The next day came as it was a weekend, everyone there was stretching and getting ready. Kimura and his group were doing the same thing, stretching, and getting themselves ready for whatever is to come to them. As they stretched, a loudspeaker came on as it was hung up on a long pole.
"Hello? Is this thing working? Oh, it is. Alright then, Ahem. WELCOME everyone to the middle grounds, a far-off isolated area where espers of different academies will face off to see which academy will be crowned THE STRONGEST ACADEMY!!"
Everyone cheered except for Kimura, seeing this was his first time he felt a little anxious as he's never had to face off against more than one person. As the loudspeaker spoke the rules, Kimura noticed an academy group looking around before branching off into a private spot. This caught Kimura's attention as he walked off to investigate. From what Takashi told me, everyone here must abide by the rules… He tailed this academy group as he hid behind a tree.
"Did you get the things?"
"What? The needles?"
"Yes, the needles! We need to weaken everyone else so that we can finally be considered the strongest."
Kimura looked down as he began to process then information, Needles…? Weaken…? No one here is supposed to bring anything… Kimura quietly looked over the corner, catching a glimpse of one student. He had crimson red hair as Kimura looked back and walked back to his camp. Takashi, Fujiwara and Kobayashi noticed him walk out of the forest as they ran up to him concerned.
"Where'd you go?! You were supposed to—"
"One of the academies are planning to cheat."
"—What? That's impossible here, no one brought anything."
"Takashi you have to trust me on this."
Takashi looked at Kimura before looking at the others, feeling like he could be lying or being telling the truth, He couldn't really believe Kimura right now. "Kimura, they checked us before we got here. No one should have anything on them." He told him, patting his shoulder to reassure him.
I know what I heard…
He sighed as he moved Takahi's arm away from him, Kimura looked at Fujiwara as she had her eyes on the matches that were ongoing. The rest of them turned to watch the matches, seeing that they had a holographic scoreboard. Four matches later, it was our turn to go up. The loudspeaker goes up as it shouts out, "AND NOW! WE HAVE OUR RETURNING TITLE HOLDER OF STRONGEST ACADEMY IN THE WORLD!!! HHHHAAAVEEEENNN ACADDEEMMYY!!!".
Like before, the crowd began cheering as we walked down to the center of the middle ground. The place was beaten and destroyed as ice walls, ground walls, craters and even fire were still apparent in the battlefield. "ANNND AS THEIR CHALLENGER COMES UP! TWO-TIME FINALISTS AND RIVAL OF HAVEN ACADEMY! XEEENNOO ACADDEEEMMYY!!!". Kimura looked at them as they walked onto the battlefield, Kimura noticed that it was them who were talking in the woods. He saw the Crimson red hair as he grew concerned.
"WE JUST GOT SOME SPECTACTULAR NEWS! HAVEN ACADEMY IS BRINGING IN A NEW STUDENT TO PLAY AS THEIR BACK-UP! LETS HEAR IT FOR KIMURRAA MAKOTOO!!!"
"Seems like you're a bigshot Kimura.
"Shut up Takashi…Let's focus."
The crowd grew louder as Kimura seemed oddly serious about this, the rest of them seemingly relaxed but Kimura was tense. Why is he tense in a friendly match…? Fujiwara tried to understand him but couldn't get a good read as the crowd began counting down. "Alright everyone, focus up and let's win this!" Takashi shouted with the rest of them shouting, "Got it!". The countdown reached zero as an airhorn rang out.
* * *
Woosh! Zap Zap!
"Kimura stay behind us, you're our only hope if we all go down."
"Right!"
Takashi, Kobayashi, and Fujiwara took charge, charging at the three frontliners of Xeno Academy. Takashi charged at the Crimson red-haired student as both clashed and caught each other's fists. Takashi caught a counter punch as the student caught a straight punch aimed at his face. Both had their eyes glowing as Takashi's golden glow conflicted with the students reddish-orange glow.
"Expelling a bunch of mana at the start huh Takashi."
"Couldn't say the same for you Watanabe."
Takashi took the initiative as he stepped back hard, pulling Watanabe forward and slamming his knee into his abdomen. He gripped tighter as he rammed his head upwards to Takashi's face.
