"Alright, students. These are the training tubes, and each group will have one. You can choose whichever you want." Shirotsuka Sanae explained after arriving at the gym.
She let them see the training tubes as the tubes were lined up. She then pointed at the screen above each training tube.
"This screen will project how many magical beasts you kill inside the tubes. Like I said, your consciousness will go inside the programmed world, so you better be ready to fight as soon as you got inside."
She then went to the mechanical table on the side and put her card there. At the same time, the training tubes were turned on.
"You can choose your tubes now. But all of you should have a chat with your partner first before entering the tube. I'll record all of your scores later."
Each pair immediately went to a tube of their own choice.
Ayaka and Kai also had chosen their tube... It was only Ayaka who chose the tube. She wanted the one in the middle. Before they entered the cube, Ayaka turned to Kai.
"When we fought, I wasn't fighting to the best of all my abilities, do you hear me? I'll prove it to you in this test. We'll compete on how many magical beasts we can kill."
"..." Kai looked at her and shook his head. "I don't think we should do that."
"Why? Are you saying that I'm weak? I'm not weak. I'll show you this time." Ayaka got a bit agitated.
But Kai's expression remained calm, he only shook his head. "No. If it is about our fight back then, I already know that you're not that weak. I already know you didn't perform your best."
Ayaka was surprised to hear that.
Kai continued, "In fact, I was the one who made you underestimate me."
Ayaka startled. She asked, "What do you mean?"
"In a battle, what do you think is more important? Showing your full power or winning the battle?"
Ayaka pondered for a moment and replied, "Winning is more important."
"That's right. I just chose to increase my winning chance before the match started by acting like I wasn't interested in it. Well, another factor was because you had seen my magician rank back then. Since you knew I was only a D-rank magician, you must've thought that you'd win, right?"
Ayaka looked down, weighing Kai's word in her mind. She nodded. "But... you didn't have any chivalry."
"Sooner or later, we'll be fighting the magical beasts. Even now, we're going to fight magical beasts in a few minutes. Just like my question, winning is more important... In other words, if we're fighting with magical beasts, killing them will be more important than showing all of your ability just to make you feel good."
"Ugh." Ayaka couldn't retort him.
"We're going to fight magical beasts now. So, if you're only thinking about competing with me, I think we should just give up."
Kai's statement startled her once again. She never thought Kai could talk about giving up that easily. Most didn't know about him because he was overshadowed by his sister. Does he not want to make himself known?' She thought.
But there was another problem. They (she) already accepted Katsuragi Takaki's challenge. He shouldn't give up, or people would think that he was running away.
Although she only knew Kai for a week, she realized that she could learn a lot of things from Kai. But if he gave up now... She...
She shook her head and grabbed Kai's hand without thinking. "No, we can't. I'm sorry, I was too self-centered before."
When Takaki saw this, he gnashed his teeth while clenching his fist. He really wanted to murder him. But thinking about his previous blunder, he should try to make up with him so he could also get closer to his target, Tasha Carter.
If he won this time, he would be able to show his power to Ayaka while humiliating Kai. Then he could become a good guy and protect Kai if he were to be laughed at by his classmates. He could get closer to Kai and eventually get closer to his target.
In his heart, he already firmly decided to win this. He looked at Wada Miyako, who was his partner in this class. "Let's go."
She didn't know anything and just followed him.
On the other hand, Kai looked at Ayaka.
"All right, so let's talk about our plan."
Ayaka nodded. She pondered for a moment, "You have enhanced hearing, right?"
"Do you want to use my hearing to scout the surroundings?"
Ayaka nodded. "I'm sorry we have to use your hearing like this..."
"It's alright. I always take off my headphones when battling." Kai shrugged his shoulders.
"We're going to search for a safe place first so we can make it our base. Then we'll start killing the magical beasts." Ayaka said.
In reality, Ayaka was a smart girl who could think of something like that. But because she lost to Kai, she became too focused on him. She couldn't bring out her true potential.
After Kai changed her focus, she finally utilized her real ability.
"I heard the magical beasts live in a group. We can kill the small group instead of the bigger one," Ayaka said.
Kai nodded. "This practical class is about how many we can kill. It'll be better to fight a small group rather than a big group. After all, fighting two groups consisting of ten magical beasts is better than taking a group of twenty magical beasts, considering that there are only two of us.
"If we can kill the group in one swoop, then it'll be another case."
Ayaka nodded in agreement. After seriously talking to Kai like this, she didn't seem to feel hateful anymore. To be honest, Kai seemed to have a deep knowledge of this. She felt that by talking to him, she would always get an answer.
They were so focused on their conversation that they didn't realize that they were the last pair that hadn't entered the training tube.
"All right, that's good enough. Let's go." Kai said.
Kai took off his noise-canceling headphones. Ayaka nodded and opened the tube.
The tube was only two meters wide. There was only a single screen inside.
They were supposed to place their hands together on the screen. The tube would be activated and send their consciousness to the programmed world.
They looked at each other and nodded. They finally placed their hands on the screen and channeled their magic power.
Two magic circles appeared, one on the floor and the other on the top.
They saw a flash of light in front of their eyes, forcing them to close their eyes for a bit. When the light disappeared, they opened their eyes.
They looked at their surroundings. They could only find woods from their surroundings, and if they looked above, they could see a huge volcano. They realized that they were teleported to a jungle on the foot of a volcano.
Kai immediately focused on his hearing. His hearing could pick up numerous magical beasts in their surroundings, from small and weak magical beasts to large and powerful magical beasts.
Kai's heart skipped a beat when he felt that. In fact, they were surrounded by magical beasts. Although the magical beasts had yet to realize their presence, if they wanted to get to a safe place, they would need to break through them.
After a few more seconds, he finally found a place that was not surrounded by magical beasts. He didn't know whether that place was safe or not, but it was the only place besides the volcano that didn't have a magical beast around it.
They could only go there to confirm it. Kai said in a disappointed tone, "Good news, I found a place thatf$ not surrounded by magical beasts."
"Why do you sound rather disappointed? Do we have bad news?"
Kai nodded. "We're surrounded by magical beasts. So if we want to go to that place, we need to break through from this place. We might need to fight around seventy magical beasts before we reach the place."
Ayaka was dumbfounded. "You're joking, right?"
"Do you think I'm the type of person that would joke in this situation?"
Ayaka couldn't answer it as the answer was obvious. She gulped down. Ayaka said while looking at him, "All right, let's get going then. It's better than staying in this spot."
Kai agreed with her. "I'll try to guide us carefully."
"It is not good to fight too much before we get settled in a base. Teacher also said that it'll be good if we can take advantage of the terrain to fight the magical beasts."
"Sure. Let's go."
Kai and Ayaka then started moving. After a minute of walking, they finally encountered their first magical beast. It was a gorilla. It was three meters tall and was powerfully-built with a large head and short neck.
"We're going to approach it silently. From the looks of it, it's a D-rank magical beast. Can you kill it instantly?" Kai asked.
"I can." Ayaka nodded.
"Well then, I'll support you," Kai said.
...
Unbeknownst to them, there was a problem outside their tube.
The principal suddenly came back to the gym. Because the matter of the tube was too important, he forgot that one of the classes was going to use the machine.
"Not good! One of the classes is having a practical class."
"Principal Kazato, what do you mean?" The man, Adryan, asked. He was the one who participated in the test just now.
"The students are using the training tubes in the gym, and I haven't changed it back to the world for the students in the tube you two used."
"What?" Adryan and Kirika were shocked.
"This is bad. I need to go back. I hope no one uses it since there are so many tubes."
"We're coming with you."