As soon as I hear Nanael’s pronouncement I throw myself forward, the intent being to rush Kusaka down before she can take flight and make things difficult for me.
But she subverts my expectations.
Whether because I managed to provoke her with my ‘flirting’ or it was all a bluff from the start, she goes on the immediate attack herself with an arm thrust out towards me and a spinning magic circle resolving in front of her splayed out fingers.
Rather than the lightning bolts or other elemental discharges I’ve seen from devil magic so far, what she sends out seems to be altogether more generic ‘magic missile’ type projectiles.
Spheres of green energy that fire out from her hand towards me like a machine gun.
Each one small, probably not that strong, but she’s making up for it with volume of fire.
I can see them coming though.
Between my augmented physical abilities ever since I formed that contract with Kaori and have trained since under higher gravity, as well as the intuitive combat skills I’ve acquired as a kung fu master, her attack is both predictable and within my ability to dodge.
There’s no leaving it to chance though.
As soon as she raised her hand I started pumping extra power into my reflexes.
The reservoir of my ero-battery doesn’t seem to have a cap, I’ve been filling it for a week with every sexual act Kaori has gleefully indulged in with me, and I’ve only been using it a little to test its capabilities and get used to the effort of doing so.
I wanted to fill up the stockpile so there wouldn’t be any danger of running out during the tournament.
I throw myself forward and to her left, there’s too much momentum behind me to make this elegant, but it’s enough to bring me well clear of her attack.
The barrage of magical projectiles continues uninterrupted to hit the barrier at the far end of the gym while my rounded body hits the ground, rolling over my shoulder to bleed off that momentum so I can pivot, surging to my feet and coming in at Kusaka’s flank.
Her arm is still raised, her useless magical attack guttering out as the magic circle fades and the last few projectiles emerge as misshapen globs.
Her eyes show surprise, jaw hanging open as she turns to react to me.
To her credit she remembers she can fly, and her first instinct is to flap her wings and vault herself upwards into the air.
Unluckily for her she’s too slow.
“Got you!” I yell out with savage relish as my meaty hand clamps itself around her calf, her white sock shifting a little but the flesh underneath yields to my firm grip, ensuring she won’t just be able to sacrifice a piece of clothing to escape.
“Ahhh!
You’re heavy!” she cries, flailing in the air, her wings straining desperately.
I can feel my feet still starting to be lifted upwards as despite her looks the cute student council treasurer has the demonic power to carry my fat ass in the air.
But not without a lot of difficulty, and not before I brace myself and pull my arm back, dragging her down.
“Get that a lot!” I snarl over the obvious weight crack, looking up at her and doing my best to keep myself utterly focused on the fact this is a real fight with magic against a literal devil, and not the fact I can see Kusaka’s white panties from this perfect vantage for an upskirt.
She’s not taking this lying down though, her other foot strikes out, stamping and kicking me in the face.
It’s lucky for me that Reya Kusaka is a good girl and is wearing her indoor school shoes, this’d be a lot worse if it was Nanael with her big armoured boots kicking my face in.
Still hurts though.
“Quit it!” I snap around a mouthful of indoor slipper, grabbing her leg mid-kick and then yanking my arms down, my leverage now significantly greater than hers, and my strength further boosted with a draw on the ero-battery to ensure she isn’t getting away from me.
“Kyaaaa!” she lets out a high-pitched shriek at the sudden movement, and all of a sudden I’ve got a much better view of her underwear as rather than having her foot applied to my face it’s now her crotch that lands square across my ugly mug.
I do not take advantage!
I do not lick!
I do not sniff!
I mean, okay.
I’m breathing heavily from all of this, but that’s different.
I’m not like taking a deliberate sniff and rutting my nose in there like a pig at its trough while inhaling her fragrant aroma.
Smells a bit like berries?
Must be the soap she uses.
Quite nice.
Seriously, that’s not where my focus is right now!
I’ve got a thrashing and screaming girl sitting on my face and you can’t help but take in all the details a moment like this.
Fuck, it’s actually really hot though.
