Out of Control

A fine drizzle hung in the gray, cold morning air as they entered the building of Nyansei High without exchanging a single word.

After that, their paths split, and since Hale wasn’t teaching her class that day, he wouldn’t see Koori again until school was over.

By early evening, the school grounds slowly began to fill again as the floodlights were turned on and preparations for the next qualifying match got underway.

But when Hale went to the Literature Club room, Koori was nowhere to be seen.

Mitsuki was standing at the table, sorting some flyers when he walked in.

“A-Amiteji-sensei…”

“Hello, Kawashima-san. Koori-chan… hasn’t come by yet, has she?” Hale asked, even though he already knew the answer.

Mitsuki shook her head quickly, her shoulders tightening.

“N-no. She was really quiet in class today. She didn’t smile even once… not even in music class.”

Her voice dropped. “She always smiles there...”

She pressed her lips together, guilt creeping into her expression.

“And when the last period ended… she just left. Without saying anything.”

Something jabbed into Hale's chest.

Damn it… I didn’t get a chance to talk to her…

“…Do you know what’s wrong, Sensei?” Mitsuki asked softly, as though she already feared the answer. “It… might be my fault. Because I gave her bad advice…”

Hale closed his eyes for a moment, then forced a calm, gentle smile.

“Don’t worry, Kawashima-san. It isn’t your fault. If anything… the mistake is mine.”

Mitsuki blinked, confused. “Yours? But…”

“I have to go,” he cut in quietly, reaching for his costume and tucking the helmet under his arm.

For a moment, Mitsuki looked like she wanted to say something else, but then she saw the helmet, understood, and drew in a sharp breath.

“O-oh! Right… you have to get changed.”

She stepped aside quickly, bowing a little.

“I’ll get going then. Good luck for your match, Sensei. And… for Koori-chan too. I'll be there rooting for you!”

He nodded gratefully before she slipped out the door.

***

The neon tubes hummed softly as Hale walked alone across the concrete of the tunnel beneath the arena which felt strangely long that day.

She won’t come. 

She has probably decided to quit all of this. 

And maybe… maybe that would even be better...

At the end of the tunnel, the outline of the exit took shape.

Bright light flickered, the noise from the spectators swelled like the roaring of a distant sea.

Maybe I should just announce that we’re dropping out of the tournament… If we stop now, Tadamori won’t have a reason, or a chance, to expose us anymore.

Hale took a deep breath.

Then he saw her.

A slender figure, hood pulled deep over her face, the orange firefighter’s jacket, the paw gloves hanging loosely at her sides.

Koori was already there.

Absolutely still. 

Waiting.

“Koori…” Hale’s voice sounded hoarser than he expected. “You… came.”

She didn’t turn her head toward him.

“Yes,” she said calmly. “And you have to call me Lava Kitten, remember?”

His stomach tightened.

“Uh… yeah. Lava Kitten…”

He couldn’t see her face beneath the mask, and yet he knew she wasn’t looking at him.

“You… still want to fight?” he asked quietly.

“It’s what you want, right?”

Hale froze at the tone.

That wasn’t her. 

She got it all wrong.

Through his mark, he felt nothing but a smooth, cold surface, as if someone had laid ice over a lake.

No warmth.

No flicker.

Just the distant echo of a pain he himself had caused.

The speakers called their team name, the gates to the arena began to open.

“We don’t have time right now, but after the match… please, let me explain. I need you to understand why I...”

But Koori started walking before he could finish the sentence.

“H-hey, wait a minute!”

He drew in a deep breath and followed her.

The arena’s light broke over him like a wave.

Cheers, whistles, the buzzing of drones, the harsh flicker of the holo-panel above the field.

“NOW LET’S ENJOY THE LAST MATCH OF THE EVENING, NYA! CAN TEAM ICE KNIGHT & LAVA KITTEN WIN THEIR THIRD MATCH AS WELL!?”

On the opposite side, their opponents stepped out of the tunnel.

A Neko with glossy short fur, the air around her paws already shimmering with arcane energy.

