Daisuke stood across from Hinote shivering, the crowds' endless cheers doing nothing to appease the butterflies using his stomach as a Globe of Death. Turning to his friends behind him, Ranika flashed a thumbs up as Suiiki climbed the fence and shouted some unintelligible gibberish, likely way too hyped up on snacks and excitement. Genso stood stoically beside him, and though his own cheers were inaudible, it didn't take Daisuke much deducing to know what he was saying. Tsubame was sitting in her chair behind Genso seeming very unenthused, if not outright depressed.
Oh no, now what's wrong? He wondered. She's always so chipper in school, I bet Suiiki said something to anger her again. But…
More observant than most, he fixated on the girl who'd flashed him a thumbs up and noted she was also sitting in her chair arms crossed. Smiling as if everything was normal, but her body language was an easy give-away.
Maybe it's just those two then…I'm not sure if Suiiki not being involved makes this any better.
"Hey! You gonna stare at the clouds all day or you ready to get it on!" Hinote shouted. "Get your mind in the arena, while you're body's still inside of it!"
"Eep!" He recoiled from the sound of her voice. "S-sorry! It's i-in! I-I'm r-r-r-ready t-t…oh who am I kidding, I'm going to die."
She facepalmed with a gruff murmur. "Would you grow a spine? Every time you step in the ring, you pull the scared little chicken dance without fail! For once, show some backbone!"
"Y-yes ma'am!" He shut his eyes tightly while his entire body straightened.
"This is it! The moment we've all been waiting for! The last 14 matches have all been building to this final confrontation! It's the grand championship finale, and it looks like one of our competitors is already poised to take home the title! Whether you love her or hate her, you certainly KNOW, Hinote Homura! The blazing firebrand who just can't seem to be stopped! Will she be able to overcome Daisuke Tsuneo? The ironclad defender who's managed to topple his enemies despite his diminutive stature? Going off their previous bouts, the-…oh, I'm sorry Erina. Let's not waste any more time! LET THE MATCH BEEEEEEEEEEEEGIN!"
Hinote shot a small fireball at his face. He immediately scrunched his body up and morphed into a ball of water, the fire extinguishing as it made contact. Feeling relatively safe, Daisuke remained in his watery form while he slowly tiptoed around his opponent, watching every slight movement she made.
"Dude, you must've seen me and Suiiki's fight! Don't you know my fire's so hot that water can't even touch it?!" She held her finger out and a straight line of red-hot flame erupted from it. He dodged out of the way of her flamethrower, but began to panic when the flames followed him.
Right! She's got a scary amount of control! He scrambled to run away and was only mildly successful, his current liquid form providing little grip to facilitate his escape. Wisps of fire lapped at him and he shrieked as part of his arm evaporated into steam. He instinctively turned himself into sand and rode the air to fly far away from her attack.
"Don't run the entire match!" She moved her blaze into the sky and covered the arena in a ceiling of fire. "If you won't come to me, then I'll have to bring you back down instead!" Her arms swung down and the pyre cloud descended onto them. As Daisuke sailed through the air, he felt a large part of his amoebic body become weightier. He swiftly landed onto the concrete and checked his shoulder to find it had turned into glass from the heat. He summarily turned his entire body into glass and then back to his human form to homogenize himself again. Seeing his shoulder back to normal, he wiped the sweat off his brow in relief. Then he noticed he'd wiped sweat off his brow.
"Ahh!" His eyes met with her fire, dangerously close to his head and getting ever closer. He switched to his metal form and shielded his face. When he felt the heat reach his body proper and only slightly warm him up, he let out a short exclamation of joy.
That's what I'm up against!? He thought to himself. It's all I can do just to stay alive in here!
Hinote put her burning carpet away and pointed her finger at him again. In his metal form, he was nearly immobile due to its rigidity and so even as he saw her fire beam burst forward, he could do little but pray he was strong enough to protect against it. Luck was on his side, as even though the force pushed him back a couple inches, his armor held strong against the heatwave.
"Alrighty!" Hinote bounced up and down while shaking her hands, trying to loosen herself up. "Was getting worried whether you'd ever stop messing around!"
She launched three large fireballs at him, each one moving at a slower speed than the other. At the rate they moved, they would hit him about 3 seconds apart from each other. Once the first was upon his position, Hinote dashed forward with her hand stroking the ground, lighting it ablaze as well to Daisuke's horror. "Shame you can't move that well in your metal form, otherwise this wouldn't be an issue for you!"
