Titanmaster 117 = Quite dramatic, yes, but the hype was nice. Sorry to break to you but there's still a few hours before the war starts.

CazyPhuc = You're welcome. As for your speculation: Maybe, maybe. The thought is appreciated, once I finish this arc, I'm doing a massive rewrite on all chapters prior.

Info-Dump.

My excitement was renewed, Rep's strategy did not come off as half-assed or offhanded, it was actually detailed and organized. The more I hear of it, especially the extra parts of it, the more I could think of the possibilities of our class succeeding. While it barely concerned my role, which was to eliminate the main force, while Shina has the same orders in a different area of the school, he included psychological warfare and organized formations all in all. I was right to accept him as my Class President.

It was ingenious, and I got the motivation to study as hard as I can once again the sooner he finished. I wanted the time to just pass by instantly, let the war start and have his plan over with already.

I wanted to see the little beasts again.

Once Rep called the meeting over, we were about to make our way to our classroom with the intention to study whatever subject we were good at, but with my right knee that felt like pulsating in synchrony to my heartbeat and is prone to stinging in a certain flex of my joint, even with the cool wind that practically served as an air-based cold compress to my knee to slow down the possible bruising or bloating from the bleeding bone, I need to go to the nurse for some ice packs, maybe some medical gauges and betadine smudges as well if the stair edge actually caved inwards to my flesh, leaving a bleeding wound.

And another was…

"Could you help me out with the summoning system for a bit?" Shina asked as she leaned down (she's standing) towards me to let her voice be heard over the strong wind.

….That.

I barely placed tension to my arms to prepare standing up and she is not allowing me to go anywhere with this.

I gave her a confused frown, "….Why are you making all these decisions now?" I lowly growled.

"You know why, I'm an exchange student and I don't know a damn thing about this school's system."

I gave her a glare, the hypocrisy in her words was not so infuriating, but it was just as annoying. "….You said so yourself that you could adapt on your own."

"Give me break, even though you said I could figure it out on my own, I don't wanna run into a fight not knowing what the hell am I doing." She countered.

Wait, I said that? What the hell was she talking about? I was talking about what she said before our oral exam, NOT what I said at the meeting. Was she doing that on purpose?

"Kina, Shimuya, are you gonna continue your love-fest," Rep's voice came. "Or are you coming?"

I faced Rep to—

"Could you guys go on ahead, me and Rino are gonna have a talk 'bout something, about the ESB and shit."

I turned my glare over her; You stupid girl. Stop making these decisions on your own!

"Really, what are you going to ask him?" The Shimada girl asked, "If it's about the ESB you could ask us as well, we know just as much." In honesty, I did want to talk to Shina for a little more, but at the same time I did not want to indulge her wishes because I need to get this knee treated with something cold. Any longer and the bleed in my knee cap could bloat from the inside.

Wait, I still need to study. Talk is not possible now. I need to go to the nurse.

"She probably likes it better with Shimuya than us."

I tensed up, and the spike of pain on my leg gave my voice a nice alter, "REP!" I shouted in a guttural bark. A selective few of them winced (not to mention the girls squeaking in surprise/fright) at the sound, it always does to those who have never heard of such a sound coming from a human mouth, "Any more and I will foil your strategies!"

"What he said." Shina added, her voice was calm but the aura around her did not follow. This sort of air might cause internal danger alarms to set off. "Seriously, Yuuji, stop."

"Okay! Okay! I'll shut up now." Rep held up his hands in defense, the smallest sign of fear in his eyes disguised by his mischievous smile can only be unseen from the untrained eye.

My friend just sighed, adjusting her glasses. "Well, you're not wrong there. I'd prefer him to tell me than all of you. No offense but I don't think all of you guys are gonna do good teaching me, I feel like it's gonna take long. I need direct information, not an overview."

