[NON-CANON]
[X] Go to the cherry tree by the school lake after school. Even if it turns out to be a fight, it'll only make you stronger. After all, receiving a challenge to a fight after school is a man's romance. Right after giant robots of course.
You decide to answer the letter of challenge.
Putting the letters in one of your coat's inner pockets, you grab what you need for your next class. The love letter is either some prank or you really do have a secret admirer. However, even if it is legit, you don't really give a damn. You're not too hot on getting into a relationship at this time since you'll have to put time and effort in to make a relationship work.
You feel a bit bad for the hypothetical secret admirer since you aren't going to show up at the time they specified but it'll hopefully serve to dissuade them from pursuing a relationship with you.
The challenge though is a different thing altogether. While you couldn't read half of it due to the horrible handwriting of the sender, you were able to decipher enough words to make out that someone wants a fight at the cherry tree by the lake after school. You know where that is and you've kept away from it due to how it is a popular spot for love confessions. You get enough sickenly sweet lovey-dovey stuff at home from your parents.
Regardless, if it's a fight their want then it's a fight you'll give them. Yesterday's testing showed that you can become more powerful from just using your powers. You can't think of any reason anyone would want to fight you save that you're a Gifted so it's likely that your opponent will be another Gifted. If that's the case then you're free to use your powers to lay the beatdown on them.
With such thoughts in mind, you ended up being too distracted to listen much to the teacher during the rest of your classes for the day. After a couple of warnings and one thwack over the head with a paper fan by one of the teachers for not paying attention, the bell finally rings for the end of school and you head towards the school lake.
You thought to send a text to Lucille to tell her that something came up and you couldn't come to the club but Lucille beats you to it. Instead, she sent you a text saying that something came up and that there was no meeting today. She still wanted to hang out later today though so that's something. Seeing that there'll be no issue with the ORC, you continue on your way to the school lake.
When you arrive at the cherry tree by the lake, you had to run your eyes to make sure you weren't seeing things. Sitting on the bench beneath the tree, with autumn leaves falling around them, was someone in a cartoon mascot costume. You don't recognise the character but their look like a white dog with brown patches wearing a shirt and blue overalls. The head is huge with an equally huge fang-filled grin, and while the right eye looks normal with a plus tattoo around it, the left eye's iris is shaped like a plus sign. Oh and it looks like there's a large toy gun holstered at their hips. You can also clearly see exaggerated stitches as though the costume was put together from different outfits. It pretty much looks like some kind of disney fursuit reject.
All in all, it makes for a strange sight. It becomes even more disconcerting when the eyes actually move in a very life-like manner towards you when whoever's in the costume notices you. Is this costume actually some kind of Star-Gift?
Slowly, the Mascot Costume gets up from the bench and walks over to you. You have a letter in your hand, and you know that it can become more than enough paper in mere moments if things turn into a fight.
When the Costumed fellow is in front of you, you swallow when you realise that despite its cartoony appearance, the mascot costume towers over you, being at least twice your size. Up close, you realise that there are many things subtly off with the costume. The way it moves with more finesse than you'd expect someone in a costume to be capable of., the way it seems to actually breathe with how it's making soft breathing sounds, how it blinks when it stares at you, and how there's a bit of fake drool coming out from its grinning mouth that isn't some painted on thing.
…..
You're not looking at a person in some kind of dog mascot costume. You're actually looking at some kind of dog monster, aren't you. Thankfully, you aren't getting any kind of bloodlust from the thing but you stay on your guard just in case.
"Hello, James Miller! It's nice to meet you. I'm glad that you decided to come!" The costumed - no - the living mascot says as it raises an arm in greeting, the mouth opening and closing as it speaks. The voice sounds like it came from a cartoon as well, high-pitched and a bit goofy as well. Yet it also sounds slightly familiar as well. "I was afraid that you wouldn't come but you did!"
You ask who the mascot is, what's their power, and why they asked you to meet them for a fight.
