"Humans."
That's all Tsugumi thought as she walked up to take her spot. "They want me to fight a weak ass human."
She didn't care that he'd somehow taken down Nishiyama. "This is a waste of my time."
He was looking very excited on the other side. A little TOO excited.
Jukai called out the words. "Ready? FIGHT!"
"TSUGUMI! TSUGUMI! TSUGUMI!"
Immediately, loud cheers from both the crowd and the other competitors were heard.
Tomoko jumped up and down. "Yes! Underdog! Let's do this!"
He ran up full speed at Tsugumi, who simply touched her arm.
"Now, for my starting move!"
She prepared to punch him.
"Base Move: Retreat!"
He turned tail and ran, just as Tsugumi was about to swing.
"Ughhhh."
She touched her leg, and with white energy flowing from one to the other, she jumped up and landed right in front of Tomoko, cutting him off.
"Hahaha! So I'll have to play you differently!"
In two seconds, however, he was being dangled over the edge by her.
"OH MY! I am in a pickle!"
5 years ago...
"Well, dear, seems we'll have to eat the rest of this bread."
"Okay, mom!"
Tomoko eagerly ate half of the bread and drank the small cup of water his mother gave him. "Thanks, Mom!"
"No problem, dear. I'll have to try and find some more bread for dinner."
"Okay!"
She left the house, but it was clear something was wrong. She was moving slower, more gingerly. She appeared sickly. Tomoko knew the lack of food was getting to her.
As she left, Tomoko saw one of the men he admired most: General Morino, who was driving a nice car back down to his own house. A house that was much better than all the others in the area COMBINED.
Last year, he competed in the annual Voltian Military Tryouts to try and gain citizenship. To try and be like Morino, who lived a peaceful life despite being human.
He had failed, and left, but not in shame. He found it FUN. He wanted to do it AGAIN.
Earlier this year...
"Brother, are you really going back to those tryouts?"
"Of course, Konomi! I will win, and we will all live GREAT LIVES!"
His sister tugged on his arm. "But you've tried for FIVE straight years! If anything, let me go! You've been overworking yourself to try and do this!"
"Nope! I've got this!"
"Takamoto! You don't listen!"
"Haha!"
Before he went to train for the upcoming Tryouts, she placed seven mysterious orbs in his pocket.
"Oooh, what are these shiny things?"
"Just a little something I smuggled from one of the higher-ups. Don't use them unless you really, REALLY have to! You might get in trouble!"
"Okay! I can't wait to see what they do!"
He rushed out the door to train. Konomi just sighed. "I wish he wasn't so naïve and cheerful."
Present Day...
"CRUSH HIM!"
Tomoko looked up to see Nishiyama with a look of murderous rage on her face.
"Finish him, Tsugumi!"
The other competitors just cheered her name. Tomoko remembered one thing:
"Ultimate Move: Special ORB!"
When Tsugumi was about to drop him, he threw one right in her face. It exploded in a bunch of silver and gold sparks.
"Ahh! What the HELL?"
He kicked her and landed back in the arena. She wiped her face, nearly stumbling. The entire crowd gasped. Fujii stood up.
"Where on EARTH did he get THAT?"
Shinjii and Toru got up. "We gotta stop this—-"
Fujii motioned for them to stop. "Wait, I wanna see how this plays out!"
Tomoko rushed to the weapon rack and grabbed a gun. "Hehe! Now for my next special move!"
He aimed it at Tsugumi, just like how Kai did.
"Dirty little human...! I know just how you handle you accordingly..."
Her eyes were bloodshot.
Tetsuya watched the fight with an intense expression. "Wow, all that talking about me, look at her! What's got her so mad?"
Atomu leaned back. "If she loses like Nishiyama, she'll never live it down. Especially since she's the heavy favorite."
"True! True...she's always gotta be on top. Always has to win. It's just her nature, it's sad."
Tomoko threw another orb at her. She put up her arms before it landed, but the sparks still dazed her. "Grrrrr..."
Atomu tapped Tetsuya on the shoulder. "So, how long has she been so prideful? So successful? So powerful?"
"Her whole life."
Many years ago...
"Aww, Congratulations! It's a girl!"
"She's so beautiful!"
