THE LAST KEEPER

”You don’t seem like you will last three hours,” Lotaga said, himself hanging like a bat from the suspension rod. sagiri had not said a word since they were both thrown into punishment together. For Lotaga, it seemed like it was a daily activity, and as he was just hanging his with his hands close to his chest.

The suspension chamber, as easy as it sounders was in fact a torture device. It was situated 30 feet above the endless pool, which Fuwuka had thrown Sagiri in during his first week at the academy. The twist of the matter is that when you are in the suspension chamber, you can’t see the pool and vice versa. You are required to use just your hands to hang for the entirety of the duration you are hanging on.

It should have been simple, but it was too silent, and it was as if it was devised to scare someone to death by hanging on top of an abyss because they could not see the bottom. The chamber was made to maximize the fear of even the strong. the fear of not knowing how far you’d fall before hitting the endless pool, that is, if you had already experienced being thrown in it. If not, then you would just be scared of the unknown.

sagiri had experienced the endless pool, and he knew fast that the pool was. Plunging from such heights could send you so deep into the pool, which was hard to swim up from and even scarier than the darkness in between the suspension chamber and the water.

sagiri had not stopped feeling the prickling feeling on his neck that he would not be able to hold on any longer, and then he would plunge. He could not hang his hands because the remnants of the scorpion venom in his bloodstream had made it impossible for him to hang with his hands. Salka did not seem to care; he just told him, ’You have four limbs, recruit, if two are not working, use the other two.’

The man was ruthless when he wanted to be.

sagiri was hanging now by the front of his heels, his toes hanging for dear life inside his boots.

”You know if you keep thinking about plunging and how tired your toes are about to get and how sore your limbs are about to get, you will not last an hour,” Lotaga said. He was also hanging the same way. Since it was his fault that sagiri got hurt, he was to join him in being upside down. The suspension chamber was totally black, and sagiri could just hear Lotaga’s voice beside him.

”What should I do then?” sagiri asked, starting to feel mental exhaustion and the urge to just let go. His feet were starting to burn a little, and three hours was a long time. The ledge Salka used to bring them in had been retracted, and the only way out was to let themselves fall into the endless pool and swim for the remaining time. That was a worse fate.

”Just think that you are hanging from your favorite tree and you are looking at the sun. Don’t think about the pool or your feet. hang just like a bat, and maybe just imagine yourself talking to the wisest man alive,” Lotaga said. imagining Lotaga as the wisest man was the thing that stuck with him the most, and he started creating scenarios of Lotaga being wise or acting like salka and he breathed a laugh involuntarily.

”Did you just laugh at me, recruit?” Lotaga said in the dark, and sagiri chuckled. Lotaga being wise was the least possible thing to ever happen.

”You are becoming a little brat. If you can’t imagine you’re talking to the wisest man alive, then just relax like you do when you meditate,” Lotaga said, and sagiri nodded before he pushed himself into meditative slumber. Surprisingly, it made hanging upside down easier, and perhaps Lotaga might have been wise to some extent.

After he fell into meditative consciousness, it was as if he was floating instead of hanging, and the rest of the three hours went by without many hitches. In the silence, he could feel his body healing his stab wound again. So the suspension chamber was about conquering your mind, and once you did away with the fear, then it was not as scary.

The three hours finally came to an end, and he was let out, but Lotaga had to go on for another three hours. only because he was sick. otherwise salka could have punished him to hang for two days without food and water. it however, seemed that Lotaga was used to punishment, and he could have gone for two without complaining.

It is almost midnight now, and Salka had not even let him meet Senraki before he threw him into the punishment chamber. sagiri was tired from the whole journey, and he did not waste time in his cubicle to sleep. It might have been the remnants of the venom or the antidote, but he passed out immediately.

Woke was almost late to wake up by a second, and Torena’s eye twitched either from having to retrain himself from punishing him for being late for almost a second or from his distaste for imperfection.

After meditation, he was not required to go in the first year to train and instead went in his fourth year to team training. They have to practice how to combine attacks during an attack, and a mistake sometimes could end up in friendly stabbing in the back or accidents that could have been avoided. In a heated battle, it could sometimes be easier to get confused and stab your friend instead of your enemy, and it was not unheard of for a warrior to die in the hands of a comrade by accident.

however just when he stepped out of the wing, he was snatched away by a stroking hand. It was Kiuga.

