Not much happened after Hitori dozed off and woke at nine o'clock in the morning. He found Akemi lying on the bed in front of him, Kamiya was nowhere to be found.
He pushed himself off the bed, Akemi was staring at him. "Akemi-san..."
"Thank you, Hitori... if you do not mind---"
"Y-Yeah, yeah, no problem." He rubbed his eyes and eyebrows. "Where is Kamiya?"
"Off to the arena."
"Why are you here then?"
"I can not watch him fight anymore. He would win but... he gets beaten."
Hitori nodded. "Ah, he is not much of a close-fighter, he likes to fight while keeping a distance between his opponent and him."
Silence. It was awkward. Hitori had calmed down and felt safe in the academy, his emotions were different from when his life was threatened, it is still now, but he felt safer than he did in his house or in the Vr-cade.
"Are you not going to the arena?" Akemi asked.
Hitori was going towards the washroom when he stopped. "I will. I need to qualify this thing. I just need some time to wake up and restore my strength before fighting... whoever my opponent is." He thought about his opponent but realized he does not know who it is.
Hitori took a shower, then went to the bathtub. He sat inside the bathroom for thirty minutes and Akemi had started to worry about his safety.
He dropped his head against the wall and thought about various things. His heart would beat every time he reflected on his actions in Onogi's house. He knew if he lose confidence right now because he lost the anger and fear, he would never be able to beat Onogi.
He stepped out of the bathroom, wearing a bathroom. Went straight to the wardrobe, he put on a hoodie and a cloak over it. Akemi was staring at the ceiling when he came out.
"Did you have your breakfast?" he asked.
"Yes, I did. It is almost ten o'clock."
"Right. I am heading outside, use the wand Atama-sensei gave you if needed. I think I will be back before dark, see ya."
He closed the door and locked it from outside. Akemi dropped her head on her bed's headrest and sighed. "I could not ask him..." her cheeks lightened up in red, "just how did he realize it?!"
Atama tried to change Hitori's schedule but it was tight, two fights a day, that too with one of the top fifteen students. He won his first fight of the day, which was with a female (ranked eleven), Hitori climbed to the top ten rankings, ranked eight.
He knew his competition would get harder from here. The lots were not yet since many students were still fighting. Hitori was done, he was not hungry either, he decided to pay the Vr-cade a visit. Not the city Vr-cade, but the academy's Vr-cade.
They had one, they do. He did not know if it was closed. He asked one of the wizards at the guard, he told Hitori the way and said, "No one has used them since the holidays, the Vr-cades are always low on business around this time of the year, students are preparing for the expeditions."
"Can I play?"
"You can, for free, for sure. Take this way and you will find a portal at a distance of thirty meters. And you will find the castle's map in each square. You know the rest of the process."
Hitori walked out of the arena and walked straight for thirty meters. He found the portal dangling in the air at the 'Portal Square', and there was a map in the air, hanging by a wooden log.
Hitori took the portal, it threw him out in another square. Snow all around, grass otherwise, he saw wagons on the cleared road. Since it had not snowed in two days, the roads were cleared and sleds were thrown back into the storage.
He looked for the map. It displayed the shops and stores around each corner just as they were in reality, Hitori was amazed by its precision. He found the Vr-cade at the end of the north street, just around the corner.
The Vr-cade was open. Its roof was covered with snow and a pile of snow had accumulated at the doorway. Hitori had to melt the snow to open the door. The lamps turned on as he walked in, he did not see a single person at the counter– heck, it was empty– the absence of players made Hitori feel lonely.
He rushed to the counter and dropped his card into it. The game processed, its name appeared in blood-red kanji, then its logo appeared in the center. Hitori leaned forward in the chair as the stat screen appeared.
Numerous messages, the first thing. He deleted all of them and went to check on Kuchiki. The same messages he left before. He ran to Reon's inbox.
"Reon-san. If you are online, I want you to come to the courtyard, I have something important to share."
She did. He told her. She was trembling like crazy. Hitori noticed it and asked, "Is something wrong? There is no need to be that scared."
"Y-Yes, you are right, there is not."
Hitori frowned again. She was rubbing her face and had cupped her hands together, she was definitely trembling. Something was wrong. Hitori thought, but could not figure out what was wrong.
Hitori looked at Reon's forearm. He gulped and thought if he held Eya's hand for so long, maybe he could just touch Reon for a while, to calm her. "Are you okay—?" He moved his hand to her forearm.
She saw Hitori's hand coming for her, she widened her eyes and jerked her hand at his hand. "Y-Yes. Yes. I am, thanks."
Hitori took a perfect hit on his forearm and found his hand deflected by Reon. He was surprised at first, totally surprised. 'This is why I do not want to approach women, no one knows what they will do.'
What was the problem? She always touched him casually, he never liked it, but he did not hate it either. Then what made her act this way when Hitori tried to touch her for the first time.
"I got a message from Kuchiki."
"I did, too," she said.
"Oh… I called him here, he will be here in a minute, are you okay with that?"
Reon sighed. "What can I do now? It is already done."
They were standing in front of the Kori dungeon's entrance when Kuchiki appeared.
"Alone?" Hitori asked.
"Yeah, Hirohito is busy with the expedition at the academy."
"I see."
"So, Hitori," he said, Reon gasped, "you have a few things you would want to return, do not you?"
Hitori sighed. "Sure, sure. You broke my katana though."
