First Day Shenanigans Part 2

I bid farewell to Timmy, who is heading back to the monster stables now that 6th period is over.

Once I left the Arena zone, I made my way to my next class: Intro to Mu - Mu continent geography and research. This course was located in Main Building B and the contents of the class itself are just as it says on the course title. It goes over many of the core aspects of the 8th continent and in some cases may divulge some simple information on geography and research.

Honestly, it wasn’t like I had any keen interest on the topic of Mu. It was a continent that suddenly rose from the sea 60 some years ago. There’s also a lot of monsters there. Nothing really special.

My decision to pick this class wasn’t based on my interest, but rather my enticed feeling of fondness for this lost continent.

The concept of “A new world, a brave new experience”, brings up an enormous feeling of adventure.This...this romanticism of the subject, to me, was quite alluring. Something similar to the idea of a new world during the 16th century. In our time and age, Mu is that new world, and adventurers seeking profit and fulfillment flock towards this new experience.

It was an idea everyone wanted to be a part of.

That probably explains why this class has so many students.

As I walked into my new classroom, I could see that among the upperclassmen, there were way more 1st years than in the Underwater science course I had previously signed up for. This outcome wasn’t surprising, considering that many of the would-be adventurers in this school wished to venture forth to the new frontier that is Mu.

Looking over at the students that congested in the classroom, I observed that some of the freshmen recognized me, although unlike my previous class, they didn’t immediately commence into a flurry of whispers, instead they stared at me.

Nevertheless, I ignored all this and made my way to the back of the classroom to search for an open seat.

The seats quickly filled up to its capacity. Well almost. I sat in the corner of the room but the seat directly next to mine was still open and vacant. I thought I might enjoy no company during this class period but, just as the bell rang, a new student walked in.

He was panting, obviously out of breath, from running. The boy wore the same type of uniform as me, indicating he too was a 1st year. He scanned the rows of desks with a worried expression, probably thinking that there were no open seats left. His expression quickly perked up when his gaze came to rest on the seat next to me.

He quickly placed his backpack on the floor and sat down. Immediately afterwards, he introduced himself to the neighboring students. Eventually, he then introduced himself to me too.

“Ha~ Ha~, Hello there! I’m Morgan.”

He was an extremely cheery fellow,so much so that it hurted. I slowly turned towards him.

Morgan was a short person. Well, not too short, but short enough where he’d be below the average male’s height. He had black hair, similar to mine, that came all the way down to his face and covered his sea green irises.

The thing that stood out the most, from Morgan, was the way he looked. He just looked so…feminine. His slender arms, dainty fingers, pinkish-pale skin, and even his face was girly looking. If he wasn’t wearing a male uniform; I would have surely mistaken him for another cute girl.

“Hey there, I’m Kelp.” I replied back.

“Kelp, huh….?”

He seemed to ponder at the name for a bit before stating,“Hahaha, that sure is a weird name. Ah, no offense.” Giggled the male student.

“.....”

Damn, even his laughter sounds feminine.

“No, it’s fine. Even I think my name’s weird.”, I stated nonchalantly. This is the truth of the world... I was named after seaweed, so of course people would think it’s a weird name.“It’s not like I care either way.”

“Ah is that so…” Morgan looked for anything to start a conversation with. His eyes finally came to rest on my uniform.“Oh! It looks like you’re also a 1st year, huh, Kelp. Why did you pick this class?”

“....Because it seemed interesting.”

Morgan stared at me for a second with a dumbfounded expression.

“That’s a rather unusual reply. Most people would hate to take a class as hard as this just because they found it interesting.”

My eyes widened at one particular aspect of what Morgan said.

“Wait, Oi-... T-this class is hard?!”

“?”

Morgan looked at me curiously,“Why yes, if it weren’t for the students’ lofty ambitions, I doubt anybody would take a class with a 65% failure rate.”

6-65%?! That’s too high! TOO HIGH! The rate of failures is too damn high!!!

I slumped down on my desk. Although I didn’t know virtually anything about this class, from the course description and its popularity, I had thought the class was easy or at least on the level where I could pass it with some minor effort.

Seeing my dismay, Morgan laughed awkwardly.

“I’m guessing you didn’t know huh?”

“Y-yeah….Why would so many students opt to take such a hard class.”

“Well, it’s mostly because everyone here dreams of going to Mu. They dream of experiencing a fantastic adventure, the same ones our grandfather’s fathers immersed their minds in.”

Seeing the whimsical expression Morgan accidently revealed, I straightened my back. Even if I didn’t have such ambitions, I could understand the appeal to it.

“Hm.. So I’d say you’re in here too for the same reasons?”

At my words, Morgan’s face turned into a shade of red.

“A-ah, yeah….It might be a bit presumptuous of me to say this ,but I also want to have an epic adventure as well!”

I blinked at him once before I slipped a smile of my own.

“That’s good, having dreams is good.”

I turned back around to face the front of the room, my last words in perfect timing with the teacher’s arrival, thus our conversation was over. Although I did catch a glimpse of Morgan’s...cute expression before I turned around.

Once the class started and the teacher walked in the room, the remaining students followed my lead ,and soon the room was filled with well behaved and seated students.

The teacher for this class was a young woman. She had long, flowing hair and squinty eyes. Her expression seemed sleepy, and if you didn’t pay attention she looked like she was already in deep sleep. The woman looked ordinary with the exception of her purple hair. This genetic abnormality wasn’t all that rare among today’s new breed of humans. Abnormalities, like unnaturally long ears and weird colored hair, usually signaled strong magic potential accompanied by a special ability

Being a teacher in Newgrounds, it wouldn’t be surprising for this sleepy looking person to be rather strong in battle.

“Um….hello class….” she yawned, “ I’m your teacher for this class…. Lacie Collias…..I guess for you guys, I’d have to be Miss Collias…..that’s kind of a mouthful though…” She spoke with a cute yet beautiful voice.

She yawned once more while rubbing the nonexistent sand from her eyes.

“...You can just call me Miss Coll.”

Seeing her yawning so repetitively, I couldn’t help but yawn as well. Morgan who saw me yawning, worriedly poked on my shoulder before asking, “You okay Kelp? You’ve been looking a little...worn out. Plus, those bandages on your arms….”

He acts a bit like Nanami.

