Shuichi and Tatsuo are in their bed in the motel room and Yuka comes out from the bathroom after taking a shower, he continues drying his hair. “I mean who do those snotty kids from ONI academy think they are, just because they go to the number 1 hero school they think they are better than us, I’m so glad I didn’t go there in the end, you guys are much better and definitely not as stuck up”. Tatsuo replies “Didn’t your application get declined”. There are a few seconds of awkward silence then Yuka continues. “That’s not the point, the point is I can't wait to kick their asses in the arenas”. Shuichi replies, “they do have a point though, they were successful in getting into the top academy in Japan, which means they must be pretty powerful and some of us haven’t even got our powers yet, no offence Tatsuo”. He shrugs “none taken”.
Yuka continues to rant “I’m just saying, we’ve got some pretty powerful students ourselves, I mean you’ve got your cool new sword trick, Kame is pretty much indestructible and Mizo is crazy strong” Tatsuo snorts “true, she could probably kick your butt even without her power”. Yuka continues “well that’s just not true, look what I’m trying to say is we have some super powerful students and none of us have even managed to reach our full potential yet, who knows maybe this competition will push us to improve even further.” Shuichi replies “Well I’ve still got a long way to go, but who knows maybe a couple of my stats will improve during it, but right now when we were talking to them, I quickly checked their stats and it doesn’t exactly look good for us”. Tatsuo nods his head “true, and as Shuichi said, I don’t even have a power, I’m basically just going to be there for moral support tomorrow”. Yuka tuts “that’s not true, just you watch, we’re going to show those Oni academy brats that we have what it takes to be heroes.”
In the next room, Kame and Ryota are meditating, Kenikai is in bed writing in his book and Daisuke is asleep”. Kenikai turns to Ryota, “any luck on your spells?” Ryota opens his eyes and stands up “nothing yet, but we still have a little time on the bus journey to the arena tomorrow so, fingers crossed”. Kame gets up and gets into bed also, as he does he slightly levitates off the bed. Kenikai looks over to Kame. “Is that not irritating”. Kame looks over and replies. “What do you mean?”. Kenikai points to him. “Well you know, levitating while you sleep,isn’t that not annoying”. “Oh, urm, not really, I’m used to it now. Ever since I was 10 and my powers activated I’ve always just kind of levitated, even when walking, sitting and sleeping. Even my clothes used to levitate off me, it was really difficult to eat and get dressed and do simple things but eventually, I got used to it, if anything now that I’m learning to control my aura and I’m levitating less, that’s what’s going to feel weird”.
Ryota thinks for a second. “So hold on, how can you eat? Shouldn’t it just bounce off your aura”. “No for obvious reasons I have certain, let’s say, weak points in my aura for eating and well…”. Ryota winces. “Yeah ok, we get what you mean”. Kame continues, “anyway, my void has never really been that big, but its shape is what makes it difficult to do things, right now I’m learning to control its size and shape hopefully soon I should be able to have it work like a regular person, however, of course, it will still be there just much smaller so I’ll still be essentially untouchable, maybe one day I may even learn to turn it off”. Kenikai shakes his head. “Why would you ever want to turn it off, it’s awesome. You’re indestructible”. Kame momentarily opens his eyes and looks sad then shut them again. “I guess, still it would be nice, right now I can mould the aura around my hands to grab things but the rest of my body is still pretty difficult so when I sleep I still float”. Kenikai thinks for a second then asks again. “Hold on, I have another question, what do you do when you need to shower?”. Ryota laughs. “Why do you want to know what Kame does in the shower huh?”. Kenikai sits up quickly in bed. “No that’s not what I meant, obviously it’s just…”. The boys begin laughing, Kame turns and looks at them then closes his eyes again. As they continue to laugh Daisuke wakes up in a panic. “What, what’s that noise”. He falls through the bed and rolls out onto the floor. Ryota and Kenikai continue to laugh and Kame begins to slightly smile.
Etsuko, Hiro and Mizo are in their beds. Etsuko turns over, “So Mizo, looks like you and Yuka were having fun on the bus today” Mizo blushes “I don’t know what you’re talking about”. Etsuko laughs. “Oh come on you know it’s true, you clearly like him”. Mizo blushes and turns over, “well you and Daisuke seem to be getting along as well”. Etsuko begins to blush and then laughs “If it helps I think Yuka likes you back, I could tell by the way he was all quiet and shy around you. Daisuke on the other hand I think he just sees me as a friend.” Mizo replies “I’m sure that isn’t true”. Hiro jumps in “boys are just clueless, I don’t know what you both see in them”, Etsuko continues to speak “Oh come on Hiro there must be one of the boys you like, come on which one is it?”. Hiro rolls her eyes, “none of them thanks, they’re all stupid” the other girls laugh “maybe you’ll find a cute guy at the arenas”. Hiro turns around and mutters out loud. “Yeah… maybe”. The girls all wish each other a good night's sleep and then turn off the light. Hotaka and Minita are in separate single beds. Hotaka turns to Minita “I know it's a school trip but maybe we could…” Minita very quickly jumps in “Nope!” Hotaka quickly replies “Ok fair enough, goodnight” Minita turns off the light “Night”.
