"Scathing eyes ask that we be symmetrical, one sided and easily processed. Yet every misshapen spark's unseen beauty is greater than its intended judgment."

'Attack.'

Her sword made a contact with his much bigger blade, and ax to be precise, and at least twice the weight so every attack made her wrist ache.

'Block.'

Her wrist gave out and she had to use her shield to block the attack. Mistake on his part, now his left side was open and she attacked.

But he seemed to realize on time and retreated. When the ax came down on her once again, she retreated this time.

It only seemed to make him more eager to attack, and continued his onslaught on her.

One slash came a little too close to her and cut her shirt. Before he could take advantage of the opening, she raised her shield.

He laughed at this, and Yuzu made a dock against his chest.

The poor boy actually looked scared when a bit of blood seeped on his white shirt. He really didn't know about the sharp than retreat, he looked angry and fired his cannon at her without a warning.

She felt goosebumps on her arms, and realized her shield would not block this one; she could only evade.

She somersaulted, and with her hand holding her ground, the impact died was drifting down her body, and her breath was coming off in shorter intervals.

She was acutely aware of the electricity hanging in the air, and the soft wind blowing through her hair.

When her father asked her to aid the sparring session with the freshmen, she had agreed almost immediately. She wasn't so excited anymore when he told her she had to 'tone it down' a little because she couldn't expect them to have her fighting prowess.

It wouldn't be so bad if this boy (Rinko Inoue, if she remembered well) wasn't acting like an impulsive idiot and be serious about the match; being the 'best' of his class must have gotten to his head.

She wasn't going to back down now; she was done going easy on him.

"Tired already, Yuzu?" asked the young boy. He would learn soon not to get too concentrated on her touch and her hearing now, and felt it, the added pressure of his left foot and the soft whistling of his ax-cannon.

He wasn't going to attack her now, no; he was taunting her, having grown a bit too confident over the last few minutes of sparring.

So she charged her sword right at his mid-side.

'Gotcha.'

The moment he raised the axe to aim at her, she changed her standing and flew a kick right at his shoulder. She made sure to add extra pressure to have him fly halfway across the arena.

To his credit, he was able to use his weapon to reduce the force. Rather than falling on his face, he made a flip and landed on his feet.

"Well, someone is finally getting serious, huh?" he said, trying to keep up his nonchalant act.

He could act all he wanted, but Yuzu could feel it. The way his whole body was now taut, and the stronger grip on the handle of his hammer, even the increasing heartbeat.

She refused to fall into banter and trash talk tough. A true warrior doesn't waste energy on talking.

Not that she didn't find a bit of pleasure at seeing him all ruffled because of her lack of answer.

Now he was coming at her, and the moment the ax was about to make contact with her shield, he changed targets and fired at the ground below her feet.

It cracked and she stumbled a bit due to the impact. From the corner of her eye she saw the ax once again coming at her.

'So he wants to play rough.'

Before it could make contact, she quickly put together her machine gun and aimed at his hands, firing off an explosive bullet.

He quickly let go of the handle to avoid the hit but the moment the bullet exploded and made the dirt and dust raise to eye level, obscuring his vision. He wasn't about to recover his weapon any time soon.

…

Rinko couldn't make out anything on the arena, let alone search for his ax. He could make out Yuzu's silhouette though, and noticed that she was looking around for him, probably. If only he had his Alten Zahnrad, he could attempt a surprise attack.

Then his fingers touched something; it was his ax. His teeth gritted at the thought of letting her win this.

…

Yuzu heard the sharp sound coming at her, and rather than just catching his arm, she crouched and kicked the back of his shins, and then punched him in the gut mid-air.

By now, the smoke was nearly gone, and Yuzu saw him on the floor, charging his cannon at her. She dashed ahead, and grabbed his arm, turning him on his stomach with a knee on his back. He coughed and dropped the cannon.

When he opened his eyes, he felt a heavy weight on his mid-side and something sharp against his neck.

It was Yuzu's shield, or rather the razor edges, which she was now holding against his throat. His hand was useless, bent along his arm by her iron grip. There was only one thing he could do.

