Chapter 1: Aural Steroids
Kakome hunched her shoulders and blushed in embarrassment. Though some of her redness was anger, as well. Anger at Kazuhiro's blabbermouth.
"Come up to the front of the class, Miss Mirushito." Mr. Karokita mandated. She did as she was told. "Is there a reason why you're late?"
"Yes, sir. My hair refused to straighten." She told him. The class broke out into laughter.
"Very funny, Mirushito. Time for your penalty. You may choose to fight me, or the virtual version of one of your classmates. Which will it be?" Mr. Karokita asked.
"Well, I think it would be very interesting to fight Kazuhiro Daiguchi." She said sappily. "The bastard made me get caught, too." She continued under her breath.
"What was that last bit? I missed it." Mr. Karokita asked naively.
"Uh… the lad's card made my sink clog with food." She answered as the class burst into laughter once again.
"I see. Well, it's best to keep your sink discrepancies out of the classroom." He answered as Kakome began to realize how ignorant her teacher was. "Now, please step inside the simulator."
She stepped up onto the step that looked like nothing more than a large photo booth with an actual door instead of a curtain.
"Whenever you're ready, Kakome, I'll start it. It's all programmed." He informed her.
"Ready." She answered.
As soon as she finished this command, what appeared to be a virtual arena materialized all around her; and with it came a virtual Kazuhiro.
"Still ugly as a hologram. Bet his mouth is bigger, though. If that's possible." She remarked, as though trying to impress the audience of non-existent people. She flicked a traditional folding fan open. This was he weapon. Though it was not much on its own, she had an impeccable talent for magic. She used this magic to… well, you'll see.
"Kazuhiro" began to glow. You see, all the students in Kakome's class could use magic. This "magic" was called Spirit Energy; and it usually manifested in the form of a glowing aura. Kazuhiro's aura was a brilliant shade of royal blue. He began grunting and sweating profusely. Then he stopped in a spilt second. In this same second, he rushed at Kakome with such speed that she couldn't see him when he moved. This was a problem.
As Kazuhiro was in motion, he taunted Kakome:
"Can't you see me, Kakome? Do you need your eyes checked?"
He hit her many times, as she soon realized. However, these punches hurt Kazuhiro, as well, due to the high speeds at which he was traveling. He was unable to stop at these high speeds, and neither could his fists, and he would have broken his wrists if he wasn't under his aura. He suddenly stopped.
"You're a tough one, Mirushito. I'll give you that much. But here's where the fun ends." Kazuhiro exclaimed as the glowing and sweating continued. This time he rushed at Kakome, but slowly, as if he had much more to carry this time. And, as Kakome did a back flip into the air to dodge, she noticed that Kazuhiro did, in fact, have more to carry. His muscles had grown tenfold, and where he had intended to punch Kakome, there was a crater.
"I see… he uses his Spirit Energy to vastly increase his attributes…but it appears he can only increase one thing at a time. First it was his speed, and now his strength." Thought Kakome. "But now playtime's over. I'm gonna kick his ass."
When she landed from her incredibly high back flip, she flicked her folding fan open. She decided her exact tactics in a split second. Then her own aura began to glow. Hers was a jungle green. Fitting, since she was a master of plant magic.
"Kazuhiro, it's time to end this." She declared in a dominating voice. "RAZOR PEDALS!"
She began twirling her fan an inch above her index finger, and it glowed with the same jungle green as her aura. Just when Kazuhiro thought it couldn't get any brighter, black flower petals started to swirl out of the fan in a beautiful swirl of his doom. They hung in the air when Kakome stopped twirling her fan, flicked it shut, and, when her right hand was free, she snapped her fingers.
The pedals swirled around Kazuhiro, giving him scores of what felt to him like paper cuts. The cuts eventually hurt so bad, that he started to go into shock and collapsed.
"Game. Set. Match." Kakome said as she held her hand to form an imaginary pistol and blew on the tip.
When Kakome stepped out of the simulator, the entire class gasped. They could not believe she had come out of this without a mortal wound. They began to applaud. Kakome took a bow.
"You like me, you really, really like me!" she laughed.
"Well, they must like the four others who did the same thing today, too." Mr. Karokita snickered.
"FOUR others!" Kakome demanded. "How late was I that I missed four fights!"
"Calm down, Mirushito, they were all very short. By the way, I would like to see Misters Takanoshi, Poronobu, Koroshika, and Ishkanori, please. Class dismissed."
Kakome started out the door. "You, too, Mirushito." She froze. What now? She beat his so called "challenger"! What could he possibly want from her now?
Kakome could tell this was going to be a long day.