“Max, I’ve seen what you can do,” Jin reassured the now doomed outsider. “You’ll be fine.”

Max looked back and tried to convince himself that Jin was right. After all, Jin was the OP hero, but Max was the isekai protagonist, right? Surely that guaranteed him some kind of advantage. Though, upon considering this thought, he remembered another moron in an anime who got isekai’d, who assumed the same thing and ended up dying. Repeatedly.

He nodded at Jin with uncertainty, and turned to face his new enemy with a forced fervour.

Natsuno looked at Mashima, who nodded in acknowledgment and held out a hand to fix the shattered platform. When all was intact, Mashima signalled for Max’s companions, as well as the other students, to clear the area, and went back to her seat. She didn’t realise that she had forgotten to put the shield back up after Max had so thoughtlessly broken it.

“For this fight, the same rules apply. Either knock your opponent out, or get them out of the ring,” Mashima informed them.

|“Alright, I got big money on this one!”|

|“I’m not letting you rip me off again!”|

|“Put me down for ¥50 000 on the pretty one… She’s feisty.”|

|“I’m going for ¥100 000 on Haruki. Screw it, I’ll just have to settle for fast food for the rest of the month.”|

|“You carry that much around in your pocket!?”|

There was a stir among the crowd of students. Most of the student body had returned at this point. The only person who noticeably wasn’t present was Daichi.

|“I got ¥10 000 on the foreigner. I bet he pulls through somehow.”|

| “No way, you’re practically just throwing your money down the toilet.”|

| “Yeah well, I eat toilet money for breakfast!”|

| “Uh… ew.”|

| “Wait! I didn’t mean it like that!”|

“I must warn you, Miss Haruki,” Mashima continued, “another serious attack like the one you used on Akira, and I’m gonna have to disqualify you. Regardless of whether you beat Mr Tenebri or not.”

Natsuno nodded faintly.

A tense silence ensued as the crowd watched, almost expecting Natsuno to one-shot Max straight out of the ring. He was noticeably gifted, but her strength and cruelty had become infamous within the span of a single day. Given Max’s initial ambivalence, there was little doubt who would win.

“Begin!” Mashima called out.

“Judging from the bead of sweat on your face,” Natsuno said coolly, “I bet I don’t even need to use real magic for you.”

Max stared at her in wonderment, fixing his gaze on her so that he could prepare himself for any move she planned to make. He was far too slow to react.

She came at him with the same speed she had used on Jin, and with his eyes, Max attempted to plot where he would teleport to escape. She caught him in a leg sweep just as he dematerialised, causing him to materialise in a twisted fall some distance behind her.

Jin’s head sank in a grimace. He was sure Max’s magic could help him in any fight, but he hadn’t realised soon enough that a fight – a real fight – with trained mages, required one to work with a lot more than just magic. A natural talent for magic didn’t mean much if your body couldn’t keep up with the speed to control it, or the intuition to make proper use of it.

“This is going to be easier than I thought,” Natsuno said with a malicious smile.

Max got up with a little difficulty.

Ow, ow, ow he thought, feeling a deep ache in the shin that Natsuno caught. Her sweep felt like his leg had been smashed against a brick wall.

He tried to keep his composure, but he couldn’t help but limp a little when he tried to move. She noticed with cruel glee. Stretching her hand out to her side, she formed a small ball of ice, which she shot to the side and which promptly disappeared. Max knew what she had in mind and looked around, seeing it come towards him from a portal on the opposite end. Once again he was not fast enough to dodge. It slammed straight into his face.

There was an ‘Oooh’ from the crowd at the thud the ice made on impact.

He fell to a knee, getting back up just as another ice ball slammed into his back, leaving a freezing cold, damp spot on his blazer. Another came from the side, only this time he managed to grab it psychokinectically. He held it in place and faced Natsuno with a defiant smile.

“Ha!” Max exclaimed. “Fool me once, kiss my ass!”

Jin felt a slight sense of relief.

“That’s it,” he said out loud. “You’ve got this, Max!”

Max was a little too preoccupied to see yet another ice ball coming from the other side which hit him with such force, his body twisted in a flip before he landed face first on the cold, hard tiles of the ring.

There was another loud groan from the audience watching them.

|“Guess you’re eating toilet money today.”|

|“I really didn’t mean it like that…”|

Natsuno shook her head in disappointment.

“This isn’t even worth it anymore.”

She turned to leave.

“Hey! This isn’t over, dammit!” Max called out, wiping the water from his face.

She stopped and turned slightly towards him.

“Why bother? Saying you don’t stand a chance would be such an understatement, you ought to pay me for the air I waste even using that phrase. You’re not even in that orange-haired boy’s league, and he’s not much to look at either,” she said bluntly.

“Ouch,” Shida whimpered in the seats.

“The fight isn’t over till I’m down.” Max got up to his feet. His lip was bleeding. “As you can clearly see, I’m not down just yet.”

“You’re not even capable of basic combat,” Natsuno scoffed at him. “To continue now would just be cruel, even to a parasite like you.”

“Just stop making excuses and admit that you suck,” he said with a mischievous grin.

She dashed at him and punched him square in the stomach, knocking every molecule of oxygen out of his body. He gasped deeply before retching and curling up on the floor in agony. She shook her head again.

“See? Nothing. Beating you like this would only leave a stain on my record. This is practically bullying.”

“You don’t say,” Max coughed up between uneven breaths, with a tone of amusement. His writhing had ceased suddenly, and Natsuno felt a hand firmly grab her leg.

“Good thing I’ve taken on my fair share of bullies,” he smiled up at her with bloodied lips.

“Let go of me!” She kicked, but his grip persisted. “What are you doing?”

“I’m…” Max heaved, “I’m just… figuring things out for a second.”

She kicked with more force, but he held his grip with fierce persistence.

|“Why doesn’t he just give up? It’s a lost cause at this point.”|

|“He could seriously die at this rate.”|

“What is Max doing?” Hitomi asked worriedly from the pavilion. She sat next to Jin where he and Max had previously sat. Behind them, in Max’s place, sat Shida.

