I walked out from the stairwells north entrance, towards the north building, the rain from the night previous still pouring down heavily. I pulled my hood over my head and held my duffel bag close to me as I walked through the rain to the main building.
The rain had been coming down all night, and now it's 9 am, yet the sky is still a foggy gray hidden behind an array of droplets pouring down. This rain doesn't even feel natural, in any case it doesn't smell natural. Usually rain will smell like the sea, but it doesn't smell like anything, and the amount of time it's been going on for makes me think someone is causing it.
I reached the main building and breathed a sigh of relief as I pulled my hood off. I walked through the hall before turning into a room. It was well lit and made of a light shade of wood with padding around the walls. Inside was a counselor, a man, about 5'2" wearing a blue shirt and white pants. He had a grumpy expression and a receding hairline.
"Hey, I'm supposed to give this note to my counselor to excuse an absence." I handed him the note as I sat down in front of his desk.
"Do you know who your counselor is?" He asked impatiently.
"No, I was just assuming you could do it." I said.
"Well I can't." He turned in his chair, putting his feet up and pulling his head away to look from me as he obnoxiously stuck the note out.
"Tell me who can then." I stood up.
"You're uhhh, oh I know you! That Fubuki kid, man you're weird you know that?" He started smiling as he took a sip from his tea.
"Yeah anyway you mind telling me who my counselor is, so I can take care of this already?" I said expectantly.
"Sure kid, you're with the head counselor, big creepy lady in the big room, down the hall to the right." He turned back around as I left.
So he knew who I was? How? Was it from my battle with Rias? Do people talk about me? Honestly if they do that's just better for me.
I walked into the head counselor lady's office, her creepy aura terrified me before I had even sat down.
"Hey so I just need to give you this to excuse an absence." I sheepishly put forward the note I had.
"Right, I will get that all sorted." She said non-chalantly, her voice still creeping me out.
"Okay thanks I'll be going now." I stood up to leave.
"Wait Fubuki, I wanted to ask you something." I held onto the door frame as I turned around to face her.
"Yeah what is it?" A bit of sweat poured down my neck.
"Have you thought about Champion's Day at all?" She looked up at me, her eyes staying so perfectly still that I would've thought she was a mannequin.
"That? No not really, why what's going on with that?" I asked nervously.
"Well I thought as much, lose a fight to one guy and you lose all your guts," She sighed and returned to the stack of papers on her desk.
"Lose my guts?" The fear was drained from me, "I did not lose my guts! And I barely lost that fight!" I slammed my open palms on her desk.
She looked so deep into my eyes I thought she would reap my soul, "Then I suggest you be our champion, if everyone doesn't already think you're weak from losing to Rias, maybe you can get something back with this." She went back to work.
"Wait," I sat down, "What is Champion's Day, exactly?" I asked cautiously.
"Champion's Day is an event where a student is sent into the labyrinth beneath the school to defeat a great beast." She said.
"And you want me to defeat this beast?" I sat forward a bit in my seat.
"Precisely Fubuki, I want you to be the school's champion, and the contents of that duffel bag would have me assume you're going to be training anyway." A silence broke out between us, how did she know what's in the bag? "How could you have known what was in my bag?" I asked slowly.
"Worry not as it does not concern you, now that you've concluded you may exit." She ignored my presence and began working, as if I didn't exist after she stopped talking to me.
So weird, how could she have known what was in my bag at all? God damn it, I was so caught up in what she was saying I didn't realize I was going against Kasago's warning. I have a horrible feeling about this Champion's Day thing.
I walked out from the counselors hall to the north field, it was no longer raining, the sun was shining brighter than ever. The small puddles of water around reflecting the light all around with all the grass creating an image of seemingly perfect weather. I looked towards the battle arena where I had fought Rias, it had been fully repaired, but just seeing the field made me shutter and I pulled my head away quickly.
I walked over to a smaller grassy area towards the edge of the school's property and began training. I took out a Reux Device from my bag and tossed it onto the ground. It lost it's cubic shape as it activated and took on a shapeless form, creating targets in the same purple-ish shade that it had always been in.
I punched the targets, and after rounds of it reforming the Reux Device reassembled into new targets farther off. I wiped the sweat from my forehead with a towel I had kept in my bag before tossing it aside and picking up some water.
I drank half of it before tossing the second half out the bottle and immediately turning it to formless frost, a state caused by me exuding frost to cool down and control the water. I reformed the water into icicles and tossed them at the targets.
