It was midday and the sun was high in the sky, Hidit and Ans were going around the school to hang the integral leaderboard. While walking around the school, they were seeing students running through the hallways in hurry to go somewhere, even though the first day of school was over.

"They all seem in hurry, do you remember if there were any special event for the first day of school this year?"

Hidit asked while hanging the leaderboard on a noticeboard.

"Not that I remember, but you are right, those students are indeed in hurry for something, do you think something happened?"

Ans asked as they began to walk toward the next noticeboard.

"I don't know, we'll have to stop the next student we see rushing at full speed."

Right after hanging another leaderboard, a pair of students was running at full speed in the hallway.

"Hey you two! Can you stop for a second?"

Ans asked while looking at the students, that stopped and stood before the teacher.

"We are sorry for running in the hallways, but we must hurry before they begin!"

"Begin? What is about to start?"

"The duel! There is going to be a duel in the Coliseum! That's where everyone is going!"

"Who are the students involved in the duel?"

"Shiraki from class 1A and Yuki from class 1C."

Ans turned to Hidit, her expression was turning pale with concern. Ans made the students resume their run while placing his hand on Hidit's shoulder.

"Are you alright? Why have you turned so pale?"

"Shiraki is a half-human, she isn't a pure demon, and she's going against the child of a really important family, of course I'm worried about her."

Ans took the leaderboards from Hidit's hands.

"Go see her, I've known you for too many years and if you don't go now you'll lament it for the rest of the year. Go see your child, I'll finish here."

"Thank you."

Hidit sprinted outside the main building rushing toward the Coliseum.

The Coliseum was located right behind the main building, the Coliseum was used for practical lessons by the different classes. When not used for lessons, the Coliseum was free to use for students that wished to train with their classmates, or to host duels. Duels are used to settle matters of any kind, from love quarrels to tests of strength, in order to do so the challenger needs to book the arena for the duel. After the booking, the news of the duel is spread around the school, the students involved wait in their locked room for the time of the duel, when time is up they are escorted to the arena by the staff.

When Hidit finally arrived at the Coliseum, she was escorted to Shiraki's locker room and she has been let in. When she saw Shiraki she was left speechless: Shiraki was doing warm-up exercises wearing only her underwear in order to not wet the uniform with sweat before the duel.

"Oh hello sensei, fancy meeting you here, do you need something?"

Shiraki's body was toned and muscular. Her arms, her abs, her legs, everything was toned and well defined, muscles that couldn't be seen while wearing the uniform.

"Why are you going on a duel? Do you even know who are you against? You should surrender now that you have time because you'll only get yourself hurt!"

Shiraki finished with her warm-up and began to dry her sweat with a towel.

"I appreciate the concern sensei, but I never back down from a fight. I'm used to getting in trouble and throwing hands, it won't be different from the fights I had in the human world."

"You are sure confident, what makes you think you'll win against her? She's the heir of her family, it won't be as easy as you think!"

Shiraki began to wear her uniform once again.

"Because I never lost a fight, and I won't start to lose them here in the Demon World. You asked me why I'm going to duel her so let me answer that. I was sleeping peacefully under the shadow of a tree in front of my dorm when that big mouthed stupid decided to drop her weight on me, after she discovered that I was the golden student and I was a half-demon, she insulted me with every possible insult she could use. I was called trash, I was called stray half-kitsune with a look of disgust on her face, she was the one that issued the challenge and I took it, I'll give her a lesson she'll remember for the rest of her days."

Done dressing up, Shiraki sat on a bench waiting for being called by the staff.

"I know how it seems to looks like, the half-demon from the human world against the demon with a big name around the Demon World, but rest assured, I'll win no matter what, so rest at ease and enjoy the duel."

Hidit sat down beside Shiraki and gently grabbed Shiraki's hand, holding with both her hands.

"I know I can't stop you, but I simply don't want you to get hurt. You are right, it does looks like the unknown demon against the big strong demon, and since I haven't seen your strength yet I can't help but to feel concerned about this duel. If I saw your power before then I would've come here to cheer you up instead of stopping you, so promise me."

