Gushiken Ryuko and Hayashi Silas,
The people mentioned went into the ring.
Gushiken Ryuko was a tall person, with medium-length green hair, serious orange eyes, and an earring in his left ear.
While Hayashi Silas was the same height as Gushiken, however, he had spiky long brown hair, with serious white eyes. His uniform was sleeveless, revealing two black tattoos on his arm.
Gushiken was the It.
The field has three different areas. One, with different-sized poles upright, two, with rectangular bars, the one where I had my victory against Kazuo, and lastly, an area filled with wooden walls that had holes in them. Each area is pretty big, so in the game of tag, it is unlikely to run around within two areas.
And then, the buzz echoed.
At the moment it sounded, the two of them broke out, going in different directions.
Wait, why?
Instead of directly going to Hayashi, Gushiken instead went in the opposite direction.
Now, they're quite apart from each other.
What is going on here?
25 Seconds.
Just as everyone was confused, all the way from across the ring, Gushiken jumped so high, using one of the obstacles as a boost, and from there, he saw Hayashi.
He landed just a few meters, near Hayashi, and began began their hunt.
Their movements were swift, and clean, as if they had been practicing this their whole life.
They're like monkeys in a jungle, effortlessly jumping and hanging around from one tree branch to another. They're on another level.
15 seconds.
None have made a mistake so far, and they're on equal grounds. Although there are some near-victory moments, Hayashi is able to dodge those close encounters.
As time slowly ticks down, Gushiken speeds up faster and faster, and Hayashi too. It's almost inhuman, their speed, it's like they're using magic.
5 seconds,
Things began getting heated, as Gushiken is always "almost" winning, when all of a sudden, Hayashi would dodge in the most inhumane way ever.
And eventually, Hayashi was the victor.
Honestly, if I was Gushiken, I couldn't even touch Hayashi. They're on another level.
The next match is, Aeneias against Ayane.
Ayane looks nervous, while Aeneais looks relaxed.
I could hear Airi's cheers from the sideline.
Hina was the It, and Candi was the prey.
Once both of them were in the ring, the buzz sounded echoed, and the hunt started.
Hina immediately ran off towards Candi. She ran as fast as she could, jumping over obstacles swiftly.
However, Candi was disrespecting her.
She... Was running backward, looking at Hina disappointedly. It is as if she has eyes at the back of her head. She didn't even look back and just jumped flawlessly at an obstacle.
She was opening her mouth to speak, but I couldn't hear what she was saying.
However, from Hina's reaction, she was being taunted. Her eyes frowned, and her teeth clenched.
Not good, she's becoming distracted.
20 seconds.
Hina is being affected by Candi's continuous taunts. Her speed is lowering, and she begins to make mistakes.
If this continues on, she can't catch Candi.
At some point in their chase, Candi jumped through some obstacles and reached the highest point of the obstacle, with Hina unable to reach her.
Then, she looked down on Hina. I could vaguely make out what she whispered, but it was along the lines of "Do better."
Hina tried to jump on obstacles to somehow reach Candi, but would make a mistake.
It's a bitter ending for Hina, she can't defeat Candi.
A part of the field is composed is wide, wooden poles standing upright, with a very big one in the middle. This highest point of the field is where Candi is standing. And to get to her level, you must jump through some smaller upright poles.
Candi is agile and playful. It's like she memorized the entire field at the back of her palms. Just based solely on her performance earlier, she can jump through the obstacles without even looking. That in itself, is amazing.
Her level is entirely different level compared to Hina's.
10 seconds left,
Hina looked up, her expression panicked, and her mind seemingly in disarray. She mustered up her determination and began jumping through the smaller ones. Each step was heavy, however, she was able to continue jumping.
5 seconds left,
With the final pole left, she hastily jumped over, and with all her strength, she stepped up at the last obstacle, and jumped towards Candi, reaching her hand out in desperation to tag her.
But of course, it was already a loss for her.
Before her hand could reach Candi, Candi calmly smiled, and fell backward, onto the ground. She extended all of her fingers outwards, and using all of them, she landed, acting like springs to boost herself to flip and stand back on her feet.
And with that, the buzz sound echoed.
Candi won.
With Hina's momentum continuing, she went straight down the ground. Fortunately, she was able to ease the landing through her hands.
Candi walked away nonchalantly and returned back to the audience.
From the way she landed, it was as if her body was weightless. The tallest pole was at least 7 meters in height, and falling from that height, and using your mere fingers to land smoothly, cleanly, and safely, is another league of its own. I need to be wary of her.
Ayane returned to us with a disappointed look on her face.
"It's alright, you did your best there," Akamine tried to console. But, Ayane only replied with a still-disappointed smile.
Can't blame her. She was taunted, and almost played around by her opponent.
"Akamine Airi - Aoki Reina" Asahi-Sensei yelled out.
"Don't worry, I'll avenge you once I win against her." Akamine eagerly declared with a smile. This lightens Hina's mood slightly, as she returns a small smile.
Airi went off towards the field. Aoki was the It.
"Was my performance that bad?" Ayane asked in a low voice,
"No, she's just simply on another level. That's all."
That's the fact. Hina isn't bad on her own, but Candi is just way out of her league.
"I see, thanks. I'll practice more, hehe." Looks like she slightly cheered up.
Setting her aside, I focused my attention on the upcoming battle.
