Hirase helped Yashiro to his feet, as the boys, and Minako congratulated each other. None of them chased after Mika.
"You guys saw that right?" Murake said, "she defeated that thing in seconds, and it sent Yashiro flying"
"She has some dangerous abilities. Each time I see her use her powers there's always something new" Minako added "but overall, I think we did well as a team"
She thought of something, and laughed. "Though I have to say, Murake, that compatibility crap really made you seem useless. Well, until you somehow fired that cannon."
The group laughed, and Murake scratched his head, "that sucked" he said before the group decided to head out.
Murake and Hirase walked in front talking to each other about how tough the encounter was, while Minako and Yashiro walked behind.
"You know a part of me things she hung back in that building incase something attacked. When I go all out like that, just like Hirase, I'm defenceless for a few seconds"
Yashiro responded, not looking fully convinced "Surprisingly she worked with the team today. Last time, Rando said she ran off on her own"
"I think she's improving, she just needs to communicate more"
"I guess so"
As Hirime and the other medical staff healed the students and teachers, the others in the control room talked amongst themselves.
"You have some really talented students here, Principal Fujimoto" Akanori said, as he clapped slowly. "What an interesting display of skill and teamwork. I wonder if they'll be able to keep me from breaking the crystal for five minutes"
Fujimoto laughed, "Do you intend to take on over 20 students by yourself, Akanori?"
"Well, that's the only way to make it fair "
Fujimoto laughed once more. "Hoshi, what do you think?"
"If the students are up for it, I don't see why not. The forest zone should be suitable for this exercise"
Fujimoto agreed, and Akanori smiled as he made his way to the second zone.
The members of group 5 had sustained the most damage, so, their healing took a bit of time because they weren't being healed directly by Dr Hirime and as usual, Mika was nowhere to be found.
Their teacher, Tokiho Rarada walked in as his students didn't see him the whole battle.
"I'm impressed with how you all handled the robots in each wave. Though, that last battle surprised me. I did not expect Mika to destroy CX5 so quickly"
"CX5?" Murake asked
"Ah, it's the name given to the last robot you fought. The fifth variant of that series."
"Does that mean it's the strongest?" Yashiro asked, to which Tokiho laughed quietly.
"CX1 happens to be the strongest humanoid in this series"
The students were shocked. "You're telling me there are four robots stronger than that?" Minako asked.
"Ohh, in this series, yes"
Minako laughed, "Well, that's interesting"
"by the way, where is Mika?"
"we haven't seen her since she left the urban zone"
[keeping to herself again] Tokiho thought before commending the students once more, and leaving the medical room.
Shortly after, Rani, Rando, and Shihata came to join Yashiro and the others.
Yashiro and the other four members of his group were all in a white circle that was healing them slowly as they laid in their beds.
"You look like you all got hit by a truck" Rani said, cheerfully. Her smile lighting up the room.
Yashiro chuckled. "Let's just say, Mr Tokiho has some crazy robots."
"Looks like it" Shihata added, "How did your group do?"
Minako sat up before responding. Herself and Murake were the only ones with their clothes still Intact. "Our group managed to win. Mika sliced the last robot in like 5 pieces, and our crystal remained intact. What about your group?"
Shihata laughed, remembering how outclassed her group was. "To our surprise, Dr Yahara was our teacher. We stood no chance. He gave us a four minute headstart where we could attack him as much as we wanted, and then wiped us out in about 30 seconds"
"No way! What's his power?" Hirase asked
"He calls it deflection. As the name suggests, he can pretty much deflect anything, including the air beneath his feet and he can change direction mid air"
Yashiro laughed, "that sounds crazy. What about you, Rando?"
"We were about 2 seconds from winning, but Mr Hirowa had Chibi and I trapped in a smoke bubble and then made us go more than 20 metres from the crystal"
"That must've been tough" Minako added
"it really was tough but I learnt how to do something pretty cool. Though, it drains my Rika pretty quickly"
The students were interrupted by an announcement. "Could all students please head to the forest zone for the final event of the day"
"The final event?" Yashiro said, quickly sitting up
"what could they possibly want?" Hirase added
"I guess we'll find out soon" Rani finally said, before all the students began making their way to the forest zone.
As they arrived, they noticed all the teachers were waiting there, so the common question they asked each other was, "are we about to take on all the teachers at once?"
Principal Fujimoto was also waiting there, and after the entire group of students and teachers had traversed far enough into the zone, he began speaking.
"Watching your various battles from the control room, I can see a lot of improvement from everyone. I can single out every student here, and say a number of things you did very well during your battles. However, a final test remains."
A man suddenly landed next to him, standing tall and proud. Yashiro recognised him instantly and his eyes widened with surprise, while Fujimoto continued speaking.
"This here is Mr Akanori Toshai. Our city's current guardian. He also witnessed your battles and would like to take on all of you with the same rules in place. Except it'll be two minutes, instead of five, and the distance has been increased from 20 to 40 metres"
There were a few murmurs between students, which stopped immediately Fujimoto started speaking again.
