Dacade No Dacade

Today is the day I’ll ace my exams, said no one ever. I can’t help being so anxious. It’s literally ingrained in me. I try to shake off the nerves, but it won’t go away. I’m not the best test taker or the best at remembering what I had studied. My brain is practically fried. I notice the other students walking into their designated spots for testing. We all got assigned to go with one teacher and one classroom for our exams. I’m on a the special testing section: Separate Team. I get extra time along with others who aren’t good at being in a regular class.

This wasn’t chosen at the last minute. I had to have it. My parents wants me to do a good job. The only thing that I can do is try my best. Just the other day, my teacher gave us our classroom numbers for testing. I got paired with two other students in my classroom. I know that there is going to be about ten of us in one room away from the classrooms.

I stare at the door and open the door. To my surprise, Axel is here. I’m greeted by my teacher as I notice name tags on the desk. It takes me a minute when I realize that our names are in alphabetical order. I’m clearly behind Axel. Which it’s okay.

He’s not in my class. He used to be until he stopped showing up. My guess was his laziness, but maybe he studied or not. I turn to him. He has his head down. Once the bell rings, I counted about five students in the classroom for testing. Usually it’s ten.

Over the intercom, the principal goes over the announcements. It’s super boring. It’s usually those students who are supporting the school or how horrible the sports team is. Sometimes I wonder why we still have a sports team. When the announcements are over, the teacher walks up to the front desk. “Welcome and happy Friday. I’m Ms. Aoi, and I’ll be your instructor for the day. Welcome to the Final Exams of End of The School Year Assessment. This is the written portion of the test…” She goes over a long-winded explanation of what to do, what not to do, and what will happen if we disturb the class. I look over at Axel, and he glances at me. I quickly focus on Ms. Aoi.

After she finishes her booklet, she suddenly sits down and looks at us. I look behind me. I see another boy, and girl in the classroom. Why is there five people? Hopefully, I didn’t miscount.

“Excuse me? Aren’t we supposed to do the written test now?” The boy asks. “We’re waiting for another student to arrive. We can’t start the test without them,” Ms. Aoi answers.

Not a moment to soon, the door opens, and another student comes in. It’s another boy. Ms. Aoi gets up from her desk and says, “You must’ve be here for separate testing?” she asks him.

“Yes…” he says above a whisper.

“Good. Please find your seat with your name tag on it, and I’ll hand out the test.”

Axel, me, a girl, a boy, and the last boy all sit with papers sitting in front of us. “You have two hours,” Ms. Aoi says. “All you have to do is write your name.” Suddenly, a pencil appears in front of me. I pick up the pencil and notice a contract-like sheet with a blank line. Two hours? I look up from my paper and everyone around me has disappeared except for Ms. Aoi.

I quickly look at the contract and write my name down. All of a sudden, my eyes feel heavy and the last thing that I see is Ms. Aoi gone from her desk.

***

I wake up on the ground in some kind of maze. I look down at my hands and notice a suit on me. When did I get changed? I suddenly sit up and look around to see everyone else waiting for me. “It took you long enough,” They say. Is that Axel? The person walks up to me and help me up to my feet. Their mouth is covered by a mask.

“Thanks…” I say. Now that I’m up, we are trapped in some kind of maze. “Where are we?

“We don’t know yet,” Another person says to me. Their eyes are also covered by a mask. It sounds like a girl.

“It must’ve been that crazy teacher…” I hear someone else. “She probably trapped the five of us in here.” Five? I look around for an exit. The only exit that I see is the opening to the maze itself. Since we’re in this strange looking suits, is this part of the test?

“Greeting, test subjects!” A voice calls out to us. “You five have been chosen—chosen for humanity!” They sound very confident.

“H-Humanity?” The girl says. “What about our actual test? And where’s Ms. Aoi?” “Hear me and list well. I’ll only say this once: To complete this test, you’ll five must navigate through this maze to get to the end. But watch out of dead ends. There are monsters lurking.”

“Monsters?” A boy says.

“Rabid monsters, so rabid, that the only way to defend yourself is to not get eaten. Think of it as a chess game. You can either block, move, or checkmate the king. But do not worry. If you do get eaten. Everyone will have to start all over.”

“All over?” A guy with a deep voice speaks. “Hey! What do you mean all over? Is this some kind of scam!”

They laugh at him. “Oh, don’t worry. There are no scams. This is reality! Once you guys make it to the end of the maze. There will be a blue orb waiting for you all. You have two hours. Get to moving.”

“H-Hey! Wait!” The voice disappears.

The guy with the deep voice sighs and says, “Okay, since we have to hours. We should remove our gear and quickly start with introductions.” We all do as he says, and I can see everyone faces.

The girl with purple hair raises her hand. “I’ll go first. I’m Shisuka Igaki. Class-One.” The boy with a mushroom haircut says, “I’m Makemi Osaroma. Class-Two.” The late student with white hair says, “I’m Ryuku Edanari, Class-Two.”

