Disclaimer: I don't own Honkai Impact 3rd, anything related to it, or any other fictional pieces of media referenced here.
I only own the OCs.
Honkai Impact 3rd : The Next Reality
Chapter 10: Awkward Introductions
Date: Thursday, August 7, 2553.
Professor Sarah's Perspective
A couple of hours after the events within the Saitama Prefecture…..
I rushed out of the teacher dorms and headed towards the aircraft drop off stations. Earlier, I was notified that Yelena sent a desperate call for help during their mission, but not for them, but rather the small group sent to the Saitama Prefecture. At first, I thought she just needed a few more low ranking Valkyries to aid them, but once I saw every other S-Rank and A-Rank Valkyrie rush onto one ship alongside Doctor Enmu, I knew something was off. It has been nearly an hour since they were deployed, and now they were returning. Two airships landed near each other and the doors opened immediately.
"What the hell is going on?" Professor Connors asked, confused as to why every other professor was arriving on the scene.
A bunch of Valkyries came out. The S Ranks that went to the forest came out, most of them having visible damage in some way. They all came out and started discussing amongst themselves. The second airship would open, revealing every other Valkyrie sent from the emergency call. They were unharmed. They also came out and started discussing with the other group. Every professor, including me, walked over to the crowd, chiming in on the conversation.
"Where's Ino? Where's Tendou?!" Reshia asked all of us, panicking.
"Someone, get the medical team, quick!" I heard Doctor Enmu yell close by.
We all turned to him as he alongside a few others rolled Nailah out on a bed, rushing her to the medical bay in. All of us rushed near her, seeing the girl barely grasp onto her life. Shortly behind Nailah, Ino came out on a bed as well. Similar to Nailah, Ino was gravely injured, but at least she was conscious. All of the Kaslana siblings rushed up to their sister, worried at their wounded sister. The doctors and nurses would push them back, trying their best to rush Ino away.
"Enmu, what the hell happened?" I walked up to him.
"I'm not the best person to ask that. All I know is that both missions these Valkyries went on traveled south quickly." Enmu replied.
Reshia pushed past me and all of the other professors to get Doctor Enmu. Shaking him furiously, she demanded to know where Tendou was, seeing how he wasn't with Ino and Nailah went they were rushed to medical aid. Doctor Enmu tried his best to calm Reshia down, but the girl's emotions didn't change. If anything, they seemed to have gotten worse.
"Doctor Enmu, don't hide this from me. Tell me where Tendou is!" Reshia demanded of him.
"Reshia, please calm down." Doctor Enmu told her.
"I can't stand idle and talk to you. I have to deal with two patients right now. Please just let me go."
"Telling me Tendou's status shouldn't take too long right? Just please tell me-!"
"Reshia, you can calm down, I'm fine."
Tendou exited the aircraft carrier, rubbing his hair with a towel. It seemed like he just recently has gotten out of the shower. Unlike Ino and Nailah, Tendou was perfectly fine. No injuries were visible on him, though I'm pretty sure there's a reason for that. Now that I think about it, besides Tendou, Nailah, and Ino, I haven't seen anyone else come out of their ship.
"Tendou!" Reshia cried.
She ran up to him and hugged him. By his facial expression, Tendou didn't seem too fond of the hug, which was probably the reason why he didn't hug her back. Doctor Enmu patted me on the back, pointing over to Tendou.
"If you have any questions of what the hell happened, he's probably your best bet."
Doctor Enmu sprinted away, running to go help with medical work. On the other hand, all of us professors walked over to Tendou, currently trying to fit on his hat. I started first, asking him the first question.
"Where is everyone on your team? Didn't you go with more people?"
"I did, and besides Nailah, they're all dead." Tendou answered.
All of us let out gasps. How the hell did the majority of the team get wiped out? I thought it was just a normal zombie extermination. What the hell went wrong? Ok, since they called a large squadron over to where Tendou was, I'm assuming something went majorly wrong, but how did it get that bad?
"How come you're fine while everyone else is dead, and both Ino and Nailah are injured?" Professor Esponoza asked Tendou.
"That's…I mean its not something complicated to explain, but would you believe me if I said I could heal fast? Because I don't think that sounds believable." Tendou continually lowered his voice with each word.
"Had it not been for that, I would have been dead ten times over."
"Who did you even fight?! I doubt some random zombies can do this amount of significant damage to even the lowest valkyries." Professor Palma joined in the conversation.
"Oh, we fought zombies alright. At first, some random zombies, then most of our allies turned into zombies, and then we had to fight these two called Laevateinna and Uryusume."
All of us were confused. The zombies part made sense, but most of the valkyries became zombies?! I know cascading is a thing that can happen, but it shouldn't have happened to nearly everyone, especially since they were just fighting zombies. I can understand if the majority cascaded due to a tough opponent, but it was just zombies. Also, who the hell are Laevateinna and Uryusume?!
"Ok, I can understand the first part, and maybe the second, but who the hell are Laevateinna and Uryusume?" I asked Tendou.
"Beats me. I don't know much about them other than that they're strong as hell. Laevateinna mind-controlled most of our allies and was the direct reason for them becoming zombies. Uryusume has insane control over ice, and can create anything she wants out of ice." Tendou answered.
So I'm assuming they are the reason everything went wrong. Laevateinna is the reason a majority is dead, and Uryusume sounds deadly.
"Go on."
"Yeah. So an already injured Nailah and…..I had to go fight both Laevateinna and Uryusume. Safe to say that both of us got destroyed. Only reason why we're alive was because they went easy on us, and Laevateinna has a fondness for Nailah, for some reason. Later, Ino showed up to substitute for Nailah once she became unable to fight, but her appearance barely made any difference. Laevateinna and Uryusume still didn't go all out, and they still defeated both Ino and I."
"Excuse me Professors….." A voice called out from behind us.
Turning around to face behind us, the Overseer was walking towards us with Amber at his side. We all moved to the side as the Overseer walked towards Tendou, the latter looking at the former with some concern. Otto was currently wearing a simple button-up shirt and jeans, something uncommon to see him in. Most unusual was his hair. It was styled differently than usual. The front of his hair now mostly to his right, majorly covering his right eye. His hair was also untied too, leaving it to flow down. Parts of it come out to his front chest, though most of it is loose in the back. It was odd to see him change from his usual hairstyle as he had always had the same one for a long time. Seeing it drastically change suddenly is odd.
"Sorry Overseer." I moved aside for him to walk forward.
I wanted to open my mouth to ask the Overseer about his sudden appearance change, but he pretty much ignored me and every other professor. He grabbed Tendou and pretty much carried him away. All of us stared at the Overseer, wondering what he wanted with Tendou. I mean, I know why he had his attention on him, but not in this scenario.
"So, what do we do now?" Professor Connors brought up.
Turning back to the others, I patted Professor Palma, who I was closest to, on the back, and went towards the other valkyries still present. I have my own questions that I want to ask them.
Otto's Perspective
Tendou and I were now in the elevator, heading towards my office. We stood on opposite sides of the elevator. We both stared at each other, not saying a word. Essentially, we made the entire atmosphere profoundly awkward by doing so. With the elevator being quite slow, the awkwardness only became worse.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
...
"Why did you change your hair?" Tendou broke the silence.
"Hmmm? I thought I might try on a different style of hair. What do you think?" I responded.
"Wouldn't the hair cover half of your sight? Seems pretty impractical."
"It doesn't cover half of my sights, barely covers it actually."
"Oh…Also, how did you even get your hair to look like that. Last I remember, your bangs barely reached your eyebrows."
"Most of my hair was pulled back before. Now I've let a good amount of them flow back forward to create this hairstyle."
"Ah…..well, it's an improvement over your last hairstyle."
"Why thank you."
