Demons Battle

Number one.

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"What's this place?"

Gabriel looked around but all he could see was darkness. Even when he turned around, it was hard for him to tell the difference between his front and his back. All he could still see was total darkness. The only light he could see now was the light directly above him.

He looked up but above him was filled with darkness. So where was this light coming from? He looked at his body and his hands.

"What the hell?"

There was a surprised look on his face. He was the dim light. His whole body was covered with the faint light but the light emanating from his whole body didn't project more than a feet from him. Just one feet away from himself, the rest of his surrounding was total nothingness. He was in total oblivion of what was going on. It's like he's staring into an abyss.

"What's hell is going on?"

There was a glint of confusion in his eyes. The last thing he remembers was fighting Daniel. So how did he end up here? Was he dreaming?

Gabriel pinched his cheeks but he was still just fine.

"What the hell is going on here?"

"huh?"

Then Gabriel heard a rustling sound from the darkness. There was a sudden vigilant expression on his face as he spoke out.

"Hello? Who’s there?"

There was no answer.

"Hello!"

Still no one answered. Although he could still here subtle sounds echoing from the abyss.

The hair on his body rose. Funny enough, what he was experiencing this moment felt like a horror movie but nothing right now was looking funny to him.

The subtle noise in darkness started increasing.

Grrrrh!

And then he heard a roaring sound.

Gabriel woke up with his heart racing. He was breathing so heavily. His body was covered in sweat.

"What the hell was that just now?"

This nightmare felt more real than more than any dream he’s ever had. Most people says dreams do have meaning so if this nightmare has a meaning. Then What does it mean?

Gabriel closed his eyes and let out a sigh.

Either way he was not a dream interpreter so it would be a waste of time thinking about such a thing now. Besides it was just a dream.

Gabriel opened his eyes and the first thing that came to his sight was his hands. He could feel his lower body under the sheets. He was lying on a bed. By the way he was fighting with Daniel. What exactly happened?

Gabriel instinctively raised his head to observe his surrounding but he was shocked to notice his scenery was made up of people. He could see people standing besides him. To be precise he was surrounded by some persons.

He could see different expressions from the face of different persons. Some had a shocked expression with their mouth open just like him while the rest had a somewhat curious expression. Some had an expressions that he could barely even read.

At this moment with such gazes pouring towards him, he felt more like a baby in a crib that just woke up. Just the feeling made him uncomfortable and sickly.

"What the hell are you guys doing?"

Among the observers it was Agatha who answered first "What? Well You just looked so cute while while asleep."

"Huh?"

Gabriel looked rather confused at this moment.

Then the next person who spoke was Sora "Seems to me he was having a nightmare."

Then Machia opened his mouth while rubbing his chin "To me it felt like he was eating in his dream"

Tom placed his hand on Gabriel's forehead and said "Are you sure he was not feeling pain in his dream?"

"Nah...He just had a nightmare."

At this moment Gabriel’s expression started to heat up with his bared teeth.

"Are you sure? because it felt more like he was eating in his dream"

"What do you have to do with food now Machia senpai?"

At this moment, the expression on Gabriel's face changed. It was like he couldn’t bear it anymore. Gabriel opened his mouth and screamed.

"Will you guys please get lost! I need some air! This is even more worst than the nightmare I just had!"

Even after Gabriel screamed, Sora quickly opened his mouth" See I told you guys he was having a nightmare."

"Guys!"

"Alright relax. relax. We will give you space." Machia said while every other person backed away.

Gabriel watched them walked away as they  sat in the beds next to him. With them now out of his view he was able to notice his surrounding that came to his sight. He was currently inside a spacious room filled with beds. The most noticeable thing about room was the white walls. In short almost every thing the room was white.

The next he noticed were the beds. Apart from his beds he could count like five other beds in the room. Machia, Tom, John, Agatha, Sora, John and Danny. There were all here.

Apart from Danny who was lying on one of the other beds like him, the rest of the party were just sitting on the remaining beds. With the way the room was decorated, it didn’t take long for him to realize.

“I lost right?”

He was in a recovery room. When a fighter loses, he’s taking directly to a healer or regenerative incubator. Most of the time fighters are always left unconscious after a fight and due to this they barely ever meet their healers conscious. In other words in a Dojo, a healer identity might not be known to half the students.