Hidit looked at Shiraki in the eyes, holding her hand tighter.

"Win Shiraki, show me and the school what you are capable off, show the school how powerful is the student that sits above everyone else among the first years."

The way Hidit was looking at her while telling such encouraging words sent a shiver run down Shiraki's spine, she was struggling to contain her excitement and a sense of duty quickly built up. This duel wasn't just about crushing Yuki anymore, this duel was now to prove her power before the entire school and to wash away the concern that was afflicting her teacher.

"I promise you sensei, I will win."

Shiraki said that as she placed her other hand on top of Hidit's hand, in that same moment someone knocked at the locker room's door.

"Shiraki from class 1A, the time to enter the arena has come, please come out when you are ready."

"Well looks like the time has come, I have to go sensei."

"Indeed, I'll be cheering for you from my seat."

Shiraki got up and waved goodbye to Hidit, she left the locker room and was escorted by the staff into the arena, while Hidit went to her seat. Teachers had they own area with their seats to watch the students' duels.

When Shiraki entered the arena she was welcomed with the cheers of the students sat on the tribunes, she walked till she reached the middle of the arena where what looked like a referee was waiting.

Soon after Yuki arrived as well, unlike Shiraki she wasn't wearing the school's uniform. Yuki was wearing a white kimono long enough to reach her thighs, a pair of zōri sandals with tabi while her hair was tied in a traditional Japanese hair knot.

"Why are you still wearing your uniform, don't you have your duel attire?"

"No I don't, and I don't need it to beat you up into a pulp, you on the other hand have come to a duel unarmed, are you sure you want to fight?"

The uniform Shiraki was wearing was the male uniform, composed of a white shirt with a red tie, black pants and black shoes. The female uniform comes with a skirt instead of pants.

Upon hearing Shiraki's remark on her being unarmed, Yuki opened her hands, ice began to form in the shape of daggers, she grabbed them holding them backwards.

"I won't need anything else to beat a fraud like you, I don't even need to use my element, you are definitely too weak for it."

"Let's see if you'll still have the strength to talk after this will be over, because I won't go easy on you."

"You'll be the one begging for mercy."

Hidit arrived at her designed seat and sat down, since both Shiraki and Yuki were ready the referee stepped in between them.

"I'll be your referee for this duel, I'll now announce the rules of this duel."

The referee took out a folded piece of paper, and after unfolding it he started reading.

"First, killing is not allowed; Second, severing limbs is not allowed; Third, once surrender is called the duel ends without further actions; Fourth, students are allowed using their own weapons, school's weapons are allowed as well. Last but not the least: Fifth, should one of the duellists be unable to fight anymore, be it for a condition such as a sleep, knockout or other conditions, the other duellist will be considered the winner, is that clear?"

Both nodded as they assumed their stance. Yuki lowered herself a little, holding her daggers in front of her, while Shiraki unsheathed her katana and assumed a basic kendo stance.

"If everything is clear, begin!"

The duel had finally begun.

The first one to move Yuki, she began to strike Shiraki with her daggers but Shiraki was parrying her strikes effortlessly, without even taking a step back. Between a slash and another, Shiraki created an opening by parrying her strikes upwards leaving Yuki open making her take a step back, Shiraki took a step forward and struck Yuki with a downward slash. Yuki managed to evade the strike leaping backwards, but not unharmed.

Yuki's lower lip and chin got hit, they weren't cut open but still injured, blood began to run from her lip and chin with droplets of blood hitting the ground, Shiraki scored the first hit.

Yuki dashed toward Shiraki to strike again, but she had to quickly go on the defensive as a downward slash was coming from above, and she had no chance but to guard with her daggers. The strike was heavy, Yuki was struggling to keep her guard up as Shiraki kept pressing with her katana, Yuki's arms were starting to tremble as she couldn't keep her guard up for too long.

Yuki threw herself on the right hoping to escape Shiraki's attack, she managed to escape sacrificing one of her daggers, the time to create a new one that her advantage was lost.