The first ball connected. Even with his ultra-resilient body, he felt the immense heat warming his nickel body to scalding temperatures. Simultaneously, Hinote grabbed onto his lower waist and began pushing with all her strength. She made no impact at first, but with repeated attempts along with his unwillingness to fight back – rather focusing on protecting himself – his legs eventually started to slide at a snail's pace across the arena.
Ranika sucked her teeth in disappointment. "Oh, fuck me. Don't tell me he's just gonna let her push his ass all the way to the edge of the stage? She could at least pick him up or something!"
"Yep, because everybody can just pick up another person with no trouble at all." Tsubame snidely remarked.
Genso nodded his head fervently. "Hinote's power, while strong, isn't suited to elevating a person physically and carrying them far distances, so intimidating Daisuke into barely resisting her is a most favorable game plan."
"Can't elevate? My butt can't be elevated!" Suiiki exclaimed. "She made a whole…crazy shape thingy in our fight! Sent me like a billion feet into the sky!"
"An Ankh, and you are indeed correct as I too remember her ability to create such. I'm unsure of the ulterior motives she harbors by holding back such an overpowering attack."
Daisuke's brain was in full-blown alert mode. Try as he might, his anxiety had overtaken his fight-or-flight response and it was all he could do just to keep holding his ground against Hinote, who edged him closer and closer to the boundary line. The second fire ball hit just as he began to build the courage to push back. His vision filled with flame, he turned around and saw how truly close he was to losing already.
I can't do this! It's too much, what do they expect from me?! They act like I've got some sort of superpowered ability but it's only morphing…I'm amazed I got past Runoso, let alone my flukes against Tsubame and Manaka. If I ask to forfeit, maybe she'll understand and let-
He dug his heels into the arena floor. The sudden stop in momentum made Hinote lose her balance and knock her head into his metallic chest. She recoiled while retreating a few feet, watching for a counter attack of some sort.
Ask to forfeit? Daisuke grit his teeth as he harshly banged his own head a couple times. What's wrong with me, I just beat some of the strongest students in our school, even survived Manaka's insanity…how much of a coward can I stand to be.
He took an appropriate fighting stance and stared her down with equal intensity. She took another step back, a smile grazing across her face when he didn't break eye contact with her.
"Oh snap…" Suiiki stopped his jumping once he noticed his friend's shift in demeanor. "He's about to go ham!"
"What is this sudden pressure?" Ranika asked. "Is this the same guy?"
"He's going all Billy Badass mode! Remember when he stood up to you at the uh…the dang ol' uh…the thing," He snapped his fingers repeatedly looking for the words. "you know, when we had to show off our powers and there were judges!"
Ranika gasped lightly. "Oh! Right, he did kinda spark up at me, didn't he?"
Tsubame walked around to the other side of Suiiki, positioning him between her and Ranika. "Whatcha sayin', he ain't even gotten serious with any of us yet?"
"Nah, when he gets into it, he's like whoa, catch my drift? Not to bring any of you other louts down but Hinote's the only person I've seen that's put him in the zone."
Hinote's third fireball sped up immensely and crashed into his body. It was of no matter to him; he charged right through using the flames as visual cover for his attack. His elbow crashed directly between her ribs ejecting all the air inside.
"Hlkg!" Her hand shot up to her mouth, her face turning sea green as the snacks she'd eaten earlier made an unwanted second trip through her esophagus. She cast a large firewall in front of her and backed away so she could ensure her food didn't make its way back outside.
"Urp…nice to…hah, see you're fighting back!" She shivered as the wretched contents swam back down her throat leaving residue along the way.
Daisuke walked through the wall without an ounce of fear. His movement was slowed due to the ground still being superheated by her earlier assault but he counted his being able to move his metallic legs at all an improvement.
Deciding against her usual plan of blitzing her opponent, she threw out a large flamethrower style attack coupled with a snaking trail that circled the ground at his feet and kept the arena floor hot wherever he stood. Two pillars of fire circled her own body, providing superb defense against any counter assault he would attempt outside of his metal form.
Curiously he morphed into his sand form and watched the heat meld him into glass, similar to before. He waited until the glass started melting to switch back to metal, noting the time it took to occur. His mind set, he used the sand form to quickly glide out of the way of the fire, shifted into glass to resorb the fused together particles, then shifted back into metal to protect from her inevitable reaction. The tactic let him avoid touching the scalding hot ground with his normal form while keeping a fair amount of speed, all the while being shielded from the nonstop fire-storm she continuously hurled.
"What's this, what's this?" Kisho appeared from the entrance to the stands beside Tsubame. "Daisuke actually giving our irritatingly capable fire hurler a challenge?"
