"Why would you do that?" Kageyama said, trying to maintain a poker face.
"Just think of it as thanks, for helping us back in the forest." the boy said. Kageyama blushed, thinking back to when he helped Hinata.
"I'm Lev, by the way." the boy said.
"Kageyama. Tobio Kageyama."