"Hi Ecchi; how did you do in your first fight?"
After the first round, Koji ultimately decided to converse with Ecchi; in about 15 minutes, the second round would start and Koji would have to go against someone even older than the last girl.
"Ecchi did great, absolutely flawless fight!"
Ecchi pumped his fist in the air erratically, and announced his win to Koji--Koji looked over, and saw it--Ecchi's opponent was still on the ground.
"Wow... You really hurt him."
The kid on the ground was bruised in the arm, which is most likely where he had been hit; not only that, but he looked very out of breath--obviously, Ecchi had done a big number on him.
"Yeah, it was a very easy fight for me; he barely put up any resistance--what an agitating grunt he indeed was!
'That easily--how the hell will I win against this guy? He just demolished his first opponent, meanwhile I was struggling against a bitch who's only a year older than me!'
Koji was a bit shocked seeing how Ecchi handled his opponent, especially due to his weird nature; honestly, Ecchi was a very unpredictable person due to his attitude and now--his newly discovered strength in sword fighting. This kid really was an oddball in every context.
"You made a mistake challenging Extravagant Ecchi! Truly, you will regret such a thing.... Stupid Kingsman Koji!"
Ecchi pointed his finger into Koji's face, and tried to "assert his dominance".
"Uh huh..."
"Anyways, it seems like the next people we'll both have to go against will be like two years older than us--I'd start preparing Ecchi!"
Koji looked over and saw that most of the kids that were left standing were 11-12, or some even 13 as they may start the Academy later. This would be a problem, as it was harder to fight people when they were already taller than you; though, especially for Ecchi since he really is only nine, so he isn't mentally mature like Koji.
"Ecchi the Exciting will absolutely demolish any opponent that gets in his way of Ms. Cecilia! You must realize this Kingsman Koji, Ecchi is the strongest."
Ecchi was still extremely confident in his ability to deliver the outcome of a win in every future match, and Koji actually didn't doubt his confidence too much; obviously, this kid had good combat abilities.
"Well, I hope you succeed--until you battle me of course, then I for sure hope you lose, Kingsman Ecchi."
Koji snickered at the end, he felt like messing with Ecchi a bit as he was pretty bored waiting for the next fight.
"What?! Kingsman Koji, such betrayal! You won't get away with this, I'll have you know! Now I shall be off I say, off!"
Ecchi dramatically breathed in way too much air so his chest pumped out, and then he stomped away from Koji into the direction of the sun.
'He for sure would be diagnosed some type of autism....'
Koji had never met someone more autistic than this kid, not even actual autistic people!
'Good lord, could this dude get any weirder? Well, at least he's funny...'
Koji was a bit bored now that he had nothing to do, because Ecchi for some reason walked off, so he just stared up at the sky.
His dark pupils were slightly lit up by the beautiful, glowing sun; he squinted his eyes and his gaze casted onto it--the sun, ever so bright made his squinting irrelevant; it's brightness shined through and lit up anything, no matter how hard he tried to cover it from his gaze.
'This sun is probably what Ecchi thinks he is, bright and effective--the light to all living being things--of course, not even in another world can I escape the sun.'
Koji covered his eyes with his hands and kept staring into the sun; at this point, his eyes were slightly hurting from how bright it was.
'It's just so hard to look away, it's beautiful.'
Eventually, he stopped staring and his mood became slightly calmer; for his next fight, he felt he would do even better than the last!
'Hmm, this time I should go into the fight without deciding my method, and simple base my method of attack based on the opponents method. This should be my technique, simply countering their technique; I am simply a rookie, so using a full blown technique won't work, this is my only option.'
'Ah, I should still probably stick to some key principals though, like for all the fights I'll mainly swing up and to the side to surprise the enemy, and I'll always defend until I get a good picture of how they fight... Wait, I remember--in this one game I used to play, parrying was a key concept! What if, I go from defense to offense by parrying one of their strikes after I learn their style?'
Koji thought of various way he could handle the next encounter, and singled out the ones that were essential; at this point, he felt content with his decision and moved his thinking to something else.
"Koji, you're up!"
Cecilia called over to Koji, and then pointed a spot for him to stand on, so Koji obeyed and walked over; though, his eyes widened--he was going up against a kid who was way too tall for his age!
'H-he's got to be like over 5'10! How!? He's like 11 or 12....'
Koji gulped as he looked up at the giant kid opposite of him; Koji was like 4'10--this height, it was already above average for his age; though now, he had to go up against this beast.
'He's like a whole foot taller than me, his reach advantage will be insane; how in the world is this fair at all!?'
Though, Koji would not have long to complain about the situation, as the fight was about to start!
Cecilia once again put her hand out in front of both of them, except this time Koji could see the opponents gaze over her arm.
He was a rather bigger boy who was tall with brown eyes and scruffy, brown hair; this kid really was a giant for his age.
'Okay, okay I can win... I think...'
Koji tensed hard as Cecilia began counting down.
"5..."
"4..."
"3..."
"2..."
"1.."
"Start!"
The fight started, and Koji was trying to decide what he was gonna do--instantly though, the kid ran at Koji and swung his sword down at him!
