Chapter 7

Letting out her frustration, Tsubame's mere touch caused her opponent's body parts to become long jagged spikes that skewered the other dummies on its wooden barbs. It had happened so quickly the other students almost didn't register that she'd even started. The judges themselves rose out of their seats in disbelief at what they saw.

"Whoa! Holy sh-!"

"Ranika! Language!"

The judges checked their sheets to make sure they weren't mistaken. "Uh, who is this again? Tsubame Nonoka?"

"Yes, I remember her. She's been a very helpful student leader since middle school, but I'd never heard of her quirk being so strong!"

"I see. Well Tsubame, may I ask you something? For what reason has Ms. Erina placed you in the lower class? It seems highly unlikely that a gifted talent like yours would fly under her radar."

"Can't do earth." Tsubame's answer was almost rehearsed, barely acknowledging them when she responded. "To be more specific, I can't do more than one material at a time, unless they're closely related or of the same type. Also, when I use it, I have to make an image of what I want to create in my head beforehand, or else nothing happens."

"Hmm, and its use on organic creatures is…"

"Nonexistent."

"Plants?"

"Nothing."

Writing down the findings, he thought to himself for a second before shaking his head and crossing out a couple lines. "Doesn't excuse you being placed where you are. I would suggest moving you to the higher class, however that is ultimately up to your teacher. That being said, if you can't do organic matter, it wouldn't be possible or accurate to dispose of real people in the way you did. Not to mention unacceptable." He levitated a small piece of concrete towards her. "Use this instead, see what you can do."

Accepting the request, she felt the slab up and down, getting a feel for its composition and texture. Steeling her gaze on the replacement dummies in affirmation, she sent a long pole through three of them, and trapped the remainders in a binding of cement that snaked around their torsos tightly.

"Thank you for that redo. If the rest of us are satisfied with that," He turned to the others, who gestured for him to continue. "Then that'll be all. Dismissed."

When she returned to her seat in the stands next to Genso, she didn't pretend not to notice his stare. "What? Earth really is a lot harder for me to control. The soil and dirt are mixed with grass, which you're aware is outside my capabilities, and the looser substances have always been a problem, so I didn't lie to them."

"One: that's just a matter of practice, because I know for a fact you've done earth before, and two…that's not what I want to talk about."

"I know what you want to talk about, and I don't. Suiiki's completely unthinking at times, and that leads to some unnecessary consequences for himself and others." Sitting next to him, she watched the person in the zone form a hamster ball and bowl over the targets like pinballs. "He treats it all like some big game where there's no consequences. He's so careless all the time and it worries me about the way he'll act when it's time to be serious. Someone could die! I can't accept that!"

"I'm not going to say you're wrong. You're not. You're absolutely correct in your beliefs that it would be unacceptable, if he was as careless as you say. But Suiiki isn't as thoughtless as you're making him out to be. I'm certain given the proper situation, he'd make the smartest move. After all, he did make it to the hero course."

"Yeah, a huge achievement for a school in the middle of nowhere. All you have to do is show up with a quirk and you're probably in the hero course around here. The lower class isn't even full! This place is starved for heroes, of course they accepted him!"

"It seems most illogical to attempt to judge someone's future actions when you've barely known them but for two months. Especially off of acts they committed when they were no more than three years old."

"…"

Genso's defense made Tsubame feel a bit guilty. Instead of saying anything more, she stopped talking and opted to just sit in silence as the others completed their comparatively less impressive outings. Not that there weren't other good quirks in the lower echelon, just that there was a reason they were in there.

"This isn't the first time you've pushed someone away over matters such as this. I'll be blunt, Tsubame. Even when you were younger, you could be a bit overbearing at times, considering you have quite high expectations of yourself. On one hand, it helped propel you to become the student council vice president in middle school. On the other hand, you grew a tendency to judge others by those same standards."

"Oh, I'm sorry? Excuse me for having standards for basic human decency." Her biting tone showed Genso that she wasn't letting up on her stance. He wasn't great at dealing with these types of situations; Tsubame had always been more confrontational than Genso could bring himself to be, a quality he admired but never could pick up on. His desire to avoid conflict got the better of him, and they were soon stuck in a tense atmosphere that only cleared when the demonstrations had finished up.

"Now that they're all done, I better get ready to hand out the rosters Kisho's planned out. I'll see you later, Gen."