The elevator went back to being the silent boorishness it was earlier until we arrived on the top floor. Leaving the elevator, Tendou and I walked over to my office, where Amber was waiting for us outside. Opening the door for both of us, all three of us walked in. Pointing to the seat in front of my desk, I walked over to my desk, waiting for Tendou to sit down.
"Would you two like some refreshments?" Amber asked.
"Get us a glass of water please." I ordered Amber.
"Yes my lord."
Amber went out of the room to get some water. I pulled out some papers inside my desk and relaxed back on my chair.
"Alright Otto, what do you want from me?" Tendou began our conversation.
"Right. I want to interview you about that mission a few hours ago." I responded.
I shuffled through some old papers, trying to find the right file on Laevateinna.
"I already heard some stuff from Doctor Enmu about the mission when he interviewed you, but I think it's best if I can talk to you myself. Things can get lost when telephoning information. So tell me, how was it like fighting Laevateinna?"
Tendou sat back in his chair, not responding and avoiding eye contact. He looked like he was trying to mingle with his words. After a while, he looked up and finally responded.
"It was not an even match. Laevateinna utterly dominated me. I didn't have a chance to attack her properly. I only managed to get a few good sucker punches. Laevateinna on the other hand got many blows and grabs on me." He admitted.
"It's odd how I made it out alive. There were multiple times where she could have easily taken my life, but her hubris got in the way of doing that. Either that or she just willingly let me live."
I nodded my head. What Tendou told me wasn't really new. From past experiences, I already knew that Laevateinna was already physically strong. While Tendou never stated how she fought, I'm assuming that she went barehanded since his description of Laevateinna getting many blows and grabs insinuate that she fought with her hands. I doubt she got any formal combat training, but her lack of training is made up with her immense strength that she got when she became a Herrscher.
"I see. Now I was informed that Laevateinna had people under her control using some sort of telepathy, is that correct?" I inquired Tendou.
"I can't 100 percent confirm that. By the time I got to Laevateinna, most of my allies seemed to have been under mind control. Whenever this was Laevateinna's doing is unconfirmed, but I highly suspect that she did it. She even became responsible for when they all cascaded instantly." Tendou informed.
On an empty sheet of paper, I paraphrased what Tendou said in a much shorter sentence. His information only helped boost my confidence in Laevateinna being a Herrscher, the 8th Herrscher to be exact. The Herrscher of Clairvoyance was a Herrscher that had control over the mind. Because of this, they could easily manipulate someone through mind control, change their memories, and since their power is directly connected to the brain, they can force someone to cascade. Again, Tendou telling me of her powers wasn't new, but they helped confirm my suspicions.
"Alright then." I said.
Behind Tendou, Amber opened the door, carrying a tray with two glasses of water filled with ice. She walked over and placed the two glasses down. Amber backed up to the sides and became an onlooker to our conversation.
"Moving on from Laevateinna, let's talk about her accomplice." I drank from my water glass.
"I believe her name was Uryusume. What was she like? How did she fight?"
"Uryusume. She randomly showed up on the battlefield after launching a gigantic glacier at me. Unlike Laevateinna who was more optimistic, Uryusume was always dead serious. Laevateinna had a goal in mind, but she would always do things unnecessary for her goal during the fight. Uryusume on the other hand was always on point. She was dead set on accomplishing their goals. As for how she fought, Uryusume's fighting style varied differently. Unlike Laevateinna, Uryusume would stay back and create ranged weapons out of ice. If Laevateinna was closed ranged, then Urysume would be long-ranged. Of course, Uryusume did fight up close on some occasions, but mostly stayed in the back."
Uryusume was a new person to me. Unlike Laevateinna who had a history with me in the past, Uryusume was a complete stranger to me. Every piece of information that Tendou gave to me would be valuable. On a separate piece of paper, I jotted down notes about Uryusume in bullet points to be able to match with Tendou's words and not have him repeat anything. I'll just have to try my best to rewrite them better later.
"You said that Uryusume used ice powers, correct?" I asked Tendou.
"Yes, I did." Tendou chugged a chunk of water from his glass.
"Other than creating weapons out of them, did she do any other things with ice?"
"Yes. She created a glacier to launch at me, and created an ice boulder at one point too. There were also multiple occasions where she created ice shields to defend herself and also created gust storms of frozen winds."
Jotting down notes about Uryusume, I pulled out another piece of paper. This piece of paper was slowly decaying. It was an old piece of paper, rewritten word from older pieces of paper that have already decayed. On this decaying piece of paper was information on the Second Civilization's Herrscher of Ice, Ana Schariac. Comparing the notes of Ana and Uryusume side by side, they both expressed similarities with each other. Seeing how Uryusume is a friend of Laevateinna, a Herrscher, it wasn't too farfetched to assume that Uryusume was this civilization's Herrscher of Ice.
It was fascinating to see two Herrschers awaken out of order. It provides a lot of things for me to research, which is definitely fun. Since the order was thrown out of the window, it makes me wonder if I can manipulate the order to awaken the Herrscher of Death quicker. I must find a way to do so, as it will hopefully help me find a way to revive Kallen much quicker. Hopefully, no one interferes with me like many years ago. Anyways, going back on topic, this does bode an eerie possibility. If the Herrschers are now awakening out of order, then what does that mean for us? Ino got decimated by Uryusume and Laevateinna when she went to go save Tendou and others. Even with the Herrscher of Reason on our side, I doubt we can hold those two back. I must figure out a way to stall them for now.
"I see. Thank you for this information." I piled up all the notes I wrote down in this session.
"Thank you for coming here Tendou. Will you please follow me to-." Amber began escorting Tendou out before I cut her off.
"Wait, I'm not done yet. I still have one more thing to ask you Tendou." I told him.
Reluctantly, Tendou sat back down, drinking the last sip of his water.
"I don't understand what else you need me for? I'm pretty sure I've told you everything I know about Laevateinna and Uryusume. What else do you need to know Otto?" Tendou placed the glass back down, the ice in the cup shaking from the impact.
"Don't worry, this isn't concerning those two." I reassured Tendou.
I've been wanting to ask Tendou this for a long time, and him slightly describing his encounter with Laevateinna and Uryusume only brought this question back up. Tendou is a complete rookie on the field, yet he survived an ordeal between two supposed Herrschers. Unless he had dumb luck on his side, there is no way he should have been able to survive, unless SHE intervened. I already interviewed Reshia, Claudia, and Ino multiple times about Tendou, and I'm pretty sure it's safe to assume that she's back.
"I want to ask you something. You know who Lessica is, don't you?" I interrogated Tendou.
Upon the spoken words of Lessica's name, Tendou's eyes widened. He put his fist on his lips and tried thinking of words to say. I sat back on my chair, smirking at this sight. Bingo.
"It seems like you do know the name Lessica." I told Tendou.
"Uhh…..who's Lessica?" Tendou replied in a silent panic tone.
I have him cornered. He's clearly trying to hide Lessica's existence from me, probably under Lessica's request. It was obvious that Lessica had already reawakened. I know that she has reawakened from all the small details I've received, and Tendou's reaction here only made it more obvious. Knowing Lessica, she probably knows that I know that she is awake. She's only holding onto the last glimmer that I don't know, but she has been really bad in covering her identity. Can't tell if it's her fault or Tendou's.
"Don't lie to me, you clearly know who Lessica is." I smirked at Tendou.
Tendou sat back, cross-armed, trying to think of a way to get out of this. I continued to stare at him, but on the inside, I was sort of laughing. I can't believe Lessica is still trying to find a way to get me off of her for now. It's kind of cute to see her fight back despite both her and I knowing that it was futile.
"Uhhh….oh yeah! I remember there was a Valkyrie named Lessica in this academy." Tendou randomly spouted out.
….
