"You actually have two matches today."

Two matches on the very first day?

"Weren't the eight matches supposed to-"

"It wasn't my decision." Mike didn't look at me and just moved ahead.

I guess I didn't have a say in this.

And within a minute we arrived at a secluded place of the field. There weren't many people here.

Now that I didn't have a crowd following me around, it actually felt weird.

'What the hell is happening to me?'

"He'll be your opponent."

A boy was already here, waiting for me.

I actually hadn't seen the boy before. He seemed to be younger than me. I guess he was from another class.

So I took out my saber and just looked at Mike. "Any rules I should be aware of?"

"Once the battle starts a small glowing ring will mark the boundary. Just don't go out of it, and don't use your powers directly on your opponent. The usual stuff. And feel free to use your sword's powers. And since we have a lot of fights, try not to hurt your opponent too much."

I guess that's why mike brought me here to this secluded place. But he should have known, I wasn't going to blast everyone with radiation even if the fight was hard or something.

"Cool."

I turned on the saber. I made sure to put on the gloves this time. And I also paid careful attention. I couldn't just let my guard down just because the guy looked weaker than me.

But now that no one was paying attention to me or my saber, things just felt out of place. Maybe I'd gotten more used to the attention than I thought.

"Alright, as a rep of the disciplinary committee, I hereby declare the start of this battle. GO!"

Things started sooner than I thought.

The kid blurred for a second. He was fast. And enough so I couldn't see him with my eyes. And a second later his saber came for my head, only to be blocked by mine. I grabbed his neck and slammed him on the ground.

Though I couldn't see him, I could still know his location with alpha particles. And though he was fast, he wasn't faster than alpha particles.

The boy coughed up a bit of blood and just lied flat on the ground. I held my scythe near his neck. "Surrender."

He raised both of his hands and surrendered. 'That went faster than I thought.'

"Two points, good job."

"Who's next?"

Before the boy could get up he passed out. I guess I might have gone a bit far.

Mike chuckled nervously. "Well, I don't know where she is."

"Hmm… I guess then I get free points?"

"I suppose I don't have a choice, do I?" Mike scratched his ears. "But how about we wait ten minutes. Anybody could have something important come up suddenly, right?"

"I'm willing to wait five minutes and then I'm gone."

'I don't care how, but I need a good talk with mom.'

My contradictions were growing and I needed to know more about the seal and whether it was necessary to reseal my broken one.

"That won't be necessary." A girl's voice: and I kind of knew that voice.

It was the other blonde transfer student, the girl.

"Well then, please get this one out, and let's hurry up."

I retracted my saber and just waited.

Mike signaled someone in the distance and they got here fairly quickly, removing the passed-out kid from the ring. I didn't know why but I felt bad for the kid.

The girl stepped inside and just stared at me with conviction. I guess she was going to fight to win.

I was kind of hoping to beat her brother but I guess my luck wasn't that nice.

"Go!" With Mike's signal, I prepared myself to fight.

The scythe was good to go and so was I. though I didn't let my guard down, I couldn't seem to take this seriously after what just happened a few minutes ago.

The girl grabbed her left arm and pointed it to me. Light gathered in her palm, almost like my plasma attack. Except, she was superheating the air a lot quicker than I could.

'Better, end this quick I guess.'

I started dashing. There was a fundamental weakness to my plasma ball, namely, I was terrible with aiming mid-fight. And I guess so was she, as she staggered to release it straight at me. The glowing ball of light did come straight at my face but I dodged it at the very last second and it only singed some of my hair.

'That was a close one.' But now I was close to her, very close. And it didn't take time for me to hold my scythe against her throat, barely touching her. "Yield?"

A single stream of red liquid dripped from the place the scythe touched. Though this thing was made of plasma, I guess this was sharper than I thought.

"I surrender." She gave up, fairly easily too.

Again, disappointed. Why was I hoping for a good fight again? I didn't know.

"Again, two points, well done." Mike clapped his hands.

This seemed so superficial that it actually pissed me off. And since I basically didn't even break much of a sweat, this seemed kind of pointless. "Enough with that, do you know where a girl named Marg is? Where her venue is?"

"Well, I can take you there, if you want to."

"Sure."

"Umm Excuse me?" The girl put a band-aid on her neck and grabbed my sleeves.

"Yeah, what?"

"Why didn't you hurt me? Because I'm a girl?" The girl glared at me.

Wasn't making her bleed count as being hurt? Or did she want me to slam her to the ground too?

"I honestly don't care if you're a guy or girl. Mom told me to respect girls, but I kind of found that terminology, a bit flawed. After all, we're all human and everybody deserves to be treated fairly. But yeah, maybe some of it did have to do with you being a girl. My sister has the same type of hair like you. And though you don't remind me of my sister, your hair does. That was why I didn't slam you to the ground like that kiddo before."

"That kiddo was older than you by the way." Mike giggled, containing every bit of it.

I really wanted to punch that guy now.

I sighed. "Anyway, that was all. Now if you'll excuse me."

The girl didn't say anything.

"You know-" Mike began and I already knew he was about to spit nonsense. "Not bad."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"You just increased another one of your fans. That girl is from a very strict family, a family that treats girls like they are toys, and you had the galls to speak of equality to her." Mike broke into severe laughter. "I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up climbing to your bed in a few days."

"Yeah, I'd be very surprised. And no thanks."

Mike kept on laughing as he led me to the other corner of the field. The same corner where the pole was. I really didn't want to go there.

But there was a different crowd this time and from the looks of it, the fight was still going.

I'd never seen Marg use a saber before, so I didn't know how powerful she was. But if she was challenging Eve, then she had to be good, that much was for certain.

Speaking of Eve, the girl was literally standing right next to me. Just where the hell did she drop from?

"Oh, done already? I'd expect no less from my future hus-"

"Shut it, weirdo. I'd have enough of your teasing." And I was in a very not so friendly mood right now.

Eve started by snorting and then burst out laughing. "Well, that's new. Never knew my playboy would actually have the spine to talk back."

I couldn't differentiate between teases and taunts anymore, so I just ignored her.

The crowd was taller than me, so I couldn't see what was happening. And I could say the same for Eve.

But from the look on her face, I could easily say, she was upto no good.

She gave me a devilish grin and slowly held her finger near a big guy's butt. The same big guy who couldn't get past the barrier of the gym that night.

Neither connected physically.

And a second later- fire! And another second later- screams!

I watched the whole thing with twitching eyes. And I could tell Mike wasn't too happy about this either.

But the commotion did clear a path for us, and the three of us marched forward. The moment people realized that I was near they just parted any way. Maybe I should have just used that from the beginning.