.
The sudden changes to the Sacred Forest Academy's team were suddenly cast upon the members. The two reserve participants didn't expect to be able to participate in this tournament but they had now been given a chance and were itching to go right away. With Kazuya, their most dominating member providing pointers unexpectedly, he was able to keep his team's morale up.
"How did the captain get injured?" Nishida asked still looking a bit worried.
"Hey do you like the captain?" Kazuya changed the topic to avoid talking about Mahiru.
"N-n-n-no I don't! I was just c-curious about it!" Nishida denied it but the answer was already quite obvious.
"Well I don't care who you like and why but, isn't this a chance? If you win gloriously in her place then wouldn't she see you in a better light?" he tried to hold back his laughter. It made him remember the time that he thought like this.
"Really?" hope filled his eyes. He didn't doubt Kazuya one bit especially after seeing Kyouko and Mei fawning over him.
"You can tell her that you worked hard for her sake or you were motivated to win because she was here or something" Kazuya said. They were surprised that he could actually be like this. They never actually talked to him aside from the regular greetings or him pointing out a few things he noticed.
"""Genius!""" They exclaimed. They took his advice to heart which made Kazuya's face fill with black lines. These naïve upperclassmen of his were even more gullible than he was back then.
At the side, Miyamoto was relieved. After the sudden change of their team's structure and the missing two members, he thought that morale would plummet. With Kazuya's help not only were they motivated, their moods even improved.
"(And here I thought that he didn't know how to socialize. Good job Kouzuki-kun)" Miyamoto was grateful and praised him in his heart.
The team they went up against first had the 6th grader who finished second in the last tournament. Miyamoto had taken note that she would be going up first like last year's team tournament. She was the reason that their team matches ended early the last time and affected the morale of the whole team with a dominating win as their vanguard.
Nishida and the others were aware who she is and what happened to them last time so Miyamoto sent Kazuya as their vanguard this time. Kazuya agreed so he stepped into the ring and saw the smirk on the opponent's face.
"Looks like they sent a new member for the slaughter. I doubt that anyone would have wanted to be in your position after what happened to that big guy last year" she glanced at Nishida who avoided her gaze. "Huh?" She looked back at her opponent and found that he wasn't paying attention.
Kazuya had been looking towards the direction where he felt a peculiar gaze. There he found Kuronuma Ayame whose eyes were locked onto him from the other arena's waiting area. She wasn't paying attention to her team's match but was rather interested in seeing his match.
"(I wasn't able to see your matches earlier but show me what you've got)" she thought. She wanted to tell him this but she would be penalized if she made a disturbance.
"(You don't have what it takes)" Kazuya got the gist of her thoughts from her eyes.
"(Huh!?)" Ayame's mouth gaped "(Did he just… and I…)" She heard his voice as if he was beside her. She knew it was impossible but judging from her reaction, he should have heard her too.
"(Uh oh)" Kazuya shifted his gaze. He was surprised to know that the girl actually just activated the 'whisper' skill coincidentally. It was a communication skill using mana but had the requirement of both people being under a certain distance.
"You have a lot of guts ignoring me and eyeing Kuronuma Ayame instead" the girl in front of him said.
"Pardon me If I have offended you. That girl has been staring at me quite intently and earlier declared that she wanted to marry me but I declined" he told his opponent the truth. "I am quite sensitive to being stared at and thought it might affect our match" he politely bowed to apologize.
"Huh?" The haughty girl was startled by how polite he was. "Kuronuma did that?" She was intrigued. She suddenly wanted him to take off the headgear protecting his face since she really didn't pay attention to the other team.
"Thank you for understanding. I was afraid to have incurred the wrath of a beautiful young lady" he bowed trying hard to hide his own surprise. This was another one of the tricks he learned from Miyamoto in dealing with girls who were unreasonable. 'Compliment them despite the anger' were his words and they proved very effective.
"Wha—" the girl was suddenly shy. Kazuya felt cold gazes from different directions but shook it off. Miyamoto on the other hand felt proud seeing the boy actually put into practice his random preaching. His male teammates looked at him like a hero who subdued an undefeatable monster.
"Ehem… get in position" the referee interrupted. Both of them followed to avoid being penalized.
Because of her unsettled heart, Kazuya won without any problems. Without getting a point, the girl didn't seem that affected at all and hurried to her seat. She took of her gear and took a peek at Kazuya who talked to his teammate who was next in line before sitting down. She held her breath waiting to see the face under the headgear.
"Captain are you okay?" one of her teammates asked but there was no response. Her gaze was locked and glittering as seeing Kazuya's black flowing hair and glistening sweat. Her vision seemed to have slowed down as he noticed her gaze and gave her a warm smile instantly causing her face to flush.
"(This kid… am I creating a monster?)" Miyamoto wondered. He would glance towards the stands and towards the attractive ladies he claimed to be his wives. One was not present but the remaining one showed hostility immediately after seeing Kazuya's opponent act coyly.
Sacred Forest Academy was going strong this year. They soundly beat last year's 2nd place champions in the team competition without taking a single loss. Due to Kazuya continuing his 2-0 victory streak, his teammates tried to follow suit and were successfully win the three starting matches without the robot girl getting a chance to enter the stage.
Their morale was high as they lined up with the first team they had outside the venue. The bespectacled vice-captain stood in for Mahiru but he was ignored as Kuronuma Ayame moved to stand in front of Kazuya instead.
"I didn't think we would actually meet until the individual matches 'Kouzuki Kazuya'" She smiled at him. Ayame was glad that he didn't disappoint.
"Congratulations, you found out what my name is" he sarcastically replied.
