(79) Spilling the beans

I mean… I hadn’t even realized it yet. While everyone was busy training, like crazy for this tournament, what was I doing exactly?

“This guy’s also good,” Nanako informs, throwing away a rifle out of reach from the other downed soldiers.

True to Yasuna’s word, I still haven’t found a single soldier without a pulse… Even after that enormous explosion; but even if they were alive, I’m guessing some of them wished they weren’t.

Walking up to another one, I kick his rifle away before checking his pulse. “Good.”

Me and Nanako were disarming and analyzing every soldier. Of course, we still have our personal defense barriers up should any of them decide to try any last hurrah.

Meanwhile, Yasuna sits close to the elevator with the guard, her personal barrier encompassing them both.

Going back to what I was saying, during these last two weeks, I’ve really let myself go. I have done nothing to get better and when it counted, I barely made it through a duel against a weak duelist—who was probably just following a bot’s commands—And then, worst of all: I froze… No other way to put it, faced with the choice of maybe killing a few trained soldiers for which murder is their MO; I froze. They shot at me, and instead of shooting back, I just froze like a scared little bitch.

Now, of course, hindsight is 20/20, but I don’t need hindsight to see just how pathetic I’ve become. All this time, I thought of myself as a sexy, naturally gifted monster of a duelist. But in reality, all I’ve become is an overconfident, frail slut who can't even comfortably beat a shitty duelist!

…

'Okay, I may have gone a little too far there but the point still stands: I’ve regressed.'

*Bang!*

A gunshot rings out, impacting into my barrier. My head snaps to an individual soldier clutching a smoking pistol in one hand and his stomach with the other.

One of the many dragons floating above the now wrecked elevator lobby descends right on top of the soldier and screeches. “GWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

They faint right away, their face white with terror.

‘Yasuna might’ve spared them of any permanent physical damage to their bodies, but I see a spacious green pasture in the countryside in their futures… One thing’s for sure, their careers as soldiers are over.’

Even with Yasuna technically ordering her monsters not to kill anyone, the injuries I have seen on some of them reminds me that here ‘No Permanent Injury’ boils down to ‘no head trauma or internal bleeding.’ Everything else seems to be fair pickings, as some of them have limbs so mangled, I would consider them lost.

‘It would be better if we had someone with medical experience here. I can’t really judge if they have any life-threatening injuries…’ I look up from the soldier I was checking and at the now demolished lobby. ‘How does an explosion even cause such precise damage? That pressure wave vaporized most of the greenery; You would think these guys would’ve been blown to smithereens.’

*Ting!* An elevator chime grabs the attention of the four of us.

Me, Nanako and Yasuna hurry to raise our duel disks, but when the doors open, we stand down.

From inside the elevator walks out a short, blue-haired girl wearing an NWDA uniform. Followed by two NWDA cheerleaders and another security guard.

The uniformed girl is the first to speak, mumbling. “W-What happened here?”

The tallest of the group, a NWDA cheerleader with toxic pink hair, turns to me and claims. “I don’t know, Aiko, but I’m pretty sure she has something to do with it.”

I put my hands in the air. “Oh hell no, you don’t get to look at me like I did this; Because, for once, I didn’t. This is Yasuna’s handiwork; Thank her instead.”

Hearing Yasuna’s name, Aiko’s eyes dart around, trying to find her, and when they do, she runs up to her. “Oh, my god! I was so worried!”

Yasuna, in turn, also stops paying attention to the destruction and runs to Aiko, pulling her into a tight hug. “Me too!!” As soon as they let go a little, Yasuna exclaims. “Why didn’t you follow me!? I was so worried. Did you run into anyone on your way here!?”

Aiko leans back, a light frown forming on her lips, and she says in a low voice. “No, we got stuck in the elevator until Naeko pulled us out.”

While they catch up, I finish checking the last downed soldier and walk over to the other two. “Whats up? You got stuc—”

Before I’m able to finish my greeting, Haruna grabs me by the shoulders and leans in with her eyes wide open. “Listen here Yuumi; I don’t know if you were ever planning to and I honestly don’t care; If you ever find yourself wanting a piece of that ‘shy’ little snack right there, then don’t; Don’t think about it; Don’t imagine it; Don’t let her appearance fool you! She’s the living definition of a wolf in sheep’s clothing!” Haruna lets go of me and puts on a fake smile, hiding her deranged expression from before. “So, care to explain how this ended up happening and how it’s not your doing?”

I take a second to process what words she spat at me at high speed, but I end up letting it go as what she asks me next reminds me of my fuck up. I glance at the ground, a frown creeping in. “Er… I don’t know… these guys you see lying around ambushed us. They had a duelist who I barely took care of and then Yasuna did this…” I meant to finish there, but something else slipped out. “Honestly, I’m a little worried…”

Naeko walks over to us; Her lips form a grin, and she asks. “Worried about what?”

