Author Note:

Well, this took longer than I thought ... sorry. If you see my profile then you will know the reason, TLDR; My life was became busy for now. Anyway my intention for this chapter was to end this tournament arc, but seeing that it has been 4 month since I write the last chapter so I decided to split it.

It looked like there is no new review so... Well, anyway hope you enjoy this chapter.


On the day the tournament started, many guards lined up at the west entrance of the colosseum. They are wearing mail armor and holding a pike. Every one of them looked strong and intimidating even when viewed from afar. Yet despite that, there was a crowd of people trying to see the contestant before the tournament started.

When Patchouli's carriage arrived, the crowd became excited and a little chaotic. Although when the carriage door opened, they became stiffened and trembled with fear. The same thing was happening with the guards too.

"How troublesome. It looked like they were scared because of me. I'm afraid the other contestants will be the same too. Should I take a distance from you, mistress?"

"Do as you wish. Just come to me when I need you."

"Understood, then I will watch your great magic from afar."

After that, Lucifer took flight and activated his invisibility skills. As for Patchouli, she was guided by a male wearing green scale armor to the waiting room of the contestant.

Inside the waiting room, there are 15 other contestants other than Patchouli. They were busily talking with each other or resting. Patchouli decided to sit on an empty seat and read a book from her magic storage. After a short time had passed, another four people came inside the room. The four of them wore something far more fitting in a fashion show than a magic tournament. They were wearing a black uniform with a gold stripe around the hem and center.

Patchouli looked at them and thought, "Why are they wearing those eye-catching clothes? Are they trying to show that they are special mage?"

Because of her curiosities, Patchouli appraised them and got heavily disappointed. Their amount of mana and their control over it was not impressive. She was puzzled as to how they could even join this tournament.

Behind those four people was the male that guided Patchouli to the waiting room. He passed them and then stood between a doorway that led to a stair and a hallway.

"Everyone, may I have your attention," He waited until all eyes were on him. "Good, I wanted to tell you some of the essential things for this tournament. First, I will tell you how to win a match. You can win by knocking your opponent out, your opponent running out of mana without mana regeneration, or throwing them off the arena. Second, there is a time limit of 20 minutes for a single match. After that, the judge will determine the winner based on appearances. Before I continue with my explanation, if you have any question raise your hand."

No one raised their hand.

"Since there is no question, let's continue. This time I will explain things that can get you disqualified. First, you must not attack your opponent with any physical means; that including, cladding a part of your body with magic and punching your opponent. Second, you must not use a magic tool in the arena. Finally, you must not attacked your opponent outside the arena. That's all, now let me see the schedule," He then took out a notepad from his pants pocket, "Oh, the big match is coming first. Now for the contestants for this match, please go to the hallway on my right. While everyone else who wanted to observe the match can go to the stairway on my left."


"Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the annual mage competition," a female announcer said. "In this competition, we will see an exciting sight of two mages clashing their magic. But before the match starts, I would like to introduce some important guests who is joining us in this tournament."

Then she extended her hand to the west balcony of the coliseum.

"First and the most important guest is the third prince of Mashi kingdom, and my employer, Prince Veltsgard Maris, please give him a cheer."

A loud cheer erupted in the arena while the prince stood and waved his hand to the audience.

"Beside him is the sage of the mountain, and since he wanted to keep his name secret, I can't tell you more than that. If you cheer louder, maybe he will give you a free skill."

The sage does the same thing as the prince, waving his hand and smiling. However, his real emotion was being irritated for being introduced like that by her.

Then the announcer moved her hand to the north side.

"You may substitute yourself in the special seat and use disguise magic, but I still can see you guildmaster of adventurer guild, Barear. Please, stand up and let other cheers for their promotion."

The guildmaster reluctantly stood up, and another cheer erupted for him.

"Now that's everyone has announced, it's time for me to do the same with the judge. Usually, I never bother to introduce the judges. They are usually just the same boring old man. But this time, we had quite a beautiful and amazing judge."

She then points at the desk near the inner wall of the coliseum.

"The first one is the person I admire the most, the guildmaster of our mage guild, Ellysia Natua, cheer with me, OOOHHHH!"

It might be because the announcer demanded it vigorously or because she was joining the cheer. The audience was cheering louder than earlier.

"That was refreshing."

Then the announcer pointed to an old woman wearing traditional witch attire, a pointed black witch's hat, and black clothes.

"The next one is the headmaster of the Mage School, Mira Lindle. Give her a cheer, and maybe she will give you a bonus grade."