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t look good,” Jin responded sombrely.

“Maybe he’s begging for his life,” Shida said with a shrug.

Hitomi slowly turned her head towards him with a vile expression.

“I’m just saying,” he cowered slightly. “I can’t be the only one who’s surprised that he’s lasted this long.”

Hitomi opted to say nothing, instead looking at Jin, whose gaze hadn’t left the ring for a second.

Natsuno, angered by the relentlessly firm hold on her leg, resorted to kicking Max so violently that Hitomi winced and turned her head at the harsh-sounding thwack that stemmed from Max’s body.

“Dammit, give me a second!” Max coughed out in pain between kicks.

Natsuno stopped with her leg suspended above him.

“Let go of me so I can end this,” she seethed quietly.

“Does ending it mean you give up?” he continued in his stubbornly amused tone.

“Are you delusional? I would rather die than surrender to you!” Natsuno lowered her leg.

She closed her eyes in frustration and folded her arms impatiently. Finally, she decided to just drag him across the floor to the edge of the ring to end the match.

“Hey… uh, question,” Max said quite calmly as she started walking with his hand still firmly attached to her leg.

“What is it?” Natsuno stopped and looked down at him.

“How do you know when your strength has been augmented?”

“What?” Natsuno asked confusedly, a sentiment that was shared by the rest of the audience who were all puzzled by the seemingly out of place quiz.

|“Wow, he doesn’t even know that?”|

|“His parents must be loading buckets of cash into the Chancellor’s pocket.”|

|“Don’t give up! I don’t wanna eat toilet money!”|

“How is that idiot even in this school!?” Hitomi asked in annoyance.

“It's a sensation you feel throughout your entire body!” Jin yelled towards the ring, quickly and before Mashima could stop him. “Like a hot or cool fluid running from your arms down to your legs. It's the same with speed, Max.”

He knew Mashima was watching him, but he didn’t take note that she had chosen to hold her tongue and allow him to advise Max.

“It’s truly pathetic just how out of your depth you are,” Natsuno said, almost feeling real pity for the fool that held her leg with a force that she hadn’t noticed was slowly rising in strength.

“I was just wondering if I got it right,” Max started to chuckle. “I only hope it's enough.”

“It’s wh–” Natsuno started, before she fell back from the force with which Max had pulled her leg.

On the floor, she covered her head to protect it from getting knocked, but before she could respond, Max was on his feet, still holding her leg. He swung her entire body in a spin and chucked her towards the space outside the ring. There was an almost collective gasp in the audience at the sudden turn-around.

“You thought you had won, but no! KONO DIO DA!” Max cried out and struck a ridiculous pose.

Jin and Hitomi were both dumbfounded, and Jin couldn’t help but feel excited for a moment.

In his ridiculous pose, Max stared in bewilderment, surprised at the amount of strength he’d managed to put into the throw. Natsuno was practically sent flying towards one of the pavilions. He stood in the ring, staring wide-eyed at his unintentional strength, but it wasn’t enough. A dark hole appeared in mid-air which Natsuno fell through, coming through another portal right behind him and landing gently on her feet.

Max turned around to see her rushing in, a feral anger in her eyes. What he didn’t realise was how long it was taking her to get to his position. He stood there, dumbfounded, and held up his hands, bracing for what would likely be a final strike before it was lights out for him. When he noticed how long it was taking for the strike to land, he looked up from his cowering pose to see her running in extreme slow motion. He looked out to the crowd to see that they too were quite slow. Jin’s face was practically deadlocked in a panicked expression.

Max looked at his hands and saw that he himself was moving normally. It could only mean that he had gotten it right to augment his speed. He looked at his opponent and was happy for this brief moment of respite.

It was the first time he really had a moment to look at Natsuno’s face up close without annoyance being the first thing on his mind. She was angry. Viciously angry. The kind of mindless rage that led to world-ending decisions. It was aimed at him, and something about it made him feel terrible. Not fear, or the panic of getting hurt, but rather… guilt.

He knew he made a lot of people angry. He revelled in the idea that he could work people up so easily, especially in the unknown environment that was Yōsaishima. But at no point did he plan on pissing someone off so badly that they would look at him the way Natsuno was looking at him. She looked more than just angry. She looked hurt. Deeply hurt, for some reason.

She finally reached him, and he swayed out of her path without much trouble. He lowered her hand as she slugged past him at a snail’s pace. The force behind her punch made it a bit difficult for him to lower her attacking fist, but not as much as it would have had he not also enhanced his strength.

When she was finally past him, he realised he had made a grave error.

As soon as the danger had passed, time around him had gone back to normal, and Natsuno was sent somersaulting through the air, slamming into the floor. His forcing her hand down with his speed enhanced to such a great degree caused her body to whiplash into a front flip.

The crowd was stunned, including Jin and Hitomi, who most definitely did not see Max’s movements for a moment. Their eyes widened in awe.

“What on Earth was that?” Hitomi tugged on Jin’s arm.

“I have no idea,” he responded confusedly. “I nearly completely lost him for a second…”

Max looked at them with bewildered concern. He’d clearly overshot the amount of mana he used to enhance both his strength and his speed, and his expression made that clear to both of them.

Natsuno’s back was in tremendous pain, but she ignored it. She turned onto her stomach on the floor, looking up at Max, who was clearly mocking her by pretending he didn’t know how to use magic. She slammed a fist onto the ring so hard it shattered the tiles and broke right through to the ground beneath.

“DAMN YOU!” she screamed in fury.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Max held his hands up in surrender as she scrambled to her feet. She increased her speed greatly, and dashed in for another physical attack.

“I didn’t mean to do that!” Max yelled as she came in. Surprisingly, she was still slow, only moving moderately faster than she had before. He once again dodged effortlessly, though she got significantly closer this time before he realised what was happening.

She flew past him and stopped herself, practically frothing at the mouth with anger when turning to face him.

“Is that all you can do? LIE?!” she screamed.

