Both Hitori and Kamiya took the day off. Since the rules did not allow the qualified students to take more than two straight days off, their fights were scheduled for today.
Hitori's stuff was shifted to a new room on a new floor. He was lying on his bed at six in the morning with a blanket over him. Atama scolded him for fighting in the hallway and lectured him for chanting the forbidden curses.
Atama scolded Kamiya, too. Akemi watched as it happened. She was clenching her wand and gritting her teeth all the time. Even though it was Hitori's fault, in her eyes it was Hitori's fault, Kamiya was getting scolded.
Atama told both of them, "I forgive you this time, but the next time you chant those dark curses in this castle, you will not only be rusticated but will be sent to the ministry."
After that, they spent the day lying and eating in their beds. For the first time, they both realized Akemi's experience on the bed. How frustrating and how helpless it feels to get help from others while all you do is lie in bed.
The morning came, the birds chirped on the top of the castle towers, and the wizards let out an alarm at six-thirty to wake up not only the students but the whole neighborhood.
Hitori grabbed the covers and threw them over to the other side as he jumped out of his bed. He went straight to the washroom, came out, got dressed, and left the room to take his breakfast.
It was seven when Hitori reached the restaurant and as he had expected, it was empty. The staff was setting the tables and chairs, the counter, and activated the menu cards.
Hitori walked to the counter, a lady lifted her head at him. "Can I order something?" he asked.
"Sure, sir."
He did not want to see Kamiya during breakfast, in fact, he did not want to see anyone during breakfast. So he arrived early, finished early, and left early for the arena.
The lots were out by now, but the first battle did not start till eight o'clock. So Hitori had time to spare, he went straight to the Vr-cade.
He first checked his inbox-- it was booming with messages and requests from the players from all over the Tokyo server. He did not bother to read every request, he deleted them all.
Hitori opened the invite tab and sent an invite once again. This time with a caption: Recruiting. Limited seats: only twenty-five.
He received one immediately. He ignored them, he decided to wait till tomorrow before checking in again.
He checked on Reon, she was offline. Kamiya's account 'God's Hell' was just lying there lifelessly now. And Kamiya's other account 'Divine Valley' had not posted a single video in the last three days. Bet he was losing some fans.
Kuchiki had not contacted him either. He did say he would come back but I guess he knows how hard it would be to handle the conquest trials and an attack on the territory. Perhaps Kuchiki will wait till Hitori graduates.
What if he attacks before… Hitori sighed. He remembered his fight from yesterday, they almost killed each other.
Then he thought about their first fight together on the rooftop. They had each other's back, they fought together to kill Fierce. Things changed so much in a month.
'Streamer…' Hitori thought, 'w-what would go wrong if I join him— no, he will join me, I would not— but what is wrong? W-We can be a pretty good team together, earn money— no, it would reveal our strategy, but we could keep changing it– then what would be our original strategy? Nothing.'
Then he skipped from a gaming-streaming debate to a magic debate.
'Should I just give up on learning magic? I know pretty much how to protect myself and fight— Kiku-san would not like it. Kiku-san… Tengoku. He will die, but what if Onogi and Kuzu shake hands with him? It would be hell. Perhaps I should leave Kamiya… yes, he fought me, it is best if I leave him alone. Let him deal with his shit. No, no, no, this is not me.'
Hitori took a deep breath. 'I think… it would be better if I give everything up and live a normal life or die. Give up on being a streamer, give up on being a gamer, give up on being a qualified wizard, and give up on my plan to defeat Onogi.'
But that is not an option, it was not an option, that was never an option. Hitori tapped his table, he took a look at the time, he had only five minutes to reach back.
Hitori got up from the console, closed the Vr-cade's door behind him, and started heading towards the portal.
The lack of audience resulted in fewer cheers and shouts in the arena, and hence, less enthusiasm and excitement. The ones who were sitting either had no work at home or had too much work at home or their kids were still fighting to get a spot in the top fifty.
Hitori arrived at the arena, no one seemed to care about him as he casually walked to the grassland on the corner and took a look at the lots.
The lots were hanging in the air. Hitori found himself in the fourth spot and his opponent was the fifth-rank student– Kamiya Jigoku.
His heart skipped a beat. Hitori read the lots once again, and yeah, it was true. Suddenly the crowd broke into a sort of booing. Hitori turned to the entrance and found a guy wearing loose glasses and a cloak walking to the grassland.
"Throw him out!"
"He is a monster! Feed him to the monsters!"
"Resticate him! Expel him!"
Kamiya ignored the crowd and took off his cloak as he reached the grassland. Hitori kept watching as Kamiya twisted his shoulders and threw the cloak on the ground.
Kamiya kept his eyes down, he stretched his neck and limbs, getting ready for the final battle. Hitori realized he had to warm up too. He cracked his knuckles and stretched his arms.
Then Kamiya lifted his eyes at Hitori, glaring at him. "This would be the last time, Hitori," he said.
Hitori looked at him and nodded. "It should be the last one, Kamiya."
The wizard on the side raised his wand. "Are you ready?" he asked.
Kamiya nodded, still glaring at Hitori.
"Are you ready?" The wizard pointed his wand at Hitori.
He nodded. "I am." He pushed his shoulders back, popping his chest.
"Hands on your wands," he said.
Kamia and Hitori pushed their piece of cloth and grabbed the thick end of their wand. The wizard glanced at both of them.
"The use of curses is prohibited," he whispered, "do not kill each other, kids." Then he took a step back. "Wands at the ready."
Hitori and Kamiya drew their wands and clenched them to their sides. Hitori took a step forward, and Kamiya took a step back. Hitori raised his left hand by his side, ready for an outbreak of spells.
"Let the spells dance."
