All 200 students are gathered in the main arena hall. The host steps forward “well done to all the students who partook in the first round today, you all did amazing just to get here however it's now time to reveal the results, to those of you who get through into the second round I want to say a massive congratulations, and commiserations to those who don’t. Now please see on the board behind me the results from the first round, I must also let you know the order is completely randomised and shows no reflections on how you did in scoring”. An electronic board turns on with 10 lines, on the top of the board it says ‘Qualifying teams’ all the academy names appear. The Titan academy students start searching for their school's name. They all look shocked. On the board, they see Titan academy in the last row. They turn to each other and start to scream in excitement. Also on the board are Oni, Nozomi and Yokata, along with the 6 other academies.

Takao from Oni academy turns and looks over at Titan academy, Yuka turns and looks back at him. Takao scoffs and rolls his eyes then turns back to face the host. Shuichi looks over at Nozomi academy who are all celebrating except for the unknown student who looks completely unfazed. Lastly, Hiro turns and looks at Yokata academy for girls where everyone is also cheering and hugging each other, Hiro looks closer to see Raiko, as she sees her she begins to blush and smiles.

Masumi, the host, continues “once again commiserations to those of you who did not make it this year, please remember to train hard and come back next year even stronger. For those who have been eliminated please feel free to watch the next round or to use the facilities we have here at the arenas. As for those of you who qualified please stick around, in the next 15 minutes, I will announce the rules for stage 2, see you soon”. The presenters begin to commentate again “Well there you have it of course Oni Academy making it through the next round, along with a surprise from Nozomi Academy which is making its first appearance in the second round for quite a few years. Of course it’s time, we have to talk about it, Titan academy qualified”.

“Yeah that’s right Keiji I don’t think anyone will be surprised by that outcome, anybody who can last in a fight with Titan for 15 minutes is legendary and as an academy, they just had to qualify. They should be proud of their performance, however, their strategies relied heavily on fighting as a team, how will they fare in a one-on-one fight”. “That’s true, I guess we’ll have to see if any of them can make it into the third round. The other thing I know will be going through a lot of people's minds at home is to worry and question, did Titan let them win? What are your thoughts on that”. “Honestly I don’t think that’s the case what so ever, he didn’t hesitate in any of those attacks to knock down his students, in fact s few of them were eliminated completely, I think they did somehow survive that round all on their own. And let’s say he did go easy on them, let's say he used a half or even a quarter of his power, in fact let's go crazy and say he used w tenth of his full power, he would have still been a whole lot harder to beat than some of the other heroes the academies were facing today, either way, I think they had an incredible performance here today and deserve their place in the second round”. “I agree. Well talking of let's cut to break and when we get back I'm sure it'll be time to find out what’s happening in the 2nd round of the tournaments”.

The host steps up again. “Hello again all, it’s time to announce the rules of the second round. The next round will consist of a race”. Shuichi looks over at the unknown student who smirks. The host continues “You will need to run a distance of 5km, however, this race will be in pairs and you will not qualify unless both of you have crossed the line, as for who you will be paired with, it will be completely random from the remaining 100 students who made it through to the second round, there are 16 places in the finals, therefore, the first 8 teams to pass the line will qualify and move on to our final round, the tournament round”. All the students start to mutter and talk to each other. The host continues “you will all be randomly assigned a partner 5 minutes before the race begins, remember only 16 of you can move on, the rest will be eliminated, round 2 will begin in 15 minutes, please head to the simulation rooms now, good luck”.

The presenters continue to speak as they do a depiction of what they say is shown on the screen behind them. “So as you heard from Masumi Iseri, our host of the Arenas this year, the second round will be a 5km race, students will be randomly paired together from all the 100 qualifiers and then will have 5 minutes to discuss strategies, abilities and anything else they need to know before then 5 minutes are up and the race starts. It’s simple, the first 8 teams to cross the finish line will qualify for round 3 giving us our 16 contestants for the 1v1 battles, but remember, both team members need to cross the line for them to qualify”. “It looks like the students are all heading to the simulation rooms, round 2 is about to get on its way. Good luck to our remaining competitors”.