I inwardly thought to myself. I seem to have a knack for attracting worrywarts.

“Mmmm...I’m fine. Jus’, Miss Coll’s yawning is pretty contagious you know?”

Morgan nodded in acknowledgement before he turned back to face the professor. I followed suit and observed as the lesson continued.

Miss Coll looked around the classroom, before nodding. She lazily wrote down on her notebook before mumbling, “....All present~”

She then walked over to her desk, which was located in the front left corner of the room, and rummaged around as if looking for something. A moment later, she pulled out a disk. After briefly inspecting it, she booted up her PC then inserted the disc inside.

The floor near the front of the room glowed blue intensely before settling down. What replaced the sudden light show was a neon blue colored projection of Miss Coll.

The hologram, to be more specific, looked exactly like the real Miss Coll. With the exception that it was in a monochrome shade of blue, and it was not moving; as if someone had hit the pause button to a movie.

Miss Coll then told the class from her desk, “Ehm….For today, just pay attention to what the blue me says. I’ll be a little busy so….”

She then took out what looked like a pillow from under her desk before gently placing it on top of the table. She hit a button on the keyboard, and the hologram instantly played. All the while, Miss Coll was already deep asleep.

Before the students could react to this sudden turn of events, the Miss Coll hologram had already started talking. It talked with the same sleepy voice as the original, with the exception that this one wasn’t actually sleeping.

“Okay class….I guess if you’re watching this, that means it’s the first day of school…..So I guess for today, we’ll cover the basic’s of what’s what….”

I drowned out for the majority of the lecture after that, but a basic summary of what she said was that:

Mu was a large continent that suddenly appeared in unison with the arrival of magic. Mu was located in the pacific and resided just between North America and Asia. The continent itself was about 2.5 times as large as Australia, although it could be argued that its’ creatures are a bit more dangerous than in the outback.

As stated before, the monsters there are all pretty strong, with most of them being just a little bit over AA ranked. Although even with all the dangers the monsters themselves provided, just reaching the island is a difficult task in itself. Mu was a continent surrounded by whirlpools, a deadly natural phenomena, that restricted almost all the entry points down to one harbor that was located near relatively calm waters. This weird factor made exploration even harder, since it basically forced everyone to one common starting point.

Also air travel was heavily restricted on the continent. Not only was there a dense layer of perpetual clouds that blocked any satellite imagery from viewing the continent’s interior. The skies themselves are surrounded by what some professionals labeled as “Sky Whales”.

Contrary to what it may sound like, sky whales aren’t monsters or magical beings, heck they aren’t even living things. Sky whales are dense pockets of mist that corroded almost everything that passed through them. Now these pockets of mist practically covered up the whole of the continent, making survivability when traveling by air only a measly 2.1 %. That’s why everyone opted to travel by sea rather than risk death.

Miss Coll didn’t go too deep into the Geography of Mu yet, but she did explain a fraction of the politics involved.

Apparently, this continent had precious resources, magical resources to be exact. The continent itself was basically a deposit of mana ore, which brought the attention of numerous corporations. The attempts to monopolize such a resource created what most people commonly refer to as the Era of Adventure.

Currently, the only harbor on Mu is jointly shared by a council of corporations, making it a sort of hub for everybody. As for the rest of the continent, well, only about 1/4th of the surface of the continent has truly been explored. That doesn’t even factor in the recently discovered underground caverns that seemed to expand all over the continent as well as the floating islands that some people theorize hides deep within the clouds.

Basically, much of Mu is open for adventure.

And this openness creates much unwanted tension between rival sponsors. As a result, not only do adventurers have to watch out for the monsters, but they also need to keep a keen eye out for would be competitors.

That’s why, to limit the battles between mages that would inevitably take place, three government bodies that each represent a nation have formed. They are tasked with limiting and controlling at least some portion of the damage.

This new information honestly surprised me. I never knew how… controlled all the adventuring was.

Yet despite that, it didn’t seem like any of the students cared. I truly saw how much ambition the continent of Mu created when Miss Coll went over how some students from our city, Setohanda, had an opportunity to visit the over hyped continent.

“...These events are what we call excursions. Although not everyone can go…...only the cream of the crop of Setohanda can go…..so better study hard guys…….”

She went on to explain the specific of these excursions.

The overseas excursions were sort of like big inter-school field trips. A collection of the top students from all over Setohanda would be given the opportunity to explore Mu. A real first hand experience of what many consider true adventure. Of course, if you take into account the average level requirement for going to Mu alone, that drastically cuts the applicants by a wide margin. That’s why its not all that uncommon for nobody to be sent over.

Although it seems like this particular year, there are a lot of rather strong brats roaming around the city.

“Currently, one of our own students is in Mu….What was her name again?….Amelia Non Curen, no it was Von Buren.. Hemelia Von Buren…”

“W-wow, Lady Hemelia really is quite incredible..”

I looked over to see a quietly whispering Morgan with his cute eyes sparkling in admiration.

“Mmmmmmm...Who is Hemelia by the way?” I asked inquiringly.

I had heard her name a couple times, although I’m afraid to say I wasn’t paying too much attention then .

Meanwhile, Morgan looked at me with a shocked face. In a hushed voice, he declared,

“You mean you don’t know who Lady Hemelia is!?”

“Uh...no…”

“Muuu….! Hemelia is just the strongest mage in school, no, I’d even dare say she might be the strongest in the whole city!”

Morgan announced in a loud voice, although not loud enough to wake the real Miss Coll.

“Hemelia san is currently the top ranked student in Newgrounds and is also within the top 5 of the whole city rankings. Not to mention the fact that she’s also part of the prestigious Von Buren clan, a group that’s been part of the upper echelons of magic society even before magic existed.

And she’s not only strong, but smart and beautiful to boot…”

Morgan sighed contently. He showed of a blissful expression while explaining the glory of this idol of his.

Truth be told, it kind of pissed me off.

With that type of atmosphere, The rest of the class passed by peacefully. I wasn’t able to pay attention to the lecture anymore though, since apparently, I had lit a fire inside Morgan. He wouldn’t stop explaining the glories of this Hemilia person.

Tales of her exploits, like how she slayed a rank A monster at age 9 or how she completely dominated the school upon her enrollment went into one ear and out the other.

Eventually the alarm rang, signaling the end of the period.

