Chapter 60 – Preparation

Yuki began to assign jobs for them all to do. Uriel was to continually track and spy on Nataru. He told her to give him periodic reports on his behavior and to give him a live feed to Nataru’s computer. Yuki’s job was to analyze all of the data and when necessary, do some investigating of his own.

“How about me?” Akira asked.

“That is the job that I’m not sure on yet,” Yuki replied. “I want to assign you something but I don’t want you to be found.”

“I think you’re underestimating my skills, Yuki,” Akira said. “You might be able to find me, but I doubt anyone other than the headmaster could.”

Yuki didn’t respond and thought to himself for a bit. He hadn’t really thought of it that way since he had been with her since forever. He knew most of her habits and could recognize her from a mile away. But now that he thought about it, he realized that she was right. Her stealth skills were just as good as Yuki’s since they had been training together. In combat, she was most likely the only one that would be able to give Yuki a hard time outside of the simulations and possibly the teachers.

“As long as nobody sees you with me then everything should be fine,” Yuki reasoned out loud. “Okay then. Your job will be to spy on Nataru physically. Since we have Uriel doing it digitally, we’ll need someone to follow him in person because technology can be tricked.”

“I understand,” Akira replied. “When are we going to do this?”

“Preferably as soon as possible. So tomorrow,” he announced.

“Oh, speaking about tomorrow,” Uriel interjected. “Did you see the announcement that they sent out to the whole Academy?”

“No, I had important things to do,” Yuki said.

“Important~? You were out shopping all day,” Uriel fired back playfully.

“And that was important; I was with Akira you know?” Yuki replied. “And when do you think I got your new toy, hmm?”

“Alright boss. You win,” she said. “Do you want to hear the announcement?”

“Yes.”

Uriel projected a screen into the air that looked to be an article of sorts.

“The time for the annual Libra Academy of Magic and the Arts Tournament has come upon us!” Uriel said in a deep voice that resembled that of a sportscaster. It even included the distortion from speaking through a microphone. “All students are encouraged to enter for a chance to compete against your peers and win a special prize.”

“Oh, it’s this,” Yuki remembered. "Nataru did say that it was coming soon."

“This year’s prize is something that blows away everything in years past!” Uriel continued. “This year, the reward is none other than an elemental jewel.”

Uriel then displayed a holographic image of a polished gem that was shaped much like the one that hung from Yuki’s necklace. This one, however, was a scarlet red and seemed to pulse with flames.

“This is the Blazing Jewel of Fire. It is a fire elemental jewel that exceeds that strength of any other fire attribute jewels. It has been a treasure for years in the Academy after being given to us by a mysterious benefactor. And now, you students will have a shot at obtaining this priceless artifact! The rules have been posted on the school website. The tournament will take place in exactly two months’ time, plenty for you to get into shape. Good luck!”

“And that’s it,” Uriel added, her voice reverting back to normal. “So what do you think?”

“I think that things just got considerable more complicated,” Yuki replied.

Yuki wasn’t very tempted to compete for the stone or jewel. It just didn’t seem worth it compared to its cost. In order to obtain it, he would have to win the tournament which will then broadcast his strength to the whole Academy if not the entire world. He wouldn’t be able to stay in the shadows and move without the scrutiny of others. It also didn’t help that Yuki didn’t know what an elemental jewel did other than look beautiful.

However, this news came with some very serious connotations behind it. If what the announcement said was true, then this Blazing Jewel is a valuable artifact that belongs to the school. Yuki didn’t know if it was a common practice to give out priceless school property to students that may not even know how to use them, but something told him that it was not. And if that was the case, why would they do this? On top of that, the golem attack happened not that long ago. They shouldn’t have been able to come to a conclusion on that case that quickly unless they dismissed it as an unfortunate coincidence. All of this pointed to someone pulling some strings behind the scenes.

If some was manipulating this whole thing, then Yuki would be forced to compete in order to prevent anything from happening. Especially now that he had come to the conclusion that the most probable suspect to be the traitor was Nataru and that his motive might be to gain more power for his free falling family. This tournament seemed to be an excellent opportunity for someone like that.

“I might have to join,” Yuki sighed. “Not that I want to, but if things go bad I need to be there to stop it.”

“Why?” Akira asked. “Even if something goes wrong, it doesn’t involve you.”

“Yes,” Yuki agreed. “It doesn’t involve me. Yet. What I am thinking might happen is that someone, probably the Shikaku disguised as some thief, will infiltrate the tournament and make a big scene of stealing the jewel. If this happens, one of two things will happen. The first is that the thief will be stopped by Nataru and he makes a big fuss about how the headmaster is incompetent and was unable to properly protect school treasures. This would contribute to weakening of Selene’s image and potentially her dismissal.”

“And the second is that the jewel is actually stolen,” Akira continued. “Nataru would then be able to blame this on Selene and discredit her.”

Yuki nodded his head. That was exactly where he was going in his analysis. This would also lead to Selene’s possible dismissal.

“If Selene is dismissed and replaced by Nataru who may be collaborating with the Shikaku, it would affect everyone at the Academy,” Yuki said. “And everyone includes me. If he becomes headmaster, then this safe place will belong to the Shikaku and we cannot let that happen. Otherwise we have to move and I don’t know where to stay.”

“Oh, so it’ll be bothersome to you if the situation of this school changes,” Akira realized. “I understand.”

Yuki nodded in response and asked Uriel to open up the Academy’s web page. He breezed through the information and gathered what he needed. Like the announcement had said, the tournament was set to begin in two months’ time. A high resolution image of the grand prize was being displayed as well and it looked more beautiful than Yuki had thought. There were also lesser prizes for the second and third place with the second getting some type of sword and the third getting prize money. Of the three prizes, Yuki would prefer the money.

The rules seemed to follow the normal tournament set up. One on one battles where one person is eliminated. Later rounds would have special requirements during the fight which haven’t been decided yet. Yuki also found out that the tournament was open to the public and so anyone could come in and watch the battles.

‘This is going to be so annoying,’ Yuki thought as he signed his name on the registration form. ‘With more people there, I’m going to have to perfect my mediocrity.’

“Alright, I signed up,” Yuki announced out loud. “If an attack does occur, we are going to need to be ready for it. So you know what that means.”

“More training is fine with me,” Akira replied. “What’s our plan for the tournament?”

“We’ll decide on that the day before the tournament begins,” Yuki answered. “For the next two months, we’ll focus on training and investigating.”

“Understood,” Akira responded.

“How about me?” Uriel said. “I can’t really train.”

“Break into more computers or something,” Yuki said. “Or you can work on designing some potential upgrades that I can then put in for you.”

“Alright, I’ll do that then,” she replied. “There was still some hacking I didn’t finish.”

“Have fun,” Akira said. “Yuki, what are we going to do for training? What we’ve always done?”

“For the most part, yes. Except for one small thing,” Yuki said.

“What’s that?” Akira asked.

“We’ll be hunting some monsters as well,” he told her. “I heard you liked beetles.”

Her eyes brightened and an evil smile formed on her face.

“I love beetles,” she replied.