I scramble for an answer. “The others, of course! You’ve been the only people we’ve seen after the attack and I haven’t heard a thing from Aya, Mia, or even the Director! What’s going on here!? Are more soldiers coming? Or was that all of them? Should we hold up in our rooms? Or run to the escape pods?!”

Haruna's brow inches up; Maybe she hadn’t thought about this yet. She strokes her chin. “Good point… Our phones have no signal save for power…”

While she theorizes, another station security guard scurries forth, this one a woman going by her voice. “Good questions indeed. For now, we’ll follow protocol and hold up in one of the hotels until we regain communication and the all clear gets called. The last I heard from dispatch, there was a single large group of infiltrators and bunch smaller ones;  Most of the latter were intersected by station security shortly after the bomb detonated; And I’m guessing the former is this group you duelists cleared out.”

I glare at the guard, asking. “You’re saying we’re clear? What about stragglers? A single duelist can still cause a lot of problems.” There is no guarantee that guy I faced was the only one.

She shakes her head. “Guarantee is a strong word, but if they had more duelists, then I’m sure they’d be rushing here right about now. The best place to hold up is still the hotels.” She looks over at the other guard. “Looks like my colleague has already advised you to disarm these guys. Gather everyone up. We’ll be making our way to the safe area.”

—

We follow her plan. At least with the guards, we’re not flying blind.

A strange ambiance creeps in as our group makes their way along the swirling roads of the massive parks that serve as the center for the hotel deck; An eerie stillness lingered along the normally busy floor.

What happened to everyone here? According to the guards, essentially everyone was out and about on the other floors. The rest are probably hiding in their hotel rooms, which have shutters out the front, controlling who goes in or out. That leaves a handful of park goers who probably hid as soon as they heard the commotion.

For one, this means that we’ll have to be careful making our way through the park. If a detachment from that unit hid away here, then they’ll have clear shots to all of us. Because of the risk, we have our barriers up. But this also means we can’t be indiscriminate, assuming everyone is hostile. This is still a public park.

Trying to distract ourselves from the silence, we descend into various conversations.

It’s in this context that I ask Yasuna. “So, I know it’s a sensitive topic. But… What happened up there? You looked properly pissed at Aiko.”

She shakes her head. “Oh, it’s nothing. Just…” She turns to me, leaning in and continuing in a quiet tone. “… Aiko thinks I’m being overprotective again.”

Even with Yasuna saying this close to me, Aiko somehow still picks it up as she turns our way and exclaims. “You were being overprotective! Don’t you hear yourself!?”

Before this breaks out into a screaming contest, I step in front of the two, raising a hand. “Wait, why don’t you two start from the beginning? I admittedly didn’t pay enough attention to the red dorm after moving out, and you didn’t mention any of this before. What happened?”

Yasuna shrugs, exclaiming. “Nothing! After you moved out, there were some guys from the yellow dorm bothering us, but I defeated them. It wasn’t ever a problem!”

I look at Aiko, my forehead scrunching up. “Is this true?”

She glances at the ground, kicking a rock. “Well, yeah.”

My head turns to Yasuna, and then Aiko, then to Yasuna again, my jaw lowering each time I turned my head. “Why didn’t any of you just tell me? I could’ve handled it, you know? Were they rich or something? Did they have any blackmail?”

The tan, muscular girl shakes her head, raising her hand level with her nearly flat chest. “There was no need to bother you. I could take them. They were just some yellow ranked assholes who wanted to use us to get to you, enough said.”

Clutching my head, I reply. “That doesn’t matter! If I caused them to bother you, then it was my problem to fix! You didn’t have to worry about them and deal with them yourselves!”

Yasuna gazes to the side, saying. “Yuumi, if you keep showing up to save us every time a single delinquent tries to attack me, Aiko or Mia. Then we’ll just be seen as your weak spot, a convenient group to attack anytime anyone wants to get to you. We have to show them we’re not weak; That even without you, we can protect ourselves.”

…

I let go of a sigh. ‘I mean… She’s right. But I can’t say I’m happy to know that even after that group got expelled for trying the same thing, there are still people like that…’ I shake my head, moving on. “Well, if you say you can handle them, then I guess it’s okay… Still, what was that Aiko was complaining about?”

The two girls scowl at each other, Yasuna being the first one to speak. “I, as the senior between Aiko and Mia, decided I would take on most of these ‘bullies’ for them, but Aiko seems to have a problem with me taking on challengers for her. Even if the consequences for losing would be dire.”

