Chapter 2 - Ceremony
"Well, I don't know about you Vince, but I'm off to find Graham. I think he needs to know that the door was locked and we couldn't get in," Sinah said looking towards the punch. "Whatever you say Sinah. I have other plans in mind anyway. So see you later than?" Vince replied. "Yeah, I suppose." Sinah walked away from his friend who was now making his way over to a girl. Typical. It occurred to Sinah that Vincent's 'other plans' usually consisted of woman.
Looking around the packed guild, Sinah made his way towards the stage. He got pushed back three times before he finally made it to the front. He spotted the equipment manager on the stage moving some equipment out of the way. "Graham!" Sinah yelled. Graham didn't seem to notice as Sinah yelled constantly towards him. Finally he got fed up and crawled onto the stage. A veteran hunter was quick to tell Sinah to get off the stage. "But I just need to tell Graham something." Sinah told the hunter. "Well, if it is really important. Than give me the message and I'll tell him for you"
"No thank you. This I guess I can wait until after the ceremony. Thank you for your time," Sinah said adding a bow of mockery. The hunter smiled and said, "You're that one trainee who blew up the training lab aren't you?" Sinah looked at the hunter. That wasn't Sinah. That was someone else. "I thought I recognized you! HAHA! And here they are letting you graduate." Sinah began feeling anger towards this hunter. "Man, I tell you. The Guild must be getting desperate if they are letting people like you graduate. HAHAHA!"
Sinah clenched his fist. If he were a bit closer and nobody was around, I'd pop him in the face right away, Sinah thought to himself, Just wait hunter, I'll get you later. "Look, I really must be going now. I guess I'll see you around." With that, Sinah gave another bow of mockery than made his way through the crowd.
Sinah came up around to the other side of the stage near the back, it was an advance tactic he learned from another hunter. To the left there was a hunter approx. 10 meters from where Sinah was. To the right it was about 4 meters but his head was turned the other way. He would have to time this right if he were to get on stage. Sinah, you sure are stupid. If you get caught there is sure to be some major consequences. Sinah sighed, "Could be worse right?"
Sinah saw an opening. He went for it. He was quick to jump on stage and run behind some stereo equipment. He stayed to the shadows as he peered around the corner. Nobody saw him. Moving from one object to the next, Sinah made his way across the stage. He made it to where Graham was... almost. There lay one more obstacle, that hunter that stopped Sinah before.
letting out a small sigh, Sinah advanced to the next object. Crouching behind it, Sinah looked behind. there was about 7 more meters to Graham, and 3 more to that hunter. "Screw it," Sinah mumbled. He made a break for it. He managed to get past the hunter but soon was pursued. "Graham!" Sinah yelled. "Oh! Advance. How nice to see-" Graham was cut off as the hunter tackled Sinah.
"I told you before! Get off the stage! What part don't you understand?" The hunter said to Sinah as he pinned him down. "The part I don't understand," Sinah began, "Is the part why you are such a jack---" With that Sinah freed an arm and hit the hunter square in the lower section of their body. The hunter rolled off Sinah and doubled over. The hunters face started to look a bit pale. Finally, the hunter hurled.
"You have some explaining to do Advance." Graham said. Sinah gave a weak smile and said, "Just came to tell you personally that the door was locked and I failed to bring the equipment over." Graham looked at Sinah with a certain curiosity, "So you snuck on stage, and hit a fellow hunter hard enough to make them hurl?" Sinah nodded, "They had it coming to them. Plus, everyone knows a good hunter reports the status of a mission back to the guild regardless of the situation. And you are the one representing the guild for this mission you gave me."
Graham shook his head, "A good hunter waits until he is finished being briefed and has all his equipment as well Advance. Which you and Reagon did not. Oh well, not much we can do about it now. I'm just glad I remembered I put the sound equipment in the guild storage room yesterday after you guys left." Sinah looked at Graham, "So it was a pointless mission than?" Graham laughed and slapped Sinah across the back, sending him forward a bit. "No mission is pointless Sinah, just consider this mission as training in stealth and battle."