I was one of the first to leave the classroom, and immediately began walking over to C building, where my next class, All Purpose Combat was situated in.

“Hey Kelp! Wait up!.”

As I walked, I heard a voice calling out to me from behind. I turned my head to see a frantically running Morgan, who struggled to catch up to my rather slow walking speed.

I stopped walking and once Morgan caught up, I waited for him to catch his breathe as he panted with his back bent.

His voice squeaked an octave as he attempted to speak after he caught his breath.

“M-Muu~ Kelp! Ha~ H-how could you leave me behind like that.”

I scratched my head absent mindedly.

“Sorry?”

Was it just me or was this guy a bit more friendlier than earlier? Don’t tell me he thinks we’re buddies now after he told me all them stories about Hemilia!?

I sighed at this particular thought.

“You know what, never mind.” Morgan straightened himself. I had already started walking again, and now Morgan quickly followed. We walked down the hallway shoulder to shoulder.

“Tell me Kelp, what’s your next class.”

As Morgan initiated conversation, I pretended to rack my brain for a bit before answering,

“....All Purpose Combat.”

“Down in C building?”

“Yeah.”

“With Mr.Hachi?”

“Uh…”

“In hall G4?”

“Umm….”

I took out a crumpled piece of paper from my pocket and inspected the contents. I confirmed the room number and teacher Morgan had talked about with my own schedule.

“Yeah, I guess I do have that... How’d you know?”

Morgan laughed another girlish laugh.

“Hehehe~, no it was just a coincidence. You see I have that class too.”

“Really?” My eyes perked up in interest.

Morgan enthusiastically nodded with a mmm! sound effect.

“I didn’t really take you for the fighting type though Morgan.”

“Well...truth be told, you’re right. I’m not really much of a fighter.”

I looked over his body once more. I confirmed that his skinny disposition, girlishly cute appearance, and somewhat flowery persona really didn’t seem like the type that would fair well in combat.

“Why’d you take a combat class then?”

“T-that’s because if I’m gonna aim for Mu, it’s important that I can fight!”

He clenched both his tiny fists to indicate his determination.

“Really now..?”

“Y-yeah! I’d do anything to get to Mu!” Morgan enthusiastically yelled out his aspiration.

All though his set of words kind of made me recall something I wished I hadn’t.

“..You know...anything’s a dangerous word…”

“?”

I paused for a minute while Morgan looked at me weirdly. I had unintentionally thought about something that happened a long, long time ago. I immediately shrugged of the said thought.

After all, it’s not good to dwell on the past.

“Well, anyways...if you’re that eager, I guess I could help you out every now and then.”

At my words Morgan perked up.

“R-really!? That’d be great!”

“Yeah sure...oh I know! I could let you get some practice with monsters. If you want you could face off against Timmy.”

At this, Morgan showed a confused expression.

“Who’s Timmy?”

“He’s my pet monster.”

“Oh, you’re a monster tamer Kelp? You don’t really look like the type though…”

“Well, I’m something similar to a monster tamer I guess…” I scratched the back of the my head. I wouldn’t really apply monster tamer so loosely to me.

“Incidentally, what type of monster did you raise?” Morgan looked up worriedly to my face.

I replied with a smile and stated, “Hmm? Timmy’s a three horned boar.”

Pondering for a moment, Morgan’s face lit up in happiness a second later.

“Oh, three-horned boars are F-ranked monsters right? Then if it’s only that much, then even I can handle him.”

Morgan laughed with a delighted expression.

I looked at him funny, and inwardly laughed as well.

We continued walking all the way to class with the same leasure atmosphere, while we walked, I left a parting thought for myself,

It really isn’t good to underestimate Timmy.

*****

We arrived shortly at our new classroom. Well, although I called it a classroom, it wasn’t your typical desks and books type set up. The room was more like a gym than anything else.

The layout of the room was a large open space, about the size of six regular classrooms put together. In the center was a drawn out circle, which probably indicated a stadium of sorts. The walls themselves were stacked high with decorative and non decorative weaponry.

To the right we saw a collection of students who were quietly waiting for the class to start against the wall.

“Hey look Kelp! There’s a lot of 1st years in this class too!” Morgan exclaimed as he surveyed his fellow classmates.

“Isn’t that great! Now we won’t be so lonely Kelp.”

“Hmm...well, for now, let’s just wait patiently like everyone else.”

I led Morgan to an open space against the wall and we quietly sat down. We talked about idle things in the process of waiting, but after a while, I noticed something was amiss.

I didn’t notice when I first walked in, but the students were keeping their distance from Morgan and I...Although I think they might be staying away from me more specifically. I confirmed these thoughts when I once again overheard the senseless mumbling I had experienced back in that Tamer class.

Well, I tried to ignore them, but when people are talking about you, your ears can’t help but wander….

“Oi, that’s him right..?”

“The seaweed fellow...Nori or something…”

“The “delinquent” from the entrance exam…”

Since when did people start calling me a delinquent?

I sighed. It was still only the first day of school, and rumours had spread to this extent about me….truly unlucky.

Morgan, who finally caught on and heard some of the whispering, looked worriedly at me.

“Hey Kelp….People are saying some nasty things about you...what should we do?”

“Shhh.”

I clamped Morgan’s mouth shut with my hand, as I tried to listen in on what people had to say about me, all the while trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

“...Yeah, what a terrible person.”

“I heard he was actually some really famous monster tamer.”

“That would explain why he came back with a boar from last time.”

“Tch! What a punk, who does he think he is!”

“If he was already a monster tamer, he shouldn’t have pulled that shit from last time.”

“Y-yeah, I seriously thought the giant pig was gonna eat me…”

“N-not that you idiot! I-It’s not like I was scared or anything…..I-it was just annoying how he kept the whole group late.”

It seems like these guys are just pissed that they almost pissed their pants last time.

I suddenly turned to Morgan, come to think of it, this guy didn’t seem like he knew much about me, unlike these scrubs.

“Hey Morgan, you’re a freshman right?”

“Huh? Yes I am.” He answered innocently.

“Hmm...Where you there yesterday? At the Entrance exam?”

Morgan awkwardly shuffled at the face of my question.

“Oh...I was. I finished earlier than most but I had an emergency, so I had to leave before the time limit ended…”

“Hmm…”

I quietly dropped the subject and went back to focusing on the rumours.

