chat 146 (ready, set, done)

“Yosh! Let’s get this started!” My opponent for today shouted out with the energy I’d expect from Maito Gai. She certainly made a prettier picture than the exuberant man but that was not exactly a grand achievement.

She had skin that was sun-kissed from all the time she spent outside presumably. She had short brown hair that was messy enough that she looked like she had cat ears formed from said hair. She was currently stretching in front of me with a determined look blazing in her eyes.

Again the energy she was off putting really was amazing. I would even find it endearing if she was not dressed in such an absurd fashion. She was wearing the stereotypical Japanese sports uniform. A plain billow t-shirt and shorts so tiny they might as well be underwear. At least that was the uniform that I had seen in countless anime. God, knows if they really wore that or if they just drew it because the Japanese populace are supreme perverts.

I guess I could see why she was wearing that outfit. The shorts were skin tight so they would offer very little wind resistance but then her billow t-shirt nixed that advantage. If she really was going for optimal dressing she would dress like track athletes. Admittedly those outfits were not exactly modest either but at least their skin-tight nature had a reason. Her outfit was just for the sake of fulfilling some sort of character design.

That was to be expected in a world that quite literally was a Manga but that did not mean her outfit was not stupid. Bah, her outfit was not really a grand issue.

It was not like she stood an actual chance at fighting me off even if she dressed properly. Her ability was decent enough even if she could not really reach the peak of it due to her mortal body and her lack of investment in her Noble Art. Even with those handicaps, she was firmly sitting on the student council which meant she was much stronger than the usual trash he had to deal with here.

The Ability she has is the accumulation of speed. Meaning as long as she ran she would become faster and faster. She was a speedster who started off slowly but theoretically would never reach a peak speed as she would just continuously gain momentum. That sort of power would make Juggernaught a literal god but for a squishy human, she was just a mildly impressive candidate for the Seven Star Tournament.

Her body could not keep up with the massive speeds she was capable of going at. Even with Mana enhancing her durability and her dipping her toes into developing properly she could only reach Mach 2 before her body starts to break down on her.

Which was impressive for most people in this world. She was quite literally capable of running at speeds surpassing the speed of sound for however long she wished. Still, while that was impressive most speedsters would laugh at her efforts. 

If I had her ability I could push myself far harder than that just relying on my body's natural durability but as always Magic solved the problems that plagued most people. I could quite literally push this ability well beyond what this girl even dreamed of. 

Her Device will make a fine addition to my growing power set. For that alone I will try to not push her too hard in this fight. God knows I was having problems already with overwhelming girls in fights here. Or maybe that was just a problem with Stella. Her growing affection for anyone who could best her was not really something I expected but i really should have.

“I would ask if you were ready but I don’t think you are ever not ready for something,” I spoke out with a wry smile on my face. Renren simply gave me a bright smile in return that told me that I hit the mark.

“You always got to be ready for whatever life throws at you!” She announced again with that bright smile and a fucking thumbs up. The Gai parallels were becoming increasingly clear which was worrying. She also sounded like a 90’s Sunday morning cartoon character.

“Then we better get to it. We can’t wait around all day.” I spoke out with a shrug as I brought out my device. She again gave me a bright smile before she stopped stretching and brought out her own device which was a pair of gloves. I raised an eyebrow at that as I expected a Device that gave accumulation of speed would be shoes but this was a world where guns could stop time so what did I know?

As if reading the mood a countdown started beeping on the screen above us. The crowd of students watching this bout leaned forward into their seats preparing for the scene that was coming. I was not that well known here despite some of my actions so the crowd was not here for me. As I said Renren had a reputation in this academy so her fights usually brought an audience even if most of her fights boiled down to her running around so fast no one could see her.

As if to emphasize that point she lowered herself into a running stance and gave me another bright smile. Then as the countdown reached its end she started running with everything she had away from me. She needed to gain a certain amount of speed to be a real threat after all.

I could end her right now as even with her speed increasing at nearly blinding speeds I could blitz her at the start of this at least. Still, I was willing to let her show off all her cards. 

