The lol, potato, joker and chubby brain

Monday, February 16th, 2015.

‘’Now remember, to enter the class you will need a pass.’’

Inside the car standing still in front of a school with an extensive area holding 4 distinct buildings, Utsukushi was talking with Kachi while peeking up through the driver's window.

Kachi was standing outside, wearing black pants, a black turtle neck, and a red coat over it, his appearance looked different, hair dyed white, different from its black natural look.

Along with the clothes, he had a necklace, a silver chained open-lock.

‘’Yeah, Yeah, I know,’’ Kachi mocked her in a manner an old man would speak to an annoying kid.

‘’And that is?’’ Utsukushi raised an eyebrow.

Kachi tried to think after her questioning, placing a hand under his chin, "hmm…"

"It was something about robbing. Oh yes! I need to let at least one student rob me.’’

With a big smile, Kachi nodded like a moron as he said that.

‘’No you idiot, it's the other way around,’’ Utsukushi groaned, "and people call me forgetful!"

‘’Oh, my bad, there is just too much to process,’’ Kachi smiled awkwardly.

‘’No worries, it's understandable, I mean you didn’t have much time to prepare for this. Now go and have a nice crime day, I will see you back in the apartment.’’

Saying that Utsukushi accelerated and went away in an instant.

‘’Wait… don’t you mean you will come pick me up?’’

After she left, Kachi stood there, assessing everything around him. He looked at the students who were wearing uniforms unlike him, additionally, there were two guards carefully scanning everything around them. Only a few kids had no uniforms amongst the mass of hundreds.

‘I need to rob one student, it's straightforward, yet confusing. The kids with uniforms are what most will consider students, however, they never clarified which students we are robbing, the ones they hired to act like students who are crying to be robbed with no guard up, or the ones who are the real students, people like me.’

Kachi scratched his head attempting to figure out what he needed to do.

‘’Well fuck it!’’

He looked towards the school with eyes that slowly lost their glow, becoming dull and almost dead.

‘I will just rob everyone.’

Kachi bent down a bit, assuming a running stance. (skill - Hitman’s special technique: SHADOW OF DEATH)

While he was doing so, his eyes were moving rapidly in every direction, processing everyone and everything. (skill - Hitman’s special technique: SET IN STONE)

‘Egg! Everyone is an egg… be gentle or they will break.’

*DASH*

(Skill - Hitman’s special technique: THE SILENT BOOM)

The guards lost their belts, making their pants drop, everyone else acted normally until they felt something missing from their bodies. Some lost their bags, some lost the phones they were holding in their hands, while some lost the things they had concealed under their clothes, from lockets to undergarments, things were slowly disappearing, causing a big commotion.

Behind a wall of one of the buildings, Kachi stood with his pants pockets full and coat that was about to burst from the things hidden under it. He emptied every pocket and assessed the items he had acquired.

‘Now which one of these can be considered a pass?’ - ‘They told us to rob a student, but criminals are rule breakers, yep that's it, they want to see if we are rule breakers or pets of law and rules. Which means…’

Kachi grabbed the belts that he swiped off the guards and walked towards the building labeled ‘rural economics and architecture - R.A’ while leaving the rest of the loot behind.

As he entered the single-floor building a man wearing a light blue robber mask stopped him. It was a narrow hallway with one door at the end where the man stopped Kachi.

‘’Where is your mask?’’

‘’What mask?’’

‘’You didn’t read the requirements to enter the class?’’ -

‘She forgot to tell me about it, didn’t she?’ - ‘’My bad, I forgot to buy one, didn’t have enough time.’’

‘’No worries, I figured one or two will forget about it,’’ the man reached into his pants pockets and gave Kachi a thin black mask, ‘’here, wear this for now, and remember to buy a colored mask tomorrow.’’

‘’Thanks, but why colored?’’

‘’It's a rule, now go on, you don’t want to piss off the guy inside.’’

