Hunter, or hunted? Chapter 3
The carriage moved past rivers, meadows and fields. In the distance, the snow-capped peaks could be seen the mountains that surrounded the city on one side. Shiru sat in the carriage and was bored. They were travelling all day long on this gravel road, and he wanted to finally arrive at the academy.
At about 5 o'clock in the evening, they arrived in Aave City. Shiru was flabbergasted. There was so much going on. Housewives chatting with each other, while hanging clothes outside, children running up and down the streets and somewhere in the distance he could hear people yelling at each other. The Merchants at the Market were already starting to stow their goods. As they passed by a group of teenagers, at about his age, one of them pointed at him and said something. The boys friends looked at him and started laughing. Shiru just waved at them and leaned back into the cart. After about 5 minutes more they came to a halt. Shiru stepped out, and there it was.
He was standing in front of a wooden gateway, witch was the entrance to the most awesome place, he has ever seen. The academy was a bit cut off from the rest of the village. It was located at the edge and surrounded by wooden posts which served as a fence. It was stationed right in front of a primeval forest.
In the North-West of the Camp there was a long building, witch had 3 floors and looked like the main building. The camp was circularly built with entrances on all 4 cardinal points with the paths all coming together in the centre.
Next to that, a bit more towards the entrance there was a smaller house, with only one floor and multiple entrances. To his right he saw something that he would describe as a meeting place, with two notice boards, a fireplace and a regular shop where you could buy potions, herbs, whetstones, bug nets, pickaxes and so on.
The whole camp was scattered with small shacks. It looked like they had only one room, and were built of wood and clay. He estimated about 40 of them.
Shiru took his luggage and set off towards the main building. There were some aspiring hunters gathered in front of the entrance. He was thinking about asking someone where he was to report his arrival, as he heard a voice behind him. „Are you one of the entrants?". He turned around, and saw a woman around her 40's approaching him. „Yes Ma'am, that I am."
„Good, can I have your invitation?"
"Yeah, of course. "Shiru handed over the Invitation. The woman quickly scanned the sheet and her eyes widened.
„You're Shiru Akuma right?"
„Uh yea, why? Is there a problem?
„Oh, no I was just surprised by your name. Its not that common around here. We have to get started now if you would excuse me. "She said with a smile and walked off past the Group, of witch Shiru assumed were the other entrants, towards the main building. After 5 minutes the woman stepped out again. „Ok, all entrants listen carefully. I am Konomi Hasu (624) Royal Huntress. We will all go to the arena now, where you will have to pass a test to finally be authorised into the Gogyo Hunter Academy." A murmur went through the crowd. „But miss, didn't we already get approved to join the academy?" someone said from the back. „We invited you to the academy, nothing more. We have 40 places at Gogyo. 10 of those are vacant at the moment. Approximately 10% of all attenders actually manage to pass the test successfully to get admitted at the academy." Konomi got cut off in her explanation by a voice coming from near the camp's main entrance. „We had 100 attenders this Year, split into 5 groups of 20 people. You are the last group." Everybody turned around to see, who the voice belonged to. There stood a Hunter at about the age of 50, had a full beard and short black hair. He had a Great Sword strapped to his back and wore a strange armour set, that Shiru had never seen before. „Oh, Good to see you back safe." Konomi said with relief in her eyes."How did it…"
„Well discuss that later," the Hunter interrupted, "I am Urahara "Ikari no Kaijin" Kisuke (866) Titled Heavenly Hunter. Please refer to me as Urahara though. Good luck all of you" He smiled and vanished inside the house.
„All right everybody follow me" Konomi said and so they did.
„Holy Shit!" Shiru heard someone curse. He looked over to his left. The boy who had cursed noticed him and came over. He had white hair, which he had placed in a 15 cm long Mohawk (Look up "Ekko League of Legends" on Google), brown eyes, dark skin and was wearing a piece of generic Leather armour. He had two Dual Blades strapped to his back.
"Look at that, a DB user, I thought you guys were History already" Shiru said. „Dude, are you kidding me? Dual Blades are the shit! I'll whoop your ass at any time!" He grinned
„Hahaha come at me bruh." The boy laughed and offered him his hand and Shiru shook it. „I'm Frank Mercury. It's a pleasure to meet you man" „Same, I'm Shiru Akuma. Why were you cursing before?" „Man I did NOT know that the „The Phantom of Rage" is our damn Headmaster man." Frank said still in disbelieve. „I did. That man IS a living Legend and the face of the academy. How did you not know?"
„My family just signed me in and set me off here."
„So you don't want to be a hunter?"
„I do, but my father keeps making all decisions for me without even asking and I just cant have that shit. But whatever, lets focus on the test"
They left the Camp and followed a path into the forest. They could barely see anything. The sun had disappeared and the torch that Konomi was holding didn't really help, 'cause they were walking at the end of the group. They came to a halt and Shiru could barely make out the silhouette of yet another fence of wooden posts.
He heard Konomi talk again.
„All right boys and girls, the moment you pass this gate you will be under going the test of slaying 10 Velociprey." Some entrants started laughing a little. Konomi smiled at their reaction. "Perhaps you no longer will be laughing, when you hear, that you are stuck in there with 10 Velociprey AND a Yan-Kut-Ku." The crowd instantly went silent. „Before you say anything, we don't care how insanely difficult you think this may be. With coming here and giving back the invitation, you have all agreed that you alone are responsible of what happens in this test. We will try to avoid that somebody dies and we will equip you with armour and a weapon, but it all lies in your hands. You will all receive a whistle. If you blow that whistle we will instantly cancel the fight, and your test ends. I will now individually call you to enter the arena. But first of all everyone of you, choose a weapon and armour, if you haven't brought your own."
They all got their equipment and sat down on the forest floor. „Yo Shiru, you think you got this?" asked Frank."I don't know, I never used a weapon before." „WHAT?" Frank stared at him in disbelieve. „Are you serious right now? Are you really going to just jump in there without any kind of training?"
„Oh, but I did train. I just never fought in combat before."
„But..."
„Frank Mercury" Konomi called and with a last worried look, the boy made his way towards the entrance.
Shiru sat there and started observing the people around him. Pretty much all of them seemed to be teenagers. None of them looked over 25. They had formed small groups and were chatting about what was to come, except for one. A girl, she looked like she was fourteen or fifteen at the most. Her hands were bandaged and from the way she moved, he judged that not only her hands were covered in bandages. He looked around to see if somebody was watching him. „I really shouldn't use this" He said to himself. Nobody was paying attention to him sitting there and watching this girl. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and murmured something, not even the author could understand. When he opened them again, his eyes were red, he looked as though he were the devil himself.
He scanned the girl with his demonic look, which suddenly turned into a look of astonishment, and disbelieve. He quickly converted his eyes back to the blue and quiet Iris he normally had. Something about this girl was definitely special.
He was so lost in his thoughts, that Konomi had to call his name twice. „Shiru Akuma! It is your turn now."
He took a deep breath and stepped into the arena.
Yo Boys and Girls i sure am taking my time with these chapters am I? Some days I just feel like writing and some I don't. I really cant force myself into writing otherwise these chapters wont turn out to my liking. Please let me know what you think about this story and tell me what i could improve, add, and even what I shouldn't add, so this story fits for everyone^^
Peace