“Anyways I bet I could take him.”

“O-oi, don’t go spouting things like that, what if he heard you.”

“Yeah bro. He controls crazy strong monsters man, I wouldn’t mess with someone like that.”

“Pfttt! You idiots, you forgot something important! He’s a monster tamer!”

“Monster tamer….”

“Yeah, meaning the dude’s probably can’t fight for shit.”

“Huhuhuh...If he’s just a monster tamer, then I’ll be sure to pay him back for that humiliation…”

They came to the conclusion that I was apparently weak.

While a majority of the students were laughing maniacally, and while Morgan was worriedly glancing all over the place, the professor walked in, followed by a familiar face.

I glanced over, and held eye contact with the one I recognized. She immediately took notice of me and waved over as she walked along side the teacher.

“Oh! Kelp! You’re in this class too?” The person yelled from across the room. Her loud voice immediately brought everyone’s attention to her.

“Look! It’s Avril Stelato!”

“Ooooooooooh! She’s just as pretty as they say!”

“Is she going to be in our class?!”

I sighed at the face of the noise my classmates generated. I didn’t really want to bring attention to myself (well at least not anymore than I already had) but Avril wasn’t exactly someone you could ignore.

She walked over to my direction while showing off a bright expression.

I replied back to her earlier greeting.

“Hey Egghead.”

“Muuuuuuu! Don’t call me that!”

Avril pouted with a devilishly cute expression. Some of the students who saw this instantly grabbed at their chests as they were quite literally heart struck by the rich girl’s gesture. Although some students reacted quite negatively to this though.

“This punk….insulting Miss Avril like that!”

“Who does he think he is!”

“...Don’t you think he’s a acting a bit familiar with her”

“I want to talk to Avril like that too……”

I ignored all the growing animosity and instead focused my attention onto the ringlet clad blondie.

“So Avril...I didn’t expect to see you in this class Although you’re a 1st year like me, I was sure someone like you would be in a more advanced course by now.”

“Oh I am. I’m not a student in this class, I’m a student aide this period, and I was assigned to help out profesor Hachi over there.”

She motioned towards the man who was currently standing in the middle of the crudely drawn circle on the floor.

Hachi Wu was a 70 something year old man who looked like he was 50. He had a head full of grey hair and wore a traditional hakama from Japan.

Hachi, as most of the students called him surveyed the class before nodding to himself. He motioned for Avril to come to him, which she quickly complied with.

When she arrived, Hachi spoke to her briefly. I saw Avril nod before the Professor walked to the back of the room where a conveniently placed chair was there.

He took a seat, and Avril immediately started the class, as per Hachi’s orders.

“It seems like Professor Hachi has left me with the task to lead class today. Well, although I said lead, I’m really just here to coordinate the mock battles.”

Some of the students clamored in excitement, eager to test out and display their skills. Some were even thinking that they might have a chance to impress Avril, while I heard a few people whispering they wanted to fight me in order to show me my place…

Seeing all this excitement, Avril quickly stated the crowd.

“Hey guys, I think you might have all been mistaken. You’re not fighting each other…..”

She smiled broadly before announcing, “You’ll be fighting me of course.”

To this announcement, the faces of the previously excited students quickly fell. Apparently, Avril had quite a reputation, to the extent where even the new students knew about it.

“Are we really going to be fighting her..?” A student grumbled.

“We can’t fight the demon princess so suddenly just like that.” Another student quietly muttered.

“I’d rather jump out of a plane with no parachute!” Someone pleaded.

Avril ignored all these outbursts and continued talking, “I’ll be here to test your strength and give you a little feel of what battle’s like.”

Avril waved her fingers towards the sky, and a moment later, she conjured up what looked like a giant green bell, the same type you’d find at a boxing match. When she snapped her fingers, the bell ringed feverishly. She cracked her knuckles and the mock battles started.

Well, it wasn’t long for the Avril’s pace to set in.

The students sat alongside the wall and watched as they all took turns getting wrecked by Avril. I tried paying attention at first, but once it became clear that the consistent pattern of Avril’s one sided beat downs would persist, I eventually lost interest.

Avril, who looked like she was going all out (going by all the crazy punches and spinning kicks she performed) was in fact holding back against the inexperienced students. Besides myself, I don’t think anyone noticed though, they were probably too caught up admiring her (like what Morgan did) or too busy fearing for their own turns to come. But no matter how much they worried, the outcome would remain the same, and so far, the students who went into the arena left bruised and battered.

There wasn’t really anything interesting about such physical abuse.

Although, seeing the look of despair from my classmates as their own execution drew nearer was pretty entertaining in its own right.

Seeing what I imagine was probably a creepy smile on my face, Morgan recoiled a bit.

“Er...Kelp, you ok?”

“Huhuhuhu, I’m fine.” I replied back and took a sideways glance at Morgan.

“Although I should be more worried about yourself. I think its almost your turn.”

I indicated. There wasn’t really a clear cut way of knowing who Avril chose to beat down next, but it was relatively clear to the rest of the students that once she makes eye contact with you, you’re probably next on her list.

And I’m pretty sure Avril looked at Morgan a little while ago.

This is all good and all, but one weird thing I noticed is that the Egghead’s been actively avoiding my own eyes from the moment she started fighting.

I wondered why this was so when a loud noise snapped me back into reality.

We heard a scream coming from the Arena. Turning quick enough, we saw a black haired student falling to the ground. Next to him was Avril, who was currently standing straight up with a look of satisfaction while she was wiping her brow.

“Whew~! I worked up a good sweat.” She looked over the students and nodded to herself.

“It looks like we are almost half way done….You!” Avril pointed to Morgan, who replied with a cute “Eep!”.

“I know you’re next! Come up here!”

Avril motioned towards the center stage with a broad grin on her face.

I patted the tearful Morgan.

“Well, just try your best…” I consoled.

He nodded back wordlessly before walking up to Avril.

I focused my own attention to the arena in the middle, where two people stood. I decided to pay attention to the battle this time, since it was Morgan who fought. He was a recently acquired friend and I figured it was common courtesy to wordlessly watch your friend get beaten down. I was also kind of interested in seeing how a guy that looks like he can’t fight, fight.

Avril rang the bell and signaled their mock battle would begin.

