A/N: Tooru is not exactly badass and reminds me of Touma, I mean really, what is with that horribly small shield that has a hole in it. Please imagine this him to be something like Tatsuya Shiba (Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei) in this story, if you don't know him then you he will lose some of his badassery unless you have an excellent imagination. This Tooru is cold and calculative so he has actually taken some time to train himself for his eventual battles so I strongly advise you to at least see a badass scene of Tatsuya's before continuing as he will pretty much be as powerful a weak Tatsuya. Remember, this is an OP character fic so no complaining he is too OP. I will be using the names of things in the Baka-Tsuki translations.
Tooru entered the Academy, alone. Moments after he took his seat in the hall the Academy President went to the podium and started giving the welcoming speech. He recognized her, she was the girl who gave him his Blaze, the one who invited him to this Academy.
"Take note of the person beside you, that person will be your partner."
'This girl next to me is my partner huh?'
"Um… My name is Nagakura Imari, what's yours?"
Tooru stayed silent, thinking only of his revenge, he had to train to be stronger to kill him. If he had to train with this girl as his partner then so be it.
"And now… you are to battle your partner. Only winners will be permitted entrance, losers will be expelled."
The hall erupted in complaints, the girl beside Tooru stood up and said something, but he didn't bother to listen.
Tooru stood up and asked, "Can we switch partners?"
'She looks much too weak to be a match for me.'
"Understand this: The person beside you is your first enemy."
"Its okay... I appreciate the sentiment… but don't treat me like a foo-"
Tooru punched Imari acrossed the hall, knocking over several students in the way.
"Don't misunderstand, I wanted to switch partners so I didn't have to fight you, I merely wanted a better opponent for my first battle! I don't think I'll even need my Blaze for a fight of this caliber!"
"You… Don't underestimate me!"
Imari wiped the blood from her mouth and ran towards Tooru.
"Blaze!"
With the first Blaze drawn, all the students starting fighting for their right to be in the Academy.
'My my, what an enthusiastic batch we have this year.' Sakuya thought to herself.
Imari leaped towards Tooru and attempted to attack him.
"Oh, thats a pretty interesting Blaze you got there, but it pales in comparison to mine. Not that you'll ever see it that is!"
Tooru expertly dodged the slice and while Imari was blinded by the smoke cloud that her attack created, went over to her and whispered into her ear.
"Its over, Imari…"
Tooru pulled back his fist and channeled his soul into it. The glow of your Blaze was decided by your soul, Tooru's soul was filled with darkness and hatred with only thoughts of vengeance. No one would be allowed to get in his way while he became stronger to get revenge. A black flame engulfed Tooru's fist as he punched Imari. The force of the punch sent Imari flying the the other end of the hall and she collided with the wall, making an impression and coughing blood as she fell to the ground, unconscious.
Tooru watched as all the people around him fought one another, using their Blazes to try and secure a spot in the Academy. Ruthlessly, the students struck down people they had wanted to become friends with for the sake of achieving their goals. A few more minutes passed before Sakuya finally spoke up.
"Time's up. Victors please head towards the class for your first lessons. I leave you with these final words: May you someday reach Absolute Duo."
Tooru walked away from the scene silently as behind him, medics flocked over to Imari's still form. On his way to class, Tooru thought about the fight he just experienced. He clenched his fists.
'It was a good practice battle, but I need something stronger if I'm going to have my revenge on him. If only I had more power back then, I could have stopped it...'
The memory of that event came back to haunt him. Tooru heard a voice, breaking him from his thoughts as he was walking to class.
"I haven't seen you in two years, Tooru. I never would have thought we would have met again here of all places."
"Torasaki..."
"You made it through the test I see, well then that makes us both official Tsukumo Sakuya guinea pigs."
'I don't care what I have to go through, as long as I can have my vengeance, I will be satisfied.'
"We should hurry to class."
"What's your hurry?"
The entire class went silent as Tooru walked in, his fight seemed to have spread some rather dark rumors about him. He sat quietly in an empty space at the back of the class next to the window. A few moments later, a silver haired girl entered the class and went to him. They exchanged nods and she sat down. Tooru felt the stares from her but couldn't care less.
