A few days had passed since the weekend of Riku's party and the after-effects of it were still felt across the group. Shizuo and friends had a lingering sense of guilt that they should have done more to prevent Falen's drunken escapade while she herself didn't want to talk about it, embarrassed of her behavior. Of the group, however, Mizu was the most distraught. For the past few days, he sat away from the group, near the front of the class, and continued to do so today. His guilt weighed heavy on him, knowing that if he had been there, the likelihood of the events that unraveled would have been little to none.
Professor Cloud scanned the room to take a visual attendance of his students before carrying on with his plan for the day. At least once a week, he liked to have his students spar in the Arena to practice what they were going over in class, and today was one of those days. The first unit of the semester was a review of basic martial arts, which was standardly taught across every CL as a baseline for students to expand their powers on. While not every student was able to grasp a strong understanding of it, at least they were familiarized with the basics.
"Good morning, class," Professor Cloud greeted as he remained standing at the front of the room, "Today we'll be working in the Arena, so go ahead, grab your things, we'll make our way over together."
The professor stepped to the door and waited until the class had gathered their belongings, leading the way out after seeing enough students were ready. Despite being at the front of the class, Mizu was of the last to leave.
"Do you think he'll let us pick our partners?" Riku asked Shizuo as they joined in the mass of bodies filing out of the room.
Shizuo shrugged, "Don't know, but I'd be down to go a round with you."
Riku threw his head back with a hearty laugh, "Oh man! Trust me, you don't want this smoke, bro."
"We'll see. As long as you don't run away from me like you usually do," with a chuckle, the two friends passed the still seated Mizu on their way out.
"Hold up. It's called a tactical retreat, but that's not even it. My summers aren't all fun and games, I've actually picked up some new tricks I've been meaning to try on you!"
"Try me," a confident grin flashed across Shizuo's face.
Upon arriving at the Arena, Professor Cloud had let the class know that they were able to pick their own partners. Immediately, the students looked between each other to confirm their partners. Professor Cloud left to make his way up to a booth that overlooked the Arena and asked the class to spread out before they started. As they were dismissed, Shizuo turned to face Riku and walked backward away from him, holding out a hand and gesturing for him to follow challengingly.
"You asked for it."
Riku scoffed and followed after his friend. As for the rest of the group, they split up into pairs between themselves. Kane with Keita, Faith with Iris, and Falen with Opal. Kane didn't bother with trying to find a partner, figuring he would just end up with whoever was last like him, but Keita stepped up to him after observing his inaction.
"I'll save both of us the trouble. It is likely of the class, we are the least sought out as partners," Keita solemnly stated.
Kane shrugged and walked off at the demon's lead. This year, Kane had enrolled in PMT, Physical and Martial Training, which was a class dedicated to martial arts. While he'd only had about a week's time in the class, he was interested to see how the added knowledge he had obtained from it would help in a spar against the former Demon King.
Opal approached Falen after their teacher had left due to her not being as comfortable with the rest of the class yet, as well as her curiosity about the feline demon's ability. Falen wanted to pair up with Mizu for the spar, as they often did in years past, but an awkward look away from her made it clear he was not yet ready to face his girlfriend after what had transpired.
"You may start." Professor Cloud's voice echoed out over the Arena's overhead speakers.
Riku, who was a short distance of only about six feet from Shizuo, leapt forward and threw a straight punch with his right fist at Shizuo's face, rearing it back before for added strength. Before he did so, Riku started to make the tile under Shizuo's feet crack in hopes of offsetting his balance for his defense or escape.
Shizuo, who had taken a basic, wide-legged defensive stance, smirked as Riku sought to close the distance between them. Shizuo mentally noted that his friend's mistake was breaking the floor below him too soon, as a quick slipping of his right foot into the tile alarmed him. Shizuo knew Riku wouldn't attempt to face him head-on without measure so soon, since his own strength outweighed his and he'd be able to keep him at bay. Shizuo held his left hand out at Riku and right towards the ground at a diagonal angle. Riku's expression quickly shifted to surprise at the unexpected, now offensive, posture. Feeling like he knew what was coming next, he quickly planted his left foot further from Shizuo than he had wanted to and brought his right hand in to join his left fist in protecting his face, pivoting on his left foot in an attempt to face away.
Shizuo's imbalanced footing no longer mattered as he let out two bursts of fire from his open palms. His left hand let out a loose wave of brilliant red flame as his right shot a stronger, more focused stream. The force of the explosions and his loose stance allowed him to be propelled backwards and a few inches off of the ground.
Meanwhile, on his one foot, Riku crouched and sprang away from Shizuo, the heat of his fire grazing his back before his super speed allowed him to escape to a safe distance shortly. His adrenaline already pumping, Riku turned around and scanned the area for Shizuo, but to no avail.
