This chapter will have a General POV since it'll be impossible for Len to be at every fight.
Disclaimer – The name 'Vocaloid' belongs to the creator of the program Yamaha.
Some of the characters used in this story either belong to Crypton Future Media or any other respective owners of the fan-made Vocaloid characters.
Difference in Worlds
Chapter Five – S vs F
Len POV
"Let the duel… COMMENCE!"
Teto dashed into the forest first with Rin, Kaiko, and me following behind. As we ran through the thick forest I noticed that Kaiko was barely able to keep up with the rest.
"Kaiko get on my back." I stopped abruptly in front of her and crouched down to show her my back.
"Huh?" she looked at my back startled.
"Come on, the others are going to leave us behind." I urged her on.
"Okay." She gave in easily and climbed onto my back.
With Kaiko on my back I made my way after the other two, catching up to them quickly. We reached a clearing in the forest and began to slow our pace.
"So we have to do this without Neru's help. The duel is random since we don't know who we'll be facing. The only thing we do know is that they have 2 Holders in their team according to Neru." I summed up what we knew.
"There are 4 clearings between us and the other group. That's probably where they'll send someone." Rin pointed to the empty parts of the forest on her map.
"Kaiko, you can do it, right?" we slowed our pace to a halt and I let her off my back.
"Yup. I want to be of us to my new friends!" she exclaimed and nodded her head vigorously.
"Don't worry! I'll protect her!" Kyu crawled out of Kaiko's pocket.
"Okay, then we're relying on you Kyu." Rin glanced down at the small figurine.
"I'll take on any of them! Even if it's a Holder!" Teto swung her naginata around.
"You're hyped up." I leaned away from her so I didn't accidentally get hit.
"Mhm! Miku said she'll buy me a whole bunch of baguettes if we win!" Teto started flailing her weapon around in excitement.
"Calm down, Teto." Rin had her saber out and blocked the naginata.
"That won't work." I slipped out a small plastic bag from my pocket and pulled out a piece of bread from it. "Down girl." I tossed the bread at the over eccentric girl.
"Arf!" Teto barked and caught the bread with her mouth.
Rin was about to comment about that but then was interrupted.
*DING* THE DUEL HAS BEGUN!
A loud voice echoed throughout the forest.
"Good luck! Let's come out victorious!" Rin gave us a firm nod.
"Yeah! Let's all go eat lunch together after this! Gakupo is paying!" I grinned at everyone.
Our group cheered and we each went down our separate paths towards the clearings.
General POV
Teto had reached the clearing and was met with a sudden assault of kicks. Instinctively, she blocked most of the kicks with the staff of her naginata and backed off.
"Haha. Pretty good for a girl." The assailant stood in the center of the clearing. The attacker was a boy with incredibly short black hair, which you might mistake him for being entirely bald, but on closer inspection, could see otherwise. He wore a white karate gi with a black belt wrapped around his waist. He wore sandals instead of shoes, making Teto curious on how he was able to maneuver through the forest with them.
"So you're my opponent?" Teto lowered her stance and held her naginata in both hands pointing it towards the boy.
"Seems so. My name is Tatsuya Ken! I am the captain of the Karate club!" he announced himself full of confidence and parted his legs and readied his arms. "I am a bit disappointed that my opponent is a girl, but I shall not shame my class!" with that he began do a quick shuffle towards Teto.
"I don't care who you are!" Teto lunged at him as well, directing her naginata straight for Ken's chest. However, Ken having predicted this move, side stepped the blade and landed a short jab on Teto's rib.
"Haha. I feel bad for you. I specialized in hand to weapon combat." He laughed at how much of an advantage he thought he had.
Teto groaned but she didn't falter. She mentally scolded herself for messing around and decided to get serious.
"Oh? Still want to fight? Don't say I didn't warn you." He got into a readied position again.
"I'll be serious this time." without a warning Teto had disappeared from Ken's sight.
"W-what?" he was startled but hastily turned his head around to get sight of the girl.
"Where you looking?" the voice came from above.
"Ho-? Guk!" Teto had jumped high into the air and brought down the blade of her staff onto Ken. Ken was just barely able to block it with his arm against the wooden staff. Seeing that she wasn't going to get anywhere by holding him down like this, she jumped back.
