The Unreachable

Arina was about to attack, when she remembered she wasn't alone. Although Yamato declared that he wouldn't fight, Yuki didn't say anything about it. Would she fight alongside Arina? Yamato whispered someth in Yuki's ear that Arina couldn't quite make out. But after that Yuki walked next to Arina. Yamato just turned around and started walking away.

"I'll leave this to you, Arina. I need to make sure of something, you and Yuki just do your thing. I believe in you. Bye."

"What?! This is a team exercise, you can't just leave!"

But he just waved back while walking away.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure we can deal with this by ourselves. And he said he wouldn't be fighting anyway, right?"

Yuki calmed Arina down. Although she didn't quite understand why he wouldn't have fought anyway, Yuki had a point. And so her focus shifted back onto Mikio. Who was visibly confused by Yamato's seemingly random decision to leave.

"Looks like one of you already gave up and chose to run away. I can't blame him. You know-"

Yuki cut him off mid sentence, although she was already holding back to not just break every bone in his body.

"-You talk big for someone who doesn't even stand a chance against us."

"Oh, I don't?"

"Nuh uh!"

"Well, we will see about that…"

Fuse and Toma then landed on the ground, where started using attack spells on Arina and Yuki, but to no avail as the moment they landed Arina moved behind Toma and used a fireball spell at close range. At first it seemed like it didn't do any damage, but a moment later, Toma disappeared and only his armband was left of him.

A voice echoed through the inside of the barrier.

"Student Toma Masa: Disqualified!"

It appeared to be porf. Reeds voice. So it seems students that take too much damage don't actually take damage, they get teleported off the field and only their armband remains.

Fuse was visibly nervous now, unlike Mikio who found it rather amusing. He too landed on the ground and and focused on Arina now.

"Impressive, really. I did wonder how they would make this work, but prof. Reed really is an amazingly talented person. No wonder he is the headmaster of this school."

Arina just stared at him, before moving behind Mikio now to handle him the same way she did Toma. But to her surprise, once she was behind him, she was actually in front of him.

"Hi there, Arina."

With a snap of his fingers, he send a shockwave that threw her a few meters away. She was now next to Yuki again, who didn't do anything yet.

"What the hell…!?"

Barely managing to catch herself on her feet, she went right back into battle stance. Mikio just stood there smugly, with his hands behind her back.

"You are really fast. It's hard to believe there is someone more talented at this school amongst the students than you and I. I'm happy we got the opportunity to meet like this. You know… I get bored really quickly. And it's not often that I get to go all out against someone. When this is over and you lost, please don't bear any hard feelings towards me. Let's reach class 1 together as a class."

"I don't have anything against that… but it's you who will lose here and shouldn't bear any hard feelings towards me afterwards."

She grabbed a near by stick and held it like a sword.

"What's that supposed to accomplish…"

"You'll see."

Yuki felt misplaced in this rivalry going on.

"Uhm… Hey, guys? If you have your little thing going on for longer now, I'd just take on Fuse here."

"Sure, whatever."

Said Mikio dismissively, before focusing on Arina again. So Yuki and Fuse went a few meters away, to not disturb Arina's and Mikio's duel they had going on. Once they were out of view, a voice echoed through the barrier.

"Student Fuse Tadashi: Disqualified!"

Mikio and Arina were both taken aback by the speed in which Yuki defeated Fuse, but they didn't see anything so their understanding of what happened was lacking visually.

"That fast, huh… I thought you were the one I should worry about, Arina… Guess I should've taken you both more seriously. Eh, too late now. I'll revive them once I get their armbands back anyway."

"What makes you think that will happen?"

"Let's just say I am not very experienced in losing."

"First time for everything."

She rushed forward, swinging her stick at him. But the next moment, just like when she tried to get behind him, now she went from being infront of him to being behind him. This caused her to charge at the tree behind him instead of him. Though, the tree was cut in half by the stick Arina wielded.

"…!"

"Why so surprised? You're a smart guy and dodge after all."

"What did you do to that stick?"