‘’Sure, also…’’ Kachi went near the man and said something in his ear. The words weren’t loud to be heard but the man’s reaction could tell that he was amazed by whatever Kachi said.

************

Inside a hall equal to the size of a basketball court, Kachi and 6 other masked students were standing. There were only two chairs present in that hall, and every other spot was empty as if someone robbed that place and left those two chairs behind.

Additionally, there were no windows to give a view of the outside, however, there were 3 doors leading to different halls, rooms, or areas.

The students were 3 males and 3 females, one female was slightly shorter than Kachi, while the rest were taller.

‘’Seems like the robbers couldn’t sit and wait for the police to arrive.’’

Wearing a pale green mask, a male student tried to talk with Kachi by making a pun. He was 5’7 in height, having a slim physique and a low-tone voice. Much like Kachi he was also not wearing a uniform, instead, he had casual tight clothes.

All the students had casual but tight clothes, different colors, and different styles.

‘’And you are?’’ Kachi looked at him calmly.

‘’I’m Mike… I mean Luca Rose,’’ Luca advanced his hand, ‘’you also here for money?’’

Kachi shook his hand, ‘’something like that.’’

‘’Lol.’’ A 6’1 male spoke, he was wearing an aqua-colored mask.

‘’Seems like the big guy got my joke pretty late.’’ Luca smiled.

‘’Lol.’’ The tall male spoke again.

‘’What’s your name? Both of ya.’’ Luca moved his eyes towards Kachi and the tall guy.

‘’Kachi… Jagaimo.’’

‘’Lol.’’ The tall guy showed them his student ID.

‘Did he know the meaning of my name?’ Kachi was slowly getting embarrassed.

‘’Hmm, Ethan Wing,’’ Luca bent near the card the tall guy was holding and read it out loud, ‘’It's not hard to pronounce, you should have said it yourself.’’

‘’Lol,’’ Ethan nodded at what Luca said and then pointed towards his mouth gesturing that he is unable to speak much, ‘’lol.’’

‘Ah, he has a talking disability,’ Kachi thought getting relief, ‘seems like I’m safe from the first-day embarrassment that will haunt me until the end of this program, well even if that happens it wouldn’t change a squat.’

‘’So you have your hard drive corrupted, sounds interesting I bet you can be a professional commenter on funny cat videos.’’

Luca looked at Kachi after saying that, hoping to get a reaction from him, but Kachi didn’t even flinch, However, Ethan spoke again.

‘’Lol.’’

Whenever Ethan said that word, he had no emotions behind them, even though the word coming from his mouth sounded like he was having fun, his eyes and what was uncovered on his face were dull.

‘’You are hard to read, I don’t know if you are having fun with my jokes or not, it's like reading a harem manga in 4th grade, you can never understand why there are so many girls and no guys. Umm… I heard that from a friend, so don't judge me.’’

‘’Maybe he doesn’t like to use too many words.’’ Kachi entered the talk because Luca talking nonstop and Ethan saying ‘lol’ was making his brain hurt slowly.

Hearing that Ethan’s eyes became bright and a smile formed on his face, he looked towards Kachi knowing in his heart that there was someone who could understand his situation.

‘’Po… ta… to…’’ Ethan spoke in a happy tone, as he stared at Kachi in amazement.

‘’And he speaks… You getting hungry, big guy?’’ said Luca, still trying to make them laugh.

‘Why are you looking at me like that… Die somewhere.’ Kachi wasn’t fond of Ethan staring at him with his sparkling eye and him knowing the meaning of his name.

Getting no response and seeing Kachi glaring while Ethan staring at each other Luca gave up on his jokes and tried to change the subject.

‘’So what you guys swiped? The big guy seems to have hit the jackpot.’’ Luca poked Ethan’s grey coat which was bulked giving an impression of something big hidden under.

‘’A belt!’’ Kachi replied calmly while trying to deduce the reason behind the two chairs in that hall and no instructor or teacher around, ‘guy with golden mask and the female with magenta mask aren’t students.’