Just as Tooru was about to zone out, an energetic voice was heard from the window.
"Hello, hello!"
Tooru turned his head to see a purple haired lady dressed in a maid outfit with bunny ears leap through the air and onto the table before doing a rabbit like dance.
"Nice to meet you! I'm your homeroom teacher, Tsukimi Rito! Feel free to call me Usa-Sensei though! I'm new here but don't look down on me though, I was top of my class last year!"
"She was a student?!" most of the class exclaimed.
At this point Tooru had zoned out and started to assess the students around him. A couple of students caught his eye but most others seemed weak. There seemed to be introductions going on.
"Okay now, who's next?"
As Tooru stood up, the once buzzing atmosphere of the class quietened down again.
"Kokonoe Tooru…"
Tooru sat back down in his seat and looked to the front.
"Kokonoe? Oh, so you're that irregular! The one that actually sent a student to the hospital! You're the talk of the staff room!"
"Is that so?"
"Okay and next up is…"
As the teacher continued her explanation, Tooru had gotten bored and started playing with his pen, twirling it around his fingers.
"...the person next to you will be your partner!"
'Another temporary partner up, they'll probably make us fight each other again. If not now then it will be when we've bonded or something.'
Tooru briefly took note of what the teacher explained and continued to ignore the rest of the class.
After class, Tooru headed straight for his room, not caring at all about the minor distractions. He went into the room and made some dark coffee to drink after his shower. He sat at the table with his coffee and the school guide book. He spent some time memorizing the rules and figuring out possible exploits before he heard a knock at the door. He went to open it with book still in hand, focused on his book, Tooru didn't even acknowledge who had come in, only going back to sit at the table and drink some coffee.
"Tooru, I'll go and shower now, I have something important to ask you later." a voice he recognized as Julie's said.
Tooru heard the sound of running water as his roommate entered the shower. Upon completion of his analysis, Tooru sat against the wall and thought about his situation.
'So there'll be an examination at the end of each term where your abilities will be assessed. Those who fail to advance a level each year will be expelled, its just like Torasaki said, we're just like guinea pigs. Those who are cannot produce results will be ousted, whereas those who perform will be rewarded. In order to prepare us for this, most of our curriculum is made up of combat training. I wonder who's the strongest in this academy...'
"Tooru…"
Tooru was interrupted from his thoughts by Julie calling him, he looked up to see that she was dressed in a loosely fitting shirt he assumed she wore to sleep.
"Tooru, what was that move you did earlier? That punch…"
"I see no reason to tell you. We may be fighting each other once the official pairings are out."
"Oh…"
"I'll be going to sleep now, so you should too, tomorrow we'll be formally starting our lessons."
Tooru took his cup, downed it in one fell swoop and got into bed.
'If I'm to beat him, I'll need to Exceed the Exceeds!'
The next day, as Tooru entered the cafeteria, he was greeted with whispers and gossip.
"Hey isn't that...?"
"I bet he's done something awful to Julie-chan while she couldn't do anything to resist him."
"Keep your head down or he'll probably do something to you like that other girl!"
Tooru found a seat after piling his plate and sat alone.
The meal was uneventful and Tooru headed off to class. The class was boring, it was mainly a question and answer session for things he had already read last night. The training session began soon after, the first of many. The days passed somewhat uneventfully, on one of the training sessions, one of the students fell off a cliff and fractured her arm. Needing immediate medical attention, she had her Luciful removed and was sent back to the mainland.
'Tomorrow is the day you choose your Duo, if you don't register in time you will be paired with whoever's left at random huh? I wonder what will happen if I'm the odd one out without a partner…"
The day ended without much incident, Tooru had hidden himself at the very top of the clocktower and saw Julie on the balcony below him, she was soon approached by another girl who supposedly lost her partner in an accident and wanted Julie to team up with her. They had left at twenty minutes to the deadline after finishing their pact to go register. Tooru decided it would be fitting to make up his own pact and tried it.
