Next Day.
"Ichiro wake up." I heard someone trying to wake me up.
"Ugh, 5 more minutes." I groaned.
"Nope." I heard and I suddenly felt myself landing on the hard floor.
"Owie." I grimaced a little in pain and I opened my eyes to see smirking Lucas above me.
"Good morning sunshine." He smirked
"Fuck you." I cursed and stood up while rubbing my painful spots.
"We have 50 minutes before we need to meet others in front of the hotel," Lucas said, I gave a lazy nod and started walking lazily towards the shower.
'Hmm, my body feels weird..' I thought to myself while flexing my muscles, I felt way more powerful than before…
I shrugged my shoulders and thought that it was just my imagination.
10 minutes later, I finished showering and then put on my school fighting uniform.
"Let's go eat breakfast," Lucas said, I nodded and we walked out of our room and towards the elevator.
We descended to the lowest floor and from there we made our way towards the dining room.
Once we arrived there, I saw people with different school outfits and some teachers with them.
When people noticed us, they looked at us for a few moments before resuming eating their breakfast.
"Ichiro!" I heard someone call me, I looked where the sound came from and I saw Slych wave at me.
"Get me a few sandwiches," I told Lucas, he gave a lazy nod and went to stand in the line.
I walked towards Slych with a small smile, while I felt multiple glares piercing my back.
"Hey." I greeted and Slych grinned and said his usual greeting. "Yo."
I looked at the table where Slych was sitting, with him was Rawal and Evol from Armya, but I didn't see their coach anywhere.
"Ichiro, meet my teammates, this white-haired fellow is Evol, and this serious-looking guy is Rawal." Slych introduced both of them, I gave a polite nod.
Evol was the third year but looked like he is 12, he was only 164cm tall, with very rare white hair, his face had the appearance of a very youthful individual, but you can also feel strength erupting from him, which doesn't belong to a kid – he was also wearing their school fighting outfit, which consisted mostly the color of black, but with some gold crowns on the sleeves of the shirt.
Rawal was very serious looking, he has brown hair, sharp eyebrows with dark blue eyes, his hairstyle was close to a buzzcut, but a little bit more of a hair at the top – his serious demeanor gave signs that he is not the type to joke around, instead he would be like a model student at the school.
I sat next to the Slych and we started our small talk.
"Ichiro, I have been curious about something." Slych suddenly asked, I looked at him with curiosity and motioned him to continue.
"If you would-be superhero, what would your name be?" He asked.
I took a thinking posture.
"Tough question, I have few in my mind," I told
Slych then grinned and said. "Say one."
"Hmm… if I have to choose one.. then it would be Cracklord." I told with a smug smile.
"Cool name," Slych said admirably.
Rawal and Evol looked with dumbfounded expressions.
*Pam*
"OWW." I suddenly cried out after someone hit the back of my head.
"WHO!" I roared, I saw Lucas carrying a tray with food on it.
"Lucas! What the fuck!" I roared angrily.
"What do you mean, I had to hit you in the head so that your stupidity would be cured," Lucas said and sat down next to me.
"What do you mean?" I asked confusingly.
Lucas looked at me without expression and said. "Cracklord.. are you fucking serious? That would be the name of a drug dealer."
"It's a cool name!" I said angrily, Slych also nodded.
"Doesn't matter! If your superhero name is that, then no one would want to be saved by you, they would either be waiting for someone else to save them or just die instead." Lucas said while munching his food.
I sighed and said. "Fine, I have other good names."
Slych and Lucas perked up their ears
I continued. "Emperor of Underworld… Destroyer of Worlds… Criminal Slayer… Genocide Rampage… Apex Predator… Angel of Death… Nightmare… Galactical Terror… Harbinger of Destruction…"
I kept saying my super cool superhero names, but each time Lucas' face just kept getting grimmer.
Until finally Lucas slammed the table and said loudly. "You are more disappointing than my love life! How can those be superhero names you dipshit! THOSE ARE SUPERVILLAIN NAMES!"
Lucas kept roaring, the whole dining room was now looking at us, some with annoyance and some with curiosity.
