Counting the Stars

Chapter 22 - Risen in Light and Darkness

The morning of my final assessment had arrived.

I had already cleared the next four days with Tom beforehand. The first being today, the next two as my final mid-morning shifts, and the last one to rest and process the last two years of combat training. A total of twenty-eight fighters were graduating from their training this year, myself and Link included, so the graduates were split into group A and group B. I was placed into group A and was scheduled for an eleven fifty combat trial, though I was requested to arrive at least an hour earlier to wait for my turn. For routine sake, and to stretch myself out prior, I caught the seven thirty flight.

The halls bustled with movement and smiling faces when I first stepped into the building of Smash shortly after eight forty-five. It had been the same around this time when I had first started my work. When the midsummer graduation season came around, a lighthearted atmosphere uplifted every room with the idea of a peaceful triumph, an awaited end before the crowds thinned out until registration week in March. My eyes flitted across the faces I hustled past, patiently searching for any of my closest friends. Link was nowhere to be found. Mario was missing as well, although he was probably administering assessments. I didn't even end up running into Peach or Luigi, either. I proceeded to the cubby room to change.

Eleven o'clock came around after a couple hours of stretching and warming up. The assessments would be taking place in a different and much more prominent arena than the ones I had completed combat trials in before, so I kept that fact tucked away in my mind as I journeyed the white halls to reach the new location. Not just this, but it was all performed in front of an audience. Not consisting of the different members of the Smash community, but visitors from all over would have been packed into a single room to watch me fight. This was our big event each year.

I thrust open the double doors to the waiting room, instantly greeted by another luminescent room with pearly walls and floors. There was no furniture, just the piercing lights beaming down into the room and a scattered assemblage of fighters, some seated and less standing. A few sat in a criss-crossed seat. A few more sat leaning their back against the far wall. A duo of friends gathered together to sit on the floor and playfully sock each other's arms as if in teasing. A cluster assembled in the back left corner, standing to engage in conversation, and another duo near the doors that I had entered warmed up by sparring empty-handed with each other. Nobody was left out, I noticed. We really were just some huge, strange, slightly violent, and beautiful family.

My eyes swam through the sea of identical uniforms as the door latched shut behind me again. I was again searching for Link, Peach, and Luigi, but after a thorough examination, I still found none of them. Link must have been in group B and would have been finishing his assessments tomorrow morning. I spotted Mario amidst the crowd, standing off towards the left wall, and was furrowing his bushy eyebrows in concentration at a clipboard in his hand. His free hand was scribbling down onto the sheet pinned to it with a ballpoint pen, his motions implying checking items off of a checklist. Suddenly, as if he sensed my gaze falling upon him, his eyes darted up to meet mine as he realized my presence. He clicked his pen, slid it into the pocket at the front of his overalls, tucked the clipboard under his arm, and began to make his way across the room to join me with a few soft and polite "excuse me"s with every fighter he ducked past.

"Isabelle, welcome!" Mario greeted me brightly, reaching his empty hand up to encouragingly pat me on the arm. "Your last day of training! How the time flies! Well, only if you pass your test, of course. How are you feeling?"

"I'd say I'm doing well, actually," I admitted. It was mostly true, all except for a tingle of anxious anticipation somewhere in my stomach. "What do I need to do to pass?"

"Exactly what you'd think. You just need to win your combat trial and you're done," Mario explained. "And don't worry about it. If I didn't think you were ready, I wouldn't have scheduled you for your final assessments. You win this fight, you will officially be recognized as a Smash warrior and your training will be complete."