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Chapter 16: Tournament Preparations

I somehow manage to wake up before the sky is bright.

I get up out of bed and stretch. What a long day yesterday was. Classes today are… I don’t know. I should have gone in the afternoon two days ago, then maybe I’d know what today’s class is going to be.

I sigh as I remove my prosthetic. I have a long and hot shower to relax my muscles.

I leave my room and walk towards the cafeteria for breakfast. The food there is pretty good, despite its appearance.

I grab my food and sit down at my normal table in the back of the room.

I quietly eat my meal. I guess Alice isn’t going to show up today.

I finish my meal in complete silence as I leave the cafeteria. I guess it should only be an hour before classes start, it should be safe to go sit in the classroom.

I get to the first year building and notice that there are very few people here. Am I super early again!?

Is it a gift? Or is it a curse?

Whatever it is, it is convenient for now. I open the door to the classroom and walk in. There was only Girl A sitting at her desk. She is writing something furiously on a piece of paper.

I talk to her from the door, “Hello, how are you today?”

She looks at me and quickly puts the piece of paper away, “What do you want you dirty cripple?”

My right eye twitches slightly. I take a deep breath and just smile at her, “Oh nothing. I just came to class early again. I wanted to talk to Mr. Grey for a bit. Why do you hate me so much? If you could tell me that would be wonderful.”

She frowns, “I don’t have to answer to a cripple.”

I shrug my shoulders and swallow my anger again. I walk towards my seat.

Mr. Grey walks into the classroom as soon as I sit down. He looks to me, “Great! You’re here! I need to talk to you about a few things.” He quickly walks over to sit beside me.

I smile, “If it about what I missed, that would be perfect.”

He sighs, “Well, if it is about the class you missed, it was just Dr. Frizen yelling at random students. Anyways, I heard about your duel! I can’t believe you fought against people in the second realm and won!”

Girl A hears Mr. Grey and turns to look this way with a shocked expression on her face. Do you live under an angry rock? How have you not heard about this until now?

I sigh, “Yeah, but everyone could clearly see that they never went all out. They didn’t even want to hurt me at all. I just used their hesitation to my advantage and surprised them with various non-martial techniques that I know.”

Mr. Grey smiles, “Then what about at the training field yesterday? It is all over the school, ‘Mystery student only at the first realm?’ It is a very popular topic recently. Most of the students are talking about it in various corners of the school.”

I shrug my shoulders, “I am slightly stronger than average, so what? I hope that the dueling tournament lets people open their eyes to reality.”

He sighs, “The class tournament is tomorrow. Please be prepared. I expect some great results.”

I set my head on the desk, “Don’t expect too much from me. I might feel particularly lazy tomorrow.”

Mr. Grey laughs, “Whatever. Class will start in about an hour and a half. There really is no need to be here so early.”

I shrug my shoulders, “It’s a curse.”

He laughs as he walks back to the teacher’s desk and sits down and starts to write things on pieces of paper.

For the next hour and a half, I kept getting glances filled with hate from Girl A.

I just smiled at her every time.

The class finally starts. Mr. Grey walks to the center of the room, “Welcome everyone to class! Today I will talk about the class tournament! People are able to pick their first opponent if they feel the need to. This is so that students who want to fight a friend for fun in the tournament can do so if they really want to. The second round and so on are done by draw. Umm. Well that was fast. So I will give you time to pick your partner for the duel! After that, you may go to the training fields in order to fine tune your techniques for fighting against a real opponent. Sparring with others is recommended! Remember to get consent from both sides before attacking! If you do not you will get in a fair amount of trouble when a teacher finds out. Go on! Start already!” Mr. Grey waves with his arms to indicate the students move.

The students all start to yell at each other from across the room and some even jump tables to talk to a friend. Mr. Grey just shakes his head and sighs as he sees all this taking place.

Girl A gets my attention by poking my neck, “Fight me in the tournament.”

I shrug my shoulders, “Sure. Not like it really matters to me. I was just about to go challenge you.”

Girl A smiles and walks out of the classroom. An evil grin appears on her face as soon as she is out of sight of Mr. Grey.

I get up and stretch. One minute of talking and the rest is for practice? I guess I should go practice using the power of heaven and earth. Maybe I should play around with some students using spatial energy.

Nah, that isn’t like me. I’ll just do my own thing with the power of heaven and earth until lunch time.

I start to walk to the training field when a group of angry looking guys surround me, “We got a fresh one here.”

“Whaddya say we have some fun?”

“Now!”

The guys jump at me almost as soon as they surround me, not giving me a chance to talk to them.

You know what. This isn’t worth my time to fight back, I’ll just let it happen.

As I prepare to be hit by the group of men,

“Honestly Boss! Fight back a little!”

I hear Amy from above a building. She is floating several yards off the ground and still walking normally.

I just sigh as she walks up to me, the guys are frozen, “Don’t tell me you were just going to let it happen?”

I just shrug my shoulders, “I was in fact. I didn’t really feel like trying to fight back. I have enough issues to deal with right now. I don’t need a group of idiots chasing after me too. And it is in the middle of class, my class was sent to the training fields to practice for the upcoming class tournament. I was on my way.”

