When I opened the door the trial chamber, I was met with the sight of an irksome girls, casually sitting on a small pillar and chomping an apple. Despite the dire situation, she appeared completely calm and collected. As if all the suffering of the world didn’t bother her one bit.
“Sugichan, I was wonder if you’d ever show up.” She tossed her apple aside and smiled at me, hopping down from her pillar to address me more directly. “What took you so long?”
“Believe it or not, Yokoshima, a dozen near-death experiences can get in the way of even the best kept schedules.”
Yes, the person in front of me was the girl who’s attempt at kidnapping us kicked all of the events of the last two months into gear, Kyoko Yokoshima. It was easy enough to extrapolate who the other three were likely seeing at the same moment.
“I have to say, Sugichan, I’m pretty disappointed to see you here under these circumstances. I had higher hopes for you.”
“Higher hopes? The hell are you talking about?”
“You made waves, y’know. When you joined the academy. I didn’t know your face until we met, but since the day you transferred in there were rumours about the ‘once-in-a-generation genius’ that had joined us. I had wanted to meet you for a long time. But unfortunately, you’ve been a colossal failure at meeting my expectations.”
“And what might those expectations be? Were you hoping I’d be disturbed evil genius that would agree with your twisted plan to turn Earth into tje devil's play pen?”
“You misunderstand yet again,” she sighed dramatically. Her attitude was already starting to piss me off. “I don’t want Earth to fall to hell, obviously. This place sucks if you haven’t noticed. But there is no winning against Baal Zebul. I’m not disappointed that you disagree with me, I’m disappointed that you’re too stupid to see that there is no other way.”
I finally understood what she was saying, but I couldn’t disagree more with the sentiment. Perceived intelligence is no reason to completely lack principles.
“So you’re saying you’re disappointed that I’m supposedly not as smart as you were hoping? Because I didn’t jump ship as soon as I saw that the odds were stacked against us?”
“If you must put it that way, yes. I thought someone of your supposed brains would have the good sense to get in the good graces of the winning side. You may have been born a genius, but your poor decision to fight back means you’ll die a fool.”
“Don’t try to pass off your cowardice as logic, Kyoko. You and I both know that you’re just a scared girl trying to justify betraying her species with pseudointellectual arguments and condescension.”
“Tch. You’re still saying things like that?” She straightened her posture and drew two pairs of brass from her back pockets, slipping them onto her hands. This was the signal that the discussion had broken down beyond repair. “In truth, I had hoped to settle this peacefully, but if you refuse to see sense I suppose I’ll have to beat it into you myself.”
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“You want me? Come and get me.”
I usually waited and figured out a plan before engaging head on, but this girl really pissed me off. I raised my rapier and slowly walked towards her, as she did the same. Before long, the two of us were staring each other down in the centre of the arena, waiting for a chance to attack.
I struck first.
I stabbed at her body multiple times, to which she dodged backwards each time. I picked up the intensity, moving towards her with steadily increasing speed as I let my anger take control of me.
I sliced across her body, drawing a little blood from her chest, only to be countered by a left hook that would have cleanly knocked me off my feet if I hadn’t braced for it.
No time to be put off by concussion. I kept the same intensity up. Stab after stab, slice after slice, she kept casually walking backwards and throwing counters as I approached with everything I had.
“Stand. Still. You. Rat.”
I violently attacked with all my ability, but to no avail. She continually avoided every single one with little effort. In frustration, I overcommitted to a stab at her head, but that was a big mistake.
A simple movement to the left let her dodge the stab and seamlessly transition to a counter, slamming me across the face with her brass knuckles and sending me barreling along the floor.
“You’re losing your nerve, Sugichan. I thought better of you. A shame.”
“Oooh, I’ll fuckin’ show you what it looks like when I lose my nerve, you bastard.”
I got back to my feet and wiped the blood from my lip, staring her down with hate in my eyes. This bitch. This evil, psychotic, manipulative bitch.
…manipulative?
Her power… emotional manipulation… it hadn’t even crossed my mind. Why had I been ignoring foresight this whole time? Had I let rage blind me? Had I seriously let her get inside my head that easily?
I was pissed at myself. I knew Yokoshima had the power to manipulate, yet I fell for it, hook, line and sinker. Fucking idiot.
I took a deep breath to calm myself, though I outwardly made it appear as if I was just out of breath from the beating I had taken. My nerves settled a little, though her power was strong. I would have to force myself to overcome my emotions and solve this logically, even if every inch of my endocrine system wanted me to break every bone in her body.
Now that I had calmed down slightly, I was aware of just how much my head was throbbing. She was not pulling punches. A normal person would have been dead by this point. Though I’d prefer to solve everything non-violently, it was clear she was open to no such solution.
I hatched a plan.
As far as she was aware, I was still enraged beyond the point of reason. That gave me one opportunity to punish her arrogance.
I positioned my body low, as if I was about to animalistically pounce at her with unrestrained violence. I saw a small smile curl onto her lip, just as I dashed in to attack yet again. But this time, I listened to my foresight.
She attempted to counterattack yet again, but I held back and waited for her to whiff the attack, before using the opening to slice her right leg with my rapier, significantly slowing down her ability to move. As she reeled from the shock, I used my off-hand to punch her in the teeth, sending her careening across the floor.
“Bastard… you broke free of my manipulation, didn’t you?”
“You’re not the only one to take advantage of her opponent's hubris.” That tactic would only work once, but I had gotten my use out of it. It would seem as if the playing field had now been rendered even, though I knew that both of us still had one trump card left up our respective sleeves. And it seemed they would be played sooner than I had expected.
“You got me good,” she said, spitting blood at the floor, “but this charade ends now.” She held out her hand, and a glowing purple egg timer appeared in her palm. “Time Dilation!”
“Omniscience!”
We both played our cards at the same time. The only question was who could hold out the longest.
The fight neared it’s end.