I’m not sure she agrees going by the fists I can feel beating against the top of my head, but the impacts are weak, physically she doesn’t seem that strong compared to someone like Toujou.
I’m lucky she just seems too freaked out by the situation that she’s defaulting to reflexive behaviour instead of trying to formulate another spell.
Not wanting to give her time to get her shit together, I pivot myself on my heel, spinning so I can throw my not inconsiderable weight towards the unyielding surface of the gym floor.
Except actually it does yield from the amount of superhuman force I’m applying, and unluckily for Kusaka she happens to be the buffer between myself and the splintering shards of wood she finds herself driven into.
She lets out a cry of pain, seeming dazed as she lays there in the crater I’ve just formed around her body.
Honestly, even knowing the protections in place, that Akeno and Kalawarner are both fine thanks to speedy magical healing, I’m not sure I can deploy the kind of brutality needed to forcibly retire this girl.
I don’t have a nice clean and impersonal magic blast, I can’t deliver a smooth deadly cut of a blade.
I’d have to basically punch her face in.
This isn’t a ‘protect the cute girl’ thing, I don’t think I could do that to Hyoudou or Kiba either if they were underneath me right now.
These are just fellow kids I go to school with, I don’t have any grudge against them, even an unpopular guy like me isn’t that misanthropic.
But forfeits are perfectly fine, and I can make Kusaka hurt enough for it without triggering my squeamishness.
My kung fu skills favour mobility, sweeping attacks, grabbing an opponent only to hurl them one way or another.
It doesn’t favour getting stuck in place controlling an opponent.
But there are basic fundamentals to every fighting style, and coupled with that I’ve got the knowledge of an actual doctor in my head.
I know all about joints and nerve clusters.
Before Kusaka can recover, I’ve grabbed her arm and rotated her body, wrenching her shoulder back as I pin her arm against her back at an angle that won’t do any serious injury to her but will certainly feel like it to her.
I think this is what they call a compliance hold.
She lets out a keening noise that makes me wince, bucking under me to try and throw me off, to try and bring her body into alignment with her now nearly dislocated arm.
I don’t let her though, my knee drives into her back at the base of her spine, and I hold my weight above her to keep her where I want her.
Further up her back her wings flap, black leathery flesh brushing against my own arms but offering nothing more than a distraction.
“Give up, you can’t get out!” I snap against the back of her head.
I can’t see her face, I’m sure those watching on the crystal balls are being treated to the sight of her usually gentle and composed features twisted into a rictus of agony.
“N-no…!
The president is counting on me…!” she gasps out pain-wracked words in a stirring show of dedication, and while she’s unable to contest my physical control over her body, she somehow finds the mental focus to formulate another spell.
Of course because I’m not dumb I’d been watching out for exactly that, and I still have my other hand free.
As soon as that luminous green magic circle begins to swell into being, no doubt ready to unleash all sorts of nastiness against me, I punch her square in the back of the head.
Hey I said I wasn’t going to punch her to death, not that I wouldn’t hit her at all!
Still, I can’t help but feel sad, like I’ve lost something important.
No one can ever say, “Jiro would never hit a girl!”.
That fact has been empirically disproven.
I am now a certified girl-hitter.
It does the trick anyway, surely saving me from something far worse than a punch.
Kusaka’s head jerks forward from the impact and she lets out a strangled cry, the magic circle deforming and vanishing with the lapse in her concentration.
She wails.
She thrashes uselessly under me, kicking her feet and slapping her free hand on the ground to try and push herself back against my domineering weight.
She tries another spell and gets another punch.
I’m not gonna lie, I feel like an absolute monster doing this to her.
The allure of magical supernatural combat kinda fades when you’re basically torturing the sweet-natured student council treasurer in this very straightforward and physical manner.
Finally, mercifully for both her pain tolerance and my own sense of guilt, she stops struggling and gasps out, “I surrender, you win!” I instantly let go of her, putting my weight on my other leg to lessen the pressure on her back before I stand up and step away, hearing Nanael’s voice announcing the result.
“Jiro Onano wins!
