Zirco lay on the ground and panted heavily. His entire body was sluggish and it felt like his muscles were torn. He saved the lava-spewing trick throughout the entire tournament in the event that he was going to fight a tough enemy that was resistant to simple flames like Deku's resilient sand armor. He saved it as a last resort should all else fail, and that was as good an opening as he could get.
Even if the round was over, it didn't matter. Even if he didn't get the prize, it didn't matter. All that mattered was that Katachi was dead. All that mattered was a stage where he could be seen performing a spell as powerful as that. Surely his strength would be recognized regardless of the skirmish's outcome. Zirco took deep breaths and readjusted his blood pressure. He felt the slight bursts of energy returning to his body with every inhale.
Z: "..."
Zirco stared silently at the azure sky of Cosmatral Silo, a beauty that couldn't normally be seen over the skies of Mielfeud. It was not a scene common to anywhere in the world, perhaps – The only place with such scenic visuals was probably Auser with their mountains and wide, open plains. But traveling to Auser for the view wasn't really worth the effort-
Z: (!?)
A sound. A loud sonorous sound that was not made from the bubbling lava. A sound of wood dropping onto metal which was not made by Zirco's wooden sword echoed throughout Cosmatral Silo.
Z: (That's probably from Katachi's dagger.)
Zirco reassured himself a little bit with the information, and slowly closed his eyes to recover and let the situation sit in-
K: "Quite the surprise attack."
Z: "!?" (What?)
Zirco widened his eyes in shock. Did his attack miss? No, it couldn't have. Lava provided an immense burst of heat over tenfold of a stove, one that surpassed the flames he used in the tournament. Even if he barely dodged the lava, its heat should be strong enough to make him scream in pain from the burn or grate and drag himself over the metal floor. It should have at least produced some form of sound even if he survived the process.
But it didn't make sense. Those noises were absent and the delay the wooden dagger took to drop was far too long. Something beyond his expectations must have happened. With the tiny bit of regained energy, Zirco forced his body up to see what happened.
... Amidst the lava was a naked boy with numerous bruises and scars across his back and limbs. The sight of raw flesh was rather repulsive, but considering the pile of fabric that resembled the school uniform burning next to his feet, it was clear the get-up was unintentional.
It was the bastard child he looked down upon so, but something was truly unusual. The child stood within lava naturally and he bent down to pick up a dagger. How was he not dead yet? Could anyone actually walk in lava? Were there ever records of legends who withstood the molten earth? As he stood up straight, something even more baffling caught his eye.
Z: (! A golden word... 定!? That thing on his chest is a Word of Power!)
Much to his disbelief.
Z: (Where... Where did he get that from? Did he ask for that Word of Power from one of the teachers? Was it Mister Rekter? That's cheating!)
K: "Are you happy now, Zirco? Does foiling a plan bring you joy? You have no idea how hard I've worked to hide this power from everyone."
Yet the answer was not as innocent as he imagined.
Z: (Hide... The power?)
With a snap of his fingers, Zirco suddenly experienced an immense pressure. The air around him became heavy. It weighed his body down, and he couldn't get up at all. Was the energy he regained that minuscule? No. That wasn't it. It felt like something was pulling and chaining him down.
Zirco tried as he may, but the force was too strong – He gave up after a few seconds of meaningless struggle and was pinned onto the floor by an unknown force belly up. As he forced himself to turn his head Zirco saw the huge, golden 定 on the floor he was sprawled on.
Z: (!! There's one here, too... So he didn't borrow the power – He has the Word of Power itself! When did he get his hands on one?!)
K: "... All the effort I've put into learning water spells..."
Katachi pinched the dagger by its handle with only three fingers and positioned it above Zirco's immobilized left hand. He simply released his grip and let the dagger plummet into the ground at a shocking force.
Z: "GAAAAAAAHHH- AHAHH!?!" (The dagger just went straight through my hand!? It's made of wood! How is that even possible!?)
The searing pain coursed through his arm. Blood was coming out of the hole in his left hand. The middle and ring fingers slowly grew cold, limp and numb. As he clenched his left hand to relieve the pain with pressure, he felt the sticky, crimson liquid over his index and little fingers. It smelled of liquid iron and it stained the wooden blade.
His middle and ring fingers didn't move at all. They were dead – Their nerves were severed cleanly with that attack. Katachi stepped on his left wrist and pulled the dagger out of his hand. The scene before his eyes was so surreal that Zirco didn't even notice that the word on the floor was gone. He grabbed his left hand with his right to clamp the parted flesh and ease the pain as much as he could, but then...
K: "All this time, I had to use my Word of Power secretly so nobody would see it." (设定. Set dagger weight – seven hundred fold.)
The dagger was sent pile-driving downwards at him once again – This time, on the right hand clutching the left. Both hands were impaled like meat on a şiş kebap with no bell peppers or onions.
Z: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!"
His screams were projected over the coliseum, intensifying the feelings of fear amid the audience. They were all staring at Katachi in horror at the misuse of his Word of Power brutally hurting Zirco over and over again. The child plucked the dagger out once more before wiping and spreading the blood off on Zirco's sleeve like it was butter.
