An Assassin's Respite

Mid-terms Tournament First Round

The next day, class 1-A met in the arena. Once they entered, they could see class B there already. Now that he thought about it, it was the first time Kazuna had seen the entirety of class B. Obviously, there was Yua whose power was creation, Tanashi whose power allowed him to produce a webbing that was strong and sticky, and Chad whose power allowed him to control gravity. There was Jacques Blanchet, a boy from France that could read minds. Mineta Higurashi, a boy that could turn his skin into rock. Azumi Suzuki, a girl that could change the size of objects. Niko Yamamoto, A girl that could create greenery from the ground around her and control it. Haru Kobayashi, a boy that could speak to animals. Kenji Murakami, a boy that could change any part of his body into a part of an animal he has seen whether they're real or fictional. Tsumugi Okada, a girl that could control people with her words. Akira Hashimoto, a boy who was able to produce energy that he calls ki and use it for offensive and defensive purposes. Hitomi Ishikawa her power allowed her to increase the physical abilities of herself as well as those around her with her voice. Yamato Okada, he had the ability to control shadows but wasn't able to move through them as Masahiro could. Riku Fukuda, a boy that could manipulate the weather. Junichiro Inoue, he could take the senses of his opponent, but he can only take up to 3. That was the entirety of class B.

As they got into place next to class B, Yua was very aggressively waving at Kazuna.

"She does know that she's going to be going against you, right?" Ria asks.

"She's excited," Kazuna replies with a shrug.

"Alright, now that we're all here, I'll quickly explain how the tournament is going to work." Mr. Satouro begins.

He quickly pans over the students to make sure they're paying attention before continuing.

"This will be a double-elimination style tournament so you have to lose twice in order to be out. The matches ups will be randomly drawn and could have you facing someone from either your class or the other class. If you have a weapon of choice, you're allowed to use it. If your opponent is deemed unable to continue or surrenders, then you are the victor. In order to make sure that everyone gives it their all, we made it so that if we suspect you of not giving it your all you will receive a massive reduction from your grade. Your grade is not judged by how well you do, but by showing signs of improvement and showing that you have enough fight to be a proper special agent." Mr. Satouro explains.

The students nod in understanding so the teachers begin to draw match-ups. The match-ups were:

Kazuna vs. Yua. Matt vs. Shiba. Yamato vs. Masahiro. Emiko vs. Tsumugi. Kagura vs. Niko. Chiyo vs. Kenji. Haruna vs. Riku. Ria vs. Junichiro. Haruka vs. Mineta. Hitomi vs. Akeno. Ayame vs. Juro. Katsuro vs. Azumi. Vincent vs. Macey. Akira vs. Haru. Natsuki vs. Jacquese. Chad vs. Tanashi.

"Now that everyone has been given an opponent, we'll begin the tournament with the first match, Kazuna vs. Yua." Mr. Satouro notes.

"I'm a little sad that I have to fight you so soon," Yua says.

"Why?" Kazuna asks.

"A fated battle in the finals sounds much better for our love story," Yua says with hearts in her eyes.

"Wouldn't a loss in the first round capped off with a rematch in the finals be just as good?" Kazuna asks.

Yua freezes at the thought.

"Why are you spurring her on?" Kagura asks.

"Just trying to make sure she's completely in the fight." He replies.

"Wouldnt it be better if she weren't though?" She asks.

"For me, yes. But I want her to succeed more than I want to look good." Kazuna answers.

Kagura smiles to herself as she leaves for the stands with the other students. Kazuna and Yua stand in the center of the arena, ready for their battle.

"I'm not going to go easy on you," Yua notes.

"Neither will I," Kazuna responds as they ready themselves.

"Let the first match begin." Mr. Satouro exclaims.

Kazuna wastes no time and begins to immediately close the gap. His speed barely allowed Yua to create a weapon to counter his attack.

"I always knew he was fast, but seeing his speed in a one-on-one scenario really shows it." She notes to herself.

Kazuna pushes her back and forces her to be off-balance. He tries to capitalize, but she throws her sword at him and creates a staff to hit him away.

"You're able to create things much faster than the last time we fought." He notes.

Yua smiles at the compliment but doesn't let her guard down.

"She's really into this," Kazuna notes to himself.

He charges her and rests a  hand on his sword hilt. 'Sheathed s***h' he mutters as he releases a blindingly fast s***h. She barely manages to deflect it, but he goes for another s***h right after. She removes one hand from her staff and creates a small shield that blacks his attack. He continues his onslaught of quick attacks, forcing her to stay on the defensive. It was only a matter of time until Kazuna overwhelmed her, but before he could, a spike comes flying from her foot.

"She can create things from her feet?" He thinks in surprise to himself as he narrowly dodges the spike.

Yua drops her shield and grips her staff with both arms and swings down. Kazuna blocks it with his wrist and grand the handle with the same arm. He gathers his footing and yanks her towards his knee, knocking the wind from her. He pins her to the ground and holds his sword above her neck.

"That's the match, Kazuna is the winner." Mrs. Satouro exclaims.

Kazuna helps Yua up who was still trying to gather her breath.

"You did very well." He notes.

"Not nearly good enough." She says clearly disappointed in herself.

