For a moment all was silent as Zaril'n's words needed time to be processed. After a few seconds the participants and few of the judges burst into a laughter full of mockery.
"Let the fight continue, it's not every day I get to see someone suicidal!" A young male voice cheered happily from the judge's area. His appearance seemed far too young among his companions.
"What? No, we shall have him forfeit. We can't have a boy with no Divine gift partake in this competition. He doesn't even seem to be blessed in Divine martial arts. It's obvious he's just a desperate orphan," the man explained seriously.
"Haha, I know right," the young male judge clapped as if he had heard a whole different explanation.
"This is a waste of time," the other judge added.
"I said let him continue," the younger judge repeated, his voice carrying a low rumble soundings serious and final.
The older judge gritted his teeth and took his seat. Aizen seeing that the younger judge's words were final had the match continued.
"He doesn't look entirely useless, he seem to possess minor physical attributes. It's obvious he moves and even jumps higher than the average human. So, it could be he has some talent. But he still does look pathetic," a woman voiced smoothly, almost as if she was talking to herself, but to have others hear.
The others nodded in note seeing that she was right.
Harris who was intrigued with his savior watched closely. He was shocked when the boy admitted he possessed no divine gift. He found it worrisome as to how he would defeat someone who possessed the ability to. Harris had hoped they both would get into the academy and they would become friends, but he doubted his savior would go far.
The match continued and Zaril'n did his best fed off his attacker, but being someone with no Divine gift he was practically useless, everyone watched finding the match a waste of time and somewhat unfair.
Finally, after three minutes James successfully got his opponent between his fingers. Zaril'n was beaten, bruised and breathing heavily.
"This is pointless, you'll never achieve anything this way," James said panting through his nostrils as he did his best not to show that he too was very tired.
James had his opponent chest gripped within his hands. The boy's head was bent back and James could see he was exhausted. Zaril'n heard the boy's muffled voice as he was very exhausted. Zaril'n couldn't help the thought, but wonder why did everyone think he wouldn't succeed.
After all he was a human now.
"Get that off the stage already!"
"Exactly! It's practically useless having someone like him fight!"
"Get the boy off the stage!" many of the onlookers roared as they had grown frustrated watching a very predictable fight.
The wind was cool and the air was light and fresh, and the atmosphere joyous and gentle. Xavier could hear the bird and the sound of the children laughing while they played and worked.
"Hey Xavier! I bet brother Zaris is fighting about now," a little girl said happily.
"Brother? When did he become brother?" Xavier asked as he had never heard them call Zaril'n brother before.
"When you left to take him to the academy we decided to call him brother Zaris,"
"Yeah. He's older than us and he's the first to go to the academy," added another.
"We want to be like Zaril'n and go to the academy,"
The children kept appearing one after the other and interjected themselves into the conversation. Xavier could only wonder if they would think the same if they knew he was a demon, maybe he should tell them the truth as of now so it wouldn't be as hard when they find out later. But seeing their face filled with admiration Xavier was reluctant on telling the truth.
They saw that Xavier had drifted into a world of thoughts and the children too got quiet as they thought he was problem jealous of Zaris or maybe he was sad because he had decided to stay and look after them.
They felt their little hearts shifting uncomfortably within their chest as they wondered if they were holding Xavier back.
"Brother Zaril'n might be cool, but Xavier is still my favorite," Alex said proudly. With his cheerful tone he brought Xavier back to and chased the other children mushy doubts away.
"Yeah, I want to be like big brother Xavier too," exclaimed another as she wrapped her arms around Xavier's leg.
They all joined in saying "me too" and hugged Xavier's leg until he became unbalanced and fell onto the vibrant green soft grass. They all chuckled.
"You know Xavier, if you want you could go to the Academy. I'm sure if you go now you could get in. We could take care of over selves," a little boy suggested.
"And we have Father too," another added.
The other children agreed. They even told Xavier they had a few shells that they were saving and they could help him.
Xavier was quiet for the first few seconds before breaking into a laughter. He opened his arms as wide as he could and tried hugging them all. He patted their heads as he stood up and told them not to worry.
"I'm never going to leave until you all leave first," Xavier said looking at the children happily.
'And I'll never leave you all with Father,'
"Anyways, it's snack time and I made blue berry bread," Xavier announced as he moved to the Tabun to remove the now freshly baked breads.
Everyone was handed a loaf of bread which had steam dancing from it, the children thanked Xavier and started stuffing their cheeks.
"By the way, do you think brother Zaris will get in?" Emis questioned filling her mouth at the same time.
"No," Xavier answered easily.
"Ha, that might be so as I've never seen brother Zaril'n use any Divine gifts before," Alex replied as he took jammed his healthy, white teeth into his bread and started chewing.
Emis flashed him an annoyed looks with her eyebrows into a knot, she held her tongue and continued eating. Xavier didn't care whether Zaril'n got in the Academy or not as it was not of his concern, he was simply satisfied with removing a demon from the children. He feared the little demon would revealed his true self someday, but Xavier always doubted his hypothesis as he thought Zaril'n was an odd and very stupid demon.
'You better get into that academy moron,' Xavier secretly prayed.
The onlookers watched annoyed seeing a useless, talentless boy fight one who obviously had a Divine gift. Seeing that the boy was tired and slow they chanted a shout for him to get off the stage. Soon they began throwing the food they had to have the boy feel discourage and in which he would then leave. But that proved useless.
When Zaril'n was caught his appearance looked completely drained. The crowd cursed and threw hurtful remarks. They called him useless and told him he didn't belong, even with the addition of him never going to make it and he showed quit and stop giving peasants and orphans an even worse appearance.
James held his opponent ready to deliver the final blow. Despite being extremely tired Zaril'n heard them all and felt as they threw food at him. Because of that the arena had a faint sweet aroma to it.
"It doesn't matter what no one says," Zaril'n started to mutter.
"I'm going to the academy- and I'm going to be just like my mister,"
"I'm going to travel the world, get strong, rescue my mister from hell and-"