Notes at the bottom...

Moments ago…

As the two of them started to reach the end of the arena, the doppelganger started to lunge towards the wolf-girl, who proceeded to toss the pill into her mouth and bite down.

Instantly, she felt something rush through her whole body as everything seemed to slow down at that very moment. Her body felt a bit stiff as her bones felt like they began to harden just a bit inside her. There was a slight jab-like feel on her fingers as she felt them grow longer, along with her nails. She could smell just about everything from over 10 miles, maybe even further. She could smell even what most people didn't usually smell. She could smell the excitement from the crowd, the strength from the other two members of the [No Name] community, and the fear from the Judge Master, who took a few steps back. She could also taste a lot of things. She could focus on each bit of dust that was in the air, the bit of sweat from someone in the crowd, and the blood…the blood that lingered in the air… she wanted to taste this blood so badly…

She watched the doppelganger rush towards her. But it seemed to be moving at a pace that was so slow, it may as well have been walking. She grinned as she moved her body, which felt only slightly heavier than before since her senses were working faster than her body could react. Still, she saw the doppelganger move and figured how it was going to attack before she easily evaded each strike and retaliated with a punch in its gut. She started to land attacks on its whole body with little effort. Like watching a movie in slow motion, she saw the doppelganger react to each of her hits with what appeared to be a moan. She saw each movement the muscles, skin, and hair follicles would make after she delivered each blow. Eventually, she stopped and used her foot to thrust into its stomach, making it fly off short from the edge. She then turned back to Ryo, who seemed to have just noticed the change, and made a wider grin as she locked her eyes into her next target…

Present...

"Damn, looks like Ryo gets to have a lot of fun here!"

Izayoi and Cecilia were watching as their companion took a few steps back. Izayoi was grinning as he felt excited by the atmosphere they were in. Cecilia however, seemed to be more interested in Tsuki and her new form.

"That's a werewolf, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Part wolf and part humanoid. Course that'll be problem for Ryo if he can't figure out a way to deal with this new change."

"But…I thought werewolves were supposed to appear under a full-moon…" The young lady suddenly looked up. "There isn't even a single star…"

As the young girl said, the sky was still blue with a few clouds floating around. The sun was shining brightly, and the moon was nowhere to be found. In fact, the weather was the exact opposite of the kind of weather someone would expect creatures like a wolf to appear in.

"Well the moon isn't necessarily needed for a werewolf, that's just something that was added in to the legends for drama or something like that."

Cecilia kept silent, but the look on her face had shown that she was still pretty confused.

"There are a lot of stories and legends about the moon and its properties. For example, we have stories like Macbeth where the main character would meet the three witches under the night of a full moon, where they would be able to see into his future. There's also the story that a full moon can bring people together if they were predestined to fall in love. And then, we have stories like 'Jack the Ripper' and 'Spring-Heeled Jack', where these supposed 'monsters' and 'crazed killers' would first appear under the night of a full moon to attack the public. All these stories would use the idea that a moon could 'amplify mystical powers' or 'bring out evil in some form', but that doesn't necessarily mean that the moon is a requirement."

"But isn't a full moon the reason that rumors about a werewolf appeared in the first place?"

"Not exactly. Every type of story, no matter how far-fetched, has some kind of truth to them. In this case, there is a group of people known as the Ainu, who are supposedly born from a goddess and a wolf-like creature. These people weren't really well-known, but the first people who met them must have believed that they could call on the powers of a wolf or a god/goddess. They would tell other people, and it might have eventually crossed with the stories about the moon to create the werewolf legend we hear nowadays."

Things were starting to make sense to her now. The idea of the full-moon was inspired by stories and legends, and the idea of a werewolf was inspired by a group of people who were said to have been born through a wolf and a god/goddess. Then, the ideas simply mixed themselves together after crossing at some point, like one person playing two simultaneous games of "Telephone", and created the whole idea of "A werewolf will appear on the night of a full moon".

"Then how do you explain the transformation there?"

"She took something out of her pocket during the battle, so she probably used that to draw out her wolf-like abilities." Izayoi calmly deduced the situation as he watched the battle continue. "If I had to guess, I'd say it might have been herbs or something like that to stimulate the animal traits dormant in her body."

"Doesn't that violate the rules?"

"Nah, the rules said she couldn't get help from someone else. It didn't say anything about any banned items or using something she already held. It's tricky, but not against the rules."

Cecilia turned her head back to Ryo, whose situation was starting to look worse by the minute.

"Perhaps we should decide who goes next?"

"Yeah, sounds good."