“Axel Hanatake and that’s Iris Ohari. We are in Class-One.”

I bow. “Nice to meet you all.”

“Class-One?” Shisuka asks. “Are you in Mr. Edogawa’s class?”

“I guess we are. I probably didn’t recognize you,” I say.

Shisuka nods.

“Good. We are now acquainted with each other—” Axel is cut off by a loud rumbling sound. We all turn around to see the doors are closing in.

“Shouldn’t we run?!” Makemi shouts. He looks like he wants to crap on himself.

“Good idea.”

We all run to the door, but the door feels so far away for some reason. “Why is the door getting smaller?” Makei asks. “And why is get getting further away from us?!” “Does anyone have a weapon to stop it?” Axel asks.

Then, Shisuka pulls out something from her tool belt. It look like some disc. She runs in front of Axel and me and aims the disc at the door. The blue disc grows bigger and stop the door from closing.

“G-Good thinking, Shisuka,” Makemi says. “H-How did you do that?”

“I’m an excellent archery in my class…that’s why!” Shisuka takes charge and slides through the door. We all look at each other and do the same. After we all pass through, the doors shuts, and Shisuka’s disc breaks into nothing but pixels. The five of us catch our breaths. I look up to see the ceiling of the maze. It’s must be a room with a maze built in.

“Are we alive?” Makemi asks. He looks around and says, “I guess we are alive, but where are we now?”

“In the maze…” Ryuku says. He looks up and points to the ceiling. “We’re in some kind of room…the orb must be at the middle of the maze.”

“Is there a map around here?” Makemi asks. He walks around notices two exits. “There is no map…”

“I guess we have to feel our way through,” Axel says. “Can anyone fly or see what’s above us?”

We all look at each other until Makemi sighs heavily. He slowly raises his hands. “I-I can check.” Makemi looks down at his tool belt. I do the same. We all have some sort of tool belt around us. This must be our choice of weapon. Makemi shuffles through his belt and pulls out some cube-looking object.

He laughs nervously. “A cube? How’s that going to help us?”

Shisuka asks. “I don’t know? That’s the only strange thing there is!”

“Maybe throw it on the ground?” Ryuku suggests.

Makemi does what he says, and the cube just sits there—being a cube. “…Whoever picked this weapon out for me is going to pay—”

Suddenly the cube glows and transforms into some hoverboard. “Wow! Awesome! I always wanted a hoverboard!” Makemi gets on the board until he loses his balance. I hear Shisuka laugh quietly to herself. Makemi laughs, brushing himself off. “You guys didn’t see that.”

“See what?” Ryuku says.

Makemi rubs his hands together. “Lets go!” He jumps on the hoverboard. The board glows and suddenly begins to lift him off the ground. “This is even better than that Christmas gift that I asked for.”

“What was it?” Ryku asks.

Makemi face flushes and yells at him, “That’s none of your business!” Ryuku leans over to me and whispers, “Probably inappropriate.” I can’t help myself from laughing quietly. Makemi flies up to the ceiling until we all hear a thud sound.

“Are you okay?!” Axel shout.

“Ow…yeah…” Makemi knocks on the ceiling and touches it. “…Yo…it’s glass and it’s invisible.”

“Now what?” Shisuka asks.

“Makemi?! Can you see anything from your viewpoint?” Axel asks.

Makemi looks around until points at something. “I can see the orb and it’s huge…also…I can see the monsters as well.”

“Great! We have him stay up there and guide us,” Shisuka says. “Makemi! How are you good memorizing?”

“Uh…not very good…” he says. “My memory is only good for personal things like my phone number, the password to my phone, and—”

“…Never mind, Makemi. Can you draw the maze?” Makemi looks through his belt for a minute until he shrugs. Suddenly, a beeping noise goes off and Makemi looks down. “Oh, no. My hoverboard is going to die out! I told you someone is praying on my downfall!”

Makemi makes it back down with the rest of us. He jumps off the hoverboard and it turns back into a medium size cube. Makemi almost tears up and puts it back into his belt.

“Our best bet is go through the maze, and if we run through any monsters…we have to fight them.” Ryuku says in monotone voice.

“Right…” We all say. We follow Ryuku’s lead and walk through the maze. I try to stay close to Axel as possible. As we keep walking, the maze walls feels tight. I try to turn my body to see the behind m, but the other way is getting smaller and smaller. I turn back until we stop.

“Why did we stop?” Shisuka asks Ryuku. Ryuku looks around and says, “This maze is very blocky. This hedge maze is making dead ends easier to fall through. I’m going to look around—”

“No. We have to stick together,” Shisuka says. Shisuka grabs his arm. “If you go—” Ryuku lets go from her grasp. “I said that I’m going to have a look around. You guys stay put.” Ryuku runs off.