“I’m not lying! I really didn’t mean to do that,” Max kept his hands up where she could see them.

“You know perfectly well how to manipulate mana!”

“I’m literally learning on the go here.”

“Stop lying to me!” She clenched her fist and held it out, causing pieces of tile to float into the air in front of her. She opened her fist and sent them hurtling towards Max. He deftly dodged those that he could and smashed a fist through those that he could not. The speed of his strikes made his fists numb to the pain he was sure he would have felt had he struck them with only his own strength.

Before she could strike again, he sped up towards her and grabbed her wrists.

“Stop!” Max held her wrists tightly. “Please! I’m sorry!”

“Let go of me, you fiend!” she tried to shake him off.

“Why are you so–”

Behind him, spheres of ice began to form in a floating circle, each one ramming into his back before he could speak. Instead of dodging them, however, he took the pain.

“Why are you so–” he winced as she started to electrocute him from her wrists. The pain from the ice and the surge of electric current combined caused him to nearly collapse.

“LET GO OF ME!” she screamed.

“I just,” Max grovelled through the pain. “I just… wanna know why… you look so sad.”

One last hit from an ice ball came, and not long after, the current dissipated as well. He weakly fell to his knees, still trying to hold onto her wrists.

“I’m… I’m really sorry,” Max heaved shakily, “that I was an asshole. But… why are you in so much pain?”

He struggled to keep his eyes open as he felt himself starting to pass out. He shook his head to fight back, and looked up with great effort to see tears lightly streaming from her eyes, her expression both anger and defeat. He could feel the uncomfortable air that started to settle on the crowd, and he hoped beyond hope that they didn’t think he was trying something strange by holding onto her the way he was.

“Why would you ask me that?” she asked feebly. “It’s none of your concern.”

“Well… let’s just say that… I’m a nosy guy,” he smiled weakly.

He finally let go of her wrists and fell down on all fours, feeling pain consume every part of his body.

“You have no right to pry,” she looked down at him. “You don’t know me. You could never understand…”

Max looked up at her and felt some semblance of the truth beginning to surface. She didn’t look him in the eye, and her tears were flowing a little more freely.

|“Is she crying?”|

|“This feels uncomfortable…”|

|“Wasn’t she winning?”|

|“This is looking worse and worse by the second.”|

|“So much drama~!”|

Jin and Hitomi, as well as the rest of the crowd, were quite confused at the display that was taking place in the ring. They were glad Max wasn’t being whaled on, but they couldn’t help but feel like they missed something. Something seemingly important that took place in the fight that they were not privy to.

“If it makes you feel better,” Max lifted his hands and stayed crouched on his knees, looking up at her with a smile. “Victory is yours. Fighting you like this just… doesn’t feel right.”

“Are you underestimating me?”

“No, I just–”

She turned away with a stoney expression and took a few steps away from Max.

“You think you have the right to take me so lightly? Your disrespect knows no end.”

“That’s not what I meant!” Max argued.

“This isn’t over until I beat you. Properly. Enough of your lies and falsities. Fight me like you mean it.”

“But I just accepted defeat.”

“You will fight me. As my slave, I command it.”

“Look, you really need to–”

A sudden turn, followed by a swift kick straight into Max’s face, caused him to finally lose consciousness. Though, Natsuno was completely unaware of this.

“This is a fight! How will you respond?” she screamed.

***

This is a fight! How will you respond?

Another voice repeated the words, which echoed through Max’s head as if he stood in an endless void of sound. He looked up to see Natsuno frozen in time, her tears mixed with an expression of wounded pride. He struggled to his feet and looked around to see the crowd frozen as well. All the world seemed to be at a standstill.

He stumbled towards her, and waved a hand over her face. The colour was drained from the world, just as it had been that time in the dojo with Jin.

“Well, I guess that’s that,” Max said sullenly. “Looks like I fucking went and died. You happy now, Kealan?”

This is a fight! How will you respond?

“The hell?”

The echoing of the words grew louder, the sound seeming to come from behind him.

THIS IS A FIGHT! HOW WILL YOU RESPOND?

He turned to see whose voice it was, and it seemed he had been transported to someplace unfamiliar.

He was standing in the middle of a large, empty room, with a tatami matted floor. Everything, from the floor to the ceiling, was made of wood, and he recognised the vintage traditional Japanese style in the make of it. It had all the signs of being an old dojo of some sort. On the wall behind him was a large wooden plaque with a name on it. It was written in Japanese, but the shapes rearranged themselves, shifting and bending about, until it became a name he could read.

Kiyoshi.

He looked out the windows lining the side of the dojo, but saw only white and nothing beyond it, as if only eternal light lay beyond the walls of the room he was in.

“Boy, I am speaking to you,” came the voice of a man from behind him.

He turned to see a Japanese man who must have been in his late thirties or early forties. He wore a white kimono with a black hakama. Max assessed himself and saw that he still wore the academy uniform.

“Are you talking to me?” Max asked wondrously. His voice had a strange echo to it, unlike the man’s.

“This is a fight. How will you respond?” the man repeated the words.

“I–” Max looked around, confused. “I don’t understand.”

A young boy, seven or eight years of age, walked from beside Max to face the gentlemen. The boy, despite his lavishly sleek, dark hair that looked quite similar to Jin’s, wasn’t Japanese.

“I don’t know,” the boy whined. “What am I supposed to do? You’re too strong.”

“No enemy is too strong. Your mind has simply not yet adapted to suit your victory,” the man barked back. “Your strategy needs refinement. Your timing must be changed, improved, moulded to fit the battle. There are many things you can do wrong in a fight, but your enemy is never too strong.”

The man drew a bokken from his side, and the boy pulled out one of his own. The man came at the boy, who swung recklessly, missing his strike and getting struck from below, toppling to the floor.

“Hey, man!” Max moved in to grab the aggressor. “Leave the kid alone.”

He phased right through the sensei, ramming into the wall near the entrance. He turned to see the man standing over the boy.

