Chapter 12: The Tournament

Asumi, Meguri, and Taichi sat on the floor of the duel hall, too mentally exhausted to speak for a long moment. The air was heavy with residual mana, and the heat of Asumi’s flames continued to drench the trio in sweat.

“Haha… I guess…” Taichi started.

“I lost,” Taichi and Asumi said in unison.

Taichi blinked, turning toward Asumi.

“Huh? What do you mean you lost? My health hit 0. Yours didn’t,” Taichi explained.

“But that’s only one way of looking at it. We were operating with 200% of the normal total hit points. If we consider getting an individual down to 0% as a victory, then if Meguri and I had a combined health bar, you would’ve done it,” Asumi retorted, clenching her fists. “I lost 10% of my hit points, and Meguri lost 90%. This happened before we got the final hit on you… if we were one person instead of two…”

“Then you’d be the winner… Taichi,” Meguri continued, looking down at her feet with a mild flush.

“Huh? Taichi?” Taichi asked quizzically, pointing at himself.

“Is Asumi the only one allowed to call you that?” Meguri asked, her voice becoming a bit more confident again. “I like calling the people I respect by their given names. So if I could… unless Asumi protests of course.”

“Huh? Why would I—?” Asumi froze, heat rising to her face.

“Geez, I wonder why…” Meguri said, elbowing her teasingly. “Don’t worry, I come in peace. Anyway — Taichi… is that okay?”

“Yeah, that’s fine, Meguri,” Taichi replied.

“…you don’t have to call her by her given name too…” Asumi muttered under her breath.

“What was that, Asumi?” Taichi asked.

“Nothing, I’m glad you two are getting along,” she remarked huffily. “What was that hand-to-hand combat you pulled out of nowhere on Megumi?”

“The duels are no-holds-barred, right?” Taichi asked.

“Well, yeah, it’s not against the rules, but… what happened?” Meguri asked.

“Oh, with the nullification?” Taichi asked.

Both Meguri and Asumi nodded.

“Well, after confirming that my aspect only works if mana touches my body by parrying Asumi’s fire, I figured if I strike somebody who’s using their aspect to enhance themselves, then I’ll nullify the enhancement,” Taichi explained.

“Yeah, that makes sense. It’s also good for your stamina because self-enhancement uses very controlled amounts of mana. Since you’re making short, instant contacts with your nullification target and it’s not a large amount of mana that you’re nullifying, you can stay fighting longer so long as you preserve your aspect for that purpose,” Asumi continued.

Taichi stared blankly, nodding along. “Yup, I definitely thought of all that.”

“Class is gonna start soon, huh?” Meguri said, rolling her eyes while still laying on the floor.

“Yeah…” Taichi put his pendant back on, turning off his nullification before bouncing upright with a sigh. “Let’s get going.”

They trudged out of the gym and crossed the courtyard toward the skyscraper, cold wind biting at their damp clothes. For once, class was actually in the classroom.

The trio walked into the classroom to see it nearly full. All eyes turned toward Taichi as mutters flooded the air.

“How are we supposed to compete?” someone whispered.

“They should just put him in the Top Ten already… we’re all gonna lose to him anyway.”

“But he hasn’t won a single one-on-one yet. Maybe there’s hope…”

“What are these guys talking about?” Asumi asked before looking at the board in front of them.

The monthly Top Ten Tournament was going to begin in a day.

The tournament lasted 3 days, with everybody except the top 10 students being eligible to compete. The winner is granted the opportunity to fight for whichever position in the Top 10 they wish for.

Asumi and Meguri were ineligible, but Taichi was. It didn’t take long for the two of them to realize what their classmates were talking about, but Taichi had no idea — approaching the group.

“Is there somebody super strong entering the tournament or something?” Taichi asked.

Asumi landed a chop on Taichi’s head and dragged him away.

“Sorry you three, he’s an idiot.”

“Who’re you calling an idiot?!” Taichi yelled out.

“You, Taichi,” she responded coldly, sending shivers down his spine.

“…no wonder Natsu calls you the Snow Princess…”

“Shut up.”

“Once you two are done with your lover’s quarrel, I’d love to start class,” Kodaka interrupted.

“He’s not my boyfriend!” Asumi yelled far too loudly, drawing the eyes of everyone in the room.

Her face turned to a vibrant scarlet and her hands flailed around aimlessly.

