Chapter 4: E.A.T
Nolan and Dalibor fell were flung onto their backs after fighting with Takumi and Zhi again for the fifth time this week alone, both only getting more and more pissed off because of it. "Dang it!" Nolan shouted, and he and Dalibor got up and walked away.
Zhi changed back into human form and grinned at Takumi, who's stale expression didn't change. "Class," Takumi said as the bell rang for class to start.
"O.K. class, let's get started on the lesson..." Izola began as class started.
After class ended, Takumi and Zhi went and ate lunch. "Hey, Takumi," Zhi started. "Ms. Izola is watching us again."
"Stop," Takumi said, telling Zhi to stop worrying about it.
"How can I not worry, she's been following us around all the time lately, any ideas on why?" Zhi asked.
"Don't know," Takumi replied.
"It's really starting to get on my nerves. I mean who does she think she's fooling? She's in plain sight all the time."
"Ask," Takumi said, telling Zhi that if it bothered her that much to go ask Izola herself.
"That would feel weirder than her just following us." Zhi said, and Takumi sighed, standing up and walking away. A bit confused, Zhi stood up and followed him. "Where are you going?" She asked.
"Asking," Takumi said, meaning that since it bothered her so much, he would ask what was going on, even though he didn't care about it.
Rather than going strait up to Izola, Takumi went into the currently empty halls of DWMA since everyone was either at lunch or in class. Strangely enough though, Izola didn't follow them out of the cafeteria. Takumi and Zhi waited for a moment, but still didn't see Izola, but rather a couple of new faces.
"Hey, we're looking for Takumi and Zhi. You them?" One of the two girls walking up asked.
"Who's asking?" Zhi replied.
The two girls stopped in front of Takumi and Zhi. "My name's Naomi Garner, this here is my partner Florence Garner, and she's also my younger sister. I'm the meister and she's the weapon." Naomi explained. Naomi had shoulder-length brown hair and green eyes, then she took a good look at Takumi and then froze at Zhi. "AH!" She screamed suddenly. "Your that freaky girl from the cafeteria last week!" She said.
For a moment Zhi was lost until she thought back to when Takumi sat at a full table to try and ditch her for lunch, and she got the girl sitting next to him to move by freaking her out. "Oh, that was you wasn't it?"
"There I was just minding my own business, eating my lunch, and you give me the evil stare-down. I'm still freaking out about it, but I guess that makes this a good opportunity for me to get back at you."
"What," Takumi asked.
"Uh, he means, 'what do you want with us?'" Zhi translated Takumi's vague question.
"We want to fight you. You two have been earning quite the reputation for yourselves for a couple of new kids you know. All the fights you've had, people are really starting to recognize you walking through the halls. I've even heard a couple people refer to you as the 'boxing champ' because of your great hand-to-hand combat." Naomi explained. "We've come to challenge you for the purpose-"
"Um, Naomi, I don't mean to interrupt you, but I don't think you should tell them that much..." Florence said. Florence's brown hair was braided and went all the way down her back and had blue eyes.
"Oh, you're right about that. Thanks for stopping me there Florence." Naomi said with a grin. "Alright, now that I've told you why we're here, shall we get started with this fight of ours?"
"No," Takumi said.
Quickly, Zhi translated for Takumi. "Oh, he's saying that we're not allowed to fight unless there's a teacher present to watch."
"That's alright," Diego said, suddenly sitting in a corner near the four with a bag of chips. "I'm here, you may continue."
"Mr. Diego, would you stop that! No one ever gets used to you popping up out of nowhere like that! It freaks everyone out and frankly it's not nice to sneak up on people! Even if we knew you were coming it would freak us out!" Naomi shouted at Diego, then turned back to Takumi and Zhi.
"Well, are you satisfied now, or is there another rule you want to throw at me?" Naomi asked Takumi.
"Fine," Takumi said, and Zhi changed into her weapon form.
Florence also turned into her weapon form, in which she had the appearance of a classic black whip. "Ready? Cause even if your not I'm coming at you now." Naomi said, and ran toward Takumi, taking her partner and swinging hr whip head down at Takumi.
Takumi took a step to the side and the whip missed, and it cracked against the ground, actually breaking the tile it struck. Takumi then ran at Naomi and threw a punch at her face, but she flipped to the side to avoid it, then swung her Weapon at Takumi from the side, but Takumi ducked just below the swing then ran up again and kicked Naomi, but she was too fast and jumped back out of the way.
"This is a good match up." Diego said to himself as he watched the fight. "While Takumi excels in close-quarters fighting, Naomi fights best from mid-range. Putting these two up against each other not only shows their weaknesses, but tells how well they can adapt to another's fighting style. I picked the right pair to test Takumi and Zhi."
Naomi swung her whip down at Takumi again, this time giving it a little more speed. Instead of dodging it Takumi put the chain that connected his gloves in the way so it rapped around the chain so Naomi couldn't swing it around anymore.
