Chapter 34: So…How you doing?
The arena, she was back here again after so little time...
No longer than 24 hours and she was once again here, in the doors towards the Arena.
At least her mana and health had come back to more normal numbers, even if her mana still wasn't topped up to 100%. And her stamina was rounding in the '80s.
But she wasn't going to be doing much magic so she wasn't worried about the mana. Since her current persona as powered was going to be moving around... Stamina might be a problem.
Now walking into the Arena in her new persona was... Different. Since no one was sure who she was, she could take her time to admire the Arena.
It was... A magnificent work of art with architecture and grandeur. Almost as if they had taken the arena from the time stream and brought it forth into the present.
It had a design that made sure you could feel the testament to the glory of the ancient civilizations, adorned with carvings showcasing fights. Only... Instead of ancient warriors, you could see representations of both heroes and villains.
Among the pictures of monsters, demons, and angels... Isn't that some ominous foreshadowing?
The battlefield on the other hand... Was more mundane, unlike more modern arenas, it didn't have hollow flooring, nor synthetic flooring, being mere dirt. At least it wasn't asphalt, she hadn't much to worry about as a magical girl before since they fight using magic.
But in a powered class...Yeah, she was expecting a more... Physical fight.
In the seating arrangement unlike like with her magical class, there were rows upon rows of visitors, a quick look into their garments (And an [Identify]) came with the results of them being from either other classes or grades.
Also, a few professors were among the rows, both from powered and magical.
Were they supposed to be a spectacle?
She felt conflicted about this, especially if they were advertised as a show, this might mean that her father & mother might end up seeing her combat...
And this form didn't have [Security Nodes] to obfuscate her identity...
Well, besides the different face and body forms.
Also... Were they... selling snacks?
And...Beer?
Wasn't this a school?
Oh, they required an ID that showed they were of age or had an advanced metabolism to break down the alcohol?
DIDN'T THAT INCLUDE MORE THAN HALF THE POWERED CLASS?
Ugh... Bread and circus... It's always the stupid bread and circus to keep the peasants happy.
Enough about the useless stuff, she had to focus on the problems in front of her, like the other competition.
As expected most of her cohorts had come wearing different levels of armor and body suits.
She could see the influence of several big-shot heroes in the garments of her cohorts, from big-name heroes as [The Twelve] to a few girls wearing ornaments of magical girls.
That gave her a good idea of what those girls could do, since the only excuse she could find for that type of garments as a powered would mean they were elemental manipulators.
So easy work to deal with them.
On a side note, she found something interesting, the class had a nice divide in how they were waiting, and to her left were those with suits with influences by heroes and 'Good persons'.
While the right had those that took a page of the books of more... Sketchy powered, aka Villains.
With magical girl pretenders equally among both groups, since the work of a magical girl tended to be more... Variated, since they worked with esoteric beings, one day you would be shooting rainbows and saving cats from trees.
The next day you would be doing deals with demons, so the perception wasn't that stable on them. And some good magical girls dealt plenty with demons, so there is that.
And here it was all reflected by the perception, a good magical girl would influence a powered student who then would align herself with those that dressed themselves like [Villains].
And so she couldn't help but laugh at that.
That wasn't a good idea though.
Since the helmet and her armor gave her a good echo to her voice to further disguise it (Even if her voice in this form was different).
So most of the class looked at her.
"Look, another [Villain Worshiper]..." Said a voice almost in a whisper from the left side.
"Hah, she looks though. The [Hero Wannabe] will have a harder time now." Came the thunderous voice from the right, a guy with a suit that looked way more barbarian than it should.
He didn't even cover his chest for god's sake!
For her part, she just coughed into her hand to center herself. "Apologies. " And then walked right into the middle of the groups.
Looked right to the more dangerous-looking students, then to the left where they just looked like they would draw their weapons and powers to retaliate should she choose to go with them.
And sighed.
" Was I the last one? " Said the no longer blonde girl.
No one answered, not from the left or right.
"Yeah. Now the headcount is complete." Said from the back of the left side someone dressed in a coat way too stylish to be functional.
"And it had to be a [Villain] of course. " Added while walking to the very front of the group.
She had an idea who it was by the voice, but she hoped she was wrong.
"So? Want to make a statement by standing in the middle alone? " This person was finally in front of her, looking her up and down and then spitting to his left.
"Do you think you are strong enough to fight all of us alone, [Villain]? " He was a black-haired student, he didn't even try to hide his face.
He was dressed in a jet-black coat adorned with subtle silver accents, under it it was a grey bodysuit with some padded spots distinguishing themselves. Probably disguised pouches with hidden tools or something.
He also had a silver pendant, because, of course, he was using some kind of hidden relic of some family that nurtured talents or some bullshit like that. Her mother had warned her enough about this kind of people.
He was probably really proud of not hiding his face. He reeked of problems since the first day,
He was of course Akira, one of the four people she had found with a 'Promised' title.
And since he was here being menacing and with a posture exuding composture then...Yep, there she was. His girlfriend Rena was in the back of the mob glaring at her.
