( Yuuki's POV )
Yuuki: You came so early for me, you're so excited to have your own unit.
Kanzashi: I honestly haven't slept since yesterday.
Yuuki: Haha, I understand you, I also get anxious when it's time to try a new creation.
I had a smile on my face as I thought about everything I had built and what I was going to create in the future, while I was distracted by that, Kanzashi stared at me before stopping completely.
Kanzashi: ... Yuuki, why did you decide to help me?
Yuuki: Uh? It's a little late to be asking that, don't you think?
Kanzashi: I know, but I'm curious that... maybe someone asked you to help me.
Yuuki: I don't know why someone would ask me to help you, I did that because I thought you were interesting and because I could do it.
Kanzashi: Just for that?
Yuuki: Yeah, a lot of people have told me I'm weird, but I like being that way, I really enjoyed working with you, and I made a good friend, I hope we can design another IS together in the future.
Kanzashi: Um, I'd like that.
Upon arriving at the hangar, Kanzashi picked up her personal unit, which took the form of one of the ornaments on her head, after that, she left in a hurry, she said I had to prepare for tomorrow's tournament.
She was very enthusiastic about it, and the same went for the rest of the girls at the academy, I thought that was something normal for an IS pilot school but then I found out that there was a special prize for the winner of the tournament, during the tournament registration there was nothing about a prize for the winner, so I thought that was something agreed upon among the students although I didn't have the specifics of what that was.
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When the tournament arrived, the first fight was my team's, and we were in the changing rooms waiting for it to start.
Ichika: Shouldn't we talk about our strategy or something?
Yuuki: I'm surprised you even know what that word means.
Ichika: Oh come on, that's a bit much.
Yuuki: I'm just kidding, just fight as usual, and I'll do the rest.
We went out to the stadium, and I saw Ichika's friend, Lingyin, along with one of her classmates, the tension between the two was clear, and they were both determined to resume the fight that was stopped during the small invasion before.
When the stadium siren sounded and the battle started, Ichika flew straight towards Lingyin, both Lingyin and I knew he would do that, she charged the cannons on her shoulders but I used my tails to attack her from her side, my attack knocked her off balance and Ichika was able to land a solid hit, Ichika's sword was dedicated to attack power and nothing else so that attack did great damage to Lingyin's shields.
Lingyin's companion raised her weapon, an assault rifle, and she tried to shoot me, but I shot her with one of my sub arms and the weapon flew out of the girl's hands, I then gave her a clean blow with the side of my sword, which resulted in the girl's immediate defeat.
Ichika and Lingyin continued their fight, but after a few minutes, things started to go wrong for Ichika, so I grabbed Lingyin's leg, and Ichika was able to finish her off with another swing, but Lingyin did manage to get a good shot on Ichika with her cannons before the battle ended.
The result of this fight was as expected, there were only a handful of people who could give me a challenge in this tournament, But I was somewhat surprised when the next fight started and I saw Tsukiumi participating along with Kanzashi, I wondered what made her change her mind about participating.
Well, I guess that doesn't matter, that's just another good opponent for me, none of the girls faced each other in the first round, and they didn't use their new personal units either, It seems they were saving that for the battle between them.
Another interesting pair participating was Origami's team and Ichika's other friend, Houki, Origami also chose not to use her unit, and neither of them had any trouble making it to the second round, and that's where things were going to get serious.
When the second round was about to start and Ichika and I were on the runway, I told him about our strategy.
Yuuki: Listen, I'm going to need to focus all my attention on Tsukiumi, so you'll have to take care of Kanzashi, her unit specializes in long-range bombing.
Ichika: How do you know that?
Yuuki: I helped create her machine.
Ichika: Then you shouldn't have more information.
Yuuki: Yes, but if I tell you all that, it won't be fun.
We flew inside the stadium, and we looked at each other intensely, Tsukiumi is my strongest Sekirei, and I always enjoyed our duels, on the other hand, although she never said it, I know that Kanzashi had a certain resentment towards Ichika, and she was waiting for this moment.
The countdown to the fight felt really long this time, I was wagging my tails in anticipation and when the siren sounded kanzashi and I unleashed a couple of big attacks, Kanzashi released a barrage of missiles, something very dangerous for someone without long-range weapons like Ichika, but I aimed my tails and from the tips, I fired a burst of energy bullets.
Yuuki: remember the Ichika plan.
After stopping the initial attack, I flew straight at Tsukiumi, our swords collided in the middle, our attacks created a shockwave, and we put on a smile at the same time.
From close range, I used my sub-arms to shoot her, and she used her drone spheres to block the shots, on the other side, Ichika tried to get close to Kanzashi, but before he could land a blow Kanzashi's unit grew a pair of sub-arms, and she used gravity control to stop him in his tracks.