”sagiri the blind i did not know you were that smart. You even tied with Kaka in the written exam,” kiuga said, and sagiri froze. He matched his score with kaka asakana. That was bad. He had already proven he was terrible in weapon handling, and Kaka was the best in the area. Tying with him in the written exam was bad. kiuga pulled him to the result board in the classroom wing. It was not far from the weapon training arenas, and sagiri gasped when he looked at the results. He had indeed not only tied with Kaka in the written exam but with five other boys, including the long-braided boy Sika Makata, who had shown the most distaste in him.

kiuga was at the top of the board, and he tied with no one. He had a perfect score in everything and only missed half a mark in the Western dialect. He was a genius, and to score that high without the help of an archive like the one inside of Sagiri it was indeed admirable.

He was followed by Asari, who kiuga had left behind by ten points. kiuga was third in weaponry and combat and undoubtedly first in the written exam. He was the smartest boy in the galka war academy, to put it frankly.

”You scored everything?” sagiri could not hide his awe.

”Well I changed the spelling in the western dialect to the way I love it, and it almost ruined my perfect score. Those examiners have no sense of humor. You are the real genius here. You aced four years’ worth of exams in just three months. Even though I did it in four.” Kiuga pouted.

kiuga finished all his textbook study across all years without an archive to help? sagiri had never felt such a feeling of amazement. If he did not have an archive, he could not have been able to hold a candle to such a mind and to think that he missed half a mark willingly.

”Now let’s go see Kaka’s face.” kiuga dragged him to the weapon training arena. It was huge, twice the size of the combat arena and almost the same size as the shadow and pillar arena. ”It must be destiny that you two keep tying in your achievements. Now that the teams have officially become squads I’d love to see his face.” Kiuga laughed, and Sagiri stopped suddenly, forcing both of them to stop.

”Teams are the official squads now?” sagiri asked, and kiuga furrowed his eyebrows.

”Yes, it was announced yesterday by the grand marshal himself. I forgot you were away,”Kiuga said, his smile getting wider.

What was happening? He tied scores with Kaka Asakana and was placed in the same squad. How bad was his luck?

Sagiri was still lost in thought when they stepped into the weapon training arena. All the fourth-year cadets were already there in their newly formed squads of ten, except for the tamelku squad, which had only seven members.

”Seems he was not useless at all.” The. The first whisper reached his ears.

”It must have been that he was admitted to the Galka War Academy because he is a genius,” another whisper reached his ears.

”Even so, he is terrible in weaponry and combat, and I am glad he is not on my team,” another said, and it was Sika Makata.

”Now they have two brain geniuses and a beast with a brain on their team. totally not fair,” another said.

”Good to know they did not admit a total loser to our ranks,” another voice said, and sagiri stopped.

”Galka is still a war academy. His brain won’t help him if he can’t fight,” another whisper joined in.

The whispers had somehow changed from those of scorn to those mixed between acceptance and challenge. Some saw him now as a challenge, and some thought he was almost deserving of his position. Yet others were still not satisfied with his weapon handling.

Even so, he felt a certain swelling in his heart. Doing well and proving himself had given him a rank in everyone’s eyes, and at least he was now not seen as a nuisance. Salka had been right when he said his genius brain could earn him some respect. But with respect came even more rivals, and he did not know why, but he could feel some pride swelling in his chest.

”Are you two going to stand there all day? We have a thousand formations to perfect,” Kaka snapped, and sagiri came down to earth. His eyes were narrowed, and sagiri could not tell for a long time what the boy was feeling.

”Kaka, it seems you two are tied with fate,” kiuga said when they got close enough.

”Shut up. He needs to rival me in weaponry to even be tied by fate with me. ”I only accept rivals who beat me,” kiuga said. Of course Kaka was Kaka; he only cared about being the best, and with Sagiri’s skills in weaponry, he had a long way before they stood even on a close footing.

somehow that lit a fire within him. He wanted to be a worthy rival to Kaka Asakana.