"Whoa, this place is huge," remarked Shinku as he and all the other participants looked around in amazement at the unfamiliar environment. The instructor from the previous exam stepped forward to give instructions on the final part of the entrance exam.

"Alright everyone, gather around so I can explain the next steps. From this point on, all of you will be given a little device used by all Nexus Academy students and faculty members. These are called notifiers. They are used to contact other fellow students and teachers, and they are also used by the school to relay information through a private network specifically used by the school. There was a total of 150 of you remaining to participate that day. Obviously, we did not have the time to do every battle in a single day. So, how this would be solved was that a system would pick 2 students at random. Those students would also receive instructions on how to proceed further. After their match was over, the notifiers were to be given back no matter the condition, and when walking out to the area, they were to publicly announce their names. Was that understood?"

They all affirmatively answered, “Yes, ma'am!”

As all the students put on the notifiers, the instructor kept a keen eye on Shinku and Batoru. In this technological world filled with magic, there were very few devices that could accurately measure a person’s magic capacity, only owned by well-known facilities that could afford them, Nexus Academy being one of them.

The instructor used a device called the Nexus Optiscope, a device specially designed by Nexus Academy.

"What the hell, was something wrong with these things? That dark-skinned boy Batoru, I couldn’t read his magic capacity. I knew the optiscope was just a prototype, but it should have been working fine. Wait a second, that boy with the red accents in his hair, I couldn’t see his magic capacity either, but his magic was basically leaking out of his body. These two kids were going to make my job a whole lot more interesting."

The instructor hid her cheeky smile as she bid them farewell, and they all went up into the audience stand as they awaited their turns.

Suddenly, before realizing it, the first-round participants were selected, and their names were projected for everybody to see. As the names were made public to the entire arena, one thing was made obvious: both people belonged to influential families, one of the names being very familiar to Shinku and Batoru.

“I am Kenshin Arrogashira. I am a fire magic user!”

As the next participant was about to announce themselves, a fair-skinned, blonde-haired girl walked out and announced herself as Seraphina Sakura, a water magic user.

As she walked onto the stage, the students began to throw insults at her.

“Look, everybody, it’s Seraphina, the stain of the Sakura family.”

“No way, I thought she would have been rejected already.”

“This was going to be a fast battle; she was going to lose instantly.”

Before the match began, both students took out a weapon of choice to use. Kenshin's weapon of choice was a katana, whereas Seraphina took war fans. Kenshin arrogantly talked down to Sera after her harsh welcome by the crowd.

“Long time no see, Sera; I was surprised that you were allowed to take part in the entrance exam to begin with so you couldn’t embarrass your family any more than you already had.”

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“Enough of this, just shut up and let’s fight, or was the so-called great Kenshin Arrogashira all talk?”

“All talk, you say? It’s okay, though. I’ll do you and your family a favor and knock you out so you can’t embarrass yourself or your family anymore.”

Shinku was caught off guard by the crowd’s instant disdain for her, even though she was part of the Sakura family, one of the most influential families in the entire country. Yet she was hated more openly than anyone he had ever met.

Kenshin rushed in for the first hit with his katana as Sera expertly parried it away. Kenshin continued to violently attack her with his katana while she continued to dodge and parry him. He soon got irritated at the fact he hadn’t landed a single blow.

“You stupid disgrace, you’re not even attacking; all you’re doing is blocking and running away. Did all members of the Sakura family fight so cowardly? Oh, wait, I forgot you were disowned by the head of the family because you didn’t have wind magic.”

As he uttered those words, Sera's mood had completely changed from when the match started.

“Cowardly disgrace, huh? If you really wanted to fight so badly, then let’s go for it right now, you little prick.”

Kenshin grinned as Sera rushed towards him. Kenshin blocked her attack, confident in his strength. Suddenly, he felt a strong blow hit him in his side, and he was knocked across the floor as Sera used her other hand to attack. Kenshin angrily got up and continued the fight.

As the battle below commenced, Shinku looked over to the opposite side of the colosseum and saw four people carefully looking down at the fight in a private booth, observing every minor detail of the battle.

As the battle continued down below, the first magic attack was thrown as Kenshin created flame bullets and Sakura continued to use her fans to block. Soon, Sera began to lose her breath, giving Kenshin the chance to land a blow, knocking her down.

“You should just stay down in the dirt where you belong, Sera.”

Suddenly, he was knocked into the air by a blast of water. Sera finally decided to use her water magic, finally fed up with his condescending attitude. As Kenshin got off the floor, he began to continuously make fireballs and shoot them at Sera while she continued to counter with water.

“You know, Kenshin, family has nothing to do with how I am today. For half of my life, I was scorned, disowned, and treated like I was the worst thing to ever happen to my own family, but you know what, I don’t care. My goal was to take down my family myself, and I’ll build up the Sakura family in my own image with my own strength. Do you hear me? Put me down all you want. I’ve heard it all before, but you won't change my goal and how I feel.”

The crowd went into a wild hysteria over Sera’s declaration.

“You become the head of the Sakura family?”

“There’s no way a weakling loser like you can ever do it.”

“It’s better you give up now, girlie.”

Kenshin joined in on the laughter as Sera blankly stared at him, waiting for him to compose himself to continue the fight. When he finally settled down, he positioned himself for a final attack, covering his katana in fire magic.

“Alright, Sera, with this final attack, you can finally pack up your stuff and go back home where you can continue to hide in shame, but as a show of courtesy, I’ll give you a chance to do a final attack even if it doesn’t matter.”

Sera dropped her fans as she cupped her hands and concentrated her magic in the palm of her hand.

“No, I might not have enough time to gather the magic I need for my attack, I need to hurry this up.”

In that very moment, Kenshin rushed at her, and finally, right when his attack was about to hit, Sera blasted him into the wall, knocking him unconscious. Sera struggled to stand after exhausting all her magic, but finally got her footing and was proclaimed the winner of the first round.

Sera proudly walked off the arena as she tried to catch her breath while the crowd remained silent from the shock of the outcome of the battle. As she made her way back to her seat, Shinku saw her deciding to approach her.

“Umm, hi, my name is Shinku. Nice to meet you. I just wanted to say that was a good battle, and I found your skills admirable.”

She nervously thanked him and turned to watch the match as she smiled, reminiscing from the first time anyone had genuinely complemented her or anything she had done in years.