He jumped off the top of the clocktower and looked to the horizon. He drew his Blazes and pointed one towards the sunset, the blooded glow of his weapon oozing like an aura
"Alone, I fight for the strength to avenge them,
I will sacrifice anything to get my revenge.
Need I fight Angels, Devils or Satan himself,
For my vengeance, I will not rest. "
Tooru headed back to his now vacant dorm, Julie had moved to be with the other girl and now Tooru had the room for himself.
The next day came and without a partner, Tooru sat alone.
"Good Morning! I so glad everyone worked out their Duos! Well most people at least. Anyway, now you'll be sitting in Duos too, sort of a fresh start right? Oooh, what's this? Looks like some of you are keeping your seats!"
Tsukumi looked around and saw that Tooru and Julie were now separated.
"What's this? Silver Haired-chan and Irregular-kun have split up! Kokonoe-kun, did you do something mean to her?"
Without getting a reply for a long time, she moved on.
"Anyway, now that your official Duos have been decided, we'll be starting our first mock Blaze battle, Novgladius very soon! Now you might be wondering how it works. Basically, you'll be fighting against... "
Tooru tensed as he felt a sudden spike of killer intent coming from the teacher.
"Everyone else!"
The killer intent receded and Tooru relaxed slightly.
'What the hell was that just now? Wait… I guess it makes sense, she said she was the top of her class last year. She must have been good enough for an exception to be made, I guess it won't be a complete massacre after all…'
Tooru smirked as he thought he had finally found a real opponent.
"The fight will take place next Saturday, it's right before Golden Week so getting sent to the hospital is no biggie! The event will last from five to seven o'clock, giving you two hours to fight! The arena will be the entire school, make sure to use your brains and your brawn to get through this!"
Most of the lessons in the following days were physical exercises with Blaze spars. Tooru refused to participate in any of them but received no punishment, only a warning that if he did badly in the Novgladius, he would be expelled. He was not worried in the slightest about that, confident in himself. Tooru wanted the prize, it was a chance to Level Up early, an opportunity he could not pass up.
On the evening before the Novgladius, Tooru caught sight of Hotaka running on the track. He was at the top of the clock tower, it had become his favorite spot in the Academy because of how isolated it was and its great use as a vantage point. She looked like she had been at it for hours, she suddenly collapsed on the track, only to getting up ten minutes later and continuing to run. Tooru headed back to the dorm soon after, set his alarm for half an hour before five and went to sleep.
Tooru dreamt of the incident years ago that night, his sleep disturbed. It was just after four and Tooru decided to head out early. He headed to the clock tower and waited at the top, meditating to calm himself down from the shock of reliving the memory of the tragedy. In an hours time, the announcement was made and the clock hand moved, a minute before five. Tooru stood up and put his hand to his chest.
"Blaze!"
The obsidian coloured flames consumed his lower arms as his Blazes materialized. The familiar Ebony and Bloodshot Red of the two weapons still pulsed like the day he first called upon it. He looked down at his prey from above with his weapons by his side. His Blaze was an Irregular, no one had ever manifested such a weapon before. At each of his sides, one in each hand, he held unique weapons.
They were claws, though not just any claws, they were claws that had gun barrels between the knuckles. It was more of a gauntlet that just claws, but when put together, the gauntlet's front armor would burst into flames and merge into a shield.. It was an Irregular, he had already heard of the rumors of a Rifle Blaze manifestation in the European countries but he doubted a Shield or Armor Blaze had manifested before. The Shield was the one thing Sakuya hadn't noticed yet, and he planned to keep it that way for as long as possible. Tooru thought of all the days of his training with firearms. melee weapons and close quarters combat in preparation for the day he would strike at Otoha's murderer. Now that he had this Blaze, he felt closer than ever to his goal.
'Now, all I'll need to do is defeat all Thirty-Six students and the teacher and I'll get my Sublimation Ceremony early! I'll be so much closer to my revenger, a single level already doubles my power!'
Tooru stood at the very top of the clock tower, looking down on all the people, focusing and remembering their locations and analyzing possible routes they would take. The clock hand moved and it was five, the games began.