“That idiot. Doesn’t he know that he’s going to get himself killed.”

Suddenly, Axel walks past her and looks around for him. “Uh, you guys…” We all walk to the middle of the two paths. “Is it just me or did the maze just changed?” Changed? I look around until I notice a dead end. I walk up to the dead end when a low growling sound makes me yelp a little. I take step back until I look behind myself. Everyone is gone.

“Hey, you guys!” Makemi yells. “Did the maze changed abruptly?” I can hear Makemi, but I can’t see him. I try to yell, but there’s a monster in front of me. I slowly back away when a beast with glowing red eyes steps out from the shadows. Suddenly, I let out a scream. A giant wolf-like creature begins to tackle me to the ground. I try to get it off of me; I even beat it a few times.

Nothing is working. Then the wolf bites down on my arms, ripping the sleeve of my suit and part of my skin. I flinch when I manage to kick it in the face. I quickly scramble from the ground and run for my life. I look down at my belt to see weapon.

I pull some sort of gun from the belt and point it at the wolf. I don’t even know how to shoot. I can hear it running towards. I close my eyes, hoping for the gun to go off. It’s coming closer.

“Please, work!!” I shout. Suddenly, a loud bang goes off as I blast the wolf, and the gun jerks my arm back. I grab hold of my arm when I notice the wolf as taken an hit. I try to remember how to use it. I only saw it one time on TV. My legs are still shaking. I try it again and shoot the wolf multiple times. Near the body, and the last bullet when straight through it’s head. As the wolf falls through the ground, blood is leaking from it. My hand are shaking!

Never again. I can’t handle guns!

I quickly run off to find the others. But my only goal is to avoid the dead ends. As I walk around the maze and check each dead end. The voice from before speaks, “Ladies and Gentleman. You have an hour left. Time’s a wasting! You better hope all of your teammates are alive…or not.” That cheery laugh his is creeping me out. I keep pushing forward through the maze. My legs are getting tired as I trudge on. I keep walking until I see something blue glowing in the middle of the maze. I can’t contain myself from smiling from relief. As I run towards the middle of the maze, I accidentally trip over my own two feet, falling into the middle of the maze. “Are you alright?” They ask me. I look up to see Shisuka, holding her hand out to me. I take her hand as she pulls me up to my feet. I look around and everyone is covered in claw marks from head to toe.

“Y-Yes. I’m okay,” I say to her. I hold my arm and it’s bleeding.

“Iris…you’re hurt—”

“I-It’s okay!” I laugh it off. I wince from the pain. “Where’s Makemi?” I ask.

Shisuka looks around for him. “He was right behind us—”

Then, All I can hear is a high scream scream that sounds like a girl. We turn to our attention to maze entrance and notice Makemi falling to ground. He scrambles inside the middle of the maze until it shuts behind him. He looks up at us, pointing. “No one heard!”

“Heard what?” Ryuku says.

“Are you okay, Makemi?” I ask.

“N-No! Those stupid wolves! T-They were chasing me and attacking me. I thought my hoverboard was going to work, but it wasn’t! Then I pulled out a bo staff, thinking that was going to help, but it made it even worse and the wolves broke it in half like a freaking toothpick!” Makemi breathes heavily. “Once this over! I am going home and that’s final.”

“You poor, poor baby,” Ryuku says slowly. He shakes his head. “Well, my target was easy. What about you, Axel?”

“M-Me? Uh, mine was okay…Shisuka? Iris—”

Axel notices my arm bleeding. “Are you okay? Your arm is bleeding pretty badly?” Makemi gets up from the ground and notices it too. “Yeah…it does look it hurts. Are you okay?”

“She’s fine, right, Iris?” Shisuka says.

I nod.

Makemi throws his hands behind his head. “Well…if you say so.”

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Ryuku says.

The five of us walk up to the glowing blue orb. It’s very pretty. There is a soft smoke emitting from the glass ball. “Congrats on making to the end of your test. And it seems that everyone is here all in one piece,” The voice says. “You all have won!”

“Hey, jerk face! Mind telling us what heck is going on here?!” Makemi yells. “Simmer down, Makemi…” Makemi looks at us wearily. “All in good time…Now! Touch the orb and you’ll be back home.” We all touch the glass ball until it glows brightly. We all close our eyes from the light. We open our eyes slowly as I look in front of me. This can’t be happening, can it?

“Where are we?” Shisuka asks.

“H-Hold on! This isn’t my house or the classroom!” Makemi yells.

“What is this place?” Axel asks. We get up from the floor and notice that we are in a safe house in the living room. On the coffee table, a letter appears. We all gasp quietly. Suddenly, heavy footsteps approach us as a man with long blond hair wearing a fancy suit smiles at us as he enters in the room.

“Welcome, test subjects. Let the games begin! I am your host: Mamune Tateshita.”