After been healed by the healers while being unconscious, they are  taken to the recovery room.  Recovery room is the place where fighters wakes up to find themselves healed from any form of injuries but the recovery room also conveyed one answer to most fighters after waking up.

Machia didn’t hesitate to give him that answer “Yes you did!”

As usual John didn’t waste the chance he got to retort against Machia. “Way to go Machia senpai”

It was not just John. The others were now staring at Machia with disapproving eyes.

“What?”

“Can’t you tell him in a better manner other than that” Tom said.

“There’s no other better manner. Other people were stronger than him. I know the truth is bitter but the truth shall set you free”

Machia was right. Although the rest group didn’t agree with his method  but it didn’t change the fact that he was right. The only reason Gabriel felt like this now was because he lost. The truth might be bitter but that was what he needed to hear now if he wants to get stronger.

Gabriel stared blankly into the air for a few seconds and opened his mouth “For how long have I been unconscious?”

“Well I think you’ve been sleeping for about three hours now” Agatha was the one who spoke this time.

Three hours. He was out for a long time. The Representative should be already over now. Which means there should be a Winner already.

With curiosity in his eyes Gabriel asked “...By the way who won?”

It was as if everybody suddenly became still. These guys had been making a lot noise before now but they all unexpectedly paused after his last question. It just felt odd.

Then Agatha belatedly started talking “Umn about that..”

Within a few minutes Agatha updated Gabriel about what happened while he was unconscious.

Gabriel could hardly believe it “So Yua was the last unknown member of The Strongest Five?”

John spoke out “ Yeah and she was goddamn strong too.”

It really was unbelievable. Yua was a member of The Strongest Five ever since. They had all assumed their Group to be the weakest when round two started. Not knowing they actually had a strong presence among them right from the start. Why would she keep quiet about such a thing like this? She could have just helped right from the start. If she had helped right from the very beginning at least things would’ve been easier.

Why would she do such a thing? Gabriel couldn’t bring himself to figure out why. He knew he had to ask her for himself but wait she might use her distortion abilities again. He might not remember this.

[Hey everyone! Come to the Arena ground and all those resting you should all be awake now]

Nakamura sensei voice quickly got his attention. There was actually a speaker here? Gabriel looked and saw the little speaker echoing Nakamura sensei’s voice.

[Can you all proceed to the arena. I have an announcement to make]

***

Gabriel, Danny and Sora arrived at the Arena. Danny was rather quite. Ever since he woke up he has not heard one word from Danny. Looks like the loss of the round two really struck him hard. It would be better to let time pass before he spoke to Danny. The Arena ground was now crowded again with all the students of the powered human program. They were all standing around. Some faces were now familiar to him because of the tournament.

He saw Arata folding his arms and standing alone. Arata was doing rather well. He was not in anyway looking like who just got out of a fight. He must have gotten healed up with the help of a healer or the regenerative incubator. Now that Gabriel remembered Arata did not really sustain much injuries from their fight.

If they their fight with him had continued a minute longer they would have definitely lost against him. He barely won. They were lucky.

Arata was just looking around in the crowd. He turned around till both their gaze met. At this moment, Gabriel felt rather tense. Unexpectedly Arata looked away. What was his problem? Either way It’s actually better he looked away.

Gabriel let out a sigh of relief.

He continued looking around. There was Hideyo. That bullying Bastard. The looked around again and saw the familiar person with white and black hair. Daniel was staring at him. Gabriel quickly looked away. Daniel’s gaze felt rather weird this time. It was different from the intimating gaze he received from him.

Gabriel continued looking in the crowd. He had to even walk forward away from Sora and Danny.

“Hey where are you going?”

“I’m just checking for something. I’m still here” Gabriel gave Sora a casual reply.

Rather he was checking around for somebody. He was looking for Yua. He moved among the crowd and the noticed someone standing. The green hair was a clear giveaway. Without hesitating he walked forward and grabbed her by the shoulder.

“Yua”

Yua turned around to face him. The moment their eyes met she quickly looked away.

Was she going with this pretense again? Gabriel had been thinking of what he wanted to say to her but now that she’s right in front of him. The words he had planned out in his head couldn’t come out of his mouth. Instead he just instinctively hit the nail at head as he opened his mouth.

“Why?”

Yua couldn’t look at him in the eyes.

“Umm..You see..” Yua stammered as her fingers from both hands intertwined.

