章節 17: Inquiry

Ryuma felt his face being caressed.

"Finally. We're here, alone… nobody to hear us, nobody to see us," Clara said. Even though she spoke lastingly, her voice still gave off the air of boredom and laziness.

"Clara. You do realize we're in a fight you know," He warned her.

"Oh who cares about that? There's something I wanted to ask you. This is as perfect a time to do it as any,"

"Me? What could you want to ask me?"

Though he couldn't see her face, the tension in the air was no longer lustful, that much he could tell. There was a cold distance, too dark and empty to see.

"Why do you want to join the order so much?" Clara asked.

"Hughh? You're kidding right?" Ryuma asked. His face was scrunched in confusion. Did she just ask the obvious? He didn't get a response at all. Having been this dark, he couldn't even see what her face was like, or if her expression indicated anything.

But the longer this hung about, the more his answer may come across as dishonest.

"It's because I want to protect the people of the lower world, that's why,"

There was another silence between them. Why did she even ask such a thing amidst all this.

"You're not lying," She said. It was more of a statement.

"Of course I'm not lying. Why would I?" He asked. There was another pause of silence between the two. Ryuma hadn't a clue what, or where she was going with this. Or even why for that matter.

Clara started chuckling. Something that was a bit out of character of the young woman as far as he knew her. "You know what wonder-boy? You're such a goody two-shoes,"

Even that threw him off a bit. He always had this outlook on life. There was nothing new now as opposed to then that changed.

The wires that bound him loosened itself, letting him slip right on out. He looked at the wires, surprised, before looking back towards Clara. Any good that did. He couldn't see her expression.

"What are you letting me go for?"

"Because wonder-boy. You were too much for me to hold. And in a second, you'll be too much for me to handle," She said.

What did she even mean by that? Could she see the future?

He felt the weight of a body against him. He held it by instinct. Was there something wrong with Clara? She must have been running out of spirit energy.

All the wires around them undid themselves, capturing the full moment of Ryuma, embracing Clara who looked defeated and feinted.

The scene threw both Toga and Diaga off guard. The audience went wide eyed, and Nuna's eye twitched.

"Wait… this isn't what it looks like!" Ryuma said. This looked bad. He looked at her face to see what was wrong with her, only for her to open one eye and stick her tongue out at him.

A vein popped into his head. This wench was doing this on purpose. If this continues, she'll ruin the image he's build for himself.

"Ryuma you bastard! That should have been me!"

"Don't you have a girl!"

"Geez you couldn't wait until you graduated?"

Ryuma's finger twitched. Something was off. Sure he was annoyed that they jumped to the worst conclusion possible, but there was something about it that irked him.

He stared at Clara again. This time, both her eyes were staring at him in such a stern way, it was as if she was trying to tell him something.

"Still don't get it wonder-boy?" She closed her eyes in what looked to be clear disappointment. "Well I guess that's fine for now," She caressed his cheek again, this time in clear view of all to see. "You'll learn soon enough,"

She pushed herself off him. "Well I'm spent. Guess I'll retire from the match. Hopefully Toga and Diaga would be enough,"

The girl shamelessly walked off the map. On the way, she glanced at Nuna for a brief second before giving the girl a smirk and licking her lips.

She was declaring war.

Nuna tightened her fist hard enough to leave an indent.

"What was that all about?" Ryuma asked himself.

Before he knew it, he was blocking a spear attack coming from his side. "Pretty carefree of you to be flirting during the middle of battle," Diaga said.

Though it wasn't him that was flirting, Diaga was right about one thing. It was the middle of battle. Him blocking that attack and feeling the reminder on his body was proof enough of that.

But with Clara gone, these were the last two he had to deal with. He was almost there; he could see it. Diaga however, started pushing him back. Most of his resistance was coming from only one of his legs. With the other one still damaged, it was a miracle that he wasn't sent flying.

What little solace that gave, ended when he seen Toga's greatsword in the air, spinning by itself. He tossed it high above the two of them. He knew exactly what move was going to come next.

Toga jumped high into the air after his own blade and flipped to match the momentum of the blade. "CHOPPER SLAM!" He screamed.

