Chapter 21: Rank #1

Taichi dashed forward.

The mat cracked beneath his feet as he crossed the arena in a blink, short black hair swept back by the sheer force of his acceleration. His pendant swayed violently against his chest, clinking once before disappearing into the blur of motion.

Natsu made no movement yet, tracking Taichi’s movements.

Once he locked on, he swung his shinai down.

Taichi dodged with ease.

“Is it just me,” Asumi whispered. “Or is Taichi faster than before?”

Hayama shook his head.

“To master his new technique, he naturally had to refine the qualities he already possessed. Taichi was always capable of moving this quickly — he’s just learnt to do it properly.”

“What the hell is the new technique…?”

Taichi pivoted mid-step, his foot digging into the mat as he changed direction without any momentum. He came back in low, shinai snapping upward and blowing Natsu’s guard wide open.

Natsu clenched his teeth.

In a flash of lightning, he just barely managed to dodge Taichi’s shinai — the wood barely grazing the tip of his red hair.

“Natsu… activated his aspect?” Asumi shivered. “This early?”

Taichi dodged a counterstrike by inches, slipped inside Natsu’s reach, and drove his shinai into his stomach.

Even with Natsu’s lightning, Taichi was faster.

Natsu jumped back to create some distance before rushing back in and crossing shinais with Taichi.

“You should be honored,” Natsu muttered, lightning sparking across his body. “I’ve never been forced to activate my aspect this early.”

“As if you have any honor,” Taichi scoffed, pulling back for another strike.

Natsu pulled away as quickly as he could, but Taichi continued rushing forward, striking down, forcing him to keep defending.

Win condition 1: distance.

Natsu snarled and detonated fire outward in a violent ring, forcing Taichi to retreat for the first time. The heat licked across his skin, shaving off a sliver of his health.

With the inch of space he now had, Natsu was ready for his counterstrike.

Water began to seep across the floor.

“It’s coming…” Meguri smirked.

“Time for you to share your precious Snow Princess’s fate,” Natsu sneered, thrusting his hands down.

Water began to race toward Taichi, surrounding him and rushing inward at his waist.

Taichi smiled, looking up at Natsu.

“We’ll see.”

He gripped his shinai tightly, looking up at the ceiling of the arena — suddenly… he tossed it up.

The weapon spun end over end, vanishing into the air above the arena.

“What are you…” Natsu muttered.

Taichi tore the pendant from his neck.

The water directly beneath his feet vanished in a flash of white.

He jumped.

As high as he could.

The lightning wave met the water, but he was hovering feet over it before he could meet the fate of that shock.

“But he’ll just land back in…” Asumi muttered.

Meguri shook her head.

“Watch.”

As Taichi fell through the air after reaching the apex of his jump, he met the spinning shinai.

He twisted midair, aligning his feet perfectly to his falling shinai.

And he stomped.

The boom thundered through the arena.

The shinai rocketed away, slamming into the far wall as Taichi launched himself forward, his body tearing through the air like a bullet.

Natsu barely had time to widen his eyes.

A clap reverberating through the arena.

Natsu was hurled across the arena, skidding violently before slamming into the wall by Taichi’s fist — moving as fast as a bullet. His water stopped rushing, fading into the air with the sparks of dissipating lightning.

“What the hell did I just watch?” Asumi asked, jaw dropped.

Meguri and Hayama chuckled convulsively, peering over to Asumi.

“A guy who couldn’t care less about physics,” Meguri said, snickering.

“He initially just wanted to do it against the air, actually,” Hayama explained. “He kept failing to do it, but he kept hitting his head against the wall until he actually started generating enough power in his legs to kick off the air — albeit rather weakly. He might be a genius.”

Asumi shook her head.

“He’s an idiot.”

“You say that, but he figured out how to pull this off,” Hayama smirked. “He had the insane idea of creating footing with his shinai… I thought it was impossible, but if he times his contact perfectly with the change from upward to downward velocity and launches off with an insane enough amount of power…”

Taichi panted heavily on the field, savoring the sensation on his fist.