"Ah, is that so? Keep the Demon Slayer then," he said.
Hitori raised his eyes. "Are you sure?"
"I am. Hirohito will find another one. I will get going."
"Fine…" Hitori expected something more.
"Ah," he turned, "I want you to know…" he walked back to the entrance, "this is not finished. It was not a satisfying battle at all. I thought you were serious, but remembering your battle last time and after watching you battle in the arena, I know you give your best when triggered by your emotions. We will come back."
"Oh, you do not want to come back."
Kuchiki smiled. "Good luck with the playoffs, Hitori, you are popular now, every girl has your name on her lips– let us meet outside." He waved his hand and logged out.
Hitori frowned. "What outside?"
"Hitori-san…" Reon said, "will you be okay?"
"Oh, I will, Reon-san, why?"
"You know… staying with Kamiya… uh, by the way, do you know a countercurse to a curse that rots someone's blood?"
That was it. Hitori raised his eyes and lowered them, he did not want Reon to suspect him of anything. He laughed instead.
"You know I do not know much about curses, why would you ask anyway?"
Her colors faded. "I-I, I just got curious."
"How could you get curious about a curse you have no chance of hearing from anyone?"
Reon licked her lip and looked down. "I heard it from someone…" she muttered. "No, I saw it in a movie– actually, it was a book converted to a movie, I read the book and found out about this curse, and I have been curious ever since."
Hitori nodded, he wanted to grin, he had caught the culprit. "Sorry, Reon-san, I do not know anything about it. Kamiya would not come online, he would not tell me either, sorry to disappoint you."
"Ah-huh, thanks. I-I will get going." Without looking at Hitori, she logged out.
Hitori finally grinned and shook his head. "I told you to come over to this site, you should have."
He logged out and was about to pull his card when he decided to stay updated about the trending shit on the game. He opened the game's site and browsed the trending list. His name was not on the top anymore, he would have scrolled for his name if he had not caught the name on the number one spot.
His mouth dropped. It was expected but not this soon. "Divine Valley. The streamer breaks records that were never created."
Do not know what idiot came up with that title. Before scrolling to find his name, he clicked on that article. A video started playing, the latest video streamed by Divine Valley.
As usual, he was fighting monsters, not conquering any dungeon. Hitori found him running around in circles, he kicked on the wall and jumped off, then used levitation to move his body to the other wall.
Others would have called this idiotic, but Hitori focused on his strategy, he was the number one after all. He could not figure out the reasoning behind his random circling motion, only for a while.
After making his second round around the monster, who was a dragon-type beast Hitori could not recognize, Divine Valley pulled his hood and stopped in front of the monster.
"My dear audience and my dear critics who may have laughed at my moves, this is for you." He joined his hands and concentrated his mana on an orange gem he was holding– it was a fire gem– the next second, fire erupted from his hands.
The monster stopped and tilted its head, it was not left confused any longer, and neither was the audience.
As if he had planted bombs in a circle and connected them with wire, on fire erupting from his hands, fire raised around the monster, trapping him in a circle.
Divine Valley stretched his hands, the fire raised taller and denser than before. Then he grinned and clapped his hands.
The fire collapsed, and he set the monster on fire. Hitori was amazed, he had to agree. But he was stunned when Divine Valley used his next move.
The gem had melted in his hands, he pulled an ice gem and concentrated his mana on it. He stretched his arms again, this time, ice erupted around the monster– with a radius shorter than the ring of fire.
He clapped his hands. The ice extinguished the fire and froze the monster in an instant.
"Now for the final shot, friends…" he opened his eyes and looked at the monster, "watch this."
He drew his wand. "Electrify!"
Hitori leaped forward. "E-Electrify?"
The beam of electricity struck the monster, devastating it in a second. Hitori sat back and shook his head.
"Nah… t-this is a different person." Because the spell's intensity was much greater than Kamiya's electric beam.
Hitori dropped back into his chair and looked at the dark ceiling. "Oh crap… where is the gamer inside me?"
He went back to the trending list. Kuchiki's duo was on the second spot, and Onogi's army was right below them. The trio's name was on the fourth number.
He sighed. "Not now." He logged out and got up to leave the Vr-cade.
He walked past his alley, and another, he reached the entrance and was about to leave when he imagined he saw someone.
Hitori looked over his shoulder. Yes, he could sense someone sitting behind him with a wide grin, a leg over the other, and arms resting on the chair's head.
Hitori jerked his body and raised his hand at the person.
He manifested a ball of fire on his palms.
"You should learn to use something better than elements, they are not much help in the future." The slim man in purple robes raised from the chair. "I waited this long for you and this is how you treat me? No one wants to kill you outside the game, at least, I do not."
Hitori sighed. He looked at the pair of purple eyes, and the dark purple hair made it sure for him. "You do not know, Kuchiki." He lowered his hand.
"Nice to meet you, Saibai Hitori, the popular rising wizard of the academy. That is what they call you." He shrugged.
"Hi, Kuchiki. I got to go."
"Yeah, yeah, sure. Let me take you." He leaned forward and touched Hitori's shoulder before Hitori could move.
When his vision cleared, he saw a crowd of over a thousand people cheering and shouting.
"Win this battle, you will be qualified for the expeditions."
Hitori felt the hand over his shoulder fade away. He looked at his side, then behind. Kuchiki had disappeared.
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