Time passed and the next round began. Forty-eight participants were paired off, in the end only twenty-four winners remained. To no one's surprise, both Kaito and his group cleared the round without difficulty, without facing any opponent worth mentioning.
At that moment, Sorata approached Mashiro again and spoke to her in a low voice.
"Shiina, if I win the next round… there's something I want to tell you."
Mashiro nodded without fully understanding, while several around them watched in disbelief.
"Did he just raise a flag?"
"Is he an idiot or what?"
That was the only event worth noting before the new round began. In fact, Sorata's fight was the only interesting one. Having finished his own quickly, Kaito decided to go watch.
Sorata's opponent was the boy with glasses from before.
Sorata was not weak, his abilities stood out compared to the average level. He had learned quite a bit of wind magic and knew how to apply it cleverly. He used spells that gave him bursts of speed at just the right moments, sped up his strikes, and even managed double jumps. It was clear that he had not only learned magic, but also how to use it intelligently.
His opponent, on the other hand, was like a reduced version of Green Lantern. Though he could not create anything as enormous, a golden energy shielded him at critical moments and transformed into swords or other weapons when he attacked. The problem was his stamina, the energy drained quickly. Sorata took advantage of the moment his defense vanished and defeated him with a wind slash.
Only twelve contestants remained, and almost all of them were known to Kaito. The fun was starting to fade, from here on he would have to get serious.
While Kaito analyzed his possible rivals, Sorata gathered the courage to confess to Mashiro. The reason was, of course, Kaito. Although he was convinced that Mashiro had become Kaito's girlfriend out of naivety, that did not stop him from feeling anxious, especially after seeing how they interacted moments earlier.
"Shiina… I like you," he said firmly.
Mashiro had never received a confession. Naive in many things, even so she knew well what those words meant. After all, what kind of future mangaka has not read thousands of stories from different genres, romance included?
Before the first person who had taken care of her when she arrived in Japan, Mashiro did not know what to do. She understood the concept of love and she understood Sorata's kindness, but she had never connected the two. She remained silent, unable to respond.
"Shiina, I know it might be hard," he added. "But if you give me a chance, I promise I'll treat you well."
Mashiro reflected for a moment… until his next words made her step back.
"Trust me."
She remembered the last time someone had told her the same. Even though they had explained what had happened and assured her that much of her state had been Kaito's fault from the beginning, nothing erased the feeling of emptiness, of not knowing whom to trust. The feeling that whatever you do could end badly.
And that feeling had vanished with simple words, words that had given her a place where she knew everything would be all right.
"I'm sorry," she murmured. "I can't go out with you."
Sorata's eyes went dark for a second, though he tried to recover quickly.
"I-it's fine… I shouldn't have forced you. I know you don't understand much about these things."
But Mashiro shook her head.
"No, I can't… because I like someone else."
As soon as he heard that, Sorata's expression changed as his world turned black and white, he felt his heart shatter. Very close by, Misakii witnessed everything in silence with a complex look in her eyes.
---
The next round began. The matchups were: Misakii versus Sorata, Kaito versus an unknown, another unknown versus Kirito, the pink-haired girl versus the blonde, Mashiro versus Kaguya, and Hayasaka versus Asuna.
Misakii fought mostly with water, though she also displayed surprising physical strength. She launched liquid spears from a distance, but Sorata dodged them as he closed in to fight hand to hand. Then she struck him with such force that she nearly knocked him out of the arena. From that moment on, Sorata could only focus on dodging. The exchange dragged on, but while he was already exhausted, Misakii showed no signs of fatigue. The outcome was obvious.
In another ring, Hayasaka and Asuna began their duel with courtesy, apologizing before attacking. But the politeness did not last long, before Asuna could react, Hayasaka vanished into the shadows and appeared behind her. Asuna countered with her sword, piercing only an illusion. She leapt back to create distance, but she never imagined that Hayasaka would hide even in her own shadow. When she reappeared, she struck Asuna hard in midair. Wounded and unable to track her opponent, Asuna was doomed.
Elsewhere, the pink-haired girl fought against someone clearly close to her.
"Hey, Lala, give up. I need to win. You only want to have fun," said Eriri, firing beams of light.
But Lala dodged them easily.
"Hahaha! Eriri, what if the prize turns out to be amazing? Of course I want it."
Her rival's indifference enraged Eriri, even more so when she saw the way her figure moved while dodging. She lowered her gaze to her own chest and could not help but compare herself angrily. She created two orbs of light that orbited the arena, firing nonstop, while she herself surrounded her body with a luminous armor and charged forward.
Kaguya, for her part, had her own plan to act. Although Kaito had tried to downplay the earlier misunderstanding and assured her he did not desire her body, that did not make him a saint. He already had two girlfriends and would probably have more in the future. Aware that the group of women around him would grow, Kaguya understood she had to assert authority from the beginning, so that those who came later would respect her. Facing Mashiro, she did not hesitate to use her most powerful resource.
Transformed into a Shinigami, she advanced in intangible form against the girl.
Mashiro, however, never tried to block her. She used ice to slide as if skating, calmly dodging and launching light attacks that, while not damaging, blinded Kaguya for moments.
The Shinigami soon realized that if she did not catch Mashiro before her ability ran out, she would lose for sure. But to her surprise, Mashiro stopped running and stood still. Doubting it was a trap, Kaguya approached and struck her with her scythe, making sure only to knock her unconscious.
"Why didn't you keep running?" she asked afterward.
"I got tired," Mashiro replied with the same neutral expression as always.
Kaguya sighed. Trying elaborate plans against her was a waste of time.
Meanwhile, Kaito fought against an ordinary opponent. Not weak, just… average. He had made it that far by luck, avoiding strong rivals. Against Kaito, all he could do was dodge while being hit with magical barrages from a distance.
The truth was that the man had asked Kaito for some leeway, and he agreed only because he was bored. After a few minutes, tired of the game, he unleashed a shadow bomb that covered the entire arena, intending to kill him. But at the last moment the unknown shouted.
"Wait! This is my last life!"
Intrigued, Kaito threw him out of the arena instead of killing him. So far he had not killed a single opponent, and he saw no reason to if he could defeat them without going that far.
As he stepped down from the arena, he found Kaguya and Mashiro. He was not surprised, against Kaguya, Mashiro could only dodge, and besides, both were under his command, so Mashiro would probably surrender before bothering to fight.
What did surprise him was the person standing next to them.
"You lost?" he asked, noticing Kirito's dark expression. And he had not only lost, he had lost too quickly.
Kirito hesitated before explaining.
"He… he knew all my moves. He anticipated even before I attacked. It was as if he teleported, and sometimes he moved erratically. I didn't understand his techniques."
It was clear that not even he knew how he had been defeated.
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(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)