"We'll settle this here. I took the vanguard just to do so. I'll even forfeit in the individual matches if you beat me here and now" her statement shocked even the referee who was listening in.
"Too bad. I didn't register as the vanguard this time. Your opponent is our vice-captain this time" Kazuya ignored her and bowed with the others before returning to his team's side.
"Good call Kouzuki. That girl really did take the first seat after she saw you in the previous match" Miyamoto patted his shoulder. Kazuya could tell what Ayame planned to do after he started ignoring her. He didn't want her to be able to use the whisper skill on him again so he avoided looking at her since Ayame had yet to discover how to utilize the skill.
Needless to say, their vice-captain lost the first match without putting up much of a fight. The robot girl was up next followed by Nishida and then Kazuya who secured them the championship for the team battles. They rejoiced after winning as their school who had finished early in the block stages in the last tournament made it all the way to become the champions.
Kazuya slipped away as the team was celebrating. He avoided Ayame and moved to meet Mei who was in a foul mood in the stands. She immediately grabbed him and put him on her lap showing off that he was hers to anyone who paid attention.
"Kazu" Mei pulled him towards her as if declaring ownership.
"What is it big sis?" he was already used to this so she let her do as she pleased while starting to circulate mana for them.
"Did you flirt with that girl in the match before last?" she started her interrogation. She stuck closer to him to get a feel of his heartbeat looking for any changes.
"Flirt? What is flirting big sis?" he knew what flirting was but due to Miyamoto's teachings, he was told that girls have a different way of defining things and would often use them to win an argument.
"What did you say to her then?"
"Oh… I apologized for not paying attention to what she was saying because the last year's champion was staring and got me distracted"
"Why did she suddenly start acting coy?"
"I don't know. She said I was polite and she didn't really know how to respond" he didn't even notice this so he paid it no mind. Even if it were true, he couldn't care less.
"Why was that champion staring at you then?"
"That weird girl says she felt something and called me her future husband" he dropped a bombshell but still held a neutral expression.
"Proposed!? Which girl dares try to seduce my Kazu from me" Kazuya could feel her hold tightening as he pointed towards Ayame who was still searching the arena area for him.
"That pretty girl? What did you say to her?" Mei's eyesight immediately locked on.
"I told her that I already had big sis and wasn't interested"
"What about Shiroyuki Jirou's granddaughter then? What do you think about her? She always keeps staring at you" satisfied with his answer, she rested her chin on top of his head lovingly.
"The robot girl? She's like a pet who follows me around. Her grandfather wants her to get stronger so she trains with me" This was his true opinion about her. He found Mei's interrogations quite interesting so he would answer them truthfully most of the time.
"I see… Somehow, I'm a bit worried especially after seeing how my Kazu keeps attracting these little thieving cats. Tell me if they give you trouble okay?" this was a subtle way of telling him that he only needed to call her if they were persistent. Kazuya understood both her meaning and intentions.
"Don't worry big sis. I want little to do with them as possible. No one can even compare to you big sis" he decided to calm her down. It wouldn't be too good if she continued this thinking for too long.
"Really?"
"Of course"
"Aww… I hope that doesn't change even when you reach 'that' age" she meant puberty. The little boy in her arms may change once he becomes a little man but she of course didn't know that the same little boy in her arms knew what she meant.
"Should we go for lunch? There should be an hour break before the individual tournament starts"
"Come to think of it where's Kyouko? I haven't seen her for a while" Mei took out her phone and called. The two of them moved to meet Kyouko at a nearby café. She was then informed of what happened and why she had been missing.
"So that's what happened. When we asked the girl why Lee would ask for such a thing, she said that he had been relegated to the reserves due to his poor performance. He wanted Kazuya to not make it far into the tournament" Kyouko irritatingly recapped.
"Didn't I already say that those bunch of snobs would just cut off some of his privileges and not do a single thing to make him think about his actions? That perverted scum now involved their company and opened them to legal actions. If you don't do anything about it then I will" Mei scolded. This involved Kazuya so why wouldn't she be agitated.
"Her parents have already been called and they are on their way here. I will talk with them. If they agree, I will personally accompany them to meet that old geezer" Kyouko clenched her firsts. She really hated that place and preferred to not even go there if she had a choice.
"Don't force yourself. I'll do it"
"No. you know how those people are. They will not take you seriously"
"Why not just let them come to us?" Kazuya who was slowly getting squeezed by his big sis spoke to break the tension.
""How do you suggest we do that?""
"Lure them with the evidence. It's them who will be facing the lawsuit so it's whether they come to us or they come to court"
"That's my Kazu! What a great idea!"
"Please don't ever forget that as much as the both of you care about me, I also don't want both of you to be in any kind of harm. That also includes things that you don't want to do" Lee was the least of his worries and didn't want the two of them to do anything too troublesome.
Both of them however knew nothing about what happened with Mahiru case. Jirou didn't want to tell Kyouko about what Kazuya had done to his attackers not to his own club's captain. Kazuya himself told him that he would handle the matter. Jirou himself indeed thought that it wouldn't be productive for Kyouko to learn about this but made Kazuya promise that he would not make any risky moves without informing him first.
It all felt weird. Aside from Lee, Kazuya couldn't think of anyone that would go that far to hurt him. A simple tournament wouldn't warrant such action and even if they did, Shiroyuki Tomoyo would have been a better target. He thought hard and couldn't come up with anyone who he gravely offended.
"(Was it that weird girl Stockton? No… maybe that pervert Ono? It couldn't be… I guess I'll have to find out myself to get a real answer)"