The Master [MxMxM+]

03

   The eight men who were so 'lucky' to have been picked filled up a waiting room one by one, until the selection was finished.

     The end of the process indicated by the assistant arriving to address the room. It was suddenly quieter than before, and the Master still wasn't present.

     Nine men regarded each other warily, all but a few of them. Pierre seemed like he could only look down and Jett made it a point to avoid everyone's gaze. Where it was impossible to do so, he made them cower away, as if to make sure no one approached him.

     "Gentlemen," the Master's assistant said, instantly grabbing everyone's attention in the room. "Congratulations on making it through the final selection, knowing how picky the Master is."

     The men sat at a big table and naturally looked to the man speaking. He was somewhat attractive in his suit, young enough to fall somewhere around their ages. Long black hair left loose and tucked behind his ears, dark eyes and a mouth set in an all business manner.

     He looked like the type of person you didn't mention anything irrelevant to. And yet you still got the feeling that he was friendly. He kept on checking his watch like he had somewhere to be, but still got the message out perfectly.

     "You can call me Tadashi, although the chances of our paths crossing is terribly vague."

     He walked along the table, taking every man in, hands crossed behind his back in a grave demeanor as papers and pens were placed right in front of them.

     "This is the final set of rules. Take your time, read through and sign at the bottom if you see fit. No one is holding you here so should the rules make you uncomfortable, you are free to get up and leave. Only then can we move on."

     They were given time and quiet to read and decide. Tadashi watched the changes in some of their expressions as they fought to school their features.

     It's possible that no one expected the rules to be what they were at all. For some people, the rules weren't what they were expecting and for some, they might have been too much. What they had no idea about, was how Tadashi had made sure the rules were revised over and over until they looked presentable. The originally unchanged rules might have made everyone in the room walk out the door.

     He watched as the contestant Peter Sulz decided that four million dollars was not worth it. The man pushed his chair back, got up and pushed his chair back in, then walked out.

     Tadashi nodded subtly. "I take it he wasn't a fan," he said, earning a chuckle from Riley.

     For someone who had looked so confident, it seemed unlikely he'd be the one to leave. But anything could happen. At least he had manners.

"Really hate to do this," said Asper Henderson. He looked restless as he got up, he even first paced back and forth until finally shaking his head in resignation. "It was nice meeting you, Tadashi. I'd have signed if you were the Master."

If Tadashi didn't expect to hear that, he hid it really well, his face betraying nothing. "I'm flattered Asper, but I'm not sure you know what you are saying."

Asper shrugged, then he walked out.

     It was surprisingly Pierre, who signed his paper first. It was immediately collected from him and taken away, where Tadashi knew it would quickly be laminated and kept. Linder followed, then Jett, and then everyone else seemed to sign one by one after that.