Zirco's breathing turned erratic as he tried to relieve the pain on both hands. They were both bleeding – One with a horizontal wound and the other with two intersecting lines across the palm that formed a wayward cross. The dagger punctured cleanly through his hands and there was no way to apply pressure on the both of them effectively to stop or lessen the bleeding.
K: "All of it, ruined by you and your stupidly large ego."
Katachi grabbed Zirco by his left arm, wrapped it around his neck and hoisted him up. He was about to sheathe the dagger before he remembered that his clothes were gone, so instead, he slotted the wooden dagger into Zirco's coat pocket and began walking. Though he could have left Zirco to himself, though he could have returned the abuse even more.
He could have just outright killed him, for all it was worth. But he didn't. Mother Rin told him that the teachings of Segus were sacred, and ought to be treated with the highest respect. If Segus forbade killing, he shall not kill. If Segus encouraged him to feed his body to the needy, he would gladly follow. If Segus insisted to resolve situations with the least damage, he would oblige.
If it were to honor and respect the mother that raised him, Katachi would willingly follow a figure like so. He slowly staggered with the dazed, hyperventilating Zirco to the obelisk in Cosmatral Silo. A light touch on the obelisk crystal was all it took to transport them out.
*** ***
Ba: "... Katachi."
Katachi slowly rested Zirco on the bench and caught the dagger before it slipped out of the pocket. He grabbed a cup by the side and scooped a bit of the brown remedy from a barrel in the center of the room.
Ba: "Katachi!"
Katachi moved the dagger to a side so he could sit.
K: (The bench is hot... Then again, I don't have clothes on so I'm feeling the full brunt of its heat raw. Just stomach it down for now.)
He shored Zirco against the wall in an upright position and fed the viscous murk into his mouth.
Ba: "Katachi!! Don't ignore me!"
K: "Just say what's on your mind. I don't care if it's an insult."
Ba: "You had a Word of Power with you? All this time?"
Katachi placed the empty cup down on the bench and glared at Bael with cold eyes. His reluctance to divulge the information finally made sense.
Ba: "Why were you trying to hide it?"
Katachi looked away to the side, afraid of meeting Bael in her eyes again.
K: "... Because it wouldn't be fair using such an absurd magic in the tournament."
A 定 formed on Katachi's right palm and he looked at it, lips curling down with a bitter light. He raised his hand and displayed the sigil to Bael clearly.
K: "Because having this meant being ostracised."
Ba: "Why would I ever judge you for it?"
K: "I've read it in bamboo books. I've noticed how the one person who's the oddity is always looked down upon, who's always the target of others. People will always push their misgivings on others to make themselves feel better. I've had enough of that in Mielfeud. That's why... That's why I wanted to zip past everything in life, to just move along without making friends. Then you showed up."
Ba: "Nobody would blame you for having a magic like that."
In response, Katachi leered at Bael with a fierce expression. His eyebrows loosened and he closed his eyes while taking a deep breath. He walked towards a pile of damaged uniforms and dressed in the clothes he found the most intact and fitting. When he was properly attired, he picked up the dagger and shoved it in his coat.
K: "I think not."
Katachi headed towards the door to the coliseum's spectator area and opened it casually. The students all peered at him with doubtful looks. Hundreds of eyes pierced the doorway, many mumbles and background chatter were heard, and they all stared at Katachi like he was some sort of rare animal.
K: "Isn't this proof enough?"
It wasn't doing any good trying to confront Katachi in the first place. She too knew deep down that the odd one out was always the one isolated. When she experimented with Vithrolu's spells for her traps, she constantly touched the decayed and rotting objects. She began producing a similar odor as a result of her overexposure. It stung the noses of other students who didn't understand her, and in response, they all complained and suggested that Bertund should move her away.
Wherever she went, she was shunned – As much as Katachi was the target of gossip right now. She knew those feelings well. Yet in a desperation to stop someone else from experiencing the same, she hypocritically spoke up. But if speaking up was all it took to resolve the problem, then Bael would not be suffering from her current situation.
Her role was redundant. She couldn't do anything to help Katachi be honest or relieved. She couldn't be the 'big sister' role she wanted to be for him to confide in. She didn't even know why she spoke up, apart from the faint notion that she felt something was wrong.
D: "I figured your trick wasn't so simple."
Deku walked towards them from the corridor.
Ba: "Deku?"
K: "I'm surprised you figured it out."
D: "Of course I'd notice – Powerful Reincarnate Art users have great faith in the god they borrow power from. Defeating me despite your lack of faith in Soltak was a dead give-away."
K: "... I suppose I can't hide anything from the informed."
D: "No. You can't."
The two sat quietly in the silence, simmering in their own shortcomings. Deku clicked his tongue and pointed behind him towards the doorway.
D: "Bertund wants to see you. He's waiting at the atrium."
K: "Okay. Tell him I'll be there shortly."
Katachi walked out of the doorway and towards the atrium, ignoring the spectators and the gathering crowd.
