Chapter 8:

The First Month Trial

Misfortunes of a Real Magic High School Vol. 1


Pieces of shrapnel flew towards the wall of the classroom. What remained of a training dummy crumpled before Ms. Kurokawa, who just unleashed a high level form of explosive magic. What exactly would an attack like that do to a human body if it completely disintegrated a training dummy?

“Alright class, I’m out of training dummies for the day.”

She tossed what remained of the last dummy on top of the massive pile of carnage sitting in the corner. Demonstrations from Ms. Kurokawa, Honoko, Yukino, Kaede, Sora, and Shinobu left not much remaining in tact. I never volunteered myself, for obvious reasons. The top ranked students were all willing and able volunteers. Kaede Kuno, the third ranked student in Class 1-A, specialized in plant magic, just like our senior Kaori Sakata. Sora, Shun’s roommate and close confidant of Ryu, specialized in a wind magic, although he used it differently than Emi. While Emi used her wind magic to control her movements and the wind around her, Sora used it in an offensive and combative style. And Shinobu, perhaps the most unique of all, specialized in invisibility magic. She had shown the ability to make herself of any object of her choosing invisible. Watching her disappear before delivering a lethal strike to a training dummy was a terrifying sight.

“Hey, Adachi, clean these things up will you?”

Shun let out a clearly audible sigh. “Yes ma’am.”

He rose from his desk and started taking the mangled dummies out of the classroom, one by one. I was far too familiar with that duty, after all Ms. Kurokawa assigned it to me last class.

“While Adachi is busy with that, I have an announcement to make. I know it’s almost the end of the day but I assure you this is important. I’m sure you all remember the class rankings I showed you the first week of school, yes?”

Everyone perked up at the mention of the class rankings. Rank was seen as a status symbol at this school, so anything related to class rank mattered to everyone it seemed.

“Well,” Ms. Kurokawa continued. “You all are about to have your first opportunity to change your class ranks. As the school simply likes to call it, the First Month Trial will begin next week.”

“First Month Trial? What’s that?” Sora asked from the back of the classroom.

“If you let me continue speaking you’ll find out,” Ms. Kurokawa snapped back. At least she wasn’t hard on just me and Shun. “The First Month Trial will be a classic single elimination tournament for our entire class, taking one week to complete. This tournament is a chance to prove your chops. Right now, your rankings aren’t based on much, so this is an opportunity to make a stellar impression at this school. The bracket will be released tonight on the student portal, so you can start preparing for your match ups.”

A tournament? To me, that only meant one thing. Unless this was a tournament based on something arbitrary like academics or cooking ability, there was only one real way to determine a winner. Combat. And I had no way out.

“Oh hell yeah,” Haru Yamaguchi exclaimed with confidence. “It’s finally time for me to move up from this garbage 12th rank I was handed.” He wasn’t the only student excited, I heard chatter all around me.

“Settle down everyone. Each round will be ten minutes long. If both participants are still standing when time expires, the round will enter sudden death. The competitor to land the next strike as determined by the round judge will be determined the winner. Alright, that’s all I had to say. Class dismissed.”

For once the classroom didn’t rapidly empty following dismissal. Groups of students stayed behind, certainly chatting about the upcoming trial. I stuck around waiting for Shun to finish discarding the dummies so I could fill him in on the details. To my shock, Honoko peeled away from her group of friends and made her way towards me.

“Hey Nakamura,” her tone was tense and somewhat aggressive.

“Hi, Hayashi.”

“I don’t want to get on your case, but you better get your act together.”

What was she talking about? “I’m sorry, I don’t really understand what you mean.”

“I mean, we’ve been here three full weeks now and I still haven’t seen you take a sparring match or do any sort of training. I don’t want to be roommates with one of the lowest ranked students in the class, so try and do some training or something will you?”

Before I could say anything in response she turned away, heading back to her friends. She did have a point, but there wasn’t really anything I could do about it. The moment I tried training in the company of other people I would be exposed as a total fraud.

When Shun finally arrived I sported a dejected look on my face.

“What’s up, man? Did I miss something? I only heard bits and pieces of what teach was saying.”

“Yeah, you missed a lot. Ms. Kurokawa was explaining the First Month Trial to the class.”

Shun seemed unfazed by my revelation. Although I hadn’t known him very long, I could tell he liked to play towards his stoic, confident side. But still, I was surprised he had no reaction at all.

“What’s that all about?”

I gave him a brief rundown of Ms. Kurokawa’s explanation, Shun again seeming calm. Maybe for other Class A students this wasn’t seen as a big deal? My extraordinary circumstances were definitely weighing on my mind after all.

“Sounds like this is our chance to move up the ladder, man. You and me, rising up the ranks together. What a story that will make!”

Even if Shun managed to climb the ranks, I wouldn’t be accompanying him. On the contrary, this trial marked the beginning of the end of my time at the Apex High School of Magic.

“Let’s get out of here,” Shun continued. “Wanna grab some grub? The school cafeteria is still open.”

Now that he mentioned it, I was hungry. And after getting ahead on my assignments the prior week, I had the time to spare.

“Sure, sounds good to me.”


The cafeteria was almost hauntingly empty. Aside from a few clusters of students, Shun and I had every table to choose from. To get some variety from the cafeteria, I ordered the sushi special, while Shun stuck with his typical curry dish. We sat down at one of the countless open tables.

