An Assassin's Respite

Touring GA

Kazuna had been under surveillance for a little over a week now and had somewhat gotten used to it. Ms. Saugoma had walked in and was about to start class. 

"As you all know, we will be having students from BA come here today in order to tour the school. Our class was chosen as the one that they will watch train. Don't bother asking what type of training it'll be, it's a secret." She says garnering sighs from the class.

"This sounds annoying." Ria groans.

"Don't say that, I"m sure Kari is excited to see you train." He says. 

Ria blushes and turns her head away from him.

Meanwhile, Kari was gathering her things for the trip. She finished packing her lunch and headed for her bus with Sakura.

"I can't believe we're going to get the chance to tour the best special agent school in the world!" Sakura exclaims.

"It is exciting, but I'm more excited to see what kind of training Mr. Kazuna does," Kari says.

"Normally I think that you talk about Kazuna too much, but today is different. I'm excited to see just how strong he is." Sakura says.

After a brief bus ride, they arrive at the gates of GA. Once they get off of their buses, they can see Ayanami and Kai waiting for them at the front gate.

"Welcome students of BA to Galestrom Academy or GA. I am Ayanami, the student council president and this is Kai, my vice president. We will be acting as your tour guides for today." She says with a curtsey.

"So polite. I am Ms. Takahashi and we are grateful for the aid." She responds.

With introductions out of the way, the students began their tour. Once they walked through the front entrance, they were in awe of what they saw. There were multiple buildings around the campus and between them were well-kept patches of grass that acted as places where students could eat, study or gather. The main school building itself was impressive in its own right. The building was massive and very well kept. They toured the surrounding buildings before entering the main school building where they met up with Akihiro.

"It's nice to meet you all. I am Akihiro the head of the disciplinary committee. My job is to make sure that the students are following the school rules as well as handling any altercations between students." She says.

As they continued the tour through the school, Akihiro explained a bit about how the rules worked. They had toured about half the school before they stopped at the cafeteria for their lunch break. 

"What do you think so far?" Ayanami asks Kari and Sakura.

"The campus is so beautiful." She replies 

"This place is huge, I'd probably get lost," Sakura notes.

"It is quite big," Ayanami says with a chuckle.

She talked with some of the other students a bit before class 1-A walks into the cafeteria.

"Now that you all have eaten, why don't we head to the arena to watch some training?" Ms. Takahashi asks.

The students reply with some excited chatter and are led to the arena.

"Hello, my name is Ms. Saugoma and I'm the teacher of class 1-A. It's good that I was able to meet you all since there's a good chance that I could be teaching you all once you come to GA. Now, are you all ready to watch what the future of special agents looks like?" She says.

The students cheer before being silenced by their teacher.

"Now, I haven't told my students what type of training they'd be doing so I could surprise them and so that they couldn't prepare for it. And today they'll be doing a free for all." She states.

Once again, the students burst out in excited chatter. 

"Are you sure you don't want to do something that shows off how they've trained to take down special agents?" Ms. Takahashi asks.

"They're still young so they won't truly appreciate the training in those scenarios and there's nothing to grab their attention than a free for all. Also, this is one of those few times that I can get Kazuna to go all out." She answers.

"I guess I can see your point. But what do you mean get Kazuna to go all out?" Ms. Takahashi questions.

"Normally Kazuna just puts in the minimum necessary, but since Kari's here he'll definitely give it his all." She explains.

"But if I learned anything from the Coalition Festival, it's that Kazuna is far above his classmates in terms of strength." Ms. Takahashi notes.

"He is, but his classmates are well aware of it and will target him. Plus, due to personal reasons, he isn't at full strength." She retorts.

"But aren't those odds a little much even for him?" Ms. Takahashi asks.

 "You'd be surprised by what he's capable of. And I'm sure he'll be surprised by what his classmates are capable of." She notes.

With that statement, she guides the BA students to the stands along with Ms. Takahashi. Class 1-A was stretching out in preparation and they all had the same thought. Kazuna preparing to be targeted and his classmates creating a quick plan.

"The rules are simple, use everything you've learned to be the last one standing." She announces from the sidelines.

They nod in understanding and get themselves set.

"Alright. Ready! Begin!" She exclaims.

Kazuna takes a deep breath before Shiba bursts towards him at full speed. Kazuna uses his momentum against him and flings him to the side. Before he could turn around, he's blasted to the side by Kagura's wind. He recovers quickly but Emiko used this chance to close the gap. Kazuna dodges her attacks but slips on a patch of ice Haruka created below his feet. Emiko tries to capitalize on this with a downward s***h, but Kazuna catches her blade and throws her to the side. He flips onto his feet and barely manages to dodge a stream of water Chiyo blasted at him.