I saw her mouth move to form noiseless words, and like what always happened during her battles, weird looking markings on her arms glowed. I knew from observation that whenever her body glowed like that, her movements suddenly became faster.

In reality those marking probably indicated buffing spells or physical enhancement magic.

Although Avril was done with her buffs, she calmly waited for her own opponent to get prepared. Avril didn’t rush in since the mock battle’s purpose was to test the student’s full strength. You couldn’t exactly do this if they got knocked out in 5 seconds.

Morgan in return set up a small buff towards himself (as indicated by a soft blue glow which quickly dissipated), and pulled out an object from his backpack, which I noticed he had brought along with him.

Avril raised an eyebrow at this sight. “Oho~...A magic item huh? Well, it’s not like it’s against the rules…” She smirked while her haughtiness emitted at dangerous levels.

Morgan nodded back. “Sorry, but since I’m not all that good with magic, I have to compensate somehow.”

The item in Morgan’s hands was vaguely gun shaped. It didn’t look like it was a consumer good, rather more handcrafted. Something Morgan probably created himself. An original.

“Wooo~ The item looks pretty original. Did you make it yourself? That’s impressive.” Avril, who had also noticed this, praised Morgan.

Morgan nodded in acknowledgment before taking out another item. This time the item was a single glove. He wore it on his left hand and the item glowed a faint purple.

Avril, who was still quietly watching, finally asked, “Are you ready then?”

Morgan nodded, before he pointed his gun, and yelled, “Burst!”

The gun fired an unexpectedly large blast which Avril easily sidestepped.

The ground shook and everyone’s eyes opened in surprise.

While the others were admiring Morgan’s unexpected strength, I couldn’t help but cringe.

Oh man, he actually shouted his attack name….that’s just so….

What made this even worse was the fact that I did this too. Imagining what I looked like while yelling my ability names, I couldn’t help but shudder.

Back at the ring, Avril looked over at where the blast had struck. She saw a small crater had formed in its wake.

“Wow...That’s some crazy firepower you got there...It’d be pretty bad if I actually got hit by one of those.” She lightly stated while she made the decision, and dashed forward to shorten their gap.

Morgan frantically fired inaccurate shots, to which Avril dodge gracefully. As the gap closed, Morgan raised up his gloved arm, just in time as Avril fired off a punch of her own.

The punch was stopped mid air by an invisible force.

“Hmm…” Avril grumbled as she applied more force to her fist.

Her hand didn’t move, but Morgan made a rough expression as visibly he struggled with the punch.

“Hahaha, this glove is pretty useful.” Avril commented.

“ It let’s you block attacks by applying your own mana into the item. The downside to this though is that the stronger the attack, the harder it is for you too maintain the force. That means it's practically useless against stronger opponents.”

Avril stated as she applied even more force to her fist, which subsequently made Morgan groan.

“Despite that, it’s still pretty impressive. Although you won’t get anywhere with just blocking. Why don’t you fire off the gun. I’m sure from this distance you won’t miss.” She goaded.

Morgan responded through tearful eyes and gritted teeth while he struggled against Avril’s one fist, which gradually came closer and closer.

“I-I can’t..kuh!”

It took all his effort to maintain the mana force, and even then, he was losing the exchange.

“Ohhh, that’s too bad.” Avril replied as she shook of all pretenses. Her fist accelerated forward and completely broke through the invisible force. The fist made landed onto Morgan’s chest, sending the frail boy flying through the air.

A short while later, he landed on the ground, with spirals in his eyes.

Not paying any attention to the already defeated opponent, The Egghead preoccupied herself.

Avril’s eyes widened for a moment as she clenched and unclenched her fists. She repeatedly touched the knuckles of her hand.

“This is….” She pondered for a moment, before she broke off into a mischievous smile.

“H-how interesting…” She laughed ruefully to herself, while she waited for some of the students to drag Morgan’s unconscious body out of the ring.

When Morgan was gone, Avril raised her voice again and called out the next victim.

The students placed Morgan’s body next to where I sat, and with my sleeping friend, We watched as the rest of the matches proceeded.

***

After a while, Avril had gone through and fought everyone. Well, almost everyone. I was last and had not fought yet.

I finally knew why Avril had avoided eye contact with me.

Avril in a giddy and excited voice, mumbled to herself.

“F-finally… I get to fight Kelp!”

Avril got up and yelled towards my direction.

“KELP! Get over here! I’ve been saving the best for last, and it’s time for you to fight meeeeeeeee!!!!”

I sighed at all the racket. Even the half conscious students who noticed the preferential treatment grumbled their dissatisfaction but were too half dead to complain about it.

“Stop yelling already! I can hear you just fine…”

I leisurely walked over to the arena. Seeing the almost bubbly Avril jump up and down in excitement, couldn’t help but sigh once more.

It was pretty troublesome having to fight her, especially when she was so excited. I tried getting out of the situation somehow.

“Oi Egg Head… Don’t you think you should rest for a bit? It’s probably not easy to fight through so many people in such a short amount of time.”

Avril dismissed my claims.

“Such a worry is unneeded for the great me!” She puffed up her chest in brazen self confidence.

I sighed again. Lately, I noticed I sighed a lot in front of this person.

“More importantly,” Avril continued.

“I’m excited to fight you! I don’t really know how strong you are, but I have a vague idea that Kelp’s a pretty amazing person.”

“No, that’s wrong Avril. I’m just a Neet, you're giving me too much credit.” I dismissed her troublesome statement with droopy eyes.

Avril ignored my self deprecation. She raised her arms towards the floating bell, and in the next second it resonated an electrifying ring throughout the room.

She smiled at me while noiselessly mouthing out her spell.

She made a rather scary expression as I noticed that the glowing symbols on her body shined more intensely than during her previous battles and the sheer amount of them far exceeded the usual two on her arms.

“O-oi, Egghead what do you think you're planning.” I cautioned. If this girl tried going at me for real, I could only imagine all the effort I’d have to put in.

“Oh!” Her smile broadened.

“Did you notice the mana in the air?”

“Give me a break. You’re giving me too much credit again. Anybody would notice if you make such as a scary expression like that.”

I commented.

Avril stopped chanting, seemingly satisfied with all her current enhancements.

“Well, since it is Kelp who I’ll be facing, of course I won’t hold anything back!”

I groaned. “ You know Egghead, I really, absolutely don’t want to fight you!”

