Scarlet

I feel immediate relief from my pain the moment we reappear in another white room with another team standing across from us. And it’s also right now that I am very thankful that the magical reality doesn’t extend to reality, because, as I’ve already learned, any pain I diffused while in a magical reality doesn’t need to be felt outside of it.

A very convenient loophole.

“I’d say unfair, but to each their own,” Tar grumbles, but he doesn’t sound displeased or anything. Which makes sense considering he’s my contracted partner and it therefore benefits him. “I’m still surprised you managed to get that to work. Especially without any practice.”

Yeah, it was a bit of an on the fly decision. Since the only ranged attacking skill I have is blood manifestation, and technically all it says is that I can manifest weapons of blood and control them, but it never said that they had to stay as weapons of blood. And it turns out that I was right in thinking that, since the moment the weapons hit something and lost their form, I was able to control them with the weakened control blood manifestation still had on them, along with blood siphon itself.

Of course, I quickly began to lose control and really was only able to direct the attack towards him.

“Lucky for you that was all it took,” Tar says, making me nod my head as I study the team across from us.

Yep.

And now I just need to practice that during the hour or so break we’ll have between the sixth and seventh rounds. After we win this next battle, that is.

As it turns out, the next battle isn’t as hard as the first. Mostly because we ended up paired with a team that didn’t have any primary tournament students in it.

Although I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s because of how well we did in the first battle of the round.

I watch the other battles from my spot sitting in a booth before glancing over at the door when a bell tolls from it, signaling that someone is wanting in.

“I’ve got it,” Belle says, getting up from her seat next to me and heading over to the door. So I turn my focus back to the battles currently going on in the stadium, some of which are actually quite interesting to watch.

Particularly the ones with primary tournament participants in them.

I honestly can’t wait to fight with more of those. Just fighting Zero alone was the most excitement I’ve had since I was at that Class II Fracture a month or so ago. Which in hindsight is probably not something I should’ve felt excited about.

“You almost died, so I know it’s not something you should’ve felt excited about,” Tar grumbles.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Not my fault I enjoy a good hunt.

My thoughts are interrupted when I hear the door to the booth open, bringing my attention back to it just to find Allen and Cynthia entering the room. And the moment they do, Michael, Denise, and Emily all stand up with a quick and very polite greeting.

“Afternoon,” I tell them both with a nod before slightly tilting my head out of curiosity.

Wonder why they’re here?

“Why do you look confused?” Allen asks, managing to confuse me even more. “Is it that strange that we would go see our daughters before the final round?”

My mouth parts open for a second before closing again.

“Guess not.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice practically everyone in the room show some semblance of a reaction towards how I didn’t immediately deny is calling me his daughter. Even Allen smiles slightly at it, but I just turn to face the stadium again, deciding to ignore their reactions.

At this rate he will be my dad in just around half a year or so, so why would I be upset?

Tar snorts but doesn’t say anything.

Belle sits back down next to me again, meanwhile Allen and Cynthia both use their devices to summon two more seats on either side of us before sitting down as well. Then we start chatting about random stuff that don’t really have much to do with the tournament.

Eventually the others in the team begin to relax as well and even contribute to the conversation from time to time.

“I still can’t believe you used your enhanced physical prowess to beat Arthur at a video game…” Allen mutters while rubbing his temples as if he had a headache.

I just shrug.

“It worked, didn’t it?” I answer without a shred of guilt or shame.

Now it’s his turn to feel the pain of losing every single time we play a reaction based game.

“Weren’t you already beating him in most of the other games you played together? So I’m pretty sure he already knows how it feels to lose…” Tar mutters, but I, as the dignified lady that I am, ignore him.

Tar snorts at that, commenting, “Dignified lady my furry tail… more like berserk animal.”

I ignore that too.

Allen doesn’t respond to my answer, just shaking his head with a light smile touching his lips as he looks at the battles going on in the stadium.

“So how about that guy you shot down during the battle?” Belle asks while nudging my shoulder in a way that has my lips twitch slightly in the urge to frown. “That was pretty funny. But he looked pretty nice – sort of – and was clearly strong. So I kind of hoped he would’ve been your type.”

I glance at her with a raised brow.

“Okay, maybe not your type,” she backtracks, having actually realized what she’d just said. “But still. You could’ve at least tried going out with him! You spend all of your time training or studying, and almost never spend any actually socializing! Or relaxing for that matter!”

“She’s right, sweetheart,” Cynthia says from the other side of Belle as Michael purposefully avoids looking anywhere near us and Denise and Emily watch on with too much interest. “Maybe going out on a date might even let you relax a little bit for a first?”

I continue looking at them with a raised brow.

Belle and Cynthia exchange a glance before Belle mutters, “Guess that didn’t work.” And Cynthia nods, “Yeah, kind of hoped we’d be able to get her to dress up and go out on a date for a first.”

“You know I can hear you, right?” I ask, finally speaking. But they both just turn to me and answer, “Yes,” before conversing between themselves again.

I cross my arms and glare at the two, seemingly with little success at making them stop.

Then I hear Allen mutter, “I don’t see anything wrong with her rejecting him…”

Both Belle and Cynthia turn to him to say, “Well who asked you?”

At this point I just glue my eyes to the fights in front of us, acting like nothing is happening around me.