It hadn't been an hour since Class 3-1 got back from the Concrete Arena after an exhausting match with Dark Matter and Light Wing. And now, they were outside the school once again, heading towards the coliseum for the fated Seating Arrangement Battles.
"Is this how the first day of school usually goes?" Lydia asked out of curiosity, whispering at Satoshi. She still held Satoshi's arm tightly to her chest, and it made Satoshi's face redden a little bit.
"No... usually it's more relaxed than this," Satoshi responded, clearing his throat as he tried to maintain his composure. He and Lydia were childhood friends, just like Shiroi, but he didn't see Lydia that way.
However, her charms were slowly penetrating Satoshi's heart, and it was working. Just like Shiroi, she liked Satoshi ever since they were kids, and by the looks of it, she was more aggressive than Shiroi.
From afar, Shiroi watched as Lydia stuck close to Satoshi like glue. She clenched her fist since she couldn't do anything about it. If she walked up to him and grabbed him by the arm, it was a clear sign that she was jealous.
That's why she just bore with it. It frustrated her to no end but there was nothing she could do about it.
To her surprise, though, another rival walked up to Satoshi, clinging onto his other arm as if that was the most normal thing to do on a Monday.
The girl in question was none other than Sakura Cherry... no, it was actually Sassu, taking over Cherry's body and flirting with Satoshi. But seeing that Cherry was not against it, Shiroi concluded that Cherry liked Satoshi as well.
"You've got more rivals than you think, Shiroi." Kuroe leaned in and whispered at Shiroi, teasing her even further.
At this point, Shiroi was backed into a corner and she made a mental note that she would invite Satoshi out on a date as soon as school was over.
But before everything else, the fate of the seating arrangement was in their hands, and only the powerful ones could get what they want.
"Oh, and another thing... you can actually... challenge anyone as many times as you can. We have the entire day for this competition." Knigthawk grinned. "However, you can't challenge the same person twice."
Once the seating arrangement was shuffled, everyone got to have a second chance at changing their seats.
They arrived at the Coliseum. And at Knigthawk's signal, Cherry and Hiroshi stepped in the middle of the stage. The commotion garnered the other class's attention, and it brought them to the coliseum with their respective classes.
As Cherry and Hiroshi prepared for their fight, the coliseum slowly filled up with spectators. Even Principal Sai Tama became interested in the activity and he made sure to live stream it on the official youtube channel of the school.
It didn't take long before the parents and other people in the vicinity went inside to watch the match.
"What the—" Hiroshi exclaimed upon seeing the audience seats get filled up. He felt a few of his nerves getting the best of him.
"All this, just for a change in the seating arrangement." Sassu licked her lips. She completely took over Cherry's body before the match so she was perfectly ready for it. Turning around, she waved at Satoshi like a dog wagging its tail at its owner.
"Yeah... this would determine our spots in the second semester. Of course, everyone's going to work hard on this." Hiroshi forced a smile on his face.
From afar, the other teachers were nodding at each other. They were taking notes since Knighthawk's idea was pretty good. It was a way of wasting time while pitting their students against each other. This could also be considered training so no one would question their ways.
Knighthawk was a genius... well, quite frankly, he was just lazy.
Then again, this was the first day of school so there won't be any classes just yet. Kighthawk was going out of his way to make his class's first day interesting.
"Just like last time, I'll be monitoring the match as the referee," Knighthawk announced. "All right, if both sides are ready... on my mark... FIGHT!"
Hiroshi didn't waste any time raising his hand, creating an earth wall between him and Sassu. As for Sassu, she activated her superpowers and touched the ground, cutting off Hiroshi's life energy and nullifying his earth wall.
As the walls came crumbling down, Sassu lowered her center of gravity and sprinted towards Hiroshi.
Panicking, Hiroshi threw a couple of fireballs at her, but she cleanly dodged all of them, even doing a couple of screwdriver vaults in the air just to show off.
Sassu's proficient control over her body gave her the confidence she needed to close in the distance. Just one touch and Hiroshi would lose.
Hiroshi was aware of Sassu's superpower. That's why he made a mental note in his mind that he shouldn't be touched no matter what.
Sassu wasn't the only one with proficient control over his body. Recently, Hiroshi had been undergoing physical training so he could at least shorten the gap between him and Satoshi.
With one touch of desperation, Hiroshi fired a couple of fireballs at Sassu's head, but she lowered her body even more and swiped her hand. She was aiming to touch Hiroshi and drain him of his energy.
Hiroshi grinned and jumped in mid-air. Before Sassu could touch him, he fired some fireballs and redirected his trajectory away from Sassu.
He twisted in the air, avoiding Sassu's hand. Now his body was upside down, and he shot flames from his hand, pushing him away from Sassu.
Unfazed, Sassu waved her hand and the flames disappeared. She charged at Hiroshi who seemed to be thrown off-balance. However, Hiroshi didn't want to lose no matter what, so he directed his palms at the ground before he shot another spire of flames.
The momentum caused him to roll on the ground a couple of times before he stood up and built up another earth wall. He then climbed on top of it.
"So, you're just going to run away?" Sassu called out, putting her hand on the earth wall, and just like before, it crumbled down as she nullified the traces of Hiroshi's life force in it.
The audience held onto their armrest as they carefully watched the match. They couldn't believe that such a high-leveled match was being performed by two first-years.
They couldn't help but perceive Knighthawk in a new light... even though he didn't do anything. He just continuously wanted to get a one-up from his class.