“Then you get that,” Meguri finished. “It’s a ridiculously precise maneuver that he failed at over and over until he had his talk with you. Since then, he had this look in his eyes… it feels like he’s unbeatable.”

Right as Natsu recovered from the punch, Taichi was already right back on top of him. Every attempt to activate an aspect died on contact — nullified the instant Taichi grabbed him. Natsu used his other hand to swing his shinai at Taichi, but he managed to grab it and counter with seemingly no effort.

“Not to understate what Taichi’s doing…” Asumi muttered. “But doesn’t it feel like Natsu’s lost his edge a bit?”

Taichi was completely outclassing him, before they knew it, he was sitting at half health while Taichi’s was nearly full.

Meguri looked down at Natsu’s eyes as he took the full throttle assault of Taichi and clenched her fist.

“He’s scared…” Meguri said.

“Of Taichi?” Asumi asked.

“I don’t know, but he’s definitely scared of something.”

Covered in bruises, breathing ragged, Natsu finally broke free and leapt back, mana exploding outward. Heat flooded the arena as his power surged.

His mana flared up more than ever before — the heat in the arena rose as everybody started sweating.

Taichi ran forward, but was forced to dodge a wave of water approaching him. He saw his own shinai on the opposite side of the arena and started running toward it, but Natsu shot a fire blast at it, burning it to a pile of ashes on the floor.

“Can’t pull that stunt without that, can you?” Natsu smirked. “One time deal, I fear.”

Natsu’s hand was shivering with every remark, but he flooded the floor of the arena again. Taichi put his pendant back on, refusing to use his nullification as he rushed through the inches of water as they rose.

His continued trudging was slowed as the water began rushing inward, forcing him back.

“I’m sorry, Hayato…” Natsu muttered, sparks of lightning flickering from his hands. “I can’t afford to lose here.”

A shiver ran down Taichi’s spine as he gripped his pendant tightly.

“I can’t either.”

He took off his pendant and tossed it up, jumping into the air after it.

“Wait wait, what’s he doing? The pendant is way too small; there’s no way…” Hayama said frantically.

Asumi shook her head.

“He can. He may be an idiot, but if anybody can do it, it’s him.”

For a moment, it looked like Taichi floated in the air, maneuvering around like a falcon in the sky. The white glow of nullification around his feet was starting to fade away, and the ball of his right foot landed on his small arrowhead pendant floating in the sky.

“Go.”

With a boom, Taichi managed to clear the space of the water. The pendant bounced to the other side of the arena, the clack echoing through the audience.

Taichi slammed down in front of Natsu, sweeping his legs out from under him before he could react.

Natsu grunted before exploding back upright with a blast of fire aimed at Taichi, but it was immediately nullified upon contact.

Taichi punched Natsu once again before grabbing his arm and disarming his shinai.

Asumi’s fist clenched tightly from the audience.

“This isn’t the same Natsu as yesterday.”

Natsu desperately fired a barrage of blasts of fire and lightning across the arena, but those that weren’t deflected or dodged were instantly nullified.

Taichi held up Natsu’s shinai, gripping it until the wood around the handle began to splint.

“You will never hurt my friend again,” he muttered, before swinging it down on the fearful Natsu.

With that… the match was over.

“Hayato Taichi is the winner and new Rank #1 of Eclipse Academy!” Kodaka announced.

The crowd roared in excitement.

Taichi didn’t move.

He stayed standing over Natsu, his grip on the shinai only tightening at the sight of his fallen foe. The field powered down, the health bars above disappearing, and the healing properties of the mat below fading away.

Asumi met his gaze and nodded.

He lifted his shinai dramatically, with Natsu’s eyes still quivering in fear.

With a loud bang from across the arena, Natsu’s head spilled blood over the arena floor, dying it red as his faint breath lingered for only a little longer.

Taichi’s shinai hadn’t moved a single inch.