The 7 of us just stared at her assumption, that would have been offending or impolite, but it was true in a sense. We only had a single day to play with our avatars last year—and that was one practice fight and no more. That much cannot leave a student to be experienced with the body movements of an avatar. I may be an exception, I fought more than 1 opponent, that helped me figuring out how to properly move my avatar as if it was my own body.

Maybe it was the best decision to pick me instead of anyone else to teach her. I have the best understanding and a few theories in mind that actually makes sense.

But….

"So you're having Shimuya teach you, especially with the Shyoukanjuu controls." Rep guessed. So far, from what I know, she only knows the Summoning System's nature similar to an RPG game, but she had not went through a tutorial training, and the war is about to begin in just a matter of hours.

"Yeah," Shina agreed. "I need to be fully prepared if I'm going to do any help to you guys."

"Did agree I, thee knoweth not how the warfare functions."

"…Insta-death."

Shimada inquired this, "Why not have a teacher to help her?"

If she has to be trained under a teacher, there won't be enough time for her to finish midway. Sending her to the field with no training easily results to an immediate loss.

"No, not necessary." The Class President objected.

"Hmm, why?" Yoshii Akihisa asked.

Rep sighed as if the idiot kept asking it for a long time and had enough of it, "Can't you remember, Akihisa? Seriously, your memory was almost as tainted as your head."

"Then stop talking covertly," That neutral look on his face lapsed to undignified. "And what did you say about my head!?"

"Akihisa yo, how could thy tainted head forget?"

"…I thought your tainted head could remember this."

"Wait! Is my head really tainted that everyone uses it in a sentence naturally!?"

Shina exploded to laughter beside me, banging the pole that Rep had recently leaned on with her fist. The girls were amused as well. Rep looked like he would have masturbated to the result of his words. I was not laughing, however.

"This guy has the most experience out of all of us, besides Akihisa." Rep answered after the joking atmosphere subsided, giving me an acknowledging look and a smile. "She's learning from the master."

I opened my mouth to deny but could not. That was actually flattering, but also irritating at the same time. To be complimented by my leader (not to mention indirectly) was such an honor, but still, I hated every compliment as much as insults. No one gives a damn about my achievements before, might as well give them deadma in turn.

"…He has efficient training knowledge." Tsuchiya remarked.

"Aye, fairing 'gainst opponents of numbers 10 many is not an easy feat." Kinoshita added.

"Wait," Shimada interjected. "You mean Shimuya practiced against 10 people? I thought we were only given 1 opponent."

"Yes," Himeji agreed. "And we aren't allowed to do more than that."

"Actually, there's a loophole." Rep began. "You are only given 1 enemy, but it doesn't stop people who had not started training yet from picking who they want as a 'practice partner'." The air-quotes (implying sarcasm) he gestured told me that he knew about those 10 people and their relationship with me.

"Okay," Shina raised a hand up, "So are you saying that 10 students picked him, out of all the other students there, as a partner?" Shina asked, almost incredulous. "Sounds more like those guys got beef with Rino."

Once again: her logic was murderous.

"You're not wrong there." Rep commented. "I didn't knew Shimuya before, but at least I know a little. He was a target for violence, those 10 dudes were the beef. Last I've heard of 'em was that they got beaten to shit and got expelled." I never regretted it. "In other words, he has a lot of enemies."

I am NOT a Goth, Sakamoto Yuuji, this is how I naturally look like and what I like to do is what I like to do.

But the rest were true. Those boys were my enemies. It was sudden; I had no idea why they hate me, they were not reasonable at all. Of course, I responded to their feelings and I hated them back, down to the point where I should have disabled them from school last year instead of sparing them.

Those bastards deserved more than scratch wounds.

"Whoa," Shina turned to me, "You're quite popular in your first year."

I shot her a mad glare, "….Shut up!" I snapped. "I don't need your sarcasm."

"Well," Rep announced, placing his hands in his pockets and turning around, striding for the door entrance of the roof. "I leave the explaining to you, Shimuya. I'll expect a top conditioned soldier out of Kina once you come back to the classroom." He shouted over his shoulder before opening the door and exiting.

