Chapter 4. Projects, Otakus, and Forgiveness. Part 2: Toroma vs Alex.

As soon as the words “Now” exited Toroma’s mouth he instantly began to run at Alex. Toroma held his sword close to his right arm as he ran at Alex planning his attack

Alex was thinking about a few seconds before Toroma officially started the match. In his head, he was thinking of attacking first, but due to his fear of getting hit by Toroma’s sword, he wussed out and held his defensive position with both of his hands on the sword.

Toroma was approaching fast, the air pressure moved as it did before. The wind blew behind Toroma pushing him forward, Toroma attempted to hit Alex’s right shoulder. Toroma decided this by observing the way Alex was holding his sword downward and with both of his hands this made his move rather easy to sneak over to Alex’s right side and attempt to slash his right shoulder. So, he did as he faked Alex out, making him think he was going to attack his chest but he was attempting to attack his right shoulder.

Alex knew Toroma was faster than him, he knew he was fucked and couldn’t dodge the attack. At least he thought he couldn’t dodge, Even though his physical capabilities were boosted due to the aura surrounding his body Toroma was still faster and more experienced in sword fighting. He thought about using his ability with time before Toroma approached, so he did. The word “Stop” had entered his subconscious once again but instead of time completely stopping something else happened. The voice that was always in Alex’s mind, the demonic voice laughed in his head as the voice said a few words.

“No human, stop relying on my power!”

Alex was shocked. He had no idea what was going to happen. He was hit in his right shoulder by Toroma. He yelped in pain as he was pushed back due to the force of Toroma’s wooden sword. As he was pushed backward he quickly put his sword back in a defensive position as he tried to block the front of his body, he put his sword in front of him as his sword was mostly by his face. Alex still remembered what the voice said to him, but he knew he couldn’t waste time arguing with the voice in his head, so he kept his eyes on the battle.

Toroma wasted no time as he attempted to hit Alex again, he ran Alex and used his wooden sword’s point to try and hit the left side of his stomach, he did this by using his sword’s blade side to try and hit him.

“On your left.”

The voice said in Alex’s head, Alex's body shifted and moved on its own as Alex used his sword to block Toroma’s. The voice this time was more angelic and seemed more helpful. Their wooden swords clashed as the wood sound echoed off the kendo walls. Alex and Toroma tried pushing each other back, their swords clashing as they were trying to put as much force on the other person's side as possible. After about twenty seconds Alex used all of his willpower and surprisingly pushed Toroma back. Alex took a deep breath in, normally after this Alex would try to attack Toroma again but something was different. What was weird for Alex is that he had no control of his body when he was clashing with Toroma. He thought how that was possible, but then he remembered the voice in his head saying “On your left.” He took his attention off Toroma as he spoke to the voice that was always in his head, his vision shifted towards the ground also.

As soon as the thought of the voice was the culprit of how his body moved on its own, the angelic voice chimed in confirming Alex’s suspicion.

“Yes human, it was me, we are one. Watch out, Toroma is coming again.”

Alex looked back up once more and saw Toroma rushing at him. He rushed toward Toroma as he tried to use his sword to hit Toroma's hand. He did this by using the side of his sword to apply pressure to him. Their swords clashed once again. Alex started to sweat due to his hot uniform that was surrounding his body in this fight.

Toroma was struggling to deal with the pressure, but at the last moment when his sword was about to fall, he did something at the last moment. He jumped back and repositioned his sword more upward so he could get a better grip. Toroma then spoke as his pink eyes sparkled from the white glow in his iris and sclera, he made eye contact with Alex as he confidently spoke.

“Wow, you’re pretty good Alex, are you sure you haven’t done kendo before?”

Alex backed up quickly as he spoke towards Toroma.

“No, not really. I mean I have watched a few sword-fighting anime. Like Gintrama.”

Hiroto quickly spoke out from the crowd as he continued to watch.

“Yeah, Gintrama is pretty decent.”

Alex quickly turned to the crowd of Hiroto, Daizen, and Fuzumi. Daizen had a smirk on his face and Fuzumi was just watching in amazement. Alex especially looked toward Hiroto and gave him a quick nod at his remark about Gintrama. He then instantly turned his attention back to Toroma, he held his sword with both of his hands gripping the hilt.

Toroma smirked as he then spoke once more.

“I wanna have a bit more fun, then I’ll finish you off.”

Toroma said as he held a confident pose, he put his left arm in the air as he put all his fingers together, pretending he was gripping something. He did a quick cool pose to show off on Alex. He did the pose as he closed his eyes, he held his sword in his right arm, in a downward defensive position.

Alex looked at Toroma as a bit angered filled him up, Alex then observed his body. He noticed two things, his eyes were closed and his sword defenses were lowered. A smirk appeared on his face as he realized he had an opportunity. He quickly tightened the grip on his sword as he put both of his arms back making the sword go back as he ran toward Toroma as he yelled. He got close toward Toroma and as he got close he put his sword forward, he crouched and closed his eyes as he used the front sharp part of his sword to try and stab Toroma’s stomach.