Meanwhile, Fujiwara was dealing with one student as her heightened senses allowed her to dodge and counter punch one of the students, sending them towards their back-up. Their back up student, a white-haired student with red eyes, caught them, looking at them to see if they were okay. The crowd went wild as they cheered for Haven Academy.
Watanabe became concerned as he looked at his second in command, a student that had Violet hair with brown eyes, nodding him for something. The guy smiled as he broke out of Kobayashi's grasp and threw a right hook. Instictively, he blocked the right hook, feeling a piercing pain in his arm.
"Gah! The hell?!"
Kobayashi felt his arm numb up a bit as the glow in his eyes dimmed a bit, concerned Kimura shouted, "Switch in with me!". Kobayashi scoffed it off, replying "No way! I got it!" As he blocked another hit, this time it felt heavier than before. Shit! Kobayashi's guard was down as the student smirked, incasing his arm with ice and slamming it against Kobayashi's face.
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Kobayashi was sent flying backwards, landing roughly as he was considered out. "AND DOWN GOES KOBAYASHI! WILL THEY SEND IN THEIR NEWEST RECRUIT TO SUB?! OR WILL THEY FACE A 3v2 IN JUST A MOMENT!!" The loudspeaker hyped the crowd up as they slowly chanted for Kimura to substitute in.
Kimura felt a bit forced as he dragged Kobayashi to their safe zone, a drawn rectangle on the ground. Kobayashi stayed on the ground as he was out for the count. Kimura walked up as he stood beside Takashi. "I need you to stop hiding what you have." Takashi asked him, Kimura sighed as his black lightning began to show.
The erratic sparks moved around him once again as Fujiwara smirked at the other side, It was back to a 3 on 3 as they all rushed at each other. Takashi took on Watanabe once again as Kimura and Fujiwara took on the other two students beside him. He has an ice ability…I can't let up my footing… Kimura threw a lightning bolt at him as the student swiped up building an ice wall to protect himself.
DOOSH!!
The Lightning bolt struck the ice, creating a dent into the ice's dexterity, However Kimura kept throwing bolts at the ice structure. The dents became holes in mere seconds as each bolt he threw got consecutively stronger. He's not going to expect me to run up… Kimura threw two more bolts before rushing in with them. DOOSH DOOSH!! The last two bolts struck the ice as Kimura ran around to see the guy was gone.
Catching him by complete surprise, The student threw a hailstorm at Kimura as Kimura began quickly dodging the ice, running up towards him as he zig-zagged around. The violet-haired student made the hailstorm rougher as they fell harsher and faster, Kimura kept zipping around but hit a few as he got close enough to the student.
"Let's try this again shall we!"
"Let's not!"
He threw a punch at Kimura as it skids off the side of his cheek and Kimura slammed an electrified punch to his gut. The student was staggered a bit as he was lightly paralyzed from the electrified punch. Wasting no time, Kimura backed up a bit before running in and jumping up, throwing his knee right at the students' face. He jerked his head back from the force as Kimura seemingly landed faster than he can fall over, grabbing his arm from behind and throwing him over his shoulder. DOOSH!! Kimura slammed him face first into the ground, cracking the ground around them as the audience was cheering.
Kimura backed up a bit as he looked over and witnessed Fujiwara get a hook to the temple, seeing her body drop down to the floor. "AND FUJIWARA IS DOWN!!" the loudspeaker goes off as the crowd is excited to see a 3 on 2. Takashi runs over but is caught away by Watanabe, forcing him to fight rather than to attend to Fujiwara. "Fujiwara!!" Kimura shouts as he sees the student put pressure on her head.
"GET OFF HER!!"
Kimura shouts as the Black lightning seemingly vanishes, instead Kimura's right arm begins to crystalize a bit as he forms black ice in his hand, throwing a javelin-like icicle at the student. He looks over as their back-up student runs in and kicks the icicle to pieces, landing as he cracks his knuckles, ready to fight.
* * *
Kimura clenches his fist as he runs at them, their back-up student rushing at Kimura, Kimura throws his right fist as they swiftly dodge and counterattack in return. He grabs onto the student's arm as he throws him over the shoulder. BAM Kimura's stomped missing his chest as the student got right back up and scored a kick to his side.