Avril ignored my complaint and instead opted to rush forward. Unlike her previous battles, she didn’t even wait for me to prepare myself before she started her attack.

Although it’s not like I would have actually prepared anything.

I observed Avril from where I stood. Even though she was moving at a very fast pace, our distance was enough that I had about 2 seconds of leisure free time before she’d get close enough to hit me. From my vantage point, I could completely tell how strong her buffs were.

Considering the fact that she spammed the same type of magic, Avril’s specialty was probably enhancement and armament magic. And from what I’ve seen, she’s quite good at it.

Avril’s own basic physical enhance spell was much stronger than an ordinary mage’s. Plus, when stacked with the buffs and armaments she applied to herself, the effects multiplied, giving her augmented superhuman strength and speed that would be hard pressed to match.

Right now, Avril was probably 6 times as strong as an ordinary mage with enhance activated. Making her 2 times stronger than me at my base state.

She lunged forward with a punch. Seeing all the power and form she placed inside that attack, it was obvious the girl took some form of martial arts.

I dodged by taking a step back. Her fist almost grazing me.

Fluid like a river, she followed through with her attack and immediately launched a back kick aimed at my chest. I dodged this one as well by sidestepping to her left.

I jumped back and forcibly made distance between the two of us.

As I quietly observed, I saw a grinning Avril. Seeing this sight I couldn’t help but groan.

“...You’re seriously trying to go all out…” I sighed.

“Well, you’re pretty amazing too Kelp, to dodge my attacks like that.” She complimented.

“...That’s only cause I hate pain.”

“Well then, I guess that means you’ll just have to keep dodging!”

She jumped forward, sending a flurry of kicks and punches towards my direction.

If I wasn’t so preoccupied dodging by a hair’s breadth, I would have totally commented on how she exposed her panties every time she raised her leg to kick.

The blows she attempted to deliver had a great force behind them, but surprisingly, Avril’s attacks were much easier to dodge than I expected.

Despite being well trained and her currently having more power than me, I dodge the attacks relatively easily.

She’s slow?

I pondered at this possibility.

I watched Avril. She sent a punch aimed at my face, but I avoided by tilting my head a little to the right. My eyes caught sight of everything while she attacked me.

We continued this game of cat and mouse. She’d send a punch or a kick and I’d dodge by moving my body a little to the right or a little to the left.

I could see her attacks. I could keep up with their speed. I could avoid getting hit.

It was a strange phenomena. I could keep up with this reckless princess even without using my powers.

This was probably because I used monochrome recently.

The way monochrome works is that my reaction time and dynamic vision will gradually improve the more that I use it. This concept was the same for my physical enhance ability, despite the annoyance of using the actual ability, my body gets a bit sturdier every time its used.

The principal kind of works like how overworking your body will leave you fatigued and tired, but once you’ve recovered you come back up stronger. Some of my abilities work like that. My body gets stronger and stronger the more times I use Physical Enhance, and my reaction time and processing speed increases whenever I used monochrome.

In a way, you can see it as my body diverging from that of a human’s the more times I use my abilities. Although I may have been getting stronger, I was steadily turning more and more monster like.

I continued dodging Avril’s attacks in such a manner. The fact that she couldn’t land a hit on me probably got to her. Her movements became reckless and sloppy. Subsequently they became much easier to dodge.

Eventually it got to the extent where I caught her off guard and grabbed onto her arm and performed a shoulder throw.

This action sent her flying through the air before she landed firmly on her butt in the middle of the ground.

She squeezed out an embarrassing ,”Eep”, upon impact.

She angrily got up, dusted herself off and stomped onto the ground in frustration.

Once she got fed up beating on the floor, she directed her anger at me now.

“Damn it Kelp! Stop dodging and take it like a man!”

“Heh~ Wasn’t it you who told me to try and dodge everything?”

“Grrrrr…..It gets boring if I can’t hit you! Let me hit you!”

“Oi! Don’t be unreasonable Egghead, it’s not like it’s my fault you’re too slow.” I goaded.

“Muuu! You cocky little..!”

She looked around the arena briefly, before pointing at a random student who was watching quietly.

“HEY, YOU!”

The student lamely pointed at himself before asking, “Me?”

“Yes, you. Where’s professor Hachi right now? Is he looking over here?”

The student took a moment before he ran to check. When he came back he hastily shook his head and stated, “Professor Hachi is um...I think sleeping?”

Hearing this, Avril cocked another devilish grin.

“Good, good.”

She turned back to me, and announced.

“Fine Kelp! Since you keep being so damn frustrating, I’ll let you witness the great me in all her glory!”

“Haaa?”

She said something rather ridiculous, while glaring at me confidently.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breathe, then mouthed out another noiseless spell.

In the next instant, Avril’s skin changed into a dark maroon color and I could hear cracking sounds as she sprouted two pairs of arms from her back, giving her a total of 6.

Once she opened her eyes again, I noticed that they had inverted colors. While the black of her pupils remained, the whites of her eyes turned into a turquoise like color and her irises became white.

She turned to me with a confident smug.

“Try and dodge me now Kelp!” She hollered, while raising one arm to the sky.

A giant, golden tinged spear that was about three times as large as her own body materialized into her raised arm. She grasped the handle of the new weapon, cocked her arm back and hurled it towards my direction.

I barely avoided the attack by taking a step back, but I wasn’t out of danger yet.

While I was preoccupied with the spear throw, Avril had rushed in towards me with a speed incomparable to the previous her. While she had been fast before, now it was something on a whole different level.

She proceeded with a one-two combo punch, which I dodged by ducking and tucking to avoid the blows.

She followed suit with a kick aimed at my chest.I wasn’t quite fast enough to completely avoid, so I decided to jump back at the same time her kick landed, which greatly depleted any of the actual damage.

Avril moved her foot up and down, and showed a dissatisfied expression.

“Damn it Egghead, tone it down a bit. You’ll seriously kill me!” I yelled with dissatisfaction.

Avril who was frowning, replied, “You say that, but you’re completely unharmed you know.”

“Tch! Stop being such a violent fighting maniac! Isn’t this enough already?”

“Ehhh~! I haven’t properly hit you even once you know.”

“Like I’d actually let you do such a painful thing!”

While we exchanged words, I didn’t notice the gaping mouths of the spectators.

