[HARU'S POINT OF VIEW]

Before I could wrap my head around what was going on, we were standing outside just behind the building. Being a garbage dump area, this place rarely had any people staying here aside from a few delinquents. But now, students gathered around me and the man I was about to face had finally arrived.

The crowd made way as Serizawa made his entrance. His eyes burned with rage.

'It's just my hunch but I think this guy hates me.' I thought to myself as I looked at him while he walked towards me. I noticed him handing me an object so I looked down at his hand. He was trying to give me a knife.

The metal surface reflected the sun. Before it blinded me, I looked up at him once again only to see his devilish grin. "Take it, bitch." It wasn't hard to get what he was trying to say. He wanted it to be a fight to the death. Hesitantly, I took the knife. He walked away to create a bit of distance between us as he drew out his own knife. "You already know what this means, right?"

"I do."

He laughed. "You seem pretty calm even though you're about to die." His rage was caused by his ego. Maybe he felt that I had stolen the spotlight from him by doing what I did during the attack two weeks ago—not that he had any to begin with. In other words, he was jealous. I could easily lose on purpose and grovel on the ground for his forgiveness if that would stroke his ego and cut me some slack, but it seemed that only my death through a duel would satisfy him. I can't afford to lose. "Or maybe you fried your brain in fear? That's alright." Most of the crowd cheered loudly. Maybe they were as crazy as him. But I could see some people at the back watching in anticipation. Mostly my classmates. I knew they'd already called someone to stop this, but I can't just rely on that. Serizawa is fast, and he could kill me before they arrive. "After all, I'm going to show everyone how weak and pathetic you are. You may have saved Ueda Nozomi's life by luck but that doesn't change that you ain't worth a shit."

His grin was replaced with a scowl after seeing me toss the knife on the ground. I looked at his eyes before I spoke, "I don't need that to beat you."

He clenched his fist. "Oh really?" he adjusted to a charging stance as he prepared to attack. "Then your death is going to be your own fault."

Dust exploded at his tracks. In milliseconds, he appeared right in front of me with his knife pointing to my face. There wasn't a world where I could match his speed, so I had to rely on something else.

The tip of his blade met my barrier. As expected, he wasn't even strong enough to penetrate it. But before I could even think of what to do after blocking his attack, he already vanished. I found him standing several meters away from me, adjusting his grip on the knife. It seemed like he suffered from the recoil of his own attack.

The noise from the crowd made it harder for me to concentrate. Since I was much slower than him, I had to predict where he might attack. I could only summon a shield that could cover one side of my body. A bigger barrier would just be too weak to block his attack.

"What's wrong?" I asked, not moving an inch from my spot. "We should finish this quickly. Someone already called a teacher."

He let out a laugh. "Yeah don't worry. I'll kill you just in time." He said before dashing towards me once again. And just like before, I easily blocked his knife using my barrier. He backed off and then went for my right side but to no avail, his knife kept hitting the immovable matter. He could only dash in a straight line and had to stop for a moment to change direction. Thanks to this, I was able to see where he was going to attack next.

In a flurry of dashes, he kept attacking me from every angle he could position himself in. But each time he failed. He was already sweating and panting in exhaustion when he stopped.

"You're not even thinking about your moves." I uttered while the dust clouds settled on the ground. "You're embarrassing yourself."

"I don't want to hear that from someone who's just waiting for a savior to arrive." He replied. "Your plan is to keep blocking until a teacher comes, right?"

"Pretty much."

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He grinned like a devil before responding. "Well too bad. I already handled that." he said before laughing maniacally. Did he perhaps find a way to stall the adults so that they wouldn't be able to come and stop us? "No one's coming to save you, boy. Make sure you don't make a mistake or you're dead!"

He dashed to my right side, acting like he was about to charge at me from that direction only to continue dashing behind me to attack me from the back. Too bad I already summoned a barrier there. I heard the knife hitting it before he repositioned himself to my left and then back in front of me.

"Aren't you gonna attack? You can't win like that." he chuckled.

"I'm a defensive support unit."

Once again he dashed to a random direction, trying to find an angle where he could attack me. He stopped on my left side where I watched as he dashed towards me. But there was one thing I noticed. His second dash was much slower than the last. In fact, the dash he used prior to the last one was the fastest I'd seen him do. The dash he used to charge at me was much slower. It was such an obvious attack that even I could see it. Was it because he was tired? Even so, his speed couldn't diminish in such a degree and still have that arrogant look on his face. All of my experience told me that there was something behind this pathetic attack and before I could realize what it was, I already instinctively blocked in the direction where he was coming from. Shortly after that, I felt a stinging pain on my right shoulder as blood soaked my uniform.

"I got you, bitch." he remarked with a grin on the other side of my barrier.