Tooru fired on the students he saw directly in front of him, taking them all down with a barrage of bullets. He then moved on to decimate the rest of the players visible from the top, his Blaze empowering the bullets. After noticing out of the corner of his eye that one student had survived and started to run away, Tooru ran to that side of the tower and jumped off, aiming his pistol in mid air and firing it at the fleeing foe. The shot rang through and penetrated her neck, permanently disabling her.
As Tooru fell, he dug his claws into the side of the tower to slow his ascent and jumped off before he hit the ground, landing on one of the students he had defeated earlier, fracturing her backbone with an earspliting crack.
'I've eliminated Twenty of them so far, the rest should be too afraid to face me now so I should probably go after that teacher.'
Tooru ran towards the large school building where he saw most of the remaining students run off to.
'If my guess is right, that teacher's been put here to remove the weaklings, which means she'll head towards the students and pick them off pair by pair. There should only be around five pairs left if they are actually fighting each other and that teacher is doing what I think she's doing.'
As Tooru entered the building, he looked around and saw a familiar looking knife peaking out from a corner on the second floor.
'So… Tachibana is here, I wonder where Hotaka is hiding...'
"Why did you do that to all those people!?"
Tooru didn't have much time to think on it as Tachibana suddenly shot out from her corner and threw her chain knife at Tooru. Though he was caught off guard by the sudden attack, Tooru had managed to sidestep it, he brought his Blaze up as the knife continued on its path. The claw was brought down and it severed the chain. A scream was heard as the consequence of having a Blaze destroyed was inflicted onto her.
As the scream faded and Tachibana fainted. As Tooru stepped up the stairs to inspect the scene, he heard a scream as a large lance pierced through the painting at the top and charged towards Tooru.
'Hotaka?!'
Tooru immediately brought his forearms together and the gauntlets were enveloped in onyx flames, when they diffused, what was left behind was a shield. It was a standard heater shield, only black with a glowing red outline.
The shield took the brunt of the impact and only pushed Tooru back a step. With the initial force gone, Tooru maneuvered his shield at an angle and deflected the lance off the stairs, the lance crashed through the railing and embedded itself into the ground, its wielder knocked out on the ground due to the fall.
Tooru looked up and saw that a hidden hole had been made behind the painting where Hotaka had hid.
'Tachibana must have found it while looking around one day and tried to use it to her advantage against a strong opponent. It would've worked if I didn't have my shield, I need to be more alert.'
Tooru detached his Blazes and continued exploring, he heard screams down one of the hallways and went to investigate. He found a trail of fainted students, six pairs in total. At the end of the hallway stood Tsukimi, with her Blaze drawn. It was a Tebutje, a weapon that was created before the sixteenth century and is still being used even today.
"Ooo… Kokonoe, you've finally come! Look at all these students I just took out, they weren't fun at all! They didn't stand a chance against a Level Three like me though!"
Tooru looked around and saw Julie, Torasaki and their partners all lying on the ground.
"I've really wanted to play with you Kokonoe, I've never fought someone as unique as you before!"
The teacher's voice then changed.
"It'll be an exciting experience! I'll even give you a heads up, here's what'll happen if your Blaze is destroyed!"
Tsukimi picked up Julie's twin Blazes and threw them into the air, slicing them into pieces destroying the manifestation. Julie spazed out as a massive amount of pain was inflicted onto her body, passing out from the agony.
"Lets see how you fare against my eight times power multiplier, Irregular!"
Tsukimi charged towards Tooru, her Blaze striking to kill. Tooru had anticipated this from the teacher and dodged to the left, tripping her on the way. Tsukimi rolled and got back up again. She looked at Tooru and licked her lips.
"Ooo, you ain't as slow as I thought you were, you even had time to trip me while dodging. Interesting, you may be fast enough, but are you strong enough!?"
Tsukimi rushed Tooru and slashed the Tebutje at his gauntlets, alternating from left to right, feigning and kicking, trying to get a hit on Tooru. The resounding 'Clang' s could be heard throughout the building as Tooru's gauntlets struggled to survive the onslaught of attacks as they cracked more and more from the barrage.
