Chapter 111 Emma Leisenberg

"I'm Emma Leisenberg... my readings brought me here." She simply responded.

Striking white hair, clear blue eyes, and fair skin that could rival that of Shiroi's— those features were what Satoshi saw first as soon as she saw the girl who called herself Emma Leisenberg. Before he even realize that Emma escaped from his grasp and pinned him in return. For once, Satoshi wondered if he was dreaming or not... and if not, then why did the girl suddenly appear before him? Why didn't the alarms resound when she intruded in their waiting room? And why choose their room out of all places?

Looking straight into Emma's eyes, Satoshi could tell that she was just as confused as he was. There were no signs of malice nor intent in her eyes, which is quite confusing considering that she was the one who went into their waiting room.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Satoshi asked. "You do know that this room can be triggered with alarms right? One signal from me and it's an expressway to the police you go." Satoshi said, half-threatening the girl.

"Come on, you don't have to call the police. I just came here to talk." Emma said, her eyes finally showing expression. To his surprise, Emma was actually panicking quite a bit, even though their roles were reversed.

'Why is she panicking more so than I am?' Satoshi asked himself but he couldn't bring himself to ask Emma about it.

"Shhhh!!!" Emma said, pressing her index finger on her lips.

Emma just realized that the room where she was in right now was actually the men's room. Of course, the first person she met as soon as she got here was a man, how could he expect that he'd be sleeping in a room with girls? Besides, the room was conspicuously big for a few people. It would be even weirder if he was the only one in the room.

Meanwhile, Kurogami stirred from his slumber after hearing the slight shuffle by the end of the room. It was already late at night and yet he could sense that someone was still awake. Curious, he turned around, trying to catch the one who woke him up.

"This is bad!" Satoshi whispered to himself, pulling Emma inside his blanket. It would've been all right if he had obstructed Kurogami's view on Emma but then he realized that Kurogami could easily bypass that by using his superpower. It would be easy for him to sense two shadows as if he were breathing normally.

,m "What are you— mmph!" Emma was about to exclaim when Satoshi hugged her to shut her up. Her mouth was pressed on his chest and she couldn't speak, otherwise, her drool would be all over Satoshi's shirt.

"Someone woke up. Be quiet." Satoshi warned.

Emma felt her heart rate quicken but she didn't overreact. If someone were to see them in that position, then they'd one hundred percent misunderstand, that's why she couldn't bear to move an inch, even though she was a tad bit uncomfortable.

"Oh, Satoshi, I see you're still awake," Kurogami said as he stood up and picked up his futon. He then walked towards Satoshi and placed his futon beside him. "I presume you're anxious regarding the second round of the Inter-High Tournament?"

'No! What are you doing?! Why are you talking to me, now of all times! Really?!' Satoshi screamed inwardly but his expression was the opposite. He just laughed it off while scratching his head. "Yeah, probably."

"I don't think we'll be having another free-for-all on the second round... maybe it will be individual battles by now. So six academies with at least 8 candidates. That's about four rounds before we reach the finals. I'm guessing it will take the entire day just to go through the... you know."

'What is this guy talking about?' Emma thought. She heard the rustling and decided to take a peek from the edges of the blanket, and that's when she saw Kurogami making his way toward them. She gulped, which prompted Satoshi to hug her tighter so she won't make a sound. Fortunately, she understood the cue and decided to relax a little bit.

When she relaxed though, she realized that she was more exhausted than she expected to be. The travel was very taxing to her body and not only that, the readings weren't really accurate so she got lost a couple of times until the readings pointed to something very apparent. And that's how she got there. And somehow, she ended up in the arms of the very person that the readings pointed to.

"Who is this guy, really?" She asked herself while the softness of the futon enveloped her with pleasant warmth.

"No, I don't think we'll be having individual fights as early as the second round. They'll still cut the numbers down until we're on top sixteen or something." Satoshi responded, wondering if Kurogami will fall asleep soon.

"Maybe so. In any case, we have to prepare as much as we can. I realized during the first round how helpless I was since I couldn't move much. I never really relied on my movements in the past but I guess it is very much needed when someone's aiming to become a superhero. Not that I'm slow, no, but I never really practiced my movements and I defaulted to being immobile during the first round."

"I see," Satoshi said, showing that he was paying attention when in his mind, he was constantly hoping that Kurogami would go back and sleep.

"How about you, Satoshi? Are you having problems with your familiars? You only used one or two of them during the entire first round? Were you nervous?"

Satoshi shook his head. "It's not that I was nervous... but I didn't want the viewers to question my superpower too much. If I let my familiars run amok and then proceed to acquire a landslide victory, then the majority would start asking me questions. I want to keep a low profile for now... not until I become strong enough to fend for myself."

"Valid. With great power comes great responsibility after all." Kurogami nodded his head. "Well then, I'm off to sleep. You should try to stop your fidgeting or you'll wake up the others."

"Yeah, thanks," Satoshi answered.

With a satisfied smile, Kurogami then yawned and grabbed his futon once again. "I hope that eased your mind a little bit." He said before returning to his usual spot.

Satoshi couldn't tell whether Kurogami was really worried about him or he was just as nervous as him while thinking about the second round that's due to happen tomorrow. Little did he know that it was a mixture of both. The reason why Kurogami talked to him was because he was genuinely nervous for the second round, and he thought that it would badly affect their team if the leader was just as nervous as him. But then again, he assumed all of that just because Satoshi wasn't asleep yet.

"He's gone," Satoshi whispered, not daring to peek under the blanket since he might see something that would really wake him up. Carefully putting his hands on Emma's shoulders, he gently shook her, trying to wake her up as quietly as he could.

"Mhmmm..." Emma mumbled as her arms wrapped around Satoshi.

"Emma! Emma! What are you doing?!" Satoshi was getting more and more flustered by the second as he felt Emma's body against his while her hug got tighter.

He was now panicking. At this rate, they'll get found out!

"Emma! Emma!" Satoshi repeated a second time but he didn't get any response at all. That leaves him no choice.

After nervously swallowing his dry saliva, he let go of Emma's shoulders and grabbed the edge of the blanket. He couldn't tell whether Emma was playing a prank on him or not, that's why he wanted to catch her red-handed. Even if she were to do something, he'll be able to see it once the blanket is out of the way. A smile formed on Satoshi's face and he gently lifted the blanket.

Let's just say he wasn't expecting anything like what he saw.

Snuggled on his arms was Emma, and she was sleeping soundly, comfortably, as she squeezed Satoshi with her embrace. The redness on Satoshi's face, in turn, became more evident as he realized what was going on.

"Emma! Emma!" This time, Satoshi was really trying to wake her up, shaking her violently while almost screaming at her ears— well, more like hissing at her since he couldn't really scream at that moment.

"Mhmmm?" Emma mumbled once again.

To Satoshi's relief, she opened her eyes. The moment she did, she immediately realized what just happened and she deliberately let go of Satoshi. "I'm sorry, I was too tired I fell asleep."

"That's all right." Satoshi sighed in relief. "Now tell me why you're here."

"All right, all right. You don't have to give me that look. Sheesh." Emma said. "In any case, this futon is really warm, huh. Can I stay here while I tell you?"

'This is going to be a long night.' Satoshi told himself as he let out another sigh.