Chapter 8: The fight commences! Yuki vs. Shouko!

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Here it is! The fight between the Black Witches and the Dark Sorcerers! I'm especially excited about this fight, since this will show some serious development! Hope everyone will enjoy this scene as much as I wrote it, and I hope that everyone will like it by cliking the like button, and comment on what's your favorite part!
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Throughout the school day, only worry and fear passed through the young magic students. They could barely pay attention to the class and to the teacher giving the boring lecture.

After all, they had to fight against other mages—particularly strong ones—to appease Tsubaki’s bet with Adrena, another master mage who is just as crazy as Tsubaki. All to prove who has the better students overall.

Throughout the day, all they could think about is the fact that they will get hurt due to their inexperience. As each class pass by, the students could feel their life clock ticking to their end.

●

Finally, the bell rang throughout the school, signifying the end of school—and quite possibly their lives.

Stepping out of the dual doors entrance of the school, they didn’t feel the jubilant emotion of getting out of school at all. Not even the excitement of using magic passed through them. All they could feel is fear.

“Come on, guys! Don’t get so nervous!”

Tsubaki, in her transparent form, flew out of the pendant showing a pouting frown on her sharp looking face. Her hands on her hips, she admonished the two students who turned their heads down on their luck.

The two looked up, their faces showing their worry and exhaustion.

“I couldn’t focus at all… I don’t want to do this…!” Yuki became the first to complain, and though Touyo remained silent, he nodded in agreement.

“Don’t do that! Don’t back out now before you could even face them! You know how bad that’ll make me look?!”

“Like we care about your image! We didn’t ask to be dragged into this!” Touyo snapped back, gripping his right fist and gritting his teeth.

Tsubaki responded with a ‘boo’, sticking her tongue out at him. She floated back up above them, her legs crossed.

“Listen, I know it’s scary. But someday, you’re going to have to face through this. It’s just that it happened a little bit sooner than I expected.”

“Yeah, and it’s all because of you!”

“Master Tsubaki, I’m sorry, but Touyo’s right! How can you just agree to that bet without even consulting us?!”

Yuki held her chest with her hand to deliver her complaint. Tsubaki creased her brow away from their sight, raising the corner of her lip as she realized that the two had a point.

“Either way, It already happened! And besides, beating those stupid Dark Sorcerers are the best way to start off as the Black Witches!”

Tsubaki floated back towards her students, raising her finger as she brought up a point for their own organization.

“But you’re making us fight the guys that are practically policemen in the… Underworld?”

As soon as Touyo said his sentence, the word at the end caught him in a loop. H raised his right brow which got Yuki to catch up on that.

“What is the Underworld, anyway?”

“Oh, that’s where I come from,” Tsubaki answered plainly.

“S-Seriously…?” Touyo tilted his head in disbelief.

“It’s true! While we live in this world, the Underworld lies under it— as the name suggests. The two worlds coexist with one another in separate planes of existence. For instance, that Existence barrier is actually a small scale of what separates this world with the Underworld.”

“W-Wow… so the Underworld is basically a place where magic exists, right…?” Yuki made the assumption, receiving a nod from Tsubaki.

“Yep!”

“S-So, it’s not like in mythology, where bad guys go to when they die…?” Touyo remembered this particular word from one of his comics, prompting a shaking head from Tsubaki.

“Of course not. Sure, in this world, the underworld is treated as some kind of hell. But in truth, the Underworld is another side of the world different from this one. The magic density in that sky is much thicker than in here, so everyone there is able to use magic from the moment they were born.”

“Wow… I wish I was born in that world instead… I want to see it!”

Yuki muttered to herself but was caught by Touyo. Sure enough, he would have liked to be born there as well instead of this dreary, boring real world.

“Don’t worry. You two will definitely visit it one day,” Tsubaki said as she raised a wide smile.

“…Ah! Forget about that!” Touyo instantly snapped and forcibly changed the subject. “Tsubaki, you’re going to make us fight the law from the Underworld?!”

