Author's notes at bottom...
"You're done!" Cecilia thought as she held her palm out towards Otome.
There was a flash of light as something sped through the air. In a split-second, a long thin stream of light rapidly sped in a downward diagonal motion, aiming at Otome's legs. The audience grew silent as the damage was assured. However, at the last second, the light made a sudden sharp change in direction at Cecilia. The armored lady was surprised, her face frozen with bewilderment. She wanted to move, but because of the stress from pushing her limbs earlier, she couldn't. There was a small puncturing sound as the attack pierced through her right leg, leaving a small hole where the damage occurred. Cecilia fell to one knee, as all the feeling in her leg was suddenly flooded with pain.
"Shit!" Cecilia's eyes widened as she pressed on the wound. The shot was off only slightly, so luckily it didn't sever any nerves in her leg. But now, the strain of moving it just increased by 10-fold. But that wasn't what bothered her. The only thing that revolved around her mind was the battle. How did this woman manage to reflect her attack? What kind of trick did she use? And just how can she win this round with an injury like this?
Kurousagi stared worriedly. Cecilia just had her own laser shot reflected somehow, and now she's been handicapped by the resulting injury.
"This is bad! Cecilia been badly injured; now she won't be able to move around as easily as before! This is a big pinch we've been put into!"
"Calm down," Izayoi remarked as he continued to watch the match. "She still has that armor that she's wearing, so she won't get beaten up that quickly."
As if to make his point, Izayoi pointed to the two contestants as they suddenly engaged in close-ranged combat. Otome's slashes were raining down on Cecilia, who was down on one knee thanks the injury she received earlier. However, the armored woman kept her arms up, using the metal attached to her wrists to block most of the sharp attacks from hitting her bare skin. There were a few cuts here and there on her body and face, but she was otherwise fairly well-off, aside from the fact that she couldn't find an opening to attack.
Kurousagi's eyes began to show hope. "Then, she still has a chance!"
"Actually, it's just thanks to the fact that this woman is just plain crazy." Ryo interrupted suddenly.
"Eh?"
"Look closely at her eyes. You can see that she doesn't exactly seem focused, right?"
The blue-haired rabbit looked closely at Otome, who was laughing while wearing a disturbingly creepy smile. Her attacks were really quick, but it looked like they were all just a repeating motion, like she was following a pathway with her blade. Looking closer at the girl with ocean blue hair, Kurousagi noticed that her eyes, which had a blood-red iris, was unfocused and a bit cloudy, scaring the rabbit enough to take a few steps back, even though she was clearly out of harm's way.
"You see?" the caramel-skinned boy with lavender eyes leaned back against the tree behind him. "She's not even trying to bypass Cecilia's defenses. Those wide movements, the speed, the crazed smile, I'm guessing that this is more like an attempt to rattle her."
Izayoi nodded. "I think you're right. Obviously Otome has the advantage here. She can somehow reflect that laser-move, she has impressive speed, and with Cecilia's leg practically busted, she could easily beat her if she wanted to…"
Kurousagi started to sweat. "B-B-But, the [Geass Roll] clearly stated that everyone wouldn't excessively injure anyone else intentionally…"
"That's just a nice way of saying 'I'm not gonna kill in this [Gift Game]'. And there are a few loopholes people can use to get around that oath. For example, you can't kill, but if you 'just happen' to go 'berserk' for whatever reason, then you can just say that you went out of control. You haven't declared this to be 'too much' yet, right?"
Izayoi pointed out Kurousagi's eyes and ears, which could be the very model of 'the eyes and ears of the law' since a [Judge Master]'s senses were heightened to the point of being able to instantly distinguish any breach in the rules listed on the [Geass Roll].
"W-Well…" the [Judge Master] sadly twitched her ears. "N-No…there hasn't been any breach in the rules, apparently…"
"Then as long as you basically don't kill and 'accidentally' go overboard, you aren't breaking the oath in anyway."
Ryo turned to Izayoi. "Well wouldn't that be problematic for everyone who does that?"
"Problematic or not, this doesn't change the fact that the rules haven't been broken, so the match still goes on."
"So…I guess Cecilia is just unlucky here…"
"I guess."
"WHY ARE THE TWO OF YOU JUST TALKING SO CALMLY ABOUT THIS?!"
Kurousagi smacked the both of them with a paper fan as tears started running from her eyes.
"…Somehow, I feel really pissed off…"
Cecilia was breathing heavily as the toll on her body was growing greater and greater. The stress on her arms was building up since the weight and pressing force being exerted on her was turning her arms into blocks of bottled pain. She knew that if she wanted to win this somehow, she needed to do it soon, before Kurousagi decides to make a call. Problem is, she still didn't have a clue about what was going on.
The feeling in her leg was starting to numb itself from the pain, but the blood loss was making her a little bit light-headed every now and then. She mentally slapped herself. No, she wasn't going to get anywhere unless she figured out how this Otome person managed to reflect her attack. She took a few deep breaths while went over what she knew.
That laser that people were seeing was her [Gift]. It was a simple trick that relied on compressing light into a focused area, kind of like using a magnifying glass. It can burn and pierce through a lot of things, but like all light, it can be reflected with the right surface.