Kamiya raised his wand and chanted, "Electrify!"
Till now, Hitori feared the teachers. He would gain attention if he used it, he would have to answer all sorts of questions if they spot him using it, and many will hate him for what he is.
But right now, he did not care about it. He did not care what the teachers will think when he uses it, it did not matter whether the teachers would be suspicious of him for knowing something he should not.
From his left raised hand, Hitori released a striking flame of fire before Kamiya's electric beam could reach him.
Kamiya's eyes widened. "Bastard! He used it!" he said, as he rolled on the ground to dodge the fireblast. "It is cheating."
The wizards standing around adjusted their eyes. "Did I just see him use an element without a wand?"
Kamiya got to his knees, he raised his hand, still running, and chanted, "Water beam!"
The teachers and wizards gasped. Senso dropped his head and Atama smiled. They used it, both of them, without caring about the people. They were free.
"Hydro pump!" Kamiya threw his wand.
"Flamethrower!" Hitori used both his wand and the empty hand.
Now even the audience was clear about the situation. They were using magic without a wand. Kuchiki was staring at them in disbelief. His eyes were fixed on them, he had folded his hands, and he had a distorted expression on his face.
Due to excessive use of fire, the grassland was already set on fire. Kamiya's water and ice spells kept the fire under control but it was slowly growing wild.
Then Hitori cast an ice spell, beaking through his fire and the smoke, his ice reached Kamiya.
He slashed his wand and cut the ice spikes. "Hi-Busou!" he chanted.
Hitori would not stop his wand from flying out of his hand and falling out of the ring. He raised his eyes at Kamiya who was charging at him.
"I do not need a wand." He turned to Kamiya and took off.
Kamiya increased his pace. Hitori raised his hands and the ground moved.
The crowd scrambled when a pillar lifted Kamiya off the ground. Senso rubbed his eyes. Kuchiki released his arms and leaned forward with the same expression.
Hitori kicked a small block of ground and turned around. He started running towards the pillar. He got near the pillar, a step appeared in it. Steps appeared as Hitori kept climbing the pillar.
Kamiya found him right beneath him. He concentrated his mana on the wand. 'I can do this. Do this! For Akemi-nee-chan.' he yelled the last part.
The pillar moved. It grew shorter, it continued to grow shorter till it was enough height for Kamiya to jump off. Hitori followed him.
"Icicle spear!"
Kamiya jumped around. "Bakuhatsu!"
He shattered the spear into pieces, and a few fell off the ground and landed on the bystanders– the wizards and other players.
The impact pushed Hitori back to the ground. Kamiya continued to run away from Hitori.
Hitori got up but found a stinging pain in his abdomen. He doubted the explosion had opened his sealed abdomen wound. It was not deep and it was healed perfectly, yet it was hurting him.
Kamiya stood at the end of the grassland. They both waited for the smoke and fire to clear up. Hitori was panting, Kamiya was panting, and they both were hurty in some way.
Hitori looked at Kamiya, he looked back at Hitori and nodded. They took off. Hitori created an ice spear as he charged at Kamiya.
Kamiya used his wand to create flames. He lifted his wand and threw the flames at Hitori.
Hitori raised his icicle spear that turned into a snowstorm and knocked the fire like shit, it covered Kamiya with snow, which soon melted.
They closed in. Hitori raised his wand, and Kamiya pointed his wand. They were standing not more than four feet away from each other.
"Why, what happened? I thought you did not want to work for the ministry, why are you fighting then? Give up."
"Atama-sensei offered me safety and protection, my sister is safe now, and so am I. I do not want to ruin this by staying inside my room when I am a student here. This is the least I can do to thank him."
Hitori kept his hand still, Kamiya took a step to his side with his wand straight at Hitori and Hitori moved with him.
"What about you? Why are not you giving your best? Come on, use some dangerous spells. And end this."
"I want it to end, too. But not this way. Akemi-san must hate me by now, I know, but I wanted us to be friends, I guess, that is not possible anymore."
Hitori released a fireball.
Kamiya used Bakuhatsu again. Hitori dodged the impact this time. They rose in front of each other again.
"Yes, she hates you. And we can not go back to how we were, things have changed."
"To defeat Onogi, we need to work together."
"That is not possible, Hitori. I am doomed if you still think we can work together. Impossible."
"I do not think we can, but we have to." Hitori shook his head. "If I wanted to, I can kill you right now, I do not care about those silly forbidden curses. And I guess… you can, too."
"No, I can not. I have a sister to look after. I can not spend the rest of my life in prison. I have a responsibility."
"That is another reason why I am not killing you. As long as Onogi is threatening us, we can not be like this. We need to show him our trust and bond, if he sees weakness and, god forbid, if he knows the conflict between us, he will do one thing– Divide and Rule. We are already divided."
Kamiya's frown faded.
"I request, forget this conflict if you do not want the both of us to die– Akemi-san will die, too, you know that. So please, just as long as Onogi is still alive, forget this. We will be devastated by him and Tengoku if this goes on."
Hitori found Kamiya was lowering his wand, so he continued:
"Why did we win the Midnight Battle? Because we stuck together. And if we start fighting within ourselves, oh, we will be damned. Divide and Rule, I have told you, Onogi has already started it, he is holding Reon-san as a spy. Just until this ends, let us work together."
Kamiya raised his wand, Hitori moved his hand and formed a fireball but stopped when Kamiya pushed his wand in its scabbard. He looked at Hitori and nodded. "See you at the expeditions."
And he walked towards the ring. Hitori realized Kamiya was about to commit suicide by stepping out of the ring.
'Oh, wait, you are not going alone.' Hitori rushed behind him, he tucked his wand in the loophole.
They both stepped out of the ring at the same time.
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