“T-That’s right! We can’t forget about that!” Yuki also shouted back, becoming embarrassed at how easily she forgot it.

The two suddenly looking at her in scorn, Tsubaki’s plan to calm them down didn’t work. Letting out a wry chuckle, Tsubaki answered.

“Those students you’re facing are still in training. They’re not official Dark Sorcerers—you guys would get creamed if you face real Dark Sorcerers so soon.”

“Even so, they’re policemen! You think we can even defeat them?!” Touyo shouted back, a vein shown throbbing on his forehead.

“Of course I do. Especially if you guys keep your calm and do as I instructed.”

Tsubaki answered with a cool tone, this time showing a solemn thin line on her mouth.

“You mean, fight like we’re facing against ghouls…?” Yuki answered, her tone lower this time.

“That’s right. I’ll tell you guys first-hand—having experience fighting against ghouls makes you guys certified mages. You shouldn’t lose confidence in yourself after all the times you spent fighting against them.”

“E-Even so…” Yuki stuttered, still doubtful of their fight.

“True enough, since you two will be fighting separately, it might be difficult when facing a solo opponent who can think for themselves.”

“Well, I don’t think Yuki would ever lose—she’s amazing when it comes to using her spells,” Touyo praised without a hitch while looking normal. It was obvious for him to say, but it left Yuki’s cheeks to burn red from being praised so honestly. “But can I even win?”

“Of course you can. Like I said, just follow my instructions, and you will all be fine.”

Tsubaki concluded, crossing her arms with a straightforward pose in the sky as a grin bloomed on her face. Meanwhile, the two students looked at each other, both emphasizing with each other on the fact that their teacher always put them through the ringer.

●

Hours went by in a flash, and the time to fight is at hand. The moon rose from the horizon. It shined brilliantly down onto the peaceful town as the darkness embraced the sky—the stars were strewn about everywhere. The Black Witches have already arrived at the desired location for their fight.

It was at the park, on the side where there was no obstacles in their path. They were in a clearing between the trees, away from the playground where it was possible to be seen by other people from across the street.

Though, the chance of that happening turned nilch as Tsubaki erected the Existence Barrier to place them in a separate dimension, disallowing anyone uninvolved from watching the magic fights.

Standing upright in their magic uniforms, the students each went their own phase of nerves as they waited for the hour of the fight to begin. Yuki outstretched her left hand towards herself, and drew a character in their language for courage. She immediately swallowed the imaginary character into her mouth. It was a popular way for the people in Japan to get rid of their nerves as she waited for their fight to arrive.

For Touyo, he closed his eyes and imagined himself fighting against the hooded opponents from before. He’s not the type to use a ritual like Yuki did as he believed that there was no point, so he designed a simulation in his mind to make sure that he can do everything he can to at least survive.

However, as magic is a phenomenon only limited by imagination, it can be extremely abstract. He actually imagined himself getting killed by various spells which involved burning him alive, freezing him to bits, or even being swallowed by some powerful darkness and never returning back to the real world.

His imagination became his own undoing as he immediately opened his eyes and refused to go back into his mind.

The air remained still. From the long distance they could practically hear the clock tick on the hour at hand. As soon as it ticked to 9:00 pm, the air cracked open from the sky, craning their necks above to see the similar vortex appearing and forming a hole in the sky.

Through the vortex, a group of hooded figures and a woman were shot out of the hole and into the real world, and landed on the ground with finesse.

(Do they have to show up like that?) Touyo figured that the vortex entrance was a little show-offish.

“Well then, it looks like you didn’t run away, Tsubaki. Paint me surprised,” Adrena said with a hint of arrogance in her tone, raising her hand to her mouth.

“Heh, I’m just glad I didn’t had to find you, since you could have ran away to avoid the shame of losing to me!” Tsubaki crossed her arms, a wild grin on her face as she talked down to her.

“Oh, you would love to see that, wouldn’t you?!”

“Bring it, bitch!”

