"The Power of a Student Council President Candidate"

Despite the nerves I felt, the next day came in a flash. Gentarō and I's next opponent is going to be stronger than Mobo was for sure, so I'm a bit worried. However, Gentarō walking confidently toward the stadium after putting our belongings away in our lockers makes me feel somewhat better. So, as the nine of us gather outside the stadium by the same double doors that previously led us inside, the principal makes his way to us with his arms crossed and a coy, almost playful smile on his face. "I hope you're all well rested. Today I'll simply be telling you what blocks you all respectively be in and you won't find out who you're fighting until the last second. Pretty suspenseful isn't it?" He asks with an excited tone, chuckling.

"The suspense!" Natsuri gasps.

"Don't encourage him please..." Sana mutters.

"Anywho, it'll be the same as yesterday. A block contestants will be up above and vice versa. I wish you all luck in your battles today. No matter who ends up winning in the end, you eight- er, nine, make up this school's student council, so do your best to get to know one another through your fights. And remember, if you lose, the one you lost to will be your direct superior, so they will have command over not only the person they beat in the first round, but you and the person you beat in the first round as well." Mr. Nagako explains.

"And that'll make up our respective four branches in the council." Itsumi adds respectfully.

"That's correct." The principal chuckles. "Just remember, no matter who you serve under, no round one loser is above the other, same for second round losers. I know you all already know this, but I figured it best to explain to Gentarō, who was absent his freshman year." Everyone glances at Gentarō and me, making me chuckle nervously.

"Well, thanks for the explanation, teach! Enough of that though, let's just get to the fighting!" Gentarō says excitedly.

"I like his spirit." Hiri says with a cool chuckle.

"Very well then! Listen closely, these are your respective blocks!" And just like that, after a few more minutes of receiving information we already know at this point, me, Gentarō, Sana, Nakawara, and Usana are all announced to be in A block and are led to the waiting area above ground while the rest head to the arena below ground. Needless to say, with a line up like this, being filled with nerves doesn't even begin to describe how anxious I'm feeling.

"Not only are we in the same block as two student council president candidates, but it's the two we didn't get to see fight at all..!" I whisper-yell anxiously to Gentarō.

"I prefer it that way honestly." Gentarō snickers as he walks, both of us following behind the women in the suit from the day before, both of us behind everyone else a few feet like always.

"Gentarō, this is serious..!" I whisper-yell in slight frustration.

"I know, Genta." He slaps my back. "But imagine what happens if we win against one of those two." He looks at me and grins confidently. "The power boosters can hold would really start to be noticed if we did, right?"

"W...Well yeah, but..." Even if that's true, there's no way Gentarō will be able to avoid taking more than just a couple injuries like in the first match. If anything, I'm worried that Gentarō will get badly hurt rather than us losing.

"Don't worry, even if I get hurt, the combination of our boost abilities will help me regenerate in no time." He chuckles. I merely nod my head as we make it to the waiting stands. After a few boring announcements are made to make time go by a little bit most likely, Mr. Nagako has a new bracket with the letters A and B on it, covered by a thin veil of white cloth. When that cloth is dropped, it reveals who will be fighting who in their respective blocks, and just as I feared, Gentarō and I will be facing Usana in the first match of the day.

"Oh? I get to fight the boosters? How exciting this'll be...~" Usana says playfully while looking back at us both with a beautiful, yet terrifying smile, her equally beautiful lyte; a pink peacock with a variety of pink colored tail feathers floating at her side.

I gulp, but Gentarō lightly presses his fist into his palm with a confident grin on his face. "Looking forward to it."

Sana scoffs and averts his gaze, and Nakawara chuckles nervously, but smiles at the two of us nonchalantly. "Good luck you two."

"Same to you...we'll all need it with who we're fighting today..." I mutter anxiously, since the bracket shows all four student council president candidates facing off against everyone who isn't one.

"Alright folks!" The announcer, who turned out to be the woman in the suit who led us up here, speaks into a microphone in the mic room above the bleachers. "We know the match ups, and we've been through all the boring stuff, so let's stop wasting time and get right into it!" The crowd cheers and practically rumbles the ground.

"Well, you hear them boys. Let's get in there." Usana says with a coy smile on her face as she walks into the ring. With zero hesitation, wearing the same confident smile he has been for a while now, Gentarō stands up and walks into the arena as well. I hesitantly follow behind Gentarō and take my place in the ring, and once we're all inside, the barrier starts to form.

"I hope you know, I personally have nothing against boosters you two, honest..." Usana begins to explain to us. Gentarō takes his stance and I prepare to boost him, nervous for what she might be planning. "But I will be honest when saying this..." The barrier slowly comes to a finish, the announcer just about ready to tell us to start. "I only fancy men who can keep up with me in a fight." She winks.

"Is that so? Well, you're in for quite the tre-"

"Begin!" The announcer says and the second she does, Gentarō suddenly is sent flying and bounces off the barrier right beside me, having been knocked back by the tip of a blunt spike that starts at Usana's front and stops a couple feet in front of me where Gentarō was standing.

When I look over at Usana, her hair and eyes are glowing pinks, as are her peacock's feathers. "Hope you can keep up with me boys." She winks at with a playful smile on her face, and my nerves quickly begin to build as my hair and eyes glow white, boosting Gentarō.

