The Hidden World

Two Months Later

Yuki was sitting within his mana dimension, looking at the gently swaying grass that spread out before him as he laid his back against a tree. The term mana dimension was something he had made up since he didn’t know what this place was actually called.

Beside him, Akira was resting her head on his right shoulder as she sat with her knees drawn up and the familiar white dress grazing the grassy surface. They were sitting there after a long session of training that lasted throughout the night. Tomorrow was the first day of the tournament.

“I think it’s time we planned out our strategy now,” Yuki said.

“Mmm.”

“We’re as ready as we can be right now,” Yuki continued. “So now all that is left is the plan.”

“That’s right.” Akira agreed.

Yuki reached out with his left arm and sand began to swirl in front of him. Then with a little mental prodding, they began to shift and form a map of the entire Academy. The detail was perfect right down to the last inch.

“The tournament is being held in a makeshift arena that was created just for today and tomorrow,” he started. “The arena is located in the Meadow. Most of the security will be placed around this area meaning that the entrances into the Academy are lacking in protection.”

As Yuki spoke, the areas of the Academy that he referred to pulsed gently, the sand moving back and forth, on the makeshift map.

“I will be monitoring things that will be happening inside the tournament itself. Akira, you will be keeping an eye on things outside of the arena. That means the rest of the entire Academy. Do you think you can handle that?”

“Of course I can, Yuki,” she said with a confident smile. “I could probably do it all night if you wanted me to.”

“Don’t do that,” he replied. “That’s bad for your health.”

“What’s Uriel going to do?”

“She’s going to be doing what she’s always been doing,” Yuki answered. “Uriel will be keeping an electronic eye on things. She’ll be monitoring all the cameras and security systems of the Academy as well as the other things we placed.”

During the two months Yuki had been training, he had bought surveillance equipment that he placed around the entire campus. He then linked them all to Uriel and asked her to monitor them for him. So far, nothing out of the ordinary appeared though he did find out where students went to express their love.

“And Yuna?” Akira asked.

“I’ll try to guide her as discreetly as possible but what she does ultimately depends on her. I will try to protect as best as I can as I was the one that put her on this course of action but I won’t go out of my way to do so.”

“Okay, I got it. So are we prepared? Do we have everything we need?”

“I believe so,” Yuki said. “I did some improvements to your katana as well as my daggers. We trained as hard as we possibly could without hurting ourselves too much. We investigated as much as we could and found as much as we would be able to find at this moment in time.”

“Should we tell Uriel to do a quick diagnostic test on the surveillance system?” Akira said.

“That’s a good idea. We should do that.”

“Alright then. We seem as ready as we can be,” she nodded, her head shaking Yuki’s shoulder. “Let’s go back then.”

“There still is one thing I want to check,” Yuki announced. “I want to see my status. I haven’t checked in a while.”

“I haven’t either,” she said. “I’ll do that too.”

She closed her eyes after she said that, the conversation quieting. Yuki did the same and called for his status. At his command, the familiar screen appeared before his mind’s eye.

 

「MAYUMI YUKI (Rank C / 5 Star / Tier 8)

    Title: None

    Class: Assassin / Support Mage

    Passive Abilities: Weapon Master , ??? , ???

    Stats: STR - (B 1S / T2)  DEF - (C 5S / T7) SPD - (B 2S / T1)  STA - (C 5S / T6)

               INT - (B 2S / T1)   MP - (B 2S / T4) HP - (C 5S / T6)

    Skills: Analysis (Lv. 5)   Mental Fortitude (Lv. 4) Perseverance (Lv. 6) >

                Human Disguise  Ancestral Knowledge (Partial)  Cooking (Lv. 3)

                Stealth (Lv. 2)      Crafting (Lv. 1) Singing (Lv. 2)

    Techniques:

               Magic - Elemental Magic: Expert Earth (Lv. 3) >  Intermediate Fire (Lv. 7) >

                              Support Magic (Lv. 2) >

                              Mana Manipulation (Lv. 6)

                              Magical Eyes

            Physical - Dance of the Dragons (Lv. 5) : Earth Dragon (Lv. 3)

                              Expert Swordsman (Lv. 3) >

                              Expert Dagger Arts (Lv. 6) >

                              Intermediate Staff Arts (Lv. 9) >

                              Expert Bowman (Lv. 1)

                              Meditation (Lv. 5)                                                             」

‘I’m almost rank B,’ he remarked as he read. ‘That seems really fast. But I should expect my growth to slow exponentially once I hit B. My other skills and techniques seem to be leveling quite nicely. My training seems to have paid off. I have stealth registered as a skill now which is great. Why do I have a singing skill?’