Really, that was the best excuse you could come up with? I can't tell if that was Lessica's or Tendou's idea. Either way, it was a bad excuse, and I'm pretty sure both of them knew that. But you know what? I'm going to play their game. I am going to pretend that Lessica hasn't reawakened yet, and just go along with this game for now. Maybe if I put up a fake act, maybe I can have more time to observe Lessica.
"You are correct. There is another Valkyrie named Lessica. She's not even close to one of our best, but she's still a worthy Valkyrie. Lessica prioritizes on hand-to-hand combat. Maybe you should go up to her and ask her to train you in different fighting styles. Fighting with simple punches and kicks will prove to be futile at higher leveled enemies." I recommended.
"I'll take that recommendation into thought." Tendou replied.
"Alright, that's all I have to ask. You may leave to rest at your dorm now. Amber."
Amber bowed to me and escorted Tendou to the door, opening it for him. After he left, Amber closed the door and turned back to me.
"Lord Overseer, you clearly know that Lessica has reawakened, right? The signs are obviously there." Amber asked me.
I smirked back at Amber. Clearly, she didn't know what my plan was.
"Don't worry Amber. I definitely know that Lessica has reawakened. I'm just playing along with her game right now." I informed Amber.
"Ah, I see. Is there anything else you need of me?" Amber asked.
"No, you can retire to your quarters." I told Amber.
I picked up my papers and piled them up into a document folder. It was getting late, and I should probably get ready for bed, but all of this information has made me too excited. I need to take this information, and learn more. I must learn and find out why this phenomenon is happening.
Date: Saturday, August 9, 2553.
Claudia's Perspective
"Sis, why are we going up to Tendou's room?" I wrote to my sister.
"I have my suspicions about him. I want to talk to him about it because I'm very curious about this 'Lessica' person." Ino answered my question.
"Yeah, but why did you drag me along?"
"You were there when the Lessica entity took over Tendou during that mission with the ouroboros, remember? I wanted to bring you as backup evidence in case he might try to reject things."
My younger sister wasn't wrong. I was there when Lessica supposedly took over Tendou. In a sense, I can back up Ino if Tendou tries to refute anything. I'm more so questioning why we're doing this. There's no real benefit for the both of us to learn about this, and Ino is still banged up from the last mission. She had bandages wrapped around her head, her left arm was in an arm sling, a large amount of bruising, and only one of her legs was operating. The other was broken, and Ino used just one crutch to help her navigate. I had to help her since her left arm was broken, disabling the usage of a second crutch.
We reached the top floor where Tendou's room should be. Helping my sister out of the elevator, we saw how empty the hallway was. There was only his room, and that's it. It was strange. Why was their only one dorm built on this floor?
"Huh, that's weird. Just Tendou's dorm." Ino looked at Tendou's dorm.
"I honestly thought there would have been more rooms beside Tendou's."
Ino and I came up close to Tendou's room. I knocked on it several times to no answers. I knocked again, and this time, the door opened. Reshia popped her head out and looked at us with a warm smile.
"Ah, Claudia and Ino! Hey there." Reshia greeted.
I waved at Reshia while Ino greeted Reshia back. Before entering, Ino went straight to the point to why we were here.
"Is Tendou here, I need to ask him something?"
"Oh yeah, he's here. Come on in." Reshia opened the door for both of us to enter.
We entered into Tendou's dorm. To our surprise, it was nothing like the standard dorms. It was much fancier, with much better furniture everywhere! How the hell, and why the hell did Tendou get such a fancy room to himself? Speaking of Tendou, he was laying on his bed with his fedora above his face. I don't know why he was laying on his bed, but I can hear some faint groans. I pointed to Tendou for Reshia to hopefully get her to spill out what was wrong with him.
"Yeah, ever since the battle with Laevateinna and Uryusume, Tendou's been suffering from a cold. It was probably Uryusume's doing, or it was the rain from that day." Reshia hypothesized.
Besides his fedora, Tendou was wearing a white shirt with a red cross starting from his heart and extending to the sides of his shirt, but he was also wearing a black shirt underneath the red cross shirt. Parts of the black shirt was peeking out of the white shirt's collar, and the black sleeves were also longer than the white sleeves, causing them to peek out a bit too. Other than that, he was wearing black skinny jeans, wristbands, and white socks.
Tendou lifted his fedora up a bit to look at us, the patch of hair in front of him flinging upwards and pointing straight with the release of the fedora.
"Oh, hey Ino. Hey Claudia." He greeted us.
Tendou got up from his bed and wore his hat. His eyes reflected that of a very stressed person. It was weird seeing him like this so suddenly. Yesterday, he didn't seem like he was in the best of shape, but he was still fine. Tendou's condition now looked like it took a massive 180. I guess Uryusume messed him up good.
"What are you two here for?" Tendou asked us while adjusting his hat.
I passed my sister over to Reshia for her to hold on temporarily. I grabbed the largest couch in Tendou's room and turned it around to face him. Reshia escorted Ino over to the couch for her to sit. I sat down next to Ino while Reshia went away, probably to get refreshments. I pulled out my notepad and flipped to an empty page. Ino wanted me to take notes on my notepad for safekeeping. I could also write my own questions if I wanted to.
"Alright Tendou, these questions might be uncomfortable to answer, but please bear with us." Ino began.
"Ok, I'll bite. What do you need?" Tendou asked.
Ino coughed a few times to clear her throat before she started off with the question that pretty much all of us are wondering.
"Lessica, who is she?"
At the spoken word of Lessica's name, Tendou's eyes went from nearly closed, to so wide open, it was as if he just witnessed a murder happen in front of him. Reshia had come back with glasses of iced water for us, and she was very confused.
"Hey, what's going on here?" asked Reshia, setting down the glasses on the coffee table.
Tendou remained silent for a suspiciously long time. If his reaction earlier hadn't said it already, he clearly knew who Lessica was, and where this might go. I kind of feel bad for him. I'm intrigued enough to want to learn more about this Lessica person, but it's clearly making Tendou uncomfortable. I want to stop this interview, apologize, and leave.
"You look uncomfortable Tendou." Ino realized.
"I'm sorry if I've diving into personal territory, but the last mission has really brought this whole affair of your unusual case up further in light. If you continue to keep us in the dark about this, then none of us will really know if what's going on is good or bad! At the bare minimum, can you at least tell us what you think the basics of your situations are?" She continued to persuade Tendou.
Tendou now had his left hand covering the left side of his face. His right leg was bouncing up and down in place. Reshia was by his side and she wanted to place a hand on his shoulder, but for some reason, she was hesitating to place it on. It left her hand awkwardly hovering in the air. I jotted down on the notepad that Tendou seemed uncomfortable talking about Lessica, which isn't what we came here to find out, but it's hopefully something both Ino and I can remember to do when we converse with Tendou again in the future.
"Gah…..please give me a moment for me to talk-think." Tendou let out an excuse.
The room went dead silent for a while. Reshia had let her hand down by this point and moved over to the couch with Ino and I. She and my sister would start whispering to each other, probably about the situation at hand. Tendou remained silent, either trying to find a way out of this or talking to Lessica, if he could even do that. Finally, after a while, Tendou let out a large breath and finally looked back at us.
"Ok, I'll tell you some parts of what the heck is up with me, but I need you to promise me one thing. Please, out of all 3 of you, don't let any of this out to the public. If anyone else learns more about this than the public has already known, it might cause a bigger uproar be it good or bad." He pleaded.
It was an awkward request, to say the least, but if this was the only way to get Tendou to admit the truth, and for my sister to hopefully stop pestering him about this, then I'll accept the request. Not like I would be able to spill the beans anyways considering…..I can't physically talk to anyone.
"Yeah, we promise, right Claudia?- ow." Ino nudged at me with her broken arm.
I nodded my head. Tendou's tense expression lessened itself a bit, but he was still pretty tense. He let out a sigh before he began his explanation.
