Komo-Doubutsu

Chapter 5: The Right Time - Part 1

By: Midori Ushi Law

When Ray and Lipagron entered door, they found themselves in a large lobby filled with conversations. The floor was made of marble. There were silk sofas along the western walls with televisions. There were also tables filled with ripe fruits, crisp vegetables, and hot, delicious meat. On the easternmost side of the lobby, there were jagged, wooden chairs, cold, steel tables, and an aluminum bucket of peanuts. There were a few people enjoying the luxurious side of the room, while there were about sixty people enduring the other side.

In the middle, close to the northernmost wall There was a middle-aged woman dressed in a black and white stewardess uniform staring at Ray and Lipagron from behind a semi-circular counter. When the two finally noticed her, she forced a wide, hideous smile on her face and motioned with her hands for them to proceed to the counter.

"Welcome to the Great Quest Starting Point. I'm your receptionist, Yomi. How may I help you today?" asked the woman.

Ray lightly smiled back at her answering, "We want to get tickets for the Great Quest, please."

Yomi let out a fake, lifeless giggle and held out her hand. "Alright! I'm going to need to see Identification Cards verifying both of you are over the age of fifteen years old or older and five thousand dollars each. Afterwards, just fill out a little paperwork while enjoying the VIP section of the lobby.

"I'm not buying a ticket," Lipagron muttered pointing at Ray. "She is. I'm going to take the preliminary trials."

A grim facial expression appeared on the woman's face as she glared at the boy. "I assumed you kids both had money, since no youngster is stupid enough to take the Pre-Lims." Yomi quickly slapped a smile back on her face as Ray handed her a debit card and an I.D.. "Thank you. Please have a seat with this paperwork and enjoy."

Ray received a clipboard she was handed, but instead of walking in the direction of the few people who paid, she walked towards the uncomfortable side of the room.

"Uh, Ma'am," the receptionist called out, pointing at the sofas and the food. "You are supposed to sit on the side with our indulgences."

Ray stopped walking, and turned toward Yomi. The woman gasped as she noticed porcupine needles were sticking out of Ray's once pleasant face. "Don't tell me where I'm supposed to sit," responded the girl calmly. Quills began to protrude from the skin of her arms. "The money my country raised won't be spent on my participating in your idea of classism. I paid for a ticket, and nothing else." She turned back around and sat down with a small group of people who were in all in shock at Ray's outburst.

Lipagron smiled.

Chapter 5: The Right Time - Part 1

Lipagron tried to hand the receptionist, Yomi, his identification card. The woman snatched it from him, then slammed a packet on the counter. "That's your release form. Signing it means that the World Association of Rulers are not liable for your death during the PreLims nor the Great Quest as a whole. Be sure you read and understand that this is not a game. You WILL die the moment you forget that fact.

The boy briefly glanced at the front page of the packet, but decided to quickly sign his name. After signing, the woman looked down at the packet and sighed, "You know where to wait."

"Yes, ma'am."

He walked over to where Ray was sitting and joined the group.

"I'm telling you! This place is in a secret location!" a man who wore glasses with thick lenses yelled.

"And I'm telling you there's no way!" a man with thicker lenses exclaimed. "There's no way a door could be a portal to some random place in the world. Are you trying to say that someone has Doubutsu abilities that can do something so extravagant?"

"You just saw this kid make quills protrude and recede into her skin, yet you don't believe we are capable of greater things if we put our imagination to it?"

"I didn't say that, Louis! You always try to twist my words. I am saying that logic runs this world. Everything can be explained through science, tests, theories, and laws. Teleportation is not possible. There's a logical explanation to why every Great Quest entrance door in the city leads to the same lobby."

"So, what's the reason, Larry? Smoke? Mirrors? A trap door? We're all in different lobbies, but those, who are entered through a different door, are actually holographs? Let's get real. Not everything in life can be explained through science. Some things, you just have to have faith that they exist."

Lipagron smiled again.

The man with thick lenses looked at Lipagron and Ray. "Oh, I'm sorry! We're debating in public again. My name's Louis. And that egg-head right here is my younger brother, Larry."

Larry punched Louis in the arm. "Younger brother? We're twins! We're the same stinking age!"

Ray and Lipagron laughed.

A low voice on an intercom in the lobby said, "Komori. Enter. " The group, Lipagron sat with, watched silently as a young man around the age of nineteen stood up from a chair he placed in a corner of the lobby. There was a dark scabbard holding a sword on his back. He walked towards a door on the northernmost wall. He opened it and went inside without hesitation. The door slammed shut.

"I guess another one didn't make it," said Larry.

"We don't know that for sure." replied Louis.

Ray turned her attention back to the two men. "What do you mean 'didn't make it'?"

Louis sighed and said, "Larry thinks that whenever someone is called into the next room before someone leaves out, it means the person, who went in prior, was killed during the tests."

"Hear me out," Larry demanded. "We've seen people leave that room injured and bruised before another name was called. Likewise, we've seen people exit the room looking just fine. Everyone, who left out, got a ticket. Even in the fine print on that release form we signed said that the only way to fail this is to die."

"That doesn't mean that those, who don't come out, are dead."

The door at the northernmost wall opened, and the man, who was just called, exited. He walked toward the receptionist and received a ticket from her. "Frida," the voice on the intercom called. "Enter."

"Shoot that was fast!" yelled Louis.

Larry looked at the teenagers and raised his eyebrows. "Anyway, what are you two youngsters' names?" he asked with a slight smile. "You're pretty close, huh?"

Both surprised, Lipagron and Ray quickly moved their chairs further a part. "No no no! Ray and I are just friends!" Lipagron declared embarrassingly.

"Yeah," Ray agreed. "I just met Lipagron this morning."

The man with the dark scabbard, who was walking towards the exit through the south door, immediately stopped as he heard Ray say Lipagron's name. He stood still for a few seconds before continuing out the door.

KOMO-DOUBUTSU