An Assassin's Respite

The Quarter and Semi-Finals Begin

Goro charges Kazuna. Kazuna is just standing there calmly analyzing him. Goro lifts his right hand and needles shoot out of his hand. Kazuna ducks and rolls to the right, dodging the attack. He places his hand on his sword and prepares his attack. 

“Stream.” He whispers as lightning surges from his body. He rushes Goro before he can even blink and hits Goro so hard with the hilt of his sword that he is sent flying off the edge of the stage. The match is over in an instant and the crowd erupts with cheering. 

“And as expected, Kazuna swiftly wins his match, moving on to the semi-finals!” The announcer exclaims. Kazuna walks off stage and heads to the stands to watch the other matches with his classmates.

Halfway through the hall out of the arena Kazuna notices someone standing on the left side of the hall. Kazuna approaches them cautiously. He recognizes the person to be Yuu. He stops in front of him. 

“What do you want with me?” He asks without looking at him. Yuu glares at him. 

“Just wanted to let you know that I don’t agree with the principal's decision in letting you be a student at GA. You’re way too dangerous.” Yuu states. 

Kazuna turns his head and looks at Yuu with a cold look in his eyes. “I honestly don’t care what you think. I know that I don’t deserve this type of life and that it would be better for everyone if I just went back to my old life.” Kazuna clenches his fists. “But… But I want to use my strength to help people instead of hurting them. That’s how I’ll atone for my sins.” He says with a determined look in his eyes. 

Yuu’s eyes narrow and he stands up straight. “Do you really think you can call those kids your friends? What do they know about you besides your name? If they knew the first thing about you could you say you still had friends?” Yuu snaps. 

Kazuna looks at the floor and grits his teeth. “That’s why… That’s why I’m trying to enjoy this life, even if it burns away in front of my eyes one day.” He states. He slides his hands into his pocket and storms away. Yuu watches him for a little while before leaving himself.

Kazuna reaches his classmates and is greeted by Kagura. “Hey, Kaz-... what’s wrong.” He hadn’t realized it, but he still had an angry look on his face. He fixed his expression before answering.

 “Nothing, just deep in thought.” He takes a seat next to Matt. 

“Nice job, you destroyed that guy.” Matt states. 

“Yeah, that was super cool.” Emiko exclaims. 

“I didn’t know you could move that fast.” Shiba adds. 

Kazuna just smiled slightly as he rubs the back of his head. “So, Haruna will be fighting the Mia girl from WA huh.” He says, trying to change the subject. 

“Yeah, her power allows her to produce fire so Haruna is at a disadvantage.” Akeno states. 

“She’ll have to fight with strategy over strength.” Kazuna adds.

Mia and Haruna enter the arena and walked onto the stage. “On the left side is the girl who’ll give you chills. The ice queen Haruna!! And on the right side is the girl with a hot temper and even hotter attacks, Mia!!” The crowd cheers loudly. 

"What's with these descriptions of the fighters?" Kazuna asks himself.

“You might as well give up now, there’s no way you can possibly beat me.” Mia states confidently. 

“We’ll see about that.” Haruna replies. 

“Now, Let the match… BEGIN!!” Mia starts off by releasing a wave of flames. Haruna counters by creating multiple layers of ice walls. Mia’s fire crashes into Haruna’s ice wall creating a blinding cloud of steam. “This fight starts off strong with both fighters firing off powerful attacks.” The announcer says. 

“I can’t see anything with all this steam.” Mia says angrily.

“I see.” Kazuna states. 

“Well, I can’t see anything.” Emiko remarks. 

“That’s not what I mean. I can see what Haruna is planning.” He clarifies. 

“What’s that?” Emiko asks. 

“It’s simple really. She’s planning on attacking while her opponent can’t see. The steam will provide cover for Haruna and her attacks but Mia’s attacks will serve as a signal to where she is. She’s also abusing her opponent's tendency to lose her temper making her act recklessly.” Kazuna explains. 

“That seems complicated.” Emiko complains. 

“It’s brilliant.” Akeno adds.

Mia starts blasting fire randomly hoping to hit something. “Come and fight me, coward.” She shouts. 

Suddenly, she’s hit from behind with an ice attack. The heat that she was surrounding her body with weakened the attack but she still felt it. 

“AHHH… Dammit, where are you!?” She shouts while blasting fire in the direction where the attack came from. Another attack comes from her right, then left, then right in front of her. “DAMMIT!!” Mia shouts. 

“The steam has finally begun to clear. Now let’s see what’s happening.” The announcer says as the fog clears and everyone can finally see what’s happening. “I can’t believe my eyes.” The announcer exclaimed surprised.

There was a circle of ice around the inside of the arena with Mia acting as the epicenter. Haruna was using the ice rink to move faster, hit Mia from different angles, and dodge her attacks. Mia was standing at the center of the stage beaten up and standing shakily while Haruna didn’t even have a scratch on her.

“Why you.” Mia growls. 

“Now what was that about me not standing a chance?” Haruna teases. Mia raises her arm preparing for an attack but Haruna was too fast. Spikes of ice raced towards Mia and struck her with extreme force. Mia collapses and is rendered unconscious. 

“Mia is down and the winner is Haruna from GA!!” The crowd explodes into cheering and Haruna walks off stage.

“She’s gotten pretty strong. She’s even using her power in strategic ways now instead of just trying to overpower her opponents.” Kazuna notes to himself. He smiles slightly at the idea that his advice managed to help her. Haruna is greeted by her cheering classmates as she entered their box. 

