To Be A Scrapper (Suzuya Juuzou)

Chapter 25

"I have to...what?!" I gaped at the huge structure in front of me. "How am I supposed to find the exit? What am I supposed to do? I've never been in a labyrinth!" I flailed my arms around, staring at Shin who had the smallest trace of a smirk on his lips.

"That's what you're going to find out. Keep your eyes out for anything and everything. You could get seriously hurt." He said.

"Well at least I can't die." I sighed in relief.

"Well, if you somehow get hurt enough to be unable to walk, you will die. I'm not coming to get you." Shin shrugged.

Mentally facepalming, I turned to Shin with a glare. "Thanks."

"Remember, you need a good strategy to escape. Focus on three points: where am I, where do I want to be, how will I get there. If you can answer that, you should be out in no time."

"I think I had an easier time fighting Ryuu." I groaned.

"Anyway, this is your first training assignment. Just find your way out of the labyrinth. You should be fine if you pay close attention to your surroundings." He said and I sighed, taking several steps toward the huge grass walls.

"I'm eleven! How am I supposed to not get distracted by everything?"

"That's not my problem." He shrugged.

"That's a whole new world! I can't just find my way out!" I threw my hands above my head as I shot Shin a desperate look.

"You'll have to," I managed to catch his smirk as he grabbed the door and stepped out of the room. "This door only opens one way." Immediately after those words left his mouth the door closed behind him.

"No way." A gasp left my throat as I ran towards the metal door, searching desperately for a door knob after noticing the lack of it where it should belong.

"That idiot!" I yelled, attempting to kick the door open but managing nothing. "Shin! Open the door! I'm not playing games!" I yelled as I hit the door with all my strength, but Shin never answered.

With a sigh in defeat I turned my body towards the labyrinth, a groan leaving my throat as I examined the huge walls.

"Ok so if I'm going to get out of here I need a strategy, right? How do I make a strategy?" I asked myself as I walked along the closest wall, trying to find an opening.

"Strategy..." I whispered, finally finding an entrance. "Let's see what we have here."

Upon stepping though the entrance the only thing that changed was the absence of the metal wall, other than that it was the exact same image as before; rows and rows of green walls. My eyes darted around as I investigated the area.

There was nothing perculiar about the hedges that made up the walls. The floor, however, varied between being coated with grass or having nothing but dirt.

"Alright, maybe that means something." I whispered as I walked along the path. Soon I found myself in front of another entrance.

"Where am I?" I hummed as I walked further inside the walls. "I'm in a labyrinth, clearly. But where exactly? If I could only find out where I'm positioned this would be easier." I sighed.

"Funny, this path is all grass..." I bent down and ran my fingers along the green surface, finding nothing unusual about it.

"Where do I want to be? At the exit. Dang it, Shin's stupid questions aren't getting me anywhere!" I growled as stomped my foot on the ground. Immediately after my foot collided with the grass I heard a funny sound, like a hollow space.

Crouching down once again I started feeling for something unusual. Nothing felt weird so I started digging my nails into the ground and after a few seconds I came upon a flat surface. I pulled it out, revealing a metal square the size of my palm.

The square itself had a few symbols, some I recognized as arrows. On the corner there was a circle with an arrow attatched in the middle. On the top of the circle was an N, an S was at the bottom, E and W were at the sides.

"What is this?" I whispered to myself as I took a few steps, the little arrow moving towards the W. I turned to the side and the arrow changed to S. Looking at the arrows on the metal square I noticed the same letters at the middle of each one.

"The first arrow has an N." I whispered as I turned until the arrow in the circle pointed to the N. Looking up I noticed it signaled to continue the path. "Fair enough." I shrugged and began walking in that direction.

Every time I reached a dead end I looked at another arrow on the square and changed direction, getting deeper into the labyrinth with every turn.

"Where am I? I'm at E. Where do I want to be?" I took a look at the sqaure. "At S. Alright, here we go."

I don't know how long I was walking, turning towards the arrow and humming directions to myself, but by the time I realized how tired I actually was my body stood right in front of a green hedge with no way to keep going.

Dead end.

A groan in frustration left my lips as I clicked my tongue, spinning on my heels.

"All of this work for nothing? Just as I was about to say I beat Shin at his own game." I said glaring at the metal square in my hands.

I was just about ready to retrace a few steps when I noticed the sky painted in orange, pink and red colors. I looked to where the sun was supposed to be, but found it beginning to hide behind the tall hedges.

Suddenly realization hit me like a bus, making me freeze in my tracks and drop the square to the floor. My jaw clenched as I dared to look up at the sun again, immediately regretting the action.

The sun was setting. I had just a few minutes left before everything went dark.

My head spun as a thousand thoughts invaded my body. Quickly grabbing the metal square off the floor I started jogging my way back. My heart accelerating as the thought of darkness looming over me consumed me whole. I knew it was a bad idea to take off while I wasn't thinking straight, and that proved right when I realized I was completely lost.

I took a look at my arrows, but now they just made no sense at all. The sky was getting darker and darker each time I looked up as I silently prayed that night time would never arrive.

I kept making turns here and there, no longer knowing where I was. I needed to find an exit soon. I couldn't be alone in a place like this, especially when it would soon be as dark as Mama's soul.

Sheer panic ran through my veins as I desperately searched for a way out. Secretly I already knew I was worsening my probabilities of finding an exit, but I didn't really care right now. All that mattered was that I found a way to escape the soon approaching darkness.

One thing I was sure of though, was that Shin was going to pay. Hard.

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Hello readers! Merry late Christmas! I hope you all had a wonderful time.

Before I say anything else, I'd like to ask a favor. I need all of you to vote on a book. I'm in a writing war, as some of you may know, and the winner will be decided by votes. So it would mean the world to me if you could check it out. You can find it on my Village account, Korigakure, which is tagged on my profile. It's titled War Book #1 If I remember correctly.

Now that I got that out of the way, I wanted to say that the next chapter will be a bit different, and it will probably be written in third person. You'll find out why soon enough ;)

And also a question. Who's your favorite of the three boys? Tell me which team are you on c:

Goal for next update: six comments and 15 votes :)