"Our firstborn child! She looks like an ANGEL!"
A young baby girl, radiant with power. Her parents held her up with joy, knowing she would be special.
And she was...
7 years ago...
Tsugumi and her brother were out gathering flowers from the store for their mother's birthday. As they walked into the store, everyone recognized Tsugumi.
"Woah, it's her..."
"She's almost as strong as the Princess!"
"Who's that next to her?"
"I guess it's her brother..."
"Who cares, get out the way! Let her pass!"
Everyone moved and bowed their heads. Tsugumi gave a sly smile as she grabbed the flowers. Tetsuya stood behind her, nervously looking around and following her every move.
Once she got to the cashier, he let her have them for free.
"Just take them! It's fine!"
"Hmph. Thanks."
She snatched the flowers and she and her brother left. After they walked out of the store, a hooded Voltian swiped the flowers.
"Hehehe! Mine!"
But Tsugumi touched her arms and legs, and in an instant, the man was knocked unconscious.
"Stupid robber."
All Tetsuya could do was watch...
...watch the sister who had surpassed him in every aspect of life.
Earlier this year...
"What?!?!"
"Yeah. I'm coming with you."
Tsugumi almost looked like she could kill Tetsuya. "No."
"I wanna come to the Tryouts too! I've already told you I planned to attend when I got older!"
"No. You're too weak."
She touched her arm and with a simple clap, uplifted half a dozen massive trees. "See. People are participating who are even stronger than me. And you are way too weak."
"Sure, whatever!"
He slapped himself and was able to punch a tree out of the ground. "I've got this."
He turned and left. Tsugumi rolled her eyes and with another clap, she knocked almost every remaining tree in the park over.
A buff guy walked over to her. He seemed to be in his late teens. "Hey, you look nice!"
"Not interested."
"Oh, I wasn't asking, you're mine—-"
THUD.
By the time Tetsuya could look back, the guy was already 12 feet deep into the ground. "Owwww! Ow, ow, ow!"
"Oh my..."
"Tsk."
Tsugumi went back to practicing.
"Guess she won't have too much trouble in the tryouts. Probably will make it to the finals."
Tetsuya then left the area, pondering.
Present Day...
Tomoko shot at her with the gun, but she dodged the blast easily. As she raced toward him again, he threw another orb at her, which she dodged, but it glowed a light blue, and it spun around and came back to hit her.
"GRRRR!"
"Okay, I got four more left. Gotta use them wisely!"
Hikari called out to her.
"You got this! Don't worry—-!"
BOOM.
Tomoko threw another orb at her, making her jump back.
"Stop. It."
Her words were calm but her face was clearly burning red.
"Now then! To win this!"
He rapidly shot the gun at her, forcing her on the defensive. She dodged them all, but it was clear she was getting slower.
"Come on, finish this, you chump!" Arata gave her a mocking slow clap, laughing hysterically.
"What are you waiting for? Kill him!" Nishiyama had managed to break free from Kazue and Hikari's hold, nearly leaping out of her seat.
"Special Move: Takedown!"
He tried to punch her but she grabbed his fist.
"Hehehe!"
"..."
She slammed him into the ground. "Ow! Nice, nice!"
"I'm done with this."
"Orb...POWER!"
BOOM.
It pushed her back once more, making her drop her guard. He got up to his feet and began excitedly jumping around.
"Let's do this! Come on!"
Fujii and the other judges were stunned. Toru leaned forward.
"Are you sure this match should go on? She should have already been victorious by now."
Shinjii cracked his knuckles. "Kid's got some powerful stuff right there. I don't like it."
Nakada nodded. "Say the word, and we can jail him too—-"
Fujii held up his hand. "No. Let's see how this goes."
Himeka fiddled with her thumbs. "You think she will still win? This is starting to look bad for her..."
As they looked down at the fight, Tsugumi's eyes were blank. In her mind:
"Lose...me...I...don't...lose...this...this...human..."
Naito lifted an eyebrow. "Oh. Imagine another victory for the human."
"RARGHHH!"
In an instant, the crowd jumped back and covered their ears in fear.
Tetsuya stood up. "What on EARTH?"
Tomoko's eyes lit up. "Yes! Let's finish this battle!"