"Very well, goodbye…hah…I can only hope Ranika's having an easier time than me." He muttered to himself.

Suiiki had seen people in movies thrown against walls and figured it must hurt. However, he did not expect the wind to get blown out of him so completely. Kneeling over in pain and out of breath, Daisuke went over to hold him, not exactly knowing what to do. Nevertheless, he put his body in front of him to stop the attacker from continuing.

"Go on, say that about her again. See if you live past today." Ranika walked over to the two, anger written all over her face as she turned towards Daisuke. "If you don't want to join your friend in his fetal exercises, I suggest you move."

In a show of surprising courage, he stood up to face her. "You really think I'd just let you do that? What does this accomplish? What's the end goal here? Break apart this friendship as well? How does getting upset at each other help at all?"

"I don't care what it accomplishes, he just better know not to call her-"

"What she is?" Suiiki said, recovering from the blow from before. "A self-righteous arrogant-?"

"Stop it!" Daisuke shouted. "You really are an inconsiderate moron sometimes! I think she's right on a lot!"

"Doesn't matter who's wrong or right, that arrogant blowhard has no business telling me how to live my life! For all I care, she can shove it up her butt. Probably not too hard considering she's always talking out of it."

Ranika made a move to grab Suiiki, but was thwarted by Daisuke grabbing her hand. "Daisuke, I love you, but he's asking for it. Move before you get seriously hurt."

"Ranika, back away before I make you back away."

"Is that a threat? You know I could cut you up into thirds where you stand." She said, butting heads with him directly.

"I said, back away. Before I MAKE you back away."

He had almost shocked her with how much resolve he was showing, especially to someone like her. As hard as she tried to maintain her stance, she couldn't hold Daisuke's gaze for long. Snatching her hand out of his grip, she did as he asked, albeit in a very aggressive manner.

"Ranika, I'm disappointed with you. I thought you might be able to handle this better with your more forward approach. Hate to see I was wrong."

"Whatever." The shame in her voice came through despite her attempt to hide it.

"Both of you, apologize and put this stupidity behind you. I will not allow this relationship to fall apart today as well. This is ridiculous. We're high schoolers, not children on a playground."

"Some of us are high schoolers." A fourth voice came from beyond the corner, dripping with contempt. "Others are…well, just look at yourselves."

Kisho pretentiously laughed as he stopped several feet away from them. "How easily emotions can be stirred within you all, over the most trivial of things. Quite embarrassing, really. To think this is my competition."

Daisuke lost his confidence and shrunk behind his friends, putting aside their quarrel for now. Unfortunately, he was unable to bring out the stronger side of his personality against people who he wasn't close with.

"Shut up, you snake. Don't think we all don't know you took advantage of your position to get into the tournament, cause if you didn't then there's no way you would've qualified with your pathetic quirk." Ranika came out firing against him.

"What do you even want from us anyway, why are you still here? Is Virgins-R-Us not open yet?" Suiiki added on with her. Kisho had a way of speaking that, despite their previous argument, helped reunite them in their hatred for him.

"That is no way to address your class president, now is it? I simply wanted to congratulate you on a job well done, all three of you! I've made sure to give you all some amazing placements. After all, wouldn't be fair if we had all this talent here and I didn't give the crowd a good show. Or maybe you'd like to fight each other in the tournament? I could make it so, just say the words."

"W-we're not cheaters…like you," Daisuke stammered, his discomfort around Kisho evident. "You're just trying to find matchups that lead to your victory the most!"

"Ah, you've figured me out, though that doesn't exactly change anything. In all honesty, All I really want is a fair battle between me and Suiiki. Can't take into account everything, but a fight with you is my top priority."

"I'll give that to you right now if you'd like." Suiiki drew some water from a leaky pipe nearby to prove he was ready to go at a moment's notice. "I've been waiting to put you in your place."

"Try me, you brainless sack of shit."

Suiiki sent a wave of water at him, planning to drench him in the water, freeze it and immobilize him. The water gushed forward as it zipped for Kisho, about to land on its target…

Only for him to take one hand and completely absorb the rush of liquid. The attack was utterly nullified by his quirk, taking in all the water into himself. "Foolish attempt, boy! You'll have to try better than-" He barely lifted his hand to stop an icicle from landing on his face, impaling itself through his hand and drawing blood from his new orifice.