“You were born with extraordinary strength, Haruto. As a child of the Kiyoshi, many great things will be expected from you. If you cannot surpass the expectations set for you, you will be doomed to die in this world, unloved and unwanted by all.”

“I can’t beat you!” the boy moaned.

“You will,” the man looked up, waiting for the child to stand up. For just an instant, Max was certain the man’s gaze shifted directly towards him, but Max couldn’t tell. As quickly as it shifted, so quickly did it return to the boy, who was standing up stiffly.

From outside the dojo, another voice echoed. This time, it was more familiar. It boomed through the windows and reverberated off the walls.

Awaken.

Max looked around, noticing the boy and the man frozen in place.

Awaken!

The white light from outside the windows began to pierce through the solid wall, blinding Max and forcing him to cover his eyes.

AWAKEN!

“Stop fucking yelling! Awaken what?”

Suddenly there was silence. The blinding light that had erupted into the dojo seemed to have faded.

“Are you just going to stand there?” came a familiar voice. One that Max never imagined he’d hear coming from another person’s mouth.

Slowly, Max lowered his arms, taking scope of the area around him. He was transported somewhere unfamiliar yet again. He stood out in a vast, white void that stretched out endlessly. He looked around, and saw a familiar face. It was a face he never imagined he would see on another person.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“How is–”

“You are in a realm of magic that you are only just beginning to comprehend. Is it truly so strange to be standing where you are now, conversing with yourself?” the stranger with Max’s face and Max’s voice responded. His hair was pure white, neatly parted to show his entire face, which, although identical, seemed almost cleaner, and more handsome than Max’s own. He stood upright, with no slouching or doubt in his posture, which made him look elegant and refined. His clothes were all black. He wore a tight-fitting coat, with tight-legged trousers and knee-high boots. His irises were a natural, admittedly beautiful, shade of violet that shone brilliantly through the white-out world that Max stood in.

“Wow… Japanese hell is weird,” Max looked around confusedly.

A gentle chuckle came from the stranger, imbued with a delicate tone that made it sound almost musical.

“It is far too soon to assume you have already met your death, Adam,” he smiled amusedly.

Max snapped to look at his strange reflection.

“You…” he said in a tone thick with accusation.

“Me,” his reflection responded with a knowing smile.

“It was you who called out in the training room with Jin.”

“Yes, very perceptive, Adam.”

“No,” Max shook his head defiantly, his expression momentarily a visage of shock, with trace hints of anger. “I go by Max.”

“My mistake,” the stranger held a hand to his heart and made a slight bow. “Either way, you are very much still alive, Max.”

“Then, where are we?” Max asked. “Who are you?”

“We are…” the stranger looked around at the vast, empty sky, and the endless space beyond where they stood, “well, I would say… we are in a space that exists in your mind.”

He swept his hand through the air, and all around them Max could see the outside world as if it were being projected on a screen so big, it took up all the space in existence. It was completely devoid of colour, and everything seemed to be standing dead still. It was quite uncomfortable to look at, and something told Max that staring at it too long would make him start to feel nauseous.

Natsuno was standing dead centre in front of them, and he could see the look of concern and tensity on the faces of the students in the pavilions behind her. He saw Jin with his head hung, and Hitomi, with a hand on his shoulder.

“Is this like… a Mind Palace?” Max asked, taking scope of all that he could see around him.

“No, not quite. More like a safe space in your head where the world around you comes to a halt. The mind is… a strange entity. A year could pass in here, and not a moment would pass out there.”

“So… am I stopping time?”

“For yourself, yes, in a manner of speaking. Your mind is currently in a form of stasis. What is happening to you is not affecting the world outside you.”

“So this is like a Domain Expansion, in my head?”

The more handsome Max laughed musically.

“Is popular culture truly your only frame of reference?”

“No,” Max lied. “I’ve read… books.”

“Right,” the more handsome him smiled. “I, of all people, should know, after all.”

“Wait!” Max exclaimed excitedly. “Are you like, my ‘Vizard’ other half? Will killing you give me like… cool, dark powers?”

The stranger looked at Max with an expression of confusion and distress, an obvious departure from the calm and confident smile he held just a moment before.

“No,” he said flatly. “I am not your ‘Vizard’.”

“Then what is this? You still haven’t told me who you are.”

“I suppose you could, perhaps, call me your conscience? Your inner self. A perfect version of yourself that you have yet to manifest.”

“Well, you’re not perfect,” Max cut in dejectedly.

“Yes. I am.”

“No perfect version of me dresses like the kid from Persona,” Max narrowed his eyes at his handsome counterpart’s outfit.

“Excuse me. This attire is not entirely my choice,” the slightly annoyed handsome him straightened out his already perfectly straightened coat.

“Look, will you just tell me why I’m here? Last I remember, I was… in a fight,” Max scratched his head.

“As your conscience – your inner self – I would be remiss to let you lose. I brought you here to save you.”

“Woah, who died and put rip-off Gojo in charge?”

“You would rather lose, then?” the handsome Max held a hand up to the visible world outside Max’s mind. “Like this? Undignified and without a fair chance?”

“That shit seriously doesn’t matter to me right now,” Max said dismissively. “Did you see the look on that girl’s face? You see what I did to her?”

“You assume that you are the cause of her pain, then?”

“Even if I’m not the cause, I’m the reason she feels the way she does now. So yes, it's on me.”

“Even so,” the handsome Max looked out to the void sternly. “You and I both know that neither sadness nor pain warrant such consistently bad sportsmanship.”

Max found it hard to argue, but he still didn’t like the idea of something controlling his thoughts or actions. He was quite fond of his unspoiled sentience.

“I do not control your actions,” the handsome him responded to the unspoken thought with a haughty smile. “I do not want you to lose, but, believe it or not, you sought out shelter of your own accord. I simply opened the door to your sanctuary. I am as much you as you are yourself. I want what you want, even if you are not always quite cognisant of your own desires.”

“Was… Am I about to die?” Max asked cautiously.

“No,” the stranger chuckled. “You’ll find it takes quite a stern amount of persistence to kill you, Max.”