She also was dressed casually, but at least she had the right idea of using a face mask... Even if the said mask was of a red demon...
And no one had a problem with that?
SHE WAS WEARING A DEMON MASK FOR GOD's SAKE!
She also was holding her sword even if the said sword was sheathed.
And these people thoughts of themselves as heroes?
She couldn't help but laugh to herself at that. And she didn't try to hide it this time and openly laughed to the nine heavens.
" Oh sorry, sorry. This situation is just hilarious." Said the armored girl while raising her right hand and pointing right.
She ignored how the black-haired kid grabbed his sword in a rush.
" To my right, we have those that choice of dressing indicates that they align themselves with those that are hailed as [Villains]. " She said and to that, those in question answered with a cheering voice.
" To my left... We have those that claim to follow in the steps of those hailed as [Heroes]. " And so she pointed at the side from where Akira had come.
They didn't cheer but recoiled, and those that hadn't took a fighting stance.
" And here in the middle is a lonely girl. " She said while pointing to herself. " No weapons in sight, neither guns nor swords. " And to make a point of it she raised her hands parallel to the ground as if someone would come and check her.
" Being harassed and intimidated... " She said and you could almost hear the grin in her voice. " Who in this situation is the [Villain], Suzuki Akira." And after that, she couldn't help but laugh even harder.
For the black-haired kid even looked surprised that she knew his name.
He didn't even use a face mask for god's sake.
What did he think would happen?
She didn't get the chance to watch the answer from the black-haired kid, since a new presence made a point of speaking.
"Silence!" Said the imposing voice of their trainer.
Making the [Villain] aligned kids stop laughing and standing to attention.
For their part, the [Hero] ones took a few extra moments to abandon their fighting stance.
"So before we start, don't get any ideas." Said the crazy old man while glaring at Akira and her.
"None of you are either Heroes or Villains. Not yet anyway." And he pointed to both groups.
"Even if you make your little groups. I guarantee, half of you will end on the other side of those groups, if you end in a group at all." And so he pointed to the stands.
"And don't mind them, next year you will be there laughing at the antics of the new students and enjoying the show... But today..." He said while making a dramatic pause. "You are the show."
And with the snap of his fingers, a big screen with their names descended.
"You will fight in a tournament style. So get to it." And so he walked towards the stands and seated himself with the other teachers.
No extra words were said.
" So...Who wants to go at it first?"
Asked the armored girl to the arena.
Her words met with a glare from the [Hero] side and laugh from the [Villain] side.
Yeah. If Mother had taught her something, was that she probably was screwd since Akira walked towards her and started searching for problems.
[Shadow Empress] vs [Warden Of Justice] |
After some roughhousing, they were told to choose among themselves who would fight first and to keep going after that.
So when Akira said nothing and stood in the middle of the arena... Well, the villain-looking kids unanimously shoved her to the arena.
Yeah...
Something among the lanes of 'We will not take your nemesis from you' and 'Don't play too much with your food'.
She had nothing to say and only sighed while looking at the black-haired kid's hate-filled glare.
Did she strike a nerve or something while calling him a [Villain] because of her antics?
She called as she saw them!
But that was enough of that.
She was wondering how to go about this... She planned to only fight using her [Skills] even if she could probably pass some magic as skills.
But nothing much to think about since they were about to start.
"This will be a fight till one of you surrenders, it goes without saying but no killing blows. You all are under several protection [Skills] to make sure you don't die. But with powered [Skills] not everything is sure. So if one of you aims for a killing blow. You will be deemed to have lost the fight. " Added the crazy old man.
Wait, no penalty?
You forgot the penalty!
" Penalty for killing blows?" Asked the armored girl.
Akira just smirked "Of course you worry about that don't you [Villain]?" and said so.
Of course, the blonde girl would worry.
'No way in hell I will fight a psycho without safeguards!' Thought to herself the blonde girl (Currently also a black-haired one).
"Suspension and you will be marked as a probable danger to society. So long no one dies no permanent marks will be made." Answered with a shrug from his stand the crazy old man.
"Oh, the drinks are here, start fighting or something." Said while making some waves with his hand.
No bell was sounded. No announcer said anything either.
Just a wave of a hand...
That felt... Anti climatic...
"Justice will vanquish evil. Downward Slash of Justice!" Came the voice of Akira while he dashed forward and attacked with a downward attack that somehow was shining in white light?
For her part, she jumped to her right and watched the attack land on the dirt floor leaving an explosion of dust.
" Really? " Asked the armored girl while seeing the results of the attack.
Akira was coughing since he was bathed in the dirt created by his attack now.
" Why are you describing your attacks? " Asked the armored girl.
She could understand why some [Mages] and [Magical Girls] did so. One needed the vocal chant to lock into the spell nodes if they didn't have enough mastery over it.
But powered shouldn't be limited like that...
"Silence Miscreant!" Said the black-haired kid while taking the sword out of the dirt. "Justice slash Dash !"
And so he started running her way while telegraphing an slashing her way.
This would be a long fight...