"The speed you can create objects with is very impressive along with how you're able to create things from various parts of your body. Also, the use of the weapons you created was exceptional. You have a lot of potential. The reason I am so far ahead is experience. Gain that and you'll quickly catch up to me." He notes.

The statement seemed to cheer her up and light a spark under her as they both went over towards the stands in order to watch the next match which was Matt vs. Shiba.

"Alright Matt, try and challenge me a little," Shiba says with confidence.

"Don't be too cocky," Matt replies.

"Let the next match begin." Mr. Satouro exclaims.

Shiba bursts forward immediately. His strategy was to overwhelm Matt with speed. Matt increases the size of his arms and slams them into the ground creating a smokescreen from the terrain. Shiba got caught in it and inhaled a mouthful of ground and began to cough. He manages to open his eyes a little and just manages to catch the instance of Matt's fist slamming into his jaw. Shiba flies from the smokescreen and was out cold.

"That concludes the second match." Mr. Satuoro states.

Shiba was carried to the rest area to lie down until he woke up. Meanwhile, Matt walks towards the stands with his chest puffed out. 

"I didn't expect that," Kagura says with a shocked look on her face.

"Yea, that strategy actually wasn't half bad," Yua notes.

"I wish your compliments weren't so two-faced." Matt cries.

"Your game plan was pretty good. Did you get the idea from something?" Kazuna asks.

"Yes! I got it from the training we did after the coalition festival when me, Kagura, and Yua had to attack you." Matt notes, happy that someone didn't give him a backhanded compliment.

"I see. Although some people may try and take away from your accomplishment since you borrowed Kagura's strategy, but being able to use past experiences to improve is an important part of growth." Kauzna notes.

Matt smiles as he proudly takes his seat next to Kazuna.

Masahiro was able to quickly overwhelm Yamato since Yamato couldn't remove his own shadow from his body. Emiko's airhead personality made Tsumigi the worst opponent for her as she was quickly taken control of and forced to surrender. Kagura gets up and heads down for her match. Her opponent Niko was a beautiful, frail, brown-haired girl. 

"I wish you good fortune in our match," Niko says with a bow.

"You too," Kagura says while returning the favor.

"Begin the next match." Mr. Satouro exclaims. 

Kagura draws her sword as tree branches begin to sprout from the ground. She dodges some while slicing through others. Niko's attack was quick and unrelenting forcing Kagura to be on the defensive from the start. Kagura sends a blast of wind towards her, but it's blocked by Niko's power. But the attack did give Kagura some space as she was now able to go on the offensive. Nico tries to stop her assault, but because she was attacking reactionarily, her attacks weren't quick enough to stop her advance. Nico quickly surrounds herself with branches to defend herself.

'Razer winds' Kagura mumbles as a blast of sharp winds tear Nico's defense to shreds, leaving her exposed. Nico puts her hands up in defeat signaling her defeat. Kagura walks to the stands and calmly takes her seat. 

"That was pretty impressive," Kazuna notes.

"Thank you." She says while trying to hide the smile that was beginning to creep onto her face.

Chiyo was able to handle Kenji pretty quickly since her ranged attacks made it difficult for him to get close. Haruna defeated Riku albeit with a little difficulty, but she wasn't really in danger of losing since Riku's power wasn't very good for one-on-one fighting. Ria was next and as she was heading from the stands, Kazuna speaks up.

"This will be the first time I get to really see you in action, so show me how far you've come." He says.

She pauses for a moment but continues walking without saying anything. Once she gets into position, Mr. Satouro starts the match.

Junichiro takes the initiative and takes away Ria's sight and hearing. Ria responds by going invisible. He listens for her footprints but doesn't hear anything. He stands in place, cautiously surveying his surroundings before a sift strike to the back of the neck knocks him out returning Ria's senses.

"Did he not take any of her senses?" Kagura questions.

"He definitely did and if I were to guess, he probably took her sight and hearing." Kazuna answers.

"Then how did she find him?" Kagura asks.

"By smell." He replies.

"That's, impressive," Kagura says astounded.

"Yes, it is." He agrees as Ria sits down next to him.

Haruka's fight was the opposite of Haruna's as she had a bad match-up against her opponent and ended up losing her match. Hitomi's speed and strength proved to be too much for AKeno to handle. Ayame was also unable to overcome Juro's power. Azumi had brought some small metal balls as weapons and when she threw them she increased their size, but Katsuro's power was a complete counter to this strat as she was able to easily stop her balls and was able to easily win the match. Macey was able to overpower Vincent since her power had a little more firepower. Akira easily beat Haru since Haru's power had zero offensive capabilities in their current situation. Jacques was able to beat Natuski by reading his mind and easily countering all of his attacks. Finally, it was the last match of the first round. Chad walked onto the field with an angry look on his face. He shot a quick glare at Kazuna before focusing back on Tanashi.

"Let the final match of the first round begin." Mr. Satouro exclaims.

Tanashi is immediately thrown to the ground under the immune gravity Chad put him under. Tanashi was forced to surrender right off the bat and Chad walked back to the stands.

"It looks like Chad is pretty upset," Yua notes.

"I wonder why," Kagura says while looking over to Kauzna.

"Don't look at me, it was the president's fault," He states.

With the first round over, The teachers allowed a short break so that everyone could recover for their next bouts. As Kazuna talked with his friends, he could feel Chad's glare focused on him.