My aim has improved, but I can't seem to improve the actual strength of the icicles for some reason, there's some limitation on my technique. I sat down to think for a second as the targets floated above me. I've been thinking of a new technique that would allow me to not need the water bottle to create icicles.
"Okay, just focus, exude frost, cool down the air." I concentrated, lowering the temperature in the air around myself to much lower than I had ever needed to using the formless frost technique.
Okay, it's gotta be something like this. I collected all the frost that I had put into the air together and tried creating an icicle, but I was exhausted and dropped to the ground. I lowered my head, panting, trying to catch my breath at the same time as trying to figure out how I could make the technique work.
The issue wasn't that I lacked concentration, I lacked the spirit energy to hold the particles of water in the air together long enough to create an icicle that can be put under my control. I pulled out another bottle of water and doused myself before laying down for a bit.
The sun was shining so brightly as I tried getting some rest, eventually I got used to it and fell asleep and the Reux Device returned to being cubic and landed on the ground nearby.
"Hey Fubuki!" I was startled awake by the sound of a woman's voice calling out to me.
"The hell?" I got up in a daze and looked around.
"Over here, hey," She waved at me.
I finally got used to the light again and saw her. She was wearing a long thing over her, not much of a gown or dress, I don't really know how to describe it. It went from her shoulders to her feet and was green with yellow accents. She wore a mask with 3 flower petals lined up as a symbol on it.
She looked older than me, probably a bit older than someone like Asaki as well, maybe 24? How did she get onto school grounds? And how does she know who I am?
"Hey, I know you?" I stood up to face her, and slightly towered over her.
"Oh, no, me no, you don't, but maybe you heard of someone I know, they uh, sent me here to talk to you." her reply was stuttery and all over, she's nervous.
"So someone I have maybe heard of sent someone I've never seen before to talk to me?" I looked at her suspiciously.
"Well it sounds dumb of course, to you, but I have good reason, to be speaking with you right now." She said.
"Well what is it?" I asked impatiently.
"Hmm!?" She exclaimed perkily, "Oh uh, yeah to offer for you to come train on Mount Gotokata!" She said it as if I should be excited, or as if I should even care.
"I don't know what that is at all, is it something I should care about?" I was again suspicious of her motivations.
"Oh yes, the Gamimaru clan that occupies the mountain are very powerful, and here's the best part!" She lost her nervousness entirely and started to speak in a very animated tone, "Since you know me, they'll train you, no hesitation." She stood in silence awaiting a response.
"So, you want me to go to a mountain filled with people I don't know to train?" I was skeptical and leaned back onto a wall.
"I guess you would have that response, but trust me, just give them my name and they'll treat you with the utmost respect." She spoke in an extreme confidence.
There's so awful signs, her personality shift, how adamant she is, especially about how I have to specifically mention her name, and trying to sell me on this so hard. I don't trust a single aspect of this, but I have no other choice than to do this.
I looked towards the sky, and by the time I looked back she was still standing there awaiting a response.
"Alright, what's your name," She looked really happy, "Don't get happy yet, I don't trust you at all, and chances are I won't go," I left the walls shadow and picked up my Reux Device.
"Well in case you do, I'm Mizuki, make sure to mention me okay? My dad is the chief." She giggled a bit before running off and in seconds she was out of my view.
Mizuki, daughter of the chief, I wonder why she has a mask, is it to hide her facial expressions? With how often her tone shifts it might be to hide what she's thinking. And the weird clothes and symbol on the mask? Is that apart of their clans clothing?
I put the Reux Device into my bag before zipping it up and walking off. I walked into the counselors hall once again, I looked at the offices as I passed by, but no one was actually in them. I checked a clock on the wall and realized it was 4 pm, I must've fell asleep for longer than I had thought.
I exited towards the east exit and nearly bumped into some girl, she was really apologetic until she looked at me straight in the face.
"Oh, you're Fubuki right?" She looked up at me, her dirty blonde hair was all messy as a huge smile grew across her face.
"Yeah? I know you?" I asked.
We were interrupted when that short guy counselor came out of the hall and began yelling, "Hey, get in here already, you're lucky I'm even taking this meeting after my working hours!" He shouted.
"Oh I better go, see you around alright?" She ran off.
"I don't think I know her." I said as I stood for a second processing what had just happened to me.