'What the fuck!?'
Koji's eyes widened instantly and he dodged the kids attack barely; he almost got completely pummeled.
'Is he even using a technique!?'
Suddenly, the kid picked up the wooden sword again and slashed it across the air at Koji's waist; this time, Koji blocked it.
'Fuck!'
Koji grit his teeth as the blow knocked him back; this kid's arms were extremely powerful, so even though he blocked the attack the force behind it still had an incredible effect.
In fact, Koji's arms were shaking violently from the blow.
'A-ah shit, I can't catch a break... No way, this kids too strong!'
Koji breathed hard, the sweat dripped from his forehead as he stepped back to make space between him and the massive opponent; at this point, he had already had enough of this.
'No, no!'
Suddenly, the kid came rushing again--swinging his blade with incredible speed at Koji's shoulder!
'I have to dodge, I have to dodge!'
However, he didn't dodge--Koji blocked! He quickly put his sword up and blocked the attack headed towards his shoulder.
'Fuck!!!'
Koji almost screamed in pain as he was struck by the blow--well, as the blow struck his own sword; why was he taking this so serious? It was a kids tournament, yet he wouldn't give up to this opponent!
'My legs, my legs; I can't move, I'm gonna fall! How is he so strong!?'
The blow, with all of it's might rendered Koji's legs useless, and he fell down onto the ground and dropped his sword.
Koji breathed heavily, his arm felt like it was broken--his legs felt like spaghetti from just a couple times withstanding this kids blows; truly, Koji had for sure lost.
Koji's eyes shifted to the kid, who had already recovered from his last missed blow; he smiled as he saw Koji on the ground, and raised his sword to attack him.
"Bahaha!"
Koji's eyes widened as the kid just laughed, and he had to quickly make a decision before the kids sword pummeled him into the grass!
So, he did.
The rules state that to lose, one must be hit by the sword, and that there were no headshots with the sword; however, Koji felt there must be some other conditions for losing.
So he would exploit them.
Koji jumped up, forcing his legs to move despite their shaggy condition--and tackled the big kid with all of his might! His hands wrapped around the kids back, and his knee came up and struck the kids stomach; after that, he used all of his might to make the giant lose his balance and fall onto the ground, and Koji fell with him!
'W-wait! What am I doing? This is the same thing I did with Ivory!'
However, Koji grit his teeth and couldn't stop; after tackling the kid he brought his fist up and struck his face; he did it once, twice, and then three times until the kid couldn't move anymore.
'He almost broke my arms, and my legs! It's fine! He deserves this, he deserves to be hurt like this, Ivory didn't.'
However, Koji would not admit to himself that he wasn't doing this because the kid deserved it, but because he was about to lose--winning, it was addicting to Koji; at first, he said he didn't care about winning, but the addiction grew stronger without him even noticing. To lose now, it would be detrimental to his mental state!
Though, it seemed winning would be too.
"Koji! Koji, stop!"
Cecilia ran over and pulled Koji off of the kid, Koji struggled a bit then calmed down and sat still as Cecilia dropped him on the grass to sit.
His eyes widened as his breaths came in long, hard exhales and inhales; everything went still for a bit as he stared at the kid on the ground, and then for a split second his vision imagined the boy to be Ivory after he had hurt her too.
'It was the same... It wasn't because he deserved it.'
Koji didn't know what to do with himself; he simply got up and walked off before Cecilia could scold him to be on his own.
'I'm supposed to be older that kid mentally, yet I did something not even a child would do; Fuck, fuck! Why did I do that? I wasn't even thinking straight...'
Though his experience with Ivory had made him extremely opposed to winning just to protect his pride, obviously he still felt the need to do it deep down; he knew he had to get rid of this urge--especially because he had just severely hurt another kid because of it!
Koji kept walking with his head down around the field; until Cecilia came up to him with a frown.
"Koji, please explain yourself."
Cecilia crossed her arms and frowned in disappointment at Koji; it was only one of his first real days of class, and he was already causing trouble like this.
"I'm sorry Ms. Cecilia, I-I just didn't wanna lose..."
Koji responded nervously, with his head still down; in reality, he didn't really care about saying sorry to Cecilia--as well, she wasn't the one he hurt; though, he knew it was best to simply say it anyway.
"Well Koji, that boy really is hurt; he will be in a bad condition for awhile, and I will have to tell your parents about this; though, please don't something like that just because you feel like you can't lose, okay? I've been in the same situation, it never works out well--you need to learn to control this urge."
Cecilia's face slightly softened as she spoke, and her frown slightly went away too as she spoke; though, her tone stayed serious.
Really, she was disappointed in Koji--though, at the same time--she knew he was only nine years old; well, she at least thought that...
"Yes Ms. Cecilia, it won't happen again..."
'I do need to ask her if I'll be advancing...'
Before Cecilia could say something, Koji spoke up again while looking up slightly.
"Uhm... So will I be advancing?"
Cecilia sighed, she didn't like Koji disregarding his impact on the kid and automatically jumping to his selfish question--though, she still felt it was just because he was so young, and decided to go easy on him.
"Yes, your opponent will be Ecchi."