Episode 2: A Falling Star
"I see," Stein's eyes narrowed into slits.
"So that's her strategy," Azusa folded her arms, "She's using her own femininity as a weapon. Ingenious!"
"But, how is she going to win like this?" asked Marie.
"Who knows?"
While the Death Scythes speculated, the Shinigami stood silent. He ignored the events around him, but focused on the fallen Blair. Although he possessed a Soul Perception ability that was far superior to everyone else's, it still wasn't enough to breach the Soul Protect spell. He found this to be bothersome. Watching the witch lie there, he thought to himself. Is there a way to beat that spell? The answer eluded him for the past several hundred years ever since the war between him and the witches began. He recalled each and every time a witch was able to bypass their defenses and infiltrate their ranks. Examples of such occurrences were Medusa, who was able to masquerade as the school nurse and most recently, Blair who managed to sneak into the Kishin's Defeat Party and nab Kid. There must be a way! As he pondered the idea, the whole area grew dark all of a sudden. A large ominous black cloud blocked out the Panting Sun.
"This doesn't bode well," meowed Blair the cat, fearing it might be rain.
The cloud caught everyone's attention. The booing, the pelting, and the battle music stopped. Silence engulfed the whole school. Black Star, who was covered in garbage, looked up at the sky, "Looks like the real fight is about to begin." No truer words were spoken
It was like thunder roaring at a distance. It began building until the sound of the cheering masses became overwhelming. Blair was getting up. The crowd went wild upon seeing this. The students encouraged her with their cheers. She staggered at first, indicating how much pain she was in. Her legs were okay, but her right arm was completely paralyzed. During the sneak attack, her right arm absorbed the majority of the power punches rendering it useless. Upon further inspection, it was, in fact, dislocated.
"Oh man, that hurts," she wiped some blood off the side of her lip. Her jaw felt a little numb. It got hit by Black Star's kick. Thankfully, all her teeth were still there. None of which were broken, dislodged or loosened. A miracle!
"Wow! She's tougher than I thought," Both Liz and Tsubaki were amazed.
"She's so cool!" Patty cheered for her. She reconnected the "e-Pod". Soon, the intercom continued playing the latter part of the battle music, "Face Down"
Meanwhile, Blair saw something odd. "What the heck?" Maybe her vision was still blurry, but she swore she saw a trio of Black Stars charging at her. She rubbed her eyes just to make sure. Yep, there were three of them, alright.
"Mirror Images," she thought. She closed her eyes and listened. She concentrated and blocked out all the numerous sound waves emanating from her classmates until she heard nothing. Using her Echolocation ability, she quickly sensed every sound and every movement the three made. However, she heard no heartbeats coming from any of them.
"Piece of cake," she fully utilized her special ability and countered each and every attack with her kicks. She knew these guys were fakes and the lack of speed and coordination proved it. They were easily dispatched in a matter of seconds.
"You're dead!" The familiar loud rowdy voice came from behind, "Hissatsu Kokusei Big Wave!!!" Blair was struck at the spinal column with a stunning elbow strike. A powerful punch came immediately afterwards and sent a large amount of Soul Energy, in the form of electricity, surging through her body. Had she been a normal person, the electricity alone would have coursed up her spinal cord and liquefied her brain. However she wasn't a normal person, so the next best thing was for the electricity to completely paralyze her. If that didn't work, the electrocution should temporarily rewire her brain. This meant that her motor functions would be thrown in total disarray. For example, if she wanted to move an arm, her leg reacted or her nose twitched instead. If she wanted to move a finger, her head would turn to a side. These kinds of random side effects would be devastating in any battle.
"Is she done for?" asked Spirit.
"I doubt it," Stein answered. The Soul Protect spell was still holding. Black Star's attack wasn't enough to break or at least disrupt it. It appears that the only way to shatter that spell was for the witch to die or at least be rendered unconscious.
The crowd watched in shock, they didn't expect the supposed "test battle" to turn out like this. Blair stood there like a statue. Black Star slowly stepped back to check whether she'd fall to the ground or if she really was petrified. That move earned him a swift punch in the gut.
"His soul wavelength attack didn't affect her at all," Tsubaki was getting worried. Meanwhile, the Death Scythes quickly realized the reason for this. It appears Blair can match her own soul wavelength to those of her opponent's. It was the same ability Stein possessed.
"You can never defeat me, you worm," Blair said, controlling her volume so that no one else heard it.
With the wind literally taken out of Black Star, it was easy for her to take advantage of the situation. As payback for earlier, he sent him flying with her version of a twisting roundhouse kick to the face. He traveled across the combat zone and landed before Tsubaki.
"Black Star!" she came to his aid. He was in pain, but still conscious.
"This is getting out of hand. We should stop the match," suggested Marie.
"Even if we did, I doubt that he'll stand down," Stein was referring to Black Star.
"But at this rate-"
"Don't worry," the Shinigami interrupted, "If she really wants to be a student here, she won't hurt him that much," he assured them. Hence, they kept watch and let the situation play itself out.