I walked into the east dorm stairwell and headed up the stairs. I got onto the floor and noticed Kusaha outside his dorm on the floor. He was wearing all white with white socks but no shoes. I kept staring at him before heading over.
I stood in front of him as he looked up, "Are you okay?" I asked putting my hand forward.
"Yeah," He responded standing up, "I just locked myself out," He looked at the door.
"Wait the dorms have locks?" I asked confused.
"Yeah, you should've gotten a key already." He was now confused.
"That's what that key is for! I remember getting one but I just thought it was for my locker," I said.
"Yeah? How long did it take you to figure out we don't have lockers here?" He tried holding himself back, only managing to snicker a bit.
"Yeah at least I didn't lock myself out." I shrugged and headed over to my dorm room and opened it." I had a smug look as I turned to him and entered.
"Ah fuck off." He shouted jokingly as I shut the door behind me.
I laughed a bit before sitting down on my bed, Kasago was in his burrough which was parallel to mine.
"Kasago, I wanted to ask you something," I took off my shoes and removed my workout clothes as I heard him close his book.
"What is it?" I could hear his chair shuffle a bit.
"Well it's a few things, do you know what Champion's Day is?" The moment the words left my mouth an awkward tension grew in the room as I could almost feel Kasago mentally stutter around trying to figure out what to say.
"What about Fubuki?" He sighed, as if he knew I would do something dumb again.
"I'm-" He cut me off.
"You're going to goddamn participate you asshole." Kasago didn't swear much, so hearing him genuinely angry terrified me a bit.
"Well I mean, I was thinking to, yeah, and to get ready, I was maybe going to go to this mountain, I forgot the name." I could hear him shove his chair to the wall of his burrough and sit down in mental anguish.
"No no no no," He said to himself faintly, "Please tell me it's not Mount Gotokata," His voice was tired and a little bit disappointed.
"Yeah! That was the name! Wait why is that bad?" I left my burrough and sat beside Kasago on his chair.
"Because the clan that occupies that mountain are dangerous!" He raised his tone a bit.
"Well I mean, if they train me I could beat the great beast in the labyrinth." I reasoned.
"Fubuki, all I'm going to say, is I really recommend against going to that mountain and against going into that labyrinth." He picked his book back up and started reading.
"Well fine then, I'm just going to find someone who will encourage me!" I put my shoes on quickly and left, slamming the door behind me.
I was angry, and maybe to prove that Kasago was wrong in some way I entered the stairwell and jumped the gap, clinging to the wall. I began falling and right before hitting the ground I was able to create enough frost to slow me down and place me on the ground safely.
I exited the school and went to Kaliston, the lights had just come on and I angrily ran down the steps of the road and went over to Asaki's house. I knocked on the door and waited, the door opened and I immediately barged in.
I sat down on Asaki's couch and he began spouting, "Woah, what's got you so angry?" He said nonchalantly and drank from his water.
"I want to train on Mount Gotokata but my friend thinks it's a bad idea, and I'm not angry," I looked at Asaki and calmed down.
He sat down on the couch near me, "Well I think it's something you could handle," He crossed his leg on top of the other.
"Seriously?" I looked up at him and said in hopeful tone.
"Yeah, I mean you got it right?" He looked around the room.
"Alright," I said satisfied, "And what do you think about me being the Champion?" I looked him the eyes.
"Hmm," He put his drink down to think, "I think if you train hard you can handle it, and you should, come by here after you leave the mountain, I wanna teach you something."
"Yeah I got you, see you soon alright?" I got up to leave.
"See you soon," He picked his drink back up as I left.
I've settled, tomorrow morning I'm going to Mount Gotokata to train, and then I'm gonna beat the shit out of Rias! I had a giddy smile on my face as I ran back up the stairs and ran down the street back to Etchtome.
I blew into the entrance, practically jumping straight from the door to the courtyard all the way over to the east building's stairwell. I rushed up the stairs and noticed Kusaha was gone. I paid no mind and slammed open the door to my dorm.
"Ah," I jumped onto my bed and exclaimed satisfied.
"What's got you so happy?" Kasago asked condescendingly as he turned a page.
"Don't worry 'bout it," I said.
"Wow alright," He responded.
I was so content I ended up falling asleep immediately with the lights on. I can't wait to train with these people, no matter how dangerous, I will become strong enough, and no matter who challenges me, I'll beat them to a pulp, just like before.