*****
Ever since I was forced into a duel with some guy named Yamimura, I never saw Omoyo much. We ran into each other from time to time in the hallway between classes, but she had altogether stopped coming to the clubroom and whenever one of the girl sports teams came asking for her help, Mirai or Isaneko would say that she wasn't going to be available for a while.
Although I, admittedly, am a bit of a withdrawn person, I wasn't so blind to my surroundings to not notice that something was wrong with the club, especially between Omoyo and Mirai. Every time I saw Mirai and Omoyo accidentally bumping into each other in the hallway, Omoyo would grimace and turn her nose away before brushing Mirai aside.
If that wasn't enough proof that something was going on between Omoyo and Mirai, there was also what Isaneko told Yuna.
Yuna was incredibly concerned about the rift between the club members and tried asking Isaneko what had happened. She didn't go to Mirai, wisely figuring out she would learn nothing from him. But it was the same with Isaneko. Isaneko wouldn't give any details other than that Mirai and Omoyo had a difference in opinion.
I was concerned too, but I had my own worries to deal with, mainly my upcoming duel with a fellow psychokinetic. I had heard that Omoyo tried to dissuade Yamimura from going ahead with the duel, but nothing she said would get through to him. Word somehow spread about our duel and so, because of some kind of complicated pride thing, even if he wanted to back down, Yamimura couldn't. And the same went for me.
Apparently, because the psychic community was such a dog-eat-dog world, if I run away now, I'll be seen as easy pickings from every psychic in the school and beyond looking to trample someone beneath their feet. Those were Mirai's words and Isaneko backed them up with an evil smile and creepy cackle while an aura of darkness surrounded her. Yamimura's pride also meant that he would hunt me down for all time if I tried to run away.
So, resigned to my fate, I trained every day to prepare for the duel. I had my Psy-Armor on every time I went outside. I practiced sword swings and fighting moves every day in my bedroom, using a plastic clothes hanger.
Now, obviously, I did not think that swinging around a plastic hanger could count as sword training. I told Mirai this during our club meeting, but all he would tell me was that the sword training wasn't important.
"Uh . . . News flash, Mrai," I said, "I'm gonna have a sword duel soon. If the sword training's not important for that, then what is?"
Mirai grinned and said, "You are mistaken, my underling. You are not going into a sword duel. You are going into a psychic duel. And what do you think is important in a psychic duel?"
"Uh . . . Psychic powers?"
"Bingo!" Mirai cheered. "So instead of worrying about your sword skills, worry about your psychic powers. Don't worry. It'll be fine. It'll be fine! Just stick to my advice and victory will be a cinch. I give you the Mirai stamp of guarantee!"
That did not inspire me with confidence, but I stuck by his advice anyway because I had nothing else to go on.
The days went by and finally, the time came for me to face off against Yamimura. Me, Mirai, Yuna and Isaneko were all five minutes early to the rooftop of the building that housed all the clubrooms, but Yamimura and his gang were already there waiting.
Naturally, because of how much attention it'd draw, we did not bring protective gear and armor. Mirai said that with my Psy-Armor, I wouldn't need any. But I still thought it'd be a bad idea to have a sword fight without any protective gear. That's why I cannot stress enough to all you good little boys and girls, NEVER have a sword fight without protective gear. Absolutely DO NOT copy what me and Yamimura were about to do. Unlike you, we have superpowers that make getting hit by bamboo swords no big deal. But if you get hit by a bamboo sword without any armor, be ready for a world of hurt, a serious world of hurt.
When we got outside, we were greeted by a blinding, orange afternoon sun, a strong westward breeze, and Yamimura who said, "Yo. It's about time you showed up. I was getting tired of waiting."
Back when he burst into the clubroom, he already looked like a really big guy to me. But I thought that was just because I was sitting down at the time. Now that we were both standing, I realized that he didn't just look like a really big guy. He was a really, really big guy. He was like about as big as an American pro-wrestler. I wondered to myself, just what does he eat every day to get that big?
"I don't have all day," he said, "so let's just get this over with."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" I cried out. "Can't we talk about this? I'm sure if we just all calm down and talk this over, we might find some common ground."
But Yamimura wouldn't budge. "The time for talk is past," he said. He raised the bamboo sword he had brought with him and pointed it at my chest. "Sword, now!" I had no choice but to obey.
While muttering to myself, "What did I do to deserve this?" I took out the bamboo sword from its rough black cloth. I followed Yamimura's lead and made my way to the very middle of the rooftop. We stood maybe ten paces apart and faced each other with our swords held in front of us, standard style.
"You know," I said, "I seriously think we should go about this another way."
Yamimura seemed to have lost his patience, because he said straight out, "Oh, just shut up and get ready to fight."
