chapter 21

CLARISSE'S POV

Now the girls and I are in the stadium cafeteria.

"Most likely Allan is already fighting in the qualifiers while we are eating." I thought as I ate a hamburger.

"Will Allan-kun be okay?" Akino asked after drinking a soda.

"Relax Akino, nothing bad will happen to him. And even if it does, Serenity will be there to save him if he's in danger." I said to Akino.

"But you didn't put a sealing spell on Allan nya." Kuroka said as she took a bite of a hamburger in her hand.

"This tournament wouldn't be training if he took it easy on his opponents." I said to Kuroka.

I put a magic seal on Allan, this seal has two purposes.

The first is to stop Allan from using magic. With the exception of the telepathy magic he uses to communicate with Serenity and the magical energy supply he gives to Serenity, all of his other spells are sealed.

The second purpose is to restrict Allan's physical strength to the apex of an ordinary human.

In this tournament Allan must beat his opponents just by relying on the fencing techniques I taught him, as well as cunning when dealing with different types of opponents.

"Oh, so that's where you were? We looked for you in the other cafeterias." I heard a voice I know well.

I looked towards the voice, and who I saw there was Tamamo, and right behind her were kurosuke and Hinami.

"Hi Tamamo, why this grumpy face?" I asked the fox girl.

"It's because of the announcement of this tournament. They said that due to the large number of participants they will need to reorganize some things about this tournament and that because of that the tournament will be postponed until tomorrow."

"Aahh, just when I was all ready to watch her husband fights this happens all of a sudden." Tamamo said with dissatisfaction as he sat down in one of the vacant chairs at the table. Kurosuke and Hinami sat at a nearby table.

"There's nothing they can do, they have to do the qualifiers for the tournament to go well." I told Tamamo.

"And in any case, it can also be good for Allan, so that he gains experience in fighting people." I spoke.

"Well Allan, I hope you're at least enjoying these battles. Oh and I've already thought of a nice reward for when he makes it through the qualifiers." I had a fun idea while thinking about Allan.

ALLAN'S POV

This is the seventh time I've taken the elevator down.

My first opponent was a nobody who wasn't even worth remembering.

But my other five previous opponents were different.

Sometimes they were direct, sometimes they were cunning, sometimes they were honorable and sometimes cowardly and despicable.

But each of them was very skilled, in their own way.

I looked at my clothes, they were ripped in places and the ripped parts revealed some purple bruises. These bruises hurt a little but it's not something that hinders me in the fight.

The elevator finally stopped and the doors opened, what I saw was the same arena as the six previous fights. Then I looked at my seventh opponent.

He was a Japanese man who looked to be in his 50s. He had short black hair with gray parts and red eyes. He was wearing a black kimono that could be found in many types of dojo. He was tall and thin but had well distributed muscles.

After I entered the arena and we were 20 feet apart, we watched each other for 30 seconds without taking any action.

After 30 seconds, the first to make a move was the Japanese man. But he didn't draw his katana, instead he placed his hand on his chin with a thoughtful expression and said.

"Boy I have to say…you are interesting."

"Even if you are young and inexperienced in the way of the sword you are already quite skilled in combat, and this I can confirm with the little signs in your body language."

"I may be being nosy for asking you this but..."

"Why are you participating in this tournament? I can see it in your eyes that you don't care much for first place money. So why do you fight?" the man asked me with a curious expression, not giving a break in his posture.

"Training. My aunt told me that this tournament would be the perfect place against a lot of opponents with different fencing styles. As for the first place money I don't really care." I said to the man in front of me.

"What about you? You don't seem interested in the money either. Why are you participating in the tournament?" I asked the man.

"About that, I originally brought my granddaughter to participate in this tournament for the same reason you have, but when I saw that there was no age restriction in this tournament... I just couldn't resist the urge to fight such diverse opponents. I just couldn't resist ha ha ha." the man said with a small laugh at the end.

"But well we've talked enough, haven't we?" the man says as he pulls out his katana and gets into position for the fight.

