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The new day arrived, and it was finally time for the Goodwill event once again.
And the Goodwill Event meant Tokyo students coming to Kyoto.
"NAOYA!"
"SATORU!"
The two Special Grades ran and hugged each other without thinking twice.
The old students didn't even find it weird anymore, though the first years were looking at the two of them in confusion.
Weren't they enemies for the Goodwill event?
Done with their greeting, the two separated and looked at the other students.
Satoru scanned the Kyoto side and immediately pointed his finger.
"HOMEWRECKER!!!!" yelled Satoru and pointed at Utahime.
"Huh? Me?"
"Yes! You! How dare you sweet-talk my Naoya?! I will show you hell in the Goodwill Event!!!"
"...First of all, I am not a part of the Goodwill event; secondly, 'My' Naoya won't even let you scratch me," said Utahime.
The emphasised 'My' struck Satoru's nerve, and his glare intensified at Utahime.
Utahime just returned the glare with a smirk.
"Stop it, you idiot."
Naoya smacked Satoru, breaking his eye contact with Utahime.
He then gave Utahime one last glare before clinging to Naoya.
Naoya looked at him, wanting him to let go of him, but Satoru just 'hmphed' and looked away.
Naoya just sighed and patted Satoru with a shadow arm and let him be.
Seeing that Naoya didn't do anything, Satoru looked back at Utahime and smirked.
Now it was Utahime's turn to glare at the Special Grade.
Naoya looked towards the remaining Tokyo students and greeted them.
"Hello, Shoko, Ball devourer, and the first years too. I am Naoya Zenin. Nice to meet you."
"Ya hello Zenin."
"Why am I the only one being greeted like that....And that's not my title!!!"
"Nice to meet you, Naoya Zenin-senpai!!! My name is Yu Haibara!!! Please take care of me!" yelled an overenthusiastic junior.
"Too youthful," commented Naoya.
"Thank you for the compliment!"
"Nice to meet you, too, senpai. Kento Nanami," replied the other junior in a calm tone.
"Too serious....must be hell living around Haibara-kun and Satoru,"
"It really is," replied Nanami.
"Huh? Oi! Nanamin! What the hell, dude! You're ruining my image in front of Naoya!"
"Don't worry, your image is already like that," replied Nanami.
"It's true," added Naoya.
After that, the rest of the Kyoto students greeted the Tokyo ones.
Once that was done, Haibara moved closer to Nanami and whispered.
"Oi Nanami! Isn't Inumaki-chan super duper cute?!"
Nanami looked at his classmate with an annoyed look before he turned towards Shion Inumaki.
"...I guess she is," whispered Nanami back.
"...Oi! I spotted her first! Don't start having thoughts about her!" warned Haibara.
"Huh? I wasn't going to anyway. We don't have many opportunities to meet and get to know each other anyway," replied Nanami.
"Hmph! That won't stop me! I am sure if I reach out to her with all my heart, my efforts will be rewarded! Who knows, maybe she has a thing for me too?!"
While the two of them were discussing this in a not-so-quiet manner, the Kyoto students looked at the two of them with a sweatdrop.
The super duper cutie here had a 'thing' for sure, but it was totally different from what the two were imagining.
Hideaki was about to reveal it, but as he was about to do that, both Shion and Naoya grabbed his shoulder and gave him a 'friendly' smile that made him stop from giving them spoilers.
Just like that, the students went their separate ways while the teachers and principals went their own way to discuss about the event.
-----
The next morning arrived, and Naoya, with the rest of the Kyoto group who were participating in the event, were sitting in their waiting room.
As last year, Kagenori, Maki, and Mai have come to watch the event again, and this time, Utahime will be with them in the audience as well.
The higher-ups have sent Barrier experts to set up the battlefield, and once it is set up, they will be dispatched for their first event.
After a while, the door opened, and Gakuganji and Nagino entered to brief the students about the rules and match details.
As usual, day-1 was the team event, and once they went over the basics, the match format was explained to them as well.
The team event will be a soul-link team battle.
-----
The participating players will be grouped according to their year and will be treated as one whole unit.
For the Kyoto branch:
1st year unit: Hideaki Kamo, Shion Inumaki.
2nd year unit: Naoya Zenin, Tetsuya Kuroko.
For the Tokyo branch:
1st year unit: Yu Haibara, Kento Nanami.
2nd year unit: Satoru Gojo, Suguru Geto, Shoko Ieri
If any member of a unit is defeated, knocked unconscious, or voluntarily gives up, the entire unit is declared defeated and can no longer fight
There are also cursed spirits scattered throughout the game area, and exorcising them earns points.
Grade 4 - 1 point
Grade 3 - 2points
Semi Grade 2 - 3 points
Grade 2 - 5 points
Sorcerer unit - 20 points
In total, there were 10 curses of each grade and two sorcerers units on each side, turning the effective total points to 150, 110 for curses and 40 for sorcerers.
If both units of a side were to get eliminated, that team will be declared the losers, irrespective of their points.
In case one or both units survive on each side, then the points will be taken for evaluation.
-----
Once Nagino was done giving the explanation, he immediately looked away.
Gakuganji did the same.
Neither of them wanted to match the looks that the students were giving them.
"...Let me get this straight, to make the whole thing anti-Special Grade run over you made all these rules up," asked Hideaki.