Was Otome's [Gift] a "mirror"? But she didn't notice anything throughout the battle that gave any hints about any reflective surface being present. Well, the knife might have been able to, but after all their attacks, the metal should have been too scratched up to perfectly reflect her attack. Besides, the first time she used this move, Otome didn't reflect any shots, so it must have been something different about this time than last. But what could it be?
Was it her personality? Maybe, but it didn't make much sense to hide that ability this long with that sadistic side. No, it must have been something else, but what?
Wait, 'this long'…she felt like it was something to do with how long this battle took…something like charging…or maybe… bit by bit…like something subtle... like…
Cecilia raised her eye brow, like she suddenly understood something, as she weakly stood up
Otome was a few feet back as she studied her opponent carefully.
"Is this person stupid or what?" Otome smirked widely as she decided to speed towards the silver-haired fighter for the finishing blow. However, her face suddenly changed as she noticed something that made her hold back at the last second. She held her arms up in front of her face to block the heavy punch that was launched, and she flew a couple feet away before sneering.
"Damnit! That damned bitch!"
Cecilia was fighting blind (literally). Her eyes were shut tightly so that everything seemed to be covered in darkness. However, the girl must have had good fighting instincts to fight without any sight, as she landed an accurate blow on Otome earlier.
Otome spat out some saliva before rushing in for another attack. At first, it seemed to be another straightforward strike, but she made a feint at the last minute and quickly moved around for an attack on Cecilia's left. However, the armored fighter made another accurate blow at the knife-wielding warrior, who felt pain in her upper chest area. She groaned as she went back for another lunging strike, but each time she made her move, she was always countered by an accurate blow. Her face would contort with rage after each blow, her face turning redder and her eyes becoming more slanted and demonic.
After a few more blows, it looked like Otome was about to explode as face started to turn beet red and her pupils were small enough to barely be visible to the naked eye, everyone expected a sudden berserker-type match to suddenly occur.
However, Otome suddenly stood up straight with her face unexpectedly calm. She raised her hand as she spoke words that nobody expected her to say.
"Yeah…I'm gonna quit here and now…"
Cecilia didn't open her eyes, but her face shown confusion.
"Huh?"
"Look, I'm all for going on, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to do anything to you since you know my little trick. So let's just save ourselves some time and just call it your win…"
Otome looked at Kurousagi, who had a blank mind before recovering and heading towards the middle to make the call.
"The winner here is Cecilia of the [No Names]. We will being the third round after a small break, so feel free to do whatever you need to enjoy the next, and possibly final, round of this [Gift Game]!"
"So…is this good or bad?"
The group sat around in the same area as last time. Cecilia was bandaged up here and there, but the most noticeable wound was the hole in her leg, forcing her to sit down and rest. Otome, who was also bandaged up (though more so than Cecilia), was leaning against the corner of the arena and watching the [No Names] and Tsuki talking.
"I mean, we pretty much won through surrender, but then we didn't manage to learn much about Otome there." Ryo pointed out as he stood up tall. His wounds seemed to be better since the first match.
Tsuki just shrugged while shaking her hands. "Not sure what you guys should make of it. But…" She sighed as she put her hand to her forehead. "I thought I told you to be more serious about this Saku."
"Saku?"
Otome gave a small chuckle. "I was serious. I seriously thought hard about this, and made the serious decision to give up before things got too troublesome…"
"You know what I mean…"
"Look, I'm pretty sure she figured out more or less my [Gift], that's why I thought it was useless after she closed her eyes..."
Kurousagi, who was listening to everything that was going on, seemed lost.
"Huh? Why would closing her eyes mean anything?
Otome sighed. "Listen up, my [Gift] is "Hypnotic Suggestion". Using my eyes, I can manipulate my target's train of thought, depending on how much eye contact we make." She pointed to her red eyes, which started to glow a bit. "Full eye-contact can make a completely obedient slave, but glances usually result in subliminal messages. That was what I was using in this battle."
Cecilia slanted her eyes. "Then the reason I wanted to give up, and the reason I was hit by my own technique. It was because of you?"
"Yeah, kind of. I just told you to 'give up' or 'misfire'. How your brain interpreted things was mostly you though."
"Hmm...I'm starting to hate you more and more by the minute."
"Sorry about that..." Otome smiled while talking in a not-so-sorry tone. "Well I gave up, so now you guys just need to deal with the last guy."
"That's true, but then again, he's more trouble than he's worth…" Tsuki scratched the back of her head.
"Is he as troublesome as our own delinquent here?" Ryo asked while nodding his head over to Izayoi, who gave a carefree smile while waving his hand. Otome and Tsuki simultaneously held up their hands while sighing.
"Maybe even more…"
Yeah...um...I'm sorry if this seemed like a rush job. It's just that I've spend some time thinking about this. But the more I thought, the more it started to get too complicated and the more troublesome it started to seem. That, and the fact that I didn't want to keep you guys waiting too long before Izayoi's fight, as well as a future "for fun" chapter that may involve the "King's Game", Hot Springs, or something else that's more fun and interesting, I decided to try and wrap this up early. Sorry if you guys didn't like this, but I promise that I will try to get Cecilia and Otome more involved in some way.
Anyways, hoped you guys liked something about this, and I'll try to get the next stuff in when it looks good and ready.