I was thankful that he was being serious on that sentence. It removes the irritation out of me for acting mature like I expected him to be.

The others soon followed, exiting the roof one by one, then it was just me and Shina, completely alone in this rooftop.

We stared at each other, she loomed over me as she stood, hands on her hips, her skirt flying upwards because of the wind, not in the least bothered it (probably by the fact that she was wearing shorts). After several seconds of intense staring, she finally opened her mouth, "I hope you were looking at my eyes instead of down there."

I raised an eyebrow.

Surprisingly (and to my shock), she sighed exasperatedly as if she actually saw it, "Are you going to teach me now?"

I recovered and sighed before I rubbed my knee. This leg is definitely going to bloat (I felt a large bump and it hurt when I barely touched it). I just hope the air around me is cold enough to slow down the bleeding bone. "….Sit down and be comfortable. It will be a long one." I ordered, adjusting my position against the water tower pole and my leg to be comfortable. Ah, there we go.

I really do not why I even agreed to this.

Shina trotted over to my direction, knelt down and unbuttoned her blazer but not undressing it off her person, showing her white polo shirt that was not tucked in her skirt (how did I not see that from the blazer), and she lied down next to me with a sigh, her hands placed behind her head as a pillow and her legs propped up and crossed.

I frowned down on her upside down face, her facial expressions did not show that she was bothered in the least by the position she was in, especially with a male in the vicinity, including the fact that she is wearing a skirt (even with shorts on).

Her face was deceptively innocent as she looked up; staring back at me, "What?"

I frowned even further, the effort is likely going to cause a headache, "….Do you know the position you are in?" I looked to her skirt without the turn of my head, her skirt was already blown upwards and her shorts were bare and exposed. They do not even leave much to the imagination, there was too much skin showing than it was covered.

"What? I'm wearing shorts, see?" She made it sound like she was covering a rip on her shirt with a jacket.

I glowered down on her, "….Where is your modesty, woman? The attitude you have will deliver a horrible consequence."

She just gave a dry chuckle as response, "I'm glad you cared," That fucking smile. Then that my irritation was instantly replaced with shock the sooner I saw the look of hostility in her face, "Don't Try To Change Me, Rino. I Fucking Do What I Want and You Can't Stop Me." The firmness in her voice left me speechless, I barely heard her being so assertive except when she talked back at Sir Fukuhara. She sighed and her normal expression returned, "Just relax, okay. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't trust you."

….

The fuck does that even mean?

"….You should learn to be distrustful among strangers."

"Heh," She scoffed, "You're not a stranger, Rino. You're my friend, I know that much."

Incredulous and utterly confused I was; You should not even do this in front of your friends, Shina. "….Just what do you know about me?" I harshly demanded.

Unsurprisingly, she did not back down despite my snapping, "Well…" She trailed off, the shift of her expression into mulling was genuine, "I'll admit that I don't know much 'bout you, but I know one thing though:" She looked up, straight into where my eyes should be behind my bangs (many people can't do that),

"You won't do anything."

….….….

I was struck speechless. She….she trusts me.

Because I was her friend she trusts me, she obviously knows she is in a disadvantage against me, she may be tall but she does not have the strength to fight back had I assaulted her, yet she trusts me. Her attitude is hazardous to her innocence, any other men might have taken advantage of her thanks to that, she even said she is aware of it, yet she trusts me. That felt…nice.

Even if her trust for me was almost unjustified, simply presuming, but it was such a wonderful notion to me. I never thought I would have people of my age trust me ever again.

I lowered my head horizontally that all of my hair are hanging freely, "….I will not do anything." I genuinely promised, I turned my head to her direction, "….Thank you." I muttered.

"What?" She frowned, pale face crinkling in question.