"Suiiki!" Ranika grabbed him and yanked him to the floor, making him lose control of the remaining water as it spilled harmlessly onto the floor. "Are you an idiot? Dumb question, of course you are!"

"He asked for it, so I delivered." Suiiki said bluntly, not caring for the apparent pain on his opponent's face.

"Ugh…you damn…" Putting his free hand on the offending spike, he absorbed the frozen projectile into himself as well, his wound healing as fast as he absorbed it until any sign of harm was gone. "That oughta do it. Must say, I'm curious how well you'll be able to act inside an arena with no access to water. Unless you'll be able to recreate what happened today at the festival again?"

"How do you know what I can and can't do?"

"Well, you told me yourself. Remember?" Kisho's usually haughty voice had a tinge of sincerity in it. "Back in middle school? Or have you forgotten already?"

"I don't know, we barely talked after you became jerky-jerkface."

"Me?!" His demeanor shifted to one of actual indignation while he took several steps towards Suiiki. "I wasn't the one who started this, you began saying all sorts of things behind my back, avoiding me, treating me like a…an enemy! For what!?"

Ranika stepped towards the instigator. "Fuck off, Kisho, before I blast your ass so hard even your mother would be impressed."

Backing away while putting his hands in the air for mild sarcasm, he let go of the topic. Ranika's threats were never taken lightly, even by him. "Fine, fine, I've done all I wanted anyway. I'll take my leave. Suiiki Saru, this won't be our last fight. Come the day of the tournament, I'll prove with my own power how weak you really are. Please put up a fight. It won't be as enjoyable if you lose too easily." Kisho gave one last slight before leaving them alone.

Ranika finally released her hold on him when Kisho was out of sight. "Shit, Suiiki! You guys always complain about me, and here you are attacking our class president with no restraint! What if Erina saw that? Who shot first? You did. Who gets banned? You do. Who still gets to have fun at the festival? He does."

Daisuke found his voice again now that the threat was gone. "If he tells Erina, it's no doubt who she'd side with. Definitely not the class troublemaker."

"Yeah well, she didn't see, so whatever. I'm pretty sure there's nothing much left to do here, so I'm going to try and catch the arcade today. I still haven't even gotten to try out the new characters! I refuse to be stalled any longer! Any of you losers who thinks they can win can come along." Suiiki quickly collected himself and seemed to be unbothered by any of the past events.

Ranika was bewildered by his attitude, Daisuke merely shrugging it off. "Not surprised. Suiiki doesn't let much really get to him."

"Gotta give him that much. Speaking of which, 'Suke, you kinda came after both of us earlier. Got some feistiness in you after all?"

"Oh yeah! If you've made Daisuke mad, he'll let you know. Take it from me, the dude's scary when he wants to be."

Knowing well they were only teasing didn't make him any less embarrassed of it. "Well, it was a silly thing to be upset about, so I tried to set you both straight, and by the way you two have yet to apologize."

"For what? He deserved it! He was being so mean talking about Tsubame like that!" Ranika objected forcefully.

"Only because she was acting exactly like I said she was!" Suiiki countered.

"Enough!" Daisuke yelled over both of them before history repeated itself, shrinking back down when their attention was drawn back to him. "Suiiki, you did start it, so you go first."

Considering this for a second, he gave a counteroffer. "Tsk, I'll go first if…she goes first."

"If she goes f…Suiiki, that doesn't-"

"Fine. I apologize for hitting you and throwing you into a wall."

"No, don't-"

"And I apologize for insulting your girlfriend. I mean…not uh, oops, um…"

Daisuke immediately waved his hands to make Suiiki stop talking, to no avail. "Sorry, I mean your crush. I mean your friend! Just friend! No romantic feelings at all between either…" Daisuke buried his face in his hands as his friend bumbled his way through his apology, wishing to die from sheer frustration.

Ranika scratched her head with a sheepish smile. "So, it was that obvious."

"Big time. All you were missing were big goo-goo eyes and a wide-open mouth every time you saw her." Having already revealed her secret, Suiiki unabashedly told her everything. "Honestly, I knew from the second day when you met her at lunch. Only crush here that might be plainer to see is Gens-mmph! Thmfk ypmpf!" Daisuke covered his friend's mouth before he could say anymore, to his own appreciation as he muffled a "thank you" to him.

