A three-second countdown went by, and the battle started. Ryuzo carefully began to close in, taking one step at a time. As expected, Ponytail wouldn't attack yet. He didn't even have his guard up.

That bastard, looking down on me. Wait till I wipe that smirk off your face. Ryuzo didn't really believe that will happen, but it wasn't hope that he was looking for, he needed a good strategy.

Ponytail is holding a longsword with both hands. His sword was longer which gives him a longer striking range. This means he probably has more strength in each strike but at the same time less speed in contrast.  

First things first, let's see how fast he responds and guards against my attacks. I also need to see the range my own attacks and how my own strikes even feel; it's my first time holding a sword after all. 

Once Ryuzo stood quite close in front of him, he thrust his sword forward as much as he could. Ponytail raised his sword now, but their swords didn't collide; he wasn't close enough in range. Stepping even nearer, he thrust again. This time, their swords clashed. Ponytail deflected it. Ryuzo lost his balance already. The longsword came to his direction in a quick swing, bang. Ryuzo used his shield just in time. Bang-bang, a tremendous amount of force made his shield shake violently. Ryuzo quickly retreated backwards to safety. 

It happened so fast; he almost couldn't see what just happened. Well, he didn't see the last attacks at all. He was hiding behind his shield. Damn it. My heart is already racing like crazy. Using a thrust attack against that Ponytail is dangerous. He simply brushed it away and broke my stance too. What are my other options? 

With his shield raised up, Ryuzo started approaching the coordinator again, even slower than before. At the right distance, he quickly swung his sword repeatedly. No balance loss now, the attacks were connecting. Ponytail was deflecting it, but he didn't do anything else this time. It felt like he was doing this on purpose as if to say that it doesn't matter what you try. It only angered Ryuzo more and more as he put more strength behind his strikes.

The next strike, Ponytail didn't deflect it, he dodged it. Ryuzo was too focused on attacking; this miss made him wide open. A stab came from the front and hit his stomach. The next stab hit his shoulder. Ryuzo lost more of his balance now. A wide swing came from above; it was Ponytail's finishing move. With no defense up, the swing slammed him to the ground. The audience cheered loudly, making Ponytail look like a hero or something.

Damn it...damn you all. If this was a real fight, would you still cheer like this? Is all you care about seeing someone fail? I would be dead by now if we used real weapons.

He looked at his sword. This thing I'm holding doesn't feel like a weapon at all, it's super light, and it doesn't even cut. Wait— that's it, isn't? 

Ryuzo stood up slowly, not raising his sword yet. He wiped some dirt off his clothes and mentally prepared himself for his next move. Previously, Ponytail did explain the goal of this challenge; stay in the ring and score as many points as you can.  He mentioned nothing else. In that case, there might not be any important rules regarding point deductions, except perhaps for stepping outside the ring. 

Ryuzo stared at the smiling Ponytail, stood still while deeply exhaling air. Without warning, he dashed forward and jumped directly towards the surprised coordinator. Ponytail quickly raised his longsword sideways, hitting Ryuzo in the stomach. Stab. Ryuzo's tip of his sword was now touching Ponytail's chest.

If we're using real weapons, we would both be seriously wounded, but this is just wood. We can't get killed here, so all I got to do is ignore his attacks, since they don't do any fatal damage, and just aim for the points.

As a madman, Ryuzo kept attacking Ponytail. It didn't matter whether Ponytail hit him on painful or fatal places, all Ryuzoh focused on was getting a hit on him. It must have looked very chaotic to the audience, very unprofessional; Ryuzo didn't care. Most attacks didn't hit, but what really mattered were the ones that did. He kept on doing this until he had no energy left. "Heh, how you like that?" Ryuzo said, almost being out of breath and bruises all over his body. 

The coordinator looked a bit confused. One hand rubbed his temple while the other kept his longsword downwards. He laughed a bit before announcing the score. "Eighty points!"

The audience was just as surprised as Ryuzo himself. It still wasn't completely clear how the point system worked, but it didn't matter now; Ryuzo couldn't complain, eighty points is quite high. This was a good experience, too bad I couldn't hit his face though. 

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The observation challenge. Ayuki picked up a few conversations from the talking crowd and learned that the coordinator was called Dencil Hayner. The Hayner family seemed to be famous for their Fes ability to create illusions. According to the board, the challenge consists of different illusions, starting from easy to hard. How these illusions looked liked is unknown; only the participants and Dencil himself can witness it. All the participants were scribbling something on a piece of paper, most of them even seemed very troubled by it. 