Shiraki quickly caught up to Yuki and it was her turn to go for the offensive, with a barrage of strikes that made Yuki completely focus on the defense. Unlike Yuki, Shiraki had the advantage of having a bigger range thanks to her katana and being way taller than Yuki, allowing her to quickly close gaps with her.

Yuki was losing ground everytime she parried one of Shiraki's attacks, Shiraki's raw strength was far greater than Yuki's strength. Every swing of Shiraki's blade was executed with full force, it was a matter of time before Yuki tired herself too much to parry and guard anymore.

"(What's her deal?! I parry and guard her strikes but I feel like I'm still getting damage! I need to escape her before she turns me into mince meat!)"

In the moment Yuki was going to guard another of Shiraki's attacks, she feinted a guard instead, making Shiraki hitting the ground while Yuki leaped away from her.

Yuki was trying to catch her breath while she looked at her daggers, they were all chipped and damaged as they were reaching their breaking point. Yuki fixed her daggers with her ice, but as she blinked she saw Shiraki's foot near her face.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Wha-"

With a strong kick Shiraki kicked Yuki right under the chin, the kick was so strong that Yuki was lifted from the ground a few centimeters, only to get hit by a spinning kick right in the stomach right after. Yuki was sent flying for some meters, rolling in the dirt of the arena's floor when she touched the ground, dirtying her white kimono.

"(Looks like our little ojou-sama was nothing more than just talks. Her moves are wasteful and her eyes are fixed on my blade rather than me, when I kicked her I felt like I kicked something really soft. just how much does she weight? Well who cares, I'll just enjoy this duel as much as I can.)"

Shiraki couldn't help but smile seeing at how the duel was proceeding. The girl that covered her with insults just a little time ago had been rolled around in the dirt, all the sass she seemed to have before was just a distant memory.

Yuki was on the ground, she was spitting blood from the kick to her stomach trying to not puke. Her white kimono was turning grey from the dust of the arena, and the blood from her face was also staining her kimono. The cut on her chin split open after that kick, not only it split but it also became longer, covering her whole chin while her lower lip was still a normal cut.

"Get up."

Shiraki was standing right beside Yuki, her katana was sheathed and her hands in her pockets, looking at her up and down just like Yuki did in the garden. Yuki lifted her head looking at Shiraki in the eyes, but when their eyes met Shiraki kicked Yuki in the stomach once again, making her roll a couple of times on the ground.

Yuki couldn't hold it anymore and puked on the arena's ground, tears were running from her face mixing with the blood of her chin, dropping on the ground with her puke.

"You are pathetic, in the end you are only good with your mouth, you are all words and no substance, you never thought the person you were insulting could be stronger than you, am I right? What did you say before? Ah yes that I was going to beg you for mercy, curious since the one on her knees puking on the ground while crying is you and not me, but whatever."

Shiraki sat on the ground crossing her legs and arms.

"Take all the time you need to recover, your punishment hasn't ended yet."

Yuki laid down on the ground, holding herself trying to bear the pain while crying, the bad words she said before came to bite her back, it was clear as the sky who had the lead in this duel.

"Looks like your concern was misplaced after all."

Ans said while turning to Hidit.

"After talking to her she promised me she'll win, all my concern was washed away by her confidence. On top of that I saw her warming up for the duel, Shiraki's raw strength will be enough to end this duel."

"You think so?"

"Shiraki barely broke a sweat scoring more hits than Yuki, the current state of the duel speaks for her. The only way for Yuki to turn the tides of this duel is attacking with her element, since Shiraki can't use demonic energy or her element."

"Are you sure you aren't being overconfident with your student? Claiming victory already when the duel isn't over yet most of the times ends in the opposite way."

The one questioning Hidit was the teacher sat next to Hans' right side, Cocytus Heru, coordinator of Yuki's class. Cocytus was a dragonoid, a race of dragons results of a mix between humans and dragons. His silhouette was that of a human with the head of a dragon. His body was covered in blue scales, with a pair of wings on his back followed by a long tail. He had short azure hair with dark blue eyes, he was wearing what looked like some sort of blue leather armor that left his shoulder bare.