Sinah nodded. "Take your seat Advance. The ceremony will start in five minutes or so." Sinah nodded again. With that Sinah got off the stage. He looked around.
Looking around, Sinah saw a variety of people in the crowd. A thought crossed him. He was too excited to find a date. Moaning a bit, Sinah forced his way over to the punch. He scanned the crowd looking for some eye takers. He saw three that caught his eye in particular.
The first one was named Madison, a blonde girl who is generally uptight and prissy. She always seemed to eye Sinah. Then there was Nikki, a violet haired trainee who is eager for almost anything. She always seemed to ignore Sinah. Sinah didn’t know the other girls name, but her face is a new one and she was really pretty.
Sinah gathered up all his courage. He never really asked girls out that much. In fact, this was only his third time. The previous two times he was rejected harshly. But, that is besides the point. He looked to the girl who was walking through the crowd. He was deciding how he should make his approach. Screw it, he thought, I'll just go with it. Looking her over he noticed she wore a light blue vest over a purple long sleeve. She wore dark purple pants which seemed to fit quite snug against her legs, making the curves of her body more visible.
He walked up to her and got her attention, with a closer look, he noticed she was rather young to even be allowed in the guild. But it was a special event and rules like that didn't really matter too much. "Hi, my name is Sinah. I am a trainee here and am graduating and-" "So you're graduating with my brother than?" Her brother? "If you don't mind me asking, who is your brother?" Sinah questioned. "My brother?" the girl said, "Why, here he comes right now. You can see for yourself."
"Huh?" Sinah was slapped across the back, "Nice to see you met my sister Charlotte, Sinah." It was Vincent. "Wait? This is your genius sister Vince? The one that made into the Motavian Academy in Piata despite herself being too young?" Vincent nodded, "Yup. That's the one!"
"Oh, so you too know each other?" Charlotte said. "Well yeah, this is Sinah sis. I suppose you haven't seen him since you were four. So I can see why you can't recognize him." Vincent replied. Charlotte looked Sinah over. "I remember now! I used to really like you!" Without thinking, Sinah replied, "And, you don't now?" Charlotte just smiled and Vincent laughed. Sinah felt kind of stupid at that moment. So he just laughed with Vincent. "Come on Charlotte, mom found you a seat, second row. Dad is there too so you can see him." Charlotte nodded, "Nice meeting you Sinah." With that said, Charlotte left for a seat.
"How long has it been since you last seen your sister Vince?" Sinah questioned. "Ten years, after my mom and dad split. They each took one of us. My sister proceeded to study at the Motavian Acadamy while I proceeded to become a hunter." Sinah nodded, "You know you told me more than is needed right?" Vincent laughed, "Come on, let's go take our seat."
Sinah replied, "Well actually I was-" "Don't worry," Vincent began, "I was thinking of you when I went and got myself a date. I got you one too!"
"No thanks Vince. I got some other plans," Sinah told his friend. Vincent looked at Sinah, "You know Sinah, sometimes I wonder if you are straight or not." "And I sometimes wonder if you got herpes from getting around so much," Sinah replied. "Now that was mean Sinah. Look, I'll see you after the show and we can finish our little 'discussion' that we are having here. I'll just have to go tell your date that you aren't coming. See yah Sinah." "Yeah, later," Sinah said as Vincent walked away.
A minute and a half remained and most of the seats were taken. He spotted two seats which were quickly taken by the passing crowd. "Great. Just great," Sinah said to himself. He would have to stand now. He walked over to a nearby wall and leaned against it. Thirty seconds remained.
A grin came on Sinah's face. This wasn't so bad, despite not getting a seat, date, or punch, he was happy. The time had come. Five, four, three, two, one. The lights went out. A spotlight went to the stage and went onto a tall man with a great muscular build. The man seemed to be in his mid 40's and had scars all over his face.
