Dispersing the smoke

We went home after that night and the day after we received a message, it was telling us to be called at the only number in the phone around a specific time, our lunchtime. We went to school and continued our activities, but I was impatient, I couldn’t pay attention to class and I had this feeling in my chest that I cannot describe well, other than being nervous.

When lunchtime arrived, we called the number and Yoru picked the phone.

“Hey, doing good?”

“What do you want us to call us?”

“Hey, hey, you're still in high school, right? Where are your manners?”

“Ah… yeah you’re right, good morning, Yoru”

“Mmmh… okay, forget it… I called to explain to you the rules, remember? I told you I’ll leave you homework”

“Yeah”

“Okay, you better have something to take notes on. Are you ready?”

“Yes”

Yoru started to explain the rules of the combat, while I was correct in how the battle worked, he told me what I would need to do to enter in the real championship.

For starters, the first rule was not to kill, I could use any method possible as long as my adversary survives, second of all, I could not just bust into the door and enter the championship just like that.

What I need it to do first is have some spare matches, these are done in a different area, the elimination process, only the ones who get out of this selection will be worth to show, otherwise you are done for.

Entering the selection costs a ton of money but winning it offers you more, everything is a contest, and Yoru was straight up with me, if I didn’t make it out of the selections, I better search for someone else.

“That’s all for you, there are more that comes after but you better not have your hopes up kid, you only have one chance, so you better train your ass off, if you have any questions sent me a message, if not I’ll send another message with the time to call me again”

“Got it, we’ll see you soon, Yoru”

“Take care”

Yoru hang up and I look at the notebook that Yuki had.

“Winning at your first attempt…”

“I can do it…”

“Huh?”

“I can do it, Yuki, I believe I can”

Yuki was silent for a moment but then smiled at me and touched my shoulder.

“Yeah, you can do it, Ren”

I smiled and we started to talk more about strategies. The boxing lessons were good but now I needed to learn a bit of other techniques, everything was fair so I might as well learn other types of fighting, and to evade.

“You will also depend on your own intuition, there are a ton of powers we don’t know and how they will affect you, injuries are just the daily bread on this”

“I get it, I wonder what I can do to protect myself, maybe an air shield?”

“Let’s try that out, every idea that you have let’s put it to test but we need a place where to do it”

“You think the elementers hideout will be good?”

“Maybe… but you really want to go there again? It’s not really safe and if you tell them that you are going to enter the championship…”

“You are right but what other place could we use to practice?”

“There is another factor too, Ren, the time, you really want to train that late? Besides you still need passing the exams and they are coming in a few weeks”

“I am not trying to run from my responsibilities, don’t worry, I will make time to study, I have always been on average so I’ll be okay”

“I’m still worried, but if that is the only choice that we have…”

The bell rang and I pet Yuki’s back and went back to my classroom, I sighed while looking at the window and took my notes.

Do I really need to study to be a fighter?... I know Yuki is worried and he may want me to have at least a second path in case this doesn’t work, living as an elementer is thought after all, so if I get injured and live the rest of my life on a chair, the only thing I could to is being someone with the resource I have or be a nuance for my parents just because of my incompetence, and I don’t want that… so I better put these two things in check, study shouldn’t be that hard, only to maintain my grades…

“And yes, Ren”

“Yes!”

“Tell me the result of this operation, what would be the result of the x?”

“Is 43…”

“Incorrect, but close, pay a little more attention, the answer was 45”

“Yes…”

School was over and I went home, Yuki wasn’t around this time, so when I got home I lay down on my couch looking at the ceiling.

This is the real deal now; I better take this shot, or I might never have the opportunity to participate in this competition ever again

While I was daydreaming, time passed and Yuki finally rang the bell, I went to the door and opened it.

“What happened?”

“Nothing, just my parents need me to do some special food because we had guesses, but I’m good now, I tell them that in the next weeks we were going to do homework and prepare for the exams”

“Nice excuse”

“Is not an excuse thought, I am really going to do it, and if you have time, you better pay attention too, when you have breaks, you are going to at least try to understand what is on my sheets”

“Ah haha… I get it… then, shall we go?”

“Yeah, have you prepared your stuff though?”

“My stuff?”

“You know, your water, or supplements, whatever you take”

“I just drink water but I get what is on store only”

“Huh… well we can pass on the way in”

I nodded and we left my house, leaving the place, we passed a convenience store to buy some food and drinks and then we headed to the last hideout we thought could be the elementers, and we found it.

This time around a fishing port, we entered an abandoned building and we left the stuff on the side. While I was taking my shirt off I heard someone coming.

“Eh? Kids?”

“Ah, don’t worry, we are not looking for problems, see?”

I showed my necklace and the guy got close to us, but when the light hit him.

“Wait I know you, you are…”

“The smoke guy…”

“You two are those kids… so you got to see the fights… I told you to stay away from it”

“Sorry, but I cannot let my dream go to waste, if you are only going to criticize us, you better leave”

“Huh?”

The guy looked pissed and approached me, taking my shirt but as soon as he touched me I did a flip with my wind powers and took distance.

“You got some balls, kid, I give you that, but you already piss me off, you better be ready”

The guy let smoke out of his body and it covered my whole vision, I couldn’t see anything, nor could I get my eyes opened as I wanted. I dispersed the smoke to see and when I looked, the guy was behind me with his elbow about to hit the back of my head.

I moved my feet to get away and then I jumped to the guy’s head, hugging him with my legs and then put my hands on his back to push him down with force.

The guy stood up cleaning his nose and a bit of blood started to drop. I was smiling while concentrating air on my hand and then hitting the air, sending an air punch to him, he dodged it and got close to me, taking my face and using his knee to punch my face.

“Ugh… it does hurt… maybe too much wind is not the way to do it…”

“Huh?”

I put a thick wind barrier around my face, it was not enough to cover me from the punch but I did take less damage from it, I took the leg of the guy and I started to spin and make him hit the ground once more.

This time the whole smoke disappeared and I started to breathe fast as I cleaned my nose, Yuki approached me and started to look for wounds.

“I’m okay man…”

“Is he?”

We looked at the smoke guy and he had white eyes and was whining a little bit.

“I think he is okay…”

“I hope he doesn’t make us pay or something…”

“I’ll knock him again”

“I hope that was all he got...”

“I need to go back on training thought, I think that was a good warm up thought”

“This guy, jeez…”