The Unnamed Poet : Volume 1

Chapter 15 : Club 33

-???- «Koji and Bunko probably already finished the first task. Although I do not believe that they fought another team, they must have finished the stage strategically. I guess I picked two great apprentices. Now I suppose my time to intervene is coming closer and closer… ah it is so stressful»
A dark figure of a woman placed her arm on her right shoulder where she was missing it, her right arm that is.
-???- «That is for sure a bother… but I do not believe that it will stall me at all. I’ve gone through worse changes after all…»
The woman said leaving her room…
At the facilities, Metropolitan Dominion gave a one month notice before they could move on to the next stage of the games, that was not only for the players to rest but to also heal up the ones that were injured during this stage. There was a large room with a kitchen and bathroom for each team. Kumiko, Shig, Midori and Yukiko would share this room. Six bets were placed since this room is usually meant for six people, whilst someone like Midori felt a bit of sadness sometimes, Kumiko herself felt relieved to have more quiet and space. Shig was doing his usual dumb stuff during this month, for instance  he burned Midori’s left thumb’s fingerprint by accidentally throwing the hot frying pan around.
Even without the two loudest people being absent, Kumiko barely had any quiet to herself. On the 27th day she was sitting on her bed alone, her wounds were healing and her ability had returned. Whilst she was sitting alone Yukiko came to sit beside her.
-Yukiko- «Heya! Awfully quiet today ain’t we! You’re real grumpy you know?»
Kumiko was getting really annoyed by Yukiko wanting to push her aside but her arm hurt her just a little bit and she did not do anything.
-Kumiko H- «… Fuck off alright? You’re an eyesore»
-Yukiko- «Oh that’s rude is it not? We are the only two girls here after all so we should chat once in a while!»
-Kumiko H- «I don’t believe in such crap. Just because we are women does not mean we will get along, if you wanna be friends with other girls go find that superstitious tanned bitch I was traveling with once this is over»
-Yukiko- «Awwww shucks… but what to do!»
-Kumiko H- «Nothing, absolutely nothing, go away I’m not in a mood»
Kumiko said before sighing a bit.
-Yukiko- «I know first hand that it is not good to keep your emotions bottled up Kumiko-Chan… you should relax and let it out once in a while»
-Kumiko H- «Shut up. I’ve gone through much worse than anyone, if I do not cry then others are pathetic when they do. If I cry right now I can no longer view others as inferior to me. Now, did you get the explanation you wanted? Good I don’t care now fuck off. Also never call me Kumiko-Chan again»
Yukiko felt upset at Kumiko’s words. Almost angry or probably furious too but she got uo and began walking to Midori who was scolding Shig for destroying the microwave.
-Yukiko- «Whatever you say…»
That was anything but a normal conversation is what Kumiko thought. But she was okay with it. As long as she got her quiet everything would be fine. As long as she was fine everything would be fine, is what she was thinking.
The rest of the three days moved on smoothly like water on a lake. No one spoke to Kumiko, who was starting to cover up her body with blankets more and more as if she was ashamed, that never happened whilst she was around Archive but she spoke nothing of it and just slept more in these days, finally they were all asked to proceed through the halls behind a door that opened up for the next stage. All of these four people proceeded and entered a relatively large space, it had many floors, 14 to be precise, each floor had around three rooms except the ground floor. There was also a central pillar to the center of room. As the doors sealed shut behind them, they glanced around to discover a newly arrived group of individuals who had entered through a separate entrance marked with the number one.
-Midori- «(One was already here and we are second? I cannot think of many reasons as to why, the only thing I would assume we did better than most teams is the speed in which we cleared the first stage. That must be it, it makes the most sense)»
As Midori was lost in his thoughts, another door opened up—the third door—revealing two familiar faces Bando Paghos and Kitamura Savanah, known to Kumiko and Shig. Shig went to chat with them, but Kumiko placed her hand on him, seemingly having noticed something. She grabbed a small part of the broken microwave, which she had brought for situations like this, and threw it at them, thinking it would prevent them from approaching. Oh, how wrong she was. The projectile hit Savanah’s head, causing her pain. Shig chuckled to himself. Before the other team could react, almost simultaneously, the other doors opened up, revealing many familiar faces. Many familiar faces appeared while two stood out, Sawa Koji, from the eighth door and out of the tenth door came Archive Vinogradov himself!
The intercom spoke immediately.
-MD- «WELCOME. THIS IS ROOM 33 FOR YOU TEN TEAMS THAT PASSED. CONGRATULATIONS! I WILL BE ANNOUNCING THE TEAMS NOW!»
Everything went dark and light fell upon the team standing in front of the number one door.
-MD- «FIRST TEAM, PASSED! Patrik Lundqvist! Uehara Hannah! Shiro Satoru! Uchiyama Keiji! Ouchi Fumio! And lastly… BENEDICT TITTERINGTON-SAMA!»
The lights disappeared for a quick second only to appear on Kumiko and her group.
-MD- «SECOND TEAM, PASSED! Hagatsuma Kumiko! Toma Shig! Ishihara Midori! And Oishi Yukiko!»
The lights kept on moving around each team.
