Chapter 22

Aomade runs towards Muraoka. Muraoka grins and takes on some kind of fighting stance. It does remind me of some kind of dance that was once practiced in my village.

As Aomade is creeping something begins shimmering in front of Muraoka. No, calling it shimmering does not come close: With every moment that passes the shimmering becomes intenser and seemingly brighter. Soon enough it feels as though I am looking directly at the sun. I can barely watch the fight.

“I hate that damn guy.” The girl next to me actually talked for once and is hiding her face even more with the cap resting on her head. I can understand her: Blinding everyone in a battle that is meant to be spectated is far from optimal. But that is the blessing he has received by Light. I remember Hanebana telling me this.

Muraoka moves the eyepatch hiding his right eye and now puts it into his left eye. I cannot clearly see what is happening as the light of Aomade is way too bright for me, but it seems to bother neither Aomade nor Muraoka. As Aomade takes a swing, Muraoka gently takes a quick step forth without breaking his stance. Then, when Aomade least expects it, he simply punches his face directly. Aomade crashes into the ground as I can identify via a thump. Then, the blinding light created by Aomade vanishes.

Aomade is lying on the ground and Muraoka towers above him, gently smiling. His right eye is revealed: It is nothing less than a completely black orb with a single blue point in its middle.

“Muraoka has been blessed by Darkness. His hidden eye allows him to face the truest facades of the world and directly see the souls of his opponents. No idea how one can imagine that but it practically means he can hit you without actually damaging your body. Thus, he can easily attack by ignoring the armor one has.”

While this power sounded pretty useful on its own, it gets even more useful when you think about the enemy he is fighting currently: Aomade whose power blinds his opponents. Normally, Muraoka would have been blinded but due to him blocking off his eye and only using his blessed eye he can ignore this altogether. I imagine his vision with this eye to be similar to the vision I have once my Blessing activates.

“It’s over, Aomade. Nice try though. Guess you were just unlucky.” Muraoka smiles down at him and slowly extends his arm to help him get up. However, at this moment something happens. Something only us spectators can notice:

Behind Muraoka something begins shining oh so strongly. It shines brighter and brighter until finally-

“Ouch!” Muraoka jumps up a bit. Hanebana also did mention this. If his enemy was stupid enough to run into Aomade’s enlightened spot, they would be burned. Muraoka did not run into the trap though: The trap was generated specifically behind him to specifically target none other than him and his butt. Normally, Muraoka would have noticed the light behind him without any problems… but due to him only using his special eye he did not notice anything like that at all!

Thus, Muraoka did get his ass burned.

When he jumped up out of shock, Aomade jumped up as well and directly gave him an uppercut. Muraoka falls down onto the ground and coughs a bit.

“The fight’s over.” Hanebana holds up one of her hands and smiles a bit. “Well done, both of you.”

The two of them make peace and shake each other’s hand, then they sit down again. Muraoka was asked whether or not he needed treatment but he shrubbed it off and said he’d manage without it.

“Okay, next up is… grey! Come forth!”

As I look down on the paper stick Iwata has given me in exchange for my grey stick and look upon its blue color I do hesitate a moment. Normally I would have fought now.

The first person standing up was Hibiki. When I saw her for the first time she was wearing shorts and a black jacket. Now she was wearing the simple school uniform, just like everyone else. The shirt still was the same though.

I hear some mumbling. Before I can make out anything I get overwhelmed by a loud scream right next to me.

“YOU WILL WIN, LORD IWATA! THERE IS NO OTHER CHOICE! COME ON, LORD IWATA! DESTROY THAT BITCH!”

Iwata just stood up and slowly took his place on the field. The girl previously hiding beneath her cap has taken off said cap and swings it around. She looks at Iwata with a certainly unhealthy obsession - I believe her eyes have even formed hearts.

I look over at Aki, hoping that she can explain what is happening at this very moment. And indeed she can:

“That’s Okubo. She is kind of obsessed with Iwata.”
“WELL, OBVIOUSLY I AM! HOW COULD ANYONE NOT BE OBSESSED WITH HIM? OH, BUT YOU ALL ARE CLEVER TO NOT SHOW IT! I WOULD HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF YOU IF YOU WERE TO REVEAL YOUR OBSESSION… ONLY I CAN BE IWATA’S OBSESSIVE FAN!”

I take back any kind of weirdness I have attributed to anyone and instead shove it all to this girl.

“Anyway, this will be an interesting match.”

“How come?”

“Well, Hibiki and Iwata are probably the two strongest students currently… They are also the oldest and will probably graduate soon enough.”

Aki looks over at the obsessed Obuko who is loudly cheering.

“She also is graduating soon enough… She seriously caught up to the two of them just so she can graduate together with Iwata.

Anyway, the two of them have some kind of rivalry going on… well, at least Iwata has.

Iwata - and Okubo, obviously - is convinced that he is someone extraordinary, like the Hero Phanes. Thus, he believes that no one is stronger than him… That is, besides Hibiki.

Hibiki is the only one that is actually better than him most of the time and it pisses him off.”

Ah. That makes sense, I suppose. After all, he did take my paper stick… He probably saw the one Hibiki was holding and picked mine precisely to end up fighting against her. Never thought she’d be on top of the class though.