'I can't lose here! Not after all the effort I put in to get this far! This teacher won't get in the way of my revenge! I swore to avenge Otoha and the rest of them no matter the cost, I've trained all these grueling years in preparation for the day I fight him. If levels can make such a power difference then all the more I need to win this, so I can get stronger!'
"What's the matter Kokonoe? Aren't you gonna fight back? What happened to avenging Otoha?"
"You… How did you know about that?!"
"Sakuya told me all about you and your Blaze! Well not that it'll matter when you'll be dead soon!"
'It can't end like this, not after all I've gone through, I won't accept this!'
Tooru's wanted to win, he had to win. His emotions were channeled into his Blaze, feeding it, reinforcing it, making it stronger! Tsukimi was blown back suddenly by a fiery explosion, quickly recovering, she looked up to face her opponent, only to pale at the sight. Tooru's Blaze had changed, the cracks had disappeared and the gauntlets were now bigger. What looked like plain plated armor before, now looked like the gauntlets of devils, the demonic blood red pulses of the dark gauntlets veins shrouding the dim hallway in crimson glow. The once simple claws were now thinner, slicker, sharper and coated in a layer of dark flames. She gripped her weapon tightly as she watched Tooru start strolling slowly towards her.
"What's the matter Sensei? Where's all the determination you had earlier? Weren't you going to kill me? Well, I guess you just aren't strong enough…"
"DON'T MESS WITH ME!"
She steeled herself before charging at him in an attempt to kill him before he could have a chance to use his new Blaze. Just as her hit was about to connect, it was stopped by Tooru's shield, but the shield had changed, no longer was it a simple heater shield, it's top was now curved inwards with spikes pointed upwards. The red veins had also moved to be more prominent around the shield's middle, glowing brighter than before.
"A shield? Sakuya never told me anything about that?!"
Tsukimi pressed onto the shield in an attempt to tire out Tooru.
"Well there are a few surprises in this shield as well…"
She didn't have time to think on it a slit on Tooru's shield opened up to reveal a cylinder similar to the ones previously on his claws. Tooru fired and the Blaze imbued round left the weapon, and embedded itself into her right shoulder. She jumped back to avoid a possible second shot and clutched her shoulder in pain.
The shot had incapacitated her arm, with her dominant hand rendered useless Tsukimi had no choice but to flee. Tooru, however, wasn't that merciful, as the teacher started to escape, Tooru gave chase. He reverted his Blaze to it's gun-claw form and activated his new weapon. Like his gauntlets and shield, his firearms had also changed. What previously fired simple pistol rounds, was now capable of firing up to a Hundred Caliber round through an adjustable barrel.
Tooru aimed the barrel at the fleeing Tsukimi's leg and set it to Thirty Calibers, the usual sniper caliber, he poured his soul into the projectile and imbued it with his Blaze. He pulled the mental trigger and the black flaming bullet flew and hit the bunny in her thigh, the sudden damage causing her to fall. As she skid on the ground, Tooru emerged from the shadows and strolled towards Tsukimi. Afraid of death, the teacher started crawling away and switched back to her innocent cheerful voice in an attempt to convince Tooru to spare her.
"Neh neh, Kokonoe-kun, you aren't actually going to kill me right? I mean I did attack you and all, but I think we should put this all behind us, make up. You know? Bury the hatchet."
Tooru continued to walk silently towards his prey, like a grim reaper would his victim.
"Wait! I'll give you anything, just spare me Kokonoe!"
Tooru demanifested his Blaze and pulled back his fist. Black flames engulfed his fist as he punched her straight in the face, sending her flying into the wall. Blood started to pool around her as Tooru walked off to wash off the blood and dirt from his skin.
That night, Tooru was once again haunted by the nightmare of Otoha's death. He was forced to witness his sister die over and over again, each time with more blood spilled. The image kept flashing in his mind, intensifying each time, his heart growing colder than ever before...
A/N: Just a teaser, I made a change here once I saw Episode 9. Next chapter will cover Episode Four to Six.