Kimura jerked a bit as he noticed the other student coming at him from behind, Kimura's right arm melted as black lightning came back once again, ducking underneath a kick. He jumped out of the way to gain distance from the two as he saw Takashi, noticing that Watanabe was beginning to overpower him.
"Looks like I'll win this time Takashi…!"
"Like hell you will…!"
Kimura then ran in as he kicked Watanabe off Takashi, Takashi stumbled to a knee taking deep breaths as Xeno Academy's remaining group stood together. Kobayashi dragged the barley conscious Fujiwara to their safe zone as another student stood on standby as their healer. Kimura looked at Takashi as he saw that Takashi was way more exhausted than he should have been.
"Takashi, you haven't used up all your mana energy right."
"No…But I'm exhausted from our constant struggle…"
"Let me check you…"
Kimura knelt in-front of Takashi as he tapped around his arm, feeling a thin object pointing out. He pulled it out of his arm seeing it was, as he suspected, a thin needle. "I told you; they were planning to use needles…" Kimura said as Takashi felt guilty for doubting Kimura's hunch. Takashi sighed as he slowly regained his strength back.
"How long will it take before you're at full power?"
"Huh?" Takashi looked at him.
"How long until you're at full power Takashi."
"I don't know, Three, Six minutes?"
"I have an idea."
Takashi leaned in as Kimura told him his plan.
"I'll hold them off until you're at full power, until then use your gravity manipulation to slam them straight into the ground at full force, that'll surly knock all of them out and possibly me."
"That's a crazy plan…but if it works then I owe you Kimura."
They then shook on it as Kimura stood up and walked over to Watanabe and the other two Xeno Academy students. Kimura looked at them as he took off the patch on his eye. Revealing the scar on his left eye and opening his left eye, revealing it to be a deep purple in color.
The Crowd gasped and cheered as they were cheering for Haven Academy still, some were cheering for Xeno Academy as well. "Heterochromatic…" Watanabe commented as the other two looked at Watanabe confused. "What does that mean?" one of them asked as he responded, "It means that we have to be extra careful.". Kimura's eyes glowed purple and ink black, his electricity sparking black and having a purple hue.
"Come on, I'll take you all on!"
* * *
Kimura stayed defensively as they rushed in, Kimura opened his right hand as the electricity faded and he swiped horizontally. WOOOSH!!! Black Ice shot out as it fortified in-front of him as it also bought Takashi more time. "You…You can use two abilities…" Takashi commented on Kimura as he responded, "One…the other is on standby…" the ice on his right arm breaking off and falling off as the electricity came back.
BOOOM!!! DOOSH!!
The wall crumbled as Kimura began throwing lightning bolts at them, they stood their ground as they took bolt after bolt. Two minutes…One more! Kimura kept chucking lightning bolts as he was tired out. "NOW!" Both students beside Watanabe then opened fire as one shot a beam and the other shot out flames from his hands. Kimura stood his ground as Watanabe ran towards him, looking onto a pressure point as Watanabe threw a punch.
Kimura took the locked-on punch head on as he felt his arms give out, taking a blast to the face as the flames dissipated. "End of the line!" Watanabe threw another punch but was stopped mid-air. Kimura looked at Takashi, back at full power in three minutes. "Take a rest Kimura." He commanded as Kimura took a couple steps back and sparked up some electricity, trying to undo the pressure point.
Takashi pushed Watanabe back as the other two caught him, looking at Takashi. "Now…You all fall…" Takashi promised them as he snapped, within a second both students that were beside Watanabe were pushed back from him, both landing on their backs and barraged with heavy gravity.
The sudden shift in power kept the audience on their toes, cheering on the match as Takashi and Watanabe stood face to face once again. Kimura was out of service as he couldn't move his arms, but he was still acting as back-up. Meanwhile, Watanabe's partners were officially out, and he was the last one standing.
Takashi and Watanabe looked at each other as Takashi asks, "Anything before our match is over…?", Watanabe chuckles a bit as he shook his head, replying, "No. Just you and me, like old times." As he raised up his arms and switched up stances. Takashi chuckled as well as he smiled, standing firm with his arms beside him and his hands in his pockets. Both stared down at each other as immense mana output was felt all around. Kimura looked on in awe as he thought, so this is Takashi when he's being serious…I see why he's our school's monarch…