"They're capitalizing on openings that one another is making all while keeping me on the defensive. They've grown quite a bit." He notes to himself.

As he finishes his thought he can feel himself being pulled. He looks over and sees that Haruna was using her power to pull his swords and him. He decides to jump towards her instead of fighting against the pull. Her plan backfired since her pull only allowed him to reach her faster. He knees her in the gut dropping her to her knees. Matt tries to hit him with a double hammer fist, but he was much too slow. Kazuna sidesteps it and uppercuts Matt, knocking him out instantly.

Chiyo blasts him with a stream of water, but Kazuna dodges it. Haruka immediately freezes Chiyo's water and uses it to launch ice spears at him. Kazuna draws his sword and cuts through the spears with ease until Ria appears behind him and trips him. Juro follows up by creating a blockade above him and slams it into him, throwing him to the ground. Haruka acts quickly and freezes him to the ground.

"As I thought, too much for him to handle." Ms. Takahashi says.

"Don't count him out just yet." Ms, Saugoma notes with a smile.

As she says this, a blast of lightning crashes onto him, breaking the ice and creating a crater in the ground that allowed him to escape from Juro's blockade. Just as quickly as he was out, he was back in the fight.

"As I thought, you are quite the problem." He thinks to himself.

'Stream' He mumbles as he bursts forward and lands a devastating elbow into Akeno's stomach.

"That's 3." He notes.

"I'm guessing your mock shift strategy was to have Akeno create plans throughout and have Katsuro convey them to everyone, right?" He theorizes.

"Well, it was plan A," Kagura confirms.

"Plan A?" Kazuna questions.

As the thought passes through his mind, He's blasted from above thanks to Macey's eyebeams and Natsuki carrying her in the sky. The blast shook him up quite a bit so Kagura was able to hit him with a powerful blast of wind. He was able to shake off the shock from the attacks and correct himself mid-air so that he landed on his feet. Once he touched the ground, both Emiko and Shiba attacked him. He managed to dodge and block their attacks but only barely.

"They've both improved tremendously, but with the two of them at point-blank range, they can't hit me with any of their long-range attacks. If I were them..." He begins to think, but he runs into what he thought they would do as Juro had put up a wall behind him.

Both Emiko and Shiba try and land an attack since his back was now against the wall, but Kazuna catches both of their attacks and shocks them with his lightning. It wasn't enough to take them out but granted him some space. He thrust the hilt of his sword into Emiko's stomach and karate chops Shiba in the back of the neck knocking the both of them out.

"That's 5," he says.

His breathing had become labored and he was a little beat up. He looks at his remaining classmates and takes note of their powers, strengths, and weaknesses. Before he decides on his next move, he throws his fist up at what first seemed at random until Ria appeared next to him. 

"You know I've always been able to tell where you are." He notes.

"And you know that I know that more than anyone else." She replies.

She follows up with a kick that gets blocked. The subsequent fight with hand-to-hand combat that occurred was similar to ballroom dancing. Each move was followed by another and was beautifully executed. It was obvious that they had spent years perfecting their style, but Kazuna had a clear advantage. He was faster, stronger, and more experienced however, she didn't have to beat him. As she began to lose more and more ground, Masahiro appears from Kazuna's shadow. He puts Kazuna in a chokehold and Ria holds his arms down.

"They're taking advantage of the fact that I'm limited to how much lightning I can use. I've already used stream and a lightning-based attack to escape from their earlier trap, as well as electrocuting Shiba and Emiko. Using another powerful attack could prove to be a mistake, but what comes next?" He wonders.

As if waiting for their queue, Chiyo and Haruka leap into action. Chiyo creates a pool beneath his feet and Haruka freezes it. He was now knee-deep in ice and in some trouble.

"They're having Chiyo surround me with water so that Haruka can freeze me faster." He notes to himself.

Wary of Juro's blockade he quickly breaks his legs free with his sword and manages to dodge just in time to escape it. He lands and is immediately blasted by Vincent's supersonic voice. He uses his wind to break free from his attack. Once he breaks free he immediately starts making his way towards Juro. Everyone else tries to use their long-range attacks to deter him, but he dodged each attack as closely as possible so he could avoid the next attack more easily. As he started getting closer, Ria appeared before him, but he jumps over her. Masahiro jumps from her shadow, but Kazuna puts him in a hold and slams him to the ground with his knee in his chest. Before he could continue on, Katsuro uses her telekinesis to hold him in place.