This time the audience that cheered vigorously was mostly wearing a black uniform.

"Even if you cheer that loud, I will only give a good grade to a good student."

"Boo! You are stingy with grades as usual. Anyway, as for the last judge, she is not sitting on the chair yet, but I can tell you that she is more beautiful than anyone, a cutie that cuter than anyone. It is me, Anire."

Then Anire strike a pose, causing a variety response from the audience.

"Anyway, I have blabbed too much. Now let us start the tournament."

She then took out a paper from her shirt pocket, "Oh wow, they give the biggest player on the first match. The contestant of the first match is the luckiest fire elemental user that managed to be second at last year's tournament, Juno. His opponent is a mage that causing those important people to show up in this tournament. A mage that maxed the elemental magic skill, and the guildmaster Ellysia predicted will win this tournament easily. Her name is Patchouli Knowledge. I suggest betting for her, cause that is what I will do. Now, Juno and Patchouli please come to the arena."


Patchouli was walking toward the coliseum's arena with her enemies beside her.

"Even if you have those skills, I will not lose." Juno proudly said.

"You must have a great magic to use against me to be that confident."

"Oh, you will see."

"Then I have a request for you. When the battle starts, I will set up a barrier and won't do anything inside it. So please use that magic to try to break the barrier."

"Okay, I can do that. How long should I give you time to set up that barrier?"

"A few seconds is enough."

After walking for a while, they arrived in front of the stair to the arena. The announcer told them to go to their respective side and stand behind a red line on the arena ground.

"Ok, now that both of them are in position, let's the battle begin!"

Then Patchouli immediately cast a water barrier around herself.

"You're done?" Juno asked Patchouli

"Yes."

"Huh, that was faster than I thought. Are you sure you will only cast one barrier?"

"Yes. Now use your best magic to try to break this." Patchouli responded.

"As you wish then, but please keep your promise to stand still, or I will be mad."

With that said, Juno closed his eyes and started channeling his magic. The magic that he cast was a single little fireball in front of him. Over time, it is getting larger and larger. Once it had a radius three times larger than his body, he launched it toward Patchouli.

When Juno's magic hit Patchouli's barrier, it exploded violently. After the explosion, a lot of dust covered the arena and hid Patchouli's and Juno's figures from the audience. When the dust settled, the audience saw Juno covering his mouth and nose with his hand. While Patchouli calmly sat inside her barrier.

"If you aim for my asthma, then I could say that was good magic. But that magic is not good, the firepower is lacking, and the casting time is too long."

"I am sorry. I doubted you would keep your promise, so I launched prematurely. Please, Give me another chance. This time, I will create an even bigger one to break your barrier."

"If fireball is all you can do, then I am not interested."

"Then I guess our real fight starts now."

Juno then immediately cast six normal-sized fireballs. He then launched it at Patchouli's side, three at the left and three at the right. Unfortunately, it missed quite a lot from Patchouli, and then it exploded behind her.

"This magic is much better than the earlier," then four fireballs hit at the back of Patchouli's barrier. "Your control of magic was impressive. You managed to keep those four fireballs intact while exploding two of them to hide it from me."

"Just as I expected, you will notice it. Still, I bet you can't use any magic to attack me inside that barrier." Then Juno created another six fireballs again. "I just need to time my attack at the same time you made that barrier disappear."

"You made an interesting assumption that I can't attack while maintaining this barrier. But for you, I will remove it. Are you sure you will hit me faster than I attack you after the barrier disappear?"

"Of course, just remove that barrier, and I'll show you."

"I am going to attack you shortly, so are you ready?"

"Anytime."

Just as Patchouli said, she removed the barrier and immediately cast her magic. Seeing the chance Juno was about to attack her, but he failed.

Before he could even command the fireball to move toward Patchouli, a numerous high velocity condensed water were about to hit him. Without any protection Juno received that magic attack and got blown away from the arena.

"Ring out! The winner is Patchouli Knowledge."

Then the audience cheered loudly.


"While we are waiting for the arena to be repaired, let's hear the judge's comments about the match. First, let's hear it from judge Ellysia." Anira said.

"As I expected, my master performance will be the best."

"Eh, she is your master?"

"She is rejected me, for now. But after the tournament is over, I will fight her and make her accept me."

"Well, you heard her. Stay here after the tournament is over if you want to witness their match. Now, how about you judge Lindle?"

"It was a bad matchup for Juno. If only he could use other attribute than fire, then maybe he could break the barrier."

"Then what would you do if you are his position, Miss Lindle?"