“Wait, no, that’s not… I mean, it is true, but it… I mean…”

“Kodaka Sensei, can you start the class? This idiot’s gonna keep self-destructing otherwise,” Meguri remarked, to which Taichi nodded.

“Who’re you calling an idiot?!” Asumi yelled.

“You,” Meguri responded with a smirk.

“Anyway,” Kodaka interrupted with a sigh, walking up to his podium. “Let’s all take a seat and zip those mouths, thank you. As all you geniuses realized by now, the Top Ten Tournament — the monthly chance for most of you guys to climb the ranks, is starting tomorrow. It was supposed to be next week, but one of the Top Ten members is occupied with non-school related duties at the time. Class will be cancelled for the duration of the tournament.”

Kodaka changed the slide, displaying the matchups for round 1 of the tournament.

“I wish you all the best of luck. Don’t be stupid.”

He walked out of the classroom without another word, leaving everybody frozen. Taichi immediately went up to the bracket, finding himself on it and seeing his matchup.

“Natsuki Hayama, huh…?” Taichi muttered. “Never heard of him.”

“You have some interesting luck, Taichi!” Meguri said from behind him, slapping his back endearingly. “Natsuki Hayama won last month’s Top Ten Tournament. He attempted to enter the Top Ten by fighting me. He lost, obviously.”

“Oh, interesting… so the strongest person that’s not in the Top Ten? But I suppose if he lost to you, then I should be fine, right?” Taichi said smugly.

“Don’t underestimate Natsuki Hayama, Taichi,” Asumi interjected. “He lost to Meguri because he has a water aspect that he attempted to use against her lightning. It was an awful matchup for him, but he still put up a proper fight against her. She almost lost.”

“But I didn’t lose!” Meguri tacked on.

“I’ll be blunt, Taichi. He’s a bad match for you,” Asumi stated nonchalantly. The three of them exited the classroom to make their deliberation more private. “Water isn’t something you can parry.”

“Neither is fire normally, is it?” Taichi asked with a chuckle. “I manage.”

“This isn’t a joke, Taichi. Flames dissipate when you stamp them out, but water moves out of the way and reconstitutes. Not only that, but Natsuki specializes in wider-range attacks. Even Meguri wasn’t able to close in on him without taking a massive hit to her health bar. He makes it difficult to have a close-range fight to a greater extent than me.”

“Than you, huh…?” Taichi muttered. “So in that fight with Meguri…”

“She got lucky,” Asumi finished. “I’d say around 8 times out of 10, despite the elemental disadvatage, Natsuki would’ve beaten her. You have a fairly similar fighting range to Meguri, so you need to be…”

“I’ll be careful, don’t worry about it. Aren’t you Top Ten people meant to be impartial or something?” Taichi teased.

“Well, there’s no rule technically…” Asumi responded, blushing. “You’re lucky you’re getting advice from us. You should take it more seriously.”

“Yeah, I’ll take it seriously,” Taichi said dismissively. “Watch me win my first match in a landslide tomorrow. I won’t even take off my pendant. If I’m beating a high-caliber foe without my trump card, then people will be scared to fight me and drop out, right?”

“Taichi…” Asumi trailed off worriedly, but Meguri stopped her.

“Sounds like a fun idea, Taichi. How about we make this a little more interesting?” Meguri asked with a wide smile.

“Interesting how?”

“Well, how about a bet? If you beat Natsuki without taking your pendant off, then you can ask Asumi for any single request. Anything at all.”

“Hey—!” Asumi interfered.

“But…” Meguri said, her expression tightening as Asumi stopped. “If you have to take your pendant off to win, you have to do any single request of Asumi’s. How does that sound?”

Asumi stayed silent while Taichi chuckled a little.

“Sure, why not?” Taichi said.

“In that case, have fun training,” Meguri said, dragging Asumi along while wearing a teasing grin. “Us Top Ten members have to be impartial according to you, right? No more help from us.”

“Yeah, got it!”

Taichi went through his normal training routine to prepare for this fight — nothing more, nothing less.

Anybody who wasn’t in the Top Ten… anybody who wasn’t Natsu was a person he refused to fear.

Before long, Taichi was standing front and center of Tournament Ground A — a stage with seats all around for fellow students to observe the matches.

Asumi and Meguri sat together in a booth reserved for the Top 10, and Natsuki Hayama revealed himself with the crowd roaring in anticipation.

With his shinai gripped tightly and vest strapped on, Taichi wore a smile looking around the stage.

The Top Ten Tournament had begun.