You are Rokusabe Koujirou, and this is your third match in the Inter-Academy Tournament.
You spent the last few weeks training non-stop under your Academy's instructors and sparring with Anna.
If you had to admit, you learned far more in your matches with Anna than with any other instructor. Every time you fought she would effortlessly counter you, every time you tried got even a little bit distracted she would punish you, every time you tought you would win she pulled out a new trick and forced you to adapt.
Not that all the advanced techniques and esoteric manipulations of Impeller fields and Higgs particles weren't useful, but while the instructors taught you new tricks and explained the details behind new techniques, Anna made you improve your reaction time, your perception and your basic techniques to their limits.
For example, you would never have noticed your opponent trying to sneak up on you from on high if Anna hadn't tried to do the same.
Unfortunately for your opponent, Anna had far better Stealth and tended to teleport everywhere to surprise you.
As such, you could see your opponent's surprise when you looked her in the eye before suddenly vanishing.
Chaining three teleports together, you were suddenly behind the enemy Valkyrie, Murakumo in hand and preparing an overhead strike.
The Valkyrie didn't have a chance to react before your blade made contact and sent her rocketing to the ground.
With another twist of reality, you were below your enemy, firing your Hypervelocity Cannons and scoring a few hits before she got her wits about her and teleported.
You prepared to activate your sensors, but a chill running down your spine made you stop and turn to block an attack with your sword.
With a sound of metal grinding upon metal, you locked blades with your opponent and saw the Valkyrie clearly for the first time.
It had angular armor painted grey and blue, with a number of thrusters mounted on her back and a few more on the Foulds, gauntlets and greaves.
The sword you blocked was European in design, long and somewhat on the thin side, obviously meant as a side-arm.
The helmet had a clear visor, and behind it you could see the crimson eyes of its user widened In surprise.
With a bit of effort and a flare of your thrusters, you pushed her back and sent a pair of missiles as a distraction.
A distraction she fell for, because instead of teleporting away she opted to shoot them down with what appeared to be a Minigun manifesting from her vembrace.
A minigun that was suddenly cut in half by your sword as you appeared beside it in a twist of space-time.
Surprised, the girl boosted away, dismissed the ruined gun and tried to shield herself with her sword.
In response, you sent another pair of missiles and set them to detonate halfway to your target and create a smokescreen.
The Valkyrie was looking around, frantically trying to discover from where you would appear. Unfortunately for her, you hadn't teleported anywhere.
You emerged from the smokescreen like a bullet and hit your enemy with another downward slash, making her fall straight downwards for the second time in this match, and this time she did hit the ground.
You slowly lowered yourself to ground level and waited for the dust cloud to settle down, revealing...
Nothing.
As expected, she had used the dust cloud to teleport away.
You rolled to the side and barely escaped having your head cut off by the girls sword.
Boosting back, you barely managed to escape a hail of bullets from another Minigun and and a pair of shoulder mounted machineguns.
You dodged around the hail of Depleted Uranium bullets, the G-forces of your constant changes in direction enough to kill an unaugmented human.
You were so concentrated on evading the rain of Death and lead that you almost didn't hear your opponent's frustrated scream.
"Motherfucker! Stay still so I can shoot, you asshole!" She screamed, and you had to suppress the urge to laugh. As if anyone would be stupid enough to let himself be hit by a hail of bullets.
"Now, now..." You couldn't hide the amusement in your voice. "That's no way for a young lady speak. It's rude, you know?"
At that, she screamed in anger and manifested another pair of machineguns and far more missile racks than you were comfortable with.
However, even in face of this amout of firepower you just couldn't resist the urge for a last taunt. "...Wow, very well said. I am in awe of your eloquence and mastery of the English language."
You could feel her trying to kill you with her eyes. Too bad for her you knew how to deal with deadly stares.
Anna had used Laser Eyes on you before.
She fired a barrage of missiles, and you were forced to devote every scrap of attention you could muster to dodging the rain of bullets and Heat-seeking death your opponent was firing.
You activated your ECM suite and let your Valk deal with the missiles, while you concentrated on not getting turned into swiss cheese. How many guns did that girl have on her, anyway?!
Still, you knew she wouldn't be able to keep this up forever. Hammerspace storage or not, she would eventually run out of munitions.
After five painful minutes where you thought your guts would liquefy from the sheer G-forces of your turns, the girl finally ran out of ammo. You let yourself fall to the ground, eyeing her warily and trying to catch your breath.
She seemed about as tired as you were, with her arms hanging tiredly still clutching her guns. For a moment, the only sound on the battlefield was your breathing.
"You..." She spoke. "Are one crazy motherfucker."
You couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Yeah, says the girl carrying an armory on her purse." You answered.
She snorted, but continued to speak. "You look about ready to pass out. You sure you want to continue?"
You couldn't help it. You laughed, genuinely amused by her question. "Seriously? You're actually asking that?" You asked back. "I should be the one asking that question. I'm not the one who ran out of ammo, am I?"
"Please, don't pretend you aren't on your last legs here." She retorted. "Your Impeller must be almost gone after so many teleports and so many hits."
And goddamn, she was right. You didn't manage to dodge all the bullets, and your Impeller is on its last legs.
Still, you weren't about to give up, and with some luck, you still have enough strength in the Field to...
Yeah, you can still make it.
"Don't joke with me." Using the Ame no Murakumo like a crutch, you slowly came to your feet. "No way in hell I'm giving up right after my opponent loses its fangs."
You held the Murakumo in your left hand and pointed it's tip towards the enemy in challenge. "Come at me, you crazy bitch." You snarled and started gathering plasma around your blade. "I'm gonna finish you off in one strike."
That seemed to rile her up. Perfect.
Her sword appeared in her hand and she prepared to charge you. You, on the other hand, braced yourself and took your stance.
Right foot forward, Murakumo charged in your left hand, while your right was clenched in a fist.
The other Valkyrie charged with the help of her thrusters. You waited until she got closer. Your timing had to be perfect.
Her sword was raised for an overhead slash. You stood still and steeled yourself. "From Master to student, huh?" You muttered to yourself, even as your right fist started to glow.
She was right on top of you, ready to cut you down.
You were raising your right hand to execute your final technique.
Her Blade met your fist, and your fist won, the blade broken in one swift movement.
The sheer force of your clash cancelled her momentum and stopped her dead In her tracks.
Your enemy stared, astonished, at the slightly luminescent thumbs up right in front of her face.
"Good match." You said, and slashed her with the Plasma covered blade of your Murakumo.
The blade met her midsection and cut straight through the Impeller Field, stopping just shy of breaching her armor, the impact sending her flying.
You didn't even try to hold back the smirk on your face as you dematerialized the Murakumo and gave her a second thumbs up.
---
Outside the Simulation area where the match was held, Anna and the rest of her Flight watched the surprising ending of Koujirou's match.
Anna herself had her eyes glued to the screen, watching the replay of the final moments of the battle with a happy smile and with a feeling of what she believed was pride in her heart. He had learned much from their matches, and she had surprised herself with how much she wished to see how far he could go the next time they fought.
"Anna..." Shuri's voice startled her out of her musings and she finally noticed her Flightmates weren't cheering because of Koujirou's victory like she expected. Instead, they were staring at her.
"You," she continued. "Are a horrible influence on him."
Anna didn't understand why she said that, nor why and Setsuna nodded in agreement or why Yukari started laughing so hard she fell on the floor.