They download into a simulation, and a large 2km straight race track is seen in front of them. The 100 students spawn into the simulation and the host's voice is heard through speakers around the artificial arena. “Please look to your side, you are currently standing next to your partner, this will be your partner for the entirety of the race, you now have 5 minutes to discuss before the race starts”. Etsuko looks to the side to see her partner as she does she sees Ryota’s roommate. She smiles at him “hi, my name’s Etsuko what’s yours?” he stands there smiling at her without responding, she looks awkwardly around and then continues speaking. “You’ve got an Oni Academy uniform on and you don’t speak much so I’m guessing you’re Ryota’s roommate, he mentioned you aren’t exactly chatty”. He continues to not respond and carries on staring at her while smiling. Etsuko continues “soooo anyway, I don’t think my powers will be much help here, what about your power will that help, or maybe do you have some kind of plan?”. He sticks his thumbs up and smiles. Etsuko’s eyes widen and she whispers to herself “great so he does understand me then”. She smiles and speaks to him. “Awesome ok so are you going to tell me the plan then or… should I just follow your lead”. He continues smiling at her again without saying a word. They continue standing together in awkward silence.

Yuka sees his partner is Shuichi, they immediately start talking about their plans. Mizo turns and sees Takao from Oni Academy, he rolls his eyes “Oh great, of all the people to be paired with it had to be a Titan academy student”. The fire in Mizo’s eyes starts to get slightly larger, she starts taking deep breaths and they return to normal. She looks over to Yuka and Shuichi who have taken off their shoes and Shuichi is punching the bottom of them. She looks confused then turns back to Takao. “So what’s the plan”. He turns his head and ignores her, again the ember in her eyes begins to burn brighter. A distance away Tatsuo sees he is with the unknown student. “Hey you’re from Nozomi academy right, are you the one being trained by the number 2 hero, Lucifer”. The student turns to him “I’m not here to make small chat, I’m here to win this tournament, just stand there quietly and I’ll get us through this round”. Tatsuo angrily shouts at him “Hey, who do you think you are talking to me like that” the student continues “Listen you’re from Titan academy right? Therefore you are everything I am against, let's try that no talking thing shall we”. Tatsuo folds his arm and mutters to himself.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Another student from Oni academy comes up to Tatsuo “Hey I just wanted to come over and apologies for yesterday and today, our team captain Takao can be really difficult sometimes. I hope after the tournament we can resolve the issue”. Tatsuo smiles “hey, no problem what so ever”, “My name is Shigeo Ikehera”, “nice to meet you I’m Tatsuo Ryüjin, wow finally a nice Oni student, it’s nice to see your whole class aren't a bunch of idiots, thanks for coming over and good luck out there”. Shigeo smiles and as he leaves he places his hand on Tatsuo’s shoulder “good luck to you too” he goes to walk away and taps Tatsuo’s partner on the shoulder “good luck to you also”. Tatsuo’s partner wipes away his hand “please don’t touch me again, you also stand for everything I’m against, please leave us alone”. Shigeo nods and walks away “Ok’. Tatsuo shouts at him. “Hey, that wasn’t nice he was just wishing us luck”. He sits down and ignores Tatsuo. Tatsuo breathes out a large sigh and sits down as well.

All the students are talking to their partners. The host’s voice is heard again “this is a gentle reminder, you have one minute before the race begins”. Most of the students start walking up to the race line and getting into a running stance. Tatsuo gets into his running stance and looks to the left of him, his partner is still sitting on the floor. He rolls his eyes and looks to the right to see Raiko from Yozomi academy standing next to him. He nods his head and faces forward. The host continues, “please take your positions as the race starts in…” he begins to count down from 10, Tatsuo’s partner stands up on 3 and as the host says the number 1, a horn is heard. “Begin”. Tatsuo’s partner grabs him and suddenly a flash of lightning is seen and they have disappeared, next to where they were another flash of lightning appears. Tatsuo is being pulled along at super speeds, his face is being warped and pulled back by the air friction, he looks up to see his partner carrying him. “Huh”. A large distance behind Raiko is doing the same and carrying her partner, however, Raiko is carrying her partner carefully and they seem quite comfortable. All the other students start running, some of them use their powers and a couple of people stay at the starting line. One of which is Hiro, she goes to run but as she does she turns around to see her partner standing there, she begins to shout at him, “come on we need to go”. He starts to act out opening a car door and getting into a car. She looks at him bewildered. “You’ve got to be kidding me”.

