"Why don't you go change?"
When I asked that, Yuika lunged again, unleashing a thrust with her right sword.
"No, because Noelle will be furious when I get back to the dorm."
I dodged the thrust, but Yuika spun around in a full circle, slashing at me with her left blade.
"What did you even do?"
I crouched to evade the strike and swept her legs out from under her with a leg sweep.
"I touched her breasts."
"Give me the details."
Though the sweep had knocked her off balance, Yuika braced herself against the ground with her hands and sprang upward. She landed a short distance away from me.
"It's not that deep... they were just big and right in front of me, so I touched them."
I see...
"Well, whatever. Anyway, I saw your panties."
"They're safety shorts."
Same thing to me.
"Can't you two fight without talking?" Frank cut in. "And besides, that's a seriously vulgar conversation."
"Honestly, Yuika. You should go apologize to Noelle," Cedric added.
I agreed that an apology was probably in order.
"Noelle is scary when she's angry..." Yuika muttered.
Well, Noelle was usually all smiles. People like that were always the most terrifying once you actually managed to piss them off.
"Ask Ilmera to mediate, then."
As I spoke, I rushed her. I threw a kick, though I made sure to hold back a fair amount.
"Ilmera's asleep."
Yuika jumped to dodge and countered with a thrust aimed straight at my face.
"Then just wake her up."
I slipped past the blade as I spoke, grabbed Yuika's arm, and sent her flying with a one-arm shoulder throw.
"Gugh... Once Ilmera's out, she won't wake up until morning."
Yuika performed a breakfall and put some distance between us again.
"Hmph. Well, then your only option is a dogeza."
"Is that really the only way...? I see. You're strong, Tsukasa. You're reading every single one of my moves."
"Your telegraphing is just too obvious. Or rather, you're looking at your targets too much."
I could tell exactly what she was planning just by her eyes.
"The eyes... I see."
I don't know what conclusion she reached, but Yuika suddenly closed her eyes.
"She's an idiot. We've got a live idiot over here," Frank groaned.
"No, that must be the Mind's Eye!" Cedric shouted, getting excited for some reason.
"Mind if I go?" I asked.
"Come. I shall show you my true power."
Since she was acting so confident, I used space magic to pull out my wallet and tossed it to the right. Then, the moment the wallet hit the ground, I rushed her from the left without making a sound.
However, Yuika didn't react to the wallet at all.
"You fell for it... Behold, the Squinting Strategy!"
Yuika snapped her eyes open and slashed at me. Apparently, she hadn't actually closed them all the way.
"Tch!"
Realizing I couldn't dodge in time, I focused my magic power into my left arm to block. Yuika's sword slammed into my forearm and bit deep into the flesh.
"Ow... wait, no it's not. Not really."
Her sword was wedged in my left arm, stopped dead by the bone. Despite that, there wasn't a single drop of blood.
"Gugh, I can't cut through... What insane magic power."
"Hey, why isn't this bleeding?"
With a wound this deep, blood should have been gushing out, yet the site was clean.
"That's just the nature of this place," Cedric explained. "Once you reach combat incapacity, you're teleported to the spectator stands, but until then, you don't take physical damage in the usual sense. Even the pain is significantly mitigated."
"Heh... Yuika, brace your stomach."
"Huh?"
I slammed a palm strike into Yuika's solar plexus. She was sent flying backward several meters.
"Guegh..."
She managed to land on her feet, but she immediately doubled over, clutching her abdomen.
"This is a weird feeling."
I pulled the sword out of my left arm and stared at the bloodless wound. It closed up almost instantly.
"That's creepy! What the hell is this!?"
"It counts as cumulative damage," Frank told me. "Once the counter hits the threshold for combat incapacity, it's over."
"I see... Yuika, can you stand?"
Yuika was still hunched over on the ground.
"Im... possible..."
The moment she wheezed those words, her body vanished.
"Ah, there goes her combat incapacity."
"That's how it looks when it happens."
Cedric pointed toward the stands. When I looked, Yuika was already sitting there.
"Huh."
Yuika stood up immediately, hopped down from the stands, and walked back over to us.
"Muu... you're strong."
She walked right up to me and looked up into my face.
"You should really work on not stopping after you attack," I advised. "If you're the type that relies on speed to disorient people, you can't afford to go stationary."
"Normally, that hit would have taken your arm off. Then I would've taken your head with the other sword."
I definitely wouldn't have enjoyed having my head taken off.
"That's terrifying."
"Look who's talking," Yuika pouted. "Frank, you should go next. I just realized this for the first time, but even if the pain is mitigated, the agony of not being able to breathe is exactly the same. I thought I was going to die."
Well, yeah. A hit to the solar plexus will do that to you.
"Watching you two go at it didn't exactly make me want to jump in," Frank muttered.
"Both of you were doing such ruthless things with perfectly calm faces," Cedric added. "Though I have to say, both of your strategies were incredibly crude."
Shut up.
"My Squinting Strategy was a total success... Ah."
Yuika suddenly noticed something and looked toward the entrance of the training grounds. Noelle was standing there, a gentle smile on her face.
"Uh-oh... Well, off you go."
"Noelle is a kind person," Cedric said. "I'm sure she'll forgive you if you apologize with absolute sincerity."
"Go show her the Japanese way," I told her.
Urged on by us, Yuika walked over to Noelle and performed a flawlessly executed dogeza.
"Should we head back?"
"Yeah."
"Works for me."
The three of us suppressed our presence as much as possible and slipped past Yuika, who was desperately stammering out excuses, to head back to the dorms. After parting ways with Frank and Cedric, I returned to my room.
"I'm a little worn out. Maybe I'll give this a try."
I pulled out the potion I'd bought for 1,000 Mana using space magic and took a sip.
"Ugh... this is foul."
It tasted like pure, concentrated medicine. I definitely preferred the ones I got from Shar.
I set the empty bottle on my desk, left my room, and headed down to the first floor. Looking into the living room, I saw my mother sitting there alone, watching television.
"Oh, welcome home. Dinner will be ready in a little while."
"Yeah. Mom, do you have a sec?"
"What is it?"
She turned toward me.
"I was just sparring with that Akabane girl at the training grounds."
"By Akabane girl, do you mean Yuika? You shouldn't pick fights with girls too often, you know. Girls tend to band together when things like that happen."
She was the one who challenged me, though... Well, I'll be careful.
"Anyway, Yuika cut my arm, but I used reinforcement magic to stop the blade at the bone. It got me thinking—if I cut my arm off at the training grounds, could I get this bracelet off?"
When I asked that, my mother turned off the TV.
"That wouldn't work. According to the headmaster, that bracelet has become integrated with your physical body. I don't think you can remove it that way. Even if you cut it off, it would likely just return to how it was."
No luck there, then.
"So it's impossible, huh."
"You'll just have to study how to dispel it properly. Of course, the La Forge family is also working on a solution..."
I really hoped they'd pull through.
"Alright. Oh, and Mom... there's something I want. Could you buy it for me?"
"What is it?"
"A trident. You know, a three-pronged spear."
"Absolutely not."
I figured as much.