Chapter 12
I must be stronger if I want to protect my students and surpass my father!


"First, allow me to explain the rules of the fight," Talko said loudly for everyone to hear. "Unlike the previous sets of fights, you win when your opponent can no longer fight, forfeit, or steps out of the ring for more than ten seconds. Again, usage of sharp blades and dangerous projectiles are strictly forbidden as we do not want anyone dying at all. So without further delay, we shall begin with the first match of the second round! Now let's see the names on the screen!"

Everyone turned to look at the big screen that was on the wall and above the castle-like structure, and Negi and Mario's name appeared on it.

"Negi sensei is up next!" the girls cheered happily.

"Mario is fighting too!" Luigi said.

"I'm sure he'll do all right," Yoshi said while eating hotdog. "I doubt he'll lose to a kid so easily."

"You better not underestimate our teacher too much," Kazumi said to him. "He may look young, but I assure you that he's a genius!"

"Whatever… We'll see. Yum!"

The door of the waiting room opened and Mario and Negi stepped out and waved to the cheering audience as they stepped onto the stage. "For this match, we have Mario the famous plumber of Italy! He comes from the group of people known as the Smashers! I'm sure you all heard about the things that the Smashers have done!" Talko said. "Let us give a round of applause for Mario!"

-

Meanwhile, at Smash Mansion of Onett, the Super Smash Sofa Slouchers were watching TV and this fight happened to be shown on TV. "Hey look! Mario is on!" Falco pointed out.

Bowser looked up from his book and said, "That guy really is in the fight! I had a feeling I've see him on TV someday today!"

"Looks like his opponent is a kid," Ganondorf said. "This should be easy for him to handle."

"Let's go tell the others to come watch!" Fox said as he ran out of the room.

-

"His opponent is Negi Springfield, the child prodigy! Despite at a young age of 10 years old, he managed to become a teacher of the all-girls Mahora Academy! He is not a simple kid but is in fact a mage with magical powers as while as having skills in martial arts! He is without doubt the perfect example of a child genius!"

The two fighters stepped onto the center of the stage and continued waving to their fans, and then they each went to one end of the stage and faced each other. "No hard-a feelings," Mario said to him with a smile. "I hope-a we will have fun in theez!"

"I'm going to go all out," Negi said. "I know you're strong, so let's see who is better!"

"Here I go!"

"All right! It looks like both sides are ready to take on each other!" Talko said while glancing at both fighters. "The atmosphere is very intense already with all the crowds shouting and rooting for their favorite fighters! Without further delay, we shall begin the fight, go!"

Talko leaped off the stage at once when he gave the command and Mario and Negi immediately took off from their starting spot and charged at each other. Mario did the first move by pulling back his fist which was covered in fire, and with a swing of his hand downwards, he shot out a fireball at Negi.

Negi quickly leaped to the side and slammed forth a fist that Mario quickly blocked using his arm, and then he used his other arm to hit him. Negi managed to block the blow to and then started attacking Mario with a series of rapid palm thrust. Mario managed to block each blow but the constant strikes started to bring pain to his arm. When Negi pulled back both his arms to deliver a stronger blow, Mario quickly leaped up into the air to avoid the attack. Negi looked up and saw the plumber spinning in air like a cyclone before dropping down. "Tornado Crush!" Mario shouted.

Negi quickly jumped back and Mario slammed down onto the floor so hard that a footprint was left behind. The moment he landed though, Mario bounced over to Negi to stomp him again and the boy kept on moving back. At the same time, the plumber did not stop jumping; he kept on jumping after Negi in an attempt to stomp him.

When Mario kept on following him around the place, Negi pulled back his right hand and electricity started to generate on it while he quietly chanted in incantation to himself. When Mario about to land a flying kick in him, he swung his arm at him and attacked him with his electrically charged hand that release a trail of spark. "Thunder Strike!"

Mario was smacked in his leg and was sent flying to the side and crashed onto the floor, and the attack gave him a stinging feeling to his leg too. "Hoo! That-a stung a bit!" Mario thought. "You're pretty good!" Stretching his hands to both sides, he created fireballs in each of his palms and hurled them forward at the same time. Negi dashed to the side and then appeared in front of Mario in almost the blink of an eye and threw a punch at him and Mario barely blocked it.