Gentarō flies toward Usana with a smile on his face, having kicked the barrier to give himself momentum. "Now this is what I'm talking about!" He says excitedly as he flies.

"G-Gentarō! Don't just charge i-" I try to warn Gentarō, but a pink spike forms above him and slams him against the ground the instant he's within a certain range of Usana, making him grunt heavily and cough up a bit of blood.

"Ah ah ahhhh~ Gonna have to try harder than that, Gentarō and Genta. I was holding back in the first match, though I'm not sure if you saw anything or not." She giggles in an attractive manner. My eyes go wide as I see blood spilling from Gentarō's lips, and I put my all in boosting him.

Now getting a grasp of just how strong she really is, Gentarō continues to smile confidently, but his gaze is much more serious. "I guess I should stop holding back too then..!" He presses his palms against the ground and begins to push himself up off the ground, moving the pink spike that's pinning him along with it. Usana's eyes widen with interest as she grasps her chin, and before long Gentarō uses the entirety of his boost power, for real this time, to force the spike off of him and kick it away, using it as leverage to launch himself to Usana once more. Usana creates a circle of spikes in front of her, all facing sideways to form a shield of sorts as Gentarō thrusts his palm forward. However, against the full might of mine and Gentarō's combined boost abilities, the spikes are easily sent flying back.

"Oh dear, perhaps I should've embedded them into the ground." Usana says with a giggle before making one of the spikes thinner, grabbing it and thrusting it at Gentarō rapidly. With his lightning fast reflexes, Gentarō manages to dodge the spike, but he seems to be having trouble doing so.

"How can she keep up with someone who's been boosted times eight..?!" I ask myself internally as I watch the fight progress. Usana thrusts the spike one more time at Gentarō's face, and although Gentarō seems to dodge perfectly, his cheek still gets cut. Gentarō's eyes narrow and he quickly thrusts his palm forward towards Usana's stomach, but she quickly tosses her spike in the air and it spins, while she crosses her arms over her chest to defend as that one spike seems to create many others until another spike circle has formed. Once again however, the spike circle is blown away, but it does keep Usana from getting too hurt from Gentarō's attack from what I can tell.

Usana skids back, creating a few more spikes around her. "My goodness, you really are quite good. You have my respect, Gentarō."

"And you're pretty good yourself. To the untrained eye, it probably looked like you were moving at lightning speed just now, when in actuality you were just creating a bunch of spikes to make it look like you were moving fast, right?"

Usana's eyes widen a bit with shock, but she smiles, clearly impressed. "Well well well, I don't think anyone's ever been able to see my extra spikes before. I've got a mound of other tricks under my sleeve though~" She winks at Gentarō with a playful smile on her face. "I wonder if you'll be able to see through them all...~"

Gentarō pauses before slowly sighing. "You know, this is pretty disappointing."

Usana tilts her head. "Whatever do you mean?"

"I can't believe someone like you is so highly respected. You use tricks to win battles. I bet people slowly lose faith in their abilities when they fight with you, thinking you're more powerful than you actually are. People who fight like that...really piss me off..." Gentarō's smile fades and he narrows his eyes.

"Is that so..?" Usana chuckles and summons several dozen spikes around herself. "Tricks or no, it's not my fault no one's smart enough to see them. If you think that just because I use tricks that it makes me weak..." Usana's hair and eyes glow menacingly. "I'll show you how wrong you are, booster." She rapidly fires all the spikes at Gentarō, and Gentarō rushes in at the exact same time, tilting left and right and spinning around to nimbly avoid each of her spikes as he gets closer to her. Noticing this, Usana takes a step forward and several spikes form on the ground in front of her, blocking Gentarō's path and only growing larger by the second.

Gentarō easily manages to jump over them though, kicking the top of the barrier to launch himself toward Usana. Usana quickly creates even more spikes in his path and fires several more at him. However, Gentarō uses the spikes she fires as leverage to keep getting closer to her, as well as the spikes left in his path until she can't even back away anymore. Gentarō closes in and Usana closes her eyes tightly, holding up her arms in defense, but nothing happens to her, for Gentarō stops just before his palm makes contact with her, the force of it blowing her hair a bit however. Usana stares at Gentarō with wide eyes, slowly collapsing to her knees. "Why didn't you..."

"Because, it's disrespectful to harm someone who doesn't have the will to continue fighting. After that, it's just bullying." Gentarō holds out his hand with a smile. "You can be way stronger without having to resort to such silly tricks you know. I think if you did that, I could bring myself to respect you."

Usana stares at Gentarō and her eyes seem to shimmer somewhat, her mouth slightly agape. She looks down with a smile on her face before taking Gentarō's hand. "I admit defeat."

I smile brightly and laugh a little bit. "We...We actually won!" I cheer.

"I can't believe it folks! The two boosters have actually defeated Usana!" The announcer states and the crowd doesn't cheer nor boo, stunned into silence.

Gentarō looks back at me and grins as Usana's spikes slowly fade away, and he walks over to me. "What'd I tell ya?" He ruffles my hair. "People are finally starting to see our strength, Genta."

I can't help but give him an actual grin. "Yeah..!" The three of us exit on our respective sides of the arena, and then the two Cube Acolytes enter as their names are called, and their expressions are pretty intense. I can't help but wonder how this fight will go.