“Nice Haruna.” Chiyo exclaims as she gives Haruna a high five. 

“Yeah, that fight was epic.” Emiko says cheerfully. 

“Your strategy was solid.” Akeno adds. 

“Yes, you were very impressive.” Kazuna states. 

“You’ll be facing Kazuna in the semi’s right?” Kagura asks. 

“Yeah.” Haruna answers with a nod. She looks over at Kazuna who was sitting as calmly as ever. 

“I won’t lose.” She says with defiance. 

“And I won’t hold back.” He says in response while looking her way. They stare at each other with competitive looks in their eyes. 

The next matches of the quarter-finals were pretty boring matches. The fight between Daisuke and Hikaru was a snore and Emiko, much like Shiba didn’t stand a chance against Usagi. The students of class 1-A from GA were comforting Emiko after her devastating loss when Mia from WA approached them. 

“Well if it isn’t the monkeys of GA.” Mia says snarkily. 

“Oh if it isn’t the flat-chested pipsqueak.” Matt snaps back. 

“Still rude as ever I see.” Mia replies. 

“I could say the same to you.” Matt snaps back.

Kazuna approaches them. “So what brings you here Mia?” Kazuna asks hoping to relieve the tension a bit. Mia turns her attention to Kazuna. 

“Well… I thought that I would grace you all with my congratulations for having two students from GA make it to the Semifinals.” She answers. 

“Oh well thank you very much, Mia.” Kazuna says, thankful that he managed to change her attitude. 

“You did pretty well in both of your fights as well.” Kazuna states. The comment makes Mia blush. 

“What do you mean, I lost my fight to that ice girl in such an embarrassing manner.” She replies slightly irritated. 

“You only lost because you lost your cool. I think that match could have been yours if you just kept a level head.” Kazuna says attempting to comfort Mia. Mia blushes harder turning her face bright red. 

“Y-You’re just trying to make me feel better.” Mia manages. 

“No really. I thought you had the advantage going into the fight.” He assures her. 

“As much as I hate to admit it that’s what Kazuna said and he typically isn’t wrong about these things.” Matt says while rolling his eyes.

Kazuna notices a smile brush across Mia’s face but she quickly gets rid of it. “Well, I’ll allow you that compliment. So in return, I’ll give you some advice. Give up, there’s no way you can hope to beat Usagi.” Mia says. 

“And what do you know about my strength for you to make that statement?” He asks. Mia lets out a small squeak. 

"Well, anyway just don’t get your hopes up.” Mia finishes and walks away. 

“Uhhh, what’s with that girl?” Matt says annoyed. 

“She’s not a bad person. She's just bad at conveying how she really feels.” Kazuna insists. 

“Huh?” Matt asks unsure. 

“Her whole purpose of coming here was to congratulate us. It’s just that she got nervous when she got here.” Kazuna explains. 

“Whatever you say.” Matt says unconvinced. 

The semi-finals have begun and Kazuna and Haruna are both standing on the stage in the stadium. 

“Prepare yourself Kazuna. This fight won’t be as easy as your last.” Haruna assures Kazuna. 

“I hope nope not or I might seem like a bad teacher.” He replies. 

“Now for the first match of the semi-finals, on the left side, we have the dominant swordsman Kazuna who has quickly become a crowd favorite!!! And on the right side, we have the queen of ice Haruna who has frozen our hearts over!!!” The crowd rocks the stadium with cheering. “Let the match… BEGIN!!!” 

Haruna starts off by layering the stage with ice. 

“Trying to slow my movements huh.” Kazuna states. 

“I can’t keep up with you in speed or hand to hand combat. So I’ll slow you down and keep you at a distance.” Haruna answers.

“Not a bad plan. But I can attack from a distance as well.” He says as he raises his arm. Lighting shoots from his hand and heads towards Haruna. Haruna quickly puts up a wall to block the attack. She puts down her wall to see that Kazuna has disappeared. She searches frantically for him before looking up and seeing him high in the sky. 

“Kazuna has launched himself into the air!” The announcer comments. 

“He must have used that attack as a diversion so he could close the distance.” Haruna says to herself. She blasts ice at Kazuna only to have it diced by him. 

“I’m not done yet.” Haruna exclaims. She creates a geyser of ice that she has continuously spew ice. 

At that moment, just before her attack connected, time slowed down. She saw Kazuna pull his sheathed blade from his side and used it to push himself just to the right of her attack.

“He really is ridiculous” Haruna notes while sweating profusely. Kazuna reaches just above Haruna and prepares a strike. 

His sword comes in contact with an ice wall Haruna created to block the attack. He slices clean through the ice, and a lightning bolt strikes Haruna. He sheaths his sword and Haruna falls to the ground unconscious. 

“And Kazuna is the first fighter to move on to the finals!!” The announcer exclaims. The crowd cheers excitedly. Kazuna walks out of the arena and starts to head towards his room. On the way there, he runs into Kagura in the hallway of the arena.

"Congrats on making it to the finals." Kagura says.

"Thanks." Kazuna replies.

"Are you not going to watch Usagi's match." She asks.

Kazuna shakes his head. "There's no point. The match will be over in an instant so I won't be able to gather any useful information." He states.

"So what will you do instead?" Kagura asks.

"Meditate. I want to test strategies in my head and see what I should do and try out." He answers.

"Well good luck with that. We're all rooting for you." Kagura states.

"Right." He replies and he continues to head to his room.

Later, just as Kazuna had said, Usagi won his fight in an instant, setting up the long-awaited final match of Kazuna vs. Usagi.