What’s wrong with those guys?

I pondered, while they underwent another round of hushed rambling.

“Avril’s seriously strong!”

“She went and used her ability!”

“Woah, so this is what earned her the nickname, the Devil Princess.”

“She’s strong right! crazy strong! As expected of an ability user.”

One word that particularly caught my interest was “ability”. I knew that some mages were born with a natural ability, and these type of people were usually considered the creme of the crop in terms of magical capability.

Honestly, these guys sounded a lot like me, since I had abilities (in a sense) too, but the only difference was that their powers originated from magic, unlike mine.

Nevertheless, It was still my first time seeing someone use such an ability.

I turned my attention back to Avril, who looked about ready to jump in and attempt another attack.

“... Is that you’re ability Avril?”

She grinned at my question.

“Hehe, what else does it look like! I call it [Asura]. It’s a great ability!”

It sure suits you that’s for sure.

I inwardly stated. The ability looked a bit like an extension to her specialty. It boosted her physical stats up by a lot and gave her more fists to hit people with. For a violent girl like her, something like that matched her personality.

Avril continued talking, “It’s a transformation type ability and makes me a who~ole lot stronger! But enough chit chat, Just stand right there and get hit!”

She took a step forward and rushed in once again. Leading a kick aimed at my head, she launched a series of attacks, which I somehow or another dodged.

She’s stronger...much, much stronger...but, if it’s just to this extent...

I ducked and rolled forward while hastily avoiding an axe kick. I rolled behind her, and quickly kicked her butt while she was preoccupied. The force wasn’t enough to damage her or anything, but it was enough to push her to the ground.

Taking the opportunity, I jumped back and took a moment to catch my breathe.

She really is faster, but it’s not like it’s anything I can’t handle.

I inwardly talked to myself.

Plus, there’s something wrong….

I noticed a discrepancy in her fighting.

It’s not like she wasn’t strong or anything, but….she lacked something. A certain something that would have made this fight a whole lot harder.

Avril who hastily got up, turned and glared at me once more. Instead of complaining, like she’d done all throughout the fight, she extended her arms out towards the giant spear that was embedded onto the ground.

The spear dissipated into a dust of gold, and they drifted towards Avril’s hands. The dust came together to form 6 golden scimitars, one for each of her six arms.

She banged the swords at each other before she dashed towards me again, swinging her weapons with practiced proficiency.

Still, despite this added danger, avoiding her attacks wasn’t difficult. Rather, the more I got used to this new form of hers and adjusted myself accordingly, the more easier it became to avoid.

She exerted her full force onto me, but this didn’t make her any more difficult to handle.

Her weapons would constantly change to match her desire. In one instant she’d be wielding six scimitars, in the next it would change into one giant long sword. She’d swing this massive weapon down, before it’d quickly dissipate and take the new form of two battle axes, which she held one with three arms.

She swung her weapon around while I backed up and avoided. I began to goad Avril along to where Morgan had previously shot his gun. He had created little craters on the floor, which I used to my advantage. I led Avril to this location where she’d constantly trip up due to the holes on the floor.

Despite the frustration and disadvantage the holes put her in, she continued to swing, thrust and attack with different arrays of weaponry, but not a single blow hit me. Rather, I’d constantly throw her across the arena whenever she showed even the slightest opening.

She doesn’t have any killing intent.

I noticed the lacking component with the way Avril fought.

Compared to the previous fights I’ve been in (granted, they were all with monsters), fighting Avril wasn’t so demanding. It was like fighting a defanged kitty. Rather, the problem wasn’t with her, but with me. I was so used to fighting with my life on the line, that fighting someone who lacked the intent to kill was...easy.

But although I discovered this, I still couldn’t slack off. Avril’s punches, even though they constantly missed, still held enough power to seriously damage me. She was after all attacking with the impression that I had some form of physical enhance activated. The fact that I fought her all bare like this put me in a terrible disadvantage.

I could see Avril getting more and more frustrated. Despite having activated her trump card, she still couldn’t land a hit on me. Not to mention it was probably pretty annoying that I threw her across the room every now and then. It got to the point where her frustration manifested into tears.

“Waaaaa! D-damn it Kelp! Stop dodging! Stand still! And let me hit you!” She cried while she kept on and persistently attacked me.

I sighed. Somehow, this fight, kind of stopped being a fight long ago.

Before the situation worsened, our fight was abruptly interrupted.

Professor Hachi, entered the stadium. His sudden appearance caught the dumbfounded Avril by surprise.

“Ah, Professo-OW!”

Before Avril could talk, Hachi had hit her on the forehead with a flick from his finger.

This action caused Avril to hold her head in agony. Her ability deactivated shortly after.

Professor Hachi looked at Avril disapprovingly.

“Didn’t I tell you not to use your ability in here! Do you realize how much damage you’re causing the arena!”

He motioned towards the area. I had noticed earlier, but now I could completely see the full extent of the damages Avril’s [Asura] had caused. The place was covered in cracks, craters, and sword indentations.

I felt bad for who ever had to fix all that.

“Um..but professor…” Avril pleaded, her original haughtiness was now long gone.

“No buts! What type of student aide doesn’t listen to the teacher!” He yelled.

He gripped Avril by the ear, and proceeded to drag her out of the room.

“You’re in for some punishment now! How does 3 hours alone with Miss Hautical and her corporal punishment sound!”

He stated while dragging the pleading Avril out of the room. He turned to look back at the class. He briefly met eyes with me before going back and surveying the class.

“Mock battles are over! The rest of the time is… free time.”

Hachi left the room, taking with him Avril. For a moment I stood in the middle of the arena, alone, before I sighed and went back down to where the other students were.

As I passed by them, I noticed that everyone was looking at me with new eyes.

Of course they still whispered and such, but for some reason, it was a little bit more...restrained.

“That was such a crazy fight.”

“Avril’s [Asura] looked pretty scary man..”

“But the monster tamer…”

“Yeah, that monster tamer...he’s…”

“The monster tamer is strong….”

This last phrase was what I constantly heard as I made my way to where Morgan was sitting.

I noticed that he was already awake. I guess sometime during the middle of my fight he had regained consciousness, since he was looking at me with a glint of admiration in his expression.

“Yo.” I nonchalantly greeted him.