“So, am I… immortal?”

The stranger showed his pearly white teeth in an amused grin.

“You sure do jump to some absurd conclusions.”

“What else have I got? You’re not exactly giving me straight answers, and all of this shit is weird,” Max gestured at the white void surrounding him. “Even by Mahō No Gakusei standards. We’re in serious Bleach rip-off territory here.”

“We are not ripping off Bleach! I am not a ‘Vizard’!”

“Then why are you telling me to ‘aWakEn’ like some emo bitch? Do you know how dumb that shit actually sounds in real life?” Max emphasised the silliness of the word ‘awaken’ with exaggerated air quotations. “What exactly are you saving me from?”

“As I have said. You cannot be defeated by this young woman you are currently in battle with,” the more handsome Max held a hand up towards the black and white Natsuno.

“Why? I want her to win. I already conceded.”

“Really?” The stranger walked a few steps towards the void with his hands behind his back. His poise and refined posture made it look as if he were floating instead of walking.

“And how exactly is she taking this act of kindness you are offering?”

“Well… uh… not well, I guess,” Max admitted. “But that’s not important. I shouldn’t have gotten into the ring. Better still, I shouldn’t have been an asshole to her.”

“While I agree that you may have acted abrasively, and that she is well within her right to seek recompense, you know that accepting defeat is not the way to solve this. At the same time, she has already refused your withdrawal. So you must fight. With conviction. Without hesitation.”

“I can’t… Even with my speed and strength, I don’t know any real magic. And she’s a prodigy mage.”

“‘Your mind has simply not yet adapted to suit your victory’… or something like that, yes?” the handsome Max tapped at his temple with a wry smirk.

“You saw that?” Max asked curiously.

“I did say that I am your inner self. I see all that you see, and know all that you know.”

“Still… that was… different,” Max said with uncertainty. “I know next to nothing about martial arts, and I can’t keep relying on flukes to help me win.”

“This is why you must awaken.”

“Awaken what? Why do you keep saying that stupid shit? What are you talking about?”

The stranger smiled amusedly.

“Your true potential.”

“I knew it!” Max cried with a defiant click of the fingers, causing his ‘inner self’ to grimace in annoyance, already anticipating what Max was gonna say next.

“You are my Vizar–!”

The man swiftly glided towards Max and touched his forehead with the tips of his forefingers. Before Max could resist, all that he saw and all that he felt slipped away into sudden nothingness.

***

In the ring, Natsuno was certain of her victory. It had been some time since Max had moved or made any sign of consciousness.

Jin hung his head disappointedly. He knew it wasn’t likely that Max would win, but what had happened in the ring didn’t feel fair. Natsuno seemed to have a habit of attacking in the least expected way. By all accounts, her victory seemed cheap, especially since, right before her final attack, for a moment, it looked like she had practically given up the fight after whatever exchange took place between her and Max.

Hitomi looked at Jin with an unexpected sadness, and put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing lightly before looking down solemnly. There were many surprises, despite how short the fight was, but Natsuno was clearly the victor, and her magic was by all accounts unmatched by the rest of the class. It was foolish to think that Max, who had supposedly lost his memories of the world, would put up much of a challenge. Though, for a moment, he did seem to have the upper hand, and that was enough to warrant a great deal of respect for his capabilities beyond the prodigious skills he had shown on numerous occasions.

“He did his best, Jin,” she said softly. “All we can do now is be there for him.”

“You’re right Miss Brighton. All we can do now is move forward, and try to improve. Together.”

“Hey, I thought we were over this?” Hitomi smiled wryly.

It took a moment to understand what she meant, and Jin laughed nervously when he got it.

“I mean, Hitomi,” he corrected himself.

In the middle pavilion, Mashima decided that she had held off for long enough to see what Max would do. It was time to officially call the fight.

“That’s a vic–”

A student gasped in the seats next to her quite loudly. So loudly, Mashima couldn’t help but turn her head in annoyance at the unnecessarily dramatic reaction to the fight. The gasp brought Jin and Hitomi’s attention back towards the ring. Everyone’s attention was drawn back to the fight that had been ‘over’ just a moment before.

Natsuno, who was already about to get off the platform and head to the infirmary, felt a new sense of danger and turned around to witness Max groggily get up to his feet, both of his eyes entirely shrouded in a perpetual violet glow.

|“He’s not looking so good.”|

|“What is this violent aura?”|

|“What’s wrong with his eyes?!”|

Natsuno held off from making any advance. It seemed as though the life had left his body. She moved in cautiously and waved a hand in front of his face, which just stared forward blankly, as if both looking beyond her and not seeing anything at all at the same time.

He quickly grabbed her wrist with a brutal force, sending a strange stab of panic through her. He tossed her over his shoulder as if she were weightless. She landed on her feet, and frantically turned to face the zombie that stood in the ring with her.

“Your tantrums won’t scare me,” she said coldly. “But it's good to see you’re not a total pushover.”

She held out her hand, signalling that she was about to perform what was quickly becoming known as her signature spell.

“Frost Wall!”

Her trademark wall of spiked ice orbs appeared, and Max turned to face her slowly, lifelessly. Her face was tinged with anger at his feigned confidence. With as much force as she could muster, she brought the ice raining down on him.

|“Why won’t he stay down?”|

|“This is starting to get out of hand!”|

“Is he just gonna stand there?” Hitomi asked quietly.

He did. He didn’t move an inch as the shards seemed to evaporate into thin air in a small radius around his body. Natsuno forced them down more rapidly, but this seemed to have no effect. Eventually, it seemed her wall had run out, or she had simply stopped feeding it mana. She watched Max intently.

“Is that it? Is that the extent of your abilities?” Natsuno shook her head again. “It's a neat trick, but it won’t win you this fight.”

Max, or the shell of him that stood in the ring, waved a hand before him.

Behind him, around him, everywhere that Natsuno could see, a series of intangible mirrors appeared in the air. She looked at them in awe, unaware of what spell he was performing.