‘’Oh, nice nice, not to brag, but I got 3 wallets,’’ Luca tried to flex, ‘’and what about you, big Ethan?’’

Ethan slowly opened the top button of his coat, revealing the face of an unconscious female wearing a uniform.

‘’Lol.’’

‘’Ghjahsjahsjshsjhsjsh.’’ Luca lost control over his words after witnessing that, he went into an instant shock followed by bewilderment and questions brewing in his thoughts.

‘’What the hell?’’ Similar to Luca, Kachi was also stunned.

‘’Bruh, the file said to steal from one student, not bring the student with you, we are robbers, not kidnappers,’’ Luca yelled without caring about the loudness of his voice. This attracted the attention of a female standing in front of them.

‘’Lol.’’ Ethan closed the coat button.

‘’That’s also what we will do,’’ a female wearing a magenta-colored mask, standing at 5’8 height entered the talk, including her, everyone around them was able to hear the loud mouth Luca had, but she was first to give a damn.

‘’How so?’’ (Luca)

‘’Lol.’’

‘’Because stealing, robbing, swiping, burglary, kidnapping, theft e.t.c is referred to as robbing in ROBBER ASSOCIATION, and people doing those things are called robbers.’’

Scanning the female from head to toe Kachi explained the details, he was being cautious about him observing her as he constantly moved his eyes to the upper left, making it seem like he was remembering the details.

‘’Oh, someone seemed to have read the files with good attention.’’

The female complimented him while advancing closer to the group.

‘’All thanks to my caretaker.’’

Kachi smirked, realizing something important about her.

‘’Lol.’’

‘’I feel dumb now.’’ (Luca)

‘’What’s your name?’’ (The female)

‘’You already know, mam, teacher, instructor.’’

Advancing closer to her, Kachi looked straight in her eyes with confidence.

‘’What?’’ Hearing that the female stepped back, showing a sign of surprise.

‘’You and the guy with the golden mask, you aren’t students,’’ exclaimed Kachi, pointing towards a male wearing a golden mask.

‘’Lol,’’

‘’Are you calling her old, damn man, brutal much?’’ (Luca)

She raised a finger towards Luca telling him to stay quiet, ‘’and how did you come to that conclusion?’’

‘’Those chairs, they aren’t there to look at, they need to be filled, this is a test of observation,’’ as Kachi was speaking, the ones who were minding their own business until now, turned towards him, ‘’first I thought, you wanted to see who will get tired of standing and sit first, but if that was the test, there should have been more seats, at least 4, to know the weakest bunch of this group, more means high temptation.’’

‘’Go on…’’ the golden mask spoke with a heavy voice as he walked towards the chairs and sat, giving everyone but Kachi and the female a burst of amazement.

‘’Later I came to a second conclusion, only 2 of us can pass through, by whatever standards you had stored for us, I was still thinking about the third possibility when Miss…’’

Kachi paused and pointed his hand towards the female gesturing for her to tell him her name.

‘’Luna Kim.’’

‘’Miss Luna Kim turned around, her wedding ring gave it away, I was told that this division had students ranging from 15-17 years of age, so someone married to be a student was highly unlikely. I had one person and needed a second to fill both chairs.’’

‘’What gave me away?’’ The man spoke, intrigued by Kachi’s observation.

‘’You had gloves on your hand, shade to cover eyes, and unlike everyone else, your mouth area was also covered, making it hard to know how old you are, but you forgot to cover one thing.’’

‘’Which is?’’ The man placed his hand under his chin as he bent forward, showing interest.

‘’Your reaction to me calling Miss Luna an instructor.’’

‘’Hahahaha, and here I thought I would be good at this, being one of the top 10 robbers, that is. You proved me wrong, Kid.’’

(Aron Davis - 57, Robber rank - Golden Mask.)

‘’That was earlier than last year, this time all recruits aren’t even present.’’

Luna walked and sat on the chair aswell.

