Chapter 6

The next day came as it was a weekend, everyone there was stretching and getting ready. Kimura and his group were doing the same thing, stretching, and getting themselves ready for whatever is to come to them. As they stretched, a loudspeaker came on as it was hung up on a long pole.

"Hello? Is this thing working? Oh, it is. Alright then, Ahem. WELCOME everyone to the middle grounds, a far-off isolated area where espers of different academies will face off to see which academy will be crowned THE STRONGEST ACADEMY!!"

Everyone cheered except for Kimura, seeing this was his first time he felt a little anxious as he's never had to face off against more than one person. As the loudspeaker spoke the rules, Kimura noticed an academy group looking around before branching off into a private spot. This caught Kimura's attention as he walked off to investigate. From what Takashi told me, everyone here must abide by the rules… He tailed this academy group as he hid behind a tree.

"Did you get the things?"

"What? The needles?"

"Yes, the needles! We need to weaken everyone else so that we can finally be considered the strongest."

Kimura looked down as he began to process then information, Needles…? Weaken…? No one here is supposed to bring anything… Kimura quietly looked over the corner, catching a glimpse of one student. He had crimson red hair as Kimura looked back and walked back to his camp. Takashi, Fujiwara and Kobayashi noticed him walk out of the forest as they ran up to him concerned.

"Where'd you go?! You were supposed to—"

"One of the academies are planning to cheat."

"—What? That's impossible here, no one brought anything."

"Takashi you have to trust me on this."

Takashi looked at Kimura before looking at the others, feeling like he could be lying or being telling the truth, He couldn't really believe Kimura right now. "Kimura, they checked us before we got here. No one should have anything on them." He told him, patting his shoulder to reassure him.

I know what I heard…

He sighed as he moved Takahi's arm away from him, Kimura looked at Fujiwara as she had her eyes on the matches that were ongoing. The rest of them turned to watch the matches, seeing that they had a holographic scoreboard. Four matches later, it was our turn to go up. The loudspeaker goes up as it shouts out, "AND NOW! WE HAVE OUR RETURNING TITLE HOLDER OF STRONGEST ACADEMY IN THE WORLD!!! HHHHAAAVEEEENNN ACADDEEMMYY!!!".

Like before, the crowd began cheering as we walked down to the center of the middle ground. The place was beaten and destroyed as ice walls, ground walls, craters and even fire were still apparent in the battlefield. "ANNND AS THEIR CHALLENGER COMES UP! TWO-TIME FINALISTS AND RIVAL OF HAVEN ACADEMY! XEEENNOO ACADDEEEMMYY!!!". Kimura looked at them as they walked onto the battlefield, Kimura noticed that it was them who were talking in the woods. He saw the Crimson red hair as he grew concerned.

"WE JUST GOT SOME SPECTACTULAR NEWS! HAVEN ACADEMY IS BRINGING IN A NEW STUDENT TO PLAY AS THEIR BACK-UP! LETS HEAR IT FOR KIMURRAA MAKOTOO!!!"

"Seems like you're a bigshot Kimura.

"Shut up Takashi…Let's focus."

The crowd grew louder as Kimura seemed oddly serious about this, the rest of them seemingly relaxed but Kimura was tense. Why is he tense in a friendly match…? Fujiwara tried to understand him but couldn't get a good read as the crowd began counting down. "Alright everyone, focus up and let's win this!" Takashi shouted with the rest of them shouting, "Got it!". The countdown reached zero as an airhorn rang out.

* * *

Woosh! Zap Zap!

"Kimura stay behind us, you're our only hope if we all go down."

"Right!"

Takashi, Kobayashi, and Fujiwara took charge, charging at the three frontliners of Xeno Academy. Takashi charged at the Crimson red-haired student as both clashed and caught each other's fists. Takashi caught a counter punch as the student caught a straight punch aimed at his face. Both had their eyes glowing as Takashi's golden glow conflicted with the students reddish-orange glow.

"Expelling a bunch of mana at the start huh Takashi."

"Couldn't say the same for you Watanabe."

Takashi took the initiative as he stepped back hard, pulling Watanabe forward and slamming his knee into his abdomen. He gripped tighter as he rammed his head upwards to Takashi's face.

Meanwhile, Fujiwara was dealing with one student as her heightened senses allowed her to dodge and counter punch one of the students, sending them towards their back-up. Their back up student, a white-haired student with red eyes, caught them, looking at them to see if they were okay. The crowd went wild as they cheered for Haven Academy.

Watanabe became concerned as he looked at his second in command, a student that had Violet hair with brown eyes, nodding him for something. The guy smiled as he broke out of Kobayashi's grasp and threw a right hook. Instictively, he blocked the right hook, feeling a piercing pain in his arm. 

"Gah! The hell?!"

Kobayashi felt his arm numb up a bit as the glow in his eyes dimmed a bit, concerned Kimura shouted, "Switch in with me!". Kobayashi scoffed it off, replying "No way! I got it!" As he blocked another hit, this time it felt heavier than before. Shit! Kobayashi's guard was down as the student smirked, incasing his arm with ice and slamming it against Kobayashi's face.

Kobayashi was sent flying backwards, landing roughly as he was considered out. "AND DOWN GOES KOBAYASHI! WILL THEY SEND IN THEIR NEWEST RECRUIT TO SUB?! OR WILL THEY FACE A 3v2 IN JUST A MOMENT!!" The loudspeaker hyped the crowd up as they slowly chanted for Kimura to substitute in.

Kimura felt a bit forced as he dragged Kobayashi to their safe zone, a drawn rectangle on the ground. Kobayashi stayed on the ground as he was out for the count. Kimura walked up as he stood beside Takashi. "I need you to stop hiding what you have." Takashi asked him, Kimura sighed as his black lightning began to show.

The erratic sparks moved around him once again as Fujiwara smirked at the other side, It was back to a 3 on 3 as they all rushed at each other. Takashi took on Watanabe once again as Kimura and Fujiwara took on the other two students beside him. He has an ice ability…I can't let up my footing… Kimura threw a lightning bolt at him as the student swiped up building an ice wall to protect himself.

DOOSH!!

The Lightning bolt struck the ice, creating a dent into the ice's dexterity, However Kimura kept throwing bolts at the ice structure. The dents became holes in mere seconds as each bolt he threw got consecutively stronger. He's not going to expect me to run up… Kimura threw two more bolts before rushing in with them. DOOSH DOOSH!! The last two bolts struck the ice as Kimura ran around to see the guy was gone.

Catching him by complete surprise, The student threw a hailstorm at Kimura as Kimura began quickly dodging the ice, running up towards him as he zig-zagged around. The violet-haired student made the hailstorm rougher as they fell harsher and faster, Kimura kept zipping around but hit a few as he got close enough to the student.

"Let's try this again shall we!"

"Let's not!"

He threw a punch at Kimura as it skids off the side of his cheek and Kimura slammed an electrified punch to his gut. The student was staggered a bit as he was lightly paralyzed from the electrified punch. Wasting no time, Kimura backed up a bit before running in and jumping up, throwing his knee right at the students' face. He jerked his head back from the force as Kimura seemingly landed faster than he can fall over, grabbing his arm from behind and throwing him over his shoulder. DOOSH!! Kimura slammed him face first into the ground, cracking the ground around them as the audience was cheering.