"Let's begin. Lessica is an actual person who lives inside of me. She sees and knows my every action because she resides within my mind. Lessica for some reason is able to use these weird powers that have no explanation as to why I have them currently, and only she knows. However, Lessica refuses to tell me why, and I'm confused about why she would withhold important information from me. Once in awhile, she'll take over control of my body to fight the more difficult enemies." Tendou went on a long explanation.
"And that's all I know so far. Lessica and I talk regularly, but she refuses to spout anything she deems too important for me to know. So while I know a bit more than you people know, comparatively to the whole picture, I still know next to nothing!"
I jotted down a couple of notes about Lessica according to Tendou's words. We actually learn quite a bit about who she is, and what she is capable of. We know that Lessica is an entity living inside of Tendou. She isn't some imaginary friend of his, she is an actual separate being, I think. Lessica also has these enigmatic powers, which she can pass down to Tendou, and that's it. What we learned helped answer some things, but I'm left with more questions than answers. First off, why is Lessica connected to Tendou? If she was an actual separate being, then why does she resides inside another person? Also, where did she get these powers if she is connected to another person? How does she even exist?!
"I see. Do you know how Lessica looks?" Ino asked, presumably out of her curiosity.
"Ino, considering that Lessica lives inside Tendou, I doubt she has an appearance." Reshia stated.
"Actually, you'd be wrong, Lessica does have an appearance." Tendou corrected Reshia.
"She's around Claudia's height, if not, slightly bigger. She has long silver hair, red eyes that turn purple when she takes over, and her figure is probably one many girls would be jealous about." He described her.
"Ah, I wish I could physically see her. I don't have a strong enough imagination to see her." Ino wished.
….
….
"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that she's always naked for some reason."
And with that statement alone, Reshia, Ino, and went into a ruckus. Reshia was tugging on her pigtails while screaming. Ino fell back against the couch while laughing plenty. I was super embarrassed to hear those words come out of Tendou's mouth so casually and covered my tomato colored face.
"Tendou, you can't just say that so casually!" Reshia berated him.
"I'm sorry, but I just had to get it out there." Tendou apologized.
Ino was still dying from laughter. She only stopped when the pain from her legs and arm came to bite her. Ino laid back down on the couch now, gritting her teeth in pain.
"Take it easy Ino, your injuries haven't healed yet." Reshia advised my sister.
"Yeah, sorry." Ino chuckled.
Tendou sneezed into his arm. Grabbing a tissue from the nearby table, he wiped the snot off of his arm and went to the bathroom, presumably to wash his arm. When he went to the bathroom, I had a stupid, but an interesting idea I wanted to try out. I flipped to a new page on my notepad and wrote down a question for Tendou. Once he returned, I lightly stamped my foot to get his attention and gave him my notepad.
"Is it possible for us to talk to Lessica?" I asked Tendou.
Tendou grabbed my notepad and read my question. He closed his eyes to think about an answer. Considering that Lessica can take over his body, I think she can communicate, right?
"I mean, technically you can, but you'll have to talk to her through me." Tendou informed us.
"What? But can't she just take over your body?" Reshia questioned.
"Yes, but she's only able to do it for a limited time. In her opinion, it's not worth it to constantly switch in and out just to talk to someone."
"Oh, I see."
Silence ensued for a few seconds as none of us knew what to say. Tendou adjusted his wristbands, I adjusted my eye mask, and Reshia played with her twin tails. The silence wasn't broken until Ino decided to say something.
"So Lessica, how are you?" My sister asked.
Knowing my sister, I knew this was going to come out of her mouth, but I still didn't expect her to say this so soon. Tenodu stared at Ino awkwardly before giving my sister an answer.
"She says she's doing fine." Tendou replied to Ino with the most unconfident tone ever.
"Oh, well that's good to hear." Ino laughed off.
"Hey, what does she like? Does she like cats, dogs? Oh, and what type of men or women is she into? Is she into shorter men or women, taller? Oh, is she-?"
"Hold up, can you not bombard us with questions?! I can't answer them that quickly!" Tendou exclaimed.
"Lessica's getting overwhelmed here!"
Tendou tried laughing it off awkwardly. Ino fell for it and started laughing. Reshia and I didn't join, Reshia noticing the awkwardness of this situation, and so did I, but I also couldn't laugh. My sister continued asking Lessica many questions, some normal, and some not. Tendou was very reluctant to answer some of them, but no matter what answer he gave out, Ino was always pleased and happy. I'm happy that my sister was enjoying herself at least.
"Tendou, isn't it almost time?" Reshia asked him.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, right." He nodded.
Tendou stood up and grabbed his necessities, like his wallet.
"Where are you two headed to?" Ino asked them.
"I have a scheduled meeting to go to the hoverboard park today. In reality, I don't want to go when I'm sick, but I've already delayed the thing long enough." Tendou informed us.
"Oooh, can we come?" Ino asked.
"I recommend that you don't. First off, you're still injured, and secondly, it's Desmond we're meeting." Tendou replied.
"Oh…well in that case then, we'll be taking our leave." Ino said back.
I assisted my sister up, and Reshia opened the door for both of us. We walked out and made our way to the elevator. On the way down, I couldn't help but notice that Ino seemed too excited for her own good. I feel like Ino meeting Lessica made her even more intrigued. I don't see the appeal yet honestly, but maybe that's because I haven't talked to Lessica yet. Maybe I'll try talking to Tendou and Lessica more on my own.
Tendou's Perspective
"Ok, so how the fuck does this work again?" I looked over to Desmond while pointing at my hoverboard.
Desmond let out a hearty chuckle at my question. Strapping on his knee and elbow guards, he stepped onto his own hoverboard's footlocks.
"To begin, you have to stomp down on both foot placements to turn on the thing."
Desmond pushed down both of his feet on his hoverboard, the foot pedestal shrinking down to make it look like Desmond was now on his tippy toes. Instantly, the hoverboard started to float above the ground.
"To turn it off, just do the same thing. To accelerate forward, push down on the left foot. The speed of the board will depend on how hard you push downwards."
Desmond pushed down on his left foot, causing him to accelerate forward at a considerable speed. He went towards a ramp and shot himself upwards, spinning and flipping around multiple times before landing back on the ground. He came back towards us and slowed down.
"That is how you accelerate. Now to slow down or go backward, you practically do the same thing, but with the right foot instead. Turning should hopefully be self-explanatory. You ready Tendou?"
"Hopefully, let's give this a try." I said.
I stepped onto my hoverboard and turned it on. The hoverboard levitated above the ground easily.
"Huh, this seems pretty easy-AHHH!"
I miscalculated. The foot pedestal was pretty weak, so I pushed down too hard on the throttle and zoomed forward. Without expectation, I skyrocketed off a ramp and spun around multiple times. On my descent, I tried reverting myself back to land safely, but I didn't make it in time and landed on my head.
"AGUHHH!"
My body fell forward and I was now facing the ground. In the background, I could hear Desmond laughing his head off while Reshia was running towards me in worry. Besides the temporary head injury, I was pretty fine. This fall could have injured a regular human a lot, and probably be fatal, but I really ain't a regular human.
"I'm sorry, but that was too good to look at!" Lessica was dying in her realm.
"You miscalculated so hard and bricked. I know this is your first time, but how hard can you fuck this up? Desmond gave a clear tutorial on what to do and you still messed up."
"To be fair Lessica, he never told me about how hard I had to press down on the throttle." I retorted.
"That's fair, but when you realized that you were accelerating way too fast, you should have taken initiative to let loose of the pedal and go for the breaks."
Reshia lifted me up while I put my hat back on. Desmond came up to us, still letting out the last of his chuckles from witnessing my massive fail.
"You ok there Tendou?" Desmond jested.