"Obviously this is completely optional, so those who do not want to partake can sit this one out. Chibi walked away from the group, and Mika followed shortly after.
Seeing her leave, a small part of Yashiro was disappointed as he recollected their battle with the robots earlier.
He brushed it off and tried to pay attention.
Fujimoto continued to explain a few things but all Yashiro could think about was his very first encounter with Akanori. The crumbling building and the people underneath. He still had not figured out what his power was but he realised this was a good opportunity to do so.
"Okay, now you have a minute to talk amongst yourselves and come up with a plan to win"
Yashiro immediately went to Rando and Rani. Minako and Shihata were with Rani, so he addressed them too.
"Guys" he said, "I've seen Mr Akanori in action. It's scary how fast he is but I don't exactly know what his power is. Just prepare yourself for a very fast man"
Rando nodded, but was slightly worried. [Depending on how this battle goes, Yashiro may lose confidence again] he thought, so he prepared mentally.
Murake addressed all his classmates, in a loud voice "I don't know how everyone's battle went, but I think Koda might be the best person to hold onto the crystal"
The students looked around, analysing each others ability mentally before deciding that Murake had a point.
He finished his statement with, "As far as a battle plan, let's just kick his ass" He walked to Koda after this and quietly told him something. Then some students watched Koda place the crystal on the floor, and create a rock dome around it. This way, they knew what had to be protected.
"he seems even more confident now Yashiro. Don't you think?" Minako asked
"Yeah. I mean he is facing a human so there are no compatibility problems"
Akanori stood about 50 metres in front of the students, formulating his own battle plan. [I need to take out the support class first, then the heavy hitters. Hmm. Who would be the most troublesome person?] A face came to his mind [Yeah I think he would]
A few seconds later, things went quiet, as both sides got ready and awaited the instruction to begin.
The announcement came, and cut through the silence. "Begin"
The student had their eyes fixated on Akanori but he moved so fast, that he seemed to disappear.
However, his target was ready, as Shihata had given him a warning about 3 seconds earlier.
Koda was at the back, directly in front of the dome and he spun around, swinging a very fast punch. Akanori appeared where the punch was going to land, but was still quick enough to move his head to the side before it landed.
Sando leapt with one foot in the air pointed outwards, aiming at Akanori's face.
Right before his foot connected, flames burst from the soles of his feet and he smiled, as he was certain he had landed a sneak attack on Akanori.
He was surprised to see Akanori beside him smiling. He simply touched Sando before he flew past, and he slowed down significantly. To the point where it looked like Sando was floating mid air.
He wasted no time. He went for Shihata next. she had no time to react before he touched her stomach, slowing her down also and then moving to the next student, Hayasato, who created two small portals right before he was touched.
The first was placed in his mid section in anticipation of what part of his body Akanori would touch, and the second was created the split second after Akanori's hand went through the portal.
It appeared directly behind him, and his own hand touched his back, and he stopped moving.
The students stopped for a second, Hayasato took several steps back, eyes widened in anticipation. There was complete silence.
There were a few celebratory sighs of relief right before the words, "Just Kidding" sent them back into a state of panic.
"Shit" Hayasato said to himself, right before he was frozen in place by Akanori's fingers.
Koda attempted to entrap him in a rock prison but Akanori, coving a great distance, quickly moved behind him, and tapped him on the shoulder, slowing him down aswell.
His next target was Rani, as he was wary of her toxins but before he moved, a gust of wind sent him flying deeper into the forest. Though he was in close proximity to both Sando and Koda, he was the only one who was sent flying.
Minako sent a wave of ice through the ground, in the direction of the rock dome and covered it with ice spikes. She then created a wall of ice between the students and Akanori.
"What do we do?" She asked. "He's way too fast"
"Mr Zuno is faster. I think" Tanori added, "but his speed isn't constant, I can't gauge exactly how fast he is"
"Yeah" said Yashiro, "I think he has the ability the alter the speed of things but I'm not too sure"
While the students were discussing what to do with Akanori, he placed his palm on the ice wall, and in a few seconds, it crumbled to the ground.
The students who had been theorising about his speed looked confused, as they couldn't figure out how he made the entire wall crumble.
In one swift dash, he touched Rani, Tanori, and Rezu, slowing then down tremendously.
The rest of the students backed away slowly
Takegai made himself invisible, Tanori removed his shirt, and drew a large speed rune across his chest. Though she was at her limit, Minako's eyes began glowing again. Hirase crouched, with his fingers on the ground. Dota, using an idea he picked up during his battle with Yahara created a bubble of fast moving winds around himself which he believed would be strong enough to repel Akanori's hands. Murake turned around, and ran in the opposite direction.
Chino sighed, seeing her friend run away and created numerous energy orbs around herself and charging them to increase their size.
Yashiro took a deep breath, using his simultaneous activation. Rando and Aibuto turned their skins into steel and Sezato put his fists up.
