Chapter 24

Taya Hanebana stands between the two of them. While Iwata is lying on the ground Hibiki is standing in front of him, relaxed. “Enough I say!” Now that she actively takes on a role yet again… What she says is true. She tried to stop the fight from the moment Iwata threw sand. After all, the use of sand as an external weapon is prohibited if we follow the rules she originally gave for this contest.

Now that she stands between the two of them none of them actually does anything. Without waiting for another moment Hibiki slowly backs away and sits down on the ground next to the rest of us again. Hanebana wants to help Iwata stand up, but he pushes her hand away.

“It’s fine… no problem at all…” He wipes his glasses clean, then he slowly wants to go back and sit down as well. “Do you need some healing, Iwata?” Hanebana, worried about her student, asks him. Iwata just shakes his hand. “No… need to…”

Okubo has other ideas though. She grabs Iwata’s hand and angrily pulls him with her. “LORD IWATA! YOU NEED TO BE TREATED AT ONCE! AFTER ALL, IF YOU WON’T; HOW WILL THE TWO OF US EVER BECOME PARENTS?!”

Iwata is obviously annoyed, however he cannot really protest at this moment as the battle with Hibiki has weakened him way too much… And, to be quite honest, Okubo is quite unstoppable when it comes to Iwata’s well-being, it seems.

Soon enough, the next battle starts. And thus, the class goes on. Without Okubo there is no one who does not fight. Class is about to end, however there are two last people who did not fight yet.

“Isuri. Uyeno. Step up, it is your turn.” Thus I stand before Uyeno Kiyoko, the small girl with pink hair. To be fair, I was originally kind of scared. What if I were to fight against someone and they would simply beat the crap out of me with their blessing? There is nothing I could do as I myself have no blessing which I can actively access. After all, for my blessing to properly work I need to be close to death… however, if I were close to death, Miss Hanebana would most certainly not let me keep on fighting. That much was obvious, at least for me.

No offense to Uyeno, but when I found out she would be my opponent all of my worries vanished. I think that this should be a fight I can easily win, even without my blessing. Cast the blessing aside altogether: Even if I were to somehow activate it, what would I do then? I don’t think trying to crush Uyeno’s heart is an available option for me. After all, she would die instantly, just like the Ushitora and the Tengu I had slain with it. And I don’t want my already terrible track record which consists of skipping on my first day to get even worse due to me killing a fellow student of mine on the very next day.

“Fight… start!”

I don’t have my sword with me right now… Though I doubt that Miss Hanebana would have let me fight with my sword anyway. I try to imitate the fighting stance Muraoka took when he was fighting against Aomade, though my attempt at it looks really desperate and just not very professional.

Uyeno looks at me, closes her eyes and deeply breathes. In the very next moment she opens my eyes again and I can see some sort of bow forming. She points it at me and the bow, consisting of nothing but pink light, fires an arrow, consisting of nothing but purple light, directly at me. I’ll be honest, I did not anticipate something like this in the slightest. Despite that, I dash to the side and easily avoid the arrow. I try to close the distance between us but she is yet again creating the next arrow she has without problems. Damnit, if only I could activate my blessing… and if only my blessing were not able to instantly kill everyone I touch. Then I might be better suited for this fight…

Anyway! I will prevail! I will fight and punch her! I don’t think I need more than a single punch to beat her… Even if she hits me, as soon as I hit her I win!
I close the distance. I dash to the side and am now right in front of here. I take a swing and want to hit her at this very moment. She fires the arrow and hits me-

I instantly stop. As I look at the beautiful and innocent face in front of me, being genuinely scared, I can only blame myself for scaring such a pretty girl. I go down on one knee. “I give up.” Without hesitating I speak of the only option that is realistic for such a situation.

Hanebana nods.

In the next moment I come back to my senses… What the hell just happened?!

“S-sorry Isuri… My blessing, given to me by none other than love, makes people… w-well… adore me and stop them from hurting me.”

I was beaten without even getting hurt.