“So, man, you mentioned teach said the schedule would be released on the student portal. Did she say when?”

“No, she didn’t,” I responded between bites.

“Dang, alright. Did she say how the bracket is being generated?”

“Again, no. She really didn’t give us much detail at all. I assume the bracket is randomly generated though, that seems the most fair after all, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t know about that,” Shun replied hesitantly. It seemed like Shun knew a lot more about this trial than he was letting on.

“Well well, hey there you two.” A voice which could send shivers down my spine could only belong to one person, Shinobu Shiina. I swiveled around in my chair and was greeted by Shinobu, standing far too close to me.

“Oh, hi Shiina.”

“Hey there Shiina,” Shun said with his patented hair flip.

Shinobu pulled up a seat next to me and promptly made herself comfortable.

“So what brings you two to the cafeteria? Don’t want to eat out in the city?”

“It’s more cost friendly to eat at school,” Shun replied. “Plus the food here is pretty good don’t you think?”

Only half listening, Shinobu grabbed a pair of chopsticks and snagged a piece of sushi off my plate. Who said she could have any of my food?

“You’re right, the food here is good, especially the sushi,” she responded as she finished eating what she took off my plate. She flashed me a sweet and playful smile, one that could make any guys heart melt. Why did she like messing with me so much?

The audible vibration of a cellphone caught my attention mid-conversation. It wasn’t mine. I peered at Shun, who shook his head and pointed to Shinobu. Her phone was already in hand.

“Well that was fast,” she said. “My roommate Kuno just messaged me that the bracket has been released.” So Shinobu was roommates with Kaede Kuno. That was a power duo if I’d ever seen one.

But the bracket was already release? It hadn’t even been thirty minutes since class ended. The teachers sure worked quickly. Without delay, Shun and I both pulled out our phones. I quickly launched the student portal, my nerves forming a knot in my stomach. I closed my eyes and clicked on the bracket announcement post. I slowly opened my eyes. After a quick glance, my stomach churned. I felt like I was riding the world’s tallest drop tower at an amusement park. I was nauseous.

Shun must have spotted my match-up as well. “Oh… man.”

“You certainly have your work cut out for you,” Shinobu commented as she checked out my phone screen over my shoulder. Her comment came in a surprisingly serious tone by her standards.

My match-up was scheduled as the opening fight of the First Month Trial, against none other than Ryu Takanashi. Lord help me.

“This is so strange,” Shun remarked. “Man, why are you going against Takanashi? Every other match-up is based on rank, yet you got matched up with him? What gives?”

Shinobu nodded in agreement. “That does seem unfair to me.”

After spotting my impending doom, I didn’t bother examining the rest of the bracket. Shun was right. While I swapped places with a girl named Sakura Sato, the 16th ranked student in the class, every other match-up was ordered by class rank. 2 vs. 15, 4 vs. 13, 5 vs. 12. Why did I get the “honor” of facing the top ranked student in the class despite being ranked 14th myself? Not that my opponent really mattered anyway.

Shun didn’t have it much easier. His first match was against our friend, Yukino. Their match-up would be an interesting dynamic, showcasing friendship against the fostered competitiveness between students at this school. Given my conversation with Yukino at the ramen shop, I knew what her priority would be. And given how handily she dispatched Honoko, I didn’t like Shun’s chances.

“Man going against Yukimura round one sure is tough, but I look forward to the challenge. We’re only going up from here, right Arata?”

“Yeah… sure.”

Shinobu was already back to studying the bracket. Had she not even viewed her match up yet?

“Looks like I’m against Sakurai,” Shinobu said right on cue. Sakurai, ranked thirteenth in the class, was still no slouch. I had seen her in a couple of sparring matches during my time in the courtyard, and she handled Class B students with ease. Up to this point, I had never seen Shinobu in a fight, only in class demonstrations against dummies. So I was unsure what to expect from her. But invisibility magic seemed almost too overpowered for a one on one combat situation.

“You’ve got this in the bag man. Your invisibility is crazy! Sakurai stands no chance.”

“You should never underestimate an opponent,” Shinobu countered. “Everyone at this school is capable.”

She almost sounded like Yukino. It was clear that both of them had a lot of respect for magic and all magic users.

“Well boys, it’s been fun, but I’ve got some training to do.” Shinobu grabbed her bag and rose from the table. “Good luck with your matches, and I’ll see you in class. Don’t train too hard.”

“You too!” Shun replied enthusiastically.

Seeing both of them, with so much hope and determination, made me feel even worse. For me, this was the countdown to the beginning of the end.


The next week flew by in the blink of an eye. A week I spent filled with dread, simply going through the motions. Training would be a fruitless endeavor, so I didn’t bother. Before I knew it, it was match day. And I had the pleasure of opening the festivities. The center field of the courtyard had been reconfigured into a makeshift stadium. Pull out bleachers surrounded the field, like something you’d see at a normal high school sporting event. The number of seats was definite overkill. Even though all the tournament matches took place after school, spectators were limited to other Class 1-A students only. So, sitting in the stands were fourteen of my classmates, waiting for me to make my entrance.

I made my way through the doorway. No applause, nothing. I stood on the field, facing an empty opposite starting spot. Then, from the opposite doorway, out came my first round opponent. It was time to get this “show” on the road.