-MD- «THIRD TEAM, PASSED! Bando Paghos! Kitamura Savanah! Aoki Haru! And lastly Jonathan Johnson! FOURTH TEAM, PASSED! Due to him killing two people he survived! Matsuzaki Kame! FIFTH TEAM, PASSED! Harry Jørgensen! Sera Aika! And Chiba Nobu! SIXTH TEAM, PASSED! Bando Asuka by herself!»
Moving on to the other teams one by one they finally started to have all six of their members.
-MD- «Gettiiiiing tired! Ah wait I’m a machine aren’t I… anyhow! Seventh team, passed! Shiro Kira! Shiro Tohru! Hoshino Bunko! Matsushita Setsuko! Kawashima Tsuyoshi! And finally Adachi Kayo! EIGHTH TEAM, PASSED! Sawa Koji! Hirai Fran! Nishimoto Akiko! Sanda Hotaka! Tsutsui Yoshio! And lastly… Ota Takeshi! NINTH team, passed! Fujii Kazuo! George Maldonado! Paul Dolton! Henry Walsh! Alexis Hicks! And finally! Honorée Beaufort! Now to our final TENTH TEAM, PASSED! Eulalio Udinesi! Nerina Cantu! Pietrina Marino! Ikeda Kiyomi! Isobe Tamotsu! And finally… Archive Vinogradov! That is all the members who passed! Make sure you get along well! Because you all are club 33! You all may change your club’s name later on but only the leader can do so… how are they chosen? UP TO YOU. BYE!»
That was a lot of information dumping. But they could all relax now. The intercom turned off and everyone was allowed to do as they pleased. Kumiko did not greet any of her old friends and instead ran at Archive hugging him tightly. Archive a little shocked from what she did hugged her back. Kumiko hugged Archive tight as Tamotsu and Kiyomi on the back were getting happily excited by the sight in front of them.
-Kiyomi- «Ah how cute how cute! You two look adorable! I love engaged couples!»
-Tamotsu- «Go go Archive-Sama! Score score!»
Kumiko got annoyed and wanted to kill the both of them but Archive grabbed her hand softly. Kumiko felt safe and relaxed now so she tightly held his hand. Midori and Yukiko alongside Shig also ran there. Midori and Yukiko did not speak as they were too surprised by the sight of Archive making such a beast be so calm and happy. Shig seemed happy unlike the two shocked fellows.
-Shig- «Oh Archive! Archive! You’re alright? I’m glad so glad!»
Kumiko did not even feel bothered by someone talking to him, as long as he held her hand. Everything would be okay.
-Archive- «Of course I am, did you expect anything else?»
Shig felt a but sad at the moment.
-Shig- «N-no no!»
-Archive- «Don’t worry I’m joking around… I’m glad you’re alright Shig, it is very nice being able to see you again…»
Shig smiled the purest smile in the world as Archive said that, behind Shig an arm went around him, it was Shiro Shiro.
-Shiro- «HEYA SHIG! HOW ARE YOU BIG GUY!»
-Shig- «OH Shiro! You alright too! Shig is so happy! Happy!»
Even Kumiko giggled a little bit. Yukiko wanted to speak too but Midori stopped her. They were having a reunion so it would be wrong to stop that he though, Yukiko complied and just remained quiet like Kiyomi and Tamotsu.
-Shiro- «Been a while huh? Only Ume and Kumiko number 2 and the group would be complete! Hehe…»
-Archive- «Yes I suppose that is true. Then let us find them at one piece too and eat together»
-Shig- «Food?! Yes yes!»
-Kumiko H- «Yeah… but I ain’t paying you got it?!»
-Shiro- «(Fucking damn it she’s back…) fine fine. I will be payi-»
As Shiro was talking someone bump into him. Shiro got really annoyed. Far more than usual and turned around to the man.
-Shiro- «Hey asshole at least say sorry! I’m the head of the Shiro family got it? I’ll send Tohru and Kira after you!»
-???- «Kira… and Tohru… Shiro, right?»
-Shiro- «Yeah? Why are you asking isn’t it obvious?!»
Shig placed his hand on Shiro whi was overreacting right now. Shiro realized it a tad bit too late and went to apologize but the man walked away. They had all passed.
Archive then was about to let go of Kumiko’s hand to look around for any maps or anything that would help him but subtly she did not let him do so. Archive keeping a calm face told everyone they would meet again and took Kumiko with him as he was looking for stuff. She felt relieved and happy but kept an angry face since she did not want to admit it. Franky she felt embarrassed, after all she acted all weak and shy right now. That would be over, her feelings got over her and she stopped holding his hand after a bit. Archive did not mind and let her do her own thing.
Looking for a good hour or two they managed to find out how to obtain their respective rooms. What Archive also realized is that to assign a leader they would have to do a voting, for the rest of the council it all comes down to the leader. The voting takes place in a week after everyone enters the club. But since that was a week from now Archive decided not to think about it and instead talk about the rooms with Kumiko.
-Archive- «This place has around 42-43 people, the rooms are also 42. I do not think that is a coincidence, after all it already seems like this place was made for 42 people, considering the number of rooms too. That must be how all clubs are. That means we can move in together but we will have to pick a 3rd team member, who do you propose?»
-Kumiko H- «No one please. Everyone I know is a pain in my ass»
-???- «Then how about someone you do not know?»
They both turned their heads to the man MD had referred to as Matsuzaki Kame… but Kumiko and Archive knew him by another name… Shitsukai.