Floodlights illuminated the whole stadium, giving the two figures standing 50 meters apart in the arena four shadows on the ground each.
One of them was a lanky man dressed in matte black vest on top of a red long sleeve, wearing a comically tall top hat and a white facemask that showed the grin of a mischievous cat. There was a pocket watch hanging from his breast pocket.
The man leaned back on empty air as though there were a solid wall there, juggling things on one hand while his other hand was in the pocket of his long pants. Curiously, the things he juggled changed every time he threw them to the air. From darts, to marbles, to play cards, to name a few.
His opponent was a woman of asian descent. Similarly tall and imposing, her aura was regal befitting of a queen. Her icy long blue hair reached all the way to her knees. Mist formed as she breathed, and the air surrounding her was glittering with frozen water molecules.
Whilst invisible, there were numerous cameras floating around the stadium, giving video feedback to the audience at home. The commentator was hyping up the face-off, claiming that this was the fight that would go down in history.
As the two fighters waited for the signal — Peep! A loud, dry sound reminiscent of the start of a racing event went off.
The man with the top hat didn’t waste any time to throw the three table knives in his hand towards the woman. Despite the distance, the knives flew straight — disappeared, then reappeared right before her eyes in an instant.
However, as though predicting this, the icy woman had manifested a wall made of ice in front of her. The knives pierced through several centimeters into it, stopping just right before they pierced her in the eyes.
Without showing any sign of dismay, she turned the wall of ice into several chunks of icicle and launched them towards the man.
However, the man with the top hat was no longer there. He had teleported 10 meters behind her, ready to throw another set of projectiles.
Knowing this habit of his through the research she had already done beforehand, the ice woman reflexively put up walls of ice behind her as well, saving her from the onslaught of darts and various utensils you’d see in an afternoon tea setting.
However, the man decided to continue his hit-and-run tactic, teleporting all over the place and throwing random objects at her from a distance, his ammunition seemingly limitless.
Annoyed, the woman decided to play one of her strongest cards early in the game — Ice Fortress, a five-by-five cubic made of clear, absolute ice that would freeze the very molecule of everything that touched its walls, effectively killing even momentum.
With enough time to respite and collect her thoughts, the woman tried to concoct a plan to keep her opponent in place as she looked around to find him.
However, he was nowhere to be seen — not outside her Ice Fortress, anyway.
As the end of a fork was quickly approaching her eye, with the arm that was holding it extended from behind her, the Ice Queen was reminded that her opponent could easily bypass any barriers.
In the next moment, half of the stadium was filled with ice.
♤♠♤♠♤
“Saki-chan, good morning.”
“Good morning!”
The girl, Kobayashi Saki, answered the greeting of her classmate with joy leaking out from her voice. Her short, carrot-colored hair swayed and the numerous character-pins on her bag clacked as she made way to her seat in the classroom.
She just sat down when a boy walked up to her with a huge grin in his smile.
“Saki, did you catch last night’s stream?”
“I did! The Ice Queen was awesome! She was like pshaw! and demolished Mad Hatter in an instant!”
Saki responded with a bigger grin on her face, her hands making some kind of weird pose, possibly imitating what she saw the night before.
Trying not to be too distracted by her well-endowed breasts in front of him, the boy looked Saki in the face, her height was shorter than other girls’.
“Y-yeah. I guess that’s Korea’s number one esper for you; her strength is no joke.”
“Uh-huh! And then, on the second round when she created a thin layer of ice across the whole arena to detect where Mad Hatter teleported to by sound — that was so clever!”
“…you know that’s all special effects, right?”
Intruded another classmate, earning a pout from Saki.
“You don’t know for sure.”
“Yeah. And even if it was staged, it’s still fun anyway.”
“It’s not staged though,” Saki insisted.
As Saki and her classmate chatted away, her eyes caught the glimpse of someone who sat on the opposite end of the classroom. It was a boy with dark scruffy hair whose bangs covered up to his eyes, sleeping on his desk despite the noisy classroom in the morning. He was Kurogane Takumi — the only person in the class whose phone number Saki didn't have.
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Kurogane Takumi was the loner of the class. He was always paired up with the teacher during P.E, and he was always seen eating his lunch box by himself. It wasn’t that he was being bullied or anything; He just liked being alone.