"It certainly does confound one with prior knowledge of his behavioral habits." Genso said, tearing out a page from his notebook and beginning anew. "Daisuke's power was severely misrepresented in my notes. The strength of his ability is frankly beyond even my most generous understandings."
"Yeah, whatever he said!" Suiiki nodded enthusiastically, watching Daisuke shift between his three forms at high speed. "Seems he's tryna make this a good finale for us! Like he's making his cake, but not lying in it. Or is it the bagel?"
"Your idiocy aside, I am glad he hasn't rolled over against her like the doormat he is. After all, she's practically humiliated all her previous opponents. A severe oversight on my end not taking her as a serious threat."
Genso read through the pages of his notebook, jotting down a line every time Hinote threw another attack "Quite. Even with my excuse of not having been in the vicinity of the aforementioned student, in addition to her demonstration being cut short and the lack of social integration with her peers, it was all the more difficult to truly judge her capabilities to an accurate level."
Tsubame rolled her eyes after his tangent was over. "So we underestimated her."
Ranika nodded. "I know I did, granted I could still kick her ass."
"Nah." Mako interjected, himself absorbed in the battle. "From someone who was able to beat you, hot tits would've fried you like an oyster."
"Hmmm." Suiiki stroked his chin in a faux pensive manner whilst gazing at his peers. "I bet Tsubame could do it though! She's really strong too!"
"Aw, shucks!"
"Possibly. When she's isn't shooting herself in the foot, she's quite formidable." Genso immediately seconded.
"Aww, shu- beg your pardon!?"
The pink haired girl scoffed at the both of them. "I bet she'd win by talking her ear off about some minor infrapture or something."
"Infraction." Tsubame couldn't help but correct. "And no, I…you… you know what, forget it."
Suiiki turned to the two of them, not seeing Kisho conspicuously creep away. "Are you guys okay over there?"
"It's peachy." Tsubame scowled as she sunk into a chair behind them. "Never been better. Right?"
"Uh-huh, we're fine."
"Actually, I would wager that your situation is not, as you would say, "fine." Although initially, Tsubame was welcomed with exuberance by Ranika and Suiiki, it seems the former at some point in time had-"
"Genso, shut the fuck up before I demolish you."
"…message received."
"So…business as usual. Sounds good to me!" Suiiki gleefully focused on the match once more. "Whooooo! Go, Daisuke, Go! As they say, yeah?!" He teased his bespectacled friend, rustling his white hair playfully.
"Indeed, they do say." Genso barely reacted, staring slightly off center of the stage, lost in thought.
With the help of his newfound triple state style technique, Daisuke pushed through Hinote's defense, even forcing her to back away near the edge of the stage, a total flip in dynamic.
"Alright, big boy! So you've got the skills to back up all those rumors!" She subtly tossed a small ember into the air. "Let's see you…handle this!"
She slung the fire pillars towards him. The air thrown about by them was itself enough to make anyone else faint, and were it not for his metallic protection, he would have. When they combined into one single large plume, it opened up and covered Daisuke in their wide expanse. Without hesitating, he boldly strode toward the wall of the spire. Suddenly Hinote popped out of the firewall and tackled him with all her might.
"Wha-!" His legs were swept from beneath him. His back met the scalding hot surface of the arena as she straddled his stomach. He swiped at her but only managed to tear her uniform, the small pieces fluttering around his head.
"Gotcha! Looks like the game's over now!" She positioned her fingers into a square formation, capturing his head inside the perimeters of her made up boundary. "Hell's Flash!"
A torrent of flame rushed over his face, so copious in amount and strength that they created a miniature whirlpool on the arena. Small flares shot outward, scorching parts of the grass. Ikasaki covered the outside of the ring in extremely dense foliage in order to keep the flames from extending to the stands themselves.
"Hmm, I know I said I'd rather her not win but this fire girl's not half bad. Color me impressed."
"Saaaaame! I totally need to text Fusei about this, she's literally going to fuh-reak!"
"Uh-oh, folks! It seems our warrior of steel has just about met his match! How on earth does he get out of this one?! Is this too much for Daisuke to overcome, or will he shimmy his way out of yet another tricky predicament?"
After about ten seconds of constant shooting, she finally let up her assault. "So what d'ya think? Too much? Maybe I should've let you call uncle before going all out…you still awake down-" Feeling the texture of his body turn from rock solid to suddenly clothlike gave her pause. She jumped up off of him and aimed her hand at him in the same formation.
"Thanks to you…I'm just fine." Daisuke rose to his feet. His entire body wasn't just wrapped in cloth: he was the cloth. His very skin reflected the material of the uniforms they were wearing. Specifically, the material Hinote was wearing.