Throwing his weight around with underhanded tactics, it’s no wonder they call him the Half-Orc Bandit!” “You’re the only one who calls me that!” I snap out irritably, though I have a feeling I’m going to be hearing it a lot on Monday.
But still, I won without a scratch, that puts me ahead of the last two winners, doesn’t that deserve some recognition?
All the same, I keep my eyes on Kusaka as she gingerly stands up, clutching her abused shoulder and turning towards me.
No instant teleport from fatal wounds, she has to walk to the nurse’s office on her own power if she wants to be healed after this.
That almost makes it feel more cruel.
Her eyes are wet and puffy when she looks at me, and her bottom lip quivers.
“H-hey, it was a good match?” I venture, holding out my hand to try and display some good sportsmanship.
“Senpai I hate you!” she yells, not accepting my hand and instead daintily running past me and out of the gym.
My shoulders slump, feeling all the worse knowing everyone can see both this and my crestfallen reaction.
Fuck I must look like a piece of shit.
I mean, I did basically donkey punch her a couple of times, no wonder she’s pissed off, I dread to think over everyone else’s reactions.
“Yeah.
Good match.
Well fought,” I say to empty air, forcing myself to nod and perk myself up before I head out of the gym myself and return to the storage shed where Kaori and Saeko are waiting.
Fortunately there’s no judgement from either of them, my mood perking up at the smiles I see on their faces.
“Congratulations Jiro-kun, you won!” Kaori says as she floats up into the air with a flutter of her gauzy blue wings.
“You defeated your foe efficiently and without having to reveal any of your secret techniques,” Saeko remains seated but nods in approval.
“I’m sure Kusaka-san will reflect on her bad sportsmanship after she calms down, it was a well fought match and you have nothing to be ashamed of over how it was done.” I feel a weight leave my shoulders as I go to sit down myself.
“Thanks, needed to hear that actually.
Felt, um… well, it felt bad treating a girl that way.” “That’s to your credit, but she’s a devil too.
She knew what she signed up for,” Kaori says, bobbing in the air.
“Just like me in fact, so wish me luck?” she invites just as I’d done before my bout.
“Good luck,” I smile encouragingly.
“You got a plan for this?” She smirks rather evilly and says, “Oh, I do,” in a low voice that makes me a bit worried for Toujou.
Maybe this fight will clear the air between them though, and good sportsmanship can prevail afterwards?
We can dream anyway.
With Saeko’s well wishes, Kaori flies off leaving the two of us alone.
I actually haven’t spent that much time with just Saeko since she showed up, we’re usually in school with people all around, or Kaori’s there too since she basically sticks to me all the time.
I give her a little smile, she smiles back and then looks at the crystal ball.
Not actually showing anything other than the empty gym right now, and so worthless as an actual distraction.
I wonder what her and Kaori talked about while I was gone.
Was there an awkward silence?
Did they have a deep and meaningful conversation?
Or was it just inane commentary on the match same as there’d been when it was all three of us watching the preliminary fights?
“So you ever do mixed gender kendo or anything like that?” I ask, picking on a vaguely relevant topic that might get Saeko talking more about her past in the more pleasant parts of her memory that don’t involve the end of the world.
“Actual competition was always segregated,” she answers with a shake of her head, turning slightly to look at me.
“But the kendo club at school had boys and girls, so we’d informally spar and train together.
Between all the padding and how points are awarded, it was never anything like this though.” “And you were captain, yeah?” I remember her mentioning that at her introduction speech when she joined class 3-A.
“So even the guys respected your authority?” A nostalgic looking smile appears on her face, her eyes not really looking at me but perhaps picturing long gone scenes of a world that made sense.
“I always did well in tournaments, and I’ve been told my manner could be intimidating.
No one questioned it when my candidacy was put forward, it was actually a unanimous decision.” I chuckle at that.
It does seem fitting, just going by how she looks and acts, Saeko does seem perfect for leading that kind of club.
As for intimidating… yeah, she’s hot, she’s cool and calm and collected.
Of course I’ve also seen her all hot and horny after fighting skeletons, and heard her masturbating in the shower, so it does kind of give me a different perspective on her than the average boy at her school probably had.