(Luna Kim - 35, Robber rank - Key)

‘’You are as genius as a dog on a bone quest.’’ (Luca)

‘’Lol.’’

‘’There is always a first time for everything.’’ (Kachi)

‘’Seriously, what is your name?’’ (Luna)

‘’Kachi.’’

‘’I can see you going places Kachi, will never forget that name.’’ (Aron)

‘You won’t.’

‘’Welp, since we have nothing to do but wait for other recruits to show up, let's start your intros, name, and age, nothing else, don’t want any sob stories or motivational speeches,’’ Luna spoke as she waved her hand, ‘’and you can sit down after introducing yourselves, there won’t be any chairs coming for your highnesses.’’

‘’Luca rose, sixteen.’’

‘’Nora Zhao, fifteen,’’ said a female wearing a misty rose-colored mask.

‘’Kachi Jagaimo, fourteen.’’

‘’No wonder they let a fourteen-year-old enter this division.’’ (Luna)

Aron nodded with excitement.

‘’Divya Rajput, sixteen.’’

Divya was wearing a violet-colored mask.

‘’Lol.’’

‘’Stand up,’’ Luna pointed towards Ethan after he (LOL’ed) and sat down.

‘’Lol?’’

‘’Name and age, nobody here is telling a joke.’’ (Luna)

Luca raised his hand trying to get Luna’s attention.

‘’What?’’

‘’He is, how do I put this, he doesn’t speak human, I can introduce him if you let me.’’

‘’No one asked you to butt in.’’ (Aron)

‘’Sorry, sir.’’

‘’Ethan wing, seventeen.’’

‘’Thanks, Kachi! You can sit down Ethan.’’ (Aron)

‘’Po… ta… to.’’

‘’This is hypocrisy.’’ (Luca)

************

20 minutes had passed since they introduced themselves, 4 more masked students arrived in that hall. Aron was snoring on the chair as any old man would, and Luna was busy on her phone while wearing earbuds. Just like them, students were also doing one thing or the other trying to pass time.

Ethan had the female out of his coat, now sitting next to him tied and taped, she was scared and crying. From moment to moment, Ethan would pat her trying to make her less scared but every time he did that, it made things worse.

‘’Lol.’’

That word was the reason, it gave her many thoughts from him laughing about how he is going to kill her or him making fun of how scared she was. His voice and eyes were emotionless as usual, which added more terror to the heart of that girl.

Luca who was sitting between Kachi and Ethan was biting on his nails, trying to pass time, he had nothing on his mind, a zoned-out kid in this cruel world.

Meanwhile, Kachi seemed to be having the most fun out of them all, making a weird face and giggling, his thoughts involved the image of egg and rice he was gonna eat after going back to the apartment.

‘’Yo Kachi, how many more recruits do you think will come?’’ Luca, being bored and unable to stay quiet started a conversation with Kachi. This also brought Ethan’s attention to them.

‘’Lol?’’

‘’Do I look like a genie to you?’’ Kachi snapped out of his imagination and harshly replied to Luca.

‘’You found out about the instructors, didn’t you? This shouldn’t be hard.’’

‘’Lol.’’ Ethan nodded, agreeing with Luca.

‘’That was observation, not magic, besides, it doesn’t take a big brain to know all aren’t present,’’ Kachi pointed towards Aron and Luna, ‘’you can see them passing time.’’

‘’Oh! Second question then.’’

‘’I rather not have you ask it.’’

‘’Lol.’’

‘’Humor me, it will help us pass time,’’ Luca was persistent.

‘’Keep spitting,’’ Kachi looked away in annoyance.

‘’One million dollars or a date with the hottest girl in the world.’’

‘’Lol.’’

‘’What kind of question is that.’’

‘’Just pick one.’’

‘’A million dollars.’’

‘’Are you gay? It’s okay if you are, I’m not judging.’’

‘’Lol.’’