Even when it was a boy she’s speaking with, Saki could match up with her partner’s wavelength and hold a conversation on the same level. However, the few times she tried to speak with Takumi, he only responded minimally and looked so disinterested in the topic. It was hard even for the social butterfly that was Saki to break through Takumi’s walls.
What was even more frustrating is that, despite always being so aloof and lethargic, Takumi was constantly placed in the top 5 in the school’s academic ranking, and he was actually pretty good with sports activity as well, being the second fastest runner in the whole school despite not being a member of the track and field club. On top of that, there was even a rumor amongst the girls that he was actually quite handsome under those bangs.
Saki’s impression of Kurogane Takumi was someone who was so gifted he saw himself as better than everyone around him. So perhaps that was why he was so disinterested in his own classmates; he just thought he was above the rest of the students.
The bell rang, and Sasaki-sensei, the homeroom teacher, entered the classroom not long after. Once the usual homeroom session was over, Saki noticed that Takumi hurriedly followed Sasaki-sensei as she left the classroom. Other than that, there was nothing unusual that morning.
♤♠♤♠♤
Lunch — a sacred time for any high schooler. Some students would storm out of the classroom the moment the bell rang to test their luck and valor in the battle to procure the Ultra Deluxe Yakisoba Bread from the school store, which always ran out within minutes due to how popular it was. Upon their defeat, they’d return to their classrooms with curry bread and shame.
Some other students brought their own boxed lunches from home, and they could use their lunches as a topic within their friend circle. Did their mom make their lunch, or did they make it themselves. Whose rolled omelet tastes the best, and why are the octopus wieners so cute. Questions like such were just a small sample of the impact of boxed lunches in a group of friends.
Even Takumi, the loner of the class, wasn’t spending the lunchtime alone today. The student who sat in front of him, a boy with the name Tada Jun, rotated his chair and shared the table as they ate their boxed lunches together.
Weirdly enough, it was Saki who would be eating her lunch all alone. Usually, she’d be with one of her many friend groups, but everyone knew that Saki rewatched the VOD of her favorite stream every Monday.
With her phone in hand and her pink lunch box open, Saki was ready to indulge in her usual activity — when she heard a curious keyword from the least expected person.
“…Omega?”
She muttered to herself, her eyes looking at Takumi on the other end of the classroom.
Omega, or precisely Omega Battle, was a new form of entertainment that has taken over the internet since January last year, and it was very much Saki’s obsession at this point. Saki thought that someone like Takumi would consider himself above it, so hearing him mentioning it was just odd.
Unable to fight her curiosity, Saki stood from her desk and walked over to Takumi and Jun. “What was it about Omega?”
Perhaps not expecting that Saki would intrude into their conversation, Takumi and Jun looked surprised for a bit. The first to open his mouth was Jun, the boy with muted-blue hair and parted bangs in the middle.
“Ooh, Saki-chan. Yeah, we were talking about…wait, can I tell her about it?”
Jun looked at Takumi for confirmation. At that, Takumi shrugged his shoulders.
“Sure. It’s not like I’m hiding it or anything.”
“Okay then.”
While the two talked to each other, Saki borrowed a seat from the empty desk next to them. The owner of the desk, Imai Asa, was probably having lunch in her clubroom as usual. When they were done, Jun showed Saki a wide grin that reached from ear to ear.
“Saki-chan, guess what? Takumi got eyed by Omega’s talent scout!” Jun exclaimed.
Takumi, his mouth still occupied with a bite of rice from his lunch box, spoke up after swallowing. “The other day, on my way home, someone in a black limousine picked me up. A woman dressed in a black suit with the name Isabella H. Grey said she’s from Omega corporation and is interested in making me one of their talents.”
Jun's excitement contrasted with Takumi's lack of interest as he continued to eat. Saki’s brain lagged for a moment as she tried to process what she just heard.
Omega corporation — a mega corporation with an overall viewership rating of 80% across the internet, dominating internet-based entertainment media and even a major part of Hollywood.
Nowadays, there wasn't a single person who didn't know the name Omega Corporation. The truth was, Omega Corporation was a relatively new player in the entertainment industry, and their unprecedented rise to fame was due to one unique factor: their absolute monopoly on people wielding supernatural powers, commonly known as espers.