Next to her, a tomcat with orange fur and gleaming eyes, fine sand floating in tiny spheres around his wrists.

The holographic panel above the arena lit up brightly:

Team Desert Tide: Sunamori Satora (砂守 砂虎) – Nyanyaku Mina (ニャ脈 ミナ)

“I’ll keep them at range, you look for an opening…” Hale murmured, without taking his eyes off the opponents. “We stay together, got it?”

Koori flinched slightly when she heard 'stay together', but didn’t answer.

The gong rang a second time.

“BEGIN!”

The protective barriers rose.

Barely had they closed when Sunamori moved, a slender sweep of his hand sending a wave of arena sand rolling straight toward them.

Hale lifted his arms, ice gathering on his palms.

“Watch out for...”

But Koori was already gone.

She shot forward, a glowing trail under her feet as her hands brushed the surface of the sand.

The sandwave rushing toward her suddenly glowed, began to steam, melted, and transformed into a stream of molten lava, which Koori used like a ramp to launch herself into the air as though surfing.

Smoke, steam, sparks.

“LAVA KITTEN CHARGES IN ALONE!? ICE KNIGHT CAN BARELY KEEP UP, NYA!”

Hale cursed under his breath and moved as well, but she was faster.

Much faster.

Koori landed right in front of Sunamori’s paws, one hand pressed to the ground.

The earth flared, sending out a shockwave of liquid heat.

Sunamori screamed as the sand beneath him melted and half-swallowed him.

Nyanyaku spun around, a violet, shimmering armor of arcane energy formed around her feline body and two maces of flickering light took shape in her hands.

“Brace yourself, nya!”

But when she swung down at Koori, Koori coated her arms in a thin layer of black stone, letting the blows glance off sharply.

She spun, sending a seismic wave through the ground that caught Nyanyaku at the feet and knocked her onto her back with a dull thud.

Meanwhile, Sunamori forced himself out of the half-melted mass. 

Sand curled toward him at a flick of his wrist, twisting into razor-fine spirals that carved the stone apart until he finally broke free.

He coughed, but the moment he regained footing he slammed his paws together.

A sharp ripple went through the arena floor and a sudden burst of sand shot upward like a jet fountain, striking Koori in the back and staggering her for the first time.

Nyanyaku didn’t waste the opening as she stumbled back on her feet.

A whip of violet light cracked across the field, slashing toward Koori’s legs.

Koori answered without hesitation, heat erupted from her palms, turning the sand beneath her into a glowing plate of glass that shot up and deflected the arcane lightning.

Hale lifted his arm, frost forming into a narrow defensive wall.

“Lava Kitten! Fall back to me, we can flank them!”

She didn’t even seem to hear him.

Instead she pressed harder, forcing Nyanyaku back step by step, her movements sharp and reckless, as if the world had shrunk to a single point of impact.

Hale hesitated, the resonance between them flickering, thin, unstable, like a connection stretched too far.

“Nyanyaku, the Arcane Amplified Golem, now!” Sunamori shouted, panicked, as he realized they were losing ground.

Shaken but back on her paws, the Neko nodded and lifted her hands in a channeling gesture toward her teammate.

“NYAH! ARCANE TRANSFUSION!!”

Hale felt the air tighten, as if the whole arena inhaled at once.

The sand across the entire arena floor trembled, rose in a massive pillar, and swallowed both fighters in a churning vortex.

Violet sparks flashed through the rotating mass, and deep within the core, Nyanyaku’s silhouette could be seen, pouring her energy into it.

Then that mass shaped itself into a gigantic body.

A colossus of sand and arcane energy, at least ten meters tall, with massive arms and a shimmering heart of violet light in its chest.

The commentator’s voice screeched over the loudspeakers:

“OOOH, THIS SPELLS TROUBLE, NYA! TEAM DESERT TIDE UNLEASHES THEIR ARCANE-AMPLIFIED GOLEM EARLY IN THE MATCH!”

The golem raised one arm and a shadow fell over Koori.

Hale froze.

“Watch out!”

Then the fist came down.