"Stop," he coughed again. "I forfeit."

A loud whistling was heard and then:

"MATCH IS OVER, WINNER: YUZU HIRAGI!"

...

She made her way to the benches where Yuya and Gongenzaka were waiting for her.

"That was brutal," commented Yuya, coming next to her, "even for you." He gave a look at the green-haired boy, now being helped up by her dad.

"Don't talk as if you weren't enjoying it." She had heard him in the bench cheering for her.

"Besides, he asked for it the moment he refused to take the match seriously," said Gongenzaka from her other side. "This will serve as a lesson for him. Good job Yuzu."

"Let's not exaggerate," said another voice behind them; it was her Dad. "Yuzu, I've already told you to take it easy with the freshmen," her father admonished her.

"But…"

"No buts Yuzu, I'm gonna have to take you off the sparring roster for a week because of that," Her father ended, going back to the class.

'Great, just great,' she thought. What was she going to do all week now? She needed the training, and Beacon's applications date was around the corner.

"Don't worry Yuzu, I the man Gongenzaka will make sure that your training routine won't slack off," he offered.

Really, she could never ask for better friends.

"Yeah, and we're gonna need all the feedback we can get for out Beacon's applications anyway, I'll help you too." added Yuya.

...

Yuzu had just come out from her bath when her father entered the front door. He looked tired and spent. She couldn't blame him; he had been dealing with graduating paperwork and new applicants for Signal for weeks now.

"Do you want the bath ready, Dad?"

"Yes, please."

She went to start the task. And after she made sure the water was the right temperature, she started to think if this would be a good time to tell him that she planned to apply for Beacon Academy.

Her Dad was not one to hide the fact that he was proud of his hunter's way of life…but he wasn't shy either about his adoration for her and how much he would want her to stay in Patch and start an assistant teaching career at Signal.

She considered dropping little hints to soft the news, but she discarded it as soon as it crossed her mind. Neither of them were like that. It was better to do it in one try, like a band aid.

She was going to go for it.

"Dad!" she started trying not to look at him, if she did she may back off. "There's something I need to…What's that?"

Shuzo Hiragi was in front of her, holding a yellow manila envelope to her. 'No way.' She held her breath and opened it. It was a very complete resume of her training progress at Signal, along with a blank application sheet for Beacon Academy.

"I already handed Yuya and Gongenzaka theirs," he said, refusing to look at her. Sometimes she thought she was way too much like her father. Part of her wished she could stay in this house forever and make a life on this island, but she couldn't; the rest of her didn't really want to.

"Dad… I'm sorry" she attempted. "I was going to tell you before-" She couldn't continue because she felt hands on her shoulders. He was looking straight at her now and said:

"Yuzu, I just want you to promise me something." He looked incredibly serious saying this, almost like his 'stern teacher' mode. She just nodded in confirmation.

"I want you to see it through the whole way Yuzu. I don't care if you become the best huntress of your generation or not, but you better do your best to live up to everything this profession stands for."

"Yes Dad!" She hugged him with all her might. She really had the best father in the whole world, and she couldn't wait to tell her friends first thing in the morning.

"And of course, if you want to carry on with your dad's hot-blooded training, I'm not complaining either."

"Dad! Don't ruin the moment," she jokingly complained.

"Hehe. I'm definitely going to miss my melodious diva."

He hadn't called her that since she was five years old; Yuzu still remembered when she decided to name her weapon inspired after that nickname, and nobody had to know. She knew he was crying now, so she didn't dare to step aside for a while, and by the time he was done, the water was far past cold.

So here you go, the third chapter starring Yuzu; special guest include Shuzo (aka. Hot-headed Teacher), Yuya (aka. Sad Tomato), Gongenzaka (aka. The Manliest man to have ever manned)...

Ok sorry about that, anyway following the timeline, you can see our dorks preparing their resumes for colleg- I mean Beacon Academy, this one has takes place a year after Gongenzaka's, six months before our story, hope you like it.

Special Thanks to AnimeGirl 144 for the betareading.