Today was the day. The dreaded day of exams. Wonderful. I haven't studied.
…eh, I'll be fine. If it's anything like last year, I'll be more than fine. Genius is me after all. All that trivia did pay off after a while. I never figured out why I was able to get more knowledge from playing on a trivia machine rather than just doing homework, but it was more fun so I'm not going to be complaining about it now. I'll just keep on wondering and thank Thanatos that they helped for now.
"Minato-kun, have you studied?" Yuko asked as she was able to catch up with me.
"No, not really… but I think I'll be okay," I said, shrugging off the worry. "What about you?"
"I think I'll do good. I studied hard to get the career I want so, I'm not gonna fail now," she smiled. "But… I have to wonder about Kaz and Kenji. And Junpei's admittedly more of a lost cause," Yuko sighed.
I wonder how they are going to do? Mysterious. "I'm just worried, it wouldn't be good at all if they got a really bad mark at all," Yuko said.
"Why?" I asked. It wasn't as if I was worried about the stakes that were up. I think they knew better than anyone what they were; the usual like expensive cake, name and shame on the boards…
"Because, I heard that Rio was going to be really harsh on Kenji if he didn't succeed, and Kaz has me to worry about," she scowled.
Oh. I thought it was going to be something else. But that's not cool. Something HARSH from Rio meant that someone was going to pass away for sure from the hard training and workouts that she had. And Yuko… I have no idea. I was good in track, so I have no idea.
"I see… well, may the gods have mercy on their souls then," I said mockingly, putting my hands together in a prayer position.
Yuko sighed before muttering, "You're so mean…" But… I wonder what the effectiveness of that is now that she put her hands together too… "May the gods have mercy on their souls…" she mumbled.
Haha. Still, funny. "Yup. Well, we better get back to homeroom. I don't wanna be around here to buy Toriumi-sensei cake," I smiled a little before picking up the pace with Yuko. …Even though she probably would never threaten to get me to buy her a cake anymore because of the whole Maya and Tatsuya shenanigans that happened last year. Good times… That look on her face was absolutely priceless.
"Me neither," Yuko replied as we hurried up.
Once in homeroom, the atmosphere…
"Say it with me! We're gonna fail!"
…eh? "We're gonna fail!" I heard a few students chorus.
Looking around, it was… Junpei. Well, no surprise there. Some other random students… Kenji and… Kanashi? He was leading the whole thing in fact! Geez…
"Uh good morning," I said awkwardly as they quieted down.
"Oh hey Minato. Are you going to join us?" Kanashi asked with a bit of a smirk. Why does something about all that he's saying feel fake all of a sudden? Weird. Must be my imagination…
"Nah. I kinda aced everything last year… And this term's stuff was easy," I shrugged.
"Well, if you say so," Kanashi scowled.
"Quiet you imbeciles!" I heard another voice call.
N-Nyx? "Uh… hi?" I said nervously. That glare is vicious…
"You might not be planning to succeed by any mile in this test, but that is no excuse for you to go shouting and calling that fact out like a bunch of buffoons!" she growled, immediately shutting up everyone in the vicinity. "Now shut up so I can think in peace!"
…she single-handedly shut up everyone in the classroom. Well… fuck. How did she do that?
Within a few moments, every student that was involved in the chanting had dispersed and scurried back to their seats. That is, besides Kanashi. "Killjoy," he mumbled.
Nyx shot him a deadpan, making him sit down in his seat with a frustrated sigh. Every other student went back to their business after a while, that is… besides the chanting.
The few days that were spent doing mid-terms were blurs to say the least. However, there was one event that I managed to catch eye of…
Kanashi managed to pass his answer sheet over to Junpei. Holy fuck, how did he do that? Also… why? Didn't he say that he was going to fail? On his face was… it was a smirk.
"Kanashi… now that exams are over… I've gotta ask something," I sighed, rubbing the back of my head.
"What's up?" he asked.
"Were you lying about failing the test earlier in the week?" I asked with a straight face.
"Yeah… is something wrong with that?" he said slowly, raising an eyebrow.
"No, just wondering. Because I saw ya pass your stuff to Junpei so that he wouldn't fail as hard," I shrugged.
"Oh. Well," he smirked, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Keep that a secret, won't you?"
"Sure, sure," I replied. "Anyways, I guess I wouldn't need to wish you luck then, right?" I chuckled a little.
He grinned before saying, "That is a big… yup." With that, Kanashi walked off with a saunter in his gait.
Thought so. Well, that attempt at trolling was actually pretty funny. Surely, he fooled me for a while. It's harder to troll people in real life than it is to troll a person online, that's for sure. Though it was another thing to find out how confident he actually is about passing this whole thing.
