Rei groaned as he woke up, slowly sitting upwards. He doesn't think that he'll ever get used to connecting to the Kaizen Simulation. Every time it feels like he's being pulled across dimensions, like his body is being torn apart.
After calming down, he started inspecting his surroundings. The students seemed to be on a flat field of soft, deep green grass. No matter which direction he looked, the field seemed to expand forever. A green desert.
"What a horrifyingly boring place..." Akari, who was already on her feet, spoke. After also standing up, Rei noticed some white paint on the grass, reminiscent of the kind that they use on sport fields for football and the like. The paint formed 4 individual squares on the ground, the sides being about 4 meters long. Rei noticed the Director looking around, standing in front of a few staff members, before clapping his hands to get the attention.
"Welcome. I see we are 20 people exactly, a fitting number. I want you to split up in three groups containing four people, and one group containing eight."
With Director Mazato barely giving an introduction, the students started to move hesitantly, trying to form groups in the given requirements. Groups of four and eight, huh? Rei already had a feeling in which direction this was going - some kind of tournaments. The amount of participants in each group being a power of two was enough for Rei to assume that. That said, if this really was some sort of tournament, then people in the group of eight would have less chance at winning. While in the groups of four, you would only have to win twice in order to land first place, in the group of eight, you'd have to win three consecutive times.
Rei immediately began to look around, trying to get into one of the smaller groups, only to realize a horrifying fact: he was unpopular. Before he knew it, most of the smaller groups were already formed by friends who wanted to be together. Akari and Raku from his class were among them too. Shit. At least Akki wasn't able to join one of the smaller groups either, so the two of them were stuck in the group of eight. Rei didn't know anyone else in the group though, as they were all of different classes. There seemed to be three people from Class A, two from class B and only one from class D. Together with Akki and Rei, that made eight. Technically, as long as either of them comes out at the top, it would make a good impression for their class... though personally, Rei wanted to win against Akki - that's all that mattered.
"As some of you might've guessed, each team will compete in their respective group in a sort of tournament style. As I only came up with this idea today, the rules are very simple."
He decided on this test today? This man was unpredictable.
"Close quarter hand fights. The playfield are these white rectangles that you see painted on the ground. There are three ways a fight can end," he continued with his explanation, lifting three fingers into the air. "One, one of the competitors steps outside the playfield. This will immediately count as a loss. Stepping on the line is allowed, but the moment you touch anything beyond it, you've lost."
Seeing the white outlines, this was to be expected. It also meant that pushing your opponent outside was a valid strategy. It might be easier than beating them in a fight.
"Two, at any point in the fight, the competitors can give up. In order to do so, all they have to do is let the bystanding referee know."
This, again, was nothing out of the ordinary. Since the students didn't know what the task would be before coming here, there was a good chance that many of them didn't want to fight. In that case, they could forfeit at any given time.
"Three, only me and the assigned referee can end a fight and determine the winner. That's all."
This was rather strange to Rei. Unlike the first rule, there is no clear line of when the winner is determined. Even if one of the fighters is clearly losing, as long as the Director and the referee believe that there is still a chance of a comeback, the battle would go on. That said, the referees and the Director are probably well versed and knowledgeable enough in these things to be able to notice when a competitor doesn't stand a chance.
"So, how are the brackets determined? Can we choose who to fight?" Akki raised his hand, throwing his question into the air.
"No, I've already decided on the tournament brackets," he explained. He must've made up his mind pretty quickly, considering that the groups had only formed a few minutes ago.
Director Mazato then pointed at each of the group, assigning them a number between 1-4 and told them on which playing field they could use. Rei's group of eight was declared as being "Group 4", and they all awkwardly stood around the white rectangle on the ground. They still didn't know who would fight against who, and who would have to go first. The best outcome was if Rei could fight Akki first, that way they would both still have their full energy. Plus, while Rei was planning to win the tournament anyway, Akki might lose before Rei could even have the chance to fight him.
Soon, one of the staff members joined them, before declaring the first matchup.
"Tenji Akitarou from Class C and Ouma Aguchi from Class A, please step into the in white marked playing field," the referee called out the names, and Rei was immediately disappointed. Seems like he wouldn't be able to fight Akki at his best, though if both of their opponents would immediately resign, then maybe they wouldn't have to waste any energy.
Akki and Ouma stepped into the field, both at opposite ends. Rei only now took some time to have a look at his opponents. Ouma Aguchi was a black student with black, curly, short hair. Height wise he was a little smaller than Akki, but not by much, and judging from his stature he was probably somewhat physically active.
