Midnight Arcadia

Chapter 5

Sky looked towards his new teammates after Nova had announced the one-on-one time that they would be partaking in. He could feel the pit in his stomach knowing that he would have to possibly spar with any one of these powerhouses. Nova began to talk with each of the other groups dividing them up into pairs and giving her reasons why. Sky wasn’t really paying attention to what she was saying, he just began to spiral out of control internally. He had already been thinking why he was even here in the first place. It was a constant struggle between wanting to prove himself and wanting to just save himself the embarrassment of failure. This wasn’t anything like middle school, he had gotten into plenty of fights with those with Veins but there was never such a vast gap in power. Ayumi looked over towards Sky with a worried expression on her face. She had only known him for a little while, but she was grateful to him and Akihiko for saving her when she needed it. They had spent some time together during the two-week period between that day and school starting, which only solidified her desire to help him. She walked over to Sky, away from Chiyoko and Kaminari, and placed a hand upon his shoulder. “Hey… Are you alright, Akiyama? You look pale.” She said quietly, trying not to involve other people within the conversation. Sky jumped slightly at the touch but let out a sigh of relief when he heard Ayumi’s voice. “Ah, sorry. Just worried about my lack of Vein.” He said, not wanting to worry Ayumi any further. She wasn’t completely satisfied with his answer, but she could tell that he felt at least a little bit better having someone check up on him. She gave him a smile that warmed his chest and put a fist to his chest. “You got this, Akiyama. You can do this.” She said, trying her best to sound like Akihiko. Sky let out a chuckle before thanking her. Before either of them could notice, Nova popped up between them with a devious smile on her face. “Whatcha talkin about~?” Nova said. Both Ayumi and Sky jumped at her sudden appearance. Nova let out a laugh as the two kids blushed in embarrassment. “Chill out, I’m here to assign you two to pairs for the spar today. You guys did hear me when I said that right?” She spoke. She fakes a dramatic pose and clutches her chest and lets out a gasp. “My students already ignoring me… woe is me!” she said overly dramatic. She stops poking fun and points at Ayumi and Kaminari, pairing them up. Chiyoko lets out a scoff. “I’m left with the Veinless? Seriously?” she said disgusted. Sky felt angered by her statement but simply turned his head and scoffed himself. Ayumi steps up, also upset by her statement. “Hey! That was uncalled for!” she said. Chiyoko steps forward to meet her gaze. “I wasn’t talking to you. He’s a big boy, he doesn’t need his girlfriend to do all the talking for him.” Chiyoko said in a quick response before walking past her and up to Sky. She smiles mockingly before poking him in the chest. “Isn’t that right, Veinless?” she said. Nova broke them up before letting out a sigh. “Oh, to be 15 again. That’s enough, save it for the sparring match.” She said moving Chiyoko along. Kaminari let out a silent scoff. “Of course, I get the dysfunctional team…” she said under her breath. Nova moved everyone and their newfound pairs to the arena on school grounds made for Vein training and had everyone seat themselves. Nova called out a pair to step upon the slightly raised platform serving as the arena. Galaxy and Akihiko walked up first. “Alrighty the rules are simple. You two are allowed to use your Veins, first to knock their opponent out of the ring wins. Make an effort to use energy reinforcement but it’s not a big deal if you can’t, this is just to gauge where you all are at.” Nova said before telling them to begin. The auras of the Veins sparked to life as they smiled at each other. “I might not be my sister, but I’ll be certain to go easy on you.” Galaxy said, confident in her win. Akihiko returned the gesture. “I’ll be sure to not embarrass you too badly in front of your sister.” He said. The friendly spar began quickly as Akihiko raised a wall and sent it flying toward Galaxy. She smirked as transparent lines appeared within the world forming a box. As the wall approached her it suddenly gave way as if it was a liquid, dropping to the ground. Galaxy took the chance and sprinted towards Akihiko throwing a high kick. Akihiko was surprised and barely managed to block it as it sent him flying. As he was tumbling across the arena, he formed a wall within his path to catch himself on. He let out a labored breath. “Goddamn! That hurt like hell! You already have practice with energy reinforcement! That’s no fair!” he yelled out. He stands back up and dusting off his uniform. He smiles regardless and begins to run towards her. He focuses on his arm, imagining the energy surrounding his arm like skin-tight armor. He jumped towards Galaxy using the ground rocketing upwards sending him forward. Before he could even reach her though she smiled and waved at him. Akihiko looks confused before he is sent flying directly upwards. “Rewrite, remember Nakashima? You can’t just ignore the area I control.” She said as Akihiko started falling back down to the ground. She lands a kick as he falls, sending him out of the ring without any issue. After Akihiko lands and his aura dissipates, he stands back up. “Damn… I have a lot to work on!” He said with a laugh, not even upset about losing. Sky was in awe as he watched Akihiko so readily take his loss. He once again wished he was like Akihiko. Before Sky could gather his thoughts, he heard his name called. He let out a wavering sigh before standing up alongside Chiyoko and walking toward the arena. He looked towards Chiyoko, a worried expression on his