"Oh that was a bad move, just what I wanted you to do in fact." Naomi said and twisted the handle of the whip and it electrified. The electricity surged through the whip and then surged through Zhi's metal weapon form and shocked both her and Takumi.
After a moment from the shock, Takumi managed to pull away from the whip and escape with minimal damage. "Sorry about that, were you hurt too badly?" Florence asked them, as she was too kind for her own good. with that trait, it was probably best that she was a weapon instead of a meister, as it might be hard for her to fight others if she were.
"Florence, you don't need to apologize, when they got in the fight they knew there was a chance to get hurt, the same thing applies to us." Naomi told her sister. "Did you like that trick? Lightning is Florence's attribute, with a simple turn of the handle I can send an electrical current all down the whip, electrifying anything it comes in contact with, so long as it can conduct electricity of course. It also has a paralysis effect on my opponent, and if I shock them enough, I can almost completely paralyze my opponent." Naomi explained.
Takumi shook off the shock of the electricity and ran at Naomi, throwing a punch at her head, but she leaned to the side and dodged it. The electrical attack did seem to slow him down a bit as Naomi had said it would, and that might have some effect on the battle. Naomi swung her whip down on Takumi again, but Takumi was still able to jump to the side and avoid it, despite having been slowed down by Naomi's electricity.
"Takumi, we need to get the whip away from Naomi." Zhi said.
"Wavelength," Takumi said, telling Zhi that since they hadn't hit Naomi yet they didn't have the wavelength needed to control Florence.
"We don't need to use the whip, just need to get it away from her." Zhi explained, and Takumi nodded.
Naomi started swinging her whip at Takumi rapidly now that the paralysis had really started taking effect. To compensate, Takumi mad smaller movements and tried to stay in one spot as much as he could so he wasn't exerting himself too much with movement. As Naomi realized what he was doing, she started striking with her whip just to the sides of Takumi on purpose to box him in for a final strike, and just when she saw her chance, she took it and swung her whip down on top of Takumi hard and fast.
Takumi saw his chance hand put his hand up to block, since Zhi's weapon form was made of metal, he wouldn't feel the snap of the whip against his hand too much, so it was just the electricity he needed to watch out for. Just as the whip hit Takumi's hand, he gripped the whip's tip so Naomi couldn't retract it.
"Did you already forget about Florence's electric ability. Metal conduct's electricity, so now you're all-" Naomi started to explain how she won, but in taking so long Takumi pulled on the whip and pulled Naomi forward with it, as well as getting it out of her grip. Without first hitting Naomi, Takumi wouldn't be able to use Florence, so he just let the whip drop to the ground behind him and ran forward at Naomi, who was stumbling. Florence transformed back into her human form, but being behind Takumi she wouldn't reach Naomi in time to help her.
Takumi struck Naomi in her gut with his palm while she was stumbling and unable to dodge. "Soul force," Takumi said and shot his soul wavelength at Naomi, making her fly back a few feet.
Florence ran over to her sister and helped her up. "Naomi, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm alright." Naomi replied and stood up. "For a new kid, that was a pretty good attack you had just there, most people don't start using skills of that level that until their in the EAT class. Although then again..."
"That's why I had them fight you in the first place." Diego said as he stood up.
Zhi transformed back into human form. "You had them fight us, why?" She asked.
"Takumi, Zhi, you two have extraordinary abilities, even for someone who's been enrolled here for a year or two like these two." Diego said motioning at Naomi and Florence. "That's why I went and asked Lord Death if I could have you bumped up from the NOT class to the EAT class early. Although before we could do that, we needed to give you a real test of your abilities, so Izola recommended Naomi and Florence, and they were up for the job."
"You guys know what the NOT and EAT classes are by now right?" Naomi asked. "90% of the students at DWMA are in the NOT class, which are for the people who haven't completely learned how to use their abilities in combat and weapon who haven't mastered their weapon forms. Those in the NOT class learn how to do just this, and then are move up to the EAT class, which is the advanced division where the other 10% go and take on jobs and combat Witches and Kishin's. NOT stands for Normally Overcome Target, and EAT stands for Especially Advanced Talent, and/" Naomi explained.
"All the first years naturally start off in the NOT class, but since you two already had great abilities, I decided you should get moved to the EAT class sooner." Diego concluded, cutting off Naomi who was just starting to get too far in depth.
"So your saying we're really going to be in the EAT class now!?" Zhi said with excitement.
"Well almost," Diego said, striking down Zhi's hopes. "There's one more thing you two need to do before you can join the EAT class."
"What?" Takumi asked.
"You need to go on this mission and complete it." Diego said, giving Takumi and Zhi a paper with mission specs on it.
"Yes, sir!" Zhi said, taking the mission.