“K-Kelp…” He looked down with shaking fists.

“?”

I wondered why he was acting weird while I took a seat next to him.

“That was amazing!” He lunged forward and grabbed my right hand with his soft and tiny hands.

“Wow, you did something really cool there! I didn’t know you were so strong! You had miss Avril on the ropes the whole time! You even managed to make her use her ability! You’re amazing!!!!”

Morgan showered me in praise, to which I could only weakly reply to by scratching my head with my free hand.

“It wasn’t really that special.”

“Are you kidding me! That was beyond amazing! You’re really strong, and you’re physical enhance spells must be on a whole nother level to match Avril’s like that!”

I awkwardly laughed.

I don’t know how he would have acted had he known I didn’t use anything like that.

Despite my awkward feelings towards getting so much praise, the rest of the period went by like this. Morgan who constantly praised me even to the very last moments when the bell finally rang, separated shortly after, stating he had an urgent matter to attend to after school.

The students in my class went out of their way to avoid me, so I walked alone in solitude to where Nanami had said to meet her after school, the courtyard.

As I made my way there, I couldn’t help but here in on some of the weird rumours that floated along the hallways.

Unsurprisingly, some of them were about me (something like a tamer with a strong monster, who was equally as strong), but what surprised me was another rumour.

A rumour about a short haired new student who had wowed the school pretty much upon her arrival.

The monocle, “Nanami the prodigal beauty “ was something I heard plenty of times as I made my way to the courtyard.

When I reached said courtyard, I was met with a mass of students. I didn’t know that the courtyard was where a lot of the mages came and hanged out after school, so I was surprised at this festival like scenario. Even the stalls, which I had seen during lunch were open and serving the masses.

In the thicket of the crowd, I could make out the vague outline of my sister, who was currently surrounded by a horde of students.

These students attempted to talk to her, but it looked like Nanami was trying her hardest to escape the situation. As she frantically looked around the courtyard, her eyes landed on me.

I waved a small greeting, and her expression beamed up. She waved at me before she ran closer and with a delighted face, greeted,

“Onii chan!”

The students who were just around her instantly turned towards my direction. There faces were covered in hostility, as they squinted and looked at me like I was trash.

“Hmm, who’s he?”

“Her older brother?”

“They don’t look related…”

“If it’s only her brother than I guess it’s fine….”

“But still, I don’t like how that punk’s so close to our Nanami!”

They openly declared but did not come to confront me. Probably afraid that Nanami would come to hate them or something.

I wonder how they’d react if they knew Nanami and I weren’t blood related.

I pondered a passing thought as I marveled at such an anime-esque scene in front of me.

Really, it was quite ridiculous.

As Nanami got closer and stopped in front of me, I teased her a little.

“Hmm~? So Nanami how was school? Oops, or should I call you the “Prodigal Beauty” instead?”.

Hearing me calling her with her new nickname, Nanami’s face instantly turned a shade of red.

“M-Muu!! Don’t call me with that nickname!” She attempted to cover her face with her hands, but it wasn’t enough to hide the redness of her face, which had spread even to her ears.

“Hahaha, and why shouldn’t I? It seems like you’re school day went by pretty greatly. You even managed to get yourself a fan club of sorts.”

I glanced over to the glaring guys who looked like they were about ready to kill me. Compared to Avril, they had some serious killing intent.

Nanami, who knew what I was talking about, blushed even more.

“M-Muu! Onii-chan, enough about that, more importantly, how was your day?”

She attempted to change the subject. Seeing as how I was a kind and benevolent older brother, I went with it, and while we started walking back to the dorms, I answered her.

“Hmmm, I’d say it was a pretty ordinary day. Nothing really special happened. Oh, I did make a friend”

I recalled Morgan. I guess we were friends.

Hearing this Nanami squinted her eyes.

“A- a friend you say...Does this ‘friend’ of your’s happen to be a girl?” She looked at me quite intensely.

I thought for a minute. While Morgan did look a lot like a cute girl, going by his uniform, I guess he was more or less a guy.

“Nope, I’m pretty sure he’s a guy.”

Hearing this Nanami’s expression instantly brightened.

“Oh, well if that’s the case, I hope you get along with him. Onii chan doesn’t have very many friends.”

“Oi, like you’re the one to say that.”

I reprimanded and we both laughed. We were a pair of pretty lonely siblings.

“Oh yeah, that reminds me.”

Nanami stopped walking and rummaged around her school bag. A moment later she pulled out an envelope and handed it to me.

“Hmm? What’s this?” I asked as I began to open the letter.

“It’s a letter. From the student council.” She replied.

“The student council? Did you happen to meet up with them or something?”

I asked, while looking at the letter.

“Yeah, they kind of invited me to join.”

“Oho~, that’s impressive, as expected of my little sister.”

“Muu~, i-it’s embarrassing Onii-chan, please stop saying that!!!”

“Hahaha, so what happened?”

“I-I turned them down. I want to join the same club as Onii-chan, so I couldn’t possibly join them.”

“Hmmm, that’s pretty wasteful. I might not even join a club you know.”

“But still, it’s always great to be prepared. Plus like this, we can always walk home together.”

She smiled a bright smile, to which I admit, I blushed a little.

Am I a sis-con?

I briefly thought to myself before I turned my attention back towards the letter.

“So what’s up with this letter.”

“It’s for you Onii chan.”

“Eh? For me? Are you sure you don’t have the wrong person?”

“Nope, it’s for you.”

“And this is from the student council!?”

“Yup.”

“And it’s for me!?”

“...You’ve already asked that Onii chan..”

“... I know but it’s pretty unbelievable. What do they want from me?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know huh…”

I looked at the letter and briefly read the contents. There wasn’t anything real revealing on the letter. It simply confirmed what Nanami had previously said.

The letter was for me, and it was from the student council. They also wanted me to meet them immediately after school.

Nanami, who saw this letter, made a questioning expression as she tilted her head to the side.

“Why do you think they want to meet you Onii-chan?”

I sighed before replying, “I don’t know… but I’m guessing I can’t exactly just ignore this…”

Nanam nodded in agreement.

“Well then, I guess we’ll just have to find out.”

I sighed before I changed routes, and made my way back to the school.

*****

Author's note: Hope you enjoyed it. Leave any feedback if you liked the chapter.

Chapter 9

Chapter 11