Yawn!

With a massive yawn, I woke up at seven.

I felt refreshed and my body was in top condition, well, kind off. Definitely better than yesterday though.

Without further ado, I got fresh, even took a shower after spending roughly half an hour standing in line, and then had my breakfast. As I was eating, Merin woke up. Now that I didn't have any exercises to do, time actually moved rather slowly. But I guess this was normal.

"Morning." He rubbed his eyes. I guess he was up late at night. Normally he'd get up at least twenty minutes earlier. But lately, he was getting lazier and lazier.

"Good morning."

"Well, you're in a good mood." He yawned.

"Well, kind of. If I can win all the matches today, then wouldn't that make my fight with Marg a reality? And tell you what, if Marg loses, I might have to fight her today!"

I grinned. I was definitely excited.

Merin looked at me with dull eyes. "Marg already won and her fight was yesterday. Meaning you'd have to win every match today and then and only then will you get to fight Marg tomorrow."

I guess I kind of forgot that Marg had her match yesterday. Well, so much for my assumptions. How the hell did I forget something so simple anyway?

I tried to chuckle but this was kind of dumb. "Anyway, I'll try my best not to lose. But, if I do, I'll still ask Marg anyway. I asked her and she wanted time, maybe something will work out. I'm really hoping for a positive answer though."

I'd had too much tension. I didn't want any more of it.

"You're being too optimistic again."

"Yeah. My motto was less expectations, less disappointment, but just this once I can't help it. I really can't."

I really tried to limit my expectations, but I couldn't help but hope, I wanted to dream. I already dreamed of a future with Marg. And after carefully thinking, I concluded these feelings as necessity. I still didn't know if they were love or what love even was. But I guess this probably was something close to love if not love itself.

Merin grinned with a snort. "You're just being a hypocrite." He chuckled. "But I guess we're all hypocrites in one way or another. So, yeah. Go for it. And if you fail, you know I've got your back: just don't come crying too soon. And I have a motto in life too. Always hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Works like a charm." He winked.

I almost laughed. "Fair enough. Thanks, man." That actually wasn't a bad motto. I still didn't want to even think about the worst though. I just wanted Marg and there weren't any other options in between.

He grinned and then yawned. "Think, I'll skip classes." He proceeded to wrap the blanket around him.

I guess there went that. "Hey, you haven't gone to class this week at all."

And he often skipped classes too. He came back early and sometimes didn't even leave this room for hours and hours. I knew he was a shut-in and all, but this was too much.

"Too boring. I learn more here anyway." And not to mention he always had an excuse ready.

I guess he was who he was and I didn't really have much of a say in this. "I'll give you a piece of advice too. If you lie too much in bed, you can become impotent." That sure didn't stop me though. I had a very evil plan.

"Huh?" He looked at me a bit dumbfounded. And a second later got me: I guess my grin kind of scared him. "Oh." And with that said, he got up and went out to get fresh rather fast.

Yup, worked like a charm.

"That's more like it."

With a grin, I finished my meal, prepared all my stuff, and finally got ready to head out myself.

It was a bit early though.

The matches were going to start from 3, so I had only half an hour of rest time after classes. It didn't matter that much to me though. I had this and I wasn't going to let anything get in my way.

I had of worrying way too much.

I knew I was being too cocky, but at this point, there was no going back. There just wasn't. I couldn't back down now even if I wanted to. And I sure didn't want to. I started this, and I was going to finish it.

***

As usual, the classes went smoothly. And just like yesterday, I could basically answer all the questions. Even for memory instilled knowledge, my brain worked a lot better than I could have ever have hoped for. Normally if anyone used the memory instilling process they'd have the knowledge but it wasn't an instantaneous recall and they'd have to at least read over the original material once, or it wouldn't stick. In my case, it wasn't like that and I didn't have to do anything. I could just recall everything with a snap.

I didn't know how long it'll last but I kind of hoped it'd stay at least till my exams.

But that's where the complications come up. My memory actually got a bit worse. And as the day went by I learned it the hard way. I could remember the books like they were my home address but new information was hard to remember.