"I tell you if you tell me how you keep dodging me!"

"Haha, no can do…"

She attacked again, this time while she was in the middle of her charge, she felt herself switching positions with him again. This time she predicted it though, so she instead span around so her attack would hit behind her, which was where he stood now. It was a direct hit. Until it wasn't. She was suddenly pulled back where she was five seconds ago, and he was where he was five seconds ago.

"Phew, that was close, wasn't it?"

"What the hell, I hit you!"

"Guess you didn't"

She kept on trying to reach him but to no avail. He then snapped again, causing yet another shockwave that this time threw her back a lot farther. But she was able to catch herself barely once again.

"You're starting to piss me off…"

"Oh, I do apologize. If you just give me your armband this will get much simpler."

"…"

"This sucks… Why do I have to fight him alone anyway? I never agreed to this being some sort of duel where only we get to fight! And shouldn't Yuki get back once she defeated her guy? Which was pretty fast anyway… but I guess he wasn't that strong, not to be mean or anything… but the worst of all is this guy! I don't understand his magic at all. It's like whatever I do it's pointless and exactly what he wants me to do… No, that's not it. I almost had him once. He just reacts really fast, is that it? But how do I beat that…"

"Thinking of giving up already?"

"Never!"

Suddenly some leafs fell onto her head. When she looked up, she saw Yuki sitting on a tree branch just watching them fight.

"You tell him, Arina!"

She cheered playfully.

"Hello?? A little help maybe!?"

"Hmmm… Nah."

"What!? You have to, I'm your team mate!"

"Nuh uh."

"Argh, why!?"

"Cause I believe in you doing it by yourself~"

"Ah… That's… Hey, no! You just don't want to fight by yourself!"

"Urgh, noooo, I'm telling you, I believe in you~ But since you seem so helpless without your bestest friend in the world, I'll give you a hint as to how you can defeat him~!"

"Yeah, right, what's the hint?"

"I'd like to know how she can defeat me according to you too…"

Yuki plays with a strand of her hair and pulls a few leafs of the tree which she then throws at Mikio.

"His magic works like this: Every time you get close to him, he skips time for a little for the both of you. In that skipped time, you moved but he isn't there, because he moved too. It looks like you switched places but in reality he just went where you were while you went to where he was because you were attacking him. When you almost hit him earlier, he reversed the process, so turned back time five seconds, probably his maximum time he can turn back because it was really close and he needed to rewind as much as possible to gain ground again."

"How do you know all that!?"

Mikio went visibly pale, clearly taken aback by her detailed, and correct, description of how his magic works. Arina on the other hand started to get used to Yuki being… Well, being Yuki. So instead of questioning it, she just accepted it and went on the offensive again.

"Understood… So if I remember his and my position for five seconds, and where I will be in a few seconds, I can act accordingly…"

"Yay, that's right~! Go, go, Arina~! Go, go, Arina~!"

Yuki started clapping as she cheered for Arina. Arina on the other hand was really serious about this now, as she side stepped multiple times when she rushed towards him. Mikio getting really nervous about this and his inability to predict her movements snapped his fingers again, the shockwave almost reaching Arina, but then Arina cut through the air and the shockwave stopped in its tracks. She kept rushing towards him, only for him to appear two meters to her right, which she reached as well with a single side step. He panicked and moved back to where he stood previously, which Arina predicted since she was already moving towards that place. He then tried to move her, but nothing happened. Because she just stopped on her tracks completely. And since she wasn't moving, he could not speed up her movements in time. Feeling trapped, he didn't react when Arina seemed to just be everywhere at once to him. No matter where he moved, she perfectly matched and got closer and closer. When she finally hit him, he moved back in time but there she was again. Her speed was just too much. No matter how often he went back the five seconds, he always failed to dodge her at the end. A loop of almost escaping but then still failing to. He eventually just took the hit, seeing no possible way to escape, disappearing and only leaving his armband behind.

A voice echoed through the barrier.

"Student Mikio Sera: Disqualified! Team Yellow: Disqualified!"