"If you only care about the strongest, then why me?"
"Hah?"
"I'm not the strongest."
She didn't seem to take kindly to my opinion.
Homura leaned over her desk and slammed it.
"Don't play dumb!"
The girl bit through her 'lollipop' stick. It fell from her mouth.
It really was a lollipop stick.
"You fought with an Emperor and still survived right?! There is no way you're not the strongest!"
"I mean, there's the principal, isn't there?"
Upon realizing that fact, she stayed silent, in thought.
"That woman will be my next target but for now..."
Homura walked over to me.
She looked me right in the eye. The girl was only an inch, or so, shorter than me.
"You're the one I want."
"!"
Next, something happened that no one could've guessed.
She... kissed me. It wasn't even the type of kiss where it was just lip-to-lip. It was a french kiss. Something you'd do with a lover.
It was a few seconds before I regained my composure.
I pushed Homura away from me.
"What the fuck was that?!"
"You're... hiding something."
Homura said, licking her lips.
Her eyes then traveled to my hand. When she looked at my hand, I instantly thought back to Sumika-senpai.
"The pattern of your mana is abnormal."
I was on guard. I don't know what she did with that kiss but she seems to be suspicious of me because of it.
"Fight me."
"Huh?!"
"Didn't you hear me, I said fight me!"
The girl tapped on the lotus emblem on her blazer.
"Shoya Sasaki."
She said my name.
My lotus emblem seemed to glow as a ray of light connected our emblems. If I tap it, I guess that means I accept the duel.
This is what Kyoka-senpai explained during the assembly. But, of course, I can deny it.
"What's taking you so long? I want to see who's stronger. Me or you."
"I don't have to accept your duel request."
"Hah?!"
"I'm saying that I have no intention of dueling."
Homura glared at me, not knowing what to do or say.
I'm not interested in dueling her.
"What's going on here?! I can't even get into my own classroom."
I heard a familiar voice.
We both looked back at the door. Ai-nee was there. She pushed through the crowd and got into the classroom.
"Oh~."
Ai-nee made an amused sound. I can already guess what it was from. She saw our glowing lotus emblems.
"The new school year just started and we already have a duel."
She had a cat-like smile on her face as she walked toward us.
"May I ask the reason for the duel?"
Ai-nee looked over at Homura.
You need a proper reason to duel. The reason for this is if there are useless duels, everyone would be dueling every day.
"He's pissing me off and doesn't stop pestering me."
Huh?
"That's not what happened."
"Well, I'll just ask the witnesses."
Ai-nee twisted her body back toward the door.
"Did it look like they were arguing?"
That's probably the worst thing you could ask.
The students watching nodded.
Gah, of course, she was shouting at me not long ago. Ai-nee just really wants to see a duel.
"That settles it. Accept the duel and let's resolve it."
Homura smiled.
I clicked my tongue and accepted the duel.
"I accept Kaguya Homura's duel request."
The glowing stopped.
"Now, you need to set some conditions and then you can start fighting here. The duel won't start until conditions are set by the person who received the duel request."
Meaning me.
I threw my bag near the door.
"Uhh... Let's make this duel a hand-to-hand match. The first one to win is the first person to get a clean hit. It won't count if the person blocks it. Is that fair?"
Homura nodded.
Suddenly, our emblems glowed once more. This time, there was a light blue halo of text floating in front of it. The halo expanded outwards, seemingly creating a barrier between us and the outside world.
Everything looked the same.
I looked back at the door.
Ai-nee was outside of the classroom, meaning that the whole classroom was a space of data and so were we. This classroom was our battleground.
In front of us, a holographic '3' appeared.
It began counting down.
2.
1.
0.
BEGIN!
As soon as the duel began, Homura assumed a boxing stance and ran toward me. She threw a flurry of hits at me. Weaving and trying to confuse me so that she would be able to land a clean hit.
I was able to read every single one of her moves.
Seemingly, in her anger, she put too much power into her hook and hit it wide, creating an opening for me.
I dove in toward her.
It was it. The end.
"!"
From the bottom of my eye, I saw her leg, it was rushing toward me. I leaned backward, barely dodging the kick.
The girl clicked her tongue in irritation.
"Tch!"
Next, she shot multiple shots at my chest. I managed to block every single one of them.
Homura walked backward, slightly gaining distance.
I was sure that the martial art she was using was boxing. Homura was definitely in a boxing stance. She was in the middle of retracting her hand as her leg pierced through the air at me.
She was boxing but then she did a vertical roundhouse kick. She switched from boxing to Taekwondo. Homura switched when she was performing a movement.
Since she noticed that I was deep in thought, Homura charged once more. She stopped around a foot and a half in front of me and began twisting her body to perform a kick.
It was a feint.
She jabbed at me with her hand open toward my throat. I tapped it off course. Homura didn't give up and continued to try to grab me, each one being put off course due to my tapping.
Her martial arts changed again. This time, she's trying to grab me instead of kicking. It's jiu-jitsu!
She's some sort of martial arts bender! She needs to stop this!