What a clever move. Before dashing to my left, he threw the knife at me from the front. And then he dashed from my side as a decoy to hide his real attack. I could understand how simple the trick is, but I didn't expect him to move faster than a flying knife thrown by him.

I quickly held on to my shoulder and before I could think, he already vanished along with the knife I tossed on the ground.

The crowd went crazy with the turn of events. He dashed from side to side maybe to confuse me and hide his real goal. I knew he wasn't thinking the same trick would work on me twice and so I had to anticipate a new trick. Whatever he was planning to do, I can't let him succeed. The next attack would kill me if he did.

He came charging from the right but I managed to block him. After that, he became even faster than before, appearing and attacking from different directions. One small mistake and it'd be over for me.

But even that disadvantage could be used to win. I just had to use my cards right. Compared to that beast, Serizawa was nothing.

After hundreds of times I had blocked his attacks, I summoned a large barrier weak enough for him to penetrate. Blocking his random burst of attacks had allowed me to analyze his rhythm. Given that he was moving at top speed, the gaps between his attacks had been constant. Thus, making him easier to predict.

Just as planned, he broke right into my barrier. He was so used to getting blocked that he didn't expect my barrier to break. It was similar to expecting one more step of stairs when descending but it was already the bottom. He lost his balance, but there was still the knife issue. And since I haven't moved an inch from the start, he definitely wasn't expecting me to do so.

I ducked, and quickly grabbed his arm that had the knife. I then used his own momentum to throw him to the ground while neutralizing his weapon.

He winced in pain as he hit the ground. Not wasting any time, I swiftly summoned barriers that held his arms and legs down, making him unable to move.

I stood up, watching him struggle. But it was no use. After I placed my barriers no one and absolutely no one would be able to move them unless they broke. And I was sure that Serizawa would not be able to break them. My plan was a success. I baited him to focus on waiting for me to make a mistake in my predictions. But after catching him, I was able to properly chain him down with my barrier.

He struggled wordlessly in shame, desperately trying to break free. The crowd's noises became even more intense after his defeat.

"Just give up, Serizawa." I spoke.

"Shut the fuck up!" he replied, still squirming and struggling pathetically.

Hearing the crowd suddenly grow quiet, I turned my head only to see two familiar faces arriving just in time. Startled delinquents fled the scene while most of the spectators stayed to watch how this all would conclude.

"It hasn't even been a month and you've already made a scene again." Yamada gazed at me coldly before his eyes fell to Serizawa on the ground. Behind him was Narumi wearing a stressed expression. I had almost forgotten that their club wasn't just for regular student activities. They also served as the disciplinary council. I guess I'm in trouble now.

"I'm sorry." I immediately replied.

Narumi's eyes widened after seeing my injured shoulder. Speaking of which, I could use some medical attention at the moment. "You're wounded!" she exclaimed before rushing to my side. "Let me see." her gentle hands touched my shoulder as she inspected the injury. She then carefully removed the knife stuck between my muscles. Thank goodness we used smaller knives. "I'll heal you quickly." she declared before hovering her hands above the bleeding wound.

"Thanks." was my only response. I had seen her use her ability in public before, but I had never had the opportunity to experience it first hand. The pain was overshadowed by curiosity as I intently watched her heal me.

It was like magic, literally. Even the blood on the ground separated itself from the dust as it gathered in the air. The stains on my shirt got erased as well as all the blood I had lost rushed back inside the wound before it closed. I had been healed as if nothing happened.

"There. You should be fine now." she muttered, softly touching where the wound used to be.

Amazed, I was about to thank her when Yamada passed me by. I watched him crouch down to close the gap with Serizawa who looked at him with the most scornful eyes. "You can remove your barriers now." Yamada said, probably referring to me.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes." Though half hesitant, I decided to trust them. The small rings of matter that restrained his wrists and legs onto the ground disappeared into nothingness. "You're out of your fucking mind." Yamada commented as he stared down Serizawa. He then stood up and looked around the crowd. "Everyone, get out of here. The show is ove-"

The instant he removed his eyes from Serizawa, he had already vanished from his spot. For me, it didn't need to take long before I could realize in which direction he went. Of course he dashed in my direction, but I couldn't prepare for what he wanted to accomplish. Instead of charging towards me, he targeted the person beside me- Narumi Shiho. I didn't have enough time to think. I quickly summoned a barrier between her and Serizawa, successfully stopping his tracks.

"You fucker.." Yamada muttered with rage before bashing Serizawa's head into the ground.

Struggling with all his strength, Serizawa lifted his head and looked at me with a devilish grin on his face. "Fooled you twice, bitch."

"Takahashi-san!" Narumi yelled at me, wearing a worried expression.

I barely felt it, but he did fool me twice. Never thought he would dare attempt to do that trick again. I looked down at my stom

ach where the knife dug itself into before everything went black.... again.

[ End of chapter ]