The next morning the students are getting on the bus. Hiro and Etsuko are at a vending machine buying a snack, Hiro presses the button and the snack starts to come out but it gets stuck. Hiro gets angry and starts hitting the machine “Come on”. She stops, looks around a bit and then points her hand towards the machine, as she does the snack falls out. Etsuko gasps “Hiro you aren’t supposed to use your powers like that” Hiro scoffs, “Hey I paid for it, it’s not my fault if the machine doesn’t work properly, look we got these powers for more than just beating up withered”. Etsuko puts her money in and clicks a button for the snack, the snack then gets stuck, Etsuko looks at Hiro and Hiro raises her eyebrows. Etsuko rolls her eyes and sticks her hand out, the ground starts to slightly shake, suddenly it shakes quite a bit and lots of snacks fall out. They both look at each other and laugh. “Oops”. They bend down and grab all the snacks from the machine.
They jump on the bus and it starts driving off. Inside Yuka and Mizo quietly sit together again. Yuka goes into his bag and takes out his headphones and starts listening to music. He looks over to Mizo, taps her on the shoulder and takes out a headphone “would you like to listen?” Mizo smiles and nods. They both sit there listening to the music.
Ryota continues to meditate and mutter to himself, he stops, sighs and then puts his head against the window. Kenikai turns to him “Hey Ryota it’s ok, don’t worry I’m sure you will be able to use spells soon, don’t push yourself”. Ryota replies in an upset tone “I know I just… my whole life my dad has been preparing me to be this next-level magic user, and when my seed activated and my powers didn’t work I feel like I let him down. Now I finally have an opportunity to make him proud with this tournament, but without my powers, I’m just going to let him down again”. Kenikai places his hand on Ryota’s shoulder. “I’m sure that’s not how your father feels, either way, he will be proud of you just for getting into the tournament. And I’m proud of you too man, at least you are developing your powers like now you’re able to see the essence, that’s a step in the right direction, meanwhile, I am exactly where I started”when I joined the academy 3 months ago, in fact my power has been exactly the same for the past 6 years”. Ryota turns “Hey I’m sure you will work your powers out too, this academy seems to have an incredible impact on everyone, you just need to wait for it to work on you”.
Tatsuo overhears the conversation behind him and starts to worry. He turns to Shuichi who is sitting next to him, “Hey, if my powers don’t activate this year, do you reckon I’ll be kicked out of the Academy?”. Shuichi thinks for a few seconds. “Honestly I don’t know, I mean they probably think your ability is powerful enough to accept you into the academy without actually having any ability right now, I think no matter what, they will continue to try and activate your powers and keep you as a student for next year”. Tatsuo smiles “that’s true, plus if they kick me out who are they going to have kick your butt every day in training” Shuichi chuckles, “if I remember correctly I’ve won nearly every time, and my stats are only getting higher, but you". Shuichi looks atTatsuo up and down, "well it looks like you’ve been skipping the gym to me”. They begin laughing together.
Kenikai’s power deactivates, he then takes out his notebook and starts writing, he activates his power and then continues to write. Ryota turns to him “so what power did you get” Kenikai finishes writing and looks at Ryota, he sticks out his tongue and it is the tongue of a snake. Ryota smiles awkwardly “that doesn’t seem very useful”. Ryota pulls his tongue back “It’s not, but this is” he put his finger against Ryota and he lets off a small electric shock “Ouch”. Kenikai laughs “a bit more useful huh?” Ryota replies “yeah but not by much” they both laugh and then look at Shuichi who is sat in front of them and Ryota nods to him. Kenikai touches Shuichi's neck and shocks him, he grabs his neck and turns around, “Hey, that hurt”, Tatsuo, Shuichi and Ryota continue laughing.