Now that Rei thought about it, it was rare to see people of different races around. After the war, The Kingdom of Fuji wasn't very tolerating with foreigners. And while the people of the Yogore district were the ones who were targeted the most, they at least had the advantage of looking similar to the rest of the Kingdom's population, making it easy to, if given the opportunity, blend into the crowd. People like Ouma did not have that privilege.
Both Akki and Ouma wore serious expressions as they did a few stretching exercises without breaking eye contact.
"Are both of you aware of all the rules?" the staff member double checked, looking at both of them.
"Yes."
"Then you may start in three, two, one... go!" the referee announced and the start, holding his hand into the air. Simultaneously, the other groups also began with their first fights, each having a staff member to watch over them. Meanwhile, the Director stood in the middle of the four groups, looking around and taking note of each of the ongoing fights.
But neither Ouma nor Akki made a move. Instead, they both just slowly walked towards the middle, holding a distance from the white line behind them. Step by step they inches closer, both in a stance that would allow them to react quickly. And then, with less than a meter between them, Akki made the first move. His right, open hand shot towards his opponent. Instead of trying to punch him, Akki was seemingly trying to grab onto Ouma. Unluckily for the Class A student, he wasn't able to pull his left wrist away fast enough, allowing it to be grabbed. Immediately, Ouma threw a right fist, but it was slightly too late. Akki shifted his body to the side, evading his punch and yanking Ouma's arm with him, causing him to temporarily lose his balance. Temporarily thrown off, Ouma tried his best to regain his footing, but having put a lot of momentum into his failed punch while also being held captive made it difficult. Akki did not give him a break, immediately attacking with his left fist. The punch managed to land on his enemy's ace, and the before forward stumbling Ouma was now propelled backwards by the force. But it didn't seem like he was giving up; instead, he now too wrapped his hand around Akki's wrist, both of them holding onto each other.
Using the weight of his body and of his backwards motion, Ouma leaned back, pulling Akki with him, who was the one trying to get away this time. But Ouma lifted his right foot, and with Akki falling towards towards him, he used the chance to thrust his foot into the blonde's stomach, causing him to gasp and fall backwards. Finally both parties let go of each other's wrist, each now falling on their backs onto the soft ground. Ouma was the first one to stand up again, taking a few seconds to breathe.
"You got this Aguchi! Beat him up!" a loud voice emerged right next to Rei, startling, but not scaring, him. The origin of the voice was another black guy, his long dreadlocks tied into a ponytail. Even though his words were harsh, he had a big smile on his face, and even his voice seemed rather supportive than angry. For some reason he was also wearing an eyepatch, hiding his left eye. Rei initially thought that he and Aguchi Ouma must be classmates, but the embroidery on his jacket clearly spelled the letter "B", while Aguchi seemed to be from Class A. Maybe they were friends or relatives? The fact that they know each other must also be why they chose to be in the same group. That said, if they really knew each other even before they joined the academy, then it must've been unlucky for them to land in different classes.
While Ouma still had a cautious look on his face, Akki seemed rather pissed off as he pushed himself back on his feet. Without giving his enemy a chance to recover, Ouma attacked, quickly closing the distance and launching a fist towards Akki's face. Unexpectedly, rather than trying to dodge or fend off the attack, Akki simply mirrored his opponents movement. The two fighters met in the middle of the field, both putting all their focus on their attacking fists without bothering themselves with their defence. With both seemingly knowing what they're doing, they hit each other's face with quite the impact. And yet, Akki barely seemed to care, while Ouma let out a grunt as he stumbled backwards. Before his opponent even hit the ground, Akki had already positioned himself above Aguchi, grabbing and pinning him down by his collar. He raised his fist, and let it come down with a lot of speed and no apparent hesitation, hitting his enemy in the face once again. Instead of trying to recover from this position, Ouma spread out his arms and hands, showing resignation.
"I give up! I give up!" he yelled, his voice filled with desperation.
Rei thought that resigning at this point might be the best option Ouma had, though Rei himself would never do the same. That said, Ouma seemed rather upset about the outcome. He fought well, yet he still lost. The reason for that was probably due to Akki's good judgement.
When Akki had thrown the counterpunch towards Ouma instead of defending himself, Rei had initially written it off as an act driven by adrenaline, but that wasn't the case. Because it seemed that Akki knew that he would win that way - he probably noticed that his range was bigger. His punch dug deeper into Ouma's face, while Ouma's punch barely even applied any pressure on Akki. Maybe Akki even thought that he had a stronger punch in general. Either way, it was clear to Rei that the blonde bastard definitely had enough experience in fighting to keep his cool.