From the mirrors, a sudden rumble came that shook the ground as the orbs that Natsuno had thrown at Max came flying out with incredible speed, and with an almost fatal fury. They shot out with deadly spikes, and Max, the zombie, whatever it was that stood before her, did nothing to dull the fatal shape of the projectiles.

She raised her hands to conjure as big a shield as she could, feeling the traitorous orbs of her Frost Wall clamouring at her defence with enough strength to force her backwards, her shoes sliding across the white-tiled floor.

She held her ground until she was sure the barrage had stopped, lowering her shield to assess Max’s next move, but already he stood before her, his horridly violet eyes barely seeming to register her existence.

“What is going on?” Hitomi looked at Jin worriedly. Jin stared in wonder, quietly, unsure of what he was seeing. What he saw looked familiar. Uncomfortably familiar. He never imagined he would be on the outside looking in on a scene that had plagued his memories for over a decade.

“I don’t like this gnawing shadow I’m seeing loom over him,” Shida said sternly, speaking quite seriously for the first time.

“Look…” he set his gaze on the lecturer. ”Mashima can’t even deduce what’s going on.”

Hitomi and Jin followed Shida’s gaze. Mashima’s expression was stiff, but there was a noticeable concern in her eyes. Whatever was going on with Max, it was clear that she didn’t know how she would get it under control if she needed to.

Surprisingly she looked directly at Jin. He knew what she was asking. It needn’t have been said nor thought.

How do we stop this?

She must have seen the doubt in his expression, because she turned away with what felt like an air of despair. They could very well be out of luck if things got any more out of hand, and that much was clear to her.

Grabbing Natsuno’s face with a brutal thrust of his hand, Max shoved her entire body into the tiled floor. Her legs, which had shot into the air, barely had time to touch the ground before he raised her and slammed her again. He slammed her down once more, before hurling her into the air, whereupon her ascent, he grabbed her leg and slammed her a final time, crushing the floor beneath her.

She stifled a scream from the searing pain coursing through her back, chest and face. She quickly got to her feet to jump a distance away from the creature she’d been bullying just moments before.

|“He performed such a powerful spell, yet hasn’t said a word…”|

|“This is…”|

|“He’s really not holding back.”|

|“He could kill her!”|

|“Should we do something?”|

Hitomi turned to Jin slowly as the rest of the crowd began to sense the air of panic starting to spread.

“I know you weren’t this bad, but I have to ask, is this the same as the spell you performed earlier?” she asked cautiously, trying not to sound too uneasy about her feelings towards his magic.

Jin shook his head, not taking his eyes off the ring.

“I…” Jin said with uncertainty. “I don’t know. I’m just worried he’s gonna do something he’ll regret if this continues.”

Natsuno furiously thrusted her palms onto the floor.

“FROST TOWER!” she screamed.

Ice pillars, once again, tore through the newly repaired ground. The pillars grew with more speed, more force, and more deadly intent than they had when she’d used it on Jin.

Max stood in their path, swaying lifelessly. The pillars not only reached him, but pierced him in numerous locations. Blood spurted like a faucet out of his limbs onto spikes that jutted out through him.

Some people in the audience screamed at the sight. Others stared in morbid silence. Hitomi’s eyes widened in shock, and she felt a wave of nausea rise to her throat. Jin stood up in horror.

“MAAAX!” he screamed.

Mashima’s expression clearly reflected the horror she felt. It was suddenly very clear that she should never have let Natsuno continue fighting in the state that she was in. Mashima knew she should have stopped her earlier during the fight with Jin, but her academic curiosity compelled her to push Max and see what he was capable of. Things were now out of control, and worse still, it was the student she’d feared just a moment ago whose life was suddenly in danger.

Natsuno slowly raised her hands from the floor in fright. Her mouth was agape in the wake of what she had done. She had expected him to dodge as he did before, and by no means meant for the spikes to remain in their sharp state.

“No, no… please, no…” she whimpered, as Max hung limply, pinned and held in position.

Jin couldn’t move. His legs were numb. His entire body felt weak, almost vacant. For a moment, he felt his mana boiling beneath his skin. His Kyoukai Kossetsu, the only thing that stood in the way of his mindless fury, was beginning to melt away in the anger he felt at the girl in the ring who had just killed his friend.

Suddenly, there was a crack of ice.

A pillar that had impaled Max’s arm snapped, as his other arm broke off the rest of the ice pillars that pierced his body. The blood that tainted his now ruined uniform spilled onto the floor as he slowly pulled out the spikes that had gone right through him.

It was uncertain whether people around him were more horrified by the sight of his being impaled, or his zombie-like movement as he broke free from what was certain death.

|“Haruki! GET OUT OF THERE!”|

| “He’s… How did he…?”|

This time, Mashima got up to her feet.

“This isn’t possible,” she whispered to herself.

The holes that had been there before were rapidly closing up, and Max slowly bent down and put a bloody palm to the floor. The ground before him, rumbling and quaking, caved in like a sinkhole. What lay beneath the wound in the earth around Max was pitch black. Yet, in the abyss, a loud rumbling could be heard, rising fast. The quaking of the earth made it seem like the rest of the ground beneath Max, the entire courtyard even, would cave in as well.

Through the darkness, a large geyser of molten magma came gushing from the earth. It spurted all over, and completely enveloped Natsuno’s deadly ice pillars. The spikes melted in seconds, and the heat of the magma started to melt the tiles on the rest of the ring as well.

As soon as her ice was completely eradicated, the magma seemed to be drawn back into the earth, the hole from which it flowed repairing itself, and the ring pieces that had caved in returned to the surface as if they hadn’t been touched at all.

Natsuno fell to her hands and knees. The heat from Max’s spell took a toll on her, and she felt as if all forms of liquid had been completely scorched out of her body. She was sweating and panting profusely. Those were two of her strongest offensive spells, and he dealt with them like they were childish tricks.

She gritted her teeth. Why wasn’t he beating her? He had clearly been playing with her from the start. He had wanted her to feel confident so that he could break her down.

He let her think she killed him!

He let her think she was ruined.