"I said I was going to get serious." Teto reminded him.
"Ha. I just wasn't paying attention." He wiped the sweat off his forehead and got into his stance again. He was beginning to get worried because he was starting to get worn down and the girl looked like she still hasn't broken a sweat.
"You probably only learned how to take on thugs with knives, right?" Teto took small steps and slowly closed the distance between them.
"I don't have to answer that." He sneered.
"You don't have to. I'll just confirm it myself." Her small steps turned into large strides as she began to dash towards him. Instead of charging at him with the blade portion of her weapon pointed at him, she began to spin her naginata in a fast motion at her side.
"W-what?!" Ken began to panic as he wasn't expecting anything like this. His form began to get sloppy as he kept twisting his body around in attempt to get into a right position.
"I got you!" Teto swung down her blade mid spin and landed a hard blow with the dull blade on the back of Ken's head. Continuing on, she quickly pivoted her hands and reversed her motion making the wooden part of her weapon collide heavily against Ken's chest and sent him flying back towards the edge of the clearing.
"Too easy." She grinned and gazed up at the ball flying in the sky.
"VICTOR TETO KASANE!" a large voice echoed.
"Good. Seems like it's working out without my help." Neru was watching Teto jump up in glee on the screen. Everyone from her class was cheering in joy.
"We can win this!" Gakupo cheered.
"Not yet. They still have 2 Holders on their side." Neru said grimly.
"Right…" Gakupo stopped cheering because of Neru's serious tone.
Kaiko stood silently in the clearing. She heard Teto-senpai's victory a short while ago and was beginning to feel more confident.
"If the carefree and cheerful Teto-senpai can do it, then I can to!" she told herself confidently.
"I got your back Kaiko!" Kyu encouraged her more.
"My opponent is a little girl?..." a heavy voice came from near the edge of the clearing. A large boy with the body that looked like two Gakupos fused together entered the clearing. He wore clothes similar to Ken's but it was blue instead of white. The same black belt wrapped around his waist. He was barefooted but his feet looked perfectly fine, despite having walked through a forest.
Kaiko's mouth fell open as she looked up to stare at the boulder sized boy. The feeling of confidence was leaving her as quickly as it came.
"I'm the captain of the Judo club. Horiyama Kuma." His name matched his appearance. "I'm sorry to do this, but the pride of my class is at stake." He really did sound sincerely sorry. He parted his legs, like Ken did, but had his arms were outstretched. He began to slowly approach her.
Kaiko began to shake in fear as she saw the towering boy get closer to her. She backed away from him and could feel some tears gathering in the corner of her eyes. The boy noticed this and began to hesitate more, wondering if what he was trying to do was right. Kaiko was now cornered as she had her back against a tree, the boy still advancing on her slowly. She was about to break down into tears.
"Don't you dare touch Kaiko!" a booming voice shouted angrily. Kyu had gotten out of Kaiko's pocket and had snuck behind Kuma, his tiny figure being concealed by the grass. However, now he was gigantic and towering over Kuma. Kyu had grown to a size similar to that of a 3 story tall building.
"W-what is that?!" Kuma had turned around and fallen backwards as he gazed up at Kyu. It was probably his first time seeing someone larger than himself.
"I'm Kaiko's protector!" Kyu exclaimed and brought his two large plastic paws together and swung them down onto Kuma, smashing him and the ground around him. Kyu lifted his paws slowly to reveal a passed out Kuma, overall he didn't seem too injured because of his sturdy body.
"VICTOR SHIN KAIKO!"
Everyone back at the edge of the forest was shocked at first, but then Class F broke the silence with their cheering.
"She's more dangerous than I thought." Neru sweat dropped at Kaiko hugging the leg of the huge Kyu.
"So that means the 2 Holders are against Rin and Len." Miku had a concerned look on her face.
"Kyu really is amazing." Gakupo had his hand above his eyes as he saw Kyu's towering figure in the center of the forest.
"You should be more worried about the other two!" Piko punched his arm.
"Ow! Okay okay!" Gakupo rubbed his arm.