"Well, if it was me, I would probe her barrier to find out which element is the most effective to break that barrier. After I find it, I will use my most powerful magic in that element to break it and hit her."

Hearing Lindle answer Ellysia laughed.

"Did you have a problem with my answer, guildmaster Ellysia?"

"I'm sorry for laughing. Anyway, there is a big problem with your answer. Do you think she will not doing anything while you are probing her barrier?"

"Ah, you are right. She could make another layer of barrier or even faking her barrier weakness. Then... No, that won't work too."

"Well, it looked like it would take long for Miss Lindle to arrive at her answer. So guild master Ellysia, please tell us what will you do?"

"Simple, I will use my most fascinating and greatest magic, and then I will surrender."

Every person in the arena was shocked. They couldn't believe Ellysia, someone who hailed as the second strongest mage in the entire continent, said surrender before fighting against her opponent.

"You are my idol, guild master Ellysia. There is no way that is all your plan, right?"

"No, there is nothing I could do against her if it is a magic battle. Oh, it looked like the arena repair finished."

"I still can't accept your answer, but since the arena has been repaired, it's time for the next match."


After the match was over, Patchouli sat in a special place for the contestant to observe the arena. From a glance, there was no difference between this place and the audience seat. But Patchouli could sense a magic barrier placed on the wall that separated this place from the audience seat. From her inspection, the magic barrier function was only for reinforcing the wall, so she ignored it.

Shortly after that, a blue-haired male teenager walked toward Patchouli. He was wearing the same clothes as the four foolish people, minus the cape.

"You must be Miss Patchouli, right?" He asked.

"Yes, but who are you?"

"Ah, I'm sorry for my rudeness. My name is Edra from the mage school."

"What do you want with me?"

"I was amazed by your performance from the last match, and I couldn't help myself wanting to greet you."

"Is that all?"

"There is one other favor I wanted to ask you, but I think you will refuse it."

"Is that favor about you wanting to be my student?"

"Yes, that is right."

"Then you are right. I'm not in the mood to teach someone."

Edra then looked in the arena direction, "To tell you the truth, I joined this because of a silly reason. There is someone that I wanted to become my teacher no matter what. She is a great mage that capable of using all elemental magic. She said that if I wanted her to be my teacher, I must win this tournament. I was pretty confident that I was capable of doing that. But after seeing your match, I realized that the world is a vast place and I never expected to see a greatest mage in this tournament. On top of that, I doubt that I can win against you."

"I'm curious, what made you think it's impossible to win against me?"

"The barrier you used for that match was not normal. That barrier is not only for blocking an attack, but it also absorbs a little of the attack to strengthen itself."

Patchouli smiled, "You have good eyes. Rather than trying to impress that teacher, how about you try to impress that long-eared girl."

"Long-eared? Ah, you mean the guild master Ellysia. I guess you are right, and I think I have magic capable of doing that. Can I ask you a favor to do the same thing as your last match?"

"I can, and I will do it since I am curious about this place's magic."

Not long after that, Anira announced that the next match was about to start.

The participant of this match is the girl that called Iyan an idiot, Mellisa, and her opponent is a muscular man wearing leather armor.

Once the announcer gives them a sign to start the fight, both Mellisa and her opponent immediately cast fast magic. Her opponent used a fast-moving ball of water magic while Mellisa used a wind blade. Their battle was intense, both of them running around dodging their opponent's magic while still casting their spell at their opponent.

Despite the excited audience, Patchouli was bored. She wanted to see fascinating and complex magic, not this easily copied magic. After watching for approximately 10 minutes, Patchouli saw a change in the battle. Mellisa managed to hit her opponent's stomach. Unfortunately, that was not because she changed her magic, but because of a lucky hit to her opponent. After that, the match was in favor of Mellisa.

"The winner is Mellisa." Anire shouted.

"The next match will be me against a senior of my school, please watch it." Edra said beside her.


Watching Edra's match was a pleasant surprise for Patchouli. She thought this match would be the same as the last one. Fortunately for her, she was wrong.

When the match started, Edra closed his eyes. Patchouli was curious why Edra did that, but shortly she found out the reason. Patchouli could sense that Edra was trying to create some kind of barrier around him. Unfortunately, he couldn't complete it since his opponent attacked him, and he must move to dodge it. Yet, despite that, Edra still tried to complete the barrier.

While Patchouli trying to guess what Edra's barrier effect would be, another person came to Patchouli.

"Say, did you know a person named Iyan?" Someone asked Patchouli.

Patchouli turned around and saw Mellisa fidgeting nervously.