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The bus stops and the students start to get out. They all gather up and look in front of them. They see a huge arena with many buses parked nearby, and lots of other students and their teachers are walking into the arena. Minita and Hotaka gather the students together. Hotaka points to the Arena. “Welcome to the Academic Arenas”. The students continue looking at it in awe. The students and teachers start walking towards the entrance of the arena, Daisuke turns to Hotaka “I’ve noticed there are lots of older students here as well”. Hotaka replies “that’s right, every year the tournament is held for both first and second-year students, as we are a new school we don’t have a second-year team yet, the first day is for the first years and the second day for the second years. That way both years get a chance” Daisuke nods. “Makes sense”.
As the students go to enter they hear someone shouting from the entrance of the arena, they turn to see the ONI academy students, the guy shouting is the same as the one from the night before. “Hey, so you guys didn’t chicken out in the end”. Yuka steps forward aggressively but Hotaka stops him and steps forward instead, “hi there, not sure where your teacher is but these games are made for friendly competition, not to bully other academies”. The students look a little scared and step back. As they do another hero exits the arena and walks towards the group “That’s enough Takao” Titan smiles and puts out his hand. “Hey Gold Dust, long time no see”. Gold Dust looks at Hotaka’s hand and ignores it, “welcome to the Apex Arenas Titan. I know you’re usually too busy saving people to come to watch them so it will be nice to see you here for a change”. Hotaka continues to smile but puts his hand down “well I am sure there are plenty of heroes that can cover for a few days, plus the PA officers are always around and on duty”. Gold dust scoffs “The PA, yeah right. Anyway our students are registered so we’re going to go to the training room now, good luck in the Arena, your students look like they’re going to need it”. They all turn around and head in.
Yuka talks to Hotaka “Wasn’t that the number 3 hero Gold dust, I didn’t know he was such a jackass, at least it explains why the students are all jackasses as well”. Hotaka turns to Yuka “even if heroes aren’t the friendliest, they’re still heroes that risk their lives for the sake of protecting people, we need to still show them respect. Even if they are a… jack ass”. Yuka and Hotaka chuckle together and everyone heads inside towards the reception desk, the students start to get registered for the competition.
“Hey Hotaka” he hears another voice from behind, as they turn around they see another hero running towards them. All the students look shocked. Tatsuo turns to Minita “Isn’t that the number 2 hero ‘Lucifer’?". Ryota speaks to the group “I didn’t know there would be this many high-rank heroes here”. Lucifer runs over to Hotaka and Minita “hey you two, good to see you both”. Hotaka smiles and sticks out his hand “Lucifer, buddy how are you? What are you doing here?” Lucifer shakes Hotaka’s hand “I’m good thanks yeah, Urm the student I’m mentoring is entering the competition”. Hotaka looks surprised “I didn’t even know you were mentoring, which school do they go to?”. “Yeah well they’re only a first year in Nozomi Academy so it’s fairly new”, Hotaka continues to look confused “You’re working with a student from Nozomi academy?” Hiro whispers to Shuichi “Isn’t that the worst-ranked hero school” Shuichi nods his head. Lucifer replies “Yeah my student doesn’t want to get swept up with fancy schools but if any of your students are against him watch out, he may even give me a run for my money soon”. Hotaka laughs awkwardly “Well I guess we will have to wait until the competition starts, all the best of luck to your student”. Lucifer smiles “Same to yours”. He heads off and Hotaka continues checking in to the hotel. Yuka speaks to Tatsuo “they must be pretty powerful to have someone like Lucifer training them” Tatsuo nods “yes true, but remember, you are also being trained by the number 1 hero in Japan” Yuka replies “that’s true, maybe he’s not that strong after all, guess we’ll have to wait and see later”.
Minita and Hotaka gather the students together, Minita addresses them, “everyone please listen in. As the competition is a two-day event you’ll all be given rooms, here are your keys, although we don’t have any second years to join in tomorrow the hotel is booked for two nights so you’re still able to stay and watch the games should you wish. If not, feel free to use this time for your leisure or to train. The first round of the first-year tournament starts in an hour, please all be in the main hall 10 minutes before and be ready”. All the students start speaking to each other and head up to their rooms.
Ryota heads into his room, as he goes inside he sees another student standing there. “Oh hi”. He sees the other student's uniform, “wait a minute, aren’t you a student from ONI academy” the student turns around and stares at him. Ryota awkwardly looks around the room “ok… I didn’t mean to start anything, look our school doesn’t want any trouble, we just came here for the tournament” the student continues to stare at him without replying. Ryota continues “Are you ok?” The student remains silent and then walks towards him. As the student gets closer Ryota gets into a fighting stance, he then puts his arms down to see the student has walked past him and is heading out of the room. The student continues walking down the hallway and Ryota sticks his head out “Ok have fun”. He watches him join others from the Oni academy and overhears them speaking, “great he’s here, let's meet up with everyone else in the training gym, we’ve only got less than an hour before the tournament begins”. Ryota goes back into the room and speaks to himself “well that was weird”.
