The Second Task, Part One
It was the day of the second task. All of the students of Oxbridge sat around the clue attained from the first round from inside the golden ball that would show them where the next task would be held.
Though it was the clue that had stumped Nekozawa, which had left him puzzeled for days.
Inside of the golden ball was a single twig.
“It’s eleven pm.”
The students started to sweat. Nekozawa was getting overly-toasty under his cloak. The task was supposed to have started at ten-thirty, though the students were held up by trying to figure out the location for the task.
“They’ll be there already,” Nekozawa muttered. He was losing this round, and with this loss he was sure he would lose all his friends.
Ranpo was still playing with his new Smartie machine. The other smart students weren’t really helping either. Kyoya was actually recording the scene for the Host Club’s website. Dazai had decided to try helping the others.
“Twig! Twig! What do you think it is?” he said exasperatedly.
“Twig… dogs! Dogs like twigs! Maybe you have to fight Bitch Luffy!” shouted Soma.
Just then Kakashi walked in. Oxbridge was already disadvantaged by the half hour they’d lost.
“We can’t figure out the mystery of the golden ball,” wailed Soma.
Kakashi, clearing his throat, walked over to the window and opened the curtains. “Maybe look outside?”
The view was of the Forbidden Forest. There was a large crowd gathered around, people cheering.
“Oh…Twig. I get it now,” muttered Soma.
“Finally,” muttered Dazai.
-
Nekozawa finally entered the forest, beginning the second task. He started off with a sprint, trying to catch up with the other champions that had had a head start on him, but he quickly ran out off breath after a couple of minutes. He sighed, and resigned himself to a quick walk.
The Forbidden Forest was dark, the night air shrouded in mist. Luckily Nekozawa was well experienced seeing in the dark after years of hiding himself from the light. He allowed himself a moment to be smug; the other champions must be struggling with these conditions.
Chuuya floated above him, singing action music, breaking the deafening silence. This spurred him on even more, feeling invigorated by Chuuya’s support, and happy that Soma and Hawkeye had convinced him to do this.
Nekozawa frowned suddenly when he realised he had no idea where he was going. Sebastian had announced that he was supposed to go north to find his first marker, with the aim to reach the middle of the forest to finish the task. But which way was north? He had merely been concentrating on catching up with the others, but he may have disadvantaged himself even more by running off in a random direction.
Ahead, a patch moonlight made its way through a gap in the trees. Nekozawa approached, and looked up into the sky. He smiled. Using his astrology knowledge, he could locate the north star Polaris, so that he could find the right direction. He located the Ursa Major, of which two stars, Merak and Dubhe, acted as a pointer to Polaris. From there he realised north was to the right of him, and he set off a jog for another twenty minutes, until finally he reached the first marker.
Two silhouettes stood before Nekozawa. As he got closer, he thought recognised both, but couldn’t tell precisely who they were.
The pair was actually composed of Lelouch vi Britannia, Emperor of Britannia, and Light Yagami (COMPLETELY different lad from Light Turner). They looked startlingly similar, even to Nekozawa with his night-vision. They shared the evil smirks and the scent of blood on their hands.
They both held out identical white envelopes. “One of us is Lelouch.” They said in monotonous voices. “For the first obstacle, you have to tell us apart. In each of our envelopes, there’s a clue. Choose Lelouch to receive the right one. Choose wisely.”
Nekozawa tried to rememeber facts about the emperor that ruled the lands along – unfortunately he mostly knew of Lord Goo.
“Which one of you committed massacres?”
The pair pointed to each other silently, smirking to hide their laughter.
“Uh - which of you has strategized the deaths of many?”
Once again, they pointed to each other. They then proceeded to fist bump.
“Didn’t one of you have a sister?” They looked upon him, hiding secrets with smiles. “Which one?”
“Both,” they said unanimously.
“Then how the hell am I supposed to tell you apart, you psychos?” they smiled coldly and listlessly back at him.
“Which one of you is highschooler?”
He received the same response as he had each time prior.
“You’re both smart, good-looking, tactical, popular, psychotic.” Nekozawa considered his options for a moment.
“Weren’t one of you part of the Japan-Britannian split?”
“Remember,” the emperor drawled, “You’re not allowed to ask questions that include names of people or places.”
There was only one thing for it. Nekozawa really didn’t want to resort to this. His supply of food was limited to this singular bag, but knew he had to sacrifice it as a bribe for the sake of his challenge.
“Would you like a potato chip?” He pressed it under Lelouch’s nose, and then under Light’s.
The first good-looking, tactical specimen of male refused expressionlessly. The second however –
“I’LL TAKE THIS POTATO CHIP,” he screamed, extracting one from the bag, “AND EAATTT ITTT!!!!!!”
Nekozawa knew this was unlikely behaviour of an Emperor. He knew from Barbie’s ‘To Be A Princess Song’ that royals had to have good poise.
“Ahh!” he screamed, pointing at Lelouch, “It’s you – you’re the Emperor!”
Lelouch nodded. It may have been the least strategic method, but it appeared the young lad had figured out the difference between the pair with an uncanny resemblance.
He handed Nekozawa the envelope.
Nekozawa pulled apart the creases, revealing a sheet of paper that read ‘that way’ with an arrow.
Lelouch wordlessly took the paper and pointed it in an north-east direction.