Kenikai is running next to his partner, he turns to see 2 shadow wolves jump out of his shadow, his partner nods and they both jump and get on the wolves, the wolves then carry them towards the finish line. Back at the starting line Shigeo and his partner are sitting on the floor, they are looking at the big screen that’s displayed in the arena which is filming the finish line. Tatsuo and his partner are getting closer and closer to the finish line, just as they are about to cross Shigeo and his partner stand up, he remembers when he went over and introduced himself and tapped them both on the shoulder, just as they go to cross the line Shigeo smiles suddenly Tatsuo and his partner are back at the starting line and Shigeo and his partner are on the screen at the finish line. With his hands in his pockets, Shigeo and his partner walk past the line and are the first to qualify. Photos of their faces appear on the screen with 1st next to them. Tatsuo’s partner looks angry and grabs him by the collar, Tatsuo shakes his head and looks as if he's about to cry “not again”, within an instant Tatsuo is dragged across the track, and they both go flying past the other competitors. Mizo and Takao are running next to each other. Tatsuo sighs and turns to her. “Hurry up and run faster, I will not be eliminated because you are too slow, let’s go”. Her eyes start glowing red.

Etsuko continues shouting at her partner “come on we don’t have time for this” he starts making a gesture to get into the imaginary car. she walks towards him “this is stupid we need to get goi…” she suddenly knocks into something however there is nothing in front of her, she looks at her partner again, he gestures to get in. She confusingly feels around and feels a car door, she holds the handle and opens it up, she goes to get in the car and bangs her head “Ow” she then sits in and looks around to see she is floating off the floor at which point she turns to her partner. He gestures for her to close the door, she grabs it and closes it then turns to him again “well come on then, let’s get going” he then mimes for her to put her seatbelt on. She rolls her eyes and puts on her seatbelt, he turns, smiles and grabs the car wheel, he mimes driving and they suddenly start moving forward as if they are in a car. Tatsuo continues being dragged along, they pass Raiko and her partner and eventually cross the line, pictures of their faces appear on the screen with 2nd next to them. His partner puts Tatsuo down and he falls to the floor, he lays down on his back and breathes out heavily. “Well, that sucked”.

A little later Raiko and her partner cross the line also, they’re faces appear on the board with 3rd next to them. Takao continues to insult Mizo who is getting angrier and angrier. “I should have known I was going to lose the moment I was paired up with someone from your crappy school”. Suddenly Mizo goes into rage mode, picks him up and starts running incredibly fast, we see his face in fear as he’s being dragged along. Mizo passes everyone and eventually crosses the line in 4th position. Not long after Kenikai and his partner also cross the finish line on the wolves and take 5th place. They stop and get off the wolves and they return to his shadow “that’s a cool power”. He smiles and nods. Not long after a male and female student pass approach the line, the female student is controlling the Earth beneath them to create a wave-like motion pushing her and her partner forward, just before she crosses the line she turns back and smiles, she touches the floor and suddenly a very large wall of rock emerges from the ground in front of the finish line. She then continues and they cross the line in 6th place.

Etsuko and her partner are swerving past students in their invisible car, they continue to drive forward for a while with no one ahead until they see the wall in front of them, he drifts the car and comes to a stop to the side of it. She turns to him and says “don’t worry I think I can make a hole big enough for us to fit through, she sticks out her hand but suddenly feels a tap on her shoulder from her partner, he is holding up his hand as if to tell her to stop, he then turns to his side and presses a button to wind down the window, Etsuko waits awkwardly until he puts his thumb up, she then puts her hand out again, shuts her eyes and breathes out heavily, she opens them and a large gust of high pressured wind comes out and creates a hole in the wall “she smiles and punches the air”. He continues driving through it and they pass the line in 7th place. Yuka and Shuichi look up at the board and see that there is only one position left. Shuichi turns to Yuka “ok, it’s now or never, is it ready” Yuka looks down at his feet. “I think so, here goes” suddenly a massive force comes from their feet pushing him and Shuichi in a diagonal direction towards the finish line at incredible speeds. They look down and see they are passing everyone. Yuka smiles and turns “I think we could do this”. He then looks up and sees the big wall of rock in front of them and begins to panic. Shuichi smiles “I got this” he pulls out his sword and just before they hit the wall he slashes his sword through the air, a small wave comes from it and hits the section of wall in front of them causing a chunk to fall out and make a hole, they both fly through and start falling to the floor. They continue going forward whilst falling until finally they hit the ground, slide along the floor and just cross in front of the people ahead of them taking 8th place.

A horn is sounded and the host's voice is heard “That concludes round 2 of the tournament, commiserations to those who didn’t make it to the finish line in time and therefore have been eliminated”. Kame, Ryota, Hiro and Daisuke all look out of breath and are looking at the large screen. The host continues, “but congratulations to the students who made it through to the third round, that was a great race by everyone, now please be prepared as you will be ejected from the simulation. Good luck in the final round”. The remaining 16 students at the end of the finish line stand up and begin to look at each other.