The students all did this roughly at the same time while Akanori smiled. [Seems things might get interesting] he thought.
The students counter attack began with Takeyomi teleporting behind Akanori, and kicking the side of his head then disappearing immediately his foot touched the floor.
At the same time, the other students began their onslaught.
Launching a variety of attacks at Akanori from all angles. The kick had knocked him off balance, so he wasn't able to move out of the way as an icewave trapped his legs in place.
He blocked his face as energy beams slammed into him. However, blocking caused his vision to be temporarily hindered, allowing Yashiro, Aibuto, Rando, Sezato and Tanori to charge in.
He had nowhere to move to as they hit him with several kicks and punches, aimed at his stomach and sides.
Akanori endured, smiling as he did so.
"Boys, haven't you heard the saying about a cornered animal?" He asked, causing Sezato to jump backwards with a very worried expression.
Immediately afterwards, he caught Aibuto's fist and broke out of the ice shackles.
Yashiro swung a high kick but seeing Akanori's hand move to block it, Tanori grabbed Yashiro, and ran at an immense speed in the opposite direction.
Face to face with an incredibly powerful opponent, Rando thought to himself [just one more time]
He transformed only his arm into the form he used against Hirowa and threw an incredibly vicious punch.
Akanori raised his hand to catch his fist but realised too late that it was the completely wrong decision, as the bones in his hand and part of his arm broke into numerous pieces.
He jumped back, his face showing how much pain he was in. Rando was now slowed down aswell, but at a great cost.
Yashiro capitalised immediately. He darted forward with a kick aimed at Akanori's mid-section but even in the midst of pain, he was still too fast.
He turned to the side, allowing Yashiro's foot to fly past before touching him with his good hand.
However, he realised the Yashiro he touched wasn't real as he faded away.
He looked back as the real Yashiro seemingly emerged from thin air, and planted his foot on Akanori's face, sending him flying once again.
Everyone looked back to see Murake smiling and waving at them before running off again.
After hitting a tree, Akanori sat up and looked at the state of his right hand. He laughed as his hand flopped about.
"Okay, maybe it's time I take this a little bit more seriously. These kids are something else" he said to himself, quickly getting up to his feet.
He took a very deep breath and dashed through the forest 3 times faster than he had been moving.
From his perspective, he ran so fast that the students appeared to be moving in slow motion. Moving in zig zag motions, he touched Yashiro, Tanori, Minako, Chibi, Sezato, Hirase and Takeyomi, who he was happy to see standing still.
When he stopped running, he still had enough momentum to carry him over 10 metres.
Dota was extremely surprised, he had never experienced such speed before. His repelling aura had saved him from being touched, but he knew it wouldn't work a second time.
[Am I going to lose twice in one day?] he thought. [No, nothing I can do would be enough to slow him down. 19 students, and I'm the only one left? No, wait...where is he?]
Takegai punched Akanori as hard as he physically could, causing him to fall to his knees right before a quick wind sent him flying backwards, but this time. As soon as he landed, he rolled to his feet and dashed forward, catching Dota by surprise and smacking his palm into the students sides, also slowing him down.
"You're too loud" he said to Takegai before turning around to the direction he heard footsteps from, then lunging in with his palm stretched in front of him and catching what appeared to be Takegai's chest.
[Binding this many students is very stressful. It's time to end this now]
He walked up to the spike covered rock dome, pulled his arm backwards, and threw a punch with a speed that easily broke the sound barrier.
It shattered both the ice and the rock but, to his dismay. There was nothing underneath.
He was certain he saw Koda place the rock underneath the dome.
[Did he perhaps hide it underground again? No there's no sign of the ground being disturbed. What's going on?]
He then recalled what had just happened to him, when he tried to touch Yashiro.
He smiled, while thinking of a possible way to still win. If one existed.
[These kids are something else principal Fujimoto. They really are] he thought, before walking towards Koda.
He undid his ability and said, "sorry about this, kid", then threw him about 45 metres into the air, triggering an announcement with 20 seconds left on the timer.
"The distance between a student and the crystal has exceeded 40 metres.
Akanori Toshai wins"
He touched Koda, who was screaming and flailing once more, slowing him down before he touched the ground and then deactivating his ability for all the other students. Most of whom were confused after coming back to real time. Murake emerged from the forest in the opposite direction from Akanori and the others with the crystal in his hand.
"Twenty more seconds and you would've won. Great work with the illusions young man. You had everyone fooled"
Murake smiled, but he couldn't entirely hide his disappointment
"Thank you" he said, quietly.
When he went over to Koda before the battle started, he said, "Create a rock dome and hold out your hand like you're holding the crystal. I'm going to create a fake one so everyone, including Mr Akanori sees you placing it under said dome. I'll take the real one and go hide behind a tree in the forest.
He also created a fake image of himself running so Akanori and the others would think he was in a particular location.
He was confident that these plans would allow himself and his friends to win.
It was the first time that day that the members of group E or any of his friends had seen him lose confidence.