"That's right, she could move things with her mind as well, but if I remember correctly. Holding people in place is extremely difficult for you." He notes to himself as he begins to slowly move forward.

It was clear she was struggling to keep him in place, but his slowed movements allowed Kagura to get close to him.

"Nicely done, Katsuro!" She exclaims.

"It was, but it's not good enough," Kazuna notes.

Before Kagura could even determine the context of that statement, he quickly breaks free of Katsuro's hold and disarms her. He throws her sword to the side and kicks her feet from under her. He decides to not waste time and energy knocking her out and continues towards Juro. He makes it within range and prepares an attack. Juro quickly puts a wall in front of him as Macey prepares an attack from above, but there was a flash and Kazuna was behind him.

"A fake? I can't put down my wall or Macey's attack will hit me." Juro thinks before he loses consciousness.

Kazuna quickly changes targets to someone that they didn't expect him to as he swiftly knocks out Ayame.

"Why did he go for her she wasn't a threat?" Ms. Takahashi asks.

"She was probably using her power to predict where Kazuna was going to land and how far ahead their long-range attackers should aim in order to hit him." Ms. Saugoma answers.

"So she was making their attacks more accurate and therefore more dangerous." Ms. Takahashi surmises.

"That's 8." He says.

"He really is on a different level," Kagura notes to herself.

Kazuna looks up and places a hand on his sword hilt. 

'Shockwave' 

He mumbles as a flurry of lightning slashes comes charging towards Natsuki and Macey in the air. There was no way he could dodge them all while carrying Macey and they were quickly hit by a few of the attacks. They came crashing down and were struggling to get up. Kazuna determines that they aren't much of a threat anymore and turns his attention to those that were left.

"Ria, Kagura, Haruna, Chiyo, Katsuro, and Vincent are the only ones remaining. Ria and Kagura are the only ones that are effective at close range, but if I want to make this as easy as possible, then I need to go for Chiyo and Haruna first. If I remember correctly, Katsuro won't be able to hold me in place for a little while longer." He notes to himself.

Kazuna draws his sword as his remaining classmates decide to stick together.

"They're trying to make it hard for me to pick one off by giving up the angles they can attack from. Not a bad strategy." He notes.

He runs straight for them and they prepare themselves. Kagura runs out and clashes swords with Kazuna. He pushes her back but before he could follow up Ria manages to connect with a punch to the jaw. She goes for a kick, but Kazuna catches it and kicks her other leg from under her. He thrusts his palm into her abdomen as she fell and knocked her out. He runs lightning through his sword, thrusts it into the ground, and slashes upward, throwing dust into the air. He uses the smokescreen to surprise Katsuro and knock her out. 

Kagura uses her power to push Katsuro away from him so that Chiyo and Haruna could simultaneously attack him.

'Blizzard' 

'Rainstorm'

They shout as a hailstorm of ice comes crashing into him. There was no way for him to dodge so he braces himself for the attack. He cuts through the more dangerous pieces of ice and covers his body in lightning to reduce the damage from the rest of the attacks. Once their attack was through, Kazuna was beaten up from it.

"I can't believe he took that head-on," Haruna says in surprise.

"He really is cool," Chiyo notes.

"I don't think this is the time for that!" Haruna exclaims.

As she said this, Kazuna was almost on them much faster than she expected him to. Before she could throw up an ice wall, he elbows her in the gut. Chiyo tries to counter, but he swiftly roundhouse kicks her. With that attack, the only ones left were Vincent and Kagura. 

"Our powers don't compliment each other very well and Vincent isn't good at close-quarters combat. He may be worn down, but there's no way we can underestimate him." Kagura thinks to himself.

She tries to think of a plan and sees something that she thinks could help them win.

"Vincent, on my signal, I want you to attack from a distance while I try and get close." She says.

Vincent nods and prepares himself. There was a brief pause before Kagura took action.

"Now!" She shouts.

Vincent starts sending supersonic blasts towards Kazuna while Kagura makes her way towards him.

"She's hoping that Vincent can hit me or at least wear me out while she closes the gap," Kazuna notes as he sidesteps his attacks.