"Yeah, I'm totally fine. Didn't land on my head or anything." I sarcastically remarked back.
"Don't worry about it Tendou, it's similar to this for every first-timer." Desmond assured me.
"You'll get used to it soon."
"Hopefully. I don't have much time here, so we best make use of the time here."
"Oh yeah, you're needed at the daycare, right? Let's get our session here started!"
Desmond pushed down the throttle and sped away. Not wanting to fall behind, I hopped back on my own hoverboard and chased after him while Reshia yelled at me, warning to be careful. Desmond and I did many things in the arena. We went up and down multiple ramps, doing different types of tricks. Desmond nailed all of his tricks, both easy and difficult, while I only went for the easy tricks, and mostly failed. Reshia would always cry at me and tell me to be careful while Lessica would always laugh. Slowly, I got the hang of riding a hoverboard, and started doing multiple difficult tricks, that I still failed to do anyways.
"Hey Reshia, why don't you join us?" I offered her.
"I would, but my clothes are not proper for this." Reshia lifted part of her maid skirt up slightly.
"Oh, right. Sorry for asking."
Desmond slowed down and went over to me. He hopped off his board, stepped on its back, and grabbed it by the top.
"How much time do you have left?" He asked.
"If you have enough time, maybe we could do a short race between us."
I pulled out my phone to check the time. I still had about 70 minutes before I had to be at the daycare, so I think I have enough time.
"Sure, I think we have enough time." I tell Desmond.
"Alright then, follow me."
Desmond led me towards a racing circuit on foot. I followed him on my board with Reshia following behind. We went towards a racing circuit that was shaped like a Mobius strip. The road had many vertical curves on it, and where each road would cross, there was a jump with a pillow pit at the bottom. The turns at the ends of each road required the rider to go upwards and ramp over to the other side, meaning that someone would probably need to accelerate once close to a turn. Desmond walked over to the starting point of the racing circuit and looked over to Reshia.
"Think you can count us off?" He asked her.
"Sure."
Reshia walked over to the left side of the starting line. Raising her right hand into the air, she began counting down.
"3…..2…..1…..GO!" Reshia yelled as she slammed her hand down.
Desmond and I slammed on our overboard's throttle. We accelerated at the same speed, our boards exactly next to each other. Desmond distanced himself away from me a bit once we started to get closer to the first turn. We zoomed up the first turn, both of us spinning around mid-air as we fell down onto the track again. Desmond landed perfectly, while I did not. I landed on the track just fine, but I was facing backward now. I spun back around immediately, but that simple screw up allocated enough time for Desmond to speed ahead.
"Shit, I messed up hard." I cursed at myself.
I pressed down on the throttle again, following Desmond's trail. Both of us were heading towards the first jump to transition to the next road. Desmond jumped the ramp perfectly fine, as expected. I made the jump as well, but I made a few miscalculations. Apparently, the jump was actually not as big as I thought it was, so I went full speed off of the ramp. This caused me to get a lot of air time, which sounds good for tricks, but considering that this was a race, I was actually just widening the gap between Desmond and I. Landing back on the ground, or at least close to it because hoverboard, I slammed the throttle again. I zoomed forward towards Desmond, who was currently doing a turn right now. He flew upwards before descending down onto the other side. I knew I couldn't take any chances, so instead of going upwards and falling like Desmond, I slowed down. Desmond who was looking at me was very confused.
"What are you doing mate? You won't be able to ramp up to the next side if you slow down."
"I'm not ramping over." I told Desmond.
Once I reached the top of the ramp, I grabbed the edge. Using my upper body, I swung myself over to the next side perfectly, saving myself from having to deal with unnecessary air time. That swing managed to close the gap between me and Desmond by a small margin. I continued chasing after him, but he was still way too far. Desmond was making the jump over to the finish line and I was too far behind to do anything to close the gap. As soon as I made the jump and landed, Desmond had already reached the final turn. He ramped up and did multiple flips and landed over to the other side. I pulled the same swing trick I did on the earlier turn, but that was not enough. Desmond zoomed past the finish line and started to slow down. He stepped off his board and turned around just as I passed the finish line.
"Not bad Tendou, but you did make a bunch of rookie mistakes out there." Desmond criticized.
"I'll admit, that swing you did at the turn was smart to reduce air time, but you miscalculated the jump from one strip to the other. I know it's easier said then done, but if you see a jump like that, you have to make sure you can calculate the distance properly. Granted, most of the time if you go too fast over a jump, you should still make it, but that's not the point."
I stepped off my board and let out a breath. Desmond was right about me and the rookie mistakes. Well, it was a nice experience though. Now I know what to do for those types of jumps now.
"Got it. Thanks for the advice Desmond. Let's race again." I thanked him.
"Unfortunately, I have to go now, so we'll have to hold that race off for a while."
I stepped on my board's end and grabbed it by the head. I tossed it up slightly until I was able to grab the hoverboard by the sides.
"Let's go Reshia. See you later Desmond." I bid him farewell.
Desmond waved his hand at me as Reshia and I started leaving in a hurry. Both of us were required back at the daycare since it had no one to watch a room of kids. Seeing how I gave the daycare the offer to act as a temporary, it was in the realm of possibility that they would have given me a call. Admittedly, I didn't want to go, but Lessica was actually persistent about me going, so I was kind of forced to go. Whatever, with Reshia with me, I don't think it should be as bad…
"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Be careful with that!" I yelled out.
I was in one of the daycare rooms, one that was different than the one I had to babysit for last time. Even if I had to take care of different children, I still had to deal with the same ruckus as before. I also jinxed myself with Reshia too. She actually wasn't here with me, she was in another room watching over other children. Knowing her, she's probably doing well on her own. As for me…..well, I'm doing fine, but that's only because Lessica is helping me around.
"You two, please stop that." I beg as I had to stop two twins and other kids from pulling all the tissues out of the box.
"You're doing fine so far. Trust me, your last attempt was miserable." Lessica complimented.
"I know that much, but I'm still not doing a good job." I replied back.
"Yeah, still not doing good. Don't worry though, I think you have only half an hour left."
"Ugh….."
After putting all the tissue back in the box, I heard a bunch of splattering everywhere. Turning around, I saw two kids wasting hand sanitizer by spraying it everywhere in the daycare room, and spraying it on some other children. This caused some children to splash the hand sanitizer sprayed on them back by slapping it on other children, while some children started to whine and cry. Hastily, I went to grab a giant roll of paper towel, which was the best thing in the room that could help clean the hand sanitizer. Taking the bottles away from the kids, I ripped out many towels to wipe off all the excessive sanitizer wasted on the children and the room. I had to be careful with the children as I did not want to get the sanitizer within the children's mouth. The hand sanitizer may be non-toxic, but it sure as hell doesn't taste good.
"There there, stay still child." I told a young girl as I wiped all the sanitizer off her arm.
Meanwhile, I could hear other children tossing toys across the room. I could hear the toys clanging the ground, the wall, and on different children. Rushing my job of cleaning the sanitizer mess, I ran over to the toy tossing, catching most of the toys tossed. A few either flew passed me or hit me in the process. Storing the toys I had caught far away from the children, I rushed back to take the other toys before things could get even worse. Afterward, I went back and tried cheering up the kids who started to cry because of the mess. All of this kid mess was stressful as hell. You see why I didn't want to come back here?
"Dear god, why are children like this?!" I shouted in my head.
"Well, they don't know any better if that's the answer you were looking for." Lessica replied.
"I'm pretty sure not all children are like this though. Trust me, I had to raise a kid, and fortunately for me, they weren't a brat. Actually, didn't I tell you that before?"
"I remember you telling me that you had to raise a child, but you never said what the child was like."
"Oh. Well FYI, he wasn't a brat, but some might consider that he evolved into one now. Considering that many people consider a brat a nuisance, I'd say he evolved into one."