I did not answer, instead I hovered a hand over her head, expecting her to hold it. Staring at my hand with a confused frown, she gradually understood and returned the notion, slipping one hand out under her head and she took my hand; I curled my finger around hers and shook.

I was right to have her as my friend.

I parted the handshake and began, "….Okay, first lesson…." I adjusted my position to get even more comfortable (specifically, near her). "….Unlike what you think, the Avatar does not move independently, you have to dictate its movements with your mind. Though, it would do certain idle actions depending on your conscious-unconscious thoughts. The last time I saw an emotive action was an avatar cracking her knuckles in preparation to defeat an opponent."

"Hold on," She interrupted, sitting up and sliding backwards with her hands to lean back against the same pole as me. Our shoulders are practically touching. "What do these things look like? You sort of talk about them like they're living things."

….

Well…

If she thought that they were robots or characters on a screen, I'd be damned.

That was be amusing, "….Answer my question first: do you know what an imp is?"

"Well," She mulled, looking to the side, "My last impression of 'em is that they're tiny demons. Are you saying that these 'Avatars' are imps?"

I nodded, "Correct, each Avatar is unique. None will have the same appearance and its armor is randomized by the amount of grades you have. Just for you take note: they are as tall as 80 centimeters. The teachers reference it as '3 heads tall', or so they said."

"Sweet…." Shina commented, raising a hand, palm downwards to the ground, level to her face, probably to guess 80 cm. As if knowing the answer, she faced me again, "Continue."

"….When fighting with a selective subject, a teacher must be in the vicinity to give your avatar a passage to existence, while a supervisor must oversee the entire battle."

"You mean a teacher must be around so I could summon the little guys?"

I turned my direct stare towards her, "….Very impressive, Shina-san. You are learning quite quicker than I expected."

"Yeeaaah~" She drawled with pride, then she turned a questioning stare towards me, "But do you really have to put a 'san' in my name? You don't have to since we're friends, right?"

I am a foreigner, I would never fully grasp these Japanese customs, "….It is how I show respect to my friends." I turned to her with a sincere stare, I allowed my face to display my feelings, "….I respect you, Shina-san. Whatever person you are, I will respect that is part of you." I confessed, allowing emotion to show in my voice.

She leaned towards me with a smile, pushing my body sideways along with her movements, "Aren't you sweet?" But her tone did not come off as sweet and appreciative like I expected, she did it with a teasing tone.

She was trying to fool around with me and did not take my words seriously (or maybe she did and was just hiding her embarrassment with the action).

I roughly nudged her back into upright posture, I do not have the time for her wordplays, "….As I were saying, if you have been declared to fight by an enemy, you must not refuse and summon your avatar as soon as you could, otherwise it would technically be called surrendering and you are officially 'defeated' and can no longer fight until the end of the war."

She frowned with disapproval, "Even for a need a toilet break, I can't excuse myself?"

…That was actually kind of funny.

"….Only if someone takes your place, then you can escape the declaration of the fight."

She slumped against the pole in relief, literally shaking the structure on impact with a loud clang. I was almost worried that she had hurt herself, "Hoo, thank god. Now I don't have to worry about shitting myself, and not because I was nervous."

"….Only if someone is willing to substitute you." I added, perfectly containing myself from laughing. "….Moving on, any known method or strategy is allowed. Either betrayal or trickery, and the last and primary objective is to defeat the enemy class representative."

"Even the most underhanded methods, they're legal?"

I nodded. This summoning system is quite prone to break friendships. Taking that my class is the F-Class, betrayal is definitely inevitable. I just hope it does not break my friendship with Shina.

"….But you must not do anything that might involve physically harming a student. That can be said for involving yourself in the war and not the avatar. Otherwise, you will be punished."

She nodded in understanding, "Point taken, do not kick other people's asses personally."

She must be a really funny girl in her last school, her vocabulary could destroy a boring atmosphere. "….Be reminded that the avatars cannot touch anything but themselves and other avatars. They are no more than phantoms that can phase through a wall."