Tsugumi had punched the ground, wild and uncontrollable amounts of magic emitting off of her.
Her eyes glowed with a potent gray hue, and she touched not her arm, leg, or chest, but she grabbed her neck, and a massive amount of white magic transferred into it.
Tomoko joyfully jumped from side to side. "Hehehe!"
Tetsuya began to get up. "Oh no, I think she's losing her composure!"
Arata lifted an eyebrow. "Woah, never seen that before. Heh."
Atomu rubbed his chin, studying her. Hikari and Kazue had their mouths wide open, while Nishiyama continued to cheer for Tomoko's defeat. Akari tilted her head to the side.
"Wow, she's having lots of trouble with that human. What is HIS deal?"
In her mind, she thought: "Humans this year, they're much weirder than before..."
Tsugumi leaped onto Tomoko, pinning him down. "...You...wanna...play?"
"Of course! This is fun!"
She was about to punch him in the face, but he threw one more orb at her, which spawned silver sparks, which seemed to bother her. While she was distracted, wiping her face, he slid out from under her.
"Last one! Gotta make it count! Yes!"
He ran to the weapon rack, seeing which weapon he wanted to take, but in another instant, he felt a cold, malicious hand about to strike his neck, so he:
"Oh, behind? Ultimate Move..."
And he grabbed the last orb, which glowed golden.
"...FINAL ORB!"
He THREW it down so hard that both fighters went flying in opposite directions. Tomoko landed in the laps of a bunch of Voltian nobility, while Tsugumi landed right next to her fellow female contestants.
Fujii stood up, analyzing.
"Tomoko landed out of bounds first."
Jukai, slowly walking to the middle of the stage, stated: "In that case, TSUGUMI WINS!"
The crowd cheered. "TSUGUMI! TSUGUMI! TSUGUMI!"
"She's awesome!"
"Can't believe she was so close to losing! Maybe a fluke?"
"Yeah, that kid had stuff he should have never got!"
But Tsugumi, now back to normal, stared at her hand, shaking violently.
"What the hell...I almost lost? To a human? If I had landed a second later...I would have...I would HAVE..."
Hikari gave her a playful shake. "Great job! You made it to the semifinals! Now you get to face Arata!"
She just blankly stared, almost like she could blow up this entire stadium. Akari gave her a firm handshake.
"Well, glad you didn't lose! Next time, don't let it be so close!"
Nishiyama bear hugged her. "Yessss! You got my revenge for me!"
Kazue merely tried to force-feed her some chicken, while Tetsuya watched her from afar.
"Look at her, she's...depressed? Never seen her that upset before..."
Arata yawned. "Who cares. I'll clap her up real quick and then she can mope to some servants or whatever she does."
Tomoko went flying down from where he landed. "Get away from us, crazy human!"
"Haha! Well, I almost had it! Maybe next year!"
All of the male competitors stared at him. "What? Wanna fight?"
Luca appeared behind him. "That was impressive. Holding your own against one of the strongest here, I'm sure it caught the judges' attention."
"Oh wow! Yay!"
Even Atomu couldn't help but be impressed. "He is right. Look at her, she's clearly been affected."
Tsugumi was staring at Tomoko with the same death stare Nishiyama had. Hers was a little more...conflicted.
Tetsuya scratched his head. "Never thought I'd see the day someone can upset my sister, but you sure did...something to her. Thanks for humbling her, I guess."
Kai and Obara just stared at Tomoko with confused expressions. Umeda kept brushing his hair. Arata stood up.
"Well, anyway. She better get it together, or I'll bake her like a pancake."
Tsugumi still was unresponsive to her friends, looking from her hand to Tomoko, who was getting (praise?) from some of the boys.
"Grrr..."
But she had clearly lost some fire.
Jukai began to announce the next match. "For the third match of the second round, we have HIKARI vs. OBARA!"
Hikari clapped her hands together, nervously jumping up and down. "Okay! Gotta win this and get to the semis!"
Obara snorted. "Hmph. She may have that strange...power...but I can take her."
The two walked over to the stand, kicking off the third match of the round. As those two prepared for battle, Atomu and Akari both looked at the final match slated to occur.
"Sister...
"Brother..."
And at once, they both thought the same thing.
"I'll beat you!"
—-