Uncertainty - Great Encounter Battle Arc

The entire crowd roared into life once more at the reveal of Wisteria’s face. Hiroshi snapped back to reality once more and diverted his attention to his only real friend (not including Kuro-Yami, of course).

“That’s it!” he encouraged Wisteria, who was only getting more and more confident by the second. “Remember, you won’t kill me! I promise! I have an ability which allows me to avoid your attacks! Give it everything you got!”

Wisteria smirked to herself and lifted her blade above her head. Her sword (which resembled a Jian blade) grew jagged ice, running along the blade to the very tip. Hiroshi copied her, doing the exact same motion with his katana, the darkness embodying the very steelwork. 

The ground underneath them cracked, at the pressure of their presence. Then, almost simultaneously, they lunged forward, swinging their blades in a downwards motion.

The ice and darkness shot out of their blades respectfully and clashed into each other. The air flew out from the blast, making the audience rock on their feet to make sure they didn’t fall over. They gasped in amazement. Wisteria was confused. Despite her economic status, nobody in the crowd seemed to mind.

“Why don’t they hate me? I’m a poor person with magic!” Wisteria wailed, still trying to hold back the tears.

“They don’t care where you’re from! And besides, why do you care? I think your magic is wonderful! You are so fun and entertaining! Keep it up!” Hiroshi encouraged her once more, this time, with a warm smile. Wisteria’s heart began beating faster. There was no way she could…

She charged forward and clashed blades with her friend, grinning from ear to ear. She never realized how fun using her magic was. She was told her whole life that it was wrong. She shouldn’t be training. She should be hunting instead. It was safer that way. Nobody liked who she truly was, and she despised it. She had to mask herself in front of all of her loved ones and always hold back her tears.

With Hiroshi, things were different.

It didn’t matter if he was from a different world. It didn’t matter if he didn’t understand the social norms. It didn’t matter that he seemed to only care about his own goals and objectives.

He accepted her for who she was. That meant more to her than anything in the whole world.

Hiroshi kept his pace up, deflecting all of Wisteria’s attacks with relative ease. He counterattacked, thrusting his katana forward, which she managed to freeze in place. He infused the darkness into his blade quickly, and pulled the blade away to make sure that Wisteria couldn’t destroy his blade. She made her blade ice once more, causing Hiroshi to backflip away and regain his composure.

“That ice is so cold! Almost as cold as an icicle!” Hiroshi yelped to himself, not realizing how powerful Wisteria’s magic was.

“Yeah, no shit, Sherlock. She’s literally using ice magic,” Kuro-Yami uttered, immensely disappointed at his friend’s stupidity.

“Yeah, duh, but I didn’t expect it to be that cold!” Hiroshi blurted out. Wisteria tilted her head to the side in confusion.

“Are you talking to yourself? Has my beauty made you gone mad?” she asked, before immediately regretting it.

“What the heck?! Why did I say that?! I mean, I’m curious about what he thinks but…why?!”

“Oh! Yeah, I should have told you earlier, but I think I can trust you enough. The reason I can dodge your attacks is because of a demon in my head called Kuro-Yami. He told me that with his help, we can take on the Gods together!”

Wisteria was in awe of Hiroshi, although slightly disappointed that Hiroshi never acknowledged her beauty. She wanted to say defying the Gods was wrong, and that Hiroshi should stop and save himself the bother of being hated by the whole world.

However, she just couldn’t.

She herself hated the Gods. Without them, she could destroy the hierarchy and make everybody in the world equal. Nobody would be discriminated against by their wealth status anymore, and everybody could live in peace and harmony. Meanwhile, Hiroshi was thinking deeply to himself, lost in his own thoughts.

“Crap! I should have complimented her hair or something! She is kind of right! She is really beautiful, and sweet, and kind and caring and…wait, why do I care?! Don’t tell me this is happening again?”

Then Hiroshi had a sudden realization. He had told her about Kuro-Yami. Way too easily, in fact. He hadn’t trusted anybody like that in a very long time. But she didn’t laugh, or judge, or call him strange.

She smiled at him.

“I want to help you, Hiroshi. I want to see the world you want to create. It would be…fantastic,” she admitted, pledging her allegiance fully to her new friend. Hiroshi gained a slight, warm grin for a moment. It wasn’t out of evil or hate. It was because he was genuinely happy.

“Wisteria, I need you to step out of the arena. From what Kuro-Yami tells me, these Gods are no joke. I’m positive you could even beat Tomokazu, but I don’t want to see the Gods hurt or kill you. Can you do that for me? I’m sorry, it means that you won’t get a mentor to aid in helping control your sword skills and magic,” Hiroshi asked politely, tilting his head down towards the ground in shame.

Wisteria didn’t need to be told twice.

She walked backwards slowly, putting both of her feet out of the boundaries of the concrete. The crowd gasped, and Alexander quickly fiddled with his microphone.

“Everyone, listen up here, and listen well! The second Semi-Final has concluded in spectacular fashion! The Final will commence shortly! Tomokazu Onuki vs Shinigami!”