"Ah, right! Well, a friend of mine says that I shouldn't tell anyone who I am until I can trust them enough not to try and use it against me. But if you need to call me by something, I guess you can call me, Rex!" The mascot answered, sounding a bit sheepish as it rubs the back of its head. "And my power...well...I guess...I...um...I...turn into this? Yeah, I can turn into this form and...Wait. Fight? What are you talking about?
You proceed to show them the letter that they sent you. You watch as they skim it and ponder more on the nature of the other person. They said that their power is to transform into a living mascot costume. Rex frowns when they finish looking at their letter before burying their head in their hands in embarrassment.
"Oh god, I'm so sorry! What the letter was meant to say was that I wanted to talk to you about Gifted stuff and the possibility of a fight breaking out between Ichiyama and North Rizen and what we could do to try and stop it."
Huh, okay. That made much more sense. Still, that was some really crap handwriting for you to be unable to figure that out. Still, you're not sure what they mean by 'Gifted stuff'.
"Oh, well, my friend said that it might be a good idea to make alliances or at least make an agreement to not fight each other or not steal other each other's golems and so on. Since there's definitely a bunch of Gifted out there that have no qualms about attacking other Gifted, I thought that it would be a good idea to find friendly Gifted and talk to them." Rex explains cheerfully.
That's rather comforting to hear though you're still wary about this. Well, no matter. You're not adverse to some kind of peace treaty. Plus there's still Ichiyama to consider. What are they going to do, especially now that they've declared war on the Gifted of North Rizen? And what are Gifted of North Rizen going to do about it?
"Oh shucks thanks. That's great! Though to be honest, I'm still reeling from the fact that another school is declaring war against our school." The mascot admits, looking anxious. "I actually don't like fighting much and golems can be a bit scary at times."
Huh, so they haven't been fighting golems?
"Oh, I have been fighting them with my friend. I was one of the first, you know so I'm pretty strong!" Rex boasts, puffing its chest up in pride before sighing and slumping in resignation. "Unfortunately it's been getting harder to get stronger since all the golems in town seems to be dwindling at a really fast pace."
Wait what? What did they mean by that?!
"Oh, you didn't know? There were like a hundred or so golems at the very start of the Star Storms but thanks to all the Gifted fighting them, there's nearly none left." Your fellow Gifted explains. This new bit of information is disturbing. Does that mean that since you got your powers late, you're at a major disadvantage?
You ask them just how many golems have they killed already.
"Um...between me and my friend, I guess about half a dozen. Maybe?" Rex replies, uncertain of his answer.
That's definitely more than you and Lucille. So this Mascot is strong then.
Before you can ask anything else, you are assailed by a familiar bloodlust.
Golems.
Instantly, you close your eyes to try and pinpoint the golems and your eyes snap wide open at what your senses discover. You felt at least a hundred new presences all around Yorizen and the source of the bloodlust is coming from one of the new presences nearby.
"No way! D-Did a whole bunch of new golems just spawn!?" The mascot exclaims in shock.
You frown and turn towards the direction the bloodlust is coming from. It's stronger, not by much, but still stronger than the previous golems.
"So, um. What do you think we should do?" The mascot suddenly asks. "I can probably take care of it myself but I want to make this peace treaty work so maybe you'll take care of the golem then?"
You screw you face up in deep thought. A whole bunch of golems have spawned in the city and they are stronger than the golems you've fought before. Rex want thinks they can take it on but feels the need to let you handle the golem as way of affirming the peace treaty that you actually haven't really agreed upon just yet.
What do you do?
[ ] Leave the new golem to Rex. They were sounding a tad down when they were talking about how the golem numbers were dwindling but he sounds a bit more energetic when these guys showed up. Let Rex take the first shot at them. They can take them.
[ ] You go take care of the new golem. You want those sparks damnit! You're confident that you can handle the new golem. It's stronger but not by that much from what you can feel. You can fight it and escape if the need arise.
[ ] Go take down the golem together. You want to make an ally right? Now's a good of time as any. This will give you the chance to show them what you can do and see what they can do hopefully. You probably won't get much sparks but at least you'll learn more about this living mascot character.