I could see space faintly rippling around the sword, much like how space rippled every time I cloaked myself in my Psy-Armor. After letting out a deep sigh, I put my Psy-Armor on and braced myself.
Meanwhile, as Yuna and Isaneko went to my side of the roof while Yamimura's crew went to his side, Mirai stepped forward between us and raised his hand.
"If no one has any complaints, I'll be the referee for this match," he said. "Don't worry. I'll make sure that this match is clean and fair. Just for refresher, let me go over the rules. We're calling this a Kendo match, so you'll both be attacking each other with swords. The only difference, however, is that you have to keep going no matter how many points you score until one of three things happen: you give up, your sword breaks, or one of you gets knocked out."
"Well, in that case - !" I spoke up but Yamimura cut me off.
"If you forfeit now, I will personally make your high school life a living hell. You better give me everything you got!"
"Never mind, then," I said, and I steeled myself once more for a comic book situation I seriously did not want to happen to me.
"Now with the rules out of the way, let's get to intros, shall we?" Mirai said. "In this corner, we have an infamous master of psychokinesis, and a skilled swordsman to boot. Please give a warm welcome to Yamimura of Yamimura from Yamimura!"
Yamimura glanced at Mirai. He said nothing, but I could tell right off the bat that he was displeased with Mirai's intro of him.
"And in this corner, we have Hisao Oota," Mirai said.
"Wait!" I called out. "That's it? That's all I get in my intro?"
"Well, you're just my underling, so why would I go through the trouble of thinking up a cool intro for you?" Mirai said while shrugging his shoulders, looking away and sounding super snarky.
Our bantering must have gotten to Yamimura because I could see a vein throbbing on his forehead when he shouted at us to quit messing around.
"We're here for a serious duel!" he shouted. "Not horsing around. Now start the match, ref, or I'll start it for you!"
To match his temper, the subtle ripples surrounding his sword exploded into a huge blaze, kind of like roaring fire. The sword looked more like a giant axe made of distorted glass thanks to that.
"Alright, alright," Mirai said. "Sheesh. Guy can't take a joke."
He coughed once into his hand and raised it above his head. After a brief pause to breathe in, he brought the hand down and shouted, "BEGIN!"
Yamimura instantly kicked off and flew at me. His sudden close up to my face startled me and I instinctively jumped back, thinking I had to get away. I narrowly dodged that axe blade of psychic energy from cutting through my torso. But then he raised his bamboo sword over his head as he took a step forward and swung it down.
As soon as I saw the flash brownish-white bamboo, I twisted to the left and dove, rolling after hitting the floor. It was a perfect roll. I didn't even know I could do a roll like that.
While crouched down on the floor, I happened to glance towards my clubmates. Yuna had a very anxious look on her face, while Isaneko just stared with eyes cold as ice. Mirai was . . . being Mirai and fiddling with his phone. No wait, that was my phone! When did he that?
I was snapped out of my thoughts by an angry shout that came from Yamimura.
"Don't just run away!" he yelled. "Fight me, coward! Attack me!"
Easy for him to say, I thought. He wasn't the one getting an onslaught of attacks right off the bat. There was absolutely no openings for me to counter. As soon as I dodge one attack, then came another one. And then another one. And another one. We must have run around the whole rooftop at least twice already. The only times I ever got to use the sword was to block an attack I couldn't dodge, which was way more than all the dodging I did, so that still counted as me sword fighting.
Yamimura tried stabbing the sword at me, but a sidestep was all I needed to avoid a hit. I thought I finally had my chance then to strike back, but as I swung my sword down, Yamimura threw his up. When our swords met, mine was sent flying in the air and out of my hands.
"I got you now!" Yamimura shouted. "Take THIS!"
No good, I thought as I stumbled back. Time seemed to slow down for me and I could see the sword headed straight for my torso. With my brain going into overdrive from the adrenaline, I could see right away that I was not going to dodge this one. I couldn't, plain and simple.
My instincts took over and I raised my arms to protect myself. But at the same time, my Psy-Armor suddenly exploded into a dancing inferno of energy, much like how Yamimura's did around his sword earlier. But mine covered my whole body and was even twice as big as that. And it was several times more dense.
The proof was what happened next.
Like I said before, Yamimura's sword was covered in psychic energy the same as how my Psy-Armor covered me. So really, this battle was a clash between our psychic powers. As soon as the sword struck my arms, there was an incredible gust of wind that erupted into a deep howl. The space ripples around Yamimura's sword suddenly split apart like they were a splash of water and the sword splintered and broke. Tiny pieces of bamboo flew in a brief cloud of dust and gently fell onto the pavement while one half of the sword bounced once on the floor and rolled across, stopping at the feet of Yamimura's stunned followers.
Yamimura stared at his broken sword looking downright shocked. I was just as surprised, but after a few seconds of silence, Mirai came forward and announced, "Winner, Hisao!"
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