Though he wasn’t quite sure, Yuki came to the conclusion as to why he had such a skill. Recently, he had gone into the habit of singing softly to himself whenever he worked on something or trained. The only one who heard him was Akira since she was with him everyday and Uriel. It seemed that his constant mumblings had resulted in a skill.

‘Maybe it doesn’t take how good a person sings into account. I’m fairly certain that I’m at best average.’

He ignored it for now. It wasn’t that important anyway.

‘Hmm, my bow experience seems to have been recognized by the UR as well. I didn’t think that it would be at the expert level though.’

Yuki remembered the lessons that his father had taught him when he was a child. The style of archery that he learned from him was completely different from the techniques Yuki had seen on Earth. Now that he thought about it more, Yuki found more and more evidence that pointed to the fact that his parents weren’t from Earth. The skills his father taught him resembled those taught here in the Academy. As he recalled conversations between himself and his parents, he realized that they were never speaking in English or Japanese or any human language.

‘But that doesn’t answer why they left Ethros,’ Yuki thought. ‘I’ll leave this for another time. I think I’m ready for the tournament.’

He opened his eyes and saw Akira staring at him. He raised an eyebrow and she looked away quickly.

“How’s you status, Yuki?” she asked.

“It’s decent but I expect my growth to slow soon,” he replied. “I’m almost rank B. How about you?”

“I’m just entered rank B. Are we ready?”

“Yes, I believe so,” Yuki said. “Let’s return to the real world.”

With a mental command, the world around him warped and folded upon itself until Yuki found himself sitting on his bed with Akira leaning against him much like she was in his mana dimension. Her eyes fluttered open and she glanced up at Yuki.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

“Of course,” she replied with a smile.

The arena where the tournament was to take place was quite large. It resembled a coliseum with a circular arena that spanned eighty yards in diameter. The seats ring around it and were a good ten to fifteen feet above the center of the arena. Yuki had came through the side entrance that was reserved for participants. He flashed his identification to the guard and was let in.

‘Akira, how are things on your side?’ he transmitted.

[I’m at the boundary of the Academy now,] she replied. [I’ll start doing my rounds. How’s Uriel?]

‘I didn’t check in with her yet. I’ll be doing that now. Stay alert.’

[Understood.]

Yuki disconnected from Akira and tapped on an earpiece that rested in his right ear.

“Uriel, you hear me?” he said calmly. To the rest of the world, it looked as if he was picking up a call.

“I don’t have ears but I understand you,” she replied, her voice unaffected by distortion. She was in the earpiece itself. “What’s up?”

“How are things going?” he asked.

“Wonderfully,” Uriel said. “I’m watching the whole campus. They have only one guard each at the entrances to the Academy. They seem to be trusting their barrier and the goodwill of people quite a lot.”

Yuki faked a light chuckle as he absorbed what Uriel had just told him. He had expected light security but that was worse than he thought.

“Just keep watching then,” he said. “There’s not much we can do about that. She’ll be there when she needs to be.”

“Akira is connected to the system anyway so I’ll be able to contact her when something happens,” Uriel said. “I’ll be able to tell her where she needs to be.”

“Alright, that’s good to hear. I’ll be disconnecting for now.”

“Good luck in the tournament boss.”

“I don’t need it, bye.”

Uriel stopped talking and Yuki went to sit at one of the many seats that were scattered throughout the waiting room for the competitors. He didn’t need any luck since he wasn’t aiming to win.

‘Let’s see who we’re up against.’

He tapped on his watch and brought up the tournament bracket that was posted on the Academy site. Then he searched for his ranking and match up on the bracket.

‘They placed me in the middle, I see. I’m surprised that they didn’t match me up in the same group with the seeded people.’

He looked at his opponent and found that he was up against a second year. This drew out a soft sigh from Yuki.

‘I wanted to win the first two rounds, but now it might attract attention,’ he complained. ‘If I defeat a second year, then eyes will start to watch me. Of course there is the possibility that they would believe the second year was just weak. I hope that’s the case.’

Yuki decided to go with his initial plan of action and win the first two rounds before intentionally losing in the third. He needed to stay long enough so that he could watch the other competitors in the waiting room. Once a person lost, they were not allowed back into this room. Three rounds should be enough time for him to get a good idea of whether or not the potential thief was there.

He looked at his watch again and then back to the bracket. His fight was to take place in roughly thirty minutes. Plenty of time for him to meditate and focus his mind.

‘Today is going to be quite an interesting day,’ he thought as he closed his eyes. ‘I hope it doesn’t prove to be unmanageable.’

He controlled his breathing and waited for his fight to begin.