"Damn it!" She snapped, slamming her fist against the cement tile. "I would have been flipping skirts with them or dropping pants just to get myself an edge."

…..

"….You're horrible."

"What? Didn't you say that any method is allowed?"

"….Anything is allowed, yes, but must you go that far?"

"Hey, anything's fair in love and war, right?"

….The fuck kind of sense does that make with flipping skirts or dropping pants just to catch the poor men and women off-guard?

For all the things I have found out, it had to be the fact that I have a friend who was very straightforward and would not hesitate to say embarrassing things without even blinking. I just hope she is bearable (I also had to be true to my words as well, I DO respect my friends), I did want my friends to be weird just to keep a tedious atmosphere away but not this far.

Oy.

I sighed, "….Have you taken note of everything I said?"

"Yep, including the thing about no flipping skirts and throwing shit at the enemy's face for better advantage."

"….."

"….."

"….What?" The fuck!?

"PPPPPPPPAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" She suddenly exploded to the most disturbing cackle I have ever heard in my life. "YOUR FACE! YOUR FACE! AHAHAHAHA! SO PRICELESS! DID YOU ACTUALLY THINK I WOULD DO THAT!?" She eventually lost her balance and just fell to the floor, cackling her head off while clutching her stomach.

What the fuck is going on!?

I quickly shook my head to wipe out the flabbergasted expression that I did not notice had formed on my face.

I actually have a friend….who was fucked in the head. I was completely speechless, my form was frozen stiff as I looked at my friend go insane. In my first impressions of the blonde, along with slight knowledge of her words and personality, including the fact that she was tougher than an average girl, I thought of her to be a snarky girl with a blunt attitude in terms of speech, I would have believed she was a feminist.

She apparently had her own quirks as well. I never met anybody to be this quick to laugh at their own joke, even in a menacing way. The last person I ever known to have such a personality in my lifetime was…..

….me.

Oh...….

I quickly brought a hand to my eyes to stop the tears from forming, deliberately touching my bad knee with my other hand to divert my thoughts away from the memory. It is all gone, I can no longer be young anymore. I have bigger responsibilities now. I have to submit to that.

"HAHAHAHA!"