Kagura reaches Kazuna and they clash once more. He was feeling the fatigue as Kagura was able to keep up with him, but the difference in abilities let him keep the upper hand. As he began to push her back, he can see her smile and jump away. The movement caught him off guard until he sensed someone behind him. He turns around to see Matt preparing a punch.

"Not enough time to dodge." He notes to himself as he braces for the punch.

As the punch sends him back, he kicks out his leg and catches Matt on the chin, knocking him out once again. He hits the ground a few feet away.

"He sure does hit hard," Kazuna notes as he shakily gets up.

Before he could focus his attention back on Kagura, Ria once again connects with a punch.

"That attack on her didn't knock her out?" He thinks to himself.

He catches himself before he falls over, but Kagura had already backed away and Kagura had taken her place.

"They really have grown." He thinks proudly to himself.

'Sheathed s***h' 

She blocks it but the force and speed of the attack knocks her back.

He blitzes Vincent and punches him in the jaw. He shakily turns and faces his last two opponents, Kagura and Ria. He gets into his stance for hand-to-hand combat and beckons them forward. They accept his challenge and charge him. Kazuna, despite his fatigue, gracefully counters and dodges most of their attacks. It looked like the two girls were going to win when he suddenly switches from defense to offense. He takes one of Ria's punches and counters with a punch to the gut. Kagura tries to blast him away, but he grabs her arm, bringing her with him.  He pulls her towards him and lands on her and restrains her.

"That's the match!" Ms. Saugoma exclaims.

Cheers erupt from the BA students as they rush Kazuna. They crowd him with stars in their eyes.

"You're so cool!" 

"And strong!" 

"And fast!" 

There were compliments flooding in from the kids and Kazuna was frozen there, unsure of what to say or how to react.

"You were right, Kazuna is really cool!" Sakura exclaims.

"I told you so," Kari says with a smile.

The students from GA that were unconscious slowly began to wake up. They were mostly fine, just in a little pain from the hits they received.

"Now that you all are up, what can you reflect upon from this match?" Ms. Saugoma asks them.

"We should have tried to get him to use his power more instead of relying on him using it as little as possible." Akeno starts.

"Precisely. Kazuna's power is strong, but since he can only use it sparingly, forcing him to use it early on would have been your best bet for taking him out. What else?" She asks.

"This taught me that I need to work on close-quarters combat. Once Kazuna closed the gap, I was helpless." Vincent notes.

"A lot of you need to work on that." She points out.

"We should have done a better job of protecting Akeno. It may have been a free for all, but it was obvious that taking down Kazuna was going to have to be a team effort." Kagura states.

"Bingo. It may have been a free for all, but there was no way anyone but Kazuna was going to win unless you all teamed up against him." She says. 

"Kazuna, what about you?" She asks.

"I underestimated them. They were able to formulate multiple strategies and ways to convey those strategies without my knowledge. The aerial attack from Macey and Natsuki was especially creative. They've also gotten better at using their powers. Kagura, you did quite well-taking control and acting as the vanguard on multiple occasions. You also did well at setting up Matt's attack. That punch from you Matt got me good. Ria, you're a lot tougher than I remember. I was genuinely surprised but proud. But the most impressive thing was how Ria used the fact that I could sense where she was when she was invisible to mask the fact that she had woken up. I had assumed that the presence I felt was Matt, so when you hit me, you truly caught me completely off guard." He states.

Ria lowered her head in an attempt to hide her blushing from the praise she received.

"Yes, they truly have grown." Ms. Saugoma says in agreement.

"With that being said, this ends the training session. I hope that those of you from BA will see this and gain motivation. My students should act as the mark you want to exceed." She says.

The students cheer in excitement. They got the chance to talk with class 1-A, but they mostly surrounded Kazuna. He had left quite the impression on them all thanks to his performance, but he had managed to get them to talk to his classmates somehow. once he had broken free, Kari and Sakura approach him.

"You're just as cool as Kari said you were!" Sakura exclaims.

"I see, I'm glad I didn't disappoint." He says.

"You really were cool Mr. Kazuna and I can't wait to go to GA and try and become as strong as you," Kari says.

"I'm glad I could motivate you." He says while gently placing a hand on her head.

"And Ms. Ria was cool too." She says as she looks over towards her.

Ria blushes before turning invisible.

"Don't take that negatively, I'm sure she's happy to hear you say that," Kauzna assures her.

Kari smiles and nods before she heads back to her class to finish their trip. Once they returned to BA, they were to summarize their trip and what they thought. Needless to say, most kids said something about Kazuna. He had now become the most talked-about kid in two schools.