The two adults have returned to their childish antics, with Adrena huffing and puffing in anger while Tsubaki showed a sign on her finger that shouldn’t be shown to the kids around her.

“Hmph! Then, let’s get this started,” Adrena cleared her throat, ignoring the immoral finger sign as she turned to one of the hooded figures.

“This will be a one-on-one fight between our students. Time limit’s at ten minutes. The fight will end when one is either knocked out or surrenders. Is that fine with you, Tsubaki?”

“Good for me. Let’s get this started.”

Tsubaki turned back around to face her students, while Adrena addressed to hers.

“Shouko, you’re up.”

Speaking to her while pointing at the empty field with her chin, one of the hooded figures raised his head. He seemed like he was going to follow it. However—

“Don’t tell me what to do. The only one worthy of giving orders to me is Jun.”

The figure, having a high voice like a girl, responded in a cavalier tone which prompted Adrena to flinch in response as her face stiffened. The two Black Witches tilted their heads in response.

“H-Hey, at least just do what I said for now!”

“Hmph, don’t act so arrogant.”

“The only one arrogant here is you!”

Adrena snapped back with a sharp insult herself, but the young girl only turned her hooded face aside with a huff.

“Shouko, go ahead. At least satisfy our ‘master’s stupid bet so we can be finished with this.”

“Understood, Jun!”

The girl turned back to the other hooded figure who spoke, having a male voice, and responded almost instantaneously while giving a strong nod.

The girl figure lowered her knees and jumped up into the sky. The hooded figure’s clad body flew about in air, the cloak fluttering as the wind blew on it. The figure then landed straight onto the empty grass field, and stood upright with both hands gripped tight. Then, she raised her hand, grabbed onto her hood, and pulled it off.

The Black Witches became stunned to see someone unexpected. She was a young girl about the same height as the two with straight hair colored lavender that reached to her neck. She wore a jacket-like cloak with popped collars over her body that reached to her thighs with coattails on both her front and back. Through her open cloak was a black shirt and short black pants that reached to her showing thighs.

She wore white bandages that covered her palms and forearms, with black boots that reached her forelegs. From the looks of it, the girl knew her way around a battlefield. This was the feeling Touyo had when he saw her.

The young woman, Shouko, raised her hands together and proceeded to crack the knuckles on her hands, the sound of her bones cracking with her steely expression along with sharp eyes made it more intimidating. The two students, Yuki especially, swallowed imaginary air in their throats.

“Alright, Yuki, you’re up,” Tsubaki said while facing forward to Shouko, a grin on her face as she expected quick work from Yuki.

“Eh?! No way!”

“Eh!?”

Tsubaki immediately turned back with a stiffened face to hear Yuki’s blatant refusal to participate.

“I can’t fight her! She’ll kick my butt!”

“N-No, she won’t! Just follow my plan and I swear that you’ll win!”

Tsubaki raised both her hands to try to calm the panicking Yuki, all the while Adrena let out a laughter that echoed across the park.

“Haha! So she’s too scared to even face her? I should have expected this out of a human from earth—they have no backbone.”

“Grr…” Tsubaki’s vein throbbed from her forehead, her hand gripping into a fist while gritting her teeth.

Touyo knew that a fight between Adrena and Tsubaki could occur if he doesn’t do something soon.

“Yuki, I know it looks bad, but I’m going to have to fight too. You know that you got a better advantage, right?”

“B-But… she looks so scary…”

Yuki understood Touyo’s reasoning, but after taking another look at the girl still glaring at her, her nerves caught up with her.

“Come on, Yuki, You can do this.”

Touyo didn’t know whether he was doing the cheering-up thing correctly, but he had no other words to offer her. Yuki’s eyes widened a little, her ears picking up words that she would normally never hear from someone else, especially from a person the same age as her.

Somehow, it filled her with energy, and she huffed out air.

“A-Alright. I’ll do it!”

Yuki raised both her little hands and gripped them into fists. Walking out without showing off like Shouko did, she reached to the center of the field, both hands and feet shaking like a mechanical doll.

