Next Stop

The surrounding area was dead silent for a moment while everyone tried to take in the events that had just occurred. Yui Shiro had disappeared into thin air after throwing out that devastating fireball earlier.

The TV crews started to move into action. This was big news, very big news. Yui Shiro, representative of the brand new academy, Ten no Ryū, had taken on eight representatives of the ten great schools at the same time, and she had won resoundingly.

The TV crews had all seen and reported on fights between the ten great academies before, it wasn't such an uncommon thing. However, the fights they had reported on in the past were all quite even and well matched. They had never seen a fight where the odds were stacked so heavily against one side and yet, not only was Yui Shiro able to hold her ground against the 8, she had completely dominated the opposition.

These scenes had shocked, not only the TV crews but also everyone watching the broadcasted images. At this point this story had become the main story on all the news channels across the Galaxy and had been seen by an innumerable amount of people. The images of Yui Shiro fighting heroically whilst the fire blazed around her had even started trending on all the social media sites across the galactic web.

Doug and the other representatives stood there, a look of shame and humiliation on their faces. They were well aware of how many people had seen how easily they had been torn apart despite the odds being overwhelmingly in their favour. They could only imagine the punishment that awaited them when they returned to their respective schools as a result of publicly damaging the reputations of their academies.

However they no longer even had the courage to be angry at Yui Shiro or the way she had put them to the sword. After witnessing Yui's final attack they had all realized simultaneously, that they never really had a chance to beat her. As she prepared her ridiculous final attack, Yui Shiro's aura peaked, and her power level had flown off the charts, far surpassing the strength of any of the representatives.

After feeling what may have been the full extent of her power they were certain that, if she had truly wanted to, she could have easily slaughtered each and every single one of them.

Doug sighed heavily as he quietly appreciated the fact that he had survived the ordeal. He had learned an important lesson today.

Never again would he stand in the way of Yui Shiro.

He stood up straight and patted himself down, he was upset at being defeated by Yui Shiro but he quickly reassessed the situation and viewed it from a more positive angle.

Although Yui herself was a monstrously powerful superhuman and made quite the scene here today, that didn't mean that their school itself was going to have any sort of success. Looking at the quality of the students that Yui had taken in today, there was no doubt in Doug's mind that his own school would still out perform Yui Shiro's at the next upcoming academic competition.

So, although he had been embarrassed today he was certain that soon, everyone would see the brilliant feats of the students of Deus academy and forget the events of today. After all, just because Yui Shiro was an incredible superhuman herself it did not necessarily mean that she would be able to turn her students into equally powerful superhumans. After all, no matter how much you polished trash, it would never become more that that. Trash.

At Deus academy they had over a millennium of teaching experience and they were experts of raising young superhuman prospects. Thinking this, Doug started to feel a lot better about himself and he almost let out a smile, if it weren't for the fact that he was still in line for a harsh punishment he might have even let out a smug laugh.

He looked at the other representatives who were still wallowing in pity and embarrassment, and his face became genuinely serious and emotionless for the first time in a while today.

It had been a long and exhausting day and Doug was ready to put it behind him. Still one question did linger in his mind.

Where did Yui Shiro disappear to?

As Doug stood there and considered the possibilities Asai and Momoka were just flying over the huge tower with looks of deep concern on their faces.

They had just seen the monumental explosion at the north gate of the space port and couldn't help but think about the safety of Yui.

"You don't think that Ms Shiro was caught in that blast do you?"

Momoka asked with a nervous voice. Asai didn't answer immediately while he thought carefully about what he was going to say next. He didn't want Momoka to worry any further, but he honestly wasn't sure whether or not she was ok or not. Damnit! Did Yui really have a plan for escaping, or was that just a lie to make sure they would leave without her? Asai lamented as he thought these things in his mind.

Realizing he had been quiet for too long, he abruptly answered Momoka

"I know Ms Shiro is eccentric, but I don't think she would have gone there without any kind of plan. We should just carry on for now and believe in her, like she told us to do."

"Who are you calling eccentric?"

Hearing a voice that didn't belong to either of them, both Momoka and Asai let out a cry of surprise before sharply turning to see who it was who had appeared.

Upon seeing who was standing behind them Asai and Momoka's faces instantly shifted into looks of surprise and happiness.

"Ms Shiro!"

They both called out in unison, Momoka even jumped up and uncharacteristically threw her arms around Yui. For a brief moment Asai was incredibly relieved to see that Yui was safe and sound. When they had seen that last explosion, despite his brave demeanor he was very worried for the sake of Yui's safety, but now, seeing her standing here in front of him he breathed a deep sigh of relief.

"Get out of the driver's seat, I'm taking over."