Alex was sure he hit Toroma, he was sure of it. All the contributing factors should have made his attack unblockable, it might have been physically possible for him to miss his attack, but everything Alex had experienced in the past few days wasn’t in the realm of possibility. This is why what was about to happen to Alex would have made sense. Alex had his eyes closed from when he thought he stabbed Toroma, he opened his eyes expecting to see Toroma on the ground or either still in pain but no.

When he opened his eyes he didn’t see Toroma. Where Toroma was standing before nothing was there, He wasn’t there anymore, but then it happened, Alex felt a hard and sharp pain on his back. It wasn’t just a single sharp pain, it was multiple. It didn't feel possible but it was over a hundred sharp pain. He heard the sound of wood hitting his back, he then instantly fell in confusion. He was in pain, so much pain that he dropped his wooden sword. Alex was in pure shock, his back was aching in pain. He thought he was imagining things, but he felt as if his back was hit over 50 times. He had received so much pain that the glow that was surrounding his body beforehand had completely disappeared.

In actuality, before Toroma was hit he quickly dodged and did a fast movement making his way around and eventually after a few seconds went behind Alex. He was able to dodge due to hearing Alex’s footsteps and his yell that alerted him at the last moment. So, what he did when he was behind Alex was to hit him with his wooden sword over 50 times. He was able to do this. He went all out because he didn’t respect Alex trying to do a dirty move and attack him while he wasn’t paying attention. He also hit Alex so fast and so many times due to his increased movements from his glow. Toroma innocently stood over Alex, he was now back to normal since they were no longer sword fighting. Since they were no longer sword fighting, Toroma turned off his glow and smiled as he stood over Alex menacingly, he still held his innocent smile though.

The other three people in the kendo all had different reactions. Hiroto was somehow impressed by Toroma’s speed and strength. He couldn’t see Toroma’s glow so he was just chilling and observing. Fuzumi had a shocked face as she watched in amazement. Daizen was smirking as he quietly snarked at the fight.

Alex was in pain, But even in his pain found his way to stand up. He struggled to stand up and failed multiple times but eventually after 10 seconds he succeeded.

Toroma had an innocent but slightly condensing smirk on his face, he looked towards Alex but then subtly closed his eyes for a quick second as he spoke.

“So who wants to go next?”

Alex’s friends were all smiling and chuckling as they simultaneously thought “Lol, Toroma kicked his ass.”

Alex was a bit pissed that he lost. What made him even angrier was that Toroma was smirking and suddenly got a huge boost of confidence. He knew he lost but he at least wanted to hit Toroma once so he could prove his friends wrong and stop their chuckling. Alex looked down from where he was just on the floor, he saw the sword he was using in the match and then suddenly picked it up. An idea popped into his head of how he was gonna hit Toroma with a super cool anime move, he saw it multiple times from this anime called Blench. He gripped his sword tightly as he then ran at Toroma, he jumped into the air putting his sword in the air also.

He was now overhead Toroma in mid-air, Toroma looked up at him in danger and shock. He came down slowly as he swung his sword downward aiming at his face with quick precision and speed. As he came down, he swung his blade down aiming towards Toroma’s face. He yelled a move out from his favorite anime as he tried to attack.

“Getsuga Tens-”

But before Alex could hit Toroma, Toroma confidently and loudly, moving out the way ever so slightly. Alex didn’t hit him as he quickly fell in a cartoonish-like fashion, he yelled in pain as he fell on the concrete floor landing on his stomach.

Hiroto, Fuzumi, and Daizen started to burst out laughing, their laughs echoed off the walls of the kendo room. Hiroto spoke quietly to himself.

“Stupid.”

Toroma slightly laughed also. He honestly wanted to laugh more but since he was nice he wasn’t doing his best not to laugh at Alex’s failure to hit him. So, he calmly spoke towards the angered Alex.

“You shouldn’t randomly attack people, you could have killed me.”

Alex’s face was bright red, He didn’t like being made fun of. But he wasn't embarrassed since he knew his friends for such a long time. He was still blushing but instead of getting angry again he just let out a deep breath and put the sword back on the ground as he slowly walked to a corner in the kendo room to watch the rest of the fights. He sat on his butt as he put his knee up and rested his right arm on his knee, he simultaneously tilted his head down to look at the rest of the fights that were about to happen. Alex was kind of anticipating for Toroma and Daizen to fight since they were both physically capable which would be a good fight to watch.

After a minute or so, Everyone stopped laughing as Toroma seriously turned his body toward Hiroto, Daizen, and Fuzumi, with an awkward expression on his face he asked questions he had asked before.

“So who wants to fight next?”