And so, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday pass by in a flash. All kinds of people attack Gentarō and I throughout the week, though not one can defeat him. Although, none of the acolytes who are actually a force to be reckoned with have a problem with Gentarō, like Sana for example. Sometimes Gentarō doesn't even have to use his boost ability to defeat some of the acolytes, which only amazes me more. To think some acolytes are actually able to be defeated without using any abilities.
I wonder if he does that sometimes to inspire me to fight back sometimes, but I can never gain enough courage to ask him. If I'm wrong, I'm positive he'd tease me about it endlessly, since he seems to love to do that these days. He teases me about how clumsy I am, my shyness, my crush on a certain Fire Acolyte, and he also teases me about my skinny physique. There's no way he'd let me live down seeing him as some kind of role model.
I've also learned that Gentarō isn't the smartest tool in the shed. He's constantly asking me for homework help and sometimes I even end up doing most of the work, but I suppose it's the least I could do when he protects me from the bullies I used to have. Today is the day of the tournament meeting however. Today, the 16 candidates will be introduced in front of us all, and the tournament bracket will be shown to us all. The 16 candidates will also be asked to demonstrate their skills in front of us. What I'm worried about is what Gentarō plans to do during this meeting.
We're gathered in the gym, sitting in the bleachers, separated by our four grades, and Gentarō is sitting right next to me, unable to keep himself from smiling and looking like an excited puppy. "Please don't do anything too rash..." I wishfully think to myself.
Once everyone is seated, the lights in the gym all turn off and several spotlights highlight the square center of the gymnasium. "Greetings students!" The gym teacher's voice comes in through the speakers, but he can't be seen. "First of all, I'd like to welcome you all to the 71st annual tournament meeting!" Most of the students cheer, Gentarō beside me being one of them, but I stay silent. "Allow me to welcome the 16 candidates who will be competing for a spot in the student council!" The lights shut off once more, and swift movement can be heard in the darkness. The lights are only off for a couple of seconds before they turn back on and reveal the 16 candidates.
"Allow me to introduce these 16 candidates! The first, our Fire Acolytes!" A single red spotlight shines on the two of them. "Itsumi and Mibaru Nagako! You heard me right folks, these two are siblings! Despite how different they look, they're actually twins!" Mibaru smiles, his slick red hair having a flame like glow in the red light, and his aqua blue eyes quickly turn red as he creates a small fireball, the ball floating just above his palm. Despite how skinny he looks, he actually has quite a lean build. Meanwhile, Itsumi has a cold gaze on her face as her hair turns a flaming red and her ruby red eyes glow. She holds up her hand and it lights ablaze.
"Ah, so she's an emanator huh? You like em tough?" Gentarō nudges me, but I don't react, which confuses him. I'm too focused on learning all I can about the top acolytes of our grade. I want to learn from them in any way I can, from the way they act, to what they can do.
"Next, we have our two Cube Acolytes!" The red spotlight turns off and Itsumi and Mibaru's flames vanish, a blue spotlight shining down on the two beside them. "Both of them are popular, good looking young men, yet both prefer to keep to themselves! You guessed it, it's Sana Kei and Nakawara Masake!" Beside Sana is another boy with pale blond hair, hidden under a grey beanie, and he also has blue eyes like Sana, though he's quite skinny and a bit shorter than him. Sana creates a cube like Mibaru did his fireball with a nonchalant expression on his face and Nakawara's hand turns into a cube, both their hair and eyes glowing blue.
"Next up, we have our Hover Acolytes, Hiri Kahisa and Tasho Uresa! Despite their intimidating auras, Tasho is actually quite popular and Hishi is quite relaxed and sociable!" A yellowish green spotlight falls on the next two. Hiri is a boy with messy dark brown hair and yellowish green eyes while Tasho is a girl with black hair that reaches her upper back with natural yellowish green highlights and light purple eyes, and both of them have similar builds: skinny and pale, but they're both pretty good looking. Both their hair and eyes glow their respective colors and Hiri holds out his hand, creating a couple yellowish green, glowing circles around him, while Tasho spreads her arms, those same glowing circles appearing directly over her arms and legs and she flies, leaving a streak of glowing yellowish green in her path.
After they land, a purple spotlight lands on the next two candidates. "And fourth, our Beast Acolytes: Raharu Eno and Nizomi Yubira! Raharu is a force to be reckoned with, in and out of battle, but outside of battle, Nizomi is quite the shy kitten to say the least!" The crowd around us laughs. Raharu's smirks as his wild looking, naturally purple hair glows and his yellow eyes turn purple, his hands becoming encased in purple claws, and his sleeves get torn off, showing off his tanned, muscular arms. Meanwhile, the shy looking Nizomi keeps her head down, her face hidden by her big, witch like hat, but her platinum blond hair glows purple as the purple silhouette of a cat appears on her shoulder.