“Alright then, begin!”

Without even giving a moment, Adrena started the fight by raising her hand up in the air to the open sky, signifying the start of the match.

“Hmph…” Shouko started off with a scoff. “Do you really think you can beat me? With your stupid frilly dress, you’ll only trip up!”

“M-My dress has nothing to do with this! S-So please k-k-keep your opinion to yourself!”

Yuki snapped back the moment her cute dress became insulted by her opponent, though she stuttered from her nerves. Yuki put herself into her combat stance along with Shouko who raised both fists near her face and bent her knees.

Touyo’s breath was taken away by the tension, and hoped that Yuki would make it out in one piece. But it looks like he might have a hard time believing in his own hope.

After a moment’s silence, Shouko rushed in, bending her torso forward to gain momentum as she charged in towards Yuki. She widened her eyes at Shouko who is already getting close to her, raising her fist

In an instant, Yuki saw a green colored magical circle appearing on her right forearm. Shouko’s right fist glowed bright white, covering the entire fist like a warm aura of light. Shouko gripped it hard as she launched it at her.

“Acero Punch!”

She screamed out, her voice resounded in the air as her punch connected to Yuki’s left cheek. The impact caused Yuki immense pain on it, her own head possibly being torn off from the blow itself.

Following her head, her whole body flew away from Shouko’s punch like a ragdoll without any weight, and landed right on the grassy ground a few meters away.

“Yuki!”

Touyo almost fell to his knees. For such a dainty girl like Yuki to be hit by a punch, and a powerful looking one no less, Touyo feared that Yuki could have actually died.

Tsubaki hissed as a growing look of concern marred her face. Meanwhile, Adrena gazed at the fight with a smile forming on her lips, her arms crossed together as she nodded in satisfaction.

“Mmh, is that all you got?” Shouko brought her fist closer to herself, the white glow around it beginning to fade with each second. “You can’t even dodge such a simple punch. You’re not even worthy of using magic!”

Shouko punched her two fists together a couple of times as she walked forward with a steady pace. Meanwhile, Touyo ran up to Yuki’s side, making sure that he’s keeping a short distance away so that it won’t affect the match.

“Yuki! Are you okay?! You still alive?!”

Touyo asked, though it sounded rather pretentious. However, he kept it aside in his mind as his main concern is whether Yuki is even awake. Yuki let out a groan like she was waking from death itself. Relief passed through Touyo as Yuki lifted herself up with both hands on the ground, shaking her head in the process.

“Yuki! Are you okay!?” Touyo closed up again, shouting to Yuki to tell whether she still had her mental functions working.

Yuki rubbed her practically bruised cheek on her face, wincing after immense pain jolted through it.

“T-Touyo… what happened…?”

“I-I don’t know,” Tuyo answered Yuki’s nearly befuddled question. “It’s like she just used magic to make her fist stronger!”

“So, that’s the famous CQM style.”

Tsubaki said, staring at the fighter girl as she closed in towards Yuki. Shouko stopped in her progress, waiting for her opponent to stand up. Adrena chuckled to herself as she answered Tsubaki’s statement.

“That’s right,” Adrena raised her hand towards herself as if to gloat. “That’s Close-Quarter Magic. Black Magic is the mostly elemental and distance magic, but CQM forms magic around the user’s body. It activates said magic by using the force of her blows. Shouko here is a well-renowned fighter in the Underworld, and the best user of CQM! That little girl stands no chance against her!”

Filled with delight, Adrena laughed pompously, gloating on the fact that she had this match already. Yuki stood up to her feet, her head dizzy and a coursing headache following through it.

Her eyes grew fuzzy as she tried to focus on the opponent before her, but not before hearing the sudden scoff once again.

“What are you even doing? If you just focused on your magic rather than just looking stupidly pretty, then maybe you would have even a sliver of a chance!”

Shouko pointed at Yuki, calling out on her behavior with a displeased expression on her face. Touyo gritted his teeth as his frustrations grew within him from those insults to Yuki.