"Is that all you got?! Hahahahaha!" a tall boy cackled.
"Damn it…." Rin cursed under her breath.
The boy had his head bent back in a loud laughter. He had brown hair that was combed back with long bangs sticking outwards. He had on our school uniform, but you could tell he was well built because of his muscles stuck out through the clothing.
"I expected more from the spouse of an army general!" the boy laughed mockingly.
The boy was called Big Al; he's one of the notorious Holders who abuse others with his ability. He stood there with a smirk on his face and held his arms outstretched to his sides. His arms began to contort and transform as it grew larger and hairier, while his nails also began to change into claws.
"You better not give up on me now! I'm just beginning to have fun!" he shouted and lunged at Rin with his arms spread forwards. Jumping to the side, Rin rolled on the ground and dodged the sharp claws.
It has been a couple of minutes since Kaiko's victory was announced, but Rin only felt frustrated since she was still fighting. She knew Len's fight was still going on as well, but she didn't have time to worry about that.
"Run all you want. I'll catch you sooner or later." He dusted off the rubble from his arms. His ability is the power to change his arms into that of a wolf. It's not certain if he can change it into anything else, but he's been only using the wolf arms for the entirety of the fight.
Rin decided to go on the offense and rushed at Big Al with her sabre ready in hand. Big Al didn't budge as he let her approach him. Rin propelled her arm forward and felt her sabre collide against something hard. Big Al had raised his arms at the last moment and blocked the blade.
"That it?" he smirked.
Rin pulled her arm back and began her assault; thrusting, swiping, and driving her blade into his arm. However, to no avail, his arms took on the full assault and left nothing more than a mere scratch. Big Al, deciding he had enough, swung his arm out and smashed it against Rin sending her barreling against a tree.
"Gaah!" Rin felt the air knocked right out of her as she collided against the tree, even leaving an indent on it. Rin gripped the ground as she began to cough, she very likely knew this was going to be a tough fight the moment she realized her opponent was a Holder. Regardless, her pride refused to let her back down. She staggered onto her feet and held her blade ready.
"Hah… just hurry up and go down! I want to fight that other person with that giant cat!" he sounded annoyed.
"Well too bad. You still have to deal with me." Rin replied. She was darting her eye around to see if anything helpful could aid her fight. Then she noticed something.
"You should keep your eyes on your opponent!" Big Al sounded angry as he began rushing towards Rin.
"Come on you slow hairball!" Rin began to taunt him. She held her position firm and didn't seem like she was going to try and dodge him.
"Why you." Big Al grew more furious and put more pressure into his charge. "You damn brat!" he snarled and leaped at Rin. The moment he closed in on Rin he thrust both of his arms forward towards her.
"Fell for it." Rin ducked down and dived under Big Al as he leapt over her. Not being able to stop himself Big Al's claws impaled into the tree that was behind Rin.
"Damn it! I'm stuck!" Big Al tugged at his arms but it was being firmly held by the bark of the tree.
Rin didn't let a moment to lose as she quickly turned and swung her sabre against Big Al's defenseless back.
"Gaaaah!" Big Al let out a frustrated roar as he felt repeating slashes against his back. His anger began to boil as he tried desperately to free his arm while enduring the strikes. "Don't mess with me!" he shouted savagely, breaking the wood and freeing his hands. He spun around to face his attacker but was met with nothing. "Where are you?!" he yelled out in anger.
"Right here." The voice came from behind him.
Rin had stopped her assault mid way and had snuck around and behind the tree Big Al was stuck on. Big Al hearing the voice turned around but a moment too late. Rin placed her foot firmly against the tree and began to press down onto it.
CRAAAAACK
The tree let out a deafening crack as it finally gave in from all the damage and fell on top of the startled Big Al. With a loud thud the tree fell and knocked Big Al out under it.
"VICTOR MIROIR RIN!"
Rin let out a long sigh as she heard her name announced and fell back onto the ground in exhaustion.
"Alright! We can do this!" Gakupo pumped his fist in the air.
"I'm still worried about Len…" Neru gazed at the remaining screen.
"It'll be fine. Len is going to pull through for us." Meiko patted Neru on the back.