"Well if your dear student wishes to win she'll need to get up and fight back, because this duel has been one-sided since the start, and it doesn't look good for her."

"We all know how you see your students, but if you are too confident in them it'll only hurt your feelings."

"I take pride in the capabilities of my children, and if one of my children promises me victory then I can only look forward to it. Also you speak as if your student has a way out of this, what makes you think she can win?"

Cocytus stood up and crossed his arms, with a smirk on his face.

"Yuki will win, I assure you my student won't be defeated by a half-demon."

Hidit stood up while cracking her knuckles, smirking as well.

"Then you must be delusional because it's not my half-demon daughter that is getting her ass kicked."

"Will you two stop arguing for a moment? It's always the same with you two when there is a duel, only the end of the duel will reveal the winner."

"AHAHAHAH, looks like the student's fighting spirit is starting to affect their teacher as well, but it's not the right time to throw hands, I can't spectate two duels at the same time."

The other 2 teachers spectating the duel decided to intervene in the discussion between Hidit and Cocytus.

The first to intervene was Ameno Kazekura, he was a ōtengu and coordinator of class 1B. He was wearing a yamabushi with no hood, he had big brown bird wings with a big brown bird tail. His hair was long of a brown colour, he had green eyes and on his right hand he was holding a hauchiwa fan.

The second one to intervene was Azoth Y'ayle, coordinator of class 1F and one of the school's eldest teachers. He was an archdemon, he had two pairs of dragon wings on his back, two big and long horns on his head and a skeletal black tail. He had black and white short hair with a grey beard, dark red eyes and a face covered in scars. He was dressed elegantly, and a golden sword was resting behind him.

"Even if Hidit is being overconfident she has reason to be. Ryu-san seems to have really high stamina and raw strength, and her abilities with the sword are those of a person that trained for years. On the other hand Shirayuki-chan is fast, being smaller than her opponent means she can dodge easier, but that advantage doesn't matter if she can't get close to her opponent to attack or dodge in time. The advantage granted by her size is neutralized by the range of Ryu-san attacks, using a katana instead of daggers gives her an advantage when it comes to range. Ryu-san doesn't need to come closer to her opponent to attack, and at the same time she can keep her opponent at bay. At the current state of the event, Ryu-san has more chances to win than Shirayuki-chan."

Ameno spoke while covering his mouth with his fan.

"Indeed, that girl knows how to hold her feet in battle. The little one knows how to hold a dagger but she doesn't have the strength to hold it, does she have any strength at all? To be in this state after a couple of kicks she must be very frail."

Azoth said that while crossing his arms, seeing that their discussion was disturbing the others Hidit and Cocytus sat back at their seats.

"Yuki doesn't have any physical strength nor resistance, she never trained her body or mind and she only focused on her element. Her clan forbids any kind of outside help when it comes to training and similar, that's why she doesn't know how and what to train to become stronger."

Cocytus sighed deeply while looking at Yuki, still on the ground holding herself.

"Well I hope this will be a lesson for her because she messed with the wrong person it seems."

"What do you mean?"

Cocytus turned to Azoth after he said that.

"I heard from a student of mine that this duel was Yuki's idea. Shiraki was minding her business napping in the garden, when Yuki found her she sat on Shiraki's stomach, she was looking for her and when she heard that Shiraki was a half-demon, she started spitting insults at Shiraki. She called names and degraded her for her condition, calling her a fraud since there was no way that a half-demon like her could be a golden student. Yuki challenged Shiraki to a duel to prove that she was a fraud, unmasking her in front of the entire school, but seeing how the duel went till now I think her plan backfired."

When Cocytus heard that he quickly stood up from his chair, he couldn't believe what he just heard.

"Are you sure about it Azoth?"

"I am, the student that told me everything was resting on top of the tree where Shiraki was resting, she saw everything and heard everything. All this chaos is your student's fault."

Cocytus was livid, he slammed his tail on the floor clutching his hands into fists. Cocytus went in front of Hidit and bowed to her.