*** ***
Be: "Ahh, you're here-... With a majority of the school's cohort, I see."
Katachi walked into the atrium with the huge group of students fearfully following behind him.
K: "They followed me here. I don't know why, but they did."
Be: "The Words of Power are a rare and powerful magic after all. It's been mere decades since its emergence and everyone is afraid of it because they know that they're staring at death itself. They would clearly be afraid and curious at the same time as to what you'll do with it."
K: "... Okay, but how do I get them to stop?"
Be: "Explain it to them."
A solution was often simple, but that did not mean it was easy.
K: (And risk Rekter overhearing?!) "I- Ex- Explain?!"
Be: "Yes. Explain."
Bertund used a stick that surfaced from nowhere and 'drew' on one of the curvy pillars the word 解. The stone pillar eroded where the stick came in contact and formed the word on that section of the pillar immediately.
Be: "Right, then, Mister Kotsuba, tell me something you know about this word to me. Clearly."
A lot of chatter appeared behind Katachi.
"What's that symbol up there?"
"Did you see the principal draw that effortlessly?"
"What kind of magic is that?"
"Is that in Ohde or Anik?"
"It's probably Ohde, since that guy has black hair."
Katachi ignored the noisy students behind who knew little about what was going on. He faced Bertund and spoke softly, but clearly, reassuring the green man that he was mentally prepared to face Rekter.
K: "The word up there is 解. In Ohde it's read as Kai, but in Anik it's read as Jiě. The meaning it has in Ohde usually refers to a solution to a problem, and it also means an unlocking or unsealing power. In Anik it can have different meanings besides solution and unseal. For..."
Katachi nervously looked around himself at the students who were now attentively listening to him. He didn't want Rekter to be around, just in case.
K: "For example, 了解 means 'understand', and 松解 means to release or loosen and free, which is contextually different from unsealing. The word can have many different meanings depending on how it is used. That's... That's pretty much all I know for this word though."
"That word's different from the one on his chest earlier..."
"Does that mean he has two? But, that can't be possible! Nobody's ever had two!"
"Do all Words of Power glow? And what color do they glow in?"
"So that's a Word of Power..."
"That's real, huh..."
Be: (You sneaky little devil. Coming up with common terms in fear of raising Rekter's precedence level by accident? Smart, commendable, but unnecessary.) "... Good. You've done your research. Now then... Mister Rekter, your attendance is required."
Bertund took off his glove and held his hand to his opposite shoulder. The recall spell activated and a familiar teacher in brown appeared from thin air.
R: "Yeah?"
Be: "I'm afraid you're going to be humiliated, Rekter. The child's already won."
R: "What? Him?"
His chuckle was innocuous and plain – It made Katachi a little worried, but if everything went according to plan it was the ideal outcome he sought.
R: "Ahahahahaha, no, no, a mere student can't possibly beat a teacher."
K: "Is that so, Mister Rekter?"
Rekter's face turned serious when Katachi spoke up.
R: "What do you want, a test?"
K: "Yes."
R: (I figured it'd boil down to this sooner or later, but this early? It doesn't matter. I can beat him. I've improved my precedence level so I'm not the Rekter from before!) "Very well. But, if you're so insistent on a test, you're going to have to take into account the responsibility of failure!"
That declaration was immediately followed by a despicable act.
R: (解开! Unfasten hook – Chandelier!)
A golden word formed on the chain attached to the ceiling. The hook on the chandelier unfastened and the chandelier on the ceiling fell. The students in the atrium were completely unprepared and most could only widen their eyes in horror at the imminent crash.
K: (Not good! 固定! Fixate object – Chandelier!)
The chandelier froze midfall with a 定 on its rim and the students finally recovered from their daze upon hearing the jingling of the chandelier's ornaments.
R: "I got you!" (解除! Remove external effects – Chandelier!)
Rekter's 解 was stapled over Katachi's 定 and the true battle began.
R: (The chandelier shall fall, and the students beneath crushed by his failure- !?)
解 faded away. Not 定, but 解. The result of the absolutes clashing was made completely clear; Katachi's precedence level at the moment was now higher than Rekter's.
R: "What?! How?! When!? Mine should have dissolved yours! How did you raise your precedence level so quickly?!"
Katachi pushed the students beneath the chandelier away first, before undoing his 定 to let the chandelier crash into the floor without casualties.
R: "What did you do?!"
Katachi glared at the irresponsible teacher with seething eyes.
K: "Are you insane!? Why didn't you pull the students away first?! What would have happened if they died by your hand!?"
Katachi's hands were trembling in cold sweat and his eyes burned vibrantly, reflecting his inner rage. The fact that other innocent lives were mere moments from being injured overshadowed the pacified outcome like a giant maw devouring a shed feather.
K: "I can't believe such an irresponsible teacher even existed! Shelly was right – You really are mad with power. You are so delusional that you neglect the most important and basic of things like respect, or ensuring everyone's safety!"
A child's anger would be chided as immature to throw illogical tantrums. But Katachi's rage burned a new history in his resolve. For the very first time, Katachi cussed in a manner most uncouth.
K: "You... You asshole!"