"I know him."

"As I thought," Then Mellisa immediately bowed down. "I never expected that guy to befriend a great magician like you. For whatever you heard from him about me, I'm sorry."

"He never said anything about you, and I said I know him, but I'm not his friend."

"You're not his friend?"

"I'm not."

"That's a relief. But, if it is not you, then who is his friend? I knew every other contestant other than you, and I can't picture one of them is his friend."

"He probably claimed one-sidedly someone is his friend."

"Ah, that is a possibility for that idiot."

"OOOOOHH! The deflect barrier! The most complicated and the hardest barrier magic have appeared in this arena!" The announcer shouted.

Then Patchouli and Mellisa turned around to watch Edra's match. They have a different reaction to what happened, with Patchouli being excited while Mellisa frowned.

Patchouli was impressed by the effect of Edra's barrier magic. His barrier caused every magic that came at him to bend away from him. His opponent tried to attack him with many fast bullets magic of different elements. But not even one of them managed to hit Edra directly. Seeing the barrier's effect gave Patchouli an idea for a new danmaku. With the danmaku that she had in mind, Patchouli could imagine a certain black white rat surprised face.

On the other hand, Mellisa criticized Edra, "Trying so hard to cast that magic in the first match was quite a waste. If it was me I'll save it for the final match."

"Earlier, he said he wanted to impress the guild master, and he deemed it's impossible to win against me. So I think it is a wise decision from him."

"If he wants to impress the guild master, then I think he should try to win this tournament."

"So you can win against me?"

"I can, and I will show you in the final. That is if you are not losing to someone else."

"Then you better prepare for our final match. I highly expect what you will do against me."

At the arena, Edra walked slowly and confidently toward his opponent. When he got very close to his opponent, something unexpected happen. Edra's body suddenly flew away and hit the inner wall of the arena. Because of the impact, he got knocked out. His opponent was jumping joyfully and showed a smug smile.

"Why are you being happy? You are not winning! You are disqualified for using a magic tool." Ellysia stood up from her seat and said it loudly so that everyone could hear it.

"Wow! It has been a long time since I witness someone breaking the rules, and so because of that, the winner of this match goes to Edra." Anire said.


After watching the last match, Patchouli learned a lot about magic in this world. Despite using elemental magic, their magic was different from hers. The magic they used was much closer to the shrine maiden blessing. Though, she couldn't be sure whether their magic was coming from a God or not.

While she was pondering it, many matches reached their conclusion. Despite that, she did not regret having missed those matches. Every one of those matches was almost the same as Mellisa's match. The only difference was the shape of magic and the elements. She could not believe that all of the match was the same as her expectation, especially after Edra's match.

Not only was the match boring, but Patchouli also witnessed some disappointing incidents. Three of the four people that are wearing capes were disqualified. Two of them were disqualified for using magic items that made them immune to magic. While the last one bribed his opponent to lose, but he got outbid by Ellysia and ordered the opponent to fight seriously.

Witnessing those incidents, Patchouli's expectations for this tournament became bad. She wanted to leave and go back to the library rather than stay in here. But Patchouli did not do that because of Edra's previous match, and he was her opponent for the next fight.

"Here comes another big match. The one who will fight now is Patchouli Knowledge, a mage that created an unbreakable barrier. While her opponent is Edra, a student of mage school who managed to cast a deflect barrier in his match. In this match, we will see which barrier magic is the strongest, or maybe we will see the magic that could break those barriers. Whatever happened, I am excited. To Patchouli and Edra, please come here as fast as you can." Anira announced.

Patchouli shared the same feeling as the announcer called Edra that was about to go down.

"Hey, come here! We can use my teleportation magic to get there."

"Oh, okay."

After Edra got close, Patchouli teleported herself and him to the respective side of the arena.

"Wow! That was quicker than I thought." The announcer said, "Now that the contestant has arrived, let the match begin!"

"I have a high hope that you will show me an interesting magic," Patchouli said.

"I don't know if my magic will catch your interest, but I will try," Edra said.


Author Note:

A little rant here,

You know in this chapter I actually wanted to just skip to every Patchouli fight, but seeing how empty it was I decided to do the same as other story I read. So how do you think my padded chapter?

Anyway, I will said my plan for now since I don't know at which step I will stuck :

Rewritten another chapter of this story continuing the touhou x date a live one shot that I write on my computer Another new chapter.

If everything is normal in my life then it probably going to :

1 Month 2 Month Prob 2-4 Month (Yeah sorry the schedule getting longer and longer).