Asai happily complied and swiftly gave his seat up to Yui. Yui then proceeded to press a number of buttons and flip some switches here and there. Soon, the engines of the ship truly roared into life and the ship started to hum. After a few seconds the ship accelerated hard and they raced through the atmosphere into the great cosmos. As they broke through the atmosphere and into outer space the emotions of Asai were stirred greatly.

It was his first time ever leaving his home planet and venturing into outer space. He had taken a huge step forward in his life today, he wasn't sure what lay ahead of him, but he was no doubt excited. He looked across to Momoka who was sitting in a chair next to him and he could see, that she too, had an excited glimmer in her eyes.

Their new lives started today, and they couldn't wait to see what was to come.

As these thoughts flew about in his mind, a giant circular gate came into view ahead of them. Intrigued by the unfamiliar structure Asai spoke up.

"What is that?"

"That's a space gate. You'll find them floating around around all the major star system's. They are just there to regulate space traffic. Simply put, if you want to travel by hyperspace from one place to another, by law, it must be done via a space gate. In other words from one space gate to the space gate closest to your desired destination."

Asai nodded his head in understanding and he asked another question.

"So we will be using this gate to head to the one nearest to the planet that Ten no Ryū academy is on right?"

"Haha, not quite. Unfortunately at the moment we only have three spaceships in total so we actually have to stop off at a couple more places to pick up some of the teachers and any new students they may have picked up."

Asai was slightly disappointed when he heard that they wouldn't be going straight to the academy, but seeing as there was no way around it he quickly calmed his emotions. Not long after Asai had calmed down, the ship speedily shot through the gate.

"Strap yourselves in kids. We're about to make the jump to hyperspace!"

Hearing this Asai and Momoka both checked the buckles on their seatbelts and sat quietly in anticipation of the jump to hyperspace. After checking a few of the gauges and flicking a few more switches, Yui slowly pushed forward a lever off to the left of the main console.

The ship shook and hummed as it sped up dramatically. Asai could see streaks of blue light speed past them through the main window of the cockpit, and after a few short moments a loud boom could be heard as they blasted off through the cosmos and entered hyperspace.

For a good few minutes no one spoke as Yui was obviously focusing on guiding the ship properly through the turbulent hyperspace. Soon however, there was no longer a rumbling throughout the ship and everything seemed to have settled down.

Feeling that the tough part of the flight was over, Yui let out a small sigh of relief and a carefree smile once again spread across her face. Her chair swiveled around and she turned to face Asai and Momoka, relaxed as ever.

The tense air before had disappeared as if it was nothing more than an illusion and had never really existed in the first place. As Asai observed Yui's calm and relaxed attitude a question surfaced in his mind.

"Ms Shiro, how exactly did you get in here? I mean you were definitely there fighting those representatives right?"

"Hm? Of course I fought them! I kicked their asses!"

Yui replied in a lively voice obviously very proud of what she had accomplished today. Asai frowned as Yui had clearly missed the main thrust of his question. He pressed on in an attempt to find the answer he was looking for.

"So how did you get inside the ship from where you were fighting?"

"I teleported."

Momoka was surprised by Yui's answer and asked the question that came into her mind.

"You teleported? But we were so far away from where you were fighting. If you can teleport that far couldn't you have just teleported into the space port directly?"

"Sure, I could have."

Momoka's eyes started spinning at this, trying to understand why she didn't do so from the start. In the end she gave up and asked Yui directly.

"Then why didn't you do that?"

"Because I don't like running away, especially from stuck up weaklings like those guys. And I sure as hell wasn't going to apologize to them!"

Asai and Momoka both started to sway hearing Yui's answer. They really couldn't follow this eccentric teachers train of thought. Before they could ask anymore questions, Yui frowned and swiveled her chair back around before saying:

"Anyway that's enough questions, it won't be too long now till we arrive at our next stop. I hope you brought something warm to wear because our next stop is one of the coldest inhabited planets in the Galaxy, Kumlana."

Hearing Yui's words Momoka jolted and a look of misery spread on her beautiful face. For a second Asai thought she was going to cry.

"Erm, are you ok Momoka?"

She looked up at Asai with teary eyes and said in a weak voice.

"Dragonian's are famous for not doing too well in the cold, and I, as a Dragonian, am no different. I hate the cold."

A look of sympathy appeared on Asai's face, he couldn't find the words to comfort her so he just patted her on the shoulder and smiled sympathetically.

Seeing Asai's pathetic attempt to offer her comfort, Momoka put her head in her hands and silently protested in her mind.

"I don't want to go outside in the cold!"

However the ship roared through space regardless of Momoka's silent protests, and before they knew it they had arrived at their next destination.