face. Chiyoko returned a smirk, one that just screams ‘I’m better than you’. Once Galaxy arrived back to the rest of the group, she looked towards Nova. “Sis, are you sure this is a good idea? He’s Veinless, I don’t see what you see in him.” She said to her sister quietly, her surface level worry showing. Nova smiled as she placed her eyes upon Sky. “If my hunch is right, we are going to see something amazing.” Nova said as if she saw something within Sky only she can see. Chiyoko let her Vein spur to life, her aura expanding to cover the entire arena. “It’s no fun to pick on a Veinless. You can still leave now.” Chiyoko said as she fixed her ponytail. Sky shivered as the aura passed through him. He looked towards the ground for a moment as her words processed in his mind. He had been called Veinless for years, why was he suddenly scared of being called that now? He began to understand why, everyone here could kill him. He was terrified of dying before he got to live, but it was the world he lived in. He slowly raised his head and looked at Chiyoko eye-to-eye. “I know you are stronger than me. But I cannot let this chance escape me. I will fight, no matter how futile it sounds.” Sky said. He was still terrified of the power that he quite literally stood within, but he wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Chiyoko let out a scoff before snapping her fingers and rapidly lowering the temperature within her aura, making Sky shiver once more but he began to run towards her regardless. He could feel the temperature get colder and colder the closer he got to her, but he refused to let it stop him. He attempted to throw a punch towards her, but she dodged at the very last second. She looked at him completely surprised. “How are you this close? What are you doing!?” she yelled out before barely blocking a second punch that sent her stumbling backwards. Sky immediately backed away from her to warm up, but he was still freezing. His body was shivering but he had a newfound look of determination. “It’s just some cold. I won’t let that stop me.” He said, his voice wavering. Chiyoko looked annoyed by this and stomped on the ground with a foot and sent a wave of ice towards him that came up from the ground. Sky barely manages to dodge it, getting a cut across his leg in the process. “You shouldn’t even be able to handle the cold near me, just give up!” Chiyoko yelled out once again as she waved her hand, sending multiple icicles towards him. Sky wished she would just shut up and focus on the fight. He ran towards her, sliding under the icicles and using his hands to spring himself upwards and landing a kick on her, sending her to the ground. Chiyoko let out a frustrated scream as she threw her hand out towards him, barraging him with below zero icy wind. He brought up his hands to attempt to cover his vitals, but the wind sent him flying onto his back, his arms suffering from ice burn. He let out scream of pain as he clutches his arms over his chest. Akihiko and Ayumi yelled out for Sky, their distress growing with each passing moment. Galaxy looked towards Nova once again. “Sis, stop this! He can’t handle it without a Vein!” she tried to plead with her. “No one will interfere. He’s so close.” Nova said deathly serious. All of the students looked at Nova with some fear before returning their eyes back to the ‘sparring’ match before them. Chiyoko began to walk towards Sky with an angered expression. She kicked Sky while he was still down. “Who do you think you are, Veinless!? You actually kicked me!” she said while still kicking him. Sky grabbed her ankle and caused her to trip before managing to get back up. Chiyoko looked at him with disgust before collapsing her aura to normal size and lifting up her hand, the temperature around her hand hitting absolute zero. “You’re weak! You don’t belong here! I tried to be nice and give you the chance, but you made me bleed!” she yelled out at him as she readied her fist into a punch. Sky looked at her with an equally angry expression, he was sick and tired of being called weak. He was going to show her right now, he was no longer scared of what she could do to him. His arms were already in excruciating pain, he was going to keep going no matter what. There was a slight spark of energy around his arm as he readied his own punch. “I’M NOT WEAK!” he yelled out as he landed his own punch while dodging hers. When his fist landed on her abdomen the impossible happened once again. The brilliant blood red spark flashed around his fist as it pierced her aura and launched her directly backwards with fierce velocity. Chiyoko hit the wall behind her and then fell to the ground. She spit up blood before laboring to breathe. Sky despite what he just felt quickly ran over to Chiyoko’s side. “I… I didn’t…” Sky said as he tried to help her up. The rest of his class looked in awe before Galaxy yelled out. “You hit a Spark!? I haven’t even done that!” Nova began to walk towards them as she clapped. “I knew I saw something good in you, kid!” Nova said as she kneeled down next to both of and put a hand on each of their shoulders. Chiyoko was finally able to take a deep breath and sit up properly and Sky’s arms no longer felt like they were in excruciating pain, only moderately in pain. Nova stood back up while helping them back up by just picking them up off the ground with one arm each. “I knew that energy was in there somewhere, I just needed to see if you could land another Spark to free it some more.” Nova said as she placed them back on the ground. Sky looked confused and then looked back down at his arms. There was a light glow of a white aura just barely covering his body, it was dim, but it was undeniably some energy. The energy from a Vein.

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To Be Continued