Chapter 34

Kiyoshi opted to go first.

"I think track is going to be my best suit," he explained. "Besides, dad said that the coach from his old school tried to weasel him into the track team…"

"Do whatever you want man," Rook said proudly. "Go get'em tiger!"

"Don't you dare start!" Kiyoshi snapped back but smirked.

He approached the first event. There were 50, 100 and 200 meter dashes. He signed up for all three.

He stood at the mark for his fifty meter dash. The other students sneered at him. "Who the hell are you suppose to be, the demon vessel?" one whispered to him.

Kiyoshi smiled back. "No, I doubt I would be anything like my dad" he replied.

Those who were about to run against him, suddenly appeared pale.

He cleared the heats with no problem.

Even as the other students reinforced their bodies with curse energy and tried to use it on him to slow him down, it never worked. Before long, Kiyoshi was declared the victor of the 50 meter dash!

Yet, he lingered about as the next group came in. They froze. "Why aren't you leaving?!" they demanded.

"I'm in this one too!" Kiyoshi said proudly.

It became rather pathetic, Kiyoshi even hung back to give them a chance to win, but, there was no point in that. So, it just destroyed the competition in the 100 meter dash as well.

"CHEAT! HE IS CHEATING!"

Before the third event, 200 meter dash was about to begin, the other schools have called him out. "How?" he asked. "If I am not mistaken, I had the outside track, you got a five second head start on me and I still won? How is that cheating?" Rook asked.

They began to accuse Kiyoshi of taking drugs.

"Uh, we're tested before this, even for a private school we were ALL tested before hand." He protested once more. "Look, I didn't think a bunch of you would be sore losers…"

"YOU DEMON VESSEL!" one blurted out.

Kiyoshi swore, the whole event came to a sudden halt from the outburst.

"Young man…" the ref said trying to calm the student down.

"Don't TOUCH ME MONKEY!" he snapped back. "YOU! YOU HAVE TO BE CHEATING, YOUR FATHER'S A DEMON VESSEL!"

No one moved at first, then, someone stood from the stance.

Kiyoshi peered over, but froze.

"I… didn't tell dad about this…" he muttered.

His father had come to the event today…

#

Rook was off to the side as he spoke with the wrestling team. He noticed the other schools were eyeing them like meals. "I don't know about this Rook," the captain muttered. "I know most of those guys… they aren't afraid to break another's arm or leg for the sake of competition."

Rook was about to speak until he saw it. From the corner of his eye, he watched Yuuji Itadori come down from the stands. He confronted the students who tried to call Kiyoshi a cheat, they were trembling at the sight of him.

But then, there was a smile on his face.

"Is that Kiyoshi's dad?!" the wrestling team asked. "No wonder he's jacked, so is his old man!"

"I think things are about to get interesting…" Rook said offhandedly. In fact, he could sense it. Yuuji's hand was holding something, an energy that isn't curse or anything like it… is… perhaps this is dragon energy? Either way, in his hand it looked like a flaming talisman. Then, he dropped it to the ground.

FOOSH!

Rook saw the ground suddenly become cloaked in energy, but it burned away just as quickly as it appeared… but with a stark difference. In fact, Rook was now looking to the other teams and licking his lips.

"Boys… the odds just turned in our favor!" he decreed.

"What? What do you mean?!"

"Watch the next heat and tell me what I mean…"

All around him, the sorcerer students panicked.

None of them had curse energy to use for their events…