And even harder to recall. I was forgetting things like crazy. I guess this was a side effect of the whole thing.

"That wraps up today's class. Don't forget that we have a monthly evaluation test next week," Miss Maire said, looking satisfied.

Wait, the month was already ending?

Wait, wait, we had a monthly test? Since when? I looked around and frankly, I was the only one who was panicking. Everyone was too calm, as though this was common knowledge.

Argh. I guess now I had to go check what was up with my memory. If I kept forgetting about important things like this, there wasn't any point in having memories in the first place.

But I guess that could wait. In just half an hour, I had to start fighting. Both my sword and saber were with me and I had my gloves too. My chest beat fast and I was excited.

'I definitely need to go to the nurse though.' Obviously, I didn't want to.

***

I reached the gym around 2.55. Everyone was already present and I guess I was probably the last to arrive. Maybe eating that big burger was a bad idea.

Blurp.

Yeah.

Ahem! I went toward the center.

There was a massive crowd here, even bigger than the one when Clyde and I fought. Well, technically I'd be fighting him again today, so I guess I had to be super careful. Clyde probably wasn't going fall for the same trick twice. And there were a bunch of other strong fighters I had to worry about too.

This really was going to be tricky.

It wasn't as lively or chaotic here as I thought it to be though. And so far I didn't see any teachers around. I guess they were in some corner or something. I didn't have time to search for them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, our esteemed guest has finally arrived and now we'll have our battle royal!" a familiar voice declared: probably Dickville.

The crowd erupted with cheers. Esteemed guest?

'Wait, battle royal?' I sighed. And when I reached the center stage, I saw the other fighters and Dick. "Hey, how come this'll be a battle royal?" And more importantly, why wasn't I told?

"Well," Dick smiled. "The headmaster kind of changed the rules at the last second. And you might know, he does have that right." Dick smiled a bit more. "Sadly." He cursed under his breath.

Yeah, I could see that happening. "So, why wasn't I told? Judging by the appearances of these gentlemen, I can assume they were told just fine?"

If I knew, I'd have at least tried to be early. Okay, probably not. But still!

"Another one of the headmaster's whims." Dick smiled and I could see some of his veins throb. I guess he didn't like this either. Well, there was nothing we could do about this now anyway. Dick cleared his throat and raised his voice. "We'll be starting shortly but I'll have to explain the rules to our dear participants. Please wait a little longer patiently."

I guess they really were all waiting for me. I didn't care though. "Just get this over with."

Dick almost chuckled and I could hear faint chuckles coming from the participants too: namely, Clyde.

The crowd however weren't satisfied and some were even booing. I kind of wanted to shut them up, but I didn't say anything. Too much of a hassle.

"SO, the last one to stay standing wins. You can either knock your opponents out or off of their feet. Either way, touching the ground with anything other than your feet, will result in elimination. You can use your powers freely, but hurting them through your powers won't be tolerated. Using of beams and all that will be prohibited, even radiation. Only sword skills will be allowed: but if you prefer street fighting punching, kicking and all that shenanigans would be allowed."

I sighed. These rules were made especially for me it would have seemed. It wasn't totally bad though, considering my fighting style involved a lot of kicking. I never got to kick people though since they almost always had some sort of annoying ability that didn't let me get too close.

But oh well.

I looked around and after a minute, found the headmaster sitting in the far south corner grinning rather haphazardly. There were four people with him. I knew all four. One, uncle, two, that bitch, three Eve's father, and last but not least, the man who nearly whoop- ahem, beat me back in the gym. The criminal who knew my grandfather. What the hell was he doing here? I actually wanted to ask but Dick already told us to get ready. All four of them were sitting pretty without making a commotion though, so I couldn't just run there and start one either.

I sighed, took a deep breath, and looked ahead. Well, I could get my answer one way or another anyway. And since there were other big names here, I didn't have time to worry about a criminal. The headmaster could handle that.

My true focus was on the seven who were glaring at me. "The one who will knock Helio off will win! GO!" At the very last second, Dick said something rather terrible.

'SHIT!'

Shit indeed.