"Where the fuck'd he go??" Riku internally pressed. Shizuo didn't have super speed like himself and wasn't nearly as quick to leave his line of sight in the second he'd taken to escape. Riku's eyes darted around, but a loudening screech turned his eyes upwards.
Shizuo dived down upon Riku as a peregrine falcon, whose diving speed earned its title as the fastest animal on earth. As Shizuo reached a suitable distance, he spiraled last second and began to shape-shift back into his normal self, using his reformed right arm to plant a solid blow to his friend's diaphragm. If he was taking things seriously, Shizuo could have punched through Riku's chest, but that excessive use of force was unnecessary for the training environment at hand.
Riku let out an exasperated cough as he shot backwards, his mind going blank for a second due to the pain and sudden loss of air. Nearing the ground in his backwards, curving descent, he stuck out his palms below him to graze the floor, using his powers over the earth to soften the tile behind him into fine sand that, upon impact, would make for an easier fall. Riku slid through a few feet of the freshly made sand before coming to a slowed halt. Continuing to cough and sitting upright on his left arm, his diaphragm convulsed as he gasped for air.
"It's all that smoking you do," Shizuo mused as he stood over Riku, his arms crossed as he smirked with a hint of triumph.
"Shut up, man, this is nothing..." with Riku's hand planted into the ground, his control over it was amplified. As he talked, he would raise a few tiles behind Shizuo silently for his next attack.
"A lucky first blow, that's all that was," Riku came up to a low crouch, to which Shizuo responded by repositioning into another defensive stance, this time with his left foot forward and hands at his face. Riku grabbed fistfuls of the dusted tile and threw them up at Shizuo, hardening them into sharp projectiles and speeding their movement.
Shizuo reacted to Riku's attack by leaping backwards, but was stopped unexpectedly by a hard surfacing pressing into his back. Turning his head to the side, he was able to make out in his peripherals that he was pressed up against an unearthed three-by-three-foot tile of the Arena, with more enclosing on him from the sides. He quickly formulated his escape, but knew it was too late to make it unscathed. Shizuo flexed his body and crouched as a few of the projectiles had found their way to his hardened body. None of them were strong enough to pierce through him entirely, but the ones sharp enough drew blood upon contact. Shizuo started the motion of a backflip to gain some backwards and upwards momentum. The few pieces of earth that had stuck to him slipped down as his form shrank into that of a flying snake, his newfound momentum allowing him to pass over and maneuver around the tile that had blocked his tactical retreat, as well as avoid any others that were closing in on him. Contorting his coiled body into a more streamlined position with his head facing straight, Shizuo undulated his body to ease the descent. Approaching the ground, Shizuo shape-shifted back into his normal self facing the flurry of earth that now approached him in a low crouch. His normal fire could eventually burn away the rubble, but with only a few seconds, he needed something stronger. And he had just the thing.
Shizuo sprang forward and extended his left hand at the wall of earth and held his right hand at his side expectantly, igniting it in a simple red flame. From his open left palm burst a stream of thick, white fire.
"Flash Fire!"
With a sound like roaring thunder, the bright flames encompassed and disintegrated its targets. Flash Fire was an uncommon flame that Shizuo possessed, its power and tenacity unmatched by any other that he had come across in fellow manipulators of fire. After testing its limits, Shizuo found that it could disintegrate most forms of matter, evaporate water, and melt most metals to a tolerable level. Shizuo pressed forward, knowing that Riku would not have allowed himself to be taken by his attack. The stream of Flash Fire was halted shortly after its release, as any more would have drained Shizuo of stamina he didn't want to expend so early on. As the stream of white disappeared ahead of him, Shizuo caught a blur of red darting towards him from his left. Veering his course to face Riku head on, he readied himself for the inevitable exchange.
"Bring it on, Shizuo!!"
Entering close combat was dangerous for both of them, but it was already set in motion. Riku's ability to out-speed Shizuo would land him more blows, but Shizuo's hard defense, high stamina, and adaptability would eventually catch up to him. A few blows to Riku would be enough to disable him, but he accepted the risk and continued on.
As the two approached, they locked arms, each grabbing the right fist of a thrown punch by the other with their left. In this lock, Shizuo would normally have the edge, but Riku had developed a new technique to counter Shizuo's overwhelming strength and fire. Rising from the floor, cracked tile began to form around Riku's body until it formed a makeshift armor, exposed at the joints to allow consistent movement. Shizuo began to crush Riku's fist, but not before Riku let go of Shizuo's hand to punch him in the face. Shizuo's fist collided with Riku's own, but a new helmet of earth softened the blow. Below the exterior of hard earth was a coat of sanded tile, which mitigated the force of any impact upon the surface to a lesser extent. Riku began to reform the cracked helmet and was held still by Shizuo's grasp. To escape his friend's grip, Riku slipped grains of tile between their hands and expanded them outwards in the form of sharp tendrils. Shizuo cried out once as the rocks began to pierce his skin and withdrew his hold on Riku, stepping back twice and holding his hands up defensively, with small amounts of blood trickling down from his right hand.