Amy drops down to the ground, “Come on Boss! Let them experience a little of your technique!” There was an evil smile on her face. Her eyes were telling me to hurry up and surprise them.

I sig as I gather the power of earth only. I walk into the air. Using only earth power is a lot more mentally taxing than using both the power of heaven and earth. It also feels slightly weaker in strength. Amy walks up beside me.

She smiles at me while we walk away from the men above them, “So Boss. Who are you fighting in your class tournament?”

I sigh, “Some girl who constantly plots against me. She calls me a cripple and refuses to look at me as an equal.”

Amy tilts her head, “Cripple? How are you a cripple? I haven’t noticed anything…” She finally notices the metallic right hand.

I roll up my sleeve to show where it connects to the stump that is left of my arm, “I don’t have a right arm. This body lost it in an accident before I came to this world.”

She makes a complicated expression. Suddenly, she smiles widely, “Just like my Boss should be! Able to live without worrying about what others think! So admirable!”

I tilt my head, “Well then. That’s a new reaction to this.”

She laughs, “Of course! My Boss is the greatest!”

I sigh as I slowly walk towards the ground. Somehow, the only people that saw us was that group. I look to Amy, “Don’t tell anyone else who taught you that technique, okay?”

She nods, “Of course Boss! See you around!” Amy walks into the air and disappears over a building.

I take a deep breath and walk towards the training fields. I ended up taking quite the long route.

As I arrive I see Mr. Grey with a smile on his face. I slowly walk towards him. He pats me on the shoulder, “Good pick for the first round of the class tournament!” He points to the field full of practicing students, “I was thinking you wouldn’t turn up! Oh yeah! Kelly is over there too, she wanted to spar against you.”

I shrug my shoulders, “I think that she should find someone more worthy to fight. I just use cheap methods to end the fight quickly. I can’t use techniques yet either.”

Mr. Grey frowns, “That can’t be true. In a real fight the only person who complains is the loser.”

I frown, “Well, these aren’t real fights are they.”

He laughs, “That’s true! However, you should go spar with her, she is just sitting there right now.”

Kelly was sitting on the ground looking off into the distance. She looked incredibly bored.

Mr. Grey pushes me forwards. I glance back at him and he just smiles at me.

I sigh as I reach Kelly, “It’s been a while eh?”

Kelly looks up at me and smiles, “It has been a while. I was told by Damion that you’ve been doing some cool things recently. He wants me to learn it from you since you’ve already taught it to someone… or so he said.”

I make a complicated expression, “So he got you to start calling him Damion?”

She nods, “he said it was weird that we just kept on calling him ‘Principal’ so he got us to call him his real name.”

I tilt my head, “Claire and Sayaka too?”

She nods, “Damion has been talking to us for a little while, trying to teach us how to join you on a journey.”

I bring my hand to my face, “You know you just have to ask right. I will probably go on a journey once I make it to the ninth realm in less than three years.”

She frowns and stands up quickly, “It isn’t normal to get to the ninth realm in three years you know!”

I laugh slightly, “I guess not.”

She smiles and leans closer to me, “So what is ‘cool thing’ you’ve been doing recently? Damion stressed this importance of learning this as quickly as possible.”

I sigh, “Do I really have to do it where there are so many people? I could lose my advantage if people know my secrets.”

She frowns, “Come on Ryu! You already taught someone else! Teach me! Come one!” She was grabbing onto my shoulders and shaking me with quite a bit of force.

I give her a serious look, “Fine, but don’t blame me for not explaining it to you. Figure it out on your own.”

A couple students were already looking this way from all the commotion. I guess I can just use earth power for this thanks to her yelling.

I gather earth power and jump up, I place it beneath my feet. I was already seven feet in the air. I float there. The power of heaven and earth is invisible, so someone who wasn’t paying attention would think that I was flying.

The entire training field goes silent. I look around and notice that everyone is staring at me with their jaws nearly hitting the ground.

Kelly tilts her head while her jaw is still dropped. I smile at her, “So this is the ‘cool thing’ Damion was talking about. I won’t teach you how to do it, but this is some of the things that are possible.”

I test while attempting to show off in front of my classmates.

I start to walk in a straight line above everyone’s head. I jump up another seven feet.

I start to run and jump around in the sky. No one looks like they understand what is going on.

The first person to recover is actually Mr. Grey. He shouts to me, “He Ryu! Come talk to me for a second!” Mr. Grey actually jumps onto a nearby building. Being at a high realm must be nice.

I quickly walk over to him, “What is it Mr. Grey?”

He has a serious look on his face, “That techniques doesn’t use any internal energy, don’t you think that is cheating?”

I shake my head, “No, it is very taxing on the mind. It uses the power of heaven and earth in the air to its advantage. You have to move it to where you want manually. It really takes quite a bit of practice to master. I don’t think a normal person could even walk normal speed while doing it without exhausting themselves in a matter of seconds. The smaller the area you create the less taxing it is and vice versa.”

He makes a complicated expression, “You do know that that is still a cheat.”