"Is it a bad time to say I've been standing here since Kisho left?" Tsubame said from behind a wall, holding a stack of papers in her arms. "I didn't want to interrupt your moment together, but you started talking about me and uh…Erina wanted me to hand these out to you since she assumed you three had already left."

Passing out the papers, she made a note to give Daisuke two to avoid interacting with Suiiki directly. "They're the tournament brackets that they've decided on. They want you to study your opening matchup cause each one was decided based on how interesting they thought the fight would be. It's not final, but it's pretty likely they'll stick with it. There's a good amount of fights for spectacle, which is what the board is looking for."

Holding it up in the light, they reviewed the schedule and the fights for the day of the festival.

Watsuji (Cardmaster) vs Ranika (Shredding)

Mako (Ricochet) vs Hayashi (Cactus)

Kisho (Osmosis) vs Asai (Prism Rays)

Suiiki (Hydro-Mastery) vs Hinote (Controlled Burn)

Ikicho (Wrapping) vs Manaka (Warhorse)

Inouye (Dynamo) vs Takeda (Toolbox)

Runoso (Amplifier) vs Daisuke (Digestive Morph)

Tsubame (Origami) vs Leilani (Impact Shift)

"Of course, I'm paired with the fire girl right off the bat. How cliché." Suiiki groaned.

"I remember Runoso was the one with all the electricity…is it too late to back out?" Daisuke shuddered thinking what his opponent would do to him.

"Watsuji, huh?" Ranika asked. "He was the first kid of the day, right? He had a pretty great quirk, I can't say this'll be easy."

"And here's this as well." Tsubame pulled out a separate list from the stack. "It's a list that goes more in detail about each participant and their quirks based on what was seen today. Don't use it as a complete guide on everything they can do though, because they'll undoubtedly be training to have some new techniques ready so they can catch you off-guard with them. Just think of it as a short summary to go off of."

"Oh, I should've kept some moves in hiding instead of going all out! Damn it, I fucked myself today!"

"I'm sure you can think of some new attacks lickity split!" Suiiki eagerly grabbed a sheet to skim through the participants. "Judging by this, I can guess who'll probably be next for me in the second and third rounds. Probably Kisho, then Ranika for my third match. Unless Mako proves too much for you to handle."

She shoved him playfully. "Oh please! No way in hell he's beating me."

"I should hope so, I'm looking forward to a good fight with you." He tucked the papers into his back pockets. "Daisuke, you coming with me to the arcade? Not like there's anything better to do."

"…just for today, but I'll be practicing a lot for the tournament for a few weeks."

"You've got a whole month ahead of you to practice! What's the rush for? Wouldn't you rather play some games with me, maybe try one of the new characters yourself?"

"It's all about video games with you, isn't it?"

"It's all about video games, dude!"

Suiiki and Daisuke continued their banter as they left Ranika and Tsubame to their own. Neither noticed the setting until they realized the other two were no longer within earshot, prompting Ranika to look for a reason to leave as well.

"Uhm…I guess I should find Genso wherever he is."

"He went home before us because he didn't want to be around after all that happened."

"Ah, makes sense…well it's getting late-"

"You're not escaping this." She slyly grinned at Ranika's embarrassment. "So do you want me to forget what I heard earlier or…"

Blushing heavily, Ranika stumbled to reply. "Uh, well you don't have to. Or actually you should…not that you need to if you don't want- whatever's cool with you…is fine."

Holding back her laughter for her friend's sake, Tsubame seemed to ponder something for a minute, her reluctance becoming less prominent as time went on. "I usually go home with Genso, but since he's not here…" She gave a side-nod to Ranika, who took a second to put two-and-two together. Once she did, she scrambled to find words again.

"Oh, of course! I'll walk with you!" Hearing her own voice, she suddenly tried to shift moods to sound calmer and less giddy. "Or whatever. I'm down with it. Nothin' better to do."

"Smooth, Romeo. Let me get these to the rest of the students and we'll be on our way." She planted a kiss on her cheek, lingering a bit to feel the rush of blood seep into Ranika's face. She giggled at the rise in temperature in her cheeks before setting off, leaving Ranika in a haze.

When she finally came back to her senses, she released a guttural "YEEEEEEEEEESSSSS!" as she balled her hands in fists in celebration, stopping when she noticed the other kids who'd passed by during the time she was frozen. "I mean…Hey! Whatcha lookin' at?!"