Honestly I bet it’s like how I used to view Rias and Akeno before we actually started talking.
Beautiful girls like that just get put up on a pedestal.
Intimidating yeah, but intimidatingly hot, like you feel guilty even breathing the same rarefied air as an idol.
It’s the same as how I often get dirty looks when people see me talking to Rias or Akeno.
Or walking to school with Saeko.
Like how those two guys outside the pawn shop had butted in because they felt themselves strong and handsome enough to be appropriate company for her, while a guy like me shouldn’t do anything except pine from afar like the rest of the common masses.
My musings are interrupted by movement on the crystal ball.
There’s Kaori, casually defying gravity as she flutters through the air with a smug look on her face, essaying total confidence in how this is going to go down.
The focus shifts onto Toujou.
Interestingly unlike everyone else we’ve seen so far, she’s actually changed her clothes, she’s wearing her PE uniform.
White t-shirt, navy blue bloomers, and sneakers.
It’s probably better suited for moving and fighting, and she definitely looks cute in it.
Once again I express my mental gratitude to Kuoh Academy for maintaining the tradition of bloomers that have been made all but extinct across the rest of the country.
Sometimes the old ways are best!
When the focus is on Kaori we can see her with her arms crossed, staring out towards her opponent with that same cocksure look, it’s definitely good on the psychological warfare front.
By contrast Toujou retains her usual expressionless calm as she actually goes about warming up.
Stretching her legs out and shifting her weight in a series of back and forth side squats.
Whatever presence Kaori is broadcasting, it’s like water off a duck’s back for the petite first year, her face not giving anything away.
I expected Kaori to try her hand at trash talk, there’s no doubt she’d be good at it and I’ve already heard her and Toujou verbally going at each other several times, but instead it’s just a silent staredown like we saw before the first match, until Nanael’s voice rings out.
“Is everyone ready for round two of the Monarch of Kuoh Tournament?” her energetic voice asks us.
“After a stunning victory in the last fight, Team Jiro will be looking to extend its streak by sending out the Demonfey Temptress, Kaori Saeki!
But she’s up against Team Gremory’s White Cat, Koneko Toujou, who looks like she’s taking this seriously!
Team Gremory have yet to rack up a win, so this one’s important for them if they don’t want to get run out of the tournament before their president can take the field!” I know she was fishing for compliments earlier, but she is actually pretty good at the announcement stuff.
I’m still bitter over the awful nickname she gave me, but if I leave that aside, she’s doing a good job building up hype for this match.
Toujou stops her stretching and walks to near the middle of the gym, while Kaori holds herself ready in place, actually hovering right above the broken ground I’d planted Kusaka into earlier.
I wonder if there’s any plan to repair the gym between rounds if it gets seriously wrecked up?
Then again since most people can fly it’s probably not a priority.
“The fighters are ready,” Nanael continues, “So lets begin!
Match start!” Saeko and I are both sitting forward, watching intently as- Whumph!
A loud noise of displaced air sounds as Toujou hurls herself forward.
In the time it takes for Kaori to raise her hands and form a glowing magic circle… Toujou’s dainty fist passes clear through that glyph and impacts the diminutive fairy with a sickening crack that launches Kaori like a gunshot across the gym!
She slams against the far wall, the discoloured energies of the barrier flickering into visibility and rippling like a pond after a stone was dropped into it, just like when absorbing Akeno’s mirrored and magnified lightning strike earlier.
Stuck against the barrier like a fly in amber, Kaori’s eyes seem unfocused and unseeing as she hangs there a moment before her body slowly pitches forward and she falls to the floor with an undignified splat.
Only then, as if it was waiting for the most insultingly comedic timing, does a shimmer of light envelop her, teleporting her to the nurse’s office.
There’s a long moment of collective silence I’m sure is being felt across the school, before the crystal ball shows Toujou still standing there with her fist out from that punch, her body extended to have surely thrown her entire weight behind it but now straightening up.
And on that usually inexpressive face of hers, a self-satisfied smirk slowly blossoms.
“Heh.”