In practice, the organization known as Omega orchestrated sports tournaments, but in truth they were pitting espers against each other and broadcasted the battles out into the world. They were basically UFC or WWE but fueled with superpowers.
Ever since their inception, the internet had been revolving around Omega. There was no podcast that hadn’t mentioned Omega at least once, or a YouTuber who hadn’t reacted to an Omega battle. There were battle highlights, fanarts of popular Omega athletes, and even a fan game starring the top roster of Omega fighters.
Omega was omnipresent in the present day. It was as if the internet was made for Omega.
And Saki, being a mega fan of Omega Battles, couldn’t easily fathom the idea that someone she knew was going to be part of that world.
“Eeh?! Takumi-kun, you’re going to be an Omega Fighter?!”
“Well, nothing is decided yet. I still need to focus on my studies, too.”
“No way, that’s a waste!”
“She’s right, Takumi. I know you want to dedicate your life to studying, but it’s also wise to explore new avenues. Life's unpredictability means having a safety net is valuable. After all, if your sole path falters, it could spell the end of everything.”
“Jun…”
“Jun-kun…”
Takumi and Saki look at Jun, surprised that the guy who always fooled around could spew out a gem of wisdom every once in a while.
“Besides, I’d be able to brag about befriending a superstar.”
“So that’s your real aim. I regret seeing you in a new light.”
“A-ahaha…”
Jun showed a toothy grin mischievously, earning a sigh from Takumi and a dry laugh from Saki. While she couldn’t see his eyes behind the bangs, she spotted a faint smile on Takumi’s lips.
Seeing that, Saki thought to herself. So even the perfect human that Takumi is, he has someone he lets inside his heart.
“So, you’re not going to take the offer, Takumi-kun?”
“Well, I don’t know…Besides, I still need the school’s permission too.”
“Now you said it, the headmaster is really particular about part-time jobs, isn’t he? Saying about students doing odd jobs will lower the school’s prestige and whatnot. Wear better wigs before talking about prestige, baldy.”
Jun commented spitefully between his bites.
“Well, I consulted with Sasaki-sensei about it this morning. She said she’ll try to convince the headmaster and tell me the result.”
“I see.”
So that was why Takumi chased Sasaki-sensei after the morning homeroom. Saki thought to herself, but then her stomach started to protest, reminding her that she hadn't touched her lunch.
“Come to think of it, have you had your lunch, Saki-chan?”
Jun asked, as if reading her mind.
“Oh, I left my lunch on my desk.”
“The lunch break is going to be over soon, you know.”
“You’re right. …but, before that,” Saki acknowledged Jun’s reminder. However, instead of going back to her desk right away, she fished out her phone and showed it to Takumi. “Takumi-kun, can you tell me if you’ve decided to take the offer?”
Takumi and Saki hadn’t exchanged contact details. In fact, Takumi was the only person in class whose contact Saki didn’t know.
“Sure.”
Seeing Saki’s gesture, Takumi immediately understood what she meant and took his own phone and put it over Saki’s. A moment later, a Friend Invitation popped up in Saki’s chatting app, which she accepted right away.
With that, Saki’s Friend list was complete.
“Thank you! I’ll be waiting for the news, okay!”
After waving her hand, Saki walked back to her own desk. There wasn’t enough time to watch the VOD of last night’s Omega Battle stream, but her mind was occupied with something far more impactful anyway.
Kurogane Takumi — Smart, athletic, (supposedly) handsome, and now he was also scouted by Omega and possibly would become an Omega Fighter, one of those glamoring existence beyond the screen. God sure is unfair.
After the afternoon homeroom, Takumi was called by Sasaki-sensei to see her in the teacher’s office and didn’t come back. Saki didn’t wait for him and headed back home after saying goodbyes to her classmates.
That night, in her room that was filled with merchandise of her favorite Omega athletes, such as bean plushies, figures, and wallpapers, Saki was watching the VOD she failed to watch that afternoon on her phone.
A ping was heard, and the icon of the chatting app showed up on the corner of her phone.
“Hello, it’s Takumi.
I decided to become an Omega Fighter.”
With those words, he also sent a few stickers of a bunny greeting and bowing.