"Ouch, it kind of feels like you are describing me considering that you think that I'm a nuisance towards you reaching full capabilities."
"Oh, well that last part of the description could be used to describe you too."
"Ah, fuck you Lessica."
After my conversation with Lessica, I went back to taking care of the shenanigans caused by the children. After another grueling 20 minutes, Reshia came back with a random person. Finally, my job is over!
"Ah, Reshia, it's good to see you." I groaned, picking myself up from the ground.
"I see you had it rough here Tendou. I'm sorry for not being here with you." Reshia apologized.
"No, there's no need to apologize. None of us had control over this decision." I told her.
"I'm guessing your part is over too? If so, let's get out of here, I'm getting hungry."
"Agreed Tendou."
Adjusting my hat, I walked over to the exit, Reshia walking beside me. It was reaching the evening now, the sun was setting over the foreseeable horizon, and most of the students here have begun to return back to their dorms. Like the majority, Reshia and I were going to return to our dorms for dinner. On our way, we heard the sound of a tumbling wheelchair hitting the ground. Curious, we turned our heads, witnessing Nailah getting assaulted by Kyle, and who I presume were his friends.
"What the hell?" I said, perplexed at my sight.
Nailah luckily recovered from her injuries like Ino, but she was much worse off. She didn't have any mobility in her legs as both were broken, and her left arm was also completely shattered. This relegated Nailah to an electric wheelchair for the time being. Other than that, she also wore many bandages to cover her wounds.
"Why are you doing this?" Nailah cried out, trying to get herself back up with her only functioning arm.
One of Kyle's friends came up to Nailah and kicked her arm, sending her back down. Great, what a fucking pansy Kyle and his friends are. Targeting a girl who can't fend for herself. Granted, she probably wouldn't have been able to do so regardless of her state, but doing it now is just adding more salt. I wanted to run in and defend Nailah, but considering that there's like what, 5 of them and only Reshia and I, I'd say we're at a huge disadvantage. Maybe if I can sneak away and get help-.
"AHCHOCH" I sneezed loudly.
….
Fuck.
"Huh? Hey look, it's Tendou the enigmatic coward." Tobias called out.
Kyle looked up while grabbing Nailah by her hair. Nailah's face, which was smashed against the ground was bloodied in a few spots. Her nose had broken, and it seems like some of her head injuries opened up again, seeing how the bandages were slowly becoming red. Kyle stood up and kicked Nailah to the side.
"Hey Tendou, what's up?" Kyle greeted so casually.
"Man, you look like you're witnessing a good friend being tortured. What's with the pissed off expression?" He commented on my face.
"I would say change the good friend part, but I am witnessing someone who doesn't deserve being tortured, get tortured." I growled and grimaced at him.
Reshia held onto my shoulder, holding me from pursuing Kyle and his friends.
"Tendou, you know that you can't handle Kyle alone. What makes you think you can handle his other friends too?"
"You think I don't know? Of course, I'll get destroyed. But that doesn't stop me from having the satisfaction of stopping him from harassing Nailah. Besides, I think he's coming towards us."
Kyle and his gang were walking towards Reshia and I. No matter what I did, it would have ended in a fight.
"Reshia, I know you don't want to fight them, but I'm going to need some help. So, for both my sake and Nailah's, are you willing to help me?"
Reshia remained silent for a moment. She was having a tough time coming up with a decision. Eventually, she nodded her head.
"I don't like this, but I'm a maid, and I need to follow my master's orders."
"I'm sorry for forcing you to choose this. Get ready-."
All of Kyle's friends charged past me, led by Tobias, and grabbed Reshia, restraining her. Turning around, I ran towards Reshia, only to see Kyle zoom in front of me with a fist locked dead on my chest. His fist rammed itself into my chest, sending me flying and rolling across the ground. Getting up immediately, I saw Kyle running towards me with a hook punch coming from my left. I swerved left and sent a punch toward his jaw. Using his other hand, he grabbed my fist and stopped it. Holding it firmly, he twisted my arm and switched my arm to his other arm, where he twisted mine more. Using his other free hand, he jammed his thumb into my elbow, causing immense damage. I was frantically shaking my arm off, trying to get his pressure point attack off.
"AGGHH! You argh!"
Kyle pressed down further into my elbow. Using my superior height, I rolled down on the ground, bringing Kyle with me. Kyle grasps on my fist was let go. Rolling back up, I ran towards Kyle. He reached his hands out, grabbing my head and stopping me. I grabbed his wrist, trying to weaken them for me to headbutt him, but he didn't need to use his wrist. Kyle, using his arm strength, pulled my face down onto his knee. Recoiling my head back after the impact, I sent an uppercut at his jaw while he sent a jab at my cheek. Both of our attacks missed each other. Kyle sent another jab at me with his left hand which I dodged by ducking under, and I sent a hook shot at his sides. My attack landed, though it didn't have much effect on Kyle. Raising myself up, I sent another uppercut which Kyle dodged by taking a few steps backward.
"You're style of fighting is unrefined. You're too predictable." Kyle arrogantly said.
Kyle rushed up quickly towards my face, sending another jab to my nose that connected. He sent another hook shot from the left to my face which I was able to block by raising my right arm. Using my right arm, I quickly struck it diagonally at his torso which connected, but barely fazed him. Kyle sent a roundhouse kick after his failed hook attempt, which I ducked under and sent a powerful jab at his stomach. Again, the punch connected, but he again wasn't fazed. I stood up quickly, launching another uppercut to his jaw, but he countered it by slamming his elbow down on my uppercut. Using his leg, he forced his sole on my fast before jamming it in, pushing me away from him.
"WOOOH GO KYLE!" I hear some girls cheer.
Amidst the fighting, we accumulated a crowd around us, most of Kyle fanatics I'm assuming. Throughout the battle, my minor injuries were healing as my nose stopped bleeding, but the blood marks were still there. Looking around at the crowd, most were cheering on Kyle, however, I could see the Kaslanas and Schariacs trying to push their way forward the crowd. Meanwhile, Reshia was still struggling to break from Kyle's other friends.
"I didn't think we would accumulate a crowd here." Kyle admitted.
"Well, with a crowd like this, I guess I have no incentive to hold back now."
With the flick of his wrist, his battlesuit started to materialize around him.
"What the heck?! You have your battlesuit on you?!" I shouted.
Granted, a battlesuit doesn't grant the user any additional strength, but now my attacks have become less effective. I left my battlesuit at home, so I'm fucked.
"Damn, you cheater." I cursed at him.
Kyle pressed a button on his wrist. In an instant, Kyle was now in front of me, sending a punch up my gut. Feeling the brute force behind it, I gurgled out some saliva. Kyle would follow up with a hook from the left which connected. He would repeat the same attack again, this time from the right. I raised my left arm to block it, but it was futile as his punch would push my arm against my face, indirectly punching me. Finally, she punched both sides of my head, grabbing it, and pulling it towards his knee. The impact from his knee, plus the armor was so strong, I went flying a few feet in the air before landing on the ground.
"GO KYLE GO KYLE GO KYLE!" The majority of the crowd cheered.
Getting back on my knees, I was lifted up from behind by someone. Looking back, it was one of Kyle's friends. All of them rushed towards me, grabbing me. Turns out they managed to get some of Kyle's fanatics to grab hold of Reshia for them.
"Great, you guys are really going for the bitch move ey?" I taunted them.
"Really going to team up against someone who's already struggling against one of you-"
Before I could finish my statement, I sneezed on Tobias's face by accident. This pissed him off by a lot, causing him to kick my legs in an attempt to break it. He didn't, but did he do a lot of damage. Tobias's kick would be followed up by someone grabbing my arm and actually breaking it. Someone would then grab my other arm, twisting it, and dislocating it by the shoulder. Finally, the last of Kyle's friends would grab me, and snap my spine. They threw towards Kyle, who would jump up and kick me in the air, sending me rolling on the ground. The group attack would create a massive roar among the crowd, cheering for Kyle, and downplaying me.
