Chapter Three

"It would somehow seem more… complete," Machi sighed. "Reminds me of the time we first formed…"

"Yeah, we were… different at that time," Phinx said as they all again, simultaneously sighed.

"No, tell me about it. I wasn't there from the beginning," Shizuku asked politely as grim smiles crept across all their faces. It was the best of their days then, but it wasn't a step off of living hell…

"Well, I remember something rather amusing…" Sharlnark began, smiling like a maniac. "Danchou gave us a test to compare our abilities…"

"No, not that story!" Machi growled, clearly disturbed by the topic.

"You shouldn't worry, Machi. You didn't do the worst," Feitan told her with a shrug as he tied back his bandana.

"No, he just loves bragging about it," Machi spat as Sharlnark gingerly grinned, much to her despise.

"Yeah, I remember him ranting on it two weeks after we finished," Franklin added. "He'll probably twist all the parts to put himself in the limelight."

"No I won't!" Sharlnark said, but they could all tell he was lying. "Fine, then someone else tell it, and I'll correct you if you're wrong."

Machi shook her head. "Fine then, I'll tell it… Well, it's something like this…"

"But first," Kuroro said, catching everyone's attention. "A test… a written test."

Most of the looks on the spiders depicted nothing other than shock, except Sharlnark, who seemed both shocked and pleased. Others like Ubogin looked as if he had never even heard the word 'written' in his whole entire life. Needless to say, the Spider's were fairly surprised, but did they dare question the Danchou's intentions? Nah!

"Wait!" Sharlnark interrupted, not too surprising to most of them. "I wasn't shocked!"

"It doesn't matter, as long as it's not a major flaw," Machi snapped.

"Okay, first question…" Machi sighed as she twiddled the pencil in her hands as she looked disdainfully at the question: There is an enemy exactly 67.9 kilometers away from you. If the enemy is approaching at a speed of 87.4 kilometers per hour, his speed decreasing at a rate of .967 kilometers per half hour He throws a knife at you on top of an 18.6 ft. tree when he has covered 22/23 of his distance, flying at a 37 degrees angle. Approximately how effective would this attack be, comparing all the factors listed?

Machi took one glance at the numbers, didn't even bother working it out, and wrote: The attack would be canceled seeing that during that time, I could have one, moved, two, invaded that attack, and three, killed the person.

She sighed, as all of the questions looked seemingly exactly like the first one. Bored and tired, she gazed over at Sharlnark's direction, who was on her right, only to find him scribbling madly on his test. She then looked over at Feitan, who was on her left, only to find him scribbling madly on his test like Sharlnark, whom he's probably cheating off of. She sighed again. It was boring, very, very bor-

"Wait, you were cheating off of me, Feitan?" Sharlnark inquired, looking over at Feitan, who had once again taken perch on that window ledge.

"With my speed and you obliviousness to the whole thing, it was just like baking a cake," Feitan replied with a shrug.

"So it was really hard?" Kurotopi asked. "I mean, you don't seem like the type to bake cakes…"

"Poison ones are… very delicious…" he replied with a wicked grin. Everyone sort of just scooted away from him, afraid that he might just suddenly jump off the ledge and then well… stuff their mouths with poison cakes… ANYHOW!

"Okay! Test over!" Kuroro said simply, clapping his hands as everyone groaned and set down their tests. Most of them hadn't finished; some of them had ripped up their test to shreds and was now blankly looking at the torn fragment, and very few, like Feitan, Machi, and Sharlnark were actually done.

"Now, it wasn't that hard, was it?" he asked with a genuine smile.

"Yes, it was!" Ubogin complained looking rather grim. "I couldn't even READ the stupid questions!"

"Wait, Ubogin does not know the word 'read'!"

"Sharlnark, stop interrupting!"

"Well, judging by these test, I think only Machi, Feitan, and Sharlnark past…" Kuroro sighed as he quickly scanned through the tests. "Though Machi, your answers are rather… queer…"

"Oh, I forgot, what did you-"

"AS I WAS SAYING…"

"Well, it seems that Sharlnark got the best score on this," Kuroro said. "And since it's impossible to do anything without proper knowledge, I order everyone to kill that menacing know-it-all, and-"

"HEY! I know that is not how it went!" Sharlnark interrupted as everyone just sort of snickered.

"Yeah, I know too, but I'm trying to give you as little credit as possible," Machi shrugged.

"Okay, I'm telling it from here!" Sharlnark spat.

"No, it's still my story!" Machi returned as they glared daggers at each other. Everyone else just sort of inched away from the two, afraid that they may be caught in the storm of sharp-sharp things.

"Why don't I tell the story?" Franklin asked.

"So that's done with, onto the next written test," Kuroro said as everyone graoned as some began banging their heads against something solid. "But first, find a partner."

Nobunaga obviously went with Ubogin, Franklin ended up with Sharlnark, Phinx went with Feitan, Pakunoda with Machi, and the other four random people whom I have no clue are, somehow paired up, enough said.

"Wait, I thought I went with-"

"Shut up and stop interrupting!"

"Now," Kuroro said calmly as a stack of questions went around. "You will have to answer the questions on the sheet according to what you think the answer on your partner's sheet is. Then, once you're done, switch, and see if you got it right or wrong, questions?"

Machi raised her hand. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"Well, for one, it establishes connection within the organization, because if you know nothing of the people you're working with, it's rather hard to keep things in order. It is also very important in battle. If you don't know what the other's strength and weaknesses are, it's likely that you will all be wiped out against a chaotic force-"

"Didn't I say that, not Dan-"

"SHUT UP!"

"Favorite color, I put red?" Phinx asked Feitan who nodded.

"And I put sand?" Feitan replied as Phinx nodded.

"I didn't put sand, I put chro-"

"FOR CRYING OUT, SHARL-"

"I'm Feitan," Feitan corrected as Machi settled down, embarrassed at her outbreak against the wrong person.

"Your Nen type is… Emission," Sharlnark concluded as Franklin nodded.

"And I have no idea what yours is," Franklin confessed.

"Well, it's obviously…"

"So anyways," Franklin went on. "Skipping Sharl's boring explanation-"

"It is NOT boring!" Sharlnark pouted, 'hmph!'-ing at the lot of them

"He really had you do that?" Shizuku asked. "It sounds kind of neat…"

"It was, in a way… he put down the most embarrassing questions though," Phinx told her.

"Like 'did you ever wet your bed when you were little'," Feitan explained. "I think he was doing it more for his pleasure at seeing our bewildered expressions rather than actually getting us acquainted and such."

"Yeah, I thought it was rather strange that he asked us would we rather marry someone of the same gender, or opposite gender," Machi sighed, shaking his head.

"Hey! I got a great idea!" Sharlnark interrupted them. "Why don't we-"

"You want to redo the test here and now?" guessed Kurotopi.

"Um, well… yeah! I remember all of the questions!"

"Hey, why not? Like I'd rather spend the whole time being interrupted by Sharl…" sighed Machi as everyone else agreed.