"Ladies and Gentleman," The man said, "For those of you who don't know who I am, my name is Jeriah. I am the guildmaster here at the Hunter's Guild. We are gathered here today to celebrate a wonderful day for those individuals who gave it their best, trained hard both mentally and physically, and shown loyalty to the people." The man kept talking. And talking. And talking. thirty minutes past and Sinah's legs were beginning to get sore. Finally he heard, "And now, may our new hunter graduates make their way to the stage as I call them by name."
Sinah was so happy, he looked around and was relieved to see many of the other graduates were just as eager as he. "Ben Abeardly," a figure made his way to the stage, shaking the guildmasters hand and recieving a certificate, and a card. "Sinah Advance," Sinah pushed his way through the crowd. He made his way to the stage and had a huge grin on his face. He shook the guildmasters hand and was given a certificate, and a card himself.
Seven more names were called before Sinah heard, "Vincent Reagon." Vincent made his way to the stage, looking as smooth as usual. He almost seemed to float in the air as he made his way to the guildmaster. Sinah grinned at his friend as he stood on stage. Four more names were called before the guildmaster continued on.
"I would like to congratulate this years Hunters Graduation Ceremony on behalf of myself, Aiedo, and all of Motavia. The card that I have given each of you has a picture of a weapon on it. That is the area that we see fit for you, and we wish that you believe in our selection. Of course, you can change which weapon you like but that will also change your instructor. We will call you up one by one and ask you to speak into the microphone about which weapon you choose to pursue in your career as a hunter to help enrich the lives of others. According to your decision we will find a veteran hunter to help teach you. I will now ask that Ben Abeardly make his decision."
Ben made his way to the microphone, he looked at his card and revealed it to the crowd, "I would like to say that I agree with the guilds decision in training me in the art of the axe." The crowd cheered. Jeriah made his way back to the microphone. "I will now ask that Sinah Advance make his decision." Sinah made his way to the stand.
He looked at his card, it had a picture of a claw on it. "My name is Sinah," Sinah faced his card towards the crowd, "and my decision is not to listen to the guild and use knives." The crowd clapped as Sinah went to stand beside Ben. "Knives huh," Ben whispered, "You must feel either really insecure by using some the default weapon everyone is trained in. Or you're just really good with knives." Sinah smiled, "Actually, I was hoping people would be shocked by the fact that I could defeat you in a spar. That is, unless you're too scared to get defeated by an "insecure" hunter." Ben just smiled as he said, "I accept you're challenge. When shall we proceed?"
"Let's do this at noon tomorrow, after lunch," Sinah replied to Ben. "It's settled then. We will fight at a place of my choosing since you chose the time. We will fight each other a few miles west of Aiedo. Where there is a tree shaped like an X." Sinah nodded, "I will now ask that Vincent Reagon make his way to the stage." Vincent made his way to the stage. He disagreed with the guild's decision of using slashers and instead said he wanted to use a sword.
Minutes seemed to pass and the crowd seemed to grow most anxious, finally they heard the last name, "Nikki Yumizaki please make her way to the stage with her decision." Nikki chose the claw. The guild master made his way to the stage. "I would now like to thank and congratulate this years graduates and hope they do good for all of Motavia by helping enrich the lives of others. At this time I would ask the graduates go into the backroom so I can assign them a partner. There is some punch and cake at the back. I hope you have a good night and enjoy yourselves."
The graduates made their way to the back room. Sinah caught up with Vincent and the two walked together to the back room. When they arrived the guildmaster announced, "I will assign each of you a partner. Keep in mind that not everyone here is a hunter, but are trusted by one of our most trustworthy hunter's, Chaz Ashley. So I would like to introduce our special guests, Hahn Mahlay, a professor at the Motavian Acadamy. Rika, a graduate from last year. And Gryz, a native of this planet."
Everybody began to get assigned. Vincent wound up getting Chaz, Sinah was with Hahn, Nikki and Rika got stuck together, and Ben and Gryz were put together. Everyone was dismissed and went back to the stageroom.
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