"Negi go go! Negi go go! Negi go go!" the cheerleader girls cheered over and over while doing their cheerleader dance.

"Whoa… He's actually able to put up against Mario…" Luigi said in awe. "That kid truly is a genius…"

Mario pointing his right arm at Negi and then grabbing that arm with his left hand, a fire vortex appeared on the palm of his right hand and a rapid burst of fireballs was fired at an incredible rate like a machine gun. "Bullet-a Fire!"

Negi dodged the shots and dashed up to the side of Mario and attacked with his fists rapidly. Mario blocked the blows with his arm and then quickly leaped over the air behind him and then attacked with a break dance kick. Negi was flipped into the air from the leg sweep but he landed on one hand and flipped himself back to normal position. Mario wasted no time and charged at him and delivered an uppercut to his chin and knocked him high up into the air.

"Negi sensei is knocked into the air!" Makie gasped.

Mario then leaped up at him from below and stretched out his arm and spun like a tornado. "Mario Tornado!" The spinning motion of his body came in contact with Negi from below and caused him to bounce up higher into the air.

"Ya!" he cried.

Mario fell back down but when he did, he crouched down as low as he could and mustered all his strength to his feet before shooting up into the air like a spring and went up as high as Negi. Negi could not move around in air and he quickly lifted his arms in defense as Mario slammed down his fist onto him really hard and smashed him onto the stage below.

CRAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!

The girls gasped in shock at seeing their teacher being beaten like this. "That's got to hurt…" Red said.

Mario fell back down on his feet and Negi slowly got back up again and coughed painfully. "Are you all right-a?" Mario asked. "Sorry if that-a wuz too hard."

"I'm all right…" Negi said. "You are strong after all… I can still fight…"

"Hey brat! Pull yourself together!" Asuna shouted to him. "Don't go on easy on that mustachioed guy just because he's… someone you're friendly with! Go and show him whose boss!"

"Don't lose to a kid, Mario!" Pichu shouted.

"Negi sensei, go go! Negi sensei, go go!" the cheerleader girls cheered on.

"You have caring students," Mario said to Negi as he dusted himself and got into fighting position again.

"Yeah, so I better not let them down," he said. "Let's do this again!"

"Whoa! It looks like both sides are having an intense match!" Talko said. "The child genius is putting up a fight against the Smasher! How long will this fight be and how will it end? I'm getting pumped up for this fight!"

Kazumi turned to G&W and asked him, "Just exactly how strong is Mario?"

"He is pretty tough," G&W replied. "Though not the strongest, he still has lots of skills in combat and can put a challenge if he gets serious. I'd be worrying more about the kid with dog ears and that sword-using girl though."

Natsume poked her head over and asked, "You mean Kotaro and Setsuna? Why's that?"

"Captain Falcon and Marth are one of the four most powerful fighters among us. I'm afraid that your two friends are very unfortunate enough to be pitted against them..."

Back on stage, Mario and Negi were still locked in a furious combat. Mario covered his fist in fire and charged forward to perform a fiery punch while Negi's fist was covered in a swirling ball of wind. "Cyclone Fist!" Negi shouted. He slammed his fist into Mario's incoming fire punch and when the fists came in contact, the wind around Negi's fist suddenly shot forward and blew the fire that was on Mario's hand into his face.

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

"Waaaaahaaaaaa!!!!" Mario cried as his head was caught on fire. Wind surrounded Negi and he ran up to Mario and did an uppercut that made a column of wind shoot up all around him and Mario was carried up to the top it and then Negi rode his own wind to the top.

When he was above Mario, Negi brought up both arms and then slammed them down with a fist full of energy into his body and smashed Mario straight to the bottom. "Diving Tiger Palm!"

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!

"Doh…" Mario cried while lying flat on the stage.

"Whoa! It seems like Mario just got a taste of his own medicine!" Talko said. "Has the plumber finally met his match?"