With this rule set, the stronger sorcerers could not just go ahead and steamroll the other side since they would need to keep their teammates safe as well.
The special grades could not just duke it out as well, since their partners could be dealt quite easily by others as well.
"That's not the only reason," said Nagino.
"So this was one of the reasons!" complained Naoya.
"...There was a team member imbalance. Tokyo has 5 students, and Kyoto has 4; this way, the imbalance is countered. Even if you are one member short, you can still pull the match in your favour," said Gakuganji.
Naoya had many complaints about this format. This ruleset made it so he could not fight Satoru head-on.
Kuroko was not weak, but if he got caught up in the middle of their fight, then there were high chances he would get blown away and get disqualified.
He could keep hidden, but that would be more difficult if he and Satoru were to start fighting, since those fights would mostly level the terrain.
Suguru was an annoying one as well, like himself, he too was a one-man army commanding countless cursed spirits and if those spirits.
For Shoko.....well, she was a support sorcerer who could heal Suguru if needed, but there was no denying she was the weak link of their side.
While he was in deep thought, Kuroko suddenly spoke.
"Don't worry. I will not hold you back," said Kuroko with a serious look.
Naoya blinked and looked at him.
After staring at him for a while, he gave an annoyed look.
"Of course you won't, I already know that! You think I think low of you? I am just thinking what I would do if you got the opportunity to finish a 2nd year before Satoru and I are done duking it out. Don't make me the bad guy," said Naoya.
"Huh?"
This time, it was Kuroko's turn to look surprised.
"Don't downplay yourself, Tetsuya. You might be officially a 2nd grade, but everyone here knows how terrifying you can actually be. If you have worked hard, don't undermine it. You almost took out Suguru last year, and since then, you have grown a lot. So don't give me that self-deprecatory talk. Okay?"
Kuroko blinked. He didn't know Naoya thought of him like that.
He remained silent for a while before he gave a nod.
"Got it."
"Good. Now, let's kick those Tokyo bastards' ass! Hideaki! Shion! Don't lose to their 1st years. Tetsuya and I will deal with the 2nd years, so fight without worries."
Hideaki and Shion smiled and gave a nod.
"Got it, senpai!"
"Cashew!"
Naoya smirked at them.
It was their job as the seniors to look after them, so he will make sure he does just that.
"Don't worry about me. I can fight Satoru tomorrow.....I just hope no one who has the authority to make rules will make it so that I cannot fight him tomorrow," said Naoya and Nagino and Gakugani flinched.
The two of them were happy seeing the feeling of youth from their students, but the sudden jab made them snap back to reality.
*Cough**Cough*
"We shall take our leave. Good work to you all. Make sure that you all remain safe. Come back with a win and make us proud," said Gakuganji and walked away with Nagino.
Nagino waved and walked out as well, leaving behind the students.
"...They didn't say anything regarding making the rules for tomorrow," pointed out Hideaki.
"...I will see as to how they will nerf tomorrow's battle," muttered Naoya ominously and took out his phone from his shadow.
He stepped out of the room and called someone.
"Moshi Moshi, Tengen-sama."
Now, they weren't the only ones who could play with authority.
-----
Match Field:
On the Kyoto side, the students were preparing for their fight.
"Here, take it."
Kuroko looked towards Naoya, who was offering him a Knuckle Duster.
"You cannot use your blades on them, right. This will be a better alternative than just straight-up punching them."
"Almond! Almond!" complained Shion.
"You don't fight close quarters that often anyway. You don't need a cursed tool. If you needed it, you would have brought one from the Inumaki clan. Tetsuya don't have a backup for these things. Don't go yelling 'Not fair'." replied Naoya.
Kuroko and Hideaki looked at the two of them. The two didn't know how Naoya even understood the trap.
"Both sides ready?"
The voice echoed in the field.
Naoya and the rest of them got serious, looked towards the sky and gave a nod.
The entire field was under supervision, so they just responded like that.
The Tokyo side did the same.
"3,2,1. Match Start!"
The announcement came, and Naoya rushed to the skies, ready to obliterate the field and destroy as many curses as possible for the others from his team to fight freely.
Satoru was in the sky as well, and Naoya thought he was thinking of doing the same thing.
But as he started to prepare his attack, Satoru's figure blurred from his vision, and a moment later, an immense pain erupted within him.
[Blue Rush]
Satoru came back in his vision, though this time he was directly in front of him with his fist planted in his gut and a moment later, he was sent flying, crashing into the ground.
"Naoya! You just became the 2nd fastest!!!" yelled Satoru in excitement as he saw Naoya's figure flying and crashing through the trees.
He started calculating the point where Naoya would stop and where he would strike him again, but all of a sudden, he heard a cracking sound.
"That hurts you, bastard!!"
[Frame Drop]
Naoya's voice came from beside him, and an instant later, it was his turn to be sent flying with his ribs getting cracked by Naoya's punch.
Naoya was already healing himself with RCT, and considering the smile on Satoru's face as he was crashing through the forest, he, too, was healing himself.
Naoya looked at his abdomen.
The last strike hurt a lot.
"So, he wasn't kidding when he said he was getting stronger at an immense pace..." muttered Naoya as he saw Satoru flying up once again.
"Ready to dance, Mr Second fastest?" asked Satoru.
"...That's a dangerous claim you are making now."
The two stared intently, and a moment later, their figures vanished from sight.