“You…”

Touyo and the rest turned back at Yuki after her voice slowly peeked out from between her dizzying motions. Her eyes were gazing on the ground to focus, but soon her mind became clear. She raised her head, showing a fierce determined face with furrowed eyes.

“Y-You don’t know anything about me! Hah… I-I love magic! I’m taking this more seriously than anything else in my life!”

Touyo could sense the frustration from Yuki’s angered tone in her voice, and the crease in her brows. He knew more than anyone that Yuki loved magic all her life thanks to her complete devotion to Magical Girl Miyuri.

Even if she doesn’t look the part of a serious mage, her dedication to learn magic is definitely beyond than normal people would.

“Hmph, you don’t know crap about being serious! You haven’t trained hard enough like I did to become strong!” Shouko gripped her fist, her teeth biting on her lip. “For someone like you who look so ridiculous… To focus on looking so damn foolish that it hurts my eyes… I’ll beat the living crap out of you!”

Somehow, Touyo sensed that Shouko herself was somewhat annoyed by Yuki. Was she that disturbed by Yuki’s dress? Or rather Yuki’s demeanor on the fight? Either way, Shouko showed a sharp furrow in her brows as she put herself up into her stance again.

The pain hasn’t left her cheek, and her head was still banging on the sides as if heavy drumsticks were beating on her at every second. However, Yuki raised her open hands towards herself, putting herself into her own stance.

Another moment of silence took place, and then—

“I’ll destroy you!”

Shouko once again rushed in, both forearms having green-colored magical circles around them as her fists began to glow yellow this time. Her fists started generating small sparks—electricity coiled around her fists and forearms. Shouko lunged at Yuki and swung her fists charged with electricity.

“Chispa Punch!”

Shouko swung her fists, the flickering sparks of her electricity swaying away as she swung it towards Yuki. The powerful-looking fist charged with enough electricity to definitely make her numb, Yuki became focused as she furrowed her eyes.

Shouko swung her fist, but she widened her eyes at the lack of impact.

“W-What?!”

Her fists, once swung, let out a bolt of electricity for a short distance. It hit the nearby tree that blasted apart the bark on the base. Smoke rose from the center of the tree where the damaged bark lay, but it wasn’t supposed to be like that.

“W-Where’d she go?!” Shouko put her head on a swivel as she turned multiple times to view her surroundings, but for some reason, Yuki was nowhere in sight.

“W-What?! Did she run away or something?!” Adrena also couldn’t see what happened as she was focused on Shouko’s marvelous fighting style, and began to search as she made this claim.

“Heh, if you had kept a clear head, you would have seen this coming a mile away.”

Tsubaki spoke with a courageous grin to Shouko who turned back at her with widened eyes. Then, her highly trained ears picked up athe sound of air distorting and turned her head up high into the night sky.

An azure colored magic circle appeared out in the air, and coming out of the magic circle was the girl she was trying to demolish into pieces.

Yuki flew out of the magic circle while riding on her broom, her dress swaying from the incoming breeze as she looked down on Shouko.

“Flying magic?! And was that teleportation just now…?!”

The hooded figure shouted, becoming in disbelief to see the young girl display such magic mastery in a course of a few minutes.

“H-How can that be…? Not even the students have learned that yet…”

Adrena said to herself, her hand on her chin as she observed Yuki a little longer. Meanwhile, Shouko showed gritted teeth and a vein throbbed on her head.

“Coward!” Shouko snapped back at the girl high up top. “Come down here and fight me like a man!”

“I’m a girl! And you are too!” Yuki shouted back to her to correct her statement. “And who says a mage has to fight close hand!? Are you stupid?!”

The supposedly sweet and gentle girl suddenly insult Shouko like that left both Shouko and even Touyo shocked. Touyo’s sweat rolled down his cheek, and Shouko only gritted her teeth, a vein popping up on her forehead.

“Y-Y-You calling me stupid?! Come down here and we’ll see who’s the stupid one!”

