Dante's Abyss 2008 Sign-Ups

[Bujin]

Bujin sighed.

It was more out of frustration than anything. It had been a year – a full year since he had deemed himself crazy, and a full year with little to no result as to finding out how or why it happened in the first place. He had been through a lot in that period of time…after all, there’s nothing like risking one’s own life to take someone’s mind (or lack thereof) off of things for a while. It had worked, too – until, however, the anniversary of the origin of his lunacy. His mental playground – Dante’s Abyss. The thought alone was something that made his skin crawl, but yet, somehow, he found himself standing at its gates once more.

He hated himself for being there. This marked his third time participating in something like this, and every single time, he did something that ultimately lead to his own demise. However, after all that he had gone through; after the contest had toyed with his life so many times, he knew that he had to be there. Just standing around waiting for some reason to fall out of the sky was unreasonable – Bujin was still clinging on a small hope that there was something on that God-forsaken island that would clue him in on why the voices left, and, more importantly, why they were there in the first place.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, he waited and waded through the lines until he stood up to the receptionist, who was impatiently waiting for all the slackers to sign up. However, she was reading a file and was too consumed with it to notice him. After giving an exaggerated cough, she sighed and looked up in a glare.

“Okay, okay, fine. Are you here to sign…” she said as she looked up, stringing together a temperamental inquiry until her frown turned into a confused glare. Bujin blinked, slightly taken aback by her sudden burst of confusion until he finally noticed what she had apparently noticed. They both shared an awkward eye-lock until they both opened their mouths.

“Didn’t I get you last year?” they both asked at once.

“God, you’re that creep from last year! I thought last year would have filtered out all the weird ones,” she exclaimed, putting a late hand up to her mouth to mute the impetuous comment.

“Hey, I’m not a creep!” Bujin protested. “I had…some problems last year. Problems that have been sorted out, so just sign me up already.”

“Fine. Nam--…”

“Bujin, 22, and give me a minute to show you that awesome move that I know you’re just dying to see,” the small warrior cut off the receptionist, spouting off the information that he recalled having to give last year. The woman sighed and waved him off dismissively, slumping backwards into her chair and crossing her arms in wait.

Bujin raised an arm into the air. Like always.

He created a blade out of his ki. Again, like always.

He waved it around in front of her face as if to say “See? Absolutely nothing has changed, and we’re wasting our time.”

“Just splendid,” she clicked her tongue. “Go ahead and go through the…”

“Way ahead of you,” Bujin waved at her behind his shoulder as he passed through the tele-tube.