"I say the same." I spoke as I held my sword in my right hand and adjusted my stance for combat.

"Still, this guy is very strong" I thought as I tried to gauge my opponent's strength.

I can assure you that this man in front of me is unrelated to the supernatural, his physical strength is probably the same as that of a very well-trained human, and yet...

"This man... In swordplay he is clearly superior to me, I can't even imagine beating him. But even so, I need to fight." I thought.

After that 30 seconds passed.

In those 30 seconds we both stared at each other in silence, waiting to know who would make the first move.

The one who made the first move was me.

I gripped my sword with both and went in a direct lunge at him.

The man as if waiting for this moved his katana with subtle movements to block my sword. I adjusted the placement and angle of my sword so that his katana passed my left side, leaving it open so I could swipe him with the sword hilt in the face. But at that moment...

I felt my face was on the floor.

"Oh!" I let out a small groan of pain as I tried to understand what just happened, but when I was trying to get up I saw a katana pointed at me just inches away from my face.

"You know kid, out of all the opponents I've had in this tournament so far, you're for sure the best." the man said with an approving smile.

"Even though you knew you couldn't beat me, you still chose to fight instead of giving up. Could you tell me why, boy?" the man asked me.

"I told you before, didn't I? It was for training, even though I knew I couldn't beat you it would still be a good combat experience to fight you, although I didn't expect to lose that easy." I told the man.

"I see, you are really an interesting boy. In that case..." the man spoke as he placed his katana in its sheath.

"Hey, for whoever is watching this fight know this..." the man yelled as he looked at the roof of the arena.

"I QUIT!" the man shouted at the ceiling.

"There is?" I could only make a silly sound as my brain tried to process what happened.

After a few the speakers that were on the walls broadcast the sound.

"Entrant Allan Graysen wins contest by forfeit, please enter the elevator." the voice on the speaker spoke.

"Hey, what's on your mind? Why did you do that?" I asked the man.

"Well boy, I don't think it's appropriate for the older generation to steal opportunities from the younger ones. And please don't get the wrong idea, I'm not belittling you, in fact I really liked the look you gave when you lunged at me. me." the man spoke.

"And also if you participate in the tournament then you will be a great opponent for my granddaughter. And I can assure you that this will be a good battle for the learning of both of you." the man spoke his motive.

"Fine, but I won't go easy on her." I spoke to the man as I stood up.

"Ho ho ho this will be much better." the man spoke with a small excited laugh.

"By the way, can I ask your name?" I asked the man.

"Oh yeah, I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Shuuzou... Shuuzou Yaegashi." the man who introduced himself as Shuuzou spoke.

Although I was a little surprised by his last name I still introduced myself.

"Although you have already heard my name from the loudspeaker I will introduce myself. My name is Allan, Allan Graysen. It is a pleasure to meet you Mr Yaegashi. But Mr Yaegashi I have a question for you. " I spoke.

"You can ask, Graysen boy." Mr Yaegashi spoke.

"How are you related to Shizuku Yaegashi?" I asked Mr Yaegashi.

I had heard the name Yaegashi before from one of my classmates.

"Well she is my dear granddaughter. Now Graysen boy how do you know about Shizuku?" it was Mr. Yaegashi's turn to ask the question.

"We're classmates, even though we've never spoken to each other." I answered the question.

"Oh I see." Mr Yaegashi replied.

"Participant Allan Graysen, please proceed to the elevator immediately." the speaker's voice spoke.

"Well sir Yaegashi I need to go, and don't worry I'll be sure to beat your granddaughter in the tournament." I said with a small teasing smile.

"Hahahaha, be sure to give my granddaughter a good exciting fight. And one more thing if you want to visit our dojo for a rematch you are always welcome, I'll be waiting for you boy." Mr Yaegashi spoke with an excited laugh.

"Don't worry, I'll be sure to visit for my revenge, see you later sir Yaegashi." I said as I headed for the elevator.