Akki reached out a hand, with Ouma grabbing it after composing himself, getting helped to get back on his feet.
"What a shame, you shouldn't have given up so quickly!" the class B student next to Rei welcomed Ouma back, throwing an arm over his shoulder.
"Ugh, stop, my body hurts... and if I hadn't given up, my face would've been beaten bloody. I had no chance to recover there," Ouma explains. His guess probably wasn't too far off from reality, though saying that he had no chance at all was probably a more pessimistic view. Akki also wordlessly returned to the lines, sitting down on the ground to take a rest, holding his hand against his jaw, which must probably be the spot where Ouma had hit him.
"You better win too, so that I can finally get my deciding victory over you," Akki groaned and flinched as he pressed against his bruises.
"Pff, don't be ridiculous. If you go this hurt by that little fight, then there is no way-"
"Kozaki Reina from Class B and Kawakami Rei from Class C, please step into the in white marked playing field," the referee interrupted Rei, calling out his name. Seems like it was his turn already. He turned towards Akki, giving him a glance of confidence, before walking into the white square. His opponent - apparently named Kozaki Reina - did the same. She was a girl with dark hair, who nervously looked around as she stood a few meters apart from Rei. She was a whole head shorter than him, and her slim statue combined with her jumpy behavior made her seem anything but intimidating. She also made use of the academy's rule to allow modifications of the school uniform. Rei wasn't sure why it was allowed, maybe due to some progressive view on individualism, but either way, Kozaki had taken this chance to sew a hood onto the jacket, which was now hiding most of her head. Meanwhile, her relatively long bangs were hiding a good portion of her face, even more so as she was now staring at her own feet.
While her whole impression could only be described as pitiful, Rei knew better than to underestimate her. After all, she was accepted into this academy, and she also had the guts to join this competition. That wasn't something to scoff at.
"Are you both aware of all the rules?" the referee asked them.
"Yes."
"Well... yeah..."
The referee glanced towards Kozaki, as if to make sure that she had understood, before nodding to himself.
"Good. You can start in three..."
Rei took a big breath.
"Two..."
He positioned his fists in front of him.
"One..."
He fortified his stance, letting his feet give him more balance as he readied himself to fight.
"Start!"
Without wasting a second, Rei started to close in taking small steps as he shifted his weight from one foot to another. He could feel his focus rising, his entire attention shifted onto Kozaki Reina, when-
"I-I give up!" she yelled. holding her palms in front of her.
"Huh?"
"I mean, I uhm, I'm sorry... I don't really want to fight... this is embarrassing, I'm really sorry!" she explained, before bowing apologetically, not looking Rei into the eyes before quickly hurrying off the fighting stage, making her way to a secluded spot, where she sat down on the ground, facing away from the rest of the group.
"What?" Rei stood there, dumbfounded. He felt so... silly. Akki's laughter could be heard through the entire field, and even some of the other students were chuckling at him. None of the laughs were directed at Kozaki, rather, it felt like the fact that Rei took it so seriously is what made them smile. Ouma's friend even went to Kozaki, seemingly checking up on her.
And so Rei returned to his spot as well, next to Akki, who was grinning at him. "Lucky you, you actually managed to get past the first round, I'm impressed."
"Shut up."
The referee sighed, before calling out the next two names. Ribeiro Enzo from Class D and Mayafumi Mika from Class B. Rei was sure that would forget all of these names by the end of this tournament. Ribeiro made a striking first impression. He was tall, very tall, and his muscles gave him a pressuring look. He had vivid, green eyes that contrasted his dark hair. He was clearly not indigenous to Fuji; if Rei had to guess, his family was probably originally from Latin America.
Meanwhile, Mayafumi also made a strong impression on Rei. She wasn't short - she was actually pretty tall for a girl - but in comparison to Ribeiro she still seemed tiny. Her black hair was long and had a few blue streaks dyed into them. If the two of them had one thing in common, it was that inherent glare they possessed. Eyes that seemed to stare into ones soul with nothing but distrust and judgement. No, that wasn't quite accurate. To Rei, both seemed somewhat unfriendly, but Mayafumi just seemed annoyed as she analyzed her opponent. Most people would be scared to have to fight a guy like him, but instead, to Mayafumi it just seemed like a pain the ass.