I smile and shrug my shoulders, “If that’s a cheat I can’t wait until you see what else I have up my sleeve.”

He frowns, “I don’t look forward to it. Anyways, how did you manage to create something like this? This is just ridiculous.”

I smile, “I accidently did it when I was younger in the other world. I had to walk quite the distance over some water you know.”

He puts up his hand, “Stop there. I don’t want to go in to motivational speech mode again, I got quite the scolding from nearby teachers.”

I shrug my shoulders, “Whatever. Can I go back to practicing with Kelly now… you were also the one who told me to go spar with her, then you take me away.”

He scratches his head, “Well… I was wondering if you could teach me how you do it.”

I frown, “I don’t teach just anyone. Well, I did teach someone for testing purposes, but that isn’t the point. I am almost done with testing, and the report I get from Amy should be enough to finish up with my testing.”

He tilts his head, “The Amy you are talking about is a third year right?”

I tilt my head too, “Is she? I don’t really know too much about her. She just really seems to like experimenting on things so I thought it would be fine.”

He sighs, “Be prepared for the most detailed report of your life. She is a really focused person. Once she starts something she won’t stop until she reaches a conclusion. Be careful. She isn’t the type of person to steal work either. She really throws herself into the subordinate position type easily though so just be careful.”

I laugh slightly, “That warning came a little too late, she calls me ‘Boss’.”

He laughs loudly, “Then that’s fine. Just treat her like a normal person though, even though she is a little odd. That being that. What would I have to do to get you to teach me?”

I tilt my head and think about it. I sigh after a short time, “I’m sorry, I can’t think of anything I need right now, I’ll let you know first if I need anything.”

He smiles, “Awesome! You should go back, most of the students are still in shock, so you should be able to spar for a small amount of time without being bothered.”

I nod and start to jog back towards Kelly.

I make it to the ground. She jumps at me, and I quickly dodge her. She grins, “Teach me! Teach me! Teach me!”

I laugh, “I will teach you on one condition! Defeat me in a spar while going all out!”

Kelly runs quickly to go grab her weapon. She comes back with a look of excitement on her face, “I will fight you right now! Prepare yourself!”

I smile, “Come at me then!”

All the other students backed away when Kelly was running to get her sword.

[Boost!]

Kelly shouts a skill right out of the gate. I recognize this one. It allows the person to move 1.5 times faster than normal for about thirty seconds.

She quickly closes the distance between me and her.

I dodge to the left as she swings her sword vertically. Her longsword is looking extra sharp for some reason…

As I go to the right Kelly slashes her sword towards me after changing her momentum by spinning to the right.

[Heavy Strike!]

Her sword is now covered by a scary looking aura. I should dodge this.

I jump over her blade.

[Feint!]

Dammit!

Kelly slams her right foot on the ground to kill her momentum and slashes vertically towards me.

I’ll be decapitated!

I quickly move the power of heaven and earth from the air to the location to where the sword is going to be. I hope this has enough strength.

A sound of metal hitting metal reverberates in the air. Kelly has a shocked look on her face.

I am also extremely shocked. I land on the ground and Kelly has already recovered.

Is this really a thing?

[Heavy Strike!]

She slices from the left.

I cover my body in the power of heaven and earth. I get extremely tired as soon as I do it. I guess attaching it to a moving object is more taxing.

I take a deep breath and let the sword hit the thin barrier around my body.

Another metallic sound rings through the air.

As the sword makes contact, my vision goes slightly blurry.

I recover quickly as Kelly starts to swing again.

[Piercing Strike!]

She stabs the sword towards me. I dodge to the right. This is insane! How much internal energy does she have!?

I go to kick the longsword out of her hand but she pulls her arm towards her shoulder.

I twist my body and dodge as she swings from the top right. I sweep her legs out and kick her shoulder with my other leg after spinning slightly.

She falls to the ground but rolls backwards and stands up again.

She rushes forwards swinging her sword.

[Heavy Strike!]

Come on! More!?

I use my internal energy to speed up my movements. I will not lose this fight!

I dodge to the inside and grab on to her with the prosthetic right hand. I quickly rotate and put my back to her and lift her over my head using my strengthened limbs.

I throw her vertically.

As she falls I jump up slightly. I flip forwards and drive my leg into her stomach.

She hits the ground so hard it knocks her unconscious.

I am breathing heavily. I would have lost if I didn’t cheat and use the power of heaven and earth.

The students are all frozen. Not a single student dared to move.

I look towards Mr. Grey who had a complicated expression on his face, “Mr. Grey! I need you to take a look at Kelly to make sure she is okay! It was a really tough fight, I just barely won that one.”

Mr. Grey runs over to Kelly and checks her. He sighs in relief, “She’s fine. She used all her internal energy, plus she hit the ground at an awkward angle with too much force. That finisher was certainly overkill Ryu.”

I shrug my shoulders, “If you’re going to do it, you got to do it right.”

He sighs, “Yep. You are definitely ruthless.”

My vision goes blurry as I fall to the ground. I am really tired.

I’ll just close my eyes for a second.