"…you ate a piece of my clothes? I mean, if you had the hots for me, you could've just let me know!" She performed the same technique as earlier and temporarily obscured the stage with a flash of fire. "Gimme a while, maybe I'll warm up to you!"
When she stopped, Daisuke – still in his clothed form – was casually strolling over to her without the slightest bit of concern for her bombardment.
"You have to give Genso credit; he did a perfect job on your suit."
"Genso? What's he…oh yeah, I guess he did make my-" She gasped as she understood what he meant. "…oh."
"Yeah."
He sprung forward as she processed her situation and sent his metallic fist crashing into her stomach. A groan emitted from her body less of pain and more from air being pushed out of her mouth by force. A combustion occurred outward from her body, presumably trying to make him back away from her while she recovered. It was of no use; his newest form negated any sort of fire she mustered.
The battle became essentially a clinic for Daisuke, seamlessly switching his hands into metal for practically milliseconds and then switching them back to the cloth so they'd be unaffected by the heat she was constantly radiating. The meek boy who'd stutter every sentence seemed a distant memory to the steadfast, resolute predator who, even as he held the advantage, cautiously watched over her body for any suspicious movement.
Hinote's not just skilled, she's extremely skilled. He thought to himself while hailing blow upon blow on his opponent. Her power is almost unmatched in terms of sheer control. I can't…no I won't let anything slip by.
Her face bruised and her body tired of standing against his nonstop offensive, she collapsed to her knees momentarily but stumbled her way back up. Gazing into the sky, she gained a twinkle in her eye and lightly smirked for but a second. Daisuke turned to the sky himself but merely saw the sun in the clear blue sky beaming down.
"Gotcha!" Hinote grabbed him as his back was turned and picked him up with ease, now that he was made of mostly light fabrics. She burst into a full sprint towards the boundary lines and made ready to throw.
Daisuke morphed back into metal and Hinote's broken body instantly crumpled under the dramatic increase in weight. He landed on her shoulder, likely dislocating it, then gripped both her hands so she couldn't make any surprise attacks with them. She twisted her head as much as she could, staring at the bright light in the sky with a smile. With her completely subdued beneath him, he turned to see why she kept gazing upward and then he saw.
With the knowledge that he did not live in a binary star system, his resolve crumbled as a second smaller sun made itself known; Hinote's tiny ember that she'd tossed into the sky earlier had gestated and grown immensely to absurd size.
And at that moment, it all released into one concentrated stream of fire. It bore down onto his chest, burning through his own clothes instantly, and to his total shock, melting the very nickel his body was made of.
"AHHH!" He screamed, in panic for the first time since the halfway point of their fight. He shifted into the flame-retardant and nearly cried as smoke slowly began to rise from the strands. They resisted the fire however, and he allowed himself a small sigh of relief before turning back to Hinote. Feeling a warm sensation on his arm, he looked down and saw her hand gripped tightly to it. She pulled him down onto the ground with her and wrapped her arms all around. As the fire beam continued striking the two of them, Hinote began raising her body temperature rapidly. Very rapidly. To the point Daisuke stopped registering the star stream's own heat.
"Hell's Rapture!" Hinote's entire body ignited in a white-hot blaze. Her uniform disintegrated, a terrible omen for what was soon to happen to Daisuke if this match continued for another second. He felt her slowly dragging both herself and him across the ground, still increasing the heat emanating from her body at an alarming rate.
Ikasaki had been trying to creep his vines into the stage to separate the two of them but they wilted immediately once they were within a five foot radius of the two. Running from the field entrance, Rinasa rushed over with Mordred drawn and ready to throw at the girl, only to be stopped by a stump blocking her way. Ikasaki urged her back inside just as Hinote tossed Daisuke's unconscious body over the edge onto a soft flower Ikasaki had prepared around the perimeter.
"…"
"…"
The stadium was silent. A pen dropping might have shattered eardrums, the only sounds being Hinote's mostly nude body finally collapsing due to exhaustion. She held her hand in the air, shaking and sweaty, the sleeves of her vaporized uniform tattered, but she kept it there, almost afraid to put it down.
"I win…say it…come on…"
"Is that a…double knockout? What a final battle, to think that it would…perhaps the judges will deliberate on the- hey, who- Mako, what are- AND THE WINNER OF OUR TOURNAMENT IS HOT TI- HINOTE HOMURAAAAAA!"
Mako's announcement erupted the stadium out of their shock. The crowd had to be fought against to keep them from running onto the stage, a losing battle that Ikasaki eventually surrendered from, only bothering to keep them from getting too close to their champion.