"Not bad..." Shizuo said lowly, rubbing the palm of his right hand with his fingers, spreading the blood around.
"Probably don't want to give that one another try, huh?" Riku joked, raising his hands defensively as well, bouncing lightly on his toes like a boxer.
Shizuo let out a low "Hm" and stepped back into Riku, but Riku was quicker to the draw, sidestepping and crouching to take a lower angle on him. Without a way to effectively counter, Shizuo readied his right arm to receive Riku's attack, whatever it may be. Riku sprang up into Shizuo, starting with a simple uppercut that was easily blocked, however, following it with a left hook to his friend's side. As strong as he was, the side was still a relative weak spot to Shizuo. Shizuo brought down his elbow to elbow Riku, but a spin from Riku allowed him to avoid the attack. Coming out of his spin, Riku appeared behind Shizuo and began to launch a flurry of rapid punches upon his back. Shizuo stumbled forward and looked over his shoulder to catch the sight of Riku's foot as he roundhouse kicked him in the face.
Shizuo stumbled once more, this time ahead and to his left. As he staggered, he looked over his left shoulder to spot Riku speeding in to close the distance. With his momentum now lost, he didn't have time to turn around to face Riku completely. Shizuo swung his left fist back as Riku came into range, but much to his expectation, he avoided it, twisting his body to his left and leaning back. With the newfound momentum, Shizuo was able to swing his body to his left, pivoting on his left foot, until he faced the off-balanced Riku, whose speed, until he recovered, would be useless. Confident in his attack, Shizuo planted his right foot down and towards Riku with enough force to crash through the tiled floor and into the dirt a few inches below it. With a low right fist swinging around, Shizuo launched a solid uppercut into Riku's already weakened diaphragm again, this time, with intent. Earlier when he had cracked through Riku's helmet, he found it odd that he wasn't as damaged as he expected and figured there must've been something else below it protecting him. Though perhaps slight overkill, Shizuo ignited his fist in a flurry of Flash Fire to burn through the earthen armor, whatever laid below it, and ultimately Riku.
As his fist made contact with Riku, Shizuo looked up and into the gap of his helmet to see his green eyes wince as he was winded. The initial impact of his blow was immense, but he wasn't done. Riku was flown upwards into the air, with bits of armor that Shizuo hadn't hit starting to crack and fall away, indicating his loss of control over it. As Riku began to fall back down, covering a horizontal distance away from Shizuo, Shizuo readied himself for what he intended to be the final move.
Shizuo leapt forward and grabbed Riku by the feet, spinning to the left while raising him up over his head. With a quick shout, Shizuo slammed Riku back-down onto the tile floor, which cracked and collapsed under the sheer force of impact. As Shizuo let go of Riku's legs, he found that he was still conscious, a little bit to his surprise. Shizuo knelt by his friend and took his right hand, holding it up in a bro shake with a satisfied smile.
"You got some pretty good shots in there, not gonna lie," Shizuo chuckled as he patted his friend's shoulder with his free hand.
Riku, who was breathing sharp and quickly, winced as he looked up to Shizuo, "Sh-... shut up man... I'll get you one of these-" his body convulsed as he coughed up a spurt of blood to side "... days..."
Riku closed his eyes and focused on fixing his breathing. Shizuo let go of his hand and laid down beside him, crossing his arms behind his head.
"Don't pass out now, I'd hate to have to drag your ass to the medical," Shizuo laughed.
"Honestly man, you just might," Riku wiggled his legs, "You definitely fucked up my legs with that slam, bro."
"Was that overkill? Sorry if it was, I just couldn't risk you getting back up. You're a tough one, y'know?"
Riku furrowed his brows and placed a hand over his burnt stomach, "Maybe a bit. Flash Fire to the stomach is not the move..."
"My bad," Shizuo chuckled, "You pulled out that new suit so I figured we were pulling out all stops."
Shizuo looked up at the large display in the Arena that, when not in use, showed a slideshow of school-related events and such, as well as the time.
"It was good, but the fight was short enough that we can probably get you to the medical wing and back before class is over."
Riku groaned, "Riight, like I'm trying to come back to class after that fight. Let's take our time so I can at least get a note to second."
"Deal," Shizuo smirked, "So are we just going to lay here or...?"
"Just gimme a sec, totally not stalling for time."
With a shared laugh, the two laid peacefully as the sound of the fights between other students continued on.