An Assassin's Respite

The Day Before the Coalition Festival

The next day, Kazuna enters the training grounds that he and Kagura were in yesterday. He sees Kagura already there and meditating in the center of the field. He approaches her and taps her on the shoulder which startles her.

"Oh, it's just you Kazuna." She says relieved.

"It seems you're able to cancel all the outside noise and thoughts while meditating. Now let's see if you can translate that level of concentration to a fight." Kazuna says.

"Right." Kagura says with a nod. She grabs her sword and gets into her stance. Kazuna follows suit and stands a few feet away from her.

"Here I come." He warns.

"Right." She says.

Kazuna dashes towards Kagura and attacks her with a fury of blows. "Good, she's doing much better than yesterday, although I can tell that she's not used to this change in fighting style. Let's see if she can handle a little increase in speed." Kazuna notes to himself as his attacks increase in speed. Even with the increased speed of his attacks, Kagura is still able to defend herself properly. Kazuna suddenly stops attacking and sheathes his sword.

"Excellent. You've improved even more than I thought you would." Kazuna states impressed. Kagura's eyes light up and she jumps in glee.

"Don't get too excited. The hard part is yet to come." Kazuna states.

"Eh?" She responds in confusion.

"The next part of your training won't be something I can teach you but something that will come with experience." He states.

"What does that mean?" Kagura asks.

"The next part of your training will be your body getting used to attacking using your instincts and learning what feels best." Kazuna explains.

"How do I do that?" She asks.

"By fighting your body will start to learn and adapt on its own. In any case, I will not be able to help you with this at the moment." Kazuna states.

"But why?" She asks in disappointment.

"Because starting tomorrow me and you will be rivals. We'll both be aiming for the top. It wouldn't be good for you if I knew all of your moves." Kazuna points out.

"Oh, right." Kagura says with a somewhat sad look in her eyes.

Kazuna pats her on her head. "I look forward to you showing me something new in the tournament." He says.

A smile starts to spread across Kagura's face. "Right." She exclaims.

The two end their training early and head home, eager for the days to come.

The next day the students of GA were all standing in front of the school waiting to get on buses to head to the Coalition Festival. The competition was held at Coalition headquarters every year. Hotels were provided by the Coalition as the competition would last a few days. 

Ms. Saugoma addresses the students on the bus. “You all have trained and studied extremely hard and I couldn't be more proud of you all. Make sure you bring home the trophy for the second years.” 

The students cheer in response.

 “Oh, so we’re only going to be competing against other second years?” Kazuna asks.

 “Yes.” Replied Kagura who was sitting across the aisle from Kazuna. “I’m not sure about the first years, but I’m confident that the third years will win 1st so we have to do our part and win.” Kagura finishes.

After driving for a couple of hours, they arrive at Coalition headquarters. It was an enormous building that seemed to touch the clouds and the architecture was out of this world. There were buses from other schools here as well. They start heading towards their hotel which was a large luxurious building. 

Matt scoots closer to Kazuna with a thin smile. “This is a perfect chance.” Matt whispers.

 “What do you mean?” Kazuna asks. 

“Guys and girls sleeping in the same building only separated by floors. I can practically hear the temptation to go peak.” Matt explains while rubbing his hands together.

They enter the hotel and head to their rooms. People had already picked their roommates. There were four to a room and in Kazuna’s room was Matt, Natsuki, Shiba, and of course himself. The four of them enter the room and begin unpacking their stuff and claiming beds when there was a knock at their door. Kazuna opens the door and is faced with Kagura, Emiko, Akeno, Ayame, Chiyo, and Haruna.

 “May we come in?” Asked Kagura. 

“Sure.” Kazuna answers while moving to the side to give them room to walk in. 

Matt begins to cry and thinks to himself. “I really did choose the right guy to be friends with.” 

“So what brings you all here.” Kazuna asked. 

“We wanted to know if you all wanted to head towards the field at the back of the hotel?” Emiko explains. 

Matt jumps up excitedly. “Definitely.” He exclaims. 