I kept sitting meekly while I had my head facing down, while Lucas kept roaring until his face was red and he had to take a breather.
"..Those names are cool tho.." Slych said quietly, but I heard it and gave him thumbs up.
Lucas had veins popping out of his forehead.
"Ichiro.." Lucas mumbled, I looked at him innocently.
"I'll never forget the first time we met. But I'll keep trying." Lucas said and started munching his food while ignoring me.
I pouted and started eating my sandwiches.
"Wanna hear mine super cool superhero name?" Slych asked while whispering to my ear.
I nodded with a smile.
Slych got closer to my ear. "God Mayhem."
My eyes were looking at Slych admiration, I squealed in joy and said. "So cool!"
Slych looked smug, he pumped up his chest like superman, while his nose was pointing to the sky.
Rawal and Evol still sat in a daze, wondering the meaning of life when they were listening to our conversation.
We kept eating for another 10 minutes or so until we had our meeting at the front of the hotel.
I, Lucas, and Slych left to the front of the hotel.
At the front of the hotel we met our club advisor and the rest of the students, we also met Liam who was cured of his injuries.
Liam looked at us with a sorry expression, but I only patted his shoulder, at least it didn't look like Liam had given up, which is nice.
We had some small talk until we started walking towards the stadium.
…
"Welcome to Day two of the Tournament of the Middle School division located in the country of Gensa!" Announcer loudly declared
*Cheer!*
The stadium erupted in cheers while loud discussions were going among spectators.
"Today we have Rounds of 32 and later in the afternoon we will have Rounds of 16."
"Round of 32 will be a little bit different from any other round so far, every year, something different has been implemented in the tournament, this year first event was Time Attack, but this year, now in the Round of 32, will be quite special." The announcer suddenly announced and the stadium went into a heated discussion.
"Round of 32 will be Team Vs. Team fight! That means all the fighters will be at the stadium fighting at the same time!"
*Cheers!*
"So in this round, team play is everything!"
…
(Ichiro POV)
I widened my eyes slightly after hearing the words of the announcer.
I looked next to me, Lucas and Liam also looked shocked.
Lucas looked at me and slightly grinned. "This is bad."
I nodded with a smile and I thought to myself. 'If our opponent has all at Martial Leader rank, then this is going to get difficult, it would be pretty much 3v2, even though I would like to say that Liam would be able to stall one of them, he can't, he is only at Low Martial Soldier, he would be lucky to stall one of them for 10 seconds, but our opponents will know Liam's strength so they will take care of Liam as fast as they can, then they will attack me and Lucas."
"I am sorry guys.." Liam muttered with teary eyes.
I looked at him and patted his shoulder with a slight smile."Your role will be very important in this round, you will go and stall weakest of them, every second counts, our victory will be reliant on you."
Liam looked at me shockingly, then after some time he slightly chuckled. 'Ichiro is so bad at comforting! I am so nervous now!'
"With our luck, we will face one of the stronger teams." Lucas sighed.
"You jinxed it!" I roared.
Sometime later, the lottery began to decide fights.
Match Nr.3 Taryn Vs. Dyolan
Taryn 2nd seed, one of the winning candidates will fight against Dyolan the 14th seed!
Match Nr.7 Armya Vs. Highland
Armya 1st seed will be fighting against Highland the 6th seed!
Match Nr.13 Irio Vs. Snakeland
Irio the 17th seed, will be fighting against Snakeland the 3rd seed!
"…" Members of Irio were sitting quietly.
I looked at Lucas who was currently sitting with a pale face.
"You had to jinx it?" I asked annoyingly.
"S-sorry.." Lucas muttered
Irio will be fighting against Snakeland, one of the winning candidates.
Snakeland has 2 Middle Martial Leader fighters and 1 Low Martial Leader fighter.
While Irio has Lucas, who is a step away from Peak Martial Leader.
They also have Ichiro, his full strength currently is unknown, but it's at least a step away from Peak Martial Leader.
And their Third fighter is Liam Taylor, a Low Martial Soldier fighter.
Round of 32 Begins!