Akamine, against Aoki. Aoki has been weird. I'm curious to see how she'll perform physically.
"I'm interested, how do you think this match will turn out?" Ayane asked,
"I don't know."
"I'm pretty interested in Aoki-san. She seems... Very mysterious."
"She does."
3RD PPOV
Akamine and Aoki faced off, staring at each others eye. Akamine was serious, yet Aoki was smiling.
However, the longer they stare at each other, Akamine feels as though reality is being shifted, and the surroundings are getting darker.
This unsettling feeling made her nervous, and a little shaking.
Then, the match started.
Airi ran away from Reina and onto the Wide Poles area.
"Oh my, Oh my, please don't run away so fast." Aoki giggled. But she only stood still., while looking up towards the audience, towards Ryo, before looking back in front.
"Let's not take this seriously, Akamine-san. This is merely a mock match, for Sensei to see our capabilities." She added, not even moving an inch.
25 seconds,
Airi hid behind a pole, slightly peeking behind her back. She saw that Reina hadn't moved yet.
"What is she doing...?" Airi thought to herself,
20 seconds,
However, once the 10-second mark was reached, Reina moved and began running swiftly towards Akamine's direction.
Airi noticed this and immediately ran away. Their speed isn't far away from one another. They're running at almost the same speed.
But, in Airi's vision, something was off.
As she ran all around the field, she noticed that Reina wasn't anywhere in the field.
She slowed down a bit to go look for Reina. However, no matter where she looked, Reina was nowhere to be found.
And this time, she stopped completely and looked around carefully.
"Where is she? Did she just disappear?" She thought to herself as confusion rose up in her head.
10 seconds,
Suddenly, she felt as if someone was behind her, and as soon as she felt this, she jumped away and turned to look.
She saw Reina standing behind her, smiling.
Startled, she flinched and ran away as quickly as possible from her.
She ran through the field, and just as she thought she was safe, she again felt a presence behind her. Upon looking behind her, Reina was there, looking at her, smiling.
At this point, fear was beginning to set in.
Reina was everywhere. This isn't a match anymore, this is a horror game.
She tried to remain calm, but another time, Reina appeared, this time, right in front of her, with that chilling smile of hers. Then, she whispered, "Where am I?" Before the buzzer eventually sounded, bringing Airi back to reality.
She took a deep breath to try and realize what had just happened. The match wasn't a physical match, it was as if Reina was using some sort of magic. When she looked around, Reina wasn't there anymore, she was back in the audience seat.
She promptly returned, utterly dumbfounded.
As she was walking back, she heard Asahi call out Reina.
"This is a mock match for me to see your physical abilities. Why didn't you show yours?" Asahi yelled out,
"I'm very sorry, I'm quite sick today, and can't do much," Reina said with melancholic eyes. Asahi only looked at her for a few seconds, before shrugging her off.
"Hey, Airi! Uhm, there's something weird with your match with Aoki-san." Hina commented,
"What happened exactly?"
It turns out, that Reina didn't run all this time, she only walked around, like a kid strolling around in the park, nor did she try to attempt and tag Airi. Only Airi was running around... or rather, away, from something.
"She only walked around towards you, and she didn't even go near you. You ran quite fast away from her, seemingly... in fear. What happened?" Ryo asked, confused.
"I-Is that so?" T-That's weird." Airi replied.
She pondered... How... and... just how was Reina near her all this time? She feels her presence all around... But... if she wasn't near her, then who was she seeing?
She felt baffled, her eyebrows frowned together, with her hands slightly shaking.
Ryo looked at her, thinking, why would she act like that?
"Hey, what happened?" Ryo asked again, curiously.
"I-I don't know. I kept sensing her presence around... and just near me... a-and when you say that she wasn't near me at all... kind of... well... freaks me out." Airi was stopping in between her speech, but she managed to blurt it all out.
Just as Ryo was pondering, Kyouko walked up to them with her usual straight face.
"That was one, unique match." She commented, looking at Airi in the eye.
"Y-Yeah... Somewhat."
"What happened, Akamine-san? You sound nervous and afraid."
"U-Uhm... It's just weird... that's all. It's like we're all seeing different scenarios of what happened..."
Airi saw Reina chasing after her, while Ryo, and Hina saw Reina only walking slowly, and having a distance between them.
Ryo looked over at Kyouko and spoke,
"Any chance that this could be magic?" He asked.
"Illusion magic?" Kyouko replied,
"Yes."
"Truth be told, she isn't an illusionary magician. Her attitude isn't connected to illusions."
"Then, what could this be?"
"I don't have an answer for that."
Kyouko remembered the just recent incident with a student in the class E. He claims that he experienced being attacked through illusion magic. If one were to analyze Airi's experience, it would be similar to the man. He saw Reina, which caused him to lose focus, while Airi saw her, causing her to panic, and have her mind in disarray.
Kyouko frowned, realizing the similarities between this, and the previous incident.
"Anyhow, congratulations on moving on. This may seem like a trivial skill assessment match, however, this is the start of everything. Please always do your best, everyone." Kyouko continued. She bowed her head and waved goodbye.
Since there are 3 more matches, she still has some time to spare. She quietly walked away from the parkour grounds and went outside the gymnasium. Then, she pulled out her phone and dialed someone, while simultaneously looking around to see if anyone was around.
After some time, someone answered the phone,
"Hello, Ryujin. I'd like you to do me a favor."
...