“I rather not… and you just answered my question.”

Yuki creased her brow at the sight of someone without common sense. Her comment just now only made Shouko furrow her eyes further as she had no kind of magic that lets her get up in the air. Then, Yuki raised her hand high up in the sky.

“Thunder!”

Then, above Shouko a few meters upwards, an azure magic circle appeared. It surprised Shouko and Adrena as the magic circle formed electricity coiling around in a flurry of azure sparks.

The sparks became fiercer after every second, surprising Touyo as he never felt anything she made before as strong as this one.

A blast of azure light flew down from the magic circle, the roaring sounds of thunder cracked in the air as it aimed right at Shouko.

“Gaah!”

Shouko screamed in agonizing pain as the blast of thunder shocked her, her body contorting in many silly looking poses as the shocked developed her entire body—surprising everyone who looked.

Soon, the azure thunder slowly ceased, the magic circle dissipating away as Yuki looked down to see her unfortunate victim of her Thunder spell. She hissed at her own work after Shouko showed to be literally smoking, her body covered in black soot while she had a blank look in her eyes. Her irises were practically white as short grunts of pain could be heard from her.

“Had enough yet?!” Yuki screamed, looking down at the being who just received her big spell.

“Gah… hah… not… not yet!”

Beginning to recover, Shouko shook her head as she gazed upwards, answering with all her might as she put herself into her combat stance again.

“I see… then!”

Yuki looking somewhat violent, Touyo could already imagine what’s about to happen.

Yuki used up a variety of spells to take Shouko down. Using flight as her advantage, Yuki shot several spells at her, using every element imaginable such as high-pressure water beams, scorching hot fireballs, sharp sickle-like air blades, and ice spikes that nearly punctured the poor Dark Sorcerer on the ground.

Tsubaki laughed the whole way while Touyo kept watching with a widened look. Adrena held her mouth with her hands in terror while the hooded figure could be seen shaking from within his cloak.

After Yuki finally finished up, Shouko’s body completely battered and bruised. Her body shook just slightly, her eyes completely white before her body tumbled forward and eventually fell to the ground, her face right on the grass with her arms and legs bent up and shaking.

“Whoa…” Touyo even felt bad after Shouko ended up like that.

“Ah…” Adrena gaped at the sight, and even the other hooded figure looked surprised by the way his body shook.

“Hehe, winner, winner! The winner is… Yuki Sosuke!”

Tsubaki floated up towards Yuki who remained in the air and raised her hand with her own high in the sky like a winner of a boxing match. Swinging her hand around as Tsubaki’s laughter rang out, Yuki laughed to herself while smiling wryly.

“T-That’s…”Adrena could barely make a sentence as her body shook while the other hooded figure closed up towards Shouko to give her a helping hand.

After a while, Tsubaki and Yuki returned back to where they were. Touyo ran up to Yuki, a smile on his face.

“Great job, Yuki! I knew you could do it!” Touyo praised her with a gleaming smile, sincerely glad that Yuki didn’t get hurt that badly.

Hearing such honest praise, Yuki’s cheeks burned red in embarrassment, hanging her head down to herself as her shoulders squirmed.

“T-Thank you, Touyo…”

“I knew my student would win! She’s just that talented!”

Tsubaki also joined in on giving praise, leaving Yuki to cover her face by looking at the ground to avoid letting her blushing face being covered entirely in red shown. Then, Tsubaki turned to Touyo.

“Are you ready to follow up on her win, Touyo?”

Looking back at him with a serious but grinning face, Touyo took a moment to look at the hooded figure helping Shouko up from the ground by lifting her with his shoulders.

The hooded figure looked back at Touyo, barely able to see his glaring eyes from within the darkness of the hood, leaving Touyo to sense the intensity of that stare right onto him.

After a moment, Touyo turned back at his teacher and fellow student, each looking at him while expecting an answer.

“…Yeah.”

Touyo knew that at this point, he has to win, even if it does seem like he has no chance.