He came burling down towards the two of them. Ryuma loosened his grip on his blade and pulled back, causing Diaga to fall forward.

Even in mid-air, Toga angled his fall so that instead of hitting Diaga, he was heading to where Ryuma backed up towards.

A miscalculation on Ryuma's end. This maneuver would have worked on anybody else. He forgot that Toga of all people knew his habits of trying to reverse a dire situation to work in his favor. He already read his next move.

Ryuma used his wind walker to speed his retreat up, having just barely dodged a direct hit of Toga's sword. There was an explosion upon the impact, forcing his retreat to go faster than he wanted.

He stuck one of his katanas into the ground and held on for dear life as the wind pressure was keeping his body flying. Any further, and he'd be off the arena.

And that, was the exact reason taking any of Toga's attack full on was suicide.

The wind finally subsided, allowing Ryuma to touch the ground, and the dust settled once again. Albeit a little dirtier, all three combatants were fine.

"WHAT THE HELL, ARE YOU INSANE!? YOU ALMOST HIT ME WITH THAT ATTACK!" Diaga yelled.

"Get over it. Point is, I didn't. I'm not so dumb as to fall for Ryuma's obvious bait like that," Toga said.

"Bait?"

"The moment he blocked you, he immediately started looking for my position. You were bait. Anyways, we should press the attack sparingly,"

Toga ran in. Not only did he read his plan, but he's also following up and not giving him a chance to make a comeback. He had to smile to himself. Toga really was the most dangerous one here. Just the way he liked it.

Oddly enough, despite the two's antagonistic personalities, they started coordinating their attacks quite accurately. Striking in and backing out once he tried engaging. He couldn't even fully commit to any one of them because the other wasn't too far away.

Their presence itself was a threat to countering one of them. If that's the case, then wouldn't the only option available to him was to slowly whittle away at this final match up and lose?

Hell no!

There was one thing he could do. Spend a good chunk of his energy and take out one of them. He'd be fighting what's left, but he'd only be fighting one.

But who would be the one he should take out first? Strategically speaking, he should take out Toga. Diaga by himself although hard, would be a weaker target. Realistically, the chance that Toga doesn't get taken out is far higher than if he just targeted Diaga.

He had to make his options quick and deal with the consequences later. The longer it took, the worse his position would be.

Toga and Diaga finally gave him his chance, when the two attacked simultaneously. Instead of dodging the attack like normal, he used his wind burst to back himself farther away than he normally did.

Both Toga and Diaga halted their attacks, even looking at each other for validation. "He's up to something,"

Of course, this was out of the ordinary. Knowing Ryuma by now, everybody assumed he had some super-secret move planned. So it came as a complete shock that once Ryuma got into a comfortable enough distance, he sat down on the ground, crossed legged.

In everyone's confusion, they all started looking around at each other, hoping the ones next to them had the answers. Everyone was drawing a blank, but the one thing that connected all their minds was the one question.

What was he doing? Surely, he was jousting right? He wouldn't dare.

"He's gaining more energy we have to stop him!" Diaga said.

Toga put his sword in front of him. "Wait!"

"What now!?"

There was silence. Ryuma smiled at the trap he's given him. Toga's overthinking this, and Diaga's too impatient to let him collect energy from his surroundings.

The two were already off synch. Which was more than enough for him.

"He's got something planned," Toga warned.

There was even more silence. "Bullshit, he's just sitting there!"

"I know he is, but something's not right,"

Ryuma kept smiling. The longer they toiled here, the worse off for them it was. He could get more energy back than he previously thought if they kept at it like this.

"I don't care if it's a trap. I'm going in!" Diaga dashed forward

"Damn!" Toga followed right on his side.

Quickly flipping himself into a dashing position. He'd gotten enough energy and was facing Toga's direction.

Wind Artes: Wind Walker burst

With his one leg, Ryuma burst forward with speeds too quick to react to. Toga guarded himself by putting his greatsword right in front of him.

At that moment, Ryuma used the wind walker to change directions. With this brief period, he was already within range of Diaga now. Toga blinded himself, and Ryuma assaulted with a flurry of blows.

Blows that came too fast for someone of Diaga's level to stop.