"How'd such a little girl get picked for this..?" Gentarō mumbles beside me.
"Don't let her appearance fool you. Don't forget, she's one of the 16 candidates, and the fact that she's still here means she hasn't lost a fight." I warn him.
"You're really good at reading people huh..?" Gentarō notices.
I quickly get flustered at his assessment of me. "W-What? N-No, I-I just..." I quickly grow quiet as a pink spotlight falls on the next two candidates.
"Next up we have our Spike Acolytes! Perhaps we should even call them the spike sisters! On the right we have the gorgeous Usana Sakura, while on the left, her adorable twin sister Usami Sakura, both model students and actual models outside of school!" The two girls look identical, except Usana is inherently gorgeous and Usami is unbelievably cute. Everything down to their height, body proportions, and their fair colored skin is exactly the same, both of them average height with slender figures. Even their hair lengths are exactly the same; short enough to the point their hair only reaches the top half of their necks, except Usana has pink and bright purple eyes while Usami has bright purple hair and pink eyes. They're almost impossible to tell apart once their hair and eyes glow pink however, Usana summoning a few pink spikes around her and Usami's arms becoming covered in pink spikes.
Their spotlight then goes out and a teal colored spotlight lights up next. "Next, our Laser Acolytes: Raito Okinen and Natsuri Oshihara, some of our top athletes at this school!" Raito's figure is hidden by his baggy clothes, but he's tall, and fairly tanned, his smooth hair a platinum teal and his eyes are honey gold like mine. The second Natsuri's name is announced, hardly anyone gets a good look at her before her hair and eyes glow teal and she flashes all around the gymnasium, and Raito's hair and eyes glow teal as well as he fires a teal colored laser in her path to stop her in her tracks. "You could at least wait for the announcer to finish." Raito chuckles, hair and eyes returning to normal.
"Sorry, I just couldn't help myself!" Natsuri giggles, her exuberant curves becoming apparent right away by the way they bounce when she grinds to a halt, her teal ponytail reverting to its natural black and her naturally teal eyes stop glowing. Her skin shines even when she's not in the spotlight.
"Wow, what speed..!" Gentarō whisper-yells.
"Just four more..." I mutter.
"What an amazing display! But let's move onto our next two candidates, the Force Acolytes!" A yellow spotlight shines down upon the next two while Natsuri rushes back to Raito's side. "Our next two candidates, the Force Acolytes, are Kochizuki Okawa, our school's greatest pianist, and Okiguma Musato, our school's volleyball captain!" Both Kochizuki and Okiguma have bright yellow hair, are tall, and extremely good looking. Kochizuki has sapphire blue eyes, long hair that is fashioned in an unique and beautiful way, and she is quite curvy, but not quite as curvy as Natsuri, and her skin is a bit on the paler side. Okiguma on the other hand has perfectly tanned skin, a muscular build, and his eyes are grey, his yellow hair clearly gelled. Both their hair and eyes light up like the rest, a yellow colored force being exerted from Okiguma's body and a yellow colored force swirling around Kochizuki in a perfect sphere.
"Finally, last but not least, our Hard Acolytes! We have none other than Mobo Nikaze, our judo club's president, and Tsudori Honen, our kendo club's leader!" A tan spotlight falls upon the final two candidates, and both of them have dark skin and athletic builds. Mobo is the most muscular man I've seen out of all the candidates, his tanned colored hair quite short and his eyes brown, while Tsudori is also the most muscular female, her hair a platinum blond and her eyes a tanned color. Both their hair and eyes glow tan, Mobo merely flexing as his skin visibly becomes harder whilst Tsudori pulls out the kendo sword on her hip and it seems to shine like steel as she thrusts it into the ground, cracking it slightly, but the kendo sword doesn't snap even a little bit.
"And those, folks, are our 16 candidates!" The eight different colored spotlights turn on at once, each of the candidates standing proudly and confidently. The students in the stands cheer even louder than they have been in between each of the students being showcased.
"What a lineup..." Gentarō says with a grin on his face.
"I know... I'm glad I'm at least allowed to watch something so amazing go down, if nothing else." I smile. Gentarō doesn't respond as I keep my eyes on the 16 candidates in the center of the gym.
"Alright! Without further ado, it's time to reveal the bracket! Of course, it is susceptible to change! That is, if anyone can beat the 16 you see before you!" The announcer laughs, several of the students laughing as well.
"Actually, I'd like to challenge one of you!" The voice that speaks is Gentarō's, but it's coming from the darkness in the center of the gymnasium. I look beside me, and low and behold, Gentarō is gone. A plain spotlight falls upon Gentarō to reveal him standing a few feet in front of the 16 candidates.