The screen that was supposed to show the fight with Len was different from the others. Instead of being stationary and hovering over the clearing it was moving rapidly through the forest as if to catch up to someone.
Len POV
"Hold still!" a girl with long bright red hair shouted, whilst crouched on a tree branch. She had on the school uniform skirt, but her shirt was a white t-shirt with a blue star on it. She held onto a longbow firmly in her hands.
I was hiding behind a tree trying to avoid the arrows that were being accurately shot at me.
"Stop hiding so Miki can get you!" the girl spoke in a third person perspective.
"I'd rather n- WOAH!" I barely avoided an arrow. "Not. Thank you very much!" I dashed out from behind the tree I was behind to run to another.
"Tch." Miki clicked her tongue when she saw she missed.
I crouched down behind some bushes and peeked through to see Miki still on the same branch. I focused pressure inside the base of the branch, making it implode on itself, and break off.
"Here to, huh?" the girl instinctively jumped off the branch and landed on another. "Miki had enough with your traps!" she yelled at me.
I've been using my Holder powers to mess with her the entire time. Breaking branches, pressuring a point making her arrows veer off course, and occasionally tripping her when she got on the ground. That was the best I could do to keep my power hidden. The moment I met her in the clearing I dashed off into the forest for this purpose. The ball that's supposed to be filming us can't get a clear view, so it makes it harder to see me do anything out of the ordinary. It'd be great if she ran out of arrows so I could charge at her, but that's the problem. She doesn't run out of arrows. Ever. Her Holder power is the ability to use the life force of her surroundings and turn it into an arrow. Adding to that, she can put an elemental aspect onto her arrows making them much more dangerous if I get hit by them. Another arrow whizzed by my head and pierced the ground a few inches from me. It was sparking and I could feel the electricity raising the hair on my skin.
"Dang it." I stumbled out of the bush and began to run deeper into the forest. As I ran I got a brilliant idea and quickly figured out a way to put it into action.
"Where'd he go?" Miki landed on a branch and scanned the foliage.
SNAP!
The branch she was on suddenly broke and she leapt towards another one.
"That's growing ol-" the branch she was jumping for broke as well. "H-huh?! Aaaah!" she let out a startled cry and tried to reach out for another branch but was able to grab nothing. Ultimately, she came plummeting down with a loud thud.
Carefully, I made my way towards her fallen body, curious if she had passed out, but to my dismay.
"Grrr! Miki had enough with these tricks!" she snapped up and gripped her bow.
"Shit!" I cursed as I realized I had gotten too close to her and began to sprint away.
"You're not getting away this time!" Miki didn't bother standing up as she drew her bow and aimed at me, shooting an arrow straight for my back. Figuring she'd do this, I set up a pressured point to my side and hoped it'd keep the arrow off of me. However, I wasn't as lucky. The arrow did veer away from my back but it changed course and got my leg. The piercing pain was bearable since her arrows didn't actually pierce the object but transferred the physical pain it would cost. I staggered forward as I pushed onward.
"Just go down!" Miki whined as she got up. She was visibly tired now, since she's been chasing after me for a good 20 minutes, especially since she was jumping from branch to branch most of the time.
"If you could catch me." I tried to taunt her but the pain in my leg caused me to flinch.
"Grr! Miki hates boys like you!" she yelled in frustration and started to run after me.
I chuckled at how childish her frustrating cries seemed. Dashing back through familiar surroundings I braced a log and leapt over it. "I got you no-.. oooaah!" Miki let out a cry as she jumped over the log and fell down a pit that was behind it. I had huddled up next to the log to avoid falling into the pit myself.
Snap!
I heard a light sound of wood breaking. Peeking over the edge, I saw Miki lying back on the ground with swirls for eyes. At first I thought she was unconscious but she quickly snapped out of her daze and glanced up at me. She tried to reach for her bow but a sudden shock of realization came through her.
"M-my bow… It's broken!" she murmured in terror. Miki held her bow, which was split in half, in front of her. She had tears welling up in her eyes as she stared sorrowfully at her bow. "I don't want to fight anymoooore!" she began to cry.
"VICTOR KAGAMINE LEN!" the loud voice was muffled by the tree leaves, but I could still hear it clearly.