“I’m in.” Shiba says.

 “Sounds fun.” Natsuki adds. 

“Might as well.” Kazuna states.

 “Awesome.” Emiko exclaims. “We’ll meet you there.” She says as the girls leave. 

Matt lets out an excited shriek. “What’s wrong with you?” Kazuna asks confused. 

“First, girls come to my room of their own free will and then they invite me somewhere.” Matt states as he wipes tears from his eyes.”I’m just so happy.” Matt says as he finishes wiping his tears. Kazuna shrugs and grabs his swords.

The boys enter the field and see their classmates there. The girls are standing by one of the fields. As they walk towards the field Kazuna notices some people in another field. 

“Who are they?” He asks as they stop in front of their classmates.

“Most likely another school. There are only two hotels in this area and four schools participating so there are always two schools per hotel.” Akeno answers. 

"So what are we doing here anyway." Kazuna asks.

"For training of course." Kagura says.

"Eh, thought as much." Kazuna says.

"The first time a girl walks into my room and it's to invite me to train." Matt whines to himself.

One of the students from the other school approaches them. She’s a short girl with long red hair tied into pigtails and piercing crimson eyes.

“So, you guys are GA.” She states. 

“Yeah.” Kazuna answers. 

“Hmm… You guys don’t look all that impressive.” The girls states in a matter of fact manner after looking them up and down.

“Just you listen here flat chest.” Matt begins. 

The girl blushes angrily as she places her hands on her chest. “F-F-F-FLAT?” she stutters. 

“You’re one to talk about not looking very impressive you’re not robust at all.” Matt continues. 

“What does that even mean?” The girl demands. 

“Robust, full, thick thighed, large breasted, round butt. You’re not robust at all.” Matt answers. The girl takes a step back clearly offended.

“Anyways, you clearly don’t have good eyes if you think none of us are impressive when standing next to me is-” Kazuna places his hand on Matt’s shoulder. 

“Why don’t we just cool down all right.” Kazuna says in a friendly tone. Kazuna suddenly feels someone with a strong presence. His eyes shift to a new student that appeared behind the girl. 

“Now, now Mia let’s not start any fights.” he says calmly. The new guy was tall and muscular he had sandy blonde hair and sharp blue eyes. He was very handsome, to say the least. 

“But… “ Mia starts. The new guy places a hand on her shoulder.

“Mia.” The boy edges. 

“Fine.” Mia complies reluctantly. “But this isn’t over.” She says as she heads back to her class. 

“Sorry about that she can be a little arrogant and hot-headed.” he explains.

“No problem, my friend was out of line as well.” Kazuna assures him. 

“Well until we meet again.” The boy says. And with that, he also heads back to his class. 

“Hey. That was the guy that won the one-on-one tournament last year wasn’t it?” Kazuna asks. 

“Yes. His name is Usagi Saburo.” Akeno answers. 

Kazuna’s eyes narrow. “He’ll definitely be a problem.”

"R-Really!?" Emiko exasperates.

"Isn't it too early to say something like that? I mean, you haven't seen him fight before have you?" Matt asks.

"Nope, but I can just tell." Kazuna says.

"Wait, you didn't watch the tournament from last year like Ayanami told you." Kagura says with a glare.

"It seemed like a bother so I didn't." Kazuna says.

Kagura places a hand over her face. "Anyways, do you think you can win." She asks.

"Honestly, I'd say it's a coin toss. It could go either way. In any case, I'll be skipping this little training session." Kazuna says as he starts to leave.

"Wait, if you aren't sure if you'll win, shouldn't you stay for the training." Kagura says.

"He probably doesn't want to reveal his fighting style or power to Usagi just yet." Akeno points out.

"Huh, guess it can't be helped. All right then guys, let's train as hard as we can so that we can help Kazuna as much as we can." Kagura exclaims drawing cheers from her classmates. With that, the students of class 1-A begin their training on the field while Kazuna spent his time meditating in his room in preparation for the events to come.