"Attagirl! Now that is some serious fire power!"
"I completely forgot she threw that up earlier! Damn, she made me eat my words, she's awesome!"
"I wish I'd had a quirk like that on my team, such control and strength would be invaluable."
Hinote was in tears as she heard the crowd singing her praises. Rinasa hoisted her onto a makeshift gurney made from Ikasaki's plants and quickly moved her to the infirmary, as Aki followed suit with Daisuke.
"Wow! Did you see that!? That was simply mesmerizing, unequivocally the pinnacle of my school life thus far! My studies would have had me write all this away as nonsense! To have witnessed such- uh…" Genso climbed back down the gate he'd unknowingly begun clinging to while his friends stared in disbelief. "A-hem…my apologies."
"Damn nerd, gettin' all riled up again! Watch it or you'll sprain your other- whoop!" Ranika quickly swooped up to catch him as the mention of his injury gave the pain the go-ahead to flare up. "There, there, I got ya! Honestly, you big brained dummy. Didn't my sister fix it for you?"
She hoisted him onto her back, at this point a familiar state for both of them. "As unfortunate as it were, the inability to locate the nurse's location forced us to adapt different…oww…parameters of acceptable success rates."
Tsubame bopped him lightly on his head. "Hey, maybe Suiiki has a point about thinking too darn much. Coulda just said no!"
Kisho stared at Daisuke while he was led off of the stage with raised eyebrows. "My, that was quite a performance. Indeed, to have such a strong ability as that…tantalizing."
"Suiiki! What're ya just staring for?" Ranika bumped him. "The greatest fight ever just happened, are you braindead?! Cheer! Clap! Scream like a damn maniac!" She followed his eyes to the nude girl being carried out. "Oh, you horndog! Don't look at your girlfriend while she's out like that!
"Her sleeves are still untouched."
"Huh? Sleeves?"
"Even with all that she did, she…" Starkly aware of his surroundings again, he slapped himself in the face. "Ah! It's nothing! Come on, we gotta go tell Daisuke how awesome he was!"
"…yeah, now that ya mention it, her sleeves are almost unscathed. That's weird." Tsubame stroked her chin. "Why would she protect those so-"
"Uhhh! Probably Genso made the uniform thicker there cause, uh…um…! It's where her fire comes from!"
"It doesn't even-" Genso turned to Suiiki about to counter but seeing his desperate pleading face was almost scary for him, never having seen the carefree spirit so worried before. "That's…certainly an explanation. Logical, that is likely the case."
"Ah, more technical stuff. Well, let's get going you guys!" Tsubame said. "You coming, Kisho?"
"Me? Oh, no." He peered at the press box where Mako was being led out by a disgruntled officer. "I've a feeling I need to bail Mako out of some serious trouble. We'll see each other again, of course. Unfortunately."
While he went to Mako's side snickering to himself, Suiiki and Tsubame jogged towards the nurse's room. "Yo, we're gonna head on! Don't rush it, we need our nerd alive!"
"Hey, who's been lugging his ass the whole day? I know how to handle my man!" Ranika carefully shifted him higher on her back. "What is that in- aahhh…you like being up there, eh?" She asked coyly.
"I believe I had made it clear that I'd prefer to have my own legs to stand on rather than relying on someone else for transportation."
"Uh-huh. Then I guess that's just a very oddly soft roll of coins in your pocket?"
"I…" His reddened face was hidden by the comparatively dim halls of the inner stadium, along with the fact no one paid them much mind anyway, everyone far too absorbed in the climactic final battle that had just transpired. "How inordinately shame inducing. It would be most preferable to-"
"Nuh-uh, loser!" As soon as he started squirming his legs from under her arms, she tightened up and heaved him even higher up on her back.
"Ranika! Why are you torturing me through this shameful circumstance like so?"
"Hell, I could care less about physicalog…pysiologic…"
"Physiological."
"Yeah, philosophical reactions!"
"Hah…please excuse me regardless."
"Well…in reality, I'm kinda happy that you did react."
"?" He managed to convey a semblance of a question through mere sound.
"I mean, I guess I got used to having you on top of me and now I like the feeling of it. Maybe we could…do it some more even after you're healed and…stuff…"
"…I don't follow. As in for training purposes? Strength building exercises?"
"Tsk. The hell, man. Aren't you supposed to be smart?"
"I would like to believe my intelligence is higher than the average person, although I'm not so arrogant to believe I am particularly special as higher IQ's have been recorded than…"
She groaned as he droned on, his monologues nothing new between the two of them. In fact, this was an all too familiar interaction, save that now, as he was speaking, she smiled.