As we dragged away Ethereal out of the arena and into the locker room, I could see White's was becoming a bit worried about something. It was most probably because of the current situation but when I tried to ask him he simply didn't respond to me at all. He only talked once we have placed Ethereal to a bench that was inside the locker room.

"What are we supposed to do now?" I asked White.

White finally responded, "I have no idea. Can you tell what happened with her?"

I took a closer look at Ethereal and touched around her body to see whether there were any signs of injuries that could possibly hint of sabotage from outside source besides the contestants. After looking around and feeling around her, I found out that not a single visible injury can be found.

"Nothing." I shake my head.

White had a worried tone, "This is quite sudden. Could it be a poison or something?"

"I can't really check that one out at this time. I only have a vial of antidotes in my bags." I showed White the antidote.

"We shouldn't risk it for now. It might have side effects if she isn't poisoned at all."

"Then what shall we do, White? What's going to happen to the invitational?"

White thinks for a second and said, "Can we have a backup, then?"

"Backup? You mean someone else taking the role of Ethereal?"

"Yes. That's the temporary solution."

"But who?" I wondered.

"Do you have one of those cards that you used on Ziggs the other day in class?"

At first I don't get what White was talking about but then I remembered that we had an experimentation class where we test out new boundaries for our current ability. For me, I managed to pull out a very special card, when I used it, my target will be 100% disguised. Nobody can tell that it was the same person at all because of the perfect disguise. It was the perfect card for a Kunoichi like me.

"You mean that Disguise Card?"

"Yeah." White nodded, "Use it on me."

"What? Are you sure?"

White was very sure, "It's the only way to do it without causing any massive panic."

"But you are going to disguise as a girl, White. Is that even possible?"

White then retracted by reminding me about the class the other day, "Didn't you do the same thing to Ziggs the other day? He looked very cute back then for a boy in disguise of a girl."

"Very well. I'll see if I can pull it out from my random deck." I tried to draw the card that I wanted.

It took about 20 different draws until I finally got the Disguise Card. I placed on White's head and activated it. From what I gathered, using this card requires me to think of what kind of disguise the target will become. Additionally, the target can also discern them with what kind of disguise will work for them without them feeling awkward about it. But what if it's a different gender? Will White feel awkward? Once I activated the card, a shining bright light began to blinds me and as soon as the light fades out I see that White was no longer the White that I've known all this time.

"Oh my goodness...Is that really you, White?"

"What's wrong? Is it bad?" White got worried from what I said.

I'm quite unsure of what to say because his disguise was...too perfect? I pointed to him to a mirror that was one of the opened locker door. It wasn't only me who was surprised, White was also surprised.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

His hair was clean, long and white as a snow, just like his name. It reminds me a lot like Zenith's hair when she isn't tying it into a different hairstyle. White had a cap. It looks very different from any casual cap you see every day. I think it's a military cap. It has two small emblems on his cap. A star and a dragon. His outfit though...I can't help it...

"Oh my goodness." White expressed his surprise.

I couldn't hold it any longer and quickly burst into my true self, "YOU ARE SO CUTE, WHITE!"

White's face turned red as he heard that, "What the? Lin? Is that you?"

"That outfit it's so perfect for your body~!"

He was wearing what seem to be a white sailor uniform with a black belt, a black skirt with two lines of white, a pair of loafers, and also a pair of black knee-high socks. I never expected White would be able to cross disguise like this.

"This is definitely going to work, White. Because right now, you have the same hair colour as Ethereal and with that 100% disguise, no one will notice it. The only downside to this is that you're not as tall as Ethereal..."

White quickly knocked his head on one of the locker and said, "Of course you will say that!"

"Well we don't have much time, do we? Go and take her rifle and get out of there."

White nodded and grabbed her rifle and ammo bag and placed it on him. As he was about to make an exit to the arena, I stopped him and said,

"If you're interested, I have an infinite amount of that card for you to freely use."

"Shut up!" He quickly turned his embarrassed look away from me as he got out of the locker room.

And so, the semi-final begins as White, disguising as a white haired girl prepares to face local opponent that was also using a ranged weapon. His opponent was a wearing a metallic armour.

I then talked to myself as I watched the television screen, "Wait hold on...Is that guy supposed to be a robot or something?"

That might be the case after seeing that one of his arms doesn't have a hand at all. Instead, it was replaced with what seemed to be a barrel that will probably shoot out some sort of ranged weaponry.

"Will this work out for White I wonder..."

"I think he can do it..." Suddenly Ethereal spoken up.

"Ethereal? You're awake!"

"You're his friend, right? You should trust him more for his sacrifice."

"I see...but, what about you?"

"I'm just exhausted, that's all. You guys don't really need to jump the gun and cheat your way to victory. But now that idiot is at the arena, there's no turning back. He has to finish what he started."

"Do you think he will win?"

"I'm sure he will from the way he always keeps an eye on my sister. He will definitely not disappoint Zenith's big sister."

If that's the case then I will also trust on his victory. As the gong signalling the beginning of the match was hit, White cocks out the rifle and aimed it at the enemy. Upon closer inspection, this was almost the same as Ethereal starting strategy. It was as if White was able to replicate her steps without even having any previous experience other than through his observe of her previous match.

The enemy dodges White's bullet and countered it with a ranged attack of its own. Its large barrel arm shoots out a mini-missile that White manages to jump away. It blew up a small portion of the arena. White begins to break a sweat as he notice how dangerous his opponent was but he remained his composure and continued on to the next step. He decided that it was time for him to use a different strategy. He placed the rifle to his back and brought out his green jaded dagger. He began running toward the opponent as the opponent shoots out missiles over missiles to him. The opponent got carried away as they realize that White was quick and efficient with his movement. In actuality, it was probably because of his pure wind nature.

White's magic is purely wind based magic. All of his movements and ability will somehow involve the wind much as how the air is all over us. Knowing that, his nature will always be at the bonus side thanks to the overabundant air that was all around us. If I had to say it, anyone with a wind based nature is probably the luckiest one of the four elements because the air is pretty much everywhere. Increased movement speed and evasiveness is one of the things that White received thanks to his wind nature.

And just as White finally makes his way in front of the robotic enemy, his opponent fires a blind shot right toward White's face. Dark clouds begin to engulf the entire screen as we wait for the result. As the clouds settled, an metallic arm can be seen lying on the floor. Zooming out from that, we can see that the robotic opponent's arm has been cut off by White. White had already sheathes back his dagger and was aiming the back of his enemy head with Ethereal's rifle. At that moment, I know that he had won. But it wasn't an amazing feat. Why? Because he cheated by the last second.

As White returned back to the locker room and passed by me, I whispered to him, "You really had to cheat, huh? I wonder how the invitational wasn't able to detect that at all."

"Well...I'm not happy with it as well...Don't tell this to anyone." White looked restless and defeated.

"You did what you had to do, though. Isn't that enough?"

White grits his teeth and clenched his fist. He moved on without saying a word and went to where Ethereal was. Today I finally see what is exactly deep inside White's mind. It's only a matter of 'time' until he runs out of 'space' to do this all alone. He needs to toughen up if he wants to get through a big obstacle...

TO BE CONTINUED