After confirming that both understood the rules, the referee signaled the start, and the two of them went into their fighting poses. Mayafumi didn't seem very uncomfortable, but it looked rather lackluster in comparison to Ribeiro, who's stance suggested that he was right in his element. With only a few steps, he was already close enough to start attacking, his long, thick arms giving him an immense advantage in range. His fists came rushing towards Mayafumi, first a left and then a right, both of which Mayafumi managed to avoid by a hair, backing further into a corner. Ribeiro didn't stop, and like a robot he came closing in, thrusting his fists forward in the same way he did before. Again, Mayaumi managed to avoid them, but now her heels were almost touching the white line. Simultaneously to Ribeiro taking another step forward, she turned around, simply walking out of the white border. She gave up, mumbling something under her breath as she headed back to her spot on the grass. Unlike when Kozaki gave up, nobody laughed, as the atmosphere felt much heavier. Rei also couldn't blame her for giving up. Ribeiro was tall, strong and surprisingly fast. He didn't even give her a chance to counter his punches. Fighting a guy like him must've felt hopeless and trapped to Mayafumi.
"Ribeiro Enzo wins," the referee confirmed, as the last two people, who hadn't fought yet, readied themselves.
"Ouma Fukuchi from Class B and Hyoudo Moena from Class A, please step forward."
So Rei had been right, they were brothers. Ouma Aguchi and Fukuchi. Must be unfortunate to end up in different classes.
"Hah, don't worry Aguchi, at least one of us will make it to the next round," Fukuchi said with confidence, for some reason posing like a fairy tail villain, with one hand stretched into the air, and the other on his eyepatch.
"I wouldn't be so sure if I was you. I'm not sure how strong she is with fighting, but her personality definitely is something. She has basically taken the leader position in our class, so this time I won't be rooting for you. And if you win, please be a gentleman and don't hurt her, got it?" Aguchi gave his brother a piece of advice, and Fukuchi actually seemed to take it to heard. Still, he grinned widely, punching his own palm as he stepped forward, facing Hyoudo.
Standing in front of each other, the two of them seemed like they came straight out of some kind of fantasy world. While Fukuchi's eyepatch was already strange enough, Hyoudo's appearance was far more individualistic. Taking the academy's rules to the maximum, she had transformed the uniform into what seemed like a traditional robe. While the color scheme staid the same, pretty much everything else had been changed. Combined with a strange, wooden hair ornament, which tied her long hair into a pony tail, and two more smaller wooden pom pom hair ties on each of the hair strands on the sides of her face, she almost looked like a Samurai.
"Are the rules clear to you?"
"Yep!"
"Yes."
And so the countdown started, with Fukuchi jumping from one leg to another in anticipation, while Hyoudo took a sideways post, one her left hand opened to a palm in front of her, while her right hand was at her hip, balled to a fist. She did look more experienced in fighting, but that could be a false impression. Not to mention that even if she was more trained in fighting, it would still be difficult to overcome the height, weight and muscle difference between the two.
"Start!"
Fukuchi jumped forward, his fist balled. It was a big step, almost a leap, and one could tell that there was a lot of force behind his fist. It was clear that he wasn't going to go on easy on Hyoudo, partly due to his brothers warning. And yet, Hyoudo was calm. With the approaching fist now right front of her, her front facing foot elegantly retreated, simultaneously turning her body. Her front facing palm had gripped Fukuchi's wrist tightly, using his momentum and imbalance to further pull his forward. Her hip turned, her upper body lowered itself, and before anyone knew better, Fuckuchi was strapped over her back and shoulder. Her free hand pushed into his abdomen, supporting the weight as the energetic brother was swung through the air. With a loud and dull sound and a ton of impact, his back hit the ground, just a few centimeters away from the white line, a ghastly gasp leaving his mouth. Still holding onto his wrist. Hyoudo pulled him up, before swinging her right leg into a beautiful kick, hitting the downed guy into his chin. And just like that, Fukuchi Ouma was sent out of the fighting field. He fell down, unmoving for a few seconds, before forcing his upper body up, sitting as he stared at Hyoudo in silence.
"Hah! Hahahaha! That hurt! That hurt so much, man! How did you do that!?" Interrupting the silence, Fukuchi started to laugh, only to immediately notice that the laugh only hurt him more. "That was amazing, it felt like I was on some kind of rollercoaster... one moment I was throwing an incredibly powerful punch, as I usually do, and then I was suddenly on my back!" He kept on complimenting both his enemy as well as himself as he tried to stand up on his feet, Hyoudo politely offer him a hand.
Rei was impressed. Hyoudo's technique was outstanding, it was almost perfect. Rei was still sure that he could beat her, but still, he hadn't expected her to be able to beat Fukuchi with such ease.
And so, the competitors of the next round were decided. Akki, Rei, Ribeiro and Hyoudo. And if he was lucky...
"Tenji Akitarou from Class C and Kawakami Rei from Class C, please come forward."