Negi landed and then Mario slowly pulled himself back up and rubbed the pain on his body and said, "Mamamia… That-a hurt-a a lot…"

"Sorry if I went too hard. Heheh… You said the same thing to me earlier," Negi chuckled

"Yeah, and I'm going to say da same thing too. I can still fight-a, so let's-a go!"

"All right, time to get serious too!" Negi lifted up two fingers in front of his face and quickly chanted something in his mouth. When he was done, wind appeared and blew around his body constantly. It was like he had gained an armor of wind. He suddenly took off at Mario's direction at a faster speed than before much to his surprise.

Mario quickly blocked a very fast dashing punch from Negi and he was sent sliding back from the impact of his fist. "He's gotten fasta!" Mario thought. "Must-a be becuz of da wind-a around-a him increasing his mobility!"

Negi dashed in circles around Mario and then suddenly tackled him from behind and sent Mario spinning up into the air, and then he jumped at the plumber and planned to attack him while he was helpless in air. Acting quick, Mario pulled out a yellow piece of blanket from underneath his overalls and swung it at Negi just before he touched him, and this caused Negi to turn around unintentionally and he crashed onto the floor instead. "Uh? What happened?" he wondered.

Mario landed and explained, "Theez cape-a can deflect-a projectiles and cause people to travel in da opposite direction they wanted to go."

"Nice stuff you have there!" Negi then ran up to him again and attacked with punches and kicks. Mario used the cape as a shield and then in the midst of the barrage of attacks, he swiped the cape at him and caused Negi to spin around, and then Mario delivered a kick to his back and sent him tumbling forward. Negi managed to stop himself and turned to Mario again and charged at him for another attempt to hit him. This time he jumped at him and did a roundhouse kick that Mario avoided by ducking down. He quickly moved to the side and then grabbed Negi by the leg that he used to kick him and spun him around in circles for a few turns before hurling him out of the stage.

Negi managed to fall back down and landed just short of the stage's edge however. Mario ran up to him and shot fireballs while doing so, but then Negi dashed forward and thanks to wind armor around him, the fireballs were eliminated which caught Mario off guard and then he was rammed into the body dead on. Mario slid across the place and then tumbled off the stage. Talko immediately began counting up to ten, but Mario quickly got back onto the stage before he reached the count of three.

"That-a wuz close!" Mario thought.

"Your fire won't work against me because my wind armor can blow them away!" Negi said to him.

"We'll see about-a that!" Mario covered fire in both his hands and then ran towards Negi. When he was at range Mario thrust forward both hands and a stream of fire was shot out. "Flower Flamethrower!"

The stream of fire came in contact with Negi's wind armor, but because of the intensity and size of the fire, the wind sucked it up instead and Negi found himself surrounded by scorching flames. "YAAAAA!!!" he cried in pain and then fell onto the floor and rolled around in a desperate attempt to put out the fire.

Once he put out the flames and stood back up, Mario threw a punch into his guts with a fiery punch and then followed up with a punch to the chest, then the face, then shoulder, the guts again, the face, the chest, in between the legs, and then another final blow to the guts. Mario then pulled back both his arms to one side and charged up a ball of fire in between his palms for a few seconds before slamming it into the dazed child teacher. "Firebrand Combo!!!"

SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!

"YAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

The girls watched in horror as their teacher was blown out of the stage. "NEGI SENSEI!!!!"

"Ow… Mario really is serious about this…" Luigi said.

"A fight is a fight after all," Meta-Knight said.

From outside the entrance to the waiting room, the other participants were also watching the fight going on. "That guy is strong! Negi sensei is getting beaten up by him-aru!" Ku Fei gasped.

"That's why he's fit to be my rival!" Wario claimed.

"Mario has always been a strong fellow," Captain Falcon said.

"If you think my pupil is going down just like this," Eva said to him, "just keep on watching. That boy is more capable than any of you think."

"Why do you keep on calling him your pupil when you are supposed to be his student?" Marth asked her.

"Let's just say he took some lessons in combat from me time to time."