With my face on the ground now, I coughed a few times and felt something wet on my face. I couldn't tell if it was blood or spit.
"I've made a terrible mistake." I admitted.
All my injuries were healing thanks to my powers, but it wouldn't have made much of a difference. My bones were probably going to get hurt again, sending me into a repeated cycle of hell.
"Sorry for the forced intrusion." A certain voiced called out.
Instantly, I felt like I was tugged on, and immediately, I was pulled into Lessica's realm. She now stood in the spot of control, probably getting ready to take things into her own hand.
"Are you sure you can handle those guys?" I asked.
"If I don't use my powers, probably not." Lessica admitted.
"I may have more experience than you, but I can still get overwhelmed."
"Does that mean you're actually going to go all out?! Are you sure you want to?"
"Doesn't look like I have a choice if I want to have a better chance to win."
"Alright then, good luck."
Kyle's Perspective
"KYLE, KYLE, KYLE!" The crowd cheered
I waved and bowed at our audience, taking in all the praise. Meanwhile, my friends all patted me on the back. Looking over at Reshia, she expressed a mixture of anger and sadness. I wanted to approach her in an attempt to cheer her up, but Kane stopped me in my tracks.
"Kyle, look." He said while pointing to our right.
Turning my head, I could see Tendou slowly getting up. His arms, legs, everything was completely fine, even after the amount of injuries we had just inflicted on them. Unbelievable, how the hell could he escape that fine?!
"Ok, time out, how the hell are you still up?! We broke everything! Spit it out!" I demanded.
He didn't answer, instead, he just got back up on his feet and stared at the ground. I noticed something off though, the braid was silver and his eyes were different colored. Those changes, haven't I heard of them before?
"Something's off about you. I don't like what the hell is going on."
"You shouldn't."
Tendou raised up his right hand and opened up 3 fingers, his index, middle, and thumb. The tips of each finger radiated a spark, which had a string of lightning coming down to the center spot that was equidistant from each tip. The strings of lighting combined to create a lightning orb that gradually got bigger in size. Tendou creating that lightning blast generated a weak surge of wind around him. Finally, he shot that blast, and it zoomed towards me.
"Everyone, get away from it!" I yelled.
I fell backward in order to dodge the blast, and everyone else behind me moved to the side, creating a path for the lightning bolt to fly away. It slowly shrunk, and then it disappeared. Chatter of whispers started going around, scared, and confused at what happened.
"Hmmm. Nice reflexes. I didn't think you would dodge that. I guess I underestimated you."
Tendou would grab the jacket that was flowing off of his shoulders and throw it to the ground. Cracking his knuckles and neck, he would stare at me with unsettlingly calm eyes, but for some reason, I could feel a murderous aura radiating from him.
"Alright gang, I think we're going to need to teach this dude a lesson." I told all my friends.
"Right!"
"Hmph, ganging up all on me. Can't tell if I should feel honored or scared. Fine then, let's play it your way." Tendou said.
Tendou raised his hand up at us and gestured us to come towards him, basically a taunt. Jared scoffed at Tendou's taunt. He headed towards Tendou first with me and everyone else following behind. All of us, Tobias, Jared, Kane, Yosef, Zakariya, and I flurried a bunch of punches and kicks at Tendou at the same time. Tendou, who was surrounded by all of us, had some visible air seeping out from him. The mysterious air gave him a fast enough evasion boost to dodge most of our attacks, despite about 24 limbs coming straight at him. He didn't dodge all attacks. There was some where he blocked and failed. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew all of us a few feet apart. All my friends and I landed safely on the ground, watching as Tendou was starting to breathe a bit heavily.
"Damn, I'm not in the state of condition that I thought I was." Tendou lamented.
"Overestimated myself. This is going to be tougher than I thought." He grimaced
With that, Tendou entered a battle stance. The form he took seemed a bit more formal than the one he took earlier, though it still looked hella improper. Running towards us, Tendou would launch a double dropkick at Kane, who blocked the obvious incoming attack, though the kick was strong enough to push him back. Yosef and Zakariya would bomb rush towards Tendou, only for him to spin on top of his head like a Beyblade, spreading his legs to make him look like a top. His strange maneuver managed to get my two friends to back off as Tendou would get back up. Tobias would have a go at him next. He jumped up and slammed a sledgehammer fist down onto Tendou, who lifted his hands up and shot a gust of wind. It didn't do much other than delay Tobias's fall temporarily before Tendou would get out of the way, causing Tobias to sledgehammer the ground. I went towards Jared and Kane, telling them of a plan.
"Kane, I need you to distract Tendou for a while and see if you could get him into a lock hold of some sort. Jared, I need you to throw me into Tendou so I can headbutt him, or pull a superman into him."
Both of my friends nodded, and Kane went to work immediately. Currently, Tendou was dealing with Zakariya and Tobias as both were pressuring him, though with moderate success. Kyle joined together with the other two as they brute-forced their way forward. Meanwhile, Jared would lift me up over his head, ready to throw me at Tendou like a toy airplane. Shortly after, Kyle would manage to get hold of Tendou within a lock, and Jared would toss me forward. I stretched my fist out, pulling a superman towards Tendou as Kyle would hold him still.
"Don't think you have me just yet!"
Using her taller height, Tendou would grab Kane's arms and flip Kane in front of himself to make Kane take the attack from me. However, my man Kane was expecting this.
"I don't think you have me yet!" He fired back.
As Tendou tried to flip him, Kane managed to land on his feet and flip Tendou in front of him, just in time for Tendou to get punched in the gut by me, like I originally planned. Tendou was sent flying and rolling across the ground until he bumped into the circle that was made by the spectators. He would slowly get up, only for the spectator to kick him back into the ring unexpectedly, making him roll again. Tendou rolled across the ground, though he eventually recovered to his feet.
"That didn't go as planned." Tendou admitted.
"Man, I thought I outsmarted the blond, but fuck, he outsmarted me. However, can you try to outmaneuver this?"
Tendou stretched his arm out and opened his hand. Suddenly, a disk made of wind would form on top of his hand and he would toss it at Yosef. The disk was extremely fast. Yosef barely managed to dodge the thing by moving to his right, but the disk would turn around, homing back towards Yosef, Jared, and Zakariya. Yosef dodged again, and so did Zakiraya, but the disk managed to cut Jared's shoulder.
"What the hell?!" Tobias cursed out loud.
The disk would eventually slow down and shrink in size. Luckily, only one of us was injured, but now we know that Tendou has something deadly within his arsenal. The wind disk seems pretty easy to dodge, but if Tendou can create multiple disks at once, this could be bad.
"Ok, hold the fuck up! How the hell are you doing this?" Yosef demanded Tendou to answer.
Tendou looked back at Yosef with a shrug.
"Good question. Tendou doesn't know."
…Did he just refer to himself in third person? What the heck?
"Eh, probably best that he doesn't know at this time. Moving on…"
Tendou would dash forward at me. I prepared myself for any attack that he was going to send my way, but suddenly, a portal appeared in front of the both of us, and when it disappeared, Tendou was gone. I held my guard up, trying to anticipate what he would do next. Turning around behind me, I managed to save myself in the nick of time when another portal appeared, launching Tendou straight at me. I kicked him away and ran towards him.
"How many unexplainable powers are you going to pull out of your ass?" I hissed at him as our arms clashed against each other.
"My god, you're like a light novel isekai protagonist on steroids!"