She wouldn’t allow it. She was right from the start. He didn’t belong among the Scions. He was already far more capable than they were. He was a monster.

She got to her feet and conjured a dagger in each hand, made of solid ice. She pushed herself to enhance her speed and strength to the highest level she could muster. She knew it might tear her body apart, but she wanted to end this fight. Or at least to show this monster that she wasn’t to be toyed with.

She made a superhuman dash. Some couldn’t see her movement the way she glided through the air. Max once again made no movement at all. She felt fear, greater than she ever had before. Despite her rush, she was more scared than ever of both attacking him and being attacked by him.

Without a sign or warning, she felt a strong, deadly grip on her throat.

One moment, Max was standing some distance from Natsuno. The next, he was at the end of the ring, holding her in the air by her throat. No one had seen him move. No one had seen him prepare his dash. Similar to Jin, it seemed as if he had stopped time, and moved while the world was frozen.

Unlike Jin, however, Mashima realised in quiet awe, causing her to drop back into her seat, Max more than likely did exactly that.

He stopped time.

He completely froze everything around him, and grabbed Natsuno, pulling her to where he now had her. She felt it, and she was certain that she wasn’t the only one in the academy who had.

At this very thought, Mashima looked up at the faculty building. Through a window of an office on the second floor, she saw Tanaka looking down fiercely, as if to say ‘I warned you.’ He didn’t move from where he stood, but instead of letting his condescending presence get to her, Mashima returned her attention to the fight. How long he had been standing there, and how much he had cared to observe would surely be a topic for future discussion.

With Natsuno still firmly in his grasp, Max’s feet left the ground as the two began to rise into the air. She looked extremely frightened, clearly having underestimated her opponent, or overestimating her own ability against that of what the Scion could be.

This much was clear to Mashima; Max was giving them a display – a frightful display, but a display nonetheless – of what each of them could be when they learned to harness their true potential.

Max held an arm out behind him.

It took a moment before anyone could see it, but in the air, a dot – a black, unnatural, dark speck – was growing. When it was finally visible, the picture started to become clear. Max had created a small black vortex that grew more and more in the middle of the courtyard, and it was starting to swallow everything into its slowly growing radius.

Students began to feel a rumble from the seats beneath them as the vortex started to pull in the pavilions. Jin, Hitomi and Shida held on tight as the force became stronger.

|“RUN FOR IT!”|

A few students, those who were a distance from the ring, turned tail and made for the back entrance to the faculty. Before any of them could reach it in time, however, the force had started to pull them in, dragging them to the floor where they gripped the clean-cut grass with all their might. Max seemed to be the only one unaffected.

Little grains of sand grew into big chunks of earth and dirt as the void sucked them in.

“Max!” Jin yelled. “Max, stop!”

“Max!” Hitomi chimed in. “Stop this now. You won! The fight is over.”

Max ignored them.

“We need to stop him somehow!” Hitomi yelled over the violent, ripping wind.

“We have to get through to Max!” Jin responded.

“He’s too dangerous! This is some evil overlord event happening right now!” Shida yelled.

“Shida’s right!” Hitomi added, her face stern. “We can’t let this go on!”

|“Someone do something!”|

|“I am too rich to die like this!”|

|“I haven’t confessed my love for Miss Hitsugaya yet!”|

Mashima raised her hands and conjured another, more powerful dome around the ring that would protect the students, but something was forcing its way out, and the barrier was almost instantly broken. She tried again, conjuring multiple barriers of shrinking size, pushing as much of her mana into them as she could. For a moment, this worked to hold back the pull from the vortex, until one by one, each of the barriers were shattered.

She raised her hands to try again when she noted the violet eyes that gazed down at her. Max was some distance in the air, but she was almost certain that he had given her a smile. An ugly, distorted and deranged smile that sucked all the courage out of her.

Jin looked up and also took note of his mindless expression. He thought, and with this thought he imposed a name into Max’s mind.

Don’t do this, Max. You still have to go home. You still have to save Jane.

Max, still in the air, turned his head to see Jin. He looked on for a moment without any discernible expression. Returning his gaze to Natsuno, his head began to contort hideously, as the unconscious Max struggled to resurface. His hand tightened around her neck, as if a new level of bloodlust arose in his body. Natsuno was starting to lose consciousness, and ceased the struggle she had started when she felt his hold on her.

Max, you’re killing her!

The lifeless face had begun to express struggle. A flash of Max’s regular grey eyes broke through the dark violet glow. Natsuno’s breathing came to a standstill before the fiend finally loosened its grip as Max fought back an instinctive, almost primitive rage.

Max, please, you need to wake up! Jin’s thoughts were forced into his mind once more.

The screams of students who were pulled into the air started to mix in with the loud and violent winds that circled the courtyard. Natsuno’s body went limp, as the fight between Max’s body and mind continued. His head jerked back and forth unnaturally between rage and control.

Abruptly, the vortex disappeared, dropping students who were getting sucked to their doom back down onto the floor.

The violet shade slowly faded from Max’s eyes, which returned to their regular stone grey. He looked at Natsuno, bewildered and confused. He looked down, taking note of the distance between his feet and the ground. This distance was quickly brought to a minimum, when he kicked his legs and screamed as he and Natsuno toppled to the floor.

|“Is it over?”|

|“I think I’m gonna be sick…”|

|“This university is too damn much!”|

Jin jumped down from the pavilion, but Mashima gave a signal for him to stop, shaking her head in rejection to whatever he had in mind. She didn’t wanna risk putting more students in harm's way if Max was still in attack mode.

Max sat up, and slowly strained up to his feet.

“What… what just happened?” he looked at the crowd, who all assessed him with visible fear and distrust.

“What did I do?” Max looked back to see Natsuno on the floor.

She was outside the ring.

Mashima noticed this and walked closer cautiously.

“I believe…” Mashima said with some difficulty, “you’ve won the fight, Mr Tenebri.”

“What? No, but I… I gave up…”

Natsuno started coughing as air flowed back into her lungs. She put a hand to her neck, which she was sure was severely bruised.