"Whoa! With a powerful and fiery combo attack, Mario managed to send Negi flying out of the ring!" Talko said. "Is this the end of the child genius?" He ran around to the side Negi flew out of and saw him starting to get back on his foot. "Looks like he's still up, but because he is out of the ring, I will begin the countdown and see if he can get back on stage before ten seconds is up! One…"

"He's strong…" Negi thought. "But I must get stronger… otherwise I'll be able to protect my students or surpass my father… Time to get a bit more serious!"

"You still want-a to fight?" Mario asked him. "I'm afraid-a I will hurt-a you too much if you keep-a going on."

"This will be the final shot, hopefully," Negi replied with a smile. He stretched both arms to the side and then balls of electricity formed around him. Then jumping back and planting both feet against the wall behind him, he crossed his arms in front and the balls of electricity fired beams that combined together and traveled before him in the form of a helix. "Sagitta Magica Series Fulguralis! Flans Paries Aerialis!" And then without a warning, he shot forward traveling along the helix beam at a speed almost equivalent to that of lightning.

Before Mario could even tell what's going on or blink his eyes, he was punched in the body incredibly hard when Negi crashed his fist into him in a split second. "DOH!!!!"

For epic effect, imagine that everything went into slow motion when Negi's fist smashed into Mario's body and pushed backwards. Now that's epic!

For let's return to normal speed…

Mario shot backwards from the fast and powerful attack and crashed into the wall outside of the stage with a bang.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!!!

"WOW!!!!" exclaimed everyone.

When the smoke that resulted from pieces of the wall flying everywhere died down, Mario was seen lying among a pile of rubbles with a passed out expression on his face. Talko ran up to him and observed him for a while and said, "Well, it looks like that blow did the job…" He patted him on the shoulder and said, "Hey mister, are you all right?"

"Mamamia…" Mario replied before passing out again.

"Okay, I think we can safely assume that Mario is down for the count. He probably won't get up even if I count up to ten," Talko claimed. He pointed his arm at Negi and said, "And the winner of this round is… Negi Springfield!"

The girls jumped up from their seat and shouted with utmost joy when they heard that their teacher had won. "YAY!!!! NEGI SENSEI WON!!!! HE DID IT!!!! YAY!!!!" they all cried out loud.

"Oh my god… Mario lost…" Luigi said in disbelief.

"That's quite a turn of events," Yoshi said while eating hamburger. "That kid sure is talented!"

"Oh well, so much for this list…" G&W said, rolling up the paper and then putting it away.

The medics came to put Mario on a stretcher and then took him in the direction of the waiting room. Negi ran up to his side and asked him, "Are you all right?'

Mario opened his eyes and smiled while giving him a thumb up. "Good-a job! Congratulations on beating me!"

"You fought well too! I'm sorry if the last hit too much on you."

"Don't-a worry; I had worse… Ow…"

When Mario reached the entrance, the Smashers gathered around him and CF said, "Looks like you lost, Mario. You did put up quite a show however. You've really got to acknowledge that kid, don't you think?"

"Yeah, heez definitely a strong boy," Mario replied.

"Well, look who lost!" Wario taunted, "And to a little boy as well! Really shows how much you're worth."

"Sorry to disappoint-a you."

"Forget it… Just hurry up and get well soon!"

Kotaro gave Negi a pat to the back and said, "Good job! I'm looking forward to fight you more and more!"

-

"Well… Mario lost to a kid…" Bowser said. "Either he was holding back too much or that kid is super strong."

"I would say that the kid is strong," Ganondorf said. "He's definitely not someone normal. It's no surprise that Mario lost to him."

"There are many kinds of people in this world, isn't it?" Falco said.

-

"The brat prevailed in the end after all," Asuna said with a sigh.

"Of course he would win! Negi sensei is good at everything! Hohoho!" Ayaka claimed.

After the stage was mended by expert carpenters, Talko got onto the center of it and said, "Okay, now let us begin the second round! Metaboss vs. Generic Fodder Character!"

TO BE CONTINUED

That was pretty intense, I think. Let's see how well the others will fare in this tournament then!