So I let her run around the arena building speeds. It was not like it took too long either. Every second her top speed was added to her current speed. Thanks to her Mana she was able to run at impressive speeds already so that Mach limit was soon reached.

I was sure that to the rest of the crowd, she was just a flickering shadow to their eyes but that was not the case for me. My eyes were not something a normal person could mess with, not after that baptism I gave them. Still, even with my impressive eyes I still had to rely mainly on prediction to dodge out of her attacks. Mach 2 is not really a joke after all even if I made it sound not as impressive.

Sure she would be a joke to most Speedsters but those fuckers only lost fights because of the plot. 

Sadly for her even if my predictions failed me I still found myself shifting out of the way of her attacks. Fortuna's ever-guiding hand upon my path leading me to the victory I need to accomplish. It had to be frustrating dealing with someone like me.

Even though her attacks were constantly missing that did not stop Renren from throwing as many of them as she could. Strike after strike came from completely different directions as she circled around me at blinding speeds. It was oddly reminiscent of that move Haku pulled off against Sasuke and Naruto. Well, if you ignored the vertical aspect that they had to deal with.

Renren could not keep her speed if she stopped for a moment and jumping around like you are on crack is not exactly productive for that. So all of her attacks came from the ground even if that made her attacks more predictable.

She should really play around with her ability a bit more than she is. If she figured out how to transfer the speed she had accumulated she could fire an absolutely stunning move. Given enough practice she could basically fire things at the speed of a rail gun and she was not limited by the size. She could chuck a sword as large as her at her enemies and with that accumulated speed it would be like the hammer of Thor himself striking them down.

Honestly, a lot of these people were wasting their ability but that tended to happen when an author brings up conceptually manipulative devices without really thinking about the ability too much. The artist of this world probably thought this ability would be cool and wrote her off as irrelevant after she was beaten by Ikki.

Well, that's not fair. Perhaps Renren was just not capable of really playing around with her ability. She like almost everyone in this world suffered from not enough Mana for their frankly ridiculous abilities. Sure a guy might be able to mess around with the concepts of heat but if you give him a cup of Mana to play around with all her can do is throw out some flames.

Whatever the case may be I had indulged her for long enough. So as she went for yet another punch to the back of my head I swung the flat side of my blade at a specific place in the arena. Sure enough, as I finished the swing I felt it connect with something. My arm felt like it was nearly torn out of its socket as I had to deal with the sudden force of an object hitting the sword I gripped at Mach fucking 2. I was honestly impressed I was even able to hold onto the thing.

In return for my arm being put through its paces, I was able to see the sight of Renren flying through the air as she tripped from my blade. She crashed into the wall of the arena with an overwhelming boom that had the air shaking.

I winced as she basically just hit solid concrete at speeds most cars could not even dream of reaching. As the dust cleared from the force of her crash I was able to see her body almost completely embedded inside of the wall. Thankfully her body was twitching so she was still alive….or at the very least she was in the last throws of life as the grim reaper started swinging down its blade.

Without a second thought, I started healing her. As long as she was not dead on impact I could drag her out of the swing from the Grim Reapers scythe. The Mana reinforcement that Renren put out really was the only thing that saved her from instant death. A normal human would have exploded into bloody chunks if they hit something at that speed. Then again a normal human would not be able to handle the strain of running at Mach 2.

Once the glow faded from her and I was sure the twitching stopped I walked towards the girl embedded into the wall and dragged her out. I was not going to leave her stuck in there. That would just be rude. She had a winch on her face but she was completely and utterly passed out when I dragged her out.

Seeing that I was declared the victor but that was to be expected. I had too many things going on for me to get hung up here.

I took out my student notebook and checked the time with a frown. I probably should not have taken my sweet ass time here but I wanted to at least let her show off her power. Thankfully it looked like I still had a good shot at attending the fight I wanted.

Her partner on the student council had the ability to accumulate weight with every slash. Not exactly a groundbreaking ability after dealing with Renren's speed but it was interesting enough. After that, I needed to look around at the fight on the schedule. God knows when I will find a nice little gem that was being held back from lack of Mana.