And she is still has not stopped laughing, I was surprised she has not died yet.

~~~~~ « ҉ » ~~~~~

"….Shall I say the final lesson?"

"Yeah, go ahead." She prompted blissfully, her eyes closed. It was such an unnerving amount of time, let's say a minute (a very somber minute for me), before she recovered and stopped. She was still on the floor, hand on her belly, her pale face plastered red all over. I never thought that such a color texture could ever cross the human face. She appeared as if her face was placed too close to the fire.

"….Now listen carefully because it is going to be the most crucial lesson that you must take to heart." I took a deep breath, and I began."….Your avatar is both living and conscious, that means its soul and yours are virtually connected. What you think is what the avatar thinks.

"That can also say that it follows what you want it to do in your mind. You do not need to use your words, you must only use your thoughts to command it. I could say that the normal method of fighting with your avatar was to control the entire body of the avatar, especially when you swing your weapon.

"But that method I would not recommended, it limits your avatar's power and it is susceptible to making you losing to a skilled student. You should control the avatar in my way. It is much more fluent, flexible, and your avatar moves faster with it. Fighting against 10 opponents in the practice fight was actually a blessing.

"The way I control the beast, I focus the movement of one limb if I wanted it to move efficiently. In other words, do not order the avatar in your mind to move its left hand, move its left hand in your mind instead. Rather than ordering the avatar to move, you must move the avatar yourself. Simply imagine yourself the puppet master holding its strings.

"It is possible to control even 4 limbs at once but it requires pure…..let's say 'separation of focus'. If you master the control of 4 separate limbs, you can do many unconventional combat moves. For example, sliding, floor-sweep, flying kicks, spin dodge and many more." I exhaled, and I swallowed the saliva that had been building since I started. My mouth even felt like it was vibrating, that felt weird on my face. That was probably the longest sentence I ever stated in a loud and clear voice since the start of this school year.

I turned my stare to her. "….Did you take note of that?" I reverted back to my usual low tone.

Shina instead sat up, her face was a good grimace. She took my words seriously, seeing people become so serious was exactly what I respect of them. She lowered her head, closed her eyes to register the information in. "Okay, I'll summarize." She began, "I should not order the avatar to move but to control it instead. I must imagine that I was holding its strings so it can move faster." She looked up at me, "Is that right?"

I nodded. "….That is the only thing you have to keep in mind. I have a theory that the best control method was to think that you are the avatar. I have not questioned the teachers if it is possible but I want to test that theory that if I think like I was the avatar myself I would manipulate its movements to the most perfect form."

"Well," Shina mulled, "That might be possible. You and your avatar could be in perfect sync in that way." She had likely lapsed to her logical self when she made that statement. She looked at me with an impressed look, "I have to say: you really know your stuff. You even made your personal control method. If you hadn't told me about it you would have dominated the school."

I sighed at the indirect compliment, "….When you become interested in something you would learn a lot of things. How could I resist my interests if this summoning system was practically Virtual Reality?" It was true, but it was almost 5D (is 5D a real thing?) in a way. The avatars were holograms, controlled from the mind, and were semi-existent. Very astonishing development of technology.

She gave a dry chuckle, "A Video Game in a school, it's something of a boy's dream."

"….That was how it is supposed to be when it was created." I explained. "….The Principal brought the idea of black magic and science together guising as a video game to motivate the students to study harder."

"Yeah, I noticed. So are we done?"

"….Yes, your lessons are over."

"Alright." She stood up, stretching her back with a moan (I heard a really loud snap there), and she extended her hand to me. "So, wanna go back to the classroom, Sensei?"

I snorted at that. I promptly took her hand and held it, carefully lifting myself up without aggravating my knee. She held on to my bicep afterwards and she assisted my stride towards the door. "Looks like you gotta go to the nurse for this one." Shina mused.

"….Hm." I nodded, I just hope it is nothing serious so I could go back to the clas—

…Oh fuck.

"What's wrong? You look shocked."

I stated my realization, "….The clinic is at the 1st floor. And we are at the roof."

It took a second for Shina to realize what I mean, "Ooooh." A wan smile played on her face, "Well, that's a problem." She remarked, gesturing to my bad knee.

I gave her a half-hearted glare, "….Only for me, it is."

She jerked my body, "Hey, don't feel bad. I'll help you get there, Mr. Grumpy." I silently growled at that name. "There's still time for some studying." She assured.

We continued the stride, then another realization struck me, "….I almost forgot, you must give your avatar life with correct answers on your test paper. The more you have, the stronger your avatar. Be reminded that the test papers are limited by time, not by the number of problems. That means you have to study even harder than your current level, especially if you are very intelligent."

"Okay, okay. I will." She relented, "Don't want my little guy to be weak on the fight. if that's the case." She said, increasing the speed of the stride, which I easily caught up to without being dragged.

As we reached the stairs, she wordlessly took my arm and placed it around her shoulder (which I didn't mind since it is necessary in this situation), her other arm went around my waist and gripping hard so I will not fall down accidentally. The very action struck me deep with a warm sensation in my heart, she may have her distinct (and bizarre) personality but she has a caring side of her.

I patted her hand around my waist in appreciation, "….Thank you, my friend."

Even though I was not facing her, I could almost hear her smile, "No problemo. It's what friends are for." And she displays it without being shy unlike most people.

The very statement made my heart flutter in warmth even more. I was glad to have such a person as my friend.

Though when she enters the classroom with a face still red from her laughings, including an unbuttoned blazer along with a crooked tie, it might imply the wrong thing and it will definitely give Rep more ammunition for his teasings once we step inside.

"….Haaaaahhh! Bwisiiit!"