Boom
An explosion of dust filled the scene, causing shouts of awe. In the midst of the dust, only two shadows could be vaguely seen.
And then suddenly, they disappeared.
Two ghostly figures constantly disappeared and reappeared on the battlefield, constant clashes being done.
One of the figures had a glimpse of white. His figure was barely recognisable, but anyone would admit that he was a handsome lad.
And guess who it was?
IT WAS ME OF COURSE!!
…
Ok…
Even I am starting to feel weird from my own glazing. I should stop that.
A red figure suddenly struck at my left during my train of thought, causing me to block with my elbow.
Discomfort surged from my arm, but I used the momentum to send back a spinning heel kick.
Bang.
A small thud was all I needed to know that I made slight contact.
The figure that attacked me retreated a few steps backwards, allowing her figure to be revealed.
Himeko Murata.
She wasn't bad I must say.
It had been a while after Kiana, Bronya, Mei and I had settled into Himeko's place. It was surprisingly spacious despite it supposedly being a dorm but I guess it made sense considering we had a whole house to us.
Classes started soon after, and surprisingly, it was combat classes first for the morning.
Nice.
When we found out, we were all quite excited, but I do believe that our reasons were all different.
Kiana definitely wanted to show off.
Mei… also definitely wanted to show off too since she's a chuunibyou
[Mei: Hey!]
Bronya… who knew what she was thinking. She was always really good at keeping up that poker face. I didn't even get an answer to how she did it so well when I asked back then.
As for me… I had a different goal.
This was about time for me to set a proper character for myself in this school, as well as give Schicksal a nice 'estimate' of my power.
They knew I handled Herrscher Mei, but I sincerely doubt they knew HOW I did it.
For all they knew, I could have just fought a holding back Herrscher, and convinced her with words considering how… mild she acted in front of them.
It was also why I recommended to jump Himeko back then with the others.
That allowed me to see any abilities that she might have, while allowing me to keep my true capabilities well hidden.
I'm not going to go the, 'I'm gonna hide my powers' route though. My idea was more, 'Show my hand, but keep cards behind my back'.
Something something, 'Acting as a pig to eat a tiger too much makes you an actual pig?'
Ahh, I love Chinese idioms.
Wait… is idiom even the right word?
Oh well. Bronya isn't here to 'Erm ackshually' me.
"What happened to your barrier there?" Himeko asked with a smirk on her face. She hoisted her broadsword on her shoulder as she rolled her neck a bit. "It went down for a bit."
"No way you expect me to tell you that, right?" I laughed.
In fact, this was just to give a false message.
They knew a lot of the abilities I had, and maybe they knew about Shamash too.
However, I can fight in a way that makes them think that I have a limit. And in that way, they will misinterpret my strength.
This won't matter in terms of having a deterring effect though since there is still Purple that I've shown that I can use.
So I'll just keep them guessing.
Is he hiding his strength?
Is he not?
Maybe he's not that dangerous?
Maybe he is?
A Schrodinger's box to them.
Are you willing to take the risk if you don't know my exact level?
But I have another goal here as well…
And that's…
Getting stronger!
Himeko and I immediately struck once more.
I ducked under her swinging broadsword, then jabbed twice at her ribs.
It caused a grimace from the red haired woman, but she quickly responded with a huge jump.
I felt a huge pulse of Honkai energy from above.
What was she…
Oh.
I dashed backwards, just before a fiery meteor exploded where I once stood.
And yeah, if you couldn't tell, I wasn't using Epitaph as well.
In fact, I was barely using any of my other skills.
After all, my goal wasn't to win here. It was to improve my skills overall and add new adaptations.
I whistled a bit at Himeko's attack at this time.
"That was pretty dangerous. Were you trying to send me to the hospital?"
From the blazing Honkai energy, shaped like flames, Himeko's figure slowly walked out, a red trail burning from her eyes.
"You wouldn't let yourself be hit by that, would you?"
Hehe.
It seems that Himeko also wanted to test the length of my strength.
At the same time, I wanted to test her depth-
Wait..
That sounds sus af.
"Don't let your guard down in battle!"
Oops.
I ducked backwards, letting the broadsword swing over my body again. Placing one hand on the ground, a sharp kick struck Himeko's wrist, causing her grip to weaken.
So I struck.
In that split second that Himeko was distracted trying to control the momentum of her swing, I recovered into a crouching position…
Then uppercutted with my entire body behind me.
I got you!
As my fist quickly inched closer and closer, I saw the realisation and shock appear on her face.
C'mon!
Don't tell me that you won't pull that out even at this point!
It was only when I saw the resignation in her eyes that a huge grin couldn't help but sneak up on my face.
She's gonna do it!
And with a press of a small button, it happened.
Time Fracture!
The world immediately turned purple, slowing me down in my tracks. However, my eyes could still see the true nature of the situation.
Himeko quickly composed herself and took a step back.
Wordlessly, she let out a breath before going forwards to position herself properly.
*Clunk*
I twitched a muscle, in seemingly corrected time.
And she froze.
"You…"
Her brows furrowed.
"Did you just move normally?"
She scanned me from up to down, but she still kept a short distance away from me. To be honest, she was being way too cautious.
But that's fine.
The more time she spent there, the better it was for me.
Unfortunately, her thinking didn't go on for too long as she shook her head.
"No. I must be seeing things…"
Then, she quickly moved besides me, changed the edge of her blade to the more blunt edge, and then…
Time has resumed.
I activated Infinity at this very moment, just as the blow was a milimeter away from my body.
As if I was actually hit by the attack, I grunted with an expression to match. I increased the output of Infinity to push me away from Himeko's strike, sending me away.
I landed on the ground, letting out a breath of relief.
"You're out of bounds."
Himeko suddenly said.
A look of surprise appeared on my face at that. I looked on the ground, as shocked as I was when I found out that Mei was a chuunibyou…
[Herrscher Mei: I'm going to destroy your 5080]
[Gojo: I made a severe and continuous lapse in my judgement, and I don't expect to be forgiven. I'm simply here to apologize. What I came across that day was obviously unplanned. The reactions you saw on tape were raw; they were unfiltered..]
"Oh bollocks." I sighed. "It seems like you have bested me completely…"
A strange look came on her face.
"What? Why are you speaking like that?"
"It's nothing. I guess I'll just go now. Nice fight by the way!"
I turned around and waved at her as I made it back to the stands that the other students were at.
The cheers were almost monumentous at this time despite my 'loss', but I didn't care much about them.
"Gojo! Don't be sad!"
"You fought so well!"
"I LOVE YOU!!"
Man…
My ego is really being fed hard here.
But the most important thing here, was something that did place a smile on my face.
The divine wheel behind me creaked loudly..
Before it turned once more.
*Clunk*
(A/N: Just wanna ask you guys, what do you guys think about a Patreon? It would be something like 5 chapters ahead or something. I'll still post here of course.
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