‘’I can be straight and still get a million dollars over a single date, it's simply the matter of choice, a million dollars can give me more things than a single date can offer.’’

‘’Like a gay party.’’

‘’Lol.’’

‘’Shut up!’’ Kachi tried to change the subject, ‘’Our concerns should be why weren't we asked for what we stole as soon as we entered the hall, they said it was needed to get the class pass, but no one asked us about it.’’

‘’Lol.’’

‘’Ethan wants to know, including me, so…’’ Luca gawked at Kachi.

‘’So what?’’

‘’You got a super brain, use it and solve it just like you did earlier.’’

‘’I told you, I’m not a genie you found after rubbing a million-year-old mold-covered lamp bought from a shady guy who looks like he would kill for a dollar.’’

‘’But this question is observation and theoretical based.’’

‘’Lol.’’

‘’Hmm… I think they are waiting for all recruits to come before doing whatever they gonna do for that pass card.’’

‘’No shit, Sherlock.’’ (Luca)

‘’Lol.’’

‘’You mocking me?’’

‘’Don’t take it to heart, I was simply making a pun, nothing much.’’

‘’Lol.’’

‘’If you think we will get a card or some form of paper like a security pass then you are wrong, the statement was, ‘to enter the class you need a pass.’ meaning we will have to pass this test, and they have to say ‘pass’ or something like that.’’

A female wearing a red mask turned towards the group, she was sitting in front of them.

‘’Beg your pardon.’’ (Kachi)

‘’They need to give an okay on our loot, god how dumb are you?’’ (red mask)

‘’Oooooo… Another chubby brain… genius person… girl… nice!’’ (Luca)

‘’The name’s Hera Awad, not chubby brain.’’

‘’My bad…’’ (Luca)

‘’Lol.’’

‘’Yes Ethan, I'm thinking the same.’’ (Luca)

‘’Nothing Ooooo about this, and when did you start speaking ETHAN?’’

‘’Lol’’

‘’He is a meanie, that's what he is saying, along with, he ain’t so smart.’’ (Luca)

‘’Lol,’’ Ethan shook his head as he looked toward Kachi denying what Luca just said.

‘’Don't use the poor guy as your scapegoat.’’ (kachi)

‘’PO… ta… to… ‘’ Leaving his emotionless state, Ethan once again became happy with shine coming back to his eyes.

‘’Never mind, do what you want.’’ (kachi)

‘’PO… ta… to…?’’ The happiness went away slowly as he dropped his head bringing back the dull eyes.

‘’You guys know each other from before?’’

Hera was intrigued by the way they were talking to each other, it was natural for anyone to assume the same thing seeing the level of frankness Luca has brought between the three of them in no time.

‘’No… but I feel like we are part of the same soul.’’ (Luca)

‘’Ewe no, never, not happening.’’ (kachi)

‘’Lol, *BLECH* lol,’’ Ethan almost puked after hearing Luca’s words.

‘’Seems like boys work differently, not even a single girl said hi to each other since I came.’’ Hera made the silent surrounding visible to the three of them.

‘’Not all boys.’’ looking towards the two new male students Kachi added.

Other than the three of them and Hera no one seemed to have any interest in speaking with each other, they were minding their business having their thoughts to deal with about the situation they found themselves in.

Much like Kachi, everyone was recruited in one way or the other, kidnapping, threatening, or using the methods of blackmailing seemed to have been common amongst them.

While Kachi and the others were busy talking Aron woke up from his sleep, he noticed the new students in the hall and acquired from Luna about the total numbers and how long he was sleeping. He shoved her while asking the question as he knew about her habit of listening to loud music anywhere and anytime.

‘’How long was I out?’’

‘’About 20… 25 minutes.’’

‘’How many recruits are left to arrive?’’

‘’17.’’

‘’Fail all, they are too late.’’

Hearing that Luna texted someone on her phone following which the door leading from the hallway to the hall was closed by the masked man standing outside.

‘’Well… well… well… the time has come,’’ Aron clapped bringing the attention of everyone towards him, ‘’let's assess your loot.’’