"Hello, what is your name?" Dencil asked.

It was finally her time to begin. "Ayuki Kazumi," she replied. 

"Ah, the one with the great memory. Excellent. A good memory will give you an advantage in this challenge, but it won't be much of help if you don't focus on the right things. This challenge has eight different illusions. Your score will be determined by this form." Dencil gave Ayuki a piece of paper. It contained a lot of detailed questions; there were seven sections, and each had its style of questions. "Your surrounding will change completely when an illusion starts. I want you to focus on every visual activity that you will see. The scenery, sound, movement, color, everything that your eyes can catch. Each illusion is usually very short, like this."

Before Ayuki realized it, the training area she stood in, wasn't there anymore. They were now standing on the top of a mountain with an enormous view over a green forest. The sky was clear blue and the sun was shining in full glory over the area; it all looked so peaceful. It felt a bit familiar, but Ayuki was sure she hadn't seen this before. She wanted to enjoy it more, but the vision cleared away, and there she was again, back in reality.  

"That was an example of what an illusion may look like," Dencil said. "Now, once an illusion is over, I want you to answer the questions on the form I just gave you. That's all I will tell you."

The first few illusions were pretty simple. Each area took place in natural environments, places that you won't find in this city. The questions asked for specific things like the number of trees, duration of the falling leafs before it hit the ground or the color of the chirping birds. As the time of each illusion increased, however, the questions started to get more complicated.

The last illusion, in particular, was pretty difficult to observe. It was a dancing demonstration performed by three people. The woman in the yellow dress waved her two fans in a very soothing motion and threw it multiple times in the air. The man in the red uniform moved his spear in swift circular movements, combined with somersaults and spiral kicks. The woman in blue dress had two knives and danced elegantly with excellent body control, spinning the knifes around her wrists in circles without cutting herself. They would move separately at first, but later they joined each other, moving in harmony, throwing their weapons around and catching them without fail. The woman in the blue dress would open and close her fans, waving it around as if they were wings. The man in the red uniform used his staff to leap himself from the ground, showing his great athletic abilities. The yellow dressed woman, threw her blades blindly in mid-air while stretching out her hands without moving now; the sharp side of the blades fell directly between her fingers.

Now this was all very beautiful and lovely to see, but the questions Ayuki had to answer afterward, completely confused her. How many times did the two woman switch from color during their performance? Which different kind of weapons did the man use? All the questions implied that changes had occurred during the performance. Things that Ayuki didn't notice at all. Even worse were the last questions; they were all focused on Dencil's appearance. Ayuki didn't look at him at all during the challenge. He had apparently changed his hair, eye-color, and clothes between each level.

I thought the questions were going to be focused on the illusions, damn it! Ugh...he did mention to focus on every visual activity, not the illusions. Now I realize what he meant when he said how my focus decides how useful my memory will be. I can't have memories from things I haven't paid my attention to. 

In the end, Ayuki scored fifty points for the observation challenge. A bit of a disappointment, but it was still better than what most people scored; that was apparently an average of thirty points. 

With two challenges done, there was only one more to go and plenty of time left. The challenges turned out to be quite fun to do. Ayuki ended up doing five challenges in total before the second round ended. Seeing the other people of all ages trying their best, motivated her to do the same. The more challenges she did, the more she felt committed to do better. The good part of this round was that it allowed her to know herself even better, to find out what she could and what she couldn't. But, perhaps, more importantly, she felt closer to the people here too. Until so far, she avoided contact with the public, because of her bad experience with the people around her neighborhood. But here, nobody talked behind her back. Nobody mentioned anything about her bad reputation. That's at least how it felt. It felt like; she could open up a little more here. 

I guess not everyone is the same. Perhaps the people who talk negatively about me are the ones that don't do anything about it. The people here are different at least. Being here is already proof that they care about the city, care for its wellbeing. The Order is doing their best too; I can see that. Despite the grim situation outside the city, they all still smile here, they still make jokes and fool around a little. I feel that I can trust the people here more now. Then again they don't know anything about me yet. My intrusion is still a secret from the public. Even the Order doesn't seem to know about it. I'm not planning to share it though. How would people treat me, once it is made public? Well, I guess it's up to me prove my innocence before that happens. 

The countdown of this round has stopped, and almost everyone assembled to the center of the training ground, waiting for the next round to come. Why did the next round had to start at the same time for everyone? Was something big going to happen? Ayuki couldn't help but feel a little bit excited now. A big door opened at the end of the area, and the crowd all slowly walked towards it. The third round was about to start.