49 In The Midst of Minutes

Tadashii let out a sigh of interest as he leaned back a little.

"He's that strong, huh?"

Yasuko nodded his bland head after explaining just who exactly both Kiyoshi Lionheart and Edward Quill were, though it was only as much as he knew.

"Yes. I do not know how he's obtained so much strength in such little time, but that is him without a doubt," he said. "If there was any way to cheat to gain levels, he would be the prime suspect of using such a hack. Teenagers in privileged classes of the same age as him had trained their entire lives to get as high as they are, but I've never seen one solid fact that proves that he himself is privileged. Especially since he and I were around the same level last year."

"Yeah, yeah, okay. Enough with the explanation, already." Chiaki butted in with his normal snarky tone. He had his cheek cupped in his hand, his elbow balancing the upper half of his body on his knee. He opened one eye and stared menacingly in the direction of Kiyomi and Nakayama.

"Could you explain to me, in full detail, as to why you two are still sitting so closely?"

Naturally, he was referring to the fact that Kiyomi's ass still resided in the seat of Nakayama's lap. Although the three previously urinating femboys had made it back, Kiyomi made no effort to remove himself from the intimate position with Nakayama, besides the whole lewd encounter. He somehow played it off as a wholesome interaction without words.

"Oh?" Kiyomi responded, his lips forming a smile from ear to ear. "Me and Nakayama are just bonding, that's all! I asked him if I could sit in his lap and he said "go right ahead!" It was all a perfectly consensual situation, of course!"

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't go putting words in my mouth!" Nakayama raised his voice a little, though the validity of his words was reduced to a minimum. After all, he still had a femboy sitting in his lap as if he was a human chair.

Chiaki let out an exasperated sigh as if he was holding himself back from something. He put a hand over his eyes.

"Whatever...just don't be fucking weird about it," he grumbled. He removed the hand from his eyes and continued. "Anyway, now that that pesky elimination round is out of the way, that just means this whole event is about half over. Still, I never would've imagined just how pathetic all of these so-called "fighters" are."

"Hey, give 'em a break, Chiaki," said Kiyomi with his typical grin. "It's not every day you witness someone or something as powerful as that Kiyoshi guy, not to mention that Edward guy probably rivals him to some degree."

"Yes, and I found myself in a predicament a time or two where escape was impossible. I knew that there were kids out there with hundreds of levels stacked upon powerful spells. And yet, did you see me falter even once?"

"Eh, you're you, you know? You can't really compare someone like you to normal students."

"Please." Chiaki scoffed. "No one in this city could be considered normal. That's the gift and curse of this magic world."

"Oh, speaking of magic," Nakayama said, knocking himself in the head a little before turning his voice towards Chiaki. "Hey, Chiaki? How'd you learn all those spells? Did you go through some kind of secret training or something? I know that there's no magic training provided by the government before high school. At least, I'm pretty sure that's the way it is in most cities."

"Tch," Chiaki grunted, clearly annoyed. "Most kids' parents provide them a basic arsenal of spells before sending them off to a magic academy, that's why most people start off at a level higher than 1 since you can level up just by learning spells." He turned his head ever-so-slightly and snake-eyed Nakayama. "That's what makes you as weird as you are. Why in God's name would your parents allow you to go to a magic academy such as ours without at least a few spells up your sleeve? Even Koko has a few, which explains why he's at level 2."

"Ah? Oh, well…" Nakayama put a finger to his chin and thought for a moment before continuing. "Well...I'm not sure, exactly. Back in Moku City, the average level was around a hundred or so for adults, which explains why my mom is, like, a level 100 or something. But, I'm not sure about my dad. My mom isn't really the fighting type and my little sister is still in elementary school, so it wasn't as if I could really ask them for much. I've asked my mom if she knew any spells she could teach me, but she always said she'd do it later, and my dad always flat out refused."

Chiaki narrowed his eyes a little as if he was intrigued as to what Nakayama was about to say next.

"I used to ask him about it a lot, but I learned my lesson back in middle school. It was no use, he'd never train me or teach me anything. Don't get me wrong, our relationship as a family was great, but I never figured out why my dad decided to never train me in any magic arts. Of course, it wasn't as if it would've proved to be all that useful because Moku City wasn't exactly fond of using magic for everything, but it still would've been nice. The only spell he ever taught me was Ondo Ochiru, a temperature spell, and I didn't even have to ask for that one. We were out in a cabin in some snowy mountains and I got really cold one night, so he said "okay, I'll teach you this spell I know" and that was it."

"Is he a strong guy?" Kiyomi asked, looking back at the boy whose lap he was sitting in. "Oh, wouldn't it be amazing if he had so many powerful spells that he thought it'd kill you if he taught you one!? Oh, that's so cool!" He started fidgeting around like he was in some kind of fantasy world of his own.

Nakayama gave Kiyomi a weird look. "Uh...I don't think I'd go that far. He's never really done anything out of the ordinary for that city, and he'd probably even be considered weak in this city. Hell, he might not even have that many spells to teach to begin with." He shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, either way, I'm gonna have to meet your parents one day!" Kiyomi put a hand to his chest and puffed it out strongly. "Now that we're so close, 'tis only a natural evolution, young Tadashii!!" He spoke in a ridiculously refined tone.

"You!? Meet my parents!? Ahhh...I...I don't know about all that."

That sounded like a recipe for disaster. There was no telling what kind of crazy stunt Kiyomi would try to pull, there was no telling what kind of crazy thing he'd spew from his vocal cords. Not to mention, his parents would probably faint from the realization that he was actually a boy and not a girl. Of course, not before three and a half years of constantly trying to convince them of that.

Chiaki turned around a bit to face the set of bleachers just behind the one in which he sat. That was where Yasuko was sitting, one set behind Chiaki and just between that femboy and what used to be Kiyomi's spot before he moved to Nakayama's lap.

"Yo," he said, getting the monotone one's attention. He pointed to the giant magic menu that displayed the bracket for the next round just above the stone ring. "Looks like we're in the same area, the third quadrant."

"Yes, I see," Yasuko responded blandly. "It appears only one of us will have a chance at making it to the finals."

Chiaki nodded. "Yeah. Guess I'll see you in the quarterfinals rather than the actual finals, huh? Of course, it's not as if it really matters. I was still gonna beat you regardless of when we met." He held out his hand towards the cool blonde tomgirl.

Yasuko gave a faint smile with dead eyes and nodded his head ever-so-slightly. "That is a rather bold claim coming from you, Mr. Sato." He held out his hand towards Chiaki's gripping it rather firmly. "Perhaps I must show you the difference in our skills."

As the group of five continued to chat amongst themselves while waiting for the bracket round, aside from the slight tension between Nakayama and Chiaki, the minutes seemed like mere seconds as they ran upon the group of magic academy quadrant I students. Some time or another, both Chiaki and Yasuko went down to where the medics were and allowed themselves to be treated for their rather minor injuries.

And, naturally, the rest of the 20 minutes passed by before they'd known it.