"Damnit, looks like I'm pretty screwed…"

Ryo bit his lip as he tried to dodge Tsuki's attacks. Half the time he managed to just barely get away with just a tiny scratch. Other times he was hit pretty hard, making his muscles sore with each strike. [Doppelganger] was practically useless in this case because the amount of energy he needed to spend depended on how much time he used. If he made a double too quickly, he'll waste a lot of energy. But he didn't have enough time to make one while conserving most of his current energy. And since the temporary "blueprints" in his mind had disappeared from the sudden attack, he was left with nothing but chance and luck.

"Calm down, just take a deep breath, and try to analyze the situation…"

At the moment, he was facing a werewolf; a creature that was at least 3 times stronger than him, so fighting directly wasn't an option. Her senses had probably been enhanced to incredible levels, so trickery was probably out of the question. All he had was timing, but it was already hard enough to avoid getting torn to shreds at the last minute of her attacks.

No, no matter how many times he thought about this, he was screwed. There's no way, absolutely no way in hell, that he was gonna pull off any kind of miracle at this point.

Just as he thought that, Tsuki suddenly appeared right next to him and gave him a swift kick in the ribs, knocking him over to the side with a sharp pain lingering where her foot dug in. He moaned as he wondered how long he was going to keep this up. Forfeiting this match might be a blow for everyone, but he wasn't going to be useful in the next round with these wounds, and there wasn't anything he can do to win at this rate.

And yet, something inside him seemed to be keeping him from giving up. Something in him told him that he could win, he just didn't know how. After all, he only had enough energy for just one doppelganger if he tried to endure all of Tsuki's attacks. And even so, he'll just barely be able to stay conscious long enough to continue the round without a call from Kurousagi. But then again, maybe that one doppelganger could be all he needs to turn things around.

"Ah, damn it all…"

He was tired of thinking, and he didn't have anything else to lose at this point, so he decided to just go for it at this point, and mustered up all the strength to endure the attacks while he began to visualize the "blueprint"

*Blueprint of body, check*
*Altercations, Enhanced Physical strength*
*Purpose, fighting*
*Replicating Traits, check*
*Results, acceptable*

*Now creating doppelganger…*

"'Replicating Traits'? What the hell…"

Before he could finish his thought, his limbs suddenly weighed 50 pounds each, which made it a struggle to just stay standing. His vision went hazy as everything started to lose focus. His body screamed at him to just let everything go, but the mind seemed to say "Not yet…" and kept him awake to listen to the battle that he couldn't see clearly. Using what little strength he could spare, he looked up, but saw nothing in front of him, even though he could hear the sound of two fighters battling each other.

"I…must be….going…crazy…could've….sworn….."

There was the sound of something landing on the ground. He struggled to focus his vision as he got a clearer vision of the indistinguishable figure standing in front of him. He could see that the figure had longer limbs, long hair, and piercing yellow eyes that proved that it was something with wolf-like traits.

"Guess…it was hopeless…after…all…" he chuckled to himself as he started to fall forwards onto the ground before Kurousagi rushed over to give the announcement.

"Th…ma…ch…ha…."

Those were the last words he managed to hear before everything went dark.

Ryo woke up to find himself sitting against a nearby tree with bandages wrapped up around his body. He quickly looked around before he noticed that Izayoi and Cecilia were standing over him and watching with condescending eyes. He gave a huge sigh before leaning against the tree loosely.

"Sorry, guess it's my fault."

"Hmph…" Cecilia started to pinch the space between her eyes in frustration.

"Yeah, it's all your fault," Izayoi raised his shoulders in annoyance. "Now we're left with just two other participants to fight. You selfish guy…"

There was a pause as Ryo tried to comprehend the last few things the delinquent just said.

"Wait….what? I thought we lost that round…"

"I wish we had. Then maybe we would've been able to prove who's the better fighter between me and the other 'ojou-sama' there…"

"But I thought…" he knew that he saw a figure with wolf-like traits, so he assumed it must have been Tsuki since she's the only one with wolf-like traits that they know of. Then maybe, they were just lying to make him feel better? He looked at the two of them and saw their matching faces that had the same piercing eyes and the upside down shape of their mouth.

"Nah, that's impossible…"

"I feel like I was insulted just now…"

"Ho? So you're strong enough to start picking fights again?"

Anger marks appeared on the heads of the other two children, who glared darkly with a twisted smile at Ryo.

So in this case, I decided to try and create a good "reasoning" for the whole "werewolf" story. Whether this was accurate or not, I'll leave it up to you guys. Sorry if things got confusing, but the next chapter will explain how Ryo had supposedly won that round, and sort of lead into the next battle. Maybe that'll keep things interesting.