“No,” she despaired, coughing hoarsely. “It’s not fair. I worked hard for this!”

“No,” Max rejected Mashima flatly. “I have no interest in becoming Class Rep. No thank you.”

“It's not that simple,” Mashima insisted. “You beat the current Representative, you have to take on this role.”

|“He actually did it?”|

|“Do you not see what he did? How could he possibly have lost after that?”|

|“He can do all that Class Rep stuff. No way we compete with all that…”|

“Max,” Jin called out with a weak smile. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, never been better,” Max gave a thumbs up. “Why?” He showed no signs of knowing what had happened just moments before.

“Max…” Hitomi said feebly, looking down at his clothes.

“Oh, Geezus!” Max only just noticed the blood that covered his uniform. “This is gonna take forever to clean! Whose blood is this?”

“Yours!” Jin cried out.

“So… I did die, then?” Max asked confusedly. “That lying piece of shit!”

“No, Mr Tenebri,” Mashima responded. “You cheated death in ways I’ve never seen anyone do before. Your talents are… a clear cut above the rest.”

“As far as I’m concerned, whatever I just did was a fluke,” Max stood his ground. “What about Hitomi? She didn’t even get a chance to compete.”

“We’ve been over this. She didn’t want to compete.”

“Well, then I elect her!”

“You can’t just elect her!”

Whatever Max had done was clearly a fluke of some sort, because the Max that Mashima was speaking to was undeniably a different person from the monster that had been in the ring. Still, despite the danger he posed, he was perfect material to show the Minister why the Scion Initiative worked. His power, if controlled, would be exactly the leverage they need to aid them in the coming fray.

He had set the standard that the Scions would now aim to reach. If he was working for the adversary (which she hoped for all their sakes that he was not), at least they could get something out of his being at the academy while they had him. It was just a matter of finding some manner in which they could hold him down when it was necessary.

“Hey, I’m not a charity case!” Hitomi cried from the stands.

“Mr Tenebri, I don’t believe this academy has seen a first year with your talent for magic in years,” Mashima attempted to persuade him. “Maybe not ever, in fact.”

Max turned to Natsuno, who was on the floor holding onto her neck, looking quite furious.

“Can we just say you owe me one and call it even?” he negotiated frantically. “The position is all yours.”

He turned to walk back to his companions and didn’t bother waiting for her response. Jin was still standing on the grass. He pointed at something behind Max.

Natsuno was stomping very quickly towards their position. Max turned to prepare for what he thought was an attack from her, when a sudden alarm shot through his body. A sudden thought he heard among the small crowd in the courtyard. He looked towards the courtyard entrance, and quickly dived at Natsuno.

“LOOK OUT!”

A blazing ball of fire, small in scale, came speeding towards the platform as Max grabbed Natsuno and pulled her out of the way. The orb caused a surprisingly massive amount of destruction, completely destroying the platform and shooting up some volatile embers towards the pavilions which Mashima quickly shot up to protect with a large defensive barrier.

Unfortunately, Jin was thrown into the pavilions just before the shield went up. Warily, he stood up to his feet. He surveyed the area to see someone watching them, who quickly ran towards the back entrance behind the students who hadn’t noticed the presence of the attacker.

Through the smoke that started to smog up the area around the ring, he made for the chase. Hitomi, calling out his name, quickly followed behind him. Shida ran after the two. Mashima stood up and, trying to fight back the guilt she felt for not being able to do anything during Max’s sudden outburst, decided to follow as well.

“Make sure those two are okay,” she commanded the other students.

|“What’s going on?”|

|“Were we just attacked?”|

|“I just can’t deal with this day anymore!”|

|“Hey, are those two okay?”|

As Mashima dashed across the courtyard, she couldn’t help but notice that Tanaka was suddenly very absent from the window where he had been watching the entire scene just a few moments before.

***

I warned her, Tanaka thought. I warned them all. Now they have to sit with this.

Max’s fight was still underway and Tanaka could feel the raw power from where he stood. He watched, hoping that the Haruki girl, who was a very promising student, would draw out some kind of sign of danger that would allow Tanaka to detain the foreigner without question.

He knew that those two young men together could spell undeniable doom. The Akira boy’s condition was something the school had been warned about. Since the Scion rings began to resonate, they’d been preparing for Akira’s attendance. He seemed to have a good grip on the beast that lay dormant beneath his calm exterior. The other one was a different story.

Tanaka should have been prepared for the display, but there was something fundamentally darker about the foreigner’s mana. Mashima picked it up, he could see it. But she would never understand what it meant. Not until it was too late.

Now, it's come to this. I have to take care of things myself.

He walked the hallways on the second floor of the Scion building with fervour. Stopping at one of the office doors, he wondered if the others in the Scion Initiative felt what he felt.

It took a lot to scare Izunoto Tanaka. He had seen too much, done too much, to feel fear for magic. He didn’t fear the bloody mess that was necromancy. He didn’t fear curses, nor the monsters he had seen created by the chemical imbalances between animals and the natural mana lingering in the air around them. He had seen men and women with the capabilities to render cities to dust.

That day, however, he felt fear.

What does one do when one has no control for what could be an eternity? How do you put an end to the actions of a being who could stop the clock without so much as a word? He had seen so many things, and yet that day was the first time he’d seen, or rather, felt, someone stop time. The amount of mana it took required no small number of mages to work together to hold the spell for only just a few minutes. And even then, there was a likelihood that the mana would start to tear their bodies apart if they held it for too long.

Max, on the other hand, didn't look phased for a second. Worse than that, he stared death in the face, filled up his mouth and then spat at it. Who knew how long that young man held the world in suspension? How was he still alive after that deadly attack? There were too many questions and Tanaka couldn’t stand around waiting for answers.

Such a power did not belong in the hands of an abrasive young fool without respect for culture or discipline. The outsider needed to be dealt with, and Tanaka would help see to it.

Finally, breaking from his reverie, he knocked on the office door.

It was time to set the plan in motion.