Luna tapped on the screen of her phone after Aron spoke, the floor of that hall started shaking as she did that. It slowly moved down making all the students either startled by this or amazed. The floor stopped in a dark place which was slowly lit with lights coming from many screens on one side.

Aron and Luna left the chairs and moved towards a desk placed in front of the screens as they sat there Aron spoke through a small mic present on the desk.

‘’Welcome to the assessment hall, reach the desk one by one along with your loot, make a line, and don’t disturb the flow in any way.’’

************

‘’I thought you two were goners, you should thank those 17 students that were late.’’

Around noon, all the students came out of the building now heading toward their respective places. Luca commented on the situation Ethan and Kachi were in.

‘’Lol.’’

Ethan who had brought the female student with him received -5 points making him second last in the class.

‘’Don’t put salt on my wounds.’’

Kachi who had the belts of the two guards got -10 points making him stand at the bottom.

‘’You guys should kneel before me, seeing how I rank one in the whole class.’’

Luca with his 3 wallets earned 15 points, gaining the top spot in the assessments.

‘’Lol!’’

‘’In your dreams, you just got lucky.’’

‘’Which one is your caretaker, I bet it's the old guy who can’t even stand straight.’’

At the main gate of the school, many caretakers were standing in line waiting to pick up the students, Kachi quickly scanned all of them, realizing that Utsukushi wasn’t one of them.

‘’She isn’t here. I can walk, my place isn’t far.’’

‘’Lol?’’

"Maybe she went to buy milk forever, after knowing the result," Luca tried to make fun of Kachi's situation.

‘’I can ask mine to drop you,’’ Hera spoke giving all of them a hint that she was behind them all this time.

The realization of Hera being behind them, and silently listening to their talks gave both Luca and Ethan the creeps of a lifetime. The distance between them and her was of few centimeters, which would scare anyone.

‘’Lol!’’

‘’Holy mother of a cow.’’

‘’Thanks, but it's not that far.’’

************

Back in the assessment hall, Aron and Luna were in an argument after Aron let Kachi and Ethan pass.

‘’What was that about, we were supposed to fail anyone who didn’t follow the rules. Don’t tell me your age is making you soft.’’

Luna was angry over the outcome as this was not as planned for the test.

‘’I simply saw potential in him, his observation skills are amazing, gave me chills.’’

Aron was persistent over his decision of letting them pass.

‘’You also can’t say that since you failed seventeen students already more weren’t needed, you failed twenty-four last year and still failed one in the assessments. We fail one during the first test and one on graduation day, this has been the rule since the beginning, we can’t change however we please.’’

‘’Then we can fail two on graduation day, problem solved.’’

‘’Do as you please, if you weren’t a golden mask I would have reported this to the higher-ups.’’

‘’I see a younger me in that kid, so I would advise being good to him, who knows he might take my spot as the next 10 heads.’’

‘’I won’t count on it, he simply got lucky since I forgot to take off my wedding ring.’’

‘’Was that all you thought of him?’’

‘’What are you implying?’’

‘’The fact that everyone had footage of them robbing but he had nothing, the only video we got of him was after he entered the hall.’’

‘’We concluded that the pc was malfunctioning since he was last to be assessed.’’

‘’But that’s not what you believe aswell, am I right?’’

Still, in denial and full of anger, Luna questioned Aron’s claims, ‘’explain what you think then.’’

‘’He robbed two guys ranked CHECK and somehow had all of the evidence destroyed. I didn’t even find any footage of him entering through the main gate, either he lied about robbing the guards or he is playing with us.’’

‘’Since there is no proof, there is no reward,’’ Luna got up saying that and started to leave the assessment hall.

‘’Stay in denial as much as you like, but throughout all my years, no student made me this excited, and no one was able to destroy the evidence of the crime on day one.’’

‘’I’m not in denial, simply stating the fact. See you tomorrow.’’

************