Was she really going to play shy now? What’s this? Gabriel watched Yua with a perplexed expression. Was she going to give him this attitude now? Gabriel was about to open his mouth until he heard the voice of Nakamura Sensei through a speakers of the arena.

[Attention! Attention! Please everyone quiet down]

Everyone was now looking up. Gabriel looked up and saw a platform hanging from the the ceiling of the Arena. It was a lift. The platform was only acting as a lift due to the strong chains hanging from the ceilings of the arena. The chains were clung to the platform. The lift was been lowered. Nakamura Sensei stood on the lift with a mic. Right now curiosity was written in everyone’s faces. The Representative tournament has already finished. The winner has already been decided so what’s this very important announcement about?

[ First of all I got good news.]

“Good news?”

“Sensei what are you taking about?”

“What’s the good news?”

Noise began staring from the crowd of gathered powered humans until Nakamura sensei’s voice and eyes changed as he said

[Quiet you all or you all get it. I’m not done talking.]

At this moment, everyone was all quiet again. And Nakamura sensei started speaking.

[ As you all know only one fighter can Represent our Dojo in Demons Battle stage zero tournament. But...]

Everybody was now totally quiet for the words that followed next.

[...That’s a lie. More than one fighters from each dojo can go this year]

“What?”

“Nakamura sensei you lied!”

What the hell? More than one can go? Gabriel was just as shocked as everyone else. The whole arena started to becoming noisy again, this time even the audience watching were shocked.

Still Nakamura sensei continued speaking

[ Yeah. If you all had listened in history class you would’ve realized I was lying. Besides if I didn’t lie most of you won’t give it your all so apart from some stupid people. You all did well]

Stupid people? Gabriel could guess who Nakamura sensei was referring to.  He must be talking about the members of the Strongest Five. Apart from Daniel and Arata. The rest pretty much f*ck up and forgot why they were in the tournament. Yua still did well too. Damn. It’s going to take a while to see her as a Member of the Strongest five.

[The amount of people required to represent in this year’s Demons Battle stage zero tournament is..]

At this moment the whole place became quite.

[Three.]

[We are going to be taking the three best fighters from this tournament. All should I say the last three fighters to go out of the Representative tournament]

Even with the increased numbers, it was definitely clear Gabriel was not among. Gabriel was definitely not among the last three people stood in the ending of the tournament. Maybe if it was four Representative required he would have definitely gotten in but the requirements was three.

‘I was so close’

There were series of discussions heard from the entire arena. Both in the audience and  among the gathered powered humans. Still Nakamura sensei proceeded with what he wanted to say.

[I will call out the Representatives of the Stratton Dojo now. I’ll begin with the last person till the very first.]

The Powered humans continued and audience continued their side talk. They were not in anyway interested in Nakamura sensei next announcements. Everybody already knew who the winners was so there was no point being attentive.

[Third position. Agatha Yuuji !]

Agatha was quite lucky though. She wasn’t knocked out till the end. Anyway Gabriel believe she deserve it. She just had to hone her skills before the Main Demons Battle stage zero tournament. With her current strength she might find it hard to cope in there. The opponents there were all monsters like the members of the Strongest Five. She just have to get more stronger to win out there.

[Second Position. Daniel Ross]

Gabriel could still hardly believe it. The allegedly strongest fighter of Stratton Dojo lost. He lost to his little sister Yua. As he predicted from the start Yua might be very much stronger than Daniel. With that ability she has. She was definitely no joke.

Speaking of Yua. Gabriel had already forgotten he was in the middle of confronting her. Now that Nakamura sensei is going to announce her name. The more his blood started boiling. Did she really want the first role that much that she stabbed her group in the back by not helping out.

Anyway the more he thought about it, he realized he was just getting worked up for no good reason. Either way if they had all won against Daniel, they would have all fought against each other at the very end so her actions was in some sense justifiable. No it was justifiable. She planned very well.

Gabriel decided not to continue his confrontation towards her. He just had to accept his defeat and get more stronger.

Gabriel let out a sigh.

[Now the number one for this Representative tournament belongs to..]

Gabriel knew they were now going to call Yua’s name. He quickly glanced towards Yua to see her reaction of she hearing her name been called as number one. How will she react to know she’s the very best fighter of Stratton Dojo? Either way she’s the very best..

[ Gabriel Lee!]

“Wait! what the hell?!”