"Hey Minato-san," I heard someone call me. A guy. And not one guy that I know for more than a week calls me with an honorific.
"Hi Yashiro. What's up?" I asked, taking up my bag.
"Well… just wanted to talk. I'm kinda bored," Yashiro sighed.
"Oh okay… but why me?" I asked curiously.
"Just because," he shrugged.
Okay, a bit weird, but okay. I'll go along with it. "Well, sure. Let's go," I started walking and he did the same.
"So, was there anything in particular that you wanted to talk to me about?" I asked.
"Well… I believe that an opponent that you might know is hiding a very dangerous trump card," Yashiro mumbled. Huh? "I mean, you might've heard about the Nyxist cult rising up once again, and apparently… the assassination site that had been around before is being moderated again…"
I sighed inwardly before saying, "I know about it. And I am kinda worried about it to be honest," I replied.
"Yeah. Well, I have a feeling that something is coming up, something big. Maybe it's just me and being all paranoid again," Yashiro sighed. "But, I've just been getting more worried since my luck has been turning, and I think I drew something at the beginning of the year that spelt… well, something bad."
"What did you draw? We are talking about tarot, right though?" I asked.
"Yeah. I drew… Death, Tower and lastly… I'm not so sure about this one, but Devil," Yashiro explained. "It just sounded kinda foreboding."
Death, it represented spiritual death. Tower represented disaster, and the aftermath of it. And the Devil represented… power, and temptation. None of them meant anything particularly bad, but they could be interpreted to be so. "And what was that about your luck?" I asked.
"Well… there's something about my luck. When I don't have to bluff to make people fold, it usually means that something bad will happen," Yashiro sighed. "But, you don't need to know about me."
"But, if I don't know more about you, we won't become better friends, would we?" I asked with a bit of a smile.
Yashiro's eyes widened before he chuckled a little bit, tipping his cap down. "I guess so," he replied.
"Uh, you know… I just wanted to try something, now that you're talking about knowing each other better…" Yashiro said, a little nervously.
"What's up? I can probably say that it won't be that weird with what I've encountered," I laughed a little bit.
"Well, just wanted to test something," he smiled, holding out his empty palm. When he opened it back up… holy. That is some smooth magic trick. In his hand was a deck of cards; tarot cards. "I just wanted to see what you'd draw. I've already shuffled it and stuff, so draw three."
"Well then…" I mumbled, taking a card from the deck. I flipped it over and… "Fool…"
"Death…"
"Judgement."
Yashiro nodded. "Huh, I didn't expect Death. But cool," he smiled a little. I gave the cards back to Yashiro and within a blur of his hand, I think he shuffled it and made it disappear all in one go.
"And lastly, I wanna test your luck. Draw five?" he asked, opening his other hand. And another card deck. Cool.
"Uh sure," I shrugged, taking the cards that… they made up a hand, I see. Right. I know next to nothing about poker or whatever.
Ace, jack, queen, king and… nine. All of the same suit. "Whatcha get?" he asked.
"Ace, king, queen, jack and nine. That's a bit disappointing. If you had a spades ten instead of a nine, you'd have gotten a royal flush. It's the highest ranking hand in poker," Yashiro sighed. "But still, not bad. Better than my luck at least. But everyone should have better luck than I do."
"Aw come on, don't put yourself down that much," I sighed, giving the cards back to Yashiro and patting him on the back.
"But seriously! My luck's horrible!" Yashiro clutched the deck of cards to his chest, faking his distress. I could tell. I think that it was something of a usual thing for him to get used to. Which is kinda sad regardless. "Haha, don't worry about it. It's kinda normal. I don't mind," he chuckled.
"I don't mind. As long as you don't put yourself down that much. It's not healthy, I can guarantee it," I said with a nervous smile.
"Sorry, it's… it's kind of a habit," Yashiro admitted.
AN: Whee, I'm on fire. And I don't think it's because of the song I'm listening to at the moment. Anyways, plz tell me what ya think of the chapter and box me yo thoughts plz.
Decode: Well, thanks. And glad it did! I will, for sure.
Yoshikunitsu: I'm waiting for that part too.
Haha, yeah. I love writing Nyx as well, so I'll do my best to make her as entertaining as possible.
Nights: Kanashi WAS awesome in that chapter. Though I don't condone beating up on people, it was still funny regardless. Yeah, Junpei…
Haha, well… Minato will be fine. And Nyx? That's a big, 'of course' from me.
Well, I did write that chapter quickly. Heh, thanks.
Raidou: I dunno. Something to wonder about though. Anyways, Nyx will… her marks will tell us all we need to know in the next chapter. Thanks! I'll keep doing my best.