"I'm sorry for all of this. This happened because one of my students misbehaved, she caused a mess of those proportions involving other students. When the duel will end I'll punish her and make sure she'll apologize."

"Lift your head, it's a matter of pride so it was bound to happen, no need to apologize."

Cocytus lifted his head and went back to his seat, staring at Yuki with eyes full of anger.

"Yuki wants to prove her strength defeating Shiraki, while Shiraki is testing her hand on an opponent she never faced before, they have their own reasons for winning this duel. I hope that Yuki will learn something out of this."

Hidit said that while stretching her arms, the situation in the arena hasn't changed yet.

"AHAHAH, looks like all the kitsunes that applied this year are all crazy strong, why don't you send her to my class?"

"I'm sorry Azoth but she's in my class, therefore she's my daughter, and I don't send my children to other classes. Also what do you mean with all kitsunes? Have you seen them already?"

"Seen them? They are all in my class! The 4 of them all turned out red coloured, they can also use demonic energy and their element already."

"That's impressive, but it's also kind of expected since they are the daughters of the clan leaders except for one."

Ameno pointed his fan toward the arena and waved it.

"I hate to interrupt your conversation but looks like the duel is resuming."

Ameno covered his face with his fan again as the others focused their gaze on the arena once more.

Yuki stood up from the ground, holding herself with her hands on her knees. Her kimono was all dusty and tainted with blood, the blood loss from her chin stopped and her breath was heavy, still suffering from those kicks in the stomach. Shiraki stood up from the ground and cleaned herself, she cracked her neck and glared at Yuki.

"Took you long enough to recover, do you want to go for another round or you want to surrender?"

Yuki took a deep breath and straightened her posture, looking at Shiraki dead in the eyes.

"You know nothing of me, you don't know what it means to be dethroned by someone el-"

"I don't care, you know nothing of me and I know nothing about you, yet you took the liberty to insult me and calling me names because my measurements were better than yours. I don't care what you want to prove and to who you want to prove it, so I'll be clear."

Shiraki unsheathed her katana pointed it at Yuki.

"This duel is the consequence of your arrogance and foolishness, it's the punishment you deserve for your words and actions, and unless you'll surrender I'll keep beating the shit out of you until I'll dye your kimono in red with your own blood."

The last part of Shiraki's sentence sent a chill to Yuki's spine, that sentence was filled with murderous intent so much that she took a step back.

"I-Is that so? Let's see if you can survive this first!"

Yuki raised her right arm to the sky and a cold wind with snow began to blow around her. The snow carried by that wind began to turn into ice, taking the shape of daggers. Countless daggers were floating behind Yuki, each one of them pointing at Shiraki.

"This is your end!"

"Finally something interesting!"

As Yuki lowered her arm, a rain of dagger thrown at high speed began to fall on Shiraki. Shiraki was slicing and dodging as much daggers as possible, trying to guard only her vital spots ignoring the rest. The number of daggers raining on her was overwhelming, for each couple of daggers she sliced other 3 were cutting her up.

When the rain of daggers stopped, a thick mantle of fog was surrounding Shiraki, obscuring Yuki's vision making her unable to see Shiraki.

"Tsk, I was refraining to use my element to give you an handicap but look like you couldn't do much against it, poor little kitsune."

The fog caused by the broken daggers quickly dissipated making possible to see Shiraki's condition: Shiraki was drenched in blood from the tip of her ears to toe, her uniform was torn to shreds and soaked in blood. Shiraki was able to save herself from vital hits resulting in her getting hit from the rest of the daggers.

Shiraki adjusted her hair wet with blood and smirked at Yuki.

"So you can do something if I'm not trying to cut you down, but you should work on everything else you know?"

Yuki had an expression of dismay mixed with anger on her face, she was sure that her last attack would've ended the duel, but Shiraki was still standing.

"How are you still standing?! What have you done to survive that?! Answer me!!!"

"It's simple, I focused on protecting my vital spots instead of trying to dodge every single of them. With my vitals protected all the rest were simple cuts, some were just surface cuts while others were deep, but it was nothing to worry about, that's how I'm still standing."