Tendou pushed me away from him, and our fist would clash against our bodies multiple times. In the meantime, I could see my friends trying to formulate a plan to fight back against Tendou. Sucks that I'm left out, but if I can buy time for my friends to figure out how to beat this son of a bitch, I'm all in for it!
"You're really going to brave this fight out on your own? You've already seen the multitudes of abilities that I can use. What makes you think that you can beat me alone?" Tendou arrogantly asked.
I ignored his question. Tendou, not liking that I ignored his question, formed a karate chop with his right hand, and magically formed an energy blade around it. Oh great, portals, wind manipulation, and energy sword. This man is really pulling the asspull isekai power fantasy trope, isn't he? Can't believe I'm fighting a blank slate for a generic character rather than an actual human being.
"I'll make you regret taking me one alone." Tendou swore at me.
Tendou rushed towards me with his energy blade. He let out a few slices at me. I dodged most of them thanks to his attacks being very predictable, but eventually, he would start adding in a few punches here and there, some kicks, and eventually, fought in a very acrobatic style with his energy blade. He would jump around a lot, bend his body a lot, and twirl his body. In reality, most of his attacks were pretty improper, but they were also nearly unpredictable by this point. I was fortunate enough to dodge all of the sword swings, though the kicks were a different story.
"What's wrong, can't last any longer, huh?" Tendou taunted me again.
I looked at him as I continued dodging all of his attacks. I grinned at him, making him confused as to why I was grinning despite being pressured by him.
"That's debatable, but did you really think I was going to take down alone?" I asked him.
"I probably could if I learned more about you, but that's beside the point."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
Suddenly, Tendou would stop moving altogether when Kane and Jared would grab onto his shoulders and headache punched him with their fist. Afterward, they pulled him behind them, where they kicked him towards Yosef and Zakariya. Zakariya and Yosef would punch him forward back to Kane and Jared, but Tobias would slide under Tendou and kicked him up into the air. With the aid of Jared, Kane, Yosef, and Zakariya, I jumped onto their hands, and they launched me up into the air. Once I reached Tendou's level, I clasped my hands together, and sledgehammered him in the stomach, sending Tendou crashing into the ground where he would leave a small crater upon impact on the ground. Getting caught by my friends on the way down, we looked over at the crater with Tendou's body in it. To our surprise, the motherfucker didn't stay down. He struggled to get back up, but he was still getting back up regardless.
"Great, not only do you have the template of a generic, self insert, light novel protagonist, but you even have a stubborn attitude. Did a light novel wish upon a star and become a boy?" I insulted him.
Getting out of the crater, Tendou spat a mixture of blood and spit from his mouth. Wiping his mouth on his knuckle, he prepared himself into a fighting stance before out of nowhere…
"All of you, stop." A familiar, menacing voice ordered all of us.
All of us, including the spectators, would look at the voice as the Overseer would make his way towards us. Immediately, all of my friends and I bowed at the Overseer's appearance within the arena. All of us would only get out of our bowing position when a cry of pain came to our side. Looking over, we saw Tendou collapse to the ground as he would be knocked out by the Overseer's personal assistant, Amber. Tendou would somehow regain consciousness from Amber's faint attack, only for him to get stepped on in the nape by Amber, truly knocking him out for good.
"What a fight you 6 have caused. I don't know if I should be angry, and happy for such a brilliant display." The Overseer commented.
"However, I can say that regardless of how I feel, I do have to place a punishment on all of you for disturbing the peace. As for what the punishment is though…..hmmm…"
"Overseer Otto, please reconsider this. You have to know that Tendou was the one who-." Tobias tried to argue back.
"Tobias, you do realize that security cameras are a thing right. I've managed to capture not only the footage of the fight but also the harassment of Nailah." The Overseer interrupted.
"Don't bother lying to me, knowing full well that I can see things that happen around the entire campus."
"Uhh…yes….I'm sorry Overseer Otto." Tobias apologized.
The Overseer cleared his throat a few times before he would begin to talk again.
"As I said earlier, your punishments will be decided later. For now, please reflect on the actions that you have caused, especially to the poor girl over there." The Overseer would point over to Nailah.
"Are any of you willing to help the girl back up to her wheelchair?" The Overseer asked all of us and the crowd.
Dead silence. No one responded. Disappointed, the Overseer walked over to Nailah and helped her back on her wheelchair.
"I'm sorry for what those delinquents have caused you. Please accept my apology on their behalf."
Nailah was clearly not having it. She looked over to all of us and gave us a bitter look before she was escorted away by the Overseer himself. The crowd started to disband from the area, and Reshia would grab onto Tendou with the help of Amber. Kane placed his hand on my shoulder.
"Remember those rumors about Tendou and enigmatic powers. Didn't think they were true." Kane admitted.
"So, on a scale of 1 to 10, how confused are you?" I asked Kane.
"11. His abilities were more than I would have expected, and his change in personality was weird too. That's not even accounting the voice." Kane said.
"I'm pretty sure everyone can agree with you on that." I told him.
"I'm still going to terrorize him for being what he is, though I'm going to need to be more careful from now on."
Tendou's Perspective
"Wha-….shit! What the hell happened?!" Lessica cursed out, trying to figure out why I just fainted in the real world.
"Hold on, let me try." I insisted.
I swap positions with Lessica in order to take control of my body. My vision became blank for a moment until my eyes started to open back on the field that Lessica and I fought Kyle and his friends. I tried getting up, but someone's heel would pressure down on my neck, knocking me out instantly. Lessica would grab me from inside the mental realm and pulled me away from the center. We both sat down on the ground as we stared up at the blank monitors.
"Looks like someone is trying to keep us down. We may just leave your real self alone for now." Lessica explained.
"I see." I replied back.
Looking around from the blank monitors for the moment, I looked over to Lessica. Scanning my eyes from her face, to the bottom of her knees. Something was a bit different about her.
"Is it me, or is something different about you Lessica?" I asked her.
Lessica moved her eyes away from the monitor and looked back at me. She moved her arms under her breasts and lifted them up a bit.
"Yeah, I managed to make myself get a breast reduction. They aren't the gigantic behemoths that they are anymore. Still large, but not like, LARGE large."
"How the fuck did you even do that?"
"It took me a while, but I managed to figure out how to manipulate my body shape to whatever I want."
Letting go of her breast, Lessica would expose her body, showing me everything else.
"I've also been working out when I'm given the opportunity as well. Of course, I could just manipulate my body to look how I want to, but I think exercising to that shape should be better. Gives me something to do in here, and also helps me develop a healthy habit."
Looking at Lessica's body now, it does seem like she's been working out. Her arms and legs were more muscular than the soft, near twig-like arms, and plump, fatty legs she had before. Her arms were slightly bulkier, and her legs, while remaining about at thick as before, started to show vague outlines of the muscles within her legs. It was the same situation with her arms too.
"Moving on, I can't believe I underestimated the hell out of Kyle and his pals. They're much more stronger than I thought."
"Agreed. I feel like they were still holding back on us though. I don't think that's a big deal though right, I mean you were holding back on them too right Lessica."
"…"
"Oh my god you were going all out, weren't you?"
Lessica could do nothing but nod her head in disappointment. She seemed to be mostly disappointed in herself, rather than me.
"I can't believe that I went all out, and still lost. I also agree that they were holding back too. Kyle and his friends did not seem like they were putting in all of the effort they could. They were only acting serious due to them not expecting me to fight them."
"Yeah, I think that was the only reason the fight was even close."
Lessica stood up and looked over at the monitors.
"Think you want to make an attempt to regain consciousness?" Lessica asked.
"I would, but I just made another attempt not too long ago, and that one failed instantly. I think whoever is knocking me out wants me to stay down for now." I replied.
"I'm stuck here for the time being. Sorry for intruding."
"Not like you had much of a choice anyway…..get yourself comfortable here."
"Hmph….."
Chapter 10 End