I glanced down at the helpless girl and started feeling remorse that my plan had worked a little too well. I only intended to exhaust her to a point and hoped she'd give up when she fell into the pit. I heaved a sigh and leaned down and reached my hand out to her.
"Here. I'll help you up." I offered her.
"It's your fault my bow broke!" she glared at my hand.
"Then I'll just go back by myself." I started pulling my hand back.
"W-wait!" she exclaimed. I stopped. "F-fine…" she mumbled and reached out her hand.
General POV
"Guuuh!" Neru was gritting her teeth as she watched Len help Miki out of the pit.
"We won!" Class F cheered.
"I never doubted Len one bit!" Gakupo shouted delighted.
"You're the one who said that Len was the tossed card." Piko sent him a sharp glare.
"Ahaha…" Gakupo looked away and laughed awkwardly.
"Kagamine-senpai really is amazing…" Kaiko watched the screen in admiration. She had returned shortly after the end of her match.
"What did I say? Len pulled through." Meiko grinned.
"Miku! Bread!" Teto was latched onto Miku.
"Once Len gets back, let's go eat! Gakupo is paying!" Rin exclaimed.
"Wait, what?!"
"Yeah!" the group cheered.
"How could we lose?!" SweetAnn yelled at the 3 present members of the group.
"I'm sorry…" Kuma looked down at the ground.
"'Sorry' doesn't cut it!" she retorted sharply.
"That blonde just got lucky." Big Al sneered.
"Thanks to that 'luck' you had your butt handed to you." SweetAnn turned to glare at Big Al. "I didn't care much about the first two loses, but I expected you to win for us!" she yelled at him.
"Heh, at least I did better than that red head." He tried to play it off.
"I don't care about that girl. She's annoying anyways." SweetAnn brushed her off. "I'll make sure those peasants pay." She turned to look at the screen with Len on it. "If it's the last thing I do…"
CHAPTER END
A/N – First things first… WHAT A CLICHÉ ENDING! I feel terrible because of it, but I couldn't think of anything better ;o;. Please don't whip me. I know I promised a longer chapter in the previous one, but I sort of lied so I could use the weekend as a way to take a break… I still worked on the story, but just not that hard. So this chapter might seem a bit strange since I took like hour breaks before resuming the story.
The fighting scenes may be a bit short but it's going to get better as I progress… probably. I'm just new to the whole combat thing.
Those confused with Len's power, let me give you a brief explanation on what he did. Like it was previously explained; Len's power is to pressure a single point and then release it, so basically he creates a vacuum in the area around the pressured point, thus the air begins to get sucked into it. That's how he's able to change the course of the arrows. I'm going to make use of this concept for later fights. Don't be disappointed that Len had to rely on trickery to win this fight, since he's still hiding his power. Nothing I can do.
Tomorrow is Monday so my upload may slow down since I have… NO SCHOOL! AHAHAHAHA!... Don't hurt me. My winter break is till Feb 4th, so I got plenty of time to write more chapters and upload them! I'll try my best to keep the chapters long and entertaining!
OH OH OH! I FORGOT TO MENTION! I'M LOOKING FOR A PROOF-READER TO ASSIST ME! I don't really have the time… *cough* I do have the time, but it gets on my nerves to try and reread what I write every 10minutes as I write. So I want a person who really enjoys this series to help proof-read my story! I'll offer you cookies and hugs. (Has the tendency to not proof-read the last few paragraphs of my story c: )
So wait patiently for my next chapter and drop me a review so I know what you think!
Review
– In my previous stories I'd always spend time trying to describe characters and I'd always take a long time on those. So I tried to just brush on through those in this one since most people already knew how most the characters looked like. However, I took your advice anyways and tried my best on being descriptive for this chapter. Keep on enjoying my story! C: Oh and I really do need proof-readers :P
I3-Len – Yup, I can't help but feel proud of how cute I made Kaiko c: and yeah she was the fourth, as you can tell
DaulStarduster – Oh look, another chapter!
xX little Kagami Xx – Found in Combat skills? Are you asking if she's good in combat? Then yes. Being the daughter of an army general and having a lot of pride cause for her to be good in combat.