Yuki began to create ice daggers throwing them at Shiraki, one by one and throwing them by hand. Shiraki was dodging or slicing Yuki's daggers, slowly closing the gap between them.

"What is happening? Are you losing your will to fight? Are you feeling tired already?"

Shiraki caught one of the daggers Yuki thrown and thrown it right back at her, destroying the incoming dagger.

"Are you going to surrender or not? You aren't capable of fighting anymore, not that you were capable in the first place."

"Shut up! I said I'm going to defeat you and that's what I'm going to do!"

"If you want to defeat me that you will need something else than those ice daggers!"

Shiraki caught another ice dagger and threw it at Yuki, the dagger went past Yuki's face slicing her left cheek. Yuki stopped throwing daggers for a moment for checking her cheek, time that gave Shiraki the opportunity to close the gap with her and go on the offensive again.

Shiraki attacked with a horizontal slice of her katana, Yuki saw the slash just in time and lowered herself dodging the strike, only to throw herself against Shiraki. Yuki hugged Shiraki trying to throw her off balance, but her attempt failed as she felt Shiraki didn't move.

"Why... why can't I throw you down?! What are you made of?!"

"You know, if you are hugging my like that then you should FEEL why you can't, but allow me to demonstrate."

Shiraki grabbed Yuki by her kimono with her left hand, while untying Yuki's hug with her right hand, lifting Yuki from the ground.

"Let me go! I said let me go!"

Yuki squirmed trying to free herself, she was trying to open Shiraki's hand but all her attempts were for naught.

"This is the difference between you and me!"

Shiraki lifts up Yuki some more and slammed her to the ground by her back, but when Yuki hit the ground ice was shattered instead.

"Ice?"

By taking advantage of Shiraki's surprise Yuki placed some distance between them, the physical difference between them was now clear even for Yuki.

"Looks like that even someone like you has a trick under their sleeves, does that means you are finally getting serious?"

"Finally... getting serious?"

"Yes, you know I barely feel any pain from your attacks, even that rain of daggers wasn't something that special. I thought that you were just playing till now, but looks like you are finally getting serious, took you long enough."

Yuki felt as if snapped in her mind, her right eye was twitching clutching her hands into fists, so hard that her hands began to bleed.

"So you think this is just a game? YOU THINK THIS IS JUST A WAY PASS TIME FOR YOU? YOU THINK YOU ARE SOME KIND OF BIG SHOT JUST BECAUSE YOUR RANK IS SOMETHING SPECIAL?! EH!?"

"It's not that I think it, it's that you are so weak that I can't help but to have those kinds of thoughts."

"STUPID!!! DON'T FALL FOR HER TRICK!!!"

Cocytus ran to the glass wall of their room, banging his hands against the glass from frustration. He knew what Shiraki was trying to do, and seeing Yuki falling for it only made him even more angry.

"Me? Weak? THEN LET ME SHOW YOU HOW WEAK I AM!!!"

Cold winds began to gather on Yuki's hands, creating ice daggers different from the ones she used before. Their shape was different, the blade was becoming sharper than before and even the colour was different.

"Let me help you for that."

Shiraki spreads her arms wide, leaving herself completely wide open.

"Hit me with your strongest attack, I'm giving you the chance to prove that you aren't as weak as I think, and if you want to prove your strength to the others this is the occasion, show them what you are capable of with your best shot. Always if you aren't that weak."

"THEN DON'T COMPLAIN IF YOUR GUTS WILL BE ALL OVER THE ARENA!!!!"

The cold winds became stronger, sharpening and reinforcing Yuki's daggers even more, changing from a white ice to a dark blue ice. The daggers were flawless, they were the best daggers Yuki could create with her current abilities, she was truly going to use all her might for the next attack.

Shiraki's provocations worked, one after one they kept clouding Yuki's mind filling it with anger, making it difficult to think straight, the last provocation made her completely lost her mind. Yuki couldn't think straight anymore, completely sealing away any possibility of turning the tides of this duel to her favor, the cunning of the fox got the better of its prey, just as she planned.

END CHAPTER 6