Then Aiko says her part. “Yes, that makes sense; What doesn’t, is her getting in the way of ANYONE who sends ANY duel request to me or Mia—Friendly or otherwise! Even if they’re simply red ranks with no other affiliation!” She turns to Yasuna, leaning towards her with eyes wide open and arms straight down with hands balled into fists. “It’s not fair!”

Yasuna recoils, countering. “What do you mean ‘every challenger?’ I let you handle the ones I deem have no ill intentions and deal with the rest. It’s simple! You think you know the NWDA well enough, but as a second year, I’ll tell you, you haven’t seen even 20% of all the nastiness that goes on during the year!”

Aiko’s brow inches up, fuming, she tells. “And why do you get to veto who I duel? I’ve defeated you before. Forget about Mia for a second, but I don’t need you deciding who gets to duel me! If it’s just because I don’t know the academy well enough, then why didn’t you do the same thing with Yuumi when she was our roommate!? You’re also her senior!”

‘Fucking hell, Aiko has really become a lot more confident. I didn’t see her ever yelling at Yasuna like this before.’

Yasuna furrows her brow. “Because of this, silly!” She points to the natural penta-summoner badge hanging from my NWDA cheerleader skirt. “Yuumi has this, she has the support of the Director himself! We don’t! Besides, even if you beat me before, it wasn’t a solid vision duel. Pain clouds your mind and makes you perform dumb moves!”

Before I’m able to point out how I don’t enjoy that level of protection, Aiko grabs her own pendulum-summoner badge and flips it over, showing the back to Yasuna. “Oh yeah, if you care about official certificates that much, then look!”

The green-haired girl leans in, squinting. But her eyebrows quickly shoot right up after noticing what Aiko was showing, and she stutters. “W-Where did you get that?! You know that fake badge symbols can get you expelled, right!!?”

I also take a peek. The green symbol of a person drowning in acid giving a thumbs up quickly grabs my attention. ‘Wait, isn’t that the symbol for—’

Aiko interrupts my train of thought by saying. “I got from it the academy, like any student who completes the two-week solid-vision pain management course can. You see? I can handle myself well enough!”

I take another step back, looking up and down at the shorter girl. “Y-You actually did that?…” I turn to Yasuna, squinting with a deep frown. “Please don’t tell me you went through that hell just to prove that you could defeat her...”

I had looked into that course myself when I was researching the supplementary courses, but Yasuna ticked me off at what it was. A torture course for masochists, planning on using self-damage decks… That’s the gist of it; I won’t go into more details than that. And Aiko… Well, she’s the fragile one, right? Mia always acted like that; I always did as well. ‘Did we… Did we drive her into that hell just so she could prove to us we were wrong?…’

Yasuna’s face twists in disbelief, her eyes wide and her mouth forming silent words. “A-a-a… I’m so sorry!!!!” she screams, throwing herself at Aiko in a jumping hug.

But Aiko has other intentions, as she moves to the right, dodging the Yasuna missile perfectly. She quickly crosses her arms, her head shaking from side to side in frustration. “No!” she exclaims, her voice strong. “I did it for me, okay!? Don’t just assume every decision I take is for you two!” The girl with blue hair glances off to the side, eyes half-shut, lips slightly pouted. “I wanted to show myself I was as good as you, and I couldn’t outmatch you in either experience or summoning techniques, so I wanted to be the one who could take the most hits.”

…

I take a step towards her, calmly questioning. “Are you absolutely sure that’s the path you want to take? I know you’ve already completed the course, and that it was hellish. But please don’t forget that there are other options.”

She shakes her head. “Yuumi… I know how this looks… But I thought it over. I want to be stronger; I want to be more like… Like you… Confident, powerful, undefea—”

“Please stop!” I interrupt her. Every word she was saying was like a stake driving itself into my heart. “That’s wrong… Really, really wrong! I know it might look like I have everything under control, but I don’t!” I look off to the side. “Just a moment ago, I almost threw the duel against that soldier because of overconfidence… A-and then! And then!—”

I feel a hand land on my shoulder; looking over, I find Haruna. “Hey, I can see that you three clearly have a lot on your minds and a lot to say, but this really isn’t the time for it. An ambush could be waiting for us at any moment, and you yelling at each other isn’t helping us keep quiet. Let’s get to a safer spot and then you can have your conversation. How about it?”

I look back at the group. They’re a respectful distance away and clearly feeling a little awkward. “Righ, we should get going.”

Aiko’s face reddens as she concurs. "W-We better."

Yasuna gets up from the grass, her face betraying how she feels about the situation, even if she tries to act otherwise. “Y-Yeah! Let’s go!”