Etsuko and Mizo are in their room unpacking. “Hey Mizo, we have 45 minutes before we need to be at the meeting point. Are you nervous? I wonder how today will go” Mizo replies “I’m not sure how I feel or how it will go but I know we will do our best and that’s all that matters”. In her room, Hiro is unpacking as well. Her roommate unlocks the door and walks in, “Oh hi, I’m Raiko Soda from Yokata academy for girls, looks like we’re going to be roommates for the next few days” Etsuko turns around and sees her roommate, as she does she looks at her and starts to blush, Suddenly a few objects begin levitating around her” Raiko’s eyes widen and she puts out her hand, as she does some of the objects start to float back down to the ground. Hiro suddenly realises what’s going on and the objects quickly fall to the floor, she looks embarrassed. “Sorry about that” Raiko giggles and looks her up and down, “Urm are you going to come down or stay up there all day”. Hiro looks down and realises she is floating off the floor, “oh crap”. Again she quickly falls to the floor into a standing position. “Sorry about that”.
Hiro uses her power to levitate a lamp back onto the bedside table and Raiko levitates a hairdryer onto the desk, as she does Hiro looks shocked. “Wait, do you have psychic powers as well”. Raiko goes to speak then pauses “Well not really… Urm our squad captain said I’m not supposed to talk about my powers to other students before the games start”. Hiro nods her head “oh, of course, that’s ok I understand” Raiko smiles “but urm you look like someone I could be friends with and friends trust each other so yeah, why not, my power is called Mimic, I can copy another person’s power, in fact I can use up to 4 abilities at one time” Hiro looks shocked “Woah that’s awesome” Raiko smiles and moves her hair behind her ear. “The thing is I can only use a quarter of the power of each ability,” Hiro continues looking impressed “still, that’s pretty cool, that sounds like an awesome power to me”. Raiko blushes and looks at the floor. “You think so”. Hiro nods her head and then bows “well Raiko it’s nice to meet you, I’m Hiro Fuse, looks like we’ve moved quickly from roommates to friends”.
Kenikai and Kame are walking into a large hall together, in this hall are many other students, they hear someone shouting “Kenikai, Kame we’re over here” they look over to see Mizo, Etsuko, Yuka and Daisuke waving to them in the Titan academy area of of the hall. They go and join them and Kenikai speaks to the group “Hey guys where is everyone else”. Kame points behind him, “looks like the rest of class are over there”. Everyone else joins them in their academies section of the hall and Shuichi gathers everyone together “Ok the games will begin fairly shortly, from what I can gather from the instruction manual”. Tatsuo jumps in “Wait what… what instruction manual?”. Hotaka slams his hand against his face. Shuichi continues “The instruction manual about the tournament that’s in all the rooms, you all read them right” everyone looks around at each other awkwardly. Minita shakes her head and Hiro chuckles. “Sorry I was a little preoccupied speaking to my room mate”. Mizo quietly speaks out. “I skimmed it”. Shuichi continues “Anyway the point is, there are usually 3 rounds, every year the first 2 rounds are completely different but the last round is always a tournament of one-on-one battles. However everyone is gathered before each round to be told the rules, and then you’re given 15 minutes to prepare for it. I’m assuming with everyone here like this we’re about to find out how the first round works”. Yuka speaks up “So when do you think they’ll begin?”.
As he says this a voice is heard over the microphone. “Hello and welcome all first-years to your very first Academic Arenas and welcome back second years if you are returning and supporting your first years today”. All the students begin to cheer, Yuka looks over and sees Takao from Oni academy who isn’t cheering and is instead smiling smugly at him. Ryota looks over as well and sees his roommate staring at him, he awkwardly turns away and looks at the front of the hall, at the front is a stage and the host is standing on the stage. “My name is Masumi Iseri and I’ll be your host for the next 2 days”. Etsuko turns and see’s her roommate, Raiko, cheering with her classmates, she smiles and begins levitating. Etsuko looks confused, grabs her and pulls her back down to the floor. Shuichi looks over to the Nozomi academy area and sees a mysterious student who also isn’t cheering. The host continues. “In round one, we’re allowing you to work with your classmates, the first round will be a 10 vs 2 match up as your class will be taking on two randomly selected Heroes who have agreed to take part this year”. Suddenly all the students go quiet. Kenikai takes a big gulp. “Wait, did he just say we’re going against real heroes?”.